Trump is, at a fundamental level, a con artist. He is misleading and using his base for his own purposes.
Wallace represented his base. They were bigoted and racist and so was he... But he wasn't playing them.
Furthermore, Wallace eventually changed his views on race (as did many of his constituents.) Trump won't change... He is not really a racist but he is perfectly happy to behave like one if it he thinks it will energize his base.
Trump is a sociopath.
26
Pray tell, Trump women enthusiasts, what you respect about this predator, cheater, liar, hypocrite? He cares not a bit for women, except to use them. And some use him in return. It's all transactional.
10
Wallace was scary, but Trump is worse in many ways. He attacks not only people of color, which is bad enough, but people who are in any way different from him. Trump is a bully who has no underlying credo other than getting what he can get for himself. Wallace was a racist and tragically wrong, but he had some moral standards, unlike Trump, who lies as casually as he eats.
10
Trump is much worse than George Wallace.
9
Why aren’t we referencing Adolph Hitler? His endless tirades against the Jewish people prepared the non-Jewish population for what was to come. Not that they sought the programs that came, but that they on the whole acquiesced in them, after they were propagandized for years with paranoid and violent political rhetoric. Perhaps the Wallace analogy to Trump, as apt as it is, falls far short of measuring the dangers.
14
"In March, a Trump backer in New York was arrested on charges of threatening to “put a bullet” in Ms. Omar’s “skull.”
Right. And in June 2017 a supporter of Bernie Sanders, left wing activist James Thomas Hodgkinson, actually shot Rep. Steve Scalise - who came within an inch of losing his life.
Recall Madonna stating her thoughts about blowing up the White House, and the photo of Kathy Griffin holding a severed Donald Trump head.
Comparisons of Trump to Nazis/fascists, including AOC's comparison of detention centers to concentration camps - which she tried to wiggle out of using a literal definition of those camps rather than the common meaning - seemingly give license to those who would take matters into their own hands.
2
Talking about infestation...
Just in case that people miss this report about Baltimore...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/magazine/jared-kushners-other-real-estate-empire.html
Jared Kushner’s Other Real Estate Empire in Baltimore
"At the Carroll Park complex, I met Mike McHargue, a private investigator, and his girlfriend, Patricia Howell. “They’re nothing but slumlords,” Howell told me of Westminster Management. “They take everyone’s money.” When I asked if they knew who was behind the company, they said they did not. “Oh, really?” Howell said when I mentioned Kushner’s name. “Oh, really. And I’m a Trump supporter.”
Slumlords is the name, please read.
9
We will never know who George Wallace would have become had he had Fox, Breitbart, Facebook, Twitter at his disposal. These tools that amplify hate make it difficult to compare the two.
18
George Wallace was only a governor and presidential candidate. As ugly a human being as he was, trump is a US president and casts a vastly more sinister net of American society and democracy. That trump may serve another term is a disaster just ahead for the United States. This rodent needs to be removed from the White House in 2020.
7
All you need to know about Donald Trump is Roy Cohn, Esq, his very good friend and mentor. Cohn was Senator McCarthy's legal advisor during the 50's Communist witch-hunts and was a rabid attack pitbull of a human, damaging reputations everywhere he went with outrageous personal insults and diatribes. He went after you personally in lawsuits n spectacular ways, was finally disbarred and died in disgrace. Cohn taught Trump to always attack and say such outrageous things that people would be utterly unbalanced and surrender, to accuse opponents of doing what he was doing, etc.
9
Here's some of statistic analysis on the rise of hate supremacy group after trump...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/22/number-white-and-black-hate-groups-surge-under-trump-extremist-tracking-organization-says/363978002/
https://time.com/5555396/white-supremacist-attacks-rise-new-zealand/
1
"consequences for his words"???
Is the NYT going to help? No. Expect the same equivocations and apathy. You haven't come close, yet, so you most probably will not call him out for the dangerous clown-fraud liar he is. Unless, of course, public opinion and paid subscribers threaten a boycott. Then, maybe you'll equivocate less. It's zero percent probability.
He's selling your newspapers and online subscriptions. I doubt very much that you'll call him out and point to "consequences of his words".
1
I doubt George Wallace thought sound causes cancer, that he loved a North Korean dictator, or that George Washington masterminded the seizure of British airports.
Or, as George Wallace never said, Covfefe!
2
Interesting that just this morning I was on a long drive and thinking about George Wallace and how he compares to Trump. I concluded if I was forced to select one for president, it would have to be Wallace. As bad as Wallace was, (I am 66 and was very much into politics and current events when Wallace was governor of Alabama), Trump is worse and far more dangerous on many fronts. Any of the Republican Presidents serving since 1968, yes, even Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush, all of which I detested due to their policies, would be far better than the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
188
@NDF
"Any of the Republican Presidents serving since 1968, yes, even Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush, all of which I detested due to their policies, would be far better than the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave."
Yes, whether in terms of their policies or their personal traits. Each of the three achieved at least one success that benefited the whole population--Nixon's EPA, Reagan's nuclear agreements, the younger Bush the Medicare prescription program
As personalities/humans, although each had some of the inappropriate characteristics Mr. Trump brings to the office, none had nearly as many.
Even their vice presidents, complete with the wide variety of flaws, issues and or loathsomeness presented by Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney would probably be better. That's saying something.
42
@NDF Agreed
2
Wallace in later life showed contrition. I doubt much that Trump will ever see the damage his words have had on the political discourse across the world.
80
Trump takes everything personally. He thinks he is the most embattled president but that's because he is always in a battle that he starts. When someone criticizes his policy, he lashes out with a frantic personal assault filled with innuendo and lies. Obama was embattled for nothing more than the color of his skin yet he gracefully ignored and stuck to his work. There is so much about this job that Trump just doesn't not understand and rathe than making an effort to do better, he digs his heels in and does worse.
42
As a woman myself I am struck by the presence of so many adoring (white) women in both photos. Far from appearing "aggrieved" these women appear affluent (see their big rings?), have stylish hair and nails (expensive maintenance) and appear to be regarding the object of their focus as a rock star. Even as I am horrified that churches where I formerly worshipped support Trump, so I am astounded that women are willing to overlook Trump's misogyny and racism.
106
@Boomer They look like they dressed up, using "Real Housewives" as model, wanting to be ravaged by the admitted assaulter and accused rapist. What horrifies me is imagining these babes having djt as a fantasy man. They scare me and make me nauseous.
Although on a rational level I think expecting members of a gender, 52 percent of our population to think alike is not at all logical. We need to reconsider people in general and not assume they/we are all somehow basically decent. History points to the extreme fallacy of that concept.
8
A female relative excused trumps “grab em by the” misogyny as “he wasn’t a politician then”...there are no words
19
@Boomer As a woman, I am embarrassed by supporters femaleTrump but
especially by educated white women who voted for Trump.
Maybe they could ask for college debt forgiveness(!) as their college educations obviously did not take.
14
I live in rural Idaho and have repeatedly written to my Republican senator, Mike Crapo, asking him to speak out about the president's hateful rhetoric. I point out that when POTUS calls people who oppose him "enemies” and "traitors,” our neighbors see our faces. I describe how relationships with once-close family members and friendly neighbors have suffered or ended. I tell him about the bullying that my friends’ school-aged children have described to me, and the overt racism that their classmates have espoused in the name of Trump. I doubt my letters do any good: Even though Sen. Crapo has responded to me personally to express his agreement about Trump, he makes no public statements against Trump's hateful rhetoric. As far as I'm concerned, Republican "leaders” have all become cowards in the face of their Trumpist primary voters.
619
@Chad
If he responded to you personally, agreeing with you on Trump's behavior, then why don't you print the response in a Boise paper and hope the UP picks it up. Your other constituents have a right to know.
44
When I write to my two Republican Florida Senators their reply is “Contribute $$$” to further my good works.
15
@Chad fox, brietbart, Sinclair & hate radio won't let your senator admit to civilized, humane behavior. His supporters are drunk on this cocktail of fear & anger.
14
The Real Problem With Trump’s Rallies.
The Dems problem with the rallies is that they don’t have one candidate who can generate that amount of enthusiasm, passion and victory in 2020.
Trymp will be re-elected and he has my vote.
11
So you’re saying that entertainment is what matters most when choosing our leaders, rather than good character, governing competence, respect for the Constitution and basic human decency?
52
A few hundred people listening to the same old incoherent song and dance is hardly enthusiasm as the results of the 2018 election surely showed.
7
@Olivia "enthusiasm" and "passion" for what? For threatening people of color? For mocking people of various abilities? For bullying? For divisiveness? For sexism? I'd be more persuaded if your support were for enthusiasm and passion for US infrastructure, for bridging growing inequality, for protecting the safety of elections - in fact, enthusiasm and passion for any discernible policy that contributes to the betterment of our nation.
9
The big difference: Donald Trump is president of the United States.
6
Thanks for this. Would that at least some of Trump's "base" read and comprehend it. It is scary how they, and many if not most Republican Congresspeople, continue to accept what Trump is doing. Maybe impeachment is the way to go, even though the Senate would not convict. Trump is a danger to the country and to the world.
1
These people who wish they could speak their minds know they cannot because those beliefs are wrong and indeed racist and they don't dare say them personally out loud for fear of local reactions. So they idolize Trump for daring to spew what they believe. Sad.
9
Trump is representing a foreign power trying to undermine the United States and the foundations of Western democracy through bigotry and hate.
Wallace was just a hateful bigot.
So they have something in common, but what they don't have in common is kind of glaring.
4
Trump is worse than Wallace for multiple reasons. First Wallace was evil on one issue. Granted, it was the most significant issue of his time.
Trump is dangerous on a much broader scale. Today he's spewing racist hate which should appall every decent person, but while this diatribe du jour has engaged us since the weekend, it distracts us from the ongoing atrocities in the concentration camps on the border.
Wallace had some conception of how government is supposed to operate in this country. Trump had none when he took office, and has taken no pains to learn, because he intends to do whatever he wants, and he can't be bothered constitutional boundaries.
Wallace was not a threat on issues of national security. He didn't insult our allies and cuddle up to our dictatorial adversaries. He didn't pull us out of treaties willy-nilly. He didn't reject science to follow his "Gut." and he didn't use the power of his offer to make money from his hotels and resorts while in office.
6
George Wallace was born & raised in the bigoted South. He believed what he was saying & supporting in his campaign. He didn't win. That is the difference between him & trump. trump is a northerner who is bigoted & racist & he loves playing to his base. He loves the adoration from saying hate. You would think his base was all Confederate sympathizers from the South before the Civil War & in the 1950s & 60s...defending their white rights to laud it over others. Wallace was supported by the KKK & White Supremacists. trump is supported by White Supremacists. Not a big difference but trump is definitely worse because he got into the White House. Wallace did change but trump never will.
4
In the end, Trump's greatest fear is leaving the presidency - whether by impeachment or by losing the 2020 election. He knows that when that happens, he'll be subject to indictment, arrest, conviction and even prison.
He will do anything, say anything, malign anyone to stay in the White House where he feels safe from prosecution.
Of course he is worse than Wallace. Wallace was a bigot and a determined segregationist but he stayed consistent on his agenda and everyone knew who he was. Trump proclaims "I am the least racist person" and "no one is more supportive of blacks than me." His lies and hypocrisy are legendary. And let's not forget that eventually Wallace saw the light and repented. We'll never see that from Trump.
3
Allow me to play devil's advocate to the Princeton academic.
After Hurricane Maria, Trump lambasted Puerto Rico for its failure of leadership and inability to do for itself.
Well, look what has happened. Rossello is out.
Puerto Ricans apparently heard Trump, and they finally acted.
Was Trump wrong?
2
Worst of all, the one thing Trump and Wallace have in common is their supporters. They were vile then and they still are. I remember them. I recognize them.
3
WALLACE Was a piker by comparison with Trump, who occupies the most powerful office of the most powerful nation on Earth. When Trump attacks, we'd all best be terrified, because he can bring the full power of the US military down on those who oppose him. Think that's far-fetched? Just consider that Trump has not tolerated anyone in the military who tells him what the limits of presidential power are. Trump represents a clear and present danger to peace in the US and an existential threat to the planet Earth, since he can unleash the NOO KYUH LER Arsenal on a whim, slaughtering billions during a tantrum. This is no exaggeration. Until Trump is brought to justice and summarily removed from office, he will continue to be an existential threat to the existence of the planet Earth. Faced with such an extremely dangerous tyrant, the human mind goes into denial. People rationalize: He's not all that bad. YES HE IS THE WORST POSSIBLE DANGER TO LIFE ON EARTH! I fear that Trump will come up with a pretext of imposing martial law, say by declaring the crisis he has caused on the Southern border a national emergency. Having done that, Trump will begin going on a rampage that could wipe out all life on Earth, when he uses the NOO KYUH LER weapons. Not IF, but WHEN! Trump is mentally deranged. He represents a clear and present existential danger to the US. The 25th Amendment MUST be invoked immediately. The planet Earth's existence depends on Trump's leaving office! NOW!!
4
The fact that we have a George Wallace-like President in 2019 is disgusting and frightening.
Volunteer, organize, donate and vote.
2
Only 32 percent of all American voters say they “definitely” will vote for Trump if he is
the Republican candidate in the 2020 presidential election, while 12 percent say they will consider voting for Trump. But 54 percent of all American voters say they “definitely” will not vote for Trump, matching the “never Trump” total from a May 21 Quinnipiac University National Poll.
This “never Trump” tally includes 57 percent of independent voters.
American voters disapprove 54 – 40 percent of the job Trump is doing as president,compared to a 53 – 42 percent disapproval in a June 11 poll.
From July 25 – 28, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,306 voters nationwide with a
margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points, including the design effect. The survey includes
579 Democrats and Democratic leaners with a margin of error of +/- 5.1 percentage points,
including the design effect.
The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts gold
standard surveys
1
All true enough. But the biggest difference: Trump is president.
1
How do we educate this sizable 35-40% so we don't have to dodge another dangerous fellow like this 45? When Pat Buchanan & George Wallace ran their extremism was rejected by strong majorities. Republicans rejected them. Now with oligarchs behind the scenes, puppeteers of fox, Sinclair, brietbart, et al providing a steady drumbeat of fear and anger we have a permanently deranged voting block to contend with. Things can get so much worse. 45 doesn't appear to have a bottom yet. And Charismatic sociopaths smarter than him are perhaps in the wings ready to take Repubs and our nation to totalitarianism of China or Russia.
3
I don't think it was a Trump supporter who listened to vitriol and then took shots at Republican Congresspersons at a sporting event. Vitrol is common on both sides - and this article makes it seem like it is one-sided.
It is the free press time that has risen Trump to power - his spectacle keeps him in the news and other topics gone. He has something bad happens, and he spews something hateful, and the problem in his administration is no longer news. You don't hear much about Iran, Climate Change, North Korea, Debt, etc etc etc - all the news is dancing to his tune.
3
I think the bigger danger is to the journalists at Trump rallies. How long before his chant “enemy of the people” leads to several supporters beating a journalist to death? And what will Trump say, “well, I don’t condone it, but maybe they shouldn’t write these terrible lies about me. A lot of people agree with me.”
I wish I could say this is a fantasy. But in Trump’s America, you know it ain’t.
5
These articles and opinions play right into Trumps playbook.
We need to give him less press not more. The Times and other papers are merely reinforcing his narrative. We need to just discuss the administrative part of his government and point out his flaws in running the government. You will never convince the die hard Trumper, no matter how many times he lies, to vote against him. There are farmers who because of Trumps tariff are on the verge of bkcy-yet they say they would still vote for him.
Their are Trumpersters who in 2017 who claim that saved thousands of dollars on their tax returns because of the new tax law-NOTHWITHSTANDING THE FACT THAT THE LAW DID NOT GO IN EFFECT UNTIL 2018. When advised of that they said they would still vote for him-and denied that they did not save money.
Crazy yes-but that just goes to show you that these people will vote for him even if he shot someone off 5th Ave., Whether you believe it or not there are millions of Americans who are not able or unwilling to recognize the difference between truth and a lie.
It only goes to show you that their are people out there who will spend their life savings to buy the Brooklyn Bridge.
2
"It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words."
What words? You're fake news. I didn't say anything, you did. What consequences? I'm the best president ever. No collusion. No obstruction. Believe me. That I can tell you. My crowds are the best crowds. I get the best ratings. No collusion. Fake news.
4
Trump is inciting his supporters to commit assassinations. This is not a new playbook, it's a tactic that unleashed some of the worst nightmares of Europe, particularly in the first half of the 20th century. Create a state of chaos and paranoia, have your own agents commit terrorist reprisals you can blame on your enemies, then invoke the emergency you've engineered to justify imposition of a dictatorship.
4
What make Trump worse than all of the 20th Century demagogues and dictators is that he acts only for himself. He has no vision of an America for which he would sacrifice anything of his own. It's all about fealty to Trump. With the exception of his racism, his actual politics have been all over the place; he was even a pro-abortion democrat for many years in New York. His history is that he will say and do anything that bolsters his image and creates a following.
More a king in the likes of Henry VIII or Louis XIV he is uncaring of any one or anything except himself. As recently noted by Roger Cohen in this newspaper, the man is inhuman. And that makes him worse than them all.
1
Take a look at the pics of all of Trumps past rallies, plus the two in this article. All are white (except for the occasional cardboard cutout of a person of color).
3
Why blame Trump? This country elected him. What is happening politically is nothing more than the exposure of how much of the country really feels and thinks. People who buried their inner feelings out of a fear of being seen as politically incorrect, are no longer burying their feelings. I would like someone to tell me what is the purpose of having the US remain as one country any more? There is such a huge rift in how groups of people think and what they want out of an organized society that is a country. What is the point?
4
Weak last sentence. Trump worry about the consequences of his words? Really? He and on using those words to win re-election. That is the only consequence that concerns him.
4
There's another important difference between Trump and George Wallace. In his later years, Wallace apologized for the racism he had espoused and actively sought forgiveness from the black community. When he left office, he had their support. I can't imagine any set of circumstances in which Trump would do the same. It's just not in his character.
14
Re: "...There are a lot of similarities between the president and George Wallace of Alabama. But there’s also one big difference..."
If memory serves...
Geo. Wallace eventually regretted / renounced his racism! Donald J., 'Admiral_Bonespurs', Trump has gladly embraced Charlottesville's neo_nazis...who committed murder, (the late H. Heyer), injured 20+ pedestrians, and advocated a genocide, ("Jews Will Not Replace Us!"*), by torchlight!
Mr. Trump shames me as a caucasian, a male, and...as a hominid!
9
I have to be honest. I do not really understand why there are supporters of Donald Trump. Nothing I read about explains this but racism. I remember asking my mother in the fifties why she feared African Americans or doubted their capabilities. She answered "I have eyes don't I! " I had eyes too at the time and even as a ten year old I knew their road blocks were far, far greater than others. Years later I remember thinking of that conversation with my mother when I realized at that moment the majority of my most admired Americans were African Americans. What are those who fear African Americans really afraid of?
10
The threat of violence today is worse than in Wallace's day. More people have guns today.
15
I think the picture of the Trump rally that accompanies this is a bit deceptive as it shows mostly women at his rallies. From other coverage I have seen, there are lots more men there.
8
Wallace changed after he was shot in 1972. Being paralyzed and in a wheelchair must have led him to a different perspective, including greater insights into what is truly important. In any case, over the next several years, his politics shifted dramatically especially regarding race. He asked the forgiveness of black leadership and ultimately became the governor of all the people. I can't imagine Trump capable of humility and apology. Wallace was a product of his environment. Trump is a narcissist, a product of his own imagination.
11
Politicians say all sorts of things at Political Rallies.
How far you want to take the statements depends largely
on how deeply you fathom the implications.
Hillary wrote off "Poor Whites" as a "Basket of Deplorables"
though 30 years earlier she had seriously considered
running for Governor of Arkansas, a state full of,
by her standards, "Deplorables", so that she might
have political power in her own right and keep
the Clinton Duet, in the political spotlight.
The "Deplorables" got more than a "Basket full of Revenge"
on Hillary for her unkind remark.
Unlike Professor Kruse, I actually attended Wallace Rallies,
RFK Rallies, "Clean-Gene" Rallies, Humphrey rallied
and even Nixon Rallies - to hear what they had to say
to see how their supporters reacted.
Only at the Wallace and RFK rallies were the audiences on fire.
Wallace spoke to Americans who had come to realize that the
Liberal Elites utterly disdained them would be pushing
for laws that disadvantaged them, even though they had
fought on the front lines in World War I, World War II,
Korea and Vietnam, while so many Elites did not.
George Wallace did more for African Americans in Alabama
than any President save FDR and LBJ.
As Trump has pointed out, what have African Americans
got to lose in supporting him, not much, when you consider
how the Liberal Elites and their failed policies have destroyed
African American culture and society.
2
The majority will always run down the minority. Americans do it better than anyone else in the world.
1
Another big difference: George Wallace was not the president.
14
trump has sown the wind, and we reap his whirlwind.
1
The cry for "law and order" is the province of the Right Wing in the United States. "Order" is the key component. it is a call for obedience to power & authority. Just once, I'd like to see somebody call for "Law and Justice."
11
After Wallace was shot and became paralyzed, he eventually apologized to African Americans for his overt racism, both in words and deeds.
Does anyone think Trump will ever apologize for his racism?
7
Are we even aware that Trump's hateful diatribes are an invitation for impressionable minds, incapable to think for themselves, to take 'violent action' in their own hands, any measure for unhinged Trump to trample on whosoever dares to challenge his stupid bombast? This insolent talk by the vulgar bully in-chief shall end in chaos, and the destruction of the very people representing our democracy, those willing to challenge him for the good of the country?
2
Beneath Wallace's bellicose racism was something of a human being, who, to some extent, understood repentance and the art of apology. That's the difference.
8
Wow. I had almost forgotten George Wallace, which is not easy to do. However, it only took reading his name to recall everything I remember about him. Racist doesn't aptly describe him. He embodied something much darker, with a "burning hatred" of all people of color. As bad as Trump is, this is one man I have to say was worse than Trump as far as "racism" goes. You have to be old enough to remember how bad Wallace was. This was long before the internet and social media outlets, and he shined for white power nuts, and/or the KKK. This noted, overall Trump is light-years worse than Wallace. Let me repeat this: Overall, Trump is a sicker, much more solipsistic man than Wallace ever was; trust me. This is like comparing Adolph Hitler with Joseph Goebbels. Let's don't; just for today. It will only ruin my general disposition. Later people.
5
I grew up with fear. I lived on a military base during the nuclear age when we regularly had bomb drills. I lived through the McCarthy Era and its aftermath, terrified that the postman was going to report us for having subscriptions to "The Utne Reader" and "Mother Jones." I lived through the Vietnam War and bursting into tears when my brother received his "Greeting!" notice from the draft board to report for his physical. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of recent American history can understand the fear of seeing a president assassinated, a presidential candidate (his brother) assassinated, as well as the assassination of more than one civil rights leader.
I'm more afraid now, because for some reason I can't begin to understand, the person I most fear is (historically, supposedly) the leader of the free world.
12
@de’laine. Yes shocking isn’t it?
"Political Correctness" was a phrase created to instill resentment. It was a phrase uttered over and over again with contempt and disgust. It is seen as someone forcing you to behave a way you don't think is necessary or want to, like a parent or righteous authority figure. Never mind that at its core it is showing decency and respect for your fellow citizens. "That is not something our government is supposed to be involved in...", but it is precisely what our government is supposed to be involved with.
We have forgotten the core role of our government which is to create a safe and stable environment in order for (ideally) all American citizens to live their lives. The path to this environment is enshrined in the Constitution by ensuring people hold certain rights which the government will defend. Over time it was seen that abusive language is damaging to people so it was determined that we as a society should avoid using this language. Nobody wants to be denigrated for the color of their skin, ancestry, their appearance and that is what being PC was meant to address.
I look at the picture of Trump supporters and think of many repulsive, crude, vile things I could say about them but I don't because it does nothing good for anyone. I may get a vicarious thrill, I may get many people agreeing with me and piling on, but as Christ said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It is about respect. Donald Trump shows no respect and therefore deserves none.
14
What worries me, as we approach the 2020 election, Trump is slowly replacing the adults in his administration. Without those, who talked him out of some of his worst impulses, he seems even less restricted in what he says or does. Of course, this could work either way. He could continue to make havoc on domestic and foreign policy, OR finally go to far for the majority of American Citizens.
3
Actually Trump's smarter and a better marketer than Wallace.
He's tapped into something that's been festering in America since Columbus landed here.
Timing is everything and Trump has hit the perfect storm with certain American voters and the other voters don't know how to defeat him.
And Trump's followers are the children and grandchildren of Wallace's constituency so they've had a lot of time to build up the resentment and hatred towards people who are "different".
Regrettably a second term of Trump is coming and it'll take another Civil War, if ever, to reverse what Trump has unleashed from the American psyche.
3
White grievance.
But Wallace evolved into a man who ran for Alabama governor in 1982 and won 90 percent of the black vote. Why?
He was shot in the 1970s and became paralyzed. It changed him. He went to a black church in Alabama and announced: “I’ve learned what suffering means in a way that was impossible. I think I can understand something of the pain that black people have come to endure. I know I contributed to that pain and I can only ask for your forgiveness.” As he was leaving the church, the congregation began singing Amazing Grace.
12
@Jorge I remember that 1982 election and I remember Wallace's trip to the African-American church to ask for forgiveness from the church's congregants.
I do not believe that we will ever see Donald Trump do anything remotely similar to what George Wallace did at the end of his political career!
5
I doubt that trump would sign up for getting shot to get redemption though.
You miss the most important differences. In the time of Wallace, many, perhaps most, of the white howlers supporting him were still Democrats, a party which was already on the verge of trying to abandon its segregationism/bigotry. Trump now has a Party which has adopted that with alacrity and has been working on it for years--since the 1960's.
8
The biggest difference is that Wallace never even came close to being elected president. As badly divided as the country was in those years, right-wing voters preferred Richard Nixon--who, unethical as he was, was not especially a hate-monger (unless, maybe, you were communist), and more importantly, knew what he was doing in the Oval Office.
7
All I can say is when another trump-crazy kills somebody, nobody gets to say "our thoughts and our prayers...."
Everybody could see this coming.
8
We the People of America-- of all parties, races, ethnicities, religions, and backgrounds---who are traditionally proud of opposing authoritarian dictatorships---have now got to start mass marching in the streets.
Let's demonstrate in public, across the nation, to show to the world our stalwart opposition to this president's sociopathic manipulation. To show we reject the racist poison he is trying to inject into our country.
We can just wait a bit for the heat wave to pass, and then get out there in energizing weather---no excuse.
Explicit public opposition is the antidote to the destructive Trump virus weakening the nation.
What color vests shall we wear?
5
@Meredith: Red, white, and blue, of course.
1
I find it equally interesting that there are things I want to say about trump but am restrained by my belief that at my age a good old fashioned fist fight might not be a good thing. I must admit that if I was thirty years younger and single I’d probably have spent a few days in jail for my actions towards a maga hat wearing clown but I’m not thirty and it’s a long way in the rear view mirror
4
Also noteworthy was Wallace's later apology and recantation to those whom he had so fiercely and virulently opposed in the '60's and 70's. Will we ever hear an apology from the current Abomination in the White House similar to the one Wallace offered in March, 1995? I very much doubt it.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-03-11-1995070104-story.html
7
Wallace was cynical and opportunistic in a deplorable way; but (unlike Trump) he was not ignorant or mentally unstable.
9
Trump is a devoted and outspoken racist but the comparisons between him and Wallace are entirely inapt. Just because you have two bigots who hold contentious rallies does not make this a responsible comparison.
Ironically, there are far more similarities between Leftist heroes like Louis Farrakhan and elements of the Black Lived Matter movement and George Wallace. Of course, just don’t expect to read that here.
1
So intellectually dishonest but not unexpected from a Princeton professor. Especially at the end when he cherrypicks a few examples of threats from theRight but totally ignores the fascism of Antifa, the violence against Trump supporters at a rally in San Jose in 2916, the cancellation of a Trump rally in Chicago due to threats and a whole host of concocted Smollett-type stories. And not a word about the stifling of free speech in Academia, a la the firing of Professor Sullivan at Harvard. Silence about the rabid- anti-Semitisn of the Left and among American Muslims. Shame on you Professor.
3
Someone has been watching too much Fox News. Antifa violence doesn't even begin to match the body count from the actions of white nationalists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis. For example, the three young people killed this weekend at a festival. As for the limiting of free speech on college campuses, that is a push pull that has been going on for a long time. I remember during the Vietnam War era when anti-war speakers were not allowed on my campus and professors lost their jobs for speaking out.
1
Even after 50 years, it seems that a large portion of the white population can be manipulated by appealing to and invoking their undercurrent racist thoughts and behaviors.
7
C’mon, NYT and Professor Princeton. Smaller than. Different from. No one can be “different than” someone else.
5
Trump is much worse than George Wallace.
