Wednesday, May 11, 2016

The white elephant in the room.

Just to show you regulars in the fields that I am not afraid to share the views of others who might have different political views than I do, I am going to do a cut and paste post from The American Conservative tonight. (h/t to Jamelle Bouie for turning me on to this essay.)

"Election Night 2014 was a triumphant night for professional Republicans. They had seemingly beaten back and vanquished the barbarians of whatever was left of the Thing That Had Been Called the Tea Party. They had run smart, slick, sane campaigns in purple states like Colorado. Most importantly, they had expanded their majority in the House of Representatives and won control of the Senate—an outcome that seemed well within their grasp during the previous midterm cycle of 2010.
I clicked off my computer that night, demoralized. The party, despite all appearances, had learned absolutely nothing.

It had won for the wrong reasons: by simply being the out-party in the sixth year of a presidential administration. By resisting any painful or politically inconvenient tradeoffs in the pursuit of conservative priorities like healthcare or entitlement reform.

By being—and this was the clincher—the party of white Americans.

With lower turnout from youth and minorities, and thus a greater proportion of older, white voters, midterm elections had become Republicans’ security blanket: Everything’s fine; no need to change a thing.

I remained convinced in November 2014 that the Republican Party was too rightwing—but on that night, and thereafter, who would listen? (And by “too rightwing,” I hardly mean too conservative. The Cruz-led GOP was not a conservative party marked by realism, restraint, and incremental reform—but rather by strategic radicalism, ethnic revanchism, fiscal retrenchment, and cultural reaction.)

Lordy, I had no idea how convulsively bad things would get.

With a mix of amusement and horror I have watched Donald Trump strut into this ideological vacuum. And in that vacuum Trump found a skeleton key of sorts—a key to GOP coalition-building that has been in plain view for anyone with eyes to see it.

That skeleton key is white backlash. The dirty secret was that the stereotypically “moderate,” pragmatic Northeastern Republican voter has more in common with his white brethren in Alabama than with, say, Michael Bloomberg.

Richard Nixon and Roger Stone knew this. George H.W. Bush may not have known this—but Lee Atwater surely did. John McCain may not have known this—but is there a better other explanation than white backlash for why he outpolled George W. Bush in Appalachia?

Race—more specifically, the maintenance, through public policy and custom, of the cultural and financial predominance of whites—is the great through-line of American politics. Yet race prejudice is not an original sin of the conservative movement. If one locates the movement in utero in the politics of Robert Taft Republicans, conservatism formed as an antistatist recoil from unionism and the regulation of labor markets and industry; deep suspicion of internationalism and foreign entanglements; and stringent anticommunism.

The racial baggage of Southern Jeffersonian conservatism (which I am defining in contradistinction to the midwestern conservatism of Taft, proto-movement lecturer Clarence Manion, the industrialist Walter Kohler, and others) began to seep into the movement at large in the years following World War II.

Historian Kevin M. Kruse, in his  book White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism, has documented how, even before suburbanization began in earnest, resistance to desegregation “thoroughly reshaped southern conservatism.” He writes: “Traditional conservative elements, such as hostility to the federal government and faith in free enterprise, underwent fundamental transformations. At the same time, segregationist resistance inspired the creation of new conservative causes, such as tuition vouchers, the tax revolt, and the privatization of public services”—causes that came to be associated with the Sunbelt conservatism of Reagan and Goldwater.

And before LBJ had famously declared the South lost to Democrats because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Republicans began making inroads in the South in the 1962 congressional midterm elections. In his Goldwater-friendly narrative political history Before the Storm, leftist historian Rick Perlstein captures the right’s inchoate reaction to President Kennedy merely making noise about a civil rights act and, more pointedly, activating federal marshals to ensure the matriculation of a black student at the University of Mississippi.
He wrote:
In Alabama, thirty-seven-year congressional veteran Lister Hill was challenged for the first time in a general election. His Republican opponent, Gadsen oil distributor James Martin, lost by nine-tenths of a percent. In the race for the congressional seat representing Tennessee’s Ninth District, Memphis—which hadn’t seen a GOP candidate since 1936—the Republican came even closer. GOP congressional candidates across the South polled over two million votes in 1962. They had received 606,000 in the last off-year election. The Republicans, for an ever increasing number of Southerners, were carpetbaggers no more.
White backlash has historically been defined as resistance to civil rights legislation, or any proactive attempt to advance black equality. It is more than that. White backlash was a critical ingredient to the appeal of “law-and-order” politics of Nixon. It accounted for the receptivity of white voters to Reaganite tales of black indolence and “welfare queens.” White backlash is not necessarily, or is not always, the product of personal bigotry. It can be, rather, a species of emotional vertigo. The demographic panic over Latinos and Muslims experienced by many white voters today may be summed in in the title of a Michael Moore screed—Dude, Where’s My Country?

