When is it America's Turn?

How many elections are going to be about making history rather than serving the people?

After Trump’s appearance today with the National Alliance of Black Journalists, yet another feat of daring no other politician would attempt, it was time once again to watch the media narrative machine do its thing.

It would be an all-day affair, blanketing Twitter, then finding its way to the entertainment trades, the high-minded legacy press, and, eventually, the New York Times’ front page. This is supposed to be the most important thing happening in America — in the world.

Stop the presses: TRUMP SAID SOMETHING!

The entire front page of the New York Times, on a day when Israel and Iran might be at war, is nothing but identity identity identity.

At some point, you have to wonder, when is it America’s turn?

All 350 million of us are supposed to be consumed by this drama because we’re supposed to be invested in “making history.” If we aren’t, then we are bad people. We’re racists. We’re misogynists. We no longer deserve representation.

Trump vs. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and now, Kamala Harris can be seen as a populist uprising against an elite cabal that has claimed this country for their own.

It took me too long to see it. Now I can’t unsee it.

Obama had made history in 2008, which gave us a collective contact high like no other. We did that, we thought. We changed the trajectory of who could be the leader of the United States. A woman would be next.

In 2016, I was a most devoted Hillary Clinton supporter. At first, at least for me, the sense of urgency revolved around the climate. I’d read several books on what the future might hold as a research project. They all painted a dire picture of what America would look like in 100 years. I threw myself into politics to the exclusion of almost everything else.

I got caught up in the whirlpool of online collective political mobilization by the largest group of activists assembled in human history, short of real revolutions and world wars. What I was involved in felt bigger than myself, and I found a sense of worth and purpose fighting for Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump crashed the party. We took it all personally. He was doing this TO US, to HER, we thought. It would take me eight years to realize it wasn’t personal. He represented millions of Americans whose biggest priority wasn’t electing the first female and making history.

Now, here we are, all of these years later, and we’re watching the same thing again. They’re telling us - those “white dudes for Kamala Harris” — that the only thing that should matter is that a Black female wins the presidency. And for most of them, that’s enough. If they’re represented by a Black female, utopia lives!

They are, I’ve decided, self-centered narcissists who don’t have real problems. They have existential angst. They are tortured by the idea that America might be a “white supremacist empire” and we’re all supposed to spend our time and energy fixing that. But by doing what? Making history without solving real problems for everyone?

We’re not just talking about the “white working class.” We’re talking about everyone who isn’t part of their insulated, isolated bubble.

I realized this during the Derek Chauvin trial when they showed a video of Cup Foods on Memorial Day in 2020. Here we were, all ordered on lockdowns. Churches closed, schools closed, and businesses shuttered. My daughter had her graduation on my balcony. We were mixing our own hand sanitizers and sewing our own masks.

And yet, that day in Cup Foods, there was no such thing as a COVID threat, even though George Floyd himself was recovering from COVID. Not one mask. Not one.

I’m not saying they should have been wearing masks or face shields, just that this is the very community CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times keep telling us the Democrats care about. Clearly, this was a world untouched by the Democrats and their propaganda press.

Trump is trying with his campaign to reach beyond the confines of his MAGA base. He visited the Bronx. He talked to a Crytpo crowd. He went to SneakerCon.

And now, he’s thrown himself to the wolves at the NABJ. They were angry that a “racist” was invited, but I think some of Trump’s message got through: he was going to fight for them, for cheaper gas, for lower food costs, for safer streets, for better jobs. There had to be at least one open mind in that crowd willing to give him a shot.

The typical reaction meant that the hive mind declared Trump IN TROUBLE THIS TIME. Really? Trump said something offensive? No, said the Puritans on X, Trump said what racists say.

The problem is that if you set up a dynamic where a white man is running against a Black female, what isn’t going to be considered racist? He has to be able to criticize her without them throwing a fit. And yet, that’s the whole game, right? Trump won’t obey their rules so he must be destroyed.

Why do they care so little about the rest of us? Why do millions of Americans have no voice except with Trump and JD Vance? Why can’t they fight for what they want? Why can’t we fight for a country we want? Why does everything have to stop so Kamala Harris can make history? Why?

No government can leave that many people behind, going on almost 20 years by now, and expect the country to thrive. Sooner or later, the people will be mad as hell and won’t be able to take it anymore.

Even though I was front and center with the “making history” brigade, I find myself asking now, is that all there is? When can we turn the page? When can we stop talking about racists and racism like that’s the only problem in America?

Yes, they would say, “You have white privilege, so you don’t have to worry about it,” but everyone is expected to care only about that and nothing else.

Trump will win on kitchen table issues. He will win on his message of unity. He will win by offering a strong economy, better jobs, a major reset. He can win by being the steady hand amid a storm of hysteria.

The best way to do that is to ask when it is America’s turn.

I’m working on a few other pieces but I had to get this off my chest.