I was asked by a member of a predominantly white listening group yesterday, “how can I discuss Trump with you, if you always say people who voted for him are racist? Granted, that is a good question, but it was not one posed by me. That projection was a clue to where I needed to go with the return question. “Why do you feel the need to defend Mr. Trump if he is not a racist?” There were some murmurs in the small crowd and lots of disgruntled and exasperated sighs. I came with a mental folder full of the evidence that most of you have probably heard. The housing discrimination suit filed against President Trump and his father by the federal government. Trump’s call for the death penalty for the Central Park Five (so much for due process) and his defense of Nazis and White Supremacist as, “some… being very fine people.” I could go on with his alleged disparaging remarks about blacks, not counting his money, and for good measure toss in his anti-Antisemitism and misogyny for flavor; but why...?
Trump followers know this information, the Fox News Bubble burst when they were told Mitt Romney would win in a landslide in 2012. It is not a bubble it is more like when you were a child and did not want to [hear] bad news, you would stick your fingers in your ears and yell out la-la-la- lalala.
I glanced around the circle of tight-lipped participants and it occurred to me that feelings are a lot more important than facts. Republicans will tell you with little shame that they never expected Mr. Trump to build a wall, or force Mexico to pay for it, it was the good feeling they got hearing it. Republicans will tell you they have little trouble in their lives with immigrants, undocumented or legal but Trump’s jabs and barbs allowed the good feeling they got hearing it. Grabbing a woman by the genitals is par for the course. Even the catalyst for the ascension of Trump, that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, brought on the euphoric feeling they got hearing it.
I have heard experts and talking heads say, that because Democrats have no slick motto for a bumper sticker, they have no message. The media will tell you that liberals are banking only on the ‘resistance’ to win the 2018 midterms. I heard Julian Castro talk about Medicare for all, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) push for legislation to correct mass incarceration and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced a Better Deal. Those are two names rumored to be making a run for President and the Democratic party leader. Healthcare for all, equality, and preparing America for the future; if you need a bumper sticker “America’s Past, Will Not Make Us Great Again.” The future is a rainbow, the colorless homogenized world of Leave it to Beaver is long gone, thank God.
I hope the Democratic Party does not fall into the trap of, let us find a celebrity name and entertain our way to the top. I love Oprah and the Rock, but I do not need her to give me a car or him putting a headlock on Washington, DC. I need a commitment to the future with people who are ready to move into it. “You’re Fired,” is not a plan.
Vote in ‘18 for Change