Trump: Echoes of George Wallace?

[webfact]

Trump: Echoes of George Wallace?
By BILL BARROW

ATLANTA (AP) — One presidential candidate pledged to "Stand up for America." Two generations later, another promises to "Make America Great Again." Their common denominator: convincing certain Americans that their version of the United States is under threat.

Donald Trump, leader for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has never said he's following the playbook of Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who achieved national stature on his promise of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever," then made four failed bids for the White House from 1964 to 1976.

Instead, Trump invokes the anger of "the silent majority," a phrase he's resurrected from the era of Wallace and President Richard Nixon, who won in 1968 and 1972 in part by co-opting Wallace's racially charged populism.

Trump detractors hear more than a faint echo of Wallace in Trump's anti-establishment mix of economic protectionism and blunt nativism, and they note that the brash billionaire, like Wallace, has drawn similar results in the campaign: tense rallies that often involve violent clashes among protesters, police and the candidate's supporters.

"Trump is taking his campaign straight to the haters, and he's gotten the roots of that old Wallace crowd," says Joe Reed, a black Democratic Party broker in Alabama who came to know the four-term governor toward the end of his life, when he had abandoned his segregationist positions, long after a would-be assassin left him paralyzed.

The comparison offends Trump backers.

"George Wallace was a racist," said Debbie Dooley, a national tea party leader. "It's totally ridiculous for anybody to think the same about Donald Trump." She argues Trump's independence from "the money that controls Washington, D.C." outweigh his caustic rhetoric on immigration, Muslims and the protesters — many of them young and black — who interrupt his rallies.

"Donald Trump is not preaching hate," Dooley said. "He's standing up for the American workers and the American people."

Trump offers his outsized personality as an all-purpose antidote to a country that is "falling apart" and "never wins anymore."

The overwhelmingly white throngs at Trump rallies roar at his mention of a border wall and heartily approve his call to stop all non-citizen Muslims from entering the United States. Supporters cheer his promises to protect gun rights and share his lament that Christianity is under attack. They applaud his threats of punitive tariffs on imports from countries "killing us on trade."

Wallace, meanwhile, fueled his strongest campaigns in 1968 and 1972 with a wide-ranging critique of a society in decline. He modified the overtly racist language he used in his Alabama campaigns, fashioning himself instead as a "states' rights" conservative. He complained of rising crime and a "sick Supreme Court" that outlawed compulsory school prayer and allowed pornography.

Wallace, political historian Dan T. Carter said, "had all these ways of getting across what he meant" without explicitly mentioning race or class. "He said 'inner-city thugs,' and everybody knew he was talking about young black men in the cities."

Tom Turnipseed, who managed Wallace's 1968 campaign and became a civil rights activist, assigned the same motivation to Trump and Wallace. "Fear," he told The Associated Press.

"You can scare folks with that line that the Mexicans are coming because everyday working people ... see Mexicans in the labor market and it hurts their wages — they think of it that way, at least," Turnipseed said. "Governor Wallace, you know, did the same with African-Americans."

In his book "The Politics of Rage," Carter identifies Wallace and his play for working-class white votes as the model for the "Southern strategy" that Nixon and Ronald Reagan would use in four winning elections.

Nixon wrote in his memoirs of having to navigate Wallace so he would not "draw a large number of conservative votes from me." Nixon protected his right flank by criticizing court-ordered busing of schoolchildren to accomplish integration, vowing to impose "law and order" and declaring the "War on Drugs," which an aide later described as a targeting of "hippies" and blacks.

Trump is the latest heir of all this, Carter said.

"When you hear Trump supporters say he 'tells like it is' or 'he's not politically correct,'" Carter said, "what they're really saying, many of them, is ... 'I love it, because it's what I believe, too.'"

Protesters, meanwhile, become evidence of the national decay that only the candidate's tough leadership can reverse.

When activists interrupted his rally at Madison Square Garden in 1968, Wallace asked why Democratic and Republican leaders "kowtow to these anarchists." He added, "We don't have riots in Alabama. They start a riot down there, first one of 'em to pick up a brick gets a bullet in the brain, that's all."

Trump has pined for "the old days" when such "animals" would be "carried out on a stretcher, folks." He orders security to "get 'em the hell outta here" and said of one protester, "I'd like to punch him in the face."

Reed acknowledged there are "working white folks who are mad" but says Trump, like Wallace, has them "turning their arrows at the wrong folks."

Trump denies he is playing to racism or xenophobia. His supporters "aren't angry people," he says, just frustrated "about the way the country is being run."

