Today in The Media Missing the Point:
Let’s take this one slowly. David Duke is a noted white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard. Donald Trump is a president elect who drew support not just from Duke but from an array of other white supremacists as he ran a campaign catering to, yes, white supremacists. Then, upon being elected, he named a white supremacist (albeit one who prefers to be called a “nationalist”) as his top adviser. Then he chose someone for attorney general who in 1986 was considered too racist to be a federal judge. And a national security adviser who’s a notorious Islamophobe whose anti-Semitic retweet spurred Duke’s approval today.
When a run-of-the-mill Republican or Democrat says things about Trump, it may or may not signify anything about Trump specifically. It may be about the bigger partisan picture. But when a fringe extremist racist like David Duke embraces a president elect, that says something significant. When white supremacists in general are like “whoa, this Trump guy is our dream come true and doing things we never thought we’d see from a president,” that signifies something about Donald Trump. They’re not just trolling here.
In short: It is significant that white supremacists are excited about the president elect. It is significant that they are excited about his top adviser. It is significant that they are excited about his national security adviser. It is significant because Trump is doing something to win all this approval, and we need to be paying attention to just what that is.