Like many of my fellow Americans and many others around the world, I spend a great deal of intellectual and emotional energy reacting to the Trump presidency. In the kindest version, his presidency could be called "unprecedented" or "unconventional". However to many of us it can only be called a dangerous and disastrous mistake- an actual threat to our way of life. The daily barrage of mind-numbing lies and mean-spiritedness of this presidency can leave us drained, as we lament the outlandish and uncharted reality of our national leadership. To say we have never experienced a president like this before is an understatement of the depth of this crisis for the country. I have tried to examine this situation from a number of possible angles. I've tried to stop being reactive and look inward for an explanation, and an answer to the question, "how did this country elect this man?"
The question of how he got elected is not a case of his voters thinking they were voting for something other than what he turned out to be. If there is anything we can count on from Trump, it is that he will always be Trump. He will always be a name-calling, schoolyard bully. He will always be a liar and a shameless self-promoting malignant narcissist. He will always be ethically corrupted in both his personal life and his public life. He will always be intellectually lazy and driven by the instincts of a man who simply isn't that bright. He will always demand blind loyalty and never give it. He will always be a president for white people and never a president for all people. He is always true to his nature and he did not try to hide that from us as he campaigned. We all remember his first campaign in 2012, when he based his entire campaign on attacking Obama as not being an authentic American, and a guy who got through Law School at Harvard because of Affirmative Action. We all remember how Trump said his "operatives" in Hawaii found evidence of a falsified Birth Certificate, and how he challenged Obama to produce his grades from Harvard. His entire political existence was based on racial hatred and bigotry. He never produced the goods and he faded out in 2012.
In 2016 he was back and greatly expanded upon the racially divisive issues and bad behavior that are his true nature. Right out of the gate he was promulgating racial hatred and stirring racial animus towards Mexicans and Central Americans. His Make America Great Again and America First campaign was aimed squarely at white people- with the force of a bugle; not bothering with the more subtle "dog whistle". I could go on describing all the racially motivated actions and first-hand racist statements he makes in person and through twitter - but it would take too long and they don't require repeating. Suffice to say, we got exactly what so many Americans wanted! Now the question is why so many voters wanted this.
I have come to believe that we can no longer focus on Trump himself. Ignore the distractions and focus on us, and what led us as a nation to select this horrible man. I know he didn't win the popular vote and I know there is a good chance we will see proof of collusion with foreign enemies to help get him elected. But still, there were enough voters out there that supported him to beg the question. I'm sure historians will be arguing over this for generations, but for me the answer lies in our great national sin. Trump is the natural consequence of that sin. It is the sin of racism, and he is the wages of our sin.
Racism in the United States is far more that our history of slavery. As I think about our history, learn more from different people, and study our national legacy I'm convinced that racism is in our national DNA. Since the inception of our country, the "White Supremacy " society that created this country has continuously established systems and constructs to practice racism. To this day we remain a society that is dominated and controlled by the white majority, because it is our nature, just as it is Trump's nature. The proof of this contention is there for all to see, even if very few of us in the majority want to acknowledge this racism in our bloodstream. Consider the following events in our short national history:
1. The acquisition of this continent. European explores came here beginning in the late 1400s and simply claimed the continent for the Crowns of Europe. Thus began the extermination of the indigenous peoples of the continent by disease or violent force. Europeans believed they had a divine right and saw the indigenous people as less than human savages who could be pushed aside, because their Christian God ordained them superior- and they had the military strength to do it.
2. Slavery in North America. This was brought by the English and became an American institution after the formation of the US. Slavery in the US was based entirely on the concept that black people were sub-human and subject to forced servitude and inhumane treatment solely based on race- and it was approved by God, as established through the Bible. Just as slavery was dying out due to economic pressures, Eli Whitney invented the Cotton Gin in 1837 and slavery became profitable again. But remember Slavery and the sub-human status of black slaves was encoded into Article 1 of our Constitution. Only our bloody Civil War and the 14th Amendment changed this- but it did not end racism.
3. Western expansion. Following the Louisiana Purchase and wars with Mexico the territory of the continental US was established. The "Indian Problem" in the west was solved through genocide and relocation of survivors. Just as indigenous people in the east and the south were destroyed, the US government enacted policies for the west to rid the country of Indians to make way for settlements of whites in the resource-rich western territories. Justification for this crime against humanity was based on race, greed, and privilege.
