Racist?

What do you think?

There have been a lot of talk about where Trump is holding rallies, it seems that the towns have a history of racism… but isn’t that true about anywhere in the south?

Trump accused of deliberately choosing ‘sundown’ towns with racist histories for his rallies
Critics point to a ‘troubling pattern’ of campaign stops in midwestern towns that Kamala Harris’s campaign has called a racist ‘bullhorn,’
Independent
By Alex Woodward
September 4, 2024

During a campaign stop at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Howell, Michigan, Donald Trump suggested that deputies there should be deployed to the majority-Black city of Detroit.

“I’d love to have them working there during the election,” he told the group on August 20, standing in front of law enforcement officials and squad cars.

A week later, Trump held a “town hall” in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The next day, he rallied in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He will speak in the town of Mosinee, Wisconsin, on September 7.

These relatively small cities — spread across midwestern swing states and far from dense metropolitan areas — all have one thing in common: They are former “sundown” towns, where threats of Jim Crow-era violence enforced racial segregation.

After a series of rallies in major cities to kick off his general election campaign, the Republican presidential candidate zeroed in on a handful of cities with familiar pasts.

Viral criticism across social media has argued that Trump’s latest campaign stretch isn’t a coincidence but a “dogwhistle” to racist supporters. Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign accused the former president of deliberately campaining in the former “KKK capital of Michigan.”

[…]

Civil rights groups and city leaders have worked over decades to recover their communities from the “sundown” label, so named because of warnings to non-white people to stay off the streets after sunset, with the implicit threat of violence hovering over them.

I think allegations are hard to prove but I think that is what Trump is counting on… “Plausible deniability.” Of course Trump is saying they are all filled with malarkey, that he’s not a racist!

The Advocate write…

Harris campaign, others call out Trump for holding events in towns with racist histories
Donald Trump has had rallies in some communities that were once "sundown towns" — where Blacks were warned to stay away after sunset.
By Trudy Ring
September 04 2024

Kamala Harris’s campaign staff, various Democratic politicians, and social media users are accusing Donald Trump of deliberately choosing towns with racist histories as sites for his rallies.

Trump has held several events in what were once “sundown” towns — communities were Black people were told by law or threat to stay away after sunset. They include Howell, Mich.; LaCrosse, Wis.; and Johnstown, Pa.

[…]

Trump held a rally in Howell August 20. A month earlier, about a dozen white supremacists, wearing masks, marched through the town while chanting “We love Hitler. We love Trump.”

The Trump campaign denied any association with the marchers and said Howell’s history had nothing to do with the decision to have an event there. However, the Republican presidential nominee did make what could be construed as a racist dog whistle in Howell, saying sheriff’s deputies from the largely white town should monitor voting in Detroit, a majority Black city. That isn’t simply a dog whistle, “it’s a bullhorn,” said a statement from Harris campaign spokesperson Alyssa Bradley.

This from a former president who said of the Proud Boys violent protests in Charlottesville, Va. “very fine people on both sides.”

online polls

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Update 9/6 @ 6:00PM

Why does the Trump-Harris race remain so close? Racism.
The Hill

By Brad Bannon, opinion contributor

September 6, 2024

The fall campaign has begun in earnest, and the presidential race is still tight, according to swing state polls conducted for The Hill between Aug. 23 and 28. The big question is: Why the race still so close?

In the short time Vice President Harris has been the designated Democratic nominee, she solidified her party’s base, raised a ton of dough and selected a popular running mate. Meanwhile, former President Trump bumbled and stumbled his way through the summer with incoherent campaign rhetoric, a divisive running mate and defections by prominent Republicans. Former Sen. Pat Toomey, from the swing state of Pennsylvania, and former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, are the latest Republicans to express their intentions to not vote for their party’s nominee.

[...]

You would like to think that Democratic energy and enthusiasm would have produced a big blue wave, but it isn’t so. The race is still close in the seven swing states on the front lines of the electoral combat zone. Either party can win simply by mobilizing its base. But neither can dominate without having broad support across voting blocs. The next president needs a large public mandate to advance her or his agenda. Neither candidate is likely to own one after Election Day.

Did you get that? "Either party can win simply by mobilizing its base. But neither can dominate without having broad support across voting blocs." and I will add, and voting for a third party candidate.