Most talk shows these days amount to little more than a performative farce of people spewing hackneyed talking points at each other. That’s why the BBC’s HARDtalk stands out like the proverbial lighthouse in a storm. I watch it religiously.
Granted, I’m usually multitasking. But my ears perked up yesterday when host Stephen Sackur and his guest, the celebrated writer Paul Auster, had this exchange:
_________
Sacker: You write a lot about your take on American politics, you’ve talked about your feelings through the course of four years of Donald Trump, you’ve talked about a country at war with itself. … cuz, you could argue we been here before, many times.
Auster: Yes … But … we are divided in ways that I’ve never seen before. … Because once Obama was elected, and this I think is something that people don’t talk about very much, there was a backlash by a sizable percentage of the American public against the election of Obama, a Black man occupying the White House. Just the symbolic resonance of that I think brought out all the hidden racism in the culture that people had forgotten about to the degree that it continues to exist. And immediately overnight, remember, the Tea Party grew up. And by 2010, two years later, the Democrats were overwhelmed in the midterm elections. Even though Obama was reelected in 12, the Democrats never got a majority in Congress and no serious legislation was passed for the last 6 years he was in office … and I’m clearing my throat and getting ready for that [i.e., what came next, Donald Trump].
_________
From there Sackur elicited Auster’s lamentations on the dystopian nature of Trump’s presidency. This, before moving on to a far more enjoyable discussion of his latest book – a biography of Stephen Crane.
The point, though, is that, apropos of resonance, Auster’s provocative description of the backlash to the election of Obama resonated with me. Because here is how I presaged his description nearly a decade ago:
Many whites voted for Obama in 2008 more as a gesture of racial absolution than of political faith. And having thusly absolved themselves of their sins of racism (with this one, historic act), many of them now feel liberated to give way to their racial prejudices without fear of being called racists.
(“Romney vs. Obama: Race (Still) Matters,” The iPINIONS Journal, November 1, 2012)
In fact, I’ve had cause to repeat the fateful portent of Obama’s election in many commentaries since then. I did so most recently in the sardonically titled “Electing Obama Ended Systemic Racism … Too? June 17, 2020, which I ended as follows:
________
That the election of the first Black president marked a regression in race relations in America is an irony that shall live in infamy. But it’s just the tip of the tumor of insidious racism that must be excised from systems throughout American society.
Only then can we begin building the foundation for a New Reconstruction Era. And hopefully this time America will fully honor its Promissory Note to Black folks.
Of course, we can’t begin building that foundation until we excavate Trump and Trumpism from the American landscape. November’s General Elections present a generational opportunity. So, as Obama would say, don’t just protest, vote!
_______
Sure enough, the American people seized that opportunity to excavate Trump. But the insurrection of January 6, to say nothing of the systematic efforts to suppress the votes of Black folks, makes clear that more excavation needs to be done.
After all, the insidious racism Trumpism represents seems more menacing and is metastasizing across America more today than at any time since the Civil War. And, yes, I have duly warned about this in such commentaries as “Civil War II Looms Larger as Texas Suppresses Voting Rights and Bans Abortions…” September 2, 2021.
Coming full circle, the casus belli will be the perfect storm of the inexorable browning of America, which the election of Obama personified, and the Big Lie, which Trumpism continues to fuel.
Enough said…?
Related commentaries:
Civil War II…
Legacy Note: With over 5,600 posts spanning 20 years, I am easily the most prolific blogger on the most eclectic array of topics on the web. That makes The iPINIONS Journal an unparalleled archive of informed political and cultural commentary. Visit the ARCHIVES section in the sidebar or search by topic. You won’t find a more consistent, independent voice on world affairs.