It seems that, even after becoming a national punchline and getting soundly schooled by President Obama himself at last year's White House Correspondents' Dinner, Donald Trump has yet to give up on the right wing fever dream that the president wasn't born in this country. Of course, Trump being Trump, we kind of know the score with him. With an ego that big, the idea of admitting a mistake isn't really on the table, especially after the way he went all-in and crowned himself Birther King, so the only path forward was to double-down, which he dutifully did in an interview with The Daily Beast.
For me, with Trump, as with Limbaugh, as with Beck, as with Hannity, and as with all of their ilk, it's really less about what they're saying than the fact that people are listening. Most of the talking head spectrum, right or left, has an investment in portraying themselves as the last bastons of the One Great Truth. That's how ratings work. I get it. But what about the politicians whose job isn't to rile people up against each other, but rather to actually work with folks they disagree with and get stuff done? What's their excuse? That's what came to mind when I saw that (presumed) Republican nominee Mitt Romney is attending Trump's fundraiser, passing up yet another chance to take a principled stand against his party's fringiest fringe.
"Obama is Kenyan." "Obama is Muslim." "Obama is a Socialist." Obama is anything that can cast him -- and, by extension, those who supported him -- as the "other," so folks on the far right can cling to the idea that no, we didn't elect a president they disagree with, we elected an illegitimate president. The system is wrong, not them. It's reactionism instead of reason. When we're able to shut out and "otherize" people, putting them and their views in a little box we don't have to acknowledge, the less compelled we are to solve our problems together. When the starting point of a conversation is calling the other side "demons" or "traitors" or "Communists," how can understanding even enter into the equation?
And yes, for the sake of fairness here, a lot of hot air does come from some in the so-called professional left. But let's also not kid ourselves about which side of the parisan divide the vast majority of vitriol emanates from. This is the same conclusion that Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein reached in a piece I linked to earlier this month, and it's also the conclusion arrived at by Michael Fumento, a Republican and former Reagan official now ostracized by his own party (much the same way former Bush speechwriter David Frum, another erudite and nuanced voice for the right, has been) thanks to its ever-increasing emphasis on hysterics and hysteria. Says Fumento for Salon:
Civility and respect for order -- nay, demand for order -- have always been tenets of conservatism. The most prominent work of history's most prominent conservative, Edmund Burke, was a reaction to the anger and hatred that swept France during the revolution. It would eventually rip the country apart and plunge all of Europe into decades of war. Such is the rotted fruit of mass-produced hate and rage. Burke, not incidentally, was a true Tea Party supporter, risking everything as a member of Parliament to support the rebellion in the United States.What we've seen in the last few years is the gradual and systematic transformation of the far right's pundit class into the mainstream right's elected class. Congressional representatives like Allen West, Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Joe "You lie!" Wilson and far too many others to properly enumerate, all of whom promote a kind of hysterical, fact-free dogmatism, have led us down the path to a kind of gridlock that's unprecedented in our system of governance. When you see the way things are now, and start looking at how things might get down the road, it gets pretty freaking terrifying. Worse, I don't know what the solution is.All of today's right-wing darlings got there by mastering what Burke feared most: screaming "J'accuse! J'accuse!" Turning people against each other. Taking seeds of fear, anger and hatred and planting them to grow a new crop.
As Fumento says later in the piece:
...the right-wing mass hysteria is what sociologists call a "moral panic." It occurs when a society is undergoing a wrenching transformation. Somebody then comes along and creates a "folk devil" both to provide an explanation for bad conditions, real or imagined, and a target. Kill the devil; eliminate the bad conditions. But the right has no serious incentive to help solve or ameliorate these problems. Indeed, as with the reelection of Obama, it will benefit from their continuation or worsening.In other words, strap yourself in, hold on tight, and expect to get some slop on you, because things are likely to get a whole lot worse before they have even a prayer of getting better. Great.
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Andy Ostroy: How About a Trump Boycott?
Douglas Anthony Cooper: David Frum's "Patriots": Revenge Served Hot
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 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
From my perch up here, I fear for all the working poor who are too busy to see what is coming.......let alone what has already happened to, their ability to earn a living wage. The rich have decided the enemy is anyone who DARE compromise their drug......power! How else can you explain anyone voting against their own well being, out of fear, believing the "other" is after them and what little they have left.....all the while never having 5 minutes peace to think about WHO/WHAT took away their middle income wage in the 1st place, and how they are now the addicts, (power addicted) enablers......believing that voting against their own interests, and that that will somehow bring back their living wage, like it was in the 50's.
