The divided state of xenophobia, misogyny, and racism

CLEVELAND (Ohio): The dozen critical mentions of Hillary Clinton in Donald Trump’s acceptance speech barely did "justice" to the toxic cauldron of animus and hostility towards the former First Lady that boiled outside in the Cleveland heat.

Although he blamed the former Secretary of State for everything from "bad trade deals" to "uncontrolled immigration" to disastrous foreign policy choices, the Republican National Convention could well be termed a "Hate Hillary Festival" for the sheer venom party zealots injected into public discourse.

From T-shirts on the streets that called on their candidate to "Trump The Bitch" to chants of "Lock Her Up!" inside the Quicken Loans arena during mock trials conducted by party stalwarts, the Cleveland jamboree will be remembered for its poisonous mix of misogyny, racism, and homophobia.

One Republican activist, now under federal inquiry, went so far as to call for Hillary Clinton to be "put before a firing squad and shot for treason," a statement even the Trump campaign had to disown.

The easy way out is to blame the lunatic fringe – wackos and weirdos were aplenty in Cleveland – but party veterans such as Chris Christie joined the verbal lynch mob in conducting faux inquisitions of Hillary Clinton, even though they have been chummy with her in the past.

That also includes Donald Trump, who is on record as giving testimonials praising the Clintons and exulting what a good President she would make – at a time he himself wasn’t interested in the job. The Clinton campaign has been trolling him with an ad reminding him of his own sugary words about Hillary.

More worrying for foreign countries than his philippics now directed at Hillary are his xenophobic tropes demonizing Muslims and immigrants while blaming their entry/presence in the US for all American woes.

Then there is his transparent admiration for the strong-arm methods practiced in totalitarian countries and the incessant narcissism that he knows everything and has instant solutions to all problems – "I alone can fix it," he boasted at one point in his address.

"Is this guy running for president or dictator?" Senator Bernie Sanders wondered snarkily in a tweet, among the milder observations on the overweening conceit of Trump’s acceptance speech.

Still, the rant was not as ugly as the spectacle outside — a noxious mix of religious zealotry and white primacy in around ten blocks of a city that is majority black.

There were only a few moments of redemption, notably when Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel spoke out about being proud to be gay and Republican in a party that is largely homophobic, and when Ivanka Trump spoke up for working women despite her father’s many crude remarks suggesting he is a misogynist and sexist.

Of course, there was the token presence of groups such as Muslims for Trump, Latinos for Trump, and even an occasional African-American who pumped it up for the Don (including the boxing promoter Don King).

But for the most part, it was a carnival of the besieged white male and the privileged rich.