Friend,
As legal challenges for Trump and his allies continue stacking up (and as the former president campaigns for reelection by avoiding public debates against his fellow GOP contenders) it’s easy to lose sight of the dangers he and the MAGA movement continue to pose to our nation.
But the reality is that MAGA forces are mobilizing every day at the local, state, and federal level to impose their authoritarian views on every single one of us. Nearly every candidate for president on the Republican side is falling over themselves to replicate Trump’s brand of extremism – at the expense of our rights and freedoms in the process.
The desire to leave the grim era of the Trump presidency behind us is certainly an appealing one, but if we fail to keep those very real threats and experiences front-of-mind, history as they say will be “doomed to repeat itself.”
And so, we welcome you to our inaugural “this week in Trumptastrophy” email: a new email series, that will serve to remind us all of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we encountered during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others in the MAGA movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in your memory as we fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming elections.
This week’s recap:
On Sept. 14, 2017, Trump repeated his “both sides” claims about the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville that resulted in the murder of a counter-protester. Trump had been justifiably slammed for his comments a month earlier saying there were “very fine people on both sides” of the events in Charlottesville—comments that were hard for many Americans to take given the deadly violence and the unforgettable images of torch-bearing neo-Nazis chanting “Jews will not replace us.”
Trump’s September comments came on the same day he was signing a congressional resolution condemning white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups. He signed it, but he just couldn’t let it go without defending his earlier remarks.
Here’s why this story reminds us of why Trump is too dangerous to let him back in power:
- Trump stubbornly refuses to admit to being wrong. He denies reality and he lies to create his own reality. His continued lies about the 2020 election being stolen fueled the attack on the U.S. Capitol and continue to provoke rage among his supporters.
- Trump defended his remarks by pointing to “very fine people” who were in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue glorifying Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and other right-wing leaders have declared a “war on woke”—and are actually passing laws against honest teaching about racism in our history and institutions.
- Trump’s MAGA movement is infested with antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ bigotry, white nationalism, and Christian nationalism. The antisemitic “replacement theory” chanted by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville and spouted by bigoted mass murderers in city after city has also been promoted on Fox News and other right-wing outlets. Trump himself had dinner with the openly antisemitic Kanye West and the outrageously bigoted anti-democracy white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
- Trump family members appear on the same stages as far-right activists calling for civil war and execution of Trump’s opponents. Trump himself told members of the gleefully violent Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” – which they did until they answered his call to be “wild” on Jan. 6.
These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this fight. So, find your favorite way to unwind after reading through that brief recollection of “this week in the Trump presidency,” and then make a plan for how you will fight back THIS week, this MONTH, this election cycle. And of course, if you’d like to opt-out of this series but still continue receiving our other email content, you can do so here >>
Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.
– People For the American Way
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