"What are we looking for, OK, all of us?" Trump asked after declaring that families, jobs, homes and health care face existential threats. "We're looking for security. We're looking for safety. We're looking for family, and taking care of our family, right?"

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-03-25

[bgrassboy]

Just as Wallace failed, so too shall Trump!

[fred110]

As an American who lived through that era, they are nothing alike. Our current threats are external and are well known to be real. Trump does not hate anyone, quite the opposite, he loves his country and wants to protect it.

[ggt]

Trump is being compared to everyone from Hitler to George Wallace...no one has compared him to Malcom X...

All the BS is designed to demean and denigrate Mr. Trump...

Good Luck with that...

[piersbeckett]

As an American who lived through that era, they are nothing alike. Our current threats are external and are well known to be real. Trump does not hate anyone, quite the opposite, he loves his country and wants to protect it.

Well, that's fine and most Americans seem to harbour a keenly nationalistic trait but I think what worries some is the possible lack, should he gain power, of his ability to 'get over himself' sufficiently to take sound advice from people experienced in politics; will he get the right team around him and will he listen to them?

In other words although he may hold the 'no nonsense' view that many Americans agree is necessary to fight Muslim terrorism and the Muslim political threat generally as well as Chinese trade dominance; is he fit to preside over the USA?

I agree and respect your superior knowledge that they are not alike and certainly not alike in style but I do think it is echoes of George Wallace effectually but what politician doesn't trade in fear; how couldn't you?

Edited March 25, 2016 by piersbeckett

[lannarebirth]

There is nothing remotely similar between Wallace and Trump. Wallace was a Democrat, racist, segregationist. Wallace sought to deny civil liberties to Americans. Trump is a Republican(ish), has not sought to deny civil liberties to any Americans.

[wabothai]

As an American who lived through that era, they are nothing alike. Our current threats are external and are well known to be real. Trump does not hate anyone, quite the opposite, he loves his country and wants to protect it.

"Our current threats are external" To go with the southern saying, total hogwash.

Threats are coming from within mr. fred.

[Geoffggi]

Trump will not be allowed to win by the big business people on both sides of the great divide as they have too much to loose; on a personal note I would love to see him win as it would give these same people a wake-up call that the American people in general are tired of them giving away their country also it could possibly wake up our own government as to the things they are also doing wrong..!!

[Jingthing]

I attended a Wallace rally not as a supporter but to video the event. Wallace supporters weren't nearly as violent and angry as Trump supporters. But both attracted a lot of poorer white racists.

Trump's rhetoric is actually much more divisive and toxic. Wallace was a pussycat in comparison. He used a lot of code. Trump doesn't bother.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Jingthing

[keemapoot]

I attended a Wallace rally not as a supporter but to video the event. Wallace supporters weren't nearly as violent and angry as Trump supporters. But both attracted a lot of poorer white racists.

Trump's rhetoric is actually much more divisive and toxic. Wallace was a pussycat in comparison. He used a lot of code. Trump doesn't bother.

Do these poor white racists who are Trump supporters really think the billionaire with the 24k gold-plated toilet in his Boeing 757 really gives a crap about their issues, or about any issues except stroking his own squirrel-topped ego?

http://www.roadwarriorvoices.com/2015/09/13/a-tour-of-donald-trumps-24-karat-gold-plated-plane/

[grumpyoldman]

I attended a Wallace rally not as a supporter but to video the event. Wallace supporters weren't nearly as violent and angry as Trump supporters. But both attracted a lot of poorer white racists.

Trump's rhetoric is actually much more divisive and toxic. Wallace was a pussycat in comparison. He used a lot of code. Trump doesn't bother.

Do these poor white racists who are Trump supporters really think the billionaire with the 24k gold-plated toilet in his Boeing 757 really gives a crap about their issues, or about any issues except stroking his own squirrel-topped ego?

http://www.roadwarriorvoices.com/2015/09/13/a-tour-of-donald-trumps-24-karat-gold-plated-plane/

Pretty sad eh? 50 years after the civil rights riots in Selma we elected an African American president. As an American, proud day, awesome. Especially considering the complete meltdown utter failure of the WASP GOP President GW Bush.

Jump eight years, is the country perfect, no, by all means, still a lot to do but is it on a much better course than it was in 2007? Yes.

These fools want to move backwards in both the civil rights and back to the party and mindset that trashed the country the last time the GOP was in office (?), unbelievable huh?

Like the article says many say 'I like Trump because he says what others won't say but want to". No, you are just saying you agree with his racist,misogynist views and you are too embarrassed to admit that.

