It’s Not the Haters; It’s the Enablers of their Enabler

by

Yes, the White Supremacists in their Klan regalia, displaying Nazi symbols, are despicable. Of course we should denounce them.

But they will always be there. Their numbers will fluctuate. They will be brazen at certain times and keep to the shadows at other times. Sometimes their hatred and anger will simmer, noticeable only to those looking closely. Other times, it will boil over, in disgusting displays like what we saw in Charlottesville.

We’ll never change them. The issue is whether they will change us.

And over the course of a slow, half-century long march that has not yet reached its end, they have.How? Call it derivative enablement. The haters don’t have the numbers, by themselves, to win elections and move policy, even in the South. Thus, cynical politicians are not enough to enable the haters, unless cynical voters are willing to enable those cynical politicians. Which is what gives voice to the depraved values of the haters. Politicians pander to them, while other supporters of the pandering politicians look the other way, because of something else that’s in it for them.

It started in the immediate aftermath of the civil rights victories of 1964 and 1965. Lyndon Jonson said those victories would cost the Democratic Party the South for the next generation. Richard Nixon was listening. He campaigned in 1968 on law and order, with the emphasis on order. Order is needed when certain people are getting, you know, uppity. That dog whistle, and the southern and border states it placed in his column, was Nixon’s margin of victory.

That was Nixon’s “Southern Strategy.” You also could call it his “Supremacist Strategy.” The haters would not be enough to clinch victory. They were only part of Nixon’s winning coalition. But the other members of that coalition – country club Republicans, Goldwater Republicans – kept their coalition memberships. They could have quit. They could have decided that no matter how much they’d like Nixon’s approach to taxes and regulation, they couldn’t support someone who pandered to angry racists bitter that black Americans could now vote and sit at lunch counters. But they didn’t. Those country clubbers and Goldwater types might not have cared much for Nixon’s pandering to the White Supremacist rabble, but they weren’t going to kick Nixon to the curb for doing so.

Reagan took the dog whistling to the next level in 1980. He kicked off his general election campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, speaking about states’ rights. Throughout the campaign he spoke of “welfare queens” and “strapping young bucks.” By this time, the so-called Religious Right had joined the winning coalition. Although Reagan’s pandering to the haters may not have pleased the other coalition members, it again was not a deal point for them. If the path to lower taxes, reduced regulation, and forcing women to take unwanted pregnancies to term meant getting into bed with the racist crowd, well, so be it.

Enter economic inequality. Over a span of three decades beginning about the time Reagan was elected, those at the top of the economic food chain in America did unbelievably well, while those in the middle and towards the bottom did progressively worse. Hard times bring out the best in some people, but the worst in others. Otherwise decent people succumb to the temptation of hatred in hard times, especially when there’s a group, like immigrants, to scapegoat.

Throw in the election of an African-American at the depths of the Great Recession, and you have a toxic brew. The combination of a well-financed media operation, courtesy of the Koch Brothers and their affiliates, and dozens of cynical politicians, gave rise to the Tea Party. Hate was back in style.

Which took derivative enablement to an entirely new level and ultimately gave us Donald Trump.

Trump in not especially smart, but he recognized that the Supremacist Strategy now called for more direct communication. The hater crowd had grown to the point they could elect dozens of Tea Party types in Republican primaries. Trump noticed. He didn’t communicate by dog whistle. His message was direct and unmistakable. Mexican immigrants had to be walled off. Muslims were going to kill us. Blacks lives don’t matter, but Blue lives sure do.

That propelled Trump to easy primary victories and the Republican nomination. Those angry, vicious crowds at Trump rallies grew throughout the campaign. The haters, forced to lay low for decades, had now emerged from behind their trees and under their rocks. They were jubilant. Their savior had arrived.

Still, they were not enough by themselves once the general election was upon Trump.

