In a previous blog post about Donald Trump's rally in Mobile, Alabama, I linked to a short Youtube video that showed a member of the crowd yelling out "White Power" while Trump was speaking.
What that previous video did NOT make sufficiently clear was the fact that this was not an isolated incident, since it only showed someone yelling out "White Power" a single time. But in reality, people in the crowd REPEATEDLY yelled out "White Power" multiple times, all throughout the course of the rally, from beginning to end. And yet Trump did nothing to condemn it or to stop it. Instead, he fed on the energy of the crowd. This new video makes that fact clear:
People in the crowd repeatedly screamed out "White Power," enough times and loud enough that Trump could not possibly not have heard them. But Trump said nothing to stop this from continuing, nor did other people in the crowd. This is despite the fact that Trump repeatedly interacted with many member of the crowd and showed that he could clearly hear what they were saying to him.
If Trump can say "The man in the back just shouted 'Israel'" when someone shouts Israel once, why can't Trump say "The man in the back just shouted 'White Power.' No. That's not what I'm about? I condemn 'White Power.'" Would that really be too politically correct?
What may be even worse is that when a sitting U.S. Senator - Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was speaking, people in the crowd also yelled out "White Power." This is a sitting U.S. Senator we are talking about here, and he said nothing to distance himself from "White Power." I don't think most people in Alabama are racist, and those who are not ought to be able to expect much better from their Senator. This is not 1950 any more, even in Alabama.
Who Needs Elections? Trump: "Why do we need an election? We don't need an election!"
There is another thing that is perhaps even more worrying and disturbing than the racism, nativism, and support for "White Power" that was on open and notorious display at the rally. And that is Trump's apparent contempt for Democracy:
Trump said - and it cannot be emphasized enough that these are direct quotes:
Trump: "We could maybe call for an expedited election, right? I would love that! Can we do that? Can we do that?" ... (Someone from the crowd screams "White Power") ... "I'd like to have the election tomorrow! I don't want to wait!"
A bit later on, Trump went on:
Trump: "As I said, why do we need an election? We don't need an election!"
Statements like this
must be taken seriously. Trump's candidacy has crossed lines that cannot be un-crossed. In the words of
commenter Technowitch, his candidacy is no longer a laughing matter:
I laughed when Trump talked about running.
I laughed when he announced.
I laughed when he started spouting crazy shit and ridiculous, unworkable Tea Bagger-esque proposals.
Then I began paying attention to what that crazy shit was about. The racism. The ignorant nationalistic jingoism. The xenophobia and eliminationist rhetoric. And above all else, Trump's limitless narcissism and egomania.
Then I saw Trump not flaming out and being repudiated, but instead rocketing to the front of the GOP polling. I'm telling ya though, it was this remark from his Alabama rally -- which I quoted in another comment below-- that chilled me to the bone:
“We could make a call for an expedited election,” Trump told the rally. “I would like to have the election tomorrow – I don’t want to wait.”
What many people don't seem to realize is the worst of the world's tyrants were very frequently elected. Once. Then the remaining mechanisms of limited government and democratic rule are quickly and permanently dismantled.
These weren't the words of a man who simply wishes he could be President sooner rather than later. He actually seems to believe the Constitution can be ignored so that he can take over right now.
Or to put this more simply, a man who thinks he can override the Constitution for an 'expedited election' will have no compunction about canceling future elections.
So yeah... really not laughing anymore.
The "Make America Great Again" Dog Whistle
What does Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again" mean?
The slogan "Make America Great Again" implies that America once was great, but now is for some reason no longer great. It suggests that America has in some way declined, has lost its greatness, and that Trump will restore it and once again make America "pure." So what do Trump, and Trump's supporters, think is the nature of that (supposed) decline, and how does Trump propose to reverse this purported decline?
First and foremost, Trump intends to wall America off and take on immigrants. Not just any immigrants, mind you, but non-white immigrants - and particularly "Mexicans," who are the universal scapegoats for which Trump blames all of America's problems. Trump also says that he intends to "beat" the Chinese, the Koreans, the Saudis, the Indians, etc in negotiations. Note that he never says anything about "beating" European (white) countries. Trump seems to believe that America is being "beaten," taken advantage of, and abused by all manner of foreign non-white entities.
