Eugene Robinson writes:

The president apparently believes he has found a perfect foil in “the Squad” — the four newly elected members of Congress he told to “go back” to where they came from. Omar is a refugee from civil war in Somalia who became a U.S. citizen in her teens. The others were all born in this country — Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in Detroit; Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) in Cincinnati; and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in New York.

But Tlaib is Palestinian American, Pressley is African American, and Ocasio-Cortez is of Puerto Rican heritage. Trump has decided to try to paint four young, progressive women of color as the enemy. Trump’s message to his aging, white base is clear: This is the future you should fear. These are the people you should hate.

The Republican Party goes along meekly as the president struts around like a dime-store Mussolini. As for Democrats and independents, history teaches us that the way to deal with hateful demagoguery is not to ignore it, not to downplay it, not to hope it somehow exhausts itself, but to confront it. Trump’s fomenting of hate has to be called out. It has to be denounced. It has to be resisted.

Democratic presidential candidates need to realize that elaborate policy positions are necessary but not sufficient. Trump is a bully who will push and push and push. The Democratic Party is unlikely — and would be unwise — to nominate someone too timid to push back. [Continue reading…]