To: THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
CONVINCE THE SPLC TO DECLARE THE TRUMP ARM OF THE G.O.P. AS A HATE GROUP
The Southern Poverty Law Center, founded in 1971 by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr., wants to ensure that the promise of the civil rights movement will become a reality for all. They have won numerous landmark legal victories on behalf of the exploited, the powerless and the forgotten.
One of their most famous projects, known around the world, identifies, exposes and tracks the activities of hate groups and other domestic extremists. It has become clear that the presidential administration of Donald Trump, as well as his supporters in the Republican Party, are saying and doing specific things that are, without a doubt, exactly like a hate group. The problem, of course, is that during his administration, he had the full faith and support of the federal government.
That being said, there are a notable number of his supporters who simply cannot accept the fact that he lost the 2020 presidential election, and therefore insist that he lost only by way of nefarious means. However, all reports from election sites say that this was a fair election. After Joe Biden is sworn in at noon on January 20, 2021 to replace him, his supporters won't go away quietly... and most probably won't go away at all.
One of their most famous projects, known around the world, identifies, exposes and tracks the activities of hate groups and other domestic extremists. It has become clear that the presidential administration of Donald Trump, as well as his supporters in the Republican Party, are saying and doing specific things that are, without a doubt, exactly like a hate group. The problem, of course, is that during his administration, he had the full faith and support of the federal government.
That being said, there are a notable number of his supporters who simply cannot accept the fact that he lost the 2020 presidential election, and therefore insist that he lost only by way of nefarious means. However, all reports from election sites say that this was a fair election. After Joe Biden is sworn in at noon on January 20, 2021 to replace him, his supporters won't go away quietly... and most probably won't go away at all.
Why is this important?
Donald Trump is the first American president to have no prior military or government service before being elected to that position. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality. Generally speaking, many Americans would have no problem with those facts about a candidate. However, much of what he has said and done -- both during the 2016 presidential campaign, and during his admnistration -- has been characterized as "unpresidential, at the very least" by tens of millions of Americans, as well as by academics and presidential scholars. Also, Trump has made THOUSANDS of false and misleading statements during his campaigns and presidency, to a degree unprecedented in American politics. The New York Times decided to start counting the number of lies that Trump made while in office, and there is a live counter on their website. As of this writing, he has made 29,508 false or misleading claims. His presidency has dangerously normalized lying. Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racially charged or racist. Also, Trump ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries during his time in the White House. And, of course, his bungling of the coronavirus has led to over 21 million Americans catching it, including over 357,000 who died from it. Because health care in this country still has an institutional bias against many marginalized Americans, including African-Americans, a disproportionately high number of African-Americans got sick and also passed away from the disease, as compared to other races.
Protests against Donald Trump have occurred not only in the U.S., but also in Europe and elsewhere since he decided to run for president in the 2016 campaign. Protests have expressed opposition to his campaign rhetoric, his electoral win, his inauguration, his alleged history of sexual misconduct, and other various presidential actions, most notably his aggressive family separation policy. Protests have taken the form of walk-outs, business closures, petitions, rallies, demonstrations, and marches. Most protests have been peaceful. The largest organized protest against Trump was the day after his inauguration; millions protested on January 21, 2017, during the Women's March. With each individual city's protest taken into consideration, it was the largest single-day protest in American history.
Many of his more vocal and visible supporters have extreme devotion and unwavering admiration for their highly unpredictable and inflammatory leader. Dr. Thomas Pettigrew, a psychologist and a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, argued that five major elements can be found in the most ardent of Trump supporters: an appreciation for authority figures and authoritarianism; a preference for social dominance orientation (a strict social order, such as the caste system in India), [3] some notable level of bigotry/prejudice (it is well-known that many Trump supporters fear a black and brown America), [4] a relatively small amount of contact with non-whites, and [5] feeling like they've been deprived of something that they are entitled to. In the case of Trump supporters, this last element usually refers to jobs that have been lost to Mexico or China, which is certainly understandable, although these loyalists often ignore the fact that some of these careers may be lost due to the accelerating pace of automation. These feelings among Trump supporters are common among rust-belt swing states like Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Protests against Donald Trump have occurred not only in the U.S., but also in Europe and elsewhere since he decided to run for president in the 2016 campaign. Protests have expressed opposition to his campaign rhetoric, his electoral win, his inauguration, his alleged history of sexual misconduct, and other various presidential actions, most notably his aggressive family separation policy. Protests have taken the form of walk-outs, business closures, petitions, rallies, demonstrations, and marches. Most protests have been peaceful. The largest organized protest against Trump was the day after his inauguration; millions protested on January 21, 2017, during the Women's March. With each individual city's protest taken into consideration, it was the largest single-day protest in American history.
Many of his more vocal and visible supporters have extreme devotion and unwavering admiration for their highly unpredictable and inflammatory leader. Dr. Thomas Pettigrew, a psychologist and a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, argued that five major elements can be found in the most ardent of Trump supporters: an appreciation for authority figures and authoritarianism; a preference for social dominance orientation (a strict social order, such as the caste system in India), [3] some notable level of bigotry/prejudice (it is well-known that many Trump supporters fear a black and brown America), [4] a relatively small amount of contact with non-whites, and [5] feeling like they've been deprived of something that they are entitled to. In the case of Trump supporters, this last element usually refers to jobs that have been lost to Mexico or China, which is certainly understandable, although these loyalists often ignore the fact that some of these careers may be lost due to the accelerating pace of automation. These feelings among Trump supporters are common among rust-belt swing states like Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.