Not even a dog whistle
Saletan on Trump’s open racism:
Republicans who have sworn allegiance to Donald Trump—the majority leaders of the United States House and Senate, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, and numerous governors and members of Congress—don’t think this country can return to the racism and fascism of the 20th century. They want us to believe that Trump will respect the norms of the post-Holocaust, post-segregation era because they support him. In truth, their capitulation should alarm us. As other countries have learned, the first step in the descent to racism and fascism is to become numb to them. Over the past week, we’ve received fresh evidence that the numbing process is underway.
Most Germans didn’t think Hitler was going to be what he went on to be. That was a big mistake.
On Friday, at a rally in San Diego, Trump claimed that the federal judge who is hearing the fraud case against Trump’s real-estate “university” isbiased and corrupt—in part, apparently, because the judge is “Mexican.”
Trump has previously portrayed people as biased or untrustworthy, based purely on Latino ancestry, on at least four occasions. Last summer, after retweeting an allegation that Jeb Bush “has to like the Mexican illegals because of his wife,” Trump defended this claim on the grounds that Bush’s wife—who had been an American citizen for more than 35 years—was “from Mexico.” On Dec. 12 and Dec. 29, Trump suggested to Republican audiences in Iowa that they shouldn’t vote for Sen. Ted Cruz because “not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba.” In February, Trump accused Gonzalo Curiel, the judge in the Trump University case, of conspiring against him, calling Curiel “Spanish” and “Hispanic.” When Trump was asked to explain the connection between the judge’s alleged bias and his ethnicity, Trump said: “I think it has to do with perhaps the fact that I’m very, very strong on the border.”
Trump’s attack on Friday continued in this vein. “I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump,” he told a crowd in San Diego. “His name is”— at this point, Trump, having raised his voice like a drum roll, held up a piece of paper and pronounced the name carefully, gesturing for effect—“Gonzalo Curiel.” The audience booed, and Trump let the moment soak in, shaking his head in solidarity. Trump told the audience two things about Curiel: that he “was appointed by Barack Obama” and that he “happens to be, we believe, Mexican.” After railing against Curiel and the lawsuit for more than 10 minutes, Trump concluded: “The judges in this court system, federal court—they ought to look into Judge Curiel.”
…
Let’s recap. At least five times in the past year, the candidate who is now the Republican nominee for president has implied that certain public officials are suspect, or are acting against the national interest, because they or their family members are Latino. This isn’t a complaint about illegal immigrants. It’s not even a dog whistle. It’s a straight-up appeal to prejudice. It’s about the color of your skin, the sound of your last name, and where your ancestors came from.
We’ve seen this before. Let’s not see the whole show again.
I genuinely do not believe Trump is Hitler. Mussolini, on the other hand, I could totally see. And frankly, that’s horrid enough.
At this point, it shouldn’t just be the Republicans who actually endorse him, or even just those who don’t actively oppose him; every GOP candidate on the November ballot should be asked, “Why should we vote for someone who decided, out of pure self-interest, to remain on a ticket headlined by an out-and-out fascist?”
Hitler wasn’t Hitler from the outset – he got a lot more so once he got power.
Still. I too don’t think he’s an exact match for Hitler. But I do think he’s much too like Hitler to be anywhere near being a viable candidate. I find his success acutely shaming.
There was a series of articles — I think The Economist published it — around the end of Dubya’s regrettable tenure — on the subject of just how long and how much it was going to take to undo the damage his presidency had done…
The incredible thing about Trump: I think it’s going to take some time to undo the damage even of his campaign. Even if he loses (please), the normalization of xenophobia, appeals to violence, all of that is still going to be reverberating loudly around the US and beyond, and for some time.
People might argue, well, look, we knew that stuff was there before, the people who’d vote for a guy like this, for whom such naked appeals to prejudice he makes are catnip were always there, maybe it’s actually better we have it out in the open. But look, apart from the fact it wasn’t exactly a huge secret before, it really doesn’t work that simply, that unidirectionally. You make your social world by living how you do, speaking how you do. And he has poured poison far and wide. The opposition can absolutely clean his ugly clock at the ballot box (also please), it’s still going to be a mess to clean up, people now gleefully comfortable saying, listen, a presidential candidate talks this way, argues this way, why can’t I? Again, you can argue: always nice to have the rats out in the open like this, but again, it’s just not that simple. There will be more rats. And they’ll be rattier.
On a not very related subject, I find Trump kinda hilariously transparent when he talks of ‘haters’. Poor guy. Did we watch a too few many 90s rap videos, dear? And sure, baby, they’re just jealous or some damn thing, you just keep trying to sell that. Not appalled on principle, and expressing their opposition as is only minimally ethical, by now (if not, you know, doing the job their office requires). As anyone with anything vaguely resembling a moral compass should be, by now, now they’ve had long enough to get to know you and yours.
AJ Mine@3: That’s why what needs to happen is not just Trump’s defeat. His candidacy needs consequences, strong ones, down-ticket. There needs to be a flat-out repudiation of his ideas–so much so that any would-be successor immediately is regarded by the party as toxic enough to warrant immediate action.
