White Male Privilege vs Democracy

Being that our forefathers created Democracy solely for the benefit of white males, it’s a miracle that other groups made gains within this near extinct political system. When America’s founders created our founding documents, in their minds it was an axiomatic reality that white males were put on Earth to rule everyone else, including white women. They were so consumed with the European way of life that when they encountered others, they saw those cultures’ inability to war as barbarically and their not extrapolating their social behavior down to its most minute elements as “inferior.”  In reality they were operating from the European scarcity mindset. Incessant warfare would cause a population to constantly contemplate new innovative methods and technology for war. Stress on social norms would cause populations to examine them down to the minutest details to figure out where the dysfunction comes from and how to remedy it. Further stress in the form of citizens not sticking to verbal agreements would create a need to establish external references (written rules) as a mutually agreed upon guidelines for their behavior. Even further stress would cause a population to create more and more nuances within those written rules, hence today’s wordy and confusing approach to laws. In my book, To Pimp a Nation, I examine the development of Western homicide laws and how human beings are unable to capture simple concepts with words. Western culture’s biggest accomplishments are its governments based on wordy written documents and its ability to be unprecedentedly barbarous by continuously developing more barbaric war capabilities. In reality, Western laws, governmental structures and war technology are actually emblems of European dysfunction and this group’s continued inability to create healthy social models.

Written law also created a means in America for white males to hedge their dominance over others and the President’s wealthy status is no exception. Donald Trump has a long record of attempting to use law to take from others. He bankrupted companies to avoid paying the people who helped him build them. He filed a countersuit against the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which represented black people claiming housing discrimination. He even tried to use Eminent Domain laws to demolish a woman’s home so he could make a parking lot for limousines at his casino. There’s no doubt that Donald Trump sees laws as an offensive weapon to gain leverage against others. Now he’s doing the same to gain leverage against the American people and the Constitution. Why follow laws when you are the executor of those laws? Ignoring what would otherwise govern his behavior didn’t seem to bother him as a rich powerful white male so why would becoming an even more powerful rich white male stop him?

Being of the ruling class is an advantage in America. Being rich, white and male places you above the law where consequence and accountability are inconceivable, especially to Donald Trump. Unsuccessful Congressional efforts against him doing things like firing James Comey to prevent an investigation into his Russia ties, and withholding Congressionally approved aid to Ukraine to urge them to investigate his political rival, demonstrate that the President’s only mistake was not hiding his intentions better. The President doesn’t seem to find anything wrong with the acts themselves, which, prior to his acquittal, were illegal. It reminds me of the McClesky vs Kemp Supreme Court decision, which allowed police to racially discriminate as long as they didn’t explicitly say they were doing so. Roger Stone, Trump’s friend convicted of many felonies, will get a great sentence reduction simply because the President said so. Bill Barr, who should serve as a check on this deviation from principle, acquiesced to the President’s lifetime norm of having the system accommodate him instead of him adhering to the principles set forth in our Constitution.

The white-male privilege that helped Donald Trump maintain the fortune his Father gave him collided with the Constitution head-on and the Constitution crumbled like the paper it was written on. While our founding documents say projects like his border wall require Congressional approval, Trump is using his white-male privilege to maneuver around the very checks and balance that underpins our republic. Judging from how membership to the only group of Americans that can’t be called “minorities” overrode the Constitution in his impeachment proceedings, he will ultimately be successful in stepping on the Constitution to get what he wants.

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