Trump gets his power by punching down

This ugly man gets his power by fomenting our prejudices and fears, appealing to our worst selves. That is why he is always “othering” some particular group of us, always scapegoating. Yesterday it was our sisters and brothers who are refugees or immigrants or of the Muslim faith. Today he targets transgender people. Who among us will find ourselves in his crosshairs tomorrow?
This is a man who preys on the vulnerable. He punches down in order to distract us from the structural causes of our economic and democratic crises. If we’re looking down disdainfully at the vulnerable, we’re not looking up at the culprits at the top.
Those at the top pit us against each other while they hoard the wealth that is created by our labor. Those at the top claim it all as their own. They point blaming fingers at the people at the bottom who are just struggling to survive. They take our beautiful differences and use them to divide us against each other.
Trump did not invent this ancient shell game of the powerful. But he is a grotesque caricature of the game. Hopefully he’s such a detestable caricature that enough of us can see through it. Hopefully enough of us will stand up together, for each other, saying, “Not this time. Not this time. Not this time.”