Trump spells big trouble for many of the views that became dominant during and after the 60s. It could well be that those ideologies are coming to an end, and that the elections of 2016 will be the first we can truly call 21st century.
A group of French Canadians workmates and I were discussion the elections and one turned to me and characterized Trump as “The Sex Pistols Candidate”
Trump has endless supplies of “fuck-you” money and so doesn’t have to suck up to the MSM, the lobby groups and the ‘special’ interest groups. He gives them all the finger.
As a Canadian I cannot vote in U.S. elections, but from up here his campaign look like a freight train with no brakes.
When you look at events like those in San José yesterday, campaign appearances where Trump supporters are physically attacked and assaulted, it cannot help but bump up the guy’s numbers.
Ditto for the efforts of those who repeat ad-nauseum that “Trump-is-Hitler”, “Trump-is-a-Fascist”, “Trump-is-a-racist”. Those tactics are overused ( as are the terms) and don’t work anymore.
These tenors of equality have engaged in fascistic identity politics for 50 years now. They invoke the Black community, the gay community, the Hispanic community, the Muslim community and so on.
And so along comes a guy who out of the blue who has managed to galvanize the White community.
In 08 and ’12 more the 94% of Blacks who voted, voted for Obama. Obama’s popularity among Hispanics was equally over the top.
So in ’16 you’ve got a guy supported by an overwhelming number of Whites ( still some 73% of America) who for years have been made to feel alienated and disenfranchised…wounded.
Blacks and Hispanics, a goodly number of whom live off tax revenues generated by Whites, shouting ‘racist’ and ‘bigot’ at Whites, brandishing the flag of Mexico while burning the Stars and Bars, just twists the knife in that wound.
“The Sex PIstol Candidate”.
But ( to invoke clichés) inside every dark cloud there’s always a silver lining; if Trump wins, Miley Cyrus will move to Canada…
Oh my…
‘… Blacks and Hispanics, a goodly number of whom live off tax revenues generated by Whites…’
Well, I guess we _were_ speaking of things not so much dog whistles…
21st century, huh?
Ah, me. Y’know what this also needs? A nice, manly, futuristic architectural aesthetic. That’d just bring it home, it would…
(Ooo! Mebbe even somethin’ yoooge and classy…)
More sympathetically, Mr. Yer-Hood-Is-Showing, I think you’ll be surprised at just how alive certain universal values, and many of them a mite older than the sixties, remain. None of which are much likely to much help your favoured billionaire Messiah, mind…
Less sympathetically, I think ‘overwhelming’ support is a mite overstated. But, hell, we’re taking about a guy seems to consider any bankruptcy in which he’s not holding the bag pretty awesomely sweet, so mebbe I’m just misunderstanding the sense in which this adjective is used.
Surely you meant to say “… who for years have unjustifiably felt…”?
I think my favorite bit of that was “Along comes a guy out of the blue…”. Donald Trump is not some aberration or spontaneous event. He’s the GOP’s Adam, a monster they’ve been putting together in their basement lab since the Southern Strategy, at least, finally awake and wreaking havoc. And until they admit that and confront him (as opposed to trying to claim it has nothing to do with them, as many of the ‘mainstream’ Republicans continue to do), the chaos will continue. Either they destroy the monster, or the villagers (ie, the rest of us) will eventually get sick of it and destroy the castle. Which would be fine, except for all the collateral damage along the way.
Heh. Yeah, Freemage. Tho’ I kinda liked the runaway train thing, too…
Freight train with no brakes. Yep. Uh huh, even…
And about as likely to end well, I figure.
The ’21st century ‘ thing does kinda interest me. Hadn’t really noticed, but it’s now dawning on me it must have been becoming a bit of a theme, here and there, of late. There was the Doonesbury thing in late March mocking I can’t remember which wart on the body politic overusing that particular phrase: ’21st century leader’…
(It was pointed out in said strip… erm… hasn’t that century already been on a while, really? Starting late, are we? And yes, full confession, I only reference Doonesbury to troll anyone still apparently pissed about the 60s. I’m a bad person.)
21st century leader, tho’ .. Yeah, baby! You’re the future, absolutely, if you say so… Bring on the…
Well, sure, the same old shit would-be demagogues have been trying since forever, I guess.
Doesn’t anyone remember when things started out with reheated Clinton or reheated Bush as though Americans were all robotic idiots?
We’re now down to Trump, the Sex Pistols candidate, and Hillary, mortally wounded by another maverick, Bernie Sanders.
At only five months from election day, the Democrats no longer have a viable candidate
So all of the experts were wrong.
This election is unlike any other because it signals the end of an era.
hasn’t that century already been on a while, really? Starting late, are we?
The 19th century didn’t end until 1914, and the fifties really didn’t end until Nov. 22 1963.
Hang on to your hats and crank up your Zapruder camera.
No, he really doesn’t. He’s not as rich as he pretends he is. And his “fuck yous” mean he isn’t going to appeal to the mainstream voters he would need to win the election.
