“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.“—Sinclair Lewis

It is a faint memory, but it’s there.

At some point in my childhood, 
I was taught to beware of
Russian people, because they might be communists,
the Chinese because they might be communists,
Indians (Indigenous people), because it was better to be a cowboy,
Italians, because they might be the Mafia,
people of color because they might steal from me,
Jewish people because they do steal from you,
Gypsies (Roma people) and poor people, 
because they will all steal from you,
the Irish because they were always drunk,
Germans, because they might still be Nazis,
Africans because they might cook you. 

This is a long list dating from the fifties that includes

Aliens from outer space,
Swarthy Brown People and Puerto Ricans 
with pointy shoes and slick hair,
And pretty much everyone 
who did not fit comfortably into the WASP category,
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants 
(some of my best friends are WASPs),
descendants of the English Isle and the Mayflower,

The true Americans who freed the colonies all by themselves
from the despot King George and made us 
(well, not me but those other us) free,
And who would later become the United States of America.

With time and patience, some of the others would be inducted into the Hall of Acceptance after promising to be true-blooded red-white-and-blue Americans, as long as they spoke English, preferably exclusively, practiced their religion (remember how everyone freaked out when a Roman Catholic tried to become President of the United States), and knew the Great American Songbook (damn Rock and Roll).

Everyone else who didn’t fit neatly 
into the acceptable boxes was an outsider,
not a true-blooded red-white-and-blue American.

Watch television and movies from the 1950s through the rest of the twentieth-first century; you’ll notice something consistent:

All the heroes are white Euros, usually men,
and all the people of color are traditionally non-heroes, criminals,
or,
Well, not someone you would want to emulate.

Look it up.

Don’t get me wrong, there were exceptions, and the internet, streaming services, and the independent mavericks in film and television have worked hard to change that image,

But I’m not ready to stand up and shout, “We won!”

That’s because I’ve witnessed the backlash: in the ’90s, during the first Gulf War and Bill Clinton’s march toward mass incarceration; after 9/11 (those Muslims); and after Barack Obama was elected (remember, it’s the White House, not the Black House). 

President Obama messed things up.

The audacity of a half-White, half-Black man being elected President? Well, you know what happened.

The Tea Party. Donald Trump and birtherism.

According to Donald Trump, the Mexicans (they’re all Mexicans, even when they’re not) were the problem.

And Americans elected him,
personifying a cult of hate,
fostering a culture of grievance,
persecuting true Americans,
White Euro descendants, with assistance from wannabe Euros,
who know which side is safe to be on.

Those damn immigrants,
even if somewhere in your immediate or distant past,
your DNA came from somewhere else

(Have you never heard of Ancestry.com?)

Personifying a cult of hate,
fostering a culture of grievance,
persecuting true Americans,
White Euro descendants, 
with assistance from wannabe Euros,
who know which side is safe to be on.

Those damn immigrants, 
even if somewhere in your immediate or distant past,
Your DNA came from somewhere else

(Have you never heard of Ancestry.com?)

We’ve had to deal with eleven years of the crazy cult of hate from 2015 to now.

Will we ever tire of this poor excuse for a human being?

The hate pours off his face.

His acolytes and cult members don’t even flinch when they spew hate. It’s just damn normal.

Google it. Trump’s hate speech, and you get an eyeful.

• Haitian immigrants of eating pets
• “Trump says ‘I hate Taylor Swift!’.”
• Trump’s Timeline of Hate
• Donald Trump’s First Term
• The Complete List of Trump’s Twitter Insults (2015-2021)
• Donald Trump is the accelerant
• Donald Trump Quotes About Hate

We’ve all read and heard these quotes, yet millions of Americans voted for him.

Again.

So, what does that say about those citizens?
The acolytes who grovel behind him as if he were the Messiah.

The media that cover his hate, xenophobia, and racism as if they were just issues to report on, as “both sides” of an issue.

Is this the country that we wanted?
That we will inherit the darkness 
that will descend across this land?

This is about power.

The power of the right takes us back to another era.

It encourages them to carry out a campaign of hate and to fear their perceived enemies.

To better understand how this nation has been overwhelmed by the worst of its history, politics, and culture.

I want to understand the why as much as the what.

We were, as a nation, supposed to have progressed beyond the illusion of a United America to one where all the struggles of the past one hundred and more years meant something: the battles for women’s, people of color’s, and LGBTQ+ rights.

Being a leader of freedom means we do more than talk the talk; we should live it.

We should protect it.

We not only welcome the poor and the tired, but we also lead and cooperate with other nations to alleviate the pain that drives refugees to move halfway around the world to escape war, poverty, persecution, and the worst of humanity, only to come here and be threatened with the worst of crimes against them, all in service to myths of White Supremacy, U.S. exceptionalism, and Donald Trump as a Stable Genius.

Let’s call it as it is.

This is a Cult of Hate.