Trump and his minions unleashed a lot of demons. It's not like they weren't already there, but as you note, it's so much more socially acceptable now. I live in the very northern state of Michigan, where every country cemetery has a corner reserved for Union soldier dead from the Civil War.

And in the last two or three years it has become increasingly and distressingly common to see trucks roaring around local roads waving Confederate flags.


Nobody thinks the flags are celebrating Southern heritage, not up here they aren't. I think plenty of my neighbors have never even seen grits and cornbread.

We all know exactly what those flags mean – white supremacy. Yet people seem proud to wave them.

That's new. It's a symptom of unabashed racists no longer being ashamed of who they are.