It's been over two weeks since President Donald Trump launched one of his more overtly racist attacks by tweeting out against House Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna S. Pressley, all women of color, telling them that they should go back to where they came from. This a despicable taunt that bigots have directed at non white people (and even white immigrants) for decades. It appears that Trump based his hateful statements on a broadcast from Fox News that had deeply criticized the four House members that he had seen that morning, and, in typical fashion, he vented the rage it created in him out onto twitter with any reflection or insight.
There are contradictory reports as to how his advisors in the White House reacted to his statement, with some of them realizing that this attack was over the top, even for him, as he plead ignorance of the racist nature of what he had said and tried to shrug it off. But there are other reports that his tweets were made with full knowledge of just how the public would react. Sadly, Trump seems to realize that the more offensive and racist his comments are, the more it fires up his base of almost entirely white voters. It also distracts the media from covering things like Bob Mueller's recent testimony to congress or his administration's mostly failed attempt to round up undocumented immigrants. In any event, in later statements to the press, he refused to apologize for the tweets (just like he has never apologized for anything in his life) and instead lashed out Ilhan Omar specifically, attempting to turn the argument over to her alleged anti semitism.
A few days later, Trump again ranted over twitter after watching another Fox News broadcast. Another House Member, John Lewis, was the target this time, with Trump assailing Lewis's district in the state of Baltimore as a "disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess" adding that "No human being would want to live there." While this may be another example of our childishly impulsive president posting on twitter without thinking, it also may be yet another calculated attempt to speak to his voters. Quite simply, Picking a fight with an African American civil rights hero like Lewis is just what a lot of people who voted for Trump want to see. Some of his advisors have freely admitted that that is what is going on here, that turning out the same white blue collar voters that voted for Trump in 2016 means running the same kind of campaign tinged with the same kind of race baiting statements that he did before. Why shouldn't he repeat the formula when it somehow worked once already?
The message from President Trump to his base is simple, horrible and resounding: sure, I may have not built the wall that I promised (blame congress!), my tax cut to the rich didn't benefit blue collar workers, and my trade war with China is hurting states that voted for me the most, but I can still channel your hatred about non white people (especially immigrants) and boldly state it to the world. It's a raw, emotional argument in which the reality of America's rapidly changing demographics no longer exist, in which some wondrous past image of America as a place created by and for white people to rule alone is somehow still here. It's depressing to consider that this message may work again, and that Trump may very well win reelection. But how much of this does Trump really mean? Is he really a bigot, or is just someone who has tapped into a line of bigotry that makes him popular, so he's decided to just go with it? It's hard to say, since, with his massive ego and enormous desire to be worshipped, he clearly would say or do almost anything that would gain him the kind of applause he gets at his rallies. (Notice how he's gone from being "very pro choice" to anti choice in the space of a few years).
As disheartening as this all is, there may be a silver lining: even though Trump may manage to win reelection, the Republican party will never be able to wash off the stench of their support for him, and those changing demographics I mentioned before won't help them. Yes, the Republican party can cling to the lie of voter fraud, the immorality of gerrymandering and the absurdity of the Electoral College for a while, but at some point their appeal to only white voters will come back to haunt them. With America becoming more diverse, and with younger voters being more progressive than their elders, the clock is ticking on their party's continued relevance nationally. Trump may win two terms in the White House, but he just may destroy the Republican party while doing it. And it's hard for me to sympathize.
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