What follows are somewhat edited comments to two diaries on consecutive days proclaiming the tragedy or fearfulness of the Great Trumpet conceivably stealing a presidential nomination from a party of unassuming, unaware good people asleep at the switch. Horse…uh…feathers.
Thanks for bringing this column to my attention, Sir, as I enjoy reading Mr. Blow. However, relevance aside, there is nothing new or different here. Republican David Duke is a product of Ronald Reagan; but PulicanT racism dates (at least) to Nixon’s Southern Strategy when I believe the dog whistle was modified for politics (but one example “there will be a new Attorney General” as in no more Ollie’s Barbecues [public accommodation cases]). Aside from the Grate Communicate declaring his candidacy in a venue of historically racist renown and later talking of Big Bucks buying steaks and welfare queens, for me his greatest act was the revocation of Nixon’s executive order denying tax exempt status to racist institutions. (That revocation occurred on a Friday afternoon after the media had left on the understanding that it would be buried until Monday with any adverse wind quickly overtaken by normal news flow. Sadly someone noticed and lit a fire that quickly raged out of control. Ultimately it wound up in the Supreme Court with that Court having to appoint a lawyer to argue in defense of the EO because Raygun’s government refused; he having defended his action as essential due to excess on the part of “bureaucrats” it was important that he not be further involved.) Much thereafter, a grand dragon or wizard announced his candidacy as an adherent of the president’s party to their sudden consternation. Mirabile dictu!
What is exciting about the Trump campaign is that all the party is terrified because he says aloud what they know must only be whistled at. Racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, religious insanity, etc., long have been the primary attributes of the party of the rich, white, male because when that is your only constituency, it is necessary to pretend to all these other “concerns.” It matters not whether Nixon or Reagan truly were themselves racists because they openly pandered to racism and fed off it. The same with the rest of it. (NB Cheney never had any difficulty with his party’s homophobia until immediately after his debate with John Edwards then still later after his “reitrement.” For this he gets credit!)
Trump is a refreshing demagogue precisely because he openly incites the real strength of that party and makes us all face up to that reality. The others all attempt to do the same even today but with a softer, blurred—i.e., dog whistled—focus. The biggest danger here is that one of the lessers might be able to be made to appear “moderate” and etchasketch for the general should one of them be the nominee.
I shall be delighted to see Mr. Trump bleat and shibboleth his way thru debates with my candidate. Should he win, that is my country decide in its wisdom to elect that clown, I am of sufficiently receded youth that I can accept and survive that. Either way, their “revolution” ultimately should make us better for what we and they must face up to instead of denying the realities visited upon us by Tricky and Captain Video.
The earlier, shorter version: The reason I like Trump as the frontrunner is precisely because he is the voice for all the things that the PulicanT party has been becoming since 1968 when the dogwhistle became the principle instrument of that party’s symphony. Not saying a certain popular racist term does not make your racism any less objectionable or as claimed “subtle,” it makes it more insidious. That is precisely what is wrong with the other candidates in that race. They get credit for appearing moderate when the reality is that they are anything but. They enjoy and profit from hiding their odiousness behind the cloud of Trump while adhering to and proclaiming the worst of their party’s inclinations.
What the media find objectionable—while counting their profits from the Trump extravaganza—is that they must acknowledge the racism, homophobia, religious insanity, xenophobia, misogyny, ad naus that is the essence of a party which represents no one cobbling together enough disparate groups about which it cares not a fig so that it can win. How lovely that at long last we have Mr. Trump to show us the reality from which there is no hiding.
The wonder and beauty of Trump is that he will show us the strength and numbers of the racists, etc., that we pretend do not exist so impressively precisely because of media complicity. Sen. Sessions is not the only racist whose respectability is due to unwarranted respect for the position he holds (assumed following his demonstrated unsuitability for another position). It is past time that these illegitimi were recognized, and to that end we have Trump/Drumpf to thank.
The party of the rich, white, male represents no one else, and if you ain’t at least two of those, you are a damned fool if you support that party.