Tell me what you pay attention to, and I will tell you who you are.
~ Jose Ortega y Gasset
When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.
~ Maya Angelou
The GOP is paying a lot of attention to Donald Trump. In the process, GOP Trump supporters are telling the nation exactly who the GOP is, and I'm believing them the first time. And for that, the Democratic National Committee says, "Thank you, GOP."
At first I thought the whole Donald Trump thing would die out, especially after he made misogynistic remarks about Megyn Kelly. I thought he definitely could not continue to pick up steam after using the term "anchor babies."
Not only did he pick up steam, he got Jeb Bush jockin' him and using the term, too.
Poor Chris Christie wants to avoid paying attention to Trump, but he can't seem to do so. Yesterday on CBS This Morning, Christie said it wasn't his job to talk about Trump but to talk about his own ideas. He did, however, take a swipe at Hillary Clinton, saying she was not qualified to run for president because of the FBI investigation of her email server. That's funny coming from someone who almost caught a case himself behind a missing Democratic endorsement and some resulting bridge constipation induced by his staff. The lack of self-awareness among the GOP candidates almost rival's Clinton's, what with her ill-chosen SnapChat joke.
But the rally in Mobile, Alabama -- Black Man Not Blogging's hometown -- said it all. That crowd was whiter than the sheets at a Klan rally. With Donald Trump, they were having their White Privilege Moment, getting high on their own supply -- of white privilege, that is.
"White Privilege Moment?", you ask? Yes, it's a moment, for electoral purposes.
What Trump's supporters like about him is his "tell it like it is" way of speaking and his refusal to be "politically correct," with him making a sexist joke about a female reporter and making amends with her male boss, and not her, about it, or having Jorge Ramos thrown out of a press conference for daring to take him on about his immigration policy (more about the two-faced nature of GOP immigration politics later). These GOP Trump supporters like the idea of Trump telling countries like Mexico that they're going to build a wall between them and the U.S. AND pay for it, or threatening to put China in its place. These poor folks long for a President who will tell marginalized people (people who don't look and/or think like them) and other countries what he ain't gonna do for them and what they ain't gonna do about it.
Cue "Dixie."
To borrow a turn of phrase from my mama, I'ma let them have their White Privilege Moment, just like they did when they put Mitt Romney up against Barack Obama and got b-slapped in the general election. Why?
Because demography is destiny.
Jorge Ramos is right -- the GOP cannot win the general election without the Latino vote, 'cause they sho ain't gonna get the black vote. Threatening to send U.S. citizens -- children no less -- born of undocumented parents back to their parents' home countries is no way to get the Latino vote. Epic. Fail. You can't even think of trying to tack to the center after being so far to the right of the Latino vote and much of the electorate in general especially in light of the two-faced nature of GOP immigration politics.
The GOP is so damned two-faced on immigration policy that it makes me want to scream. Who does Donald Trump think builds his buildings, cleans his hotels and casinos, and serves in his restaurants? If ICE did an immigration sweep right now of every Trump entity, I'm sure there would be a whole lot of undocumented workers caught up, undocumented workers who come to this country to work and whose presence in industries owned and run by GOP voters is benignly ignored when the GOP talks about immigration policy. If "President Trump" were to ramp up deportations, California's agriculture industry -- its biggest industry by far - would come to a screeching halt. Yet, California's central valley farmers, most of whom are Republican, are strangely silent on Trump's immigration policy. Trust me, if you deport the undocumented, no one else is going to step up to do the hard labor they do, especially not my people. Field work is so last millennium for my peeps, and they sure would open up a can of "Si Se Puede" union organizing in a heartbeat if you tried to get them to pick crops. When it comes to immigration policy, the GOP has a stunning lack of self-awareness.
But the Trump supporters continue on with their White Privilege Moment. In their mind, a Trump presidency would, to borrow from an old song, "lift them up where they belong," i.e., not having to give a crap about people who don't look or think like them. Demography be damned. And so they'll continue to support Trump because the White Privilege Moment feels so good to them, and because the rest of the GOP contenders collectively and individually lack the balls of a field mouse when it comes to having the courage to call Trump out.
But demography is still destiny. The demographic the GOP needs but does not have in its winning coalition is taking note of who the GOP is paying so much attention to. Just like the polls were misleading with respect to Mitt Romney's standing, they will be misleading with respect to accurately capturing the amount of Trump disgust among the Obama coalition of voters -- young people and people of color -- because these voters don't always vote consistently enough to be considered "most likely voters" pollsters use, and yet they come out in droves for the general election like a sneaker wave when there's a candidate they love (Obama) or hate (Romney or Trump).
Which means that Trump. Can't. Win.
But go on, GOP. Enjoy your White Privilege Moment.
P.S. Vice President Biden, please put Democratic donors out of their misery and run. You know Hillary can't win, either.
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