The Platinum Gamble

Since Labor Day, the Trump campaign has changed direction. It has decided that the president might need the support of some minorities to win re-election. The question is: how can you convince people to vote for a candidate who has often disrespected you or your racial group?  Apparently President Trump hopes that you won't notice or don't have any degree of racial solidarity. Luckily for him Asians, African Americans and Latinos are not singular monoliths.  

Surveys and existing research suggests that Filipinos will vote Republican more than any Asian group. There are also some Southeast Asians, especially Indians, who are leaning Republican, and despite the increase of racial hostilities, there are still Chinese voters supporting a man who has called COVID 19 the "China Virus." However, the Trump team is banking most of its energies on African Americans and Latinos.  If Trump maintains or surpasses his 2016 percentage of the Black and Latinx vote, he might be successful in November. President Trump already knows that surveys indicate the percentages of Blacks and Latinx support for Joe Biden are less than for Hillary Clinton in 2016. So, in a last ditch effort to woo African American and Latinx voters, the president started tossing out bones to drown out his dog whistles. Last week, in the course of one day he made three campaign stops. He visited Florida, Georgia and Washington D.C. with the added purpose of seeking minority votes.

Before the September mission, he made typical overtures to Florida's Cuban American voters by inviting Cuban born businessman Maximo Alvarez, Senator Ted Cruz, and Senator Marco Rubio to speak at the Republican National Convention. It didn't harm nor hurt his chances. However, then he picked up the pace promising billions of hurricane support to Puerto Rico on the third anniversary of Hurricane Maria (September 2017) to secure Florida's and New York's refugee Puerto Rican communities.

In Florida, he reaffirmed his pledges to Cubans and Puerto Ricans before going to a summit in Atlanta. And while there, he introduced his Platinum Plan for Black Americans.  This plan suggests that the administration will dedicate $550 billion dollars towards assisting African Americans. The president is promising to make Juneteenth a national holiday, create 3 million new jobs, unlock capital to African Americans, address disparities in health and education, offer school choice, provide criminal justice reform and create favorable situations for black farmers, manufacturers and businesses (September 25, 2020).

While the plan is filled with lots of promises and hopeful rewards, it rings hollow with details. If some of these ideas had been presented, developed and established before 2020, I am sure there would be significant African American support for the plan. Offering this "deal" two months before an election is a gamble. It certainly rattles cages, but will the animals move?

One should question if this the Trump idea of Reparations? Review the plan at: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/media/president-trump-releases-the-platinum-plan-for-black-americans-opportunity-security-prosperity-and-fairness

Personally, I don't think the plan received the attention or scrutiny that it deserved. News medias brushed over the plan with little fanfare, giving the perception that they saw it as a bluff. However, in evaluating the plan there are some good points and it does attempt to build on things that President Trump claims he has done for blacks including his criminal justice reform work and support for historical black colleges and universities. 

Hence, my criticisms are not only about the plan itself but also the messenger. I am hardly a skeptical person, but this made me laugh. I think while delivering the address the president silently chuckled too. We can agree that the plan seems like a bait and switch. Can't you hear President Trump saying: "Vote for me and I might possibly do a lot for you." "What do you have to lose?" After all, "I have done more for blacks than any president besides Abraham Lincoln." 

The sad state of racial affairs demonstrates that neither party has an answer for the ills of this society. However, the Democratic Party has a lock on minority votes because it offers something while the Republicans offer nothing. Sadly only wealthy minorities have good reasons to vote Republican. Perhaps President Trump thought the Platinum Plan could break that cycle. Given the fanfare of his presentation, the president expected a positive response to his plan.  Instead nothing happened - it only received some favorable press on Fox News. Commentators on CNN and MSNBC somewhat laughed it off.  Thus the plan never gained traction and voters, neither black nor white, were not polled about it. It is not even clear how many people heard about the plan.

Undaunted, the president quickly moved on to other big plans. He introduced his Supreme Court nominee and prepared for the first Presidential Debate. I assumed that somewhere in the course of the debate President Trump would attempt to use the plan to weaken Joe Biden's appeal to the black mainstream. Instead the debate was a fiasco! Trump did not make an appeal to black voters or other minorities. The plan was not mentioned and he wasted potential social capital yelling over Biden. His performance was a show for his base. It was an attempt to make Biden crack and seem small. He did not achieve his goal and portrayed himself as the bully not the healer. It became obvious that the unmentioned Platinum Plan was little more than a stunt.

I was deeply disappointed that the president did not offer a plan that he introduced days before. It makes one question why someone spent so much time crafting this proposal? I was also angered by the tone of debate and the president's tactics. However, it provided the proof that all black voters should heed. A man who cannot disavow white supremacy is not going to offer a plan to help blacks! This is the same person who at one of his rallies, the day after the debate, claimed that poor blacks/minorities were ruining the suburban experience. And it is the same man who had two chances to offer support, but chose not to do so in the presence of a national audience or his base. His supporters would argue that did denounce white supremacy during a debate, but we misunderstood his words. They would also say he did it again on a friendly (Hannity) television show three days later. 

