[“Speaking Truth To Empower”]
Donald Trump, bigot in chief, making “America great again” for White racists…
Photo: YouTube screenshot
On Sunday, Donald Trump engaged in a Birther attack against Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar saying they should all “go back” to the “crime infested places from which they came.”
Trump was telling them to “go back” to whatever “shithole countries” their ancestors came from. In Trump’s world, non-White Americans, who don’t have pale skins, aren’t real Americans. As such, only White Americans, have the right to criticize anything in America.
Here we see what Trump’s mantra of “make America great again,” really means: making it White again for White nationalists and racists.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run.
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough.”
The first thing here is three of the four Congresswomen Trump is targeting are all American born. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in New York. Rep. Pressley was born in Ohio. And Rep. Tlaib was born in Michigan.
Rep. Omar is the only one who wasn’t born in America. She immigrated from Somalia and is now a U.S. citizen.
Of course, because these are all women of color where they were born doesn’t matter to Trump. They aren’t White, and that’s his main point. In the minds of racists, like Trump, non-White people are at best second-class citizens, and that’s only if we behave acceptably. If not, we can “go back” to Africa, or wherever.
Trump tells these American Democratic Congresswomen they should leave the country because they criticize him, and things he believes in. What would’ve happened if African-Americans told Trump to “go back” to Germany, or, Scotland—the home countries his parents immigrated from—when he was busy making bigoted statements about President Barack Obama?
It was perfectly alright for Trump to criticize Obama, but this weak little man can’t take any criticism himself.
When Trump, and his bigoted band of Birther brothers, were busy attacking President Obama, on the false claim that he isn’t a citizen, they did it solely because he is Black. What they were really saying is Obama should never have been president because he is Black. It never was about a sincere belief that Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii.
Moreover, some must have known, all things being the same, that even if Obama had been born in Kenya U.S. citizenship would still have been his birthright. Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas, USA—therefore, her American citizenship would’ve passed on to her son.
However, Trump and the Birther bigots used Kenya as a racist reference to Africa to delegitimize the man who had the audacity to become America’s first Black president. Since they believe White people are the only real Americans, it was a scandalous outrage to have a Black man sitting in the White House, and a sure sign of Armageddon.
Let’s remember this: no one ever questioned the late Senator John McCain’s citizenship. McCain wasn’t born in any of the 50 American states. He was born on the Coco Solo Navy Base, in Panama.
But because McCain was a White man, attacking his citizenship would’ve never crossed the minds of bigoted buffoons like Trump. Ironically, Senator McCain so disliked Trump he planned his impending funeral as a national rebuke of him.
The Census citizenship question, we’ve heard about over the last few weeks, is part of the same White nationalism, and fear of the “others,” that led Trump to attack these Congresswomen.
Since Democrats won the House of Representatives, in the 2018 Elections, Trump has revisited his fearmongering claims about criminal hordes rampaging across the Mexican border. But for the first two years, after Trump won the White House, he and the Republicans did nothing to “secure the border.” Since Republicans had control of all branches of government, White House, House of Representatives, and Senate, why didn’t they produce immigration reform?
Why didn’t they “build the wall?”
During Trump’s first two years, the singular achievement of Republicans was instituting a tax-break bill for the wealthiest Americans. There was no sounding the alarm about “securing our borders,” until Democrats won the House back. Indeed, Republicans have no desired to fix the immigration system, since they perpetually used it as a political tool of prejudice to provoke racists in their base, and attack Democrats.
Many in mainstream media are now asking why Republicans won’t denounce Trump’s racism. How can they when they have been using racist tactics like the “Southern Strategy” for the last fifty years to win elections?
The Republican Party likes to claim they are the party of Abraham Lincoln. How can they be when they failed to praise the fact that Barack Obama was able to become the nation’s first Black president? If they are really the party of Lincoln, why were they not able to elect a Black president?
The only difference between Trump, and establishment Republicans, is that he is more honest with his repulsive racism. These other Republicans are just more artfully pretensive in theirs. Doesn’t that make them worse?
Recently, we’ve heard about a war of words between Trump and former House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Republicans like Ryan are worse hypocrites than Trump. In June 2016, then House Speaker Ryan criticized Trump’s attack on Mexican-American Judge Gonzalo Curiel as “the textbook definition of a racist comment,” after Trump said Judge Curiel couldn’t fairly adjudicated a lawsuit against Trump University because “He’s a Mexican.” But once Trump won the White House, Ryan did a total turnaround basking in Trump’s win.
In July 2015, when Trump said Senator John McCain was “not a war hero,” because he was captured, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a supposed friend of John McCain, objected. Graham said Trump was “bringing his [McCain’s] name down.” Graham said Trump “shouldn’t be commander in chief” and called Trump “a jackass.”
Senator Graham is now just another bootlicker of that same “jackass.”
Once Trump was awarded the White House, by the Electoral College, these principled Republican politicians apparently forgot all their pompous pronouncements about “country before party.” Republicans weren’t really outraged by Trump’s overt racism. They just didn’t think he could win the White House that way.
The Republican strategy of using racial animus to win elections was utilized by Trump, with modifications, successfully during the 2016 Presidential Elections. Trump has consistently inflamed White nativists fears about the darkening demographics of America. That is one reason—besides his jealousy—why he decided to us the Birther nonsense to attack President Obama.
By 2040, minority groups will represent the largest majority of America’s population. This reality lies at the heart of the anxiety Trump stokes among vast segments of White Americans who can’t stand the thought of sharing power with non-White people.
Since Sunday, much of the mainstream media has been discussing Trump’s tweets. Unfortunately, many still are resistant to stating the obvious: Donald Trump is a blatant bigot who is being supported by a racist Republican Party. If these Republicans are just apologists for Trump, and not racists too, does that make they better?
Donald Trump is perhaps the last “great White hope,” of White racists, who are unhappy with the changes they see. In attacking Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Pressley, Rep. Tlaib and Rep. Omar, Trump is attacking the changes his racist supporters fear.
Unfortunately, for these backward Americans, the demographic changes occurring now represents the future of the new coming America.
