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This election’s presidential campaign has been one of the ugliest in history. The vitriol and rhetoric between two unpopular candidates has been divisive and hateful. I have watched as former Facebook friends go back and forth over the issues, insulting each other before deleting them as friends. Families and friends are split over the candidates. Even I have pondered disowning my kids, one a registered Republican who has teased me about voting for Trump (at least I hope she is teasing) and my other kid who is going to vote for the Green Party candidate and waste his vote. Where did I go wrong! We will all be glad when the election is over!
What worries me is the possibility that Donald Trump, a racist, bigoted, white nationalist could be elected. I have been stressing over the issue and the growth of hate groups in the country civil war. Some people are even talking about sedition if Hillary Clinton is elected. There is a lot of hate and anger in the United States right now.
We need to chill out and relax. We will survive a Trump presidency. The Constitution and the Republic will survive. It will not be the first time that a racist, bigot or white nationalist has been the President of the United States.
The father of our country George Washington was a slave owner. You can’t be more racist than that. Thomas Jefferson the author of our Constitution owned slaves as well. He even fathered children with one of the slaves, a woman 30 years younger. In fact, 12 of our presidents owned slaves, eight of them while in office. We tend to give these presidents a pass on the racist issue by excusing it as just being the culture of the times, all the plantation owners were doing it.
Woodrow Wilson was an apologist for Jim Crow laws in the south and defended the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as being the result of harsh carpetbagger laws during reconstruction following the Civil War. He signed legislation making inter-racial marriage illegal in Washington D.C.
Teddy Roosevelt was a devout follower of eugenics, the belief that there are superior and inferior strains of humankind. He once made reference to Africans as “ape-liked naked savages who prey on creatures not much wilder or lower than themselves.” He also said about Native Americans, “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe 9 out of 10 are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire to closely about the 10th.”
One of our most beloved Presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered over 100,000
Japanese Americans relocated and imprisoned based simply on their heritage. He appointed James Byrnes an overt racist to the Supreme Court. He also appointed Hugo Black who was later discovered to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan to the Supreme court. His Vice-President and later President, Harry Truman was once a member of the KKK for a short while. Truman left the Klan because of the Klan’s views on Catholics.
Lyndon Johnson who signed into law historic Civil Rights legislation was known to be fond of using the “N” word. As a congressman, he was part of the Southern bloc of legislators that thwarted civil rights legislation whenever it came up.
Richard Nixon won the presidency by using Johnson’s Great Society programs to turn the formerly Democratic South into the Republican stronghold of today. He played on the racist attitudes of white southerners by implying that Democrats had sold out to African American interests. Nixon was overheard on his White House tapes using the “N” word and the derogatory word “jigaboo”. Other opinions he expressed were that Jews were communists out to legalize marijuana and African Americans were “Negro bastards” who preferred to live on welfare like “a bunch of dogs”.
As you can see there is no shortage of bigotry in our country’s history. The United States of America has survived worse than a Donald Trump presidency will bring. Although, I still shudder at the thought of what a Trump victory would do to the country.
Sheriff Joe, It’s Time to Go
America’s self-anointed toughest Sheriff, Joe Arpaio is in the closest re-election race of his career against Democratic candidate Paul Penzone. He has also been officially charged with criminal contempt of court by a federal judge. Polls show that Penzone may be ahead in the race. It is not hard to see the reason why. During Arpaio’s 24 years in office he has been accused of abuse of power, racial profiling and carrying out vendettas against his political rivals and the press. The Phoenix New Times newspaper won a one million dollar settlement for false arrest against Arpaio and the Maricopa County’s Sheriff’s Department.
The Sheriff’s Department spent more time worrying about immigrants while botching over 400 sex crime cases including child molestation that they failed to investigate properly. His county jail conditions have been horrendous leading to numerous law suits due to inmates being injured and dying at the hands of jail staff or because of inadequate medical care. It has been reported that wrongful death suits may total over 50 million dollars when all is settled. This will be paid by Arizona and Maricopa County taxpayers.
What may concern Joe more is that over 150,000 new voters have been registered, most of them Latino by coalition groups around the state. This has been the largest new voter drive in Arizona history. This could mean that Arpaio’s days as Sheriff may be over. This would be big for the state of Arizona and send a message to Governor Ducey and other supporters of Senate Bill 1070 that their days may be numbered.
Author’s Note:
I have been given the opportunity to express my opinion and viewpoints on politics, national, state, and local issues as well as life in general. I hope to inform you as well as entertain you, make you smile or make you mad. I will use humor, sarcasm and occasionally anger to express my views. My intention is to hold politicians accountable sometimes bringing some heat on them and if my views make you angry or hot, remember that like my humor, it is a dry heat. These opinions are entirely my own and do not reflect the views of Copper Area News Publishers.
John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.
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