Here is a visual representation of what President Trump is doing to America’s reputation and the greatness of our people.
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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Yeah, you know, I’m starting to get the feeling that “our people” ain’t all that great.
Maybe he means the dead ones.
Yes, we’re definitely a mixed bag as a nation and a people, but he’s projectile vomiting on the best parts of that bag. The things that other people DO admire about us, and that most of us want more of.
Take away that and all that’s left is the dystopia some of you are describing.
I don’t dispute we have some quite good parts, but what are things you are thinking of that non-Americans admire about us?
It shows an absurd degree of lack of gratitude that you would even ask such a question.
Then explain it.
Look, our social safety net is worse. Our inequality is worse. Our public safety is arguably worse. Our elections are worse (as of 2016). I used think we were better on race but that doesn’t seem true. Where else is peaceful transfer of power celebrated instead of so assumed as to be taken for granted? Low bar.
If you’re talking about moral leadership that’s more a function of our economic and military power. There are a number of other countries that arguably have better/equal moral leadership on a number of issues but have less influence because they stronger. I consider that amoral though not immoral as every country does bad nasty stuff and every country would accrue power to itself as a hegemon. So where does the admiration come?
Our social safety net was significantly strengthened by the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress. Our Nation’s poverty rate was significantly reduced during the last two years of the Obama Administration, as it was reduced during the entirety of the Clinton Administration. I see no broad set of statistics which back up the charge that public safety is worse; if you want to claim “arguably,” then you’ve got to argue the case.
If you don’t think the U.S. is a moral leader, it’s time to get more active to change that. What each of us has done as citizens isn’t enough; we are responsible.
I am asking why other developed countries would admire us. I dont dispute any of what you said but my comparisons are to their institutions.
By public safety I meant both our far greater gun violence and our police being more brutal than theirs.
Fair enough.
Don’t know where I first heard, many, many years ago: “The only dumb question is one you already know the answer to.” Has seemed good sense to me ever since.
Your critique in response may even have some validity. Still, it didn’t strike me as an insincere question (in fact, sounded like genuine curiosity re: YOUR INDIVIDUAL take, not skepticism that there could even BE a valid answer, which seemed to be how you took it?)
So why not just answer a good-faith (I presume) question with a good-faith response?
What the FLYING FUCK ?!
I’ll have more later, TRUST ME! Let’s start here.
Made it through the first minute and had to stop it. Not to channel the Emperor but … sad.
Agreed. The definition of cringe-worthy?
I always had the same opinion of Smiranoff’s humor as I do Russell Brand’s “tales of a former junky/male prostitute” humor: it doesn’t take much imagination to talk about how fked up your life used to be…
is this a contest to see who is the most politically unappealing and humorless self-loathing jackass?
Face it, Boo: the only correct attitude from the True Left is “Amerikkka sucks!” a political message which will surely win back all those heartland voters, amirite?
I know what will help us win elections!
Taking advice from people who hate us!
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Winning elections just makes you complicit. And postpones the revolution.
I would respond to you, but I’m busy trying to work out how democrats can appeal to white people in an obscure Ohio county that has voted republican for 12 elections in a row.
I plan a diary on their voting patterns.
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With a chart.
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Random gifs and too many line-breaks would make it even better.
With a redifinition of ‘progressive’ to mean libertarian advancement.
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Get a grip, BooMan. I’m not really seeing anything here that is “politically unappealing”, “humorless”, or “self-loathing”. That’s a definition of a Trump voter if I ever heard one, so you think that’s what I’m advocating? Some kind of Stockholm syndrome?
If you don’t want a frank discussion of these topics, why do you post them?
Landlords feel they can get away with this kind of shit. Ignore him … use the platform he provides.
Do we really have to review the sordid history of salvery, genocide, oppression, and militarism? Now if you want to argue that exploitation and obscene wealth is what makes America great, then you might as well support trump.
If you want to argue that endless violence makes America great, then I can’t help you with your so called reputation.
In President Obama’s last year in office, the United States dropped 26,172 bombs in seven countries.
Why do you hate yourself so much?
Ok. I’ll stop posting here. It’s your blog.
thank you.
A country so horrible that no one wants to come here.
Hence this jiggery-pokery with immigration bans has no real effect.
Everyone knows the solution to all our problems is to prevent the people who want to come here for a better life, from coming here. And the ones already here? It’s best for America to force them to ‘go back where they came from’.
Making America Great Again, one hateful act at a time.