He's much more dangerous. He's already (illegitimately) in the White House and since he doesn't care about he Constitution or the Rule of Law, he's doing things Wallace couldn't imagine. He's packing the courts with right-wing partisans including the stolen Supreme Court seat stolen by McConnell. He's driven all non-supporters out of the Republican Party, out of the Senate and out of the House. He's relentlessly attacked the media calling the media the "enemy of the people". He's replaced America's lawyer (the Attorney General) with a partisan sycophant. Trump has the full support of Faux Noise, something Wallace couldn't have even imagined. He's able to communicate instantly with his followers (Twitter). Trump is a media manipulator in a way Wallace could never even have dreamed of. Trump lies more than Wallace ever did; he lies more than any human being I've ever known -- and his lies are more malicious and more numerous by orders of magnitude than the next biggest liar. Trump accepts and invites help from the Russians in manipulating the US elections, and he covered for his Puppet Master, Vladimir in Helsinki. Wallace never did anything remotely like that treasonous appearance in Helsinki.
Trump is THE most dangerous person in US politics today or in American history, and he's more dangerous by far, than other racists like Wallace or anybody else.
9
Isn’t inciting people to do violence a crime?
But, we can’t charge a sitting President with a crime. Right?
6
I can't imagine sinking any lower than being compared badly to George Wallace but I agree that Trump is worse.
When Trump loses in 2020 his rabid racist base can go back in their closets where they belong but it will take decades for America to move beyond the ugliness they inspired.
4
Trump's racist rhetoric is despicable and dangerous for a country as diverse as the United States. However, his ignorance and reckless policies and actions are worse. He certainly does not make America great and is ruining about everything America stands for: one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
3
George Wallace finally had the grace to evaluate his life and find himself wanting. The felon in the White House has all the internal integrity of a paramecium. There is literally no argument to be made that that felon is an honestly elected President and as a consequence, he is due nothing at this stage but removal and subsequent prosecution.
5
It may be happening in the imaginations of Trump hating class that Trump is like Wallace, but in actual practice Trump does not hinder the progress of the black people, he actually helps them to get ahead. His rhetoric may be harsh because of the frustration he feels that black politicians are really hurting their communities with their wrong headed policies. Trump is like Giuliani, as Mayor of NY City he brought the murder rate from 2000 per year to less than 500 today. That helped black neighborhoods to progress, but black political class called him racists and worse.
3
If Mr Kruse has not yet read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich , he should . The call for law & order does not go back to George Wallace alone. It was the great rallying cry of the National Socialist party, and that was the foundation of their party line. And we who have allowed Donald Trump to come into power need to pay attention to this and to many of his other nefarious acts.
If we don’t do something about this soon we will never forgive ourselves.
2
I'm glad that others have noted the similarity (and differences) between Trump and George Wallace. In that regard, Trump's rallies especially caught my attention. Unfortunately, other examples also come to mind. Although mindful of the caution needed in such comparisons, I note below Hitler's psychological profile by the US Office of Strategic Services (1942??). Make of it what you will.
"His [Hitler's] primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."
If one's been around long enough, these are the sorts of memories that Trump brings to mind.
3
Here is difference between George Wallace then and Donald Trump now. Wallace did not have the support of the Republican Party; Trump certainly does. Trump is not raging alone like Wallace did. Trump is enjoined by racist, venal Republicans eager to stoke Trump’s ugly fire. Or worse yet, Republicans who stand silently by his side...because they believe will enjoy Republican votes for letting Trump play with fire.
4
The current resident of the White House doesn't care if people start beating each other to death in the streets- as long as they're yelling his name.
2
And he won five Southern states.
3
Mr. Kruse is close but misses the mark. Trump is exactly like George Wallace.
That is...until George Wallace got shot. Then he mellowed, somewhat.
Am I suggesting that Trump get shot? Of course not.
But Trump is a racist. I suspected, but I was not certain. His recent attacks on people of color now prove it. There is no doubt.
Conservatives equal fear. Fear equals ignorance. Unreasonable fear paralyzes. It blinds.
This is why Conservatives are ignorant. And their ignorance blinds them to reason, to humanity, their fellow man, and to everything that their God professes. Ignorance blinds Conservatives to the world around them. All they can see is their fear and their hatred.
If you are Conservative or Independent (semi-ignorant), throw off your shackles and join the enlightenment.
Liberals are motivated by knowledge. They will embrace you, accept you as you are, and they will work to help you, to make theirs and your life better.
But you can’t be stupid. You have to stand on your own two feet and see the world around you for what it is.
A marvelous and extravagant creation created by the Universal Father. A glorious world inhabited by a myriad of creatures and personalities. A world dominated by the love of the Father. A world dominated by brotherhood.
2
George Wallace didn't have a Jewish child and Jewish grandchildren. Trump does. George also never had a black girlfriend; Trump dated Kara Young for two years. George Wallace never gave Jesse Jackson free office space for a project, Trump did.
And the beach club George Wallace (never) owned on Palm Beach only admitted WASPS, just like all the others... except for the one that lets everyone in. Guess who owns that one?
I surmise from the comments that there are people who upon hearing quacks coming from a duck blind assume the hunter within has turned into a duck. He is trying to draw ducks in so he can... well you should be able to guess. Duh?
And I hate being put in the position of appearing to defend him, but we are getting way too many instances of attempting to portray windmills as dragons.
2
Of course, the major difference between Trump and Wallace is that Trump was actually elected! Ultimately, our nation as a whole is so much more worse because of it. Claiming that some of the KKK and Neo-Nazi - who shouted "Jews will not replace us" - demonstrators in Charlottesville were "very fine people" only begins to lift the veil trying to hide Trumps bigotry and hate. He must be held to account by "true" Americans on election day.
2
Had Wallace's campaign followed on the heels of America's first Black President, then Wallace most likely would have been elected President. Had Wallace also gotten Russian help, then he most definitely would have been elected President.
2
Yes, it is worse that a President is so dishonourable. Deplorable. And using the same kind of racist language used by Wallace, but when others knew they could. Now most know this is not acceptable, except of course the Republicans by and large, and those who Trump has stuffed his cabinet with. Not a word has been spoken from the US Secretary of State on what is happening in Hong Kong...I wonder why the New York Times has not written about this serious omission.
2
“We wish we could speak our mind without worrying about the consequences,” explained a white man at a Phoenix event. “He can speak his mind without worrying.”
Perhaps the white man in Phoenix should consider that those consequences are there for a reason - that the things he wishes he could say, but is too much a coward to say, have consequences because they are vile, hateful, and racist things to say. By not saying them out of fear of consequences, this man and those like him are cowards. Trump, ensconced on his Twitter pulpit, says vile, disgusting, racist things and he is not getting away with it either. Trump's consequences come in November 2020, when the country decides if the racist cowards outnumber the decent people of this country. Meantime, white man in Phoenix, every time you look in a mirror, see yourself as I see you - a racist coward.
5
Trump is absolutely correct to assert that he is not a racist and that he does not have a single bone of racism. I believe him because he is telling the truth, he is not racist.
He uses racism to distract the nation while he and his cronies ransack the country and cede our world leadership to Russia ,China and Arab Gulf States.
Every time attention is aimed at his ransacking, he tweets a racist comment to throw fools off his trail. The sadness is not him committing treason and fraud and ransacking us, the sadness is that our nation is tolerating him.
1
Unfortunately, Trump is incapable of self-reflection. He could not survive if he reflected on himself. His sewage is one way only.
I did not know that Mr. Wallace was a boxer. That shows a certain level of discipline and courage. Though Mr. Wallace was thoroughly despicable, those are two character traits that Trump will never possess.
Trump is a coward, plain and simple. But a dangerous one, to be sure.
2
We are at a potentially dangerous and bloody time in American history....
Trump wants to usher in a second “Redemption period”...
Not because, he has deeply held convictions as did George Wallace, no matter how reprehensible Gov. Wallace’s beliefs may have been.
But because Trump believes it will benefit him personally; either as a hedge against prosecution or to enrich himself...
This potential disaster will tear this country apart..
History will note that Vladimir Putin is perhaps the greatest Russian leader and strategist of his time.
Recognizing Russia could never overcome the US economically or by force of arms...
He used a stooge and an ingenious misinformation campaign leveraging our own technology against us to activate what is the fundamental flaw in our national psyche..... The thing that is at the root of most of the evil ever perpetrated in the name of American destiny....
White Supremacy....
And if we are not careful it will eat us all alive.
Long live the Republic.
3
How can there be any doubt whatsoever?
1
A boxer needs a considerable level of self discipline. And that is what Trump - whose only kind of sport is being a lousy golfer - lacks.
1
And to think that we thought the likes of George Wallace were a part of our past. We've been re-infested with the rats and rodents of hatred, white nationalism, division, scape-goating, vicious insults.
And Trump is so much worse than Wallace because he has so much more power and influence. Was Wallace also a money launderer and a gigantic tax cheat like Trump is?
1
Your assertion that Trump needs to "think about" the effect of his words is based on the assumption that he has not done that, and when and if he does, he will "get better". Trump is profoundly mentally ill, viciously violent, sadistic, cruel and rabidly racist. But he is deliberate. He advertises his sickness, and says "Come to me" to all those who share his derangement, and there are millions. More than enough, if you look at Hitler's rise. Wallace was quaint compared to Trump. He is striving for Hitler/Stalin territory. Paul Begala said yesterday it would be a political mistake to attack Trump's followers. But it would be morally negligent not to. What if the German people had said "no Nazi sympathizers in my home. I don't do business or assosociate with them. I confront them when I find them, and defend my Jewish neighbors" Maybe 60,000,000 would have lived.
I recommend that every one confront Trumpists wherever they find them, loudly and without mercy publicly and privately. They need to see what hate looks like from the other direction, be told what they are: neo-fascists-in-training. And Wallace didn't have beer-and-opiate crazed, camouflaged, highly armed crackpot armies training in the hills of Idaho. Trump claims he has the military, the police and the Bikers for Trump. That isn't an idle threat. And if they started taking potshots at Volvos. And those cheering, red-hatted empty-heads at his rallies would eat it up.
3
We will never know who George Wallace would have become had he had Fox, Breitbart, Facebook, Twitter at his disposal. These tools that amplify hate make it difficult to compare the two.
2
Big difference. Wallace wasn't criticizing Congress people who made anti-Semitic statements, denigrated the US Congress, and minimized the Holocaust. Wallace's opposition party wasn't so weak and feckless it couldn't condemn the statements. Wallace's comments weren't intended to point out the opposition party had elected people to the US Congress who were denigrating a portion of its own electoral base. Trump's comments are so intended.
First, Omar said the entire US Congress was bought with Jewish money. The Democratic party forced her to apologize but instead she shifted the blame to Jews exercising their constitutional right to petition their government and the Democratic party piled on. Then she said Jews who exercise this right have dual loyalty, pure anti-Semitism which the Democratic party was too weak to do anything about.
Then Tlaib said the Holocaust gave her "a comforting feeling" and AOC compared border detention facilities to concentration camps and millions of young people believed her. The Democratic party supported this horrific anti-Semitism, history perversion (the Arabs of Palestine were complicit in the Holocaust), and Holocaust minimization. People were trucked to concentration camps unwillingly and couldn't leave whenever they wanted-not to mention the torture, rape, medical experimentation, and industrial scale murder.
You may be genuinely offended but to me it seems fake. Who defended the Jews and the memory of the murdered? Only Trump did.
2
The pictures of two rallies highlight an important difference that we need to be aware of; the use of communication to augment a message of hatred.
Both have a similar blend of racist men and women, but the trump* rally exudes a joyous pride that is highlighted by the desire to communicate the event in a personal context. The movement is me and I am the movement. The "Mel's diner" movement......."kiss my grits"
The good news about a despicable racist like Wallace is that he's gone but not forgotten.
The bad news about a treasonous criminal like Trump is that he's just getting warmed up and we'll all be the worst for it.
Vote.
4
Political discourse has become untenable these days. And it appears all the Dems can do is move further to the left, support anti-fa and it's violent, cloaked 'members.' Why doesn't the media go after this fascist organization? Why is it okay to call for physical attacks on people wearing red hats, on government officials, on elected representatives while they eat dinner in a restaurant or walk through an airport? And this coming from Congressional representatives like Waters?!
The rational people on both sides of the isle have had it, but not the NYTimes and other media outlets. Do they just care about every second's sound bites and how they can divide and enrage? It seems so as today they report anything they hear that supports their narrative, which has become ever more biased. You don't like Trump or his 'supporters' but you will not look objectively at those that voted for him and ask why. Is it because you don't like the answer; that the Dems didn't offer a candidate that stood for immigration enforcement, one that didn't promise freebies, one that sought to fix problems based on root cause vs. emotion?
Wallace didn't make people racist or make people think a certain way, he reflected the fears of the times. That is the only similarity between Wallace and Trump, and it's one worth looking at and considering. The Dems should easily be able to win in 2020, but they would rather take the party to new extremes. A sad day when the choices are far left or Trump.
1
The other big difference- Wallace in all this ugliness was a man of his people. Trump in all his ugliness is a fraud. He cares nothing for anyone but himself
1
The level of depravity and anti free government philosophy of 45 is unmatched in our history.
2
Wallace was Wallace, but Trump looks like the second coming of Mussolini. (Can't say that Trump is imitating Mussolini, because he may never have heard of Mussolini.)
1
Look at the photos then and now. Another generation, another bunch of hate.
Trump’s racism, horrible as it is, is topped by the vulgarity that comes out of his mouth.
To speak the way he does, about any human being, is reprehensible and should be enough to throw him out of office.
1
My fear is that Trump is irrevocably poisoning the well of U.S. democracy and when he is gone none will ever be able to drink from it again....
1
Another important difference: Wallace ran in '68 as a third party candidate. Trump spews his poison in the name of one of our two major parties.
3
When I was a college student in Chicago in 1968, out of curiosity, I went to a Wallace rally in Cicero, Illinois. As I recall his supporters handed out paper replicas of coins that said: "not a dime's worth of difference [between the republicans and democrats]." It was a pretty amateur operation.
I believe 1968 was just about the zenith of Wallace's national political career. But I had a strong impression he still garnered support from a relatively small group of people. The rally in Cicero was actually not all that big.
The problem in 2019 is not only that Trump is bad, but the Republican Party has decided to buy into it. Wallace did not have real support from either major political party. That brings along a much scarier scenario: the relationship between Trump and the Republicans is very much like that between the Nazis and the conservative German parties back in 1933. They sold their souls to the devil to "save" Germany from the leftists.
3
This president chooses to be an uninformed and hateful individual. He seems to surround himself with sycophants and thugs like Bannon, Miller and now Radcliffe. His greatest accomplishment in life was starring in the inane reality TV show "Apprentice". His mean-spirited rants on Twitter and at campaign rallies only prove my point. I'm now feeling that the majority of voters in the swing states are slowly realizing that he is not doing anything to improve their lives.
2
“A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South”...Abraham Lincoln.
No matter the issue, what is different in the year 2019 between all Americans and between the 7.7 billion humans on earth???
Here is the bone spurs President of the United States who dodged the Vietnam military conscription falsely equates racism with patriotism. Anyone who shouts racist chanting at his rallies is recognized and called out as a patriot. No wonder the Trumplicans, who constitute more than 90% of the Republicans, feel free to spout invective against minorities and immigrants.
2
The thoughts offered by Dr. Kruse are useful for the majority arriving at political awareness too late to recall the era of George Wallace. Unfortunately, his opinion piece also captures the naivete of the contemporary American electorate. Appealing to Donald Trump's better angels, calling on him to consider the possible consequences of his inflammatory rhetoric, suggests he is simply careless and has no malevolent intent. To the contrary, his conduct over the last 5 decades paints a clear profile of unrestrained sociopathy. His history of sexual assault and his life-long contempt for truth are obvious markers. His pursuit & acquisition of political power are for purely selfish purposes. He will not be concerned with the adverse consequences that arise from his campaign to preserve that power & avoid prosecution for his criminal conduct. His obvious, intensifying efforts to incite conflict among U.S. citizens is a critical component of his political strategy. We should anticipate escalating violence between Trump supporters and Trump opponents for as long as he dominates our political discourse.
3
I am old enough to remember George Wallace and was appalled even at 14 in 1968. I wish it were just Wallace's coded racism that we get from Trump. Never did George Wallace attempt to sell out our country to the USSR. And as he himself would point out, he was killing fascists when young radicals were in diapers; and no one heard a whiff of sexual scandal about him. Dick Gregory once said if forced to choose, he would vote for Nixon over Wallace. Nixon at least had the milk of human kindness--even if it was skim milk. Gregory was wrong. Nixon was worse. Nixon's only real principle was power. I never thought I'd live to see someone worse than Nixon, one whose only principle was adulation.
2
Wallace could never have become President. Trump is President. The Republican Party has sold its soul to him.
4
The noted difference that "The Great Divider" Trump targets specific individuals is probably a result of our culture's increased egocentrism and heightened sense of manipulation. Hiliting a particular person connects with the crowd's need to project their anger and hatred onto one source, and people like Roger Ailes, whose playbook Trump uses perhaps more than others, knew that, if not our "stable genius" political manipulator. But let's not deny the ease of putting a whole class of people at the end of the pointed finger. Trump does that well too.
I know it's very depressing living through this era and having to fight these battles again in the same lifetime, but when I think of trump standing in front of that doctored presidential seal last week before a crowd of indoctrinated young fools, I remain positive and very hopeful.
We CAN overcome.
1
This may seem extraneous, but living in Alabama due to the job, I found out that while he was governor there, Wallace build more schools for the black communities than any other governor.
They were needed and he knew it.
I see no such redeeming quality, -any, in fact, in the current White House occupant.
2
Dear Republicans,
You own Mr. Trump. I say this to every Republican voter, as well as every Republican elected official from Senator down to dogcatcher.
If you don't like what he reflects about who you are, then get rid of him and reclaim your party.
2
“As the 2020 campaign heats up, the president’s rhetoric will as well. It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words.”
I think counseling Donny about consequences would be akin to talking to post.
Apparently, he puts no stock in the old proverb, ‘What goes around comes around’
It wasn’t the Law that caught up with Mussolini, Gaddafi and Wallace, it was Karma.
1
Wallace was a complex person. When he ran for his first elective office, he ran as a moderate, tolerant candidate, but lost to a fulminating racist. Thereafter, he pledged to himself that he would never be "out-N . . . ed" again and steadily rose in Alabama and national politics. Although best remembered for his strident, segregationist views, his thinking and actions evolved over his political career. While Governor in the 1970s, he gained considerable support from black voters in Alabama by hiring and appointing blacks in large numbers to lower- and mid-level state jobs, such as highway patrolmen. This meant more to working class black voters than showy, high-profile appointments for more privileged blacks.
Also, later in life after he was shot in 1972, Wallace became more compassionate toward blacks, even publicly going to black churches to apologize for his hurtful and offensive rhetoric in years past. After speaking, he would work his wheelchair down the isle, apologizing to individuals, eye-to-eye with heartfelt sincerity, tears streaming down his face.
I can't picture Trump ever doing this.
2
George Wallace was a racist bigot who would have deprived Blacks of many constitutional rights. In no way do Mr. Trump's race baiting comments amount to anything like the venom spewed by George Wallace, nor has he suggested anything like segregating schools or denying black people the vote(voter ID laws are nowhere near the same magnitude as Jim Crow laws). As a history Professor (at Princeton no less) Mr. Kruse should know this. It is shameful that a professor who should know better may possibly be leading young people to believe such things.
Furthermore, and perhaps more disturbing, is that when we compare Mr. Trump to dictators like Mr. Putin, or Kim Jong Il, we simply raise the ire of both sides of our political debate. There is simply no suggestion the Mr. Trump will not leave office in 2 years or 6 years, nor has he proposed any of brutal repressions of these other men. The comparison diminishes the crimes of real criminals, while elevating Mr. Trump to a kind of evil that is simply not warranted by the facts. It may be red meat for democrats to compare Mr. Trump to Mr. Wallace, and it may be red meat for some Republicans to hear Mr. Trump's racist comments, but I should have thought that both sides had had enough red meat at this point.
4
One thing was missed here: Both Wallace and his admirers were the product of one culture. Northerners living at that time thought of Wallace and his cohort as backward and criminal.
Trumps fans know him mainly through reality TV, Those who really knew him, since the 80's, meaning New Yorkers mainly, knew better. His popularity in his home town is dismal.
What this says about the supporters of racist demagogues is illuminating.
1
Wallace ran for president, Trump IS president.
I was nine in 1968 when my father and uncle took me and my cousin to a Wallace rally in Detroit at the State Fair Grounds. It was packed. Everyone was excited and boisterous. I had no clue on what exactly was going on or what George Wallace stood for. I think my father was excited about a man articulating the angst of the blue collar white middle class. Hard workers who had no one "telling it like it was" until George came along. We had the Detroit riots in 68 that surely helped Wallace capture the hearts and minds of the suburban and rural whites in Michigan. It look like history repeats itself indeed. A call to arms for those scared about their place in American society. Who better to blame than those who are easy to target- Blacks, immigrants of color, LGBT's. I am saddened by humanities tribalisms and willingness to do others harm. Worst of all, a president who tacitly endorses such behavior.
3
George Wallace was from the pass 1968 the height of the war in Vietnam. But the day I remember George Wallace was at the doorstep of a high school in defiant to the full court order of segregation. But the Army National Guard walked through his lines, a change of history on that day where young black children was able to go to school that day, a new year a new time where bondage end for minorities.
Was George Wallace of races may be , but doesn't hold a candle against our President Donald Trump now , ahead of the white national movement yes he's a races.
I guess the good news is that those people inspired by Trump and plotting violence were arrested and the police officers fired. Four more years of Trump will give us a more corrupt Dept. of Justice, courts and law enforcement where such instances can more easily be overlooked. Like "the good old days" that so many want to revisit and, in a warped way, make America great again.
1
Has Wallace ever encouraged and offered to pay for lawyers for his supporters, should they get in trouble for roughing anyone up, like Trump did ?
Not that it's the worse thing that he has done.
Trump is a proof that our system needs to be improved. Honorable people resign from his government because there is no way to stop him without constitutional crisis.
2
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that in his latter days, Wallace apologized for the wrongs he perpetrated and encouraged. Can anyone imagine Trump ever apologizing for anything?
2
@Mary
He did. In an interview with JFK Jr for George magazine.
2
Someone once said, "There is very little difference between peace and war, it is all a question of style." Wallace and Trump both share the same style, that of war.
Political violence is no stranger to America and we are once again teetering on the brink. There was one tragic death at Charlottesville, but there could easily have been more - a lot more. Think about it.
4
We will never know whether Wallace would have become a dictator had he become president, but we do know Trump has already become one. He defies Congress, spends money on projects explicitly denied and ignores court rulings. The United States is no longer a representative democracy, and may neveer be able to recover.
7
One of the troubles with the Trump rallies is that the press completely fails to deconstruct them. They expose nothing about how people are recruited, how many attend multiple rallies, who the people are, or anything about their backgrounds. Every rally is treated as the American people standing up for Trump. But, it is not the American people at all. The key group that stands behind Trump and is always on camera is filled with young teens-not very bright looking ones -and who knows who else. The press promoted Trump by highlighting the rallies in 2016. Now, they fail but continuing to cover them and focus on his clever comments.
11
It has become clearer to me every day that our president is actually insane. With only a therapy training background this is no professional diagnosis but only a growing conclusion from study and observation. No sane man would treat a nations historic allies the way Trump has while at the same time cozying up to our clear enemies. No sane man would begin a trade war employing tariffs that end up damaging a thriving economy. No sane man who loves his country would try to turn natural treasures such as our national parks into quarries for profit. No sane man would put totally unqualified people in charge of essential national departments. These and many other decisions by this mentally deranged individual clearly reveal a man governed by some form of insanity. An independent psychological exam must be carried out.
12
I would like to believe most white Americans are not bitter, frustrated bigots champing at the bit to scream epithets at people, just waiting for a green light from the likes of Donald Trump.
There are a lot of them, to be sure. Otherwise, Donald wouldn't have such rabid, irrational support.
But I prefer to think over the last 50 years, most kids learned about the civil rights movement in school and are now tempering the views of outright racism we all heard from the older generation.
I hope I'm right.
6
I would say racism is measurably worse than in the 80s when I was a kid. When I visit back east, I am appalled by it. Out of the mouths of babes even!
1
I recall reading here in the NYT, where trump, during his run as ringmaster of Celebrity Apprentice, had an idea for an episode.
The idea was to have a competition where it was black vs. white. His rationale was that it would make for great ratings.
All these racist tweets are a manifestation of that idea . . .but in this case his need for high ratings will culminate in horrific violence.
If you doubt that, and are old enough to remember, then recall that time when both the nation and world watched as the police beat down persons peacefully protesting at the Pettus Bridge.
trumps tweets are like those batons used to beat black people down.
https://youtu.be/P7vrrYVyN3g?t=99
1
Last night, I watched the movie, "Network" (1976) on Netflix.
I could not believe how prophetic and relevant that movie is today.
On so many levels.
1
@Mary And the Elia Kazan/Andy Griffith classic "A Face In the Crowd."
The other thing about George Wallace is that he recanted. He lived to regret the things he’d done, and he said so publicly.
7
The quote below is all you ever need to know about trump supporters. They are racist to a person and now they can be openly and proudly racist.
“He says what we’re thinking and what we want to say,” noted a white woman at a Trump rally in Montana. “We wish we could speak our mind without worrying about the consequences,” explained a white man at a Phoenix event.
5
One of the reasons Trump does not have Wallace's boxing background is that it requires some personal courage to step into a boxing ring. Among many other things, personal courage is severely lacking in this president.
8
There is an even more important, and more frightening, distinction between Trump and Wallace. As a governor, Wallace’s power was largely limited to a single state. Trump, as President, has vastly more power at his disposal as well as a compliant Senate and increasingly supportive Supreme Court.
5
George Wallace, running as a Democrat, won 23% of the primary vote nationwide in 1972, and won outright in Michigan, Maryland and Florida. Racism, provided it's cast in subtle and deniable terms, has an innate appeal to us when we feel downtrodden and need a scapegoat. Well, I can't get a decent paying job, but it's not my fault...
We can't rely on the achievements of the Civil Rights movement anymore than we can live on food we ate a month ago. Fear of the "other" is hard-wired into every human being; no doubt it once served a valid purpose in our evolution and survival when humanity consisted of small warring tribes.
Teach your children well!
8
The problem is deeper than the Trump marionette. The Republican Congress is a body of marionettes. Direct the repulsion and anger to the root of it as well, individual donors, Super Pacs and their donors. Put faces on their names and the corporate interests, they have even more disposable income to buy elections with their orchestrated tax breaks. They propelled a known charlotan, a 21st century Elmer Gantry, host of a mean spirited reality show, modern day PT Barnum, a person who must have studied old Mussolini film clips and Sunday mega preachers for tips on body language and voice inflection. He was their man to create a cult of entertainment with absolutely no foundation for any hint of policy that spews between his lips. His team has proven to be more concerned with creating personal piggy banks and motivated by their self interests. His vile behavior is spun as merely spin, an assaut on political correctness. In reality it has opened a Pandora's box of racism, bigotry, coruption, greed, disloyalty to country and constituents, endless lies, antagonizing allies, embracing dictators who have subverted our elections, commit crimes against humanity, even the brutal murder of an American green card holding journalist They are still laughing and probably wagering on how low Trump can go under their limbo poll until an opponent cracks their backs and bank accounts.
3
@rhdelp Yes I read that Trump actually calls members of Congress to keep them in line as much they do him. It gets worse and worse.
He's also worse than Ponzi. Ponzi ripped off wealthy investors, whereas Trump has throughout his life and continues to get up at around 11:00 a.m. to watch TV, then gets on Twitter, and then takes the elevator to put in about 3 hours of work, ripping off people who put in a full day's work (and then some) for a living.
2
The biggest difference between the two men is surely that Trump is boorishly belching his hatespeak from the office of the President of the USA. Sure, Wallace was better spoken and slightly less obvious, but they are a couple of opportunistic thugs exploiting the racist tendencies of a huge segment of the the US population.
3
Wallace was a bigot by design, a political strategy that worked for his rise to national prominence.
Trump has no strategic plan. His pathology feeds his paranoia and insatiable ego needs. These are some of the ways he manages to relate to his followers. They also force his opponents to be defensive; each time they respond to his crazy rants, he is reinforced. Thus continuing his public pathology. If he is defeat in the 2020 election, it is likely that he won't leave without a major temper tantrum and not by his own volition.
3
You can be a decent person or you can be a Trump supporter. You cannot be both.
19
Trump was never a boxer, nor did he engage in physical combat. He's too big a physical coward. He's the classic bully, bigger and heavier than the kids he picks on, inciting others to do his fighting for him. Don't we all remember this kid from elementary school? The one who mocked weaker kids and revved up the other losers to pile on? A sneaky, malicious tattletale, the kind who gets the other kids in trouble and skates away untouched.
7
Yes, it’s only going to get worst because the established Republican Party doesn’t want another four more years of Trump and they will do a slow walk dance to make sure he is not reelected. So it will get bad and violence will ensue and he will go down in the books as the poster guy of how bad a person can be as a president. His fans, now that’s another issue ......it’s truly ugly to see women fawning over a racists
3
@CathyK
I am sure that every republican from moscow mitch on down has a secret desire that trump has a stroke in the middle of the night and does not wake up. The daily drama and chaos wears on everybody.
