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Donald Trump, the N-Word, and the GOP
It’s not okay for white people to use the N-word. I thought this was generally understood and widely accepted for … like a few decades now, but apparently I was wrong. (By the way, if you’re a white person, and you think you’re somehow a victim or being oppressed because you’re not allowed to use the N-word, I pity you.)
This has come up in discussion recently because word once again is circulating that there is a tape (or tapes, plural) of “Apprentice” outtakes that include Donald Trump (among other things) using the N-word.
This story isn’t new. It made the rounds in 2015 and 2016. (Anyone who is aware of Donald Trump’s history of overt racism wasn’t surprised.) I don’t know whether such a tape exists, but some are concerned about it because when Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked this week, she couldn’t guarantee it didn’t exist.
In anticipation of the existence of such a tape and its potential release, we’re already seeing rationalizations (including here on Ricochet) and explanations of how, if Donald Trump was caught on tape using the N-word, it’s either okay or it doesn’t matter.
Okay, so two things: First, it’s not okay. Second, it does matter.
If this tape does exist, and it comes out for all of us to hear, it’s going to do enormous damage to the Republican Party. Because what will certainly follow is legions of Trump apologists explaining how it’s okay.
At which point, the Republican Party will become the It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word Party. If you care about the electoral success of the Republican Party, you don’t want it to become the It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word Party.
Further, if you care about conservative governance in the future, to the extent that Donald Trump is associated with that conservative governance, it’s a big problem. If things like deregulation are associated with the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is the It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word Party, then deregulation becomes It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word-deregulation. All those conservative federal judges become It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word judges. Tax cuts become It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word tax cuts.
For Republicans, if you become the It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word Party, your brand will be irreparably damaged. For conservatives, if you become the philosophy of It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word, it will be the end of conservatism. Any claim of moral superiority will be gone. The decent people will have to separate themselves and find some other name to call themselves.
If a tape comes out, you don’t want to be trapped on the wrong side of things. Certain things are beyond the pale. This is one of them. If that tape comes out, don’t rationalize it, because what you hear will not be okay.
Published in General
I no longer defend myself when accused of being a racist. I merely tell the accuser to (redacted) off
Almost everyone I know who has any position of authority has been accused of racism, and more than a few of them sued. I hear the charge of racism and I either roll my eyes or, if it’s important, play 20 questions.
I hope DT didn’t use the word in question. But if he did, (and circumstances and context matter a lot) it doesn’t mean he’s a racist.
For all I know he is a racist inside his Cheeto colored heart. What do I care? He certainly hasn’t behaved like one as President and that’s all that matters to me
I voted for DT and I’d vote for him tomorrow. I look forward to voting for him again in 2020
Anyone who wants to call me a racist because of that? Well, I’m sure you can imagine my response
Amen, sister! And I especially agree with your first sentence.
Hey, we have the aggro under control. We have multiple tanks, with good support. We’ve been handling the adds just fine, thank you. Maybe you and the Freds are going to wipe, but not us.
Shouldn’t that be Klusterschtoop in the original Yiddish?
Conservative goals include Anti-Trump goals, as Trump is not a Conservative, except in a few areas, such as judges, taxes and regulations.
As I stated earlier (comment #190) you have to ask do those denouncing Trump as a racist do so without a bringing their anti-Trump bias into their assessment, or do they actually want Trump to be a racist to help bolster their anti-Trump thesis?
The Trump is a racist evidence is mostly inference or making issues that were never considered “race” racist(ie: being unreasonably anti-immigration used to be termed xenophobia). Now it is commonly accepted that anything the Left decides is racist…… is racist ….. because that is far more effective in damaging your political opponent, than calling them a xenophobe.
Another test of Trumps racism is why did this issue never come up for the last 40 plus years when Trump was a Manhattan billionaire rent seeking Democrat.
Wouldn’t the best test of racial bias be Trump’s hiring practices given the guy has a 40 plus year track record hiring and firing minorities, and I write this not knowing the answer but inferring myself that if Trump did discriminate in his hiring the Left would have made it front and center evidence of Trump’s racism.
Apropos.