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This topic, “the greatness of our people.” is such a no-brainer that I’ll go in a different direction.
Mr. Booman, Sir. Have you considered producing Booman You Tubes? I just looked for Booman and Booman23 tubes and didn’t find anything that looked like it would be you. The process can’t be that tough. My old college roomie, Eek, made a couple incorporating old home movies of his mother-in-law. An incredibly ugly woman I once shacked up with (don’t ask) made a couple advertising her home decorating biz. Neither of these people are raving geniuses. Think about it … visuals can be very compelling.
His real job is for Washington Monthly, so there are time issues and brand issues.
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh.
So this blog is what … a testing ground for his pieces, or what?
mostly it’s “or what” IMO. a playground for a few dozen of us who’ve been hanging out here a while.
He had this blog long before WaMo which is why we are here. Most of the posts that aren’t off the cuff are cross-posts, which is justifiable. He’s got bills to pay.
Why would there be “brand issues”? Think about it. He writes pieces for his Washington whatever and then posts the same shit at his Booman site. And he has ADVERTISING at his Booman site. He’s earning more $$$ from the same shit he gives to his “main job”. And there would be “branding issues” if he made You Tubes, independent of his posts? I don’t think so. I bet if he found a way to make $$$ off the You Tubes he’d jump at it.
How did you find the blog? I’m asking because you’ve been posting a great deal in recent days but don’t seem to know the history of the blog or the the general kind of conversation here.
I’m not saying you need to post a certain way, but it seems like you’re enjoying “bomb throwing” more than actually engaging on the issues. That’s fine, but I’m curious as to what’s motivating you to participate on this blog. You seem to be pretty adamant as to what you think is the “truth” or each post/issue and what your (or others’) response to that perceived truth should be rather than still being open to questioning your assumptions. The latter has always been a historical feature of this blog even when conversations got REALLY heated in the recent election. Most of the long-time posters here STILL think it’s a place where it’s okay to question one’s own assumptions and interpretations and try to engage deeply in the questions rather than just cutting them off with cynical, declarative, pronouncements.
We all get jaded or tired or even despairing, but I think most here try to rise above that to have or read a good conversation (even when we’re just lurking). Are you interested in that too? I hope so, because you’re clearly intelligent and good with words.
Ouija board? Tarot cards? Or … drum role please … from ET?
OK, let’s look at my post that you are responding to. How do your comments apply? And why does it matter how I found this place?
Now, let’s say I wanted to actually take part in bomb throwing or just cutting them off with cynical, declarative, pronouncements, in response to your comments. I would say something like … HYPOTHETICALLY … for educational purposes … “Go shove your head a little further up your ass so I don’t have to listen to your useless drivel. And GO FUCK YOURSELF !!!”
Class dismissed.
OK, here we go. I am what I have described myself as a “rabid progressive Californian”. I was stuck in upstate NY for the first 23 years of my existence but I escaped to CA for grad school at UC Davis. I have been a CA citizen since ’75 except for a brief 16 month stint at the Quaker Oats Co. in Anal-Noise, my first job after grad school.
I am forced to take certain things for granted. Human beings are a failed species, a failed experiment if you would. Regardless of your knowledge level, you refuse to stop breeding out of control. You complain about “climate change”, about “global warming”, but you refuse to connect it to the simple fact that THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY PEOPLE ON THE PLANET … and until you cut down that number … dramatically … you and your planet are screwed. I’m a fan of the bacteria, the molds and fungi; the janitors of the planet. Go ahead and kill off all the other mammals, fish, you name it. The janitors will clean up after you. But I digress.
So, I can’t do anything about human destruction of the planet. And I can’t stop the devolving of the U.S. Empire into an obvious tyranny. That leaves me with only Topic No. 3: The birth of a new country, a new culture, called CALIFORNIA. I’m not sure what I can do to help the birth but I am here for a little while, undetermined. My dangerously high blood pressure makes every day a bit iffy. Keep your drugs … they effect my ability to think and that is unacceptable. My body is here to support my brain which supports my consciousness. I will not sacrifice my brain power just to keep my body going. Fear of death … I leave that you you folks. So, in my final days, I’m here on this planet to help California survive and I blog at BT in that effort. ARE WE CLEAR?!
Ok, thanks for engaging and giving some background and perspective. I’m a nearly 17-yr Los Angeles resident after 15 years in the East coast (13 NYC, 2 Boston) and before that, born and reared on Oahu, Hawaii. I’ve been moving Progreessive progressively since Bush the first but didn’t become active in politics until May 2007 when I began volunteering on the Obama campaign and did so in 3 states for 21 months. Despite his shortcomings, I still feel he’s been the best President within a devolving system in my 49.5 years.
