In a column for the Washington Post, conservative Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Kathleen Parker said the refusal by Republican lawmakers and the evangelical community to condemn Donald Trump's racist rhetoric is paving the way for something far worse than mere "send her back" chants.
Under a headline that bluntly states, "Those who don’t condemn Trump’s racism are complicit in his bigotry," Parker gets right to her opinion of the president, writing, "Going out on a limb here: President Trump is a racist. And a sexist. And a xenophobic nationalist. Among other things. Not to name call or anything."
According to the writer, "And all of those observable facts seem to sit quite well with his base of supporters, most Republicans in Congress and, apparently, with the evangelical Christian community whose members have ceded the floor to crickets."
Parker, who is known to write her columns from a Christian perspective, then expressed her disgust and fears about where the hotly-contested 2020 campaign may lead.
In particular, she wrote, after the way Trump conducted himself as his adoring fans chanted they wanted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) shipped back to Somalia.
"His expression during the 13 seconds that he allowed the chant to reach its desired pitch was most chilling of all. His jutting jaw, his down-the-nose gaze, his seeming serenity in the eye of a storm — all spoke louder than the metronomic mass surrounding him," she wrote, adding dryly, "The king was pleased."
"That moment encapsulated Trump’s reelection strategy and reminded everyone of three years ago, when retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn led the 2016 Republican National Convention in a similar chant aimed at Hillary Clinton: 'Lock her up!' (We’ll resist the temptation to remark on the three-syllable limit when Republicans think aloud), she recalled. "In the language of 'Criminal Minds,' Trump is escalating. Lock her up. Send her back. What’s next? One shudders to wonder."
Parker then laid the possible escalation to the point of violence at the feet of Republicans and Trump-loving Christians alike.
"Republicans and evangelical Christians who fail to condemn this president’s use of the pulpit to preach down (not up), to employ and incite abusive language, to essentially put a target on a duly elected congresswoman’s back — can be presumed to concur and, therefore, to be complicit in whatever further degradation or violence follows," she lectured. "That’s the plain and awful truth."
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