4. Jim Crow laws. The idea that blacks were sub-human did not end with the abolition of slavery. It may have become illegal to own slaves, but white people at the state and local levels enacted laws throughout the country that prohibited African Americans from ever realizing full citizenship or enjoyment of full access to their rights. Most of those laws were in effect when I was born and they did not officially disappear off the books until after the civil rights movement of the 60's and 70's.
5. The internment of American citizens during WWII. Americans of Japanese decent were held captive in concentration camps during WWII based entirely on the fact that they were genetically of Japanese heritage. That is purely an issue of race, and it ranks highly along with all the other racial injustices our government has perpetrated.
6. Supreme Court rulings. Even as our young Supreme Court heard cases based on the Constitutional underpinnings and values of the country, they found in the Dred Scott case (1857) that Negroes in slavery were property, not humans with human rights. Then in 1896 the Plessy v. Ferguson decision upheld racial discrimination as acceptable, based on the standard of "separate but equal". This was the law of the land until 1954 when the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education finally held that separate could never be equal- thus ushering in integration, which was met by extreme hostility by the white majority. How can we forget the image of Alabama Governor George Wallace standing in the doorway attempting to block the entry of a black student at the University of Alabama?- this some 100 years after the Civil War.
7. Everyday Racism. In addition to a long history of legally ordained and overt government racist actions (of which I have only listed a few) we still see the continuation of racism in the actions of police violence across the country, the rate of incarceration of minorities in our prison populations, subtle discriminatory hiring practices in our job markets, real estate and insurance markets, racial discrimination in schools, Trump travel bans and immigration policy atrocities, recent voter suppression laws based on the lie of voter fraud, and the list goes on.
It is so easy for most of us to forget the unbroken chain of racism that has existed in this country . It is even easier for far too many of us to deny this legacy. After all, our values, as laid out in our founding documents, speak to much loftier principles. They call us to acknowledge that all men are created equal; they eloquently speak of individual liberties and the establishment of a more perfect Union, to establish Justice, to ensure domestic Tranquility...promote the general Welfare... and secure the blessings of Liberty.. And with such elevated principles, it's natural to live in the fantasy that we are exceptional. But the sad truth is that we are not when it comes to the treatment of our fellow citizens who are in the group of racial minorities.
Many believed the election of Barrack Obama to the presidency signaled the end to our racial issues. I never believed that. My fear was that the election of our first African-American president would only serve to reveal the underlying racism, that had become less fashionable out in the open, but was always lurking just below the surface. FBI reports of the tremendous increase in the establishment of white supremacy groups following the 2008 election was telling on this point. There is also clear evidence that some of the Trump vote came as a backlash from white voters who could not stomach the idea of a black president. They were, and are vocal supporters of Trump's who made no effort to hide their countenance with his racially motivated hatred of Obama, and saw the Trump candidacy, and eventual presidency as the revenge and relief they needed.
So, on many fronts the most recent illustration of our inherent racism is the election of Donald Trump. Social media gives us daily examples of the people who are rabid in their support of the man who is the antithesis of the values they claim to revere- including their precious Christian values. There are far too many people who have an irrational belief in Trump as the man the country needs- even though they cannot articulate the reasons very well. But when push comes to shove they know that making our country great again means going back to the overt racism of our past- it means blaming minorities for the failings of white people who aren't among the privileged, it means using race to separate us more- and that seems to be the most common characteristic of his voters. I wish that were not the case, but in his quest to gain power he touched this despicable nerve in our collective being, and it is our reality.
My best hope for us is to look deeply into our national identity and come to grips with our past and our present. Honestly examining one's own values, ethics, and motives is so very difficult. Doing that in the form of our national conscience is many times more difficult. No one wants to think of themselves or their culture as "racist". Even openly racist individuals claim they are not racist, usually through some convoluted intellectual gymnastics and rationalizations. And the strain of racism does not apply to all of us as individuals- but as individuals it is everyone's responsibility to look inward- and converse outwardly too address the issue. My hope is that the Trump presidency will expose all that we are, all that we should be, and what we have done to ourselves by his election. My hope is this will lead to a rebirth of our real values and make them a reality this time around.
