This week the nation came one step closer to giving itself over to the most dangerous and unstable potential leader in U.S. history, as Donald Trump "humbly" accepted the Republican presidential nomination - so humbly, in fact, that he went on to claim that "I alone can fix" America. It capped a week of nightly disarray - with Trump more than living up to the "
chaos candidate" title given to him by Jeb Bush. But what shone through the most in his
endless and largely shouted speech was fear - fear of immigrants, fear of diversity,
fear of the nation America has become. The key refrain was "again," with Trump promising to make America "strong again," "proud again," "safe again." Never mind that America is actually, for instance, very safe - despite recent upticks, crime is still at
historic lows. Trump the builder was building a sinister vision of a lost Eden, one that's been taken away by the scary, dangerous Other. And his calls for unity were unity by removal of the other. Trump has rebranded America as a dark, hostile, pessimistic, fearful place. And he only wins by building that place in our minds. But, to paraphrase FDR, we have nothing to fear but the manipulation and cynical nurturing of fear. Trump is, in essence, shorting America. That's his bet. And that's the bet we must reject - not only at the polls but in our minds and hearts.
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