It wasn’t the hard-core Trump supporters who ultimately elected Trump. Rather, it was the Rubio supporters, the Cruz supporters and, yes, the Kasich supporters who did. It was the country club Republicans, who made a Faustian bargain in the hopes of lower corporate and estate tax rates. It was the military contractors, who salivated at the prospect of a bloated defense budget. It was the fossil fuel industry, which feared another Democrat might continue the woefully inadequate baby steps Obama had taken to prevent catastrophic climate change.

So here we are. The haters are out in full force. They think they’re large and in charge. We know Donald Trump isn’t going to tell them otherwise. He’s with them.

What about those who have been enabling Trump? Will they step up?

In the early days of Nazi Germany, many industrialists did not care for Hitler’s hateful rhetoric. But they thought his agenda would be good for them economically, so they lent their support.

Whether history repeats itself, time will tell. But living through the past two years in America gives us a glimpse of how precarious civility and decency are in any society, and how easily a society can devolve into madness.

Let’s hope enough of Trump’s enablers recognize this in time.

33 thoughts on “It’s Not the Haters; It’s the Enablers of their Enabler”

  2. Video and pictures on Twitter. The vicious assault on Deandre Harris, a 20 year old black man, by domestic terrorists. According to Shaun King, social media has positively identified two of the terrorists.

    Shaun King‏Verified account @ShaunKing 10h10 hours ago

    WARNING.

    Criminal evidence.

    The vicious criminal assault of Deandre Harris by white supremacists. The clearest video.

    ARREST THESE MEN.

    https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/897311005419728897

    • Description of the vicious assault in Deandre’s words on gofundme. The terrorists were obviously trying to kill him.

      I Was Beaten By White Supremacists

      On August 12th, 2017 there was a “Unite the Right” march of white nationalist and other right-wing groups (KKK, Neo-nazis, and white supremacists) that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. These individuals were protesting against the removal of local confederate monuments, primarily the Robert E. Lee Statue in Emancipation Park. I arrived at Emancipation Park around 11 AM as a counter-protester to voice my opinion on racial tensions and to literally stand up for what I believe in. I was only there for a few minutes before I was hit with water bottles, maced with pepper spray, and had derogoratoy slurs hurled at me. Just forty-five minutes in to the rally our Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency to aid state response to violence. About fifteen minutes or so after that I was brutally attacked by white supremacists in the parking garage right beside the Charlottesville Police Station. I was chased and beat with metal poles. I was knocked unconscious repeatedly. Every time I went to stand up I was knocked back down. If it was not for my friends that I came with I would have been beaten to a pulp. No law enforcement stepped in to help me. Once I was dragged off to some near by steps I was taken to the designated area for injured protesters & counter-protesters. My injuries were too extensive to be treated at the scene so I was taken to the ER at Martha Jefferson Hospital. I was diagnsoed with a concussion, an ulnar fracture, and had to receive eight staples in my head. I also have a laceration across my right eyebrow, abrasions on my knees & elbows, and a chipped tooth. I’m so blessed to be alive to tell my story and to show the world that racism is very much still alive. The funds will be used to pay for my medical bills. I appreciate the support from my friends, family, and the news platforms that have reached out to check on me. We will not let this fade & disappear. People are carrying real hate in their hearts for the Black Community and I refuse to just let it happen. God Bless & thank you all again!

      https://www.gofundme.com/i-was-beaten-by-white-supremacists

  4. Scott Dworkin‏Verified account @funder 1h1 hour ago

    #BREAKING: Baltimore City Council just adopted resolution to destroy all Confederate monuments #Resist #ImpeachTrump

  6. And then there’s Jeff Sessions. Exactly the kind of guy you DON’T want for Attorney General. This article was written just after the election last year.

    Jeff Sessions: Champion of Anti-Muslim and Anti-Immigrant Extremists
    November 18, 2016
    Stephen Piggott

    Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, one of President-elect Donald Trump’s closest advisers during his campaign and his selection for U.S. attorney general, has longstanding and extensive ties to both anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim extremist groups.