I remember George Wallace and Trump is worse. Wallaces ignorance assured civil rights for millions. Trumps ignorance is taking those rights away. This is what the “again” means in MAGA. Yet I find it difficult to blame Trump. I blame the people who continue to support him. Their ignorance is astounding.
#Sad
5
Trump's only reason for racist rhetoric and xenophobia rings hollow: he only says hateful words for their shock value. (Not sure he can get much lower.)
George Wallace didn’t have the support of Putin and Facebook when he ran for president.
4
Vote. Register voters. Volunteer. Send money to your choice of campaigns. Write letters. Encourage your friends. Preach kindness.
But vote. Please, vote.
2
A clear and present danger to the republic
1
I'll tell you the difference: one is the illegitimate president with unlimited power and extremely dangerous.
Wallace is smiling in his grave.
1
Actually, it's long past time that he was held responsible for the consequences of his words; he is not going to take responsibility by his own volition. He escalates his vitriol and hatred and gets away with it all because no one holds him to account. What is it going to take for someone in authority to finally hold him responsible?
3
First, a correction. I was there at the Wallace rally held in the Cobo arena in Detroit in 1968. I was a freshman at the University of Michigan and drove three friends to the rally. We came to heckle, and to express our dismay and disgust that the openly segregationist and racist Wallace had entered the political mainstream. We were not really "leftists". We were basically middle class kids who thought (maybe naively) that it was important for us to make some noise that Wallace was beyond the pale. We did witness the fights that broke out and a number of other protesters in the audience getting roughed up and having metal chairs thrown at them.
We ourselves were not assaulted in the arena, since we were seated high in the balcony. However, after the rally was over, one of the friends I had arrived with was cracked on the head by the police when he wandered away from us and joined a peaceful protest taking place outside the arena. He ended up in the hospital.
I agree that Trump is more dangerous than Wallace although not only because of the violence he incites. For one thing, hecklers such as we were then would not even be allowed in to a Trump rally, short of taking heroic measures to conceal our purpose. The press itself is caged in for their own "protection". But mostly he is more dangerous because he cloaks his racism, and his fundamental appeal to the mob and to what is worst in the human soul, in terms that enable "plausible deniability".
14
There is something else Wallace and Trump have in common. Neither one seems to hold any firm political beliefs apart from taking the ones that they believe will get them elected.
Wallace started as, for Alabama of his day, a liberal on integration but became an arch segregationist after he lost an election. Then later he switched back to being relatively liberal when blacks in Alabama were allowed to vote and he needed their support.
Similarly, Trump once was supportive of abortion rights and believed that the only thing that would solve the U.S. health insurance problem was a single payer system.
Both men are examples of the very worst of the American political system.
10
There is a huge difference between Trump and Wallace. Trump is the President, Wallace was not.
8
Lest we forget, the other big huge difference between Trump and Wallace is one was installed "elected" with help from a foreign adversary and the other was not elected, was shot and spent his miserable days in a wheelchair. Trump has a real and very dangerous power, Wallace is in the history books this country doesn't seem interested in learning from.
6
While the Democrats can't and should not ignore Trump's racist comments.....they need to redirect the topic of conversation.
1. He was going to appoint THE best people for the cabinet
2. How are the roads and bridges?
3. How is the clean air and water?
4. How many rounds of golf?
5. How many executive orders = can't make a deal
6. Loves everything about the military....except to serve
7.Lost the popular vote in 2016
Could go on and on...
The Democrats should avoid following Trump ....change the topic and conversation.
We vote We win
15
The saddest part of this story is that George Wallace received just shy of 10 million votes (13.5%) and 46 electoral college votes in 1968. Donald Trump received 62 million (46%) votes and 304 electoral college votes in 2016. Not only have we not exorcised the scourge of racism in this country, but the United States is more racist today than it was in the year Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.
6
Will America resort to another Arthur Bremerton moment to rectify this horrific chapter of American hate and ugliness?
I certainly hope not!
Michelle Obama gave us an American standard in civility to model in her exhortation “When they go low, we go high.”
Famously, her husband, President Barack Obama furthered the cause of nonviolence and American duty when he bluntly stated , “Don’t boo. Vote.”
The majority of Americans didn’t vote for the current occupant of the White House but we have him anyway because of the Americans who didn’t vote.
The hateful loud mouths will continue to blame and vilify “the others”. Our best hope is to redouble the effort to make certain everyone votes and every vote counts. Then we will find out what kind of country America intends to be, a model of tolerance and inclusion or a fearful horde hiding behind their guns and their walls.
Remember, “The whole world is watching”.
11
@Steve Foglesong Call me when we get a level voting field and they un-repeal the Voting Rights Act. Otherwise, the outlook is not good.
The rational reasonable voter in the US knows Trump is dangerous to everyones’ public safety and rights as citizens in our democracy. Trump flouts the rule of law, tramples on our Constitution and bullies dissidents of his core beliefs. Therefore, the reasonable, rational position on our current government is to replace it posthaste.
5
One other difference between Wallace and Trump: Wallace came from small-town Alabama and could, with some credibility, claim to represent the economic interests of what we now call the "white working class." His campaign was financed, in part, through small cash contributions put into yellow buckets circulated by volunteers at his rallies, like one I attended in Buffalo in 1968. Trump is a member, and representative, of the 1%, and his racist appeals to lower-income whites are even less authentic than were Wallace's.
Trump has talked (a "joke," he says) about a third term. But without going to that extent, he could put up a front candidate in 2024. Could Ivanka Trump be a Lurleen Wallace for the 21st century?
All the more reason to defeat him in 2020.
3
Wallace was intelligent enough to know that he couldn't possibly become president in the circumstances of the time by campaigning on an explicitly racist platform. Nevertheless, everyone knew that he was the politician who gave the "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" speech, and that his views hadn't changed. In Wallace's case, memory itself was his dog whistle. Wallace also was intelligent enough that, after he was shot and ended up losing his ability to walk, he grew introspective and realized (or at least understood that he needed to seem to realize) that he'd been wrong. I can't see Donald Trump doing similarly.
5
Trump "worry about his words"?! I can't imagine he's concerned in the least about anything a supporter might do - including murder - in his name. He seems to be drunk on the sway he holds over his base and the power he holds over any elected GOP official. He is absolutely wicked, in very large part due to his calculated deliberateness.
6
We know he is worse. What are we supposed to do? How close do we as a nation have to come to violence being perpetrated on citizens because of people like Trump? We elected a democratic congress and still play a waiting game. If this nightmare of an administration continues after the 2020 elections we will be on a slippery slope.
4
Ridiculous expansion of the Trump danger. The only danger liberals (any Democrat)should worry about is not getting elected to Congress again as the American people see what's really going on with race, i.e., the race card is used as a cudgel to silence any criticism of POC even when Congressman Cummings and others do nothing for their minority constituents.
If I made a public speech or posted a threat to take violence upon the person of one DJT, a federal agent would be knocking at my door in a NY minute.
Why does DJT get to incite violence against regular people with such impunity ?
Its wrong
10
Instead of devoting so much time and space to what is so well known, the outright racism and devotion to greed of our current president, those who understand should be espousing a cause (and I use the term to underscore the serious nature of our predicament having such a man at the head of our country) that enlightens voters on issues that affect their well-being, like health-care, a minimum wage of $!5, free state college tuition, and control of the big banks who after the cancelling of the Glass-Steagle act did so much to bring about '08.
Don't preach to the choir, as this article does. Inform the undecided where their true interest lies.
Another big difference is that Trump is President of the United States and George Wallace never was.
1
George Wallace was a Southern Populist in the tradition of Huey Long, Theodore Bilbo, Tom Watson, Herman Talmadge. What Wallace had was a facility for unbridled hypocrisy that enabled him to spout virulently racist rhetoric when in fact he didn’t believe it and knew it was wrong. He was also very smart which is something nobody would accuse the present occupant of the White House of. Wallace, an adaptable, nuanced man, would of been a better President than Trump.
1
America has always had its fair share of racists and bigots. However, post Civil War America, excluding Andrew Johnson, has never had a President so unapologetically depraved as Trump. What makes Trump unique is the unanimous support he has received from the Republican Party and the Republican Congress. This has enabled him to eviscerate the Federal Courts, the DOJ, and the Supreme Court, so he is not held accountable for actions resulting from his hateful rhetoric and bigoted policies. Clearly, the only solution to the evil that is Trump will be the 2020 elections. Although prosecuting political opponents is historically never done in Democracies, justice would be served if a more legitimate, post Trump DOJ prosecutes Trump and his many accomplices for crimes against humanity, such as the deaths of seven young children in detention at the southern border. Without accountability, another Trump is sure to rise to power again.
2
I am old enough to remember Wallace's run for the presidency. It was scary. But Trump is indeed worse. Wallace's "convictions" were horribly wrong-headed, but, as some have said, at least he stood for something: and knowing what that something was made it easier to oppose.
Trump's convictions are like Boris Johnson's. Johnson, when asked if he had any convictions said, Yes, just one for speeding. But at least Johnson can drive and Wallace could box. Trump can only spew venom: but that is very dangerous.
204
Historians have talked about the great swings of the pendulum. Think of the election of Trump as a reaction to the election of Obama. Generally, when the pendulum swings very far, it matches that velocity with an equal and opposite reaction next time. Expect repudiation of Trump and his hatred in the next election.
1
Trump worrying about the consequences of his words? What a quaint notion. As long as his words bring applause and adulation from his supporters that is all the consequences he will ever worry about. The ones who should worry is us, why do such people exist in such large numbers in this country? What kind of school did they go to, why did they fail to learn even a minimum level of respect for people different from them? What makes them so afraid and angry? Over two generations have grown to adulthood since the Civil Rights Act passed and yet attitudes have not changed.
2
Trump doesn't need to be abstract because he has an entire cable news entertainment channel devoted to him.
1
He is not in the slightest bit worried about the consequences of his words and never will be. That would require some introspection, which is something he is incapable of.
2
This is a thoughtful comparison, and a useful reminder that moments of intense progressive action generate a vicious backlash. Wallace was it's face during part of the Civil Rights era, just as Trump is it's face in response to the Obama years.
In the (far-too-easy) national narrative about the Civil Rights movement, progressive leaders are the central figures, and the violence against them registered as a "tragic consequence." This story makes it easy to forget that news of the backlash, and a general atmosphere of liberal consternation, dominated the public spectacle then, as now. Under these conditions, its easy to forget the massive coming to consciousness of a generation. Obama's election came at the height of the anti-war movement. The election of the first Black president, who promised to end the war, energized progressives across the nation. The Republican backlash was shocking--they wouldn't work with a Black man at all. I think that punctured a liberal myth--those who were clinging to the belief that the Bush administration still retained a rational core of "traditional" republicans. We register this realization as a new incivility, which of course it is (but not only that). Progressive movements emerged across the nation: BLM, Occupy, the Dreamers, #MeToo are the media's shorthand for today's movement culture.
The thing about Wallace: he was never president. If he had been elected, imagine what he could have done to the movement culture of the time?
1
There is really no other gentler way to say it: Trump’s rhetoric is the kind that can get people killed. Every time he takes to Twitter I hold my breath that soon afterward there will be a push notification of yet another politically inspired tragedy.
We have to ask ourselves: Is this the kind of leader we want? Is this the kind of country we want? Surely we can all put our ideologies aside, search our souls, and answer those questions honestly.
Can’t we?
9
Apparently, between three and four out of every ten Americans want Trump's racism, hatred, and violence.
1
"As the 2020 campaign heats up, the president’s rhetoric will as well. It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words."
Snowball's chance, Professor Kruse. A rather anticlimactic conclusion to a very strong opinion piece.
2
Trump is much worse than George Wallace. Wallace was bigoted, and believed in many falsehoods, but he wasn't a pathological liar. Trump lies constantly about everything. He says one thing and then 10 seconds later denies it. He views events and immediately refuses to admit they happened or completely reverses what he saw.
George Wallace believed in segregation, but at least he believed in something, as bad as segregation is. Trump doesn't believe in anything, except himself. He has no principles so he acts in a totally unprincipled manner. He is totally motivated by power and adulation.
Donald Trump is incapable of honesty at any level. He has succeeded by totally destroying the truth. Even Wallace eventually came around and realized that segregation was wrong. Trump has never been wrong about anything. Just ask him.
444
@Bruce Rozenblit
Classic Narcissist. It underlies everything he says and does. Any attempt to explain the behaviour by rationality is circumventing reality.
10
@Bruce Rozenblit
Of *course* Wallace was a pathological liar. During the early 1960s, when his first wife, Lurleen, had a caesarean, her doctors also diagnosed her with uterine cancer. They told only George, not Lurleen, and George neglected to tell Lurleen himself or investigate any follow-up treatment for her. Then, years later, Lurleen noticed some symptoms on her own and was told at that time that she had already had cancer for some years. She then pursued treatment for herself, but because George was term-limited out of the Alabama governorship, he started pressuring her into running in his place. She acceded to his wishes and he presented her to the voting public as perfectly healthy (while making it clear that he would really be the one in power). She was elected but spent most of her term not at the capitol but in various hospitals; she died about a year and a half after her election.
Also, there is ample evidence that Wallace did not in fact believe in segregation, and only adopted whatever political position was most politically advantageous to him in any given era. When he lost an early political race during the 1950s, he chalked it up to being too liberal on race and swore he would never be "outsegged" (the slightly less appalling version of the quotation) again.
I agree that Trump is terrible, but it's bizarre to make that point by creating some false hagiography for George Wallace.
4
It is worth noting that Wallace was shot and seriously wounded at a rally he held in 1972. At that time, fewer people had guns than now have them and mass shootings such as yesterday's Gilroy California event were far less common.
Wallace disobeyed his security patrol and went into the crowd after the rally to shake hands. His attacker wore a "Wallace in 72" button and was dressed in red, white and blue clothing. Certainly Trump has been made aware of this and does not meet individuals post rally, so his being shot is highly unlikely.
1
I'd like to tell that man who said “We wish we could speak our mind without worrying about the consequences,” explained a white man at a Phoenix event. “He can speak his mind without worrying” that there are always consequences. They may take the form of violence, threats and divisiveness. No trumps words will come back to bite him in the behind. In the end goodness does triumph over evil, sometimes it just takes a while longer than we think.
3
There is also another difference. President Trump has a propaganda media at his service: FOX NEWS. Governor Wallace had none.
12
Another difference between Wallace and Trump is that Wallace was a (somewhat) more authentic populist, who I can't imagine pushing a budget-busting high-end tax cut that left out most of the middle class. Trump's repeated economic attacks on his own base -- who inexplicably stick with him anyway -- have no precedent in modern politics that I know of.
5
It is probable that Trump won because of the Chicago Rally that never took place.
True to form, Democrats came to be disruptive and violent.
In a genius move, Trump cancelled the Rally.
Even the liberal media, which was out to sabotage Trump, had to report on the reason for the cancellation with the endless loop of Democrats gone crazy.
It is possible that Trump scheduled the Chicago Rally with the idea of cancelling it and getting the nationwide publicity.
5
In a country and world where immigration patterns and population-diversification threaten groups in power, Trump’s racist and xenophobic politics provided a means for white survival. In learning from Dr Martin Luther King, progressives must refocus outreach to poor whites on economic populism, and illuminate truths hidden beneath deceptive conservative politics.
Upon pointing out how Trump handily won white voters across demographic categories, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in the Atlantic that ”Trump assembled a broad white coalition that ran the gamut from Joe the Dishwasher to Joe the Plumber to Joe the Banker.” And yet, for Joe the Dishwasher and Joe the Plumber, Trump’s policies instead provide more harm than hope. In voting for Trump, low-income white voters transitively advocated to make their healthcare less affordable, Social Security less available, and over-time, increase their taxes.
150
@USNA73 No one has accused Trump's voters as having a majority of well educated logical thinkers.
15
@USNA73
>>>progressives must refocus outreach to poor whites on economic populism, and illuminate truths hidden beneath deceptive conservative politics.<<<
They have no desire to learn. It is beyond politics at this point. Trump's supporters are "believers" so appealing to them with logic and economics is pointless. The Democrats will only win by having more people show up to vote than the Republicans. Stop wasting time trying to convince people to vote D who will never change who they are.
13
@USNA73
"...progressives must refocus outreach to poor whites on economic populism, and illuminate truths hidden beneath deceptive conservative politics." Progressives (or more to the point–liberals) aren't capable of doing that. It's a class thing, a "cool" thing to berate the people they should be including. For all their self proclaimed political savviness, they continue to show their ignorance. IMO, it is they that are the dividers.
Prediction: before the November election of 2020 we are very likely to see real violence in one form or another from some Trump supporters. It is very unfortunate but nonetheless likely. Trump has been priming this for far too long for it not to spill over into actual violent steps by his supporters. Unstable minds combined with the ugly words and dire implications of what Trump says mean that he is creating a tide that can't be held back. But, of course, as long as it doesn't hurt him in a direct political way (votes) he doesn't care.
He enjoys the spectacle and the idea that he can speak, or tweet, and be so powerful. It makes him happy. Whereas a decent person would be upset with the ramifications of speech and words, Trump enjoys it. Daily.
143
@Doug Terry
Also, his family and the Republican Party accept his speech and his words which is even more discouraging.
8
@Doug Terry
Ask yourself this question: If Trump is defeated in the 2020 election, will he leave office peacefully or claim election fraud as he calls his followers to arms?
I am very worried about our Democracy’s future.
6
@Doug Terry We already *have* seen real violence from Trump supporters. Charlottesville. Mass shootings. And most unambiguously, Cesar Sayoc, as referenced in the article. He wasn't trying to prank or intimidate his targets - the only thing that stopped him from murdering dozens of explicitly political targets was his own incompetence at bomb-making.
The violence has become normalized, like everything else. The frog is boiled.
Blood curdling analysis. Bravo.
Wallace tried to turn the clock back, as Trump is trying now. But, Trump is exactly where Wallace wanted to be and he's not as effective as Wallace would have been, had he gotten to the Oval. The number of Wallace/Trump supporters is diminishing. Soon, they will be as relevant as the supporters of Pat Paulsen or Louis Abolafia are today.
44
@Max And Max You see, this is why Hillary Lost. The NYT, the media were all touting the polls, basically proclaiming her the winner. She lost. People are tired of politicians and presidents kicking the can down the road and they wanted someone to begin actual change for the better. Hillary was just more of the same. That may or may not be happening depending on who you ask. But I predict the Democratic candidates, at least the ones that have come forward, have almost no chance. Michael Moore predicted Trump would win. Well, it's going to happen again.
6
@advocate4
Hillary lost because 107,000 votes divided by three states were unduly influenced by the Russians. If, after knowing how votes are influenced, voters are adamant enough to vote for Trump again, then it's time we admitted that America is both dying and fascist, for fascism and longevity are self-canceling propositions. Michael Moore is less superstitious than your average voter in America and that's why he is worth paying attention to. Not because he was right, but because he thinks clearly.
4
@advocate4: Hillary did not lose the election. She got a lot more votes than Trump did. But the Electoral College ignored that and gave it to Trump.
6
In the spring of 1968 Wallace was riding high with more than 18 percent of the vote according to the polls. By election day he was down at 12 percent. One of the main reasons for the decline was his loss of support among woman. They didn't like the aura of violence at his rallies. Sound familiar?
169
@Don,
Not really. 53% of white women voted for Trump.
3
@Don
But alarmingly, when you see pictures of the people at his rallies with pure glee in their eyes...many are women.
1
@Loyd Collins
take a look at some of the photos of the women at the Fascist rallies in the 1930's. Same look in their eyes.
2
I'm not an apologist for George Wallace, but one big difference with Trump was pretty obvious when he ran for governor of Alabama several years after his three presidential bids. He received overwhelming support from the African American community because he acknowledged that he was wrong in campaigning on many of the race related issues that propelled him during his presidential campaigns. As I recall it, most African American Alabamians thought this contrition was genuine. Apparently the guilt from the presidential campaigns ran deep. You will never get Donald Trump to apologize to anyone for anything.
775
@Bob Burke
I agree. Trump lacks empathy or the capacity to admit a mistake. He never has shown either quality and he never will.
33
@Bob Burke
That's a very good point. In those days apologies and contrition meant something, (see today's article on that subject).
Further, Wallace was born 30 before Trump, the product of an officially racist culture, where his views were normal. That doesn't mean they were right, of course.
Queens NY in the fifties was not Alabama in 1919. Trump's particular brand of racism is business driven: His family were wealthy landlords. His position and privilege might at least have allowed him to behave respectfully. The screaming baboon we've come to know has no excuse. Screaming baboons don't do apology.
43
@Bob Burke
Right, because Donald Trump has never considered the morality of an action, never. Like Mitch McConnell, he doesn't understand what an ethical question is.
43
George Wallace’s rallys were funded by campaign contributions. Donald Trump’s rallys are being paid for by my tax dollars. That’s a distinction we should not overlook.
So why should most of the American people be contributing to a hate-filled, racist-baiting, self-promoting campaign-style rally directed solely and exclusively to the president’s adoring followers at my expense? Isn’t the role of the presidency for ALL of the people? I doubt that the RNC is picking up the tab for these Donald Trump Lovefests.
As unsavory as Wallace was, at least he had some degree of conscience.
342
@RHD: From taxpayer subsidized air travel to his golf courses to increasing occupancy at Trump International Hotels by foreign rulers and diplomats to getting tax breaks for his buddies (including in the real estate industry), one of Donald Trump's primary goals has been to monetize the office of the president.
In fact, most of Trump's personal expenses and those of his family have shifted to the taxpayer. Starting January 20, 2017, this corrupt family began a 4 year all-expense paid luxury vacation, with US citizens footing the bill.
72
@RHD--Eventually, tRump should be required to pay back all of our money that he has stolen. Every dime, although, since he's NOT a billionaire, that will probably not be possible. I'll settle for life in prison.
56
@Lew
Meanwhile we still waiting for Individual1 Tax Returns.
Will we ever see these preciously guarded papers. Where are the vaults full of corruption, which foreign countries are covering the secrets, banks transactions, money laundering, investors and all the rest of this presidential garbage.
He orders all his corrupt rotten circle to not respond to subpoena, so everything is a fight that he will take to avoid to be thrown out of office...
It will only get worse...
35
As a young boy I remember Wallace when he first ran for president. I sat at the television and after having seen Nixon, Agnew, Humphrey, Muskie, and Wallace a few times I told my parents that the only one who seemed like he would really do something was Wallace. As an impressionable ten year old who knew nothing about any of these men or their politics, I suppose the loudest and boldest of them stood out. My parents tried to explain to me that he wasn't really a good choice and I asked them why. They told me he wasn't a nice person. I still remember thinking he really seemed to feel strongly about something and the others didn't.
Fast forward to today and I can see the parallels between Wallace and Trump. For a ten year old or adult who doesn't know anything about politics, I can see how these two men could resonate with the fearful, scared, intolerant, bigoted, racist or angry people. For those who are easily persuaded I can see how these two could resonate with large numbers of white people looking for a savior or someone with a bully pulpit to spew their vile views. When voters feel as if nothing really changes in DC and someone comes along who turns it upside down they feel as if their savior has arrived. I'm not a believer in religion but one message stands out and seems somewhat applicable today....Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. Now the wolves are front and center for all to see, if you open your eyes.
414
@Magan
There is definitely a human tendency to render holy what is basically just unrestrained, in the idea that it is more "honest".
When, of course, it may be nothing of the kind.
But it is the reason theater and movies and other expressions of grand emotion strike a chord with so many, and can move many to act in a way logical argument cannot.
The trick is for the better nature angels to develop some of those same theatrical skills in their messaging.
37
Spinoza propounds, "There is nothing positive in ideas on account of which they are called false," so I fully agree with your conclusion. But along with Thomas Friedman I'm scared that he will outwit enough of the minority again. The prospect exists though for the party to consider, this time we, the majority knows and can see that "something wicked this way comes."
12
@Magan Hey, don't tar wolves. They aren't ravening but are shy, family oriented animals that just want to live in peace and as far away from humans as possible. The bunch in Washington are like poisonous spiders.
21
Social media provide an amplifier for Donald that Wallace did not have, allowing his words to travel far and wide in an instant. Plus he has the great bully pulpit of the presidency, even if he has managed to utterly desecrate the institution.
Donald gets a great deal of gratification out of his rallies and his tweeting. He really basks in having the hatred he feels applauded and endorsed by his crowds. It is twisted, extremely dangerous and I think he is playing with fire. When you summon beasts, it is hard to know how they will behave. These are not very fine people.
345
@NJLatelifemom
Indeed. But more than just the applause, Donald wants to be adored and will stoke the embers to get that rush from his crowd that he needs. He will lie, he will slander, and he will cheat to keep all eyes on him. I hate to be dramatic about it, but his tactics remind me of two figures from the '30's who need not be mentioned. As the article mentioned, Wallace generalized his venom, whereas Trump personalizes it, going after people ad hominem. Trump is the 21st century's first demagogue. Very dangerous, but the people he feeds live amongst us. Voting Trump out isn't enough - we have to change their minds as well.
23
@Rick Morris: Good luck with that mate. If the Civil War, Reconstruction, Civil Rights Movement, and Hope and Change all failed to have any meaningful transformational impact, what makes you think the roughly one-third of Americans who ascribe to Trump's blatant racism and intolerance will ever change their minds? Their hatred and bigoted fears of black and brown people seems to be inbred or otherwise passed on generation after generation.
As history has shown far too often, racial, ethnic and/or religious hate act as a trap that is very difficult to escape. Only serious educational efforts have any chance of freeing those caught by the hate trap. American public schools do a poor job of educating children about the history of racial, ethnic, and religious hate and other bigotries in this country. Whether this is due to fear of upsetting what kids are taught by their parents and/or in their churches, mosques and synagogues, or to an irrational fear of being labeled "politically correct" is hard to say. But it is easy to say that only by facing up to our bigoted past and present can there be any realistic chance of changing the minds of those given to racial, ethnic and religious hatred and intolerance.
11
It is unlikely Trump will change his tactics, so focused on hatred and cruelty. He may not have been a boxer, but he was coached in the combative style of his early lawyer Roy Cohn. Trump also knows the value of a slugfest, given his experiences with WrestleMania and similar venues.
Wallace did not have Twitter and other social media, or who knows what might have happened. The national press was not so fragmented at the time. Wallace did not have the Fox network opinion writers at his back. There was no hint of a weaponized Facebook.
The consequences of Trump's twitter tirades are already apparent. Perhaps the most disturbing part is that so many of our citizens will vote for this man--a person who demeans his office on a daily basis.
It is a given that dog-whistle politics have been employed by both sides, but this man and his cadre walk around with a bullhorn and free electronic messaging. His party plots ways to win with the antiquated electoral college, knowing they cannot get a majority vote in their favor.
235
First, I'd like to commend Dr. Kruse, a respected historian and member of my profession, for taking a public stance against the Trump administration. Too many of us still express disgust in private, hoping the waters will eventually calm themselves. He's an expert on the white politics of resentment, and his book "White Flight" captures the devastating legacy of those politics on my own hometown of Atlanta, GA.
Second, and to the point of the article, Trump's appeal is far scarier because his megaphone is much larger than George Wallace's ever was. Social media and an increasingly fractured and partisan media landscape have magnified and spread Trump's message to far-right actors throughout the world. His racism, xenophobia, sexism, and anti-intellectualism have found kindred spirits in the Philippines, in Brazil, and throughout Europe.
Another problem is that Wallace appeared to have a soul, albeit a highly-damaged one, as evidenced by his contrition towards the African-American community later in his life. Trump, as many observers have pointed out in horrifying detail, lacks any semblance of empathy or humanity. All he cares about is power, money, and himself. That's it. He is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve those goals, even if it threatens the future of American democracy (which is unsurprising, considering Trump has no knowledge of or respect for it).
Dark times, these.
1237
@A. Walgren Dark times indeed, and getting darker. There seems to be no ebbing of Trumps behavior or of his supporters. We can only hope, this is more noise then numbers. It's difficult to accept that support will increase for this viscious man.
37
@A. Walgren
Donald Trump is a combination of the very worst of King George III, Aaron Burr, Benedict Arnold, Andrew Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, Huey Long, Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
22
@A. Walgren The difference, Gov. Wallace ran for president where Donald Trump is our president...
23
Professor Kruse, I have to respectfully disagree with you.
Donald Trump is no different from George Wallace. The concoction that Wallace sold is the same that Trump sells at his rally: it's pure, unadulterated hate.
It doesn't matter if Wallace never verbally attacked Dr. Martin Luther King or any of the other civil rights leaders. He did the same things half a century ago that the president does today: he agitates for the restoration of an apartheid America. When he stood in the door of the Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963, he said, without saying, what Trump said two weeks ago: "go back."
The president has simply picked up the gauntlet that Wallace dropped after Arthur Bremer paralyzed him in 1972. Other politicians and presidents have grabbed at it with varying success, chief among them Ronald Reagan. But Wallace, of all the pro-segregationist governors of the South in the late 1950's and throughout the 1960's, was the face of national white resentment that came on the heels of Brown vs. Topeka and the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. It was completely zero-sum: "You win. I lose. No thanks."