[uptheos]

Trump refuses to rule out using nuclear weapons against ISIS and says 'we need unpredictability' in fight against terror group

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3508851/Trump-refuses-rule-using-nuclear-weapons-against-ISIS-says-need-unpredictability-fight-against-terror-group.html

[ThaiWest]

These times... they are different!

[bark]

Just as Wallace failed, so too shall Trump!

He failed because he was shot. Trump wears a bullet proof vest, and he always has the fat guy, Christie, standing beside him.

[chuckd]

I attended a Wallace rally not as a supporter but to video the event. Wallace supporters weren't nearly as violent and angry as Trump supporters. But both attracted a lot of poorer white racists.

Trump's rhetoric is actually much more divisive and toxic. Wallace was a pussycat in comparison. He used a lot of code. Trump doesn't bother.

Do these poor white racists who are Trump supporters really think the billionaire with the 24k gold-plated toilet in his Boeing 757 really gives a crap about their issues, or about any issues except stroking his own squirrel-topped ego?

http://www.roadwarriorvoices.com/2015/09/13/a-tour-of-donald-trumps-24-karat-gold-plated-plane/

Yet you would seem to believe these same poor white racists should think that somebody who earns $225,000 for a 30 minute speech is somehow standing up for them.

You make a rather strange argument at times.

[Publicus]

I went with a group to a Wallace rally he'd travelled to near my university. There was a lot of noise and commotion early on in his racist diatribe.

Wallace was number one more than anything else mean. Mean of heart, mean of soul, mean in his poisoned mind. Near the end of his destroyed life he pretty much recanted, bonding prominently with Sen. Ted Kennedy who visited the bedridden and frail pol.

Trump is Himself. Trump has the descendants of George Wallace among his followers. (Not only, among.) It took a terrible crime against Wallace, the political process and democracy itself for the Son of Dixie Wallace to finally see the light, to whatever extent he did see light at the end of his life in the tunnel. Trump will never see the light even up to when it hits him in the face.

The salient common threads between 'em is however that each is a strongman and that because it's the USA they and their their hard core supporters are born losers.

[Jingthing]

Just as Wallace failed, so too shall Trump!

He failed because he was shot. Trump wears a bullet proof vest, and he always has the fat guy, Christie, standing beside him.

He was failing before being shot.

[thaihome]

I think the comparison to Wallace is very valid, but would add there is a touch of Ross Perot's independence due to personal wealth and attempt to appeal to angry middle class voters.

Trump uses racist code words very heavily, but amazingly, there are much less coded then Wallace's were in 1968.

Trump is very likely to win the republican nomination and his huge defeat will bring about the sixth party system, dividing the US into two or more parties aligned along both liberal/conservative, white/minorities, as well as geography, that has been in progress sice Nixon's southern strategy divided the Democratic party in 1968.

TH

[Pinot]

Trump's racism should remind everyone of George Wallace.

Trump’s electoral strategy is bring out angry, disengaged conservatives to the polls. the fact that the vast majority of voters are some combination of young people, minorities, and women is going to mean a bloodbath for the Republicans in November, as it should.

The Weekly Standard, a conservative rag, had a podcast by one of their writers this week. His conclusion "Nominating Trump Guarantees a GOP Bloodbath."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/nominating-trump-guarantees-a-gop-bloodbath/article/2001664

No matter what happens at the Republican convention...Republicans are screwed.

Leading with racism doesn't work in America. That's the lesson we should take from George Wallace and will be driven home again with the Republican bloodbath in November and so very deserved.

[grumpyoldman]

"Privately, and to some degree publicly, Republicans seem resigned to death in November by fire or by hanging. The prolonged nominating process is merely a means of determining the nature of the execution and limiting the risk to other candidates on the ballot."

Thank you Buddha

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/24/opinions/republicans-slow-motion-implosion-opinion-axelrod/index.html?iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial&iref=obinsite

[uptheos]

What has Hilary to offer except a ballsed up past, I cannot believe that there are enough unthinking Americans who would put her in the White House

The Americans I know are nice, intelligent people. They might go with Hilary because she's a Democrat, but not because she's Hilary.

[bgrassboy]

What has Hilary to offer except a ballsed up past, I cannot believe that there are enough unthinking Americans who would put her in the White House

The Americans I know are nice, intelligent people. They might go with Hilary because she's a Democrat, but not because she's Hilary.

More that she would be the lesser of two evils, if only by the slimiest / slimmest of margins.

When a viable candidate like Bernie is maligned by the power brokers what other choice do we have? A raving mad man or a lying shrew.

[thaihome]

Just as Wallace failed, so too shall Trump!

