Race-Based Politics?

A New York Times article alleges that the President's recent remarks are racist and have hit a new low. Is that mostly true or is it just the biased corporate media spewing hateful propaganda?

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Sunday that a group of four minority congresswomen feuding with Speaker Nancy Pelosi should “go back” to the countries they came from rather than “loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States” how to run the government.

Wrapped inside that insult, which was widely established as a racist trope, was a factually inaccurate claim: Only one of the lawmakers was born outside the country.

Even though Mr. Trump has repeatedly refused to back down from stoking racial divisions, his willingness to deploy a lowest-rung slur — one commonly and crudely used to single out the perceived foreignness of nonwhite, non-Christian people — was largely regarded as beyond the pale.

“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, “now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run.”

Mr. Trump added: “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.”

{In saying “go back,” President Trump fanned the flames of a racial fire, our correspondent says in an analysis.[1]}

Delivered on the day he had promised widespread immigration raids, Mr. Trump’s comments signaled a new low in how far he will go to affect public discourse surrounding the issue. And if his string of tweets wa

s meant to further widen Democratic divisions in an intraparty fight, the strategy appeared quickly to backfire: House Democrats, including Ms. Pelosi, rallied around the women, declaring in blunt terms that Mr. Trump’s words echoed other xenophobic comments he has made about nonwhite immigrants.

{When it comes to race, Mr. Trump plays with fire like no other president in a century.[1]}

As the president’s remarks reverberated around Twitter, a chorus of Americans took to social media to say that they had heard some version of Mr. Trump’s words throughout their lives, beginning with childhood taunts on the playground. Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey and a presidential candidate, joined scores of people who said it was jarring to hear the phrase from the president.

Ms. Pelosi may have offered the bluntest take on Mr. Trump’s comments when she said his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” “has always been about making America white again.”

But only one of the women, Ms. Omar, who is from Somalia, was born outside the United States. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx to parents of Puerto Rican descent. Ms. Pressley, who is black, was born in Cincinnati and raised in Chicago. And Ms. Tlaib was born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrants.

“These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”

Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas and the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called Mr. Trump a “bigot.” Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, who left the Republican Party this month over differences with Mr. Trump and is the child of Syrian and Palestinian immigrants, declared the comments “racist and disgusting.”

All four lawmakers in “the squad” eventually weighed in and responded to the president. “You are stoking white nationalism,” Ms. Omar said, because “you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda.”

Truth, propaganda or both?: Is the NYT presenting a basically honest picture, is it mostly propaganda or is it a roughly equal mix of truth and lies-propaganda? Is it something else, and if so, what?

Some research indicates that the most important source of support for the president in the 2016 election arose from unease among white voters at an impending demographic change from majority white to majority minority, coupled with unease over globalization and a perception that America was losing power and influence.[2] Economic concerns were second. If that data is correct, Trump's remarks can arguably be seen as playing the race card and maybe even racist.

Trump and his most or all of his supporters will reject that, probably arguing that the target of his comments are ingrates who attack and undermine America, none of which has anything to do with race. Is it racist to tell members of congress, or any American citizen, to go back to where they came from? Are members of congress allowed to criticize American policy and advocate for change?

Is this mostly liberal biased corporate media making an issue out of essentially nothing. Or, is it something more troubling than just crude politics in our new era of crudeness? Can one argue that Trump is dismantling another social norm that used to keep most people from making racist comments in public, or is there nothing racist at all in what Trump said?

Are there better arguments one can make in Trump's defense? If so, what are they?

Footnotes:
1.

WASHINGTON — President Trump woke up on Sunday morning, gazed out at the nation he leads, saw the dry kindling of race relations and decided to throw a match on it. It was not the first time, nor is it likely to be the last. He has a pretty large carton of matches and a ready supply of kerosene.

His Twitter harangue goading Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to the country they came from, even though most of them were actually born in the United States, shocked many. But it should have surprised few who have watched the way he has governed a multicultural, multiracial country the last two and a half years.

When it comes to race, Mr. Trump plays with fire like no other president in a century. While others who occupied the White House at times skirted close to or even over the line, finding ways to appeal to the resentments of white Americans with subtle and not-so-subtle appeals, none of them in modern times fanned the flames as overtly, relentlessly and even eagerly as Mr. Trump.

2. “This study evaluates the “left behind” thesis as well as dominant group status threat as an alternative narrative explaining Trump’s popular appeal and ultimate election to the presidency. Evidence points overwhelmingly to perceived status threat among high-status groups as the key motivation underlying Trump support. White Americans’ declining numerical dominance in the United States together with the rising status of African Americans and American insecurity about whether the United States is still the dominant global economic superpower combined to prompt a classic defensive reaction among members of dominant groups.”

B&B orig: 7/15/19