Don’t be absurd. Clinton is viable; she has not been “mortally wounded.”
Trump will need 70% of the white male vote to beat her in the general. He ain’t going to get it. Not even Reagan got that.
Jesus Christ, where to begin.
I’ll just confine myself to pointing out that no, he does not have “overwhelming” white support. Not even among white males:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/03/31/nightmare-nominee-nobody-likes-donald-trump-not-even-white-men/
There are a number of polls showing Trump to be neck and neck with Clinton.
I’m NOT a Trump-thumper; I’m just pointing out HOW WRONG all of the experts were.
Let’s get back to this…
the candidate who is now the Republican nominee for president has implied that certain public officials are suspect, or are acting against the national interest, because they or their family members are Latino.
Is it true the Judge presiding in the Trump U. case was or IS a member of La Raza?
I’d read that he was.
La Raza is chock full of Latino-supremacists whose agenda, at least in part, consists of reattaching the America Southwest to Mexico. There are some in this group with an intense and irrational hatred of Gringos.
You make take this lightly, or dismiss it as nonsense. Myself, I’ve had plenty of experience with Franco-supremacists in my neck of the woods. Their intense and irrational hatred of non-anglos is such that they’ve been known to FINE the owners of Italian restaurants because the menu is in…Italian.
An article with plenty of links.
http://observer.com/2016/06/underestimating-donald-trump-again/
I certainly do. As a gringo born and raised in Southern California, surrounded by Mexican and Central American immigrants, legal and illegal, from infancy, (friends, babysitters, neighbors, co-workers) I’m about as scared of (the mainstream Latino advocacy group) La Raza as I am of cheese omelettes.
http://www.nclr.org/about-us/
Judge Curiel (born and raised in Indiana) may very well be a member of La Raza, which is such a threat to the US gov’t they…provide a quarter of its funding. That wouldn’t disqualify him one whit from hearing Trump’s case, unless you think no black judge should ever preside over a case involving a white defendent, or vice versa. (Or maybe it’s only black judges belonging to the NAACP who should recuse themselves, hmm?)
(As a matter of fact, I get emails from La Raza myself. Boo!)
Oh, beautifully said. And I didn’t know that about the funding.
Oh my. On about the _judge_again, are we?
John. _Your_ boy (spare me your hilariously transparent denials) is only trying all this because he has absolutely no ethical boundaries whatsoever, and will absolutely try to leverage _any_ fear and suspicion, however ugly, to his advantage. He’s worried about his chances in court, because he _knows_ there’s lots of dodgy in his little ‘Trump U’ scheme, but he figures, fine, even if I lose, I can still blame even this on those Mexicans I know my followers love to hate. It’s just a hedge. Blunts the potential political fallout, fits the narrative he’s pushing. If you’re not already onboard the idiot train, sure, it looks odious. But if you _are_, it’s great red meat. Also probably hurts him, trying to expand his reach (oh, and yeah, your susceptibility to this is only one of a few ways you’re so easy to call, speaking of), but it’s decent defense, at least.
Ah, but the ramifications of this? Are you actually _sentient_? Or are you still too pissed about sign laws to think straight? Do you _not_ see what these are?
A reasonably succinct framing of the La Raza gambit (and the larger context of amping and normalizing racism for votes), for my money:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/06/trump_s_attack_on_a_federal_judge_is_an_open_appeal_to_racism.html
Note also: generally, what I was just saying. He’s normalizing this paranoid hatred. And you’re helping him. With gusto.
I note now also your standard tu quoque whenever you’re caught out at this garbage. Others do this. There are people who hate whites (dun dun dun). The francophones. The Hispanics. And on and on…
John, here’s the thing: true or not, it does not excuse _you_. Maybe you’re a bit slow, but: it gets us nowhere. You’re like a skunk telling another: listen, there are _other_ skunks with rabies, too… Might as well let me bite you. And every racist shit everywhere assures us earnestly he’s just ‘defending his race’ against these scheming whatever-the-hell-is-available this decade.
Seriously, _that_ is what you and Trump are selling. _That’s_ your brave new world. And thanks, but I’m not buying. And making it _damn_ clear now, for history, where I stand on this.
(Note: I crossed with LM. Took a bit to sketch this on a phone. But likewise: well said.)
As is yours. Thank you.
Judge Curiel (born and raised in Indiana) may very well be a member of La Raza, which is such a threat to the US gov’t they…provide a quarter of its funding.
So what?
Réné Lévesque was born and raised in Canada, was a journalist for the national broadcaster (CBC). And while he and his “La Raza” Frenchmen were in power plotting the separation of Québec from Canada, his province continued to receive BILLIONs in transfer payments ( subsidies) from the federal gov’t.
I may be wrong, but I’ve heard that even the NOI has received grants from Washington for various projects.
So since when does gov’t funding to groups preclude any tendencies towards extremism within those groups?
I’ll leave it at that.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/along-the-us-canadian-border-frayed-ties-and-daily-hassles/2016/05/31/133230cc-241b-11e6-b944-52f7b1793dae_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_ww