National emergency as Republicans no longer try to hide their poison

U.S. President Donald Trump kisses first lady Melania Trump, during an event to mark Military Mother's Day, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

It comes at us in waves …

It relentlessly pounds away at our heart and soul, threatening to break us in two …

This week it again washed ashore in all the likely places — Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, and finally our corrupted, irredeemable “Supreme” Court housed in what was once the world’s cradle of democracy, Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump’s Republicans not only refuse to atone for America’s original sin, but are intent on re-injecting its poison into a new generation’s veins just to make good and sure we never properly heal.

Anytime our so-called united states get within striking distance of truly congealing into a democratic republic where there really is liberty and justice for ALL, the well-funded GOP fiends, who stay plenty flush by dividing us, spread their unlimited cash and outsized influence to make sure the crack between us widens and can never be crossed.

Nothing scares these morally busted garbage peddlers more than a cohesive electorate, or a fair election.

The reality of a Black president, and a Black woman vice president was so unbearable for these bog-snorters and their shattered moral compasses that the final House district in Tennessee that stood on a foundation of fairness and true representation was set aflame by their tiki torches Thursday.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is now just a relic from a time America at least gave the appearance it was interested in evolution.

The Republican Party has become so brazen in their odious efforts to erase Black people, they no longer feel the need to wear hoods while they pile high barriers to voting booths, and leadership positions in our government, universities, and places of influence.

This is a national emergency.

Better to just incinerate a healthcare program that insures tens of millions of Americans with no viable alternative in place, than to continue anything with Obama’s name on it.

Better to enter an unwinnable and costly war with Iran than continue with the peace our nation’s only Black president brokered in our planet’s most volatile region.

At its core America is a racist country, and there is plenty of dirty money to be made by the clutch of bankrupt billionaires who spend all their time keeping it that way.

America is not, nor has it ever been, a great nation. The insistence on implying anything different is borne of weakness not strength. We are a dark room without mirrors. We can’t bear to look at ourselves, so we look outside our windows and find fault with others who don’t share our skin color.

If actions are stronger than words, then a nation that engages in one senseless war after another, steps on the necks of its own citizens, and confuses a truly rich life with one of wealth and appalling privilege is a complete and utter failure.

It is not remotely great.

Time and again, America has diagnosed its sickness, and made good-faith efforts to cure it, before grotesque men like Rupert Murdoch have decided there was no money to be made in a nation strong enough to admit its weaknesses.

Exploiting our original sin for their gain is, to quote Hillary Clinton, “deplorable.”

I have seen far too many people of both political parties say we cannot make everything about race. Well, I say we can no longer afford not to, because looking away has never worked.

Without fail, these pleas come from the mouths of white people, who are either insulated from hard truths, or worse are just too cowardly to address this terribly sad reality.

I cannot pretend to know what is truly inside a Black man’s heart and mind, but I can seek it out, and do what I can to help with their centuries-old afflictions.

Better to look like a fool while running a good and noble errand in the name of equality, than doing the fool’s work of pretending everybody is good and equal in America.

As an old, white man I am highly qualified to diagnose my condition which is, and always has been, privilege. Too many white men were born halfway up the ladder, but confuse it with making a mighty climb. These are the people who go through their empty lives holding onto a lofty status that was never earned.

There are the people who are inside this corrupted Trump White House who are almost too stupid and ridiculous to imagine. Forget the president, what about his crooked, no-talent cabinet that includes Pete Hegseth, Markwayne Mullin, Lee Zeldin, Howard Lutnick, Scott Bessent, Sean Duffy and RFK Jr.?

None of these people got their jobs on any merit. Quite the opposite: They got their jobs because of their allegiance to a broken and bigoted man, who grew up in a world where loyalty and respect weren’t earned, but claimed by a wretched, cold hand holding tight to a whip.

There has never been a single time and place in history where diversity, equity and inclusion was needed more, because America has never been sicker.

This strain of bigotry might be the most lethal one yet, because it is coming from the very top of our government, and filtering its way through our elected offices, our military, our highest courts, and into our schools.

It is crawling over us, and there are seemingly no barriers to prevent its spread … except one: US.

We must all do what we can to turn racism away, and stay true to our hearts. We must rally like-thinkers, and amplify our quest to finally and once and for all address America’s inequity, and grab it by its roots and shake it.

We must call it what is.

Silence is not an option, only a pacifier.

Until this is finally done — and it must be done — millions of beautiful people will continue to suffer needlessly for simply entering this world a certain color.

Is there really anything more sickening and tragic than that?

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.

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