To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead.
― Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
Two weeks ago, Donald Trump "wrote" to my wife. He asked her to answer a questionnaire. As always with the man, his intent was not subtle. He asked for the endorsement of his administration and a donation for the Republican cause.
A week later, Lara Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mitch McConnell, Karl Rover, Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump Jr., and even Donald Trump flooded my inbox with emails.[1]
The Donald wrote a second time stating: "This is worse than I imagined. I emailed you. Mitch McConnell emailed. Karl Rove emailed. Newt Gingrich emailed. We all tried to warn you, and we were all ignored. I am extremely disappointed, but I am reaching out ONE FINAL time [Donny's emphasis]."
All the emails shouted with boldface, UPPER CASE and UPPER CASE boldface, and phrases highlighted in red and blue. They warned about socialist Democrats and the reversal of Trump Administration policies. They claimed these "far left" individuals could take over the Senate and prevent a conservative majority in the House of Representatives.
Dan Crenshaw also emailed: “Our spirit [the American spirit] is unraveling and we must find a way to fix it [Weird that it remains broken after three years of Trump’s reign]. Fortitude [Crenshaw’s book] provides a roadmap for a tougher American culture. We must all lighten up, toughen up[2], and begin treating our fellow Americans with respect and grace to salvage what it means to be an American.”[3]
They spoke as sunless patriots: The commies are coming, the commies are coming.
Each email used phrases called dog whistles[4], meaning the average person cannot hear the twisted, racist, xenophobic, sexist comments. True believers, though, can.
It echoes back to 1950 when Senator Joe McCarthy in a speech in Wheeling, WV, claimed 57 communists infiltrated the State Department. It launched the un-American hearings chaired by McCarthy--with assistance from Roy Cohn and Richard Nixon. Cohn and McCarthy learned one important trick: Make an unsubstantiated accusation and forget innocent until proven guilty. It worked. Based on accusations, employers fired hundreds of people. The duo took it a step further. They would inform people they were about to be accused. They offered a way out: Write a confession naming others (from a list that Cohn and McCarthy provided) as communists. Many put their John Hancocks to confessions without support to their claims.
The lessons Cohn and Nixon learned haunt us today.
Cohn became a lawyer for the notorious in New York City, including Donald Trump for violating the civil rights of African Americans. As noted in Vanity Fair three years ago: “In 1973, a brash young would-be developer from Queens [Donald Trump] met one of New York’s premier power brokers: Roy Cohn, whose name is still synonymous with the rise of McCarthyism and its dark political arts. With the ruthless attorney as a guide, Trump propelled himself into the city’s power circles and learned many of the tactics that would inexplicably lead him to the White House years later.”
Nixon continued in politics. After losing to Kennedy, which gnawed at him as much as Obama gnaws at Trump, he created what has become known as the Southern Strategy.
It was 1967. The nation was divided about civil rights and the Vietnam war. Like today, it seemed that the coastal states favored laws that improved civil rights while those in the middle resisted change. Nixon came up with the Southern Strategy for his 1968 campaign, and it lured Southern Democrats, who were long opposed to the Republican Party because of its role in the seamier side of the post-Civil-War Reconstruction. It worked so well conservatives have adopted the strategy as noted by Thom Hartman and Lamar Waldron in Salon:
For two generations, conservative leaders — from politicians to billionaires to media figures — have used Nixon’s proven techniques of “Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear” (FIBS) to divide-and-conquer white working-class Americans and acquire political power. In the absence of our media calling them out for FIBS, Nixon’s strategy has repeatedly produced a Republican president and Congress, and held a right-wing Supreme Court.
But the most recent presidential race especially showcased the “Bigotry” part of Nixon’s successful formula, in particular his “Southern Strategy,” which allowed Nixon to use coded racist appeals designed to secure racist voters without turning off moderate voters.
Trump the elder has taken it to the Roy-Cohn level.
In an example of the nut does not fall far from the tree, Donald Jr. recently “instagrammed” a meme that implied Vice President Joe Biden was a pedophile, a claim long held by individuals who promote notions like Michelle Obama is a man. When Junior was criticized, he said he was joking.
That covers fear, ignorance, and smear in the 2020 campaign. What’s left? Bigotry.
Donnie the elder enjoys targeting his predecessor, even though William Barr, Trump's appointed attorney general, said President Obama had nothing to do with the Michael Flynn investigation. Undeterred by facts, Donnie the elder claims President Obama committed a crime. Donald has offered no evidence. Only accusations. It echoed Donald’s claim that President Obama was not born in the U.S. until his predecessor produced his Hawaiian birth certificate.
Trump likes targeting Obama. First, he fears the man. President Obama has established a reputation of renown nationally and internationally. Donnie would say as much about himself, although few--even Republicans--would agree. Second, his attacks are dog whistles for the bigots of America.
From appearances, Donald has a parasitic nature. He feeds off the festering portions of American society rotting with distrust, anger, and simple-mindedness. He lies, tosses about inuendoes, and sows chaos. He possesses the empathy, insight, and understanding of a pre-adolescent bully. In the ensuing chaos, he feels regal, powerful, and omnipotent.
That vanishes when he goes toe-to-toe with the likes of President Obama. Donald lacks the wit, intelligence, and humor to keep pace with the nation’s former President, and that loss would destroy Trump’s Aryan heart.
He troubles me. If all he sowed vanished with his death, I would not be troubled. It will not. So, I fear not for myself or even my children, now adults, but for my grandsons and granddaughter. Trump has infected the American soul with cynicism and bigotry. He will leave a legacy, however minor, that will fester, and my grandchildren and their generation will need to cauterize decadent residuals lingering long after the Donald is worm food.
[1] I dropped their honorifics as they did for Senator Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
[2] Is this an intentional oxymoron?
[3] Does this mean Republicans will lighten up about abortion? Will they accept women who want them? Will they embrace the LBGQ community? Will this listen to “socialists”?
[4] The phrase was developed by pollsters. They noticed in the 1980s that subtle changes in the phrasing of a question could dramatically alter polling results. They theorized that the readers “hear” something that the poll writers did not.
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