The Clubhouse

In March of 2016 Phyllis Schlafly endorsed Donald J. Trump for the presidency of the United States. This icon of American conservatism spoke with certainty that President Barak Obama was trying to fundamentally transform our country and that Trump was the one to stop him. Ninety-one-year-old Schlafly saw Trump as the last hope for a great America. A few months later, she died. In her sixty-some years of advocacy she led anticommunist movements in support of McCarthyism, stomped for Barry Goldwater in his bid for the presidency, was instrumental in defeating the Equal Rights Amendment, and fought to put Ronald Reagan in the White House. Her ringing endorsement of Trump singled out his tough stance against immigrants and his ban on Muslims entering the country. Trump was her strongman in the fight against equal rights, immigration, and religious tolerance. Schlafly represented an America steeped in white-male, evangelical Christian traditions and Trump became her dying hope for the America she loved.

America is an ideal; a relentless struggle to create a free nation for all. Its great promise is one of equality, religious freedom, justice, individual rights, diversity, and pursuit of the common good. America upholds these ideals, but their execution has been second-rate. Trump’s presidency, which is unconstrained by norms and decency, has laid open to the world the vileness that has long plagued the American dream. Trumpism butchers the truth, promotes falsehoods, attacks the free press, sides with despots, promotes white supremacy, demeans women and minorities, and undermines democratic institutions to maintain white, male, evangelical dominance over the common good of all Americans. Slavery, genocide, anti-immigration movements, Jim Crow, lynching, citizen internments, McCarthyism, white-supremacy movements, anti-feminism movements, attacks and bans on religious groups are forerunners to Trumpism. Such actions are fraught with malice.

America has forever stumbled on the all in all men are created equal. Why? Because there is a WHITE MALES ONLY sign above the clubhouse door. Over two hundred years of bitter struggle have gone into tearing down this sign. And still the fight goes on. For the whole of the American citizenry, claiming equality in status, rights, and opportunities has not – and still does not – come easily. Policies, laws, and constitutional amendments have had to be instituted and continually defended to open the clubhouse to everyone. Businesses, agencies, organizations, and local governments often write non-discrimination policies in support of total inclusion. These policies are meant to guarantee that equality is to be exercised without discrimination of any kind based on race, skin color, sex, gender, religion, or national origin. But Trumpism is determined not to let non-discrimination happen. A great America is a white, evangelical America under male dominance. This is what Schlafly fought for and in Trump found her heir.

Schlafly, an organization maven, probably never imagined the disarray that defines Trump’s chaotic, dysfunctional presidency. She did not live to witness the vileness of his governing; his raging attacks on democratic institutions; his recklessness in making decisions; his nationalistic, nativist agenda; and his incompetence in leadership with its racist, sexist, xenophobic overtones. But like his other ardent followers, she might not have minded; because despite his amoral ineptness and deceit, he is the bouncer they want at the clubhouse door. He fervently guards white, evangelical America against all intruders. Schlafly may have felt the supremacy of this America dying when she christened Trump its last hope.

The American promise embraces the refugee, offering a haven for rebirth in a new land. But not for those the bouncer declares to be intruders. Trumpism prefers that you come from places like Norway rather than from Muslim countries or countries south of the border. But the battered, old WHITE MALES ONLY sign now hangs by only one nail. That stubborn nail is the white-evangelical movement that endorses Trumpism in hopes of maintaining supremacy over women and minorities. Under the guise of Christianity, the movement pushes back against those who have the audacity to demand entrance to the clubhouse. Despite the constant pushback, the American desire for total inclusion runs deep. The principles of America’s founding documents are core values; not fully implemented, but nevertheless guiding what it means to be a nation for all.

Then there is the audacity of the idea. To think that all could include everyone. Not even America’s founders thought so, although Abigail Adams did ask John not to forget the women in the fight for freedom. That he ignored the idea may speak to the absurdity that everyone can be included in the clubhouse. Yet, here we are, these many years later, trying to make it so. Why? Because most Americans believe it to be true, want it to be true, and strive to make it true. They know that all people are worthy, deserve freedom, and have rights that the nation can guarantee. We are individuals gathered under a common government for our common good; a self-governing nation of laws for all who seek refuge.

Obama wresting the clubhouse door from its hinges was the transformation of America that Schlafly feared. He personally knows what it means to be locked out, and his election was an affront to those who want to keep the White House white. Trumpism has done its best to undo the Obama presidency, which had picked up the cause for equality that America’s founders had laid down, striking a raw nerve among white supremacists. The reign of white male power was waning under Obama, altering America’s cultural and political landscapes. Schlafly did not want this for her country.

Now women and minorities are tilling new ground in the landscape of justice, freedom, and natural rights. Trumpism is a last-ditch effort to put the clubhouse door back on its hinges. But it is too late. As America fumbles at the open door to put up a welcome sign for everyone, the declaration that all men are created equal voices encouragement in the face of the bouncer. Trumpism be damned! We ALL must be equal under the law to pursue happiness in a just and free society for America to succeed.