02-22-2021, 03:03 PM
(02-22-2021, 02:51 PM)David Horn Wrote:(02-22-2021, 12:17 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(02-22-2021, 11:09 AM)David Horn Wrote: Let's admit it: Trump is a classic iconoclast. Let's also agree that iconoclasts attract followers, in large part, due to their innate intemperance. To be less than subtle about it, pissed-off people are attracted to other pissed-off people, even though they aren't necessarily angry about the same thing. It's the anger!
Trump arrested, convicted and jailed might be a martyr ... or not. We'll have to see just how profoundly he's played his particular audience. I suspect he still has some legs.
I am not so sure it is anger so much as they want a racist president. That seemed possible for a while. For most of the unraveling they were forced to stay undercover, to be vaguely polite. Suddenly, Trump in the wake of a black president was enabling the KKK, Neo Nazi and other racist organizations to work openly again. If Trump was a reaction to Obama, Black Lives Matter were a reaction to Trump. Trump gave the racists a chance to be out in the open again, which set up the BLM response.
In hindsight, there were lots of catalysts building towards the George Floyd trigger. The racists could have stopped short of creating a trigger, but no. As is, they made systematic racism a crisis issue and crisis issues tend to be decisively solved.
It is not that the red are against democracy and rule of law. They are just against them from applying to minorities.
So, Trump is tapping into America's long history of racism which isn't going away quickly. At the same time the BLM movement has made its point enough that playing the race card is not an automatic win for the Republicans. They have a majority of a minority. They can win primaries, but in most places not general elections.
I anticipate a loud squeaking by the Trump loyalists, but they are not in a position to fight the turnings. The conservative values have always taken a hit in the crisis heart. I don't see things developing differently this time.
I certainly agree that racism is a major source of the anger in many white communities. Knowing that and fixing it are two entirely different issues. Most anti-racism narratives make things worse among the very group most needing convincing. So that's job one: find a narrative that works. I've mentioned Heather McGhee several times recently, because she's been working that problem for several years, and has made some real progress. She has a book and a TED talk that cover a lot of this ground.
The anti-racism narratives now prevailing- YAAASSSSSS KWEEEEEEN neoliberal identity politics - makes things worse because it serves the class interest of the prodessional-manageeial class within capitalism as well as the minority bourgeoisie. The narrative that works is proletarian revolution.