In the wake of the election, those of us who opposed Donald Trump are being told to “get over it.” News organizations are doing puff pieces that “normalize” a decidedly abnormal President-elect. Uncharitable descriptions of Trump voters are met with the sort of admonitions that liberals typically (and appropriately) offer when unpleasant characteristics are ascribed to an entire group of people.
If we had just emerged from a hard-fought election contest between sane candidates with different policy prescriptions, those responses would be appropriate. If a significant number of Trump voters could somehow have remained unaware of his core message, you could argue that economic distress or partisan loyalty prompted their support (although research confirms that most Trump voters were not economically disadvantaged, and that educated Republicans deserted him in droves.)
But this election was decidedly not normal, and refusing to acknowledge its implications is dangerous.
I think Jamelle Bouie, Slate’s political correspondent, got it right, when he wrote that there is “no such thing as a good Trump voter.”
Donald Trump ran a campaign of racist demagoguery against Muslim Americans, Hispanic immigrants, and black protesters. He indulged the worst instincts of the American psyche and winked to the stream of white nationalists and anti-Semites who backed his bid for the White House. Millions of Americans voted for this campaign, thus elevating white nationalism and white reaction to the Oval Office.
When Trump voters are accused of responding to racist demagoguery, nice people clutch their pearls. Michael Lerner, for example, wrote in the New York Times that “Many Trump supporters very legitimately feel that it is they who have been facing an unfair reality.” Lerner attributed the vote to “people’s inner pain and fear,” and blamed liberals for failing to sympathize with those emotions. He acknowledged the racism, sexism and xenophobia employed by Trump, but insisted that the vote didn’t reveal “an inherent malice in the majority of Americans.”
I beg to differ. As Bouie points out,
Millions of Americans are justifiably afraid of what they’ll face under a Trump administration. If any group demands our support and sympathy, it’s these people, not the Americans who backed Trump and his threat of state-sanctioned violence against Hispanic immigrants and Muslim Americans. All the solicitude, outrage, and moral telepathy being deployed in defense of Trump supporters—who voted for a racist who promised racist outcomes—is perverse, bordering on abhorrent.
It’s worth repeating what Trump said throughout the election. His campaign indulged in hateful rhetoric against Hispanics and condemned Muslim Americans with the collective guilt of anyone who would commit terror. It treated black America as a lawless dystopia and spoke of black Americans as dupes and fools. And to his supporters, Trump promised mass deportations, a ban on Muslim entry to the United States, and strict “law and order” as applied to those black communities.
A voter would have to have been blind and deaf not to hear and understand Trump’s central message.
A vote for Donald Trump represented one of two things, both reprehensible: either the voter was attracted to Trump because of the bigotry, or s/he didn’t find it sufficiently offensive or problematic to justify withholding support. There is no other category.
We have all heard the stories about the good Germans who refused to see that what was happening to their country after Hitler took power was not “politics as usual,” who refused to call out the virulent anti-Semitism, who didn’t want to “rock the boat.”
And then it was too late.
A vote for Donald Trump represented one of two things, both reprehensible: either the voter was attracted to Trump because of the bigotry, or s/he didn’t find it sufficiently offensive or problematic to justify withholding support. There is no other category.
Sure there is another category-and this is why your party lost. If you tell someone for months without end that they are A) racist, B) misogynist, C) stupid, D) anti-semitic, E)bigoted, F)homophobic and et sic ad nauseum, because of the candidate they are voting for?
How well did that work out for you?
You have Donald Trump as the PEOTUS…. THAT’S HOW IT WORKED OUT FOR YOU!!
But no. You keep on making those grandiose pronouncements on WHO a member of society is SUPPOSED to vote for, and WHY they should not vote for someone, and insult them at the same time. And the next time YOUR vaunted candidate wins will be when HELL freezes over, because no one with any sense of self-respect will follow you, because of your elitist, smug, oh-so–certain “morality”, which is anything but, but most certainly IS inhumane, insensitive, disrespectful to your fellow human and in certain areas provocation for at the very least a verbal ass-whipping and at the worst, of the physically violent variety.
You have no one to blame but yourselves for Donald Trump being elected as the 45th President of the United States.
