Via commentor LAMH, Toni Morrison, in the New Yorker, on “Making America White Again“:
This is a serious project. All immigrants to the United States know (and knew) that if they want to become real, authentic Americans they must reduce their fealty to their native country and regard it as secondary, subordinate, in order to emphasize their whiteness. Unlike any nation in Europe, the United States holds whiteness as the unifying force. Here, for many people, the definition of “Americanness” is color.
Under slave laws, the necessity for color rankings was obvious, but in America today, post-civil-rights legislation, white people’s conviction of their natural superiority is being lost. Rapidly lost. There are “people of color” everywhere, threatening to erase this long-understood definition of America. And what then? Another black President? A predominantly black Senate? Three black Supreme Court Justices? The threat is frightening.
In order to limit the possibility of this untenable change, and restore whiteness to its former status as a marker of national identity, a number of white Americans are sacrificing themselves. They have begun to do things they clearly don’t really want to be doing, and, to do so, they are (1) abandoning their sense of human dignity and (2) risking the appearance of cowardice. Much as they may hate their behavior, and know full well how craven it is, they are willing to kill small children attending Sunday school and slaughter churchgoers who invite a white boy to pray. Embarrassing as the obvious display of cowardice must be, they are willing to set fire to churches, and to start firing in them while the members are at prayer. And, shameful as such demonstrations of weakness are, they are willing to shoot black children in the street….
It may be hard to feel pity for the men who are making these bizarre sacrifices in the name of white power and supremacy. Personal debasement is not easy for white people (especially for white men), but to retain the conviction of their superiority to others—especially to black people—they are willing to risk contempt, and to be reviled by the mature, the sophisticated, and the strong. If it weren’t so ignorant and pitiful, one could mourn this collapse of dignity in service to an evil cause…
British visitor Bim Adewunmi, at Buzzfeed, “What Is America So Afraid Of?“:
… I’ve travelled in a few states in America this year, and helped by a British accent, have been able to strike up conversations with strangers with increased ease. I’ve spoken to immigrants and the children of immigrants, taxi drivers and waiters, undocumented people, middle class people, wealthy ones, and the working poor. I have eavesdropped on too many conversations to count, taking notes as rapidly as my fingers would go, and I have pressed people to explain themselves and their way of life more fully to me.
And they have opened up and told me. Immigration was a problem for a good number: They were worried America would be hit by a deluge of needy, open hands, and that those hands would also be criminal (that came up even when I was talking about the death of Prince in Minneapolis). In Las Vegas, I spoke to a Hungarian-American who told me that African-Americans would likely never receive a fair shake in their country, because their country was simply incapable of it. He also said America was going the way of all empires (hint: the direction ain’t “up”). In Cleveland, two separate middle-aged white men joshed with me about Brexit (they thought we had fucked up), and fretted about a Trump presidency, and what that might mean for women and racial minorities. A day after those conversations, I watched a man carrying a gun almost as tall as he was walk in ever tighter circles around a public square in Cleveland, chin jutting forward, practically asking to be challenged. In New Orleans, I spoke to a young black woman, a hotel worker, who told me her hometown was a “working poor” city, before telling me about her health benefits. In our freewheeling conversation, we touched on Black Lives Matter and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. In Philadelphia, a young black man told me he was Bernie or bust, and he was tired of compromising. In Queens, a Cypriot American laughed as he explained to me and my friends how certain European identities are tangled in ways that are not easy to unravel. People were scared, and that manifested as either a widening of their arms, or a defensive shutdown. The fight-or-flight urge had been flattened to just “fight”. And sometimes, it just looked like lashing out…
Rembert Browne, in NYMag, on “How Trump Made Hate Intersectional“:
… Barack Obama faced incessant bigotry for the duration of his two landmark terms, but the focus on his blackness (and his perceived ties to Islam) masked an additional threat he posed — one that is steeped in racism but isn’t just about skin color. Barack Obama is the embodiment of two things: what happens when a maligned group successfully plays catch-up, and what happens when a space that’s always been whites-only suddenly has its party crashed.
These two realities may help explain the support of Trump’s truest base of working-class rural/exurban whites, which he won by a huge margin, according to exit polls; and also the portion of the traditionally Republican white upper class whose support he managed to hold on to, outperforming predictions that Hillary would win that group.The reason this election makes it inaccurate to simply blame “white people” is because there are white people who are not part of either of those groups. But more important, it allows the white people who rallied behind Trump to remain an amorphous part of the whole, instead of treating them for what they are: a massive, like-minded sect.
