This coming week we will see Donald Trump nominated to be the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States. Cleveland will be the venue for the Greatest Reality Show on Earth. The show will get great ratings. Come one come all to see the grand old party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, nominate the first unapologetic racist in American History. The Party of Lincoln has become the last best hope for white America. In this nomination you will see the culmination of 30 years of effort on the part the Republican Party to be the white man’s party. We will see in this last great effort an attempt to deny the inevitable, the changing face of the real America. When all is said and done this could be the last hurrah for those who want to preserve white power in this country.

What does the nomination of Donald Trump say about him and what does the nomination say about America? For Donald Trump he has sought to divide America into two camps, one is the America of white privilege and the other America is a country of diversity and a coat of many colors. If you are Latino, you are not welcome. We are going to build a wall to keep your relatives out. His tone and his words are clothed in double speak, where he says he wants to he wants to enforce our laws and not have anyone in this country who is not here legally. But in reality his words are words of anger fanning the flames of racial prejudice. According to the Donald these people are criminals and rapists.For those Latinos who are already here, he wants to physically remove all illegal aliens from this country.

If you are of the Muslim faith, he fans the flames of fear by seeking to deny entry to this country of any Muslim. He stokes the fear of Muslims as if we should beware of anyone who is a Muslim because they could be a terrorist.

For women his scorn and words are too disrespectful to repeat in this essay. Donald Trump is not exactly a champion of any issue that is important to women, from choice to equal pay. His misogyny is constantly on display.

For African-Americans he seems to have a particular loathing. Trump was a birther of the first order. He courts the support of white separatists and white nationalists. If you go to a Trump for President rally, the message is clear and unmistakable, you are surrounded by white people. In another era they may have come out to see Patrick Buchanan or George Wallace. The supporters of racism support him such as Klan leaders and the new code words for race, “race realists” are in his corner.

Trump’s followers believe that America is in decline and that Trump will fight for them to bring back jobs. But the overarching theme is that America is in decline because white pride is no longer stressed. Perhaps the most significant fact is that like when the Klan first began poor whites are afraid that they will be in a worse condition economically than the freed slaves. And now the belief is that the tough times that they are facing now is the result of that Black President Barrack Obama. They blame their plight on President Obama and all of the liberals who support him. The dirty little secret is that some whites are afraid that at some point if the “others” gain power Blacks or Latinos might treat whites the way that white America has treated them.

Let us not kid ourselves that racists are not a significant part of Donald Trump’s support. Let us not kid ourselves that racism does not exist. Donald Trump does not speak to the better angels of our nature. He speaks to those who are angry and frustrated by their economic situation. He fans the flames of hatred and goes deep into our darker motives.

What does his success say about ourselves? It says that beneath the surface their is a deep sense of bigotry in our nation among many Americans. We have made tremendous strides as a people towards greater tolerance, but a deep residue of hate still exists.

This campaign represents the last hurrah for these purveyors of hate and bigotry. Unless they win in November, this is but the last desperate attempt to turn back the clock to another time in America, when white male America dominated the political scene. We are now at a time when not only are people of color being seen on TV and in all aspects of our lives, but women are being elected to office, and people of color as well. These are different times where the last vestiges of another era are expressing their last gasps of power. This is truly their last hurrah.