In what has become a typical occurrence these days, President Trump continues his efforts to undo the accomplishments of his predecessor, President Barack Obama. Here’s today’s history lesson:

At the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner in 2011, Obama, in his typical charismatic manner mocked, and some would say humiliated the future President. Watch the many clips of this dinner event. Obama’s reference to the nonsense surrounding his birth certificate left Donald Trump sitting stoically, looking as uncomfortable as a sinner in the front row of Sunday morning church services.

While there’s no way to confirm this, I’d bet even money that Trump went home that night and said, “I’m gonna git ‘em.”

So there’s no real surprise in President Trump’s actions to eradicate the accomplishments of his predecessor. Just as there’s no real surprise in the seemingly sudden return of racial animus that has shown itself in the last 24 months or so (that time frame also coincides with Trump’s ascendency in the national political landscape). There are many in this society, sadly too many, that would like to eradicate the accomplishments of the last 60 years or so. Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, many believe this country lost its way. After all, blacks, free or slave, were not even considered citizens of this country when those supposed great white men wrote the Constitution.

Don’t believe for a second that the racial vitriol that that our society is currently experiencing is new. It’s not. Just as the KKK hid dormant during the early years of the Progressive era only to be “reawakened” by DW Griffith’s movie Birth of a Nation in 1915. That racist tome served as a siren song calling a new generation of so-called American defenders to arms, but not to fight for the principles of democracy throughout the world during WWI. No, they were called to arms to keep blacks from enjoying even a modicum of the democracy those supposed great white men created on the backs of the slaves they stole from their homelands.

So, today there’s a new generation of American defenders ready to defend their country and society called to arms by a new siren call. Trump issued that call on January 23, 2016 when he shamefully claimed, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Why was this single statement a call to arms for the nation’s racists? Because it signaled that anybody could commit the unspeakable and there would be not fear of repercussion. Unlike previous administrations since the Brown decision, this will be a new era where the real Americans could reassert their rightful place in society without having to worry about being polite or politically correct.

So this is the political environment we’re living in. Kind of sad really. Just when it looked like our country was making real progress towards an inclusive America.

I haven’t checked today, but has anybody seen the President’s taxes?

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