Painting Angel Wings on a Pig
For nearly a decade, I’ve been perplexed by what I saw as the willingness of so many Americans to believe the constant barrage of lies Trump and his sycophants have hurled with impunity into the American public. To make matters worse, the Fourth Estate seemed oddly reluctant to give an accurate account of what was actually taking place. Instead of calling what we knew were lies, the media - playing by the traditional respectability playbook on democracy - decided to describe what we were hearing with our own ears as “untruths.” They failed to see the increasingly belligerent landscape of political talking points and strategies from the GOP once Barack Obama ascended to head the country as the nation’s first Black president (biracial, to be more accurate). Game over. To hell with niceties. No more “reaching across the aisle.” The age of GOP obstructionism was fueled by every effort to ensure President Obama was a one-term president. The conciliatory nature of the Obama-Biden administration failed miserably in seeing the danger taking shape before their very eyes. A coalition was being shaped that cared for one thing: protecting the status of white men in the increasingly black and brown America. To do so, they (the GOP, the Freedom Caucus) turned to an old and familiar playbook. They retooled it to draw out what had been latent among the populus Americanus. “White people are under attack. Stop the Negro. Save the country.” Enter Donald Trump.
Trump easily took on the role of racist white America’s god. He was everything they hoped for and believed in. White. Male. Wealthy. Black and Hispanic voters desiring to be as white adjacent as possible gravitated to him. But why - I asked myself- why are Black and Hispanic people who will be so deeply harmed by this man supporting him? To say that they want to be “like” him in terms of power and wealth does not properly address what is really taking place.
In the history of America, the one resource that has been part of the marketing playbook for whiteness is, wait for it, the Bible. You simply cannot have a true analysis of what took place in 2016 and 2024 without taking into consideration how the Bible was used as a resource to elect Donald Trump. If the Christian Evangelical Church could sell Trump as the anointed advocate for the will of God to come to fruition in America, then surely they thought, the GOP could peel off a decent percentage of votes among Black and Hispanic voters. So jack-leg Bible college (and nondegree) preachers painted angel wings on that pig and preached Trump’s message across their evangelical pulpits. Put a little whoop with it, a Hammond organ, and Leslie speakers while you run that poorly interpreted text in their ears, and many church folks will shout their way all the way to the polls, convinced that Trump is the second coming of Christ. You disagree? How many pastors are still pastoring the same church despite sexual impropriety? Too many church folks will accept a lie as long as you make them feel good while you tell it.
So, by the time white evangelical preacher Donnie Swaggart (yeah, the son of THAT Swaggart) called Black churches out for supporting VP Harris, the cake had already been cooked. Who gives a damn what Swaggart had to say?! And yet, it was too little, too late for the Black church to commit to the campaign in a way to make victory possible. In fact, the Black church alone could never, on its own, bring about a 2024 presidential win. What I’m saying is that the strategy should have encompassed the majority vote: WHITE PEOPLE. And that strategy should have been in the works decades ago! Moreover, since “stopping the Negro,” -indeed since racism is in America’s DNA - the winning strategy for the Democrats can only be confronting, without all the niceties, the inherent racism of America.
White America rose up to do one thing, “Stop that Black woman from becoming our President!” The damn price of eggs was a negligible variable in the scheme of things. The stimulus checks and the price of gas were simply presenting problems. The real culprit was and remains racism. Millions of white Americans voted against their own wellbeing to keep a Black person from becoming president. Through the lens of their own bigotry - tapped into by the propaganda efforts of our international enemies - there was nothing Trump could do that would prevent them from “saving” their whiteness.
They wanted that pig as their president, and they’ve got him. They wanted to believe the lies and now they will have four or more years worth of lies.
What can we do now? As a scholar, I do hope we will find alternative methods to educate the public. The educational system is under attack. (I fear HBCUs will come under fire.) Our resistance must be dug out from underground to have an effect at our local and state levels. Voter suppression will grow stronger. So too must our protest, but all protests must be accompanied by economic consequences for oppressors. They could care less about our marching out in the streets. We must shut down economic systems. Bring capitalism to a halt in America. There lies our power.
The pigs are being gathered at the trough, awaiting the move-in date to the White House. The funk of it all will be in the global sphere. Keep those Covid masks on hand.
