Friday, September 18, 2020
In the aftermath of the last election, one explanation for Trump’s victory was that racists had a motive for voting. Even the KKK liked the GOP’s candidate. No third party defections for the KKK! I am not, of course, painting every Trump supporter as a card-carrying member of the KKK. It remains true that not everyone who voted for Trump in 2016 was a racist, but the chiastic category was pretty much on the mark: “every racist who voted, voted for Trump.” That rule of thumb will hold on Election Day, 2020.
Trump did not win because of the racist vote, however. He won because people who would claim that “I am non-racist” voted for him. In order for Trump to be turned out of office, it is imperative that everyone who regards herself or himself as anti-racist vote, even if they are extremely disappointed by the outcome of the Democratic primaries. If you self-identify as anti-racist and fail to vote, you are no different than the “non-racist” who votes for Trump.
Unless every anti-racist votes, and is relentless in making certain that everyone else who regards herself or himself as anti-racist votes, then the “non-racist” votes will align with the racist vote once again, and those factions will carry the day; and Trump will be re-elected.
However, that will not mean the end of America as we knew it. To fantasize that America “as we knew it” was some kind of haven for idealistic norms as a social contract is to engage in self-delusion on a massive scale. The United States of America is a genocidal project of imperialist domination, but that portion of its history will come to seem like a “good cop” at work. If Trump is re-elected, you’ll get a chance to see a “rogue cop” in action, and Dirty Harry will seem like St. Francis of Assisi, in comparison.
About Bill Mohr