Trump is the end result, not the cause.

Today's musing minute:

Certainly high up on the list of Trump's flaws as a leader, is his inclination to divide rather than unite. He thrives off the negative energy of confrontation - turned always into a commentary about him and his achievements. Certainly he appears to be missing an opportunity to nudge people away from division toward unity in a crisis.

Having said this, I am compelled to point out that this pervasively hostile environment has its origins long before the advent of Trump. Trump is not the cause of it. He is the result, the latest reflection of it. It has been brewing for over a decade in the escalating stirrings of the racial justice movement in their many diverse projects aimed at creating racial, ethnic and social conflict - apparently for various reasons, some political (to get federal money) some ideological (Marxist). Certainly Obama was an instrument in this (you did not build that!), and it has slowly but surely infiltrated deep into the Democratic party.

The distortion of history, the provoking of resentment about statues and establishment names, the fostering of white guilt, the promotion of race consciousness everywhere and in everything. MLK.s dream of a race-blind society is now openly scorned and repudiated. Trump is the spear-tip of the right wing reaction to this. And unfortunately he is serving the purpose of the racial justice warriors perfectly.

Puzzling is the readiness of the Democratic party to go along. Like Trump its leaders appear to be missing the opportunity to call for unity, to reach back to our common American-ness in spite of all the tragic horrific divisions that punctuate our turbulent history and to point out that we have arrived at a time when in the richest and most powerful nation in history there is so much more that unites than divides us. But to do this they must repudiate the social justice movement and its racist agenda and affirm an America that has never been less racist or more inclusive than it is now.