Axar.az presents an article "Vote R For Racist" by John Samuel Tieman.

It finally happened the other day. Donald Trump went full-on racist about Nikki Haley. I knew he would. He's pretty much playing to his base, meaning racists, xenophobes, Antisemites. Again. And once again, his base loves it. It is impossible not to conclude that Trump’s followers prefer him not despite his racism but because of it. There are few things more disturbing than their blatant and unrelenting racism.

Given that candidates like to run on their record, it is worth a review of Donald Trump's record when it comes to race, its impact on the Republican Party, and its impact on America.

Nikki Haley's parents are Sikhs. Her birth name is Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. Her name is what Trump made fun of when, on social media, he called her “Nimbra” and “Nimrada”. She always has been known by her middle name, Nikki, which means “little one” in Punjabi. She married Michael Haley in 1969. She is a Methodist and Trump is a racist. It's instructive to remember the Donald's focus on Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein.

Trump's racism is nothing new. What follows are examples of his history of racism, a list that could go on and on. My list is random and simply pulled from memory. I give it for both review and, for the uninitiated, tuition.

Trump's attacks on Haley echo his “birtherism”, when he accused Barack Obama of not being a citizen. Trump falsely accused Haley of being ineligible for the presidency because her parents were not citizens of the U. S. when she was born. For the record, she was born at the Bamberg County Hospital in Bamberg, South Carolina. The former president also insinuated that Vice President Kamala Harris, who’s Black, “doesn’t meet the requirements” to run for vice president.

Trump called the Coronavirus the “Chinese virus” and “kung flu”.

In the 1970s, the Justice Department sued Donald Trump for racial discrimination.

At the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, Black card dealers were transferred off tables, this to accommodate a big-time gambler’s prejudices. For this, the casino was fined $200,000.

In congressional testimony, Trump once said that some Native American casinos shouldn't be permitted to function because “they don't look like Indians to me”.

In his first speech as a candidate in 2016, Donald Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists” who are “bringing crime” and “bringing drugs” to America.

He has been slow to condemn racism, and has often retweeted racist comments.

Candidate Trump called for a “Muslim ban” that would bar all Muslims from entry into the United States. President Trump kept that promise in part.

To Black voters in 2016, Trump said, “You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you
have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?”

This history could fill dozens of pages. And now “Nimbra” and “Nimrada”.

The former president has reshaped the Republican Party, and, to some extent, America. Trump seeks to exploit people's conscious and unconscious fear of the other. There is nothing new in this. George Wallace comes to mind. But it has been some time since we have seen it used so blatantly. “Welfare queen”, “illegal alien”, “terrorist”, and now “Nimbra”. These are terms Trump knows will trigger racist views and reactions. By triggering such fears, Trump sends his listeners into a state wherein they don't listen to any other arguments. People who are afraid listen to their fear first and foremost.

To its credit, after the party's losses in the 2012 election, in which Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney, the Republican Party did some introspection. The Republican National Committee found that they were losing young voters and the votes of minorities. They understood that they needed to be more inclusive. But those reflections are today ignored. In 2016, the party found that it could have a racist candidate and win. Now, it's not hard to hear Trump's racist slurs repeated by his followers.

In essence, the party now rejects, and Trump fights against, a multi-racial democracy. The problem is that we are a multi-racial society. If I look out my windows here, in the Midwest, I see Black neighbors, Asians, a neighbor who moved here from Central America. My block is hardly unusual. Most of us here vote “D” for Democrat – and diversity.