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By Robert Newby

Make America Great Again! What a con? Instead, what the nation has witnessed over the first six months of the Trump presidency has been close to a total disaster! Americas place in the world will never be the same again. Instead of world leader, the United States President Trump is an embarrassment.

At the recent G-20, Americas president was the odd man out. In terms he would certainly understand, President Trump was a loser. Remember, former Gov. Mitt Romney said that Donald Trump is a fraud. For about a century, until now, the American presidency has been the most highly regarded position on the planet.

Based on a survey of 37 nations, the Pew Research Center has found that the Donald Trump presidency has caused alarm among the nations closest allies. He has humiliated our NATO allies. He has spit in the face of the world by turning the Nations back on the Paris Accord. Essentially, every nation in the world voted for the accord except Donald Trump on behalf of the United States!

The decline in Americas prestige since President Barack Obama left office has been precipitous. According to the Pew Survey, America had a 64% favorable rating among the people in those 37 countries with Obama as President. By this spring, under a Trump presidency that favorability rating had dropped to 49%. In that same survey, a median of 22% were confident that Trump would do the right thing in a global crisis, down from 64% in the Obama presidency. For what he symbolized, Barack Obama was held in such high regard, globally, he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Donald Trump on the other hand has become the target of considerable derision, internationally. He cannot travel to England for a State dinner because the Brit populace has made it clear he is not welcome. How did we get to this place where the President of America is no longer respected?

We got here because of Tea Party Republican White Nationalism. While people might quibble with President Barack Obamas policies, the fact is he brought intelligence, integrity, class, and dignity to the White House. Both progressives and conservatives found reasons to be dissatisfied with the Obama. Nevertheless, most would agree he was presidential.

Having a black president of the United States of America does mean that America has changed. That is not to say that America is post-racial, hardly, not even close, as the Black Lives Matter movement reminds us. That said, having a black president of the United States of America has provided a certain legitimacy to what it means to be black in America. Barack Obama changed the face of America.

Unfortunately, while America and the world saw the Obama presidency as a positive step in the course of American history, world history, Americas white supremacist past rose up in opposition to this progress. President Donald Trump and the Tea Party Republican white nationalism are the driving forces of white resentment to progress by Blacks, other people of color, and groups suffering from some invidious discrimination.

So when Donald Trump says he wants to Make America Great Again!, understand, for him, America was great when he and his father practiced housing discrimination. For him, America was great before there were environmental regulations. For him, America was great when whites could stereotype people of color and call them names. For him, America was great before women had rights and demanded respect. For him, America was great when Blacks were denied the right to vote. For the most part, Trump got his votes not inspite of his racism but because of it.

Trumps victory is not todays America. A majority of the electorate voted for Hillary Clinton, the liberal, the progressive, the feminist, the statesperson, the advocate for poor children. Trump, with the support of his Tea Party white nationalist Republicans, was elected by an institution to protect the power of the slave holding states, the electoral college. This is the politics of white space, not the American majority. Look at the electoral map, where is the red?

Unfortunately, that white space harbors a politics of resentment. As Professor Theda Skopol of Harvard and her colleague, Vanessa Williamson, show in their book, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism, (Oxford University Press, 2012) the Tea Party has taken over the Republican Party. Donald Trump is the leader of the new Tea Party white nationalist Republicans. These are the politics that have alienated the world from our leader.

Robert Newby is a professor emeritus in the department of sociology, anthropology and social work at Central Michigan University. He writes a bi-weekly column for the Morning Sun. The column has been missing for some weeks because of a family illness that is now much improved.

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NEWBY: Trump, Tea Party white nationalism and the Republican Party - The Morning Sun