Riling Up the Bigots

Back in the day, people said that my hometown of Milwaukee was known for two things: Obesity and serial killers.

That’s unfair, of course, because it also possesses the distinction of having brutally cold winters, and of being the most racially segregated city in America.

OK, maybe those traits aren’t so great.

But I still love the place. And that is why I will rush to its defense even if, for example, its sports teams collapse, or its economy struggles, or it’s the scene of a horrific acid attack.

Wait a minute, let me check my notes on that last one.

Hmm, unfortunately, this is true. Recently, Milwaukee police arrested a 61-year-old white man who called a Latino man an "illegal" and told him to "get out of this country" before throwing acid in his face. The Hispanic man, who happens to be U.S. citizen, suffered second-degree burns.

Now, you might wonder what kind of homicidal lunatic carries acid around with him, just looking for a reason to toss it into somebody’s face.

Well, keep in mind that Wisconsin is a swing state, with plenty of white male Baby Boomers who seethe with revulsion for Latinos and immigrants. 

Further note that studies have shown that hate crimes tend to increase during “times of tense political fights over issues such as immigration or national security.”

I’m pretty sure that we are living in such times.

But to get even more specific about it, “hate crimes targeting people in 2018 surged to their highest levels in 16 years,” and once the data for 2019 is crunched, we can expect to see more of the same.

As we all know, hate crimes have escalated ever since America elected a loud-mouthed xenophobe to the White House (which I’m sure the GOP insists is just a coincidence).

What’s most interesting, however, is that the targets of hate crimes have changed. Back during the Iraq War, thugs routinely went after Muslims. But recently, “the number of crimes targeting Muslims cratered,” which just goes to show that bigots need constant reminders of who they’re supposed to hate the most at any given time. 

And in further good news, anti-Semitic crimes dropped. But — and I’m sure you saw this coming — hate crimes “targeting Latinos increased for the third year.”

Yikes.

So Hispanics are back to being the most loathed group among nativists. As I’ve said before, it’s like we have fucking targets on our backs.

Experts say that none of this is random. For example, “you can look at the year 2016 and see a spike in hate crimes, or look at the increase in anti-immigrant rhetoric in recent years, and see an increase in anti-Latino crimes.”

Still, you don’t have to be a statistician to notice what’s going on. According to many polls, a majority of Americans say Trump is racist. And over half of the country believes “Trump has been bad for Hispanics, Muslims, African Americans, and women.”

Another way of saying this is that the president has been good only for white men and the occasional Asian American.

There is simply no doubt “that Trump’s rhetoric has legitimized expressions of prejudice.” But if you need proof, consider that one study found that racist statements “were considered more acceptable after the election. And a second study showed that reading Trump’s statements targeting ethnic or racial groups made people more likely to write prejudicial things themselves.”

So is there a sliver of positivity in this dire compendium of racism, hate crimes, anti-Latino bias, and acid attacks?

Well, there a theory that “Trump’s election did not make Americans more racist; instead, it may have emboldened those who were already prejudiced.” So what we are seeing is an intensification of racism rather than an upsurge of bigotry overall. 

And looking at this further, there is some evidence that the frequency of racist behavior is actually going down in America. And long-term trends “suggest a decline in both professed racist views and racist acts.”

This means, therefore, that eventually we will not have to worry about angry old men assaulting Hispanics, or be afraid that a fistfight will erupt when we speak Spanish, or witness Nazis happily marching in the streets, or suffer through any of the myriad bigoted, hate-filled actions that we have had to endure over the past few years.

No word, however, on when that day will come.

The Unpatriot

We have endured just over 1,000 days of a president whose mind-boggling ignorance, cartoonish incompetence, pandemic corruption, and glaring racism have damaged America for the foreseeable future. 

Really, I can’t enumerate all of the man’s personal disasters, catastrophic decisions and sucker punches to the republic. But here’s a partial list of his insanity, which reads more like “the symptoms of someone who was recently bitten by a rabid raccoon one night after getting lost between Marine One and the Oval Office.”

And yet, over 40% of Americans say, “Yup, I’m down with this.”

I’ve written before about Trump’s base, many of whom would gladly follow him into a bubbling sulfur pit, or slit the throats of their loved ones if he told them to do so. Their reasons for such blind obedience to this maddest of messiahs range from political expedience to human frailty to deeply disturbing psychological issues.

