2016 Election

 

         “I think I’m going to do great with African-Americans. I say it very simply: the crime is through the roof. Through the roof. People can’t walk down the street without getting shot. I’ll stop that. There are no jobs. I’m going to bring back jobs.”

 — Donald J. Trump on his appeal to African-American voters

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It use to be, say back in 1960, when John Kennedy was photographed at a big rally in Detroit, that Labor Day weekend marked the actual beginning of a sprint to the White House. No sprint this year. More like a long, drawn out trip to the dentist. Or day after day visits to the DMV.

Take a number. Enjoy yourself. This is American democracy in action.

We have not really had a presidential campaign, but more of an intellectual and emotional endurance test. You survive and you win the chance to live in the America of 2017 – whatever that will be.

Welcome to the last 60-plus dispiriting, distasteful, regrettable days of what has certainly been the most hate filled, racially infused campaign in modern American history. I say that advisedly, since I like to think I’m a student of political history. But this is one for the books.

George Wallace surely played the race card in 1968. National Republicans perfected their “southern strategy” over the last 40 years by evoking “dog whistles” that appealed to too many of the worst instincts in too many Americans. Politicians in both parties are guilty of pander and puffery in the cause of identity politics. But nothing in recent times has been like this campaign.

Cold, Angry, Discouraged…Afraid…

I was sufficiently dispirited by the current political spectacle that I took some time away from this space. I needed a break. I wanted to reflect. And I worried, like so many others, that I had nothing more to say about a national nightmare that increasingly left me cold, angry, discouraged and, yes, even afraid for the country.

But, life goes on…even with Trump.

One last time let me get the false equivalence out of the way: Hillary Clinton is an awful candidate who by virtue of a long string of stupid decisions, political flip flops and ethical lapses has made what should have been a cakewalk against a sociopathic narcissist into a contest that, while clearly going her way, is not entirely a sure thing. What Hillary Clinton is not, however, is demonstrably unfit for the position she seeks. Her opponent on the other hand…

But that is not my point – at least not today. Today’s subject is What Trump Hath Wrought.

What Trump Hath Wrought…

Donald J. Trump is more than likely going to lose the presidential election, but what he has helped bring to the scummy surface of American politics will, I fear, be with us for a long, long time to come. Unless…but I’ll get to that.

Trump, I need hardly remind you, launched his campaign on June 16, 2015 – a day that will live in infamy – by gliding down an escalator at his gaudy Trump Tower in New York City. He got off in the sub-basement, down where the sewer backs up and launched his Day One slanders against Latinos.

Here’s the quote, just in case you need a refresher: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They are not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump went on to say disparaging things about Syrians during that announcement speech and threw in slaps at China and Japan for good measure. You can look it up. Candidates normally use their announcement speeches to tell you what they really think is important. Trump did just that.

Equal Opportunity Hatred…

Yet, proving he has had the capacity to grow during the campaign, Trump eventually expanded his racial and ethnic hit list to include Muslims, Mormons, Jews and, of course, women. I’m leaving out a few distinct groups, I’m sure, but with the candidate that has based his entire campaign around a message of hate it is hard to keep all the hate straight.

No candidate, at least in modern times, has so broadly and blatantly appealed to racial animus, has so exclusively based his campaign on pitting one group of Americans against another, as has the rich, entitled white guy from Queens. And here is just some of what he has rendered.

Trump, as we all know, is a Twitter fiend. He loves to pop off – many of us do – in 140 characters. He typically starts his day with a blast at the MSNBC morning show or at the “failing” New York Times. He boasts with some frequency that his Twitter account has attracted more than 11.3 million followers. (Hillary Clinton has a measly 8.5 million followers.) Twitter followers are a source of pride for the guy who loves nothing so much as those who love him.

The big-time media outlets have largely ignored the internals of Trump’s Twitter-verse, but even the most casual review shows it to be a cesspool of hate, racism, white supremacy and anti-Semitism.

But, Donald J. Trump – Twitter handle @realdonaldtrump – obviously doesn’t care. Not only does he not care that a cast of white supremacists, anti-Semites and crazy neo-Nazis follow his every Twitter belch, he is actually encouraging the tone and tenor of their hate. Yet the few times he’s been called to account for what he has helped stir up he shrugs and goes on. Any sense of responsibility rolls off his back and slides to the floor below his Made In China blue suits.

It should be obvious, but I’ll make it clear, I do not believe everyone who supports Trump – not even the vast majority – are fire breathing white supremacists or neo-Nazis with a persecution complex. But many of his most enthusiastic supporters are, as they cheerfully acknowledge.

“White Genocide…”

A major theme of the current breed of American racist is what they see as the peril of “white genocide,” the idea that somehow white Americans are on the verge of their last stand against the evils of a multi-cultural society that will be dominated by murdering Mexicans, Syrian terrorists and “others.” These folks, of course, have websites that predict the eminent end of white civilization, the death of Europe, etc. etc.

