At his rallies, Donald Trump frequently warns audiences that the 2016 election is “rigged,” particularly in places such as Philadelphia. Discuss the racial implications of Trump’s claim as it relates to one or more of the assigned readings for Wednesday’s class.
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Trump is attempting to influence voter turnout by claiming that the 2016 election is “rigged”. By convincing his supporters that the voting system is easily corruptible and trying to persuade them to become election watchers, he hopes to discourage participation in the election from lower class voters. This idea is supported in the article “Donald Trump, a ‘Rigged’ Election and the Politics of Race”, recalling Republican politicians efforts in 2010, saying they, “fought for stricter voter identification laws, which Democrats argue are intended to hinder turnout by the poorest voters, many of them black and Hispanic, who tend to vote Democratic.” Trump’s efforts force Americans to recall the difficulty of “racially charged voter intimidation”, previously and somehow still prevalent in the American election system. Trump is aware of his lack of support from minority groups in America, and instead of trying to win their votes, he has resorted to attempting to scare them out of voting, as strict voting laws inhibit those without specific and sometimes costly means of identification from voting, and election watchers can intimidate those who do have ID’s by pressingly questioning their information. The article quotes a member of the Clinton campaign, who goes so far as to say, “’It’s a sad day when Donald Trump and the Republicans have to rely on scaring people out of voting to try to achieve their electoral aims.’” Overall, Trump’s attempt to impact the voting turnout of minority groups through intimidation is a desperate way to save himself from his lack of support, while it calls attention to problems regarding race in the election system.
The reasoning behind Donald Trump frequently accusing the voting system of being “rigged” seems to have multiple layers to it and cannot be explained by one thing specifically. Instead, I see it as a combination of his penchant for making excuses when he does not “win”, and clear support for more stringent voter registration processes. These voter laws have been demonstrated to affect minority voters disproportionately, as explained in The New York Times article by Maggie Haberman and Matt Flegenheimer titled , “Donald Trump, a ‘Rigged’ Election and the Politics of Race”. Another factor is that Trump’s polling numbers show little to no support from minorities, especially African-Americans. Therefore, he could only benefit from stronger voting laws that effectively cause less minorities to vote. At this point, one might reasonably say that perhaps the reason he is so focused on a ‘rigged’ voting system is because there actually is a moderate to high amount of voter fraud. Or even significant voter fraud that has an effect on the election. In reality, this is patently false. As the article states, “by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare”. Therefore, I am able to arrive at the conclusion that Trump does not actually believe that the voting system is ‘rigged’. In my opinion, he is trying to do a couple of different things with these statements. First, he is automatically branding a win by his opponent to be inauthentic because, naturally, unless he wins, the election was ‘rigged’. Second, he is using rhetoric that implies racism. by strenuously supporting the stricter voter requirements, he is supporting laws that the court ruled as discriminatory. In the end, it does not seem as though Trump will attract any new voters to vote for him, rather he is simply pandering to his existing constituents by continuing to make these remarks.
Donald Trump’s determination to prove that if he loses the Presidential Election, it will have been because it was rigged. Invoking this message may depict him as a disgruntled candidate rather than a person with more nefarious intentions. The latter proves to ring true to this current election cycle. Analyzing his message forces the viewer to delve into a greater social landscape outside of the presidential election, a place where Trump has entered and taken a dangerous message and connected it to the idea of a rigged election. This hidden place, when given a face, represents a specific group within the white population that through the continuing emergence of racial tension has taken Trump’s side. Isaac J. Bailey writes that “the idea that Trump’s support from working-class whites isn’t only or even primarily about “economic angst” and that well-off whites tend to support him as much as poor ones.” Bailey’s statement further analyzes how Trump has tapped into a certain negative energy of those in the white population that feel angered of seeing a certain type of ” ‘otherism’ which is simply another way of talking about how people of color are often dismissed as not being fully American because calling them “nigger” is not socially acceptable.” It is this statement that echoes the idea of the rigged election. Calling this election cycle “rigged” signifies a certain type of euphemism: Hillary Clinton can only will if she coaxes-the same way Trump has coaxed his voters–minorities, especially those living in urban environments, into committing voter fraud–being paid to vote for Clinton. The conspiracy that Trump invokes prescribes to the same sentiment shared with his followers. Trump can use this rhetoric without any repercussion even after the election. Rather, those he continues to single out will have to face the social consequences of dealing with the racism caused by Trump’s followers, those that have already decided who and what is American.
I find the discussion around Trump’s claims that the election is rigged and that Clinton is using minority votes in order to win one of the most interesting parts of this campaign/election. In Haberman and Flegenheimer’s article “Donald Trump, a “Rigged” Eleciton, and the Politics of Race”, Trump finds that the election is rigged in part because of lose voter ID laws. Not only Trump but the whole republican party wants to work to implement stricter voter ID laws so that it will no longer be “rigged” yet this would also make it immensely harder for different groups of people to vote, mainly Hispanics and black people. At the same time he thinks that Clinton is using minority votes to win and will not actually follow through with her plans. Yet he does the same thing claiming that black people have nothing to lose so why shouldn’t they vote for him. But with his idea that voter ID laws should be stricter he could not ‘use’ minority votes either. By Trump making these accusations in front of a crowd in Philadelphia, he thinks that can he can win minority votes based purely on eliminating the rigged nature of the election that has no factual evidence. Trump’s downfall is his lack of owning up to what he says… Even if the election is rigged, he would not be gaining minority votes because of the discriminatory comments he has made.