The Balcony Speech: Reflections on the Republican Convention

By
Chris Trotter
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72
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THE COINCIDENCE of the Republican National Convention being broadcast alongside the re-make of “Roots” is fortuitous. Alex Hayley’s famous novel laid bare the blood at the root of the American Republic. The United States’ constitution both validated and entrenched the “peculiar institution” of slavery. Removing it was only accomplished after the bloodiest conflict in American history. (The Civil War cost more lives than all of America’s other wars combined.) Even then, the deep-seated racism of the Old South proved too strong for the victorious Union to suppress for more than the brief decade of Reconstruction (1866-76). For the next century, African-Americans were subjected to a reign of physical terror and legal exclusion. The so-called “Jim Crow” South provided the model for White South Africa’s system of Apartheid.

There is a memorable scene in the original “Roots” television series which shows how the South’s racist system was kept in place.

A candidate for Congress is being entertained in the library of a wealthy Southern landowner. Together the two men sip imported wine and converse intelligently about local, state and federal politics. At length, the candidate consults his pocket-watch and declares it to be “Time.” Taking off his frock coat and necktie, he rolls up his shirtsleeves, musses his hair, flings open the French doors and steps out on to the balcony. Below him, on the big house’s sprawling lawn, a waiting crowd of poor white farmers and their families welcomes him with a round of applause. The candidate holds up his hands for silence. The sweat-covered farmers’ faces glisten in the flickering torchlight, their eyes bright with anticipation. The candidate raises his hands still higher above his head, and summoning a voice from the very depths of Hell, screams out a single word: “NIGGER!” The crowd roars.

How much difference is there, really, between that scene from “Roots”, and what is happening at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio? In the end, is the distance between Donald Trump, the billionaire property tycoon, and those cynical, race-baiting politicians of the Deep South, so very great?

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The men of wealth and power, then, understood that their political victory hinged on two crucial factors: first, the black community had to remain disenfranchised; and second, the poor whites had to value the colour of their skins more highly than the common qualities of humanity they shared with their black neighbours.

The Republican Party is being accused of selling its soul to Trump in return for a way back to the White House. Not true. The Republican Party sold its soul fifty years ago when Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” rolled up the millions of White Southerners who believed themselves betrayed by Lyndon Johnson’s passage of the Jim Crow-destroying Voting Rights Act of 1965. (Prior to the 1960s, the South had been the heartland of the Democratic Party.) That the “Party of Lincoln” was willing to shrug-off its proud tradition of opposing racism for the crucial electoral college votes of the Southern states not only changed the shape of American politics, but it also fundamentally altered the character of the Republican Party.

All that Trump has done is deliver the balcony speech from “Roots” to poor whites living in the rest of the United States. The truly terrifying feature of the presidential election race of 2016 is that the poor whites living in the rest of the United States are roaring too!

72 COMMENTS

  1. I just watched this documentary from the series ‘Faultlines’ on Al Jazeera tonight, it tells us a fair bit about what is behind this Trump excitement and phenomenon. It is a must watch, I think:

    http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2016/07/rise-trump-160712094327197.html

    We live in a dangerous age, I think. Even the new British PM, Ms May, said the other day, after passing a vote in their Parliament to renew the nuclear defence system of the UK (Trident rockets and so), that she “would not hesitate pushing the button”.

    Trump is a man who uses similar disillusionment just like other populists and demagogues have in the past. We cannot compare him directly with such dangerous men like Hitler, but the means he uses, do bear some resemblance.

    Sadly, when in hardship and disillusioned, many turn to the “strong men” or “strong women” that they think can lead them out of their misery. The ground for this to happen, what is happening in the US and some countries also in Europe and elsewhere, has never been more fertile for a longer time.

    We are going backwards, I fear, at a fast speed.

    • There is no doubt that Trump has to be laughing his ass off right now because what the asinine mainstream media and Clinton staffers did not realize before they started spewing garbage and slinging ink, is that the master of The Art of The Deal, Donald Trump had out maneuvered all of them again.

      The writing of Melania’s speech for the RNC, was played out by Trump the same way he has been playing things out throughout his campaign; using the mainstream media to publicize his wife’s speech throughout the world.

      The media and the Clinton campaign has unwilling made Melania Trump a living martyr to every person in the world who has a soft spot in their heart for a woman viciously and without just cause, attacked by unscrupulous asinine reporters and political fiends.

      Arguably, any pundit and Clinton staffer with more than a 2nd grade education must be asking themselves today, how many times is Donald Trump going to make a fool out of them before they realize that Trump is the most intelligent and best Presidential nominee to ever run for the office of the President of the United States of America.

  5. The Left deserted the workers years since. Labour in UK became Blairite neo lib centrists as per NZ Labour converted by Douglas and the status quo maintained by Clark. In the USA the last semblance of Democrat “Big society” and “New Deal” was sold out by Clinton.

