The Klan whisperer
Recently, Donald Trump has faced criticism for his embrace of racist rhetoric reminiscent of Nazi Germany. His response to the criticism was, of course, to keep doing it. More recently, he is making fun of Nikki Haley’s Indian first name, as he previously did with Barack Obama’s middle name, and other opponents’ names. Trump doesn’t do these things merely because he thinks and acts like a malicious teenager. He does them because they work: these juvenile techniques send a bullhorn-level signal to the bigots and racists in our society: “See? I’m just like you! I hate these American wannabes — not good strong German stock like me and, well, whatever you are!”
Who, in good conscience, could link arms with such a peacock-proud bigot, when his other arm is linked with the Klan? Answer: hundreds of millions of Americans — if you ignore the “good conscience” part.
There are moral limits to the argument that “whatever Trump is, whatever he does, whatever he says — no matter how disgusting, illegal, bigoted or un-American — he’s better than Biden.” Blatant resort to racism, and calls for the termination of portions of the Constitution, are two of those limits. These are traits that are, emphatically, worse than Biden’s policies.
John Kelly, Trump’s former Secretary of Homeland Security, is a sober and strong American patriot who had a very close working relationship with the singularly lazy and incurious Donald Trump. Kelly referred to Trump as “the most flawed human being” he had ever met. And Kelly’s met a few people.
Whatever your policy viewpoint, American democracy can survive the policies of Joe Biden. The immigration problem is severe, but even at its worst, it won’t kill our country. But American democracy may not survive the sheer juvenility and vindictive, racist hatred of Donald Trump and the worst of his “base.”
“The base” is a term you hear a lot to describe a core group of voters whose support for Donald Trump is absolute, including some whose support is idolatrous. The base does include voters whose love of country, and of the United States Constitution and its governing principles, are sincere. This group supports democracy and some respect for opposing views that lies at the heart of it. They believe that Trump is the best person to ensure the preservation of these values, and to ensure respect for law and order and overall national prosperity and standing in the world. Plausible or not, the belief is sincere.
But there is a darker (and large) element in Trump’s “base,” a witch’s brew of anti-government, anti-law and order, violent, misogynist and/or racist people who share a perverted view of the Constitution, including the notion that ”freedom” means a complete absence of government controls, and that the First Amendment imposes no constraints on what they say or do. Some of them spend their days plotting, and at times perpetrating, hate crimes, and encouraging others to do so. They detest all minorities, and yes, they do believe that immigrants “poison the blood” of some mythical, pure-white American-“Christian” race. They deny that the Holocaust occurred, and accept other morbidly stupid lies. Of course, they are much louder than anybody else. They are the epitome of anti-democratic, anti-American, sociopathic agendas.
Non-racist Republicans stand, unheard, at the back of the choir, out-shouted by people they frankly despise.
What distinguishes Trump from other American politicians to date is his unembarrassed and cheerful embrace of this low element and their violent rhetoric. This is strange, given that his fawning and sympathy seem entirely unnecessary. If Trump did not fill his rally speeches with racist statements and anti-democratic rhetoric, who would these people vote for? Biden? Would they stay home and risk the election of a Democratic president? Of course not. What, then, could explain Trump’s behavior?
Answer: He loves them, and what they stand for. Based on testimony by people who have known Trump for years, and based on Trump’s own public statements over the years, his embrace of these fringe groups is sincere — he really is a misogynistic racist. After 7-plus years of the Trump Circus, can any Republican still say, with a straight face: “He doesn’t really mean those things”? But whether Trump’s Klan crush is sincere, or whether his pandering is crassly political, makes no difference. No one seeking the presidency should explicitly endorse these people, for any reason.
Embracing the rhetoric of Nazism and other bigotry is morally destitute at worst, or craven, desperate pandering at best. Anyone who does so has no business running for the presidency of the United States, just as anyone who cannot clearly condemn genocide has no business being the president of a college.
I have close friends and relatives who are voting for Donald Trump. These are people who could not stand to split a banquet table with four Klansmen. I urge them to face it — you’re at that table: a vote for someone who openly supports Nazism, pandering or otherwise, is a vote for Nazism. We can do so much better than Trump, a panderer to, and lover of, America’s (and Germany’s) worst.