The president has taken magnificent advantage of another ally that Wallace could only dream about: social media. The Internet explosion rockets Trump's every word around the globe in nano-seconds, filling hate's darkest corners. What Wallace would not have given for such a mega audience.
The sinews that knit the both of them together is hate.
423
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18: Wallace was the only Democrat to speak out against forced busing in the Detroit desegregation case.
He knew the damage it would do to the lives of working class folks.
The Democratic Party for the most part didn't care - just so much collateral damage while McGovern & Co. were trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath were stored. That's the Democratic Party.
7
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
Red Sox, another big difference is that Trump has the backing of an entire so-called news network that normalizes his behavior and policies.
65
@Jp
Of course he spoke out against forced busing; he was a staunch segregationist. You can add to your thoughts: Would Wallace have cottoned to the idea of integrated neighborhoods? Ergo, no need to bus?
7
I keep hoping that tRump will end up just like George Wallace. Although, I think it would be too good for him.
1
These historical comparisons are interesting. But at this point, I want to know how to defeat Trump. I want to know how to make him look smaller and weaker, especially to people who are lukewarm to him now, the swing voters, without whom the Democrats will fail. So, he's like George Wallace. Interesting, good to know, but who, if anyone, was effective at cutting him down to size? How did they do it? What does history teach us? Clearly, simply calling him a racist isn't enough... Democrats throw that word around so much that people don't hear it anymore. He wears it as a badge of honor. No, the Democrat who wins will be the one who is best at quickly responding to and reframing Trump’s message of hate in a way that shows why he's a small man who will damage these folks and our country. Salespeople call it verbal judo, the martial art that turns your opponents weight and force into your weapon. I want to see the candidate who Trump is afraid to insult. I want to see him thinking twice about spewing bile at those hate-fests he calls rallies. I want to see that little tweet-finger tremble a bit before hitting 'send.'
4
Of course the biggest difference between Wallace and Trump is that the former was defeated whereas the latter now sits in your WH's Oval Office.
There is one huge difference between Wallace and Trump. Trump is actually POTUS with a bully pulpit and enormous power AND immunity. No one is checking him or . He is like some Tudor king where anyone who contradicts him is committing "TREASON!" He is a danger to the nation.
5
His rhetoric is seen as a call to violence by disturbed heavily armed individuals.
It's not the ones that brag online that are most worrisome.
It's the quiet next Las Vegas Shooter with a political agenda that give one the creeps.
1
George Wallace and his Georgia counterpart Lester Maddox rose to power on the wave of white reaction to the Civil Rights Act’s declaration of racial equality. They did not have to fan that reaction into a frenzy because the evangelical mission to preserve white “purity,” white superiority had been white power’s cause celebre in the segregated South ever since the Civil War a century before.
Donald Trump took that old pot of both racial fear and racial superiority, stirred in a heavy measure of resentment of the “other’s” gains in the half century since (most prominently represented by a black man in the White House), threw in an even heavier measure of white fear of losing majority status in the rising tide of brown-skinned immigrants—and turned the heat up to “high.” For extra measure, he portrayed every gain by someone of color as a white man’s loss, and he took that toxic brew to those in the economically depressed, largely white parts of the country, blaming their job losses on immigrants and on the offshoring of their former employers to countries like Mexico—thus putting a brown-skinned face on the cause of their misery.
His campaign—which hasn’t stopped since he came down that escalator railing against Mexican “rapists”—hasn’t been simply a fear of racial parity, it has been a continuous active incitement of racial fear and resentment. How overwhelmingly sad it has been such a winning strategy.
3
Wallace NOT overtly racist? Hmm, I seem to remember him saying, “Segregation then, segregation now, segregation forever. “ Sounds racist to me.
1
I'm to the point where analysis and discussion, contrast and compare, is of no use. I've come to believe that those who support trump are willfully ignorant, hate-filled individuals. I no longer believe them when they say they supported trump for any reason other than to show their anger at whatever is unpleasant in their lives, whatever they fear and at any real or imagined Other. If the country survives, we'll need a decade or more to recover any semblance of progress or civility.
3
There is no similarity between these two men. Wallace was a bigot and Trump is not. Trump is merely saying that the politicians should focus on their constituents.
1
We wish we could speak our mind without worrying about the consequences
Well there you have it: people coming out and telling you their motivating force is to get permission to unleash their inner jerks and get away with it.
Lovely.
1
I'm still searching for the bottom-line emotion that is the foundation of the white racist, an emotion that pre-dates hatred by thousands of years. I think that this caveman survival emotion might be... repulsion.
The ever escalating incitement of racism and hate by trump can only lead to one place. I fear that when it turns to violence, which is what he seems to long for, it will be a very ugly time for our country.
1
Worse then Wallace ? I think not.
Also more dangerous because Mr. Trump real has tools to sow his racist hatred. SCOTUS, the political tool with Law as a facia, the AG as a personal lawyer, and Racist News to broadcast his message.
1
Trump Is Different From George Wallace. He’s Worse.
5
Whatever else, George Wallace had much better hair than Donald J. Trump's goofy look...the 50s comb job, the orange dye that's touched up every week; a real "girly" obsession he has with his looks.
As if the rally women are fantacizing about being groped by this Electoral College/Trump University graduate.
The difference between Wallace and Trump is that the entire Republican Establishment didn’t quite follow Wallace into the hate fest, whereas the current Republicans can not seem to sink far enough, fast enough to embrace it. It is not just one guy now, it is pretty much the entire party. THAT is what makes it terrifying.
2
Maybe Trump is distinguishable from Wallace, maybe they are not distinguishable at all, but the big take away is that millions of people respond positively to racism, nativism, misogyny, homophobia and all manner of ugly memes. The inescapable conclusion is that we are NOT all in this together and that America is becoming a nastier, coarser, cruder, and crueler society. Just what do you think would occur if Trump literally told his supporters to "Go get THEM?"
3
If Fox "News" had been in existence with Roger the sexual predator Ailes as its chief hate monger as the head, how would those personalities (don't confuse them with reputable journalists) treated George Wallace? Would that channel and those working for it tolerated the blatant racism of Wallace as they tolerate our racist "president" today?
Would Fox distance themselves or stoke the fires of hate and racism of Wallace or perform as they do today with their very own racist "president" in stoking those fires of hate and racism?
I remember Wallace's campaign and it sickened many of us. And now we have Donald Wallace Trump performing his version of racism-and those masses cheer not realizing this "Make America Great Again" slogan rings hollow when they allow a charlatan to incite their own hate for others.
And that is not making anything great.
1
I am worried about people with impressionable minds who are armed to the teeth. In Wallace’s day society was a little more cohesive and people had families to keep them from going off the deep end. Trump’s rhetoric encourages the lone wolf militia types to go on a rampage. It’s scary.
The part I really can’t understand is why so many Christians support Trump when he is so transparently Satanic. Christian radio is pretty close to Fox News as a source of republican propaganda.
3
Trump not only attacks individuals, he does so with lies.
The recent example that bothers me the most is saying that Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez calls the US and its people "garbage." This is a bald-faced lie, straight up. What she actually said was completely different and did not denigrate anyone or the US. Recently, two Louisiana police officers were fired over online posts that alluded to killing her, and apparently she has received a number of death threats.
The Democrats need to find a way to stop this. The only solution that I can think of is a lawsuit, so that is probably the right course of action. It seems to me that she could easily win a defamation of character lawsuit against Trump personally. This is absloutely textbook defamation. Of course, the fact that Trump is stacking the judiciary does not help.
2
Law and Order: The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land and the president's job is to faithfully execute the laws of the land. Right wingers in Oregon met the failed attempt to push for gun locks and to control gun sales by bumper stickers:"I will not comply." States Rights, another Wallace-era term, is suddenly wrong when California wants to have stricter pollution limits than the feds require. Law and Order means run roughshod over those who actually want to see America reach its ideals. A good many of the president's supporters would have done well to get more education and to have fewer children rather than rail on how everything is against the white man.
Want to see Law and Order? Watch the laws of physics and chemistry re-order this world in the coming years.
2
Trump is a million times worse than Wallace. Our country is far more polarized now than then. Add in Russian interference of our elections, extreme gerrymandering, a complicit GOP Congress, a rogue Attorney General, a stacked Supreme Court, and an ignorant populace, and America will be lucky to survive the 2020 election aftermath regardless of who wins. Wallace never showed himself to be anywhere near the hateful racist that is Donald Trump. He truly wants to destroy our democracy. Wallace never would have entertained that thought.
3
If Joe McCarthy and George Wallace had a baby it would be Donald Trump. There is no depth to which he will not sink in order to get a rise out of his white-supremacist supporters.
And, mark my words, Trump will never leave office willingly, because he knows that as soon as he leaves the White House, his immunity from prosecution, and thereby his very freedom, will go with it.
He will try to rig the election - he's already publicly asked Putin for help via their "wink, wink" news conference - and if that fails, he will claim it was rigged against him, and contest the results, very likely asking Mitch McConnell and his Supreme Court to back him up, leading us, once again, into another major Constitutional crisis.
No, Donald Trump will never leave the White House unless he is "escorted" out by the Secret Service. I would bet the farm on that.
3
@Chicago Guy. Yes. Why do so many people not see this as a probability? They keep thinking that the rule of law will prevail.
Trump is far more dangerous than Wallace because he was actually elected President and holds the office. Big difference. It's not even clear that Wallace would have been so mean spirited,hateful, and outwardly racist if he has been elected.
3
One more notable difference: in 1968 Wallace had two opponents, neither of whom he insinuated should be assassinated. Trump had one opponent, against whom he made not one but two implicit threats of murder.
1
Another difference may be that republicans harbor a deep hatred of democrats in general. This of course has been fueled by Limbaugh, Hannity and others who have concocted an alternate universe for so many angry souls to latch onto. Most republicans therefore don't stand for much beyond hating democrats.
But the media is equally to blame by blindly fostering a so-called "balanced" approach to reporting. A recent Times editorial claimed democrats share equal responsibility for the stalemate in Congress. As if McConnell isn't the devil incarnate? And the incessant coverage of Trump is beyond nauseating, especially his fascination with Twitter. Get over it!
2
Don't you mean "It's long past time that 'he should worry about the consequences....?'"
The party of “haters” sounds so much more authentic than gop or republicans. I fear racism will never be extinguished but here in OUR America, we do have the power to remove those politicians who practice it from their positions on the government payroll. We, the taxpayers, are funding these haters who are destroying our country. VOTE BLUE in 2020!
2
George Wallace was a three time loser in his bid to become president. If Trump keeps on imitating his despicable and racist rhetoric from '64,'68 and '72 we can only hope he'll be the loser in 2020. I'm betting the majority of my fellow Americans are NOT racist and are intelligent enough to see what a loser the man is now. Let's make sure the moving trucks are at the White House in January of next year. Vote him out, people.
1
I'm thinking that Trump's voters are already a set amount. I don't see him picking up any new supporters for the 2020 election.
He is the 21st century version carnival barker. Except as POTUS he is the most dangerous person alive and needs to be removed ASAP.
3
I have a goal now. I'm working out, watching what I eat, cutting back on the booze and commenting in the NYT because I never could figure out Sudoku. My new plan is to last long enough that Trump is as distant a memory on America's trash heap as George Wallace is today. The similarities are remarkable, right down to the pictures at both their rallies. Because of that, I fully expect Trump to out-ignoble Wallace, McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Bush, Cheney, Ailes, and all the FOX personalities. You are all doomed to be historical compost.
1
Trump should need the admonition that he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.
1
The comparison that comes to mind with Trump's rallies isn't Wallace. Wallace was only a marginal figure in the 1968 election, more of a spoiler than a real contender for the presidency because he didn't have the backing of a major political party as Trump did. Rather, Trump's strutting on stage and his jutting chin suggest Mussolini (all that's missing is the uniform) and the virulent anger and utter devotion evoked in his crowds is reminiscent of Nazi rallies. Trump and the Republicans are playing with fire, and it's only a matter of time before the conflagration comes.
1
All the Drms need to is run a attractive, center left charming guy. Appeal to the blue collar world and DO NOT GO RADICAL.
“...despite today’s consensus to the contrary, Mr. Wallace didn’t make open appeals to racism. Instead, he couched opposition to the civil rights movement — both his own opposition and that of whites in the North and South alike — in new terms...
Surely you jest...
https://www.nytimes.com/1963/06/11/archives/negroes-admission-due-today-us-show-of-force-may-be-needed-wallace.html
“...Sources close to Governor Wallace said he believed that some show of military force was necessary before he could retreat from a pledge to prevent desegregation in Alabama. This is the only state that maintains complete segregation throughout its public educational system...
If having to send in the US army is couching opposition in new terms – indoor plumbing must be next on your bucket list, after a tourism stay on Mars...
1
One disturbing aspect of both George Wallace's rallies and Donald Trump's rallies: there sure are an awful lot of _white women_ there. It makes me wonder what benefit these women hoped then, or hope now, to derive, given how manifestly harmful the agenda of campaigns in rallies like this are to women of any colour.
2
Yes Trump is worse. He is also beginning to sound certifiably deranged. Something must be done before he completely destroys what little decency we have left along with our system of government.
1
Trump is a landlord. He’s a landlord and a casino operator.
When push comes to shove his character comes out and he makes statements like the one he made recently about one of America’s cities. Baltimore.
Leona Helmsley couldn’t have said what he said any better.
1
I didn't think this country could survive something so vile as this so-called presidency, but for all the hand wringing, we're intact. I'm way anti-Trump, and yet totally still here. So -- Biden is the obvious choice to take him out. I'm not a supporter, but he's the only choice. Because of how the electoral college stacks the elections against the popular vote, no one else will be able to do it. Yes, yet another White man, but there it is. America shouldn't have taken Hillary for granted, and then we wouldn't be in this mess. Now it's going to be a long, long wait for a female president, if it ever happens. White women, you shouldn't have voted for this bigot, as most of you did.
2
@Joe not every college educated white woman voted for Trump, Don’t make illogical generalizations i.e racist remarks.
in addition to social media that trump has access to to spread his bile, trump has a dysfunctional congress who dithers while russia and others work to undermine our elections. if wallace only had a domestice Moscow Mitch.
George Wallace was a veteran. Donald Trump was a draft dodger.
1
I wrote a book called 'Firebird' about exactly this.
It is revisionist history to say George Wallace didn’t make “open appeals to racism.”
1
Articles like this one is the reason many voters have stopped listening to the press. Because I am at a rally for the President and I do not believe in open borders I am equivalent to a segregationist in the 1960s? I am tired of having to defend my views from the constant media attacks because I don't conform to the NYC-LA view of America. I also remember the press making a similar attack on John Mccain when he was running against President Obama. The constant barrage of propaganda by the press doesn't make me listed to their views. It makes it more likely I will ignore it.
Just remember: Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP could end this very quickly if they wanted to. They choose not to. It makes them worse than Trump.
4
This article mentions an even greater difference between Trump and Wallace: Wallace blamed hippies' parents for not forcing them to eat more broccoli. Trump is a fast-food love, and I am sure no broccoli has passed his lips in adulthood.
One other difference: Wallace gave up his racism later in his political career. His reason could have been his Christianity, his humanism or his political calculations, but he did publicly abandon it.
2
The biggest difference between Trump and Wallace, which is not mentioned in this article, is that Trump managed to ascend to the Presidency despite (and maybe in some quarters, because of) his blatant and dangerous racism. Wallace only went so far, and was never voted into the highest office in the land. The fact that Trump was, more than 50 years after the civil rights movement, is frightening.
17
I was a child in the South in the '60s, and I remember George Wallace and the struggle for civil rights. I thought we'd come further. The rise of the Trumpists is disheartening and dangerous. We have to realize that when Trump is gone--and he will be, somehow, some day--these people will melt back into the cracks where they've always been. But they'll be waiting for the next iteration of racist strongman to come along and give voice to their aggrievement and bigotry. They're always there, hiding under their rocks, waiting.
14
"Trump Is Different Than George Wallace. He’s Worse."
Trump sits in the president's chair. Wallace never did. That's the biggest reason that Trump's worse. Trump's deplorable beliefs, words and actions are fast becoming the official rules, regulations, foreign policy, laws. Yeah, unlike Wallace he's going after his critics and political adversaries by name, and, yeah, he would certainly, as he's told us many times, use the DOJ and intelligence agencies to go after them if we were to let him. All the same, that is only part of the ever darkening picture of a man who is capable of anything at all, and a Republican Senate which has yet to see anything it does not like--in a white supremacist demagogue, with fascist aims, and his own idolatrous personality cult.
14
'“He says what we’re thinking and what we want to say,” noted a white woman at a Trump rally in Montana. “We wish we could speak our mind without worrying about the consequences,” explained a white man at a Phoenix event. “He can speak his mind without worrying.”'
Or perhaps if you have to worry about the consequences of speaking your mind, you might want to examine the possibilities of changing your mind.
12
What is the real issue with Trump's openly racist political strategy?
It works.
Millions of Americans continue to cheer him on.
And 9 out of every 10 Republicans support the vile rhetoric
that is becoming the essence of his presidency.
Welcome to the Divided Sates of America, land of the "me"
and home of the slaves.
7
George Wallace said, “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation Forever.” As President, what comment, tweet, action or writing has Trump made that comes close to that level of racism?
I was a young adult during the Wallace "era". I recall his racist screeds. But the writer is correct. Trump is orders of magnitude worse. As the writer notes, Trump is inciting violence against particular individuals and groups.
It is way past time for Democrats to call out this racist regime. So far, most have felt comfortable treating racism as just one of Trump's character flaws. But it is much more than this. Trump has energized his base by using race and will continue to bang that drum through November 2020. Why? Because racism gets him votes. The more he employs his hateful screeds the stronger his base becomes. We now see tens of millions of Trump voters proudly screaming their hatred of dark skinned people.
If Trump's base didn't want to hear Trump's disgusting racist rants these past three years, he would have stopped. Having a president who is as racist as they are is all they care about. Trump is bringing his voters the America they want.
And this means that tens of millions of our brown-skinned citizens are at now at risk. Soon, shoving Hispanic children into internment camps will no longer satisfy them. Then Trump will begin targeting families like mine - brown skinned American citizens. He must continue to stoke his base's hatred, if he is to retain power. Those citizens of Middle Eastern or Hispanic ancestry may well be the next people he orders into camps.
And the longer we kowtow to Trump supporters, the more dangerous he - and they - will become.
8
The only differences I see in the photos are the hats.
3
With all due respect Professor Kruse, your concluding sentence requesting that our Fake President begin “...worrying about the consequences of his words” falls upon the deafest of deaf ears. As a pathological narcissist, Trump does not take responsibility for anything, be they words or actions. His lodestar is to satisfy his every impulse, desire, or appetite and to lash out at every criticism, slight, or perceived antagonist. Although Wallace was a vile and opportunistic racist, I am unaware that he was, like Trump, a completely amoral and basically deranged individual.
6
George Wallace and his Georgia counterpart Lester Maddox (who refused integration by standing in front of his restaurant with an axe handle and parlayed that notoriety into the governorship) rose to power on the wave of white fear in the wake of the Civil Rights Act. They did not have to fan it into a frenzy because fear of the black man and the evangelical mission to preserve white “purity” had been white power’s cause celebre in the segregated South ever since the Civil War a century before.
Donald Trump took that old pot of racial fear, stirred in a heavy measure of resentment of the “other’s” gains in the half century since (most prominently represented by a black man in the White House), threw in an even heavier measure of white fear of losing majority status in the rising tide of brown-skinned immigrants—and turned the heat up to “high.” For extra measure, he portrayed every gain by someone of color as a white man’s loss, and he took the brew to those in the economically depressed, largely white parts of the country, blaming their job losses on immigrants and on the offshoring of their former employers to countries like Mexico—thus putting a brown-skinned face on the cause of their misery.
His campaign—which hasn’t stopped since he came down that escalator railing against Mexican “rapists”—hasn’t been simply a reaction to racial fear and resentment, it has been continuous active incitement of it. How overwhelmingly sad it has been such a winning strategy.
4
Let's stop regurgitating about Trump. It's getting nowhere but feeding Trump's ego and continuing the reign of the Republicans. You can't fight a cult. Forget them. Forget the electoral college. Nothing is going to change that for now in an election cycle. Send a clear message and plan to meet the needs of the majority of the population. We're all just sitting around being manipulated just like the Republican party wants.
4
Segregation now Segregation forever. Trump and Wallace, except Trump means it
1
We are being gaslighted. We will see now through the Nov 2020 vote, Trump issue overt racists attacks (always his inclination anyway) which he and his toadies will then assure America that they are not racist as all. Tsk, tsk. In fact, it is those who point out that his attacks are racist, that he is a racist, who are actually the racists. And Fox will add their clarion call. Be interesting if the media falls for that every time. Trump's tweets contain no useful information. They are tin foil in the radar. The story is what he does not want us talking about. Cover that.
5
We cannot have a president who actively works to divide us from each other and weaken us from within. That is not only un-American but anti-American. Supporting Donald Trump is to work for the destruction of your own country.
6
Why rely on the Mueller report for high crimes and misdemeanors when the president holds up a picture in his office of a congresswoman and singles her out for an attack of hatred? Or when he leads a chant of "lock her up" or "send her home?" Surely that would be proof that he is not obeying his oath of office.
Technically, he's not holding up to the standard of ethics that is required of Federal Workers. Not only would he be in Jail for 5 or 6 felonies if he were anyone else - he would be FIRED and in jail.
3
Let's not forget James Earl Ray was a George Wallace supporter, who found focus as a campaign volunteer before he killed Dr. King.
2
If Wallace had Twitter there’d be no difference. We need to stop referring to his tweets as tweets which imbue him w/ power of Twitter and instead say he said, he uttered, he spewed, he claimed, he noted, he offered, he believes that. Take away the verb tweet. Take away that power he doesn’t deserve.
2
The big difference: Wallace didn't have the internet. He didn't have Cable news repeating his shtick hours on end, and FOX and Facebook.
Despite the support he had, overall, the national news that most Americans watched portrayed him as a rabid racist, and a throwback to bad old days.
Being able to choose your message so easily nowadays means Wallace type supporters - Trump supporters - simply find their communities not just locally - but online across the country. Wallace and Trump derive pleasure from engendering expressions of hate -- and give their angry constituents carte blanche to attack the people they designate as "enemies."
They do seize on genuine, often justified frustration, with politics and the economy in general - - but instead of solutions offer scapegoats - - while shoring up the powers which benefit from the status quo.
Sick, dangerous, and confounding: are most of us so vulnerable to blatant manipulation?
3
And now we know that an army of Russian disinformation specialists are pumping lies and propaganda into our political campaigns. That wasn’t the case before.
1
I too want law and order starting with people who cheap on their income tax, breaker the laws because they can, abuse women and children, step in front of the lines because they can.
My prayer and hope is that trump will get law and order for all of the crimes he has been connected to before America becomes what, he calls other places he does not like.
Everything he touches become a reflection of HIS talent for destruction and rot.
5
There are two important pieces of Wallace's bio that need be mentioned. First, he was a Democrat from the Southland. Next, there was an assassination attempt which left him paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheel-chair for the rest of his life. For the first, let us take a moment to fathom how each of our major Parties have changed: The Democrats are now advocates for all "others." Whereas the Party of Lincoln is no longer. It is drowning in a bottomless ocean of hate and greed. Regarding the assassination attempt of Wallace, no one, no matter how rotten that person is, should be a target for murder, from governors to presidents to the everyday citizen. This essay points out that all things being equal when considering one's character, or lack thereof, Trump is worse. I agree. He was elected to "lead" this nation not just a state. Also, Wallace in later years showed remorse for his egregious words and actions. He had a conscience. Trump is devoid of one, no soul, no heart, just a vessel of narcissism to the point of being sociopathic. But Trump is not the only one worse. Look at today's Americans. The mean-spiritedness has metastasized through all 50 of these not-so-united States. Shame on us.
3
None other than John Lewis wrote on September 16, 1998, in the NYTimes (https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/16/opinion/forgiving-george-wallace.html), “George Wallace should be remembered for his capacity to change.” Wallace realized his transgressions long before his death and worked to overturn whatever damage he caused by his earlier bigotry. There is no expectation that Trump will even recognize his bigotry and failure as not just a president but as a human being in a position of power. Trump wears his bigotry as a badge of honor where even Lewis had to forgive Wallace.
Neither I nor the country expect to ever forgive Trump.
5
Wallace had lots of issues, and was raised to be what and who he was in the south of that era.
One issue he did not have was being a sociopath, which Trump is, and a monumentally insecure and needy one at that.
Trump is a malicious monster who can brook no challenge to his thinking. See: Dan Coats, McMaster, Kelly, Mattis, Tillerson etc.
Impeach, compile more and more evidence and get out the vote.
3
George Wallace never had Fox News to amplify, affirm, and distribute his views.
Nor did he have an entire national political party to march in lockstep behind him, accept contributions from plutocrats, destroy electoral integrity nation-wide.
5
He's not going to change
He doesn't care about the damage he is doing
Republican politicians are protecting and enabling him
The only thing that will stop him is your vote
3
Trump inflames the racial hatred of a segment of white America against blacks.
Trump has lied about his business interests and seeks to enrich himself from the Presidency.
He takes no active measures to counteract Russian interference in our election and has openly said he would welcome the aid of other nations in his campaign.
He continues to preside over this country as the number violator of the norms and rules of the Presidency.
He is a credibly accused sexual assaulter.
One could go on and on. But, still, where's the evidence he should be impeached? Pelosi and other Democrats watching as our Democracy burns just can't find enough credible evidence of wrongdoing.
White nationalist have the highest number of hate crimes in America by far and they are being encouraged by Trump to become more active and vocal. Marching with TIKI torches may become common a reminder of 1930's Germany but as Trump has said Article 2 says he can do whatever he wants, read dictator. Perhaps if attacks escalate Trump will call out the military to support their efforts to intimidate the brown folks which was the purpose of tanks flanking Trump at his "patriotic" rally ala fascism boosting.
2
Hate, greed and fear: they'll never lack for a constituency or go out of style. It's the republican mantra then and now enabled by gerrymandering, Citizen's United, and the reality tv baffoon in the White House.
1
How quickly we forget. Mr Kruse sights example after example about “violent “ Trump supporters. He neglects to mention Antifa violence that occurs regularly. How about the crazed leftist who gunned down a number of Republican House members practicing for a baseball game? Does Mr. Kruse think that only Democrats are getting death threats? Give me a break. Did he forget the howling harridans roaming the Capitol during the Kavanaugh hearings? Or the Women’s March when one of the Hollywood bauble heads publicly said she wanted to “ blow up the White House? How about a little balance?
Permit a one word correction: "As the 2020 campaign heats up, the president's rhetoric will as well. It’s long past time that... WE... started worrying about the consequences of his words."
1
George Wallace was a knowable enemy, at least for me. Due to Trump's racist and unglued brain, all rational citizens have now become his enemy. This is possibly an unprecedented celebration of endless hate of anyone who does not play the zero sum game that he has fostered. I would say that most of his supporters are not suffering lower middle class people who can't make ends meet. Trump works to gin them up with thoughts of being terrorized by minorities and leftists. He is all about his ego and being the focus of captivated audiences as he feeds on their energy. His trophy wife and trophy, sycophantic children are not enough for him and he needs the adoration of millions. He ran for president to get himself into the public eye and never expected to win and to possibly to make money which he doing now. Living off the government dime he gets to live like an oligarch but he is not one of them. This Emperor for sure has no clothes and many of us have been scammed.
1
Trump's rallies are more similar to those of Mussolini's than Wallace's, especially when he looks up in a self-satisfied sneer. Put picture's of them side by side. The biggest problem our country faces is full-fledged fascism approved by William Barr and McConnell, who is a Russian asset. He wants to use foreign interference as a safeguard. Ignore it if Trump wins. Blame it if Trump loses.
2
I was 16 when George Wallace was shot. My mom came home from the grocery store and I met her in the carport and said, “Mom! George Wallace has been shot!” It was a tumultuous time, a few years after JFK, RFK, and then MLK had been assassinated during my childhood.
My mom said, “Oh my God. I hope it wasn’t a black man.” My parents were Democrats and despised Wallace’s politics. But my mom was worried that there would be race riots if the well-known segregationist had been shot by a black man. We lived in Miami and we’d already experienced race riots triggered by many different causes.
It didn’t end well for Wallace, who was rendered paraplegic by the assassination attempt. He spent the remaining years of his life in a wheelchair. And he sought forgiveness for his prior racist demagoguery.
2
The fact that almost 90% of the Republicans throughout the country (i.e. over 2600 counties) support the racist Trump should tell us something - Republicans are double faced, with deep hatred in their hearts.
3
I was a girl when Wallace erupted on 1968. News was on tv once a day, he got little air time. People read newspapers. I knew who he was, was repelled by him, but not threatened. Trump is in our faces and heads, 24/7. And Wallace was one individual. We have the entire Trump Klan chipping away at the foundation of our country, like a swarm of malignant termites.
1
Trump is either different from Wallace, or he is differenter than Wallace. Kruse must have read Strunk & White.
For one thing, Wallace wasn't president.
It might be interesting to see how many women Trump fans dye their hair. From the photo, it appears they all do.
