Nothing matters.
The 10,796 false or misleading statements don’t matter. The Muslim travel ban doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that his administration literally locked children in cages. That the most powerful man in the country sat in an official meeting and insisted that some black immigrants come from shithole countries doesn’t matter. Excusing white supremacist violence doesn’t matter. His ignorance of how tariffs work doesn’t matter. His lies about immigration statistics, crime, and drugs crossing the border don’t matter.
Neither does his suspiciously opaque relationship with Vladimir Putin. Or his praise for strongarm dictators. Or his buffoonish actions on the world stage. Or his insults. Or his porn-star payoffs. Or seating a foreign agent on the national security council. Or hiring neo-Nazis as advisors. Or hiring alt-right propagandists as advisors. None of it matters
White people don’t care.
Not all white people.
Just white people. More specifically, white voters.
Writing about white people, white voters or the white vote shouldn’t upset white people or impugn my journalistic integrity any more than it does when Politico, the Washington Post or the New York Times talks about “black voters” or “the black vote.”
See? We’re fine with it.
Yes, Virginia. There is a white vote.
In a June 12 national survey of registered voters, Quinnipiac University pollsters matched Donald Trump against the top Democratic presidential candidates: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg and Cory Booker. News outlets across the country including CNN, Newsweek and the Washington Post have reported on the results—namely, that Donald Trump loses against every single one of the candidates by a relatively large margin. But relatively few have mentioned that regardless of the presidential final round matchup, one thing remains true:
White people are going to vote for Trump.
Among white registered voters, Trump beat Biden by one percentage point (46 to 47) which is within the margin of error. But Trump won the white vote by six to ten points when matched up every other Democratic presidential candidate. The Quinnipiac poll is not an outlier. In a Politico/Morning Consult poll, Trump again landed within the margin of error when white voters were asked to choose between him and Joe Biden. But he won the white vote with every other Democratic contender even though the majority of them disapprove of the job he is doing as president. A poll conducted by The Economist and YouGov from June 9-11 shows that white voters would vote for Donald Trump versus a generic Democratic candidate by a margin of 10 points.
The stunning part about this revelation is that voters in every poll—even white voters—generally agree that the country is headed in the wrong direction. According to the data, most of Trump’s support comes from white voters without a college degree and white men in general. Every other category, including people who identify as black, Asian and Hispanic, all say they would support any candidate other than Trump.
It is easy to spin this as a conservative problem or an indication of the political divide in America. But that line of reasoning sidesteps one incontrovertible truth that no one seems to want to say out loud:
White people don’t care.
They don’t care about deficits. They aren’t concerned with national security. The hand-wringing over immigration is a ruse. Their “economic anxiety” is baloney. They aren’t really worried about “the right to life.” They could care less about jobs, infrastructure, healthcare or education. They don’t care about black people.
Especially black people.
Because electing and reelecting an irrefutable racist is an act of racism in and of itself, regardless of one’s priorities or intent. In fact, Donald Trump’s unapologetic level of bigotry and prejudice might be the only arena in which he excels. He has shown no particular acumen in foreign policy, domestic policy, economics, diplomacy, compassion, problem-solving, reading, writing, arithmetic, talking, spelling or speaking for more than 10 seconds without insulting someone or telling a blatant lie.
His tax breaks to the wealthy have accelerated the deficit and grown the national debt to an all-time high. He has insulted and alienated America’s allies including England, Germany, Australia, France, Japan, Canada, and Mexico. His meaningless tariffs have crippled farming and manufacturing. He has torpedoed health care. He put buffoons in charge of the Departments of Education, Treasury, the Interior, and Justice. His handling of natural disasters is a disgrace. He can’t write in complete sentences or speak coherently. He doesn’t know history, the Constitution or how the branches of government works. He is a terrible liar and he can’t even play golf without cheating.
Yet, he is probably going to win the white vote.
And it’s not because he’s white. Pete Buttigieg is white and trails Trump by seven p0ints with the white vote. According to 23andMe, Elizabeth Warren is 99 percent white (and one percent from the Dolezal tribe) but Trump outpaces her with white voters by 10 points. Bernie Sanders trails Trump by six percentage points in the Quinnipiac poll. The only thing one can logically conclude is that white people’s lone reason for voting for Donald Trump is that he is a racist.
Aside from racism, what else is Donald Trump good at?
That was a rhetorical question because I’m sure there is an answer. Maybe he makes a mean pot pie. Perhaps he is a championship-level Connect Four player. I’ve heard that he can eat a family-size bucket of KFC in record time, which is kind of impressive. But despite his infinite number of faults, his numerous lies, and his plentiful deficiencies, white people will still want Donald J. Trump as their president.
Not all white people, just a statistically significant amount.
In that Quinnipiac poll, 33 percent of black voters said they’d vote for Biden in the Democratic primaries and most outlets, including this one, eagerly referred to Joe Biden’s support among one-third of African American registered, likely voters simply as “blacks.” Again, I didn’t mind at all. But according to that journalistic precedent, there is only one accurate term that correctly describes the demographic willing to elevate a dimwitted, vitriolic, morally defective racist to the most powerful position in the world:
White people.
Nothing else matters.
This is what they want.