Trump treads tired GOP road to Philadelphia

Presidential campaigns are about policy but also about symbolism. In 1980, Ronald Reagan kicked off his in one of the unlikeliest places in the country: the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, MS. That backwater northeast of Jackson, would never have been on the Reagan radar except for its grotesque place in history for the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers there. Reagan made sure the 30,000 white Mississippians heard his pledge to protect states rights; his coded way of saying he had their backs in their effort to keep their foot on the backs of black Mississippians. The ploy did not go unnoticed as Reagan swept the Solid Democratic South (except for Jimmy Carter's home state of Georgia) which changed parties in response to Democratic led civil rights legislation.

thirty-six years on we're confronted with possibly the most implicitly racist presidential candidkate in history; that of the white nationalists' hero Donald J. Trump. Whether implying all Mexicans are rapists and a Mexican judge can't grant him justice, implying no Muslims can be trusted and must be kept out of America, or feigning ignorance of well known KKK veteran and sympathizer David Duke who endorsed him, Trump's racist chops are undeniable. And guess where Trump surrogate and namesake Donald Jr. made a campaign appearance three days before the official campaign start following the Democratic Convention? Yep, that obscure backwater in a solid Trump state that doesn't need a single Trump appearance; Philadelphia, MS.
Junior fired up the mostly all white crowd by defending their support for the Mississippi flag taken down at the Democratic Convention in the more tolerant Philadelphia, because it still contains the Confederate Battle Flag within. "I believe in tradition. I don’t see a lot of the nonsense that’s been created about that (flag). I understand how some people feel but … there’s nothing wrong with some tradition.” If supporting continuation of the the Old White South was not enough, Junior expressed amazement about retracing Reagan's 1980 footsteps in Philadelphia, even noting the "similarities of the campaigns."

No overt racism for the Trump clan this election season. It's all about dog whistles and symbolism. The aging demographic of dead-ender white folks who've never recovered from eight years under a black president and dread the prospect of eight years under a female, get the Trump boys' message load and clear.

To paraphrase W.C. Fields, 'all things considered...I'd rather not be in Philadelphia, MS.'