The meaning of Trump’s ‘stand by’
In the first 2020 presidential debate that looked more like a car wreck on Interstate 95 complete with fire, smoke and emergency vehicles with flashing lights, candidate Trump not only refused to condemn the violent and racist para-military group, the Proud Boys, he encouraged them to “stand back and stand by.” President Donald Trump views this violent fringe group, with roots in the same sociopathic thinking of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh as pro American and supporters of law and order. That act of domestic terrorism on April 19, 1995, killed 168 fellow Americans and wounded 680, including innocent toddlers enrolled in a day care center in the building. Is it any surprise that Americans of goodwill are being called to reject the provocations of the sitting president of the United States who is encouraging voter intimidation by this vigilante proto-terrorist organization? This is not just my opinion; it is also the view of FBI director Christopher Wray.
The question Trump’s comment raises is: What are they afraid of ? It is clear from all of what he says and all of his administration’s actions, including building a wall between Mexico and the United States, that the overriding fear animating this abhorrent behavior is the fear of becoming a racial minority in a country that he and some of his supporters seem to think should be dominated economically, politically and demographically by whites, forever.
In Febr uar y, the Census Bureau reported that the number of non-Hispanic whites will decline from 198 million people to 179 million in 2060. Over the same period, the Black population will grow from 43 million to 60 million. Hispanics in America will grow from 57 million today to 111 million in 2060. The Asian population will double from 18 million today to 36 million in 2060. The white non-Hispanic share of the U.S. population will decline from 61 percent today to 44 percent by 2060. It is a common refrain that demography is destiny. But even by 2060, white non-Hispanic Americans will continue to represent the largest single demographic group.
Trump and his white supremacist supporters fear these inevitable demographic shifts in the composition of American society. White privilege is something with clear economic and political value for whites but has costs for everyone who is not white. A superior privilege that every American should experience is the privilege associated with being a citizen. While we know we have not lived up to the ideals in our founding documents, “that all men are created equal,” the language of those documents was changed so that today there are no qualifiers that proclaim, all white men are created equal and all others (including white women) are inferior.
Our society is evolving. Change is hard, particularly for those who are ill-equipped to adapt to new circumstances. The Proud Boys and other violent extremists, contrary to basing their actions on feelings of superiority, are demonstrating by those actions and words a profound sense of insecurity rooted in questions about their ability to adapt. Their claims of racial superiority are ironically the result of feelings of inferiority. Guns and pseudo-military clothing and flags and other symbols of white racial solidarity will not be enough to turn back the tide of the coming demographic shifts or peacefully address these feelings of inferiority.
White Americans, and I emphasize the word Americans, should embrace these demographic changes, and not as threats to their status or sense of economic security. The political motto of the United States, E Pluribus Unum, Out of Many One, was suggested originally on July 4, 1776, and placed on the seal of the United States of America. That motto has more relevance today than ever and it should be our guide.
We do not need this president to tell the Proud Boys to stand by. In fact, we do not need the Proud Boys or other racist groups to educate us on the principles of democracy and citizenship. No one is questioning their rights to bear arms, although that right is literally second to the rights of political freedom. The most important of those political rights is the right to vote without fear or intimidation.
The president is playing a dangerous game telling the Proud Boys to stand by. He has proven himself incapable of rational and principled actions, but we must not allow him to destroy, or encourage the destruction of, American democracy. We must vote him out. We deserve better. America deserves better.