Recently, Professor Eddie Glaude of Princeton University was one of the guests on Stephanie Ruhle’s show, The 11th Hour, on MSNBC, where he was provoked to histrionics in his objection to Ruhle’s argument that parroted the mainstream media’s assessment of why so many whites voted for Trump.
Glaude: “There is this sense that whiteness is under threat [with] the demographic shifts. This country isn’t what [it was]. [They lament], “All of these racially ambiguous children on Cheerios commercials are confusing the hell out of me.”
Ruhle: Eddie, a lot of people voted because their life’s too damn expensive . . .
Glaude: Stephanie, you are telling me that all of these people believe that their lives, that bread is too high and eggs are too high [so] they voted for a convicted felon, a guy who said we can grab the p—-, [so] they voted for this guy!?
Ruhle: I am not defending it, but there are tons of people who don’t pay attention to politics at all [who say] but while we live in the most prosperous country in the world . . . people are saying life’s not fair—I am not doing well, my son still lives in the basement, I can’t seem to get a job. . .
Glaude: I love you Stephanie, but I do not believe that! I cannot believe that! And the reason I think you believe it is because you don’t want to believe that that’s what’s motivating them! It’s always the case that we people don’t wanna believe what the country actually is, because if they believe it, they’re gonna have to confront what’s in them!
Glaude: I don’t believe that they voted for a crook, a person who they know is stealing from . . .just doing everything to undermine the so-called country that they love. And they are telling us that it’s [because of] economics!
I agree with Professor Glaude. This country was founded on racism. And racism has continued to be a significant factor in its ongoing history.
Last week, I argued that the Democrats’ failure to discuss publicly and widely what they are doing and what they are trying to do is a failure to define reality. In contrast, the Republicans and the many right-wing media define reality for much of the country – with a heavy dose of lies. I still think that was a significant factor in the election, but I also said we start the discussion with racism and sexism. The right-wing political and media blitz enhanced those issues.
Along with the continuing racism in the country is the widespread hesitancy to admit it. This happened after Trump won the 2016 election. In the face of contrary data, pundits and politicians said then and continue to say that economic anxiety [See Ruhle above] caused working-class voters to leave the Democrats and vote for Trump.
The data say otherwise. A report based on surveys conducted before and after the 2016 election revealed that it was not economic anxiety that elected Trump. Those who reported being in fair or poor financial shape were almost twice as likely to support Hillary Clinton as those in better financial shape. It was cultural anxiety more so than economic anxiety that drove white, working-class voters to Trump. White voters who said they often feel like strangers in their own country and who believe the U.S. needs protection against foreign influence were 3.5 times more likely to favor Trump than those who did not share those concerns.
Further, Trump got his foothold in national politics with the racist birther movement, using the false claim that Obama was not born in the United States to denigrate this black man and appeal to the racists. Then he ran a racist campaign, skewering everybody who was not European, and he continued this approach in his 2020 and 2024 campaigns.
In 2022, a month before a white gunman killed ten people and injured three, most of them black, in Buffalo, New York, a poll found that half of Americans and 7 out of 10 Republicans said they believe in the ideas that constitute the “great replacement” theory. This unfounded idea was widely cited in documents left by the Buffalo shooter.
Replacement theory claims that liberal forces are intentionally changing the demographics of the country to affect elections. And the ultimate goal of those responsible – Democrats, leftists, “multiculturalists,” and, at times, Jews – is to reduce white political power and, ultimately, to eradicate the white race. Until a few years ago, this theory was confined to white supremacist chatrooms and neo-NAZI websites. In the past few years, it has been promoted by right-wing politicians and the vast network of right-wing media.
Racism is alive and well.
