I do. I think Trump gave a lot of voters PTSD. And while i do think in general, voters are pragmatic, I think the fear of putting forth someone who isn’t “electable” is REAL.

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 13, 2019

Jamele Hill’s need to inject race into every argument isn’t really that horrible. She’s doing the heavy lifting to support and encourage her community, and that’s a good thing. And even when her arguments are borderline hypocritical — such as her recent assertion that black athletes only attend historically black colleges (to help those colleges compete financially) — it’s easy to understand where she’s coming from (even if she’ll likely never answer why it would be ok for black athletes to do that but not any other race without calls — and for good reason— of racism).

But her attempts to analyze politics? Horrible.

Take the tweet above. She’s responding to a question a Twitter follower asked her when she proclaimed Biden’s only role as a Democrat frontrunner is to keep the white vote because they wouldn’t vote for anyone else on the Democratic debate stage.

Somebody gotta say it: The overwhelming support for Joe Biden is based purely off fear that white folks won’t vote for anyone else on that stage. Because there is no way you see him in these moments and think he’s actually the best candidate.

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 13, 2019

Of course the implication is that white people won’t vote for anyone not white, male, or heterosexual. Which is a pretty bigoted view of the world. But the idea that Trump — who has apparently caused voters to experience auditory or visual hallucinations, or moments of intense rage, self-loathing, or overwhelming guilt the way survivors of war or sexual assault or child abuse do — is the reason Democrat voters might prefer Biden is simply…absurd.

Booker, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, Yang et al may not be electable, as Hill suggests. But it’s not because of Donald Trump. Like every other candidate, their messages have to resonate and voters have to trust they’ll do the job to make their vote or donation worth it. So far, Biden has that locked down.

At some point, Ms. Hill, real winners take responsibility for themselves and they succeed on their own merit without having to point a finger at what’s been stopping them.

You, as a well-known writer and television personality, surely have experienced how much work it takes to make it. Surely you wouldn’t suggest the only way you succeeded was because someone else — a competitor — was marginalized to clear the path for you. That would be mitigating your own hard-won success.

Trump’s existence is neither elevating Biden nor marginalizing any other Democratic candidate. They all, like you, are rising or falling based on their individual skills and charisma. It’s insulting to them and voters to suggest otherwise.