It’s hard to say the number of think pieces, columns and editorials published by the American commentariat in the months since Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy for president.
Regardless of what happens in 2016 or beyond, Trump’s ascendance from sideshow to serious contender for the White House will be a case study of politics, the media and the debasing of political discourse that’s likely to be analyzed for some time.
Is this another one of those think pieces? Sure.
But if there’s anything to be taken away, it’s that its author might as well represent the America Donald Trump and his supporters seem so bent on taking back.
As a liberal, college-educated, Hispanic millennial, I’ve shared in the simultaneous bewilderment, disgust and amusement at Trump’s rise in the polls and the reckless abandon of his words that have accompanied it.
What many would consider gaffes have instead become Trump’s trademark. His comments have managed to offend just about every possible group of people.
And it all began with his now infamous campaign announcement, where in a rambling, hour-long speech, Trump managed to label millions of Mexicans as drug dealers and rapists. Then came veterans, as Trump claimed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was not a war hero because of his capture and torture as a prisoner of power in Vietnam.
Women, of course, also couldn’t escape Trump. His comments labeling Hillary Clinton as “shrill,” in addition to his comments attacking Carly Fiorina’s appearance and his absurd suggestion that Megyn Kelly’s tough questioning at one of the debates was because of menstruation were outrageous.
Trump’s most recent targets have been blacks and Muslims. Earlier this month Trump retweeted a fabricated statistic that implied black Americans are responsible for more murders than any other race, whose source has been attributed to a neo-Nazi group, according to thinkprogress.org.
Lastly, there’s Trump’s demonstrably false claim that he saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers and, even worse, his proposal to build a database to track every Muslim in the U.S.
While Trump can be dismissed as a political hack more motivated by a sheer ambition to win than personal conviction, what can’t be so easily dismissed are his supporters.
The largely older, white, rural, uneducated and disaffected Trump supporters see themselves as victims in a society they no longer seem to have a place in.
They feel “the others” have taken what was promised to them, and they see Trump as the strongman to correct these wrongs no matter what he actually believes.
Trump has provided entertainment, but his supporters have provided something much more sinister — a reminder that anyone can galvanize a fringe group of people by appealing to their lowest common denominator, even if it’s in the shape of creeping right-wing fascism.
Perhaps Trump represents a last desperate gasp of air for these groups, and I certainly hope so. Because in our changing America, there’s no room for what they represent.
edsalas@indiana.edu