In the eyes of Trump, and in the eyes of his supporters, the supposed "decline" of America goes hand in hand not just with America's rising minority population, but also with the election of Barack Obama - the first African American President. That is why Trump played a leading role in the founding of the so-called "birther" movement. Trump's fascist ideology imagines an all encompassing struggle between a homogeneous white American "us" and a non-white, Hispanic, Asian, Black, Mexican "other," and is racist and white supremacist at the core.
So to Trump, to his supporters, and especially to his supporters across the deep south, "Make America Great Again" principally means "Make America White Again." Trump's very campaign slogan is a racist, nativist dog whistle.
Trump's supporters clearly understand that. And that is why they are supporting him - to "purify" America by getting rid of all the non-whites and "Mexicans" whom they and Trump (mistakenly) blame for all of America's problems.
Commenter Subterra observes:
For a few weeks I've looked at Trump's darker rhetoric with dread. It's not so much the anti-immigrant stance which is not new and has taken the form of pleas to guard the border and detain illegal immigrants. That is the typical fearful fare of the right wing.
Trump engages in far more dangerous demagoguery. He is scapegoating immigrants, both legal and illegal, for a whole range of societal problems that have nothing to do with immigration. A thread runs through his rhetoric that ultimately ties together the downfall of US manufacturing and the bad economy to hispanic immigration.
We've seen this sort of scapegoating before in history and we know where it leads. As if Trump's demand to round up and deport every "illegal" immigrant isn't bad enough, there are right wing talk show hosts calling for the enslavement of hispanic immigrants. And this is while they remain out of power, when they naturally moderate their fear and loathing to appeal to a broader audience...
Let's call this what it is: incipient fascism. The right wing authoritarians have found a strongman around whom to rally. It may cost the GOP the next presidential election, but I personally would rather a sane republican win the white house than have these evil seeds planted in the base of a major political party that currently controls congress. For if a fascist movement seizes control of the US military and nuclear arsenal there is no limit to the death and destruction they could unleash upon the world.
Similarly, Roger White argues that "
Donald Trump, in every way that matters, is a fascist."
Donald Trump, in every way that matters, is a fascist. He reminds one of Mussolini- a corporatist buffoon with a huge ego and a mean streak. He is a first rate demagogue. His brand of racial politics is just vague enough to be popular with enough people to earn him a serious following, but specific enough for us to know the atrocities this type of talk can lead to. He has essentially called for an ethnic cleansing campaign to eradicate “illegals” from the U.S., the targets of which would surely not be the Swedish student who over stays her visa. This mass deportation campaign would target the tens of millions of Latin American families and workers that are currently in the US without papers. The recent Trump motivated attack in Boston on a homeless man, thought by the perpetrators to be an immigrant, is an indication that the “passion” that he inspires in the Brown Shirt contingent of his constituency is as unpredictable as it is potentially vicious.
The fact that Trump doesn’t appear to have any real fidelity to specific policies is another clue. He has flipped on everything from abortion to single-payer health care and doesn’t even pretend to have any coherent approach to governing beyond loosely identifying himself as a conservative. Fascists are not ideologues. They don’t hawk position papers or political philosophies. They are the supreme rulers of political cults. And like all cults the supreme leader is sustained by his loyal followers, who refuse to question his authority and turn on anyone who dares to criticize him.
Trump's Movement and the Lessons of History: The Retrumplican Party
Only eight years ago, one might have imagined that there could never be anything worse than George W. Bush. But there is, and it is our contemporary Retrumplican Party: the American counterpart to Greece's Golden Dawn and France's National Front. It is real, it is here, and it is dangerous. It is not to be underestimated, and must be squarely confronted and decisively defeated.
There can simply be no place in American society for Donald Trump's brand of Republicanism - "Retrumplicanism."