He failed because he was shot. Trump wears a bullet proof vest, and he always has the fat guy, Christie, standing beside him.

Bogus! He was not shot. He died of septic heart failure. Google it!

After his third party presidential run in 1968, Wallace ran for democratic presidential nomination in 1972. He was doing rather well against eventual nominee, Hubert Humphrey when he was shot in May 1972. He was not killed but remained paralyzed for the rest of his life.

TH

[uptheos]

I think Trump will beat Hilary easier than most people think.

She has absolutely nothing of substance.

[keemapoot]

I attended a Wallace rally not as a supporter but to video the event. Wallace supporters weren't nearly as violent and angry as Trump supporters. But both attracted a lot of poorer white racists.

Trump's rhetoric is actually much more divisive and toxic. Wallace was a pussycat in comparison. He used a lot of code. Trump doesn't bother.

Do these poor white racists who are Trump supporters really think the billionaire with the 24k gold-plated toilet in his Boeing 757 really gives a crap about their issues, or about any issues except stroking his own squirrel-topped ego?

http://www.roadwarriorvoices.com/2015/09/13/a-tour-of-donald-trumps-24-karat-gold-plated-plane/

Yet you would seem to believe these same poor white racists should think that somebody who earns $225,000 for a 30 minute speech is somehow standing up for them.

You make a rather strange argument at times.

I don't make that argument at all. I really can't stand Clinton, but clearly most of you guys who support Trump are doing so out of desperation, whether or not you're poor white racists.

[Jingthing]

It could be I saw a toned down Wallace for a northern crowd. The rally was in Massachusetts.

[lannarebirth]

It could be I saw a toned down Wallace for a northern crowd. The rally was in Massachusetts.

In the end Wallace became "born again" and penitent. I think he renounced his prior beliefs.

[thaihome]

It could be I saw a toned down Wallace for a northern crowd. The rally was in Massachusetts.

Was this in 68 or 72? For the 72 run for the Democratic nomination he toned down the racist message considerably, or at least coded it much more subtly. Usually this revolved around a "states rights" theme.

Trump is not near so subtle, as his message is around his delivery of nasty terminology that is made in belligerent tone that his followers take as meaning everyone knows who made America great the first time: the white man did.

TH

[Publicus]

It could be I saw a toned down Wallace for a northern crowd. The rally was in Massachusetts.

In the end Wallace became "born again" and penitent. I think he renounced his prior beliefs.

"In the end" was after he'd been shot and paralyzed in the assassination attempt in May 1972. Not before.

The attempt to assassinate George Wallace was exceptional in 20th century America. During the time especially the people being assassinated were liberals, progressives, civil rights movement icons. White and black civil rights workers were murdered, black children were blown up in their church etc down there.

So Trump has little or nothing to be concerned about in this respect. It's just rare for Americans to shoot a conservative or some kind of a right winger. Taking shots or whatever at a Potus such as Gerry Ford was attributed, in part, to his not having been elected either Potus or VPotus. In part.

Trump's protection detail, secret service and his own bunch of private goons, to include any bullet protective vest are routine, standard. No indication Trump is under any unique or particular threat as the protests at his rallies have been absent firearms or any weapons. Secret Service did not initiate its protective detail officially assigned to Trump.

(Anyone who might want to resume trying the bogus claim protesters at Trump rallies start the violence will have to document their case beyond any dispute. That is, credible mainstream sources. Which means to continue their silence.)

Wallace was shot five times, paralyzed, died in 1998.

[grumpyoldman]

I think Trump will beat Hilary easier than most people think.

She has absolutely nothing of substance.

And so we have an example of the typical Trump follower. Shall I enlighten you?

-Being first lady certainly gave her a close view of life in the Oval Office, Trump no experience there.

-Having served as a U.S. senator for eight years, she knows how Congress functions -- or doesn't considering the GOP Congressional constipation,Trump no experience there. (Maybe the constipation....)

-Vast comprehension of foreign affairs, having been to 112 countries during her years (2009 to 2013) as secretary of state -- more than any previous person in that post. Trump? Wants to use nukes against ISIS but you probably like that........Secretary of State, Trump? defrauding U of Trump Students.

-China speech on the rights of women, her aggressive work on climate change and her skill as a senator in guiding the Children's Health Insurance Program through Congress even though that Congress’s only point was to thwart what the government was trying to get done. Trump, another zero please.

-She helped to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas during a tense moment in Israel, created positive alliances in South America, Africa and Asia, established tough sanctions against Iran.

If you don't believe she is a whole lot more prepared to be President than Trump, well, " You're Fired" and good luck with that bad toupee