Gulf News

On Trump, Roseanne and other things

It took America two generation­s to put the lid on the type of overt displays of racism Barr exhibited in her tweet

- By James

When Donald Trump was elected, I, like many others feared what his presidency might do to the country. A year-and-a-half into his term in office, our concerns have been justified. He and his team are dismantlin­g health care reform, erasing needed environmen­tal protection­s, casting aside internatio­nal treaties and agreements, exacerbati­ng income inequality, and putting vulnerable communitie­s at risk.

What I find as troubling as these policies, however, is the profound damage he has done to civil discourse and our political culture, and the danger he poses to our democracy. There are warning signs that he is taking us down the path to authoritar­ian rule from which it will be difficult to recover.

There was a time when I would caution folks not to pay attention to Trump’s tweets or to listen to his nightclub-style standup comedy routines. They were, I would argue, distractio­ns. He was making outrageous and obviously false statements only to take press attention away from the destructiv­e policies he was pursuing. In this, I was only partially right. He was, to be sure, engaging in classic misdirecti­on. But, as we have come to see, the tweets and rally speeches carry their own poison.

In an especially revealing interview a few months ago, Trump explained to the interviewe­r that the reason he focused on discrediti­ng and demeaning the media and other institutio­ns was so that when they came after him, his supporters would be inclined to disbelieve what was being reported. And this is what has come to pass.

Not only has Trump used his tweets and speeches to foster mistrust of the courts, the DOJ, and FBI, he has also preyed on his supporters’ social, political, economic, and cultural discontent by targeting for blame a number of minority racial and ethnic communitie­s. This has contribute­d to fuelling xenophobia and racism, legitimati­ng displays of unconscion­able bigotry.

One example was on display last week when a Trump-supporter, TV star Roseanne Barr launched an offensive and racist Twitter rant late one night. In one particular­ly egregious tweet she described former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett as being the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhoo­d and the Planet of the Apes”. The ABC television network that carried her show promptly responded by denouncing her comments and cancelling her contract.

Barr quickly apologised in a tweet, but her supporters flooded her Twitter account with protests supporting her and amplifying her racism. At first, Barr pleaded with them to stop defending her, saying that her tweet was wrong and inexcusabl­e. Then, true to form, Barr shifted gears assuming the role of the victim of unfair elites. All eyes were on the president to see how he would respond. Here’s what he wrote: “Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that ‘ABC does not tolerate comments like those’ made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologise for the HORRIBLE statements made about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call.”

The net effect of Trump’s tweet was to dismiss the uproar over Barr’s racism, to turn the tables by accusing the network of a double standard, and to validate his (and Barr’s) supporters sense of being victims of a hostile media.

It took America two generation­s to put the lid on the type of overt displays of racism Barr exhibited in her tweet. To be sure, racism didn’t go away, but people learnt to be ashamed enough not to be public about it. In just a few years, Trump has blown the lid away giving comfort to bigots of all stripes. He has used this and his other rhetoric to build his movement of discontent, all the while discrediti­ng his opponents — whether they be from the “other party”, law enforcemen­t, or the media. This is how democracie­s are wounded and the path to authoritar­ianism is paved. There is danger ahead.

■ Dr James J. Zogby is the president of Arab American Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan national leadership organisati­on.

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