The 2016 Republican National Convention, under the ponderous pressure of Donald Trump, was, in many ways, an escape back in time – to the 1950s, and ‘60s – an era when Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Eisenhower were big figures in the Party, and advocates of exclusion, racist fear, and dread of the Other.
Back then, the Big Fear was of Communism.
Today, its foreigners – and, of course, the permanent alien: Black people.
Half a century ago, it was fear, fear, fear.
Today: it’s still fear, fear, fear – and more fear.
Fear: the real mothers milk of politics.
That – and nostalgia for the 1950s.
Except for a few puppets, this was the whitest presidential convention in decades.
Mostly white on stage: whiter still in the stands.
And in case they didn’t get the message, along came Rudy (aka ‘Adolph’) Giuliani, shrieking about Black Lives Matter, which he compared (I kid you not) to the Black Panthers.
Seriously.
The central message of the Convention? Be afraid. Be Very Afraid.
‘Only Trump Can Save Us!’
Seriously.
The GOP Convention was ‘Back to the Future’.
It wasn’t ‘Make America Great Again!’
It was ‘Make America WHITE Again!’
And again.
And again.