[WAPO] Nothing unites Democrats more than a deep belief that President Trump must be driven from office. And right now, nothing divides Democrats more than finding the best way to bring this about.Trump’s racist tweets over the weekend against Rep. Elijah E. Cummings and the city of Baltimore that is part of the dignified Democrat’s district only underscored the moral urgency of ending a presidency that, day after day, brings shame upon our nation.
Trump is not a political genius. He is president because of our outdated and undemocratic electoral college. What he is skilled at is taking advantage of his opponents’ weaknesses, sowing division in their ranks ‐ and setting Americans against each other.
Think about what the Russians, in alliance with the Trump campaign, did in 2016. They drove wedges between supporters of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton by feeding the sense of aggrievement in the Sanders camp. They worked to lower turnout among African Americans by pointing to the criminal-justice policies of President Bill Clinton’s administration in fostering overincarceration.
Trump’s strategy is thus not just about rallying his base. He also does everything he can to dispirit the Democratic base. He will be happy once again to use social media (and to welcome foreign efforts in this direction) to assail the Democrats from the left. And since Democrats seem to relish attacking each other, they may give him a hand.
The efforts to divide are already unfolding. Consider the well-documented accounts by Michael Scherer and Amy B Wang in The Post and Rachelle Hampton in Slate. They reported on Twitter attacks against Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) that she is "not an American black" because her parents are immigrants. One version was retweeted by Donald Trump Jr., though he later took it down.