As I said, Donald Trump isn't the main problem in America right now; he's merely a symptom. To paraphrase an old saying: if Trump had not existed it would have been necessary to create him.
For a long time I thought the main problem in America was the Republican Party: how could they nominate someone as clearly unqualified and unfit for the office as this buffoon? (Superdelegates are sure looking smarter and smarter, aren't they?)
But then I thought, no, the Republican Party is merely responding to the right-wing media. How many times have you heard of a "moderate" Republican being afraid of a primary opponent? The likes of Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and now Breitbart have handcuffed these otherwise well-meaning individuals.
But then I thought further that Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and the like couldn't exist without a market to support them. While I used to think that the right-wing media created Trump's voters, there had to be some sentiment for all this extremism in the first place. After all, the U.S. is a capitalist country and the market just supplies what the consumer already wants. (Or, as in Apple's case, what the consumer will surely want.)
But that brings us to the real problem in America: about half (probably more) of all white people are just plain bigots who don't like people of color, immigrants, Muslims, uppity feminists, LGBTs, etc. (Have I forgotten anyone?)
Don't believe me? Polls show that not only do most Republicans (who make up about half the country) approve of Donald Trump but they also approve of his response to the events in Charlottesville.
Yesterday David Brooks wrote that "race was the issue that created the Republican Party and that race could very well be the issue that destroys it." And I disagree. I don't think the Republican Party is going to be destroyed; I think it's merely been transformed. And the way it changes is to become a more overtly bigoted party.
Or you could argue that it changed a long time ago and has finally been revealed to be a bigoted party. Brooks argues that:
Most of the Republican establishment, from the Bushes to McCain and Romney, fought bigotry, and racism was not a common feature in the conservative moment.
Really? What about Nixon's Southern strategy? Or Reagan's use of the terms "welfare queen" and "young buck"? What about George H. W. Bush's Willie Horton ad? What about McCain's tolerance for his running mate's bigotry (you know, Obama's "shucking and jiving")? And Romney's embrace of the birther Donald Trump in 2011? Need I go on?
Brooks writes:
In that time, I never heard blatantly racist comments at dinner parties, and there were probably fewer than a dozen times I heard some veiled comment that could have suggested racism.
Well, I know how whites talk about blacks when none are around. And there's still plenty -- plenty -- of racism in America. Is he serious?
Sorry, but Republicans like David Brooks and Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are out of step with Trump and the modern-day Republican Party, not the other way around. Brooks writes:
Each individual Republican is now compelled to embrace this garbage or not.
Too late. As I argued in my last post, Republicans will vote for Trump and Trumpism rather than any Democrat. Brooks concludes by saying:
It may someday be possible to reduce the influence of white identity politics, but probably not while Trump is in office. As long as he is in power the G.O.P. is a house viciously divided against itself, and cannot stand.
Again, too late. The war is over; the bigots have captured the Republican Party. It will now be an overtly, not just covertly, bigoted party from now on. Is Brooks really so myopic?
agree 100%.
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