But wrong in that it underestimates ways in which Trump's racialized appeals were different, and consciously so, from typical R rhetoric.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
It doesn't take up, for instance, the ways that Trump used overt birtherism to gain attention prior to his presidential campaign.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
Is birtherism identical to white supremacy? No. But it is a xenophobic conspiracy theory about the first black president.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
Which Trump didn't just wink at or tolerate, but deliberately championed. For a long time. That's an important data point, I would say.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
And one that throws a darker light on other forays that could otherwise be explained as "Trump doesn't talk a politician"/"Trump is weird."
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
I don't think his racial appeals explain Trump's victory in the way that a lot of ppl on the left do. Or even his primary victory.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
But from birtherism through his "snake" lines about immigrants through the Curiel affair to the way he talked about voter fraud ...
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
... he made an appeal to white tribal identity and anxiety a part of his campaign in a way that no modern GOP POTUS candidate has done.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
He's not the KKK candidate, and the world is complicated, which is why he won more minority votes than ppl expected.
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Replying to @DouthatNYT
But he approached racial issues in a way that was distinctive, and dark, and should be recognized as such. /finis
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"Dark" = not on his knees, begging for leftist absolution.
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