Commentary

​​Donald Trump: ‘Make America white and Protestant again’

​​Donald Trump: ‘Make America white and Protestant again’

What I found so interesting (but not surprising) and illuminating about MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff’s interview with William Johnson was not Johnson’s seeming pride in his admitted “white nationalism,” but more importantly, in his unbound excitement in the candidacy of Donald Trump. Johnson called Trump an “American nationalist” who has made “nationalism popular.”

[N]ationalism is becoming popular right now. Donald Trump is making it popular. We’re battling the globalism that’s been in place for the last 40 or 50 years, and Donald Trump is leading the charge.”

In this instance, Johnson seemed not to understand the definition of the term “globalism” as more of an economic system, but nonetheless, he continued:

And just like nationalism is becoming popular in the Philippines, in Egypt, and in Europe, [Trump is] making it popular here in the United States. The large influx of immigrants primarily because of the concept of globalism has destroyed western civilization, and Donald Trump is battling that.”

Heterosexual Euro-Protestant values and culture stand as the highest foundational principle of white nationalism. It consists of a racial ideology that functions to create, maintain, and increase class inequality. In this way, as we can clearly see in the Trump campaign’s fear-mongering against immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities, and women, white nationalism is used to manipulate white working-class people into working against their own economic self-interests by fearing, hating, and scapegoating people of color, non-Protestants, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Nationalism, white or not, is a form of fascism in which authoritarian demagogues manipulate the masses for their own advancement.

I wonder whether Johnson knew that Jacob Soboroff is of Jewish heritage before he consented to the interview since white nationalists generally place all non-white, non-Protestant, non-gender conforming, non-heterosexuals into the category of so-called “mud people”: the racist philosophy that God gave souls only to Euro-heritage Protestant gender-conforming heterosexuals (and most notably white Anglo-Saxon Protestant gender-conforming heterosexuals). For everyone else, God formed soulless bodies out of mud.

Evidently, other white nationalists were aware of Jacob Soboroff’s Jewish background. Regarding a story Soboroff reported from a factory that produces Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats, a white racist nationalist website, Infostormer: Destroying Jewish Tyranny, announced:

It was painfully obvious that his intention was to stir up trouble and get some of the Latino workers who were helping make the hats say something bad about Trump.

This Jew reporter has a weasel face that even a mother would want to punch. Quite frankly I am sick of these faggot kike reporters. What are they doing here? Why is this Jew in America? He should be put in a FEMA camp and made to wear striped pajamas and a ‘jude’ star.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center found an exponential rise until 2013 in the formation of extremist right-wing racist and so-called “patriot” anti-government groups in the United States as a backlash to the election of Barack Obama in 2008.

Patriotism v. Nationalism

Though at times deployed synonymously, we must distinguish between two separate and, I claim, contradictory terms.

A “Patriot” according to my copy of Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary is:

  1. a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests, and
  2. a person who regards himself or herself as a defender, [and here is the important difference] especially of individual rights against presumed interference by the government. That is the definition of a “patriot.”

A “Nationalist,” according to my dictionary is

  1. a person who has devotion and loyalty to one’s own nation, and
  2. a person who has excessive patriotism or chauvinism, which is a zealous and aggressive patriotism or enthusiasm for military glory, a biased devotion to any group, attitude, or cause.

I find the current political tenor very disconcerting as candidates, and in particular Donald Trump, attack, demonize, stereotype, and scapegoat not only other candidates, but also entire groups of people whom they blame for causing the problems of the country. 

Democracy demands an educated electorate. Democracy demands responsibility on the part of the electorate to critically examine our politicians so they can make truly informed decisions.

During economic downturns, charismatic and not-so charismatic leaders attempt to exploit the fears of the public in their quests for power and control. Conservative political discourse centers on “F” words: Faith, Family, Freedom, and the Flag. This set of buzzwords comprise the foundation on which politicians tell us we should decide who is truly worthy of our respect and of our votes.

We must cut through the coded and often very explicit xenophobic, racist, sexist, misogynistic, heterosexist, ableist, and classist language, for often when politicians use the words “poor,” “welfare,” “inner city,” “food stamps,” “entitlements,” “bad neighborhoods,” “foreign,” “illegal aliens,” they tap into many white people’s anxieties and past racist teachings of people of color. In addition, the buzz phrase, “personal responsibility” now has become a catch phrase to justify cutting benefits to people with disabilities, older people, and those who have fallen on hard times and need assistance.

These politicians would rather blame poverty within our communities and low achievement in our schools on the “cultures” of those suffering from the inequities. This “cultural deficit model” distracts us from interrogating and truly addressing the enormous structural inequities, which these politicians would have us multiply if we were to follow their lead.

The United States is a beautiful and noble concept, a vibrant idea, a vital and enduring vision, a process and progression toward, but we have not yet attained, not yet reached that concept, that idea, that vision. We are, rather, a work in process.

And this is possibly what separates the patriot from the nationalist, for the patriot understands and witnesses the divide, the gap between the reality and the promise and the potential. The nationalist, on the other hand, is either not aware that a gap even exists or stands in denial between the potential and the reality.

I interpret a true Patriot as one who, indeed, loves her or his country, but also one who sees the way things are, and one who works for change to make things better. A patriot also views other countries with respect and admiration, as valued members of an interconnected and interdependent global community.

So yes, indeed, William Johnson was correct in his assessment of Donald Trump as an “American nationalist.” Possibly, this is why Trump holds other fascist nationalists in such high esteem such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and yes, Benjamin Netanyahu.

To view and download my “Immigration as ‘Racial’ Policy” PowerPoint presentation, click here.

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