Annotated Statement: Trump Responds to the Manafort Plea

It took a while, but Trump finally responded to Paul Manafort coming to his senses and agreeing to cooperate with Robert Mueller's team.  Of course, he responded on Twitter.  Of course, it was not worth the power it takes to display it on a computer or phone screen.  Here it is with my annotations.

While my (our) poll numbers are good, 

Which ones?  Approval among the ever-shrinking number of self-identified Republicans?  Unless you're talking about that, you owe us an explanation as to what polls you're talking about, because I've not seen one that reflects the version of reality that you're peddling.

with the Economy being the best ever, 

By what metrics?  By what actions of yours?  The POTUS gets to much credit and blame for the state of the economy, and someone who thinks they can just "print more money" should not be taking credit for any skillful stewardship of the economy.

if it weren't for the Rigged Russian Witch Hunt, 

A "Rigged" "Witch Hunt" is redundant.  Leaving that aside for a moment, the "rigging" your referring to is actually the mechanisms of the justice system that are intended to seek the truth while respecting the civil liberties of the citizens.  As for the "Witch Hunt" claim, the volume of convictions and pleas among your floundering excuse for an administration should make it clear that the only way this is a "Witch Hunt" is if you have a lot of people commuting to the White House on brooms.

they would be 25 points higher! 

You're a pollster now?  What do you base this one?

Highly conflicted Bob Mueller 

What conflict?  The golf dues membership thing?  The interview for FBI director thing?  Really?  That's a conflict in your mind, but you think that Jeff Sessions did you dirty by recusing himself from Russia related investigations as AG?  Your lack of logical consistency is astounding.

& the 17 Angry Democrats

You have not provided one bit of evidence of the political affiliation of any of the prosecutors on Mueller's team or any evidence of why it would matter even if they were all Democrats.  Typically, Special / Independent Counsel are of the opposite party of the POTUS / target.  You have a Republican running yours.  Quit you whining, especially until you have some basis for anything your saying.

are using this Phony issue 

EVIDENCE!!! There is tons of EVIDENCE!!! Even if nothing wrong happened, we would be stupid to ignore the EVIDENCE!!!

to hurt us in the Midterms.  

They're investigating real crimes.  Don't want to be hurt electorally by crimes, don't hire criminals.

No Collusion!

Then let Mueller do his job and you shut up and do yours.

Fear(ful) Thoughts

Assuming that the reporting and sources in Bob Woodward's book about the early stages of the Trump Administration are accurate (which I do for the most part), there are two things that serve as massive warning flags that anybody who cares about the nation's physical and economic security should be absolutely terrified of.  Neither of then has anything to do with Russian conspiracies or obstruction of justice.  Both of them are troubling on their own, but both are also indicative of massive deficiencies in Donald Trump's ability to comprehend the complexities of the world we live in.

The first thing that frightens me is how Donald Trump is unable to comprehend the argument that all of the military assistance and the troops we have stationed in South Korea are actually to the benefit of the United States.  He apparently fixated on the fact that the United States was paying for a missile defense system in South Korea and was livid that the Koreans were not paying for it.  The fact that there was nearly a fifteen minute difference in the United States' ability to detect a North Korean missile launch and, therefore fifteen extra minutes to shoot it down before it could reach the United States, was apparently lost on him.

There were other intricacies to the benefits to the United States of our relationship with South Korea that numerous officials tried to explain to Trump, but his failure to grasp even this most simple of them is demonstrative of a startling lack of sophistication by Trump.  That is not to say that Trump would ultimately need to agree with those arguing to keep the South Korea relationship as it was.  The problem is that he did not even seem to grasp their arguments, even as simple as they were. 

The other main source of fear, at least for me, was Trump's utter disregard of facts in the realm of economics.  This came up in the realm of his obsession with trade deficits as a barometer for economic success.  There is an account of an attempt to explain why trade deficits do not work the way Trump thinks they do, particularly in the context of the United States' transition to a service (as opposed to manufacturing) economy.  When backed into a corner on his thinking, and confronted with all of the data to the contrary, Trump would simply say (paraphrasing) "This is what I think, I've thought it for 30 years, and if you don't agree with me you are wrong."

