Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Over four years ago, on BuzzFlash, I published a column on Donald
Trump entitled “Trump
is the Race Card.” Yes, Trump is a blowhard, and no he
doesn’t have any real programs to offer that would have a chance of solving the
problems he likes to list (some real; some imagined. His new [old by
Repub. standards] “immigration” policy is a bad joke [see below]). But
like just about every other political commentator on our side around, I still
find it irresistible to launch broadsides at him.
In a recent column for The Greanville Post, I placed Trump in the
Repub. tradition of anti-immigration doctrine that began with those
Know-Nothings who were part of the Republican Party from the beginning. Looking
backwards, in this space I am re-visiting a 2011 column (edited down, to be
sure), showing, if nothing else, that Trump’s racism is nothing new.
Except that this time around, it happens to be directed at Latinos. One
does not need to emphasize the point now made by a number of observers that the
only thing different between Trump and the “Main-line” Repubs. is that he says
out loud what has been Repub. doctrine, signaled by dog-whistles, for
years. (And of course now, following the Rightward Imperative of the
Repubs., the so-called “mainstream” candidates, from Rubio to Walker, are even
jumping on the openly racist specifics of the Trump immigration
bandwagon.) And so:
Not so long ago in a land not at all far away, part of it was
ruled by a tiny oligarchy of very wealthy large landowners. They made
their wealth in part off the backs of unpaid farm laborers for whom they
provided nothing more than minimal food and shelter, in part by trading in
those laborers as property, and in part off the backs of another group of (much
smaller) landowners/small farmers, who were generally poor, although definitely
better off than the aforementioned unpaid laborers. Actually, the latter
two groups had much in common. They worked hard, got nothing (in the case
of the first) and precious little (in the case of the second) for their
labors. They were both dominated and exploited by the oligarchy.
One would have thought, in fact, that the two groups of laborers might actually
join forces and struggle to improve their respective states in life.
Trump’s racism is nothing new. But the only
difference with the “Main-line” Repubs. is that he says out loud what
has been GOP doctrine for years.
But of course this did not happen in the slaveholding South (or
the other non-Southern slaveholding states before the First Civil War
either). For in the South in particular, the ruling oligarchy had, over a
period of two centuries since slaves were first brought to North America in
1620, very carefully nurtured the false doctrine of white supremacy. They
trumpeted this doctrine even though there had been interbreeding between
European settlers and African slaves from the earliest days and the coloring
became quite muddled. Given that inbreeding, the grouping “black people”
in particular was a totally artificial construct and of course still is.
But logic and facts never troubled the Right back then any more than they do
now.
Whatever could be said about the status and living standards of
the poor whites in the South, the oligarchy could and did always buy them off
with the notion that whatever else was going on in their lives, they were
somehow “superior” to the “blacks.” Of course, the doctrine of White
Supremacy and its power over the “white” people of the U.S. has never gone
away. In fact, its presence and wide-spread influence on the thinking of
United States folk of all kinds to this very day is a major indicator of how
the South actually won the
First Civil War
Race is still the trump card for the Right. And Donald Trump
used it back in 2011-12, just as he uses it now. Trump is a former Health
Care Single-Payer supporter, a former pro-choicer, a former supporter of other
liberal causes. But now he is apparently really running for the Repub.
Presidential nomination. The racist issue he is using this time around
is of course “immigration.” But racism is nothing new for Trump. In
2011-12, when he appeared to be, or at least claimed to be, running for the
Repub. nomination, it was the so-called “birther issue.”
Yes, the State of Hawaii had produced a birth certificate and the
President eventually released it. Yes there were the also the
contemporaneous birth announcements in Honolulu newspapers. But the Right
knows better than to confuse any of its adherents with facts. There is
still an ample “birther movement” and Trump still refuses
to affirm that he is convinced by the existence of a Hawaii state birth
certificate. (Of course, it doesn’t matter where Obama was born. He
had a U.S. citizen mother and therefore is a
U.S. citizen; just ask Ted Cruz, who was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, of
a U.S. mother.)
Every racist idiot and
opportunistic politician in the US dumps on hardworking Latino immigrants,
conveniently forgetting what a contribution they make to the nation’s
cheap food supply. For so many vociferous Christians, there’s little sign of
compassion.
Trump knew full well what the facts were. But how better to
distinguish himself from the rest of the undistinguished Repub. field than to
openly play the race card, using the dog whistle of “birtherism” resting on the
foundation of the Doctrine of White Supremacy that has been in place in this
country since long before the First Civil War. The attack was/is on
Obama’s legitimacy as a person/President, and “we all know what that means,
don’t we.”
And then came the Trump attack on Obama’s credentials for and in
higher education, which he is still playing. As Trump said: “I have
friends who have smart sons with great marks, great boards, great everything
and they can’t get into Harvard. We don’t know a thing about this guy.
There are a lot of questions that are unanswered about our president.” Must
have been affirmative action, donchaknow. How else could he have gotten
into Columbia College and Harvard Law School? And never did release his
transcripts (as if they were anybody’s business). He must have made
President of the Harvard Law Review and Magna cum Laude by affirmative action
too. And we know what THAT all means.
Of course, “affirmative action” has always not meant granting
admissions or jobs preferentially to discriminated-against minorities, but
rather simply giving them equal opportunity to apply and be considered on their
own merits. However, that fact has never stopped the racists from using
“affirmative action” as a weapon in their race war. Yes indeed.
Race was the trump card for the Right and for Trump himself, back then, and it
still is.
Postscript
I: On Trump’s immigration “policy.” 1. Build a wall.
There are already substantial sections
of a wall, built at great expense. They apparently are not too
effective. 2. Ramp up deportation. Deportation already runs
at a fairly high rate under
the Obama Administration. Obama’s first Homeland Security Sec.
Janet Napolitano ramped up “border enforcement” in the mistaken belief that
doing so would call off the Repub. dogs on the immigration issue: ho, ho,
ho. 3. Pay for a wall by increasing visa fees: ho, ho, ho.
Quoting from Seinfeld: “You can’t be serious.” 4. End U.S.
citizenship for persons born in the U.S. of undocumented aliens. Well that
would require amending the U.S. Constitution, and actually echoes the
fictitious “30th Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution passed by
a fictitious future Republican government, as told in chapter four of my book, The 15 Percent
Solution, (which was written in 1994-95 --- based on what some Repubs.
were already talking about back then).
Postscript
II: The Duopoly Watch aspect of all this is that a) no one on
the Democratic side will really go after Trump, and indeed the rest of the
Repubs., on his/their racism, and b) the Obama Administration can hardly boast
about its vastly increased anti-immigration enforcement measures, about which,
apparently, only a minority of the Latino community is aware.
Postscript
III: For a brief review of
Repub. lies about the true state of immigration policy presently, see Robert
Reich’s comment at: http://readersupportednews.
Postscript
IV: It now turns out that
Trump employs undocumented
immigrants. One has to wonder. Were e-verity to be applied to all of his
enterprises, how much would he have to pay in fines, and how much would his
profits drop?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Senior Editor, Politics, Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor
Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) and
author/co-author/editor/co-
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