The White Idea of Manifest Destiny

It starts like this. In October 2020, at a rally in Arizona, Donald Trump made a statement in which he said, "I don't believe we're going to have to do this, but if we have to, we’re going to be counting ballots for the next two years... and we're not going to lose this. God is going to come down and say, 'This is enough; we’re not going to let it happen.'" Further, Donald Trump made a statement during an interview with Dr. Phil, saying, “If Jesus Christ came down and were the vote counter, I would win California, OK?” the former President added later. “In other words, if we had an honest vote counter, a really honest vote counter — I do great with Hispanics, great, I mean at a level no Republican has ever done. But if we had an honest vote counter, I would win California.” His statements are simply delusional, but not in the minds of his supporters. A belief in their superiority takes them in.

Recently, actor Wendel Price called out Barack Obama for Obama’s criticisms of black men not supporting Harris/ Walz. The former President called him and discussed his comments. Later, I saw Wendell Price on CNN, and he reiterated that he was frustrated that black men were singled out during every election cycle as a problem for Democrats. He said very simply, “black men are not the problem.” He said more. His view is that candidate and/or party shouldn’t matter. Each voter should decide what they want, not who they choose, but what. I completely agree.

The idea that the vote of black men is monolithic borders on the same level of delusion as Trump’s. I know the complexity of the logic indicating that all black men should vote a certain way. However, the idea that color should dictate vote is disrespectful at the start and becomes even worse the more we think about it. How is it that we single out black men this way? Think about it. We know the answer, don’t we? Several things come to mind. Do we think all black men are the same? Do we believe the color of their skin defines them? Do we think their intelligence limits their ability to vote based on their beliefs and life experiences? Let’s face a hard truth. The idea that all black men should vote a certain way is just one more racial trope that diminishes them.

In my years here and over one hundred posts, I have used facts and logic in taking a stand against MAGA, Trump, and the right at large. I’ve implied and even plainly stated that America’s problem is white people at large and white men in particular. I’ll also say that nothing I have said here has swayed a single Republican Trumper to change. I know my limitations. At the same time, I know I am an intensely logical thinker who can construct a position and present it in a way that can and should win an argument and change a person’s mind on an issue.

That does not happen, and we see it in polls that show the 2024 election is a tie, a dead heat. My first presidential election was in 1972, and our choice has never been so wide or so clear. Apart from policy, party affiliation, or any other metric, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are better human beings than Trump and Vance. Yet, millions of Americans would argue otherwise and will vote for the so-called “Republican” ticket. (Republican is inside quotes for a reason. These are NOT Republicans.) So, where does this illogical, bordering on insane positions about voting and, further, about our America originate?

It is a white problem. It is the rebirth, as if it ever died, of Manifest Destiny. Trump knows this. Vance knows this. Every reprehensible Republican like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz knows this. White men believed that God chose them in America’s westward expansion. White men thought it was God’s will to massacre Native Americans. White men believed it was God’s will to enslave Africans and to engage in the business of human trafficking for cheap labor and profit. Manifest Destiny, white superiority was the American Way. In the hearts and minds of Trump, MAGA, white evangelicals, and millions of everyday Americans, those ideas still live, breathe, and drive illogical and detrimental voting choices.

I go back to the first paragraph. Trump knows the immense power of invoking the names God and Jesus. He knows this history better than the American public. He knows that poor grandmothers all over America sent part of their limited incomes to charlatans like Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggert, and too many others like them. He knows that poor white people who support people like them will also stand with him no matter what he does or what he says. This is Manifest Destiny, rooted in white superiority in its most powerful form. That is what we fight. That is what we stand against. That is why we must win.