Decodifying: Make America Great Again

Make America Great Again.  

What a simple statement.  It brings to mind an era of peace and prosperity.  It hearkens back to a golden age ideal, where the middle class was booming, the nuclear family was the norm.  Very 'Leave it to Beaver', if you will. The United States had emerged as a, if not the dominant world power.  The middle class was strong, and from a TV-based point of view, things were pretty peaceful.  Its genius, really

There is no doubt, America is different than it was then.  Global standards of industry and wealth have caught up and present stiff competition.  Many jobs, at the behest of corporate bottom lines, have moved offshore.  We have realized that unfettered industry has a price tag in terms of the economy and environment that the following generations have to bear.  More importantly, late-stage capitalism has placed an ever-growing strain on the middle class, pushing labor rates ever lower for the sake of competitiveness on a global market, while executives demand higher and higher compensation.  The economic gap widens as a result.

America was greatest when our middle class was strongest.  When a single earner could support a home, a car, a family.  But that is a far cry from where most of the United States is at.  But rather than question late-stage capitalism, we look at other reasons.

A major factor seems to be that it is currently estimated that the cultural influence traditionally held by the white segment of the population is dwindling.  Currently, the projected population of non-hispanic white individuals is around 56% of the US population and dropping.  Many areas are already ‘majority-minority’ areas, and it is expected this to be nationwide by 2044 per the 2010 census.  Not surprisingly, this is accelerating the rate of social change in the US, and generating significant anxiety in many white Americans.  Social change is happening in parallel with economic change, and despite being unrelated, the narrative persists that they are somehow connected.

I would argue that there isn't a ‘white culture’ per se, just whatever American culture is: a mix of many different cultural elements predominantly from Europe.  In some ways, white American culture is one of appropriation, adopting elements of the various immigrant communities that came to the United States.  In the defense of white people, it creates a lot of unknowns when it comes to seeing strict, protective cultural identity in many minorities, especially when it can be interpreted as rejecting white participation due to appropriation.  In many ways, it feels like white people are feeling as if they are being pushed out, with nowhere to go, culturally.

I feel, ‘Make America Great’ taps into that fear effectively, creating the foundation of support the Republican Party has enjoyed.  The vision of prosperity of times past invokes imagery, without needing to explicitly say so, of a time when white cultural dominance was more secure.  This becomes more evident with the staunch public support, ranging from white suburban America to white supremacists.  Further, it harkens back to a time where white America was less threatened than it is today.

Trump, has, with growing transparency aligned himself with white supremacist ideals.  This isn't surprising, as he has a long documented history of racist business practices and statements.  A good read can be found here:  https://www.vox.com/2015/8/3/9089495/donald-trump-racist.  Whether intentional or not, he has a demonstrated bias in his thinking and actions.

Indeed much of Trump's campaign was based on the fear of foreign immigrants, legal and otherwise.  He is widely known for his disparaging remarks on Hispanic, Arabic, Chinese people.  It was not long until white supremacists felt safe enough to make their voices heard and violently act on their beliefs in Charlottesville.  Trump repeatedly defended the actions of supremacists, calling them ‘good people’.  He has defended confederate monuments as historical (do we in the united states have monuments to other failed adversaries?  Lenin, Hitler, Kim, Putin, perhaps?)  

In June of 2020, Trump released 88 ads, some of which carried an unmistakable inverted red triangle.  This was important for 2 reasons.  First, the inverted red triangle was a method of marking identifying political enemies to the Nazi regime in prison camps.. in a call to action against political individuals.  Second, this was a battery of 88 ads, which has significance in Neo-Nazi circles.  88 refers to the 8th letter of the alphabet.. or HH, which is shorthand for ‘Heil Hitler’.

In July, the Trump campaign rolled out an eagle image, which certainly would invoke the Nazi Iron Eagle to anyone remotely familiar with the iconography.

Individually, these could be considered benign, potential coincidences.  Taken together, this happens too frequently, too many times, too consistently for it to not be intentional.  Naturally, this would not be noticed by most people, but for someone familiar with the phrases and images used by Supremacists, this would be a clear nod.  Without a doubt, someone in the campaign is signaling support to white Nationalist.  This falls in line with Trump's past actions, his past words.  Looking at the bigger picture, I don't think it is any stretch of the imagination to make the following conclusion: 

Make America Great Again, is code for Make White America Great Again.

The Republican Party, which has been drifting from fiscal conservativism for years, has, under Trumps guidance, emerged in action as the White Nationalist Party.

I recognize, not everyone supporting MAGA would consider themselves racist, let alone supremacists.  This movement takes advantage of the ‘accidental racist’.. the person who simply is afraid of the pace of social change, and does not see or understand the racism built into everyday living.  See my prior blog  here: http://a-man-they-called-jayne.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-accidental-racist.html

There is a natural reaction, to want to ignore these signs, to trust that we have built a civilized society that has effectively squashed racism.  But ultimately, the defense of ‘it can't happen here’ no longer applies.  It is undeniable that racism has been alive and well in our country, hiding beneath the surface.  People were simply waiting for the right time to rise again, and it seems that under Trump's leadership, they feel that time is now.  History is our guide and we cannot stand idly by anymore if we are to honor the sacrifices generations before us made in our Civil and World Wars.  We are on the brink to a national crisis, again dealing with the unfinished business of racism and supremacy.