As one faithful reader from the Garden Parish keeps reminding me, it's been a while since our last domino quiz.
So, playing Gene Autry's rules (Double-six pose first game; holder of double-six poses afterwards), partner poses double-six in the first game. LHO contributes six-deuce. You hold: six-five; six-four; five-blank; double-four; four-trey; four-deuce; trey-deuce. What's your play? Why? Answer next week.
Donald Trump is well on his way to delivering on campaign promises to make America White Again. Don't bother sending tiresome emails telling me I'm wrong. I listened. I heard him. So did 58 per cent of white voters who supported Trump as opposed to 37 per cent voting for Hillary.
Nitty-gritty statistics make it clearer. A majority of women voted for Hillary (54:42). But, this majority came entirely from votes of BLACK (94 per cent for Hilary) and LATINO women (68 per cent Hillary). White women voted for Trump (53 per cent). White women without a college degree voted for Trump by 2:1.
Women didn't cost Hillary the election; WHITE WOMEN did. Men also supported Trump (53 per cent to 41 per cent), the widest vote preference since 1972. Romney won this demographic by seven per cent in 2012. Obama beat McCain by one per cent in 2008. Another record voting gap resulted from non-college graduates (men-women combined) who voted for Trump 52 per cent to 44 per cent. Obama (2012) won this demographic by four per cent.
WHITE WOMEN pushed Trump over the line. He always had the angry white man, but despite media's embarrassing anxiety to turn idle locker-room banter into sexual assault advocacy, white women just weren't buying it.
Mikki Kendall, a feminist cultural critic, was quoted by The Guardian as saying many white women are either "overtly racist" or "don't think racism is a big deal". "For them, it's not real," Kendall explained. "They don't have to worry about it, so you must be exaggerating."
Notwithstanding Rachel Maddow's oft-expressed fury, women voters didn't give a hoot about Pussygate. Female, white Trump voters ignored it for different reasons. Laurie Jones, 45, a Manhattan nutritionist, also quoted by The Guardian, called Trump "an imperfect person, like all of us". She went on: "I believe he does like women. He cares for his daughters and wife and female employees. He does respect women." Other women said they didn't care if he was sexist. Lizzie Whitmire, 35, a Catholic mother of two from Dallas: "I'm not worried that Trump's misogynistic language and sexist behaviour will have any interference with the reasons I want him in office. These are no more than actual actions of past presidents who were exactly the same way, just never recorded under a hot mic."
Exit poll interviews suggested white women voted for Trump's alleged business acumen over Hillary's gender. I've repeatedly postulated that, generally, persons who come from 'nothing' and succeed don't want to help others do the same.
Aimee Riley, 34-year-old orthopaedic surgeon from Richmond, Virginia, feared raised taxes: "I've worked so hard to get out of poverty. I was raised to earn my own success, and feel strongly that I deserve every dollar I'll now earn as a surgeon."
Riley continued: "In my everyday hospital work, I see many people who think they deserve a handout and aren't willing to do the work they're capable of. Trump is business-minded and not handout-minded ... ."
Face it. Trump's mandates from white America only (Hillary's popular vote majority now almost a million) are to 'de-negrify' the White House and unblacken USA. Those long lines of redneck voters, delivering the mandates while clutching AK-47s in one hand and pet goats in the other, are descendants of William Bradford's Mayflower Pilgrims who came, saw funny-looking natives running around, conquered them, and stole their land, thus creating a great White Whale called USA.
At first, Americans gladly gave other world refugees (including a German family named Trumpf) opportunities to share the bounty but, as modern technology negated the influence of the backyard still, they discovered they'd allowed too many in and, while they were asleep at the wheel, a BLACK president (shudder) was elected. The 'Make America White Again' Movement was born and grew exponentially 2008-2016 until, desperate to grasp what looked like a last chance, it fully exited the closet to the KKK's public endorsement.
Trump's concession to political correctness was to amend the mantra to 'Make America Great Again', but he really meant: "Make a(ME)rica great again". White America gleefully granted both wishes. Ready? Set? Uncle Tony and Aunty Puncy, who emigrated to Miami years ago but remains 'illegal', should be home for Christmas.
Peace and love.
- Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com [2].