But what of Trump’s motivations? Why is he subjecting himself — and the entire country — to this ceaseless onslaught of nausea-inducing grotesqueries that have catapulted our nation way past laughingstock status and into the realm of the tragically pathetic?

Well, it might be “because he’s two parts crazy, one part stupid, but also because he’s been engaging in corruption his entire life, to the point that it’s second nature.”

Yes, that’s true. But there’s an additional complication.

Consider that even Nixon possessed some smoldering embers of self-respect that prevented him from accepting the humiliation of impeachment. Trump has embarrassed himself so many times on so many world stages that he has gotten used to public disgrace. And his supporters have made it clear that no matter what deranged babble spews from his mouth, they will twist it into a positive.

So appeals to the president’s sense of shame are useless. We might as well plead with a honey badger to be nicer, or for a bear to stop shitting in the woods.

Animal comparisons aside, there is even stronger reason for Trump’s antipathy than his abdication of basic decency.

And it is this:

The man hates America.

I know it is tacky to accuse your political opponents of despising our nation, but it is not hyperbole in the president’s case. Even many conservatives say that the guy clearly loathes the country and offers a vision that “is radically anti-American.”

The president’s GOP enablers are perfectly aware that the chief executive cares only about himself, with particular attention to his image and his bank account. Yes, Trump has some mild concern for his family, feels a slight affinity for his fellow billionaires, and admires crazed dictators who execute their opponents.

But that’s about it. The rest of the world— and the overwhelming majority of America — is dead to him.

He hates the West Coast, and would be thrilled if it burned to the ground. He hates the East Coast, and is only too happy to live somewhere, you know, less cosmopolitan. 

As for the Midwest and the South, well, the idea that he has any interest in the humdrum struggles of his base (i.e., the legendary white working class) is absurd. Even sadder is the one-sided nature of their relationship, in which millions of struggling white people insist that he is fighting for him, and show up at his rallies to hear him drone on about awesome he is. Meanwhile, he ignores the opioid crisis, cuts off their health care, and would no sooner mingle with the hoi polloi than he would gurgle raw sewage.

And it should be perfectly obvious by now that the president has no use for women, ethnic minorities, or immigrants. In fact, “we have never seen an American president make a U.S. representative, a refugee, an American citizen, a woman of color, and a religious minority an object of hate for the political masses, in a deliberate attempt to turn the country against his fellow Americans who share any of those traits.”

Yes, despite all that flag-hugging, there is little proof that Trump displayed even the vaguest sense of patriotism before he ran for president (just as he didn’t display a scintilla of interest in Christianity, but that is another story). And there is no indication that the president has any knowledge of the Constitution, any respect for American ideals of freedom of the press, or any interest in how the nation fares after he is out of office.

In fact, he “appears to care little for the American nation as a whole,” and is actually “more of a self-serving populist, preaching anti-elitism, anti-pluralism and exclusion.”

So let’s be honest.

If the Democrats made an offer that Trump could pocket a small fortune from the U.S. Treasury and fly away to a private island with his family, to live out his days in comfort and splendor, and never be brought up on any criminal charges or held accountable for anything he has done, the man would leap at it and say, “Fuck off, America,” faster than they could write the check. 

And he would never look back.

Infield Fly Rule

Baseball season is over, which is always a little sad for me.

It’s not just that I love baseball, and now have to endure six months without it. The bigger issue is that my hometown Milwaukee Brewers just concluded their fiftieth season in existence, which means a sold half-century without a single World Series championship. 

Damn.

In any case, baseball may be on hiatus for now, but it is perpetually relevant as a metaphor. And I don’t mean in a Ken Burns kind of way, where the death of Joe DiMaggio is the end of the American Dream, or something strained like that.

I’m talking about more concrete analogies.

For example, I’m sure we all enjoyed the sight of Trump attending Game 5 of the World Series and receiving a thunderous, sustained booing that reached “almost 100 decibels, the type of disapproval typically reserved for undocumented immigrants and freshman congresswomen at his rallies.”

I mean, here was the president, taking in the national pastime, in the nation’s capital city, and hearing from the nation’s citizens that he sucks, in a spontaneous display of First Amendment zeal that has not been outlawed despite the country’s right-wing lurch. And in an irony-heavy addendum of the type that Americans are known for, he was also serenaded with chants of “Lock him up!”

I mean, if that doesn’t make you swell with patriotism, nothing will.

However, not every symbolic event from the world of baseball is so positive.

