Back in 1980, Ronald Reagan began his presidential campaign by talking about "states rights" in Philadelphia, Mississippi - the site of the lynching of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, better known as the Mississippi Burning murders. This - in case it needed spelling out - is racist dog-whistling that came to typify Republican efforts to win over white working class voters in the actual South and the pockets of the cultural South that checkerboard across parts of the Midwest.
It worked.
It also, however, was like a drug, and by 1992, Pat Buchanan nearly won the GOP nomination away from a sitting incumbent by taking the dog whistle to an bullhorn.
Trump has taken it to an air raid siren.
For starters, there is Trump's decision to hold one of his volkssturm rallies to soothe his raging id in Tulsa. The rally will take place in June 19th. Tulsa was the site - 99 years ago of the Greenwood Massacre (or Tulsa Massacre) that was highlighted recently on HBO's Watchmen series. Greenwood was a reasonably successful African American community (known as the "Negro Wall Street") and when whites tried to lynch 19 year old Dick Rowland, African Americans fought back. In the end, we don't actually know how many people were killed by white mobs and the Oklahoma National Guard, but the number was probably more than 200. Greenwood was destroyed.
That is where Trump is going to kick off the latest phase of his re-election campaign.
He is then going to accept the nomination, apparently, in Jacksonville on August 27th - the 60th Anniversary of "Ax Handle Sunday" a white riot against sit-in demonstration. The NAACP already planned commemorative events. Now, it seems inevitable that there will be violent clashes outside the convention center where Trump will be hosting his True Believers in his attempt at being re-coronated King of White America.
Now, Trump is also a moron and likely has no idea about the history of Tulsa. I'll admit, I hadn't heard of Ax Handle Sunday. Trump's Razor suggests that the stupidest explanation is usually the correct one, but with Stephen Miller and fellow Rightist Trolls having increased control over the president's agenda as normal people flee for the exits, you just never know.
I'm sure that Trump will think that violence outside of his convention will make him look good to his base. With a GOP mayor and governor in Jacksonville and Florida, he can count on National Guard troops in ways that he cannot in other places. He will no doubt revel in the footage of military personnel pummelling people of color and their mostly young allies.
Will we still have the capacity to be outraged by August?
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