Democratic Impoverishment
Donald Trump's Appearance at the Annual Conference of the National Association of Black Journalists Shows the Paucity of America's Political Choices.
The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is a professional organization established in 1975 with the primary mission of providing support, advocacy, and professional development for black journalists and media professionals. The organization is known for its influential annual convention, advocacy efforts, scholarships, and a wide range of programs designed to enhance the careers of its members. Today, July 31, 2024, Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald J. Trump was interviewed by panelists at the NABJ Annual Convention.
Trump failed, utterly failed, to seize the opportunity presented to him. GOP officials and his campaign have used language that is misogynistic and plays on racialized anxieties. The first question asked him why Black Americans should vote for him, given his campaign and party behavior. He instead attacked the question and then the organizer for technical difficulties, leading to a late start to the event.
He did not seize the initiative to answer the question or pivot to selling his candidacy. He was then asked about his priorities: 1# securing the border. He, however, created confusion when he said illegal aliens are taking "Black jobs." When asked what that meant, he failed to qualify or interpret "Black jobs" and instead said it meant any job. But that makes no sense and leaves it to his opponents to define.
He was on better footing when he was engaged regarding rising inflation, something that hurts all Americans. But he faltered again on police brutality and January 6th questions after he initially began well when he said the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey did not look good to him and hinted that the officer should be charged. But he failed to make what could have been a strong point about hypocritical lawlessness when comparing whether he would pardon people convicted of participating in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol to unprosecuted 2020 rioters in Portland and elsewhere.
Trump, however, was able to deflect and win the debate over the consequences of the overturning of Roe v. Wade by appealing to federalism and democracy. However, that reality will hurt him with some pro-life voters who want to renationalize abortion with a Congressional ban on abortion and reinterpretation of the Reconstruction Era 14th Amendment to apply to pre-born children, positions which the majority of Americans oppose.
However, the bottom line is that Donald Trump had a chance to surprise his opponents by pleasantly engaging with the two more confrontational Black women journalists - and one from Fox News who was not antagonistic to Trump - and he failed to use that opportunity to remove the anxiety that he and his party are racist. To many, he continues to appear as a threat to the post-1960s racial equality and Civil Rights order that ended political White Supremacy and created a genuinely democratic republic. Removing or lessening that fear would have been a great victory for the Republican Party. And he could not bring himself to do it. If anything, his opening response's hostility will make more people think he is racially prejudiced. To that end, his appearance was a disaster, entirely self-inflicted.
The majority of Americans want an end to race reductionism in their politics. Those who remember it hope for a return to the racial hopefulness of the 1990s and early 2000s. Trump does not appear to want to give them what they want, and neither do the Democrats. The American people face a poverty of choices.
The full interview is available here
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