Strategy, Nature, or Trap? Trump, Vance, and the Party of Racism

 Of course, the answer is:

I have written about ethnic outbidding here--that politicians competing for the same ethnic group will outbid each other to be the best supporter of that group (it was also a key dynamic for my dissertation and first two books)--and how that explains why Trump was successful in 2015/6 to get the nomination.  

The recents shambolic appearance at the conference of Black Journalists may not have been peak Trump racism but was probably pretty close and was definitely a condensed form, questioning Kamala's Black identity, ranting about Black jobs, and the rest.  Was he playing to his base by being racist to a room full of Black people or could he just not help himself because he is racist through and through?  The answer is almost certainly yes.

Why did he go to a hostile crowd? An irony given his Indian or Black take is that these people at this conference have two identities simultaneously: Black and journalist.  Trump has always had contempt for both Black people and journalists, so the move to show up there was strategy--it was a deliberate effort to do something.  What?  Damned if I know.  To put out a white supremacist message to his base?  Maybe.  To try to persuade some Blacks that Kamala Harris is not a real Black person?  That might have been strategy informed by racism--that he and his team are so racist they thought that might work a bit?  I am not so sure.  

It is hard to tell because, of course, one can be a poor strategist, and racism can make one a poor strategist.  But in the moment, it is clear that Trump is a racist to his bones.  The idea that he can say who is and who is not Black?  Jeez.  

Something that can be a bit more enlightening or educational: that JD Vance had to go along with this even though he is married to an Indian woman.  So, are his kids white or Indian?  Getting back to ethnic outbidding, it is a dynamic that becomes a trap.  That appealing on the basis of a particular identity to a specific homogeneous group becomes hard to escape, even if one wanted to, as it mobilizes and incites the extremists who then criticize almost every moderating move as a betrayal.  So, JD Vance is now trapped--that he must betray his family, whether they understand that or not.

Of course, I expect JD Vance or Trump to express as much remorse as Voldemort or JK Rowling might.  They are exemplars of the party of resentment, the party that lacks empathy.  But the siren song of resentment as strategy can lead to much damage, not just to the targets of resentment but those who embrace it. Trump's support has a hard ceiling--he only wins if the Dems don't turn out--and his latest burst of racism is probably going to lower that ceiling somewhat as there are a whole lot of people who identify with more than one race, and some of them are "independents" who always vote Republican and some are Republicans.  

Maybe that is wishful thinking on my part.  All I am sure of is this race is going to get uglier.