Risk of Monuments
The man responsible for our safety and security does one thing well: he always re-assures his core, entitled, self-marginalized, largely despondent, white male base.
I grew up in the Midwest, with his base. Went to high school with them. I’m related to some of them. Trust me, the current president earned their undying loyalty with his sustained Birther troll of Obama. He had them at “birth certificate.” They’re loyal because they believe he gets them. But he’s just taking advantage of their insecurity, trolling them.
They love him because he consoles them with fantasies... Obama is a Muslim from Kenya. Trump won the popular vote. Life was better before Minorities had power. These fantasies are predicated on a more deeply rooted fantasy -- the South didn’t lose the Civil War, it just got put on hold. There are 700+ Confederate monuments and statues commemorating this fallacy (Southern Poverty Law Center), multitudes of public schools and air force bases too.
Something you may not understand about white people, if you aren’t one: There are three types.
- Those who believe white people have become second class citizens, and are willing to disparage any race, creed, culture to make their point.
- Those who move away from the first kind of white people, usually to an urban area, where different kinds of people have to get along together.
- Those who for one reason or another can’t move away from xenophobic white neighbors, co-workers, or relatives, and try to ignore their BS.
Who is type number 1? He lost his job ten maybe 20 years ago, when the manufacturing and assembly plant failed, or moved overseas. His midwestern diet and sedentary lifestyle have taken a toll -- oh, he’s still looking white, just not supreme. He lives in fear that his next boss will be a black woman. He will be at a bbq next weekend, flapping his pie hole mostly to provoke someone to challenge his ignorance, which affront he’ll interpret as political correctness and therefore, liberal weakness. He’s never been to Berkeley, but he’s certain it’s 90% transgender.
Unintentionally ironic he is, living an entitled existence as a disenfranchised white male in America. His demographic already runs the town council, runs the state house, runs the country. Corporate CEOs, supreme court justices, cabinet members — all preponderances of white guys.
He’s extremely well represented, doesn’t seem to know it. He can’t adequately explain his monumental anger, and no one can understand exactly what he’s complaining about.