Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Pandemic Diary Day 113: Trump: The 'Dog Whistler' Whisperer

Dear Diary,

A divisive re-tweet here, and racist rant there.

Trump has emerged as the ultimate Dog Whistler Whisperer in America. Even his white supremacist buddy/senior adviser, Stephen Miller, can't compete with Trump's constant conspiracies' and dog whistles to the fringe elements in our society.

His dogged devotion to the Confederacy conflates with reality: this is the 21st century - not the "good old days" when a outspoken racist, George Wallace, ran for president openly using the hate blacks platform.

This year, Americans are participating in a massive societal change geared towards equality for all. Not just for whites. It's a messy process in the middle of a pandemic, but it continues to move forward.

Trump thinks this is 2016. His greatest dog whistle (the one that made him infamous) was about President Obama's fake birth certificate. It was the fuel that vaulted him ahead of his GOP opponents, lighting the fires of racism throughout the country when we were most vulnerable. He's hoping it'll work again in 2020.

It's apparent that he can't make the transition from throwing fireballs in the Twittersphere to actually leading the country towards unification. The polls will prove that hypothesis in November. My confidence may reek of desperation, but I do have hope for this great nation.

                   On the Homefront - Medford, Oregon

Portland is Paralyzed
(July 4th riot in downtown Portland. Photo by Beth Nakamura)
The shit storm in Portland has to stop at some point. 

After 40 continuous days of rioting and vandalism, it's no longer about George Floyd, social justice, or police reform. Anarchists and other trouble makers have been showing up when the sun goes down and causing havoc every night.

Those who used fireworks and rocks against the police are taking away from the main reasons of the protests. Like state senator Avel Gordly, a Portland resident who was the first Black woman elected to Oregon's Senate, said...

"Their (the rioters) destructive and chaotic behavior defines the meaning of white privilege; their total disregard for people, property, and the law embodies entitlement."

I'll expand on that. Most of the arrests for violence and vandalism were white guys. Not the black and white people who paraded during the day for justice. Just bitter and destructive assholes who don't fit in society.

Worse, there doesn't seem to be enough leadership in the right places to bring about a peaceful ending to this standoff. 

Mayor Ted Wheeler pleads with the people to "stop the violence," every day, but is afraid to actually do anything about it because of the heat his police department is already under with multiple investigations of police brutality.

That leaves the city of Portland paralyzed by politics and the pandemic.

Quote for the Day; "We have learned to see racism in the spittle-laced epithets of the angry bigot. We must also learn to see racism in the coded racial entreaties promoted by calculating demagogues." -Ian Haney Lopez

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