Donald Trump on Wednesday said Americans “living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream” will no longer be “bothered” by low-income housing in their communities, an explicit effort to stoke racial fears among affluent, white voters who are abandoning the Republican party under his leadership.
The remark is part of a pattern from the US president as he tries to rebuild his standing in the suburbs, which has cratered amid his administration’s failure to contain the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession as well as the president’s aggressive response to the nationwide protests against systemic racism, which polls suggest most Americans support.
“I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood….,” Trump tweeted, as he traveled to Texas on Wednesday. “Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!”
The tweet references Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, an Obama-era program designed to combat racial segregation in American suburbs. The rule, implemented in 2015, requires cities and towns that receive federal funding to identify patterns of racial bias and take corrective action to address discrimination.
Last week, the administration announced it would rescind the program, agreeing with conservative critics that the fair-housing policy amounted to federal overreach into local communities.
In the announcement, the housing and urban development secretary, Ben Carson, called the program “complicated, costly and ineffective” and said it would be replaced by a new rule, called “Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice”.
Trump had previewed his administration’s plan to gut the policy earlier this month, a day after he posted a video of an angry, white couple who brandished firearms in the direction of protesters who marched past their mansion inside a gated community in St Louis. The couple were later charged with unlawful use of a weapon.
Once a cornerstone of the Republican base, suburban voters and particularly suburban women will probably play a crucial role in determining control of the Senate and White House.
Democrats gained control of the House in 2018’s midterm elections by storming through once-Republican districts from California and Texas to Virginia and Georgia. Current polling shows Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, buoyed in part by his support from college-educated women and suburban voters.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll found Biden ahead of Trump by nine percentage points among suburbanites. Among suburban women, Biden led Trump by a margin of 60% to 36%. By contrast, Biden narrowly edges past Trump among suburban men, 49% to 45%.
In recent weeks, Trump has shed any semblance of subtlety in his appeals to this constituency.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
