Joseph Sabino Mistick: Trump's sideshow is back, and it's grown old

I was determined not to lose any friends during and after the 2020 presidential race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and my plan was moderately successful. You want to be challenged if you write a weekly newspaper column about politics and government, but my email during the Trump years was less public discussion than insults and resentment.

A few old friends and acquaintances drifted away, but it was clear that they were angry at the world and not just at me. And Trump made it OK for them to condemn anyone who did not fall into line with the narrow view of an isolationist America run by white men.

Then, things got calmer during the Biden years, a brief interlude when issues could be discussed with vigor but without rancor. Some die-hard forever-Trumpers surfaced occasionally — with name-calling and easily proven lies — but the Jan. 6 insurrection made it clear that we could lose the republic if that craziness was left unchecked.

Now, the insults and race-baiting and disrespect are back, as Trump cuts a swath across America trying to rally his old base.

There are the old racial and gender dog whistles. There are the claims that minority families that want to come to America for the same reasons all our families came to America are vermin. And insults aimed at women — especially Black women, now that Trump’s opponent is a Black woman — are on the rise.

But Trump’s act has gotten old. It’s like the last days of burlesque before the movies or the last days of silent movies before the talkies. Most people know intuitively that tolerance and fair debate are essential if we are to make it through this rough stretch, yet Trump continues to offer division, insults and misdirection.

Instead of explaining his differences with the Biden administration on politics or public policy, Trump has to say that Biden was the worst president in history. But this past February, 154 historians who are members of the American Political Science Association ranked all the presidents, and Biden was ranked 14th out of 46. Trump was dead last.

And he is the deep-diving champion of American politics. Nobody goes deeper or darker, as he showed us last week when he appeared for some Q&A before the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago.

ABC News senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott asked the first question, saying, “You have told four congresswomen of color who are American citizens to go back where they came from. You have used words like ‘animal’ and ‘rabid’ to describe Black district attorneys.

“Why should Black voters trust you after you have used language like that?”

Those were Trump’s actual words simply repeated to him. But, according to Trump, the question that was based on his own words was “disgraceful,” “rude” and “nasty.” Instead of answering the question, he doubled down and bizarrely questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ Black heritage even though her father is Black.

I am tired of this sideshow that draws our attention away from the real-world problems that we all should be talking about. I suspect that many Americans are getting tired of it, too.

What we really need is a real debate on the issues. Americans can decide who to vote for based on that.

But everyone says that Trump can’t help himself, that he can’t resist his dark impulses to insult and demean. And that’s a dangerous instinct in a president.