Definition of a hate group: Consider the Republican party as GQP

This Leonard Pitts Jr., echo opinion in the Miami Herald, was published in July 2019, but worthy of a revival reading.  

Mr. Pitts wrote: Here’s how The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group.  Consider the rapidly growing morph "GQP".

It is, they say, “an organization that — based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities — has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” That definition is offered preparatory to an explosive question:

Is the Republican Party a hate group?

Granted, in its “official statements or principles,” the party doesn’t meet the SPLC standard for a hate group. Nevertheless, it activities and the statements of its leaders are another matter.

Consider that  #FormerGuy Trump, demanded that four progressive congresswomen, four women of color, four Americans, “go back” to the countries they came from. It devolved from that low point to a lower one, as an overwhelmingly white audience of Trump supporters booed the mention of one of the women, Somalia-born Rep. Ilhan Omar. “Send her back!” they chanted.

It’s not that we haven’t seen political parties exploit racial animosity before. Democrats even thrived on that, even into the 1960s. After the Civil Rights Movement made open appeals to racism politically perilous, the GOP evolved its infamous “Southern Strategy” of appealing to white racism without mentioning race at all.

Lee Atwater, party chairman, aide to Ronald Reagan and campaign manager for George H.W. Bush, explained this in a 1981 interview with political scientist Alexander Lamis: “You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger.’ By 1968 you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff …”

For half a century, then, the GOP has taught white voters racial resentment, taught them to prioritize concerns about white prerogative over concerns about shuttered factories, dirty water, lack of healthcare, foreclosed futures. It did this in code — “Willie Horton,” “tax cuts,” “welfare queen” — which, while obvious to all but the most gullible, still allowed respectable white men and women to maintain fig leaves of deniability.

So politicians accepted the votes, but never had to acknowledge the means of their manufacture. White voters gave them the votes, but never had to confront the reasons they did so.

Mission of ADL is to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.

#FormerGuy Donald Trump is the payoff of that devil’s bargain. 

His “innovation” has been to shred subtlety and abandon code. 

With blunt, brutish clarity, he tells four black and brown women to “go back” where they came from, and if you don’t see racism there, you’ll never see it anywhere.

Yet bad as that is, the monstrous part is that his audience, trained by 50 years of appeals to their basest selves, cheers him on. They no longer need fig leaves. That should tell you something. As should the fact that the GOP seems to have abandoned policy altogether.

What do they stand for? Do they still care about the national debt? Do they have a strategy to combat global warming? What will they do about Russia and Iran? Who knows?

Because, the GQP, is now the party of “Send her back!” — of outrage over Colin Kaepernick kneeling and April Ryan asking questions. That’s what passes for ideas in today’s GOP. 

Moreover, if that’s what Trump has made them, it’s not like they fought him tooth and nail.

So is the GQP a hate group? It’s sobering that the question can even be asked. But the inevitable answer is downright chilling. Because, the SPLC offers a fair and cogent definition of that term.

And, clearly, the GOP (aka GQP!) fits it with room to spare.

Chaos out of control in the Donald Trump administration

Echo opinion by Leonard Pitts, Jr., published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

Mary Trump wrote "TRUMP: Too much and never enough", insider information about the Trump family's dysfunctions.

Donald Trump is not simply weak,” writes his niece, Mary  Trump. Rather, “his ego is a fragile thing that must be bolstered every moment because he knows, deep down, that he is nothing of what he claims to be. He knows that he has never been loved.”

That ruined young Donald Trump.

Even worse, it may yet ruin us all.

Leonard Pitts Jr. lpitts@miamiherald.com

Who goes to the movies when their brother is on his deathbed? Donald Trump is reported to have done just that, while his brother Fred was at the end stages of alcoholism.

Mary Trump's book arrives just as controversy swirls over reports that Russia paid a bounty for American deaths while the White House did nothing, Ivanka Trump is under fire for posing with a can of beans and ICE is training civilians to arrest undocumented immigrants. 

In other words, a typical week in the chaos that is the Trump presidency.

Meantime, the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic Trump once assured us would magically disappear is approaching 140,000. In response, the White House launches an attack on Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert and its most credible pandemic spokesperson, while Trump retweets a theory that “everyone is lying” about the virus to hurt him politically. It’s from Chuck Woolery, whose claim to fame is that he used to host “Love Connection.”

And again, seriously: Who does that?

The answer, of course, is no mystery to anyone who’s been paying attention. Still, Mary Trump performs a service by bringing to that answer both the authority of a psychologist — she holds a Ph.D. — and the insight of an insider.