At one point, this came in the context of tariffs against China.  It was explained to Trump that if China wanted to retaliate, they could raise the prices on antibiotics, of which they make the VAST majority consumed in the United States or they could refuse to export them to the United States.  The United States buy them from a third party country.  Germany was used as an example.  Germany would mark them up to take a cut of the profit, like any middle-man would do.  Trump's response (again, paraphrasing, but this one is pretty close): "Then we'll buy from another country."

There is no shortage of examples of people in the administration trashing Trump in the book.  They call him all sorts of variation of stupid.  Those are the quotes getting most of the attention.  There were moments in the book that left me thinking, "Trump actually seemed to treat that particular situation with the gravity it deserved, regardless of whether I agreed with the outcome."  Such moments were in defiance of my expectations and offered brief hopes of improvement to come. 

Those moments usually were quickly followed by another demonstration of Trump's disregard for the value of facts or the way the government is supposed to work.  It are Trump's own words that are the most fear inducing.  They betray a lack of sophistication.  They betray an (at best) outdated and juvenile idea of how countries and the world operate.  The realization that we have a willfully ignorant man unable or unwilling to consider that leading the United States is not the same as running a private real estate company with nuclear weapons... that is fear.

Ivanka Trump Statement on Child Separation: Annotated Statement

In case you were wondering, being completely tone-deaf is apparently hereditary.  Ivanka Trump would do well to engage in some serious self-reflection on her supposed values.  Below is her tweet celebrating her father's brave "reversal" of a human rights and child abuse travesty he created.  In the interest of context and truth, my annotations are inserted, but the text of the tweet is copy / pasted from her original text.

Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border. 

It's action he could have taken more than a month ago or, better yet, he could have not destroyed these families in the first place.  In fact, he has been saying for weeks that he couldn't end this by executive order because it was a "Democrat policy."

Congress must now act

I see you're complicit in the use of these families as legislative hostages too.  Congress has been trying to act.  They've given your dad multiple immigration compromise bills with conditions he previously said he could agree to only for him to change his mind because he didn't get enough money for his pointless wall.  This is the same predatory behavior used by hostage takers and domestic abusers all over the world.  It is disgusting.

+ find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values;

Based upon your "charity" work, your lack of statement on this issue before now and the way you flaunted your ability to hug your child during this travesty that is just one of many your dad has helped visit upon the innocent, I'm guessing that we don't share as many values with you as you think.  These kids were abused by the mere act of taking them away and isolating them from their parents.  When these traumatized innocents were screaming in fear, because of your dad a well meaning caregiver could not even give them a hug.  Where the hell was your advocacy for women and families during this?  How dare you spread your sanctimonious filth after the fact (not that anybody who pays attention actually believes this is over).

You want a long lasting solution consistent with our values?  Convince your dad to fire his entire administration and then resign.  That would be half of the battle for America right there.

the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families

The only "American values" your father and the administration you work for care about is making as much money as possible at whatever cost necessary, even if that cost is only felt by others.  He has implemented a policy that is a violation of people's human rights.  He gets no credit for supposedly ending a travesty he created deliberately.

And you, Ivanka Trump, get no credit for sitting quietly by while your father / boss did this to children that you supposedly care about.

Donald Trump Returns from Singapore: Annotated Statement

This week was the perfect encapsulation of the Trump Administration.  We have corruption, false claims, exaggerations, self-gratification, and further attacks on democracy and the rule of law.  It was a normal week.  That representative week is wonderfully distilled in a twitter statement made by Donald Trump (across two tweets).  I have reproduced that statement below; however, in the interest of safeguarding the truth (something typically absent from Trump statements), I have annotated the statement as best I can.

“Now that I am back from Singapore, where we had a great result with respect to North Korea,”

You achieved nothing. You got an empty promise that is less substantive than the similar promises made multiple times in the past. You got a photo op and a chance to pat yourself on the back for a non-achievement.

“the thought process must sadly go back to the Witch Hunt,”

For those of us that care about the preservation of our democracy and the rule of law, we never stop being worried about the serious matter you falsely call a “witch hunt.” Repeating it over and over doesn’t make it true.

“always remembering that there was No Collusion and No Obstruction of the fabricated No Crime.”

It’s not a memory if it’s a load of garbage.

“So, the Democrats make up a phony crime, Collusion with the Russians,”

If you don’t understand that “collusion” is a civilian shorthand and not a formal legal accusation by now, you are willfully ignorant or incredibly stupid. The issue is the crime that may have been committed during the course of whatever collusion occurred.

