The Recycled Playbook
By: Peter Ramirez
Tags: Election 2020, Equality, Trump, Racism, Elections

The Recycled Playbook

Trump used racism in the 2018 election, he’s trying it again

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

The 2018 midterms should have been a political walk-in-the-park for Donald Trump and his Republican enablers. The economy, at least by traditional metrics, was humming, and the GOP was defending the easiest Senate map in electoral history.

Instead, the American people rebuked President Trump and the GOP by historic margins. The Democrats flipped the House by netting over forty seats, which was the largest midterm Republican defeat since Gerald Ford oversaw a forty-eight seat loss in 1974. The Democrats amassed almost nine million more votes than Republicans, obliterating the record for the most lob-sided midterm election result that had held since Watergate. Democrats even added seven governorships, meaning that a majority of the US population now lives under a Democratic governor.

How is this possible? The economy was expanding, unemployment was nonexistent, and inflation was controlled. There was no “hot” conflict abroad. A (sorta) peace and (relative) prosperity message could have resonated with voters.

Instead, the stable genius had other ideas. As election day approached, Trump’s closing pitch revolved around a bizarre fascination with a group of migrant workers in Honduras. The group, mostly poor women and children, was slowly marching towards the United States-Mexico border. The media quickly dubbed this group of people “the caravan.”

Trump, desperate to find a wedge issue, quickly pounced. “It’s going to be the election of the caravan,” he decreed.

The president wanted the midterms to be a referendum on immigration, and he was resoundingly obliterated at the polls. (Maybe that’s an idea for another column.)

Let’s get back to Trump’s “caravan strategy.” Not only was it not successful, it was also disingenuous. In the three weeks leading up to those elections, Trump tweeted about the border or the caravan 45 times. In the eight days following the election, as these migrants got closer to the United States, and the theoretical “threat” they posed became more urgent, the president tweeted about the caravan zero times.

Trump used the political optics of the caravan to scare white people to the polls. It didn’t work, and he stopped caring about the issue once the elections were over. Classic Trump.

(The caravan, it should be noted, “fizzled out” months later, never reaching the border.)

It’s no surprise that Trump would recycle a failed strategy two years later for the next election. Retrospection isn’t exactly his best trait. He did, after all, declare bankruptcy six times. Safe to say flexibility isn’t his forte either.

Let’s examine the (Recycled) Trump Racism Playbook for 2020:

Step 1. Question whether Kamala Harris is eligible to run for the vice presidency

The original birtherism, a racist conspiracy theory that the first African American president was not born in the United States, wasn’t stupid or racist enough, so the far right went back to the drawing board.

(Comedian John Oliver called the Trump-Russia investigation “Stupid Watergate,” because it was “a scandal with all the potential ramifications of Watergate, but where everyone involved is stupid and bad at everything.” The Harris conspiracy, which questions whether she is eligible to be vice president, is essentially “Stupid Birtherism.”)

The original “idea” by John Eastman claims that Harris may not be eligible to be vice president due to the immigration status of her Jamaican father and Indian mother. According to the Constitution, the eligibility requirements for presidency are:

Being a natural born citizen A resident of the US for 14 years Being 35 years old

Kamala Harris, who was born in Oakland, meets these requirements. Newsweek offered the following apology for running the original article that questioned Harris’ eligibility:

“This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize…the essay inevitably conveyed the ugly message that Senator Kamala Harris, a woman of color and the child of immigrants, was somehow not truly American. The op-ed was never intended to spark or to take part in the racist lie of Birtherism, the conspiracy theory aimed at delegitimizing Barack Obama, but we should have recognized the potential, even probability, that that could happen. Readers hold us accountable for all that we publish, as they should; we hold ourselves accountable, too. We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted and weaponized.”

Trump was quick to spread the falsehood, like a teenage student with some scandalous gossip. “I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” he said. “I have no idea if that’s right. I would have thought, I would have assumed, that the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.”