It must be noted that white backlash has not redounded to the benefit only of Republican politicians. Bill Clinton—whose centrist political profile was shaped in part by the legatees of the old Democrats for Nixon campaign—benefitted mightily from white backlash. Hillary Clinton, in 2008, handily won primary contests in states like West Virginia almost entirely as a result of white backlash. Former Sen. Jim Webb ran this year as the candidate of white backlash—and his dismal showing is proof of how little purchase such a campaign has today among the modern Democratic party.

But among Republicans: Just look, and lament, at what Trump has exposed.

I would scarcely doubt evidence showing that the Trump campaign was a controlled experiment in what makes GOP voters tick. The remnants of the Tea Party, the biblically literate Evangelicals, the remaining adherents to the old Reagan coalition: They went for Cruz. The well-heeled suburban “moderates” (staunch conservatives by any reasonable definition—surely not moderate in the sense that New Jersey Sen. Clifford Case would have recognized): They went for Rubio or Kasich.  And they were all stomped by the juggernaut of white backlash that is Trump. What about Trump’s appeal to the victims of deindustrialization and stagnant wages? Please.

The man has led consistently national polls of GOP voters from the moment he entered the race last summer and promised to build a wall to keep out the browns. As the Republican party recovers from the looming disaster that is The Trump-an Show, some will ask if the old coalition can be rebuilt.

I ask: Why would you even want to?" [Source]

I think it's really funny how the chattering class and pundits -----that we are forced to watch night in and night out, always ignore the elephant in the room (pun intended), race.

I am glad that Mr. Galupo recognizes it, and more importantly, that he is willing to write about it in such a public way.

Maybe there is hope for the republican party after all. The first step in curing a problem is recognizing that you even have one

*Pic from first-draft.com


41 comments:

The Ministry of Truth said...

"And they were all stomped by the juggernaut of white backlash that is Trump. What about Trump’s appeal to the victims of deindustrialization and stagnant wages? Please."

See, this part is a bit wrong. The complaint about deindustrialization and stagnant wages is very relevant to Trump's appeal. Where political commentators go wrong is not in mentioning these things, but in failing to connect them to bigotry.

Trump's appeal is based on suggesting that these economic conditions aren't based on bad domestic economic policies that are harming lower and middle earners in order to fabulously enrich our own Yankee version of aristocrats. Oh no, of course, it's not the hedge funders earning BILLION-dollar annual incomes. Never mind them. Don't pay any attention to them.

The blame is on outsider "bad guys." Foreign nations are screwing us -- those sneaky, inscrutable Chinese. Foreign invaders are screwing us -- those job-stealing parasitical Mexicans and those weird Mooslums, who everyone knows are really all jihadis with bombs strapped to them.

Every righteous white person would have a better job and earnings, and crime would plummet, if only it weren't for those scary brown people, at home and abroad. But don't worry. Big bad tough guy Donald will give those villains a beatdown and all will be right with the world once more.

This cartoonishly simplistic worldview is what the slack-jawed, ignorant Trumpkins really believe. It's what they've been taught to believe from years and years of bullshit right-wing teevee and radio. Trump has just tapped into the prejudice fueled by all the rage-inducing misinformation they've been spoon fed long before he came on the scene.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait until all the white people are dead.

Anonymous said...

"Oh no, of course, it's not the hedge funders earning BILLION-dollar annual incomes. Never mind them. Don't pay any attention to them."

lol. Well, thank God that Hillary will deal with that problem.

So why are there hedge funds? (ie. a flow of money to the top). Historically, there are cycles in the supply of labor. More labor, less money is made by each person and the more is made by whatever the local version of a capitalist is. By the same token, if there's an oversupply of people at the top, the money tends to pool upwards. Cumulative advantages happen (the Matthew effect) until some sort of culmination, usually fairly ugly.

I can see oversupply of labor due to immigration (the US hit ZPG without immigration some while ago) and something not mentioned, automation.