Donald Trump is what you get when childhood is a zero-sum competition for the approval of “a high-functioning sociopath” whose values are expressible in dollars and cents. He is what happens when a boy is allowed to bluff, brag and bully his way through life, no one ever tells him “no” and everyone acts as if his waste products are without odor. 

Trump is what’s left when you subtract compassion, accountability, humility and the ability to laugh at yourself. (Maine Writer post script, has anybody witnessed Donald Trump spontaneously smiling lately....or ever?)

Michelle Obama - what's in a book title?: An echo

Echo opinion published in the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper by columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.:

Michelle Obama tells her truth

There has always been about her a sense that she did, indeed, have a truth of her own and that it was, if not at odds with the one her husband expressed with high-flown eloquence, more real and more rooted, as befits a girl from the South Side of Chicago. “You wait till Barack gets out of office,” some of us said, “Michelle’s going to tell it like it is.”

Now that moment arrives. Obama calls her memoir “Becoming,” and the title deserves a moment of contemplation. Not just because it’s elegant and simple, but also because it’s a tacit acknowledgment that making oneself a fully human being, forming a more perfect person, as it were, is a process with no finish line. We are all, always, becoming.

Here, then, is the former first lady’s report on where that process stands with her, 54 years after she was born to Fraser and Marian Robinson, who raised her in a cramped apartment on Euclid Avenue. It is a story of a father’s slow decline from MS and his stubborn refusal to submit, of going to Harvard, of landing the prestigious job, of meeting the brilliant law student who was always late to everything, of winding up with a backstage pass to the presidency.

And yes, it is the story of how white Republicans, unable to countenance the idea of a black family in the White House, yet unable to say that forthrightly, dubbed her “angry,” called her a man, called her a terrorist, remarked on her backside. She recalls a chyron (electronically generated caption) on Fox “News” that referred to her as “Obama’s Baby Mama … implying an otherness that put me outside even my own marriage.”

It hurt, she admits. It angered and exhausted her, too. But for those who were frustrated with her husband’s willful diffidence, his refusal to fight back as Republicans unloaded upon him and her every bit of racial code in their arsenal, Michelle has a reminder. “I felt emotions that perhaps Barack couldn’t afford to feel.”

She’s probably right, though that does little to ease the frustration of having watched the man repeatedly smile and reach out to people who had just spat on him. One thinks of Jackie Robinson. Inwardly, he seethed over the “image of the patient black freak I was supposed to create.” Outwardly, he played ball.

We don’t know — probably never will — if Barack Obama did the same, seething on the inside, dutifully playing ball on the outside. So the first lady’s truth will have to suffice. Which is that, yes, she saw what they were doing. Then she did what she had to do, advocating for kids in forgotten places, pushing food makers for healthier choices, representing her country on state visits and smiling for photos “with people who call my husband horrible names on national television, but still want a framed keepsake for their mantel.”

On election night, when it began to look like America would choose hate and misogyny to replace “hope and change,” she went to bed early because she “wanted to not know that fact for as long as I possibly could.”

“Bear with me here,” she writes, as if in apology for the inability to provide a happy ending, “because this doesn’t necessarily get easier. It would be one thing if America were a simple place with a simple story. If I could narrate my part in it only through the lens of what was orderly and sweet. If there were no steps backward. And if every sadness, when it came, turned out at least to be redemptive in the end.

“But that’s not America, and it’s not me, either. I’m not going to try to bend this into any kind of perfect shape.” So we make do with the imperfect shape instead. Because it’s not just that Michelle Obama is still becoming.

America is, too. (MaineWriter~ Thank you Mrs. Obama for sharing your candid perspectives.)

Trump supporters can't hear truth - echo opinion

Donald Trump white's only supporters are obviously hearing impaired. Otherwise, they would be able to hear and understand his incendiary messaging. An echo opinion by Leonard Pitts published in the Montana Standard newspaper:

(Be sure to check out this link to Barbara Streisand's new release: "Don't Lie To Me")

Barbara Streisand wrote & produced a new release:
Don't Lie To Me

Leonard Pitts opinion link is here. https://mtstandard.com/opinion/columnists/leonard-pitts-reality-always-has-the-last-word/article_3668a0ec-ddbb-5551-9168-38923a4cf252.html

"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell -- I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees." — Donald Trump, Feb. 1, 2016

"I'd like to punch him in the face." — Donald Trump, Feb. 22, 2016

"You know, part of the problem ... is, nobody wants to hurt each other anymore, right?" — Donald Trump, March 11, 2016

"Any guy that can do a body slam ... he's my guy." — Donald Trump, Oct. 18, 2018, praising Rep. Greg Gianforte, who was convicted of assaulting a reporter

"We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that threats or acts of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America." — Donald Trump, Oct. 24, 2018

Lord, this guy...

