This is what Republicans (and White Americans in their
majority) have been for: Segregation, Endless war, Inequality, Billionaires,
Capital, Guns, and Religion as primary social values. This is what Republicans (and
White Americans in their majority) have been against: Desegregation, Civil rights,
Women’s rights, Healthcare, Retirement, Childcare, and Public goods of any kind
whatsoever.
White America, as a group, as a majority, has never, ever
voted for anything even slightly towards greater equality, justice, freedom,
for all. It has only ever voted to preserve, maintain, and expand its own
power. They empathize with Jeff Bezos, not his workers. There is no better
metaphor for what constitutes a foundational part of the Trump vote in 2020: if
some people must die or suffer so that others can thrive, then so be it.
Self-interest trades off other factors for cold, hard personal gain.
While Republican policy can be summed up as lower taxes for
the rich and lower standards of living for everyone else, they campaign on the
following, in no particular order: States Rights, Law and Order, Personal
Responsibility, Fiscal Responsibility, Abortion, Voter Fraud, Religion, Hard
Work, Capitalism, and Freedom.
My explanations for what these actually mean may reflect
some bias on my part.
States Rights: These are important if the states are
disenfranchising non-whites but should be overridden if they pass laws to
protect the environment.
Law and Order: Whites have been terrified of Blacks
since the days of slavery. Police are there to protect Whites from Blacks,
often with tragic results for the latter. Only 16% of Republicans expressed any
sympathy with Black Lives Matter. When Obama criticized the arrest of a noted
African American Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., for the crime of being
Black in his own home, he lost millions of White Voters and they never came
back. If Biden had not come down against BLM and defunding the police, he would
have lost the election.
Personal (Individual) Responsibility: essentially
means “I’ve got mine; F**k you”.
Fiscal Responsibility: Republicans are only concerned
with this when Democrats are in power as the Dems might spend money on Public
Goods which would benefit non-whites. It doesn’t matter if Whites get hurt as
long as Blacks are hurt worse. When Republicans are in power they will spend
billions, if not trillions to the benefit of the wealthy 1%, which is OK; that
is not socialism.
Abortion: Republican’s pro-forced-birth stance became
the mantra of the Religious Right in the Civil Rights era, as they fought to
maintain segregation. Since abortion isn’t really the issue, they refuse to
implement any measures that would reduce the demand, such as improved pre and
post natal care. As George Carlin said, “If you are pre-born, you are fine; if
you are pre-kindergarten, you are f****d”.
Voter Fraud: In 2013, just a year after turnout rates
for Black voters surpassed that for white voters for the first time, SCOTUS
gutted the Voting Rights Act, which provided some legal protections for Black
voters, because racism had been cured. The Republican States lost no time in
passing laws designed to disenfranchise Black voters. However the rate of
increase in percentage of non-white votes overwhelmed the Red States ability to
suppress them, hence Trump’s cry of illegal voters, meaning any one not white
who voted Democrat .
Religion: The Republican version of Freedom of Religion
goes back to the Pilgrim Fathers and means freedom to force my religious
beliefs on you. Any argument to the contrary is deemed religious persecution
and discrimination.
Hard Work, Capitalism: you do the work, we reap the
benefit. See also Personal Responsibility.
Freedom: the most deliberately misunderstood and abused
word in America (democracy or socialism may be second). It really is more like Free-Dumb.
It means carrying a gun to Starbucks — never mind that kids get shot in
schools. Not wearing a mask so you can go out and infect a block, town, city,
region. Not having to obey a law or norm of decency and civilization. Not
having to “believe” in science or reason or logic.
American thinking has become Soviet. It’s obvious wrong, yet
because it’s become an ideology, fixed, rigid, immovable, the nation can’t seem
to outgrow it or move past it. They want everyone (except themselves) to help
themselves and consider any attempt to help even the playing field
"socialism", and convince those who could most benefit from help to
despise it because it will also help people they hate. People are not voting
against what they consider to be their self interest. They would rather be on
top of a garbage heap than share even a bit of their supremacy with non-whites
It has cost them dearly. In 2016, the 2,584 counties that
Trump won generated just 36% of the country’s economic output, whereas the 472
counties Hillary Clinton carried equated to almost two-thirds of the nation’s
aggregate economy. In 2020, Biden’s winning base in 477 counties encompasses
fully 70% of America’s economic activity, while Trump’s losing base of 2,497
counties (to date) represents just 29% of the economy.
But you say, "I know these people. They are not racist monsters;
they are religious people, smart, hard workers. honorable in business, good
parents, good citizens, good-natured". All true but do you think that the
Germans who supported Hitler were no less? And some of them were in the SS and
some worked the death camps.
White Americans — the good and reasonable ones —
overestimate their social group so badly. Democrats are divided into
Progressives and Moderate or Corporate Dems. Progressives are trying to drag
America, kicking and screaming, into at least the 20th Century and
if at all possible, into the 21st Century. Moderate Dems get elected
because they can be trusted to do a little but not too much to bring equality
to the non-whites. IF the moderate Dems get too carried away, they will lose
the next election. Senator Manchin (D, WV) has already said he will oppose any
and all progressive legislation.
How to reach the unreachable? One idea I ran into was to
pass highly progressive federal legislation but allow any state to completely
opt out. That leaves the citizens of those states completely at the mercy of
their elected state bodies. Maybe when they see other states getting public
goods they can’t have, they will change their minds. If not, the moving
companies will make good money as people abandon them for a better life
elsewhere.
And maybe there is hope. Non-whites are getting tired of
Democrats empty promises and if there ever was a time to force them to stand
and deliver, now it is. And more whites are getting sick of this whole carry
over from slavery and would like to see a united, diverse, and equitable
country