No one has ever gone broke betting on whiteness and patriarchy in America.
What else to make of Donald Trump’s re-ascension to the White House? How else can we metabolize this madness and glee that MAGA-lovers are feeling at this moment? “Your body, my choice,” white nationalist Nicholas Fuentas gloated post-election. Later in the week, Black people were assaulted in mass by racist text messages invoking slavery by an anonymous sender.
Before and since his re-election on Tuesday, there has been a glut of think pieces exploring the wayward shift of people of color toward Trump. The implicit message is to blame the 46 percent of Latinos, the 20 percent of Black men, and the 12 percent of LGBTQ voters for his return.
Let’s cut the nonsense. A second Trump term and the calamity it will surely produce is not the result nor fault of Americans who are historically and still to remain, marginalized. It is not the fault of Arab Americans, Black Americans, or Latino Americans – whose marginal increase in support from men within those groups wasn’t enough in itself to secure Trump the White House.
No, it’s the clearest example of Occam’s razor.
Trump increased his votes amongst men this election, with 55 percent casting their vote for him this week. So did 60 percent of white Americans. Men haven’t given the majority of their vote to a Democrat in 60 years, and the Republican party has owned the white vote for more than a decade.
Trump’s impending presidency is a product of white supremacy and the patriarchy it feeds.
The fault lies with too many white Americans who would cling to the promise of power they believe they’re entitled to, rather than link their fate to anyone else’s humanity. It is their lust for exclusionary dominance atop a racial caste.
Whatever your opinion of Kamala Harris, she was never going to win a majority of white men. No Democratic, let alone progressive presidential candidate, has received a majority of their vote in 60 years, but way to task a Black woman with the impossible. This isn’t to excuse the feckless and inept Democratic party. It is to say that a Trump rise should be impossible no matter the political party.
Trump is projected to win the popular vote with roughly 74 million ballots cast for him, a figure closely mirroring his failed 2020 campaign. Nearly 85 percent of Trump’s voters were white, unchanged from 2020. Sixty percent were white men.
In our history, if we only counted white men’s votes, we would never have had the enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, the expansion of health insurance, job-protected family leave, marriage equality, and (as paltry as it is) an increase in the Federal minimum wage. Each achievement happened under presidents they rejected.
One can argue that due to their voting propensity as a group, we lack universal healthcare, free college tuition, and a national living wage. Policies that would be beneficial to them and the entire country.
When it comes to marginalized communities, our existence in this country will always be precarious unless enough white men decide to be communally human instead of uniquely superior.
And that is a decision they have made in the past.
At a time of chattel slavery when Black men were auctioned like cattle and only white men could vote, there were enough of them in 1865 to pass the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments – abolishing slavery, extending civil rights, and presenting the right to vote (at least to Black men), without one Black vote.
With an all-male constituency, there were enough of them in 1919 to pass the 19th Amendment enfranchising women with the right to vote, with no women eligible to vote.
With a predominantly straight Congress and Senate, there were enough of them in 2022 to protect marriage equality via the Respect for Marriage Act.
In the lead up to the election, the way our media coddled White men’s sense of self-worth at the expense of the concerns of others during this campaign was as repulsive as it was farcical.
Now, I do have sympathy for the plights of white men who our media has fixated on this last year. Their life is hard. They are experiencing increased loneliness, addiction, economic anxiety, and the list goes on. But the thing is, life is no less hard for women who still make 84 percent less than men. Or Native Americans, who have the highest addiction rates in the country. Or Black women who are more than twice as likely to die during their pregnancy than their white counterparts. Or Black men, who are still more than three times more likely to be killed by police.
Yet, at one time or another during this campaign, all of these groups were publicly scolded, shamed, and patronized for not enthusiastically supporting Harris. But not white men. We spent hours of podcasts and gallons of newspaper ink on their support for exploring their newly discovered malaise.
Meanwhile, the coalition of the historically marginalized still voted as a majority to reject Trumpism.