Restricting the labor from overseas makes as much sense as anything. Merely aggressively taxing our lords and masters won't serve much use really, unless the point is to create make-work jobs.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anonymous @ 11:10. White people are shit. Fuck them.

PilotX said...

The gop would own the White House if they just cooled off the bigotry. Tell those southern governors to let go of the confederate flags and confederate history month nonsense. Maybe they'll get the message.

dinthebeast said...

One thing he's sort of right about is that there is almost nothing conservative (conserving norms and traditions) about far right ideology.
The conservation of norms and traditions has long been left to the Democrats, who for all of their faults, are at least not trying to tear down the last century's social progress.

-Doug in Oakland

The Ministry of Truth said...

"One thing he's sort of right about is that there is almost nothing conservative (conserving norms and traditions) about far right ideology."

Depends what you mean by "conservative."

It can mean, "maintain the status quo." It can also mean, "set the Wayback Machine for the 19th century."

Republicans are going with the second meaning.

The Ministry of Truth said...

Trump has dissociated himself from another of his delegates, in a futile attempt to pretend he is not a massive racist.

This time, it is Islamophobic pastor and all-around charming fellow Guy St Onge.

Onge is known for saying lovely, inspiring things, such as, "Barack Hussein Obama and his tranny wife Michelle hates the U.S.A.!"

And also, "“Allah SUCKS/ Mohammed SUCKS/ Islam SUCKS/ Any of you Hadji’s have an issue with me saying this, PM me and I’ll gladly give you my address. You can come visit me, where I promise/ I will/ KILL YOU/ In my front yard!!” He has frequently advocated killing Muslims.

AND! As a bonus, “620,000 Died for this flag they deserve to be honored,” referring to the Confederate flag. Of course. That goes without saying.

Anonymous said...

to 11:14

"I can see oversupply of labor due to immigration (the US hit ZPG without immigration some while ago) and something not mentioned, automation."

Also, I would add the impact that outsourcing of jobs has upon the supply/demand for labor.

The Ministry of Truth said...

George Zimmerman has announced he is auctioning off the Kel-Tec PF-9 handgun with which he killed Trayvon Martin. Some lucky Klansman can have "a piece of American history," as George puts it.

The bidding starts at $5,000 on Gunbroker.com, where it is described as a “collectible firearm.”

James Bold said...

"t had won for the wrong reasons.... By being—and this was the clincher—the party of white Americans."

HEAVEN FOREFEND!  Being a party of sexual freaks, of third-world immigrants, of un-integratable-despite-decades-of-integration racial minorities... THAT is the Holy Mission.  But a party of White Americans?  SATANIC!

Why, they might actually stop the off-shoring of jobs and eliminate the oppressive "equality" institutions which make employment law such a minefield.  Can't do that; without those millstones dragging them down they might ACCOMPLISH something.


"With lower turnout from youth and minorities, and thus a greater proportion of older, white voters, midterm elections had become Republicans’ security blanket"

They expected action on their demands.  What they got was the so-called "conservative" program of tax cuts, offshoring jobs and replacment by immigrants, and no relief from Obamacare.  And in 2016 they are fed up.

"That skeleton key is white backlash."

You racialize and tribalize everything, and expect Whites not to?  That's some "equality" you've got there.

"Race—more specifically, the maintenance, through public policy and custom, of the cultural and financial predominance of whites—is the great through-line of American politics."

Whites are the smallest racial minority on Earth.  Whites deserve homelands of their own.  Like, Europe and North America.

"White backlash has historically been defined as resistance to civil rights legislation, or any proactive attempt to advance black equality."

You've had legal equality for more than half a century, which was sufficient for everyone else.  What you want is equal OUTCOMES, which can only be achieved by pounding all other races down to your level.  That is what we've had enough of.

And The Ministry of Doof sounds off cluelessly:


"Trump's appeal is based on suggesting that these economic conditions aren't based on bad domestic economic policies that are harming lower and middle earners in order to fabulously enrich our own Yankee version of aristocrats."

Are you really so dumb that you think Trump isn't attacking the trade policies that were created by those very hedge-fund oligarchs?  Of course you're that dumb.  You are what you are.

"One thing he's sort of right about is that there is almost nothing conservative (conserving norms and traditions) about far right ideology."

