By Vincent Hall
So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth!
– The Apostle Paul in Revelations 3:16
The good news is that “the line has been drawn in the sand.”
The bad news is that Democrats, Liberals, and the “Washington Elite” have their heads securely buried beneath it. The Lukewarm Left has got to get it together.
Many of us watch with disbelief as Donald “The John” Trump continues to disparage, disregard, and disrespect every political norm we once believed sacred. When Black folk allow one of “Keebler’s Best” to stand within 10 feet of them and spew veiled hatred, the hour for urgency is far past spent.
According to the Los Angeles Sentinel, under the headline, “Trump repeatedly says ‘The Blacks’ to woo African American voters.”
“In a brazen display of political manipulation, former President Donald Trump took to the stage on Feb. 23, at the Black Conservative Federation Gala in South Carolina, using racially-charged rhetoric and shamelessly attempting to forge a connection between his multiple criminal indictments and the historical struggles of Black Americans.
“I got indicted a second time, a third time, and a fourth time and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against,” Trump declared callously, drawing applause from the audience.”
Bullshit! Who knows who that group of self-loathing, sugar-lillied Negroes were in that room, but rest assured my 84-year-old mother would have needed bail money. Trump would have needed the Secret Service and those Klan reservists who traveled with him to control the room.
Our problem is that even when we know history, we need help drawing parallels to the present.
Hate speech, veiled and unveiled, is nothing new to us. We heard it less than 10 years ago, and we know that speech leads to hate crimes. If the volume and pitch of the tirades against Obama weren’t enough for you, go back a few years.
Hate speech, though somewhat protected by the First Amendment, is potentially dangerous. Hate speech eventually killed America’s sacred trinity. JFK, MLK, and RFK were set up and shot down by hateful language.
Look at the lives of those who respond to hate speech. Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who defected to the Soviet Union, hated JFK.
James Earl Ray, a career petty criminal from America’s “Heartland,” is said to have escaped from prison in the middle of a 20-year sentence. He hated MLK to death, although he had never met or understood him.
Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian born in Jerusalem, claimed several different religions and the occult in his early years. He acted out the messages of dissent, and RFK was assassinated. Hate speech does not move everyone to action, but it doesn’t take a legion to form a lynch mob.
It may sound outlandish, but America is on pace and poised for a second Civil War. The level of hatred and hubris that started with the Inauguration of Barack Obama has escalated.
And the notion of passive resistance once exploited by MLK may not dissuade or disquiet this cadre of proud racists.
The problem is that Democrats and the Lukewarm Left want a couch potato, 60-inch flat-screen view of American politics. We like confronting threats without bearing arms and planting our feet in knowledge and action. We want peace without passing through any perils. We like to see gray when it’s either black or white.
The article concluded with this. “Trump’s calculated appearance included Black political allies, such as Reps. Byron Donalds and Wesley Hunt, as well as former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, all of whom are Black but have little to no ties to fellow African Americans. The event has ignited widespread condemnation for its blatant attempt to exploit racial tensions and manipulate the struggles of Black Americans for political gain.”
For the record, “widespread condemnation” is simply a spit in the wind. Trump’s Renegade Right and the cycle of hatred that he has reformulated will require that the Lukewarm Left stand up and fight.
Trump has joined the “Christian Right” war, and it’s his version of John 3:16 or Paul’s version in Revelation 3:16.
The Apostle Paul says those who won’t fight aren’t worth spit.
I agree! Go Vote!
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