The idea Trump got elected based on economic dislocation by white voters previously enamored with Barack Obama was never convincing. His current overwhelming approval by the GOP faithful now imagining an economy, that for all intents and purposes existed in October 2016, is the result of deregulation and tax cuts for millionaires is more an alibi for ignoring unhinged incompetence, and a diversion from what really gets their juices flowing… a renaissance of long buried racist tropes.
Such smoke and mirrors to justify supporting the exhumation of Jim Crow sensibilities will be laid bare once trade war economic chickens come home to roost, and the “historic economy” Trump tweets about hourly begins to crash and burn. Then there will be nothing left for wretched core proponents to lean on but the ugly nexus of what warmed them to 45’s nihilism in the first place. At that point it will be official, at least 35% of America votes, not with their pocketbooks in mind, but their disdain for what in our lifetime will become the majority of their fellow citizens. Diversity is the demon, the go to boogie man responsible for stealing the country away from its rightful owners; this has always been Trumpism’s foundational narrative.
When the essence of a bloc as large as Trump’s idea of patriotism is the entitlement to disqualify any notions others may have for exhibiting their own civic mindedness, that’s a big problem. When such idiocy actually originates and is constantly, methodically fanned by the White House, that’s a crisis. Either way there isn’t much doubt Trump’s own brand of dog whistles and identity warfare is what really gins up his base, rendering other factors like breathtaking incompetence, pathological insecurity and overt corruption mere background noise, discarded as opposition tactics delivered on demand by a corrupt media. There is no fine line between racial animosity and la la land; they are synonymous. Suffering through even part of a Trump rally validates this contention.
There is a good reason why Fox/AM personalities store a particularly strong measure of toxin for those accusing them of racism; that truth is dangerous to their existence. Were they to be fully unmasked as the bigots they are, any intellectual heft their circular explanations enjoy would evaporate. Moreover, they hate being on the defensive, which requires quick feet they don’t have, and are ever mindful not to cross lines that land them in hot water, even as they constantly gnaw away at those boundries, like rats on a cord.
The worst day of Rush Limbaugh’s life was back in the early 90’s, when as host of a short-lived, early AM clone of Phil Donahue and Oprah’s talk TV format, he fully lost control of a hostile audience shouting him down for the bigotry he spewed. It was a pivotal event he swore to himself would never be repeated. Since then Limbaugh has not appeared in any setting with variables he can’t fully control; a non-negotiable rule of the road most all Fox/AM “personalities” have followed suit to observe.
Whether MAGAites actually believe having Diamond and Silk into the Oval Office is enough to establish Trump’s fair minded bona fides is irrelevant; he thinks it is, and we are now all painfully aware that the bias he brought to the party has been given a makeover by Fox and Friends et al., the application of rouge necessary to dull its stigma.
The Democratic leadership seems intent on making sure everyone knows that a bigot in the White House doesn’t obsess them; unlike him and his, they really are concerned about middle class bank accounts. Fair enough. Yet and still, diluting the noxious bias of Trumpism’s brew ignores the emergencies its success will create.
Since the 60s this nation has been developing under the bipartisan presumption racial bias is a malady which has exacted a steep price of blood and treasure, while unnecessarily hobbling our potential. More than three decades of political life and the governance it created acted in full accordance with that conclusion. Obama seemed to ice the cake and unequivocally tie our 21st century fortunes to the death of 20th century idiocy. This Administration endangers all of that. What was shrugged off as the blow back of elements refusing to progress now rules us and everyday attempts to recodify what most thought was dead and buried. Many took the proposition so for granted they imagined the luxury of making a personal statement against a stale Presidential candidacy by staying home, or voting for a 3rd party imbecile. How is that working out?
November is almost here. For those inexplicably unable to tie election prospects of Democrats to US survival, perhaps it would be at least as intriguing to understand that, along with abetting a destructive narcissist, the GOP also stands completely in line with the attempt to return racism, under the threadbare guise of reform, to everyday American life and government. Voting Republican actually jams a stake in a key tenent of US progress, returning us to the land of our grandparents, indulging attitudes almost all of us thought went to the grave with them. Think about it! BC