It’s been clear for a while now that the Trump administration’s midterm strategy is to divide Americans by race. Weaponizing white resentment was the key to Trump’s 2016 EC victory (with a healthy assist from Russia, voter suppression, etc., which also centered on racist bullshit). And this time around, he won’t have so-called “populist” fig leaves to paste over the eyes of the Beltway press since his agenda as president* has been Paul Ryan’s deeply unpopular tax cuts for plutocrats and benefit cuts for everyone else.
So, with no record to run on except coasting on the Obama economy (and that could go off the rails any minute, with Trump moronically starting trade wars), Trump will double and triple down on racism. The administration is waging the current immigration fight in explicitly racist terms, with apocalyptic warnings about brown hordes poised to overrun our southern border. Here’s a current example:
“It’s a binary choice. You’re either for open borders and the crime that comes with that, or you’re for a sovereign nation that has physical borders and less crime.” –@kellyannepolls pic.twitter.com/XVm1sjaxHx
— GOP (@GOP) July 3, 2018
Great screen grab, no? No.
Also, expect more of this (via The Post):
Trump administration moves to rescind Obama-era guidance on race in admissions
The Trump administration is moving to rescind Obama-era guidance to colleges and universities on how they can use race in admissions decisions to promote diversity, according to an administration official.
The action, expected Tuesday afternoon, is likely to signal a shift toward advocacy of race-neutral admissions. The Supreme Court has upheld race-conscious admission practices as recently as 2016, but affirmative action in higher education remains a contentious issue.
That was the old Supreme Court. Now, all bets are off. Trump & Co. will relentlessly flog every race-related issue all summer and set mini-Reichstag fires around racial issues whenever they can because they need to turn out every grudge-carrying racist MAGA chud in the land to hang onto power.
So, what can we do? Well, we can expect an onslaught of social engineering to foment anger and distrust, similar to what happened in 2016, with troll farms fanning the flames of division within our ranks. Only now they’ll have the implicit if not explicit support of the Trump administration and the Republican Party, which has its hands on the levers of power.
I don’t know what that’s going to look like, to be honest. I don’t remember 1968, but we may be in for a similar level of national strife. White supremacy was on the ballot in 2016, but it’s possible that not everyone got the memo. It will be on the ballot again, only in all caps and bold font. Will we get it right this time?