The Final Call

Making America White Again? - Donald Trump’s presidential campaign—and how he just might win

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: Jul 26, 2016 - 12:57:49 PM

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CLEVELAND—Businessman Donald J. Trump, perhaps the most unlikely candidate ever, accepted the nomination of the Republican Party with a thinly veiled promise to make America White again, championing the hopes of frustrated voters who feel that the government and elite politicians have long ago abandoned them.

Donald Trump Photos: Michael Muhammad

“So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I’m with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you,” Mr. Trump said in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Coming out of the convention a CNN poll found Mr. Trump leading Democrat Hillary Clinton and a leading White liberal, Michael Moore, predicting the man derided as a buffoon would win the White House.

“Donald J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president. President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ‘cause you’ll be saying them for the next four years: ‘PRESIDENT TRUMP,’ ” Mr. Moore forecast July 25 in a Huffington Post article.

After a convention week filled with embarrassing episodes involving Mr. Trump’s wife Melania, his vice presidential choice Indiana Governor Mike Pence, and former primary rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mr. Trump had only to “not mess up” in order to end the convention on a positive note, and he did.

“We will lead our country back to safety, prosperity and peace. We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order,” Mr. Trump said in a speech lacking his customary disgust, anger and sarcasm on the final day of the event.

In his July 21 appearance, Mr. Trump sought to unite his party after his convention was boycotted by John Kasich, the Republican host governor of the state of Ohio; by both surviving Republican presidents; the party’s 2012 presidential nominee and  several prominent GOP senators, including Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the chamber’s only Black Republican and Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), one of only two Black Republican House members.

“Vote your conscience,” Sen. Cruz told the convention, as delegates booed when Mr. Cruz, the presidential primary runner-up declined to endorse the party’s standard bearer. “Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.”

Mr. Trump’s “dog whistle” appeal for White supremacy was amplified to a bullhorn status shortly after the opening gavel in prime-time on day one of the convention when TV’s “Duck Dynasty” reality show star Willie Robertson told the convention: “I’m a ‘redneck’ from ‘Looziana’ (Louisiana).

“DONALD TRUMP WILL HAVE YOUR BACK,” Mr. Robertson repeated four times (The official RNC release of his remarks spelled out the statement in all capital letters).

Before the night was over, Melania Trump was shamed after delivering a speech in which at least four paragraphs repeated almost word-for-word, remarks from an address eight years ago by First Lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008.

“From a young age my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life,” Mrs. Trump said.

“And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them,” Mrs. Obama said in 2008.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

Mr. Trump made his presence felt every night of the convention. He introduced his wife on day one, after entering the stage walking through manufactured fog, his figured silhouetted like the entrance of a professional wrestler on a pay-per-view “smack down” event. He delivered remarks via video from New York on day two, and he stood in the audience as Sen. Cruz spoke and some audience members booed his rival on day three.

As Mr. Trump sought to unite his badly divided party, some Republican officials embraced him, although members of the delegation from Virginia protested the Trump nomination, tossing their convention credentials to the floor during the nomination roll call.

“This represents change,” John Sanchez, Lt. Gov. of New Mexico told The Final Call. “(President) Obama promised change but didn’t deliver. This is the real change.” Others appeared to symbolically “hold their noses” as they supported their party’s nominee. “I’m with Ben Carson,” a prominent Black Republican in attendance told The Final Call when asked if he was supporting “Team Trump.”

“What I think changes going forward now you’ve sort of widened (the) platform and you’ve given more of these pseudo candidates the opportunity to use celebrity to catapult them into political office with no real foundation,” former Republican National Committee Chairman and former Maryland Lt. Gov Michael Steele told The Final Call. “I mean we can admit here Donald Trump has no foundation.

“I’m not saying anything out of school,” Mr. Steele clarified. “I’m not saying nothing that anybody who’s followed this campaign for the last year doesn’t know already.”

The GOP may now be the “Duck Dynasty redneck” party, “but it’s not the party of David Duke,” Mr. Steele said. “You know, it’s a party that has elements, you know, clearly Tea Party. They have those who support a sort of populous perspective, which is what Donald Trump is kind of representing in many respects.”

Mr. Steele refused to associate the strong GOP messages throughout the convention supporting police conduct and the condemnation of the Black Lives Matter protests—which have arisen around those senseless killings—with one another.

Demonstrators and police face off.

“My point is: You’re conflating something that wholly doesn’t exist,” Mr. Steele said in response to the Senate Floor comments of Senator Scott, complaining of being stopped seven times by police since he was elected to the Senate. “Tim Scott was talking about his encounter with police, an anonymous encounter with police, who do not know who he is and all they see is a Black man. They don’t know his party affiliation. They don’t know where he lives. All they see is a Black man. That’s the point he was making.

“What I’ve expressed to people in my party and what I’ve expressed publicly when it comes to, for example, Black Lives Matter, is that what I know to be true is Black Lives Matter is not saying that only their lives matter. … What they’re saying is: Can you please understand why our lives matter? Can you please understand what we need to do about these lives?” said Mr. Steele.

After the stunning defeat of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, the Republican Party commissioned a research study to help formulate a strategy to win a national presidential election. The study called for messaging, branding, and fundraising, aimed at new voters with a specific focus and emphasis on Hispanics and Blacks, Mr. Steele pointed out.

The Trump campaign ignored that strategy and successfully concentrated its appeal on winning disaffected White voters, mainly males, with racially tinged themes scapegoating Blacks, Mexicans, and Muslims in particular. But Mr. Trump alone is not to blame.

Anti-Trump protests in Cleveland.

