10 November 2016

Salon: White rage against the machine: President Donald Trump is a historical shock — unless you study American history

Racism and sexism combined to defeat Hillary Clinton. This outcome is as much a backlash against Barack Obama as it is against a woman being elected President of the United States of America. America is a country divided against itself where political ideology and polarization are deeply intertwined with racial animus, sexism, and hostility to the Other. If politics is a story of action and reaction, the Age of Obama was punched in the face on Election Day by the Age of Trump.

Authoritarianism has been on the rise in American over the last ten years. This is especially true among Republicans and right-leaning independents.

Consumed by an obsession with “economic insecurity” among working-class white voters (a conclusion not born out by public opinion and other data), the mainstream corporate news media refused to seriously consider the well-documented role of white racism and white racial resentment in motivating Republicans and those others who flocked to his banner. [...]

Ultimately, the overwhelming power of white rage is the connective tissue tying together all of the various reasons that Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to win the White House. This is an old story in America, a nation founded on white (male) supremacy. Trump’s victory is in many ways a return to form that shows the Age of Obama, the civil rights movement, and yes, the women’s rights movements, were aberrations in the country’s history.

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