He just can't help himself, can he? Seems like every time he opens his mouth, out falls the bovine excreta, great lumps of hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance.

Trump is arguably America's most enthusiastic proponent of political violence. He made a statement deploring political violence. This, as investigators sought the person who sent explosive devices to CNN as well as to Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder and other prominent critics of Trump's chaos presidency.

No, Trump isn't the first president to say something at sharp variance with what he said before. Obama once claimed he never said, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

George W. Bush once claimed his administration never advocated "stay the course" in Iraq.

But this guy, Lord, this guy, with him, it's not a sometime thing. Rather, it is every day, all the time, as if in his world, words have no fixed meaning and people, no memory. So that what he said with seeming sincerity on Tuesday can be demolished by what he says with seeming sincerity on Wednesday and he doesn't care — indeed, he marvels that anyone does — because, hey, Tuesday's gone. And Thursday's coming.

This ongoing insult of reality, this daily denigration of truth, is epidemic among Trump's people. Unable to face what is, they live in a kingdom of lies, seek sanctuary down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Indeed, Trump cultists — Lou Dobbs, James Woods, Rush Limbaugh, Candace Owens and more — have already suggested the bombs were part of a Democratic plot to sway the coming election.

When Pitt wrote this opinion column, the authorities had not yet named a suspect. So, theoretically, conspiracy theorists created the lie that it was possible the bombs were (incedulously) assembled in Nancy Pelosi's kitchen. But let's just say that's ... unlikely.

Meantime, this guy, this morally deformed 72-year-old brat, had a theory of his own. After bombs were sent to people he has spent years insulting ("low IQ," "crooked," "ignorant,") and to a network he has spent years condemning ("enemies of the people"),Trump tweeted that the "anger" in our society is a result of media's "false and inaccurate reporting."

So in other words, if reporters would just stop challenging him, stop questioning him, stop behaving as if words have meaning and people, memories, all will be well. He probably even believes that.

But the issue here is not news media. Nor is it civility or Republicans being yelled at in restaurants.

No, the issue is reality and the fact that it becomes no less real because you don't acknowledge it. That's what the Trump cult has never figured out. Reality will always have the last word. And you may run from it, but you can never escape.

Not even down a rabbit hole, not even in a kingdom of lies.

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and bestselling author. His column appears on the Missoulian Opinion page each Sunday.

Vote Blue 2018 ~ Resistance and Democracy

This echo blog is a Leonard Pitts opinion, published in the Idaho newspaper The Lewiston Tribune

Mr. Pitts writes, "This is for Rose".

Commentary Leonard Pitts Jr. ~ a Miami Herald columnist

Don't try to 'understand' Trump supporters; beat them

She is a nice lady who wrote me a nice email in which she spoke about the need to try to understand President Donald Trump's supporters. As Rose put it, "We need to not close ourselves off to how the other side thinks."

It's a sentiment I hear a lot from progressives, and it bespeaks a great generosity of spirit.

But I couldn't disagree more! (MaineWriter ~ totally agree!)

Don't get me wrong. Thinking people will always try to see past their own ideological blind spots, to put themselves into the shoes of those they disagree with. That's an admirable trait. In normal times it's a trait I would applaud with enthusiasm.

But these are not normal times. Indeed, sometimes, I wonder if we appreciate just how abnormal - how fraught with danger - they really are. Under Trump, American laws, news media and mores are under assault, to say nothing of American democracy itself.

And I'm sorry, but I don't think "understanding" Trump followers will ameliorate - or even address - any of that. Besides which, is there really so much left to "understand"?

Not from where I sit. Long before Trump even existed as a political force, many of us noted with alarm the rise of a backlash among right-wingers deeply angry and profoundly terrified by the writing on the demographic wall. Said writing foretold - and for that matter, still foretells - the declining preeminence of white, Christian America. As several studies now show, a sense of alarmed displacement among white, Christian America is the soil from which the weed of Trumpism grew.

The idea that we must "understand" those folks carries with it an implicit suggestion that in so doing, we might find some ground for compromise. It would be a great idea in normal times. 

But again, these times are not normal.

No compromise is possible here, for a simple reason Trump followers seem to understand better than the rest of us: You can't compromise with demography, can't order numbers to stop being what they are and saying what they say about the coming tide of change. But what you can do is seize the levers of power and change the rules of the game in hopes of blunting the force of that tide. That - again, look at the studies - is what Trump supporters elected him to do.

