Great conversation, which (I hope) is helping people put Trump into some context.
The genius of Trump, though, has been his ability to gaslight a very specific segment of the American public by making them believe a supposed silver spoon billionaire understands their plight and is their savior.
His not so subtle racism and hate of “other” (under the guise of America First) is like cream to a cat and he has co-opted the patriotic symbology of America. However, in stark contrast to Reagan, he has done so by creating a very dark, almost apocalyptic vision of America today, as opposed to the “shining city on a hill.” This imagery itself was from a 1630 sermon by John Winthrop, a Puritan who led the original Massachusetts Colony and helped establish the original governance of the first colonies. In short, a reference back to an original patriot, puritanical in belief and a white male at a time when white males made the rules and enforced them.
America First, combining the imagery of George Washington alongside swastikas and emoting Nazism, was the cornerstone of the American Bund, a movement that held great sway over 1930s American whites and was not entirely peripheral to American apathy towards Hitler and the Nazi movement in the 40s.
And here we sit, with a bigoted, nationalistic, felonious ex-President, whose father was arrested at a Klan rally, and who, in a full page tombstone in the NYT, called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, black men who, it turned out, were not even guilty, running for a second term of office.
If it were not so absurd and dangerous, it could be an hilarious parody of American politics written by Iannucci.
Sadly, it is America’s current reality, albeit with every ounce of absurdity and danger possible.
