Racism gets us halfway there, but to go the full monty, you have to add misogyny. Culturally, many deeply affected voters (Black and Latino men in particular) would have voted for Satan himself before they voted for a woman. Same with many white men. To give power to a Black woman would have been the end, end I tell you, of masculinity and the end of the human race (or so they tell each other). So, that leaves us in a bit of spot because it's not just Trump that got us to where we are. I applaud your theory, but I'm not sure we can 'rid' ourselves of the MAGA movement just by getting rid of Trump because there are plenty of misogynists still running around.
I can't imagine being a newly minted adult woman trying to navigate the world with the shrunken dating pool as a result of Republican boys thinking they are owed a girlfriend and tradwife.
Imagine it, Wendy. Misogyny was very much alive and kicking when I was in my prime, and then alive as well during the '70's 'women's liberation' era. It's still alive. In Thailand, where I live now, I recently heard a man tell his wife, 'I'm the boss' -- this, in a situation where she is the only breadwinner for the family. I don't have a clue, still, what to do about this.
My mother-in-law told me that her husband felt that men were more important than women. Misogyny is baked into the system, starting with Eve and the apple. It will take very long time before we’re rid of it.
Yes. I will repeat what has now become redundant because it's been mentioned so often. DT has allowed those who felt they needed to suppress their obvious racism, misogyny, etc...the previous decade or so, to feel pure liberation once he showed up on the scene. Thinking finally! We can be ourselves again! We can speak freely among ourselves without getting the side eye from someone in the workplace, or worse, maybe getting reported to HR for telling an off color joke. How much of McConnells determination in loudly proclaimly NOTHING of President Obamas agenda will get passed as long as I'm here was based on Obama being a Democrat president or horror of horrors, a Democrat president who also happened to be bi-racial. I STILL remember how adamant McConnell spoke that day. Racism is alive and well. Not only well it's thriving. I live in a small rural E. Kentucky town. I still see almost daily at least one vehicle with a rebel flag as their front license plate. Kentucky only requires a legitimate back plate. You can use anything for a front plate. Now the majority of those people will use the oft mentioned expression when asked their reason for displaying a racist plate, oh it isn't racist, it's all about preserving our heritage! Sure Jan whatever you say.
It's funny about those people you know in your town who "honor" the Confederacy. If they knew the actual history of their own tribe back then, they'd be amazed. Eastern Kentucky, Tennessess, northern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia were the heart of Southern Unionism. They got called "hillbillies" by the flatlands slaveowners, and returned the favor by their state representatives voting no on secession until the secessionists had to have them removed in order to pass their articles of secession, in each of those states. There was a separate civil war that went on between those loyal to The Old Flag (your people) and the slaveowners, and the majority of them wore Union Blue. Like West Virginia, which was created by the mountain people seceding from the flatlanders, there was a movement to create The Free State of Nickajack, which would have encompassed that area I identified above. Southern Unionism was also centered among the mountain people of Arkansas and northern Louisiana. Unfortunately, all this history was erased when the Republicans decided that making money was more important than creating freedom, and they abandoned Reconstruction and allowed the Confederate Traitors to re-take control of the South. The result was the creation of the myth of the Lost Cause and the suppression of the truth, and your people (they're also mine up in Pennsylvania) got told the BS LBJ told Bill Moyers in 1964, by which time the people whose ancestors had been Unionists were the most diehard supporters of Jim Crow.
Yes. Two of my ancestors fought in the Civil War. So Ancestry has told me. Both from Eastern Ky. Both fought for the Union. One died at age 28 from injuries he sustained in the war. The other made it home.
My parents were FDR New Deal Democrats all the way. My sister (early Boomer) turned to the dark side sometime in the 1990s, which coincides with the rise of Fox News. She told me at some point in Pete Wilson's tenure (Calif. governor) that he was her hero because he was all about deporting undocumented workers. My sister lived in Minnesota at the time and apparently had no idea where her vegetables came from. Point is, she had no reason to dislike immigrants, documented or otherwise, but boy was she against them. I knew we were in trouble then. My sister stopped speaking to me years ago, and it's the biggest favor she ever did for me.
