in today’s New York Times titled ‘The Lowest White Man’.
I wish I had enough time to explore this column in depth. It is very rich.
I think Blow’s observations are as much on point on the topic of Trumpism and Trump supporters as was this recent piece by Adam Serwer in The Atlantic.
Let me offer a few key excerpts from Blow’s column.
Part of his response to Trump’s televised meeting with Congressional types on immigration can be seen in this
He demonstrated once again that he is a man without principle, interested only in how good he can make himself look and how much money he can make.
Yep. But that is really a sidebar. At least on the topic of Trumpism.
Blow thinks that were Trump to follow through on what he said in that meeting, it would be a betrayal of much of what he promised to his base during the campaign. He does not think the base will care.
That is because Trump is man-as-message, man-as-messiah. Trump support isn’t philosophical but theological.
Trumpism is a religion founded on patriarchy and white supremacy.
And in case those two short paragraphs do not make the point clearly enough, consider what immediately follows:
It is the belief that even the least qualified man is a better choice than the most qualified woman and a belief that the most vile, anti-intellectual, scandal-plagued simpleton of a white man is sufficient to follow in the presidential footsteps of the best educated, most eloquent, most affable black man.
After reminding us of what Lyndon Johnson said to Bill Moyers about race-baiting, comes another gut-punch series of paragraphs, of which I will only offer this
Trump’s supporters are saying to us, screaming to us, that although he may be the “lowest white man,” he is still better than Barack Obama, the “best colored man.”
Blow then tries to place this in the broad history of this nation and its culture, shares the astute observations of W. E. B. DuBois, and then closes with these two paragraphs:
For white supremacy to be made perfect, the lowest white man must be exalted above those who are black.
No matter how much of an embarrassment and a failure Trump proves to be, his exploits must be judged a success. He must be deemed a correction to Barack Obama and a superior choice to Hillary Clinton. White supremacy demands it. Patriarchy demands it. Trump’s supporters demand it.