The Culture War: News From the Trump Front

This weekend Donald Trump ignored implications of the disastrous U.S. government response to COVID-19 pandemic, preferring instead to engage in a culture war. Memorable Trump-related weekend action included …

1. The White House is taking vigorous efforts to protect him from infection at rallies that contravene social distancing and masking guidelines, and that put even his own supporters at risk of getting sick.
2. Trump found time to defend a statue former President Andrew Jackson, who retired to his slave plantation in 1837.
3. He retweeted a video in which a supporter chanted "white power."
4. He denied reports that he was briefed that Russia offered a bounty for the killings of US and UK soldiers by the Taliban.
5. He lambasted his predecessor Barack Obama for his less prolific golf hobby, made two trips to his Virginia course, despite boasting that he canceled a weekend trip to his New Jersey resort to make sure "law and order is enforced" in Washington, DC.

(Stephen Collinson. “As the pandemic rages, Trump indulges his obsessions.”

CNN. June 29, 2020.)

Make no mistake: a war is raging – a battle of cultural beliefs. It is a struggle to define values – a conflict which constitutes nothing short of a fight over the meaning of America. In the hostile conflict, the war cuts across moral and religious communities. Not since the Civil War has there been such fundamental disagreement over basic assumptions about truth, freedom, and our national identity.

Despite Trump's efforts there has been a shift in the war. Many of Trump's culture war allies are now defecting – NASCAR decided to ban the Confederate flag, and the NFL apologized for punishing its athletes who knelt to protest police brutality.

The most notable rift came when military leaders, whom Trump likes to call " my generals," broke with him. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said they would not only consider renaming military bases but also rejected Trump's threat to use the U.S. military against protesters.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.”

– General Jim Mattis

Trump also faced opposition from retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, his former defense secretary, and several prominent military leaders who criticized his decision to take a photo in front of St. John's Church following the removal of protesters on June 1.

(Mara Liasson. “As The Culture Wars Shift, President Trump Struggles To Adapt.”

NPR WOUB. June 20, 2020.)

Let's not forget how Trump responded to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests in Minnesota? In a pair of tweets, the president said the protesters “are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd.”

“Any difficulty and we will assume control, but when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” Trump wrote in a tweet that was subsequently flagged by Twitter for “glorifying violence.”

It was a threat apparently coined by the late Walter Headley, the Miami police chief who vowed to use violence against black protesters during 1967 protests. “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality,” Headley said.

(Gabby Orr and Laura Barron-Lopez. “Trump confronts a culture war of his own making

as election loom.” Politico. May 29, 2020.)

Oh, and we would be remiss not to mention Trump's stand on masks and social distancing – a battle he constantly wages in the culture war? Remember how he, despite a surge in COVID-19 cases in the city of Tulsa, recommended “people do what they want” when it came to wearing a mask at the event – and even suggested it could be harmful to wear one.

President Trump refuses to wear a mask in public appearances – including one at a factory that produces masks – or in his office, despite a recent outbreak among the White House staff. He evidently views not wearing a mask as a particular vision of masculinity, arguing that mask-wearing is a form of “political correctness.”

Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox, explains …

“The war on masks is a way of taking a public health crisis – a situation that demands political unity and best practices in governance – and reshaping it into a culture war competition. The question is not 'are we doing a good job handling this' so much as 'whose team do you want to be on, the namby-pamby liberals or the strong fearless conservatives?'”

(Zac, Beauchamp. “The partisan culture war over masks.” Vox. May 13, 2020.)

So, what is Trump's overall strategy in the culture war? As he did with his "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan, Trump is invoking an idealized past vision of an America free of political correctness – a nation where white conservative values are dominant and where diversity suffers. At the same time, he pushes the idea that the virus is over to convince voters that a strong economy is on the way back.

Donald Trump is a misguided, narcissistic reactionary fighting a culture war under the title of Making (White) America Great Again. He does what HE wants: HE gets angry and lies online, and HE spawns conflicts just to support HIS personal agendas. And, sadly, Republicans endorse HIS offhand divisive reactions.

The Election of 2020 will tell who won this cultural conflict. If Trump does win reelection, the nation must suffer through four more years of his unforgiving style, his inclinations and impulses, his priorities, his unfitness for office, and his instinct for populist themes and reckless language. Given four more years, Trump's antiquated conception of America will cause irreparable divide for a nation desperately seeking its true national identity.

“At a time when Blue and Red America have split into two warring tribes inhabiting two separate realities, and “debate” has been redefined to evoke split-screen cable-news screamfests, this ferocious politicization of everything might seem obvious and unavoidable.

“But it’s also dangerous. It’s as if the rowdy cultural slap-fight the kids were having in the back seat has moved into the front, threatening to swerve the national car off the road. Transforming difficult analytical questions into knee-jerk emotional battlegrounds will dramatically increase the danger that thoughtless short-term choices will throw off our long-term national trajectory.”

– Michael Grunwald, senior staff writer for Politico Magazine