Las Vegas Sun

July 1, 2024

Opinion:

Donald Trump’s amnesia of his record shows he is unfit to lead

The past four years in our country, U.S.A stood for the United States of Amnesia.

It appeared that people had forgotten the mess we were in during the Donald Trump presidency — the conflict that resulted from the former president crumbling under the pressure to pander to his alt-right following and disregard democracy believing Americans.

Nothing quite symbolizes this like the 2017 white supremacy riot that took place in Charlottesville, Va., when Nazis walked the streets of the town of Charlottesville, side by side shouting “Jews will not replace us.”

In Thursday’s presidential debate, allegedly the first of two, President Joe Biden repeated the story of his decision to run for president after watching a white supremacist march in Charlottesville in 2017.

Even before the presidential debate, Trump downplayed the 2017 white supremacist riot, where three people were killed, as “nothing” compared to ongoing pro-Palestinian campus protests. The American people would be ill-advised to reelect a man who continues to downplay one of the most significant racist incidents to happen since the 1960s civil rights movement.

We can dispute the winner of Thursday’s debate forever, but what stands out is what we already know: Donald Trump has poisoned this nation with partisan, divisive language.

During the time of his presidency, every opponent to him was labeled a Marxist radical who has sworn to ruin this country. What sort of president creates an enemy out of everyone who disagrees with them? They don’t. That action is done by dictators and that should scare us.

If Trump wants to have amnesia about Charlottesville and so many other issues, let him live his lie in Mar-a-Lago. But the rest of us, the millions of Americans who care about their neighbors — regardless of race, sex and class — we need to care. We need to remember that the president is supposed to lead with a sense of moral obligation to the nation and its ideals, not someone who abuses the authority of the office in the name of personal power and vendettas.

Biden understands that the job isn’t finished, saying that “there’s more to be done.” He is so right. There’s still a lot to fix in this country, and it will take Biden’s resolve and honesty.

“I’ve never heard a president talk like this,” Biden said of Trump.

He’s right. And if we vote with a conscious in November and in the future, we won’t have to listen to Trump any longer.

LeBron Antonio Hill is a columnist for The Sacramento Bee.