Understanding Trump supporters? (op-ed)
I saw a political ad. In big bold letters it said: Understanding Trump Supporters
That’s a bold statement. Are the advertisers suggesting they understand every reason behind Trump’s “support”? I doubt it. The reasons are as numerous as Democratic voters that defected.
One writer, a white liberal, reasoned the election was a repudiation of the left, specifically black and brown identity politics, and white identity politics emerged.
But that’s not to be confused with racism.
Many of these whites voted for Barack Obama twice so their backing of Trump wasn’t a backlash against a black president. They were recoiling from constantly being accused of racism. (During the Democratic primary candidates were interrupted on stage, heckled, and shouted down by protesters whose only stated aim was to “shut the election down”, one candidate even made a public apology for saying “all lives matter” … But no one will single out and discuss the contributions this counter productivity made to the Democratic party’s defeat.)
But the advertisers would deny these reasons exist because “Trump supporters” are easily understood by a single mindedness they have gone through great lengths to expose.
Now, the ad has a portrait of former President Lyndon B. Johnson.
President Johnson signed The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, launched the “War on Poverty” and the “Great Society” programs, but President Johnson’s image wasn’t to promote his record, it was to underscore social progress under a Democratic presidency, and to suggest “Trump Supporters” have blocked progress.
Then the ad states: LBJ was once asked why poor and middle class Republicans vote against their own interest, and Johnson said, “If you can convince the lowest white man, he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t know you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him someone to look down on and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
In other words, “Trump supporters” are a monolithic group so thoroughly convinced of their white superiority they will dismiss their own economic interest to make sure it doesn’t disintegrate.
Another bold statement, but the ad is a bold face fabrication.
The quote doesn’t match the question because LBJ was never asked that question. The question is made up to superimposed present day politics onto the past. All of LBJ’s political career, except for the presidency, he was a member of the Southern bloc of segregationist Democrats and the economic conditions of Republicans was not a political concern for representatives of the old Confederacy because these states weren’t red at the time.
The LBJ quote is accurate, but it was an off the cuff remark made to his staff about racial epithets on protest signs held by whites while traveling through Tennessee when he was vice president.
The entire ad is dishonest.
There’s a factual question and answer that’s more suitable to go beside LBJ’s image and could make a good advertisement in the future for candidates with checkered pasts. When LBJ was president a reporter asked him how could he explain his sudden passion for civil rights when he has never shown much enthusiasm for the cause, and LBJ said, “Most of us don’t have a second chance to correct the mistakes of our youth. I do and I am.”
I hope the advertisers get a second chance.
First published in New Pittsburgh Courier 11/30/16
That’s a bold statement. Are the advertisers suggesting they understand every reason behind Trump’s “support”? I doubt it. The reasons are as numerous as Democratic voters that defected.
One writer, a white liberal, reasoned the election was a repudiation of the left, specifically black and brown identity politics, and white identity politics emerged.
But that’s not to be confused with racism.
Many of these whites voted for Barack Obama twice so their backing of Trump wasn’t a backlash against a black president. They were recoiling from constantly being accused of racism. (During the Democratic primary candidates were interrupted on stage, heckled, and shouted down by protesters whose only stated aim was to “shut the election down”, one candidate even made a public apology for saying “all lives matter” … But no one will single out and discuss the contributions this counter productivity made to the Democratic party’s defeat.)
But the advertisers would deny these reasons exist because “Trump supporters” are easily understood by a single mindedness they have gone through great lengths to expose.
Now, the ad has a portrait of former President Lyndon B. Johnson.
President Johnson signed The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, launched the “War on Poverty” and the “Great Society” programs, but President Johnson’s image wasn’t to promote his record, it was to underscore social progress under a Democratic presidency, and to suggest “Trump Supporters” have blocked progress.
Then the ad states: LBJ was once asked why poor and middle class Republicans vote against their own interest, and Johnson said, “If you can convince the lowest white man, he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t know you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him someone to look down on and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
In other words, “Trump supporters” are a monolithic group so thoroughly convinced of their white superiority they will dismiss their own economic interest to make sure it doesn’t disintegrate.
Another bold statement, but the ad is a bold face fabrication.
The quote doesn’t match the question because LBJ was never asked that question. The question is made up to superimposed present day politics onto the past. All of LBJ’s political career, except for the presidency, he was a member of the Southern bloc of segregationist Democrats and the economic conditions of Republicans was not a political concern for representatives of the old Confederacy because these states weren’t red at the time.
The LBJ quote is accurate, but it was an off the cuff remark made to his staff about racial epithets on protest signs held by whites while traveling through Tennessee when he was vice president.
The entire ad is dishonest.
There’s a factual question and answer that’s more suitable to go beside LBJ’s image and could make a good advertisement in the future for candidates with checkered pasts. When LBJ was president a reporter asked him how could he explain his sudden passion for civil rights when he has never shown much enthusiasm for the cause, and LBJ said, “Most of us don’t have a second chance to correct the mistakes of our youth. I do and I am.”
I hope the advertisers get a second chance.
First published in New Pittsburgh Courier 11/30/16
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