New Reality

The near universal condemnation of Donald Trump's call to exclude all muslims from the US is heartening, but the fact he was cheered by a crowd while making his outlandish declaration of bigotry is also a reminder of the racist history our country struggles against with varying degrees of success.  The fact Trump felt he could make his proposal with impunity is merely the logical extension of the dogwhistle politics Republicans have engaged in since Nixon's "southern strategy" pried racist southern Democrats away from their traditional allegiances and made them permanent Republicans.  Reagan continued and George H.W. Bush embellished the appeals to racism with Reagan's "welfare queens" and Bush's Willie Horton ads.  Trump merely says out loud what his competitors whisper, namely it is all right to discriminate against those whose customs and color don't match your own.  How far he gets with this strategy will be a measure of our maturity as a nation.  Unfortunately, H.L. Mencken's observation that you can't go wrong underestimating the intelligence of the American public will probably be borne out in the selection of the ultimate Republican nominee.