Trump’s presidency is built on the myth of white male exceptionalism. From the way Trump’s economic plans were hailed, you’d think he magically transported the whole of this nation from the breadline to the penthouse during his first term. His economic agenda is not one of mass prosperity. It includes deficit-widening tax cuts for the rich, inflationary tariffs, and mass deportation that will devastate the construction and agriculture industries, at least. Nor did he pretend that he was anything other than he was: unapologetic in his brutality of women, disdaining of trans people, hater of immigrants, and dismissive of racial prejudices.
Upon news of his reelection, the top 10% of wealthiest Americans saw in $64 billion increase in their net worth. Pardon my skepticism of them anticipating a mass redistribution of capital to our poorest.
This country will only reach its final form when enough white men reject a myth of ultra-individualism, superiority, and dominance in favor of a saga of solidarity. A saga that is difficult, challenging, occasionally infuriating —but ultimately hopeful.
On Tuesday, we saw that happen in our majority-white state of Washington, and our majority-white city of Seattle. Both dived deeper blue on Tuesday.
Many pundits and commentators are wary of discussing race at patriarchy at the moment. But it is precisely because we have failed for generations to seriously consider those duel poisons and their lingering effects that we have arrived at this point.
If we accept that the only recourse we have to better this country is to bow to the whims of recalcitrant white men then where exactly does that lead us other than the hell we’re already in?
I don’t think you’re wrong, but I do think how we conceptualice this is a whole lot of graduate school or higher vocabulary and lacking in the “meet people where they are at” camp. Let’s try less telling/more showing? What does this ^^^ actually look like on a day to day basis, in our families, work lives, and communities?
I don’t know what world you’re living in thinking that white men aren’t constantly hounded and shamed for all the present ills of society (this article is an excellent example). Parsing and pandering based on demographic categories as offered in this article and by democratic media and consultant elites is the cancer that is causing these mass defections across demographics. It may win points in the leftist salons or on campus, but most of the population is exhausted by the scolding, condescension and stereotyping. I’m not arguing that generally racial/gender levels of hierarchy, oppression and privilege don’t exist. Nor that policy shouldn’t be developed to address inequities and historical wrongs… it’s just not a winning electoral strategy to publicize policy that privileges a minority – especially when the vast majority are seeing their standard of living diminish.
fucking
Bravissimo.
“The fault lies with too many white Americans who would cling to the promise of power they believe they’re entitled to, rather than link their fate to anyone else’s humanity. It is their lust for exclusionary dominance atop a racial caste.”
‘equality’ looks too dang Much like Oppression
when one’s perched so Comfortably
aTop the Food Chain
perhaps
eltrumpfster’ll
show us the Errors
of our Medieval Ways
and we’ll Free the Womenfolk
and even Clarence Thomas
may see the inhumanity
of overthrowing the
13th Amendment
when he’s taken
off our USSC in
chains. for now
though, how tf
do we Survive
ANOTHER 4
Years of el-
trumpfster
& the Insa-
nity of his
MAGAtty
disciples?
@2 – as a white guy, I am not seeing the shaming and discrimination that you claim is ever-present. I’m just not. Maybe you are so thin-skinned that any criticism of things white guys do is killing you. I really don’t know.
As to people seeing their standard of living diminish, yes, this is a problem. But it is not a single problem. The most immediate trigger for people was the relatively short period of inflation we just went through. Inflation that was dealt with pretty quickly, and that was far lower than in any other industrialized country that I am aware of. It was caused by the response to a global pandemic that killed millions of people, including a million or more here. In providing support to people who were out of work, we did stimulate the economy pretty hard. But because we did that, no one starved as we dealt with the plague. And inflation is now under control (ironically, the asshole who used inflation to whip up the mob to get elected is now getting ready to kick off what will likely be higher levels of it with his tariff scheme).