By saying “he heard of it,” Trump reaps the political benefit of perpetuating this (racist) idea, without the direct implication that he himself believes it. Trump often comments on the most timely Beltway news as if he is some neutral, passive observer, rather than the President of the United States.

The 14th amendment, which grants citizenship to any person born in the United States, couldn’t be more clear. Maybe we’ll give Trump a pass on this one — obeying the Constitution isn’t his speciality.

Step 2. Scare “suburban housewives” with threats of “invasion”

“The ‘suburban housewife’ will be voting for me. They want safety & are thrilled that I ended the long running program where low income housing would invade their neighborhood…” the president recently tweeted.

“I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood…” he also tweeted.

The word choice here is interesting. “Invade.” American suburbs are being “invaded” by…other Americans? The racial appeal is too overt to even be considered a dog whistle at this point.

The “rule” that Trump overrode refers to a 2015 Obama initiative to reduce racial segregation in American neighborhoods. A full explanation of the law can be viewed here, but the rule is essentially this — if a local government accepts federal housing money, they need to use that federal money in a non racist way. If localities don’t account for how the federal money is used to reduce racial disparities, they may pay a fine.

That’s literally it.

The Trump strategy is bonkers for a number of reasons. First, the initial rule isn’t some overbearing federal overreach that promotes “invasion.” The federal government isn’t dictating how local governments spend their locally collected tax money. Instead, the federal government is only insisting that any federal money not be used to promote racial segregation, which is quite literally the bare minimum in terms of responsibility.

Second, the fact that Trump is making an obscure zoning issue a central issue to his re-election effort is mind-blowing. Which areas in a town are permitted to be commercial properties, single family houses, or multi family houses are local issues. City councils and mayors write the ordinances that dictate the policy, not Washington. With a pandemic raging and millions unemployed, is this the issue that Trump believes will carry him to victory?

Third, whatever Trump is doing to court the “suburban woman” vote isn’t working. An NPR/PBS poll reports that 66 percent of suburban women disapprove of President Trump (with 58% “strongly” disapproving). Trump is down 25 points among all women, a group he lost by 13 points in 2016.

Step 3. Delay paying our troops if bases named after Confederate Generals are changed

This summer, the Senate passed the $740 billion military budget for the year 2021. The budget includes a well-deserved pay raise for the troops. Tucked in the bill was a provision that recommended renaming the 10 military bases that are named in honor of Confederate-era generals.

“I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!” Trump tweeted.

Full disclosure: I’ve never understood the whole Confederate “thing.” Naming a military base is an honor that should be reserved for those who fought for our country, not against it.

And apparently, I’m not alone. Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the RNC, has privately told Trump that defending Confederate issues is a “losing political stance,” a rare rebuke from a normally loyal foot soldier.

In terms of the military budget, the Senate voted 86–14 to approve it, meaning they could override a presidential veto. Should Trump choose to die on that hill, Congress can circumvent him.

Step 4. Disregard African American concerns over policing.

“Why are African-Americans still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country?” Catherine Herridge asked the president this summer.

“What a terrible question to ask,” Trump retorted. “So are white people. More white people, by the way.”

Ah yes, defending the current state of policing in America by saying “they also kill the whites!”

Truly, there is no shortage of missing-the-mark whiffs that President Trump has taken amid a historic moment of racial protest in America. Here is a headline from Business Insider:

“Trump suggests George Floyd is ‘looking down’ from heaven and appreciating the ‘great day in terms of equality’ after an unexpectedly strong jobs report was announced.”

I mean. C’mon.

The nation is divided. The nation is hurting. Regardless of left vs. right, Americans are craving presidential leadership during these unprecedented times. They never got it. No wonder a majority of the country believe that the president has made race relations worse. The president doesn’t attempt to grow his base, just feed it.

The racist appeals didn’t work in the 2018 elections. Let’s hope they don’t work now.