Vote out the ‘monarch’ who has exploited racism in the United States

Editor:

I have already voted for Joe Biden. There are many reasons why. One, he will use the presidency and the power of the federal government to fight the Covid-19 crisis.

He and President Obama used this ability to lead the country out of the 2008 financial crisis. Covid-19 is an area where Trump and his sycophants have been failures. Please read the recent letters to the Hub that support Trump. Most do not even acknowledge the Covid crisis. And none of these writers backed up Trump’s first Covid lie, back in March or so, or his latest lie that we’ve beaten Covid-19.

I  voted against Trump because he has taken the country’s traditional blind eye (exploited mostly by the Republican party) of this country’s racism to an incredible new low.

I’m 81 and remember Richard Nixon’s southern strategy. Nixon, using the coded language of “law and order”, appealed to all the bigots in this country that hated the civil rights acts of the 1960s.

And then, 20 or so years later, Ronald  Reagan gave his first campaign speech, which upheld states’ rights, about 10 miles from where three civil rights workers had been murdered. A bit of definition here: “states rights” was the principle behind which the white murderers were acquitted.

Reagan also talked of welfare Cadillac queens, while admitting he really knew of none. Then came George H.W. Bush’s Willie Horton ads which played on white fear of blacks. Nixon, Reagan and Bush all exploited this white fear while, on the surface, officially condemning it. Then came Trump. He not only does not condemn racism, he praises it. He said there were “good people on both sides” in Charlottesville. He very recently  told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”

Trump’s praise is a new low which, to their credit, a few Republicans have condemned. We can hope these Republicans will help vote Trump out.

Some of these Republicans started the Lincoln Project, the subject of a recent 60 Minutes show.

One founder was Steve Schmidt, a senior advisor in McCain’s presidential campaign. In 60 Minutes, Schmidt said Trump made him realize how naïve he had been about the embedded racism in the Republican Party. Schmidt is to be commended for the acknowledgement of his naivety.

This is the second most important election since the country’s third election when George Washington chose not to run for a third term. He’d been unanimously elected in the first two and knew that that unanimity could continue to third and later terms, thereby setting the president up as a de facto monarch.

Trump has clearly stated his desire to be a monarch by musing about deserving a third term.

Washington’s lesson has stood us in good stead for over 220 years. Please terminate Trump now and make George Washington proud!

Dennis Seekins

Lyndonville