In recent elections, these two groups have voted Republican, but Trump was able to turn them out in record numbers with two strategies. He rearmed the white working class with a confidence that both an ignorance about and intimidation of others was a sign of patriotism. And he weaponized that ignorance: His base of voters, egged on by foul statements in rooms across the country, did not have a single target. For over a year, their hatred was a revolving door. The did not discriminate: They hated black people, they hated women, they hated immigrants, they hated Muslims, they hated Jews, they hated gay people, they hated Hispanic people — and if you could be white and any of those things, they hated you, too…
The story of America for many is a seemingly never-ending process of playing catch-up. The perspective of those at the back of the line has been a tunnel-vision reality of knowing who is holding you down. Black people focus on white racists, gay people are consumed with protecting themselves from homophobes, women struggle to exist freely in a man’s world, Muslims and Mexican immigrants feel the weight of the world against them from “true” Americans. This created a complicated ecosystem for the historically abused — a shared understanding of what it means to be discriminated against, but also a quiet resentment over who has it worse. Because if you’re the worst off, you’re at the bottom, but you have a reason to scream the loudest, avoiding perhaps the most frustrating status: invisibility.
Now we’re faced with a clear reality: one group that hates us all…
Jelani Cobb, just before the election, in the New Yorker — “Donald Trump and the Death of American Exceptionalism“:
… Trump represents a unique danger in American politics. Trumpism does not seek simply to make a point and pass on its genes to more politically palatable heirs, nor is it readily apparent why he would need to settle for this. When George Will announced his departure from the G.O.P., last summer, he offered a modified version of Ronald Reagan’s quote about leaving the Democrats—“I didn’t leave the Party; the Party left me.” But a kind of converse narrative applies to Trump; he didn’t join the Republican Party so much as its most febrile elements joined him. Trump is partly a product of forces that the G.O.P. created by pandering to a base whose dilated pupils the Party mistook for gullibility, not abject, irrational fear that would send those voters scurrying to the nearest authoritarian savior they could find. The error was in thinking that this populace, mainlining Glenn Beck and Alex Jones theories and pondering how the Minutemen would have fought Sharia law, could be controlled. (For evidence to the contrary, the Party needed look no further than the premature political demise of Eric Cantor.) The old adage warns that one should beware of puppets that begin pulling their own strings.
In this light, Trump represents a kind of return to the old-time religion, a fundamentalism that rejects the effete nature of dog-whistle politics the way the religious right defined itself by rejecting the watery tenets of liberal Christianity. Implicit within dog-whistling is enough respect for democratic norms and those outside one’s base to speak to that base in terms that the mass populace can’t readily decipher. Here, plausible deniability is at least a recognition that there are people with interests different from one’s own and that their influence, if not their interests or humanity, warrants a certain degree of respect. Trump is doing the opposite of this. He is an exhorter in a midsummer tent revival: direct, literal, and speaking at a decibel that makes it impossible to misunderstand his intentions. The end result of Trump’s evangelism is that a xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, serially mendacious narcissist is poised to pull in somewhere north of fifty million votes in the midst of the most bitterly contentious election in modern American history. The easy analysis holds that Trump’s jihad against decency has wrecked the Republican Party, but the damage is far more extensive than this…
In the broader context, Trumpism represents the demise of American exceptionalism, or at least the refutation of the most cogent arguments for it ever having existed in the first place. An exceptional nation would have better reflexes than this, would recognize the communicable nature of fear more quickly, would rally its immune defense more efficiently than the United States has in the past sixteen months. At a quaint moment in the recent past, it was possible to think that a decisive Clinton victory would exorcise Trumpism from public life. But, on the verge of the election, that idea increasingly seems like an indulgent delusion. The problem of Trump is not simply that his opinions far exceed his knowledge; it’s that what he does know is so hostile to democracy, not only in the Republican Party or the United States but in the world. Whatever happens on November 8th, we are at the outset of a much longer reckoning.
WereBear
I have yet to get through to the new Senate Minority Leader; the phones have been busy at the DC office for the last two days.
And I’m kind of dreading them answering it, to be honest, because I will have to tell them I am disappointed.
That the strongest denunciation of Trump’s hate speech came from Reid: who is out of power.
That the current President has stated he cannot do anything until he is a private citizen; that is, when he is out of power.
That when I found a statement by Schumer, he was undecided on whether to oppose or work with the new Administration.
And this is why millions of people sat home when they are normally reliable voters. THEY SEE US AS WEAK.
And we are. Because look at this situation: the most incredibly unqualified person to ever run for the Presidency is about to take office… and the opposition party is going to let it happen?
I’m hoping that isn’t so. I’m hoping that when I talk to that staffer, I won’t hear that guilty silence: that huge space that is just going to echo with Democratic Party helpless hand-flapping.
