Yo Whitey - Donald Trump Is YOUR Problem

So many rationalizations of the Trump problem being bandied about. It was misogyny! Blue collars didn't come out for the Dem! Russia stole it! Blacks didn't turn out! (Really now. You expected that black voters would rally round a Clinton the way they did Obama? How much more for granted could you take their vote?) It was Sanders! It was Stein! It was Facebook and Google! It was Fox News and Breitbart!! It was...us. Not each of us, but it was us. The very folks who've benefited most from white supremacy.

Rarely do I hear anyone taking full responsibility. particularly among "whites." And I ask you, if it makes you uncomfortable to be lumped in with such a large, unruly group, imagine how it must feel to be lumped into equally unruly and wildly diverse groups like "blacks," "Hispanics," Jews, Muslims, Soccer Moms, White Collar Older Men, Red State Middle Class Professionals and others. For better or worse, you, dear Whitey (sorry to segregate this post) are a demographic, a voting bloc, and a big-ass problem in America's present and future. Nearly 60% of you (that's a fact, Monterey Jack) voted for Donald Trump. So don't go blaming anyone but yourselves for a Wicked White House.

The fact is, Trump is but a manifestation of the ugly underbelly of White America, or overbelly really. His politics - so supposedly foreign to we liberal-arts educated elites - are in reality wildly familiar. Donald Trump a/k/a Archie Bunker as Rich Snake Oil Salesman, is a particular sort of relative or family friend. You know him, but you pretend you don't. "How dare he" you say, "sully the Presidency thusly." "He has no decency" we bemoan. "He's patently racist, uncivilized, misogynistic and egad, an unbridled egomaniac!"

Yeah he's all those. But he's merely a bigger-than-life stereotypical version of the American White Male. Entitled, chauvinistic, dismissive, combative, obscenely cocksure. And other Americanisms abound. He's obsessed with image. Prone to fantasy. Ratings driven. Consumerist. Hypocritical. Surrounded by television and echo-chamber politics. He fires at whimsy with fuck-you money to boot. Even THAT he lies about - he's not nearly as rich as pretends, nor as handsome as he feels. He eats greasy junk food - he's fat and thinks he's healthy. Loves his hair and takes meds to grow it. I'm sure he downs Viagara, though he'll never cop to it. Thinks he's an ideal dad. Trusts his "instincts." Is more white supremacist than even white supremacists, because he doesn't have to hide behind radical dogma to believe it, to KNOW it, deep in his being. America reinforces his white supremacy, not so much in its laws but in its judicial nuance and police preference and tax policy.

This man, this PROBLEM, is yours white America. No influx of Puerto Ricans to the mainland, no redistricting or un-gerrymandering or motor-voter laws or "education" or party-switching or gross missteps or political intrigue is going to change that fact. Four in ten Americans, nearly all white, will continue to fight for the right to Trump, either he or another. They will bully and nag and create fake news cycles full of hatred and distrust of liberal whites (they already KNOW the people of color and immigrants will be against them) and they will twist themselves into pretzels proving themselves right, as you prove yourself right on Facebook and the Daily Outrage (sorry, Huffington Post). They're NOT going to change, anymore than your Uncle Frank or Aunt Pat. The only hope is that YOU will help them change, that YOU will marry a black man and bear black children, that YOU will foster a Syrian orphan, that YOU will live like their politics didn't exist all the while respecting their very existence to the point of forgiveness. You won't forgive the hate, but you will forgive them for falling prey to the fear, the fear of the "other," and the fear of failure and irrelevance. And you will convince every last person you can to stand up against the negativity, and vote, but you will never again try to sweep them under the rug or cast them from your awareness.

America, the political state, is gun-crazy and money-obsessed, craven and greedy, fame-fucking and at the same time, somehow, to-date, indestructible. You gotta hand it to the Founders. They wrote a prenup so tight you can't break it, not even by slavery and civil war or foreign wars or culture wars or gender wars. They wrote that document because, I think, whether conscious or not, they knew they couldn't trust you, White America, to do the right thing.

I love you, Whitey, but you've a problem and no, Donald Trump is not it. You're the problem, and Trump has woke you. The question should be what are you going to do about it? Are you really ready to fight for values, or more likely to dismiss Uncle Jack and Aunt Sarah as you always have as painfully old-fashioned and well-meaning but ignorant and misguided? You've been blessed with the benefits of Donald Bunker and Archie Trump's America, but are you willing to change, maybe get a little uncomfortable and a lot more amped? Are you willing to take to the streets with your kids in tow, and show up and pony up for candidates in other states that need your help more than New York City? And instead of simply praising diversity, are you willing to embrace it, truly embrace it, and the people all around you who are more than props in your liberal fantasy?

And perhaps most importantly, will you talk with firm compassion with your Trump-loving brethren, and tell them why you feel the way you do, and how you respect their conscience but disagree with their conclusions. It's easy to condemn, and probably right to do so. But they're your relatives and your legacy and they desperately need attention and convincing, because as the polls and blogs and Fox News keep proving, they ain't going nowhere.

But they, and Trump and his ilk are yours, and without him and his forebears, your world doesn't exist. Think about that - you are living white supremacy even as you denounce it. Ironic isn't it?