    Sessions, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 1997, has for years been the key bridge between the anti-immigrant movement and Congress. His efforts to combat comprehensive immigration reform legislation have won him plaudits across the nativist landscape.

    Sessions has relied on material from the movement to help stymie reform, and anti-immigrant groups have had a reliable – and powerful – ally in Sessions, who chairs the immigration subcommittee within the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    Read more…

    https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/11/18/jeff-sessions-champion-anti-muslim-and-anti-immigrant-extremists

  8. Andrew Anglin of the Daily Stormer’s response to Trump’s two day late statement disavowing hate:

    “But someone CHALLENGED a sloppy sow with a Dodge (something which may have been a publicity stunt by Dodge), so Trump had to disavow – again.”

    Nazi’s print things like that (the car was a Dodge Challenger) and then wonder why protestors show up at their rallies. Wonder if he kisses his “sow” mother with that mouth.

    Jared Taylor, organizer of the march, is blaming the people protesting the march, and saying;

    “One young white man did crash his car into demonstrators, killing one. We don’t yet know his motives, but even if he deliberately hurt people, there was just one of him, and everyone associated with Unite the Right has condemned him.”

    To which I say see Andrew Anglin’s response, not everyone on the right has condemned him, and fuck Jared Taylor, even the guy’s high school teacher has explained the POS’s motive. He’s a Nazi.

    And “even … if… he did deliberately hurt people…” Really? “If he did”?

    Fuck Jared Taylor.

    Henry Olson writing at American Renaissance:

    “A lot of our people were dismayed to hear President Trump’s weak platitudes against “white supremacy” and “violence,” and pleas for “unity” and color-blindness in response to a case that consisted almost entirely of his own supporters being attacked by the types of people who call for his own assassination and rioted at his inauguration.”

    Sad racists are “dismayed” at calls for “color-blindness” and “unity”. Such sad triggered little racist snowflakes, not sad for the murder or a young mother of two by one of their own, not sad for her children, sad for themselves.

    I can’t get into the Twitter and other social media accounts of the more prominent members of the alt-right because their accounts are all suspended for hate speech.

    And again, they wonder why protestors show up at their events, and claim to be victims.

    Here’s a good explanation of who attended based on their love of Nazi symbolism.

    https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/08/12/flags-and-other-symbols-used-far-right-groups-charlottesville

    All racist un-American, un-Patiotic POS, all Trump supporters.

    • Found a response from Richard Spencer, the guy who coined the term ‘alt-right’ and wants to be the top nazi sooooo bad…

      “Spencer on Monday declined to condemn the 20-year old’s actions.

      “I am not going to condemn this young man at this point,” Spencer said, insisting “there is a great deal of ambiguity” regarding the events that transpired Saturday.”

      He said the man’s car was not part of his “cause”.

      So, another Nazi who won’t condemn the murder of a young mother of two by one of their own, and wonders why protesters show up everywhere he goes.

  10. when they go low we go high. very high in the air! like the woman hit and killed by the domestic terrorist. at least the media and prominent democrats are not calling it work place violence!

  11. The Southern Poverty Law Center published this just before Charlottesville happened…

    The Alt-Right On Campus: What Students Need To Know
    August 10, 2017

    In this article

    Why is the Alt-Right Targeting Campuses?
    The Rise of the Alt-Rght
    The Alt-Right and Freedom of Speech
    What To Say, What To Do
    Who is the Alt-Right: Headliners
    Who is the Alt-Right: Brain Trust
    Who is the Alt-Right: The Shock Troops
    Who is the Alt-Right: The Fight Clubs

    An old and familiar poison is being spread on college campuses these days: the idea that America should be a country for white people.

    Under the banner of the Alternative Right – or “alt-right” – extremist speakers are touring colleges and universities across the country to recruit students to their brand of bigotry, often igniting protests and making national headlines. Their appearances have inspired a fierce debate over free speech and the direction of the country.

