Tags
Boogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers, Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys, and The Base, among others, appear to love him.
I’ll agree that leftward spin attempts to conflate the President’s attitude with laxity toward these groups, but that these groups find hope with Trump and number among his supporters — and they have grown with his presidency — tells us about the character of his mission despite the harness that comes with high office.
Trump’s enthusiasm for Alex Jones, his several felons (start with his initial selection of “campaign manager” Paul Manafort), and his positive relationship with conspiracy theories tell us about us and what we are willing to endorse.
Of course no American President would endorse the Far White Right cadre of committed supremacists, but the persistent relationship — they like him! — plus soft stance from Trump’s podium remain. While The Donald may wrestle with the phantom of father Fred (e.g., https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/28/in-1927-donald-trumps-father-was-arrested-after-a-klan-riot-in-queens/ | https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/us/politics/donald-trump-housing-race.html), his here-and-now image has been and will probably remain besmirched by the tolerance so far shown those bigoted apparently for fear of displacement or narcissistic want of exception, both predicated on white Christian identity.
Post-Election — and the FBI will soon publish a report on domestic terrorism that includes an assessment of white-supremacist threats — race and religious issues will continue to fester in America despite so much progress made through civil rights and other activism across decades. They will do so — we will have this region of domestic conflict — because of the resonance between “camps” set up by those who foster and harbor fear and hate in relation to their chosen targets among fellow Americans.
E Pluribus Unum?
–33–
BackChannels 