I literally threw up in my mouth a little when Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by TRump. Never has there been a least deserving recipient of that award. Disgusting.
Absolutely. It's disturbing that they haven't been held accountable (except for the voting machine fiasco) for spreading their lies and misinformation. Putin's happy...🙄
Let’s not forget Rush Limbaugh. My sister and her husband listened to him and loved him. Just fueling people’s hate, demonizing democrats and all the “others” they felt superior to. They are Trumpers today and I don’t understand how we are wired so differently.
I can echo your comment as my parents felt the same way. My dads car broke down and the only person to stop was a black man. I called dad out on that and his reply was that there were a FEW good "Ns". They are long gone, but the memory of this lasts a lifetime. No cure for racism except death. Unfortunately every society has to have someone or something to look down on to feel superior.
Fox Noise has polluted the minds of tens of millions of Americans since 1997 and frankly, they're nothing but a domestic terrorist organization. Fox spreads nothing but lies and propaganda, much of it coming straight from the Kremlin. It's disgusting. How they're still allowed to spew their misinformation on cable news is beyond my comprehension. It's not freedom of speech when they're outright lying to We the People!😡
As the orange sadist expressed it, soon after his in-hog-uration: "I have certain hatreds of people." And my older brother, a man with an extremely high IQ but a cold heart, said, "I'm voting on immigration. Whites are becoming a minority in this country. This has got to stop." (Interestingly, he and others in MAGA like Russia because "it's the last White country in Europe." So let the orange sadist play with monstrous pukin. It'll all be good.)
My sister is hardcore MAGA. We barely speak. I feel so bad about the way I feel about her, try to tell myself it’s because she’s limited due to contracting encephalitis after being infected with polio when she was a toddler. My first memories are of her. I made her wedding gown. I made her wedding veil! I sat and listened to her cry when her husband refused to allow her to have children because he’s a cheap asshole. She was not always this way. But I also know she’s not happy with her life and she needs someone to blame and this is how she does it. She is especially angry with me, although she would never admit it, even to herself. I’ve had a life that most people could only dream of. She has been imprisoned for over 50 years with a man who has had iron control over her life. I love my sister, but I just can’t stand her. I fucking hate Donald Trump for the fractures he has caused in so many families just like he’s caused it in mine.
It's so sad that you're so right. I love Obama and think he was a great president but I think his election awoke something in the racist crowd of Americans. While he was president I was shocked to see some of the hatred directed at him and his wife. I remember a trip she went on to Spain and how she had to show proof that tax dollars didn't fund the trip. Fox news made it a big deal that secret service had cost more. Holy cow they sure don't care about that anymore. No more than they care that trump plays golf every weekend, flying back and forth at our expense.
As for my family that voted for him, I have disowned them all and I don't regret it at all.
THIS!!! I've culled every TRump supporter from my social circle, including my (ex) best friend, who I've known since I was 4 years old. I simply CAN NOT respect or even tolerate people who support The Convicted Felon anymore. I just can't. These are people who I once loved and had a lot in common with. We may have had our political differences, but nothing like what's happening right now. TRump is the Divider In Chief and loves chaos. It's fun for him to see the unrest, the hatred and racism. I'm pretty sure he gets his jollies knowing that a good percentage of us are miserable as he takes a f***ing blowtorch to the world's economy and the rule of law. He's a sicko! I truly believe that those who defend and support this piece of human garbage are as mentally ill and mean-spirited as he is. I don't need those kinds of people in my life. Nope. #ByeTRumpers!!!
“You do not get to support a racist without being one yourself.” Exactly right. Many of My fellow Americans need to do some serious soul searching. Excellent piece and right on the money.
