Trump is not an anomaly. He’s an embodiment.

by | Sep 11, 2020 | Editor's Blog, Politics | 6 comments

Back when Donald Trump was running for president in 2106, I had conservative friends say to me, “I don’t like Donald Trump, but he’s really saying out loud what a lot of us are already thinking.” As I listened to his rhetoric and tried to tune out the bombast and verbosity, all I could hear were tirades against immigrants, the threat of free trade and the failure of the American Dream due to foreign interference. It was us-against-them and I realized that’s exactly how a lot of conservatives saw the world.

Very little has changed. Trump is still harping on those who are out to get us. And “us” is primarily white Americans. He has little understanding that immigrants and African Americans have different American experiences than the white working class and rural voters who make up his base.

When Bob Woodward asked Trump, “Do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave to a certain extent as it put me and I think lots of white privileged people in a cave and that we have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain particularly Black people feel in this country?”, the president responded, “No. You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

In other words, Trump can’t empathize with Black Americans at all. I believe this is true of most Republicans. Through rationalization or isolation, Republicans have little ability to understand the plight of people unlike them and feel little obligation to them as fellow Americans. And I think it’s been true for years, probably decades.

Trump really embodies the core Republican spirit, regardless of how loath never-Trump Republicans might be to admit it. He’s Jesse Helms in 2020, arguing that the country has no obligation to help African Americans overcome the wealth, health, and educational disparities caused by hundreds of years of state-sanctioned discrimination. He’s Ayn Rand’s Superman, relentlessly pursuing his self-interest with little consideration for the welfare of his fellow Americans. He’s Franklin Graham’s Christianity, ignoring the teachings of Christ who stood with the dispossessed and outcasts and instead pointing damning fingers at sinners, making sure that the salvation of the afterlife is reserved for people who look and think like him.  

Trump embodies what the Republican Party became in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. Slowly, but steadily, the party evolved from the one envisioned by William F. Buckley, Jr., to the one we saw emerge in North Carolina six years before Donald Trump took office. It’s a party devoid of empathy, enamored with the market, and beholden to a punishing God that lacks compassion or tolerates dissent. It’s who Republicans are and it’s why he has a cult-like following. He is everything they’ve always dreamed about.

6 Comments

  1. Joanne Purnell

    You are spot on. Many of these Republicans would like to go back to the 1950s. Most of them call themselves good Christians. A while back was the WWJD movement and I don’t think Jesus would like what they are doing now. It is so upsetting and I don’t recognize our Democracy anymore. My biggest fear is that he will win another term. Cooper is doing such a old job of leading the state and I fear that he will lose this time as well. NC has become a deep Republican state. I feel very alone often because the majority of neighbors love Trump. One of the biggest failings off the Dems in the past is getting other Dems to vote. Many of them would not vote for Trump but just feel like it is a waste of time to vote. What they forget to realize is that not voting IS a vote for Trump.

  2. KC Cook

    You are right – it is not possible for a white to understand or empathize with the black culture. No one can truly understand a culture foreign from it’s own. Blacks cannot imagine being white, Chinese cannot imagine existence as an Irishman. It’s our differences that make us so special. We should be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin or our gender. Everyone needs to take an inventory on that point.The Democrats want to divide and dismantle us once and for all, fulfilling Nikita Khrushchev”s prophecy bragging they (the Soviets) would take us over without ever firing a shot.

    Donald Trump can be brazen and speak off the cuff, but I truly believe he is trying to right this sinking ship. I don’t necessarily believe everything he says, but at least he is following through on many of the promises he made. I have decided I would rather have two successful businessmen managing this Country, than another round of lying, corrupt lawyers, who’ve never produced a marketable thing in their lives and have corruption seeping from their pores. If that is not enough food for thought, should this Country end up with the Democrats running the Nation, simply because people hate Trump, we best prepare for that great “fundamental transformation” and kiss our liberties goodbye. Expect Chinese-like policies begin to ruin our lives.The protestors will finally understand the definition of fascism. Speak to any immigrant who has fled a socialist or communist regime.How sad for them to think they are safe in the USA, only to find out some of our citizens are seriously considering to vote for the very socialism they escaped. No, this election really is critical. Honestly, do you see the current unleashed destructive violence stopping, regardless of the election result? Which candidate will make it stop and which side will turn a blind eye?

    As for your take on Our Creator, don’t blame Him for the actions of men. The only reason mankind is allowed to continue to brazenly spit at Him, is His abundant Grace. For He wants none to perish, He loves us all — so much so He gave His only Son as a sacrifice in payment for our sins, freely giving any who ask Him eternal life. if you want to say there is no sin, there is no God, the Bible says you are a fool (Psalm 14). The Bible has been 100% accurate in historical retrospect, so based on the last book, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, there will be rough seas ahead. Will it be this year or sometime in the not too distant future? No one can be argued into belief, but I pray for you. Read “The Case for Christ” by Lee Stroebel, a determined atheist. In the meantime, ask yourself what becomes of your soul after your death? There are only two options. Just like this election. Only one is for all eternity.

    • j bengel

      Please. Donald Trump cares about exactly one thing: Donald Trump. Every utterance that issues from his pie hole is all about him and how unfair everybody else is to him. His mouth is filled with lies, and he imagines that he can. Make himself bigger by making all those around him smaller. But he hates all the same people that his disciples do (or claims he does at any rate, but who knows?) so they’ll excuse him but inventing a boogeyman to frighten people with. Some nebulous entity that they can demonize to keep the faithful in line. If Donald Trump did not exist, they would find it necessary to invent him, just as they invented their god.

      Ii work with a former submarine commander who likes to say there are only two types of ships: submarines, and targets. In Trumpworld, there are two types of people: Donald Trump and everyone else. And that’s the punchline. You imagine that he cares about you, that he shares your concerns, that he worries for your welfare. And to the degree that you are useful to him, that’s technically true. But once your utility goes away, so does his concern. He as much as told you this right after the 2016 election “I don’t need your votes right now. In 4 years I will, but not right now.” In other words, “I’ll let you know when you need to speak again, for now go back to whatever it is you do And let me make some money off this president gig.”

      So go on and believe what you have to in order to not feel like you were hoodwinked by the con man in chief. Nobody likes to think they were played for a sucker, but there’s really no shame in it. Trump has been making a living out of conning people since before many of us were born. It’s the one skill he does have.

  3. Mike Leonard

    My elderly neighbors who worship Trump really would like him to turn the clock back to 1950, complete with segregated restrooms and drinking fountains.

  4. bobby h griffin

    Thomas,
    AMEN! AWOMAN! for the simple truths you have articulated.
    I also agree with another comment. We need another Terry Sanford in North Carolina. Those WW II veterans were, in the main, progressives out to help all the people.

  5. Hew Fulton

    Terry Sanford started something in NC that I believe made us all better. Jim Hunt built on it.
    Where so many are headed following the Trump Republican Party feels like a return to the 1950’s.

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