Now. Take THAT medicine. Think about it. You may find that the preceding message is a catalyst for a new way of winning an election.
Dale Carnegie had a book long ago entitled “How to win friends and influence enemies.” Read it.
It is quite difficult for me to believe you called upon Godwin as a conclusion. Except…
I’ve been saying the same thing since the election, and I’m completely unapologetic about it. I’ve always admired your guts, friend. So, let me add my view:
Welcome to Berlin, 1933. How we as citizen respond to this reality determines our future. Don’t argue about it, determine you will NOT be an “average” citizen then, or now.
I don’t think intelligent republicans left trump in droves…he got 62 million votes (or so we think at this date)! Even Nikky Haley the SC gov voted for the schmuck.
Agree!! I am not apologising for my thoughts on Trump. A man with a personality disorder has been elected. He has surrounded himself with some horrific people who want to blow up the works and systems. I essentially respond in the way that only many can understand when told to give him a chance and to get over it…I tell them to “F@%ck off”. I figure they liked Trump because he tells it like he is and so i figure this response is something they would understand. Being polite and trying to discuss facts has been shown worthless in my experience. They do not believe any credible sources.
We appear to be mired in an election quandary at this time; Amendment XXV (Presidential disability and succession) covers removal by resignation or death of a sitting president but no protection from a president-elect. The founding fathers could have in no way foreseen a “Donald Trump” in our future but…could Congress and SCOTUS have seen him or his ilk coming? I believe they could and did. This is a drastic situation of “hindsight is 20/20″ but…”Monday morning quarterbacking” will not save us from Trump. The convoluted rules and regulations guiding the Electoral College boggles the mind now that it is at the forefront of saving this country from itself.
” Lerner attributed the vote to “people’s inner pain and fear,” and blamed liberals for failing to sympathize with those emotions. He acknowledged the racism, sexism and xenophobia employed by Trump, but insisted that the vote didn’t reveal “an inherent malice in the majority of Americans.”
If the vote, we now see it rests with the electoral vote and/or recount, did not reveal the “inherent malice” of the majority of Americans; what did it reveal? We are faced with the possibility/probability of Steve Bannon as Trump’s chief counsel, whose connection to white nationalism is well known and Reince Priebus, firmly established as Alt-Right (more white nationalism) with earlier promises that RNC “will punish Republicans not supporting Trump”. Remember the RNC punishment of Senator Richard Lugar for what they viewed as disloyalty to the party in Indiana. We are now faced with “people’s inner pain and fear” of survival under a fascist tyrant. Like those tanks in Tiananmen Square in China who ran down the protesting students who weren’t shot to death; Trump’s tanks will mow down his own voters and they do not see it coming.
We now have Kellyanne Conway on her own personal rant against TRUMP’S possible choice of Mitt Romney for Secretary of State – Romney is the one tiny glimmer of sanity in this current lineup of Trump’s cabinet. President Obama has stated that, unlike his views of Trump, he never doubted Romney’s ability to lead had he been elected president. They had political differences of opinion but no doubts of qualification. How long can Kellyanne possibly last speaking publicly against her leader and who will Trump replace her with? Ivanka? We know not from day-to-day, our-to-hour what will be next from the Trump/Pence camp.
Just “Telling it like it is” from where I sit like in a Road Runner cartoon; waiting for that anvil to drop.
Bemused:
It is clear that a majority of participating American voters rejected Trump. Popular vote was won by Clinton, so her strategy must have some merit, since she got more popular votes.
“And the next time YOUR vaunted candidate wins will be when HELL freezes over, because no one with any sense of self-respect will follow you, because of your elitist, smug, oh-so–certain “morality”, which is anything but, but most certainly IS inhumane, insensitive, disrespectful to your fellow human and in certain areas provocation for at the very least a verbal ass-whipping and at the worst, of the physically violent variety.”
So your quote above seems more like the gloating about the outcome of the Electoral College election (that we see from others) and a threat to anyone who dares to disagree with the minority of participating voters, than a view of the future. And as far as the racist, mysoginist etc. – if the shoe fits….
And if you want to talk about smug morality, let’s not forget to include the racist, homophobic, right wing Evangelicals who KNOW they speak for everyone. And who did they support? And why?