So while, it is admirable to think "understanding" can fix this country, it is also naive. Progressives should ask themselves: When's the last time you heard any Trump supporters talking about the need to understand you? You haven't - and that ought to tell you something.

Here's the thing: the rest of us have the moral high ground here. We see the same demographic writing on the wall that Trump followers see, but where it makes them angry and fearful, it leaves us energized.

Many of us are excited to see the nation that will arise from this cauldron of change.

That's because the idea of change doesn't threaten us. It will challenge us, yes, but we're ready for that. We know that this is a big country, big enough for many different kinds of people, many different ways of life. We know what it means to live and let live. And we know that welcoming the stranger, caring for the stranger, is simply what you do as a human being.

I submit that those are core American virtues. And that now would be an excellent time for progressives to exhibit a little courage in their defense. Trump followers see a nation in demographic peril, so they seek a nation where those who frighten them can be regulated into irrelevance. 

There's no big mystery about that. There never has been.

So no, they don't really need to be understood.

What they need to be is defeated. (Vote Blue!)

(Our American Democracy must be saved by Resistance voters!)

Pitts writes for the Miami Herald. 

His email address is lpitts@miamiherald.com.

Counting the "elites" ~ add Senator Marco Rubio

This echo opinion was published in the Miami Herald. Blogging as a writer who was recently labeled as a "liberal elite" on a Facebook post (cyber bullying for sure!), I can somewhat identify with Senator Rubio, in this echo opinion written by Leonard Pitts, Jr. 
As a matter of fact, I'm pretty proud to be among this group.

"What I actually said is that I, personally, will not engage with Trump supporters. Reasoning with them is like reasoning with rocks." ~ Leonard Pitts, Jr. (Thank you Mr. Pitts, this is exactly how I feel, especially after I didn't receive an apology after being the victim of cyber bullying.)

Dear Sen. Marco Rubio: 

So I see where you came after me on Twitter. I’m flattered. Never knew you cared.

“This well known national writer,” you tweeted about my last column, “states very clearly that the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump are haters who should not be heard from or engaged in dialogue. It’s a view widely held by many elites on left, but very few of them so openly admit to it.”

It fascinates me how you Republicans have repurposed “elites,” which means well above average, into an all-purpose pejorative. 

I mean, sure, call me an elite, if you insist. But I’d point out that as a U.S. senator, hobnobbing with presidents and potentates while pulling down $174,000 per annum, you are hardly Joe Lunchbucket yourself.

As to your claim that I said Trump voters “should not be heard from,” while I know distortion and exaggeration are tools of your trade, I can’t allow them to stand unchallenged here. 

What I actually said is that I, personally, will not engage with Trump supporters. Reasoning with them is like reasoning with rocks.

Let’s cut to the chase, Senator. 

Donald Trump is unfit to be president, period, full stop.

Presidents don’t condemn continents and countries as “shitholes.”

Presidents don’t undermine their own cabinet officers.

Presidents don’t give aid and comfort to neo-Nazis.

Presidents don’t give aid and comfort to geopolitical foes.

Presidents don’t spill classified secrets to geopolitical foes.

Presidents don’t support accused child molesters.

Presidents don’t put themselves above the country they serve.

Ordinarily, that is. This guy has done all that and more.

And here’s the thing: You know this. You’re not an idiot, so you absolutely know what a dangerous outlier Trump is. Yet because it is politically expedient, you, who once called him “dangerous” and a “con man” unqualified to have access to the nuclear codes, now ask us to believe that you believe he has somehow magically become fit for the job. All while he scales new heights of incompetence every day.

It leaves me wondering: Who are you, really? What, if anything, do you stand for or believe? Because you exhibit a spinal flexibility only Plastic Man could love.

Meantime, America faces a season of division and acrimony almost unparalleled in its history. And it is largely because people of your political ilk chose to embrace “alternative facts” upon which to build an alternative reality, because you taught people to embrace homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism and ignorance and to call them righteousness.

I am not unmindful of the troubling implications of writing off Trump supporters. When we can no longer talk to each other, what’s left? How can we be a country? But the point is, we’re already there. Indeed, given our prolonged and worsening state of estrangement, it would not surprise me if, within the next decade or two, the United States as we know it ceased to exist. Yes, I’m serious. I don’t predict it, and surely don’t desire it, but no, I would not be shocked.

And if that fate is averted, it will not be because the rest of us continued trying to reason with people who have neither the capacity nor the interest. It will be, rather, because we resisted — and voted as if our national life depended on it. Which it does.

History is watching us, Senator. It will not remember kindly those who failed to look beyond their own ambition and self interest in this fraught moment. Some of us are fighting for our country here.

You should try it sometime.