(RNS) Once President Obama’s birth certificate settled any question about his citizenship, the bigotry crowd (see: Trump, Donald) moved on immediately to questioning his academic credentials.

Obama couldn’t possibly have succeeded at elite schools without outside help, bigots suggested, because — well, because — come on Donald, say it — because he is black.

Yes, friends, the president of the United States is a man of color. Now connect the dots.

Health care reform isn’t about reducing health care costs, balancing budgets and reining in the health care industry; it’s “Obamacare!” Get it? A black president is trying to get special treatment for black people flooding our hospitals, especially welfare queens and their illegitimate offspring.

Voter registration drives — enabling as many eligible citizens as possible to take part in American life — aren’t really about democracy. It’s “voter fraud.” Those are citizens of color planning to exercise their right to vote. Time to question their credentials, too.

The bigots don’t see immigration as a continuation of America’s high purpose as home to the world’s “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” including the bigots’ own ancestors at some point. They have created a harsh nightmare of midnight sweeps, police harassment, and vigilantes because these are dark-skinned people trying to enter a white nation. Can I see your papers, please?

Union busting in Wisconsin and elsewhere isn’t about organized labor as such. Their target is public employee unions — whose numbers, at least in stereotype, are dominated by people of color.

Bigotry is so blind to reality that it is willing to cut its own throat just so racial and ethnic minorities won’t get government benefits. Even though the safety net benefits all citizens — including them — white racists hear “Medicare,” “Medicaid,” school lunches, help for children, and housing assistance, and all they see is skin color.

How deeply does this racist subtext infect American life? I doubt we could measure it. We could look at housing patterns, of course, or poor treatment of U.S. troops (more than likely to be black or Hispanic) or allowing urban schools to collapse once their color balance shifted.

The United States is hardly alone in its racial hatred. But we have tried to stand tall as a land of equal opportunity, where all can dream, all can strive, all can “breathe free,” and all are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.

We have presumed to lecture the world about its injustices and tribal nonsense. And now we have sunk to their level. Maybe some of our citizens were there all along. But now the party of Lincoln has turned its back on the Gettysburg Address and is unleashing racism as legitimate public policy.

I think it will backfire on them. Most Americans have moved on from Jim Crow, and I doubt the bigot vote will prove as large as Trump thinks it is. Young voters certainly have moved on. Maybe that’s why a substrategy of the right wing is to prevent young adults from voting.

Meanwhile, the historic stain on America’s soul fills the public square, while the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and real problems go unaddressed.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus” and founder of the Church Wellness Project. His website is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter (at)tomehrich.)