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The Trump Rally is the New Klan Rally

The Trump Rally is the New Klan Rally

Last updated on: March 2, 2016 at 9:18 am by Erin Wathen

The Trump Rally is the New Klan Rally 2016-03-02T09:18:46-07:00 Erin Wathen

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I wasn’t going to write about him today. I swear. We need a break from observing the gruesome underbelly of America’s blackened soul (as I have come to think of his whole campaign). I had a post about church growth trends all perking in my head and it was ready to roll.

But damn. Are you watching this? Have you seen what is happening?
The Trump Rally is the new Klan rally. It’s official. America has lost it’s damn mind.

I mean, we knew, right? We knew this is what he was about, in some not-so-subtle ways. But these last few days have just confirmed that Trump’s appeal to an overtly racist voter base is not subtle, nor is it unintentional. The Trump brand (which is not the same thing as the Republican Party brand) has finally married the nightmare vision of burning crosses, white hoods, and public hostility that we thought were locked in the archives. His spokespeople might say that was an unintentional association, and try to distance themselves from it as the election gets closer. But you can’t throw garbage out on the street and NOT EXPECT RATS TO SHOW UP.

San Francisco, 1964. via Wikimedia commons

[Just so we’re clear–the garbage is racist rhetoric. The rats are the Klan].

Not long ago, a poll revealed that about 20% of Trump supporters reckon America would be better off if we still had slaves.

Then, former Klan leader (or Grand Wizard/Mugwump, whateverTF he’s called) David Duke issued an official endorsement of Trump, telling his minions that “a vote against Trump is a vote against your heritage.” If that statement doesn’t give you a healthy mix of nausea and cold chills…then you’re probably a Trump supporter. Or you might just be Donald Trump himself, who’s been reluctant to reject the endorsement.

Then yesterday…mercy, yesterday, on Super Tuesday–African American students were “escorted” out of a Trump rally. Because they looked like they might be maybe possibly sort of going to protest or something. Translation: why else would black people be here, if not to protest? This assumption can only be reached by a campaign that has drawn intentional battle lines between itself and a large segment of the population.

Meanwhile, in Louisville, a young woman is pushed, shoved, jeered at and shouted down by an angry, white mob. A mob, y’all. In 2016. In a major metropolitan area. Look at their faces, if you don’t believe this is a thing. Look at these faces, and then watch some footage of racial integration in the 1960’s South.

It is the same thing. It is exactly the same.

You can say all you want that these sentiments never died in America; that race-driven hatred has been lying beneath the surface, or just playing out in less obvious ways. Say all day long that some people are always going to think like this.

All that may be true. But until recently, those people didn’t have a public rallying point. Now they do–and they are about to elect him President.

This horror is real. It is happening in our own time, in our own cities. We are not alarmists for calling it what it is.

Please vote, folks. Please, please vote for another narrative, another version of history. But more than that–stop un-friending all the Trump supporters on social media. Instead, keep posting better stories for them to see; keep showing the higher ground. Stop avoiding neighbors and extended family who are on this train; challenge the ones who say he “tells it like it is,” and will “Make America great again.” And if you are a pastor with a pulpit, then for the love–challenge your people to demand better from their leaders. Engage some difficult conversations about race. This is not a party issue, it is not even a political issue any more. This is a fight for the soul of our country. And it feels, at the moment, like we are losing.

You might not change a single mind. You might make some enemies. You might lose your sanity. You might have to take some meds for anxiety (raises hand). But you have to try. Do not let these folks sequester themselves into pods of like-minded hatred. Yes, they are about to crown a demagogue as their king, but it’s not just about him. It’s about all the ways in which we provide rallying points for hate and violence to grow legs and gain voice and burn shit down again. There are many ways. But silence is one of them.

Rats and trash, people. Rats and trash.

Put out there what you want to get back. Or don’t be surprised when the rodents take over.

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