With or without Trump, it was always going to come down to this.
We will either thrive as a diverse and democratic country, or we will devolve to being ruled by a regime that merges government and party to prop up — it’s time to say it plainly — entrenched institutions of white supremacy.
The United States of America is no longer “becoming” a diverse country. In 2020 and into the future the USA is now a diverse country, and becoming more so every day.
We’re diverse in racial background and national origin. In the ability of our LGBTQ community to live openly without fear and do their part in helping us lead. In religious views, including the absence of religion for many.
By about 2050 the USA will no longer have any one race in the majority. As we head toward that day, we have the opportunity to recognize and embrace the incredible strength this diversity will bring to our country in an increasingly globalized world.
We will be well positioned to understand and work with foreign markets, to attract skilled, ambitious and hard-working immigrants, and to participate in international relations from the unique position of being represented in our population by people from every country in the world. Diversity in terms other than race will also add to our ability to relate to and work with the entire world.
We have the very real potential to reassert our position as world leaders, this time from a position of understanding rather than overt expression of force.
That prospect — that our increased diversity will result in full sharing of power across the many different types of people in our country - is terrifying to a hard core group of people whose primary concept of the United States is based on white supremacy.
There are some really, really ugly beliefs at the heart of that movement. For a glimpse into the dark side, Google “White Replacement Theory”. This article from The Guardian is a pretty good explanation: www.theguardian.com/…
The great replacement can generally be understood as two core beliefs. The first is that “western” identity is under siege by massive waves of immigration from non-European/non-white countries, resulting in a replacement of white European individuals via demographics. The second is that replacement has been orchestrated by a shadowy group as part of their grand plan to rule the world – which they will do by creating a completely racially homogenous society. This group is often overtly identified as being Jews, but sometimes the antisemitism is more implicit.
The chilling thing is that White Replacement Theory is now a core tenet of the Trump Administration. When you look at the policies of the Trump Administration and the communications of the Trump Campaign in light of White Replacement Theory, there’s no mistaking the linkage. It’s everywhere.
There’s a reason, independent of Trump, why this expression of white supremacy is expressing itself so virulently in the present day.
It used to be easy for white supremacists to rule from the country club, using genteel language, inherited wealth, and obscure rules, enforced by violence under cover of night or cloaked in legitimacy of racist machines of law and justice. Even the language of the day was permeated by concepts that reinforced concepts of “rightness” in topics including religiously-defined morals and fealty to authority.
As the absolute white advantage in numbers has eroded, and has been accompanied by the rise of people of conscience of all races, it’s no longer possible to maintain white supremacy the old fashioned way. Too many people, too many diverse voices, too many cell phones recording video - and too many votes.
The hard core right wing perceives that they have one last chance to stave off approaching demographic destiny of our diverse country. In that light, the lawlessness of the Trump administration is a feature, not a bug. The right wing actively wants a second term Trump administration that will do everything possible, regardless of applicable laws, to maintain their rule, merging government and party until no difference can be found between the two, and no opportunity remains to remove that party and its accompanying white supremacist institutions from power.
There was going to be a Republican party leader who brought out and activated the deepest fear of the hard right wing. This was going to happen no matter what.
Some years from now we may look back with a measure of ironic gratitude that the worst of the right wing happened, by historical accident, to be represented by someone so obviously odious, so lacking in values or morals, so unskilled at maintaining the most basic pretense of decency that we were able to mobilize, during the months and weeks leading up to pivotal day in the year 2020, to create a clear and massive demonstration of our determination to show him the door, and open the beckoning doors to our demographic destiny.
That day is tomorrow.