1
A slight difference between Wallace and Trump:
Trump is...president. He has the full weight of an administration, a Justice Department, a supreme court majority, an obsequious Senate, a cabinet. He has an attorney general that is as loyal as Roy Cohn. He has Stephen Miller (I can hardly type that name without wanting to punch the computer), he has orphaned children in cages. He has the backing of Vladimir Putin.
Wallace was just a candidate.
As I said, a bit of a difference.
1
Excellent article.
Ethics and good taste are not snobbery.
Critical examination of the past is welcomed.
By articulating their audiences’ hatred, both men effectively encouraged them to act on it.
The Hitler speaker phone is loud and heard.
My daughter is brown and Australian and got singled out for abuse in a restaurant by drunks.
I am an a sixth generation Australian of Irish origin, my daughter the seventh.
Colour is now an issue.
Mr Kruse invites scrutiny of more rational analysis of populist unreflective ignorance, without putting too fine a point on the issues.
Transient demagogues come and go.
The real problem of Trump is that he clings to assertive denial that ethics and good taste are contingent upon his vulgar rhetoric.
While the President should maintain his office's decorum by discouraging, rather than encouraging such behavior, he is not alone to blame. Society as a whole has changed in the last 50 years to the worse in terms of manners. The "entertainment" industry promotes such crudeness and bad manners. Religious institutions are silent and parents are too permissive.
We have over 200 million registered voters.
"the total number of votes cast in 2016 will exceed those cast in 2012, with about 130 million banked so far vs. 129.2 million four years earlier. The total number of votes cast this year will be the highest on record, surpassing the number cast in 2008. So far, though, we're talking about relatively little growth in the number of ballots cast over eight years, even as the population increased by 18 million people."
In 2020 all Americans need to get together and vote, everyone needs to save our democracy. Our primary focus until November must be to get as many people as possible to commit to voting and we must make sure that every vote counts.
3
Please, let's keep this man's name out of the headlines. Let's focus on other, more pressing issues -- the economy, jobs, opioids, health care, education, international trade, etc. Let's see more articles about the contenders for the White House, people who are making a difference in their communities, and positive developments wherever they are occurring.
23
I like the comparison. Immigration and the border will be a big issue in 2020. The status quo will only help Trump . Instead of impeachment a comprehensive immigation policy that increases legal immigration and controls the border would probably pull enough voters to end his term in office.
4
There's another big difference between Wallace and Trump. Wallace never came close to winning the presidency. Trump was elected. This seems to say more about the electorate of the two eras than about either man.
50
It is my fervent hope that the lovers of hate will tire of Trump and themselves. I always thought America was better than this. Criticizing these people and their leader only fires them up more. Presenting a more sane and adult alternative may just work. With each passing month, it seems the opposition is getting more energized and this will hopefully peak in the 2020 elections.
17
Published by St. Martin’s Press in New York in 2017: “The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump”...27 Psychiatrists and Mental
Health Experts Assess a President by Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div.
(Organizer Of the Yale “Duty to Warn” Conference. This crucial
Book should, I believe, be more in the awareness-field of our Public. My wife just reminded me of George Wallace’s Words
on our younger world: “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation Forever.” In our 80’s, we remember
the active and chronic dismay of the Hate and turmoil of the insidious presence of Racial Disparity, even in our quieter
communities in n South Dakota and Minnesota. Trump seem insistent on awakening a intensifying the Hate through his own Narcissistic Control of the Oval Office. We, the People, are in a state of Malaise. Meanwhile, He is Enjoying the occupation of the Center Of Attention.
13
@Richard Deforest"8
Those 27 "psychiatrists" should have their license revoked for diagnosing a person who is not their patient based on media reports.
It's curiosity that today people are segregating themselves with their own free will of personal choice. They choose where they want to live and what schools their children attend when they have the financial wherewithal to do so.
@Richard Deforest"8please let me add to my own previous piece: She (the wise One) also remembered that
George Wallace, following the attaché on his life (and from
a wheelchair) asked for Forgiveness from the Public and the Black Community. The Black community supported
him by a 90% Vote of Approval. My thought: There is still
the Presence of Grace Available. I am also Grateful for
my Wife’s (Arlene’s) Memory. Since a Stroke, I have none.
2
A pro-segregationist reveals himself here. It only goes to show how Trump’s despicable race baiting has drawn the racists and bigots out from the shadows. But this is good: it forces us to confront the reality of how much more civil progress we have left to do.
I grew up in the South so I know it's bottle-blond racism--just beneath the surface--very very well, but I'd still deluded myself into thinking we'd made more progress than this, and more lasting progress. It's a terrible thing to see it unleashed.
36
"By articulating their audiences’ hatred, both men effectively encouraged them to act on it."
An old political adage is People vote AGAINST more than they vote FOR. The politics of hatred takes that to its logical extreme. Trump is hater in chief--like Wallace. Watch Trump now embrace Wallace as his role model--now that he know about hm.
Another adage is that People vote for Traditional Values. The problem with Nostalgia Politics (aka "Conservative'--back to the good ole days) is simply times change.
Put them together and it's hatred of progress--except of course for "modern conveniences"--mostly due to "pointy headed intellectuals" and critics of traditional values.
6
Dr. Kruse, you're not just whistlin' Dixie. Gov. George Wallace, in his campaigns for the presidency in 1964, ' 68 and '72 embodied racism just as President Donald Trump does today for his right-wing nationalistic base. Gov. Wallace promised revenge (and segregation) to the white people of the South, just as Trump does today to his ignorant and aggrieved base who are against immigrants, people of colour, and anyone "other". George Wallace was the target of assassination in Laurel. MD and was wheelchair-bound, enduring years of pain until his death in 1987.
It is terrifying to the majority of Americans that Donald Trump could win on the issue of racism in America, while our planet is becoming extinct. The existential issue of our time isn't racism, it is the death of our planet due to mankind's ignorance of the laws of nature, our earthly environment and chasing the almighty dollar by destroying protected lands.
Weeping and handwringing won't move back the clock in time to save our planet. It's already too late.
18
A lot of people, Democratic leadership included, are afraid of Impeachment. They shouldn't be. They should be afraid of allowing and tacitly accepting Trump's criminality, corruption and defiance of norms. They should be afraid of the consequences down the road, and the rise of someone worse, who has seen Trump get away with it.
17
@Doug
Trump deserves to be impeached. And he could be. But the Senate will not convict him. It will become an empty, polarizing piece of theater, in which the Democrats will have everything to lose, and little to gain. A better outcome would be anticipating the day when ex-President Trump will be subject to the criminal laws of this nation and the several states. That is where justice will finally prevail.
3
@Doug excuse me dude since when is difiance of norms a crime?
Trump and his crowd are mighty touchy about the word racism.
So let's do them all a favor and explain it to them more clearly.
The word HATRED captures the spirit of racism so much better.
How strange that people admire Trump for stoking hatred.
22
Least we forget:
"In the late 1970s, Wallace became a born-again Christian, and in the same era apologized to black civil rights leaders for his earlier segregationist views, calling these views wrong. He said that while he once sought power and glory, he realized he needed to seek love and forgiveness. His final term as Governor (1983–1987) saw a record number of black Alabamians appointed to government positions. "
Does any thinking person believe that Trump will repent? All of his life he has been stoking racism, exploiting the poor and seeking to emulate fascist, authoritarian leaders. Trump's hatred did not grow organically from the South- it is rooted in unvarnished arrogance and narcissism. It deserves to die where it began- in the prison of the mind- and if there is any justice- the prisons we reserve for common criminals.
18
@Lowell Greenberg
Disclaimer, I am an evangelical.
Evangelical leaders have tried to convince us Donald Trump got saved. My response is that in the Bible when Zacchaeus, the crooked tax collector, met Jesus, he made restitution over and above what he stole. Your description of George Wallace after his conversion is also an example.
Therefore, when Trump makes good on what he stole and changes his ways I will believe it. Not until. That is another con he plays for votes.
1
Not only have we normalized Donald Trump's behavior, now it appears we've normalized what it is to become a narrow-minded, predudiced, hateful Republican supporter of Trump.
One simply needs to be incurious, lazy, hateful, and have no fear of creating a legacy that will follow one to their grave. And what's so amazing is how similar what we're witnessing is to that horrible chapter in history visited upon 1930's Europe.
We see it daily now. 40-plus percent of our neighbors openly supporting, encouraging, this hateful behavior towards others, mocking them and decrying their very existence. Daily they turn a blind-eye as families are yanked apart, loved ones from one another, caging children, keeping them from their parents.
And all the while these individulas we've lured here for decades to fill jobs more and more of our citizens simply don't want, we punish by making them hungry, make them beg, make them smell. Embarass them.
And from what we're witnessing every time we see a Donald Trump rally, it's apparently become fun to be so hateful, so mocking, and so prejudiced a supporter of Donald Trump. .
15
alas, before trump there was obama the self admitted begetter of
our declining political civility: "It's one of the few regrets of my presidency - that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better."
hRc's campaign, with her cavalier condemnation of half the country as "irredeemable," only raised the level of rancor and weaponized our differences.
trump is a product of that distraction from the our commitment to "promote he general Welfare."
@ecco
Please do not lump Obama in he same category as either of these two. Obama was and is a good person who deserves the respect of our Nation for his contributions and good intentions. Just as Jimmy Carter is a good person who has served his fellow man with good intentions. That's all God ask of any of us.
@ecco: Hillary was correct! More so than we could ever or want to imagine.
1
@JRM
alas, by their words are they "lumped," see obama, identical to trump, on border security and baltimore for starters...what differences there, say in foreign policy, are not to the nation's advantage...say iran, north korea and russia, all flourushing during the ob terms...cold war loswers now riding high.
Democrats screaming 'racism' over legitimate issues of public policy and yes, law enforcement only makes the push back worse.
No country in the world takes more immigrants than the United States but even we are allowed to control immigration and enforce duly passed laws. We should not have an entire segment of the population exempt from law enforcement because Democrats keep shouting 'racism'.
Democrats and the media need to start using the accusation of racism when its real and appropriate not waste it or demean it on policy disagreements.
1
Although a depressing piece, it is good to remember that Trump's balcony style rally's are nothing new in this country---seeing the two pictures of Wallace and Trump's crowds reveals the reality that we will always have citizens who, for whatever reason, grave the man on the balcony to change their lives.
2
Trump will never, ever worry about the consequences of his words. Trump believes in fighting dirty, he lacks all ability to have compassion. Most importantly, he seems incapable of taking responsibility for anything, so any acting out of his hatred by others will be blamed on them, on the Democrats, on Obama/Clinton or elsewhere. In his own mind he is always innocent and usually a victim. Beyond that Trump's one and only life goal is "Trump wins." He will do anything and everything to have that be the end point - no concerns, no morals, limits, no filters - as long as "Trump wins."
18
All that said and it seems like so many days not care.
It does seem like Trump is rebooting the Civil War.
Apparently he thinks it’s the perfect chance to destroy he country.
7
@Grove
Yes, Putin's puppet is out to destroy our Democracy.
1
George Wallace was despicable. There are a few factors which slightly - very slightly - make his attitude and conduct, more
explicable than that of Trump.
He grew up in an atmosphere where prejudice was pervasive. To win elective office he had to pander to his electorate.
Crime was much worse then.
The Vietnam war was raging, and was very divisive.
Trump is even cruel in his personal life, I don't know about Wallace.
8
The only consequeneces that concern Trump are consequences that concern his ego, his money, and his insecurities. Consequences for others are less than irrelevant – they never even enter his thinking.
8
Of course Trump is worse.
To paraphrase: "He's President, and George Wallace never was."
But then, in those days you couldn't get into junior high without having memorized your multiplication tables.
And please, don't ask, because I need to expel the experience from my withered psyche somehow, and repetition doesn't help.
My advice to anyone over 60 years of age - don't go to the grocery store. You will be disappointed.
Of course, you can't blame Trump for that (Betsy DeVos notwithstanding), but it's part of the reason he got elected.
God help us all.
5
They do realize this picture will be in classroom textbooks one day? Textbooks that their grandchildren will read?
5
@J Mitchell
You think they care about their grandchildren, Ha, ha, ha. Climate deniers who support a louse who is undoing any and all regulations that attempted to change the direction of our warming planet. They aren't worried about life on this planet, they are all going to heaven once they have their way and create the rapture.
So sadly and horribly true! One of the many horrors of this is that, with the marked exception of the courageous Republican representative from Texas, and a tiny number of less outspoken, but slightly differing colleagues, the Republican leadership in Congress have followed the man in the White House, like Lemmings, off the cliff of legitimacy and integrity of our country! As long as the almighty dollar and the love of power, no matter how it is gained, dominate the Senate and so much of our national decision making, we will continue to slide into ever greater ignominy in this country. The Democrats must appeal to the heartland as well as the blue coasts and big cities to win back the White House and the Senate!!
8
Another important difference between Wallace and Trump: the former repented. He seemed to have a genuine change of heart toward the end of his life and renounced his racist politics.
Trump will never do that, because his racist, uneducated base would turn against him.
“Base” is a fitting term for Trump’s supporters, because that’s exactly what they are: the worst of humanity. And it gives me no pleasure to say that about my fellow Americans.
6
No I believe the real problem is that the racial discourse is still here and striving. The only thing that has changed is the actors and vernacular. Racial hatred has worked since the start of civilization and will always work to some extent. Calling Trump a racist is music to the ears of his racist supporters and Trump knows it. If we really want to impeach Trump it is going to have to be done at the ballot box. Will we ever change the hearts of Trump's racist supporters I doubt it. Is it rocket science to come up with a plane to dethrone Trump? Would our time and energy be better spent building a coalitions of the others? It is time to let Trump's disciples to continue to worship at his feet and move on?
2
It does not matter who wins “the worst racist” award. What does matter is kicking trump out of office. He has always been the wrong choice. The American people chose Hillary that vote should have been honored.
trump ignores the First Amendment and Article One of the Constitution. trump ignores civil rights, climate change, and the rules of decorum. trump sides with Putin, North Korea and Saudi Arabia over his own Intelligence agencies.
trump lies as often and easily as he breathes.
trump must be impeached and the republicans must be on record as abetting a criminal in the Oval Office for refusing to convict trump.
And we must vote in 2020 to remove the impeached president as well as all of his supporters in Congress who are eligible for removal.
4
Maybe another difference is that Wallace didn't accept Russian help while running for President...
5
Racism existed in America before Trump or Wallace came on the stage. They just exploited that racism to gain advantage over their political enemies. What that means is that it is not Trump per se who is corroding our democracy. It is racism in America that is doing that. If we want to stop the corrosion, we have to start with the racism within us. Trump is the sympton, not the cause. The cause can only be cured when we look within.
3
The Wallace and Trump analogy is of interest. For folks who have a shred of conscience when it comes to human rights, it should send chills down the spine.
But as bigoted and horrible as Wallace was, I think we could have counted on him to fight to keep foreign influence out of our elections. While Wallace was a traitor to racial equality, he probably was not a traitor on the international stage.
It is also hard to imagine ANY other US politician getting cozy with dictators who murder with impunity - exchanging love letters (Kim), meeting secretly (Putin), ignoring murder by dismemberment (MSB), applauding extra judicial executions (Duerte).
Wallace was bad, but Trump has redefined evil in politics.
Nope, Wallace in comparison to Trump? Almost refreshing?
2
Trump is similar to Sarah Palin as well. But somehow, Trump has been able — unlike Palin — to avoid being seen for what he is: a lightweight in all but demagogy. But then, Trump has the advantage of not being a woman
6
If Republicans are not racists, then it's time for them to speak up against Trump and his racism. So far, they have not meaningfully done so. I think that tells us what the GOP truly is.
5
Race focused campaigning is the hinge between Trump and Wallace. It is hard to fathom Wallace as a puppet of Russia, but not so with Trump.
While both appealed to the same base for support, Trump's history as a con man of epic proportions cast his appeal in a different light than Wallace. As bad as he was, Wallace wasn't looking to enrich himself or his family through elected office.
Wallace served his country during World War 2....Trump took action by finding a doctor who would disqualify him for service because of bone spurs.
Trump is the worse than George Wallace, yet he may be reelected. What a sad commentary!
2
The author conveniently neglected to mention the violence perpetrated by the left, such as violent attacks by antifa on people who they identify as conservative or simply for wearing a red hat. There has been plenty of deadly violence perpetrated by people who have identified with leftist causes who were incited to violence by leftist media rhetoric. Conservative personalities are not allowed to speak on university campuses or they have riots. Democrat elected officials are openly calling for administration officials to be harassed on the streets and in their homes, and they are. They receive death threats on a regular basis and require enhanced security protection.
To quote from a popular song during the same day and age in 1967, 'nobody's right if everybody's wrong'.
Okay, you have a point. But your boy Trump is instigating his supporters, including the unhinged, against individual political enemies or targets from our Oval Office, right? Do you actually believe doing so is a sound, defensible practice by the sitting President? Is the radical left, antifa boogeyman also to be blamed for this misuse of the Presidency? Blaming the left for a racist President demonizing individual opponents is just another laughable, false equivalency. It seems you want those of us on the left to simply shut up, shrinking from public discourse and yielding to the great voice of Emperor Trump, unless we are willing to be violently attacked? Is that what you believe is deserved of your fellow citizens - those of us who strongly disagree with your opinions?
This is the kind of op-ed piece that, no matter how well-reasoned (as this one is), will re-elect Trump.
Why? Because the average American (as opposed to the average NYT reader) will read the headline instead of the story — whether here or elsewhere — and then comment on its “absurdity,” and lurch further to the right.
Is that fair? Of course not. But neither life nor politics is fair.
I don't understand why so many people get juiced up over the incendiary stuff the President lobs out in his speeches.
Why is it that there are so many folks going for the nasty stuff--"Send her back," "Lock her up," "Rat infested..." etc.
I think I know from my 29 years as a cop that "hate" is poison. I've tasted it. I've seen a lot of it. It never comes to any good.
I wish all decent Americans would support this President when they think he promotes good ideas, but I sure wish they'd back away from his vicious stuff.
I believe people know the difference. They have to step up.
@Jacko, his vicious stuff?
Presidents are supposed to be the standard bearer. There should be no ‘vicious stuff.’
As you know, the President lost by 3 million votes. People, including me, are angry. If you invoke the Electoral College and our Founders, people, including me, will become more angry.
Why? Because people are tired of shenanigans. They are tired of the Electoral College. It may have worked for the 18th century but not the 22nd.
Your President invokes hatred, bigotry, and vile by lobbing daily and nightly Twitter attacks. Prior Presidents were attack viciously but they held their heads high, shut their mouths, and did their jobs. Mostly with noble intent and class.
All this President has done is raise tariffs, bully everyone in sight, and kill a handful of migrant children.
What a stellar record.
George Wallace and Trump are different in one crucial aspect. Wallace never became president and Trump did with the help of Russians and his base established even in Northern States who bought his racist rhetoric. George Wallace was a democrat and that party decrying the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would not buy his racist kool aid to the point of electing him. The GOP always had tendencies(perhaps it is endemic to our country) but now it claims that racism is the right of every American and justifies it openly. Trump besides being a racist himsel, rides a wave of hate that Wallace at his deepenst shameful moments only dreamed about.
1
The main difference between Wallace and Trump rallies now is, naturally, the fact only one is president with all the awesome power that confers.
Which is why it's so rotten that the president's rants don't prompt anyone to stop him. He could be as inciting as any old quack or garden-variety demagogue but without the full force of the US government, his threats are toothless.
Fast forward, of course, to now and things suddenly get a whole lot darker and more dangerous.
Would Donald Trump attack an "enemy" rally goer? of course not because the coward prefers others do his dirty work. But by naming future victims, he's suddenly just as responsible as any crazed gun-mad supporter.
I just realized as I type that we're talking about the president of the United States! if that doesn't chill your blood, I don't know what will.
8
The article's writer, Kruse, says, "It's long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words."
Trump has never, and will never, worry about the consequences of his words. That's one of his clearest traits. The consequences of his words - the violence, the death threats, the overt racism, the unbridled mob anger - are precisely the intended result of his words. It's what he wants; what he hopes will happen.
His obscene and punitive rhetoric is a conscious, calculated strategy of abuse and degradation that serves as a blueprint for action by his most unhinged supporters. The desired consequences are Trump in all of his depraved, disfunctional glory. He won't, can't change it.
2
It’s different FROM, not different than.
Doesn’t anyone care any more?
2
If Trump is indeed not a racist, as he repeatedly claims, then he is something even worse: a man who knows better but still exploits and weaponizes the racism of others for his own personal gain.
3
Unfortunately, Trump is not smart or classy compared with Wallace.
Trump is more akin, in my mind, to Spiro T. Agnew, who appealed to the same sort of right-wing "law and order" audience and made lots of quotable gaffes but in the end was hoist on his own petard of greed and corruption.
2
Does anyone really doubt that there will be physical violence, very likely deadly violence as a result of next year's presidential campaign? Trump has turned America into the wealthiest, most dangerous third-world banana republic the planet has ever seen.
7
Gov. George Wallace, in his campaigns for the presidency in 1964, ' 68 and '72 embodied racism just as President Donald Trump does today for his right-wing nationalistic base. Gov. Wallace promised revenge (and segregation) to the white people of the South, just as Trump does today to his ignorant and aggrieved base who are against immigrants, people of colour, and anyone "other". George Wallace was the target of assassination in Laurel. MD and was wheelchair-bound, enduring years of pain until his death in 1987.
Another mass shooting in California last night. American gun culture. It's terrifying to the majority of Americans that Donald Trump could win on the issue of racism in America, while our planet is becoming extinct. The existential issue of our time isn't racism, it is the death of our planet due to mankind's ignorance of the laws of nature, our earthly environment and chasing the almighty dollar by destroying protected lands. Weeping and handwringing won't move back the clock in time to save our planet. It's already too late.
2
The Donald the unhinged has rid himself of the generals who were assigned to protect him from his own worst impulses. Now he is surrounding himself with "supporters", sycophants who echo and applaud his worst tendencies.
George Wallace's extreme racism isolated him from the American mainstream, which, at the time, was strongly influenced by a newly liberated and liberal leaning generation of Baby Boomers. Wallace became the symbol of the old South and went on to political oblivion.
It seems likely that Donald's delusions will push him over the edge to suffer a fate similar to Wallace's. Racism is, and has been, such a corrosive aspect of the American experience that it burns whoever it touches.
2
Trump is not worried about consequences, especially since the Democrats cannot get their act together to act on his many criminal activities.
4
Wallace didn't openly appeal to racism? I beg to differ with that. The rest of your article is fine, but Wallace never couched his racism. "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
2
I never thought I'd see Wallace in any positive light but...compared to Trump there's at least one / two obvious differences.
1) Wallace was a real politician who understood politics and that sometimes you had "to make sausage".
2) He actually knew how to run a government, how to be an administrator, a chief executive. Trump knows none of that.
Much of Wallace's battle against integration was political posturing, like Sen. McCarthy latching on to "Communists in Government" as a horse to ride, not more. Of course Trump has flip-flopped on his political positions throughout his life trying to garner popularity. All he believes in, is Trump. Wallace actually thought he was acting for the good of his state and the nation. Trump can't tell the difference between what is good for HIM and what is good for the country--"L'etat, c'est moi" would be his motto--if he only spoke a coherent language.
And Wallace sought redemption later in life. Trump never will, and will die being exactly the same as he is today and was yesterday-- a selfish insecure sociopath hating everything and everyone who doesn't worship him as a god, which he is not.
1
There was a lapel pin some wore in AL during those days: GROW - Get Rid Of Wallace.
2
Wallace, like Trump is today, was an evil man. Wallace’s attack on federal Judge Frank Minus Johnson went beyond the pale. The attacks were so vile and life threatening that the judge and his family had to have protection of the Federal Marshals Service 24/7 after a bomb was found at his mother’s home.
Both Trump and Wallace are/were big on promises that can’t be delivered by government or place blame on all that ails people on that said government. Alabama today is a cess poll of elected officials who still support these same policies that result in Alabama being near the bottom of every quality of life issue.
2
Read history fellow Americans. 1933 is being repeated. And, we naively thought it would not.
2
I think the big difference between Wallace and Trump is the following:
Wallace was an "honest" racist. Trump cannot be described by any of those "-ist" words, because he's an amoral chameleon. He would be a leftist if he thought he could convince enough people to get himself elected. But the people in the center/left are too smart for him, so he's come out as a white nationalist. He's hoping he can find enough non-thinking zombies in that camp to keep himself out of jail at least for another four years.
1
"As the 2020 campaign heats up, the president’s rhetoric will as well. It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words."
Oh right. Like that's gonna happen. Is Dr. Kruse writing from planet Earth? Trump's planet Earth? The 'What, me worry?' planet where anything goes and all is deniable?
1
well-thought out analogies between Wallace and Trump. But rather knee-jerk, superficial presentation of Wallace and what he stood for. He had the most racially diverse administration in the country, had relented his racist stance, which was not who he was but what he saw he must become to be elected in Alabama. I just regret history mischaracterizing pivotal figures simplistically. wallace the man, the brilliant Consitutional scholar, had pandered to address the racism in his state. Ultimatley, he overcame and did more for the blacks in than any other governor . Alabama ever has. Main differences are that he was brilliant, but, in the end, had a moral compass. He was a racist when pragmatic,,
The lesson is not rely on stereotype, but dig beneath the obviou sand look at the full
record before asessing. Trump and Walace are miles and intellects apart.
ly sspeeches belied th ecredo of his career, aiming to play on hat voters assume he was .He was much more as his last, racialy dverser acts vanished in hi las governbcy,
I have been field testing the free press here in America thousands and thousands of times over the last couple of decades.
The conclusion is that the mainstream media outlets have actively obstructed the truth, blocked the accurate analysis and intentionally inflamed to social tensions, animosity, bias, polarization and divisions for the sake of the corporate profits.
“The free press” is even more selfish, greedy and full of conceit than Donald Trump.
Now, that’s an achievement almost impossible to beat!
1
Professor Kruse hit the hammer right on the head comparing the 1968 George Wallace presidential campaign with Trump's rallies today.
I have a box of VHS tapes including one of a "Washington Week in Review" program in 1986 in which the panelists discussed the political career of then-Governor Wallace. Earlier in the week Wallace told a press conference that he would not run for public office again.
The late Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jack Nelson recounted his coverage of the 1968 campaign. Both he and Wallace were from Alabama and they knew each other well. Wallace would see Nelson in the crowd, notepad and pen in hand, and yell out, "There he is out there from the Los Angeles (pronounced "Angeleese") Times, where they fly the North Vietnam flag, and give blood to the Viet Cong. Look at that, I made him get his hair (pronounced "heurh") cut!" Back then, Nelson wore his hair in a crewcut style, so he conveniently became a prop for Wallace's rants which the crowds loved--a Southern politician beating up on an Eastern Establishment reporter. The two of them even laughed about it in their private moments together.
Now I see Donald Trump as George Wallace, 51 years later. Good gawd.
Brave Civil Rights pioneer Vivian Malone Jones (University of Alabama Desegregation Crisis) forgave elderly wheel chair bound Wallace. Not excusing Wallace's horrific racist actions, but unlike trump, Wallace apologized.
2
President Trump is hovering on a cliff. One mis-step and
he will crash. Just because his earlier stunts succeeded is
no guarantee he can defy gravity.
1
It may not mean much, but when he was about 60 years old Wallace apologized for his prior racist behavior.
Trump is 73.
3
Sometimes politicians reap what they so.
George Wallace did.
On May 15, 1972, at a campaign rally in Wheaton, Maryland; Arthur Bremer shot George Wallace four times. One bullet lodged in Wallace’s spine. It paralyzed Wallace for the rest of his life.
Given Donald Trump’s self infatuation and bilious resentment, imagine how much more dangerous it would be to have him in charge of our nuclear weapons if he were left paralyzed by a failed assassination attempt.
Let us pray that that never happens.
Finally! An article bluntly expressing the polarizing racialized motivated similar campaign strategies of George Wallace and 45! Excellently presented, soberly conveyed, and compellingly stated in a 'in your face style,' Mr. Kruse convincingly conveys to America the stark racialist realism that 45 and the Republican party so eagerly relish and quickly promote without fear of adverse electoral consequences. Both Wallace and 45 perniciously played the race card, and in 2019, the GOP/45 viciously pound upon the antiimmigrant, xenophobically laden tropes that persons of darker hues, different sounding names, and worshiping deities other than WASP conventionally recognized acceptable religions, as direct threats to American security. The difference between Wallace and 45 is that the former didn't hesitate to graciously heap racial epithets upon his intended target. 45 resorts to a more subtle campaign by invoking anonymous third parties as those he says support his promotion of racial internecine and ethnic immigrant xenophobic loathing while falsely claiming credit for achieving historic low unemployment rates for Black and Hispanics. Constantly invoking the mantra 'look at my African American friend' and 'look at my Hispanic American friend,' 45 and the Republicans shamefully diminish the image of minority contributions to America. The Vietnam War draft dodger, disparaging John McCain at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach last month, is unfit to serve. Race matters.