    By deserting the workers worldwide the Left has reaped the whirlwind. Universal human rights for identity groups was the pay off allowed by capital and finance that cost them nought and took prededence. The foolishness was that the workers were deserted in favour of rights they would have agreed to anyway.

    Its time that the Left sought absolution and forgiveness from their originators. They fled the field for 30 years and left their parentage to the savage predation of the rich. Without seeking forgiveness there will be no redemption.

  6. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the world think.
    The winner of the presidential election will be the one who can sell the biggest b…s illusion of grandeur to gullible Americans.
    Glad I don’t live there.

  7. Bill and Hillarious – the most criminal sociopathic couple in U.S. political history and now she is going to be their president. Trump has no chance in hell as the govt. is controlled and the election process is owned ( likely rigged in many states ) and those above obama will make sure pompous Hillary gets in. This is disgusting enough but what saddens us more is that Bernie supports her and this is very disappointing and frankly horrific. He smells of a hypocrite now.

    Check out the facts and get informed about the Clinton criminals. Sad times for the U.S. to have two such pathetic options for their leadership. But then the US president does not lead much being the owned and controlled corporate puppet that they are. Voting is a waste of time as it has already been decided who will win and the election process is not to be trusted. Does anyone really think that the power elite 1 % running the show all over most of the world are really going to allow an idiot like Trump to win ? The writing is clearly on the wall and most are unaware and brainwashed and asleep at the wheel.

    http://www.clintonmemoriallibrary.com/clinton-crime-family-exposed/

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riley-waggaman/hillary-clinton-is-living_b_10862558.html

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/tracking-the-clinton-controversies-from-whitewater-to-benghazi/396182/

    • I don’t think Bernie has much choice other than to “support” Hillary Clinton.
      At least democrats have GOT someone like Bernie and others like Elizabeth Sanders, the republican party is full of bible bashing, gay hating, women controlling nutters and Sarah Palin.

        • Didnt disagree with your assessment of Trump on the fertile ground of right wing bigotry. You did however leave out more fertile ground for those non corporate rust belt small business Republicans. And the ex middle class and ex working Americans who corporate Republicans on Wall St no longer represent. They have seen their economy stripped of industry and jobs in favour of globalisation. Trump staged a coup by saying that “their” America had to come first. Nobody else even said their lifes mattered. Trump did.

          In this whole change of poles bigotry is an attendant symptom of a deeper malaise. Sure Trump scores high using it and people who are losing economically will focus on in. As I said on the other column its time the Left took on the Trumps not with Clinton / Blairite corporatist but with Corbyn types. The Left created a vacuum they now need to fill. And if we can just get over Trumps bigotry we might just see his stealing the economic platform that I contend is far more important to his rise. And it is why he will beat Clinton (which in itself is vote for Satan against Lucifer….where is God when you need her)?

        • The two party system in the states is a complete failure and those who continue to support it and a sickening criminal like Hillary have not only lost respect but lost their way.
          Eliz. Warren and Bernie are great but to support and back the likes of the Clintons is wrong on so many levels.

          We need massive change and we are not going to find it nor any good future with either party.

          ” Capitalism will collapse because banks and the political elite allow the poor to rot. ” Tariq Ali

          The Democrats are the lesser of two evils and neither party will be good for the states and you only have to spend some time reading Ralph Nader and Abby Martin etc. to know the truths of all of this.
          Bernie and Ralph have known that it is essential to build a strong movement outside the democratic party but Bernie, in his later years, has succumbed to the system and is tangled up in the two party system that will fail again and again. Either way the U.S. looses and with Pres. Hillarious we will just have the same ole same ole and not much will change. This is all about greedy banking and corporate control and the continued loss of freedom, democracy and sovereignty. No winners in this years U.S. election.

      • Hell, I forgot to mention racist in there and I called Elizabeth Warren, Elizabeth Sanders. My bad, I guess I was a bit more wound up than I thought I was.

      • Bernie definitely had a choice and he chose to sell out.
        To back a criminal ; lying ; corporate princess like Hillary, just to win an election, is wrong wrong wrong no matter how much icing you put on the cake. Ralph Nader was right.
        Sorry Rae and Frank, I disagree with you on this one. How can we defend a history like the one the criminal clintons have created and how connected they are to the political/banking elite puppet masters ?
        Business as usual if Hillarious wins and ” Profits before People ” will reign supreme yet again.

        • At least the world will have a better chance of surviving long enough to get rid of her, I don’t trust Trump with that, not one tiny little iota.

    • It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. – Joseph Stalin

  8. I also called Elizabeth Warren, Elizabeth Sanders, my bad, I guess I was a bit crosser than I thought I was

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