Re-visiting the United States One Year Later

A year ago, I turned on my television to watch “Jeopardy!” In the Chicago area, it’s broadcast at 3:30 in the afternoon. This was the first time in weeks that I’d been home at that time to watch it. You can imagine my disappointment when Alex Trebek was preempted because the current occupant of the White House was giving a press conference.

The weekend before, neo-Nazis and white racists had joined forces in Charlottesville, Virginia to march with torches chanting “Jews will not replace us.” Our president had called the press conference to insist vociferously that many people marching with Nazis and the Klu Klux Klan were “fine people.” Worse than that was my realization that more that 62million Americans had voted for him and another 90million had allowed him to win by not voting at all. Although I was born in the United States as were my parents and two of my grandparents, I felt like my country had been taken away from me. I had just become stateless.

Nazis/white supremacists marching in Charlottesville in 2017

Now a year later, I am relieved that only 25 Nazi/racists marched in Washington overpowered by thousands of counter-protesters. The New York Times reports that these bigots are now shying away from marches and organizing more hate in the shadows. America is still on the brink. As of February 26, 2018, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith reports that there were 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States since the election of 2016. The Southern Poverty Law Center is tracking 954 hate groups in the United States. The groups target African-Americans, Jews, Muslims, Mexican-Americans, and people in the LBGTQ community. Both the ADL and the SPLC report that there has been a large spike in hate activity since the 2016 election.

In the upcoming elections, five self-avowed Nazis are running for Congress on the Republican ticket. In Illinois, the Governor and regular party people have directed their constituents not to vote for this candidate. Nevertheless, their statements came much too late - after the primary elections. They did not prevail on any party regular to run against this Nazi in the Republican primary and 20,000 people voted for him. While five is a small number – there are 435 Representatives in Congress – it is still pretty frightening. To my knowledge, having five Nazi candidates running as Republicans is unprecedented.

Can we breathe sighs of relief now that the Nazi rally was so poorly attended? I don’t think so. During the 2016 election campaign, T ran a campaign of bigotry. As you all remember, he began his political career with innuendos about Pres. Obama’s citizenship. This was followed by his racist statements about Mexicans. From there, he went on to talk of establishing a registry of Muslims in the United States. His rhetoric and election victory have emboldened a Pandora’s box of hatred to come out and flourish. It’s going to take a lot more than a couple of tweets saying that all Americans must come together to put those ills back in the box. It’s incumbent on every American to resist the forces of hatred and racism as much as we possibly can.