After the 2005 recording of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault surfaced this week, several top Republicans have been disavowing him or rescinding their endorsements (my future children will potentially read about the “pussy tapes” in their textbooks; Let us softly weep).
Senator John McCain, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Utah representative Jason Chaffetz and Utah governor Gary Herbert all stated that they would be voting for Donald Trump, while Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio all condemned Trump’s behavior, though did not rescind their endorsements.
Among liberals, I see two (often overlapping) reactions to this Republican backlash against Trump: Decrying that it took so long for them to condemn Trump even with his misogynistic and overt white supremacist history or then applauding their bravery for coming out against their party’s nominee.
There are problems with both these reactions. Firstly, no one should get a cookie for not supporting an evil human being. Secondly, no one should be surprised that it took some Republicans this long to condemn him: Just look at their party’s policies.
I was surprised when on Twitter and Facebook I saw liberals and Democrats praising Condoleezza Rice, calling her a true moral conservative, for decrying Trump. If Condoleezza Rice represents the true moral center of the Republican party, then that moral center is rotten to the core.
In 2002, as Secretary of State, Rice approved the use of waterboarding terrorism suspects, and in 2003 she approved the torture techniques of stress positions, forced sleep deprivation and forced nudity. To see Democrats praising Condoleezza Rice for doing the “moral” thing honestly shocked me, as did their praise of McCain, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush (none of them endorse Trump).
Liberals are using Trump to represent everything evil about our nation: They can ignore the crimes of the Iraq War (which the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton voted for), torture, restricted abortion rights and white supremacist policing policies if people just condemn Trump.
Trump (who I find to be a despicable fascist and white-supremacist misogynist) is being used as a scapegoat for America’s crimes to make liberals feel better and assuage their white guilt. White liberals don’t have to concentrate on their own racism because they can just point the finger at Trump as the real, true racist. Instead of saying “white supremacy exists in every facet of our settler colonial society,” white liberals can point to the fact that they are not supporting Trump and say “I’m one of the good white people!” Opposing Trump comes with a false sense of superiority and the belief that one is on the right side of history.
The focus on Trump as a uniquely bad threat to American democracy allows liberals to ignore the white supremacy of their own candidate, Hillary Clinton. Although she is less overt in her white supremacy, Clinton has supported racist policies both domestically and in foreign policy.
In 1994, Clinton publicly championed tough-on-crime legislation which included more police officers, more prisons and harsher sentencing. These policies continued the near-military occupation of poor communities of color, the hugely disproportionate incarceration of Black men and women and has led to the United States currently having 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, even though the U.S. is only 5 percent of the world’s population.
Similarly, Clinton supported welfare reform policies, such as the 1996 Welfare Reform Bill, which relied on racist “welfare queen” stereotypes and took away food from poor families and single mothers. Foreign policy wise, as a Senator, Clinton voted for the disastrous Iraq War. As Secretary of State, Clinton approved and championed the drone program, which Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch believe fits the definition of a war crime and oversaw an illegal right-wing coup in Honduras.
The usual response from liberals to these criticisms are twofold: Clinton should not be held accountable for her husband’s policies and Trump is worse. In regard to the first criticism, I agree that a woman should not be held accountable for her husband’s actions. But Clinton publicly and enthusiastically championed tough-on-crime policies and welfare reform, and held her own offices as Senator and Secretary of State.
The second criticism that “Trump is worse, so who cares what Clinton did in the 1990s” is a way for liberals to assuage their guilt for voting for a white supremacist candidate (in this instance, the more covertly racist Clinton). Whether or not you are voting for Trump or Clinton, you are voting for someone who is a white supremacist. Saying that “the other guy is worse” is not a defense.
If you believe that Clinton is objectively less dangerous than Trump (as I do), then vote for her. But don’t believe that doing so makes you a more moral person or that you are absolved from whatever policies she puts forth in office. All white Americans, regardless of who they vote for, are implicated in our country’s colonial white supremacy. Be honest about who your candidate was and who she is. Treating Trump as uniquely bad might make you feel better about casting your vote for Clinton, but it will not wash you of your complicity and guilt.
Emeline Armitage is a junior International Studies major from Cleveland.
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