Day: May 24, 2025

Part 2-Trump Racism is Bad for America

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Part 2-Trump Racism is Bad for America

Part 2-Trump Racism is Bad for America

 

By T.K. McNeil

Trump Racism is Bad for America. I ended Part I of Trump Racism Is Bad For America by wondering aloud if we were about to return to the dark days of death squads, concentration camps, and gas ovens. Trump racism is obvious for anyone with eyes, ears, or an X account. We are rocked out of our beds daily by angry and racially inflammatory 2 a.m. Tweets. Trump uses a practiced, coded language of dog whistles and red meat taunts that he pitches regularity to his MAGA hatted support base. The intent, an obviously planned effort to keep them agitated and ready for action. If nothing else, Trump’s base seems willfully ignorant and obsessed by fear. If Trump senses any ebbing in support he orders an extra rally, or maybe two; re-news attacks on the press; berates everyone from Rachel Maddow to Zelinskyy; but most notably, he intensifies attacks against immigrants, NFL players, entertainers like Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, threatening “major investigations.” That’s how Trump works.

Trump racism dressed as law and order. Have people forgotten Trump opened his 2016 campaign with an unprecedented tirade against Mexican “criminal, drug mules and rapists?” Trump has revived nativist themes that have not been heard aloud since George H.W. Bush. In 1988 HW supporters used the image of a black killer/rapist Willie Horton to effectively sabotage his opponent Michael Dukakis. Until now, that ad campaign was considered a true low point in political racist tactics.

Jump to today. In a similar tact Trump is replacing the face of black man Willie Horton with the brown face of an illegal immigrant, and convicted cop killer, Luis Bracamontes. Hammering the anti-immigrant theme Trump claims that Democrats will open the country to criminals. Trump’s vitriol is toxic, but Trump is convinced that it was just such rhetoric that secured him the presidency the first time. Instinctively, he keeps pushing the limits of what passes for barely acceptable political discourse toward an ever-darkening place.

More evidence of Trump racism keeps emerging.  Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney for over a decade and a convict for three years, opens up about Trump racism. On Friday 11-2-2018 Vanity Fair published a damning portrait of the president. According to Cohen, Trump made frequent racist comments, most particularly against blacks. Cohen claimed that Trump frequently used the N word and other demeaning statements made about black people, their intellect, their abilities, their communities and even their countries. Cohen confirmed to Vanity Fair writer Emily Jane Fox that language reported by Omarosa Manigault Newman in her book, “Unhinged An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House” was typically Trump. So, Trump doesn’t limit his hate; he hates everybody that isn’t orange.

Keeping the fire hot.  Trump has never stopped his campaigning. He has never become president of all the people. He is president of a core base and his goal is to keep them frightened and angry. He wants them fired up ready to attack whenever and wherever he points his accusatory finger. Trump racism is emerging more clearly as time progresses. Trump’s inflammatory language, reckless “otherism” and dehumanizing xenophobic attacks are clearly designed to divide the country.

Fear and Loathing is part of the performance.  It’s no surprise that we as a country have a scrubbed and shiny public face and a secret horrific Dorian Grey face.  That hidden-self, locked in the basement of our national identity is trying to come out of its imprisonment. All the while Trump, our Mad Hatter conductor, has had us on a head spinning ride of public debauchery, corruption and criminality. Trump careens from truth to delusion, to conspiracy theory, and back to racism all in blink of an eye.

Social Fears Are At The Root Of Trump’s Methodology.  That said, we all know that there is a portion of the American psyche that hates and fears immigration, that hates and fears the blacks, that hates and fears Jews, that hates and fears POC, that hates and fears the changing demographics of America, that hates and fears tomorrow, that hates and fears the unknown. Those societal fears are what Trump racism feeds on.

The foes of inclusiveness. The ability to whip the mentally susceptible and the White Supremacist extremist fringe into a frenzy of violence is easy to imagine. The increased racial and ethnic violence will become a growing problem as he continues to demonize the “others” in our society. This man has the biggest bully pulpit in the country and he is using it to inflame the worst elements of our society. He is using his position to promote fear and racial tensions as he divides the country with his Trump racist white supremacist agenda.

