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Today I was reminded of this powerful moment, when President Obama eulogized the nine African-American Christians who were gunned down in their church by a white supremacist.
As this National Review article noted, this moment went largely unnoticed and uncommented upon in conservative media at the time and subsequently. Let that sink in for a second.
nationalreview.com/corner/obamas-…
nationalreview.com/corner/obamas-…
Nine Christians were slaughtered in cold blood. The President takes the unusual step of singing in public, & singing a canonical Christian hymn at that. And the majority of white evangelicals barely even notice. Most reviled Obama, & then eagerly voted for an amoral philanderer.
I know it's kind of a cliche to say "racism is a powerful drug." But for crying out loud, watch that eulogy and tell me how you could possibly have hatred in your heart for a leader who could inhabit that moment in the way Obama did.
I get it that people across the political spectrum disagreed with many of Obama's policy decisions. That's unavoidable in a pluralistic democracy. But to feel hatred for the President of the country you claim to love, who could so movingly sing a hymn so central to your faith?
A hatred that makes so little, rational sense has got to be powered by something incredibly vile...something so atavistic, so deeply embedded in one's soul that it must feel maniacally cathartic to let it out.
That catharsis, that primal scream of American racism, is (in part) the energy that has infused every Trump rally since the "they're sending rapists" escalator speech at Trump Tower in 2015.
One final point to close the loop. White nationalist Jared Taylor somehow got VIP seats to Trump's inauguration. Dylan Roof, the Charleston murderer, was one of Taylor's avid readers and admirers.
On the Taylor-Roof connection. divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/dyla… 
