OPINION: Why Trump and the MAGA leaders are betting on hatred as a winning hand

It should be clear to most Americans by now that Donald Trump and the leaders of his “Make America Great Again” backers are determined to push hatred as far and as hard as they can to gain control of the federal government. That effort is seen in the proposal to imprison and deport non-white immigrants, suppress the votes of non-whites, eliminate or diminish programs that are of importance to non-white and working class people. To them, non-white people are considered as not genuine Americans, not worthy of American benefits, but as polluting the country. The success of the hate-filled program depends upon who hears and buys into their message.

Many may think that this is something new. That, however, is not the case since there have been racially and ethnically divisive strategies during much of the country’s history. Following the Know- Nothing Party’s failures, one sees the Democratic Party raising the flag of racial animus after the end of the Civil War. The former Confederate states organized to oppose the more democratic principles of the Republican Party and became noted as “The Solid South” based upon their stand on racial segregation and other Jim Crow policies. 

In terms of a national party, however, it was left to the Republican Party under Barry Goldwater to make the bold racial appeals such as we see today. Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats, however, so overwhelmed Goldwater until the next emergence of the racial pitch was delayed until Ronald Reagan, who began his campaign at the notorious Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi. Reagan’s success then showed the Republicans that race could be a winning strategy. Yet, because of the success of the Voting Rights Act, it was muted. When we fast-forward to the death of the Voting Rights Act, we find Trump and his cohorts are back at it, hard and heavy.

When one views the political scene today, unlike the coalitions of the 1970s and 80s, the Trump activists feel that many Hispanic voters can be won over and that many Asian and Native voters can be isolated or suppressed. The MAGA leaders are feeling the impact of becoming a permanent minority and are trying to develop a working majority with whomever they can, even if it does not last after they gain the White House. 

Again, the feeling is that racism, which never died, can be revved-up in the present environment. The racism of which we speak grew up with slavery and the seizure of America from the Native people. Once the Natives were decimated and/or placed on reservations, they were left to live or die without assistance from the white rulers of the country. Once slavery was outlawed, Black people were discriminated against all over the country, were not welcomed in many of the western states and territories. Racial lynchings and race riots sky-rocketed between 1870 and the 1950s. It is coming to light that discrimination and violence against Hispanic and Asian residents, who were tolerated as cheap laborers, were escalating at the same time. They were not seen as first-class citizens, but “kept in their places” by any means necessary. 

To add to the problem, the reality is that racism is more than racial prejudice/animus and, in fact, that it provides privileges and advantages to those who perpetrate it. This means that many citizens can and will declare that they have no ill will toward Black, Brown, Red, or Yellow people. At the same time, they will do whatever they can to preserve the privileges and advantages that derive from American racism. It is that truth which the MAGA people count on to garner the majority of the white vote, while suppressing the votes of the despised others. Project 2025 spells it all out more plainly for people who are less familiar with white racism and/or less believing of what we hereby present. 

The history of this country under European American domination shows (1) how racism has always been fully manifest or at least lurked just beneath the surface, (2) how the leaders have manipulated the system to always remain in control, and (3) how they have used the carrot and stick approach enough to serve as the head of the operational majority in whatever community that they inhabited. 

Trump and the MAGA minority are determined to continue playing that role to the hilt this time around in order to gain the White House. Should that fail, the next page in their playbook is the launching of violence as was done by the Confederates, the KKK, the White Shirts, and other racists, who have been determined to have white nationalist control rather than democracy. Either way, they are betting on racial hatred as a winning hand.