2 or 3 times a week I go to the pool. At midday most of the men in the locker room are white and around 70 years old. Some are retired federal employees and most of these are Democrats, but the majority of my fellow swimmers are Trump Republicans. I listen closely to these men while they talk and I am here to report from my research exactly what “Make America Great Again” means to these Trumpophiles. It means take us back to the days when America was run by white men for the benefit of white men. It means, “God damn it, give us our country back!
It goes without saying there is racism and sexism here, but it is not the kind that grows from hate. These men grew up in a world where the table was literally and figuratively set for them. There could be and should be work for Negroes and women, but not if it meant taking good jobs away from white men. Negros and women could vote, as long as they understood it was a white man’s world.
In that once upon a time America, when these fellows might have gotten their first bicycle and Chevy had just introduced the small block V-8, there were 3 black men in Congress, one each from Chicago, Detroit and New York City. At the same time 18 of 435 members of the US House were women. Margret Chase Smith was the only woman in the Senate. She won the Senate seat on her own, but was first elected to House to fill her husband’s seat after he died. White men served as Governor in every state, in every US Cabinet Office and in every seat on the Supreme Court. The day these men were born they were already ahead of 60% of the population. But, by the time they bought their first jalopy this world stated to melt from heat generated by rising expectations. Woman and blacks had helped win World War II and as time passed they became less and less sanguine about living their lives just to serve white men.
Jackie Robinson, Brown v Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Title 9, a black man in the Cabinet, then a black man then a woman on the Supreme Court. A slippery slope was becoming sheer ice. Then we had President’s elected without the support of a majority of white men. A Speaker of the House who wore skirts, a Secretary of State who was a women, then we had a black Secretary then a black woman as our top diplomat. Any one or two of these things wouldn’t have troubled these men much. As I said these men are not motivated by hate, they are motivated by a sense of loss. It was their country. They would share it, up to a point, but they were in charge and somehow the politicians let others take it away. Then the last straw, a black man was elected President by women and minorities.
Trump understands this from the top of his comb-over to the tip of his toes. He is of this generation and grew up in the home of a racist. His childhood buddies were privileged children who gathered on weekends at the all white Christian Country Clubs.
Trump was raised to look for the other man’s weakness, to see what he could exploit to get his deal and that is his view of this growing resentment on the part of white men. He found it too sweet to pass up. So 4 years ago, Trump did his trial run with the birther issue. He figured if a good size audience would buy this they would buy him. Think of it. He was selling the notion that a white woman and an African man met and married in Hawaii, then traveled to Kenya to have their baby. Then they faked birth certificates and birth notices in the Honolulu papers. How did they find the money? Why would a woman expecting a baby leave a country with great medical care to go to a third world country? Why fake a birth certificate? The baby’s mother was American, therefore the baby would be American where ever he was born, just like Raphael Cruz. What would motivate this intrigue? Certainly not the prominent political future facing a mixed race baby from Hawaii in 1960. It is a conspiracy which depends upon a prejudiced observer to put it over. It is the kind of thing you can only believe if you don’t face it head on. Kind of like looking in the mirror at 70 and trying to see a 25-year-old looking back.
Then when the Obama gave Trump enough rope, he produced his long form birth certificate. But Trump did not miss a beat. He said he now wanted to see the President’s student transcripts. Now somehow the first black man to best the smartest, most ambitious white men in America at Harvard Law School, that star scholar was really just a product of affirmative action. Is there one fair minded person in the entire universe who thinks The Donald was a better student than Barack Obama?
For years politicians had appealed to the white men at the gym with what they call dog whistles. With Nixon in was “law and order” with Reagan it was the welfare Queen. But the old white men at the gym are sick of subtlety. They have come to distrust politicians who only hint at putting white men on top again. These politicians have proven not up to the restoration. So here is Trump who on the day he announces says he will make the wet backs build a wall to keep themselves out of the USA. Muslims will not be allowed in the US. Protesters, many of whom are black, will be physically escorted out of his rallies. And when the Donald talks about women, he sounds like a guy telling jokes in the men’s locker room in 1955. He often identifies women by their unique female parts. He brags that he loves women, but belittles the “ugly” ones. His female primary opponent is too ugly to run. The female reporter who asked him tough questions must be having her period, or in the parlance of the 50’s “have the rag on.” I apologize for the horrible expression but it is what we men of a certain age grew up hearing and Trump is playing the oldies. Trump sends out a picture to show his third wife is better looking than Cruz’s first wife.
Trump tells white men they are entitled to first place at the table because of the equipment that defines them as males. And when Senator Rubio raised doubts about the heft of the Donald’s equipment by pointing to Trump’s small hands, the Donald felt compelled to yell out on national television, “I guarantee there is no problem.” The white men at the gym don’t seem to care that such words would never have passed Eisenhower’s lips, outside the locker room.
And who will the white man’s champion be running against, a woman who only got the nomination because minorities and women supported her. She was a successful attorney, an involved First Lady, a two term Senator from New York who got her seat by muscling bully boy Galliano right out of the race, then being reelected in a land slide. Then she served as Secretary of State. Very few Presidents came to the office with more impressive resumes, but Donald brays that she is only being considered because she is playing the “woman card.” The old men at the gym love this because they get to be victims while fighting for restoration of male supremacy.
So the old men at the gym are off on their last crusade following Trump because he shares their sense of entitlement even though he has made it clear he considers them chumps. He once said in an interview that we shouldn’t elect politicians who came from humble beginnings because that was proof their parents were dolts and they would be too. You see, when Donald was born rich he had already accomplished more than the white men at the gym could do in a life time. But the white men at the gym really know this. To understand them just listen to Elvis sing the music of their youth. Listen to “Are You Lonesome Tonight.” You see the white men at the gym would rather go on hearing Trump’s lies, then to go on living in a world where some black guy gets to put a Latino girly from New York City on the United States Supreme Court and then she turns around and tells you gay people can get married in your home town.
