Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump’s presidential campaign bludgeoned modern norms about the acceptability of racism. The candidate proposed a religious test for immigrants, and called a federal judge unfit on the grounds of his heritage. Trump could have decided to put the racial demagoguery of the campaign behind him, and it could have been remembered as a divisive ploy to win that did not define his administration, like George Bush’s manipulation of white racial panic to defeat Michael Dukakis in 1988. But Trump, perhaps predictably, is making a different choice. His early staffing choices are redefining the boundaries of acceptable racial discourse in Republican politics.”
A Return to America’s Normal Racial Politics?
Philip Klinkner and Rogers Smith: “Donald Trump’s election as president startled many Americans. A number of observers commented that Trump’s campaign represented a set of illiberal values and policy positions far outside of the United States’ political traditions of individual rights, equality and democracy.”
“But in many ways, Trump represents a return to the historical norm. Such classical liberal values have often not predominated in the United States. In fact, they have always logically competed against — while being politically intertwined with — a set of commitments to hierarchies of race, nationality and religion, among others. Indeed for much of American history, these illiberal values held sway.”
GOP Learns Wrong Lesson from Trump Win
“Republican operatives spent four years warning that the party needed to diversify — or risk a blowout at the ballot box. Donald Trump spent the campaign trafficking in divisive racial rhetoric — and he won anyway,” Politico reports.
“Now, those who pushed for a more inclusive GOP fear that their party will absorb the wrong takeaways from Trump’s win, and that the momentum behind efforts to expand the Republican tent to include more minorities and young people has evaporated.”
Quote of the Day
“The story of this election may be the mobilization of the Hispanic vote. So Trump deserves the award for Hispanic turnout. He did more to get them out than any Democrat has ever done.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by the New York Times.
Georgia Governor Refers To ‘Colored People’ In Speech
“A racially charged phrase used by Governor Nathan Deal during a speech to educators has the governor saying he made a mistake in what he said, but not in what he meant,” Fox 5 Atlanta reports.
Said Deal: “The irony of some of the groups who are opposing doing something to help these minority children is beyond my logic. If you want to advance the state of colored people, start with their children.”
He later clarified: “I did not mean to insult anyone, but I was upset.”
Quote of the Day
“The fact that Donald Trump’s doing so well, it proves that I’m winning. I am winning.”
— David Duke, quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
Kaepernick Says Both Candidates Are Racist
“Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback who has refused to stand during the national anthem as a way of protesting discrimination, called both major presidential candidates liars and said they seemed to be trying to ‘debate who’s less racist,'” the New York Times reports.
Said Kaepernick: “To me, it was embarrassing to watch that these are our two candidates. Both are proven liars, and it almost seems like they’re trying to debate who’s less racist. And at this point, talking with one of my friends, it was, you have to pick the lesser of two evils, but in the end, it’s still evil.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Donald Trump is a racist.”
— Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), in an interview with CNN.
The English-Only Candidate
Politico: “With 46 days until the November elections, and as early voting begins in a handful of states, Trump is on the precipice of becoming the only major-party presidential candidate this century not to reach out to millions of American voters whose dominant, first or just preferred language is Spanish. Trump has not only failed to buy any Spanish-language television or radio ads, he so far has avoided even offering a translation of his website into Spanish, breaking with two decades of bipartisan tradition.”
“While the majority of Latino voters are English-speaking, Trump’s refusal to campaign in Spanish is a powerful symbol of how little heed Trump has paid to America’s shifting demographics. Latinos now make up about 10 percent of the national vote, with electorally potent concentrations in crucial battlegrounds such as Florida, Colorado, Nevada and even North Carolina.”
Quote of the Day
“They hate white people, because white people are successful and they’re not.”
— Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC), in an interview with BBC News, commenting on the protests in North Carolina after police killed a black man.
Trump Says African Americans Are ‘In the Worst Shape’
Donald Trump faced a swift backlash after declaring that African Americans are “in the worst shape they’ve ever been” during a campaign event in North Carolina, the Washington Post reports.
