The Battle for the Soul of White America

The United States continues to be two nations, not one. Donald Trump is a traditional American nationalist. At the historic core of that nationalism is racism and white supremacy. The Republican Party, the quintessential party of capitalism and the bourgeois class, has had a problem since the time of the New Deal. With the issue of slavery no longer around to build a grass roots base, the party of capital has struggled to build a majoritarian base since the 1930s,

Beginning with Barry Goldwater, who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and “Richard Nixon, whose “law and order” slogan mobilized many whites against the black rebellions in the late 60s, the Republican Party has found its grassroots base among whites of all classes who opposed assertive measures to achieve true racial equality before the law. That faction has been melded to an economic conservative wing, which supports free markets and opposes taxes. Add to that another cultural conservative faction, the Christian Right, and you have the majoritarian coalition which has dominated American politics since the time of Ronald Reagan.

Republicans have needed whites who are uncomfortable with racial equality to build winning coalitions in electoral politics, but the demographics of this century are not in their favor. So they have expertly used gerrymandering and voter suppression to forestall the day when the emerging majority can take political power. The Republican Party has been trading in racial indifference and outright racial hostility for the last half-century. Law and order, Reagan announcing his presidential bid in 1980 in Philadelphia Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were killed in 1964 … nasty welfare reform and draconian immigration positions in the 1990s … anti-government militias which helped propel many Republicans to office … the “war on terror … Minute Men on the borders after 9-11 … birtherism … racist police forces.

People on the far right who voted, voted Republican. Those of us who were anti-militia activists in the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity in the 90s, tracked the mainstreaming of far right thinking into the Republican Party. That mainstreaming produced the Tea Party, the Freedom Caucus in Congress, and now, the Trump Presidency.

I have two points to make here. First, Donald Trump is a fascist. He is racist, sexist, homophobic, and if we look at his business dealings over the decades, he doesn’t care much about the working class either. Fascism is rooted in ethnocentrism and bigotry, but in order to be successful, fascist must undermine the liberal institutions of democratic society. Trump has gone a long way down that path by disparaging the press, the judiciary, our electoral system, and even the establishment of “his own” Republican Party. Trump implores his followers to listen only to him for the truth … Sounds like Der Furhrer to me! But so far our institutions have pushed back. If they hold up, Trump’s fascist movement will be defeated by an enduring democratic system.

Secondly, and in a related vein, institutions can only hold up if citizens continue to believe in them. Most Americans continue to be white. And white people will control institutional and political power in this country for a long time. What we are witnessing is a battle for the soul of America, a battle for the soul of white America, and a battle for the soul of Republicans, the party of Lincoln. Most white people have voted for every Republican presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater in 1964. 95% of the people who voted for the moderate Mitt Romney in 2012 voted for Donald Trump in 2016.

White people who care about limited government and free markets have coalesced with white racist for the last half-century to build a conservative coalition that could be an electoral majority. That coalition produced the Trump presidency. Conservatives, mostly white, must now decide if they like their capitalism with fascism, or if they aspire to a future of American liberal capitalism, without racism and bigotry. Our country, and the whole world, is watching breathlessly.