“American Carnage” – White Supremacist Style
In his inaugural address in 2017, Donald Trump railed against “American Carnage”—meaning principally street crime, considered a greater threat to our republic than Russian election interference, the crushing of the middle and lower classes by an ever-ascendant plutocracy, and the slow-rolling catastrophe of global warming.
Now that we have seen literal carnage in the bloodbath in El Paso—merely the most recent and conspicuous manifestation of white supremacist violence exacerbated by Donald Trump’s words themselves—we were also to hear, on August 5th, President Trump mechanically droning a teleprompted message condemning racial hatred and bigotry, and even white supremacy.
Hah! Who believes that? Certainly not his core followers—it was the telltale tone similar to that of a juvenile delinquent forced to say morally proper things that told them he didn’t really mean it in his heart of hearts. Certainly not his myrmidon Stephen Miller, who in fact wants to go so far as to bar immigration by anyone with the wrong skin color.
And we should not be fooled. It is only a matter of time before Trump reverts to whipping up racial, xenophobic fear and rage via Twitter and campaign rallies —which incidentally are being financed by the municipalities that host them, with few being compensated by his campaign. (I say “rage” here to distinguish it from anger: anger is subject to some restraint by conscious effort, whereas rage is a fire that consumes reason and conscience.)
Whence cometh a pivot in Trumpian rhetoric on race?
It’s not much of a reach to attribute the two-day-old Trump pivot to counsel from political advisors, who have warned him that to keep openly stirring up the anger and rage of the far Right could sink his chances of re-election. Trump is not moved by conscience or compassion, he is moved by the compulsion to win at any cost—even if the cost is temporarily to mouth sentiments that contradict so much of what he has said and done before.
I would be happy to be proved wrong, to have Teleprompted Trump turn into Decent Donald, but the chances are slim. “Watch what they do, not what they say” is an apt cliche here. What Donald Trump actually does in the coming months to rein in white supremacist violence and the proliferation of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the hands of the enraged, may tell us more of his true intentions.