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Cynicism and Corruption in Politics

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Cynicism and Corruption in Politics

 

Cynicism and Corruption in Politics

by Vajra Ma ©

I’ve been dialoguing with Trump supporters recently trying to understand their perspective. One individual made a statement that stopped me in my tracks. He said, quite firmly, “All politicians are corrupt. You have to be corrupt to be a politician. There’s nothing I can do about that. I like Trump because he’s a businessman, not a politician.” [author’s emphasis] I’ve understood all along MAGAs see governmental corruption and want it stopped. I too, see corruption and want it stopped. So, what is the difference between the MAGAs and me?

A fantasy monologue to my friend led me down a line of thought into a surprising answer.

The man I studied acting with for seventeen years, Tad Danielewski, said two things I’ll never forget. The first: “Despair is not an option.” This, coming from a man who experienced the worst of humanity. During WWII he fought in the Polish underground, was captured by the Nazis and thrown into one of their death camps. Eventually, at 95 pounds, he was lifted by a British soldier into a rescue truck.

Tad studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, moved to the U.S., won an Emmy for directing the documentary Africa and became head of talent at NBC in New York where he trained such notable actors as Martin Sheen, Sigourney Weaver, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson and Mercedes Ruehl.

Why do I tell you all this? Because in 1976, after all this survival and accomplishment, he accepted an invitation from Brigham Young University to head the Department of Theatre and Film (where I met him). Why did he accept this position in deep Mormon country? This is the second thing I’ll never forget, his answer: “Because I was on the edge of becoming cynical.” [end of fantasy]

What does this tell me about cynicism? Tad was drawn to the Mormons because they are not cynical. I myself was a sincere Mormon convert in my twenties. With hindsight, I see a deep rot and corruption in that church, yet at the same time—and here is my point—at the same time, I see good, sincere people aiming to do the right thing. Life is not black and white. It is a mixed bag. To fail to see this is to fail to see reality.

My friend views politics through the lens of cynicism: “The belief that people are only interested in themselves and are not sincere.” (Cambridge Dictionary online) He views all politicians with “an attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or the professed motives of others.” (The Free Dictionary online) As if a “businessman” in the White House could or would not be corrupt.

I see the corruption in politicians, but I see it in varying degrees which are not always discernable as to how much and what over. In this mixed bag I also see the sincerity of a number of politicians aiming to serve The People’s “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But my friend, blinded by cynicism, sees only the corruption. One broad brushstroke for all. Cynicism blocks discernment of the mixed bag reality. If we fail to see reality, we are part of the problem we point at. In other words, we are part of the corruption.

Cynicism itself is corruption.

Cynicism is a simplistic, perhaps lazy, escape from responsibility—the ability to respond—to corruption. “There’s nothing I can do about that.” If we refuse to deal with the complexities of that troublesome mixed bag, cynicism will use a chainsaw instead of the scalpel that discernment requires.

Dictators criticize democracy as cumbersome and slow-moving. Elon’s gleeful chainsaw jig on the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) stage gave us a visible performance of the cynicism that “justifies” slashing the livelihood and family stability of workers in the cumbersome  “deep state”. Russell Vought, main architect of Project 2025 and Donald’s current Director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a leaked video over a year ago: “We will traumatize the federal workers.” This pre-meditated plot to execute trauma on human beings is the corruption of cynicism in full force.

Underpinning cynicism is the terror of being duped, of being “taken in,” of being “fooled” by a goodness the cynic very much fears is not actually there for him. And in caving to that fear, in an attempt to never be “taken in,” the cynic unwittingly opens the door to the very decline into corruption he criticizes.

The Authoritarian trades in black and white. “They are black, I am white. I can fixt it. ”MAGAs seek safety from fear with black and white answers. A keep it simple, stupid, mentality.  “The politicians are corrupt. Businessman Donald is not.” So they elect the White One to Fix It. “He will drain the swamp!” And before you can say “a hundred days,” he’s stocked it with agency eating alligators.

 

Author’s note: Thanks to Ava Park of Irvine, CA for her input into this article.

 

 

 

Part 1-Trump Racism is Bad for America

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Part 1-Trump Racism is Bad for America

Part 1- Trump Racism Is Bad For America

Editor: This article is an updated version of a much longer 2018 article. Despite valiant efforts by our society to end bigotry and injustice nothing changes when it comes to hate. 

By Trevor K. McNeil

A dark history: After the end of the Civil War a period of Reconstruction was begun in the south. Resistance to the northern oversight quickly formed. Southern activists formed paramilitary groups of White supremacists to thwart forced Reconstruction. Military groups lynched blacks and burned their homes. Disenfranchising and terrorizing the black population was the central goal of the white supremacy groups of the period. Of those 19th century hate groups the Ku Klux Klan was the most infamous. After the cementing of Jim Crow laws the original Klan disbanded, their goals achieved.

