The Politician That Trumps the Race Card

In his piece today old warhorse Michael Barone rehearses the historic character of each of our political parties. Says he:

The Republican Party was formed to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act that allowed slavery in the territories... Ever since it has been centered on one core constituency of people who are regarded by themselves and others as typical Americans but by themselves are not a majority of the nation.

And the Democrats?

The Democratic Party was formed to oppose the Second Bank of the United States and support Andrew Jackson... Ever since, it has been a coalition of divergent constituencies, capable of winning robust national majorities in favorable times but being fractiously fissiparous in others.

Any questions? Well, we could repeat the line of Steve Sailer:

As a Coalition of the Fringes, the only thing that holds together the Democrats is demonizing core Americans. Without ever increasingly whipping up hatred of whites, what is there to keep the Democrats’ collection of miscellaneous identity groups from turning on each other? 

Now the interesting thing is that I, even as an immigrant, have always considered myself a typical American. It started when I found that I disliked other Brits back in the 1970s complaining about America and Americans. I found that I did not want to be around that kind of person. Now I know how to make fun of it, as the Aussies do: "Go back to Britain you whingeing Pom." By 1980 people were commenting about the fact that I had become a "rock-ribbed" Republican.

So be it. But I am not the only person in the world. And I propose to you that the main thing to know about the Trump era is that the white working class now considers itself as typical Americans.

And the recent move of the white working class to the Republican Party makes complete sense. The old white working class does not consider itself part of the fringe any more. They consider themselves typical Americans.

Of course, as Eeyore may not have said, many moons ago,  "I was pushed." The white working class was perfectly happy being the Little Darlings of the ruling class, the beneficiaries of political loot and plunder, from above-market wages to Social Security. But then came the civil rights era, and the white working class had to make room for the new girl on the block, blacks and women. So today the white working class does not derive loot and plunder from voting Democratic. Not any more. They have to share those firefighter jobs with women and minorities. And the good old lifetime union jobs are gone with the ossified management that went with them like bacon with eggs.

You can see that white working-class Americans see themselves as typical Americans by the way that President Trump speaks at his rallies. His rhetoric is pure America-boosting. If you were to think of yourself as a typical American his rhetoric would seem completely natural and physical. But if you think of yourself as someone special -- and you could be special for any one of a thousand reasons, all of them coming down to the fact that you are a hyphenated American, from educated American to Somali American -- then you think that Trump is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic and a hater.

The way that our Democratic friends keep their Coalition of the Fringes together is by teaching them to hate typical Americans. Typical Americans are all racist sexist homophobes that will, if given the chance, "send them back" to where they came from. The genius of this strategy is that it has worked, and that the worst and most embarrassing thing in the world is to be called a "racist." So today all typical Americans live in fear of being branded a "racist."

And boy, haven't our liberal friends had a field day playing that "race card" for the last 50 years!

But I predict that one fine day a politician will appear in America that will discover how to Trump the race card.

Oh my! Imagine the liberal wailing and gnashing of teeth on that day, the rending of garments, the tears, the rage, the demand for safe spaces -- the Hate!

Of course, I am a simple fellow. And I think that the fact that we have a President called "Trump" may be a portent that something is in the wind on the race-card front.

If indeed President Trump actually does Trump the race card, I will tell all my liberal friends that it is another proof of God's existence. And even a mild suggestion that God has a sense of humor.

But politics will still be the same. There will be a Republican Party of typical Americans, and politicians will appeal to us with the themes of Ain't America Great, and suggesting that those that don't like it can go back where they came. There will be a Democratic Party of the fringes, and politicians will appeal to them by wailing about their victimhood at the hands of the toxic typicals, and by playing the victim card on typical Americans.

Because, like the man said, politics is division. Into Us and Them.