Real voter intimidation

The NY Post briefly ran this article two days ago. It shows a video of an older white man being beaten by a group of young black men, because he voted for Trump. (It's not clear how they knew how he had voted; perhaps he had a Trump bumper sticker on his car.)

This is real voter intimidation.

Requiring an ID is not voter intimidation, anymore than it is airplane passenger intimidation. Or check casher intimidation. Or car driver intimidation.

You've never heard of those concepts because they're so silly. But, they're no sillier than voter intimidation.

Beating people up -- and that was a vicious beating, I suggest you watch the video -- is an entirely different matter.

This incident, of course, will never be reported by the New York Times, or the Washington Post, or CBS, CNN, or NBC. But imagine what the reaction would have been had the roles been reversed, and three strapping young white men had beaten an old black man for having voted for Clinton. It would be a national focus for weeks.

Imagine what the New York Times would have had to say:

"In an incident indicative of the kind of violence which Donald Trump has promoted, three young white men viciously attacked and beat an elderly black voter yesterday afternoon, as a young white woman urged them on. The sheer ugliness of this display of racism and voter intimidation harks back to the Jim Crow era, and America's long and ugly history of racial discrimination, violence, and lynching.

It's no coincidence that this type of behavior would be shown by Trump supporters, who have shown an ugly, nativist streak throughout Trump's divisive, hateful campaign. This absolutely horrifying video, which will shock any decent person to his core, gives the lie to those who say the Republicans, led by Donald Trump, do not practice voter intimidation. We now have incontrovertible evidence. All those voices screaming for voter ID laws because of paranoid delusions about "electoral fraud" ought now to be shamed into silence forever. 

The problem is, Donald Trump seems incapable of shame. But he should be held to account for these types of incidents, given his direct appeals to racism and xenophobia and sexism. He has encouraged these displays of overt racism with his tone and ill-chosen words. And now, tragically, the haters have sprung forth and answered his call to violence.

If this presages the spirit of the Trump administration, people of color, gays, women, Muslims, and everybody else who doesn't conform to Donald Trump's idea of what a "real American" is are no longer safe. Donald Trump has now officially declared open season on minorities. 

I grieve for the future of America."

But, it didn't quite happen that way. It was a black-on-white attack, because the white voted for Trump.

So, all we hear are crickets.