There's nothing conservative about replacing the White founding population of America and its culture with third-world mystery meat of substandard education and abilities, questionable values and zero attachment to anything or anyone who came before.  But that is what Movement Conservatism™ preaches.  That is also what the wave carrying Trump is repudiating.

dinthebeast said...

I wasn't aware of any whiteness in the founding population, only in the one that perpetrated the genocide upon them.

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

Interesting how the narrative has changed so dramatically, the repubs started out telling us how racially diverse their party was when they had anIndian, two Latinos and a blah guy but now since they nominated (gasp) a white guy now even white nationalists feel comfortable publically stating their endorsement for the gop candidate. I mean given the history of the gop these events aren't surprising but can we at least be saved from all of the rhetoric about them being the party of diversity and inclusion?

PX

Anonymous said...

Azalea Banks is my little house nigga.

She's as fine as blackberry wine!

Anonymous said...

The only thing that can stop the Trump-God now is the establishment, i.e., by stealing it from him. And the establishment is made up of 99% ... WHITE PEOPLE.

Ironic, isn't it?

James Bold said...

"I wasn't aware of any whiteness in the founding population, only in the one that perpetrated the genocide upon them."

Your lack of awareness is, sadly, not unusual.  The first Americans were from modern-day France.  They gave rise to the Clovis culture.  The Asian-looking progenitors of today's "Native" Americans perpetrated genocide on the first Americans, who shared more ancestry with modern Europeans.

But you wouldn't know about the second so-called genocide either, if Europeans hadn't co-invented written history.  All of the White virtues and gifts to the world are being used as weapons to destroy Whites.

Anonymous said...

"I wasn't aware of any whiteness in the founding population, only in the one that perpetrated the genocide upon them."

The founding population really had no concept of a white race at first, it's really an invention of the New World that evolved here. A 17th and early 18th C. European in what is now the US thought of themselves as an Englishman, Dutch, etc. Obviously, a distinction became to be drawn between black and everyone else in order to codify slavery.

If I had to guess, the main push for thinking about 'white' was not so much about human ownership, common in most of the world in some form or the other, but because of the ethnic fault line with Native Americans. You tend to band together when the next door neighbors are (a) very different than you in many (all) ways and (b) you are trying to kill each other's asses.

re: Republicans as the 'white' party. Of course they are, but remember that there are different flavors of Republicans. Looking to a political party for totally coherent and consistent policy is silly since they are always coalitions of some sort. Not even people say the same thing twice much less a large group.

"In multiracial societies, you don't vote in accordance with your economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with race and religion. " LKY

I see no reason to doubt that, really.

Anonymous said...

"The gop would own the White House if they just cooled off the bigotry. Tell those southern governors to let go of the confederate flags and confederate history month nonsense. Maybe they'll get the message"

The idea here being that southern states would swing more Republican since blacks would begin voting Republican then? I doubt that would make a lick of difference in terms of Electoral College numbers.

In the US (and worldwide), I'd say that demographics will drive everything. The current interest by ruling elites in open borders and the population explosion in parts of the Third World, combined with a wealth gradient that causes a shit ton of economic immigration, is going to up-end all the apple carts. I'd guess that political parties (assuming they still exist in a universal surveillance society) in 50 years will fall along completely lines than they do today.

The real story is going to come from Africa, of course. The population explosion and likely die-off is going to drag a lot of the world with it.

Anonymous said...

"completely *different* lines"

Yisheng said...

Trump is the male whooteemoo's last ditch effort to feel relevant in a minority dominated society.

Anonymous said...

"I can't wait until all the white people are dead."
"I agree with Anonymous @ 11:10. White people are shit. Fuck them"

Thank you for your input. Please hold, an operator will be with you shortly.

PilotX said...

Ha! No Doc, Trump is the male Sarah Palin.

Hill said...

A vote for Hillary is a vote for mediocrity.

field negro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
field negro said...

James, ease up on the white supremacist goblygook.

CLOVIS?REALLY? Glad u believe that man existed 13,500 years ago. But this really a stretch, even for u.:)

MOT, as usual u make some good points, but the racial aspect of trump's appeal is tied into the wage stagnation argument as well.

A perfect storm. Poor racist without the educational tools to compete in a global economy, blames the Negro for taking his job.



Anonymous said...

" Poor racist without the educational tools to compete in a global economy, blames the Negro for taking his job."

It seems to me like the poor Negro has been disproportionately affected by competing with a global labor force.