The bigger cause for economic problems in parts of the country is that the economy changed. Economies do that. Industries come and go. We have to respond to that. People need to learn new skills and sometimes move for opportunities. Like almost all the white people here, I’m here because things got tough in the old country and my ancestors left it all behind, got on leaky sailing ships, and came here not knowing what they’d find. By a lot of hard work and initiative (yes, I am aware that there is a lot more to it including land & resources stolen from the Indians and capital produced by slavery, but at the level of what Johannes Q. Immigrant did when he got here it was working hard), they managed to make it. That is a heritage I am pretty proud of.
I’m not suggesting that the working class that is now struggling should leave everything behind and sail off somewhere else. But is it asking too much that people get into their car and drive to the community college or the trade school and learn a skill that is in demand? The elites that they (and it kinda sounds like you) hate so much generally put in a lot of years getting educated before they started making a comfortable living. Most people I know didn’t make a living wage until around age 30.
What the “elites” did NOT do was watch their employer go under, then sit around town and complain for the next decade. And I’m seeing far too much of that in coal mining areas, factory towns, etc. I never hear the complainers talking about all the late nights they put in studying to get somewhere instead of drinking shitty beer with their friends.
I don’t disagree the issue remains, white privilege is real and white dominance remains. That said, it still feels like the sum total of the article is … “blame the white guys” … ok.. check. The reaction will always be the same from those Trump voting white guys when they hear that. “Ok, you are attacking me… telling me I’m the problem” and they tune out and walk away back to the Republican party always in significant enough numbers to ensure republican domination of a majority. This is and always has been about economics, about the plutocracy manipulating the sheep/ants/peons whatever you want to call all of us. They want us divided. Scare/anger the left with identity politics of choice .. no need to list them we are lefty’s here we know them … scare/anger the right with their identity politics (taking their guns, alleged Christian persecution, alleged “reverse discrimination .. all the usual tropes). Repeat this over and over for endless financial gain, via .. no meaningful regulations .. no meaningful reforms.. free to loot and pillage if you are rich enough. That is the reality here. That is ground to unite all of us if we’d weak up and get over ourselves for a few election cycles. Yet we spend our time shaming and blaming and focusing on the myriad of identity politics. We have to take the problems one at a time. We all need to unify on economics, the Democratic party could easily do that, they don’t want to… because the plutocrats control that party as well and the party is kept weak by splitting its focus on the endless array of historical wrongs. How is that working out? The platform should be about winning the white house and the congress and THEN enacting permanent systemic reforms. But the way to get there is focus on economics, not on the legacy of slavery, or the legacy of misogyny, or any of that… do that later… it is incredibly important that we all push our society towards true equity, but that is a longer journey. First we need to be in power… the way to do that is via the pocketbook… it indeed is the economy .. stupid…. we just got that forehead slapping reminder in this election. The rest is just an argument that really just depends on where you are, indeed the white people… men and women.. sitting the the Bellevue’s of the other states… really don’t care to share. The poor white people out there just want what we all want, a home of their own, financial stability, living wages … the left needs to go back to the basics .. or .. we can just keep losing… I have no real hope the left is going to wake up to this even after this disaster… we’ll continue self inflicting wounds debating who is more persecuted and deserving and complaining about/blaming/shaming the white guys…. meanwhile the plutocrats are laughing raking in their next amassment of record breaking levels of wealth… “Watch this! Gilded age.. haha.. hold my beer.”
As a white man I don’t associate with racist white men. They are an immature group of idiots. I love Kamala Harris. I supported her during the 2020 primary. The problem is immaturity in our culture. Very few aspire to manhood OR womanhood for that matter. Our culture coddles misguided resentment. Instead of blaming the ills of our society on the formation of the billionaire class we allow the propaganda machines to inform us it’s poor people of color that is the problem. If white “men” don’t grow up and quit crying like little fucking babies then these little fucking white man-babies will make sure those completely unrelated to their grotesque fragility will suffer.
For an accurate debate, let’s talk about content of character instead of pigmentation.
Washington moved to the left because white people here read. White dudes (of which I am one) can skate by marginally-educated, and stupid people vote for Trump.
