Ellison's Advice to Confront Racist Trump Agenda in 2018: 'Organize, Organize, Organize'

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) speaking in support of DACA at Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis. (Photo: Lorie Shaull/flickr/cc)

Ellison's Advice to Confront Racist Trump Agenda in 2018: 'Organize, Organize, Organize'

Question shouldn't be whether president said "shithole" or "shithouse," argues top Democrat. It should be: "What are we going to do about it?"

As fallout continues over the president's offensive language during a closed-door meeting in the Oval Office, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) argued that Donald Trump's specific word choice is irrelevant--"he has a long history of racism"--and that in the year ahead the public must "organize, organize, organize" to defeat his agenda.

Speaking to MSNBC's "All In" on Monday, Ellison, who also serves as co-chair of the DNC, said that "whether [Trump] said 'shithole' or 'shithouse,' he has deprecated people and people of color, people who are Muslim, people who are Mexican. He has done it for literally years."

The task at hand should be to decide "what are we going to do about it," he said.

Given that "this guy is a commander-in-chief...[and] controls the largest military economy and surveillance in the world," Ellison said Trump's "racism is dangerous to people. And we've all got to step up and deal with that."

"All we see out of this president is that he's doing mean, hateful things to people, or he's demanding his vanity be assuaged. We are in a constitutional crisis right now," Ellison warned, and said, "2018 is a year where if you love this country and the people in, it everybody has got to organize, organize, organize and get very busy. Figure out how you can be involved to restore the proper balance in our country."

Join Us: News for people demanding a better world


Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place.

We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference.

Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Join with us today!

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.