By Barrington M. Salmon
(Trice Edney Wire) – Despite dire warnings about the alarming plans Donald Trump and the MAGA-dominated Republican Party have for the United States, 49.9 percent of the country’s voters sent him back to the White House.
Political pundits and others have debated an assortment of reasons why Trump won but the convicted felon’s reelection has put a political bullseye squarely on African Americans, women, Latinos and other immigrants, the poor and the vulnerable, critics assert. He has promised to reverse the hard-earned Civil Rights gains of African Americans; deport as many as 20 million undocumented immigrants; dismantle the federal government and give the wealthy elite the means to loot the country’s resources, critics say.
“This is America. Trump stole classified documents and was deeply involved in an attempt to stay in office although he’d lost the election in 2020, but they still voted for him,” said Dr. R. Kweku Akyirefi Amoasi, a Milwaukee-based psychologist, educator and radio talk show host. “People acted out of anger, hurt and prejudice. They think they’re getting their country back.”
Amoasi said there is considerable fear among those who Trump and his supporters promise to hurt, punish and run out of the country.
“There is fear and terror of not knowing what’s coming. He is promising to eliminate the Department of Education, unleash the cops, and ger rid of Medicaid and Social Security. And tariffs will have consumers hurt by high prices,” Amoasi added.
Georgia resident Shanice Bennerson said she has toggled between indignation and frustration since Nov. 5.
Bennerson, 30, said she “has no faith in this (upcoming) administration, if you can call it that.”
She said, “I have moments of disassociation, not wanting to deal with it, telling myself ‘this is not happening,’ mostly because I think it emboldens people…I live in Georgia and the fact is that the state government is going to follow him in lockstep. I just expect it to be all bad.”
Veteran labor union leader Bill Fletcher, Jr., echoed Bennerson’s deepening concerns. He said he expects the Trump administration to usher in a period of callousness and savagery that will give Americans pause.
“I am nervous, but I am ready to fight. There’s no room for passivity or fatalism,” he said. “I am wagging my finger at people who said it didn’t matter. Now they have no answer. They were completely wrong. Those who say his election will be no different are bullshitting themselves.”
About six years ago, Fletcher spoke to this reporter about the inherent dangers of the direction Trump and his far-right allies intended to move the country.
“I gave a talk yesterday where I said for many progressives, inside and out, they weren’t ready or prepared for what is coming. We’re confronting a rightwing movement that is now fascist,” said Fletcher, a noted author, lecturer and talk show host.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin school administrator Marvin Bailey does not share Fletcher’s, Bennerson’s and Amoasi’s concerns.
“A lot of it, I think, was rhetoric. Crazy Trumpers have no commonalities with the economically disadvantaged base. Like a coach, he just riled them up,” said Bailey, a self-described moderate who tends to lean Republican. “He will be good for the economy. Since he won, my portfolio has improved greatly. I’m very happy. We as a people need to focus on business and creating generational wealth. The welfare system should have a time limit, not be a fact of life. It shouldn’t be generational.”
Independent journalist, filmmaker and writer Kerra Bolton concurred.
“I am concerned about prospect of market volatility based on Trump’s stance on tariffs and trade. It will increase prices for everyone, especially electronics, food, laptops, cellphones – on all the necessities of everyday lives,” said Bolton, who worked at one point as a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee in North Carolina.
Bolton said she’ s also deeply concerned about the deleterious consequences of pulling apart the Department of Education.
“DOE is responsible for student loans, policy, and Civil Rights monitoring. They would take something in a centralized place to disperse Civil Rights justice and student loans. The price of education takes up a substantial portion of most state budgets,” she said. “This will increase pressure on the states at a time when revenues are lower.
“From an economic standpoint I’m very concerned and from a human rights standpoint, I think we’ll be going back to 1930s/40s. It’s gonna be so ugly and the electorate is not gonna be prepared. I think Trump represents a part of them that wants to be him. They voted for this.”
Bennerson blames the election outcome on ignorance.
“I’m shocked because we’re racially illiterate in this country. No one wants to talk about race or do any work on themselves,” she said. “There are people debating out here if slavery really happened,” said Bennerson, a writer and educator. “It’s clear that they’re friggin’ illiterate in the literal sense. The average reading comprehension in this country is 6th grade. As an educator, that fact should be at the forefront of every conversation.”
Bennerson said she is further annoyed because those who support Trump don’t realize he’s the emperor with no clothes on.
“It is aggravating especially since I know that this dude has no plan,” she explained. “His plan is to destabilize the country. To what end and for whom, I’m not clear what the motive is. I think there’s something nefarious going on. I don’t know what it is …”
Bolton said despite protestations to the contrary, the election was about race and white Americans maintaining their social, economic and political dominance.
“I’m not surprised Trump won. A lot of factors led to his winning. Race and gender played a large role in election outcome and there is data to support that,” said Bolton. “The majority did not want a Democratic president and wanted a white male president. The US chose the president that it wanted. The voters have spoken. They told us exactly what they wanted. I’ not sure why people are saying otherwise.”
The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II has been a vocal critic of Trump and Republicans beginning during Trump’s first term. Trump, he said, is not the originator of the racial hatred and discrimination that suffuses the country but merely a symptom of America’s moral sickness. The United States, the social activist, professor, and founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School said, is undergoing a third Reconstruction.
“We’re witnessing a fundamental changing of our demographics in the world,” said Barber, former president of the North Carolina NAACP and president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach in a 2020 speech. “We see extremist policies in America today and it’s driven by the growing blackening and browning of America and a fusion of every color creed and class. Those who embrace the ‘Make America Great’ slogan are willing to work hard and cheat to undermine what is evolving in America.
“This is white hegemony and white nationalism strengthened by enormous wealth.”
Fletcher predicts America is moving into a new era. He said people misinterpreted the Mayan calendar, thinking that the world would end in 2012. What he said he thinks it actually meant is an end of an era.
“The result of this election says that there are millions of people comfortable with electing a sexual assaulter, coup plotter, who cheats people and is sympathetic to fascism. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. We can say people were angry but … They made a choice but there was more than one choice …” he said. “Is America as we know it done? That’s an interesting question. We have been in a cold civil war for a number of years. This is the legacy of the defeat of Reconstruction.”
