How Trump Exposed America’s White Identity Crisis
The GOP nominee’s greatest legacy will be that he forced us to confront racist demons we thought were mostly behind us. By Issac J. Bailey
August 22, 2016
politico.com
Intro:
I am a black man living in South Carolina who’s voted for plenty of Republicans, including George W. Bush in 2000, Mark Sanford twice for governor, Lindsey Graham for the U.S. Senate, and current Gov. Nikki Haley in the GOP primary. I've also defended the party in the past from blanket accusations of racism. But Donald Trump is a different kind of candidate, and this is a different kind of election. Long after it is all over, even if Hillary Clinton wins, the rest of us will still be grappling with the racial demons the Republican candidate summoned up with his campaign.
That’s the tragedy and blessing of Trump's rise to the top of the Republican Party. He brought into the mainstream the kind of race hatred that had flourished only in the shadows before he came along. But his presence also removed the scales from the eyes of sane Americans who had held onto the belief that the election of our first black president had ushered in a post-racial society.
Trump’s most enduring legacy, and it is an oddly beneficent one, is that he taught America how bigoted it still is, and that many among us who are not intentionally bigoted are willing to tolerate racism anyway, given the right circumstances and stakes. No matter the final tally, nor the recent poll data showing that Trump is beginning to lose college-educated whites, it is very likely that a majority of white voters in November will still pull the lever for Trump, despite a clear bigotry running through much of what he’s said, done and proposed.
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