    Behind the provocative, youthful and sometimes entertaining facade of the alt-right is a scrum of white nationalists and white supremacists – mostly young men – who hate diversity and scorn democratic ideals. They claim that “white identity” is under attack by multicultural forces using “political correctness” and “social justice” to undermine white people and “their” civilization. Characterized by heavy use of social media and memes, they eschew establishment conservatism and promote the goal of a white ethnostate, or homeland.

    Read more….

    https://www.splcenter.org/20170810/alt-right-campus-what-students-need-know

    • WHO IS THE ALT-RIGHT: THE BRAIN TRUST

      STEPHEN BANNON

      Before he became the chief strategist for Donald Trump, Stephen Bannon, 63, was the chief enabler of the alt-right movement. Without Bannon’s ascension to the Oval Office, the movement would likely still be confined to the dark corners of the internet. Born to a working class family in Norfolk, Virginia, Bannon joined the Navy and worked his way up to a Pentagon job.

      With an MBA from Harvard, he parlayed work at Goldman Sachs into ownership of a Hollywood production company. While screening In the Face of Evil, his documentary on Ronald Reagan, he met Andrew Breitbart, founder of the conservative news website that bears his name. When Breitbart died suddenly in 2012, Bannon took over Breitba­rt News, and the site took a sharp turn. With Ban­non at the helm, it attacked the GOP establishment under what he described as a “nationalist” ideolo­gy similar to the right-wing ideology that has swept parts of Europe.

      Bannon, who denies he is racist, presided over a news empire where he, as The Guardian wrote, “aggressively pushed stories against immigrants, and supported linking minorities to terrorism and crime.” Under Bannon, Breitbart published a call to “hoist [the Confederate flag] high and fly it with pride” only two weeks after the Charleston massa­cre, while the country was still reeling from the hor­rors of the murders…

    • The right calls the SPLC a hate group. Because they’re that stupid.

      Our local leaders are every bit as much to blame as the right wing media. This is the state that in 2011 wanted to see Obama’s penis to prove he was an American.

      That’s the level of intelligence racist’s possess. This is a birther state. The show me your papers state. The break up families then go to church and say hi to Jesus and John Smith state.

      They say they’re not racist, they’re against multiculturalism, and that the word racist doesn’t mean anything anymore because it’s been overused.

      Then some Nazi murders a young mother of two at a White Power rally and they fail to see the connection between their words and a brutal killing.

      They mock us for warnings about Bannon/Gorka/Miller, about Arpaio, JT Ready, and call people triggered little snowflakes, then a young mother of two is slain by one of their’s and they still don’t see the connection between their words and actions and that mother’s blood in the street.

      Trump made a good statement today, finally, two days late. You have one chance to make the right impression and he failed. He looked like a hostage forced to make a speech.

      I think it’s going to get worse if Trump doesn’t fire Bannon/Gorka/Miller, because the alt-right sees that as approval for their hate and violence.

      Our local politicians need to take a good long look at themselves, blood is on their hands, too.

      • Yeah, one of my recurring thoughts on this is that many (white) people feel they have nothing to do with this because they aren’t “alt-right” extremists. But almost 63 million people voted for Trump, most of whom had to be fully aware of his racism and misogyny.

        There’s a lot of history here.

  12. And let’s not let Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, WND and Breitbart, and some of our local politicians off the hook.

    For years the right has been telling people like the POS who drove his car into a crowd and killed a young mother of two that if a black man doesn’t have a job it’s because black people are lazy.

    But if a white man doesn’t have a job it’s because of Mexicans or the Government or Obama.

    They manipulate these weak minded young men into blaming everyone else for their woes except for themselves, and they do it for the most un-American, un-Patriot reason of all, votes. Votes the cannot get based on their policies and ideology.

    They’re every bit as responsible as the POS driving that car.

  13. And let’s all thank the FBI for stopping this right wing domestic terrorist.

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/man-attempts-to-detonate-car-bomb-near-1995-oklahoma-city-bombing-memorial/

    That would be the same FBI that Trump has been trashing for a year.

