Enemy Territory

I've had some God forsaken overnights away from my house.  I've had atrocious stays in New York City, Eau Claire, Panama City, Florida, Las Vegas, Duluth, and a particularly horrendous night in Atlantic, Iowa.  I never once painted those towns with a wide brush, condemning the communities as a whole.  Regardless of where you are in America, there's always something good; views, parks, wildlife, restaurants, community events, the arts.  There's always something.

But not for Trump and the Republicans.  They need villains.

Trump's latest attack on Baltimore, Maryland, a city which has its problems, LIKE EVERY OTHER CITY DOES, but also has an amazing history and local culture, is just his latest attempt to create an enemy for his base to hate.

These communities always have the same criteria:

1. They have a high minority population
2. They are Democratic Party strongholds
3. They are represented by a politician(s) easy for Trump's racist base to hate

Republicans need bad guys to hate, and have been creating 'enemies of the Republican state' for decades.  They initially turned on California, the state Reagan tamed.  When the GOP started to shift towards more racist and upper class-centric policies in the 1990's, California turned sharply Democrat and has not looked back.  Republicans started attacking the limousine liberals of Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and San Francisco.  Being wealthy and voting Democrat was interpreted as betrayal. The Right convinced their voters to think these towns were run by African Americans, Latinos and undocumented foreigners, pushing drugs, sexual perversion, gang violence, the gay community and a more diverse culture on the poor innocent Christian whites of America.  

They turned on New York City.  It was easy to portray NYC as a foreign country in the USA, until after 9/11.  For a few years, Rightos played nice, until they lost the House and Senate in 2006.  They then returned to bashing New York as a villain, while trying to insist they (Republicans from nowhere near the city) embodied the real sacrifice of 9/11.  It didn't go well for them, but the right soon had President Obama and his town of Chicago to ridicule.

Starting in 2010, the Republicans had a new tactic, "no-go zones." They started portraying certain metro areas as having large swaths where white folk couldn't go without getting raped, killed, shot and then raped again.  It didn't matter the local community had no idea what Republicans were talking about.  This was about giving fake smarts to idiots who never would go to those cities in the first place.  Fear of minorities fueled morons in Iowa screaming about no-go zones in Philadelphia, Houston and Miami.  "I heard about it what REALLY goes on in those towns."  

And that's the point!  The vicious circle of fear wasn't about ruining some schmuck from Nebraska's travel plans.  It was about scaring white, rural Christian Republican voters into believing "if you allow Democrats to take over here, it's only a matter of time before you and your wife are smoking crack, your dog joins MS-13, and your kids are engaged in group gay sex with non-caucasians!"  Fear was, and is, the real goal, regardless of how much the fear is based on lies, bigotry and racism

Recently my own congressional district was attacked.  I live in MN-05, Representative Ilhan Omar's district.  As Trump ridiculed her in recent weeks, Republicans who've never been to Minneapolis came up with a simple explanation on how Omar got elected in the first place; over 90% of the district are Somali and black.  A quick search will show that Minneapolis is still quite predominately white (71%), but that didn't matter for them.  The narrative is created and the fear is stoked.  Now rural white communities are terrified voting Democrat will lead to a massive influx of minorities and Muslims!  

In other words, they're racist idiots, BUT THIS CRAP WORKS ON RACIST IDIOTS!

It wasn't that long ago Republicans used to be competitive in these communities.  Many cities had Republican representation at the local, state and federal levels, but as their message has pushed further and further into white nationalism, they've abandoned urban communities, focusing all their attention on winning in rural and wealthy suburban districts.

The GOP purposely has to ignore a major flaw in their 'enemy territory' criticism.  With Trump being President, and with their new standard of creating a fake national emergency to divert money to any problem they see fit, Trump could help ANY city in America he labels persona non grata.  He could, but he won't.  He needs the villain, whether real or not.  Republicans just skip the solution to the problem they've created and only focus on the fear the problem creates.  It's the person who convinces themselves they have an unfounded and unheard of deadly disease, but instead of going to a doctor and getting a real diagnosis, they instead choose to lock themselves in their house, fearing the health crisis they've made up in their mind.

We're supposed to be a United States, with different cultures and people.  Instead we have a political party portraying America as 'wholesome, white, Christian' communities constantly being threatened by the enemy territory within the US border; purposely fanning the flames of racism and ignorance with atrocious consequences.  The enemy is Baltimore today. Detroit or Cleveland or Milwaukee or Boston or wherever tomorrow. 

And speaking of consequences, there truly are no-go zones in America today.  They are communities where one religion is pushed on all who enter, and non conformists are asked to leave.  It's where strangers are not trusted and are usually harassed.  These are places where law enforcement is chomping at the bit to make examples of the outsiders, mainly for the applause and accolades they'll get from the local community.  America's no-go zones are many of the white rural and suburban communities where African Americans, Latinos and pretty much all minorities are just not welcome.  This is the consequence of Republican 'enemy territory' bigotry.

That's a fact.