The Congressional address that President Donald Trump gave on Tuesday — a first for the commander-in-chief — articulated the mainstream media’s notion that we are a divided nation. While the President was pushing through his more controversial agendas, such as immigration control and health care reform, certain opponents from the left conspicuously displayed their disapproval. Additionally, several Democratic women wore white as a symbol of women’s suffrage — and as a subtle dig against Donald Trump.
That is all and well — we’ve seen political wrangling before and this will not be the last time such antics are publicly channeled. At the same time, we’ve never seen a candidate like Donald Trump. He took the country and the world by storm, saying things that no other politician has ever said before, and doing things that would surely sink mere mortals. No one knows how to handle Donald Trump — the man, the entrepreneur, the President. As such, some of the criticisms were beyond the pale.
The President’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., immediately came to the support of Carryn Owens, the widow of U.S. Navy Seal William “Ryan” Owens, when she was criticized for being a political puppet. The Navy Special Operator was killed in a raid in Yemen on January 29. It’s telling that in a moment that should not even cross partisanship, some liberal extremists refused to find common ground and heal what they perceive as a divided nation.
Indeed, the Congressional address was an opportunity for both sides to cool the rhetoric, and get down to the business of restoring America’s place in the world. It was also an opportunity to showcase that issues such as race relations were diminishing in its priority. Yes, there are still pockets in society where race relations are pressured. However, by and large, it’s becoming a non-issue.
How can I say something like that? First, the uproar of Donald Trump’s Congressional address is artificial and entirely manufactured. Extreme leftists are offended because they seek to be offended. Second, the hard evidence shows we are not the divided nation that we are portrayed to be; certainly, in the context of race relations, the U.S. has made incredible, astonishing strides.
All we need to do is to look at demographics and voting trends. If Donald Trump were truly energized by racism, we would expect to see states with strong white populations vote heavily for Trump. In the extreme cases, this is correct. Wyoming is the whitest state in the union, and overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump. Hawaii, in contrast, is the least whitest state, and it voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton.
But the vast majority of white people voted on the issues. If one were to take out the extreme cases, there would be almost no correlation between “whiteness” and conservative voting habits. Rather than a divided nation, white Americans specifically are the most inclusive and issue-based citizens we have. Therefore, the issue of race relations as it pertains to perceived white supremacy is a completely false argument.
In my next post, I will detail the scientific evidence that the U.S. is a united nation, not a divided nation.