Mr.Wallace was a pugilistic segregationist and racist. Alabama celebrated him for taking a stand at the door of the University to deny African Americans admission.That was fifty years ago and such defiance of laws was common.We are now in the 21st century and there is still a population who is willing to deny to others the rights they enjoy.Trump has energized these people who feel that the world has not treated them fairly and has given them a racist, angry voice-his daily tweets are disgraceful displays of targeting and bullying and most of all, downright lies.You are correct that this is dangerous and that we should all be fearful of the anger he is stoking.I never thought that the occupant of the Oval Office would pose a danger to the people in this country-he does!
3
It is absolutely critical that Trump worshippers like the mail bomber be held 100% accountable, and not be allowed to push their actions all onto Donald Trump. To be sure, Trump is a reckless, authoritarian, America-hating buffoon. But there is nothing special about that. What is special is that we now have millions of Americans that identify with him. They are not victims, they are willing participants. I hear the things that Trump says and I am not swayed or fooled by that dimestore huckster, so why should I feel badly for the people who are? “I was only following orders” ceased to be a viable excuse for anything, as of 1945.
3
Dear Editor,
Trump by his own actions is making a mockery of Free Speech.
He is definitely not stupid but his tweets and speeches especially at rally define the cunning person that he is and is making use of methods used by others throughout history to rally the people almost to fever pitch to his gain.
To make America great you need a great leader and the definition of a great leader is in his or her, common sense and for the most, inspiring words as were Churchill and J F K.
Insults are cheap and defines the person insulting.
Trump's rallies are dangerous and dirty as many of them pick on individuals in the worst sense and often untrue. He is leaving a legacy of Heads of his administration probably unprecedented leaving, and that says it all. In plain language he is a bully that will only accept his own opinion/s, or face the consequences of being shouted down while he has the lectern .
America may be powerful but Great is another opinion..!!
Stan Chun
Wellington. NZ
29 July, 2019.
1
The age old question, “inciting or producing imminent lawless action".
2
I'm tired at the sanctimonious outrage of the Trump haters. Calling him names, and comparing him to previous bogey men really does nothing to move me. I don't need some opinion piece in the NYT to persuade me or make my mind up for me about Trump....I've already done that, and I can't see why everyone else hasn't done the same....both pro/con Trump. It seems to me this is yet another exercise of the left venting its rage that Trump got elected and probably won't get impeached.
Trump is addicted to the power he flings. His followers are addicted to him and to the permission he gives for them to be as hate-filled as he. Tonight, in Gilroy, at the harmless Garlic Festival, at last one person opened fire on the festival goers, just randomly shooting here and there. God help us.
One other major différence: Fox News. The most watched and (I admit with grief) the best at showing a story and capturing a narrative, this network is a single source for hate and lies. The collusion of Trump and the Republicans with a few vile broadcasters Has changed thencountry.
Trump’s specialty is finding and naming poster children for his mob to hate. He understands it is most effective to point out specific targets, the example that proves his argument. It is easier to hate a whole group of people when a specific, detested face is attached. The four minority congresswomen are perfect targets that help focus his base’s hatred. Trump argues they hate America and by extension all others who appear like them also hate America. This is textbook demagoguery.
2
Trump may be a racist, but his racism serves a convenient campaign purpose: His economic policies are failing and his racist dog whistles distract them from this reality.
Contrary to most rational economic thought, he cut taxes significantly to the wealthy and corporations in the midst of an economic expansion. His stated theory was, in a time of sub-four percent unemployment, this would cause more jobs to be created and higher wages (the old Reagan/Laffer trickle down nonsense). Unfortunately, there is little evidence that it has worked, just like it failed before. It has, however, caused the deficit to explode. And it made rich white guys really happy, which appears to have been the real purpose—so they would keep writing their big checks to the RNC and Republican PACs.
His global tariff imposition has, likewise, resulted in many of the consequences economists not named Peter Navarro have predicted.
But most significantly is his global trade war with China. He’s not talking about it much these days, but it is truly beginning to take a toll on our economy. President Xi understands Trump has an election in 2020 and will likely cave before then to save his own hide. Xi need not worry about elections. He is going to wait Trump out.
So the timing of these racist tweets is not a coincidence. Trump knows, in times of political trouble, his base can always be counted on to rally ‘round their hatred of brown people. Just like their relatives did for Wallace 50 years ago.
2
The photos are frightening. These women in both cases are stark raving mad. We have lots of reasons to get rid of trump and his supporters before complete chaos ensues.
1
One principal difference between Trumpniks and the right wing fringe of the 1950s, the evolution of which has now infected the weakened body politic of the party formerly known as Republican, is that the digital universe has made society much more reactive and the targets of hate much more specific. There is, however, one difference between Trump and Wallace for which we can actually be thankful, and that is Trump's breathtaking, foot-shooting stupidity. If he were intelligent, the United States would be in mortal danger. We can only hope this exposure to incipient fascism provides some degree of immunity.
1
Trump is worse for the simple reason that he's The President of The United States. Wallace wasn't.
2
Although I believe they are similar, ie a threat to our democracy, the point where they diverse is the social economic condition of the country at their time.
Back in the 60s America ruled the world economically and blacks were routinely discriminated against or worse.
White America saw this as wrong and were willingly to make blacks whole and did not see them as a demographic or economic threat.
Thus Wallace even if he wasn't shot never would have become president.
It is different now. America is not the #1 economic power anymore. There is competition all over the world. Also non whites are almost a majority in the country.
These two facts are the reasons Trump was successfully able to demagogue them in the WH and thus became the greatest threat to our democracy since the Civil War.
3
A good article, but it fails to note the main difference between the two men--Trump is vested with the full powers of the presidency of the United States in carrying out his racist policies. Wallace was only running for president, he was not the president, with multiple organs of exerting power over the political process as is true with this miscreant, Donald Trump. No figure in American history is comparable to him, he is uniquely evil and uniquely powerful, and the Republic is in very deep trouble.
Trump is many things, but not a racist.
This column is dangerous like many liberal pieces. One can tag nearly any policy or statement as 'racist' and God help anyone that does not agree.... they are racist too.
Stopping immigration from Central America whereas welcoming it from Norway would clearly favor Caucasian immigrants, but that is not the motive. Those from Norway have jobs and can support themselves. Uneducated Central Americans cannot.
I believe in strong restriction on immigration. Those who can support themselves are welcome. White, black, purple.... I could not care. But you would paint me as a racist if more whites came than not. And that is the sort of divisiveness that is destroying us.
I do not like Trump. But the problem with the left is that they claim everything as a moral issue and that they are morally right, and if you disagree you are immoral. The media fans this. Enough of the labels and identity politics. Let's talk policy, and maybe we can get a good President who speaks for all of us.... something we have not had in quite a long time.
@Ny Surgeon - As a New York surgeon, you probably don't get out much. But down here on the farm, the folks fixing the barn, pulling in the crops, driving the trucks, mending the fences, looking after the kids, irrigating the orchards, and making sure New Yorkers get fed are not from Norway. The people from Norway look across the Atlantic and see a sad spectacle orchestrated by a raving buffoon they want nothing to do with. So, Ny Surgeon, you wanna eat, or what?
3
@JKL
Down there in Virginia (beautiful country by the way!) you have people who work.
In NY we have loads of people who do not or will not. I hear all the time about jobs that no American will do, yet we have loads of able bodied legal citizens on fake 'disability' or simply just not working. And when we make it easy for people to not work, guess what? They do not. It is demeaning to the hard working Central Americans who pick our crops to suggest that they do things that are "beneath" Americans. Hard work is beneath nobody. And I think that is the point. Not that the immigrants don't want to work. It is that when we let them in, we give in to those legally here who do not want to work.
All Trump has is Fox.
All Trump loyalists have is Fox.
All Fox has is Hannity.
All Hannity has is Trump.
All Trump has is Fox.
2
I fully expect that innocent people will die because of Criminal Trump's hateful rhetoric. I fully expect that Moscow Mitch and his fellow republicans won't be troubled at all by any of this.
4
The professor is straining here, and ultimately fails, to draw a substantive difference between the two men.
Yes, things have changed in the 50 years since 1968, but in substance Wallace and Trump are selling the same toxic brew of hate, resentment, and violence.
In truth, the 60's were far more violent, with bombings going off almost daily across the country, riots in many cities, police violence at least as virulent as today, FBI hounding the Black Panthers, political assassinations, etc.
One difference is that Wallace was an intelligent man capable of reflection and change, as his later years showed. Trump is a buffoonish bully whose bluster masks a weak and insecure character.
George Wallace said he was sorry. That makes him a far better man than Trump.
So a businessman will know how to run efficiently????
Trump is worse because after 50 years of very imperfect but very real racial progress, Trump's entire adult life, he learned nothing, felt nothing, understands nothing.
Trump is worse because while Wallace did not believe in an inclusive and equitable democracy for everyone, Trump doesn't believe in an equitable democracy for anyone.
Trump is.worse because America in one very important way is worse. Wallace never had a chance to become President. Trump won and may win again.
2
Whereas Wallace would not have been so bold at the time, Trump is bold and amoral enough to advocate racism of the “final solution” variety. Another difference is that Wallace never had a Steven Miller type as architect of his final solution plan. Trump does.
Donald Trump courts the same type of aggrieved white American voter as George Wallace of Alabama tried to woo a generation ago.
Donald Trump uses the same racist, anti-government, anti-science, anti-intellectual language as Wallace used.
Donald Trump appeals to violence and encourages his followers to act violently against people who criticize Trump, just as Wallace did regarding his critics.
Instead of wasting time arguing whether Trump is worse than Wallace, better than Wallace or different than Wallace, we should focus on a single fact: Donald Trump, unfortunately, is President of the United States, and George Wallace, thankfully, never made it to the White House.
Let’s focus on defeating Donald Trump in November of 2020 or, even better, impeaching Trump by an earlier date.
No one could be more middle-class than I am! (Who do I sound like?) Raised by my family of school teachers, all Republicans, and taught in the Sunday School of the Methodist Church in the middle-west, I helped my father garden and my mother distribute garden produce to the needy during the Great Depression. During WWII, we bought savings stamps, knit scarves for soldiers, shared ration coupons with others, collected paper and tinfoil for the war effort, and wrote to pen pals among our armed forces.
So I am astonished when I see the trump crowd screaming nastiness at his campaign rallies. These are not the Republicans I know and admire.
So who are they? Are they Putin's plants in our midst - ready to subvert our election in 2020? What I want is a fair election, an expression of American ideals, ie., equality, freedom, acceptance and most of all: a President I can respect.
16
“He says what we’re thinking and what we want to say,” noted a white woman at a Trump rally in Montana. “We wish we could speak our mind without worrying about the consequences,” explained a white man at a Phoenix event. “He can speak his mind without worrying.”
What struck me in this passage is the belief that a visceral, gut-level response is "thinking," that spewing racist bilge is a product of someone's "mind."
I am grateful that my teachers--"pointy-headed intellectuals," Wallace might have called them--taught me otherwise.
Wallace did not appeal to the intellect. Neither does Trump. For them, for their supporters, louder and nastier somehow make for a sound argument. But it's not an "argument," really. Just bile, spittle, and spleen. You can hear the same from any drunk at last call. Bad enough we heard from a Governor and Presidential candidate. Now we have a sitting President spewing racist garbage and ten thousand (and counting) lies.
One other difference between Wallace and Trump? Trump arrives on the scene half a century after a national civil rights movement, where positive change, such as it was, was hard won.
Clearly, those victories, small and larger, will not stand on their own. Rather, and probably in every generation, they must be defended and advanced by those who believe in an America where all are equal before the law, and the law protects and defends the common welfare, especially for the most vulnerable members of our society.
340
@Larry Levy
I believe that when a supporter says: '...without worrying' they are considering what they are worried about.
Maybe worried that other people are listening who would rather have a society without racists?
Trump did arrive 50 years after Wallace, but really just to mock all of us for pretending to have something we used to believe in. The mockery is appropriate, because no one seems able to stop the vicious behavior. Many articles in this paper as to the detrimental effects of TV overall.
I forgot that the trump reality tv cavalcade lasted more that 15 years, no wonder so many buy into that nonsense, sheer repetition of absurdity has convinced the shlubs of this country that he is their champion. Just saw a sign yesterday in Virginia "Trump...The Legend" One can only hope that this will take on a much more different meaning when we finally get rid of him.
24
@Larry Levy
Those remarks you cited resonated with me too. Scary what some people think should be okay to say. People just do not realize the power of words. Constantly reminds me of Nazi rallies in the 30’s. The explosion is waiting to happen. You can’t keep stoking it and not expect results. Of course, it will someone else’s fault.
7
@Larry Levy
Right on. After their defeat in the Civil War, the South sunk into a century of vicious (KKK, kangaroo courts, and lynchings), wrong-headed (segregation) total opposition to the whole idea that blacks were equal *in any sense* to whites.
As the Supreme Court observed in Brown v Board of Education, separate is inherently not equal.
Unfortunately, the civil rights movement of the 1960s (a century later) did little to change the mind and heart of the whites in the South (and far too many other places). I fear we must live through another century of their white supremacy before they are a small enough part of the voting public to be ignored.
I live in hope they will be out-voted before then.
10
Kruse focuses on an important aspect of Trump worship: "George Wallace was their avenging angel. George Wallace said out loud what they nervously kept to themselves. George Wallace articulated their deepest fears, their darkest hates. George Wallace promised revenge.”
A vengeful impulse does motivate Trump's followers, even more, I think, than it motivated Wallaces'. The political, legal, and social changes that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was designed to accomplish were feared but hardly felt in 1968. And SCOTUS' 1954 desegregation decision was proceeding slowly, against strong resistance rather than "with all deliberate speed," as ordered in Brown vs Board of Ed.
But now that white male privilege and, even more important, white male extra-legal control of the social environment (think higher education enrollments and people's work lives, opportunities reduced from 'reserved for white males' to "equal for all"), revenge for lost preferment and privilege is a powerful driver of allegiance to a "leader" whose bigotry continuously provides scapegoats for his supporters' sense of deprivation. The media's vidios and soundbites make Trump's targets specific so that his supporters can vicatiously enjoy the thrill of his attacks.
The remedy: impeachment as a ritual of closure on this atavistic episode in our history. The revenge motif is already taking hold on the left. Impeachment says to Trump supporters, "You've had your fun--enough!"
7
Exactly. Thank you for articulating trump’s power so clearly. 40% of the electorate has found the person with enormous clout, who says all the horrible things that they are afraid to say. It’s no wonder that they love him.
7
When I watched real-time news clips of George Wallace’s rallies, I was struck at the similarities between them and historical films of some rallies in 1930’s Germany. Appeals to nationalism in terms of racial or ethnic hate are seeds of fascism.
Wallace’s campaigns were contemporary backlashes to what historians call the “violent and turbulent 1960’s”, and having experienced them and the societal insecurities caused by seemingly constant riots, violent and peaceful anti-war protests, peaceful turned violent civil rights marches, police brutality, and destructive and deadly domestic terrorism, political rhetoric for the need for “law and order” was elevated in some minds above the human wrongness of racial hate, animus, and loathing.
The national media ignored writing of obvious comparisons between Trump’s and Wallace’s campaigns at all. The absence of societal unrest and instability, such as experienced in the 1960’s, demonstrated the root of Trump’s and Wallace’s support lay in unjustifiable bigotry and false notions of racial superiority.
Americans cannot have a democracy if governed by hatred and fear, one race, one political ideology, one religion, or a wealthy few. The alternatives to democracy are fascism, autocracy, theocracy, or oligarchy. The consequence to all Americans is the loss of Self-rule, Rights, Freedoms, and Liberty, the very foundations of our democratic Republic.
18
Unfortunately Trump he is riding a violent wave that transcends our borders. To be sure, there are unique American circumstances. But the right wing is on the rise. Trump is surfing.
5
Another difference between Trump and Wallace is that the former claimed that if he lost it was because the election was rigged. I don't recall Wallace making such statements. Trump's frequent claims that the election was rigged (but only if he lost) seemed to imply that if Trump lost there would be a violent response from his supporters. I don't recall Wallace ever implying violence in the event his campaign was unsuccessful.
Of course, as the intelligence community and credible reporting has established, the 2016 election was rigged by Russia and in Trump's favor. Can you imagine Wallace requesting Russia's assistance as Trump did when the latter asked for help getting dirt on his opponent? Wallace was a bigot but even he seemed to understand that Trump's behavior was and is patently un-American.
21
@Anthony In his 1968 campaign, in which he won 45 electoral votes, Wallace stated that his goal was deny Humphrey and Nixon the Electoral College majority, thus throwing the election into the House of Representatives, where state delegations vote for president as a bloc. While he didn't seek assistance from a foreign power, he very cleverly sought assistance from the archaic provision of the Electoral College. As Don Corleone so eloquently said:
"A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns."
1
Beyond Wallace and Trump, what does this say about our country? That so many citizens believe and wish to say and do these horrible things indicates there really are at least two USA. These rallies identify one that cannot accept any difference of opinion and wishes to behave with violent tribalism. Clearly it has existed from the beginning of our nation and most likely since the dawn of man. The question is how to deal with this USA? Compromise? That led to continued slavery and it’s bitter legacy. It seems there should be no compromise on the equality of men and the rule of law. Shine a light on the roguery and vote.
44
As you see what Trump is doing with de spirit of your constitution and the treatment of his opponents you must beware that he doesn't become the Julis Ceasar of your republic. As he made an end to the centuries old rules and values of the Roman Republic so Trump clould end the rules and values of your Republic.
And as with Julius Ceasar wiht great support of his senators and the people.
18
@Wim Braakhuis
Unfortunately, those who support Trump most are in three categories:
There is the obvious mob appeal with the bloodthirst of Roman gladiators who want a bloodbath where they come out the "winner"
Then there are the uber rich and corporations that are basically non ideology motivated, but are only concerned with lining their pockets by stealing from the poor .
And there are those who are so steeped in one particular ideology that they would vote for the devil if he offered them a chance to impose their value set on everyone else.
Your comparison to Rome is spot on. Trump has already taken over our government by the irregular appointment of "acting" heads of agencies, law suits that get tied up in court and executive orders that bypass congress. Yet millions of Americans think he is doing a great job. Our Republic and our Democracy ARE at peril, and Trump is dining on the flesh of our future generations to feed his ego and his pocketbook.
Trump, like Wallace, is not a cause but an effect.
Trump was elected because he convinced the so called "base" that he hated the same people they did, that they were the "real Americans", and that he viewed the world the same as they did. Not to mentioned their glee in seeming him say the things they felt the couldn't say in polite society.
I can't help but notice how eager Republicans are to re-cast their party to conform with Trump through the recent conference about nationalism. They will do anything to stay in power. Fooling these people is easier that I ever thought.
28
I remember George Wallace and the hectic times of that era. I was young, but thought his supporters centered primarily in the segregated states of the South. For Trump to be elected to the presidency some 50 years later is more frightening as a section of our population have not progressed since the days of Wallace rather it's become more polarized and hateful. This time it wasn't just a few southern states that elected Trump rather it was a cross section of this country with the possible exception of California.
Trump has brought this election process to an even disgusting lower level than Wallace and carries the Republican party along with him.
Trump and his enablers in Congress must be defeated by a humilingly large majority in 2020 to show ourselves and the world that Trump's form of politics does not speak for the majority of Americans and is no longer tolerated.
47
Trump is only stirring up the race issue to deflect from his own obstruction and Russian collusion crisis. It is going to get worse for him from here on out.
21
This article concludes: "It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words." It is obvious to nearly everyone in the world not only that Trump is highly unlikely ever to do that, but that he relishes— wallows in— his verbal ugliness.
So the proper conclusion might better be: Why have the Republicans chosen to be facilitators to a being who is such a threat not only to our nation and civilization, but to the future of the entire world?
32
“He says what we’re thinking and what we want to say”.
“We wish we could speak our mind without worrying about the consequences”.
“He can speak his mind without worrying.”
Enough said. They want revenge, not a republic.
46
There is an important distinction between the two figures -- Wallace came by his beliefs, his fears, his hatred from a place deep inside himself. Trump, on the other hand, is stoking hatred and fear for blatant opportunism. I know which is worse.
26
I met George Wallace when I was in Law School and recall his 1972 election efforts. The author errs, as the only quality Governor Wallace and the President share is charisma. Facts on the ground are as usual not so black and white. Unlike the Wallace years, we live in a new digital age, when those named by the President have already directly savaged either him or his nominees, and his policies, and he's entitled to fight back by name. If you enter the public arena, you expect tough adversaries, such as President Trump. It is patronizing that Professor Kruse would allege that only Trump supporters (oh yes, we 'deplorables') pose a unique threat of violence in the public sphere, given the existential threat of Islamic terrorists and other purveyors of evil. As a historian he also knows that in the arc of history political views rarely are the true source of madness leading to violence, e.g. my beloved President, Jack Kennedy.
1
@William Sparks The people being threatened by the “president” have criticized his policies and his actions; they have not encouraged anyone to physically harm him. If they had, the Secret Service would have hauled them away. The “president” takes glee in his own verbal violence and in encouraging physical violence on the part of his supporters.
39
@William Sparks Tough adversary and Trump are an oxymoron. This is a man so petty and scared he attacks on Twitter and in his rallies but rarely in person. Remember his promise to tell Mexico to pay for the wall? Has he stood up to Putin or North Korea like Obama? No he's wanted their approval. Sadly, his supporters will learn too late he's really just an insecure bully.
3
Trump and Wallace do share some similarities, but they are more different than alike politically, and socially.
Wallace was a descendant of the Dixiecrats and ran as a third party (American Independent Party) candidate. Wallace was a demagogue, a '60s Huey P. Long and strictly regional in voter attraction. Wallace carried just five states, all in the deep South.
Trump has national support and the support of the Republican Party, which cleared and plowed the political field for him beginning with the racist tinged presidential campaigns of Nixon (“Southern Strategy”), Reagan ("I believe in states' rights", welfare queens driving Cadillacs) and Bush I (Willie Horton). Since 1968 the underlying principal of national Republican politics has been race baiting.
42
The elites, the Thinking-Establishment in Louisiana, have reported that at their parties it was inevitable that someone would suggest that the only corrective action for Huey Long - "The Kingfish" - was to shoot him. Eventually, somebody did.
Somebody also shot Wallace.
But it seems that the main difference between Long and Wallace, and Trump is that Trump is going to shoot somebody. (And get away with it...)
11
I realize that the author is a Princeton scholar who has clearly done his research. However those of us who remember Wallace's vicious racial hatred cannot make the comparison as easily.
While the President needs to desist from his grotesque tweets, I have 2 thoughts: 1] that congressional leadership had a responsibility to guide and reprimand the junior "squad" and more "progressive" elements re: appropriate speech and actions [some of which have been hateful, vicious, and merit severe rebuke]
2]that the Trump tweets are an unfortunate , but natural and somewhat innocuous, nipping response to critics who- from the get-go- set out to destroy him and his appointees. When Obama was angry at critics, we also knew it, although on the surface he often appeared to have more finesse.
The President, a sharp-mouthed -and sharp- businessman by training, has had some major accomplishments. His reactions to critics are not racist, but angry, childish responses to equally rough and aggressive individuals, such as Congressman Nadler.
I do not believe , as stated, that violence by unhinged right and left-leaning individuals has been a recent phenomenon, nor that it has anything to do with this President. Unchecked inner city rioting was a feature of the last decade until 3 years ago, for example.
1
@Hope If you really think that Trump's racist vicious tweets are "an unfortunate , but natural and somewhat innocuous, nipping response to critics who- from the get-go- set out to destroy him and his appointees..." then we have no hope that trump supporters can be persuaded by rational and moral arguments. His responses as a national figure are not natural or innocuous--they are designed to inflame the base and incite violence--neither type of speech is protected under the First Amendment.
Please get your news and information from other than Fox News!
1
@Hope You lost all credibility when you labeled the squad’s words as “hateful and vicious” but characterized Trump’s tweets as, “unfortunate, but natural and somewhat innocuous.” An adult—no, a President—using his platform to denigrate and name call is not innocuous. You are implying that his words are just words and not intended to inflict harm. It is not natural for a sane adult to spend the entirety of a day name calling. Furthermore, you make your prejudice clear when you declare that the squad needs to be “reprimanded.” In other words, you’d like them put in their place. I am unsure what you are referring to when you mention “unchecked inner city rioting,” was common until three years ago. There were protests against police killing unarmed blacks people. The Ferguson protest got out of hand, but that was a few bad actors. But people exercising their constitutional right to assemble and protest is not “unchecked rioting,” no matter how uncomfortable it makes you.
1
@Hope Wow, hardly see Nadler as aggressive! What must one be thinking to interpret that calm and sedate aura as aggressive, I wonder.
I take offense at a part of your article & the way you portrayed those in the civil rights movement in the 1960's. "...leftists in the streets." There may have been some leftists in the streets,but all the people in the streets believed in human rights, of all faiths & non-faiths ,political ideologies & gender. You did a great disservice to the civil rights movement. We all need to join together to stop this tyranny we call Trump.
12
And yet, the only public figures to actually suffer violence were Steve Scalise and his fellow Republicans practicing for a friendly baseball game. Ironic, given the ominous tone of this piece.
2
@chris Gee, one could almost conclude that right-wingers are getting the message that violence against people who are not public figures is ok, even encouraged.
Our current President Donald Trump is being compared to Governor George C. Wallace. There are many similarities between Trump and Wallace, but they do have some differences. According to Kevin M. Kruse, Wallace would present opposition to the civil rights movement. On the other hand, President Trump expresses his racism with words. Trump and Wallace both show the same “fires of resentment and racism” (Kruse). Another one of their similarities expressed promised to “restore ‘law and order’ to a troubled nation” (Kruse). Kruse then goes on and explains how Trump's rallies are being intensified and they are causing violence among the American people. Kruse then states “It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words” (Kruse). Notice how Kruse states “Its long past time,” he could have said that “it’s time he should worry” but instead it shows that Trump's discrimination toward other people has been going on for a while. I agree with Kruse’s argument. Trump is now adapting some of Wallace’s ideas and making them worse. Trump and Wallace both showed racism at their rallies, but Trump targets specific people and Wallace did not. It is harsh how Trump is defending people who are being violent at his rallies. I have watched sections of Trump's rallies on the internet and he portrays himself as selfish and does not care what other people think. I think he should start being cautious about how he treats people and how he publicly expresses his racism.
Disturbing to say the least. It is however all a smokescreen to make the public "look the other way" while he concocts something much more sinister. Fair warning...
5
One other major difference. This is 2019!
5
“We wish we could speak our mind without worrying about the consequences”. This is the real issue at play here, together with the perceived loss of the centuries-long white supremacy and privilege. These people wished they could still say - and do - whatever they wanted to “the others” (blacks, browns, Jews, Muslims, etc.), the way they used to - or were told they could - during the era of Jim Crow. That’s it, that’s all it is.
Don’t go too philosophical, nor too sociological, or you would miss the point: the issue is fear, full stop. Fear of soon being not able to function and to operate in the same way they always did and in the same way they believe they are entitled to always do.
Imagine the shock of these people when a black president was elected to the White House. It did not start there, of course, but that was a call to arm.
16
What this commentary overlooks is that there is one thing George Wallace didn’t have that Trump does. He did not have right wing talk radio or Fox News. Targeting Democrats and liberals by name is something they have been doing for years. Killing the fairness doctrine opened the door to hate speech for profit and political power.
Candidate Trump was a frequent guest on Sean Hanity’s radio show; President Trump remains in regular contact with him reportedly. Hanity’s attacks on liberals by name is part of his stock in trade and has been for years. Trump fits right in there.
While Trump’s personal attacks reflect his particular style, they are the bread and butter of conservative media - and the Republican Party that lives and dies by it. The lies, the disinformation? It’s what they do.
While Trump has always been a con man, he’s a con man with a media machine that amplifies, echoes, and inspires his messaging. There’s a correlation between many of Trump’s tweets and what he just saw on Fox. The whole Republican Party dances to the tune of conservative media; it’s a sick symbiosis.
It will not end with Trump. They all must be made accountable.
19
You know you should start to examine your life when you're compared to Wallace and lose, but Trump's response may not be that of remorse.
2
There's another yuge distinction between Mr. Trump and Mr. Wallace. Towards the end of his life the Alabama governor recognized that he had been in error with his respect to his racist sympathies and sought to reconcile with the black community he had harmed (though perhaps not with the hippies). Trump hasn't even begun to do so. Perhaps a death-bed conversion is in the offing but the rest of us have no reason to wait.
4
"It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words."
And if he doesn't, Professor Kruse, what then?
You make an articulate case the President of the United States is fomenting life and death violence. and then the only solution you can offer is that we should hope he changes his attitude?????
It is grossly irresponsible for our public media, intellectuals, and opinion makers to simply offer detached observations, as if they had no responsibilities to the public other than to be erudite. That irresponsibility is compounded when they offer no tangible solutions to our current crisis, other than to mutter "Tsk, tsk", as if that is all the nation needs to do.
6
Let's not forget the young man on Staten Island who shot and killed a mob boss because he believed in Trump's deep state conspiracy and that the mob was a part of it. He also believes that his actions have the unqualified support of Trump.
2
I still remember writing the McCain campaign after being deeply concerned by the crowds at Sarah Palin's rallies.
