Still Undecided?


On Sunday, my husband and I went to brunch at a restaurant called Fat’s Chicken and Waffles. We’d wanted to go there for some time, and a rainy autumn Sunday seemed perfect for it. The menu is extensive, but we knew exactly what we wanted: the eponymous meal itself. It was delicious. As we were eating, I looked around the restaurant and saw that our fellow diners were Black, Asian, Indian, Hispanic, and white. They were young and old. There were families and there were groups of friends. We were all enjoying the food as the owner bustled around (“Watch the salt there, little mama,” she advised me as I doused my chicken in it), serving meals and chatting with customers. And here is what I thought: how cool it is that we live in a multi-ethnic environment. Indeed, my husband and I can walk from our house to several Ethiopian restaurants, to Thai restaurants, to Mexican restaurants, to Italian restaurants, to Indian restaurants, to Greek restaurants, to Korean restaurants, to Polish restaurants. Nearly every single one of them is operated by an immigrant family.

I confess that I don’t understand the hatred of immigrants that has been promoted by the Republican party’s candidate for President, along with a number of his acolytes. When I was growing up, I was taught in school that American is a “melting pot” society. And by that was meant that it was a place of many cultures. This was once considered a good thing. This was once considered an opportunity to learn about other people, where they came from, and what had brought them to America. My own family was an immigrant one. My grandparents came from a poor section of Italy where there was little hope of either jobs or advancement. My grandfather went to work in the U.S. steel mills. My grandmother baked bread and sometimes sold it. They were poor, and they didn’t speak English. But every generation that grew from them advanced in pursuit of the American dream. The American dream was simple then: it meant to provide a healthy life for one’s children, to see to their education, and to encourage them to succeed in whatever endeavor they chose.

On Sunday night in Madison Square Garden, the GOP and its candidate and his acolytes poured excrement on the idea of a “melting pot” of cultures and the dreams of immigrants. Indeed, in front of a crowd of thousands, these are some of the remarks they made:

Puerto Rico was referred to as “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”

Black Americans were said to be “carving watermelons” instead of pumpkins for Halloween.

As for Hispanic people: “And these Latinos, they love making babies, too. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”

The cheering crowd was told that “Palestinians are taught to kill us from two years old.”

They were told that “America is for Americans only.”

They were told that the opposition party is “a bunch of degenerate low lifes and Jew-haters, every one of them.”

“The U.S. is now an occupied country,” the GOP candidate Donald Trump announced. “But it will soon be an occupied country no longer.” He added that “We’re running against a massive, crooked, radical left machine that runs today’s Democratic party. [Kamala] is just a vessel,” he declared. “[Kamala] will give them whatever they want.”

Tucker Carlson announced that “It’s going to be pretty hard to look at us [the Trump supporters present at Madison Square Garden] and say ‘You know what? Kamala Harris, she got 85 million votes because she’s just so impressive as the first Samoan-Malaysian, low IQ, former chief prosecutor ever to be elected President.”

And Dr. Phil—of pop-psychology fix-a-problem-in-60-minutes fame—let everyone know that “To be a bully, there has to be an imbalance of power. And when there’s not, it’s just called a debate and [Trump] happens to be better at it than anybody else.”

These were statements from the closing argument made by the GOP in support of their candidate. Contained within these remarks was a degree of hatemongering unlike anything I’ve seen or heard during my lifetime. Yet there are people in this country for whom this kind of speech and this kind of open and public racism, acrimony, hatred, rage, misogyny, xenophobia, and outright contempt of others is just fine. And among those approving individuals, perhaps the worst are the evangelical and the Pentecostal “Christians” who have somehow talked themselves into believing that their support of Donald Trump and his hideous policies means that they are “walking with Jesus” while all the time they are the very “whited sepulchers” that Matthew 23 speaks of.

Among those people who are determined to vote for Trump are those who assure themselves that “they will never let him do what he’s saying he’ll do.” To those people I ask: Who, exactly, are the they of whom you speak? The Justice Department he intends to hamstring? The US Supreme Court who has given him immunity from anything he does that is deemed “presidential”? The lackluster news media who have failed to call him to account for lies, for felonies, for outright sedition? The FBI whose chief is actually appointed by the President? GOP members of Congress who have fallen into line and will doubtless continue to do so? Who are these people or governmental bodies who will “never let him" do what he has announced he intends to do? He did as he liked the first time in office, using executive actions and temporary appointments as a way of avoiding Congressional constraints. What do his supporters think he will do differently this time around. And, do they even care?

As Americans we stand on the precipice of mortal danger: to the country, to the Constitution, to rule of law, to the survival of Democracy.

“Oh, it will never happen,” you say.

To which I answer, “It is happening even as I write these words.”

Elizabeth George
October 27, 2024
Seattle, Washington