“pay a fortune to make the crime sound real,”

Nobody’s actually floating “collusion” as a crime, but the criminal acts associated with collusion don’t need money to sound real. They just need your son’s emails.

“illegally leak (Comey) classified information”

Comey is not a Democrat. I’m fairly certain the information he “leaked” was not classified, though some of it may have been confidential within the Justice Department. You are not exactly one to be casting stones about disclosure of classified information.

“so that a Special Councel [sic] will be appointed,”

As Special Counsel was appointed because you fired someone in charge of an investigation that had to do with you and then shredded your own pretext when you admitted you were thinking about Russia when you fired him and then bragged to the Russians that the was a “nut job” and that the “pressure” was off because you fired him.

“and then Collude to make this pile of garbage take on life in Fake News!”

It’s not collusion for journalists to follow the facts, many of which are derived from you own associates. It’s not their fault that the ridiculous behavior that you and your campaign engaged in are so outrageous that people want to know. Anybody who cares about the integrity of democracy SHOULD care.

Joe Arpaio: Disgrace, Racist, Criminal

I have been looking for things to say about the pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio from his federal conviction for criminal contempt of court.  I want to rail about how disgusting his actions were, how antagonistic not only the decision to pardon him was but the timing of it as well.

I cannot imagine how marginalized his victims feel seeing their tormentor pardoned without a penalty.  The high of seeing the man who seemed bulletproof for so long finally be held accountable only to have that accountability swept away like it was nothing must be devastating.  I know that, but I do not feel it like his victims do.

Many others have done a fine job of detailing the deplorable behavior and criminal acts by this supposed agent of the law.  I cannot add to the conversation there, but I cannot stay silent.

Arpaio, between his conviction and pardon, attempted to scare his racist and / or ignorant audience by telling them that if the big bad government can come after an innocent law man doing his job (paraphrasing his words), then they can come after “anybody.” My response to his contention is this: You’re damned right, and that is as it should be!

Anybody who systematically violates the rights of citizens and doze so largely on the basis of race and in the name of electoral politics should absolutely expect the government to respond with righteous justice and accountability.  Nobody should expect that they will be able to hide and cower behind a badge or behind the oversized tie of an unqualified and equally cynical (and / or racist) executive trying to distract from his own self-inflicted political wounds and controversies.

Lee v. Washington (v. Lee)

One of the recent arguments in defense of the preservation of Confederate war monuments is the laughable claim that there is no difference between Robert E. Lee and George Washington.  One of the people doing this is Donald Trump’s lawyer, who has taken time away from defending his client against unrelated allegations to make this argument.  It is an act that is indicative of the fact that Donald Trump is not merely accidentally defending white nationalism, and also the lengths to which Trump and his team will go to distract from his Russian problem.

But why is the comparison so pathetically misguided?  The argument amounts to saying that both men were slave owners who led rebellions against their former nations of allegiance.  This is true so far as it goes, but its omissions render it disingenuous at best.

First, Washington is and was not a traitor to this nation.  He did not betray the United States.  He helped found it.  Britain can rightfully consider him a traitor to them, but he is no traitor to the United States of America.  Additionally, he remains the only sitting president to lead the army into battle when he led troops to put down the Whiskey Rebellion.

Lee did betray the United States.  He led an armed rebellion against the United States.  Even if the Union had lost, Lee would still have been a traitor to the United States even as he would have been a Confederate Washington.  So, this isn’t merely a case of history being written by the victors.

Second, while the causes for the American Revolution and the American Civil War are complicated, their motivations are less so.  The American Revolution was largely motivated by the colonies / states not being represented in the government that presided over them.  This was an active and ongoing problem that resulted in acts, taxes and legislation aimed at enriching the British Empire at the expense of the colonies that drove it.

On the other hand, the American Civil War was motivated by the desire to protect the rights of white men to own black men.  This is the “state’s right” that the war was fought over.  The war was started because southern traitors did not like the result of a presidential election, even though the racist ⅗ compromise gave them a disproportionate vote, and even though the winner of the election indicated he did not intend to end the barbaric practice of slavery.  This means that their issue was almost entirely speculative.

They revolted because a system that was rigged in their favor was not rigged enough in their favor and did not play out exactly as they wanted.  This revolt of spoiled racists and sore losers is the rebellion that Robert E. Lee led.

Washington led a revolt of people not represented in their government.  He did not lead a rebellion of people already overrepresented in their government and were just mad because they did not get their way.

