"Trump on Thursday solidified his reelection pitch as a bulwark against a cultural transformation"
Trump on Thursday solidified his reelection pitch as a bulwark against a cultural transformation.
In essence, he's arguing that there is something fundamentally un-American and liberal about finally shedding the symbols and imagery of the Civil War, believing systemic racism stains the police force or covering up to prevent the spread of a deadly virus he is trying to wish away.
The President's conduct is consistent with a lifetime of going against the crowd and his impulse to use racial and cultural flashpoints for his own advantage. At a time when much of the country, even many instinctively conservative individuals and institutions, is engaging in a racial reckoning, he is apparently betting that his stands will ignite and expand his political base and carry him to a backlash victory in November.
As he did with his "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan, Trump is implicitly invoking an idealized past vision of a nation untarnished by political correctness, where white conservative values were dominant, that seems incompatible with an increasingly diverse country. At the same time, he is propagating an alternative reality that the pandemic is over -- despite rising cases in many states -- to convince voters that the strong economy he was using as his main reelection pitch is on the way back.
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But as the President fortifies his culture war positions, he is alienating his own generals, some Republican senators, executives who run sports leagues and Americans who tell pollsters that they are uneasy with his handling of the pandemic and the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.
Military leaders were shocked by Trump's refusal to rename bases named for Confederate generals, who took up arms against the United States in a civil war fought to preserve slavery. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, now says he was wrong to allow himself to be dragged into Trump's notorious photo op following the forceful dispersal of peaceful protesters outside the White House last week.
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Trump is also insisting that there is no systemic racism in the police -- as he stakes out a "law and order" platform that he believes is attractive to a wider group than just his political base. He said during a trip to Texas on Thursday that National Guard troops cut through protesters in Washington "like a knife through butter" and renewed his vow to "dominate" the streets.
The President, with an eye on his grassroots base, also appeared to argue that the problem of racism and discrimination faced by people of color was about equal to that posed by people who call it out.
"We have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear, but will make no progress and heal no wounds by falsely labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racist or bigots," Trump said.
Trump's instincts are that the "forgotten Americans" who make up his base, and plenty more besides, are angry at and alienated by the current pace of change and the restrictions that have been imposed by governments on their activities during the pandemic. He is deliberately pitting white, conservative older Americans who subscribe to what they might call "traditional values" against the more diverse, more liberal younger sector of the country, which he shocked to the core by beating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/12/politics/donald-trump-race-cultural-change-election-2020/index.html
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