When you look at the dark current of our history, Trump makes sense. He is not an aberration but the current manifestation of white supremacy, Christian nationalism and rapacious capitalism. Highly recommend a book by historian Robert Jones: The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy for a well documented history of shameful history since the founding.
Thank you. I use that LBJ quote frequently. You don’t have to be all that astute to see what this has been about because it has been so ridiculously obvious, but you do have to have the moral courage to acknowledge it.
Many people are gone from my circle including relatives because having seem prejudice, including racism, at work when I was younger(late 40s), I decided I didn't like it or be around people like that.
If someone like that comes around, I leave although I have been know to make my views perfectly clear on several ocassions.
Racism gets us halfway there, but to go the full monty, you have to add misogyny. Culturally, many deeply affected voters (Black and Latino men in particular) would have voted for Satan himself before they voted for a woman. Same with many white men. To give power to a Black woman would have been the end, end I tell you, of masculinity and the end of the human race (or so they tell each other). So, that leaves us in a bit of spot because it's not just Trump that got us to where we are. I applaud your theory, but I'm not sure we can 'rid' ourselves of the MAGA movement just by getting rid of Trump because there are plenty of misogynists still running around.
Don't disagree with any of this, and have written about it. Thanks for putting it front and center, Vickie.
Republicans will simply go back to being awful Republicans when this guy is finally dead, because mostly, it is a cult.
I can't imagine being a newly minted adult woman trying to navigate the world with the shrunken dating pool as a result of Republican boys thinking they are owed a girlfriend and tradwife.
This is a big fear I have for my daughter.
Imagine it, Wendy. Misogyny was very much alive and kicking when I was in my prime, and then alive as well during the '70's 'women's liberation' era. It's still alive. In Thailand, where I live now, I recently heard a man tell his wife, 'I'm the boss' -- this, in a situation where she is the only breadwinner for the family. I don't have a clue, still, what to do about this.
My mother-in-law told me that her husband felt that men were more important than women. Misogyny is baked into the system, starting with Eve and the apple. It will take very long time before we’re rid of it.
Consider, maybe never. I personally feel that a lot of misogyny is based in biology.
Yes!! We women are second class citizens in the eyes of TRumpers. #ENOUGH!!
Well said.
In addition, one of the reasons we are here, is that the vaunted Constitution was founded on, and underpinned, by racism. Yes, racism.
Genocide of Native Americans to justify Manifest Destiny.
Three-fifths Compromise.
Donald Trump simply found a natural way, as a born and bred racist, to exploit these flaws in our founding document.
Thanks for adding this, Terry.
Yes. I will repeat what has now become redundant because it's been mentioned so often. DT has allowed those who felt they needed to suppress their obvious racism, misogyny, etc...the previous decade or so, to feel pure liberation once he showed up on the scene. Thinking finally! We can be ourselves again! We can speak freely among ourselves without getting the side eye from someone in the workplace, or worse, maybe getting reported to HR for telling an off color joke. How much of McConnells determination in loudly proclaimly NOTHING of President Obamas agenda will get passed as long as I'm here was based on Obama being a Democrat president or horror of horrors, a Democrat president who also happened to be bi-racial. I STILL remember how adamant McConnell spoke that day. Racism is alive and well. Not only well it's thriving. I live in a small rural E. Kentucky town. I still see almost daily at least one vehicle with a rebel flag as their front license plate. Kentucky only requires a legitimate back plate. You can use anything for a front plate. Now the majority of those people will use the oft mentioned expression when asked their reason for displaying a racist plate, oh it isn't racist, it's all about preserving our heritage! Sure Jan whatever you say.