By all means, remember Gen. Lee. Remember all the men and women who fought and died for the Confederacy.  Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but we cannot learn from something that we do not remember.  There is a difference between remembering and idealizing though, and these monuments and memorials idealize people who were traitors to the United States in the name of white supremacy.  I sincerely doubt that many of these monuments, if any, provide any meaningful context for the events and people they memorialize.  Those interested in commemorating the Confederacy during Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement, when a large number of these memorials were put up, were more interested in holding back the tide of racial equality.

We must learn from our remembrance and study of the American Civil War and the people who fought on both sides, and that is not what these memorials are for.  I am not aware of any memorials portray Confederate leaders as well-meaning, but flawed and tragic figures simply on the wrong side of justice and history.  While I personally find most of the leadership of the Confederacy to be motivated by more sinister intent than that, it is at least an acceptable view in that it acknowledges that they were absolutely wrong, regardless of intent.

Tempting as it may be to take the view, “Washington, good; Lee, bad,” things are rarely that simple.  I was looking for the best way to illustrate that point when I learned this week that the opposition to Confederate war memorials had a very early and surprising member: Robert E. Lee.

When approached about monuments to the Confederate war effort, Lee wrote on at least two occasions that such symbols would hold the South back and would “keep open the sores of war.”  He thought it “wiser” to “obliterate the symbols of civil strife.”

So, there we have it.  Even the man who led the military rebellion against the United States recognized that monuments to his own efforts, the efforts he risked his life and the lives of his brothers in arms, were harmful to the United States and to the South specifically.  It’s unfortunate that the people who want to defend the veneration of Gen. Lee and his fellow Confederate traitors cannot actually learn the hard lessons he specifically wanted us to learn.

Republicans Were "Waiting," but Clearly Not Working

Donald Trump said recently that Republicans have been "waiting for seven years" to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.  If I may be sol bold as to offer advise to Donald Trump, isn't the fact that they have been waiting for seven years exactly the problem?  Other than the dozens of symbolic votes to repeal the ACA and screaming about how important it is to repeal the law, they have done nothing but wait.

When they could have been listening to their constituents about their policy concerns, they waited.

When they could have been writing their own bill to repair or replace the ACA, they were taking symbolic votes.

When they could have been looking for solutions to the legitimate policy concerns with the ACA, they were scheming to win elections.

Now their decisions have come back to demonstrate just how disingenuous their words and actions have been since the very start of this debate.  This was never about policy for them.  This was about a bunch of partisan hacks scoring cheap electoral points off of a complicated issue that they all too willingly oversimplified, and sometimes just flat-out lied about to confuse and mislead the masses.  (Remember "Death Panels?)

They lied about what the ACA would do.  They lied (and continue to lie) about what it is doing.  They lied about the process used to pass the law and they lied about the role they paid in obstructing the improvement, passage and implementation of the ACA at all costs.

In what is possibly the most long-standing and disgusting of Republican lies about the ACA, they lied about having a better plan.  They lied about having ANY plan to replace the ACA.  For seven years, four election cycles, they have been proclaiming that "Obamacare" was killing the country and "repeal and replace" was at or near the top of their priority list.

Unfortunately for the country, the people who voted for these Republicans and the people who are most vulnerable to the fluctuation of the insurance market, the vast majority of congressional Republicans are both incompetent and uninterested in governing as compared with winning elections.  In the time they had to ready themselves for when they would control the Congress and the White House, a competent congressional leadership team could have had a plan.  They could have had backup plans.  They could have had contingencies for how to proceed with a small versus a large legislative majority.  They could have even come up with a plan for reform in the event that the next president was a Democrat.  They had time to make plans based upon the the real world implementation and results of the ACA and the fixes that real world application showed it needed.

THEY HAD NOTHING.

Despite the pathetic and unintentionally ironic victory celebration Donald Trump held in the White House Rose Garden after the House passed its "bill," he and his Republican allies could not have shown themselves to be more oblivious to the real work needed if they had a "Mission Accomplished" banner as their back drop.

With years to prepare, they got caught with their pants down.  With years to prepare and in near total control of the federal government, they had nothing.  That glorious display of incompetence has nothing to do with Democrats.  It only marginally has anything to do with Donald Trump.  Sure, he could have displayed some leadership and tried to right the ship, but the "deal-maker" was not willing or able to do anything except say "pass something," and then try to strong-arm some of the Republicans who saw what a disaster their efforts were shaping up to be.

