When he was elected, it looked as if Trump was the “great
white hope” standing up for white people against the assault of blacks and
immigrants. He declared there were good
people on both sides of the Charlottesville incident; he was going to build a
wall to keep illegal immigrants out. Now,
particularly following his incitement of the mob that invaded the Capitol, he has
become an embarrassment to white people.
I was pleased when Trump said that there were “very fine people
on both sides” of the fracas in Charlottesville over the removal of Confederate
statues. I don’t know if there were very
fine people who participated in the fights, but there were very fine people who
opposed the removal of the Confederate statues as those in the fights did.
The status quo in Charlottesville included the presence of
Confederate statues, since Virginia had been a member state of the Confederacy
and many Virginians had died bravely fighting for Virginia’s right to self-determination. If the Confederacy had won the war, would
slavery still have existed there in 1900?
We will never know, but it probably would not have. World opinion was turning strongly against
slavery, and a separate Confederacy would probably not have been able to stand
up against pressure from the rest of the world, including the separate,
northern United States. One result might
have been the end of slavery, the collapse of the Confederate economy, and an
eventual reuniting of the North and the South.
There was much less animosity between the North and the
South in the years following the Civil War than there is now. Veterans of the war tended not to hold grudges,
much like US veterans often showed no animosity toward their former enemies in
Germany, Japan, or Vietnam after those wars.
Today the political differences
are more between the coastal elites and the center of the country, or perhaps
urban versus rural. The ongoing dispute
about the existence of the electoral college is evidence of this remaining
tension.
The coastal elites dominate virtually all types of media,
except for social media. It’s hard to know
whether Jewish TV media luminaries or star writers at the New York Times or the
Atlantic magazine, hate Southerners so much because they are Jews, carrying 4,000
years of race-related baggage, or because they went to bastions of intellectual
snobbery like Harvard, Yale or Stanford.
In any case, unhappy Southerners have tended to turn to social media for
information and to express their unhappiness.
Social media are increasingly discredited by the mainstream media, in
part properly, because of its fake news, but also unfairly. The elites characterize social media as evil
and illegitimate because it is the way for ordinary people to express ideas opposing
the mainstream media consensus. We see
the “free press” arguing against press freedom.
If there is a
stereotype of “dumb Southern Conservative,” Trump has reinforced that image. Instead of being an example of a kind Southern
gentleman, he has been a stupid, impolite, arrogant, immoral, vulgar white man
-- trailer park trash -- even if he lives in elegant residences. By his misbehavior he has sullied the image
of all white men.
I am afraid that something similar is happening in Britain
because of Brexit. Brexit started because
ethnic Brits were unhappy with all of the non-Brits who were coming to Britain because
of the provisions of the EU. Britain,
along with Germany, was one of the most prosperous, pleasant countries in the
EU, thus attracting many immigrants from other EU countries, as well as from
non-EU countries. Many Brits supported Brexit
because they did not want immigrants to change the country in what they thought
was a worse direction. The result,
however, will be an isolated Britain. It
is almost as if the American Confederacy had succeeded in seceding from the United
States. Britain has seceded from the EU,
probably to the detriment of its economy, and its cultural and intellectual life.
It will be poorer in multiple ways. The Anglo
race, which was the core of the creators of the American republic, will be weaker. Britain is no longer an imperial power with
colonies to support it, and is no longer part of the EU, the second or third
most powerful bloc in the world.
America is becoming an increasingly less Anglo country,
increasingly more African and Hispanic. Trump
was supposed to stop this transformation, but instead has probably strengthened
it. He has discredited the white
race. In the Biden administration, Biden
is one of the few white men; the other leaders will be non-white, many female, starting
with Kamala Harris. In this group, I don’t
count Jews as “white,” because they often don’t consider themselves as
white. When Jews are born, one of the first
things that is done to them is circumcision, to mark them forever as Jews, not
some other race, even if in other ways they resemble the white race. Circumcision marks the members of the Hebrew tribe,
and separates them from non-members. Thus,
I don’t count the many Jews in the Biden administration as “white” or Anglo. The Biden administration will be emblematic of
the new, diverse America.
So, I have to ask, what do these new, diverse leaders bring
to the table. With Jews, it is pretty
obvious. They have been very successful
in almost every area except athletics. Blacks,
on the other hand, have not been very successful in any area other than athletics. Both Jews and blacks have been successful in
the entertainment industry. Asians, like
whites have been pretty successful in governing, and remaining somewhat competitive
if not leaders in other areas. Asians
and Jews clearly beat out the other groups intellectually. Blacks have long been strong in religion,
which has supported them in the trials they have faced over the years, but
religion is becoming less and less important in American life.
Trump ended up appealing to the worst qualities of white
people, and bringing out some of their worst qualities, most recently illustrated
in the assault on the US Capitol, one of the best institutions created by the
white “founding fathers,” now sullied by Trump and his white followers.
We may be witnessing the decline of the white race. It had a good run. I think on the whole colonialism was a good
thing, bringing millions, maybe billions, of people into the developed world,
although huge discrepancies still remain between the colonizers and the former
colonies. World Wars I and II were pretty
big blots on white history, but so far wars seem to be part of the human
condition, not just for whites. One of
the World War II aggressors was Asian. I
would say the Roman Empire was also a “white” period, and again one with a
pretty impressive history. China, India,
Persia, Egypt, and some other ancient civilizations have similarly long,
impressive histories, while Africa has none.
Maybe this is Africa’s time to shine, but so far it doesn’t look like
it. There doesn’t seem to be much of a
chance for American Indians to make a comeback.
Perhaps the time has come for whites to pay a price for what they did to
the American Indians and black slaves. If
so, will it be good for America? I don’t
think so, but as a white man, I may be biased.
The bigger question is, “Will the world be a better place?” Will the standard of living continue to rise
for all men? Will political and intellectual
freedom continue to spread to all men?
In the great scheme of things, I think white people have
been more generous than most in tolerating and working with other races. In America it was white men who freed the
slaves; the slaves did not free themselves.
A white Southerner, Lyndon Johnson, is probably the person most
responsible for whatever civil rights are enjoyed by blacks today. Trump had an opportunity to regularize the
rapid changes that were occurring in America when he was elected, but he
failed. It’s not enough to be
white. You have to be white and a good
person. Trump was not a good
person. Robert E. Lee was white and a
good person, a Southern gentleman. Woodrow
Wilson gets no credit for trying (and failing) to bring a just peace to the end
of World War I that might have spared the lives of six million Jews and ten
million Russians in World War II.
It looks like something new is coming. Trump will be seen as
something of an unpleasant coda to 250 years of American history. Britain and the US have both recoiled at what
they think may be coming. Their trying to turn back may end up being more harmful
that trying to control the change.
President-elect Biden is saying all the right things, except
(for me) about Charlottesville. Every
time he mentions Charlottesville I recoil.
For me Charlottesville meant tearing down American history in a city
synonymous with American history as the home of Thomas Jefferson. But we tried going in the other direction
under Trump, and it didn’t work. Perhaps
Biden will do better. If not, we may
find ourselves on the brink of another Civil War, basically over the same
issue, the role of non-whites, blacks and immigrants, in American society.
