An escalating cycle of action and reaction between President Donald Trump and the Democratic presidential contenders is thrusting issues of race relations and American identity to the center of the developing 2020 campaign. …
In 2020, the contrast between the nominees on issues of race relations will likely be as stark as any since the Republicans in 1964 nominated Sen. Barry Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act, against President Lyndon Johnson, who steered it into law. Trump has appealed to racial resentments more openly than any national figure in either party since George Wallace in the 1960s, while declaring that Democrats are the real racists for accusing him, and by implication his supporters, of racism.
At the same time, the Democratic candidates are portraying America as infected with racism more openly and insistently than any previous party leaders, even Barack Obama, the first African American president. CONT.
Ronald Brownstein, CNN