For example, major league umpire Rob Drake recently tweeted his displeasure with the impeachment process. He did so in the calm, respectful manner that we have come to expect from supporters of the president.

Ha, no — he shrieked a caps-heavy boast that he was buying an AR-15 assault rifle, “because if you impeach my president this way, you will have another civil war!!! #MAGA2020.”

Now, you might think that we have enough violence in this country without random umpires threatening to murder people who disagree with their politics, to say nothing of the recurring promise that a civil war is inevitable and, in fact, eagerly anticipated by GOP white men like Rob Drake who have easy access to firearms and no regard for the Constitution. 

Well, yes — but you’re missing the point.

Because once again, in this case, baseball is here to help. 

You see, on one side of America’s political divide we have progressives, who want to move the country toward the democratic socialist model that has found great success in Scandinavian countries, but do it with more of a multiethnic focus. The other side — Trumpian conservatives — want to create a white nationalist state built upon pseudo-Christian values where the populace is enthralled with an autocratic oligarch who siphons off the nation’s resources to the super-rich. 

That’s a bit of a philosophical gap.

Fortunately, we have homicidal umpires who are happy to illustrate the difference for us. So again, baseball enlightens us.

Lastly, allow me to recount a recent email exchange that I had with a disgruntled reader. This individual informed me that I was wrong about everything, and at some point in the conversation, he stated that the Electoral College was, in his words, “brilliant” and “perfect.” He stated that a nationwide popular vote for the presidency was like insisting the winner of the World Series be the team that scores the most runs, not the team that wins the most games.

My rebuttal was that the Electoral College is like declaring the winner of a baseball game is the team that scores in the most innings, not the team that actually scores the most runs.

I thought it was a good point. But he wrote back a stream of obscenities and invectives, so I guess he didn’t agree, and that was the end of our little debate.

Yes, the guy may have been an illogical, thin-skinned reactionary. But hey, at least he liked baseball.

The Absence of Perception

If I speak

At one constant volume
At one constant pitch
At one constant rhythm

Right into your ear

You still won't hear
You still won't hear!

Faith No More

A Small Victory

Yes, it is a bit ambiguous.

On the one hand, you have William Taylor, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, stating clearly and without qualification that the Trump Administration engaged in an unconstitutional quid pro quo, testimony so shocking that it “reportedly elicited sighs and gasps” from stunned congressmen. 

And as anyone with a grasp of politics (or indeed, the English language) knows, this is about as definitive as it gets. So even though there is “no need for a smoking gun by now, because Trump has all but admitted to the crime… Taylor’s testimony delivered a still-warm pistol with Trump’s fingerprints all over it to congressional investigators.”

But on the other hand, you have Republicans saying, “I didn't see it. I didn't hear it.”

Really, that’s what they’re saying.

Now, you might expect some kind of complex refutation or logical argument from the GOP, which has tied its destiny to a sputtering man-child who is most likely spending his days plotting which Republican he can throw under the bus to save his own skin.

However, the GOP long ago ran out of logical arguments, or principled stances, or semi-coherent opinions. Having been reduced to the Party of Stupid, they are now in full-on toddler mode, denying Taylor said what we all heard. Or they are bum-rushing hearings that they have no right to interrupt in some sort of pathetic stalling action that accomplishes nothing but possibly appeases daddy a little bit.

Note to GOP: Looking like a band of angry lunatics, barging into rooms and shouting at people, is not convincing anyone that you have your shit together.

In any case, it is not really a surprise that Republicans can’t see or hear the perfectly obvious. And it’s not just because conservatives long ago surrendered their common sense and basic decency in a futile effort to charm a misogynistic sociopath.

No, this failure to acknowledge reality appears to be a long-time problem. Their denial of climate change, their belief that Iraq had WMDs, and their embrace of crackpot economic theories are all fine examples of the conservative blind spot and deaf zone.

But for the most impressive proof of this disturbing phenomenon, let’s look at racism.

You see, for many conservatives, acknowledging the existence of widespread bigotry undermines their whole philosophy that everyone just needs to pick himself up by his bootstraps, without whining about institutional barriers and societal hindrances. This idea is as antiquated and nonsensical as, well, bootstraps themselves (seriously, who the hell wears bootstraps anymore?).

Also, dismissing racism means ignoring unpleasant historical facts like the GOP’s Southern Strategy or Reagan’s “welfare queens” or just about any other Republican approach that has succeeded in conjuring up racial anxiety among white voters. It all never happened, don’t you see?

