You’re not disrupting, you’re performing
Since the invasion of the capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, and (at the time of this writing) 12 days before the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, a number of high powered people have taken action to distance themselves from the president.
Many of these individuals shared their resignations publicly citing the “chaos” from Wednesday as the catalyst for their urgent departures from the Trump administration. Some, like Betsey DeVos specifically identified the President’s behavior as a cause for the domestic assault on our elections. Others used emotionally appealing rhetoric like “unconscionable” and “disturbed” to describe their moral reasoning for leaving their posts.
“It’s not the same as it was eight months ago,” said Mick Mulvaney.
Plot twist, it’s exactly the same as it was eight months ago, and four years ago, and 40 years ago . In fact, what we saw yesterday was the same as its been since the inception of this country.
But hold up, let me back up a moment and simply focus on Donald J. Trump and his administration. Since this man first announced his run for president he has been an outright white supremacist.
“But how Misha? He’s never said anything like ‘white power’ or called Black people ‘niggers.’”
That’s for sure one type of white supremacist a la Here’s how: white supremacy is a set of policies and beliefs that create racial division which benefits white people and harms Black people and other people of color. Tax policies, health care policies, housing policies, education policies — all of these are examples from Trump’s administration of areas where people of color have been harmed. And yes poor white folks too, but poor white folks expect policies to work for their benefit and therefore elect Trump and other policy makers like him which keeps white supremacy in business (we can talk more about that but that’s for another discussion, another post, another time…gotta focus here). Seriously though, the guy kicked off his bid for president with a speech that included labelling people who migrated from Mexico as rapists and otherwise criminals.
Anyway, here’s the thing, all of these folks within the Trump administration have heard the racist and prejudice things the president has said outright. They also, more so than any of us, have the information and data to know the racist impact of the policies they’ve lead, developed, and implemented.
To quit at the very end of his administration (and after two months of him attempting to invalidate our democratic election process) and say that the President’s accessory to the insurgency at the capital Wednesday was the catalyst is a performance of moral decision making and democratic stewardship. And it’s not even a good performance.
The same is true of the social media companies that are now banning President Trump from their platforms. It’s been years of him sharing false information and emboldening white militia. As we approached the election this past November we suddenly get false information flags — too little too late, a narrative that there are forces at work to discredit the president has already been built. Those same people who showed up Wednesday don’t believe your false information flags. And now you ban him for a violation of your policies, a violation which we’ve seen occur over and over. So basically, the President has been violating the platform policies but you’ve only just now determined it? This is another performance.
These performances demonstrate a few things beyond these individuals’ and institutions’ desire for self-preservation:
- A lack of commitment to actually protecting the public good — y’all don’t care for real; as in, it’s not a top priority.
- An obvious complacency at best and at worst, explicit support of white supremacy and the opportunities to grow white supremacist beliefs across the country — because that’s what happens when you sit on your hands for four (and really five) years.
- Selective accountability is alive and well. All of these people and organizations are holding President Trump accountable only when there is the lowest risk for negative impact themselves as well as an opportunity to be celebrated for doing so. Those who are leaving the administration paint themselves as nobly stepping down as if they had no hand (let alone one in leadership) in developing policies of the last four years and enabling the President in his actions which lead to the occupation of the capitol.
Folks want us to clap for them. They want us to think of them as patriots and leaders. Well, clapping for them is like clapping for the kid who tells the truth only after they were caught in a lie and telling them they did a great job for being honest.
