Is Trumpism the death throes of Nixon style racism?

[Dr. Jack]

I have thought a lot of about Trump trying to emulate Nixons 1968 campaign and I think I know what it's all about . I think Trumpism is the death throes of Nixons style of systemic racism in the US and not a new resurgence of racism or new found popularity of white supremacy. With Nixon in 68, his entire campaign was the death throes of Jim Crow and segregation. He squeezed as much as he could out of the racist vote, which was pretty effective at the time. And he created a new normal that conservative whites could live with. Instead of full blown segregation, they did things like prevented forced busing and had racist housing policies. Also the entire war on drugs. Lee Atwater said as much.

The Nixon style racism is dying off, as it has been for decades, and that is what Trump is all about. The country is becoming more inclusive and tolerant, which makes white conservatives uncomfortable. Obama being president really freaked them out, as did gay rights, and any other little culture war issue we heard about in the last decade. In 2016 Trump squeezed as much as he could out of the scared racist vote, which caught a lot of people off guard. And he is doing that again in 2020. The difference between 2016 and 2020 is that in 2016, a lot of people were blissfully ignorant about the racial issues still present in this country and about the dark underbelly of racism that still exists in some corners. Now it is all out in the open and it has been a real wake up call to a lot of Americans. I don't think any of this was planned or something that Trump sat down and thought about. He just came long with the right message at the right time for certain people.

In the end, Trump isn't ushering in a new era of racism. He is just launching one last desperate attack on behalf of the scared white conservatives against progress and it will end up failing. And will likely in the long run make the process of tolerance and equality come about faster.

[hibbing]

1. Sadky, there will always be replacements n/t

[calguy]

2. I don't think so

As long as there are bigots and racists with votes there will be a politician there to exploit them.
And trumpisnm is NOT dead. Not yet. It won't be dead until enough of us do our job and vote him out.

[Azathoth]

3. I don't think it's the death thoes. I think it's the coming out party

for the white nationalist GOP. They're now an explicitly white identity party. There's really no turning back.

Trump's base isn't old people. It's non-college educated whites, including many in their twenties and thirties. Trump and the internet have brought an entire new generation into white identity politics and taught them how to do it without the previous generation's need to couch everything in twenty layers of euphemisms and dog-whistles. Their ability to secure a majority of electoral votes may diminish over time as they become more of a minority, but that doesn't mean they themselves are dying out.