The Road to the US Presidential Elections: Addressing Trump-Racism Rhetoric

Early voting in the US has already begun for the Presidential Election and there are a number of critical developments that are taking place. Among them, as recently warned by the President of Loveworld Inc, the highly esteemed Rev. Dr Chis Oyakhilome DSc. DSc. DD. are pre-planned measures aimed at preventing a Trump win including the inception of war, especially through intensified and explicit NATO involvement in the proxy war with Russia being fought in Ukraine.
Other’s that we’ve seen and discussed include the use of weather modification to create destructive weather events that allegedly hinder election preparation. However, when we look at the candidates themselves, there are a number of key issues that need to be given attention, because in a presidential election, the sum total of the character of the presidential candidate (and their VP pick) is also on the ballot, and has the potential to affect the socio-political fabric of the nation. And this is precisely what we’ll address today.
ADDRESSING THE TRUMP-RACISM RHETORIC: IS DONALD TRUMP RACIST?
Let’s start with one of the most contentious issues by addressing the question on whether President Donlad Trump is racist, and subsequently, therefore, if African Americans (especially) – but really all people of colour – have a moral obligation not to vote for him? And first, let’s begin with the claims of the people who have the burden of proof, which are the people who made the allegation that Trump is racist.
Among the top claims is that Donald Trump uses racism to divide and conquer. UC Berkeley Professor Ian Haney López teamed up with MoveOn.org Civic Action, Demos Action, and Inequality Media, to demonstrate how Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump relies on racism as a strategy to divide the country for the benefit of himself and other wealthy Americans. He uses racism by triggering two major sources of anxiety for many white people: economic insecurity and demographic change. So, for the economic insecurity claim to be accurate, Donald Trump would have to see the economic participation and empowerment of African Americans as a threat to the economic prosperity of especially the caucasian demographic in the US.
But, it’s not entirely clear whether this is actually what the people who make this claim against Trump mean, because beyond generic rhetoric that is supposed to simply provoke a response, this claim does not appear to be well conceptualised or substantiated; and likely because it is a fairly challenging thing to reason out. In fact, in an economic system, businesses do not thrive in isolation, they require different and vast consumers in order to perpetually make a profit, which is why they compete for more consumers, and constantly strategise on how to enter new consumer markets. It thus seems inconsistent that a wealthy businessman, being Donald Trump, would not grasp this basic concept, and advocate for a potential customer base to be excluded from economic participation.
But, the problem with the accusation that Trump is racist because he makes white people anxious about economic insecurity (that might be tied to the economic empowerment of African Americans) is not only that it is weirdly conceptualised, but it is also that it is not true! Donald Trump has played a pivotal role in the empowerment of African American entrepreneurs – prior to being in office, which is to say it is not something that came out of a political campaign strategy. Then in his time as president, in 2017, President Trump signed an executive order benefiting historically African American colleges; In his time campaigning in the present, he is holding caucuses with African American business owners to hear what policies are required for their advancement – and that is not even close to the exhaustive list. But, I say this not to encourage a fixation on the number of the policies he has implemented; rather, I say this to point to the substantive impact of Trump’s work in the capacity of a fellow American and business owner, and later on as a president, in positively impacting the race others claim he hates.
IS THE ‘GREAT REPLACEMENT’ AGENDA A TRUMP-INSPIRED CONSPIRACY?
But, then secondly, let’s proceed to address the demographic change racism claim, because remember, the claim is that Trump uses racism by triggering two major sources of anxiety for many white people: economic insecurity (which we’ve just addressed) and demographic change. And, on demographic change, I think the people who make the claim that this is racist mean that Trump cautions about the decrease of the caucasian demographic, and weaponises this to cause anxiety among the caucasian demographic.
But, for this to be racist and thus a weaponised cause of anxiety, it would have to be untrue. And yet, the great replacement is neither a Trump-authored phenomenon, nor is it untrue. In fact, the current president of the US, Joe Biden, spoke about this years ago – stating that it would be a good thing.