Why are WE the ones to call out the voter suppression?
Why are WE the ones demanding Obama seat Garland anyway, because the Senate refused to participate?
Why are WE the ones saying Trump can’t take office with these incriminating Russian connections hanging over his head?
These all have the benefit of being true, at least. And all things which demand some kind of action NOW. But our leaders will not lead.
Okay, I know: the republicans break the rules. Constantly, gleefully, nastily. They dare us to make them stop.
Why don’t we?
That is what we are supposed to be about. This is like the bully beating up every kid in the class and taking their lunch money, and when we complain to the school, it says, “Oh, they shouldn’t do that.”
And then… nothing. We know he’s not supposed to do that! We thought you would do something about it!
Nothing.
I know it’s stupid for people to stay home and by default, elect Trump. I even know people who thought voting for Trump was their actual protest vote. I know. It’s mind-bendingly stupid.
But it only reached that point because here’s a crisis where the republicans are, once again, flouting every tenet of our civilization and our side makes tepid statements of how they aren’t supposed to do that.
We don’t just look weak. If we allow Trump to take office, we are weak.
Why should any of these apathetic voters vote for us again? We weren’t there when it counted.
CarolDuhart2
Just how do we prevent that, and even if we could prevent that, who do we have to replace him with?
i know that some are upset that Obama seems so conciliatory in practice. Obama has millions to worry about: federal employees, the military, others, the economy. These people can’t stand for sudden shocks in their income and well-being.
And yes, it’s up to us. Politicians won’t move unless we move them and know that we have their back. It’s always been this way, especially in elected officials.
WereBear
It’s a good question. It’s not even our place to be answering it. Is it?
THIS IS WHAT LEADERS ARE FOR. That is why we elect them.
Trump wasn’t vetted by his own party. Trump wasn’t vetted by the press. The Democrats called out his hate speech, and that is good, but they didn’t have the structure to point out he wasn’t vetted. Because this never came up before.
NEW SITUATIONS CALL FOR LEADERSHIP. It’s their job.
Which they are not doing.
So let’s call for a vetting. Is this Administration qualified? Top to bottom, it’s haters and failures and people with stinky ties to our enemies.
Why does that mean nothing? Why isn’t ANYONE but blog commenters and a few journalists pointing out the obvious? The Emperor has no clothes and we are going to let him parade through our streets?
WE WANT VETTING.
Okay, it didn’t happen when it should and the people (republicans & press) who we trusted to do it, didn’t. Why should we stand by and not DEMAND that Trump be vetted NOW, while there is still time?
WE ARE STICKING TO THE RULES the Republicans broke. We’re in the right. We are being law-abiding. We are calling out the jerks who broke the law and laughed in our faces and dared us to do something about it.
Let’s have ideas about that. Make it the focus of our phone calls. Hammer on the press. General Strike.
For once, can we stop letting the republicans fragment us? Medicare vs Obamacare. Let’s stop them from starting that war. Now we have to keep them from slashing the justice department. It’s death of a thousand cuts.
Let’s re-focus on one thing. Is Trump qualified to take the Presidency?
WE WANT THE VETTING THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN.
We want it now.
WereBear
For that matter, why are we so weak?
There’s more of us than them. We are in the right. We have the vulnerable to protect.
We must act.
It is utterly in our rights, as citizens, to demand the vetting that got glossed over and ignored. They broke the rules, the republicans and press and our political system. Who is going to call them on it?
I guess we are. I guess we have to.
Our political parties failed us. Our press failed us. We are the last firewall.
We want vetting. That’s how we can hold ALL the lines.
rikyrah
@WereBear:
You are on point
Another Holocene Human
Re: Morrison: whiteness was decentered, and their world turned upside down.
Another Holocene Human
One more reminder to please donate to TransLifeLine. It really is a life line and it is being attacked by vicious internet trolls. If you donated to Trevor Project, please consider donating–or even volunteering! TransLifeLine provides direct aid to any trans person in crisis anywhere in the US. Thanks.
Another Holocene Human
@CarolDuhart2:
We need to have their backs. They will be strong if we show our support.
WereBear
@rikyrah: Thank you.
We are always bemoaning the fact that, as Democrats, we lack a single unified rallying cry. Now, the republicans, through their careless mindless power grabs, have finally handed us one.
We have the Resistance. It’s milling around out there, worried and stressed and frantic, waiting waiting waiting for a leader to give them that direction. To tell them what to clamor for.
VETTING. That’s what we want. We are astonished it wasn’t done before. So it has to be done NOW.
That is what we must scream, in one voice.
