Opinion

Out of the economic maelstrom of the last decade, Donald Trump has emerged as the improbable, and self-proclaimed, champion of American workers.

A half century ago, the Republican Party nominated a divisive candidate for President, and he lost the election in a landslide to Lyndon B. Johnson—his name was Barry Goldwater.

To hear the voices of American media tell it, Donald Trump’s base supporters are working-class whites. Article after article details this mob, who cheer Trump’s racist, sexist, xenophobic pronouncements, as members of Rust Belt communities who, having lost their high-paying factory jobs to outsourcing, now look to scapegoat anyone and everyone they feel may have been responsible for the diminution of America on the world stage. Donald Trump stokes their anger against an elite that looks down on them.

In the past two weeks, judges have ruled against voter-ID laws and other limits on voting in five states.

It has not gone without notice that Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention acceptance speech was a paean to law and order, a phrase he used four times.

Last Friday, all of Germany stood still as news arrived of another terrible shooting. After news outlets reported that a young man shot several people outside a shopping center in the city of Munich, many believed that the first “Islamist” terrorist attack had taken place in the country. After it became clear that the gunman, Ali David Sonboly, had Iranian roots, media outlets from Berlin to New York City did not hesitate to link him with Islam. Man news channels preferred to call Sonboly—who was born and raised in Germany—a “German-Iranian,” instead of just “German.” Furthermore, many reports, mostly based on rumors which circulated during the first hours after the massacre, claimed that Sonboly shouted the supposedly characteristic “Allahu Akbar” before he murdered his innocent victims.

Former New Mexico Republican Governor Gary Johnson is running as the Libertarian candidate for President, and in some polls, is running as high as 9-12 percent in a four way race, with Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, gaining about 3 percent in most polls.

After a campaign lasting more than a year and taking in all 50 states, Hillary Rodham Clinton has delivered a speech that will go down in history. As the first woman to secure a major party’s nomination for president of the United States, her address to the Democratic National Convention was a milestone for women’s leadership in the US and beyond. As she put it: “When any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit.”

There has been a break-in at the Democratic National Committee. Documents were stolen with the apparent intention of manipulating the results of a presidential election.

As the Democratic Party convention begins, it behooves us to look back at its last visit to Philadelphia, in 1936. Then, too, the United States found itself in a time of incredible economic stress and inequality—in fact, the Great Depression was far worse than recent troubles. The mid 1930s also saw the first rising of global fascism in Japan, Italy, and Germany, the latter two supporting Spanish General Franco’s military overthrow of the democratically elected Socialists and plunging Spain into civil war in 1936. In that time of domestic and global unrest, the Democrats’ standard-bearer, none other than Franklin D. Roosevelt, embraced an increasingly radical and leftist message.

After almost a year of primaries and the threat of a contested convention, Hillary Clinton is being officially nominated for President at the Democratic National Convention. Even her rival Bernie Sanders has publicly endorsed her.

With the Republican Party now saddled with Donald Trump as their Presidential nominee, and the party in total disarray as a result, the long-term damage to the GOP is growing, even if it keeps the name it's had since 1854.