Some Beneficiaries of the Trump Administration Have Been Overlooked

screen-shot-2017-08-17-at-5It’s obvious that the Trump administration has been great for billionaires, corporate polluters, weapons manufacturers, evangelical Christians, and a few privileged sexual abusers, including the president himself. What may not be so obvious is that another set of beneficiaries include hate groups.

According to Chris Barker, who, for the last 20 years has worked as a KKK leader and currently holds the post “Imperial Wizard,” the last 18 months has seen membership growing at a record pace.

From the article:

Barker told The Independent. “I mean, it’s even hard to keep track of the numbers you’ve got ’cause there’s so many coming in.”

Mr. Barker said that after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville he received 50 applications to join his group in one day. The next day, he received 80.

Mr. Barker leads the Loyal White Knights of the KKK, one of the most active Klan groups in the US, the group takes part in “activism” such as burning crosses, advocating for the murder of immigrants, and distributing leaflets.

Barker contacted The Independent about a previous article, from which he had gained notoriety for calling a Univision journalist a (pictured above) “n*****” and threatening to burn her out of the country. The Klan leader claimed he had meant this as a threat to immigrants in general, not the journalist in particular.

Hard to know what to say here.  It’s a crime to threaten to kill a person, but apparently, when you threaten to commit mass murder and suggest you will kill millions of people, the law becomes a bit fuzzy?  Maybe an attorney out there can explain this to me.

In any case, this is the one aspect of the whole Trump “phenomenon” that has revealed such shocking information about American society.  A full 72% of Republicans believe that Trump is a good role model for children. Yes, that leaves 28% (including my mom), who support Trump’s policies, while disapproving of the man himself, but it’s hard to know what to say to the tens of millions of people who believe that Trump is the best thing that’s ever happened to this country. I can’t find words that express what this says about their character, or, really, about what we have become as a nation.

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One comment on “Some Beneficiaries of the Trump Administration Have Been Overlooked
  1. marcopolo says:

    Craig,

    Racial hatred, bigotry in all forms have existed long before the advent of President Trump !

    Racial hatred and bigotry are often the politics embraced by the neglected, downtrodden, ignored and those who feel shut out of aspiration and achievement. The most bigoted and bitter racists are those who believe their shortcomings and misfortunes are the result of discrimination and disadvantage toward themselves.

    Mostly, they are the victims of perceived economic disadvantage.

    Racism isn’t confined to the white race ! Every race and society possesses its fair share of racist/religious/ cultural bigots.

    Blaming Donald Trump for all these ancient ills is just another desperate political tactic designed to gather righteous support for opposing a President whose policies are proving effective, but against whom you have a personal dislike.

    The President has never been the candidate of choice for “billionaires”, quite the contrary, most billionaires actively oppose the President.

    The President’s policies are actually helping reduce racism, hatred, crime and social problems among the working class, blacks and minorities.

    Cries of ‘racism’ etc, are usually loudest among the over-privileged American elite who wield it as a weapon to silence opponents.

    When confronted by a growing problem of crime, family dysfunction, unemployment, corruption, drug crime, despair and discontent among a vast underclass of Americans, the liberal progress elite’s answer is more patronizing “social welfare programs” , more funding for studies at universities into the causes of the problem, more employment for social workers (recruited from the middles class), more useless and unwanted counselors, etc etc .

    What you really hate, is the President’s policies are simple but effective ! He provides real employment and prosperity for working class Americans, regardless of race, gender or creed !

    Prosperity and employment promotes social harmony, reduces crime, encourages family unity, providing families (especially black families) with strong, responsible male role models, encourages education attendance, and develops pride, optimism, self-reliance and aspiration.

    But no wonder the liberal progressives squeal loudly ! What happens to them if the working class no longer need all those heroically patronizing social welfare workers ? What will happen to the vast empire of government bureaucracies created to administer welfare “programs” that are no longer needed ?

    What happens when the President stops spending American money encouraging the poor and downtrodden workers of other countries with mismanaged economies,take the employment away for American workers ? What happens when a President is elected who, for all his faults, actually delivers prosperity to the American underclass and brings back employment and hope ?

    A President should be judged, not by what some partisan media hack says, but by the effectiveness of his actions and policies.

    Billionaires love globalization ! Since they virtually pay no tax and can’t be realistically made to do so, they are the beneficiaries of a globalized world which is far more easily manipulated.

    Now, it’s a very odd thing, that despite all the claims from CNN, NYT, WP, etc, President Trump is a “racist”, none of these media outlets can identify a single racist remark or policy proposed by the President !

    It’s a sad fact that the US left is so bereft of valid criticism they now rely on the old smears of “guilt by association”.

    The media produces fringe dwellers with absurd claims to justify sensationalist, unverifiable statements. The entire radical/ ultra right/ neo-nazi, white supremacist, extremist religious fanatics etc, would number 0.001% collection of the US population, and they are far from united ! In fact, they are best known for internecine warfare.

    The US extreme left are probably more numerous, but just as splintered. The extremists on the left are probably better organized politically as unlike the right who are mostly recruited from the working class, extreme leftist are usually disenchanted middle class misanthropes (albeit with better educations).

    What is inexplicable is how these insignificant little groups can command the attention of responsible media organizations, who treat their rabid outpourings as if they were held by a serious percentage of the population.

    Ah, but there lies the answer to your paranoia ! Any rise in the number of these creatures is not due the election of President Trump, but the need for the media and anti-trump forces to create, sensationalize and publicize a tiny minority as if it were a real threat ! Without the oxygen of publicity provided by the ‘liberal’ media the organizations would quickly fade back into obscurity.

    Robert Johnson, the co-founder of BET, himself a black businessman who started live in humble circumstances in Mississippi, vehemently refutes the idea the President is a racist and gives the President credit for policies that have seen black unemployment drop to the lowest in nearly fifty years !

    So who are you going to believe as a character witness, Robert L Johnson a black philanthropist, Princeton graduate MBA, born in 1946 in Hickory, Mississippi, the ninth out of ten children or Chris Barker, an Imperial Wizard of the KKK self confessed liar and leader of (by his own claim), less than 200 misfits ?

    In fact the number of active members in his organization is less than 40 ! If his membership doubled, he might have 80 neanderthals ! Alarm, Alarm, one day (if the don’t get too drunk, he might get a hundred members or even reach his imaginary 200 !

    Considering the US population of 325.7 million, wasting time on such fringe dwellers is pretty silly.

    Come on Craig, you can do better than repeat the rantings and exaggerations of some fool, egged on by an irresponsible journalist.