This Commentator Has A Grim Message About Trump

The battle for the presidency between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has come down to its final moments, and it is a close race. But for at least one political commentator, it's far more terrifying than that. On Tuesday evening, a CBC commentator alleged that Donald Trump's candidacy is "white supremacy's last stand."

When Trump declared his candidacy, many Americans didn't take The Apprentice host seriously. But against all odds, Trump won the Republican nomination. And now the possibility of him winning America's highest elected office is frighteningly real.

But why is this a problem? Putting aside whether allegations of sexual assault against Trump (he has denied all of them) could potentially stand in a court of law, Trump has undeniably made lewd comments about women. He's also had his racist moments; he supports a ban on Muslims in the United States (though he has tried to walk back on this by saying there would be "extreme vetting" on potential immigrants instead). In addition, the GOP nominee has questioned whether President Obama was born in the United States. And to top it off, the Ku Klux Klan even publicly supports Trump's campaign. Though to be fair, the Trump campaign rejected the endorsement and called the publication "repulsive."

Tonight, CBC was discussing why Clinton lacked support, when one contributor cut in to explain why Trump winning over Clinton would be about a lot more than sexism against Clinton. “This is about and I will say it because I have literally nothing left to lose tonight," she said. "This is literally white supremacy’s last stand in America. This is it. This is what it looks like.”

The commentator continued to provide concrete examples of discrimination associated with Trump's supporters: “This was black people being pushed out of rallies...This was a young boy with cerebral palsy having his wheelchair kicked. This is hatred on a level that we have not seen since Jim Crow."

While the potential ascent of Trump to the presidency is very likely related to sexism, the CBS commentator pushed that and discussions of how Clinton is not a very likable candidate aside to discuss white supremacy. “We underestimated as Americans how deep our hatred was of the other," she said. "How deeply white uneducated Americans felt about the demographic shift. We underestimated that level of insidious blind hatred. And what you had was a man who went around. He stoked every fire, he lit every branch. Every branch. And just opened the flood gates.”

And the CBC commentator isn't alone in her opinion that white supremacists are supporting Trump, and for a reason. "Many white supremacists see this as their last stand for controlling the country," Heidi Beirich, head of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told CBS News, as did other experts.

The commentator concisely summed up why for many populations, including women, people of color, Muslims, and the LGBTQ+ community, a Trump presidency could be devastating. For instance, Trump has publicly stated that he women should be punished for having abortions (though he denied this during a presidential debate). If you look up Trump's policy positions and past statements, you can very easily see why members of traditionally marginalized communities might not want Trump as a president. While the presidential race isn't quite over, it's disheartening that Trump has made it this far, and that he may indeed make it into the White House.