There is no question that the president is a gambler. He has bet on himself throughout his career and he has always won, even when it appears he has lost. Losing millions on his businesses but then paying no taxes has made him into a genius with some of his biggest fans. A twice divorced playboy has become a spiritual leader among some evangelicals. Trump in many eyes, in spite of what he has said and done, and continues to say and do, still has the aura of a shining star.

In this case, Trump is gambling against himself. In the process, he is asking his base to remain quiet while he pledges support to the other side. And they will because the base knows the truth. President Trump will offer nothing to black voters. The base smiles at blacks standing at rallies with "Blacks for Trump" signs. However, a core of that base cheers whenever the president supplies a dog whistle. Trump calls out to his black supporters solely for the benefit of the cameras. He huddles with black leaders for additional photo opportunities. Praying with black ministers means nothing to the president. It is all part of "the art of the deal." Donald Trump is always working a crowd, and in this case it is a group of black pawns surrounded by many who hate and despise them. Blacks can do little for Donald Trump except to give him their votes. In essence, Trump is race-baiting both sides, and either way he is going to win.

Trump, the so-called populist president, would have you believe that he is the people's president. This plan is more closely aligned to a 1960s Democratic Party platform. It goes against a wide range of conservative values. The Platinum Plan is very expensive, and at first glance has the potential for waste. Strangely, it is an affirmative action plan from a man who does not believe in Affirmative Action. It speaks about criminal justice reform from a president who has yet to discuss the protests against police brutality, but has continually praised police forces. It speaks of support for HBCUs when a good majority of the black colleges and universities are parts of state systems. It offers black churches opportunities for federal funding in spite of the separation of church and state. 

The plan can also be seen as supporting a separatist mindset. Trump is making distinctions between white and black criminals, white and black college students, white and black churches, and white and black farmers and businessmen. For example, farmers and businesses across the nation have been suffering for years and it has only gotten worse since COVID. How can the president suddenly support one group of citizens at the expense of another? That was once called reverse-racism.

A deeper dive points out the obvious - each part of this plan will require large numbers of Republican and Democratic votes.  Can the president secure these votes? Will the House and Senate both be dominated by Democrats? This looks extremely risky. Trump has no guarantees that if he wins re-election that he will have the needed congressional support to effect wholesale racial change.

Juneteenth is directly linked to slavery. It is linked to that institution in ways that make points in the 1619 Project valid. Didn't the president and Senator Cotton recently denounce the 1619 Project being taught in schools? Didn't they say they wanted a positive American history so that children will feel proud to be Americans? How many southern state governments and white southerners will want to validate a holiday that reaffirms the removal of Confederate statues? Besides, presidents cannot make holidays legal. Making Juneteenth a national holiday is also a congressional assignment, once passed it requires the signature of the president. Creating national holidays is costly for the federal government as well as employers. Most private companies will not be in favor of paying workers for another day off. Besides don't blacks already have a holiday in January? 

School choice revisits busing and the problems of the 1960s and 1970s. President Nixon brought an effective end to federally mandated busing in 1975. What President Trump appears to be promoting is not the type of school choice that Secretary DeVos supports. Black parents want equalized educational opportunities and that means a complete overhaul of the current public education system. Northerners and Southerners (rural, urban and suburban) are clearly not going to support school choice in states where property taxes fund schools. The president recently told his base that poor minorities are destroying the suburban experience. Doesn't this also apply to schools? 

In reality, it is hard to understand the logic in presenting the Platinum Plan. At heart, it is contradictory to the Republican and Trumpian ideologies. It obviously cannot work in a divided nation. Most Americans are not going to support a destruction of the status quo. At best, the president can say he tried to make changes but Congress did not support him. At worst none of these ideas will be viewed favorably by the public and the president will have to abandon them. Either way, I doubt that this plan - ill conceived as a last minute gimmick - has any hope.

Yet, what if I was optimistic? What if America, surprisingly, was in favor of the plan? Should we believe that President Trump would initiate these changes after the election? That becomes a matter of trust, and past history provides some clues. Is there a reason why African Americans and Latinx communities, groups that were hardest hit by COVID, should trust a man who consistently says that this disease is a hoax and will just disappear? Should they support a man who has received the best medical treatment in the world telling them to resist the disease? And as the tragedy of COVID infections swirl around the White House, does it seem like his administration will work harder to ease the burdens of struggling Americans, especially the black and brown ones? Honestly, in light of all that has happened in the last four years, does Donald Trump seem like the type of person truly willing to assist blacks? 

Perhaps a fully recovered President Trump will be a different person. Unfortunately, I see nothing to suggest that outcome. Indeed, President Trump encourages my pessimism. No one, in my estimation, should believe the sincerity of this plan. However, I know some people will, and their support may help Trump get to or past the 10% of the black vote that he needs to get re-elected. He may also get sympathetic COVID support from black and brown voters who are praying for his recovery. 

I am not a gambler, but I am willing to bet if Donald Trump is re-elected, especially with that greater percentage of black and brown vote, that not one aspect of this plan will see the light of day.