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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHe's The George Wallace Of The 21st Century
Cynthia Tucker
July 9, 2018 4:30 am
In The Politics of Rage, his brilliant 1995 analysis of George Wallaces visceral appeal, scholar Dan T. Carter notes that the infamous Alabama segregationist had an uncanny ability to home in on the fears and resentments of working-class whites who were angered by cultural change. And that exceptional talent not only propelled Wallaces remarkable political career, but it also reshaped Americas conservative movement, Carter explained.
In speech after speech, Wallace knit together the strands of racism with those of a deeply rooted xenophobic plain folk cultural outlook which equated social change with moral corruption. The creators of public policy the elite were out of touch with hardworking taxpayers who footed the bill for their visionary social engineering at home and weak-minded defense of American interests abroad, Carter wrote.
Sound familiar? President Donald J. Trump has picked up the Alabama governors playbook, using a crude and unscripted rhetoric full of racism and xenophobia to tap into the barely submerged prejudices, misplaced rage and assumptions of privilege that animate a significant portion of the nations white working class.
Trump may not yell, Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever! but his demagoguery is hardly subtle. The president provokes his base with recitations of atrocities supposedly visited upon innocent Americans by members of MS-13, a Latino criminal gang. He relays made-up crime statistics to portray the nations predominantly black and brown urban areas as sump holes of predation. He claims that the southern border is being overrun by murderers, rapists and terrorists.
Never mind that much of what the president says is not true. According to the FBIs Uniform Crime Reports, violent crime in the United States is at a historical low, down to the rate of the 1960s. And immigrants are responsible for very few of the crimes that are committed; statistics show they are less likely to break the law than the native-born population. (Towns and cities with a high influx of immigrants have lower crime rates than the rest of the country, it turns out.)
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/hes-the-george-wallace-of-the-21st-century/
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)What's changed is us as a nation - hatred that was once despised is now admired.
Bryant
HipChick
(25,485 posts)not for POC...
he just allowed and welcomed it to be out in the open
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)Even many northern "establishment" conservatives didn't like him because of how he made their movement look.
Trump is using many of the same arguments and talking points, but he's President. That is a difference, in my opinion. A worsening over the last few years.
Bryant