TRUMP FLAMES A RACIAL WAR

Day one of the Republican Convention has come and gone and the dye that has been cast by Trump in the Primaries has shown no indication of being dislodged. The deaths of the two African American youths at the hands of the police, and captured on video for the world to see, juxtaposed with the brutal assassination of police by two black activists in Dallas and Baton Rouge were the text for the Trump message. 

Donald Trump, “Take it from me I am the law and order candidate”, is set to exploit the recent atrocities involving police deaths. The unstated choice is either you support the police or the protestors’ movement Black Lives Matter from whom the police assassins allegedly emanate. You cannot advocate for both. The Republican nominee has a dupla running as he couples these tragedies with international terror in his manifesto to be President. He tweets, “Our country is completely divided and our enemies are looking..… We are not looking tough” and “President Obama doesn’t have a clue”. Trump has just added the African Americans to the Muslims and Hispanics he is at war with in America.  This rhetoric serves three objectives it rallies his base and provokes further anger and possible violence. And by extension he links this violence to the internal terrorist activities of Orlando and San Bernardino and the international ISIS inspired carnage of Paris, Istanbul and Nice. 

TRUMP’S RACIAL LOGIC

The mantra is simple and the logic “unchallengeable “- the violence between police and African Americans and vice versa has increased with the Obama administration and his two African American Attorney’s General and race relations are at their “worst ever”. That fact, he believes, proves that the fault lies with Obama. Trump has taken this all a bit further implying that there is something amiss with Obama’s response to terrorism. He questions the POTUS’S allegiances and hints that he may be in cahoots with the “Islamic Muslim Terrorists”. 

 And if you don’t believe Trump on what is holding America back from being great just ask his family, Giuliani and Newt and of course Christie. Next step in the equation is that Hillary equals Obama’s third term so if you vote for her not only do you get a crook but someone who has the formula to continue increasing this violence. And to round the square of The Donald’s infallible dialectic Hillary is also responsible for the increase of ISIS because like Benghazi it all started when she was Secretary of State. The Donald has the answers to all this racial tension and violence. To stop ISIS he will keep all the Muslims out of America. To sort out the local scene he will build a wall and make Mexico pay for it in addition to sending eleven million Hispanics packing. His solution to the age old tension between the black electorate and the fact that they believe that racial profiling is at the core of the undisputed facts that they are stopped, arrested and shot statistically far more than whites, is to back law and order! The selection of speakers indicate that the war is against Black Lives Matter.

 THE TRUMP CONGRESS’S ANSWER

Besides the family and a few employees the key note speakers’ roster is a list of who isn’t who in America. Everyone who should be there, isn’t. Then to look at the themes for each night - “Make America Safe Again”, “Make America Work Again”, “Make America First Again” and “Make America One Again” are a continuation of the hype rather than designed to create a coherent policy.  Apparently the theme for the campaign, “Make America Great Again” didn’t make the cut. Third wife, Melania, was scheduled to “Make America Safe Again” even though she hasn’t been here very long. She delivered a highly polished address confirming what Donald J Snr has been saying all along that he is the best thing since toast. Donald J. Jnr is scheduled to get America working again while Eric has the responsibility to make America first again. On the final night The Donald will be accompanied by favorite daughter Ivanka to help him make America one again. The preview blurb blames Obama and Hillary and states that Donald will pursue a policy that will make America safe again and all the rest.  

On its face the Convention promises to be at best a food fest for the converted. It has to fail in its two objectives to get all those within the Party to kumbaya and then win over Independents and Hillary supporters. Nothing as yet has changed.  Governor Kasich was trashed and all the delegations of the States, regardless of their importance in the election, were seated according to their support of the Donald. So California and New York where Trump has no chance of winning in November were given place of honor in the front and the key State in the rust belt Ohio, which Trump must win was seated at the back. Also the Stop Trump Movement were not even thrown a bone and unceremoniously just mowed down.  Nothing new was scheduled to be added - no attempt to include anyone else or broaden the message.

The argument is that the Convention is “different” by intent is like everything else Trump says or does, “truthful hyperbole”. The latter Trump has defined as “innocent exaggeration” which he contrasts with “guilty exaggeration”. But as Mika the co host of Morning Joe exclaimed, as the panel was discussing the Emperor’s new clothes, the reason for the composition of the keynote speaker list was that no one else would come.

It is fair to say that none of what is scheduled will really address the racial tensions, between the police and the African American community, that have rocked America. These events are central to Trump’s most recent rave and attack on Hillary and Obama. As the Fox “Halftime Report” announced, Donald Trump and the Republican Party are going to work hard at convincing the body politic that Hillary is against law and order. 

If the first night is anything to go by no solutions are offered.

THE REAL SITUATION

President Obama has really struck the right notes in this delicate situation where the danger is to choose one side or the other - the police or the black community. This is the implicit covert message of the Trump campaign. They will concentrate on the murder of the policeman by the two African American murderers. They will ignore Obama’s nuanced messages where he has emphasized again and again that violence is condemned while empathizing with the police and the black community as to their situations. He could not ignore the fears articulated by black parents as to what might happen to their children in a confrontation with the police. He could not wish away the anger that this years 500 African American deaths at the hands of police have evinced.

The statement that race relations in America are at their worst is patent nonsense. Firstly, there is an African American President of America. The Chief of police in Dallas, the Mayor of Baton Rouge and one of the cops assassinated in Baton Rouge, who had just posted a touching and heart rending exposition of the death at the hands of the police of a young Black who had been pulled over by the police for a broken taillight, are all African American. This is a challenge to  change attitudes and a four hundred year culture and involves all Americans. 

The reason why the issue has reached such a fever pitch is that deaths at the hands of the police are now often recorded on phone videos and become viral almost instantaneously so the problem can no longer be swept under the rug. The anger and pain is then exacerbated by the fact that legislation is such that that it is rare for a police member to become convicted of anything when to the layman the cinematic evidence is conclusive. 

Then the cold blooded police killings are added to the mix that were perpetrated by two individuals where the initial perception is that that there were mental problems. All this in a milieu were it is almost as easy to buy an assault weapon as it is to purchase liquor. 

All in all a deep and complex problem that requires sensitivity, empathy and an incredible amount of discussion, negotiation and goodwill to resolve. Trump and his cohorts are doing the country a great disservice by exploiting racial biases in their Nuremberg style rallies.

TRUMP’S OBJECTIVE

However, the intent of Trump’s rhetoric is to whip up enough  fear and anger to push up his share of the white vote. He has no hope of registering more than a few percent of the minorities who are thirty percent of the electorate, so he may as well declare war on them. This is nothing new he has done this since day one. Announcing his candidature with the promise that he is going to build a wall to keep out the Mexicans he has continued on this note with variations. His central theme is thus we are in a racial war in the USA and the whites need to coalesce behind him to fight to “Make America Great Again”. Unless his share of the white electorate hits about seventy five percent he cannot add the Presidency of the United States to that of the Presidency of the Trump organization, which position he still holds. In the event that he loses the man has something to fall back on. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY, (ONE). 

To sum up Day One of Trump’s Republican Convention lived up to expectation with the exception of Melania who gave a polished and balanced presentation totally out of sync with her husband’s message.