Donald Trump doesn’t need to wear a mask. His hateful self is unmasked every day.
During a visit to a Ford plant in Michigan, Trump praised Henry Ford, a notorious anti-semite and proponent of eugenics for his “good bloodlines.”
White supremacists and anti-semites heard his code words loud and clear.
An admirer of Hitler, Henry Ford published dozens of articles reflecting his bigotry including anti-semitic conspiracies targeting the international Jews. He outlined the “Jewish World Conspiracy” in his newspaper the Dearborn Independent. which was distributed through Ford auto dealers and sent free to schools and libraries around the country,
He also published 90 anti-Semitic articles referring to Jews as the root of America’s and the world’s ills and were reproduced in the book The International Jew: The Worlds Foremost Problem. The collected articles were sold as a pamphlet, which was subsequently translated into German, and inspired Hitler’s praise for Ford in Mein Kampf.
Hate Unmasked
When Trump praises “bloodlines” his true self is unveiled. In full view. Just as when he praises the “very fine people” carrying torches and Swastikas.
Trump shares a bloodline with other white supremacists and authoritarians many who have blood on their hands.
Just as Ford’s anti-Semitic views echoed the fears and assumptions of many Americans in the 1920s and ’30s, so now in our own time the haters are stepping boldly from the shadows emboldened by Trump.
The hate is spreading unchecked like a deadly virus.
As a Jew I learned through osmosis the coded language and dog whistles of hate and bigotry. To Jewish eyes and Jewish ears the tropes of today are familiar, as familiar as the ancient prayers of Kaddish said in temple.
As antisemitic incidents rise in the U.S. and white suprematist voices are amplified Trump has lent them legitimacy, invigorating them to come out of the shadows, unmasked for all to see.
They will outlast Trump. That’s his bloody legacy. And it is bloody awful.
The specter of anti-Semitism has always hovered around us, the shadowy world of hate like a sinister ghost I chose not to want to see it.
No mask can hide Trump’s white supremacist world view. We can’t look away. No mask will protect us from what we must see.
Envisioning The American Dream 
Trump is like a horrible accident you come upon on the expressway – you don’t want to see it, but you just can’t look away.
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That is exactly as I see him.
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I keep hoping the nightmare will end sooner than later, in November. Worse yet, in November, if there is a happy ending to this nightmare, we still have till the end of January before the next president is inaugurated. A lot of damage can be done in those few weeks, as if all the months and years before of this monster’s presidency haven’t destroyed enough of what’s good about our country. Personally, friends I’ve had for life who have those MAGA hats have become people I pretend to still be friends with until I find a nice way to leave them behind, forget, no longer feel the taint of their association with this monster.
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Weird how I just finished watching a documentary about Nazi Germany and here you go with Henry Ford. I’ve despised the man a good chunk of my life for his hatred and finally had to look up if he survived the end of the war and learned about the camps. Apparently, he was shocked at the bestiality and murder and the shock was enough to give him a stroke or something that helped him off the mortal coil sooner. Good riddance.
Do these idiots ever realize their hateful rhetoric won’t stay just words forever? Amazing how so many seemed to act surprised after atrocities. I mean, wasn’t that the point in your words, anyway, to make certain people powerless and to go away? Ugh–and Charles Lindbergh I can’t stand for much the same reasons, convinced of his racial and eugenics beliefs forever and “disgusted” when he visited the concentration camps.
Now I wanna read up on Walt Disney and figure out how and when his admiration for Hitler finally went down the toilet, if it ever really did. I know the day war was declared, Disney’s company went all out for doing what they could for the war effort with films and propaganda cartoons… but what about the man?
Hmm—research time. Though Dump’s “very fine people” moment might’ve made even Ford and Lindbergh squeamish if they’d heard it after Charlottesville. Sheesh.
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Of course, now that I remember, mostly Disney appreciated Hitler’s ability to get the economy going and destroy labor unions in Germany (bet he was happy to testify before HUAC and denounce the striking animators he’d had to deal with in the 40s as communists). Otherwise, dunno, but I’m sure he still carried plenty of insensitivity toward race or religion that was par for the course in those “good ol’ days” Dump wants us to return to..
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