Racist? Rabble-Rouser!

Trump’s followers love it when he gets vulgar and offensive. It’s called mobilization. In that case, it almost doesn’t matter if he’s a racist or not. In any case, it does not serve the country.

On this point, the Republican majority leader in the Senate is right: The rhetoric in the political sphere is heated, and the tone is not good for the country. True indeed! Who is to blame? There are demagogues and fire-breathers on all sides of an argument, even within the media. But undoubtedly, in the White House sits a man who, in the four years since his campaign for the Republican presidential candidacy took off, has operated as an incendiary, one who insults, demonizes and stigmatizes opponents as enemies of the United States, one could almost say, day in and day out.

It practically doesn’t even matter if he’s a racist or not. Donald Trump’s followers already know how to assess his “messages,” his tirades, actually. They love it best when their idol says things that are not appropriate, that are vulgar and, indeed, insulting. In 2016, the supporters cheered when Trump wanted to send his former opponent Hillary Clinton to jail. Today, they cheer when he suggests that three Democratic congresswomen with immigrant backgrounds and one African American congresswoman, all from the left wing of the party, should return to the countries of their families’ origins. It was “Lock her up!” three years ago; now they yell, “Send them back!” This is called mobilization – mobilization of the white electorate. What this leads to is clear: It deepens the division in the country and brutalizes the language, and political manners become more uncivilized. America, the “shining city upon a hill?” It was, once.

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives issued a resolution reproaching Trump for his “racist” attacks on the four congresswomen. The majority was clear; only four Republicans signed on. The Republicans have submitted themselves to Trump to the point of self-delusion. No resolution was needed to make that point clear. On the other hand, it also doesn’t require an effort to initiate impeachment proceedings against Trump in the House, for its split was predictable, and it only revealed, once again, the programmatic and tactical division of the Democrats.

One thing is certain: The 2020 fight for the White House will also be conducted with unprecedented harshness, with baseless and untruthful allegations. And Trump will acquire his ammunition for the major topic of immigration and cultural change.