On Saturday, Donald Trump gave a speech at the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, which acknowledges the state’s bloody and tumultuous history with civil rights. Trump’s speech, by his standards, was not offensive or ridiculous. As the Washington Post reports, he had enough sense to stare down at prepared notes like a middle schooler giving a speech for the first time and talk about “building a future of freedom, equality, justice, peace.”
But less than a day before that speech, Trump showed his real self at a rally in Pensacola. He once and for all declared his support for Roy Moore, that stalwart advocate for civil rights who opined about the good old days of slavery according to the LA Times, thinks Muslims should not vote, and calls Asians “Yellows” and Native Americans “Reds.” No prepared marks here. Trump was free to be Trump before he had to go mumble a few words about the importance of civil rights.
So why mumble at all? Why did Trump show up at the museum in the first place? A prepared statement at a museum is not going to convince the majority of the American people that Trump suddenly cares about fighting racism and civil rights. What did he have to gain by doing so?
Perhaps Trump did it just so he could convince elements of his base that he is not really racist. But there is a corollary to that, and one which is important to understand when we look at Trump and the alt-right: Trump does not think he is a racist.
Open vs. Closed Racism
For all of Trump’s rhetoric and actions, he has always put up a small veneer of words to try and squirm out of the charges of racism. Even his infamous remark about immigrants about rapists and criminals finished with that famous line “and some, I assume, are good people.”
But that shield of civility and Trump’s victory has made it possible for people to come out who do not even bother talking about equality and peace. Those are the alt-right and the Charlottesville protestors, who openly talk about driving non-whites out of this country and who applauded Trump’s unwillingness to condemn Nazis in August. They know they are racist, unlike Trump. They just do not care and openly proclaim racism to be a good thing. And all the while they are protected by those who want to pretend they care about civil rights.
That, perhaps, is the scariest thing of all about the Trump administration and what we must remember in the aftermath of this speech. As much as his lawyers have been good AT getting him out of trouble, analysts have looked at traditional Republican figures like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, and how their willingness to tolerate dog-whistle rhetoric led to the rise of Donald Trump.
But Trump in his turn with his rhetoric could lead to the rise of white nationalists who are even more extreme than him and desire nothing less than a race war. This President will do nothing to prevent their rise as long as they shower him with the love he desperately craves.
Those few measly words he uttered before the Civil Rights Museum are nothing than a shield to protect Roy Moore and the Charlottesville marchers of the world. But America will have much to fear the day Trump stops bothering with the pantomime.