Now that both parties have presumptive nominees for the 2016 Presidential election, given the outcomes of Tuesday's primaries in five states, we are all holding our breath to see what happens next.
One would hope that candidates and their campaigns have received enough negative feedback about the incivility and character assassination that has been front and center throughout the primary season, that a shift to higher ground would make strategic sense. But the initial salvos from the Trump camp would seem to suggest that we will now be witness to a gender war through November.
It is unacceptable for a candidate for the Presidency to resort to legitimating intolerance on a regular basis. First it was the Mexicans, the disabled, the Jewish, POWs, African Americans, Muslims, reporters... and now his target is women. By suggesting the only reason a candidate is winning is due to the fact she is a woman is an insult to all women. And if that comment had any basis in fact wouldn't there be a lot more women in the US House and Senate and in state houses across the country?
We have come so far in this nation in facing up to our institutionalized "isms" and even though we all know we have much further to go, we need to register a collective outcry against candidates for the highest public office in the land who seemed determined to take us backwards.
Only we, the people, can revive civility in our politics and our communities. Now is the time to stand up and speak out against all attacks on people based solely on their gender, their religion, their ethnicity, their job or their political persuasion. After all, it is the future of our country we're talking about.