“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from,
that white man is trash.”
that white man is trash.”
Donald Trump is racist. His racism and intolerance are evident in his biased nationalist temperament. Instances of his bigotry span more than four decades, and his presidential campaign was fueled by native-born sentiment directed at nonwhite immigrants. In fact, the very first time that Trump appeared in the pages of the New York Times, back in the 1970s, was when the US Department of Justice sued him for racial discrimination
In 2017, Trump displayed his unabashedly prejudice when he didn't directly condemn the racists who took over Charlottesville because he didn't want to lose his loyal supporters who think they have been "left out" and now “overcome” by minorities.
Even ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan (Rep.) has disavowed Trump's rhetoric and said his words are "the textbook definition of a racist comments." When you add all of Trump’s actions and comments together, a clear pattern emerges – his bigotry is a real element of his personality, character, and career.
Most of the Trump faithful see whites atop a hierarchy of social distinction, and they strive to keep ethnic minorities such as Muslims, African-Americans, and Mexicans at the bottom of the ladder of opportunity and under their control Many of his followers belief the “Make America Great Again” campaign is their license to take complete ownership of American identity at the expense of others they deem inferior.
Trump makes his people feel comfortable to say whatever they want and do whatever they want. He actually enables supremacists with his own unapologetic, narcissistic behavior. In Trump, the partisans find a voice of reckless abandon they believe boldly defends their own isolationism. As he focuses on self-aggrandizement and nationalism, Trump holds rally after rally to energize his base.
“'Make America Great Again' is backward- looking, a 1950s image of America before we had waves of immigration, before gay marriage, before the civil rights movement. It’s that appeal that has really rallied people around Trump more than any arguments around religion.”
– Robert Jones, Public Religion Research Institute
Former President Barack Obama – who fostered a sense of equality for all genders, identities, sexual orientations, races, religions, and belief systems – welcomed protests and opinions with grace, even when they were against him. Not so with Trump. He actually promotes division with a self-centered bully pulpit. He uses executive power in defiance of equitably and constitutional liberties. In reality, his presidency is defined by his shady character, his incompetence, and his lack of leadership skills.
Trump's flagrant actions fly in the face of reason. Who could forget his initial executive order on immigration – a temporary ban on entry for people from seven Muslim-majority countries that were not obvious sources of terrorist activity inside the United States? This was widely seen as Trump's first step toward authoritarianism. Many other footfalls have followed.
“Trump is a Frankenstein’s monster of past presidents’ worst attributes: Andrew Jackson’s rage; Millard Fillmore’s bigotry; James Buchanan’s incompetence and spite; Theodore Roosevelt’s self-aggrandizement; Richard Nixon’s paranoia, insecurity, and indifference to law; and Bill Clinton’s lack of self-control and reflexive dishonesty.”
– Jack Goldsmith, former attorney general in the George W. Buch administration and professor at Harvard Law School
Of course, Trump was elected by those who no longer trust the government, its institutions, and, quite frankly, each other. Increasingly, Americans do not tolerate people who do not stay in identifiable political and even geographical lanes. This breakdown in institutions mirrors the breakdown in social cohesion among diverse groups.
Trump delights in undoing and destroying things. He especially loves wrecking anything with President Obama's name on it. Instead of writing new legislation or working with Congress, he has pledged to reverse Obama’s immigration policies, repeal Obamacare, and, in the words of running mate Mike Pence, undo “every single Obama executive order.”
New York Times columnist Charles Blow wrote in December 2018 ...
“Trump is obsessed with Obama. Much of what Trump has accomplished – and it hasn’t been much – has been to undo Obama’s accomplishments, like pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate agreement and reversing an Obama-era rule that helped prevent guns from being purchased by certain mentally ill people. For Trump, the mark of being a successful president is the degree to which he can expunge Obama’s presidency.”
Trump uses deceit to accomplish his erasure of Obama's legacy. For the longest time, he refused to accept Obama was native-born. In March 2017 Trump accused Obama of “wire tapping” Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign. And, in 2019, he repeated a false claim to reporters wrongly blaming the Obama administration for instituting a policy in which children were separated from their parents at the Southern border.
Donald Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric is known as the “Trump Effect.” The term was originally defined as an increase in bullying in schools caused by the rhetoric Trump used during his presidential campaign. One survey reported 90 percent of teachers saw negative effects during this time and 40 percent said they witnessed derogatory language being used against marginalized students, including students of color, Muslims, and immigrants.
Now, years into his presidency, the definition of the Trump Effect has expanded to include religious and racial bullying by adults as well as: misogyny, sexual assault, and other socially unacceptable behaviors. Trump, his supporters, and his staff have harassed or attacked Latinos, immigrants, Muslim-Americans, African-Americans, and other minorities and marginalized groups.
The hatred and the new energy of the white nationalist movement were results of Trump's campaign and presidency. He continues to make incendiary racial statements while stoking white racial resentment and attacking so-called “political correctness.” His legacy is sure to be laced with violence and division.
One study recent study (2018) evaluated the relationship between Donald Trump’s rise to power and the recent increase in reported hate crimes. From the data used in this study, the authors offered “a novel theory that builds on the existing literature on the causes of hate crimes” …
“We hypothesize that it was not just Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric throughout the political campaign that caused hate crimes to increase. Rather, we argue that it was Trump’s subsequent election as President of the United States that validated this rhetoric in the eyes of perpetrators and fueled the hate crime surge.”
(Griffin Sims Edwards and Stephen Rushin. “The Effect of President Trump's Election on Hate Crimes.” University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Marketing, Industrial Distribution & Economics; Loyola University Chicago School of Law. January 14, 2018.)
To me, all of the debate over the support and idolatry of Donald Trump can be encapsulated by answering one simple question: “Can I support a power-driven president who continually exhibits bigoted histrionic behavior, narcissism, lack of empathy and impulsiveness?” In other words, can I respect the man? The answer is “no.” I, like many, believe his personality constitutes a serious danger for every living being on the planet.
Sources
Jack Goldsmith. “Will Donald Trump Destroy the Presidency?” The Atlantic. October 2017.
Casey Montana. “U.S. Moving Backwards, Blame Trump Odyssey. Mercyhurst University. August 15, 2017.
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