Similarly, this era of militant fundamentalist whiteness should force Americans to ask: Who needs dog whistles, or even legal institutions, when you have AR-15s, gas-powered golf carts, and “Keep America Great” flags?
Certainly not the millions of Americans like Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who, despite their wealth and advantages, have permitted themselves to be driven into paroxysms of fear and victimhood by their conservative white political benefactors. That fear—that they are no longer a silent majority, or a majority at all, assured of keeping what they have—has been brought to a crescendo by the pro-gun, anti-welfare right wing of American politicos who, four years ago, threw their support behind a scabrous, rapacious old bigot from Queens who once boasted that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue with impunity. The rest of us missed it, but when Trump said that, what a certain kind of armed American heard him say was that they could shoot someone in the middle of their Fifth Avenue. Trump’s desire to impose his will on other people by violence is what makes him relatable to the McCloskeys of America. You can only laugh so much at people this ridiculous and well-armed; the genius of the modern firearm is that even the inept can use it to kill. It’s like the presidency that way.