Donald Trump and the Republicans had a historic opportunity to pick up where the ACA fell short and help move it toward making sure all Americans have access to healthcare that they can actually afford.  The signs along the way indicated they were not serious about doing so.  When they had a chance to prove the doubters wrong, they proved they were nothing more than the disingenuous political hacks that so many thought they were.

So, when Donald Trump says it was "always the plan" to let the ACA die on its own, do not believe him.  It is just another example of Donald Trump ignoring facts he does not like because his ego cannot handle the idea that he might not be the best, smartest and winningest person ever.  To the extent he plans to let it fail or, more likely, push it to fail, the blood for the deaths that will result is on his hands and the hands of his colleagues.

What the Democrats should be doing now, and what the Republicans should do next time, is learn from the stunning incompetence that the Republican party displayed during (at least) the entirety of the Obama administration.  That means not just complaining and using "the other side is in charge" as an excuse for not actually DOING anything.  It means working on real policy solutions to problems.  It means supporting a good idea regardless of who proposes it.  Regardless of which side is in power, it means listening and compromising for the greater good.  It does not mean theatrical temper tantrums, moving the goalposts and lying to the American people.

The ACA can and needs to be improved.  However, anybody who thought that Republicans had the collective competence, leadership, integrity and courage to actually do it now needs to realize that they were being lied to.  The Republicans, for seven years, were "waiting" (and campaigning) when they should have been working.  We do no need more people like that in elected office.  We need them gone.

I'm Just Going to Say It...

I hate Donald Trump.  It is not enough to say I disagree with him, or that I do not respect him as a leader or even as a man.  I hate him.

I do not say that lightly.  As I have gotten older, I try very hard to avoid using the word “hate,” because it is overused to the point of being nearly meaningless.  It also never has a positive influence on a course of events.  That’s part of what my problem is with the political tide that has brought him to power.  Hate is not something I want to teach my children to embrace.  I am well aware of Dr. King’s philosophy that hate cannot drive out hate, that only love can.  I agree.

That said, I reiterate that I hate Donald Trump.  I do not just hate what he stands for (today).  I do not hate most of the people who voted for him.  It is not worth belaboring the point with specifics, but I hate him as a person for what he does and the way he treats people.  I’m human.  I cannot help the way I feel, and I cannot say that I am proud of hating anybody, but I can help the way I respond to it.

So, when I say “I hate Donald Trump,” do not mistake what that means.  It does not mean that I am going to throw a temper tantrum about him being in power.  It does not mean that I intend, or want anybody else to use violence, coercion, intimidation or any other illegal, immoral or uncivilized tactic to protest or fight him.  In fact, those are some of the actions that he has supported or encouraged within his own supporters that are part of why I hate the man.  I have no intent to beat a monster by becoming one myself.

It must, as always, be love, truth and justice with which we fight the monster that is Donald Trump.  I do not know if we can defeat the monster that way, at least not in the foreseeable future.  I do know that using anything but love, truth and justice to fight him, fighting him on his own terms with his own tactics will destroy the part of America that is worth fighting to protect.  This country is  too important, and has been too good to me for me to contribute to its further disassociation with reality, practicality and basic civility.

I do not recognize a country shaped by his warped way of thinking as anything approaching the America I love.  It is that love that is most of my fuel.  I hate Donald Trump.  That is a portion of what fuels me these days.  Hate will never be my weapon in this fight though.  Hate cannot build, it can only destroy.  I know that.  My hate is inescapable baggage that I have to reconcile, but it is not what I bring to the negotiation table or the political battlefield.  In other words, my hate is MY problem and I have no right to make it anybody else’s problem any more than they have the right to make their hate America’s problem.

Yes, I hate the man and what he stands for.  But, like the overwhelming majority of people in this country, even most of the (minority of) people who voted for the man, I am better that Donald Trump.  I don’t know you, but the extreme odds are that YOU are better than Donald Trump.  I will not let him push me into acting like the worst of what America has to offer.  Regardless of your political viewpoints, you should not let him either.  When people of all political persuasions are able to have honest and civil discussions and look for actual solutions to our problems, the malevolent garbage that comes from Donald Trump’s mouth, mouthpieces and Twitter client will cease to matter.

