If there is one thing Donald J. Trump has been truly successful at throughout his time in office, it’s emboldening the worst of the worst that this nation has to offer.
He has stood behind podiums, sat within the reverence of the Oval Office, planted his feet on the grounds of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and spoken a steady stream of vitriol directly into the souls of the subset of Americans who have long awaited a leader who would look them in the eye and tell them it’s okay. The people who once remained hidden in dark, online chatrooms, spewing venom through their fingertips into a keyboard that effectively hid who they were from the masses, so accountability was little more than a forethought. The “Good Ole Boys” gathered around a bonfire in a nowhere town, gripping their Budweiser with callused hands as they screamed at their neighbor about immigrants and gays, with nowhere to put their anger but into the ether of their own backyard. The people who stood strong in their hateful convictions, but were far too ashamed to stand behind them with their chest out in front of a crowd.
To those people, Donald Trump opened his arms wide. To those people, he became a hero, a martyr for the white man who perpetually saw himself as an oppressed underdog. Trump not only accepted, but nurtured, emboldened their hatred, until they grew blind with loyalty to the man who allowed the dirtiest, darkest parts of themselves to shine through, unabashed.
That’s how we ended up here.