"They don't want to use the term 'Thanksgiving.' That was true also with 'Christmas.' But now everybody's using 'Christmas' again. . . . Everybody in this room loves the name 'Thanksgiving' and we're not changing it."
Trump, at Florida rallyDonald Trump: This land is our land, and we are the good guys.
Trump's popularity with his base has a premise: that people like you, and our way of life, are under siege.
Your values are under attack. Your language is under attack. Your job is under attack. Your race is under attack.
Your way of life is under attack
The Republican party was not ready for Pat Buchanon's message of Culture War when he spoke it back at the 2000 convention. They were ready when Trump voiced it in 2015.
Trump said things are bad and getting worse for white, Christian, native born Americans, and that we are approaching a tipping point because the country is being invaded by a flood of people who are not "good people." These strangers, he said, are being courted by Democrats because Democrats have a long term agenda of changing America out from under us.
Trump was going to reverse the tide, starting with a wall on the southern border. As a candidate he would add a travel bans on Muslims, and then when elected president he put limits on "asylum" claims he called phony, instituted tough conditions like cages and family separation to discourage arrivals, and posited that 14th Amendment citizenship by birth was mistaken law.
Some political messages are dead easy, slam dunks for Trump. His base dislikes Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, Obama and Biden, and now Hunter Biden, so criticism of them is a "gimme." So, too, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who he calls a crazy Socialist. Better yet, Ilhan Omar, a Muslim, a woman, born in Somalia, and wears hair covering. Weird, huh?
Trump defends America from them.
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| Trump: Enemy of the People |
Trump defends America from them.
The most important to defend is the culture itself, which faces the overwhelming tide of progress and change. Americans of all political persuasions see it, and some dislike and fear it. The country is becoming more diverse, more brown, and the traditional culture in the Norman Rockwell painting is changing. E pluribus unum is being redefined, with the many becoming one in its diversity, not the many dissolving in a melting pot into the one true dominant culture.
This displacement from the default is an implied attack on sacred and traditional symbols of the culture. Of course, there was no war on Christmas, but in fact Christmas was being repositioned in the public mind, from the assumed celebration of every American to a celebration chosen by most Americans. Christmas was being repositioned from centrality.
This displacement from the default is an implied attack on sacred and traditional symbols of the culture. Of course, there was no war on Christmas, but in fact Christmas was being repositioned in the public mind, from the assumed celebration of every American to a celebration chosen by most Americans. Christmas was being repositioned from centrality.
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| Schoolboy myth: Pilgrims feed local Indians |
Trump is being mocked as laughable in creating a straw man opponent in a made up "War on Thanksgiving" but his argument has political power for people who resist the changes they are experiencing. He is signaling that the traditional view of Thanksgiving, and therefore the implied right of European settlers to come to America and displace the native people, is OK. That we, his base--the dominant, white, Christian--people are here by right.
That resonates with his base: We are the good guys. This land is our land. You are the guests at our table.
5 comments:
Happy Holidays!
It's just a frickin' dinner, chill out...The historical/religious/cultural significance of the holidays have long been overshadowed by their usefulness as a marketing opportunity.
Merry Year End Conspicuous Consumption Festival!
Phony outrage is so tiresome, particularly at a time when there are numerous examples of the real thing. The spectacle of Trump as a culture warrior is laughable given his tabloid history, serial adultery, and family dysfunction, ad nauseam. Anyone who takes this nonsense seriously (yes, I know many do), probably should address some more pressing personal issues. How can one attack the military establishment one day and the next claim the high ground as a defender of perhaps one of the most establishment traditions? (Don't answer, you'll hurt yourself)
You have often observed that the Trump method is breathtaking hypocrisy and prevarication. This is another example. It serves him well because he can appeal to Regressives and racists at the same time.
Felice Navidad!
The American working class has good reason to feel under attack from progressives and Democrats. Trump is a con man, but he's been given real ammunition by Democrats.
A popular Tshirt/sign seen at pro-immigrant rallies:
Roses are Red
Tacos are Enjoyable
Don't Blame an Immigrant
Cause You're Unemployable
Love both previous comments! Happy post-Thanksgiving! If you give yourself one gift this holiday season, make it Robert Reich's book, "The Common Good." It documents how far we have drifted from our ideals and from honor and integrity as a nation in service of the almighty dollar. It's must reading for all patriots, the "Common Sense" of our time if we are ever to reclaim our democracy and it begins with leadership in corporations and government for the common good. Winning isn't everything; by thinking this falsehood, Trump is undermining all branches of government, the fourth estate and our democracy and modeling a one way street to misery for millions.
Andy Seles
Andy, I'm sure R Reich's book is well-intentioned, if hopelessly out of touch with reality. His previous book was called Saving Capitalism, and I thought "Huh? Why should we?"
How can America rediscover the Common Good when we have no Common? No common culture, no common religion, no common values, no common language.
Two Danish scientists recently published a paper showing that the more diverse a community, the less social cohesion. Progressives and Democrats have single-mindedly pursued diversity as the highest possible human value, and are now surprised that Americans don't like each other enough to want each other to have good jobs and good health care.
When Americans try to say that we need to fire up the melting pot and build one society of Americans, they are called xenophobic bigots by the Woke.
We truly have no hope at all if we must rely on ethical business leadership. The American system rewards the pathologically greedy like Jeff Bezos.
Ayla,
We have always been a nation of immigrants. According to the Migration Policy Institute, immigrants only comprise 15% of our population, just below the percentage in 1890, the highest. In 1890, interestingly, the Sherman Anti-Trust law was passed to break up and discourage corporate monopolies. We have been here before. Corporations used to represent not only the interests of their shareholders, but their workers, their community and consumers. It will take corporate and political leadership to curtail the easy cynicism so rampant today. Honor, integrity, loyalty, fairness, tenacity, equality are just a few of the values I have to believe we have in common.
Andy Seles
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