It goes without saying there is racism and sexism here, but it is not the kind that grows from hate. These men grew up in a world where the table was literally and figuratively set for them. There could be and should be work for Negroes and women, but not if it meant taking good jobs away from white men. Negros and women could vote, as long as they understood it was a white man’s world.
In that once upon a time America, when these fellows might have gotten their first bicycle and Chevy had just introduced the small block V-8, there were 3 black men in Congress, one each from Chicago, Detroit and New York City. At the same time 18 of 435 members of the US House were women. Margret Chase Smith was the only woman in the Senate. She won the Senate seat on her own, but was first elected to House to fill her husband’s seat after he died. White men served as Governor in every state, in every US Cabinet Office and in every seat on the Supreme Court. The day these men were born they were already ahead of 60% of the population. But, by the time they bought their first jalopy this world stated to melt from heat generated by rising expectations. Woman and blacks had helped win World War II and as time passed they became less and less sanguine about living their lives just to serve white men.
Jackie Robinson, Brown v Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Title 9, a black man in the Cabinet, then a black man then a woman on the Supreme Court. A slippery slope was becoming sheer ice. Then we had President’s elected without the support of a majority of white men. A Speaker of the House who wore skirts, a Secretary of State who was a women, then we had a black Secretary then a black woman as our top diplomat. Any one or two of these things wouldn’t have troubled these men much. As I said these men are not motivated by hate, they are motivated by a sense of loss. It was their country. They would share it, up to a point, but they were in charge and somehow the politicians let others take it away. Then the last straw, a black man was elected President by women and minorities.
Trump understands this from the top of his comb-over to the tip of his toes. He is of this generation and grew up in the home of a racist. His childhood buddies were privileged children who gathered on weekends at the all white Christian Country Clubs.
Trump was raised to look for the other man’s weakness, to see what he could exploit to get his deal and that is his view of this growing resentment on the part of white men. He found it too sweet to pass up. So 4 years ago, Trump did his trial run with the birther issue. He figured if a good size audience would buy this they would buy him. Think of it. He was selling the notion that a white woman and an African man met and married in Hawaii, then traveled to Kenya to have their baby. Then they faked birth certificates and birth notices in the Honolulu papers. How did they find the money? Why would a woman expecting a baby leave a country with great medical care to go to a third world country? Why fake a birth certificate? The baby’s mother was American, therefore the baby would be American where ever he was born, just like Raphael Cruz. What would motivate this intrigue? Certainly not the prominent political future facing a mixed race baby from Hawaii in 1960. It is a conspiracy which depends upon a prejudiced observer to put it over. It is the kind of thing you can only believe if you don’t face it head on. Kind of like looking in the mirror at 70 and trying to see a 25-year-old looking back.
Then when the Obama gave Trump enough rope, he produced his long form birth certificate. But Trump did not miss a beat. He said he now wanted to see the President’s student transcripts. Now somehow the first black man to best the smartest, most ambitious white men in America at Harvard Law School, that star scholar was really just a product of affirmative action. Is there one fair minded person in the entire universe who thinks The Donald was a better student than Barack Obama?
For years politicians had appealed to the white men at the gym with what they call dog whistles. With Nixon in was “law and order” with Reagan it was the welfare Queen. But the old white men at the gym are sick of subtlety. They have come to distrust politicians who only hint at putting white men on top again. These politicians have proven not up to the restoration. So here is Trump who on the day he announces says he will make the wet backs build a wall to keep themselves out of the USA. Muslims will not be allowed in the US. Protesters, many of whom are black, will be physically escorted out of his rallies. And when the Donald talks about women, he sounds like a guy telling jokes in the men’s locker room in 1955. He often identifies women by their unique female parts. He brags that he loves women, but belittles the “ugly” ones. His female primary opponent is too ugly to run. The female reporter who asked him tough questions must be having her period, or in the parlance of the 50’s “have the rag on.” I apologize for the horrible expression but it is what we men of a certain age grew up hearing and Trump is playing the oldies. Trump sends out a picture to show his third wife is better looking than Cruz’s first wife.
Trump tells white men they are entitled to first place at the table because of the equipment that defines them as males. And when Senator Rubio raised doubts about the heft of the Donald’s equipment by pointing to Trump’s small hands, the Donald felt compelled to yell out on national television, “I guarantee there is no problem.” The white men at the gym don’t seem to care that such words would never have passed Eisenhower’s lips, outside the locker room.
And who will the white man’s champion be running against, a woman who only got the nomination because minorities and women supported her. She was a successful attorney, an involved First Lady, a two term Senator from New York who got her seat by muscling bully boy Galliano right out of the race, then being reelected in a land slide. Then she served as Secretary of State. Very few Presidents came to the office with more impressive resumes, but Donald brays that she is only being considered because she is playing the “woman card.” The old men at the gym love this because they get to be victims while fighting for restoration of male supremacy.
So the old men at the gym are off on their last crusade following Trump because he shares their sense of entitlement even though he has made it clear he considers them chumps. He once said in an interview that we shouldn’t elect politicians who came from humble beginnings because that was proof their parents were dolts and they would be too. You see, when Donald was born rich he had already accomplished more than the white men at the gym could do in a life time. But the white men at the gym really know this. To understand them just listen to Elvis sing the music of their youth. Listen to “Are You Lonesome Tonight.” You see the white men at the gym would rather go on hearing Trump’s lies, then to go on living in a world where some black guy gets to put a Latino girly from New York City on the United States Supreme Court and then she turns around and tells you gay people can get married in your home town.