Racial division plays a key role in the appeal of Trump to his voters
ON the one-year anniversary of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the killing of Heather Heyer, an anti-Nazi protester allegedly mowed down by a white nationalist, US President Donald Trump reminded us he is incapable of treating white nationalism as a singular evil – or of offending his white-grievance-obsessed base.
Trump unleashed a furious backlash a year ago when he engaged in jaw-dropping moral equivalence, saying there were “very fine people, on both sides” (meaning both Nazi sympathisers and antiNazi protesters) and later claiming there was “blame on both sides”. On Saturday, he gave the same wink to white grievance mongers, insisting on Twitter, “the riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans”.
Let’s count the things wrong with this.
The “riots” – a blob without definition – did not “result” in “death and division”, two more blobs with no definition. Heyer’s death. A white nationalist allegedly murdered an anti-Nazi protester. Period. Trump cannot say those words because to do so would reaffirm his failure a year ago and, worse, annoy the segment of his white base that thinks they are the victims of racism. As ‘The Washington Post’ reported: “Trump’s tweet Saturday, his first public mention of the anniversary, did not label the event as a white supremacist rally or specify that it was a white rally-goer who rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one.”
“We must come together as a nation” is rich, coming from the president who has done more to fan antiimmigrant, racist hatred than any modern president. Indeed, racial divisiveness (eg, picking fights with African-American athletes, calling African-Americans “low IQ”, referring to mostly non-white countries as “s**tholes”, equating innocent “dreamers” with MS-13 gang members, trying to take away funding from cities that do not spend public-safety dollars rounding up and detaining illegal immigrants who haven’t committed serious crimes, the Muslim ban) is central to Trump’s presidency. He returns to the theme again and again, especially to rid himself of negative headlines on other subjects.
Trump of course also divides the country by gender. Since he began running for president, he has divided Americans by place of birth (native born or not), by religion (demonising Muslims), by medical condition (mocking a ‘New York Times’ reporter with disabilities), by region (ignoring or minimising Puerto Rico’s misery), by profession (the press is the enemy of the people) and by expressions of patriotism (if you kneel for the national anthem, you don’t love America). Trump felt compelled to throw in “all types of racism” to make sure the “fine people” among the neo-Nazis don’t feel left out. He couldn’t simply say: “I condemn racism and acts of violence.” Finally, his wish for “peace” is hard to stomach given his habit of inciting crowds to engage in violence.
A large majority of Americans agree that Trump has been bad for race relations. A PoliticoMorning Consult poll found “55pc of voters say race relations have worsened under Trump, compared with 16pc who say they have gotten better. Another 18pc say race relations have stayed about the same since Trump became president last year. Just over half of white voters, 51pc, say race relations have worsened under Trump, while larger majorities of AfricanAmerican voters (79pc) and Hispanics (60pc) say they have gotten worse”.
Trump has lost the moral authority to govern many times over, not the least of which is because racial division is part and parcel of his appeal to his base. If the US wants to come together as a country, it had better find leaders committed to that principle, not to driving it apart as a tactic to remain in power. (© Washington Post Syndication)
If the US wants to come together as a country, it needs to find leaders committed to that principle