You can't escape Trump hatred anywhere in the New York Times.

I had mentioned to a friend of mine that I am working my way through the works of William Faulkner.  He sent me a book review published August 25, 2020 in the New York Times.  The book is The Saddest Words by Michael Gorra.  It is about Faulkner's life and writings and is described as part literary biography and part Civil War history.

This being the sewer that is the N.Y. Times, the review opened with the following paragraph:

In July, at his memorial service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the Honorable John Lewis was eulogized by three presidents.  The sitting president was not among them. His absence was yet another assertion of the anti-Black hostility and xenophobia fouling the polity with renewed vigor.

So here we have a review of a book about one of America's great writers who died decades ago, and a swipe at Trump is what this reviewer, Ayana Matthis, deems an appropriate introduction.  I probably should not be too harsh on this reviewer because this is likely the only way to get an article published in the Times. 

Being published there is probably very important to Ms. Matthis.  It is always a good way to renew those woke credentials for our smart set, even at the cost of Ms. Matthis displaying her pettiness.  You would think the editors and the readers of the Times, who have never gotten over 2016, would simply get bored with the same old ubiquitous Trump-hating clichés.  But I overestimate. 

That reference to John Lewis is, I am sure, designed to establish a contrast between the supposedly angelic John Lewis and the supposedly depraved Donald Trump.  John Lewis, after acting with courage and honor as a young man in the civil rights movement, was later elected to Congress.  Never mind that there he became one of the country's worst race-baiters, doing what he could to stir up racial strife whenever possible.  But sainthood once conferred hides or excuses a lot of sins. 

With her baseless charge and inane introduction, she follows the worst of Lewis's footsteps.  A genius like William Faulkner deserves much better.