Back in the spring Fortune magazine commissioned a review of Trump’s social media connections with white supremacist groups. The magazine hired an analytics firm – Little Bird – to try and understand the connections between #whitegenocide and Donald J. Trump.

“Our technology builds a big network of hundreds or thousands of specialists in a particular field or people who used a particular hashtag, and then analyzes the connections between the people in that network,” Little Bird co-founder and chairman Marshall Kirkpatrick explained in the Fortune article. “We then find the person or people in that group that are most followed by others in the same group. It’s kind of like a ‘9-out-of-10 dentists recommend’ model rather than measuring people by the absolute popularity. We view it as earned influence within a specific context.”

This is basic social media theory – influencers influence. And Trump has been helping spread the message. “Since the start of his campaign, Donald Trump has retweeted at least 75 users who follow at least three of the top 50 #WhiteGenocide influencers,” Fortune reported. “Moreover, a majority of these retweeted accounts are themselves followed by more than 100 #WhiteGenocide influencers.”

You can check some of this yourself by looking at Trump’s Twitter feed, as I did over the weekend. I clicked on “followers” and one of the first images that pops up is the symbol of the double lightening bolt of the Nazi SS.

I don’t know about you, but I take that as a sure sign that Trump follower is focused on his great leader’s recent message in Detroit where he said he was all about understanding “that the African-American community has suffered from discrimination and there are many wrongs that should be made right.” Right.

Oh, right. That from the real estate developer who agreed to a consent decree in order to settle a federal housing discrimination lawsuit that charged him with systematic bias against African-Americans.

Known by the Company You Keep…

As the news website Buzz Feed recently reported: “Visitors to the website for the Council of Conservative Citizens — a white nationalist group cited by Charleston church shooter Dylan Roof — will find a steady stream of pro-Trump articles.

“Trump Surge Continues,” “Jorge Ramos Deported From Trump Press Conference,” “Trump’s Nationalist Coalition,” reads the front page of the site.

“Earl Holt, the president of the organization, declined to comment on Trump.

“But Jared Taylor, who runs the site American Renaissance — which argues that ‘one of the most destructive myths of modern times is that people of all races have the same average intelligence’ — is an avid supporter of The Donald.

“In a recent post, Taylor contended, ‘If Mr. Trump loses, this could be the last chance whites have to vote for a president who could actually do something useful for them and for their country.’”

Generally speaking the Internet is a virtual garbage pit of this kind of trash, but there is a simple solution to stop this outrageous stuff if any candidate – particularly a presidential candidate – isn’t really trying to encourage the kind of hate that Trump’s campaign has brought to the surface. You simply use the method that exists on Twitter to “block” an offensive follower. Trump apparently exempts no one from participating in his dystopian social media universe, so by definition he is encouraging and enabling.

The fact that David Duke, the former Klu Klux Klan leader and Louisiana GOP senate candidate, and other very public white supremacist support Trump should be reason enough for Republican leaders to push back on the candidate’s message of division and hate. But here we are marveling at the spectacle of the most openly racist candidate major party candidate for president since, well, I don’t know since when.

Even Woodrow Wilson, a presidential racist of the early 20^th Century variety, hid his nasty beliefs better than Donald Trump.

Trump belatedly says he disavows David Duke’s support, but does so while continuing to flaunt his politics of hate. How else to explain handing over his campaign to one of the Internet’s chief purveyors of racial, anti-Semitic claptrap and having the odious Breitbart “news” organization serve as his campaign Pravda?

Here is what else is odious: in a late rush to make this awful man seem like a legitimate candidate major news organizations, for the most part, portrayed Trump’s recent trip – the first of its kind for him ever – to a African-American church in Detroit as an effort to appeal to black voters. It was not.

Trump and his latest new campaign team realize that he is increasingly underwater with suburban white voters, particularly women, who have decided that what the guy has been saying for months is what the guy really believes. Without attracting more of these voters who should be dependably Republican Trump can’t win. Trump is really appealing to white voters by finally paying photo op attention to black voters. He’s going to receive an historically low level of African-American support, but if he acts more human in the last sixty days he might claw back a few white voters.

It’s the triple bank shot political strategy of racial cynicism, but as the New York Times’ Charles Blow correctly said, Trump will not undo the months of division he has sown with a 45-minute photo op in a black church.

“You were a chief birther against President Obama,” Blow wrote in his column. “You have maligned Mexicans and slandered Muslims. You have treated women with disdain. You have mocked the handicapped. You have displayed a staggering lack of basic knowledge about governance. You have applauded dictators. You have encouraged the assault of protesters at your rallies.”

