Photo courtesy of Trump campaign.
Don’t make the white people angry. If there’s one lesson to be gained from the astounding rise of Donald Trump from billionaire developer/reality TV star to presumptive Republican presidential nominee, that’s it.
So far, judging from the reaction to Trump’s landslide victory in the Indiana primary last week, and the subsequent dropping out of candidates Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich, it’s clear that the Democratic Party, the mainstream media and the legions of voters opposed to a Trump presidency have not mastered this lesson.
So allow me to repeat it: Don’t make the white people angry.
If you’re the typical anti-Trump voter, you’re naturally going to cringe at that statement. After all, what do white people have to be angry about? Since we’re a nation based on so-called white privilege, white people have it made. If white people are angry, it must be because they’re racists.
Why should whites be concerned with the constant drumbeat of stories over the past two decades that they’ll soon be a minority in a country that will be majority nonwhite? Why should they be worried that they’re losing their jobs to companies that choose to move business overseas, or import legal and illegal immigrants that work at below market-level wages? Why be angry when any attempt to assert the rights of white people is instantly branded as bigotry?
Most importantly, why should white people be angry, when white politicians, Democrat and Republican, have sold them out for years?
So, whether you like it or not, the white people are angry, and have good cause to be. Donald Trump understood this before he announced his candidacy.
So did I.
I didn’t really start picking up on white anger until the second term of President Barack Obama (whom I voted for, twice). In the wake of the deaths of Trayvon Martin (he could have been my son, Obama asserted) and Michael Brown, the mainstream media’s anti-white rhetoric reached its crescendo. Never mind that jurors found the killings were justified. Systemic white racism was the real killer.
Martin and Brown are of course the poster children for Black Lives Matter, the activist organization that substitutes in-your-face ranting for any discernible demands. I’m not denying that some institutional racism still exists in America, despite affirmative action. I’m not denying that blacks, far more than any race in America, are getting the short end of the stick. But when BLM chose Sen. Bernie Sanders for their first target in the current presidential primaries, it became obvious that the last thing BLM cares about is black lives.
It goes without saying that the socialist solutions Sanders has prescribed for America, including scrapping “fair trade” deals such as NAFTA, would be enormously beneficial for blacks (and most Americans). It’s entirely clear that Sanders doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. Yet for its very first target in this election cycle, BLM chose to disrupt the senator from Vermont’s rally in Seattle. Unbelievably, a Jewish guy from Brooklyn who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. was transformed into the epitome of white racism.
Which was entirely consistent with the narrative pushed by the Hillary Clinton campaign, that Sanders was just another white male seeking to prolong the patriarchy. Never mind that Clinton (while crafting policy for her philandering husband) was instrumental in pushing legislation that led to the incarceration of thousands of black “super predators” as well as free trade deals, financial deregulation and welfare cuts that pushed blacks even further into poverty. Bernie is a white dude!
Photo courtesy of Sanders campaign.
The BLM protest in Seattle forced Sanders into a dilemma. He could maintain his appeal to everyone, or cave into minority interests in order to win over what some people have called Clinton’s “coalition of the fringes.” He chose the latter, and his campaign, which began as an appeal to all Americans, has suffered for it. For whatever reasons, minority voters, black, Latino, Asian and whatnot, have stuck with Clinton, even though her track record offers them nothing but false promises, with the sole exception of granting illegal immigrants amnesty.
The end result has been that across the nation, Sanders has lost the minority vote and has been only able to win states with open primaries, where voters are allowed to cross party lines and vote their conscience.
So what’s this thing with crossover voters voting their conscience? In large part, it’s white voters who have found Trump’s style too repulsive for their own tastes even if they understand that his proposed policies, including a crackdown on illegal immigration, are necessary steps to make America great again. You can’t keep exporting and importing cheap labor if you want to improve the lot of America’s working people. Sanders’ voting record in Congress proves that he understands this. But pressure from BLM and other minority groups powerful in the Democratic party have knocked him off message.
What about the Latinos? If you needed a hint, the reception that greeted Trump’s recent visits to California are all you really needed. Whites may be reticent to demonstrate their racism publicly, but illegal immigration proponents have no such qualms, as the Mexican flags unfurled at the violent demonstrations in Costa Mesa and Burlingame demonstrated. Not to mention the American flags that were burned and the signs reading “Make America Mexico Again.” The title of Anne Coulter’s most recent book, “Adios America,” is prescient.
Her theory is, Democrats have courted and supported legal and illegal immigration since 1965 in a cynical move to increase their voting base and maintain a hold on power. It’s a valid theory—why wouldn’t you vote for the party that let you in the country, legally or not? Why wouldn’t you vote for the party that supposedly endorses equality, even if it is supported by banksters and hedge fund managers who don’t know the meaning of the word?
The problem with the theory is that Latinos and other foreigners who are legally in the country and eligible to vote can see through it. That’s why Trump has garnered more Latino votes than any Republican candidate in this year’s primaries. Once you’re in the country, legally, you understand why we have borders. Our government has a duty to protect the people legally within its borders, not those who have entered illegally and broken the law.
I firmly believe that Donald Trump is not a racist. He truly wants to make America great again. He wants to put all of us on an even playing field. He wants to stop our insane foreign policy, exemplified best by Clinton’s vehement support for destroying Libya and antagonizing Russia for no reason. He wants to put an end to all of this nonsense that’s dragging our country down, and even Latinos are jumping on board the Trump Train.
Photo courtesy Clinton campaign.
Likewise Bernie Sanders seeks to make America great again (although he’d never put it that way), and despite what the TV pundits claim, he’s still in the game. Unlike Trump, Hillary Clinton does not have a clear path to the nomination. Sanders may be able to accumulate enough delegates to challenge her at the convention in Philadelphia. Considering Clinton’s ongoing legal problems and current polling that shows Sanders doing better than her against Trump, Bernie could very well be the nominee.
Like I said, I’m not worried about a Trump presidency. One man can only do so much. That rule also applies to Sanders. But as the electorate has demonstrated this primary season, white voters still hold an enormous amount of power. The white vote will decide the 2016 election.
That’s where you come in, no matter what color you are. California is a closed primary, so it’s too late to crossover and register Democrat. But if you’re a Democrat, and you want to win, there is only one way left to stop the Trump train: Vote for Sanders in the June 7 California primary. With enough delegates and a little luck, he can win a contested convention.
Then, come November, he’ll beat Trump like a cheap pinata.
Trump Train illustration courtesy of politicsnproverbs.wordpress.com.
