Dana Milbank: Trump is a racist. Democrats should stop calling it so.

Washington • President Trump is a horrible racist. And it's time for the Democrats to stop calling it that.

Counter intuitive? Yes. But substantial evidence shows that Trump's "racist" labeling is turning against the Democrats. He energizes his supporters without giving any extra motivation to the Democrats, and he pushes the gentle supporters – voters who might be at stake in 2020 – into Trump's arms.

That does not mean that Trump must be considered racist, he is obviously; I've been using this term for four years because it describes it objectively. But that means talking about his racism in a different way:

Let's say that he is tearing America apart by race and threatening our democracy.

Say that he opposes Americans against each other by color and religion to distract from his cruelty.

Say that he activates and encourages white supremacists.

Democrats have a moral obligation to call Trump's racist campaign. But they can not cry "racist" and assume that it is the end of the discussion.

"The term" racist "has itself taken on this new meaning," said political scientist Ashley Jardina of Duke University, author of the 2019 book "White Identity Politics." "It has become a politicized term … Racism in tears is perceived as a wolf crying." During research conducted during the 2016 campaign, Jardina discovered that when voters were read, a statement claiming that some people were opposed to Trump "because he supported racism," voters having a high level of racial resentment overwhelmingly supported Trump. Interestingly, the term "white supremacist" does not return as "racist".

Trump's racist labeling "tends to anger Whites with resentment toward racism," Jardina tells me. "They are more attached to their views on race politics, including doubling their support for Donald Trump."

These results were confirmed in a survey conducted last month by an alliance of progressive groups studying the Democratic Party's possible responses to Trump's immigration rhetoric regarding an "invasion" of criminals and drug traffickers. The research revealed that a "sad" racist response diminished general support for Democrats over Trump. An answer saying that Trump used fear to divide by race worked much better. Conflicting messages produced no major difference between the Democrats and the independents, but the racist response played much less well between the out-of-school white voters and the clear supporters. The racist response was particularly damaging for Democrats after voters viewed an anti-immigration video with Trumpian themes. (Disclosure: my wife is a partner of the company that conducted the survey.)

The problem of the specific term "racist" can be seen in another study by a trio of researchers at Harvard University. Last month, writing on the Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog, written by academics, Republicans were two to three times more likely to reject the "racist" label that Democrats (and most independents) rejected for their racist attitudes. Most Republicans do not consider the Confederate battle flag as racist, for example, and one-third of Republicans reject the idea that it is racist to use "a word about a racial group that some consider offensive ". More than 80% of Republicans say that voting for Trump is not racist.

If the Democrats tell them otherwise, they will only dig deeper.

This does not mean that Democrats should avoid the subject of racism. On the contrary, ignoring it could depress basic Democratic voters, especially non-white voters.

"The people of color really want someone to attack in Trump," says Christopher Sebastian Parker, a specialist in race and politics at the University of Washington. The solution for the attack against Trump to be effective for independent voters is to make sure that it is not limited to insults.

"If you say that his racism is a threat to democracy and our lives as Americans, it will turn them against him," he says. "It can not be dissociated from something more substantial: the threat of American identity or American institutions."

During Thursday night's debate in Houston, some of the Democratic presidential candidates understood well; others fell into the "racist" trap.

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker used the term but at least explained the context: "We know that Donald Trump is racist, but there is no red imprint to call him such. The question is not about racism, it's about doing and not doing something against racism. "

But mayor Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, probably invited the authorities to react if he was asked if the people who support Trump and his immigration policy are racists. "Anyone who supports this supports racism," he said.

I agree with him. But for Democrats, to speak in this way is counterproductive.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.