    Where is the outrage from the right about their sons wanting to kill Americans?

    In the average, non-9/11 and non-San Bernardino year, you are twice as likely to die from a domestic, right wing, Christian terrorist as you are from an Islamic terrorist.

  14. Trump, Saying ‘Racism Is Evil,’ Condemns Violence in Charlottesville
    By GLENN THRUSHAUG. 14, 2017

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump bowed to overwhelming pressure that he personally condemn white supremacists who incited bloody demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend — labeling their racists views “evil” after two days of equivocal statements.

    “Racism is evil,” Mr. Trump said. “And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

    Several of the president’s top advisers, including his new Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, pressed Mr. Trump to issue a more forceful rebuke after his comment on Saturday that the violence in Charlottesville was initiated by “many sides,” prompting nearly universal criticism.

    That pressure reached boiling point early Monday after the president attacked the head of Merck pharmaceuticals, who is black, for quitting an advisory board over his failure to call out white nationalists.

    Merck’s chief executive, Kenneth C. Frazier, resigned from the president’s American Manufacturing Council on Monday, saying he objected to the president’s statement on Saturday blaming violence that left one woman dead on “many sides.”
    …
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-protest.html

    • The logical next step is to fire Bannon, Miller, and Gorka, but perhaps they are okay as long as they don’t “cause violence”.

      • The Lennonist Bannon and the White Supremacist Miller along with fake scholar Gorka are signs of hope to the White Power folks.

        Trump is their guy. They say it over and over again, and David Duke said it over and over again over the weekend.

        They’re the reason for the violence over the weekend. They’re the reason the KKK and Nazi’s felt safe to come out of their mommy’s basements.

        Trump’s afraid to fire them because those are the leaders of his base, and his racist base is all he has left.

        • I’m trying to process Trump saying, “racism is evil”. This from the Birther King who has a racist history, ran a racist campaign, and immediately surrounded himself with racists in the WH.

          Maybe the Central Park Five will weigh in.

  15. I just watched Trump’s way too late condemnation of the KKK and Nazis.

    I’m hoping it’s just his way of speaking with his hands, but he keeps using the “A OK” sign, three fingers up, finger and thumb making an “O”.

    White Nationalists have been using this sign to troll the left. Some of Trump’s supporters have flashed the sign in the White House and in the WH press briefing room.

    I’d be very surprised if a White House so in tune to White Nationalist memes isn’t aware of the meaning of the sign.

    Off the the racist websites to see if they caught on.

  16. The President of the United States of America is supposed to keep all American’s safe.

    Yet the minute he won the electoral college vote, millions of women, minorities, immigrants, and LGBT people felt nothing but fear.

    Previous President’s of the United States of America would not say “radical Islamic Terrorism” because the words the President says are important. Saying those words fuels the extremists and gives them legitimacy.

    But Trump brags about saying those words, yet refuses to say “radical right wing terrorism” when it comes to his supporters.

    And that tells you everything you need to know about the GOP. They are cowards who fear their racist base.

  17. That’s bleak, Bob. Must have been tough to write. I dearly want to say you are far too pessimistic about where we are as a society, but honestly I can’t. We’ll know whether we are going down that road if the Alt-Right tries to lionize this loser who drove his car into a crowd: echoes of Horst Wessel?

    • things are going the way I expected. only nervous nellys and republicans are worried. nov. 2018 will come.

  18. bob I can say it in a sentence. republicans are evil. this was said of hitler’s rise and can be said of trump’s rise in the end he cared more then they. the clintonista’s wanted hillary regardless of the consequences. had bernie sanders or maybe corey booker on the ticket michigan wisconsin pennsylvania north carolina and florida would have swung democrat. cheating bernie only got her votes for jill stein. (including mine)

  19. I don’t think it’s worth waiting for them. Hitler’s useful dupes in industry got everything they wanted…right until Germany went under.

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