The Civil Rights movements took place over a half century ago, Trumpism started 5 years ago
For better or worse, America as a society is today very far from the place where she was in the early sixties. Dr. King’s Dream became true in 2008 with the election of Barack Obama. In 2020 the first woman, and person of color has been elected vice-president. These are clear demonstrations that –as a result of the social and political changes of the last 60 years–white people—but particularly white males—have found themselves losing ground to other groups. Little by little, white American males began to lose their older privileges. So, the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) male, who had founded the American Republic–and who had ruled this country uninterruptedly and unchallenged until the 1960s–found that now he had to share power with women and minorities.
The changes in the legal, social, and political landscape
By the passing of laws such as “affirmative action,” liberal laws in family matters skewed in women’s favor, and many other federal requirements imposed on employers to create “an equal opportunity environment,” white males in the 1980s realized a stark fact: Everyone had a legal and economic card of legal defense or special privilege, while white males had none.
So, as any impartial observer can see today–over the last five decades–there has been a social process of increased reverse discrimination against the new minority constituted by the straight white male.
The new American demographic realities: Why straight white males are a new minority today
The statistical fact is that women represent 51 percent of the American population. Even if they are in the majority, women are given status of “minority” in the American legal system. But the reality is that they still hold the majority of the votes in elections. That fact should not be overlooked.
Whites, as a whole, represent only 60 percent of the total American population of 328 million in 2021. The other 40 percent of Americans today are parts of different race and ethnic minorities. Of that 60 percent of whites, over half are women. So, white males today represent only 31 percent of the American population. As a result of this numbers reality, white men today are largely outnumbered in Any election by the other groups put together, unless they create coalitions with other constituency groups, such as the Democrats do.
“Gender issues” in the eighties were added to the list of special interest groups seeking equality and redressing their past oppressive situations. So, we see that of these 31 percent of white males, between 5 to 15 percent qualify as “gay” or “bisexual” men. This leaves the total number of straight white males at a mere 24 percent of the total American population. This makes them–at least in their eyes–a new and vulnerable minority.
“It is the numbers stupid”: The problem resides in Democracy
Given that the American system recognizes that one person counts as one vote and every individual–regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity has the right to vote in this country–the chances of straight white men to recoup their previous position of political control in American society through the vote is virtually nil.
This reality is evidenced in the fact that–of the last 8 elections, in terms of the popular vote, 7 were won by the Democrats and only 1 by the Republicans (the party of the WASP male). However, Republicans have been in office for the same amount of time as Democrats in this period thanks to the electoral college arrangement provided in the American constitution.
If the electoral college were to be removed today, the Republicans would have to–either change their political stances and create new alliances–or resign themselves to be a perennial minority with little chance to win the presidency of the United States ever again. This is a new and scary proposition for a large number of whites in this country, particularly for white males.
The changes in the social and legal landscape since the 1960s
So, since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, every disadvantaged group in America has gotten more of a say in political and legal matters in the US. After much struggle, they have gained more of a voice to redress their grievances and they have increasingly been taken into account by the rest of society. These groups, which I will call here Special Interest Groups Activists (SIGPA), eventually included the demands placed by the members of the LGBTQ communities that deeply disturbed the Evangelical Christians in this country who are at the social and ideological antipodes of these groups.
The reality is that, by the 1990s, everybody else had “a card” to play at the time of claiming “discrimination” in work and legal affairs except for the straight white male. Even if pointing this fact out will be probably criticized or denied by liberal thinkers, this is the reality of the prevailing legal, social, and political situation in the United States for half a century now. But, as every decade passed since the 1960s, this growing “reverse inequality” has been accompanied by the fact that–due to ongoing immigration and the population growth favoring minorities over whites--the situation has only gotten worse for this new minority: the white straight male.
The reaction of the white males’ minority to the current state of affairs
Disempowerment, or its perception, cannot go without increasing anger and discontent in people. This is even more the case when someone once felt to be at the top of the totem pole and are armed to the teeth. Whites in general–but particularly the straight WASP white male— feels that “their country has been taken away from them.” And this is exactly what Trump told his followers to incite them to rebel and “take ‘their’ country back.”
This political predicament of the white male minority is aggravated further by economic changes of the past century. The fact that over the years the US became an exporter of manufacturing jobs, buying most manufactured goods from China and the far East since the 1980s, led to the loss of the well-paid blue-collar jobs of the past. No wonder, the standard of living of these new generations of American white males have literally plummeted. This is even more evident in the now depressed areas that once constituted the American rust belt states.
The source of the Trump Appeal is “Man-Appeal”
It is in this context that Donald Trump shows up with a neo-nationalist, chauvinist, let’s-turn-the clock-back to “the good old times,” discourse. He, as many populist authoritarian leaders of the past, shows up at the right place at the right time. And the worst part is the fact that this reactionary ideology has now dangerously taken over the Republican party. This extreme right-wing position has expressed the feelings that were simmering in the backcountry in millions of whites for years. For that reason Trumpist ideology has caught on like fire in a haystack.
This extreme right-wing populist movement caught on with many disillusioned, disenfranchised, and impoverished white males and for good reasons. This narrative even appealed to white females of the middle and upper classes who traditionally vote Republican during the past election. Trump–as Hitler, Mussolini, and Lenin before him–had come to say what many white Americans were thinking all along, but the social pressures of “Political Correctness” did not allow them to express publicly. In that way, Trump in the XXI century has become “the voice of the White Guy.”
The current American political reality and its risks
There is no question that the last presidential election was won by Joe Biden. This is in spite of Trump claiming “fraud” and that he “won by a landslide.” But until he dies, he will continue to claim–and tell those that still follow him –that “the election was ‘rigged’ and that it was “stolen” from him.”
Biden got 81 million of the popular vote. But in terms of total population percentages, his electoral victory is a relatively close call. The 2020 election result also goes to show that–in spite of the egregious errors committed by the prior administration in many areas, such as mishandling the most devastating pandemic in a century and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression–at least 74 million Americans think and feel like Trump and still like him.
For these reasons, even if Trump retired from politics tomorrow, Trumpism–or an equivalent right-wing white populist movement–is here to stay. And this destabilizing situation for American democracy will continue to be present until this white minority comes to terms with the new demographic realities and accepts to share “their” country with the Other.
On the other hand, it is highly unlikely that this white minority will come around from this idea of “going back to the better past,” if they continue to be pushed over the edge by the ever-more-stringent demands coming from the extreme left-wing of the democratic party. This is so, as most of the agenda of the radical left in this country is considered anti-traditional, anti-American, and anti-Christian–not only by the extreme conservatives–but but by a significant number of moderates in this country.
It is not unlikely then that–in this current political and social context–Donald Trump will run again for president again. And it would not be surprising if–in spite of all his attacks on the American democratic system–he were elected again in 2024. If he does, he will have his day under the sun: It will be his “March on Rome” on inauguration day.
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I hope to see you in my next post,
Till then,
Dr T