all seem far too prevalent among the followers of the presumptive Republican nominee. In a sense we should not be surprised. First, his rhetoric has fueled a lot of it, legitimizing open expressions of things that have never been very far beneath the surface for a segment of American society. Second, to be realistic, it is not at all surprising that such expressions have found resonance in the Republican party, which has for half a decade moved in the direction of building upon resentment. I think one can make an argument that the acceptance speech by Barry Goldwater in 1964 marks a clear beginning of Republicans accepting the notion of legitimizing what otherwise might be considered extremism, and there should be no doubt of that direction given Ronald Reagan beginning his general election campaign in 1980 at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi, with that county’s unfortunate connection with one of the most brutal examples of extremism, the killing of Cheney, Schwerner and Goodman and their bodies buried in an earthen dam.
In our day and age, we are seeing these expressions take a new form, one of cyberbullying. From the sexism aspect, it is an all too common phenomenon against women online.
It has now blossomed as well into outright anti-semitism.
This comin Sunday, the New York Times has an important column in its Sunday Review section which went live yesterday. By Washington DC based Times editor Jonathan Weisman, it is titled The Nazi Tweets of ‘Trump God Emperor’.
Please note the quotes. It is not “The Donald” who is making these tweets, it is followers who identify with him.
And before I go on, I will note, as does Weisman, that Trump’s daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism when she married her Observant Jewish husband, and Trump has bragged about his Jewish grandchildren. But that is irrelevant to what is happening.