“In one sense … a lot of folks are putting stuff on Trump that just doesn’t belong on Trump because these things were elements and problems for the party before he showed up,” said Mr. Steele. “The party didn’t deal with these things. The party didn’t focus on these things in a way that would make a difference. So by virtue of his outlandish, crazy, out there sort of approach to the process, a lot of folks have just used him for the dumping ground for a lot of the problems in the party.”

Throughout the convention, and Mr. Trump’s victory speech in particular, speeches reiterated menacing images and crime statistics. When he turned to his oft-repeated campaign theme of illegal immigration, his audience chanted, “Build that wall! Build that wall!”

When he mentioned Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton, the audience chanted “Lock her up!”

Mr. Trump blamed Mrs. Clinton, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, along with incumbent President Barack Obama for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he said has exported U.S. jobs to Mexico, and for the destruction of Libya, which he blamed for the creation of the Islamic State, rather than the invasion and destruction of Iraq a decade earlier.

“Libya was cooperating. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq was seeing a reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was under control,” Mr. Trump said.

“And now?” he continued, previewing the themes he promises to repeat throughout the general election campaign: “This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness.”

There had been an argument that Mr. Trump could not appeal beyond his GOP base and win. Mr. Moore didn’t feel that way. “I believe Trump is going to focus much of his attention on the four blue states in the rustbelt of the upper Great Lakes—Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Four traditionally Democratic states—but each of them have elected a Republican governor since 2010 …

“In the Michigan primary in March, more Michiganders came out to vote for the Republicans (1.32 million) than the Democrats (1.19 million). Trump is ahead of Hillary in the latest polls in Pennsylvania and tied with her in Ohio,” he observed. “Trump is going to hammer Clinton on … her support of TPP and other trade policies that have royally screwed the people of these four states. When Trump stood in the shadow of a Ford Motor factory during the Michigan primary, he threatened the corporation that if they did indeed go ahead with their planned closure of that factory and move it to Mexico, he would slap a 35 percent tariff on any Mexican-built cars shipped back to the United States. It was sweet, sweet music to the ears of the working class of Michigan,” he added.

The other factors listed by Mr. Moore: “The Last Stand of the Angry White Man,” as White males respond to the loss of 240-years of dominance in America. “There is a sense that the power has slipped out of their hands, that their way of doing things is no longer how things are done,” he wrote. After eight years of a Black man in the White House, the angry White male isn’t ready to silently accept a “Feminazi” bossing the country around, argued Mr. Moore, a filmmaker and social activist. Then there is “The Hillary Problem,” meaning the Democratic candidate is “hugely unpopular—nearly 70 percent of all voters think she is untrustworthy and dishonest. She represents the old way of politics, not really believing in anything other than what can get you elected,” he said. “No Democrat, and certainly no independent, is waking up on November 8th excited to run out and vote for Hillary the way they did the day Obama became president or when Bernie was on the primary ballot. The enthusiasm just isn’t there. And because this election is going to come down to just one thing—who drags the most people out of the house and gets them to the polls—Trump right now is in the catbird seat,” said Mr. Moore.

Activists raise issue of police abuses at RNC convention.

The “Depressed Sanders Vote” is another factor, he continued. “The fire alarm that should be going off is that while the average Bernie backer will drag him/herself to the polls that day to somewhat reluctantly vote for Hillary, it will be what’s called a ‘depressed vote’—meaning the voter doesn’t bring five people to vote with her. He doesn’t volunteer 10 hours in the month leading up to the election,” warned Mr. Moore. Lastly there is “The Jesse Ventura Effect,” or millions who “fancy themselves as closet anarchists once they draw the curtain and are all alone in the voting booth.” “It’s one of the few places left in society where there are no security cameras, no listening devices, no spouses, no kids, no boss, no cops, there’s not even a friggin’ time limit. You can take as long as you need in there and no one can make you do anything. … And because of that, and the anger that so many have toward a broken political system, millions are going to vote for Trump not because they agree with him, not because they like his bigotry or ego, but just because they can. Just because it will upset the apple cart and make mommy and daddy mad.”

CNN polls reported July 25: “Donald Trump comes out of his convention ahead of Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House, topping her 44 percent to 39 percent in a four-way matchup including Gary Johnson (9 percent) and Jill Stein (3 percent) and by three points in a two-way head-to-head, 48 percent to 45 percent. That latter finding represents a 6-point convention bounce for Trump, which are traditionally measured in two-way matchups.”

CNN warned national polls may not reflect feelings in key states, but  these numbers were the GOP candidate’s best numbers against Mrs. Clinton since last September. Mr. Trump enjoyed an edge among independents, with 46 percent backing him, 28 percent backing Mr. Clinton versus 15 percent for Mr. Johnson and four percent for Ms. Stein, who represent the Green Party.

“The poll also reflects a sharpening of the education divide among Whites that has been prevalent throughout the campaign. Among White voters with college degrees, Clinton actually gained ground compared with pre-convention results, going from an even 40 percent to 40 percent split to a 44 percent to 39 percent edge over Trump. That while Trump expanded his lead with White voters who do not hold a college degree from a 51 percent to 31 percent lead before the convention to a 62 percent to 23 percent lead now,” CNN said.

Mr. Trump’s favorability, personal image, honesty and trustworthiness, pride in having him as president ratings rose and he was more trusted than Mrs. Clinton on dealing with the economy and terrorism. He also cut into the advantage Mrs. Clinton had on who was thought to be in handling foreign policy.

“And nearly half now say he’s in touch with the problems ordinary Americans face in their daily lives, 46 percent say so, 37 percent did before the convention,” CNN found.

Final Call staffer Richard B. Muhammad contributed to this report.