Thank you, Donald Trump for exposing the hidden agendas of the Republican Party that have always been in plain sight for liberals. We liberals have been calling out charges of racism and sexism against the GOP ever since Obama was elected. These charges were forcefully rejected by Republicans and twisted into some sort of liberal “agenda” to paint traditional, conservative, bible loving people as racists, sexists, and homophobes. When the Tea Party and many other angry Republicans tried to discredit the Obama presidency by asserting he was a Muslim or that he wasn’t born in this country, we liberals shouted out words like xenophobia and racism. Republicans cried back, “it’s not about the color of Obama’s skin” and that liberals “make everything about race”. Now that the Republican party has nominated an openly racist candidate who happened to be at the forefront of the birther movement to legitimatize the presidency of Barack Obama, who wants to ban all Muslims from this country, who thinks women should be “punished” for seeking abortions, and who thinks Mexico is sending criminals to this country, the outrageous charges of the “politically correct” liberals now seem to have been on to something from the beginning.

During the 2008 Presidential election, John McCain never went after Obama for being a Muslim or a foreigner, however, many of his supporters believed it to be true. At one of McCain’s rallies an older woman explained that she was worried Obama was a Muslim terrorist. McCain, being an intelligent person, immediately rejected the idea that Obama was somehow a terrorist and explained that Obama was a good and honest man. Flash forward to 2016 where we now have a candidate who thinks Muslims should be banned from this country and that Muslims were cheering in New Jersey when the twin towers came down. Donald Trump knew what liberals knew all along, the Republican base has a deep strain of anti-intellectualism laced with xenophobia and sexism.

This anti-intellectualism movement has been pumped through the television screens of Fox News watchers for the past 8 years. The mythical “war on Christmas”, the lie of climate change, the characterization of the black lives matter movement as a domestic terrorist group, the fake planned parenthood video tapes, and even the non stop coverage of whether or not Obama was born in America back in 2011. Fox “News” treats these stories as fact and does a great job of stirring the pot of the anti-intellectualism movement in this country.

Anything that threatens the traditional, hetero normative, white, male dominated society of America must be stopped by any means necessary. This is what Trump means when he says that he wants to “make America great again”. The key word being again. Again meaning when black people couldn’t make it into the middle class or become president, again meaning when women stayed home and didn’t threaten men in the work place, again meaning when there was “order”. Of course this past America has never really existed without people challenging the status quo. There has always been a threat to the order of things, that’s what really makes American great. Whether it be the civil war, the first, second, and third women’s movement, the civil rights movement, the gay movement, and the blacks lives matter movement. Any movement that threatens white male supremacy is always criticized as being some sort of agenda to destroy America. This is what Trump means when he says we aren’t winning and that “we don’t have a country anymore”. This is isn’t to say all Republicans are this way. However, it is to say that you can no longer tell me that I’m wrong when I say the Republican base is littered with these feelings of anti everything that isn’t white or threatens male supremacy.

We also must understand that these social prejudices intersect with many policies that Republicans often support. Their ardent opposition to single payer healthcare reflects this ignorance. Universal healthcare is something that would benefit the lives of women way more than men in terms of access and affordability. The opposition to raising the minimum wage is another example because 62 percent of Americans who live on minimum wage are women. Their refusal to address college affordability is something that disproportionately hurts people of color who are trying to get into the middle class. We have to understand that the policies Republicans often support are intertwined with their biases and perhaps unconscious feelings towards people of color and women. Donald Trump has finally shed a gigantic light on this. He has shown that these opinions have existed in the Republican party for a long time and all someone had to do to win was directly campaign on them. So thank you, Donald Trump for exposing all of this on the national stage. Now that the Republican establishment has bowed down to this racist and sexist bigot, there is no turning back. With Donald Trump’s new racist charge against the judge who is overseeing the lawsuit against Trump University, it looks like the Republican party is getting a little bit of buyers remorse. I can’t wait to see all the blue light up on my television the night of November 8th.