>>> In my lifetime I don't recall any other president spreading as much hate among their fellow Americans as this one.
>
>One of the few advantages of advancing in age is that you get to see things in real time that that others only read about.
>
>JFK- my all-time hero- was elected with the full support of a totally segregated south. So was Truman. So was FDR.
>Did they wake up every day and say "Let's persecute black people"?
>Of course not.
>But they closed their eyes to a horrible, murderous regime.
>So did I.
>I spent part of my military and business careers in the segregated south and went to white-only restaurants and bars.
>
>Anyone who thinks that that hatred is not alive and thriving in many parts of this country is living on Mars.

That is true -- but the GOP seems to think that reverse racism is the real problem -- that white people are the ones being persecuted -- heard plenty of them say exactly that too.

>But Trump didn't invent it.

True also -- but so what? He has a responsibility to speak out against it -- not side with the racists...which he's done on numerous occasions.

>Reagan and Nixon engineered the shift of those bigots from the Dems to the Repubs.
>The repubs are welcome to them, but that doesn't absolve the dems. The atrocities of the reconstruction and Jim Crow will haunt them forever.

True again -- however the dems are atoning for their bad behavior whereas the repubs are exhibiting bad behavior - so clearly , today, we know which party has the problem with this here.

>Trump is doing nothing that FDR, Truman, JFK, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush et al didn't do.
>
>He's just more honest about it.

Honest about what? He says he is the 'least racist person you will ever meet' - which is absurd and far from honest. Now perhaps the racism so ingrained into him that he doesn't even realize he is a racist -- that I can actually understand.... and I actually think that is part of the problem with some of the old-white-republicans -- they're racists, and say racist things, and don't even realize they're doing it. Just yesterday during the Cohen hearings you have Mark Meadows parade a black woman up behind him to use the "I have a black friend some I'm not racist" bit on Trump's behalf -- and then proceeded to speak for her instead of having her speak for herself. Now ok -- perhaps she was ok with him doing that, I'm not going to put words in her mouth, but really? That whole thing was clearly a racist thing to do -- and the dipshit doesn't even understand that it was - and then threw a hissy-fit when he was called out on it - this time using the "I have a black family member" defense. The 'black friend' defense is a tired racial trope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmYp6VWUqDI

JmYp6VWUqDI