From the day he announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2015 Trump has been the most obvious about one thing: he’s a racist. Here’s his infamous statement:
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re 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.
Of course as with many racist statements he has made over the years, this one had a purpose, to endear him to his core band of followers: white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and any other far-right wackos he could reach.
It worked. David Duke, former leader of the KKK came out for Trump shortly after this. The Daily Stormer, an unabashedly Nazi website immediately came out in support of Trump.
Of course the rest is history and an odious one. Trump demonstrated pure disdain for anyone who did not support him. He endorsed the insane tactic of his white supremacists staffers to separate children from the parents at the border and then “house” the children in the most inhumane circumstances possible. He called Nazis at Charlottesville, following the murder of Heather Heyer by a white supremacist, “some very fine people.”
In short, in the four years this man spent in the White House, he set back progress against racism and white supremacy decades.
And yesterday at a rally in Arizona he was at it again, relying on an old racist trope of discrimination against white people.
Trump says white people are being discriminated against on covid treatment: “If you’re white, you don’t get the vaccine or if you’re white you don’t get therapeutics .. In NY state, if you’re white, you go to the back of the line if you want help.” pic.twitter.com/QLgkC3VESk
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 16, 2022
It is interesting that there are a few black people with “Blacks for Trump” strategically placed behind him. It turns out that these folks are part of a group lead by “a former cult member who promotes anti-Semitic and racist conspiracy theories.” The Intercept has the complete story on this. This is part of Trump’s people trying to put veracity to his claim of being the “least racist person in the room.” Of course this is all fine with the white supremacists that swallow what he is selling.
And what is he selling? The same old lie that the election was stolen from him (in spite of losing by over 7,000,000 votes and a wide margin in the Electoral College). He’s still selling the lie in spite of the fact that some of his “very best people” have been caught red handed with the acts of forgery of documents signed by fake electors in four states. In spite of the fact the he has on more than one occasion admitted he lost.
The Arizona rally is actually about something else. Getting more racists elected to office. Trump continues to wave the flag and fallacy of white supremacy. And his actions are being flanked by other traitors like Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn. Bannon (also known as wannabe Martin Bormann and the person who rebranded Nazis of every stripe) is claiming this rally will be a key event in decertifying Biden’s win in Arizona. Flynn is calling for the country to unite under a white “Christian” banner and has called for a violent coup similar to what happened to the elected government of Myanmar. Bannon also claims to have 20,000 shock troops “ready to go.” Why these two are not in jail being charged with seditious conspiracy like their Oath Keeper buddies is an open question.
Lucky for us these boys are all inherently incompetent. This is a characteristic of insane people. But that does not mean that their insanity is not infectious. The fact that he is still out there encouraging white supremacists and Nazis to crawl out from under their rocks means we cannot relax. And worse, the Republican Party, except for a few who honor their Oath of Office, is now better known as the Trumpublican Party, ready to do his bidding no matter how odious.
There are some people who seemingly cannot move forward from the time when the economy of half this country was based on the ownership of other men. Do not make the mistake of failing to recognize this ambition still exists in the minds of white supremacists. Sounds harsh. But evil usually is.
