Donald Trump must have so much contempt for Republican voters, and even more for the Republican Establishment who couldn’t stop him. Seeing that Birther stuff launch him to the top, listening to Roger Stone egg him on, you can tell that he thinks people are infinitely gullible. And he has absolutely no conscience about exploiting this. It’s been his business model for at least fifteen years, and his image has always been built on the most brazen lies.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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And what perfect revenge for Obama’s humiliation of him at the press corps dinner, to take the Oval Office after him? I do wonder how much of a part that played in this election’s venture? Just one among several reasons, of course, but….
The only thing Donald Trump has done is drop the dogwhistles that Conservatives (and a few “Progressives”) like to use when they talk about people of color. And it worked beautifully. Trump supporters aren’t “economically uncertain” or “angry populists” They’re just mad that the world when “the coloreds” knew their place is fading away and Trump is exploiting the hell out of that.
Fareed agrees with you…https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-obvious-trump-running-mate-bernie-sanders-of-cours
e/2016/06/30/3fa6c198-3f02-11e6-80bc-d06711fd2125_story.html
June 30, 2016
The obvious Trump running mate? Bernie Sanders, of course
By Fareed Zakaria
I suspect you posted this to be shady but Zakaria isn’t wrong. Bernie low key played to White Working Class resentment (which was dumb given the makeup of the Democratic primary electorate).Both Trump and Bernie are selling a world that is not coming back.The solutions that will help us all aren’t going to prioritize the White Working Class first and the sooner they accept that the sooner we can begin to move forward.
I thought you would like it.
et tu, mino?
Ha!
There is one little error in his essay…
“Manufacturing as a share of all U.S. jobs has been declining for 70 years, as part of a transition experienced by every advanced industrial economy.”
If Zakaria had access to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics he would have better knowledge of trends in employment in U.S. manufacturing.
[Jobs in Manufacturing Industries, 1968-2016]
As can be seen, employment in manufacturing hovered near 17.5 million from the late 1960s until 2000. At that point, the explosion in the size of the U.S, trade deficit sent employment in manufacturing plummeting. We lost roughly over 3 million manufacturing jobs in this period, almost 20 percent of total employment, before the onset of the recession. (Check out the graph.)
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/trump-1-fareed-zakaria-0?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=f
eed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+beat_the_press+%28Beat+the+Press%29
But maybe we are happy with that state of things?
“access to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics”!
He’s just too fucking lazy (or too invested in his “point” to let inconvenient things like facts get in the way) to bother.
(I figured if Dean had access, then presumably Zakaria — or indeed anyone with an Intertoobz connection — probably does, too. Sure enough! All you have to do to replicate Dean’s graph from that link is change the “From” year to 1968 . . . et voila!)
Leaving this looking incredibly naive:
How so? It’s WaPo! Seems that would be the default assumption, not something “difficult to believe”.
Unless of course Dean’s tongue was perforating his cheek as he wrote that bit, which would actually be my guess.
Here you go… Paul Simon’s Wristband
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lJHVpH5v8Q
how ridiculous this (all!) is:
Really, this is one of the most Reality-challenged comments I’ve seen here in a while. And that’s sayin’ sumthin!
I am not so sure Fareed has got that right. Smith may have been referring to domestic trade more than anything else. At least his invisible hand is mostly about domestic matters. Also, not so sure the term free foreign trade markets are applicable. Why have a large TPP agreement if foreign trade is so damn free? Anyway, there is just no way Sanders could support Trump. Think just one thing: taxation. Nuff said.
You are right about the not-so-subtle racism he is selling, but he is more than a one-trick pony. He has many supporters who are not racists. So why do they support him? Maybe it is his “outsider” status that he constantly claims. Politicians as a group are not well-liked by a lot of people, and Trump is definitely not a politician in the traditional sense, so he gives those people an opportunity to vent their anger at the politicians. A vote for Trump is a middle-finger to politics-as-usual.
After this election (assuming he loses) Trump may step away from politics, but his campaign has opened up an ugly can of worms; many will try to copy what he has done. He may have ushered in the era of “angry outsider” politics.
“Sure Donald Trump runs down the Blacks, the Mexicans and the Muslims but damn if he isn’t right about trade!”
Come on
If anyone supports Donald Trump they support a racist,sexist xenophobe which says everything about them. Stop making excuses for these people.
I get racism isn’t a deal breaker for a lot of the commenters that post here but it is for me.
I get corruption and pay-offs aren’t a deal breaker for many people here, but it is for me.
Your White hood is showing champ.
Hope they’re paying you well, troll.
Amazing that this needs to be said, but supporting a candidate does not mean that you agree with all of their views. I have never had the chance to vote for somebody where I did not disagree them on significant issues.
I get your argument — if you vote for a bigot, you are a bigot — but I don’t buy it. Did my vote (twice) for Obama mean that I supported/wanted extra-judicial killings? Of course not. But given the alternatives, you take the best that is offered, flaws and all.
Which brings me back to my earlier point: why do people who are not bigots support Trump? If we can answer that riddle we will be a lot further down the road to dealing with the Trump wannabes that are waiting in the weeds.
“Why do people who are not bigots support Donald Trump?”
No disrespect to you personally but I really don’t give a shit.
If you are someone who is okay with Trump’s racism, sexism and xenophobia because he channels some bullshit “populism” message (that he doesn’t even believe) then you’re not someone I could ever share common cause with and I prefer you just piss off.
