Trump voters are the greatest threat to democracy since World War II, says UCLA prof
He also suggests the federal government appease the supporters of Trump
In a Princeton University Press blog post, political science professor Michael Suk-Young Chwe claims that white men are dangerous to our democracy because of their support to Trump.
He said: “If only whites could vote, or only men could vote, Donald Trump would be elected president. The people we rely upon to save democracy are exactly those people whom the United States historically excluded: women and people of color…
“Perhaps the roughly 40 percent of U.S. voters who support Trump are willing to sacrifice democratic values because they never expect to be in need of the protection that democratic values provide; they have always been part of the ruling coalition, and believe they always will be.”
In the latter part of the post, Chwe suggests that the federal government appease the supporters of Trump.
He said, “After the Civil War, the federal government found it too costly to enforce the rights of African Americans in southern states, and tolerated lynching, Jim Crow, poll taxes, and literacy tests. Only more than a century later, when the civil rights movement forced the issue, did the federal government intervene. In the coming decades, will the federal government find it too costly to intervene and “pacify” the enclaves of Trump supporters?”
Chwe also addresses what would happen in the possibility that Trump loses the presidency:
“What will people who oppose Trump do once he loses? Most of us will feel like a bad dream is finally over and things will go back to “normal.” But “normal” no longer exists. We used to see people like the armed white supremacists who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon as pathetic idiots, but now it is clear that circumstances exist in which 40 percent of the U.S. population would support people who are equally pathetic and idiotic, and much more dangerous. It is now obvious to everyone, including would-be demagogues, that these 40 percent are mobilizable, and that white male authoritarianism can attract much more than a fringe.”
Professor Chwe
In the end, Chwe concludes by saying: “If we had done a better and earlier job with confronting, as opposed to accommodating, white and male privilege, and convincing people that what they feel is being taken away is something that they never should have felt they had in the first place, we might not have reached this situation. Combating white and male privilege is now not only about justice but also about steering democracy away from self-destruction.”
Elizabeth Starback, English major, responded to Chwe’s post: “In no way to I condone any racist or sexist marks in which Trump has stated – but, this article fails to acknowledge there may be other reasoning in why people would support Trump. It polarizes the belief that if you value any of his beliefs you must agree everything he is saying. However, despite the threat of Trump winning the presidency, America’s constitutional form does provide various checks and balances in which there are safety precautions put in place to protect everyone’s basic human rights.”
Carlos Martinez, Anthropology Major, said: “As a minority, Donald Trump’s attack campaign against many minorities provide deep discomfort because the behavior exhibited by his supporters is deeply unnerving. So I can understand the professor’s perspective in believing that Trump voters are the greatest threat to democracy since World War II.”