It's funny about those people you know in your town who "honor" the Confederacy. If they knew the actual history of their own tribe back then, they'd be amazed. Eastern Kentucky, Tennessess, northern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia were the heart of Southern Unionism. They got called "hillbillies" by the flatlands slaveowners, and returned the favor by their state representatives voting no on secession until the secessionists had to have them removed in order to pass their articles of secession, in each of those states. There was a separate civil war that went on between those loyal to The Old Flag (your people) and the slaveowners, and the majority of them wore Union Blue. Like West Virginia, which was created by the mountain people seceding from the flatlanders, there was a movement to create The Free State of Nickajack, which would have encompassed that area I identified above. Southern Unionism was also centered among the mountain people of Arkansas and northern Louisiana. Unfortunately, all this history was erased when the Republicans decided that making money was more important than creating freedom, and they abandoned Reconstruction and allowed the Confederate Traitors to re-take control of the South. The result was the creation of the myth of the Lost Cause and the suppression of the truth, and your people (they're also mine up in Pennsylvania) got told the BS LBJ told Bill Moyers in 1964, by which time the people whose ancestors had been Unionists were the most diehard supporters of Jim Crow.
Yes. Two of my ancestors fought in the Civil War. So Ancestry has told me. Both from Eastern Ky. Both fought for the Union. One died at age 28 from injuries he sustained in the war. The other made it home.
This was also true in western NC. See Shelton Laurel, NC.
https://mountainx.com/news/blood-in-the-valley-the-shelton-laurel-massacres-haunting-legacy/
Well said, or should I say Perfectly Stated!
If you see Rand Paul driving his lawn mower, feel free to push him off.
Lol Yes I would definitely be tempted! He lives more toward the western part of the state I believe.
My parents were FDR New Deal Democrats all the way. My sister (early Boomer) turned to the dark side sometime in the 1990s, which coincides with the rise of Fox News. She told me at some point in Pete Wilson's tenure (Calif. governor) that he was her hero because he was all about deporting undocumented workers. My sister lived in Minnesota at the time and apparently had no idea where her vegetables came from. Point is, she had no reason to dislike immigrants, documented or otherwise, but boy was she against them. I knew we were in trouble then. My sister stopped speaking to me years ago, and it's the biggest favor she ever did for me.
Fox was the gas that got the racist engine really purring up a storm ...
Don’t forget about rush limbaugh, one of this new breed of racists!
I literally threw up in my mouth a little when Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by TRump. Never has there been a least deserving recipient of that award. Disgusting.
trump gave that award to some scumbags. He made it less meaningful!
That is why we should change the name of that medal.
Absolutely. It's disturbing that they haven't been held accountable (except for the voting machine fiasco) for spreading their lies and misinformation. Putin's happy...🙄
Let’s not forget Rush Limbaugh. My sister and her husband listened to him and loved him. Just fueling people’s hate, demonizing democrats and all the “others” they felt superior to. They are Trumpers today and I don’t understand how we are wired so differently.
I've never been more grateful that both of my parents died before the trump era so I didn't have to disown them outright.
I can echo your comment as my parents felt the same way. My dads car broke down and the only person to stop was a black man. I called dad out on that and his reply was that there were a FEW good "Ns". They are long gone, but the memory of this lasts a lifetime. No cure for racism except death. Unfortunately every society has to have someone or something to look down on to feel superior.
I hear you. As much as I loved my FIL, I can only imagine what Trump would’ve done for him. 😢
Sounds like my family.
Fox News* was the major reason.
Pretty sad.
Fox Noise has polluted the minds of tens of millions of Americans since 1997 and frankly, they're nothing but a domestic terrorist organization. Fox spreads nothing but lies and propaganda, much of it coming straight from the Kremlin. It's disgusting. How they're still allowed to spew their misinformation on cable news is beyond my comprehension. It's not freedom of speech when they're outright lying to We the People!😡
As the orange sadist expressed it, soon after his in-hog-uration: "I have certain hatreds of people." And my older brother, a man with an extremely high IQ but a cold heart, said, "I'm voting on immigration. Whites are becoming a minority in this country. This has got to stop." (Interestingly, he and others in MAGA like Russia because "it's the last White country in Europe." So let the orange sadist play with monstrous pukin. It'll all be good.)
