In President Donald Trump’s seven months in the White House, he’s turned the political world and global order upside down with economic and immigration policies that should be roundly condemned.
They have been by his critics, the Democratic Party and students of history, who have studied what happens when nations drift away from the rule of law, buck the institutional systems of checks and balances or rail against a free and independent press that is responsible for checking against the excesses of government.
But one thing has remained constant for the man seeking to remake the country: he remains firmly loyal to his base and those who fervently support him.
Whether it is rewarding supporters in the Arab American community, including the mayors of Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck, with ambassadorships or appointing people with little or no qualifications to high-level positions in his administration, Trump has given the meaning of loyalty an added significance.
Though some of us don’t agree with many of Trump’s policies, he is basically fulfilling nearly every promise he made on the campaign trail and vows to do more to upend what his supporters call the “deep state.”
Contrast Trump’s commitment to meet the demands of those who have been in his corner to how Democrats have treated their supporters — especially the Black community. The party that constantly rolls out all kinds of promises to win support in the Black community during electoral battles is the last to meet the demands of chronically disenchanted voters.
Often, Black communities are promised that help is on the way in urban communities when Democrats are elected to national and statewide offices. Yet Black activists and others in the rank and file of the party have to demonstrate publicly against powerful White liberal politicians before that promise translates into meaningful support.
During elections, Black pastors are cajoled into giving invocations at party-led functions. Their churches become the sites of high-profile visits from liberal politicians who vow to bring relief to the struggling men and women who sit on those pews on Sundays before returning to their economic miseries during the week.
That is the last time those politicians will visit until the next election.
A classic example has been Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A Democratic star, Whitmer rose to power in 2018, convincing Black voters that she would be a different kind of governor. She vowed at a gubernatorial poverty town hall attended by all the Democratic candidates running for governor that she would, unlike past politicians in her party, finally address the issue of poverty by appointing the first-ever cabinet-level poverty secretary.
As the moderator of that town hall, I saw how Whitmer stood up and riled the audience at Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Detroit, not only with the promise of a cabinet secretary dedicated exclusively to poverty, but also with promises on a host of other issues.
After her election, she became the typical Democrat. She reneged on that key promise. No loyalty to the people who helped make her election possible. She moved on and left the crisis of economic inequality lurking behind in Michigan’s economically disenfranchised urban communities.
Even in choosing Garlin Gilchrist, the first Black lieutenant governor, the governor failed, using him only for her convenience.
When Whitmer was insisting on closing the only high school in the small urban community of Benton Harbor in 2019, she sent Gilchrist to double down on her proposal and basically talk to Black people about the realities of Benton Harbor’s educational challenges.
Most residents didn’t appreciate Gilchrist coming to put a Black face on the governor’s discredited educational proposal. Instead of Gilchrist showing that he has a political backbone by publicly disagreeing with the governor on an issue that underscores the complexity of race and education in the state, he obeyed his boss and tried to put out the political fire on her behalf.
Massive public outcry forced the governor to finally back down from a proposal that would have sent Benton Harbor into a downward spiral if the high school had been closed.
Now that it is Whitmer’s chance to return the loyalty, she is has so far not endorsed Gilchrist’s bid for governor.
Loyalty is not a word that Democrats adhere to in their political playbook. While the word conveys meaning for Trump, it has no meaning for Democrats. That partly explains the 2024 electoral disaster, which has placed the nation in uncharted waters today.
X (formerly Twitter): @BankoleDetNews
bankole@bankolethompson.com
Bankole Thompson’s columns appear on Mondays and Thursdays in The Detroit News.
