White Supremacy Is On The Ballot

This Election Is NOT About Policy - It Is A Five-Alarm Fire

Last night, Donald Trump held his Right-wing Racist Rally at Madison Square Garden, and it was visited with some of the most egregious hateful and racist rhetoric of this whole campaign season. I’m sure you’ve already heard about it.

The fact that this was the same site as the 1939 Nazi "Pro American Rally” should come as no surprise. Political campaigns never allow happenstance or accidents to occur. This was deliberate.

The rally in 1939 was sponsored by the German American Bund, headquartered in Manhattan. They were openly supportive of Adolf Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe. They had parades, bookstores, and summer camps for youth. Their vision for America was a cocktail of white supremacy, fascist ideology, and American patriotism.

Welcome to the Trump rally, eighty-five years later. Here are just a few of the choice comments from a slew of Trump MAGA white nationalists:

“There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

The so-called comedian “joked” about black Americans carving watermelons instead of pumpkins this Halloween.

Some talk radio guy—selected and vetted by the Trump campaign—called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “a sick son of a bitch.”

They called Democrats “a bunch of degenerates. Lowlifes. Jew-haters and lowlifes. Every one of ‘em.”

Another vetted speaker waved a cross and screamed from the stage: “Kamala Harris is the devil! She is the Antichrist!”

Trump aide Stephen Miller worked himself up into a pitch of nativist frenzy: “America is for Americans and Americans only.”

Tucker Carlson weighed in later, explaining there was no way “a Samoan Malaysian low-IQ” candidate like Kamala Harris could win 85 million votes.

Trump himself didn’t shy away from demagogic incitement, especially as you’d expect against dark-skinned immigrants. “A lot of people are coming from the Congo prisons.”

Yes, white supremacy is alive and well in America in 2024, and it is on the ballot.

Closer to home, on October 26, racist graffiti appeared in a park in Sioux City, Iowa. It read “Trump 2024” and was laced with the “N” word. The Sioux City NAACP immediately responded with a statement. In part, it read:

“This incident is a painful reminder of the work that remains to eliminate hate and discrimination in our city,” the statement read. “We stand united with our community in calling for swift action to address this disturbing event.”

Then there is the case of Daniel Embree of Hampton, Iowa, charged with eight counts of second-degree harassment for allegedly placing paper printouts on several business doors. The signs said, "Illegal immigrant hunting permit. No bag limit. Tagging not required. Trump 2024."

In 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) documented in a 2023 report 1,430 hate and antigovernment extremist groups that comprise the organizational infrastructure upholding white supremacy in the U.S. The report documented 835 active anti-government groups, up 133 from 2022’s count, and 595 hate groups, an increase of 72 over the previous year’s figure.

These rising numbers of white supremacist hate groups parallel the election cycle that gave rise to a third Trump nomination for President by the Republican party. It is no coincidence or accident.

To the degree that Trump has normalized and given the green light to these types of hateful, racist tropes and groups, he represents the vicious white supremacist culture that has existed in the United States for decades and even centuries. It is nothing new. Just ask people of color in this country.

What is astounding is how it always seems to surprise white people when it happens. The horrified and surprised response from white people is only evidence of how normalized white supremacy is and how well-hidden it can be at the same time. But it is pervasive.

This election is no longer about different policies if they ever were. Last night’s (Oct 27) Trump Racist Rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden revealed the true nature of the decision being laid before the American people.

The choice is clear.

We are at a historical moment in time unlike any other in history. I usually hate hyperbole, but I’m afraid this isn’t hyperbole in the least. The choice facing us is a future that continues to be dominated by white supremacy, as exemplified by Trump and the hateful speakers at Madison Square Garden. Or a future that leaves white supremacy behind in Trump’s golden toilet and embraces a multiracial society where hate becomes unacceptable.

That is the choice. And be sure we have never once in our history been a society that embraces all people and all races and ethnicities. White supremacy has been the baseline of American culture for over 400 years. The fact that such groups are on the rise due to the embrace of candidate Trump should be of no surprise, but it is time to turn the page on not only Trump and the MAGA movement but on white supremacy in general.

We have seen the result of racist policies around the country already at state and local levels. The policies they promote, such as voter suppression, bans on books and bans on teaching difficult subjects in schools, and anti-LGBTQ policies, show the degree to which they want to retain what America has been in the past: A white, Patriarchal, Christian culture and a political system that caters to white people as a privileged class.

Here is the truth: We have always been that type of country. It has never been different than that, and that is why they want to “Make America Great Again.” What they mean is they want America to stay the way it has been throughout all our history. The monumental decisions and changes we face now have been centuries in the making. We have come to the inflection point of deciding what kind of country we will be once white people are the minority.

And we get to choose. Here is the choice:

Retain the status quo that has been around since 1619: a Christian, male, white-dominated culture and political system that only pretends to be a Democracy

Or …

Become a true, pluralistic, multiracial Democracy where everyone shares the same rights and power. We have never had this before. We have never really been a pluralistic, multiracial nation that enshrines equal rights for all. Not once in our history has this happened.

This inflection point means that we must consciously redefine the term “American.” For all our history, to be an American has meant to be white. That has been the country's cultural, political, and social foundation. In the next two decades, starting with this election, that term needs to be redefined to include everyone.

This option would represent a true and transformational event in American history. We could mark 2024 as the beginning of something we have never been but have only aspired to be: a real pluralistic-multiracial democracy that doesn’t just pretend that people are created equal but truly builds that type of society and system.

This would be so transformational because it would require the death of white supremacy, which has been the foundation of our culture, politics, and society since the country's inception.

What we know about history is that white supremacy will not die quickly or quietly. We saw that in vivid color on January 6. But circumstances now do not give us the choice of failure. If we do not become what our highest ideals call us to by making the right choice on November 5, we will degenerate into the worst version of ourselves that has been around for centuries. Only worse. We will have the most unequal, bigoted, and minority-governed system the world has ever seen. If you think MAGAism is ugly now, wait until 2045, when we are a majority non-white country.

We have a significant decision to make on November 5. We’ve already seen the white supremacist backlash over the past 8 years. These folks know what is coming and invent conspiracy theories about “Q” and the “Great Replacement” and push lies to rally their troops. They push to end abortion rights because they desire to see more white babies born. The culture warriors are out to ensure that white history is taught in schools and that white moms still get to decide morality for everyone else.

That cannot be our future. The other choice will take us to a new place we have never gone. It is a place where we can become what we have only pretended to be in the past. A true Constitutional Democracy will ensure the rights and participation of all people regardless of any label or difference among them.

It can’t be a Christian-privileged democracy but one where all religions are afforded the same respect and status that Christianity currently enjoys.

It can’t be a white supremacist society, which is what we’ve had for over 200 years.

We must replace these relics of an earlier era with a new vision for a new beginning where compassion, tolerance, respect, equality, and cooperation replace our earlier history's crass white supremacy.

That is what is on the ballot….it has nothing to do with economic policies.