The aftermath of the recent mass murders was a revealing one for today's Democratic Party.

Indeed, almost all the leading Democratic candidates for president chose in the week following the horrors in El Paso and Dayton to pivot their main message from "Trump and Russia" to "Trump and racism." At least five candidates went so far as to brand President Trump as a, believe it or not, white supremacist.

It's repulsive rhetoric. It's the "basket of deplorables" talk on steroids, and it says to every Trump supporter: "You, too, are a white supremacist."

I don't believe Trump is a racist, much less a white supremacist. This sort of rhetoric is incendiary and dangerous. It's also politically self-destructive and so absurd as to be laughable but for its repetition.

But the Democratic candidates do not wish to argue, debate and persuade. They wish to smear and exclude. They have exploited the nation's shock and fear to do so.

They should turn back.