“The comments drew immediate criticism on social media from critics who accused him of failing to consider the United States’ history with slavery and North Carolina’s history with Jim Crow laws and segregation.”
Why Trump Can Still Win Florida
Politico: “But at its core, the race is about race, about motivating white versus non-white voters. The whiter the electorate, the likelier it is Trump wins. And older whites are keeping Trump in the hunt.”
“Without the backing of older whites, polls indicate Trump would lose Florida — in this retirement mecca, the elderly are still a force at the ballot box. Of Florida’s 12.4 million active registered voters, more than 3.3 million are older than 65 years old, making them the largest age group on the rolls (followed by those 50 to 64). The elderly also have the highest turnout rate in Florida.”
“When it comes to race, non-Hispanic whites are 65 percent of the overall voter rolls and are the most-reliable voters.”
42% of Trump Supporters Are Racist
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Racial Bias Has Been a Constant for Trump
An investigation by the New York Times — “drawing on decades-old files from the New York City Commission on Human Rights, internal Justice Department records, court documents and interviews with tenants, civil rights activists and prosecutors — uncovered a long history of racial bias at his family’s properties, in New York and beyond.”
“That history has taken on fresh relevance with Mr. Trump arguing that black voters should support him over Hillary Clinton, whom he has called a bigot.”
“While there is no evidence that Mr. Trump personally set the rental policies at his father’s properties, he was on hand while they were in place, working out of a cubicle in Trump Management’s Brooklyn offices as early as the summer of 1968.”
GOP Fears Its Future in the West
“Republicans in Western states fear that Donald Trump could imperil their party for years to come in the country’s fastest-growing region as he repels a generation of Hispanics, Asians and younger voters who have been altering the electoral map,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump, with his insult-laden, culturally insensitive style of campaigning, is providing fuel for the demographic trends that are already reshaping the political composition of this once-heavily Republican territory. And now many Republicans are contemplating the possibility that states like Colorado or Nevada could soon become the next California: once competitive but now unwinnable in presidential contests.”
And this from Arizona: “Recent polls show Hillary Clinton is close to tying Mr. Trump here. And her campaign has responded by teaming up with local Democrats on a statewide get-out-the-vote operation, which has grown to 160 staff members across 20 offices.”
The Fix: Leading Republicans aren’t rushing to defend Trump on race.
The Flaw In Trump’s Latest Plan
Jonathan Chait: “The main difficulty Trump faces in dispelling the impression that he is a racist is that Trump is, in fact, a gigantic racist.”
Republicans Have Chosen Racism
Jonathan Chait: “Even though Trump has sprung naturally from the conservative fertile soil of racism, anti-intellectualism, and authoritarianism, his nomination is truly a sea change. No successful candidate before him has identified himself so tightly with white-identity politics. His place at the top of the ticket, and potentially as head of state, has presented fellow Republicans with an agonizing dilemma. To be sure, their choice is not comfortable. Those Republicans who have distanced themselves from the nominee, even in carefully measured increments, have endured fierce blowback from their own voters and even donors… In a party rife with racism, anti-racism is hardly considered an acceptable basis for partisan disloyalty.”
“What most Republican elites have always wanted is to lead a party that appeals to a majority of the country on the basis of abstract small-government, patriotic themes. Trump has revealed that this is a hopeless fantasy, and what they can lead instead is a party of racists. And they have decided, nearly every one of them, that they will take it.”
This Is Change
Charles Pierce: “On stage a young black man, the president of the United States, warmly embraced an older white woman in front of god and all the world. It is now an iconic photograph. If it had occurred on a weed-choked street in Mississippi within the lifetime of many of the people who were cheering the moment, the young man might have been beaten, burned, hung, thrown into a river with a cotton fan tied to his neck. A song began to rise through the history of the moment:
Southern trees bear a strange fruit/Blood on the leaves and blood at the root/Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze/Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees…
“But it was not those days any longer. The young man was the President of the United States and he has rung his changes on that song, and on an occasionally baffled democracy. Surely, he has done that.”
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