It’s clear that Donald Trump is espousing an overtly racist vision for America.
He says a U.S.-born judge of Mexican ancestry cannot sit in judgment of Trump because, well, he’s of Mexican ancestry. He doubts a Muslim judge could be fair. He started his rise in the GOP as a “birther” — claiming the President was not born in America. He calls Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “criminals.”
And that’s before we consider his campaign promises: round up 11 million immigrants; ban all Muslims from admission into the U.S.; revoke birthright citizenship to 4.5 million “anchor babies;” rescind protections for 700,000 Dreamers on his first day as President; round up Syrian refugees already resettled; etc.
Nevada Republicans, like Gov. Brian Sandoval; Reps. Joe Heck, Cresent Hardy and Mark Amodei; and Sen. Dean Heller, who endorsed Trump have a choice to make: Continue to embrace an authoritarian demagogue who promises to divide the country along racial and religious lines and trample on America’s democratic norms and traditions; or take a stand and revoke your support for Trump.
Stand by Trump and you stand for racism. Stand by Trump and you are more interested in party and power than in defending our founding ideal that all men and women are created equal. Stand by Trump and you will be forever defined by your capitulation.
There’s no room for semantics and word games – if you have officially endorsed Trump, if you have announced you are voting for Trump, or if you are supporting “the eventual Republican nominee,” you are helping to elect Donald Trump to our nation’s highest office and own Trump’s agenda. And no, it’s not enough to “disagree” with Trump’s comments about Judge Curiel. What does it say about your priorities, your principles, and your moral convictions that you can recognize that Trump’s racism is unacceptable, yet are working to elect this man to the presidency?
As prominent conservative Erick Erickson wrote of Trump’s comments on Judge Curiel: “These were not racially tinged or racially charged attacks. This was racism plain and simple … The attacks are racist. To claim that someone is unable to objectively and professional perform his job because of his race is racism. And damn the GOP for its unwillingness to speak up on this … the Party of Lincoln intends to circle the wagons around a racist. Damn them for that.”
According to Viridiana Vidal, Director of Nevada’s Voice, “As a Hispanic journalist in Nevada, I personally interviewed Rep. Joe Heck and Sen. Dean Heller on many occasions where they personally assured me how important the Hispanic community was for them. However, by endorsing Trump’s racist vision, they are building a wall around themselves with the Hispanic community. Republicans in Nevada that have pledged to stand behind Trump are standing behind racism and embracing a promise to divide our country”