Trump’s Lasting Legacy…

The Detroit appearance and the “outreach” to black Americans are as phony as a diploma from Trump University, a lie as big as Trump bragging about his billions or his golf handicap. Unfortunately these lies and Trump’s approach to his entire candidacy have awakened the hateful animosity that lives in the dark corners of American politics. If we are the America I think we are Donald Trump will lose in November, but the hatred and sense of disaffection he has stirred will be his lasting legacy and ours.

The immediate aftermath of this awful political campaign should set off a major period of reflection by both political parties. As John Feffer noted in a perceptive essay back in June both parties need to ponder what the next election will produce when “a far more capable politician who embraces similar retrograde positions” is seeking the presidency.

But the major onus for real political navel gazing will rest with Republicans and particularly those who have tried to save their own political skins while allowing a racist, hatemonger to capture their party. The only thing that will push Trumpism back in the dark corner is broad and consistent repudiation of the man, his message and his methods. Nothing else will cut it.

Every politician with a soul will need to find ways small and large to turn down the heat of hate. It won’t be easy. It will require some stern talk and sober self-reflection and a deep and abiding commitment to an inclusive America, the kind of place Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned. Frankly, its the kind of America most of us envision despite what Trump has kicked up.

Donald Trump didn’t invent intolerance and hatred, that’s been with us since our beginnings, but he has enabled and brought to the surface of American politics what so many have labored so long to diminish and eventually destroy. Trying to heel and move ahead has now become even more difficult thanks to an entitled, ego-driven white guy.

 

               

                           “…the contest is downright dangerous.”

 Elizabeth Drew on the presidential election

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We knew it was coming. Certain things are simply inevitable. When every possible issue is subject to a polarizing political debate in a deeply divided nation it was just a matter of time – a short matter of time. Most of us were left at a loss for words, but not one man.

In the space of a few hours early Sunday morning 49 Americans died in a wanton massacre in a gay nightclub in Orlando. Police killed the terrorist, a young American Muslim perhaps mentally troubled, leaving the death toll at 50 with at least as many more wounded. Shock and disbelief greeted most of us Sunday morning and on to Monday.

Then the inevitable came. The man who will be the Republican candidate for president of the United States implied that the current president was complicit in the attack, clearly the most outrageous of the vast host of outrageous things Donald J. Trump has said. But he said it.

The American Authoritarian…

During a television interview Monday Trump said, “There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on.” According to students of political rhetoric this is a phrase Trump repeats time and again, implying a conspiracy so immense that the president of the United States must be involved.

With Trump there could be no real, let alone decent interval – can you use the term “decent” with this horrible man – to mourn a travesty, no calm and responsible call to come together in the face of home grown terrorism, no respect (not a smidgen) for the law enforcement and intelligence professionals who spend every day keeping us safe, at least as safe as we can be in a nation that makes the purchase of battlefield weapons as easy as buying a can of soda.

Trump, ignorant, intolerant, small minded, simplistic, and wrong, almost immediately went full demagogue – again. He congratulated himself on social media for “being right” about terrorism. The Atlantic called it “a victory lap in blood.” Trump doubled down on his promise to ban Muslims from entering the United States when he becomes president, a promise that prompted the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank to wonder, “How long will it be before American Muslims are forced to wear yellow badges with the star and crescent?”

In essence Trump said the president of the United States is guilty of treason for being complicit in the Orlando assault, a further outrageous perversion of his “birther” conspiracy theories. For good measure Trump also found time to attack Mitt Romney (again), get one of his henchmen to call a top Clinton aide who is Muslim a likely terrorist spy, ban the Washington Post from covering his campaign and, of course, tell bald faced lies about the inadequacy of U.S. immigration policy and much more.

He offered no credible response to the problem of international terrorism, a problem that vexes every western democracy, but rather blustered and thundered. Trump channeled his inner dictator.

I’ve been writing about this dangerous man now for months and like many I initially discounted him as a freak show that surely would bloviate himself to pieces. I counted on the principled conservatives who daily watch their movement perverted by this con man to find a means to stop him not merely for the good of their party, but for the good of the country. While calling Trump a classic demagogue, I resisted, until now, what are becoming increasingly common comparisons to totalitarian, authoritarian figures from the darkest pages of 20^th Century history.

Revisiting 20th Century History…

The CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Meg Whitman, a significant Republican figure and one-time candidate for governor of California, made the explicit charge. Trump is behaving like Hitler and Mussolini, Whitman said. A former Republican senator, Larry Pressler of South Dakota, endorsed Hillary Clinton saying Trump’s rhetoric “is starting to sound like the German elections in [the late 1920s]. This is a very dangerous national conversation we’re slipping into.”

It’s a wicked charge. The kind of overheated claim that Trump might make, except after Orlando it’s obviously true. John Gunther is an original source.