People were shouting kill the president and, as I recall, calling him a traitor and/or a terrorist. It was so animated and so disturbing that I felt someone needed to speak up, even if it was only me.
Reading Game Change I know the campaign later regretted picking Palin as a running mate, but I don't remember the campaign doing much about the outrageous behavior she incited during her presentations. They were down right terrifying, as are some of these Trump rallies.
12
Americans want to "believe" in their politicians - why? Because their own lives are empty? Because they are easily led into wearing funny hats, waving balloons, chanting at rallies, and suspending rational thinking? Give me a cynical electorate anytime, one that disavows celebrity worship and intelligently holds politicians at arm's length while expecting decent behaviour - not show biz - from them.
14
George Wallace ultimately apologized and asked for forgiveness. That man in the White House is weaker - he never has and never will apologize or ask for forgiveness.
4
Thank you for this. Super creepy stuff. Scary. And I cannot ever see Trump showing any changes in his views like Wallace did.
1
This will be the nastiest presidential contest the country has ever seen (which, obviously, is really saying something after the last campaign). Make no mistake: Trump will pull any and every lever he can to ensure he doesn't lose. But unlike last time, there will be no criticism for anything he does from the Republican side of the battle, which will exacerbate his supporters' inclination to believe that anyone who opposes him is dangerous and anti-American. The GOP men and women of Congress are completely tethered to Trump's fate now, and he knows it, thus he will be completely unbridled this time around. It's already a given that he will welcome foreign assistance, but that will be the least of the ugliness--expect more focused race-baiting and fear-mongering delivered under an even thicker barrage of lies and vulgar distractions. Fox News will continue to process his latest outrages and reframe them in reasonable terms for the older set. This election will (truly) be the defining political contest of our times.
12
All that you say is true but you forgot the most tragically obvious reason Trump is orders of magnitude worse than Wallace. Trump is actually president with the establishment GOP carrying his water and therefore he is capable of actually doing real and lasting harm.
17
Trump has entered a candy store where none of his words and dangerous actions have no political consequences. He controls the Supreme court, along with McConnell the Senate, commands cadres who will take his persona attacks seriously has the DOJ as his person lawyer and will soon have National Security agencies under his control denying Russian meddling. He knows he can not be prosecuted for making false mstatements about others even to the point of endangering them. Not only the people he defames are in danger, but all of us as this demagogue ravages our democracy.
12
We may be spitting hairs here which is important in academia. Whether it is Wallace or Trump it is white supremacy perhaps manifested slightly differently. Both Trump and Wallace can certainly trace the roots of their politics to slavery in the south and the confederacy. Also, to the attacks on Native American and driving them on to reservations. I guess is comes down to a lack of tolerance for people who are different. Some people make a choice to be tolerant and others decide not to be tolerant. It is hard to see how the US can forward without a lot tolerance. The alternative would seem to be hate and violence which is exactly what Trump has been stirring up.
2
So what's the executive order, cancelling the 2020 election, going to be? A national emergency on the war in Iran or a national emergency on the civil war in the USA? Trump could go either way considering his rhetoric today.
1
It's time for Democrats to expose Donald and his Republican Senate minions' go-to verbal shields as contrary, so consistently often the antithesis of what they suggest. In evidentiary terms, the gaseous blimp above us (those arguments, not their spokesman and his crew, but of course) lazily and comfortably portends to stand for working and middle-class America.
It is totally on Democrats that they cannot individually and collectively follow the GOP's big red bouncing ball well enough to figure out a unified way to take it from him. The way to beat Donald and his Senate begins and end with the economic and security needs of the people.
Arguments about terrible values, injustice on a myriad of fronts, even turning FauxPo's core efforts to dismantle our nationhood, constitutional roots, these will in the immediate future have essentially only emotional impact and must play second fiddle until he is removed from office.
America needs a strong, rallying across the party candidate, who once selected will have nearly three years of records and all Donald' preceding hypocrisy, favoring the economically elite -with which to wage ungloved political war, that a more reserved and dispassionate Hillary, Clinton could not effectively maintain.
We need a candidate who re-affirms our wavering nationhood, earthy, nimble, contentious and bright, one with whom people could enjoy at their table, and resonates their deeper concerns, unaddressed by an elitist GOP other than superficially.
“It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words.”
That’ll never happen.
1
What's even more alarming than the comparison between Wallace and Trump is that, decades apart, there is a steady audience eating up the hateful rhetoric. The drive to scapegoat and to look down on 'others' hasn't mitigated even as the law has come to better codify civil rights.
Donald Trump is beyond reckless, with his lies, caricaturing, and incendiary appeals to people's lowest instincts.
But, as the parallel with George Wallace reveals, the prejudices and misplaced anger in the populace won't end with Trump; they will live on, dormant, waiting to erupt when the next cynical figure taps into them.
4
@NM Its human nature. Checks and balances in our system have been destroyed actively by the republican party since at least 1980, education for the public defunded, the super rich defeated middle class workers rights so people are busy with survival and health care is nonexistent. Its a recipe for the disaster the US is living in.
1
There are similarities without question. But the biggest difference is that in the thirty or forty years prior to Wallace you did not hear such claims put forward by the left as, "whites are a shrinking minority," "whites have no future here," "whites will eventually feel the sting when they are minorities to the people of color," "whites will be deprived of history since that history is of slavery and stealing of Native lands." And so on. I would hope most people laugh at those statements but more than a few, especially in rural and suburban areas took them to heart. And they found their guy. That certainly doesn't make it right but it goes into "why Trump got elected and Wallace was on the fringes."
1
One has to ask why Wallace was unelectable in 1968, but Trump won in 2016. It certainly wasn’t because he was all that stealthy in his appeals to racism.
We now have a much more cynical electorate and Republican Party. Respectable people would not have been so easily cowed or charmed by Wallace in 1968. Apparently, deregulation and tax cuts for corporations, anti-abortion judges for evangelicals, and subsidies for farmers and the coal industry can excuse all sorts of racist pandering.
We’ve changed as a society since 1968: in those days those who knew it was wrong were not inclined to sell out for a few bucks.
4
As the professor's recounting of recent history suggests, Trump might as well be shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre - an activity with such predictably deadly consequences that it's often cited as an exception to a citizen's right to self expression. Of course should the worst happen and innocents suffer for Trump's thrilling kicks and giggles his defenders will likely argue he was only shouting "Fire!" hyperbolically and SCOTUS will agree in a five to four decision.
4
Missing important historical information in this article: while campaigning for the presidency Wallace was shot by a crazed assailant at a Wallace Maryland rally and paralyzed from the waist down. A few years later he slowly began to turn a new leaf away from his racist and segregationist ways. He tried to make amends for his racist ways and even succeeded at helping to convince southern voters to pass a minimum wage laws for domestic workers at the urging and behest of Shirley Chisholm the first African American women elected to congress and candidate seeking the democratic nomination for the presidency 1972. I doubt no matter what fate has in store for Trump that he will be saved and turn a new leaf.
3
Trump appeals to wrestling fans who are cured on tough talk and spectacle. He could care less that his bravado and finger pointing against unlawful immigration as the root cause of all that ills this country is blurred into an anti brown immigrant hysteria that will inevitably lead some people to act with license to demonize Hispanics in general whether a lawful immigrant or not. Voters must recognize that this hatred is emanating from Trump for political appeal with the Republican party going all in for this short term win. Bad faith politics has to be short term because, like wrestling, it is boring and fake and luckily a clear majority of smart and decent people don't need to be convinced of this fact.
3
One other difference between the two.
Wallace was discharged from the service for a psychiatric disability and when it was brought up during campaigns, he joked that psychiatrists had declared him sane unlike his opponents.
We've yet to have anybody declare Trump sane.
1
From now on any strongly suspect racism should disqualify any candidate from a party nomination. One cannot uphold the Constitution for only a select portion of Americans.
1
And one bigger difference: Wallace didn't win.
The real difference between Trump and Wallace is that Wallace knew where he came from and was speaking for people like him. Trump just throws stuff at the wall and sees what sticks. Also, Trump attacks individuals because he is a deeply insecure and weak man. He doesn’t care about Cummings’ district or his effectiveness as a senator, he just wants to say hurtful things.
Trump has no real agenda, he will just say anything if people applaud it, and will support anyone who flatters him. This is true and dangerous weakness.
6
A cursory examination of the pictures documenting the civil rights movement reveals a universality: whenever black Americans were attempting to exercise their rights (sit at a lunch counter, register at a university, etc.), they were surrounded by white Americans whose facial features were grotesquely distorted by hatred. The rational assumption that their faces reflected their hearts reveals the extent of the aquifer of hatred that lies beneath our society. That so many of these people and their descendants were and are self-described "Christians" is truly the most depressing aspect of the situation, particularly when they seem oriented to going out of their way to describe America as a Christian nation. Whatever Jesus they worship bears no relation to the Prince of Peace that I know.
5
People love this stuff. People love to fight and hate. Trump is a genius in this regard. Look at how happy his fans are at his rally. He is seen as being expressive and therefore trustworthy. Everything that people feel and want to say, but can't due to fear of being politically incorrect, will manifest in the privacy of the voting booth with a big vote for Trump.
On the other hand anything with the Dems looks depressing, sad, worrisome, pensive, mired in legalese. Who wants that?
Life is enough of a struggle without all that.
Trump will never worry about the consequences of his words. He is not capable of empathy nor of good sense. The ends justifies any means. Winning is the end, sadly, as he has no other program, no other plan for the betterment of the common good. Further, he is filled with a bottomless rage fed by his narcissism with the result that any supposed slight or any criticism is interpreted as a horrible wound which results in brooding, dreams of revenge, and all night and early morning tweet storms. The only satisfaction he gets in life is to make others submit. Currently the entire Republican leadership, most of them opposed to Trump in 2016 during the primaries, is now in submission mode, but that is not enough to allay his anxieties. Every foreign dictator has learned that praise will get them anything they want from Trump. But their praise is not enough either. Nothing is enough. Trump will always be an angry and dangerous man, in or out of the presidency.
1
It's a terrific comparison. I've often thought of Trump as copying Wallace. The big difference is by 68 the Democratic party had already abandoned its Jim Crow leg of the stool that was a big part of its base.
The Republican party wouldn't have a leg to stand on without it.
2
“We wish we could speak our mind without worrying about the consequences,” explained a white man at a Phoenix event. “He can speak his mind without worrying.”
Yes, Trump has made it OK to hate. Though why that makes America great is beyond me. It seems to just make us into a nation full of bitter resentment. A real leader finds the common strengths that bind us together. A demagogue finds handy targets for hatred.
2
As far as I can tell, Donald Trump has never worried "about the consequences of his words." He speaks first; thinks second; and never displays the slightest remorse for whatever ensues. Whatever the circumstances, it's never his fault or his responsibility. In that, he is certainly very like Wallace and the other segregationists of the sixties and seventies who spent so much of their time refusing to acknowledge any culpability for the racist violence they incited.
Trump's facade of competence began crumbling, however, even during his 2016 campaign. That disintegration has only accelerated during his term in office and it is on daily display as his own words and actions place him in increasing legal and political jeopardy. To salve his wounded ego, Trump turns to the balms of racist rhetoric and violence- tinged rallies. Look for his supporters' nastiness to increase and spill over into greater and more dangerous instability and violence as Trump feels himself more threatened and ratchets up his hate speech.
But do not expect or ask Trump to take any responsibility for any of that; you cannot appeal to the conscience of a man who has none.
1
George Wallace won the 1972 Democratic primary in Michigan. The issue was forced busing for school desegregation.
In 1972 a desegregation order to the Detroit Public Schools, forced busing was implemented in Detroit, Judge Roth wrote in part:
“Transportation of kindergarten children for upwards of 45 minutes, one way, does not appear unreasonable, harmful, or unsafe in any way. ...kindergarten children should be included in the final plan of desegregation.”
This was a weaponized judiciary aimed at working class folks by liberal Feds who for the most part had no skin in the game. Fortunately the cross-district scheme was reversed by the SCOTUS. Unfortunately Detroit Public Schools were still forced to implement busing with a white student population of 26%. Each school was forced to have a student body that reflected this demographic. Working class folks with little of financial cushion saw their homes become essentially worthless due to the destruction of the DPS.
Wallace was the only Democrat to speak out against it.
Racial liberalism was in full force within the Democratic Party, regardless of the damage it would do to the lives of working class folks.
NYC has racially segregated public schools. When you implement a plan for forced racial integration write back and tell how all that worked out. You might even prove Wallace wrong - maybe.
And there's no dog whistle, code words or southern strategy to it.
Now back to hammering on the folks in flyover country.
1
@Jp. yes, i'm pretty liberal, but always thought busing kids away from neighborhood schools was bad. it's good to bus kids from bad schools to good ones, but not the other way around. I wouldn't want my kids to be used as little social engineering tools.
1
Aside from all the other issues, I wish this article didn't make it sound as though all White people support Trump. We don't. Trump was "winning the support of Whites." That just seems to lump us all into one group.
1
Is anybody else wishing that Wallace was President instead of Trump. I remember him well. Can't believe I just said that.
There is another reason why Trump is more dangerous than Wallace. LBJ is dead! Anytime he got in the way of the civil rights agenda of LBJ, LBJ found a way to stifle him. I won't speculate on how.
Somehow, since he was shot, no one mentions that Wallace's campaign slogan was "Stand Up For America". You could call it irony, or maybe God was listening and decided to say "Sit Down!", because after he was shot Wallace could never stand up again.
So I wait and wonder what God's judgement on Trump will be.
2
I never thought I would see the day when blatant bigotry would become a major policy of a Presidential candidate, let alone an incumbent President. It used to be an unspoken undercurrent but with Trump it is tattooed on his forehead and his supporters are cheering with joy. America is not the country I thought it was.
Reading the history of the world so called dictators did not survive long but damage they did to their countries out lived these dictators. Trump's problem is simple he is focused on himself at any cost including at the cost of his base who has been the net losers so far with his policies. Second loser will be American universities and education dominance in the world as Trump himself has very little understanding of it. Another fact Trump does not Understand is that none of the dictators have ever retired in peace if they survived.
1
Why hasn’t trump been charged with inciting violence or terroristic threats. DOJ policy is not the law.
2
Trump is more dangerous than Wallace but for another reason.
Wallace didn't have Fox News trumpeting his every word at every rally. Trump uses illegal immigrants to fire up his base. But I truly believe that the most dangerous immigrant in the history of this country entered legally and is Trump's pal--Rupert Murdoch.
2
@bnyc Murdoch bribed his way into circumventing US law, gaining citizenship and therefore Fox News. He is not wanted in his native Australia and tore up the UK. He is dangerous.
1
I have been wondering lately about the violent outcomes that have been recognized and will continue to be developing among Trump supporters. The irony of Mr Wallace’s taunting found him being violently attacked.
How long before this national nightmare will be over? Work for an honest election and refuse to let Trump’s ugly messages dominate our lives.
President Trump lacks George Wallace's background in boxing, but he has experience in professional wrestling, and so calls out and threatens his opponents by name.
1
Trump by his own carefully-crafted definition, is a character, not really a living being. He is living a story. He needs it to be believed regardless of its truth. He's building that story like a wall. And every lie he builds into it weakens the structure.
It's an archetypal tale. It was trite back when Shakespeare used it in "Richard III" and "Macbeth". Grasping ambition, ruthless climbing, the pose of invulnerability; victimhood for the intimidated and a cause for vengeance from the ones who can strike back. Justice prevails.
It's playing out as we watch. And no, it is not "long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words." He never has and never will will worry about consequences. The ones who ought to worry are 1) his family, because before Trump is done, he will decimate his own fortune and make his own name a mark of shame and calumny; 2) the Republican Party, because Trump defines them now, confirming the obvious that they never had any principles and stand for nothing now but racism, fear, and bitter nostalgia, leaving them with no purpose and nothing to offer; and 3) the Republican base voters, who, having shown how easily they can be swindled, will be marks again and again for demagogues and liars.
There will be bloodshed. It won't be Civil War as some of the ugliest of the Right's predictions suggest. As it was in service of the Lost Cause, it will be bushwhacking by losers who think killing for pride is all they have left.
3
The biggest difference to me is that George Wallace was a man seeking to become the President, but Donald Trump IS the President. This gives him a far greater platform than Wallace ever had, both nationally and internationally, and we are reaping the consequences of his never more aptly described bully pulpit.
The author doesn’t mention that Trump ran as a Republican after Mitch McConnell had laid the groundwork of hatred against a black president. If Wallace has done this in 2016, it’s likely he would have been elected.
Here's one similarity. Before George Wallace was Governor Wallace, he was Judge Wallace. He had an excellent record as a fair judge. Then he ran for governor and lost, because he was considered too "soft" on Jim Crow laws. So he veered into "segregation forever" territory and never looked back. When asked about his racist messages, Wallace had this to say: ""You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about n____rs, and they stomped the floor."
In other words George Wallace was a qualified, intelligent person who sold his soul to the racist devil for power.
Trump had been kicking it around peddling racist theories for years, and was the host of a reality tv show with failing ratings. He also had numerous business and real estate failures. So what does he do? He decides to amp up the racism x 1000, and lo and behold, they "stomped the floor" just like they did with George Wallace.
So ... the scary lesson for both men is that ... when all else fails, amp up the racism.
2
George Wallace and Donald Trump almost seem to have racism in their DNA. Wallace grew up in a part of the country where John Crow policies were enforced. Donald Trump was the devoted son of a man who profiteered off government housing contracts while violating federal laws making discrimination in housing illegal.
One salient difference between the two men may be the extent to which Trump has weaponized his racism. Trump has a pattern of making an egregiously offensive racist remark or throwing a racist tweet bomb as a diversionary tactic conveniently when some truly negative information about him is about to emerge. Wallace was a consistent advocate of segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.
Racism is always contemptible, but cynical racism seems particularly vile.
1
This is what happens when a democracy has too many uneducated failures, the failures get to impose their failed thinking on those who are able to succeed and adapt. It is the opposite of meritocracy, just a mobocracy angrily mumbling about a rigged system because they can't confront their own life mistakes. Ironically, the system is rigged to empower these dupes to sacrifice everything for the one percent.
2
Ironically, Wallace was the 45th governor of Alabama and Trump the 45th president. Makes one wonder.
1
@Mark Jenkins OK so skyscrapers now have to skip floor 45 along with floor 13 ...
2
I look at the photos of the screaming fans of these two dishonorable beasts. And it makes me think about the photos of the screaming masses of mostly young women reacting to the Beatles in the 1960s.
With a huge difference.
The people screaming for John, Paul, George, and Ringo we're screaming from the love they felt for the Fab Four. They were happy to be so close to them, to revel in their antics and their music. "All You Need Is Love" they sang.
It didn't hurt that our parents were so out of touch that they thought the Beatles had long hair.
Then I look at the braying hyenas in these photos screaming for Wallace & Trump and all I see is total hatred and a desire to do damage to others in the most extreme ways possible.
Looking at those pictures sickens me. What is wrong with these people? These people make me ashamed to be an American. If this is America, I want no part of it.
Which is why I left the United States.
If Trump is re-elected, others will follow me, because it will mean the end of the United States as we know it.
And don't think for a second that 2020 is a normal election. Joe Biden is like an ostrich with its head in the sand. There is no bi-partisanship possible.
As Donny Deutsch said last Saturday on MSNBC, we are at war with the Republicans and all they stand for.
If Trump is not totally trounced at the ballot box, he will claim the election was rigged and refuse to leave office. Trump's handpicked Supreme Court will side with him.
1
Also, Wallace was sincere or authentic in his racist beliefs. He grew up in early 20th century Alabama. Trump knows better. He's a rich New Yorker and Ivy League graduate. and is cynically, destructively encouraging fear and hate to advance his own interests. Marianne Williamson is right - Trump knows what he's doing.
1
I wish more public figures would call Trump out and have their 15 minutes of being attacked by Trump.
1
Trump doesn’t care about consequences when it involves other people; he only cares if there are consequences to himself. If he doesn’t feel any such consequences, then as far as he’s concerned there are none.
2
Death threats generally, you might have noted, are apparently a growth industry in the United States. I would imagine we lead the world in this splendid category of communication. Last year threats against politicians rose. Trump himself is having a slow day if he only receives one or two. Then of course there are the countless private death threats that we only ever hear about if they lead to restraining orders or culminate in murder. Political rhetoric may play a role in some small fraction of this but I suspect our community psychosis runs rather deeper.
1
The Intelligence Committee issued a bipartisan opinion on the severity of Russian interference in the election process, which is ongoing.
The director of National Intelligence is out.
The border problems are past critical breakdowns.
North Korea has launched more missiles. Iran is making waves in the Persian Gulf.
And trump is making racist tweets against Elijah Cummings, among others. And calling him a bully? Please!
He is far worse than George Wallace because this 2019. The desegregation legislation was being passed but had not yet reached full compliance and he wanted to make sure it never would.
Despite the progress that has been made, there is still plenty of bigotry and racism in America and trump, rather than upholding the law, is doing everything he can to (a) divide the country and (b) project distractions against his lawless behavior in so many ways.
But he gets more targets than African-Americans - any people of color, any adversary of white supremacists, anybody different than him - people he learned to hate for no other reason than being different.
Unfit to remain in office. The sooner he is ejected - via impeachment or in the election- the better.
3
“It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words.”
This is an astoundingly naive aspiration. It should be obvious by now that Trump considers his series of insults, lies, threats, and incitement’s to violence as brilliant, successful tactics. He is not going to suddenly see the light and begin behaving in a more responsible manner.
1
It's impossible to excuse anything about Wallace's political career which was founded on white rage and his thinly veiled bigotry. But Trump's career isn't so much political as it is criminal. His politics, hateful and divisive as they are, mainly serve his criminal ambitions for gaining wealth and power. It's important to keep this in mind, for the chief function of his policies is to screen his corrupt interests from scrutiny. Stoking the hateful passions of his base is also the means by which he intends to keep his opponents at bay. Wallace, of course, suffered a terrible end to his career when he was shot and almost killed by an assassin. Unfortunately, Trump's career may also be ended by violent means, though it probably won't be by assassination. This time Trump has killers of his own, and like any cornered gangster, he won't be reluctant to call for their help.
One look at Trump's face say all that needs to be said. It is without humanity, friendliness, compassion or heart. How to awaken America to the evil this man exudes is a huge challenge.
1
Well, another big difference is where the country is. Wallace didn’t win and Trump did.
With fifty plus years of the civil rights movement and all the social progress we thought we have made we thought the nation is in a better place than in 1968. Are we?
3
Trump loves the consequences of his words-which are that his base digs in even deeper and that other racist, anti-immigrant people will latch on to his campaign and vote for him.
Trump will never change so it is time for every American who does not want him as our president to do all they can to make sure he loses. Donate, volunteer, register voters, vote, and pray that the Dems take the White House and the Senate because our democracy, and possibly your life, depend on it.
366
@CJ
Yes, and thank you for mentioning the Senate. For without that, we still really get nowhere.
That Congress is a co-equal branch of government has by and large been forgotten by the people, and Mitch McConnell likes it that way. He, more than Trump, needs to go.
35
@myasara - in my estimation Mitch McDonnell is amongst one of the vilest creatures on earth today. We know what Trump is, it's out there for all to see. McConnell on the other hand is a traitor to the U.S., its Constitution and U.S. citizens as he is the one virtually allowing Trump to be Trump.
12
@CJ As a Democrat, I didn't think Pres Obama was very effective the first two years of his Presidency. We got a flawed "health care bill" that for many middle and lower middle class citizens increased their health care costs by allowing huge deductibles and co-pays. A 2400 page hunk-a-junk. No infrastructure of any size. He had huge majorities in both House & Senate yet they collectively put little beef in the bun (as Mondale said to Hart, where's the beef?) It seemed the House & Senate leaders wanted to call the shots not Pres Obama. Pres Trump is all about Pres Trump so the Dem candidates for Pres ought to ignore hm and tell the American People exactly what they will do for the country. Pres Kennedy's call for citizens to ask not what their country will do for them but what they can do for their country is still valid.
3
Yes, the 2020 campaign will heat up, and Trump's words to have consequences. But the Republican party wants Trump to stay in office, keep lowering taxes, and keep on appointing judges selected by Party reps.
The Russian government is hacking into and influencing our elections, at the national, state and local level, in order to favor the party it believes most actively supports their continued authoritarian methods. And the Republican party is relying on continued Russian assistance to tip the scales again in next year's election, since the party cannot rely on fair voting methods,
That is why Trump joked with Putin a month ago and said “Don’t meddle in the election.” Putin played along, laughing during Trump’s finger-wagging statement, and gave a broad smile as he answered, “Of course I won’t.” And that's why Mitch McConnell squashed several Senate bills last week designed to investigate and fix Russian hacking into our voting system.
I get it that Republicans cheer having their party in the White House. And that Republicans take every advantage in its reliance on the current system for Senate membership which seats 2 senators from Wyoming (population 600,000) along side 2 senators from California (population 40 million).
But I don't get why Republicans gleefully cheer a President and Senate leadership who joyfully accept Russian influence in selecting U.S. leadership simply because it is a means to the end result they seek.
Don't get that at all.
6
@Ed. I agree with everything you wrote. But I am beginning to suspect that, in their unbridled quest for power, Republicans such as Moscow Mitch have joined Trump in seeking and accepting Russian help.
2
In comparing Racism in America under different individuals, the author fails to help us address the issue. The problem of Racism in America can be traced to the original sin of the slavery since the birth. Racism was and is too deep in our culture. The civil war could not solve the problem. The speed with which the Jim Crow laws were instituted to deprive non-white population of voting rights, is the similarity to current times and not the individuals.
It is important to note that our institutions including judiciary and free press have not been able to address the issue. The supreme court for most of the history continued to accept and defend the racism when it proclaimed, over and over, the "separate but equal" theory.
We all have to recognize that the unresolved issue of racism was going to get worse with two new factors. 1) Change in immigration laws in 1960 which made immigration color blind and 2) Our superpower status was going to be challenged by non-white countries.
These two factors are not going to be reversed. And that makes this time most dangerous for America.
An education system that honestly portrays our successes and failures with the emphasis on the facts that a) we all came from Africa and were black and b) our differences in color and features are due to environmental factor and diet, might help us overcome the curse of Racism.
Price of inaction on our part to address this jeopardizes America’s and possibly world’s future.
6
"It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words."
Why should he worry? He wants those consequences! If anything, he worries that the consequences are not coming fast enough. Trump has never apologized, instead, he is constantly intensifying his personal attacks on his enemies.
43
@Truthseeker
Exactly. The more attention he gets from his tweets, the more he intensifies them. I'm sick of hearing another loutish, trumpish tweet repeated every day at the start of every hour in nearly all media. He laps it up, media amplifies it, and it never ends. The more outrageous he can be, the more encouraged he gets for another round of intense publicity. This is how the guy got elected in the first place. He won't tone it down until the media quits picking up on every errant utterance. Most of what he says could have been mumbled by my middle-of-the-road parents when they got to be his age. Trump is just spewing the vitriol he heard from his father's generation. Want more of it? Keep amplifying his babbling. Want less, as I do? Scale back on the frequency of coverage of the same exact quotes and limit op-ed writers' coverage of the same nonsense. We're saturated, but there's very little else out there! We are suffering from the near-absence of reliable, trained journalists throughout the world.
3
So this its what it's come down to---segregationist rallies from the era when the South was coming to terms with the notion that the slaves REALLY had been freed now pale beside nationist rallies where Donnie Dotard presses every hate button he can think of, which seems to be quite a few. Much has been made of the similarities with Boris Johnson, but I can't imagine any other Western democracy putting up with quite the level of vileness and intolerance at a Trump "rally".
53
@dave as an American living overseas, I wish you were right even as I fear for my native home from afar. But in Italy we have Matteo Salvini, minister of the Interior and the most popular and powerful politician in the country who is as vile and as violent as is Trump. Alas this is, as it was mid-20th century, an international problem.
6
"I can't imagine any other Western democracy putting up with quite the level of vileness and intolerance at a Trump "rally".
I think you underestimate the seemingly infinite capacity of mankind to be vile and inhuman. The US is a currently shocking example being led by Trump; although,Trump is not singular in mindset, intent, nor mendacity—he just has greater power and visisility—at the moment. The hard right is accendant throughout the west. Trump is a dark inspiration, he will not be the last to plague countries who think of themselves as enlightened.
1
Anyone who knew Wallace understands the vast gulf between his politics and Trump's: Wallace had a major change of heart after his shooting at a Maryland shopping center in 1972. He renounced the hardcore racism and hatred that had been one of his political pillars and assiduously went about mending fences with those he had wronged. Just imagine Trump doing that...
31
@Tournachonadar
I didn't personally know Wallace and I don't remember him after his shooting to renounce racism. maybe he didn't yell it as loud as he did his racism.
I was in my 20s during George Wallace's campaign. I saw it as a fringe movement and never in a 1000 years expected him to win. I wasn't surprised at the racism expressed; I had grown up surrounded by it. But this Trump phenomenon is terrifying because I see him building his inner circle with evil minions, know him for a megalomaniac, and truly fear for the future of our country.
