“…remind people that the Democrats are about serious solutions to serious problems. There are always simple-minded solutions which in the end are dangerous and wrong. Let us continue to have serious conversations toward the good of our country.”

Fear! That is what Republican politics has been about ever since Donald Trump came down that escalator in 2015. Telling you and everyone else what to be afraid of. Oh it has been used before. Remember the use of Willie Horton against Dukakis in 1988. But fear has been ramped up to a level never seen before.

To hear Trump tell it we live in a dangerous, fearful land where all kinds of horrible thing are just around the corner. We are told to be fearful of immigrants, even though actual violence by immigrants in this country is rare. Republicans and Trump will tell you to be afraid of trans-gender people, homosexuals, Muslims, people of color, socialists, environmentalists, and anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

It all reminds me of a speech toward the end of the movie, “The American President” from back in 1995. The President in a tight race for re-election delivers an impassioned speech aimed at his opponent, Bob Rumson. I will let you make the appropriate substitutions. Here is a small clip.

“We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, … and you scream about patriotism.”

In my mind Trump is not interested in solving problems. He only wants to use them to his own ends. Congress had a bill to work on the border problem, but Trump pressured his colleagues to kill it so he could use the problem as a political issue.

We need serious people who will work hard to solve our problems in an effective, sincere, and compassioned way. That would be Kamala Harris and the many excellent Democrats running across the country. Remember Trump is not so much interested in the solutions as stoking fear and hatred in such a way as to benefit him.

So, remind people that the Democrats are about serious solutions to serious problems. There are always simple-minded solutions which in the end are dangerous and wrong. Let us continue to have serious conversations toward the good of our country.