Trump's Desperate Effort To Keep The White Patriarchy Intact

The following is part of a post by Dan Rather: 

Of all the complaints, grievances, and gripes coming from the White House, the great majority have been directed at an aspect of 21st century America that Donald Trump just can’t seem to handle: diversity, equity, and inclusion. These three words tie him in knots. DEI raises his IRE.

Several of the executive orders he’s signed since taking office are aimed at eliminating DEI programs within the federal government, in education, and in the private sector.

Trump has weaponized DEI in the ever-worsening culture wars. It has become the go-to for killing any program that enables a diverse workforce or student body, studies underserved communities, or tackles institutional bias. He also uses it to absolve himself. Midair collision? Blame DEI.

For Trump, rooting out any and all DEI is fulfilling a campaign promise to end “wokeness” and “leftist indoctrination” in education. Some might call it a blanket excuse to blow up programs he doesn’t like. Just tag it DEI and be done with it.

This White House wants everything to be “merit based.” Trump has convinced his supporters that DEI stands for “didn’t earn it.”

This is hypocrisy, especially when you consider some of his Cabinet appointments. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pretty much kills their argument for merit-based hiring.

Let’s take a step back for what’s known in television as the wide shot. Here’s what this is really all about: white men whining.

You can’t call it a dog whistle, because that would suggest Trump is trying to hide his derision for DEI. He is not. His executive orders are announcing that it is open season to be brazenly, unapologetically racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist, xenophobic, ableist — pick your bigotry.

The MAGA backlash to DEI is an outgrowth of the identity politics that have taken a greater hold in the United States over the past 10 years. The reaction has been building for a while but has recently grown deeper and stronger. . . .

White males have had a disproportionate share of power in the United States since its founding. But the country’s demographics are changing, with the U.S. becoming less white. In the year 2000, 69% of the population was white; just 20 years later, that percentage was down to 58%. The group making the biggest population gain is Latinos. Is it any wonder Trump still wants to build that wall on the Mexican border?

And recent trends will continue. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, white people may still be a plurality but no longer a majority in America by 2045. Trump is desperately trying to stop the clock, and even reverse it, with his executive orders.

So far the orders have:

• Put all government DEI employees on administrative leave and ordered each federal agency to eliminate their positions.

  
  

• Ended all diversity programs in the U.S. military and federal agencies.

  
  

• Rescinded a 1965 executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in federal contracts.

  
  

• Directed his Cabinet secretaries to “prepare up to nine civil investigation targets” along with “other strategies to encourage the private sector to end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.”

  
  

• Required all federal contractors to eliminate DEI programs, which includes all grant recipients.

Cumulative far-right outrage over programs seen as helping and promoting people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and immigrants, combined with the fear of straight white men losing status and power, has brought us to this crossroads. . . .

Trump’s anti-DEI bent is more than a bigoted policy. It is anti-science, anti-education, and anti-American. The country cannot afford to have this covered over or forgotten.