Yesterday, I wrote a piece about Donald Trump baiting his base to yell racial slurs in public. I pointed out that Trump knew the press wouldn’t cover it. Several commenters on the blog asked why. I realized that I missed the biggest punch line of the story: Nobody cares.
It’s almost inconceivable that Trump’s ploy would have been ignored before 2016. In the time before Trump, our country had come to a consensus that racism was socially unacceptable—at least in public. People might be using all kinds of racial slurs behind closed doors, but they weren’t saying them out loud. If they had, the press would have called them out. If they happened at a political rally of either party, incumbents and party leaders would have disavowed and condemned them.
Not today, though. Trump’s racial call and response got barely a notice outside of social media. The press didn’t pick it up. No Republican at the rally distanced themselves from Trump’s little charade and the rest of party ignored it. They’ve dispensed with the dog whistle and embraced the bullhorn.
That’s what normalization looks like. It’s now okay to be racist in public. The media expects such behavior Trump and the people who attend his rallies. They know that no GOP politicians will disavow the behavior, so they don’t even cover it. They don’t ask Mark Robinson, the African American Lieutenant Governor who was at the rally, what he thinks. They don’t ask Ted Budd, who wrapped himself around Trump, his reaction.
They don’t ask because it’s no longer news. It’s not shocking or surprising. People would largely shrug. It’s not going to change any minds or any votes. We know who Trump is and we know who his base. Part of the GOP is blatantly bigoted and nobody really cares. It’s where Trump and the Republican Party has taken our country.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
I’ve read both of your pieces about this. What I find surprising however is that anyone is shocked that no one does, in fact, care. Or show any sign of caring.
The party of Repulsiveness has shown no qualms about accepting their messiah for what he is. Does it matter what he does, says, or lies about? Has it ever? This is the same man that acquiesced the overthrow of the government if he didn’t do the actual planning. He got caught lying to the tune of what, 100 times per day during his time in the White House. He has all the moral acuity of a mass murderer and the empathy of a great white shark. With all that going for him, people still buy his merch and send him money. So honestly, how surprised are we that he baited his ‘people’ with an open-ended challenge concerning the N—- word and as you said, knowing full well what the response would be.
Mark Robinson had a chance for his Will Smith moment, but he sat there rather than slapping all the taste and a couple of teeth out of his mouth for doing it. Or at the very least, got up and walked off. What does that say about Mark Robinson?
“Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts, absolutely.”
So really, who is surprised that almost no one in totality (deference to Thomas, Rick Gunter, and the other readers here), has a problem with what Schmucky the Clown said. Reading the first article, I remember thinking to myself, “So? This is a surprise or revelation to whom?”
Care? Absolutely. The gutless wonder strikes again; his mouth runneth over. However, what can we do? I talk, I vote, I donate when I can. It doesn’t seem to change things though.
Thank you for writing this.
I am a lifer newspaperman. I am incensed daily by Mr. Trump and his base. I am writing about his sordid episode. So, don’t include me in the media that are oblivious and continue to cover Trump as if he is a “normal politician.” He is a domestic terorist, and it is ablut damn time he is indicted and held to account.