Hillary Clinton will give her acceptance speech Thursday at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Clinton must present a strikingly different message to the one delivered last week by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. To do this, her speech should be short and sweet, in sharp contrast to Trump's rambling, "It's-Always-Darkest-Before-It-Gets-Pitch-Black" hooey.
With his menacing tone and his chin jutting forward, Trump looked like Italy's fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who, according to a 1925 speech on a recently released newsreel, praised Italian immigrants in America for working "to make America great."
Clinton should tell Trump that America is already great -- and it achieved greatness because it has rejected demagogues like him who appealed to our fears.
When Americans look back at our history, we find nothing but regret when we listened to demagogues. Never do we wistfully sigh and say, "If only we listened to Huey Long or Joe McCarthy or George Wallace . . . "
We look back with shame and regret when we acted on our fears.
We regret that we committed genocide on native-born Indians and enslaved African-Americans, that we arrested and deported Eastern-Europeans during World War I, and that we put Japanese-Americans in concentration camps during World War II.
We regret that we lynched African-Americans who tried to vote and that we turned dogs on young African-American children. We regret when we turn on one another and when we attack our immigrants.
If you believe this is the stuff that made America great, then Donald Trump is your guy.
Demagogues appeal to our fears. Leaders appeal to our character.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," President Franklin Roosevelt said during the Great Depression. America survived the Depression and won World War II and became the greatest country in the world.
Clinton must remind Americans that we became great by ignoring demagoguery and following what President Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature."
We became great because we had leaders who put the country ahead of themselves.
What if the Founding Fathers had envisioned the republic as if it were their own real estate instead of something for the people and of the people? What if Lincoln had deported African-Americans instead of signing the Emancipation Proclamation? What if President Lyndon Johnson had refused to sign the 1964 Civil Rights Act because he thought that blacks were drug traffickers, "criminals," and "rapists."
Trump's supporters say they like him because he says what he thinks.
There's a glaring problem with this rationale: Trump doesn't think that often, and when he does, he only thinks of himself.
While millions of ordinary people may like Trump, the feeling is not reciprocated. Trump only likes ordinary people if they're covered with butter and mushrooms and served with creme brulee.
Given Trump's penchant for self-aggrandizement, what will happen if he is elected president? The country formerly known as the United States will become Trump America. Trump and his family will live at the Trump House and fly on Trump One and spent their weekends at Camp Trump.
If Trump is elected, he will remove the Statue of Liberty because it calls on America to welcome immigrants - and replace it with one of himself, the Statue of Trump, holding up a Trump steak or a diploma from Trump University.
Trump has not included any specifics on how he will "Make America Great Again" so we can only surmise based on how he has lived his life and run his corporations.
What does Trump know about addressing the national debt? He inherited his money. What does he know about putting his country before himself? He received four deferments so he could avoid military service while millions of other young people put their country before themselves.
What does Trump know about democracy? He has sued and bullied his way to business success.
No country ever sued their way to greatness and the only countries who bullied their way to greatness became dictatorships. If this happens, Trump can rely on his admirer Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump praised Putin "as a leader, unlike we have in this country."