But here is why the great replacement is not. The great replacement is predicated on importing a new population – predominantly through illegal immigration and immigration smuggling, that will outnumber the indigenous population. This alters government mandate to their citizens and negatively affects the distribution of resources. It is, thus, not a workable or sustainable plan, but also, it is based on changing the demographic of a nation to include people who are easier for the government to control. However, most important to note, is that it is not Trump-propaganda.
Let’s then proceed to the other accusation that is often made against Trump, pertaining to racism, which is that he is a white supremacist sympathiser, who even calls white supremacist very fine people. You’d recall this remark from Biden in the first presidential debate with Trump. Harris brought it up as well. Now, this claim was looong debunked, and yet, it keeps coming up. Well, kindly have a listen to a voter who explains he realised that Donald Trump was not racist when he actually debunked for himself the “fine people” hoax, and he goes further back in time and looks at different clips and interviews, showing just how deceitful the media is.
WHY DOES TRUMP-RACISM RHETORIC SPREAD?
But, then we need to address why incorrect remarks about Trump being racist get popular? And I think there are two reasons. First, it is because when people hear lies that tare weaponised to manipulate them, it is done in such a way that they should never want to hear a contrary narrative, because if they sensationalise the lie and capitalise heavily on it, it would shatter their conception of reality and possibly their identity to learn that what they believed was a lie.
The second reason why these lies about Trump get popular is the use of the strawman fallacy, where people refute an argument or statement different from the one actually made by Trump, while not recognising or acknowledging the distinction; and second is rallying the crowd rhetoric. In fact one example is the logical jump that Charlemagne once made about what Trump meant in sentiments that he had shared.
Those remarks weren’t about race; and instead of making that bizarre strawman of a conclusion, all Charlemagne had to do was ask people from Detroit what they think about Detroit, because he would discover that many of their views don’t differ from Trump; and were not about race. Instead, the discussion is that Detroit is another US city that was left behind by the Biden-Harris administration and is in desperate need of revitalisation. And it is not racist to say that!
THE DEMOCRATS AND KAMALA HARRIS ARE THE REAL RACISTS
With this in mind, I’d like to push the envelope further and make the argument that Democrats and Kamala Harris are the real racists. This is not even taking into consideration the fact that Republicans were the party that abolished slavery when Democrats fought very hard to keep it (and if you follow one of our programs here on LN24 International called, Starting Point’ you hopefully would have caught the discussion on the historical context of both the Republican and Democrat political parties – which explored the horrific history of the Democrats and slavery, that is replicating itself in the status with modern slavery through immigrant smuggling and trafficking).
But, let’s discuss how democrats and Kamala Harris are the real racist parties in this election. First, the political condensation that is rooted in an essentialism characteristic of African Americans as being simple minded and perpetually incapacitated. You’d recall us discussing this in relation to voter ID’s. Kindly have a listen to this recapitulation.
The racism and political condescension of the democrat party is also seen when it comes to how they approach winning the african american vote. All they think they had to do is establish an identity politics ground upon which African Americans can identify with their candidate. Barack Obama was black (he wasn’t even American, but he was black, and so it was racist to even question his citizenship). With Hillary, she was a female presidential candidate endorsed by a black Barack Obama. Biden was the former vice president to a black president who picked a candidate who ran as an Indian senator, but would be the first black AND female vice president. And now, Kamala Harris would be the first black female president. This is literally the bar for democrats when it comes to the African American vote, and it is nothing short of political condescension – which is why African Amdeircans were quick to refute the audacious remarks from Obama.
HOWEVER, African Americans have also caught on to the futility of voting on identity politics lines, and are speaking out about the fact that it can be a serious liability – especially because it is not about your guy in office, as the President of Loveworld Inc. has warned.
But beyond rejecting voting on identity politics lines, African Americans are becoming increasingly more vocal about the critiques of the Democrat party. And I say increasingly MORE VOCAL because there have always been African American people who were critical of or opposed to the Democrat party, it was in a time where it not popular to be African American and a Trump supporter, but now that that barrier is being removed, we are hearing more people publicly voice their critiques and concerns.
Written By Lindokuhle Mabaso