Sunday, February 12, 2017

Trump and His Supporters See Only Whites as Full Citizens


Numerous writers have noted the sense of depression and/or stress that many Americans are experiencing as the regime of Der Trumpenführer rolls out it policies that aim to make white, heterosexual right wing Christians true citizens.  The rest of us are relegated to an inferior status under this selfish and hate driven world view.  Indeed, any restriction on the ability of the preferred class of whites to abuse and marginalize others is described as "persecution of Christians" and/or "white oppression."  It takes a very sick and evil mindset to view not being allowed to abuse and mistreat others as "persecution," but that is now the governing policy template that reigns at the White House. A piece in Salon looks at this toxic reality and what it bodes for many Americans.  Here are excerpts:
Woody Guthrie was one of the United States’ greatest folk singers and activists. Most Americans can recite the following lyrics from memory:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.
These beautiful words were both a slogan and a demand.  Donald Trump does not share such egalitarian values.
Last week, Trump was the featured guest at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. where he outlined a vision of Christian nationalism. A twice-divorced man, repeat adulterer, professed sexual predator who has said he grabs women by their genitals, liar and fraud, guest star in a pornographic video and a person who is neither pious nor modest speaking on matters of God and faith might be seen as comedy gold. Likewise, Trump’s promises to tear down the boundaries between church and state could also be mocked as boilerplate right-wing talking points that only resonate with the ignorant or the politically unhinged.
In this historical moment, these matters are too serious to be greeted with laughter, however. Trump’s comments at the prayer breakfast are part of a much larger and very dangerous pattern.
Donald Trump used overt white racism as well as white racial resentment to secure his victory over Hillary Clinton. The narrative of “economic anxiety” among working-class whites is largely incorrect. White identity politics and ginning up fear about “white oppression” won Trump the White House.
Two of Donald Trump’s most senior and trusted advisers are Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller, long associated with white nationalist causes and publications.
Donald Trump has ordered that federal resources be diverted away from tracking white supremacist organizations.
Donald Trump’s administration does not view protecting the civil rights of non-whites as a priority. He has threatened to unleash the police and military on black and brown people who live in cities such as Chicago. Trump’s personal behavior is replete with examples of bigotry and racism.
This is a vision of America as a Herrenvolk society where democracy, freedom and opportunity are centered around the principle that white people are the in-group to be privileged and protected, while nonwhites are to be treated as second-class citizens. This vision of America also embraces what white supremacists and white nationalists have referred to as “ethno-nationalism”: the idea that the modern nation-state should be defined by “ethnicity,” and that there are certain core values that must be protected at all costs against “outsiders.”
But “ethno-nationalism” is no more than racist doublespeak. It is a somewhat more acceptable reframing of the white supremacist belief that America and Europe should be “white” by law, habit and tradition. By implication, people of color (and those who are not Christian — especially Muslims) are pollutants to be expunged, by whatever means necessary, from the white body politic.
Last week, Donald Trump doubled down on his embrace of these racist Herrenvolk and ethno-nationalist values when it was announced that former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Anton would be joining his administration.
Writing for the New Yorker, Jonathan Chait elaborates:
Anton describes the government (pre-Trump) as “the junta.” This cannot be dismissed as mere rhetorical exaggeration. To Anton, the rising share of the nonwhite population is a foreign invasion: “The ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty means that the electorate grows more left, more Democratic, less Republican, less republican, and less traditionally American with every cycle,” he writes.
Anton apparently now occupies a central advisory role in the White House and will be helping shape American foreign policy.
In his role as the white nationalist in chief of the United States, Donald Trump wants to make clear that America is a white man’s country and that everyone else permitted to live here is just a guest, permanently “on notice.” This is revanchism of the worst kind, and a desperate effort to turn back the clock to the wrong side of history.
Donald Trump and his minions will soon discover that black and brown people built America. Indeed, many of them were in the United States long before “white” Europeans arrived and tried to claim it exclusively as their own.
Yes, this agenda is similar to the Nazi myth of the Aryan Race.  To my "friends" who voted for Trump/Pence, it may hurt your feelings to call you out, but this mindset is what in my view motivated your vote.  All I can say is shame on you!

No comments: