While Democrats have become the big tent party, Republicans have become the party of intolerance. The GOP’s voter ID laws that target African-Americans are plain and simple discrimination. The crazy right-wing birther movement that questions President Obama’s citizenship is a blatant act of racism.
This brings me to the most famous promoter of birtherism, Donald Trump. Every generation or so, at least one demagogue surfaces to fan the flames of discrimination, racism and fear. In the 1950s we had Joseph McCarthy, and in the 1960s there was George Wallace. Today, Trump is pushing an insidious new form of 21st century racism and discrimination. Like McCarthy and Wallace, Trump has the habit of saying “you” and “we” as he speaks against a dangerous “them.” Trump calls hard-working Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers and has called for a mandatory registration of American Muslims.
The U.S. is set for dramatic change. Population projections by the Census Bureau show that white Americans will become a minority by 2044. That’s one generation away. Will white Americans follow the Republican Party’s Trump by retreating into fear and loathing or follow the Democratic Party and embrace diversity? I do know this: Diversity is here to stay, but the ugly beast of race-baiting will not easily die.