I am currently struggling to believe its still possible to stave off the predictions of the Archdruid (a blogger I think Tarheel Dem here first linked to) re the inevitably of the collapse of the American capitalistic supported model of government in the hope it can be reformed. As many here have pointed out, the possibility of reform would be greatly aided by the Democratic Party waking up to reality, because absent their institutional muscle and money, a common-people-only based resistance will get crushed since their is NO morality left within the Republican Party and they will turn to the despot and turn on the people.
At the Women’s March in LA there was a group advocating and organizing for California to secede. Is that what you are suggesting you want, or are you just taking a more local approach to self protection and community building? In theory, I guess I could see California having the wealth and diversity to manage “on its own” but absent removing or at least reducing the corruptive power of capitalism from whatever government would be formed, I think the collapse would still continue.
My girlfriend and I are trying to take the steps we can to reduce our spending, build savings, wean ourselves off petrochemical dependency, and increase our individual skills for survival in a post-USSR type collapse of civic and monetary order. And trying to do that in a place where climate change won’t make it all moot. Tall order and it’s taking all her Buddhist training and our personal mindfulness work not to give in to despair and try to prepare for the future while knowing we can never control what happens. We are trying to cultivate equanimity and compassion within ourselves and towards others as the decay outside accelerates. Neither of us have children, but we do have family and friends whose lives also hover in our calculations as to where and what to do over the next 2, 5,10, 30 years.
Would you mind sharing some of the steps you’re taking to deal with the reality as you perceive it, especially vis-a-vis life in California?
What’s even more amazing is the deafening roar of silence over which countries president* Trump is NOT banning:
https:/www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-trump-immigration-ban-conflict-of-interest
Emoluments clause, anyone?
Don’t look now but the Emperor is here to stay till some UNBELIEVABLE DISASTER occurs, one that threatens the Repubs in Congress. In Russia they turn to vodka.
Hillary and Michelle Obama had a theme during the campaign, “America is Great because America is Good,” and it was optimism taken to an unrealistic extreme. This too was a take off on the American exceptionalism belief, and was meant as an alternative to Trump’s “Make America Great Again,” but this was like so many tactics Clinton employed, that either backfired or had an impact other than the expected. Given the support Trump was getting during the campaign it was clear then that this was more than myth; it was an outright delusion, and that delusion of divine exceptionalism, that we are “better” than any other peoples or nations, just because, has really prevented the country from being truly great, as it blinds us all to obvious flaws, e.g. first step to solving a problem is recognizing that it is a problem. We believe we are great, and we know that we are in some respects, but this exceptionalism has tarnished that greatness in ways that traditions blinds us to.
My point is this: even before Trump, we had some house cleaning to do in this regard. Trump has come along and not only made the job that much worse, not just tarnishing our reputation but causing the world to wonder, what exactly does it say about us, as a nation and a people, that we can “elect” someone like this to be the face of America on the world stage and fill the role of “the most powerful man in the world.” And that description is yet another tradition that is a hint as to how problematic this all is.
This is a humanitarian disaster. Trump just destroyed the lives of many people — those visiting family in places like Iran who now cannot return to their homes and jobs. Parents separated from children. Young people all set to attend university in the U.S. whose dreams now stand in ruins.
May Trump and his acolytes and all the sociopaths in his party receive their just rewards. God please let there be an afterlife or karma or something.
Better than that. All these events are are just storage bytes in a trans-dimensional history archive. This is the way to take a “history course”. Load your consciousness into a human flesh-bag, live a lifetime, depart. Don’t forget to file your final report if you want full credit. All of the minutia you provide adds flavor to the history. You’re not taking any of this Shakespearian tragedy seriously, are you?
the ramifications . . . complete with truly horrific “optics” . . . of what’s now playing out due to an unbelievably ill-considered (even in light of its ugly goals, i.e., counter-productive even to its own evil intentions). That is, the “effective immediately” disruptive impact on people already in transit(!!!), who have done nothing whatsoever wrong or illegal, and had/have every legal right to expect to be able to complete their itineraries.
Gobsmacking stupidity, even from the perspective of their perverse, evil goals.
What do you mean? Bannon is getting ready to cleanse America. That means a lot of us will going to camp soon!
https:/wienerwoods.com/2017/01/30/childrens-letters-from-camp-to-steve-bannon