Gunther, a Chicago-born journalist and author, was likely the most famous foreign correspondent in the world in the 1920s and 1930s. He reported from Europe for more than 15 years, covering all the major capitols and the biggest stories. His 1936 book – Inside Europe – was a publishing sensation selling more than half a million copies. Gunther followed with books providing insightful commentary on Asia, Africa, South America, Russia and the USA. I’ve collected all the books and they still provide a fabulous, nuanced and intelligent take on the world before the 1960s.

John Gunther on Hitler in 1936…

In January 1936, Harper’s published a lengthy Gunther piece from Berlin. The subject was Adolf Hitler who was still consolidating his power in Germany. To read the piece today, as I recently did for the first time, is to shudder at the striking similarities to our homegrown authoritarian.

I’ll quote just a few lines from John Gunther’s article and as you read them just replace the word “Hitler” with the word “Trump.” See if you come away with a cold shiver down your spine.

Gunther’s piece began with these words: “Adolf Hitler, seemingly so irrational and self-contradictory, is a character of great complexity – not an easy nut to crack. To many he is meager and insignificant; yet he holds sixty-five million Germans, a fair share of whom adore him, in a thralldom compounded of love, fear, and nationalist ecstasy. Few men run so completely the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous. He is a mountebank, a demagogue, a frustrated hysteric, a lucky misfit. He is also a figure of extreme veneration to millions of honest and not-even-puzzled Germans.”

And there are these observations of the man who took Germany to the brink and beyond and plunged the entire world into darkness:

“He reads almost nothing.”

“He dislikes intellectuals.”

“His lies have been notorious.”

“Foreigners, especially interviewers from British and American newspapers, may find him cordial and even candid but they seldom have opportunity to question him, to participate in a give-and-take discussion. Hitler rants. He is extremely emotional. He never answers questions. He talks to you as if you were a public meeting, and nothing can stop the gush of words.”

“By a man’s friends may ye know him. But Hitler has none.”

Gunther analyzed Hitler’s religious convictions and concluded there were none. His passion was himself and power.

He “bases most decisions on intuition…his vanity is extreme…Hitler is a man of passion, or instinct, not of reason. His ‘intellect’ is that of a chameleon who knows when to change his color, of a crab who knows when to dive into the sand; his ‘logic’ that of a panther who is hungry, and thus seeks food.”

“His brain is small and vulgar, limited, narrow, suspicious, but behind it is the lamp of passion, and this passion has such quality that it is immediately discernible and recognizable, like a diamond in the sand.”

He is a Bad Speaker…

“Then there is the oratory. This is probably the chief external explanation of Hitler’s rise. He talked himself to power. The strange thing is that Hitler is a bad speaker. He screeches; his mannerisms are awkward; his voice breaks at every peroration; he never knows when to stop…yet, Hitler, whose magnetism across the table is almost nil, can arouse an audience, especially a big audience, to frenzy.”

Even Gunther’s references to Hitler’s Mein Kampf presage our demagogue’s repeated praise of his own mostly unreadable book The Art of the Deal.

“Mein Kampf, for all its impersonality, reveals over and over again Hitler’s faith in ‘the man.’ After race and the nation, personality is his main preoccupation…’a majority,’ he says, ‘can never be substituted for the Man.’”

Writing recently in the New York Review and before the awful events in Orlando the venerable Elizabeth Drew, a political observer of American presidents and would-be presidents for decades, centered on those – interesting choice of words –  who “collaborate” with Trump.

“The real test is whether there are any circumstances under which Republican leaders in Congress will finally stand up to Trump, renounce him as their party’s standard bearer even if they can’t cancel his nomination. This could mean risking that their party loses the election and their majorities in the House and the Senate. This is a length to which the congressional leaders Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and some others who’ve endorsed Trump or waffled—not opposing but not endorsing—have thus far been unwilling to go. McConnell’s lack of enthusiasm for Trump is apparent; he’s recently been on a book tour and said something negative about Trump in virtually every interview. But like the others who’ve endorsed Trump, he’s still a collaborator, no matter how much he squirms.”

This election, perhaps particularly after Orlando, has become unlike any in our lifetime. A true referendum on just what America intends to be, an election where one candidate – this is no longer hyperbole – has many of the characteristics and inclinations of the most destructive dictators of the 20^th Century.

To continue the European analogy, Republican “collaborators” of Donald Trump have become like those in Vichy France after 1940 who found it expedient and often in their own self-interest to collaborate with a hate mongering dictator even at the risk of surrendering the heart and soul of their nation. History regards them as morally bankrupt and fatally wrong.

Trump has gone from novelty, to laugh line to legitimate threat to American democracy. Those who refuse to acknowledge and vigorously resist the dangers of this frightful man embrace a monumental national disaster. History is our guide. In 1936 John Gunther wrote an early draft of the story we are living.