“we saw that happen in our majority-white state of Washington, and our majority-white city of Seattle. Both dived deeper blue on Tuesday”
So why did that happen – what make’s Washington / Seattle different than Ohio / Cleveland? The answer is our strong, diversified economy – it truly is “the economy, stupid”.
Republicans began the road to WA irrelevance when they voted for Pat Robertson – because they moved away from economic based candidates to social warrior based candidates. Keep the economy strong and folks are willing (and have demonstrated over decades actually doing it) to tune out the crap of folks like Trump.
The big question is how do we recreate the economies of the West Coast across America (home grown manufacturing, highly educated workers, strong agricultural, etc.). So my suggestion to Progressives specifically, but the left in general, claim victories when they arise (the left did exceptionally well this year), review those victories for learnings (see Rep Peres in SW WA).
“the Republican party has owned the white vote for more than a decade.”
Writes the columnist who lives in Seattle, of all places. 😂🤣😂🤣
@7 That’s the entire subject of this essay. You don’t see it only because you don’t want to.
Excellent essay. Best thing I’ve read in The Stranger for a long time. We tend to ignore this very issue. The fact remains that white people vote overwhelmingly for Republicans and black people vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. We can argue about why. @2 claims it is self awareness. Or rather, other people making them aware of their whiteness. This could be called the Heisenberg principle of racially-biased voting. If people — especially those from the left — wouldn’t make a big deal out of their whiteness then they would vote based on class (like they did during the Great Depression) or logic and evidence (like … other countries?). The only reason that white people vote Republican is because the left constantly shames them.
Bullshit. Quick history lesson. Black voters switched to the Republican Party with Roosevelt. But many (most?) black people couldn’t vote. It is quite likely there was a northern bias (i. e. black people in the north — many of them union members — voted like working-class white people). When the Civil Right Act and Voting Rights Act were passed, black people voted overwhelmingly for Democrats. Without a large majority of support from white people the Republican Party would be as relevant as the Whigs. Enter Nixon and his “Southern Strategy” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Southern-strategy). Trump is merely a protege of Nixon*. To quote the encyclopedia:
The strategy has also involved directly promoting conservative views on immigration, taxes, social welfare programs, law enforcement, and states’ rights.
Sound familiar? Of course there is more dog whistling. But the arguments are just as reactionary — they are just adjusted for the times (no more calls for segregation). Which brings me back to @2. It was not the left, but the right that was emphasizing race in this election. Trump attacked the ethnicity of Harris. He claimed she was a “diversity hire”. The message was clear. You, white guy, are getting screwed because the system doesn’t treat you fairly. It favors blacks. It favors women. White dudes have no chance.
Bullshit. But enough white men feel this way to sway the election. This is often the case. There are other factors (e. g. the economy) but even then it is often based on identity politics: “The Democrats claim that inflation is down and we have the best economy in the world. They have economic experts touting their accomplishments. Who you gonna believe, them or me?”
But remember who this was saying this. Donald Trump. A rich fucker who was born rich. A failed businessman (https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/as-a-businessman-trump-was-the-biggest-loser-of-all) who was known for cheating the working man (https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/282933-report-trump-has-refused-to-pay-hundreds-of-workers/). Why then, would anyone believe this rich fucker instead of a bunch of (presumably impartial) financial experts? The dude is white. “He gets me.”
In more ways than one (https://www.vera.org/reimagining-prison-webumentary/the-past-is-never-dead/drug-war-confessional). Trump is going to have to work hard to reach that level of fascism.
I was all ready to write what I thought was a thoughtful, measured comment in response to this column, and then I thought better of it for fear of how a moderator might react. The problem is, I was not just disagreeing with Marcus Harrison Green’s conclusion, I was trying to question its motivation while at the same time trying to distance myself from a literal accusation.
So instead let me try to put this more tactfully. Mr. Harrison Green writes: “Trump’s impending presidency is a product of white supremacy and the patriarchy it feeds.”
