‘What have you got to lose?’

Toward the end of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign he made a plea to African American voters. He asked them: “What have you got to lose?”

If any one of those voters couldn’t answer that question then, and weren’t certain of their answer a week ago, they now know the answer: Everything.

Some in the media and talking heads are asking why some in the media are calling Trump’s racist tweets targeting four brown-skinned women in the Congress were racist. That is the press’ job, to report honestly and objectively. It isn’t a judgement. It’s a fact. Telling Americans to “go back to their country” is a phrase that goes back decades. It is established as a racist comment. (Those of us of a certain age will recall during the 1960s being told “My Country Right or Wrong.” Not a racist comment but a just as ridiculous one.)

The President has shown his prejudices many times during his life, let alone his campaign for and during his presidency. I won’t go through the litany. Others are doing a good job of reminding us of his Mexicans are rapists comments, his “that judge is prejudiced against me because he’s Mexican” comment, and on and on.

As bad as his making these comments, he is doing it not because of the fact that he is a racist but for political gain. Clearly, he thinks that by making the four brown-skinned congresswomen the face(s) of the Democratic Party that he gains an edge in his reelection campaign. News Flash, Mr. President: You’ve already locked up the White Supremacist/racist vote.