CarolDuhart2
This is where the black experience-and black leadership is important. We’ve created a network of independent organizations that can act, elected leaders or no.
WereBear
@CarolDuhart2: That is very encouraging words.
I think a lot of us have conduits to reach all kinds of passionate, devoted, people who can let our allies know we want them to fight, and we will have their backs if they do so.
I intend to email our local Progressive leader, and let her know my thoughts. She has many connections.
The future of the Democratic party will be the people who listen to US. Too many Democratic voters are angry and frustrated now for the usual methods. THE USUAL METHODS HAVE FAILED US.
We need leaders who can think outside the box. I understand: anyone who rose through the normal system thinks in certain ways. I also understand their reluctance to undermine any pillars of democracy which remain; that is wise and sensible of them.
But we have no such constraints! AND all we are asking for is that the rules be followed.
WE WANT VETTING.
We just want the rules to be followed. No one can fault any of us for asking for that. So it didn’t happen when it should, and it didn’t get done by the people who should have done it.
That is why we must step in. HOLD ALL THE LINES.
We want vetting. It is our right.
Patricia Kayden
@WereBear: Very well said. Democratic politicians are weak. The fact that they are talking about working with an unqualified bigot after the kind of campaign that he ran says it all. Kudos to my fellow Americans who have protested Trump’s election. Unfortunately, they’re on their own as Democratic politicians do not see why we can’t treat Trump like a regular Republican politician.
WereBear
They are stuck in their DC mindset. We are not.
THIS IS NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL.
Sure, lots and lots of people would like to pretend that this is all normal and we’re getting upset over nothing. Especially republicans. I AM TIRED OF HAVING MY HEAD PATTED.
We should be running around with our hair on fire. We should be melting down the phone lines with our demand. We should be holding Democratic feet to the fire of our righteous rage.
Our one demand. We have longed for a single rallying cry. We have one now. Don’t let it go by.
WE WANT TRUMP VETTED.
Okay, it wasn’t done before. But it sure needs to be done now? And this entire administration is tainted. We don’t let them get away with dumping Trump and just walking on like normal. THEY BROKE THE RULES. THEY HAVE TO LOSE.
We can all make them follow the rules. Since the Dem leaders are constantly trying to pretend this is just the normal tides of politics, they don’t see the danger. After all, it won’t affect them like it will us? No matter what happens, they won’t lose THEIR health insurance. THEIR kids won’t get beat up. THEIR house won’t be taken away. They are entirely too complacent as a consequence.
THIS ISN’T NORMAL. We, ourselves, have to stop pretending it is, and treat like the DEFCON emergency it truly IS.
Seth Owen
Already booked seats on a bus for myself and my youngest daughter for D.C. on Jan. 21. Eldest daughter meeting us there. It’s a start.
WereBear
@Seth Owen: No it isn’t a start. That’s an end!
It’s too late THEN.
Emma
@WereBear: I am tired of the bellowing. I’m on your side. Now tell me how we do it. Take me. I live in Florida. Who do I yell to? The spineless Marco Rubio? God knows other people with more moxie and better connections than me have tried. Nothing.
Seth Owen
@WereBear: just the first battle in a long war. Everybody thought Bull Run would settle things. It didn’t. This will not be a quick struggle either.
WereBear
@Emma: Emma, I wasn’t yelling at you :)
Melt down the phone lines. Only instead of fragmenting — my issue is Medicare/ACA/hate speech/voter suppressing and so forth, we ask for Trump to be vetted.
If he never was, that’s a step that wasn’t done. Why should they not follow the rules? We all have to follow the rules. Are the security offices going to give him a seal of approval? What about justice? Isn’t he a tax cheat? How do we know?
This is not normal. We can’t do normal things.
Emma
@WereBear: And how do we follow up if they don’t respond? FOR US IN FLORIDA THE ANSWER IS NOTHING UNTIL FLORIDA DEMS GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER. We need a long term plan to go with your short term.
Woodrowfan
my worry about the January 21 march is that the Trumpeters will still be in town for their freak-show.
WereBear
@Emma: There are kids in the streets begging for a rallying cry. We can give it to them.
We have 20th Century reflexes. We keep trying to play by the rules. And then we ignore a rule being broken? How can Trump possibly be qualified for the highest position on the planet?
Do you really want to shrug and say you did all you could?
When we didn’t?
Emma
@WereBear: HOW, DAMMIT? GIVE ME A WAY!
WereBear
@Emma: See? Shouting feels good.
We have to tell the Dem leadership, in one voice, what we want. It starts small and discouraging, yes it does. And if they don’t listen, they will lose next time. Because sooner or later (and you can tell them this, I will) a leader will step forward saying “I will stop this” and they will get that half the electorate off their couches and into the voting booth.
