Less Than Human -- Trump's White Nationalism

"I'm the least racist person there is anywhere in the world."

-- Donald Trump

Trump is the architect-in-chief of the “Us versus Them” mentality. His use of paranoid projection helps whites escape any guilt and responsibility and affix blame elsewhere. His wild claim of being the “least racist person” would be laughable would it not be an effective tool of his bigoted, narcissistic vision of white nationalism. As Trump adopts a pretense of grandiosity, he also further elevates himself by devaluing those he views as competitors and underlings.

Largely through the dull semantics of racism, Trump has normalized white supremacy. Racial violence, white nationalism, and white domestic terror are on the rise in America. According to FBI director Christopher Wray, there is an increase in domestic terrorism arrests, a majority of which involve white supremacist violence.

Trump’s repeated use of the term “infested,” in regard to immigrants as well as African Americans, parallels a key part of Nazi ideology – to define the enemy and those who posed a threat to the so-called “Aryan” race. Nazi propaganda promoted the myth of the “national community” and identifed who should be excluded. Jews were considered the main enemy of the state.

The analogy between Jews and vermin was a regular feature on the front pages of the notoriously anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi tabloid Der Stürmer. The association between Jews and disease-carrying rodents featured on countless banners and posters, issued by Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, which sought to equate Jews with parasitic vermin.

“Words can be polluted even more dramatically and drastically than rivers and land and sea. Their misuse is our undoing.”

– Malcolm Muggeridge

In his tweets and speeches,Trump employs the same imagery used by Nazis. However instead of associating European Jews with rodents and rats, he compares Latins, Muslims, and African-Americans to "animals" and vermin. His use of repulsive language plays well to his faithful followers, just as Hitler's hate-filled rhetoric fueled Nazi nationalism.

Trump supporters – voters and lawmakers alike – use substantial truth to defend his hideous words. Under the substantial truth doctrine, minor factual inaccuracies will be ignored so long as the inaccuracies do not materially alter the substance or impact of what is being communicated. The substantial truth doctrine allows individuals to avoid liability if the gist of their statement is true.

So, if Cummings’ district is truly rodent-infested, substantive truth applies. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev says ... 

“Nazis could have used the same excuse: Conditions in the Warsaw and Lodz ghettos, in which Nazi filmmakers captured the masses of poor, dirty and sickly Jews shown in The Eternal Jew (1940 German Nazi antisemitic propaganda film, presented as a documentary) were indeed squalid, decrepit and unhygienic in the extreme. The only detail missing is that it was the Nazis who herded Jews into their inhuman ghettos in the first place.”

Substantive truth? What can be the effect upon the recipient of the bigoted discourse? One may look to history and to Nazi Germany to determine the answer. A loose-mouthed, prejudiced leader is a present danger to the liberty and equality of all. Doesn't democracy require we honor the culture of words – that we use them to mend differences and solve problems, not to debase the opposition? Not to dehumanize them?

Donald Trump is the king of demeaning, belittling, bullying ... yes, dehumanizing those with whom he doesn't agree. He has mocked former prisoners of war, the disabled, and the appearance of women. He has perpetuated conspiracy theories. He has attacked Gold Star parents and widows. And he has engaged in so many racially tinged attacks.

Peter Wehner, Senior Editor at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC (2019), says ...

“Many other presidents have been viewed as divisive figures, but none have taken as much delight as Trump in provoking acrimony, malice, and bitterness for their own sake; in turning Americans against one another in order to turn them against one another. He seems to find psychic satisfaction in doing so.”

With a regime built on hypocrisy and falsehoods, Trump leads his indulgent party and attempts to take the nation to untold heights of racism. He has a defect of character with respect to the truth that supporters actually admire. Why? Perhaps their color blind racism finds more support than opposition in Trump's lies and prejudiced words.

And, all of this occurs in 2019 under the cloak of Christian responsibility. “Christians love me … Without the evangelicals, I could not have won this nomination,” Donald Trump claims. Again, turn to history and the rise of nationalism in Nazi Germany.

Hitler simply could not have risen to power in Germany without what now looks like the badly misplaced assessment of Christians. Voting studies show that the most intensely Protestant regions, regions of reverence similar to the Bible Belt in today’s America, had the highest rates of support for the Nazi Party. By 1945, Christians in Germany deeply regretted their enthusiasm for Hitler, who gave them only defeat, destruction, and moral disrepute.

Oh, I hear the claims of exaggeration and partisanship from Trump supporters. Many of these same people hold onto the man despite his hate-filled attacks claiming “how great the economy is going under Trump” or “how the man stands for the major platform of their political affiliation.” The bottom line is the need to oppose a leader with flawed character, a president who has proven his racist core. No leader should be allowed to continue to incite hatred and violence through his reckless words and actions. 2020 and a change cannot arrive too early.

“First they came . . .” by Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

Source

Chemi Shalev. “Trump’s 'Rodent-infested' Rhetoric Shows How Germany and the World Stayed Silent” www.haaretz.com.  July 28, 2019.