I love reading Charles Blow. I think he is one of the most learned and assertive columnists at the New York Times. But he got this one mostly wrong on Trump voters and more.
Mr. Blow calls out the evil that is Donald Trump and his movement but his compassion for the ignorant and the willfully ignorant, Trump voters, defeats the goal. Moreover, his failure to mention Democratic complacency and complicity is disconcerting. In my humble opinion, he is writing, understandably, through a lens colored by Trump’s evil.
Mr. Blow wrote the following in his article titled “The Death of Compassion.”
Reagan had done particularly well with those who would come to be known as Reagan Democrats — white, working-class voters, particularly in the Rust Belt, whom a New York Times contributor would later describe as “blue-collar, ethnic voters,” who were drawn to Reagan’s messages of economic growth and nationalistic pride.
But just like Donald Trump’s path to victory, Reagan’s was strewn with racial hostilities and prejudicial lies.
Right, but Bill Clinton also had racial moments lest we forget his “Sista Souljah” moment.
Mr. Blow wrote,
Reagan explained at nearly every stop that there was a woman in Chicago who “used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans’ benefits for four nonexistent, deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year.”
Of course, when President Clinton signed the Welfare Reform Bill (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act) he used his dog whistle to a sect within Democratic and Republican Parties to prove his worthiness. The picture included a representation of the stereotypical overweight black welfare queen.
Clinton’s head replaces with Trump because that is Trump-like staging
My point is using black people, Latinos, or the other to appease the white majority has little to do with party and more with character. Republicans do it more out of necessity while Democrats do it for expediency.
Many Trump voters like many Americans have been culturized from birth or through well-designed programming to racists or racialists. Triggers are very effective in rebirthing recessed prejudices. These do not go away because one side is pissed at the other or unforgiven of the other. It only works if engagement leads to the enlightenment of a few of the unenlightened.
Mr. Blow does not see it that way.
Trump is rushing headlong into Muslim bans and mass deportations, wall building and Obamacare dismantling. Indeed, it feels like the campaign promises Trump is keeping have to do with cruelty and those he’s flip-flopping on have to do with character
For instance, it is now abundantly clear that Trump had no intention whatsoever of draining the swamp in Washington. He is simply restocking it to his liking.This is why I have no patience for liberal talk of reaching out to Trump voters. There is no more a compromise point with those who accept, promote and defend bigotry, misogyny and xenophobia than there is a designation of “almost pregnant.”
This is why I have no patience for liberal talk of reaching out to Trump voters. There is no more a compromise point with those who accept, promote and defend bigotry, misogyny and xenophobia than there is a designation of “almost pregnant.”
He is right about what is happening. However, his lack of patience of engagement creates a social, political death spiral.
Mr. Blow wants us to keep the fight up. After all, he correctly points out that Trump is a cancer to our society.
Fight, fight, fight. And when you are finished, fight some more. Victory is the only acceptable outcome when freedom, equality and inclusion are at stake.
The problem is that the fight is rhetorical. We are not going to kill the Trump voter or beat them into submission if they do not conform to moral societal norms. ‘Fight’ has to mean engaging and attempting to enlighten or else we will remain in a fighting mode without ever moving forward. As such I do have the patience for Liberals wanting to engage the Trump voter. In fact, I am one of those left wing progressives willing to so do so.