Trumped America

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Two days ago in this space I gave three quick examples of how the Trump administration had - within just the past few days - moved to curtail free speech.  Sadly, the instances of the malignant Trump administration acting to limit civil and human rights have been so numerous as to almost defy enumeration.

But just because the Trump outrages occur so often and with such intensity, does not mean that people aren't paying attention and sounding alarms.  One group that has taken on the challenge of monitoring and recording these acts against the spirit of America is the Southern Poverty Law Center.  The SPLC is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, and has a long and proud history of speaking truth to power, particularly on issues related to race, religion, and class distinctions.

The SPLC puts out periodic special publications to its members which give an in-depth focus to certain issues.  One arrived just this week entitled "America the Trumped" which outlines the ways that the Trump administration promoted the "alt-right" agenda during its first year in office.  The affronts to civilization are divided into ten sections:

• Promoting White Nationalism:  Remember Charlottesville and Trump's praise of the "fine people" on both sides?  The SPLC puts that into context by quoting the "thank you" from Klan leader David Duke to Trump "for your honesty and courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville."  There is also a discussion of Trump's long personal history of racism and his involvement in the "birther" movement - and his stated sympathies over the removal of Confederate monuments and statues.  Trump's pardon of racist Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio, is noted, as is Trump's vitriol toward kneeling athletes, the majority of whom are black, and his white arrogance regarding immigrants from "shithole" countries.
• Slashing Civil Rights Enforcement:  Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III, has worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to abandon civil rights enforcement.  He has scaled back efforts to hold police departments accountable for abuses, and moved to end many consent decrees that were enacted under the Obama administration.  Other executive departments have also moved to roll back civil rights enforcement within their own offices.  Candidate Trump had famously asked black and Hispanic voters "What have you got to lose?"  Well, now they are finding out.
• Revving Up the Deportation Machine:  In the first 100 days of the Trump administration, ICE reported a 150 percent increase in the arrest of immigrants who had not been convicted of crimes unrelated to their legal status.  ICE was arresting more, but they were not the "bad hombres" that Trump had railed against during the campaign.   Now it has come to light that ICE is further terrorizing families by separating children from their parents, and Trump has used the word "animals" to refer to many of these desperate individuals.
• Banning Muslims:  Candidate Trump called for "a total and complete shutdown" of Muslims entering the country "until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."  Once elected he quickly moved to keep that promise by enacting a travel ban to keep citizens from seven nations, primarily Muslim countries, from entering the United States.   As courts began rejecting this travel ban based on its obvious religious bias, the Trump administration quickly regrouped and stated that it was not a religious ban, but his campaign rhetoric still hung heavy in the air.
• Attacking Voting Rights:  Donald Trump, who suffered an embarrassing popular vote loss to Hillary Clinton by over three million votes, although winning by electoral votes, in 2016, promoted a fallacy that millions of non-eligible people had voted on Election Day, and that most of those votes had benefited Clinton.  To prop up his false narrative, he set up a special commission to look into election fraud.  That commission was plagued with problems and was eventually disbanded.  Many felt it was an effort by the Trump administration to give cover to states as they purged their voter rolls and made voter requirements more difficult to meet, particularly for the poor and minorities.  
• Shredding LGBT Protections:  Trump has sought to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military, although this action is currently being blocked by the courts.   The administration has also moved to withdraw the rights of transgender students to use the restrooms of the gender with which they identify.  The Justice Department under Jeff Sessions issued a memo asserting that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not offer protections to transgender workers.  The Family Research Council, identified by the SPLC  as a "hate group," has been effusive in its praise of Trump as his administration works to roll back the hard won gains of the LGBT community.
• Encouraging Police Abuses:  As mentioned above, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of consent decrees imposed by the Obama administration against police departments accused of racial discrimination and abuse.  His actions were seen by many law enforcement entities as a reopening of the gates to racial harassment and physical abuse.  Sessions also brought back the practice of civil asset forfeiture, which some saw as incentivizing risky and sometimes illegal behavior by law enforcement - and he began an anachronistic campaign against marijuana, a position which caused confusion and sometimes pitted policing agencies against local officials.
• Reviving Debtor's Prisons:   The Obama administration issued guidance to state courts that was meant to end the practice of locking people up because they were too poor to pay court costs or fines, a practice sometimes compared to the old "debtor's prison," or locking people up because they were poor and could not pay their bills.  Jeff Sessions moved to roll back the Obama era guidance and once again allow courts to people behind bars for being too poor to pay court costs and fines.
• Undermining Public Education:  Trump's out-of-touch education secretary, Betsy DeVos, has been relentless in her efforts to undermine and underfund public education and transfer money and other resources to charter and private schools.  During a congressional hearing, DeVos refused to say if federal funds would be denied to private schools that discriminate by refusing to admit students based on their sexual orientation, race, or disabilities.  The secretary appears to be crafting an educational system based on her own privileged circumstances and unique beliefs.
• Eroding the Rights of Students with Disabilities:  Under the direction of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the Department of Education rescinded 72 guidance documents in 2017 that were designed to help parents, educators, and advocates understand how federal law protects services and accommodations for students with disabilities.  This from a government official whose boss mocked a handicapped reporter at a campaign rally.

And that's just a sampler of the damage that the Trump administration has inflicted on America.  Add to that those "free speech" incidents that I outlined earlier in the week, and the picture is even bleaker.  We are in dark times without a beacon in the White House to lead us toward better times.

The next elections can't come soon enough.

(For more information on the Southern Poverty Law Center, please visit splcenter.org)