When you never seem to get caught up, no matter how hard you try and save and do the "right" thing, its shocking what tired and broke people can be convinced
to do.
That is the conclusion: right wing mass hysteria!
It also seems that it is something that some populations have a better chance of becoming desensitized to, just as there are some populations which seem prone to become hyper-sensitized for.
I wonder if anyone has done research on on this within the US.
If someone knows, and had a link to share, I would be grateful and curious to read it.
I would refer you to Bill Bishop's 2009 book "The Big Sort." For the last 30 years we have been sorting ourselves into like-minded communities, districts, states and regions. We are now more politically divided than even during the period right before the Civil War.
The result is safe congressional districts where the incumbent not only has no inclination to compromise he/she can't on threat of being unelected.
What do we do about it?
On June 13, 2009 an article by Paul Starobin titled "Divided We Stand" appeared in the Wall Street Journal. (I would link to it, but the link never works. Just Google the article and it will take you right to it.)
In it Starobin points out the US has gotten too large and demographically diverse to govern either efficiently or effectively. He recommends dividing into homogeneous regions for the purpose of governing everything within them except defense, foreign relations and certain treasury functions.
Voluntary self-Balkanization, a term I lifted from a very clever HuffPoster, (VSB for short) was a given the minute we could see, hear and read only that with which we agreed 24/7. This is not a genie we can put back in the bottle. It happened in the USSR, and it can quite easily happen here. The only difference is that Americans are far more likely to peacefully manage the devolution instead of letting the devolution violently manage us.
http://www.rense.com/general37/fascism.htm
Anything on that list look familiar?
Be afraid, America, be very afraid....................it's later than we think.
"Those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it"
Beginning with former President 40, and through 43, presidential actions was initiated to remove Muammar Gaddafi. In addition, during the Contra Congressional hearings, many Americans were introduced to the name of OBL. It was the explanation given for the tax payer funded $9(M) bill to pay for a home security system. Actions taken during that time did not result in OBL being removed from the battle field.
President 44: Both Muammar Gaddafi and OBL were removed from the battle field.
Republican hopeful Willard Romney supporter Donald Trump offered to host Muammar Gaddafi by allowing him to pitch his tent on Mr. Trump’s property. The push back is halted that project. I can imagine if George Soros was on the national stage with President Obama and Mr. Soros had offered to allow Mr. Gaddafi to pitch his tent. The right’s head would be popping.
Individuals on the right want to continue saying it’s about policy that they object to. On any President’s watch events happens, but the truth is the right’s hatred is not about policy
Let's just hope we "others" wake up, beat the drums and not let the deranged, unstable, babbling, evangelical, right wing, Tea Baggers keep winning elections. Get out and vote, don't be complacent. The closer we get to a 100% voter participation rate the greater Obama's winning margin. The fringe right might be loud but in the overall scheme of things there aren't that many. Voter turn out is the key!
Unfortunately for Liberals, there are enough of them to create gridlock in Congress--approximately as many Conservatives as Liberals. Ergo, both political ideologies are extremely valid and equally contradictory.
Sorry, but the only way forward is devolution. Conservatives get their government and Liberals get theirs. Possibly they share defense, foreign relations and some treasury functions but that's about it.
Within my lifetime--and I am 65--I foresee a Constitutional Convention for just this purpose. We are about to find out the limits of gridlock before January 1, because that is when the ex--cre--ment hits the rotary oscillator. The Bush tax cuts expire, sequester kicks in and the alternative minimum tax ends as does the doc fix for Medicare.
Of course Congress could just declare impasse and kick the can down the road to 2013, but eventually we will have to deal with our deficit, budget and tax code. I am not so sure the US as presently constituted will survive it.
I sure hope I'm wrong.
The Tea Party rallied on the Washington Mall, cleaned up after themselves and went home peacefully. OWS trashed downtown Oakland, declared anarchy and were finally violently evicted by police.
Both sides have had horrendously messy and perfectly clean protesting. Lemon and cherry-picking them is pretty much pointless, especially when you compare the 'completed peacefully' to 'Raided by police' and judge them by cleanliness.
And let's not forget a lot of the violence against OWS was...excessive force instigated by the cops. As seen in New York, UC Davis, Oakland at times, and many other venues. Not because of a left or right thing, but "I'm the governor/mayor and man this is making me look bad to have people this pissed off on my doorstep" thing.
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/holder-brief-black-pastors-campaign-2012/567501