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Trump is stoking the fires of Waco
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/trump-stokes-fires-extremism-waco-rally-17856521.phpTrump is stoking the fires of Waco
The Editorial Board
March 23, 2023
The Branch Davidians' Mount Carmel compound outside of Waco, Texas, burns to the ground during the 1993 raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Gregory Smith/Corbis via Getty Images
On a sultry Sunday afternoon in August, 1980, the Republican nominee for president of the United States chose the Neshoba County Fair outside the little town of Philadelphia, Miss., for his first major campaign speech. Ronald Reagan appearing in an open-necked shirt and red clay-stained shoes, a local reporter noted assured a mostly white crowd that day that he was a firm believer in states rights, an oft-used code in the South in those days for racial segregation and discrimination.
Reagan happened not to mention that seven miles from where he was speaking, three young civil rights workers had been kidnapped and murdered 16 years earlier by a Ku Klux Klan gang that included the county sheriff. Debated to this day is the question of whether the candidates paean to states rights, combined with his failure to mention the martyred trio, represents an early example of what has come to be called dog-whistle politics in other words, conveying a subtle message for those with ears to hear, while maintaining plausible deniability.
Some historians suggest that a campaign scheduler made a mistake by sending the candidate to Philadelphia, and Reagan was reluctant to disappoint his Mississippi audience by backing out. Others maintain that the former two-term governor of California, a first-time presidential nominee but an experienced politician, was pursuing his own southern strategy by showing up in a place associated with all-out resistance to civil rights.
When Donald Trump flies into Waco on Saturday evening for the first major campaign event of his 2024 reelection quest, dog ears wont be the only ones twitching. Trump doesnt do subtle; dog-whistle messages are not his style. The more apt metaphor is the blaring air horn of a Mack 18-wheeler barreling down I-10.
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Trump is stoking the fires of Waco (Original Post)
dalton99a
Mar 2023
OP
Branch dividians were mostly white if not all. I really don't see the racism in the location.
jimfields33
Mar 2023
#2
Extremists inflaming Americans even more cuz hate, politics. Tx for the Raygun horror reminder,
appalachiablue
Mar 2023
#3
sanatanadharma
(3,687 posts)1. Trump will be manufacturing the naplam on site
And the mass of madness will be carried afar in the meanness of many maga'ts primed to burn down all reason, morals, and magnanimity as a Nation.
jimfields33
(15,670 posts)2. Branch dividians were mostly white if not all. I really don't see the racism in the location.
Obviously Im missing something.
appalachiablue
(41,102 posts)3. Extremists inflaming Americans even more cuz hate, politics. Tx for the Raygun horror reminder,
brought from Calif., elected 2 term governor and then twice US president. The start of US mass decline and dysfunction. The message of Waco is clear unfortunately.