From my view of America, the more we try to make white supremacy the unifying explanation for the state of American politics and Trumpism, the more fuel we add to the fire that is Trumpism. For me, the underlying “-ism” that we are struggling against is not so much white supremacy or patriarchy, it is a word which is missing from this essay, oligarchy. There, is that tactful enough?
The best post-election analysis I’ve seen so far is from Josh Barro in The New York Times today, “This Is All Biden’s Fault”:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/opinion/joe-biden-kamala-harris-trump.html
My only quibble with Barro is where he blames the Biden legislative agenda for overstimulating the economy, thus contributing to inflation. But that’s a more complicated discussion and one of degree.
@11: No that’s not the case, but it is a malleable chunk of writing so I can see how you twisted that. I concur with @13.
“he blames the Biden legislative agenda for overstimulating the economy, thus contributing to inflation. But that’s a more complicated discussion and one of degree.”
That’s a ridiculous assertion. The base reason for inflation was the supply chain restarting after a complete global shutdown. In my industry, it’s taking forever to get such basic things as transformers, conductors, and meter sockets. The cost of eggs went up because we had to cull millions of chickens because of bird flu. Companies admitted in their earnings calls that they were jacking up their prices because “they could”
If you want to fault Biden, fault him for failing to come down on price gouging.
@13 – moderator? At the Stranger? Surely you jest. You have to try pretty hard to get slammed by a mod here. A “thoughtful, measured comment” is unlikely to do it.
“In the lead up to the election, the way our media coddled White men’s sense of self-worth at the expense of the concerns of others during this campaign was as repulsive as it was farcical.”
Welcome to the Stranger, Mr. Green. During the thirteen months prior to the election, the Stranger was All Gaza, All the Time. And there was no history, no nuance, no examination in the Stranger’s endless Gaza coverage. The Israelis were committing “genocide,” and no amount of eliminationist hate rhetoric towards Israel (which flowed freely) from pro-Palestinian protestors could inspire so much as a single word of criticism from Stranger.
Even after admitting “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes,” the Stranger demanded VP Harris support an arms embargo against Israel — something no president can actually deliver — because Gaza.
Finally, the Stranger’s darling, former Seattle City Council Member Sawant, openly campaigned for Trump in Michigan, explicitly to deny Harris the presidency, to “punish” Harris for her (entirely mainstream) stance on Gaza. The Stranger has yet to publish so much as one single word of criticism for Sawant’s pro-Trump actions.
Turnout wins elections. Democracy works better when more citizens participate. Americans cast millions fewer votes in 2024 than in 2020. By making the election about only Gaza and nothing but Gaza, the Stranger and Sawant did everything they possibly could to distract from more important issues, to portray the left as intolerant fanatics on Gaza, and as callously indifferent to pretty much anything else. That’s not a recipe for higher turnout, and we’ve now seen the results.
Some would say as one of the rare Kamala/Reichert voters that I get to be uniquely disappointed in the results…
@15- 110% agree. And did you see Bibi’s statement that the Palestinians won’t be allowed to return home the other day? Motherfucker isn’t even waiting for Trump to get sworn in.
dvs99 dear, on the far right, it’s the cruelty that’s the point. On the far left it’s the moral outrage and virtue voting. Which tells me that most of them don’t care about the Palestinians. It’s all for show.
@19 — the Deal’s
already Sealed
speaking of
fascists
nyt:
Senators
Vying to Be
G.O.P. Leader Vow
to Quickly Confirm Trump Nominees
Senators Rick Scott, John Thune and John Cornyn
quickly responded to President-elect Donald J.
Trump’s demand on social media, the latest
example of his influence over
Republican lawmakers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/us/politics/republican-senators-trump-scott-thune-cornyn.html
a wee bit o’
History:
“We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves,
in the arsenal of democracy, with its own
weapons. If democracy is so stupid
as to give us free tickets & salaries
for this bear’s work,
that is its affair.
