Reckless rhetoric is bipartisan

President Trump tosses around inflammatory rhetoric such as claiming an “invasion” at our southern border. I saw no evidence of this on a recent trip down there. He accuses immigrants of being rapists and criminals, a claim easily disproven using FBI statistics. His rhetoric fires up the dangerous white supremacy movement and may well have influenced the domestic terror attack recently perpetrated in El Paso. Right-wing media stokes the fire by parroting Trump’s dangerous rhetoric.

But Democrats and elements in the liberal media are guilty as well. Indeed, they continually bash white, male and older voters in order to attract minorities. Some Democratic candidates and liberal talk shows have embraced the divisive and likely unconstitutional notion of reparations. Pursuing this issue would be the ultimate poison pill for Democratic hopes to attract white voters. Former President Obama, with good reason, opposed it. Democrats toss around clichés like “the browning of America” almost as a chastisement of white Americans. Most egregiously, liberal elements continue to portray the Michael Brown shooting as an example of police abuse, even though all investigative bodies, including President Obama’s own attorney general, exonerated the police and blamed Brown’s actions for his demise. This rhetoric may feel good to some on the far left, but it infuriates white voters who still constitute roughly 67% of the electorate. It is a terrible strategy if the objective is to defeat Donald Trump.

Words have consequences. Reckless rhetoric can kill people or lose elections.

WILL RICHARDSON, Jackson