And THAT PERSON will be the new leader.
They are haunted by the people who stayed home. These are not people in Trump’s camp, or they would have voted for him. But they didn’t want to vote for Business as Usual. That is what they were saying when they stayed home.
That fact haunts the Democrats. They are scared too.
So it’s you and me, Emma, and maybe some lurkers who were going to call and now have a simple request of all the Democrats, and even the republicans if that is what they have to work with.
Trump isn’t qualified. Are you going to let him take office?
It’s that simple. Whoever tries to brush that under the rug is going to be held responsible.
I sat back and waited for the experts to fix this. They didn’t If we can start the demand building with enough people crying out for justice, we will save them all.
You won’t be alone, Emma. Just start calling.
Another Holocene Human
@Emma: okay, here’s the thing. Gwen Graham is running for governor. Note I’d the time to ask her to come out to your group’s holiday dinner to give a speech. Make her go all over the state. Nan Rich did a lousy job of that, Crist won primary and then South Florida dems stayed home because Crist. Let’s not have a repeat of that.
I am going to My dem party meeting. Get involved with yours. Bring friends.
WaterGirl
Al Giordano: What Happens Now with a President-Elect Trump, written BEFORE THE ELECTION
WaterGirl
Al Giordano: What Happens Now with a President-Elect Trump,
part 2
WaterGirl
Al Giordano: What Happens Now with a President-Elect Trump,
part 3
WaterGirl
Al Giordano: What Happens Now with a President-Elect Trump,
part 4
LAC
@WereBear: look I am all about this in theory. But if you stayed home deliberately, or wasted a vote on a third party, with all that was stake in this election, I am not feeling any desire to give folks like that a pass and just blame leadership now. We need folks to look beyond needing some loudmouth demagogue on the left to stir us up. We need to act like our lives depend on voting and active political engagement from now on.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Emma:
Troll him then – “Trump isn’t a Republican, he clearly knows nothing about government, he didn’t win the vote, he’s just a conman who gamed the primary and the electoral collage. Face it, he , stole your presidency Rubio so how about some sweet sweet revenge and you do your civic duty and save the country from this disaster in the making. “
WaterGirl
Al Giordano: What Happens Now with a President-Elect Trump,
part 5
WaterGirl
@WereBear: I sent a long letter to my entire family, trying to explain that THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
I have received 4 replies so far. Every single person has responded with typical republican vs. democrat, reasonable people disagree kind of stuff.
Not one single reference to THIS IS NOT NORMAL. I am terribly sad and also exasperated.
O. Felix Culpa
@WereBear:
I agree that should have happened. I agree that Trump presents a clear and present danger not only to good governance and social welfare, but also to democracy and our planet. I am working with several local groups on resistance, as well as calling my legislators in D.C. on a regular basis.
That said, what constitutional mechanism is there to prevent Trump from taking office (unless we can determine that the votes in Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan were hacked)? My understanding is that vetting is a norm, not a requirement.
WaterGirl
@Emma: Here’s one way, posted in a link from SWMBO last night:
We’re His Problem Now: Calling Sheet
Make every single call on there to every single legislator you can find – it doesn’t just have to be your own. We are asking leaders to stand up. Call them all. And then do it again next week and next week and the week after that.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174f0WBSVNSdcQ5_S6rWPGB3pNCsruyyM_ZRQ6QUhGmo/htmlview?usp=embed_facebook&sle=true
WereBear
If there isn’t one? Why not? Something can be done fast if the republicans want it. They are already planning to kill everyone slowly the minute Trump’s hand comes off the bible.
We are still in power. Why can’t we act like it?
The FBI director who screwed with the election still has his job. I might not have mine next year. He will always have health insurance. I might not.
You know, if anyone in power would just say these things, I wouldn’t be so angry.
Tripod
@O. Felix Culpa:
You mean other than the electoral college?
WereBear
Just got off the phone with DC. Prominent person’s staffer says they are getting a LOT of calls like this.
We’re long time Democrats. We organize and update spreadsheets and volunteer.
That is not going to stop this slow motion train wreck. We need to channel that fear from the people to the leaders.
If they don’t pick up the flag in a big way, no one is going to want to support them down the road. Because look how many of us are so exhausted we are saying Let them die.
Miss Bianca
I was going thru’ some of my sister’s artwork that she left me when she pared down her collection in order to move cross-country.
One of the sketches – a pen-and-ink one that I remembered from my childhood – features images of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown, with the following quote written underneath:
“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood…”
It was true then, and I very much fear it may prove true now.