Trump has been described as a force of nature that the Republican Party is too weak to withstand. He's also described as a mystery beyond our capacity to understand but this isn't true. There have been politicians like him before. The Trump phenomenon has happened because Republican leaders have spent decades crafting their story of this place called America (pronounced "Amerka") that replaced the United States of America or the USA in far too many minds. Mythical America took all the positive aspects of Republican philosophy and pretended that they could exist on their own.
Most US citizens seemed to vote as if they believed in the myth but they also voted for the Democratic story as well. Unfortunately, the Democratic story was a bucket of cold water realism dumped on the happy optimism of Republican fiction. For too long, we Democrats occupied ourselves with poking holes in the Republican mythos. Like children who remain true believers in Santa Claus, we bought into the idea that taxes weren't necessary. Free market Santa would distribute income to the hard working while the others would have to breathe smog produced by coal fired plants.
What does this have to do with Trump? Well, US citizens are not stupid for the most part. We have to take part in suspension of disbelief as if we're attending a good movie. I happen to be a big "Star Wars" fan like most people and that involves accepting the idea that the Force could have existed "Long ago in a galaxy far, far away." Trump wants us to believe in what the ancient but historical Greeks called the time of giants. The Greeks were among the first in recorded history to discover fossils and fossilized remains. When they added these records to what they knew and added a desire to be extraordinary, those fossils had to be the remains of heroes and the great beasts they fought. Since no one remembered actually seeing a ten foot tall man or a cyclops, suspension of disbelief required that these events took place in a far distant past. The Greeks really were hereoes as long as their poets made them feel great.
Trump says that he wants to make America great again without saying exactly what this greatness is. In truth, this nation has so much concentrated power that a true qualitative improvement would have to be philosophical involving more equitable distribution of wealth. That's not what Trump wants. In fact, any explanation of this greatness would subject it to those who have vastly different ideas. Therefore, his starting point was the great Republican myth with the 1950s as their "long ago and far away."
There is some justification for choosing the 50s as the Glory Days. Things were good for white American men in so many ways. Let's start with the nebulous looking concept of social order. Everyone had their place where they were content to stay according to the myth. White men went to work at the office or the factory then came home to orderly suburban neighborhoods. According to the myth, the houses were bought with money saved through war bonds or rationing. The factories were built for war production then converted to civilian production by brave white men who dared risk to get a chance at the possible riches.
During this great time of social order, women were believed happy to give up their jobs so that men could work. They were depicted on the new mass medium of television as housewives who spent their days keeping their houses and children spotless without breaking out in a sweat. They were the source of stability behind the white man's throne but were, somehow, unworthy of sitting on their own throne. Television depicted black men and women as comedic servants who were in their proper place. After all, television offered us a picture of their comedic laziness balanced out by good and loyal hearts when they were depicted at all. More often than that, they were simply there shown in their proper roles.
I was going to get into separate sections on economics and law but I think you've seen enough of the myth for the reality to stand out. The ugliness of racism from this supposedly ideal time has tarnished our society to the point where I do not believe that reparations to African-American families is a radical idea anymore. US law is all about replacing the Old Testament (Hebrew Scripture, Torah, Pentatuch) concept of "an eye for an eye" with "how many dollars will compensate you for the loss of an eye?" How would I justify reparations? The African-American population was intentionally and systematically left out of the economic boom that started in the 1950s. Two examples are higher education and the real estate.
One thing that everyone knows about the GI Bill is that it allowed returning servicemen to attend college. As a result, these white men able to leave the family farms and poorly paid factory jobs for the office resulting in that 50s stereotype of eight hours in the office followed by their arrival at home. The children would be clean and quiet and the wife would have that drink ready followed quickly by dinner or he might lose his temper. I wonder how much of that was undiagnosed PTSD especially those who kept their tempers yet wanted to retreat into their castle with that liquid numbness helping keep the walls up. After all, men were too tough back then to require treatment for anything mental.
That was the myth. The truth is far uglier since African American men got no GI Bill benefits. They didn't get to go to school and so they had to return to the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs the nation could offer unless they weren't that lucky. The higher education or vocational training that could have gotten African Americans out of humiliating jobs serving their supposed betters was denied them. The trickle down effect of being able to pass the pride of achievement down to their children was denied them.
Of course, those of us who graduated college in the late 20th and early 21st centuries know that the ability to attend college is no guarantee of success or wealth even when we manage to graduate. This is why the denial of federal housing grants and loans to returning African-Americans is one of the worst abuses of governmental power in US history. Home ownership may not be the thing for me and other severely disabled people but it has been the most powerful and reliable engines of economic growth for most.
This began with returning white men returning from the Second World War to be thanked by the GI Bill. Had this simply included African Americans and other minorities, it might have led to ethnic harmony. (I try to avoid using race and its related terms since it has no basis in genetics and seems to exist to promote racism.) Those lucky enough to have white skin were eligible for low interest loans from the government.In the decades of steady appreciation of home values, the white family was able to pay off the mortgage debt and make a paper profit on the home. That home often stayed in the family for generations and white families started businesses by borrowing against the profit they made. This has had time to happen over a few generations so that it continued to be a wealth multiplier each time.
Even when African-American families pulled off the miracle of saving up for that nice home that would have appreciated over time, cruder barriers blocked them from opportunity. Deeds to houses were written in such a way that it was forbidden to sell to African-Americans. Another tactic involved writing a loan where any lateness in payment even by an hour was considered default. In terms that would make most of today's worst "banksters" blush, the African-American could lose his entire investment if his final payment was a dollar short including fees that might be added on at the last minute. I'm not saying that outright theft by fraud was common but the incentive for it was there.
African-American domestic servants oftened suffered the indignity of working for starvation wages all day while being expected to be all but silent and invisible only to be forbidden under penalty of arrest if found within town limits in so-called "Sundown Towns." Just as I do not accuse most whites at the time of theft by fraud, I do not accuse Donald Trump of wishing for the return of the 50s with all the hidden ugliness. What I believe is that there has been a white supremicist, anti-feminist wing of the Republican Party which is becoming its center these days. I suspect that I know what they want from a return to "American greatness."
Trump is the carnival barker who will profit from whatever goes on in the big tent. He is despicable for what he says but that's a small part of it all. Trump is the storyteller who will sell the Republican story or whatever part of it is selling that day. His followers include those who aren't listening to the words yet "Great Again" tugs at their heartstrings so that they remember a time when the neighborhood was all white and they could aspire to succeed their fathers in the big chair.
Even I have memories of coveting the big chair despite owning the actual chair for some time. Sadly, the big chair shrank as I got older and larger. I can reach out and touch the walls on both sides of the hallway in the school I attended at age ten. We kids could keep four lanes going in that same space. As I grew up physically, I grew up intellectually. The Republican idea of greatness is wrong. I want greatness based on increased income equality, greater inclusion and a world where I wouldn't need a law passed for someone to help me with my cane. That's a bad example but I want a world where simple human kindness is not based on laws.
Until we get there, let's start by figuring out a way to make the class of black and brown homeowners/business owners that our ancestors used force to stop from evolving on its own. One big step will be making sure that the people we're trying to repay are satisfied with how they are repaid. That means listening first.
