Trump and the ‘racist nickname’

The quote “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”. is attributed to one Samuel Johnson.  I believe the more appropriate, up-to-date quote should be “RACISM is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

If your position is untenable, if you have nothing else better to say, you scream “Racism!”  That usually does the trick of shutting up and shutting down your opponent. (Who wants to be known as “racist”? )

The label “communist” used to be the reputation-killer.  Now, it’s apparently not so bad to be communist. 

Mrs. Mitch McConnell, aka long-time swamp-dweller and establishment figure Elaine Chao, is touring all over the drive-by media claiming President Trump gave her a ‘racist nickname.’  (I know he gave her a cabinet appointment.) Quite the pity party.

Most of the drive-by accounts don’t actually tell you what Trump’s ‘racist nickname’ was. After doing a little digging, I found that Trump called Mrs. McConnell (1) “China-loving and (2) “CoCo Chow.”

Racist, eh?  Hmmmmm …

First, there is a good case for describing her as “China-loving.”  She is a native of China, and her family’s business does a lot of business with Red China.

She has developed a rep as a China apologist, and her husband has carried a lot of water for Red China on Capitol Hill.  Brilliant conservative investigative reporter Peter Schweizer, in his book “Red Handed”, detailed how cozy Mitch McConnell, his wife, and a lot of other DC figures on both sides of the aisle are with communist China.

Second, the Coco nickname is based on a white French lady.  We really have failed on teaching history to our young people.  This is yet another example illustrating that failure.  CoCo Chanel was a prominent international figure and French fashion designer during the early 20th century.  She took some grief for being somewhat sympathetic to the Nazi regime in Germany.  

At the time,  Nazi Germany was the number one enemy of freedom in the world.  Today, Red China is filling that role.  Chanel was accused of carrying water for the Nazis.  Peter Schweizer and, apparently, Trump are suggesting that Chao does the same for the Red Chinese.

Misspelling her last name is racist? True, Trump did spell her name as “Chow” on his social media post, as opposed to how she spells it: “Chao.”  But is that necessarily racist?

You could attribute it to auto-correct.  (That damned function inserts typos into my writing all the time.)

Also consider that Arabic, Asian, Russian, and Greek languages use radically different alphabets from ours.  Most of their words do not translate cleanly to our alphabet.  The English spelling of the foreign word usually ends up being in the eye of the English-speaking beholder.  Quite often, you get foreign words anglicized with different spellings — like “Chao” and “Chow.”

Trump does not confide in me. So, I don’t know for sure what the correct answer is.  But I’ve been more honest and open on this “story” than the drive-bys and their “Never-Trump” sources have been.

Joe Biden actually fought against busing in the effort to desegregate schools.  He actually got caught on tape, during a campaign appearance, doing an impression of an Indian convenience store owner speaking English. All stuff that would automatically ruin or disqualify a Republican or conservative. But HE is not racist, apparently.