–Galina Lada Fedorov, Russian model, former Trump Mistress
Why do working class white men forgive Trump’s unmanly behavior? Tom Nichols asked this question at the beginning of this piece, and writes some accurate insights regarding a question that I have had throughout this political horror show. Rather than dispute his explanation, I would like to build upon it.
Nichols grew up white and working class, brought up by the Second World War generation, and was heavily socialized in the Gary Cooper, “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do” sense of masculinity. This he has in common with many of this demographic, which has provided vital Trump support.
This is true despite the fact that Trump transparently dodged the draft, deflects responsibility from his, the most powerful executive position in the world, is obviously intimated by intelligent, accomplished women, and brags so extravagantly that one would think he was a school’s lowest achieving 6th grader trying to bum rush his way into the Student Council presidency. His vanity alone would get him disinvited from just about any Knights of Columbus or Teamsters smoker, if he were not President.
Nichols persuasively argues that Trump plays a Peter Pan role for many of this demographic’s members, and that his petulance is, in Nichols’ words, “a permission slip to shrug off the responsibilities of manhood.” In essence, his behavior validates the childishness that is inside so many men, but has remained hidden by the stoic need for the decision making and resolve that signals adult hood.
To this, I would add a further motivating factor. Many members of this demographic are fighting what to them has been an unprecedented loss in national hegemony since the Second World War. Beginning with the modern Civil Rights era, one group of Americans after another has declared themselves unwilling to passively live with their positions of legal, political, economic, or social scorn. Black people, brown people, Asians, homosexuals, trans people, and most of all women have asserted themselves. It is no longer permissible to pay unwelcome sexual attention to women at work, to crudely insult them on the street, or to harass gays, or to pull the corners of one’s eyes to get a laugh at Asian people’s expense. No longer can you repeatedly utter the word, “chigger” to obliquely insult an African American boss. I have witnessed all of these events in either a professional or military setting. Now, this behavior can get you in trouble at work, slandered on the internet, or simply make people despise you.
And the climax of the decline and fall of Ward Clever is that they elected a black president! Despite outright racist hostility from the McConnell and the Republican party, and Fox’s eight years of 24 hour/day unsupported vilification, his presidency was characterized by an economic recovery, quiet dignity, the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, and mostly business as usual. Aside from a few appointments of people of color to some important posts, the worst never happened. The stock market did not sink into the sewer, gas was never $10.00 per gallon, the Dakotas were not given back to the Sioux, white people did not become the property of black people, and you still have your guns.
However, a successful black presidency did signal the inevitable- the white working class is soon to be outnumbered by the non-white working class. They can fight it with increasingly racist legislation, but in the end, mathematics will shut the door on white hegemony. It is for this reason that so much of the right wing despises the Constitution. “We The People,” plus demographic trends equals “We can no longer ignore or abuse the people we irrationally hate.” That document and its legitimacy are their ultimate targets. To paraphrase Julianna Marguiles’ character Kitty Montgomery of Dietland, “they’ll burn down the entire world before they let somebody else run it.”
Bittersweet Abattoir 