By John Fullinwider
I am trying to understand Presidential politics in terms of progress and backlash. Richard Nixon and George Wallace were the backlash against the progress of the 1960s in civil rights, women’s rights, Black Power, anti-war movement, etc. – progress made under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. But Watergate tarnished the backlash itself, leading to the election of Jimmy Carter and a continuation of progress in these areas (Roe v Wade, ERA, ending the draft, more school integration).
Ronald Reagan was the vehicle for the backlash against the 1970s wave of progress and “excess” (for example, greater sexual freedom). Reagan’s two terms saw the decline of the blue collar middle class, increase in poverty, decreased efforts to integrate schools, failure of ERA, end of the “Vietnam Syndrome” and big hikes in military spending, etc. – in a word, backlash. The first President Bush began to build today’s reactionary Supreme Court by appointing Clarence Thomas, the backlash against Thurgood Marshall.
Clinton seemed like a change because of his relative youth, and “forward to the future” view, but he consolidated the backlash in many ways (for example, “ending welfare as we know it” and “don’t ask, don’t tell”). George W. Bush opened the gates of hell in the Middle East, and at home tanked the economy; war and recession often move in when backlash takes over the White House.
The election of President Barack Obama was the vehicle for a new era of progress (expanded health care, pullback from Iraq war, more focus on social justice, and racial progress, especially in political representation). The backlash against Obama started almost immediately with the Tea Party, an almost comic group that was only a prelude to the grim and violent MAGA force, including new armed militias after Trump’s 2015-16 campaign. The election of President Biden and Vice-President Harris held it off, but Trump’s return to the White House represents the new stronger backlash against the Obama record and the Harris promise of renewed liberal progress.
This little summary doesn’t explain why the majority votes against itself, its own interests, and puts their fate in the hands of a monster like Trump. But there is a pattern that can help us try to understand why Trump could turn a prosperous, fairly stable democracy upside down.
Kamala Harris ran an almost perfect campaign with a powerful message of hope and mutual respect. The voters said, “No. We’re hopeless. We want revenge.”
The center of the MAGA backlash is not any particularly policy, not economic, foreign, or environmental. It is a back- lash against what Obama embodied. Always white racism – systemic racism, along with its ally misogyny – reorganizes to block any fundamental changes or else absorb them into the system. The system says, “In order for things to stay the same, things have to appear to change.” But this backlash, like always, will sew the seeds of its own demise.
Nina Simone sang more than half a century ago:
Mr. Backlash, Mr. Backlash Just what do you think I got to lose?
I’m gonna’ leave you With the backlash blues You’re the one who’ll have the blues Not me, just wait and see May it be so through our labor.
John Fullinwider is the co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality and a longtime organizer and activist in Dallas.
