"I am your voice", Donald Trump proclaimed to the world from a stage last night, the final night of the Republican National Convention. His dark, apocalyptic speech was from the grammar of a cult and evoked memories of another time and revolution: China under Chairman Mao.
The words that follow, "I am your voice", are: "If you don't listen to me, you will be punished." Mao, the autocrat, feared attack from all directions. The Little Red Book, filled with his aphorisms, served as a way to congeal ideology like a hardened shield.
The GOP has devolved into a political party that uses the Constitution as the same hardened shield as the Little Red Book: to rigidly enforce orthodoxies that guarantee corporate power under protections of individual freedom. Trump had the gut instinct to take the shield and make it his own.
Mao fit the mold of empire. And Trump does, too, in the unacknowledged change of the American experience. Still, we never had a candidate from a major political party so unqualified to be president. Trump has no experience in formation of public policy, he has never served in public office, and his record in business is mainly successful by gaming contractual relationships.
His was an narrow way to wealth, but it fits the thin keyhole that is today's Republican Party.
American voters will punish a party whose ideas have run out of gas except as a vehicle for the nation's largest polluting industries. The United States will not vote the cult of Donald Trump for president.
The words that follow, "I am your voice", are: "If you don't listen to me, you will be punished." Mao, the autocrat, feared attack from all directions. The Little Red Book, filled with his aphorisms, served as a way to congeal ideology like a hardened shield.
The GOP has devolved into a political party that uses the Constitution as the same hardened shield as the Little Red Book: to rigidly enforce orthodoxies that guarantee corporate power under protections of individual freedom. Trump had the gut instinct to take the shield and make it his own.
Mao fit the mold of empire. And Trump does, too, in the unacknowledged change of the American experience. Still, we never had a candidate from a major political party so unqualified to be president. Trump has no experience in formation of public policy, he has never served in public office, and his record in business is mainly successful by gaming contractual relationships.
His was an narrow way to wealth, but it fits the thin keyhole that is today's Republican Party.
American voters will punish a party whose ideas have run out of gas except as a vehicle for the nation's largest polluting industries. The United States will not vote the cult of Donald Trump for president.
9 comments:
No, that's too clever by half, and the analogy far too stretched.
Last night was like listening to the stupid male version of Marie Le Pen, and watching the US spectacle version a gathering of the French National Front.
So enjoy your choices in November America between a Neo-fascist demagogue too racist and far right for even the Bushs to consider, or the Margaret Thatcher of the Democratic corporate elite.
Good work hippies, smoke another one.
Hmmm, "American voters will punish a party whose ideas have run out of gas except as a vehicle for the nation's largest polluting industries. The United States will not vote the cult of Donald Trump for president."
I sure hope this wont be your famed last words!
You are so right!! He views America as an awful place! That he views the progressive development of America and its place in the world as a "I", "Me" situation, rather than a "We", "Us" endeavor, is a deviant approach to reality. It is a strange world view that hinges on him alone. In my lifetime the republicans have offered some strange characters for the presidency, but he takes the "cake". He is actually a threat to our way of life.
He is 70 years old and in the twilight of his productive years. The speech was too long. Cognitively it was unorganized and all over the place like pieces of paper just put together. No common theme, no transition to other or related issues, only statements of desired outcomes, no info on how he will get there. Divisive both within and outside the country. What does "law and order" mean? Kill all minorities or put them in jail? What? It is code for something, but he needs to speak to the details. He definitely is looking to be a dictator. People who have lived under dictatorships, what do you think?
There is lawlessness and then there is law and order. One ignores the laws on the books and one enforces the laws on the books.
You are on point. This afternoon the Washington Post's Editorial Board came out against Trump. "Donald Trump Is A Unique Threat to American Democracy"
People who believe in our democracy are going to have to make sure he doesn't get to the White House. We will find out who the real patriots are, who can see down the road, and who is blinded by personal gain and issues that are on a much lower level.
Terribly inaccurate comparison with Mao's Cultural Revolution (not even in the same universe, so it must be an attention grabber to incite your readers, congratulations). Since the Carter Administration there has been a historically recent trend towards an imperial presidency that had it's start with FDR with a brief interruption with Watergate limiting Nixon's and Ford's administration. Our current President has taken imperial executive power even further with minimal to non-existent criticism from the media. Only the opposition Republican through its control of congress has limited his executive power much like the Democratic opposition party had limited W's. That said how much more of a threat could Trump (Trump has strained relations at best with Congressional Republicans)ever be when professional politicians with good relations with their respected parties push executive boundaries as far as they can. Enough of the hysteria.
@last Anon--Goebbels would be proud of you!
He could do a lot of damage to our democracy. Once he sends bills to congress, and they say no, he could easily target the existing leaders for removal. This weekend he said he is going to create a PAC and put in $20 million to make sure Cruz doesn't get elected again, and $10 million to get rid of the governor of Ohio. So he will rule by fear. You take out the big ones, the little ones will either comply or removed. He has already jumped on the judiciary. If you do what he says you will get appointed. He will overstep his bounds, and there will be lots of lawsuits. While litigation is in process, he will be destroying our government. Looking at his policies, we most certainly are going into a recession, if not a depression. And because of the scarcity of money, and because America is the biggest spender in the world, he will do lots of damage. The people who vote for him will be hurt the worst.
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