Who knows… maybe Donald will discover a level of civility and honesty he has not demonstrated in what passes for his political career.  If he does, as an American, he is welcome to a seat at the table in my book.  Until he does he must be opposed with every fact, every ounce of love and every ounce of civility we can muster.

Donald can have his stupid wall… The rest of us should be building bridges.

Yeah, I'm Mad

That's right.  I'm mad and I'm not apologizing for it.

There is something greatly wrong with this country when we are returning to state where not only is open or thinly veiled racism increasingly common, but we are afraid to call it out as the insidious societal disease that it is.

Earlier this week, Pamela Ramsey Taylor, a  leader of a Clay County, West Virginia non-profit organization posted on Facebook that it would be refreshing to have a "classy" and "dignified" first lady in the White House instead of "a ape in heels."  Local Mayor, Beverly Whaling, responded that the post "made her day."  Clay County is 98% white.  Clay, the city of which Whaling is the mayor, has no black residents.  After the initial firestorm prompted by the comments, Taylor responded that the comment was not racially motivated, though she admitted how it could be seen as such.

I don't know if Taylor or Whaling can or will keep their jobs.  They shouldn't, but that's pretty much beside the point.  I'm also not going to go into the detail of the thrust of their comments.  Michelle Obama is one of the most dignified and classy PEOPLE to live in the White House, First Lady or otherwise.  I don't know what class or dignity anybody married to Donald Trump can bring to the White House, but it certainly pales in comparison to the embodiment class and dignity that is Michelle Obama.  Instead, I want to talk about the dog whistle that the classless Ms. Taylor blew in her comment, and that the equally classless Mayor Whaling responded to.  The idea that either one of these worms losing their jobs is an adequate response to what they've said is off the mark.  It's not enough because what they said is not the real problem; it's just a symptom of the problem.

The problem is that anybody is thinking this garbage to begin with.  The problem is that there is an entire group of people thinking like this.  The problem is that we have a candidate for president around whom the purveyors of the glory of a white America can gather.  The problem is that when these people are caught, they are allowed to sneak away with their tail between their legs without long term repercussions and without being called out as the racists that they are.  The problem is that they are backed by countless people who simply think the solution is to "not say that," or (more realistically) not get caught saying that.  The problem is that these people will continue to support and vote for people and policies that uphold the primacy of white America.  

The problem is that these people either think there is no racial divide in this country, that it is the fault of minority populations, or that the divide is not a problem.  The problem is that we have racists in our government and our voting population and that they are not called out for what they are until they are so embarrassed to show their faces in public.  The problem is that we don't shame these people until they are too afraid to make their voices heard, until they realize that THEY are the minority and that they're living in the past.  The problem is that we have enough of these people that the election process allows them to nominate and then elect a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, bigoted bully to be the President of the United States.

The problem is that this person, these people, are in my country.  The problem is that we're afraid to call this deplorable woman what she is, a racist.  The problem is that she's not alone.  The problem is that the Republican Party disproportionately attracts racist voters and activists, but the good people in the party are either afraid to call them out for fear of losing their votes, or they don't understand the thinly veiled racism that these worms are spouting.  The problem is that the hypocrisy of expecting black Americans to take a greater degree of responsibility for "black on black" crime, or expecting Muslims to turn in members of their community as potential terrorism suspect while failing to take any responsibility for policing racism within one's own party (because we wouldn't want to lose their votes).

The problem is that racism is alive and well in this country and the vast majority of people are either afraid to admit even the possibility of that being the case, or they're afraid of being called oversensitive or "playing the race card."  The problem is that these deplorable neanderthals are allowed to be over-represented by a political system that was never designed to see that everybody was represented in government, and has not substantially evolved (with the exception of women's suffrage) since shortly after the Civil War.  They're over-represented because they can be manipulated by people who, in all honesty, may not be racist themselves, but are perfectly willing to harness the racism of others to get what they want.

None of these problems are addressed by either of these deplorable women joining the ranks of the unemployed (though they certainly both deserve to), because the deplorable ideas that they’ve displayed are not only alive and well, but they are a significant part of what propelled them, and so many like them, to positions of influence.

I don’t know what the best way to combat this failure to evolve, but pretending there is no problem and allowing others to do the same is not part of that solution.  That is why I will continue to call out racism when I see it.  I will do my best to remain respectful in doing so, but I’m done sugarcoating the way I approach this topic.  If you can't handle that, then take a look in the mirror.  You are the problem.