Finally, throwing a blanket over the prevalence of prejudice allows white conservatives to feel ok about themselves for, say, voting for an overt bigot. It also allows conservatives to mock political correctness or “own the libs” or whatever stale terminology they use to excuse backward thinking.

As such, conservatives “have convinced themselves that actual racism is basically a thing of the past, and so any accusation of racism must be nothing but liberal claptrap.”

What does this look like? Well, it means the following:

Nothing is racist against blacks (even slavery). 

Nothing is racist against Latinos (even putting kids in cages). 

Telling someone to go back to their own country is not racist (even though you can fired for saying that).

The FBI stating that white supremacy is on the rise doesn’t prove that bigotry is a problem.

Now, anti-Semitism is a tricky one, in that conservatives believe that in general, it doesn’t exist, even if we see guys with torches chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” The GOP caveat, however, is that any criticism of the Israeli government whatsoever is virulent anti-Semitism.

That sticky situation aside, conservatives cannot see racism anywhere — unless, of course, it is against white people. In that case, there is a shitload of racism. Like, wow, we can’t believe the oppression.

In fact, over half (i.e., a majority) of white Americans “think that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem in the United States as discrimination against blacks and other minority groups.”

Looking specifically at conservatives, we find that “a whopping 75 percent of registered Republican voters said that white Americans face discrimination.”

So what do we make of people who insist that only white people — and no one else — are the victims of bigotry?

For starters, we can be honest. 

This is beyond mere denial or simple delusion. It is a life choice. And it is a mindset that has the power to provoke horrifying consequences.

After all, we see it every day.

Do the Syrian Twist

In the same way that liberals somehow forced Republicans to vote for a septuagenarian grifter, the Democrats have somehow forced Trump to withdraw troops from Syria.

The theory behind this has to do with the impeachment process — currently supported by a majority of Americans — and how it provoked Turkey to bomb the Kurds, and Russia to step in, and something and something and something else. Honestly, you have to be slightly delusional to even comprehend the deranged argument, let alone buy it.

Clearly, the usual GOP nonsense is not sticking as well as it used to. Conservatives are going to increasingly absurd, even pathetic lengths to defend an obviously corrupt White House crawling with criminals, fools, and cowards. Hey, even Fox News hosts are mumbling that our bumbling, frothing president is looking shakier each day.

But there is good news for Republicans, and here it is: We have betrayed an ally, destabilized an entire region, and caused the deaths of countless civilians.

Hmm, that certainly doesn’t seem like good news.

But for the GOP, it’s a lifeline. Yes, a grisly, blood-soaked lifeline that’s caked in treachery, but that still counts in political circles.

You see, up until now, the Republican Party has defended Trump regardless of his vile behavior and reckless decisions, even if this meant selling its meager soul, ditching its supposed principles, and endorsing things like, for example, throwing kids into cages.

But Trump’s abrupt, ill-conceived, and arbitrary decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the region “has tested Republican support for Donald Trump more than any of the president’s scandals and allegations of wrongdoing.”

It’s good to know that even craven reactionaries have their limits. 

The latest Trump-sponsored fiasco has “infuriated lawmakers from both parties and Trump’s outside supporters, especially those with a military background who understand the strategic value of the Kurdish alliance, along with evangelicals who fear for Kurdish Christians.”

You know it’s bad when both militaristic right-wingers and evangelicals are balking. And the reason is simple. The withdrawal from Syria offends Republicans far more than, for example, coddling Nazis because it “cuts to the core of U.S. national security, undoing two decades’ worth of efforts to gain the trust of the Kurds and have them fight in the front lines of counter-terrorism efforts so more U.S. troops don’t have to.”

All this just goes to prove the axiom that whoever puts their faith in Trump eventually regrets it.

To be fair, many conservatives who are ditching Trump now are doing so for a very good reason. Abandoning Syria in such a rushed, catastrophic manner is no minor issue. People are getting killed, and America will be less safe for years to come.

However, let’s not kid ourselves. With support for impeachment rising, more shady characters appearing on the scene, and more administration insiders confirming everyone’s worst fears, many Republicans are thinking, “This just isn’t going to get any better.”

As such, the Syria debacle gives the GOP cover. They can now distance themselves from Trump without seeming like the gutless apologists that they have been. They can cloak themselves in principle. They can say they finally stood up to an authoritarian ignoramus, and did so for the good of the nation — indeed, for the good of the world.

I guess we can all thank them now.