128
Dear Democrats...please nominate a moderate. I have been a Trump voter and supporter but the last month or so has convinced me he has to go. I voted for Obama in 2008 but that was easy since the other choice was McCain. I will gladly vote for Biden but it will be hard voting for Harris or Warren. Whatever the choice is I will vote against Trump.
96
@hannstv All the Democratic candidates are pro-middle class. Their issues are access to healthcare & education, a path to success for everyone, & some long-needed relief for working families. I urge you to support the Democrat, no matter who. Under Democratic administrations, we bring down the debt that will hinder us as a nation going forward. Yes, Biden is good, but Warren & Harris & the other Democratic candidates also have serious plans to move us forward, together. I fear greatly for our country if we do not elect a serious public servant.
25
@hannstv
Please define moderate for me. Oh...OK, I'll help. Anyone other than Trump is "moderate". Anyone other than Trump could govern more moderately. ANYONE.
It is reassuring to hear that a Trump supporter can change his or her mind. Thank you. What do you think it will take for more of you to come over to civility and reason? Does he need to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue?
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, okay, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?" Trump said at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa as the audience laughed. "It's, like, incredible."
15
@hannstv If you would vote for Trump, almost NO MATTER his Democratic opponent, then you don’t see the danger to Democracy that Trump will continue to impose if allowed. Hasn’t he done enough damage? Having a left or center-left President would be a million times better than have George Wallace on steroids for another 4 years. As Biden would say, “Come on man!”
5
Trump is using racial polarization strategically to deflect attention from the fact that the economy is heading to a recession.
His tax cuts have caused record deficits and the promised new jobs and wage hikes have not materialized. (Unemployment was already sub-4% when they were passed.) Tariffs are a disaster. And his China strategy is a failure, because Xi knows Trump has an election in 2020 and Xi doesn't. Xi can impose hardships on his people and knows Trump will be desperate for a deal before the election. He is waiting Trump out.
So what is Trump's answer? Flash the shiny racism object in front of his all-too-willing base. They'll go for it just like their ancestors did in the 1860s . . . and 1960s. It worked for Jefferson Davis, it worked for George Wallace . . . and it seems to be working for Donald Trump.
I'll say this for the South: At least it is constant. You know what you're going to get. Trump is depending on that.
55
@Jack Sonville He's setting up for people of color to be blamed when he fulfills the long-term GOP dream of yanking the entire social safety net (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) away from the very same people who voted for him (and his party) and gives it to billionaires in the form of more tax cuts.
4
@Jack Sonville
thank you. he made no deal with china. but his fantasy wife (ivanka )got 18 trademarks in china. one is for voting machines. just like Moscow mitch.
2
Wallace may have been just as divisive and just as much a demagogue, but I don't think anyone ever questioned his loyalty to the United States or the Constitution, at least as he understood it, and I don't believe he or his family was ever plausibly accused of being personally corrupt.
81
Without getting into the details of the respective personality disorders, the primary difference is that Trump is an agent of the plutocracy, plain and simple. Perhaps the economy at the moment is marginally and temporarily better than it was under Obama, and there are more $12 an hour jobs at the local Home Depot. However, when there is no infrastructure, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid down the road and automation eventually takes away the temporary and modest hike in low paying jobs, we can remember the worship of the free market economy along with fear of the other as our undoing. For Trump the racism and intolerance is just the marketing strategy to convince enough of the population to vote against their own self interests.
58
@Mickey
You are right about the racism and intolerance “acting” like a marketing strategy however look what this man really believes, his father made his millions off of the government and tax payers, building and running hud housing in NY. Housing for low wage workers, only way they could live in NY. But then his father did not want to rent to African Americans even if the were qualified to live there. He HATES anything that does not “FIT” his reality.
Truth be known, he does not like trump voters except for the rich ones. He would not voluntarily spend a minute with the people who come to his rallies EXCEPT he wants their votes. If he can not talk about hate and putting someone down, he had NOTHING in common with them.
What would he talk to them about? He is playing them for the fool they are being.
2
@Carol
Oh, I don’t disagree with you at all. Trump doesn’t make dog-whistle racism the centerpiece of his presidency without, in fact, being a racist. As a businessman he has the track record in courts to prove it. However, before becoming President, I don’t think DT lost sleep about walls. Wallace on the other hand was driven by defending the racist order of life in the South under Jim Crow.
Great piece. Thanks for the historical perspective. As for more Trump worrying about the consequences of his words or actions -- I don't believe that's something he's ever done. We will be the ones to worry, and to pay.
24
This may not be the most welcomed comment, but, if we are discussing similarities and differences between Wallace and Trump, it's worth noting that Wallace was a Democrat for most of his political career. Briefly, he was a third-party candidate but returned to the Democratic party. Obviously, this was before the party realignments of a half-century, but it seems like a relevant fact to add to an article of this kind.
6
@JM McRae I disagree. Party affiliation didn't matter as much back then. US political divides have always been regional. North vs. South, Coasts vs. Heartland. The fact that the two parties have evolved to reflect the regional divides today is unprecedented in American history. Only recently have all the racists and nativists been consolidated in one party. Bringing party affiliation into this muddies the waters and plays into the hands of the far right's narrative of denying that the party realignments even happened
28
@JM McRae
Relevant? How so? If you know - and you seem to know - that the George Wallace Part of the Democratic party switched over to the Republicans specifically over civil rights and the republicans "southern strategy" it seems about as relevant to today's party system as mentioning that Lincoln was a republican.
While it is an undeniable fact that he was, it is obvious that he wouldn't be in todays party system.
So... what's the point, exactly?
56
@Sean
Before 1964 the south had been solidly democratic since reconstruction.
7
In 2016, there was talk on the Trump side of it being "the last election" if Clinton won. Democrats were purportedly going to make the U.S. a one-party nation. Of course now Trump is regaling us with tweets about the Deep State attempting a comeback from its surprise defeat. And his new director of national intelligence will be a busy attacker of the Deep State.
The Deep State is a more nebulous target than individual politicians and judges, but I fear for the demoralization and dismantlement of federal law enforcement and intelligence.
22
@David Martin
no trump is attempting to make a one party system. autocratic and state controlled tv.
1
@David Martin
I truly can't grasp what you are trying to communicate. Do you actually believe Trump's tweets, and that there is some great "Deep State" conspiracy that works behind the scenes to insure perpetual Democratic victories? If there is, they sure seem to be doing a lousy job of it.
Or are you intending to be ironic, and critical of Trump destroying the agencies that protect from all threats foreign............. and domestic?
Whatever the outcome of the coming election the entire dynamic of the relationship of the world economy and the immense disaster approaching from minimal efforts to confront the vast changes even now devastating the life sustaining qualities of the planet, indicate that humanity as a whole has lost its grip on the fundamental basics for survival. Trump can stimulate all sorts of violent emotional responses to erupt into frightful world catastrophes, but the sensible intelligent responses requires for radical basic changes necessary to preserve civilization is completely ignored. This is true for most political forces, both Trump and anti-Trump so massive disaster seems unavoidable, whatever the election results might be.
19
@Jan Sand
''sensible intelligent responses requires for radical basic changes necessary to preserve civilization is completely ignored. ''
That is the republican platform.
@Lawrence
Since, Republicans in general, deny that global warming is a problem, the concept that this denial is sensible gives me a good understanding of the level of Republican reasoning capabilities. I appreciate having that understanding confirmed.
David Axelrod has said that the Democrats need a candidate who is good on issues and good at rallies. Not sure we have that yet. Warren and Sanders are fine at rousing people who already agree with them, but don't think they will appeal to the Obama voters who left for Trump, to the actual blue collar voters of the Midwest. And Biden looks old and frail, and sounds outdated in every way. So I am very fearful about the Democrats losing again. I'd even vote for Nancy Pelosi or AOC over anyone who is actually running, as the are strong and spirited, and the rest seem weak and whiny to me.
12
@Jerry S The Midwest has always had a slightly left-leaning side due to the presence of labor unions. That's why the Midwest had often been considered the Democrats' blue wall. I believe the Midwest's turn towards Trump was less a defection towards conservatism and more a rebuke against the Democrats for moving their power base to the coastal metro areas, seemingly forgetting about them in the process. If anyone can bring them back, it's Bernie or Warren
14
@Jerry S
The real voters the democrats need aren't those who defected to Trump. Let's remember that Mitt Romney got more votes than Trump.
1
@Sean
Used to be presence of labor unions.
And Union members today vote for the party of union busters.
1
Professor Kruse doesn't mention Mr. Wallace's apparent late-in-life change towards less racism.
If genuine, it shows introspection and the ability to admit mistakes, both qualities Mr. Trump has yet to display. Even if it was a complete sham, it implies an awareness of changed times; consciousness of the appropriate behavior for office; and far more self-discipline than we've seen from Mr. Trump.
35
@Grennan
maybe because he ended up in a wheelchair. I don't recall that he went to the four students to apologize who he wouldn't let into the schools
one of the men who beat rep john c. lewis reached out to john lewis and mr. lewis brought him to the capital and he forgave him. (mr. lewis did because the man asked to be forgiven.
4
Will Trump loyalist pumped up by Trump’s angry tweets has stated that IF Trump loses the election there will be civil war and he will join it.
7
The concept Mr. Kruse is reaching for in the article, but doesn't quite hit upon, is "stochastic terrorism".
Roughly defined, it is the process in which a demagogue constantly hints that someone should "do something about" or "take care of", or "send back" or "rough up" his selected target, in the expectation that sooner or later one of his more deranged followers will do exactly that- usually by murdering them on his behalf, be it through bullets, pipe bombs, lynching , or simply setting a Gamergate mob after their bank accounts.
It is the method by which Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged- and got- the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin- widely regarded as the most successful political assassination in history, as it perfectly accomplished his assassin's political goals (not to mention Netanyahu's).
And it is increasingly being recognized as a deliberate act of intentional violence on the part of the demogogue- the loose equivalent of putting an open contract on a victim.
And it is one of Trump's favorite methods of exercising power.
105
@Michael B. English Trump's favorite film...The Manchurian Candidate. And this is even down to the rallies...all that has changed is the enemy has become anyone who questions his rhetoric.
2
2020 is going to be one ugly year in the history of presidential campaigns. I can only hope that we come out on the other side a stronger and wiser nation for it. Sadly, given how far trump has signaled he would go to win, that hope is fading fast.
35
Trump has the advantage of a cable network (FoxNews) amplifying everything that he says--giving him a measure of respectability/legitimacy. This means he can work up a larger crowd across the country. Back in the 1960's/70's there was no major network that would broadcast any of Wallace's rallies.
109
@steve rodriguez Last election, Trump got billions of dollars worth of exposure, not just on hours long coverage of his rallies, but also as a guest who improved ratings on every television show on every network, not just Fox.
Meanwhile, Hillary was terrible at rallies, spent a lot of time at private fund raisers, and didn't have press conferences for months. That isn't Fox's fault.
She was offered to be the very first guest on Colbert's show and declined. She was afraid to be interviewed by a smart man with no script and by declining media questions, she thought she could win without being good at interviews or rallies. That is a totally losing strategy.
It isn't Fox News' fault that Hillary ran a campaign with no confidence in handling interviews. It wasn't their fault that she called Trump supporters deplorable, insulting the people she needed votes from.
So yes, if the media had boycotted Trump's rallies Hillary could have won campaigning in the Hamptons and Beverly Hills. I hope you are not advocating censorship of political rallies or news coverage of candidates you don't like.
4
@Jerry S Yes, but now Trump has had the advantage of a cable news network (Fox) amplifying everything he days, including all the lies, for three years as an incumbent.
12
@Jerry S Hillary Clinton won the election by 3 million votes. Trump eked out a tiny vote victory in the electoral college, with margins of less than one percent in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Certainly not a resounding victory. More likely a once in a lifetime freak occurrence (unless it was those Russians playing with the vote tabulating computers.)
11
When enough people in a nation or nations are willing to accept, as fact, the sort of propaganda that Trump currently, Wallace or their predecessors espoused, you know you are in the danger zone. Are we at one of those turning points in history? Just keep adding some extra helpings of the sorts of stressors that have caused nations to go down similar paths before. The difference now is that the amount of firepower and technology available for war is truly devastating. Maybe Trump gets this, maybe he doesn't. Both alternatives leave us smack in the danger zone.
29
I believe Wallace recognized he was wrong towards the end of his life and apologized. Any reflection or contrition is well beyond Trump's capabilities.
79
@Big Fan I really hope George Wallace didn't actually believe in some of the stuff he said. After all, the South wanted an openly racist candidate, and George Wallace delivered.
At the end of the day, most politicians lack the spine to stick to their principles, opting to say whatever the public wants to hear and doing whatever their benefactors want them to do to get into and stay in power. It is the leaders skilled or lucky enough to bend the others to their will without compromising their principles who are the most exceptional, and potentially dangerous politicians out there
The Trump rallies are the contemporary American version of the "two-minute hate". Except that they last a lot longer than two minutes, and are not fictional. They are also extremely dangerous, both in the short and the long term.
55
The closing line, "It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words." is very optimistic. Trump is not worried about the consequences of his words for others; he is only interested in himself. It never occurred to most of us that we would have a POTUS that is so insecure, self-centered, and oblivious to his responsibilities. It's time we acknowledge that he's not a normal human being with a conscience or sense of responsibility, and we need to stop thinking that there is hope that he will become normal. He won't. He can't. He's not capable of it, and isn't interested in trying. He needs to be stopped either by impeachment or by voting him out, because he can't stop or change himself.
So, start working to get out the vote, and do everything possible to make the vote count and avoid it from being corrupted by cheating and foreign manipulation.
141
@Eddie M. Agree. AND please worry about getting the Senate back into the control of Democrats. IF, if we get a sane person in as president, he/she won't have any power if the Republicans rule the Senate.
53
@Ruth Amen. Obtaining a Democratic majority in the Senate is just as important as winning the presidency. A Democratic president without the Senate will stymie any program to better the country.
38
@Harold Johnson
I'd say even more important. What'd happen if you got a Democrat in the white house who couldn't get anything done because of an obstructionist R Senate?
Easy: A Democrat president who would be the perfect scapegoat for everything that's wrong with your country.
That would, most likely, be a worse outcome (long term) for Dems than 4 more years of trump.
4 more years of Trump with House and Senate under Democratic control might not even be all that bad...
5
Back in the New Deal days of FDR, there was no dire conflict between progressive economic policies and racism. The Democratic "solid South" embraced both. After the Democrats later committed to supporting the civil rights movement, poor white southerners were forced to choose between continued progressive economics combined with racial integration or GOP oligarchic politics coated with a patina of traditional racism. They chose the latter, opting for prejudice over economic self-interest.
But it wasn't an entirely happy choice from an economic perspective. So George Wallace was, from one viewpoint, a final attempt to reinvigorate the New Deal formula -- progressive economics plus overt racism.
As ugly as it often was, the Wallace program was thus at least honest in its presentation. While in 2016 Trump pretended to return to the Wallace formula, once elected he reverted to standard GOP economic oligarchical policies, albeit this time with a massive additional dose of crony corruption.
It can be argued that Trump's economic policy betrayal has only worked because the national economy has remained strong enough to soften its impact on his base. All that populists have actually gained with Trump is a noisier and more blatant racism -- in other words, Nixon era GOP racist messaging in an unambiguous form. If the economy tanks before the 2020 election, some of Trump's base might jump ship. And if so, another George Wallace figure could arise to become the beneficiary.
31
@woofer What about Huey Long?
Wallace actually recognized some social constraints on discourse. Trump does not.
Trump is fully steeped in the reality show ethos of shock and spectacle. The more gasps he elicits from the crowd the better his ratings.
It is the only metric he follows.
The destruction of all decorum, convention and civility leading to the erosion of law in this nation of laws is of zero interest to him. His only interest is in having all the attention.
59
The main difference between Wallace and Trump is the power of the office. Trump has nuclear weapons.
30
One way we can only hope Trump will not follow in Wallace’s footsteps: you may recall that because Alabama had term limits, Wallace’s wife, Lurleen, ran for governor of Alabama at the end of George’s final term, and became nominal governor with George acting as the man behind the curtain.
I imagine The Tangerine Toddler is well aware of that tactic; and will not be surprised if we see Ivanka run at the end of Trump’s second term — as his reelection seems well-nigh inevitable in view of the disarray in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party’s skillful manipulation of the voting process — with a little help from its friends in Russia, China and other adversary nations.
22
@chambolle
You hit the nail on the head. I read an article last year -- sorry, can't remember which publication -- that laid out the Trump Syndicate's thinking on this: Trump president for two terms, then Ivanka, then Jared.
They actually believe this.
Then again, given how gleefully mired in mud his supporters are, it might actually happen.
2
@chambolle
I don't understand why anyone might believe that Russia and China might have any interest in alliance with a dying Empire.
The success of alienating America from the liberal democracies was job one and now that it is done all the American feigned outrage has left the world with an impotent house divided.
This week's Xi Putin meeting gave every indication of a genuine friendship.
America as they say is a fair weather friend and this week's riots in Moscow and Hong Kong should give us pause to consider the whys of championing a Trump Presidency.
Hate is a pretty good smoke screen in protecting autocracy. We may still see regional conflicts but a war between nuclear powers can have only one end.
I ask myself only one question what will Civil War II look like?
1
@chambolle
At the time Lurleen became governor, some wag noted that "Bedfellows make strange politics."
2
Trump "worrying about the consequences of his words"?
Not hardly. Those words are working and the man has no morals and does not care about the consequences. I'm surprised Mr. Kruse hasn't figured that out yet.
33
I suspect one reason why Wallace didn't attack by name in the way Trump does is he knew a consequence could be ostracization. There were accepted norms about the kind of language you used about your opponents. Even as he ran an outsider candidacy in 1968, he still wanted to be treated as a legitimate figure. To refer to members of Congress with the kind of direct slurs Trump does would have made it impossible for Wallace to have any legitimacy. It was striking recently how many mainstream GOP officials recognized how bad the "send her back" chant was. Yet they will do nothing to hold Trump accountable or temper such rhetoric. This is one of the real institutional failures we face with Trump. Many in the GOP understand the ways in which he poisons our discourse and civic fabric, but to hold him accountable would be to offend voters they don't want to upset. And this is unlikely to change until those voters can be outvoted.
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What's really surprising is how accepting the Democrats are of calling someone a racist, not because they're a racist , but because they disagree with you. First thing, if someone is white, and disagrees with someone that is not white, the first response is to say it's because they're a racist. If someone does that in any election I'm voting in, I will not vote for that candidate. Even if I cannot stand the other candidate and was going to vote for them, I'll abstain from voting, rather than vote for someone that plays the race card.
Wallace never reached the White House. As governor his power was limited to his state, whereas Trump is the ruler of all fifty states and commands a massive army and controls weapons that can destroy the world and has a say in whatever the entire United States does---all foreign trade , all federal functions, reaching into the upper reaches of the federal judiciary, the State Department and the Department of Justice. Of course, he is more dangerous than Wallace was because he controls much more power than the governor did.. Now Trump has managed to blow up the federal deficit, to gain control of the Department of Justice which under his private attorney Barr goes all out to protect his crimes, gained control of the U.S. Senate, which live in fear of Trump sponsored primaries, and fashioned the Supreme Court into his own extreme right conservative image. This is now a Trump government, with suppressed opposition from Democrats--- a government where power is focused on the executive, with weak control and oversight by the legislative and judicial, an unbalanced government; only defeat in 2020 will restore a government which is reasonably balanced between its three branches.
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@shimr
A Dem winning in 2020 would mean MASSIVE unemployment, inflation, and the DJIA dropping below two thousand.
@shimr
Trump is not our ruler. He is our president. In this country voters rule. The president has some powers but so do the house the senate and judiciary. Trump does have an Attorney General who thinks that a president is essentially all powerful and should be obeyed as a temporary ruler rather than as a temporary president having only a part of the national powers. This is a perversion of our constitution but A.G.Barr could care less.
2
I lived through Alabama when Wallace was Governor. His speeches were inflaming. There were violent people listening to Wallace avidly. They didn’t need names from Wallace to know where to go and whom to get. Some of the people murdered were obvious targets, civil rights workers. The children at the 16th Street Baptist Church that Sunday morning in Birmingham were not. Wallace’s political rhetoric of paranoia and hatred set the atmosphere of violence and fanned it. Trump is deja vu, except that he’s been invested with the power of the State.
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@Alan Wolf, I was there, too, as a kid. I remember the hatred flowed.
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@Alan Wolf
I still remember that church bombing which murdered little girls attending Sunday school. There were events seared into memory: one little girl walking to a school entrance surrounded by grown men shouting insults; Black people dragged off a bus; those who marched across a bridge, sat at lunch counters, and drank from public fountains marked for 'Whites Only'. Police dogs attacking Black marchers. Life Magazine featured a fat Louisiana sheriff on the cover, responsible for horrific prison facilities. That was the world Trump now honors with his open racism.
3
@Alan Wolf George Wallace May not have planted a bomb or pull a trigger or swung a club that killed or harm people during the civil rights movement but he lit the fuse, provided the billy club or the gun used with his rhetoric.
2
If the only difference between the two is that Wallace didn't go after individuals by name, then the difference is negligible. The similarities vastly outweigh any perceived differences.
32
Some more differences:
*Neither party would go near Wallace in 1968 knowing that his obvious racism and hatred would be toxic nationally, and thus he had to run as an Independent. However, the voters in Republican primary after primary selected Trump, ignoring his racism, ego, fragile mind, obvious lack of experience, knowledge and compassion.
*Late in his life Wallace actually tried to show contrition for what he had done all those years and attempted to recant, moderate and apologize. As Trump grows older, his hatred becomes more pronounced, his racism more obvious, his lack of fitness for office more apparent.
We effectively have a modern-day George Wallace as our President right now. It's agonizing beyond belief that an incredible number of chance factors culminating on one day in November 2016 has set this country back 50 years, but in so many ways we're back in 1968 and the divisions of the 60s are more stark than ever. The Republicans are offering the hateful social policies of Wallace, the one-percenter economic policies of Goldwater and the anything-to-win mentality of Nixon, with a healthy dose of the fringe conspiracy theories of the John Birch Society. Because of Fox and talk-radio and the billionaires bankrolling the Republican spin machine these ideas are more dangerous than ever. If the majority simply remains united in opposition these outdated ideas will be sent back to the dustbin of history in 2020.
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@Frank Roseavelt very well put. It shows how the decades of entertainment television, and conspiracy drenched facebook posts have rotten all of our brains that the voters would select someone like Trump on a national ticket. Trump has always been here. Its just the voters have changed.
4
@Frank Roseavelt We are back in 1960, not 1968. LBJ had signed the civil rights act, the voting rights act and the fair housing act by 1968.
3
@Frank Roseavelt
Wallace, as vile as he was, would have been far superior to Trump. He would have avidly absorbed his daily briefings and would certainly not have aligned himself with Russia.
4
Looking at the two pictures, the picture of the Wallace rally has many senior citizens (is that term still allowed?), women and men. There is a lot less blond than at Mr. Trump's rally, there seem to be a few teenagers.
The picture chosen for the Trump rally places 3 smiling blond women up front, one behind and one to the side. There is one brunette with a hat in the second row, reminiscent of the Wallace-period rally. Fewer men are visible, although one is black, one white with grey hair in a non-Trump baseball hat.
Last week there were columns, not necessarily in the NYT, on Mr. Trump losing support of white women.
Not from this picture.
6
@Joshua Schwartz trump has lost some standing with college-educated white Republican women. I place emphasis on "college-educated". That is from a recent national survey commissioned by American Federation of Teachers, 2019, conducted by Democracy Corps.
And as you may recall, the story of the 2018 mid-terms was that the House flipped to Democrats, on the strength of suburban voters, who abandoned Republicans in 2018, and who might not ever be coming back to the GOP.
27
@Joshua Schwartz I believe he's also losing working class white women who aren't evangelical, which might make a difference in northern states. But there are a lot of white evangelicals in the south, and many are women.
1
I don't recall Wallace collaborating with Russia (Soviet Union, then). Nor did he have 24/7 media and social media feeding his hype. It was much more possible to ignore or avoid his messaging. Nor did he have the majority leader and attorney general shilling for him. We are in a sad mess indeed.
723
I think in Wallace’s time we were still building deep shelters to hide from the Russians!
Now Trump would be ordering us to move over and give the Russians our shelters for a place to move in!
20
"It’s long past time that he started worrying about the consequences of his words."
His words are having the effect he wants, so why would he start worrying?
On a usage point, there never was a time when he should not have worried about the consequences of his words, so it is not "long past [the] time" that he should have. "It's time to stop [whatever evil]" is a cliché that should be abandoned (not that "it's time to abandon").
16
Actually, the difference between Wallace and Trump is like the difference between night and nighttime. In other words, there is no difference. In Wallace's day his crowds knew just who he was talking about. He didn't need to call out names. The point is the similarity between the two - two very vicious men. This country resonates time and again to race baiting. After Wallace if you thought "hey we are enlightened now", well forget it because along comes Trump and his supporters who rise to the bait. Doubtless others are waiting in the wings to come into the spotlight post-Trump. This is why eternal vigilance to the likes of Wallace, Trump, and future Trumps must be the price we have to pay if we desire decency and just governance.
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Wallace was different FROM Trump. He was far less dangerous, regional in his appeal, and not as corrupt. Otherwise the similarities are striking.
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@Michael
Actually, this is not totally correct. At the time that Wallace was shot, his base was expanding and eventually won primaries in Michigan and Maryland. He was on his way to being a force at the convention.
14
@Rafael my sense at the time was GW won Michigan and Maryland due to a significant sympathy vote
@mike
I don't know. I was scared at the time, and shocked.
In the '68 election, Wallace only took 5 states, all of them in the Deep South. His appeal was primarily about race. Trump's appeal is too, but it obviously goes way beyond that. As mentioned by others, Wallace was fringe, Trump can no longer be considered fringe.
80
I remember George Wallace and I remember when I saw (I did not read it) his obituary it brought a smile to my face.
43
@Paulie: so basically it's OK to wish Trump were dead….but doesn't that make YOU exactly the same as what you claim to criticize?
1
George Wallace. Donald Trump.
We seniors remember George Wallace, but we were never prepared to possibly have our lives end in the hands of Donald Trump.
Perhaps if Wallace had won, we may never have had President Donald Trump, because perhaps people would have taken heed. But I doubt it.
It’s been very difficult thinking we’ve really known our neighbors and friends and family members. Then we find out they voted for Trump - and we just feel lost.
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@MIMA
You are right on the money with this thought and I, like you, am stunned by this Trump show. Like many things in my life, I should have listened to my Dad, who always told us that people don't learn from things like Wallace (or Trump). They are prone to make the same mistakes over and over again, hence the many wars we have fought.
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@MIMA Your final paragraph says it all and it is devastating.
12
@MIMA
Yes, you've touched on something. So many 60-somethings, absolutely 70- & 80-somethings are feeling so defeated, deflated, angry and genuinely puzzled at the turn things have taken.
It's not that they're out of touch, at least not those that I know ... it's that they've seen this movie before ... Geo. Wallace and before that Joe McCarthy.
And it genuine confusion as to how people could fall for, much less seem to crave, this type of 'leadership.'
The most troubling to me is the youth factor. That 'Teen Turning Point' event and messaging is beyond troubling.
And yes, to consider one's exit of the planet knowing this is what is in place, it is so disheartening.
32
This is the biggest difference: Trump has an entire political party and machinery empowering him. Wallace was an anathema to his own party, except in the deep South. The Democratic party would never have followed his lead.
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@gf Wallace won primaries in the non-Deep South states of Maryland and Michigan in the 1972 Democratic primaries.
20
@gf
Novato,
News for you, the North welcomed Wallace, especially south Boston. Read & learn.
2
@gf
Remember your history. The Democratic Party had been the party of Wallace and the South. It was evolving away from Wallace but he was of it's cloth.
There is another big difference between the Wallace era and today. His supporters were mostly concentrated in the South. It would have been a shock to see Wallace win Michigan, Pennsylvania and (especially) Wisconsin. Trump is not just a regional phenomenon, he is national and even part of an international blood and soil movement. As eventful as the late 1960s were, the stakes are much higher now.
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@Cal Prof Wallace found plenty of support outside the South. He was polling above 20% in the summer of 1968, but his disastrous choice of Gen. Curtis LeMay as his runnign mate cost him a lot of support. I think I agree that the stakes are higher now, but the year 1968 was a pressure cooker.
33
@Cal Prof Wallace did win Michigan, by a huge margin, in the 1972 Democratic presidential primary. Michigan, where I lived for years, has never recovered from the influx of Appalachian whites during World War II and the spasms of resentment in dying mining and logging towns. Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as we learned in 2016, are not much different.
14
@Cal Prof: in 1968….the US had little illegal immigration and what there was, it was concentrated in agriculture and in the Southwest.
In 1968, the US had an immensely powerful manufacturing base which employed millions of workers -- most unionized -- at good wages & benefits. That is gone now, thanks to liberal "globalization".
In 1968, there was no NEED for happy, union auto and steelworkers in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin….to feel shut out of the middle class or dispossessed of their very jobs….there were no shuttered steel and auto plants.
The left DID THIS TO US, then wonders "why Trump"?
1