Donald Trump, the Republican Party and US
By Pastor Rasheed Z. Baaith
“He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” (1John 2:11)
While it may amaze some and astound others that Donald Trump is leading the ever increasing field of those seeking the Republican nomination for President, it should come as no surprise. When I hear Republicans voice dismay and puzzlement at how Trump’s bombastic, racist, fracturing statements appeal to members of their Party, I wonder if they’ve been asleep for the last 30 years.
The Republican Party is responsible for the making of Donald Trump. Ever since the inception of the so called “Southern Strategy” by President Nixon’s tacticians and schemers, the appeal to those who are white, male and racist has been the order of the day. The Republican Party has centered its election call based on skin color. Trump is just shouting the party line.
No, they don’t call for n*ggers to be lynched or laws to bring segregation back but every time the Republicans talk about “taking American back” or saying “this country can be great again,” or “make America what it used to be,” or “law and order,” it’s code for racist thinking.
Trump knows what a lot of us refuse to believe, and that is that a sizeable number of Americans – what Nixon called and Trump is beginning to call the “Silent Majority” – will give their support to someone who stigmatizes and demonizes people of color. These folk may not say what Trump says as loudly as he does or even admit to agreeing with what he has said but when they close the curtain in the voting booth, they’ll give Trump their vote.
And of course Trump has an ever increasing group of vocal supporters, including some Black folks who are loud and vociferous in their support of this small minded man. Trump is proof positive that some Black people will support almost anybody. It’s not just that Trump was leader of the “birthers” who to this day don’t believe President Obama was born in the United States, it’s also Trump wanting to believe that the President’s academic success is the result of affirmative action and academic institutions Obama attended, setting a lower standard of achievement for Black people.
He doesn’t believe any Black man could be that intelligent.
How any Black person including Dennis Rodman could support Trump is way too deep for me. At least Blacks who served in the Confederate Army had a somewhat understandable excuse: for them it was serve or die. And no, being ignorant is no excuse. I’m waiting for Charles Barkly to step up for Trump.
Here’s what we’ve got to decide as a people – are we going to wake up politically and begin to organize and advocate for those issues particular and sensitive to us or are we going to let the Republicans and the Democrats keep giving us representation that either takes us for granted like the Democrats do most of the time or those who couldn’t care less about our concerns like the Republicans.
Are we going to finally understand that voting is just part of the political process and we have to financially support candidates to get their attention and loyalty? Our political process is a reciprocal system, it’s you do something for me and I’ll do something for you.
In closing, Donald Trump’s appeal is not that he is a successful businessman who speaks honestly and openly, his appeal is that he’s part of a racist core in America that is desperate and moving toward fanaticism. Think about it.