We do not come as friends,
nor even as neutrals. We
come as enemies. As
the wolf bursts into
the flock, so
we come.”
–P. Joseph Goebbels
c. 1939
ah ~ how Fondly
I remember dewey &
his flock so Upset with Any
‘Nazi’ references to hair furor
‘chicken littles!’
he cried & most Likely
Voted for our future fuhrer
the
“D”NC
Strikes Again!
“We’ll Get ’em
Next Time!”
–Actual quote
@19, @21: Why, it’s almost as if the election of Trump has already become a disaster for the Palestinians, and therefore, their supporters here in the United States should have done everything they possibly could to elect Harris.
Wait, what?
‘”We need to be clear about what our goals are,” Sawant said in a speech on Sunday in Dearborn, Michigan. “We are not in a position to win the White House.
‘”But we do have a real opportunity to win something historic. We could deny Kamala Harris the state of Michigan. And the polls show that most likely Harris cannot win the election without Michigan.”
‘So the goal is “fighting to defeat Harris, not just symbolically but in reality,” Sawant said. “This is ground zero to punish Kamala Harris and defeat her.”‘
(https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/a-big-seattle-name-is-in-the-election-battlegrounds-helping-trump/)
@19, @21: Why, it’s almost as if the election of Trump is already a disaster for the Palestinian cause, and therefore, supporters in the U.S. should have done everything possible to elect Harris.
(Also @21, I don’t know why you’re going with the re-tread version of that quote. Lenin had said pretty much the same thing, and he’d died in the previous decade.)
“Why, it’s almost as if the election of Trump is already a disaster for the Palestinian cause, and therefore, supporters in the U.S. should have done everything possible to elect Harris.”
–@Wormtongue*
the so-called “Democratic”
National Committee’s Biggest Apologist*
Really
Wormmy?
here’s two from
the New Republic:
Democrats
Need to Clean House
Before They Screw Up Again
It wasn’t just the people running
Kamala Harris’s campaign who
failed. The leadership of the
entire party is at fault.
–by Kat Abughazaleh
oodles
https://newrepublic.com/article/188172/democrats-need-clean-house-screw?
&
Trump
Stole Bernie’s
Working-Class Story.
Dems Should Steal It Back.
Sanders’s time as a potential party standard-bearer is fading, but his ideas are still valuable for a party that needs to persuade voters to return home from MAGA.
–by Aaron Regunberg
https://newrepublic.com/article/188184/bernie-winning-back-working-class?
*he’s bibi nutnyahooh’s
(And Israel’s!) Biggest
Apologist:
Is it Genocide
Yet, wormmy?
hang in there!
You’ll have FOUR
MORE YEARS OF el-
trumpfster to marinade in.
thanks and
Congratulations.
14, You couldn’t be more wrong. This article spends several paragraphs talking about the historical circumstances where a majority of white men supported civil rights for minorities. It even points out that the extremely white state of Washington went more blue this election. The author took great pains to give you hashtagnotallwhitemen and you still don’t get it, no doubt because you see yourself in the kind of white men who are the problem.
@24: Your efforts to beat facts with opinions never ceases to entertain.
@20- you’re dead right about the Sawant wing of whatever the fuck party she’s championing bone. She cares about nothing other than keeping her name in the papers. A left-wing version of Trump.
I would suggest that if she really wanted to show solidarity with Gaza, she could go stand inside the next house that Trump will give Bibi the green light to attack. She went to all that trouble to help him get elected do she might as well get the full benefit.
@26
and your ‘brilliance’
Never pales in the
Enormity of your
Failings carry on
Wormtongue.
Almost thirty years ago I read a sentence in this same periodical on this same topic, which I still remember (unlike any sentence of this current article): “hereditary guilt is a Nazi concept.”
@29: The concept of “collective guilt” was coined by Carl Jung in 1945, and others. In reference to Germany’s responsibility for condoning Nazi behavior. The Nazis didn’t conceptualize it. In fact, they completely overlooked the possibility that their counry might be held responsible at some future time.