It sounds unusual in Klingon.
Both Frank and I advised against using the word, Frank specifically advising against this very usage.
Like Mitt Nominee’s “Self-Deportation” I think “Self Denunciation” or “Self Condemnation” or “Self Detonation” (just to be appropriately multi cultural) is the wave of the future. It also saves activists the trouble of getting their hands dirty as you go all Maxwell Smart Nude Bomb and shower them in human entrails. Through the magic of environmental degradation and scavenger animals, you also get to recycle yourself so its very Laudato Si.
Never hated Obama because he was Black.
I hated him because he was Red.
Unless you are an aboriginal you are guilty of cultural appropriation.
Yeah. Like I would have supported a white guy who had the same views as Obama.
The phrase used when you have no evidence.
I’m upvoting this for the main feed. Why should the paying customers be the only ones who have to suffer?
I just laugh. The effect it has is amazing. They have never seen a white guy just laugh it off. Totally disarms and befuddles them.
And national defense, border security, putting America first, etc etc etc.
I believe the correct Marxist term is Self Criticism Comrade.
It just got my vote.
Both you and Frank insisted that these are two separate words. One is a racial slur and the other is a term of affection. I used the latter word and it was redacted because it was considered merely an informal rendering of the former word. Which is it?
Now you got em.
I don’t think I want to continue paying to be called racist.
I self identify as Klingon so I can accuse humans of being speciesist.
It seems we really do have two very distinct categories of people here. Those who favor erasing from the picture anyone who expresses views that are declared unacceptable when the criteria for that are misinterpretations of of the views being expressed. And those who can understand that an adverse or negative action or opinion can actually apply to someone of color when that person acts unacceptably.
So . . . wait . . . this whole “Trump said the N-Word” nonsense comes from Omarosa?!
And Fred, SalesFred, Jamie, and their anti-Trump comrades are putting their hopes for defeating Donald Trump in . . . Omarosa?!
Okay, now that’s hilarious. The anti-Trumpers hate the President so much they’ve allied themselves with, believe it or not, Omarosa in order to take down the President.
This is Omarosa.
Omarosa welcomes Ricochet’s “N-word Truthers” to her fan club!
More here:
Fred certainly jumped on it.
Anti-Trumpers will ally with anyone in order to damage the President. In the process they do great damage to their own reputations.
“He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.” I think that applies here.
Contrary to Fred’s assertion in the OP, I think Trump is the only person who could possibly survive the surfacing of some old tape in which he says something disgusting because, after all, he’s already survived such a thing. I’ll say the same thing now that I said when the Access Hollywood tape came out: how astonished are you that this is the way DT talks behind closed doors? And how astonished would you be if his gleeful conversational partner, matching icky wits, was his ol’ buddy Bill Clinton?
I think a lot of people believe that. It’s ignorant and foolish, a product of the left-media bubble. But I think it’s probably a popular opinion among go-along-with-the-common-wisdom dummies on the left.
This is why I think it’s best to wait until we actually have a tape to comment on it. If it exists, and is as bad as claimed, the condemnations will still count.
That said, the only reason anyone is talking about Omarosa right now is because Trump decided to put her in the White House. If — by his own telling — he hired her out of loyalty and a desire to give her another shot, he should have done so on his own dime; the Trump Corporation has 20-something-thousand employees.
Gary, that’s a strong claim and, as a old physicist friend of mine once said in a completely different context, “extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.”
You followed up with:
I see some foolish in that, but I don’t see any authoritarian. He has, as near as I can tell, adhered to the law while serving in office — done so even when the law was pretty ridiculous, as when clearly valid presidential orders were overruled by partisan judges.
This kind of hyperbole works against sensible discourse.
According to this poll, President Trump’s approval rating among African-Americans is an astonishing 36%.
I seriously doubt such a tape exists. Mark Burnett (producer of The Apprentice) says no such tape exists. Donald Trump insists such a word is not in his vocabulary. (This is the guy who opened Mar-a-Lago to black people and Jewish people when he bought it, annoying all the white elitists in Palm Beach.) All this hinges on the credibility of a madwoman.