Thread by @jedshug

The most apt names of Trump era:
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. Tom Cotton. The Mooch. Con-way.
How about Howard Kurtz & Heart of Darkness?
Kurtz: Don't call Trump tweets racist "b/c that goes to motive. You’re saying in his heart he is a racist.”
Absurd.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

2/ @ErikWemple calls out @HowardKurtz on this superficial, convenient definition:
"Stop right there.
Characterizing Trump’s tweets as 'racist' entails no judgment about what lies in his heart. It’s merely a textual judgment."
I agree but would add more about hearts of darkness...

3/ Kurtz sets the bar impossibly high. When a politician uses flagrantly racist rhetoric, how can we know whether he or she is sincerely, deeply racist?
Or just exploiting others' racism for political gain?
There is a infamous story about the segregationist George Wallace...

4/ In 1958, George Wallace ran for Alabama governor as a moderate. As a judge, he notably granted probation to many black defendants. He condemned the KKK, was endorsed by the NAACP.
And lost to the KKK-backed candidate.
He told his aide: "I'll never be outn****red again."

5/ Which Wallace was the "real" Wallace? Was he sincerely or just conveniently a racist? What was in his heart?
It doesn't matter one damn bit, @HowardKurtz.
Either way, he had a Heart of Darkness.
So does Trump.
(See Dan Carter's The Politics of Rage. Thanks, @GilmoreGlenda)

6/ Some quotes from Heart of Darkness for Trump's defenders in media & @GOP:
“It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”
“Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.”
"The horror, the horror!"
Hell, it's just Apolocalypse Now.