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1. In Indianapolis over the weekend, Trump, describing his presidential predecessor, said “Barack,” then paused, then drew the letter “H” (for Obama’s middle name “Hussein”) in the air. Trump has talked about Obama lots and lots of times over the past two years, but it’s only the weekend before the election that he decides to note Obama’s middle name — or middle initial — in this way. Ask yourself why. And then give me one reason other than to remind voters that Obama’s middle name is “Hussein.” And then explain to me how reminding people that that is Obama’s middle name isn’t playing on racial animus?
3. Trump has repeatedly insisted that Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who is black, is “not qualified” for the job which she is seeking. Trump didn’t elaborate, but it’s unclear what he objected to in Abrams’ resume; she is a graduate of Yale Law School and was minority leader of the Georgia state House prior to this bid.
In a vacuum, you could write off these three incidents to the arguments lots of Republicans make when asked about Trump: He’s an equal opportunity offender! He’s said plenty of nasty things about white people, too!
But we don’t live in a vacuum. And the truth of Trump’s life as a politician is that he has repeatedly shown a willingness to engage in the sort of racial dog-whistling — and, sometimes, outright whistling — that he knows motivates some portion of his base.
And on and on and on and on. This is a feature of Trump, not a glitch. This is the key in which he sings best — and with the most confidence.
Faced with those challenges, we’ve seen Trump turn hard into a base-first strategy over the final week of the campaign — casting the caravan of migrants moving toward the United States as a pillaging horde dead-set on snatching all that you hold dear. Into the volatile mix, Trump is now dumping other long-held racist stereotypes — from the former president being “other” to the idea that neither Gillum nor Abrams are the right fit for the job for, well, you know what reason.
This is who he is and what he does. In 2016, it worked. Trump’s racial appeals played to the part of his base he needed to turn out while not turning off enough people who held it against him. The question that will get answered tomorrow night is whether Trump can do it all again. And, if he can, what does that say about who we are as a society?
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