In the editorial, Napolitano recalls the divisions created by the Vietnam War, and he says that the hatred being stoked by Trump rivals the turbulent late 1960s. Napolitano argues that Trump’s decision to tell four Democratic lawmakers to “go back” to their home countries despite being American citizens was a particularly divisive and racist comment.
“‘Go back’ is a rejection of the nation as a melting pot; a condemnation of one of America’s founding values – E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one),” he writes. “It implicates a racial or nativist superiority: We were here before you; this is our land, not yours; get out. Nativist hatred is an implication of moral or even legal superiority that has no constitutional justification in American government.”
View the complete July 25 article by Brad Reed from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.