A rebirth:  New leaders revived the Klan in the 20th century for a new cause. The revival was  a defensive reaction to the massive wave of immigrants arriving in America. The “new” Klan refused to limit its hate. The new version of the Ku Klux Klan expanded their targeted hate campaign beyond the Blacks to include immigrants, most particularly the Jews, the Mexicans, the Catholics, the Asians, the Irish, and the Poles. In effect, anyone not white and native-born.

Tell tale surge:  There has been a palpable uptick in terms of hate groups since the ascension of Trump and Trump-racism. The Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan claim to be the fastest growing hate group in America, proclaiming their membership numbers have gone up by thousands since Trump was re-elected, particularly in predominantly African-American cities such as St. Louis and Baltimore. Quite simply Trump racism is setting the tone. The re-election of Donald Trump has emboldened hate groups in the United States.

Change is in the air:  Attitudes are changing and that isn’t necessarily a good thing. In August 2018 there was a White Power group rally in the small rural Pennsylvania town of Ulysses. The town was proudly awash with Nazi flags and swastikas one year after Charlottesville, Va where a group of “very fine” white supremacists rallied, terrorized the town and left one counter-protester dead.

Trump racism shows itself: Trump racism is right there in his rhetoric. His near constant use of “they” and “them” is classic moral dissociation. He might as well say, “us” and “them”.  Is Trump a member of the KKK, or the Nazi’s? Not demonstrably. Evidence indicates Trump Sr, had ties to the KKK.  Although there is not direct evidence of such an affiliation for Donald Trump it doesn’t mean it is not true. David Duke, Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan fully embraces Trump and Trump does not criticize the Grand Wizard, because they are all “fine people.”

Racism isn’t such a new thing: There have been many openly racist politicians in American history, at least 10 of them became American presidents. Slowly over the past 60 years public pressure has mounted against hate speech and racial inequality. The N-word was, due to social  pressure, going the way of other extinct epitaphs, effectively banned from civil discourse. Until Trump came into office, we as a nation discouraged openly expressed hatred and bigotry. In fact, we wrote laws to punish people for hate crimes.

Times change: No longer would Presidents like William Henry Harrison publicly relive their ‘Indian Wars” exploits of murder and atrocity committed against the continent’s Indigenous Peoples. The display of overt hatred based on ethnic targeting was coming to an end in America…………. Or, was it?

Increased episodes of violence: There are some similarities between the racist ideas of Trump and a particular German Chancellor whom I will leave unnamed so as not to confirm Godwin’s Law. One of the most striking similarities to me at least has been the conduct of Trump’s supporters.  I’m thinking most particularly of the Proud Boys. In the lead up to the 2016 election Canadian white supremacist Gavin McInnis and his followers seemed to be instigating violence at rallies across the United States. Watching the Proud Boys I could not help but draw similarities between them and the goon tactics of Hitler’s Storm Detachment, better known as the “Brown Shirts”, prior to the 1933 election in Germany. Whenever a president encourages violence the most likely result, is violence.

Media savvy:  As noted by some, Trump is also very similar to a different World War II dictator. Mussolini used “Make Italy Great Again” as a major catchphrase. He was a former journalist. Mussolini, like TV-savvy Trump, knew how to manipulate the news cycle in his favor. While Trump revs up his crowds with screams of “Fake News” Mussolini’s preferred the more traditional guns to the head method of control.

Facism (Fascismo in Italian): Mussolini is the guy that coined the term Fascism to describe his political world view. The main difference noted between Trump and Il Duce is that for the Italian strongman the “state” was all, it was everything. For Trump his only belief seems to be that he should be in total control of everything, which is a lot scarier.

Where are we headed?: Mussolini was shot and killed by partisans as he attempted to escape Italy for Switzerland, just 2 days before Hitler killed himself in Berlin. I’m not suggesting Trump will commit suicide, or be shot, but Trump’s racism frightens many historians. Less than 100 years ago a drug crazed demagogue set the world on an irreversible path to world war. Race fueled hatred stoked by Hitler led to death squads, concentration camps and gas ovens where 6,000,000 Jews were exterminated. Take notes people. History really does have lessons. We only need to pay attention to them.

Part 2- Trump Racism is Bad For America-by Trevor K. McNeil @www.calamitypolitics.com

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