Thanks for looking in.
4. Jim Crow laws. The idea that blacks were sub-human did not end with the abolition of slavery. It may have become illegal to own slaves, but white people at the state and local levels enacted laws throughout the country that prohibited African Americans from ever realizing full citizenship or enjoyment of full access to their rights. Most of those laws were in effect when I was born and they did not officially disappear off the books until after the civil rights movement of the 60's and 70's.
5. The internment of American citizens during WWII. Americans of Japanese decent were held captive in concentration camps during WWII based entirely on the fact that they were genetically of Japanese heritage. That is purely an issue of race, and it ranks highly along with all the other racial injustices our government has perpetrated.
6. Supreme Court rulings. Even as our young Supreme Court heard cases based on the Constitutional underpinnings and values of the country, they found in the Dred Scott case (1857) that Negroes in slavery were property, not humans with human rights. Then in 1896 the Plessy v. Ferguson decision upheld racial discrimination as acceptable, based on the standard of "separate but equal". This was the law of the land until 1954 when the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education finally held that separate could never be equal- thus ushering in integration, which was met by extreme hostility by the white majority. How can we forget the image of Alabama Governor George Wallace standing in the doorway attempting to block the entry of a black student at the University of Alabama?- this some 100 years after the Civil War.
7. Everyday Racism. In addition to a long history of legally ordained and overt government racist actions (of which I have only listed a few) we still see the continuation of racism in the actions of police violence across the country, the rate of incarceration of minorities in our prison populations, subtle discriminatory hiring practices in our job markets, real estate and insurance markets, racial discrimination in schools, Trump travel bans and immigration policy atrocities, recent voter suppression laws based on the lie of voter fraud, and the list goes on.
It is so easy for most of us to forget the unbroken chain of racism that has existed in this country . It is even easier for far too many of us to deny this legacy. After all, our values, as laid out in our founding documents, speak to much loftier principles. They call us to acknowledge that all men are created equal; they eloquently speak of individual liberties and the establishment of a more perfect Union, to establish Justice, to ensure domestic Tranquility...promote the general Welfare... and secure the blessings of Liberty.. And with such elevated principles, it's natural to live in the fantasy that we are exceptional. But the sad truth is that we are not when it comes to the treatment of our fellow citizens who are in the group of racial minorities.
Many believed the election of Barrack Obama to the presidency signaled the end to our racial issues. I never believed that. My fear was that the election of our first African-American president would only serve to reveal the underlying racism, that had become less fashionable out in the open, but was always lurking just below the surface. FBI reports of the tremendous increase in the establishment of white supremacy groups following the 2008 election was telling on this point. There is also clear evidence that some of the Trump vote came as a backlash from white voters who could not stomach the idea of a black president. They were, and are vocal supporters of Trump's who made no effort to hide their countenance with his racially motivated hatred of Obama, and saw the Trump candidacy, and eventual presidency as the revenge and relief they needed.
So, on many fronts the most recent illustration of our inherent racism is the election of Donald Trump. Social media gives us daily examples of the people who are rabid in their support of the man who is the antithesis of the values they claim to revere- including their precious Christian values. There are far too many people who have an irrational belief in Trump as the man the country needs- even though they cannot articulate the reasons very well. But when push comes to shove they know that making our country great again means going back to the overt racism of our past- it means blaming minorities for the failings of white people who aren't among the privileged, it means using race to separate us more- and that seems to be the most common characteristic of his voters. I wish that were not the case, but in his quest to gain power he touched this despicable nerve in our collective being, and it is our reality.
My best hope for us is to look deeply into our national identity and come to grips with our past and our present. Honestly examining one's own values, ethics, and motives is so very difficult. Doing that in the form of our national conscience is many times more difficult. No one wants to think of themselves or their culture as "racist". Even openly racist individuals claim they are not racist, usually through some convoluted intellectual gymnastics and rationalizations. And the strain of racism does not apply to all of us as individuals- but as individuals it is everyone's responsibility to look inward- and converse outwardly too address the issue. My hope is that the Trump presidency will expose all that we are, all that we should be, and what we have done to ourselves by his election. My hope is this will lead to a rebirth of our real values and make them a reality this time around.
Thanks for looking in.
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