Trump is a ‘human opioid’ who feeds racism to his ‘white identity cult’: author

Democrats will lose the 2020 campaign if they treat it like a typical election and instead need to make a moral issue against President Donald Trump, author Tim Wise explained on MSNBC on Monday.

Wise is the author of the 2004 book White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son.

"As Democrats work on their strategy to counter President Trump ahead of the 2020 election. Anti-racism activist Tim Wise -- who helped to defeat David Duke in two campaigns in the 1990s -- provided this advice for Democrats," anchor Chris Matthews said.

He read excerpts of tweets from Wise.

"Yeah, you know, one of the things that we learned dealing with David Duke — and I’m not trying to say that Duke and Trump are the same, but they both appeal to white racial resentment as the yeast that makes their political bread rise," Wise said.

"And when you’re dealing with a movement that focuses on that, in a sense a white identity cult, to act like they are just another candidate -- to say 'you know, he is sort of racist, but look at my policy to make college affordable or look at my better health care plan that is going to be so much better than his' is to miss the point," he argued. "With Duke, you know, what we learned is you have to make this a moral message that Dukism -- and I would say now Trumpism -- pose an existential threat to the values that Americans hold dear."

"So, in other words, when they say The Squad hates America, no, no, no, your movement hates America as an idea, an idea of multiculturalism, of pluralism and democracy. That’s the only way we’re going to motivate the base," he explained. "It’s the only way we’re going to get reasonable moderates and conservatives who probably are never going to agree on policy with the candidates the Democrats have, but they can come together on the basis of a moral message and we can live to fight another day about the issues that we care about once the Democrat has defeated Donald Trump."

Wise said Trump is "essentially a walking, talking opiate."

"We talk about the opioid crisis as being heroin and fentanyl. Donald Trump is a human, breathing opiate. What does an opioid do? "It says 'I can take away your pain' but doesn’t solve the source of the pain. That’s what we said against David Duke in ‘90 and ‘91 and the only thing that prevented a Nazi and former Klansman from winning those campaigns."

Watch, with Wise's full Twitter thread below:

Read Tim Wise's full thread: