Over-the-top anti-Trump rhetoric wasn’t exactly effective during President Donald Trump’s first term. But many Democratic lawmakers haven’t learned their lesson and are perpetuating their hysteria and alarmism — this time, with a race-baiting twist.
Multiple Democratic members of Congress have in recent weeks suggested that Trump is going to bring back segregation or even slavery. Yes, seriously.
During a live stream this week, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) suggested that Republicans are trying to “make education unavailable to black people” and “put us back to when America was ‘great’ and we were picking cotton.” At the same digital event, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) suggested that Trump’s real rationale for deporting illegal immigrants is to “make us go back to the fields.”
Meanwhile, on MSNBC, Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-CA) claimed, “We’re going back to a 1950s America.” She further suggested that the modern Republican Party is reminiscent of the “Jim Crow era” for its lack of diversity and that the removal of Rep. Al Green (D-TX) for breaking congressional rules and disrupting the president’s address “felt like [she] was watching something in a history class of racists yelling at an elderly black man,” as if Republicans wouldn’t have removed any Democratic member who disrupted the speech regardless of their race.
This is unhinged, baseless, race-baiting nonsense.
There’s plenty to criticize about Trump, and there’s no doubt he’s said plenty of offensive things over the years. But to suggest that either Trump or the modern GOP seeks to restore racial segregation is completely detached from reality, wildly insulting to millions of black Trump voters, and dismissive of the horrors actually experienced during such historic evils.
First, while Trump is rolling back so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, many of which are toxic, divisive, and discriminatory in their own right, he is advocating race-neutral meritocracy, not discrimination or segregation.
In fact, Trump has appointed Cabinet officials who are black, Latino, and gay. Are we really supposed to believe that’s somehow reminiscent of Jim Crow-era government?
What’s more, this kind of unhinged rhetoric is a slap in the face to the countless black voters who supported Trump this past election. After all, he did get the most black votes of any Republican in almost 50 years! These Democratic lawmakers are suggesting that these people are fools who voted for their enslavement or subjugation, and given that there’s no underlying truth to this claim, it’s just disrespectful and dishonest.
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Finally, constantly invoking segregation and slavery in situations where it’s unwarranted is an insult to the people, some of whom are still alive today, who suffered under these genuine horrors that stain American history. Whether they intend to or not, these Democratic politicians are watering down the significance of these historical events by constantly throwing them around like candy on Halloween. If they really cared about the people who survived these horrors as much as they say, they would stop minimizing and politicizing their trauma.
These dire, alarmist warnings are also simply ineffective. At this point, after years of media figures and liberal politicians crying wolf, most Americans no longer take their concerns seriously. And that undercuts the Democratic Party’s ability to serve as a check on this president and meaningfully organize pushback when he goes too far. Yet, for this sad state of affairs, Democrats only have themselves to blame.
Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and hosts the Brad vs Everyone podcast.