Two Rails Are Safe, Let's Try The Third

I figure that every country has an issue that just never goes away. It's an issue that somehow touches all other issues, and gets brought up in connection with things you'd never expect. It's something everyone tries to stay away from - not out of political correctness, but just because everyone knows that if you bring it up, you'll never hear the end of it. And this is why it's so hard to understand the politics of a country other than your own: there's this one issue everyone is thinking about and reacting to, but not mentioning.

In Canada, that issue is language. I've seen it trip up Americans, in the few times they try to talk about us. They know we have French people, and to them, The French are an easy joke target. So they say something in jest, and then wonder why everyone reacts like a war crime has been committed.

In Britain, the issue is class. And in the U.S., it's race. They try to ignore it out downplay it, but it never goes away.

But speaking of things that are controversial and never go away, Donald Trump. He's entered another iteration of his cycle of offensive statement/free publicity/more support. As usual, that middle step consists of the media asking if he's gone too far this time. Pundit Jeet Heer pointed out the folly of this question by pointing out that were asking if a guy sorted by racists will lose his support because he just said something racist.

Normally, I'd be as pessimistic as Heer on this, but I think that if Trump is ever going to lose his infallibility, this is it. Of course, is for the reason I outlined at the start: he's now taking on America's raw nerve of racial issues. Yes, overt racism against Mexicans and Muslims turn on his supporters and don't offend the mainstream to any significant degree. But now he's exaggerating black crime, and defending the attack on a black demonstrator by his supporters.

I don't think that's going to go over the same way, just because this isn't the same kind of issue. Yes, I know, politicians in the US have been using race baiting for years. But they've always dressed that up to make it palletable. Trump's modus operandi is to come right out and say what the bigots are thinking.
If he does that here, it may finally be the end. We'll likely find that many of his supporters are no longer comfortable as racist if it's what they think of as the "real" kind of racist, not just hating foreigners. Also, the relatively mainstream forces currently giving Trump tacit approval (big donors and cable channels) might dessert him. After all, we know from the past that overt hatred of African-Americans is one of the few things that money and Fox News will not defend you from.