Joe Scarborough this morning asked, Who are these people? referring to people at the Trump rally who cheered when he described a reporter being injured and falling to the ground in agony.
That gets to my We the People entry which I titled We the Who? Trump followers may not consider Blacks or Mexican part of “we the people,” but many Americans don’t consider them part of “we the people.” They sure aren’t us. What they are is what Sarah Palin labeled, in her outstanding rhetorical style, “real Americans.” Those who believe you have to be White and Christian to be a real American.
And so anyone who gets in the way of the dominance of ‘real Americans, becomes the enemy and that included reporters who report facts. Why? Because the facts always go against them.
Joe Scaraborough asked, How did their parents raised them? What god do they pray to? referring to Trumpers.
I don’t care anymore (although it is fascinating) and I think the answer to who they are is they are people who hate the people Trump hates. That’s a lot of people. But that’s why you see no policy or guiding principles among Trump’s followers.
Who are they? They are the enemies of democracy.
Let me give you an example of the level of denseness (density doesn’t work here) we are dealing with: an elderly man I corresponded with over a year on left-right issues told the following anecdote relating to BLM: he and three of his friends were riding in a car, I’m guessing a Buick. All were elderly White men, retired engineers or similar careers – STEM we would say today. The got pulled over by the police. The exchange was courteous and peaceful. So there! he wrote triumphally, that showed there was no reason for BLM if Blacks would behave as he and his friends did. (I still have the e-mail exchange should anyone want to read his exact words) There is no penetrating ‘thinking’ like that.
Sept. 23, 2020 Two days later and we have lived up to our reputation and indicted only one police officer in Breonna Taylor’s murder and that for shooting into neighboring apartments, not for shooting her. So Jason Johnson was brought on to Nicole Wallace’s show Deadline Whitehouse where she began with Cal on the ground in the square in Louisville. She grilled Cal on what was happening but it was all so confusing nothing was clear. Even the press was confusing; who were they with? What agency did they work for? Why were they there? Why were they wearing all black and flack jackets? Press from all over. And the protesters have turned on the press.
So Jason said it is because the press discusses and unravels and pontificates on these issues and nothing happens.
So my questions have been answered. A while back I asked whether Hitler analogies were in order yet and that seemed pretty radical (I thought I might lose my Republican readership) and now everyone is using Hitler analogies. I also suggested several decades ago that Black people organize their own security force and work closely with the police to keep the police at bay. Of course that was crazy but now we have to wonder, as Jason wondered, where is any Black person safe? In the home? In a restaurant? At work? Out shopping? Out jogging? In the car? Black people have been shot by the police in all those places. Now I am going to go out on a limb that seems less shaky as news breaks: will the police begin shooting Black police?
There are two tiers of “these people.” The upper tier consists of relatively educated people who are somewhat active to all in in the GOP or other political organizations on the right. This upper tier fills our legislatures and appointments of Republican governors and mayors. As was said, the GOP has worked its little (very little) heart out over the last seven decades (read The Coming Storm to see how it was built) and is now reaping the reward: an approaching coup that will solidify their power in government and in the courts and from there into the schools, agencies, military, health services (already happened), and other institutions. As has happened over and over in other countries, many not initially enlisted will fall into line as the only way to secure a job, appointment, services, advancement, and so forth, i.e. to climb the ladder of success.
Then the arts will flourish underground, certain minorities will be so marginalized they will become free as Blacks were in the Old South to create a culture that has penetrated the whole country and large sections of the world. People will march, be arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed and others will write great poetry about them and songsters will celebrate them and academics in years to come, when they can research and publish again (if ever), will study them and analyze them. The artists – film makers, painters, dancers, sculptures, composers – will nudge us into identifying with them and eventually a new order will arise and in a couple of centuries, those having survived the coming climate catastrophe will forget the name of Trump.
BTW, this blog post will appear at my trial.