SUPREMACISTS AND AMERICA TODAY

It’s time to start to connect the dots about the Trump election, chaos and catastrophe and what is happening in America.  Look at our history, look at the public opinion surveys, follow current events, get off Facebook and your phone, get out of the echo chamber, and utilize critical thinking.  Start trying to understand it.  Here’ a brief overview of  how I see it.

(Personal disclosure, etc. Three presidential elections ago I felt Obama was unqualified for lack of government experience.  However, given my horror at the thought of Sarah Palin being a heartbeat away from the Presidency, I voted for Obama.  When Obama was challenged by Romney I voted for Romney.  I was initially not in favor of Obamacare.  However, now that we have it and it has allowed many poor and working-class people to get health insurance, and the billions of dollars that were spent by the state and federal governments, insurance companies, doctor’s offices, medical suppliers, etc. to get things set up for it, repeal looks like an irrational, ideologically driven way to expression of hatred for all-things Obama and the people who benefitted from it.  Even though is am a registered Republican I did not vote for Trump. He was obviously unfit on almost every important criterion.  I did not vote for Hillary Clinton.  Her lying, recklessness, arrogance. and self-righteousness made her unfit.  I voted for Gary Johnson.  IMHO, if you call yourself a ‘libertarian’ and voted for one of those two disgusting figures, you need to figure what is your REAL political philosophy.  If you know me, or have read these posts, you know I do not give the left a carte blanche.  I am, for instance, very concerned about left-wing extremist attacks on First Amendment rights. However, right now the greatest threat comes from the far right.)

It’s time to face the cold, hard facts. the election of Donald Trump has encouraged right-wing extremists to come out of the closet.  Trump has made bigotry acceptable.  His campaign strategy, was to draw out these extremists and get them to vote for him.  Now, he and his toadies, and sycophants, and alt-right conservatives need to feed the monsters he has created with more of the same thinly-veiled bigotry.  Their political power depends on it.

As I suggested in a prior post, challenges to hierarchy any society will be met with strong opposition and even violence by those who think they and people like them are the ‘superior race.’  Why all the black lynchings over the decades?

What precisely is the nature of this supremacy?  American was founded by white males who were at least nominally Protestant Christians.  Back then, homosexuality, cross-dressing, etc. were disgusting to these people.  Heterosexuality and the woman’s duty to submit to her husband’s sexual needs was the norm. One theme that appears in much of the alt-right literature is that this country was created by this super-race—white Christians.  Men were viewed as superior to women.  Slavery was justified by a theory of white supremacy and God-given black inferiority. 

In contrast to today’s definitions, ‘white’ back then, and for many today, ‘white’ meant western and northern European.  The Nazis called this super-race “Aryans.” These were the founders of the nation Catholics immigrants, even though nominally white were shunned.  Catholics eventually gained greater acceptance, but were not viewed as equals. Anti-Semitism has a long history in Western Europe and in this country also.

Further details will come in further posts, but the basic supremacy obsession of the alt-right and evangelical extremists is that white conservative Christians who are heterosexual males are superior to all others.  Waves of immigration by ‘foreigners’ (e.g. Chinese, Jews, Irish) was met by disgust.  The current obsession is with Muslims and Mexicans and Central Americans (immigration rules and border walls).  Opposition to gay marriage, LGBT rights, transsexuality, immigrants, a woman’s right to abortion, etc. is based on the threats to white conservative Christian heterosexual male supremacy.

One of the events that these people found especially distasteful was the election or a black male who was allegedly a Muslin and was not even born in the U.S.  The far-right hates Obama. This was the ultimate affront to their superiority.  The attempt to repeal Obamacare, overturn Obama executive orders re civil rights, education, environmental protection, etc. is, for many, not a fight about policy, but a fight about white supremacy. It is obsession for many right-wing people and politicians.

Not everyone on the far-right fits this model, but it appears to be many.

The ultimate, evolutionary-psychology base for much of this is the trait called ‘tribalism’.  See the book Our Political Nature for a scholarly look at this phenomenon.  An individual ‘nurture’ can enhance or moderate this basic trait.

Human beings are masters at hiding the truth and their true motivations from themselves and others. Let me suggest that too many, but not all on the far-right suffer from the following intellectual maladies Opposition to gay marriage is really disgust over homosexuality.  The bathroom bill obsession is not about protecting women in restrooms.  It is an attempt to strike back at transsexuals and their liberal allies by an oblique strategy.  The Shariah law alt-right insanity is the dumbest of all.  Anyone who know anything about the law-making process, politics in democracy where Moslems are small minority, the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment establishment clause knows this campaign is complete B.S.  It is just another reflection of hate and fear of a competing religion.  For too many alleged interference with their absolute right to freedom of religion is a cover.  No right is absolute, but for these folks their religion trumps the rule of law, and the Constitution.  It’s time to rise above the B.S. and face the facts

‘Nuff said—for now.  See future posts for links and more discussion on specific issues (e.g. Sharia law).