by Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

October 29, 2024

Family responsibilities have put me on the road a lot in recent weeks, traveling on the highways and byways of America. This country — my country, your country — is changing.

At a prominent point alongside Interstate 81 in West Virginia, for example, I saw a huge banner, maybe 30 feet by 50 feet, the type of oversized, impossible-to-miss flag that you sometimes see over an auto dealership, but this time soaring over a fireworks business.

On a deep blue field in large, very visible white lettering, it reads “F… Biden,” but the actual letters spell it out explicitly, leaving nothing to the reader’s imagination.

We have a language that is rich in ways to express political opposition; something as simple as a “Trump-Vance” flag would have sent a similar message. However, the anti-Biden sentiment of the flag isn’t its real point.

The point of the statement is its crudity, its vulgarity. The point is that the norms and rules that once made us a civilized society are no longer valid, no longer respected, and if you don’t like it, well, the owner would probably refer you again to the flag flying prominently along a busy stretch of interstate, where thousands of children and parents and grandparents pass it daily.

F you too, would be his attitude.

A decade ago, such a stunt would have been unthinkable, but a lot has happened over those years. The community sentiment that once would have made such public vulgarity unacceptable no longer has any power. The respect for fellow citizens, for decency, no longer exists.

“The better angels of our nature” that Abraham Lincoln once called upon have surrendered their white robes and wings in frustration.

The goal is not to make America great again. It is to break the America as we have known it and remake it into something it has never been and should never be. In this replacement America, elections are great if you win them but disposable if you do not.

The Constitution is sacred, except when Donald Trump wants it to be terminated.

Immigrants are, in the words of Trump, “vermin” who are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Political opponents are, to again quote Trump, “the enemy within,” a foe that he says is more dangerous to the country than Russia or China and thus fair game to be put down by the U.S. military.

At Trump rallies, official vendors sell shirts and hats referring to Kamala Harris as a “ho;” some people proudly dress their children in that clothing. A social media ad sponsored by Elon Musk’s America PAC warns “Viewer discretion advised,” then goes on to state:

“Kamala Harris is a C-word. You heard that right. A big ol’ C-word.”

Later in the ad, it tries to explain that the C-word is “communist,” but if your intent is to call Harris a communist you could call her that directly. The real message of the ad is that Harris is that other C-word, and it’s OK to think so and say so.

At a Trump rally on Sunday in New York City, a “comedian” hired and vetted by the campaign attacked Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, as “a floating island of garbage.” He said that black Americans carve watermelons, not pumpkins, for Halloween, and Latinos “love making babies. There’s no pulling out. They come inside, just like they do to our country.”

The campaign later attempted to distance itself from such remarks, but the “comedian” in question is infamous for that brand of “humor.” He was hired because of, not despite, his racist schtick. It was planned.

And of course, the tone is set at the top. In his own speech, Trump warned that “a lot of (immigrants) are coming from the Congo prisons,” a claim he has invented out of thin air because it allows him to scare white people with the word “Congo.” The United States, he has also been saying lately, has become the “garbage can of the world,” the place where the world sends its human garbage.

Think about that. We, the United States of America, have gone from melting pot to garbage can. And as we’ve seen from history, once it’s OK to call human beings “vermin” and “garbage,” it becomes OK to treat them as vermin and garbage.

Words become deeds.

This is not an election about policy. This is an election about who we are as a country, as a people. It is an election in which we either honor or reject what we once thought was best about us, unique about us.

We are spiraling toward an America that would have horrified earlier generations, conservative and liberal alike. And our last, best hope to stop that spiral comes Nov. 5.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.