Trump has spent the past 30 months as President, every damned day, stoking violence. He daily calls upon his followers to express their hate and fears in violent ways.
Enough is enough. Democrats have been cowardly during this entire time. I can’t recall a single time that any prominent Democrat has clearly stated the obvious — that these killings are a direct result of Trump’s deplorable conduct. Instead, we get the usual cowardly, vague references to a “climate of unrest” and other similar perfunctory statements. As usual, Democrats are afraid to say what must be said.
This morning I heard O’Rourke in NPR. It was the usual stuff about the strong community of El Paso being brave in the face of these attacks. Basically, “thoughts and prayers.” All he would say about Trump was that we are a divided nation.
Democratic leaders, today, stop being cowards. Today, speak the truth.
Call on Trump to stop holding his weekly rallies that have spawned so many murders. And if he doesn’t, then renew that same call every time he holds one of these events.
Demand Trump stop using Twitter, with which he makes daily attacks on our non-white fellow citizens. And if he doesn’t stop, then renew that demand every time he makes one of his outrageous, racists tweets.
Trump depends on normalizing racism, hate and violence. Trump depends on everybody else being too cowardly to speak the truth out loud. Today we must begin normalizing the idea of speaking plainly about who Trump is and what he is doing. We must give permission and cover for the news media to “go there,” so to speak. Stop parsing words. Speak the truth, plainly. Dare to say it out loud. If you cannot do that today, then you are just as responsible as Trump is.