Truth is, blacks are a side issue in this election, aside from their fealty to marking 'D' on a ballot. The police brutality issue has lost traction and the main value of BLM is going to be to provide a street army for the DNC.

I just can't see how the US working class, ie. all those poor schlubs who aren't 'knowledge workers', will benefit from mass immigration from the third world. Trade issues are a bit stickier wicket and harder to prove one way or the other, but I can certainly see eyeing them with a more jaundiced eye than has been the case in the past.

Anonymous said...

Yisheng said...

Trump is the male whooteemoo's last ditch effort to feel relevant in a minority dominated society.




>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Least yishengcow can feel the pain of the whooteemoo. She's been trying to feel relevant in an Asian dominated work environment.

Joder La Resistencia said...

Anonymous The Ministry of Truth said...


" Trump's appeal is based on suggesting that these economic conditions aren't based on bad domestic economic policies that are harming lower and middle earners in order to fabulously enrich our own Yankee version of aristocrats. Oh no, of course, it's not the hedge funders earning BILLION-dollar annual incomes. Never mind them. Don't pay any attention to them."




Really? And your proof is? Talk your time, i won't hold my breath.




" The blame is on outsider "bad guys." Foreign nations are screwing us -- those sneaky, inscrutable Chinese. Foreign invaders are screwing us -- those job-stealing parasitical Mexicans"


Well, China does manipulate it currency among other things. And illegals do drive down wages, steal jobs and cost taxpayers of every state millions.









" Every righteous white person would have a better job and earnings, and crime would plummet, if only it weren't for those scary brown people, at home and abroad."



Well, sunshine, that is true. Libs are like broken clocks....





"This cartoonishly simplistic worldview is what the slack-jawed, ignorant Trumpkins really believe. It's what they've been taught to believe from years and years of bullshit right-wing teevee and radio."



There goes the left again. Always claiming they know what people who don't agree with them believe, think and feel. And they throw in some childish insults.

MOT, does this make you feel better about yourself?

Joder La Resistencia said...

field negro said...
A perfect storm. Poor racist without the educational tools to compete in a global economy, blames the Negro for taking his job.


----

It's kinda like the poor, violent, racist negro without the educational tools to compete in a global economy, blames whitey for not giving him a job and enough free stuff?




The Purple Cow said...

"The first Americans were from modern-day France."

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. That explains a lot.

Merci pour les rires.

Anonymous said...

negros will blame anyone or anything but themselves! Easy targets include YT, the Republican party, the phase of the moon and a lot more. It would be a wondrous day if blacks decided to be accountable for their own actions. The plantation days were finished about 150 years ago but ole blackie never left it. once a nigger always a nigger.

Lance Cockstrong said...

@James Bold

I wouldn't waste time answering your stupid questions because there is zero chance of talking any sense into you. I like diversity. You don't. That is your problem. I am not going anywhere so if you are planning to go on a rampage or something do what you like with me, just leave my pigs alone.

Joder La Resistencia said...

Do you like gay pornstars? Since you stole your name from one.

Yisheng said...

@6:04, are you just now realizing that there's a gay, half Asian, half whooteemoo, 3ft tall guy from the Bay Area on this site?

Anonymous said...

Fuck white people. Fuck the white race.

Brody said...

George Wallace apologized to the blacks later in his life. Maybe Donald Trump will do the same.

Anonymous said...

"Fuck white people. Fuck the white race."

How about a haiku?

Fuck the white people
They stole all of the places
That had all the roads

Lance Cockstrong said...

Being confined to a wheelchair does give you a different perspective and lots of time and not much else to do but think about things. Maybe Butt Trumpet will do the same? Couldn't happen to a nicer asshole.

field negro said...

DBA!DBA!

field negro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Genetic data does not support ancient trans-Atlantic migration. The Solutrean hypothesis has won some following among white supremacist and other White racists. It forms the premise of Kyle Bristow's pseudo-historical novel White Apocalypse. He apparently wishes to make the point that the first settlers in the New World were Europeans rather than "Beringian" Asians.

During the genocidal migration of mostly European peasents to north America even the nordics and Germans were thought of as wops by the wasps. And the subsequent Slavs and Mediterranean after that. But now you are all "whites" together against higher melanin skinned people. How very convenient. And I seriously doubt you or the mostly bud swilling rednecks are upholders of high culture. You indeed are what you are