Who wins? Trump and the GOP’s doctrine of fear vs. Hillary and the Democrats’ hopeful and progressive vision – Chauncey Devega / Salon

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets with civil rights leaders at the National Urban League in the Manhattan borough of New York City, February 16, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar - RTX277XMAmericans were given a choice during the conventions: Spend the next 4 years living in terror or embracing optimism.

The Republican National Convention offered an apocalyptic vision of America’s present and future. Crime is rampant. Herds of illegal immigrants from Latin America wait in the shadows for the opportunity to rape and kill. Muslims are hiding under every bed, armed with suicide bombs that are ready to explode. America’s police are beleaguered. They shout “Blue Lives Matter!” as they are shot down in the street by gangs of thugs who march under a standard emblazoned with the words “Black Lives Matter.” The Red Chinese are crippling the country’s economy abroad while a black usurper named Barack Obama aids them from within. Hillary Clinton, his heir apparent, is in league with Lucifer. “America doesn’t win anymore.” Donald Trump is the only person who can save her. The world that the Republican Party has conjured into existence is a type of political pastiche that combines movies such as “Death Wish,” “Threads,” “Straw Dogs,”  “Mad Max” and the comic book series “Judge Dredd.” This world does not exist. It is a fiction and type of shared mass psychotic episode for the Republican Party, movement conservatives and Donald Trump’s foot soldiers. This is an America that is bereft of hope and lost to despair.

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