As Vice President Joe Biden pointed out last night at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia; his rhetoric depends on blasting low-cost labor nations that supply his shirts and products. Donald Trump doesn't run a business. He runs a brand: his own. For a culture that the GOP often derides as narcissistic and contaminated by "moral relativism", Trump is the ultimate narcissist and moral relativist.
What "very, very successful" businesses he has run have largely depended on breaking contractural arrangements, stiffing clients and suppliers including many from the middle class he swears to protect if elected to the most powerful elected office in the most powerful nation in the world.
Trump's bull-in-a-china-shop approach to the White House appeals to American voters fed up with rules that reinforce the greatest wealth disparities in US economic history. But there isn't a shred of evidence that Trump understands the middle class or public arena except how to herd people into it by drumming fear and anxiety from behind.
"Blow the bridge up!" is the only feat Trump is capable of, and such is the resentment of a small segment of Republican voters that the theme has overtaken the GOP.
On every topic, Trump offers multiple views. Even his core issues; immigration and ISIS are subject to daily change. The wall will be twenty five feet high. The wall will be five feet high. The wall will be three feet thick. The wall will be built of Mexican cement. We will ban all Muslims. We will ban some Muslims. We will ban some terrorist nations. We will ban all terrorists nations.
That's not "breaking the rules": that's pathological. When, last night at the DNC, Biden pointed out that governing is not a reality TV show, it is reality, he pierced the popular resentments that are Trump's fuel and fire.
The only illumination Trump provides is to his own political party, the GOP. With Trump, ordinary Republicans finally rebelled against the party's "moral majorities" and "values voters" in service of oligarchs. Except they rebelled through a candidate who does, in fact, fly around in his own Boeing with his name blazoned on the side.
Trump is working the plot points from the popular "Hunger Games". He is the PT Barnum of our times; the circus empressario and small-town politician of mid-18th century America who famously paraded an elephant. (Not an elephant tail, cut from a safari conquest, like the one triumphantly held aloft in a trophy photo by one of Trump's sons. Who does that?)
The world's dictators are cheering the emergence of one of their ilk on the American presidential stage. For the broad American electorate -- including Republicans and Independents -- for that reason alone, the GOP, its leadership and candidates for high office who delivered Trump as the best in class does not deserve the popular vote.
These are trying times, but "blowing up the bridge" is actually what Republicans have been trying to do for decades under the guise of an agenda that virtually assures failure-by-design at every level of government.
The question voters ought to be asking: once the bridge is blown up and everyone cheers, hooray!, how will you get from one side of the river to the other, because on the other side of the river is where your job is, where stability is, where democracy is.
Put another way: Donald Trump and the GOP Senate are not pruning the tree of Democracy and liberty, they are sawing off the branches where the rest of us live.
7 comments:
Your preaching to the quire here.
Maybe Trumps approach could reach them: Scream at them, insult them, deport them, build a wall around them to isolate them and have them pay for it too. Make em understand there can be only one winner and all followers are loser's to be fired.
Ooohh, we really need that hair pin tower at Bayside, cause a lamp post wont do, should he manage to squeeze in. Cause he is HUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH
What is troubling tome is that the Republicans had abandoned their base voters so much, that they could not stop him from a complete take over of their party. Are there no patriots in that party? Are they all self-centered weaklings? Who would dare stand up to the beast that emerged from that party? Well, if they won't or can't , we have to defeat him. We have come too far, the sacrifices in blood, sweat, and tears have been too great, for us to devolve into a dictatorship on our watch. To those who are thinking about voting for Trump because of a promise of a job, are you willing to give up our democracy for the promise of a job?
TRUMP--brought to you by the GOP--A SIEG HEIL/FLAT EARTH PRODUCTION
Never has the phrase "The Emperor Has No Clothes" been more accurate. Come on Jim Morin, here is a great image for you to draw on.
"Inciting espionage"
You lost me there. Taking the joke he said, and twisting it into a call for espionage. He asked the Russians to "find" her E-mails, which are supposedly deleted.
How that transforms into espionage only a partisan could rationalize.
The bigger picture: this whole situation started as a conspiracy to get Hillary elected. Trump emerged because of all the free TV exposure the media gave him. The crazier he sounded, the better for the medias ratings. The media, journalist, etc. are mainly democrats. Trump became a reality show on all channels, watched by millions. His craziness resonated with lots of mostly under-educated white trailer trash people. The problem is that the media didn't know when to put on the brakes, and this monster became too big to stop. Now, to help Hillary, they're letting him self destruct, changing his image to a Hitler of sorts. Hillary will be elected as the lesser of two evils.
Not a bad strategy.
I don't think so. His ego is too big for that. What worries me is the old republican party and the people who say they will vote for him. His views are anti the old republican party, yet they still support him. And on a larger scale even anti basic American values, ideas, and even the constitution. His presidency would ursher in a different American interface with the rest of the world, on the homeland potentially destroy the established balance of power upon which our democracy rests, negatively impact economic growth in the world, and kill off thousands of our military personnel in unnecessary wars and military actions. He would rule with fear and terror, trampling on anyone who opposed him with the might of the US government at his disposal.
So I don't see a grand scheme to elect Sec. Clinton, she would maintain our democracy, our shared values, and our world view. I see someone, or some force trying to destroy America.
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