Yes he does. Unrivaled, in fact.
"in-hog-uration"....I love this! Perfect 👌
I borrowed it from someone! :-)
Actually I think it was more like a coronation for king Trump.
My sister is hardcore MAGA. We barely speak. I feel so bad about the way I feel about her, try to tell myself it’s because she’s limited due to contracting encephalitis after being infected with polio when she was a toddler. My first memories are of her. I made her wedding gown. I made her wedding veil! I sat and listened to her cry when her husband refused to allow her to have children because he’s a cheap asshole. She was not always this way. But I also know she’s not happy with her life and she needs someone to blame and this is how she does it. She is especially angry with me, although she would never admit it, even to herself. I’ve had a life that most people could only dream of. She has been imprisoned for over 50 years with a man who has had iron control over her life. I love my sister, but I just can’t stand her. I fucking hate Donald Trump for the fractures he has caused in so many families just like he’s caused it in mine.
I'm sorry about this Ann, I really am ...
Have heard countless sad tales like this the past 10 years. He is the devil on earth.
I wish him nothing but pain.
*hugs* I understand your pain, perhaps one day things might mend...we can always believe it's possible 🙏💕
Thank you, D. Earl, as always for spreading the word. The quotes from LBJ and reference to Bill Moyers warmed the cockles of my heart.
Long time ago ...
It's so sad that you're so right. I love Obama and think he was a great president but I think his election awoke something in the racist crowd of Americans. While he was president I was shocked to see some of the hatred directed at him and his wife. I remember a trip she went on to Spain and how she had to show proof that tax dollars didn't fund the trip. Fox news made it a big deal that secret service had cost more. Holy cow they sure don't care about that anymore. No more than they care that trump plays golf every weekend, flying back and forth at our expense.
As for my family that voted for him, I have disowned them all and I don't regret it at all.
THIS!!! I've culled every TRump supporter from my social circle, including my (ex) best friend, who I've known since I was 4 years old. I simply CAN NOT respect or even tolerate people who support The Convicted Felon anymore. I just can't. These are people who I once loved and had a lot in common with. We may have had our political differences, but nothing like what's happening right now. TRump is the Divider In Chief and loves chaos. It's fun for him to see the unrest, the hatred and racism. I'm pretty sure he gets his jollies knowing that a good percentage of us are miserable as he takes a f***ing blowtorch to the world's economy and the rule of law. He's a sicko! I truly believe that those who defend and support this piece of human garbage are as mentally ill and mean-spirited as he is. I don't need those kinds of people in my life. Nope. #ByeTRumpers!!!
Life's too short, Meg.
Your posts are fantastic...I live reading them. Keep it up!
Thanks for reading and your support, Ana.
I appreciate it.
“You do not get to support a racist without being one yourself.” Exactly right. Many of My fellow Americans need to do some serious soul searching. Excellent piece and right on the money.
Thanks, Susan.
Wish I was wrong ...
Absolutely true 💯
When you look at the dark current of our history, Trump makes sense. He is not an aberration but the current manifestation of white supremacy, Christian nationalism and rapacious capitalism. Highly recommend a book by historian Robert Jones: The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy for a well documented history of shameful history since the founding.
Jack, thank you for the reading referral 🙏
Thank you. I use that LBJ quote frequently. You don’t have to be all that astute to see what this has been about because it has been so ridiculously obvious, but you do have to have the moral courage to acknowledge it.
Many people are gone from my circle including relatives because having seem prejudice, including racism, at work when I was younger(late 40s), I decided I didn't like it or be around people like that.
If someone like that comes around, I leave although I have been know to make my views perfectly clear on several ocassions.
Can I just...
*Applause!*
Thank you for this essay, Earl. Nailed it! :o)