There are progressives who say, ‘if you are someone who is okay with Obama’s extra-judicial killings, then you’re not someone I could ever share common cause with and I prefer you just piss off.” And to give them their due, 200 dead children is a powerful argument.
To me, the magic of Trump is that he combines racism, sexism, and xenophobia with a faux-‘populism’ that would make things even worse for the entire working class, white and black, male and female, Christian and non-. So his ‘silver lining’ is composed of arsenic and anthrax.
Still, I find it interesting how well the ‘just piss off’ arguments parallel each other.
One of the many things that makes Trump so offensive is his willingness to eagerly avoid a meaningful discussion by resorting to name calling.
It saddens me when I see that same behavior in forums like this.
My bad Steggles – I meant to post that in reply to Kenny
The “era of ‘angry outsider’ politics” was ushered in, at the latest, in 2010.
Trump just jumped on the running board.
re:
Actually, I’m not contesting that some such people may exist (though, yeah, some actual examples would be more persuasive). But even if so, their willingness to ignore and look the other way from Trump’s (and his “movement”‘s) very blatant racism in pursuit of power/influence for themselves gives away the game. The step from there to personal racism is so small as to approach insignificance.
Go out and talk, really talk, with Trump supporters — you will be surprised.
As for an example, my uncle is a Trump supporter. He has a post-graduate degree from Stanford (so he is not one of the uneducated masses), and he proved his bona fides when he left California in the early Sixties to help with the Freedom Rides. It was not a time or place for the weak of heart — people committed to the cause of racial equality and justice put a lot on the line.
When I see him next month at our family reunion I will certainly ask him how he can support such an overt racist.
In the meantime I will continue to puzzle over the question of Trump’s popularity in America; I may just be too naive to believe that it can all be explained by racism/bigotry. I think there is more going on with Trump supporters, and we dismiss their concerns at our peril.
The 5 stages of Grief.
The Republican base, regardless of whether they are bigots or not, have believed that one day, a Republican like Reagan would come around and convince the rest of America that US Conservatism is the correct way to think about everything.
Over the past 8+ years, many Republicans have realized that what has happened is that they have been grifted and used for their votes, over and over again by Republicans who don’t really care all that much about middle class issues, and only pretend to care about abortion and guns enough to ensure they collect enough votes to win their election.
In 2012, we saw the Republican base in a state of deteriorating Denial, picking a different candidate once every week or two as it became clear that Rmoney was the donor class/establishment candidate. The donor class/establishment was able to keep control in 2012, but by 2016, the Republican base was clearly past the Denial stage. It knows better.
It is now in the Anger and Bargaining stage of Grief, that the US does not value US Conservatism values. They are Angry, and Bargaining that Trump can either win and force the US back into a US Conservatism mold, or if nothing else, burn everything to the ground.
Next up: Depression. Either when Trump isn’t nominated, loses the General, or is hopefully prevented from wielding his millions of right-wing authoritarians to burn everything down.
The last stage is Acceptance, as in, hopefully sane, reasonable conservatives can break off the right wing of the Democratic party to use as their own, leaving the liberals and progressives on the left a party of their own.
In essence, I don’t think that each and every Trump voter is a raging bigot, but I do believe that they think that it might be necessary to burn the country down to the ground in order to save it. And having interacted with many of them, I wouldn’t put it past them.
Which is why I’m a ProHillaryTM CoronationTM shill, paid by David Brock, and itching to increase homelessness, poverty, and the amount of bloody dead babies.
Also: neoliberalism.
That was half a century ago, when your uncle was young and passionate and idealistic, and didn’t have nearly as much to lose as he does now. Racism and bigotry wore a different face then, at least for white America, than they carefully do today.
People change. People develop new priorities and look back upon their youthful passions as youthful follies. Or they justify it by saying the people they stood with then are nothing like the people they see being demonized today. Peaceful marchers set upon by snarling dogs and cops with nightsticks? A shock to the conscience. People sneaking over the borders to steal American jobs? Shameful, must be stopped! MLK? A hero for justice. Those Muslim Syrian refugees? Could be a terrorist sneaking in among them.
“That was different!” is a catchall answer to changes that on some levels are irreconcilable with one’s past.
It has and still does amaze me that “Business People”, you know our “Best and Brightest” who were educated at “The Best Schools In The Country” would have any dealings with this man at all. Isn’t it clear to all who bother to do their “Due Diligence” what the man is?? I would never have bought as much as a Television set from Donny, but that’s just me.
The Best and Brightest are typically Mammon worshipers.
Part of Mammon worship is worshiping those who Mammon has blessed, and not just Mammon himself.
Perhaps we should all just admit that the political discourse in America is FUBAR. I’m not sure it is worth saving. Time for another revolution.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Bring it on, trump!
Maybe one day people like Mr. Longman will acknowledge that they were the ones who facilitated the destruction of civil society in the US.
“Ours is an extremely discontented country today, and a seemingly discontented world, too. We usually chalk it up to economic stress, inequality, globalization, disempowerment — the usual suspects. But that media-induced malaise that afflicts us, may be the anxiety of loneliness at a time when not only we have lost one another, we’ve lost our sense of self, the one anchor that might root us in the storm. We are adrift — some from the digital world and some within that world — and so are our politics.”
The media sucks. All of it.
https:/www.salon.com/2016/07/02/the_web_ruined_our_politics_donald_trump_hillary_clinton_and_americ
as_digital_divide_partner
That means you too Mr. Booman. Cheers!