The Trump effect: what would it mean to grow up during a Trump presidency?

I'm a little late to it, but Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post opined last week about the effect that she believes Donald Trump is already having on behavior of school children who have been exposed to either the words of Donald Trump himself, or his words filtered through their parents.

“Build the wall!” That was the chant at a high school basketball game in Indiana last week, directed by kids from a majority-white school who held up Trump signs and yelled at the opposing players and fans, who were from a predominantly Latino school.

"Get ’em out!" is what Trump screams at rallies when he sees Black Lives Matter and other protesters, even silent ones. This is not far off from what some third-graders allegedly said to two brown-skinned classmates in their Northern Virginia classroom. The mother of one of the children, Evelyn Momplaisir, posted an account on Facebook:

I just got a call from my son’s teacher giving me a heads up that two of his classmates decided to point out the 'immigrants' in the class who would be sent 'home' when Trump becomes president. They singled him out and were pointing and laughing at him as one who would have to leave because of the color of his skin. In third grade . . . in Fairfax County . . . in 2016!

Fairfax County school officials confirmed the account. “The teacher has spoken with the students, and communicated with parents of the class, regarding appropriate classroom decorum,” said John Torre, a spokesman for the school system. “FCPS works to create an environment that is conducive to learning and where everyone is treated with respect.”

Are these just a few bad apples? I don't know. But I've seen the footage of Trump rallies, and I know what's being said. And we insult our own intelligence if we think this kind of rhetoric isn't feeding a very dark and very dirty message to our kids.

I believe the cat is already out of the bag with a wide swath of Republican voters. Trump has sold public civility at fire-sale prices to serve his own ends. There really isn't any going back from that. This newly consolidated, energized bloc of voters are now a community that will reinforce each others' message and teach the message to their children.

I keep thinking about someone I met in New Orleans over a decade ago while passing through with a friend on our way to do field research in Central America. My friend suggested we stop by his uncle's place while we waited for our flight. He warned me, "He's pretty conservative, and from a different world, so maybe don't stick your neck out by saying anything too provocative." I decided to more or less keep my mouth shut.

My friend's uncle was a very gracious host. He offered us food and I gave him a nice bottle of bourbon as an advance gift for putting us up in his house on our return trip. We talked about hunting and fishing, their family, old times, and what it was like to run a small business in a town like New Orleans (pre-Katrina). And my friend and I watched him finish off my bottle of bourbon at an alarming rate.

As I suppose can happen in those moments, the conversation turned to the n*****s (sorry, Louis CK) on the other side of the flood control canal who could never be trusted and would rob you blind if you didn't watch your back. I was stunned to silence. I might have chuckled nervously. After all, I was eating his food and would be sleeping in his house in a week or so, so just walking out wasn't an option. He had plenty to say on the subject, which eventually meandered to a wide ranging discussion of the evils of liberalism, and then communism (oddly). I remember saying, "Hey, I'm not a communist or a socialist, but isn't it a good idea to protect labor? Not everyone can be a wealthy industrialist, and the wealthy industrialist needs labor."

And then he said, "My daddy always said communism's evil. You callin' my daddy a liar?" OK, drunk guy ... got it.

Child members of the Italian Fascist youth organization Opera Nazionale Balilla. Hyperbole? Maybe, maybe not. (source)

We know that the cultural leanings of parents have a strong influence on those of their children. The influence extends from the community and nation as well (on the positive side, see the Boy and Girl Scouts; on the negative side, see Italy's Fascist Youth, and Germany's Hitler Youth in the 1930s and 1940s). It's tied to the newspapers and magazines that are found around the house, the TV channels viewed, the radio listened to, and perhaps most importantly the kinds of cultural problems faced by their families. It's guided by what's heard in school. And if the stakes are high, and the odds of domestic catastrophe feel a little too close for comfort, then the simplest scapegoats are the first to be hit. The best demagogues know how to facilitate that. Trump, if anything, is an excellent demagogue. He knows that it's easier for his followers to fight for scraps under the table than to fight for a seat.

And when that influence goes on for long enough (in the case of Trump for almost a year), it has a lasting effect. Mussolini's little fascists may have recanted in adulthood, possibly even felt shame in what they did as children (or what their parents and community guided them into doing), but the longer they lurked under its umbra, the more that shadow felt like home. Who are we to call their daddies liars?