DT is anathema to everything this country fought against in WWII, yet many of the same people who hail those brave men and women as heroes, and rightfully so, have decided to embrace the same hate, fear and bigotry those heroes defeated.
As for the election outcome, many more people voted for HRC than DT. No, we are not eletist and smug and never have been. We were calling the con as soon as we saw it, years before the reality show host decided to run, when he was the Birther-in Chief, bragging about how he was going to reveal the “truth, very soon”. He admitted the lie after all was said and done, yet his hordes of bigoted supporters still believe it. They have been conned and continue to be conned by themselves.
I will continue to call the con and call out those who fit the laundry list of abhorrent descriptors who voted for all of those things. They own it, not me. The chaos that has already ensued and could very well destroy our social compact is on them. It is only on me if I stop resisting. And I won’t. Get over it., Bemused. You are in for a fight, like it or not.
Bemused: You closed out your “and so” list to soon. You forgot the comprehensive, “Deplorable”. I predict your time to be examined will come soon enough and you too shall be at the receiving end of a hateful and petulant potentate and his sycophants. After all, if the truth be told, this election concerns an enormous battle between the Constitution and anarchy. See you in the funny papers! Peace.
Bemused: Actually, your third reason is only a re-expression of the pre ious two reasons, but your point is taken. He won the election. He will be our POTUS. I for one am reminded of a quote (don’t hold me to the exact wording) of John Mitchell, who was appointed Attorney General after Nixon’s inauguration in 1969: “Don’t listen to what we say. Watch what we do”. Well, they did watch and 6 yrs later Mitchell was in federal prison.
I’m not saying Trump has or will commit criminal acts but I do think he’s got, oh,around 7 billion people watching his every move. It’s my hope that those who voted for him watch him most closely, especially as he starts what could be termed by historians as THE BIG WALK BACK, now that he’s already announced that Obamacare is pretty much here to stay, that THE WALL might just be a fence, he was going to lock her up but now he won’t, he reserved the right to contest the election outcome if the election was close, but claims that Jill Stein’s recount request is a scam. And on and on and on.
As bothered as I am about all the race-baiting nativist nonsense Trump’s voters lapped up like gravy on turkey-day, I’m far more concerned that 59 million Americans can be so damn gullible. We’ll all be watching.
Squishy liberal though I may be, I continue to resist the line of reasoning in Sheila’s column today on both strategic and factual grounds. Labeling half the electorate that voted for Trump as a bunch of racist, sexist, Nazi sympathizers is a formula for defeat if one aspires to reverse the trend to ever greater conservative control at national, state and local levels.
Exit polls show us that a significant group of Trump voters were previously Obama supporters, which weakens the racist argument. In this neck of southwest Florida I know plenty of Trump voters who are ardent Planned Parenthood supporters and not a few lower middle class voters who use Planned Parenthood services.
Voters on both sides of this election chose what they wanted to hear. Many, probably most, Trump voters chose to hear that he would address their sliding conditions and fears for their and their children’s economic futures. They heard the Obama change message again, change that had eluded them during the Obama years. They had been duped by the years of concerted efforts to make them believe that Clinton is a crook and feared voting for her. Many, if not most, chose to screen out a lot of the racist, sexist content of Trump’s appeal.
Wanna win them back, then try to avoid one of Hillary’s major mistakes — her basket of deplorables remark. It still galls Trump supporters around here including those who only reluctantly voted for him and are adopting a wait and see attitude toward him.
“people’s inner pain and fear”? Damn right the Trump supporters were suffering from “inner pain and fear”. It was the inner pain of losing their white privilege and the fear of having to share the wealth. Oh, the agony! No, they get no pass from this old woman. That “inner pain and fear” was artfully whipped into votes by appealing to those voter’s bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia.
I don’t see a third category of Trump voter in Bemused’s “Get Over It” rant. I see only someone who didn’t like being told that in voting for Trump, they were voting for a xenophobic, bigoted, misogynistic, homophobic, authoritarian demagogue with a pronounced ignorance of Constitutional process and the realities of governing a modern state. I think the point being made by Sheila and Bouie is that one can’t separate one’s vote from the morally reprehensible ideals that drove Trump’s campaign; one either embraces those ideals outright, or decided for whatever reason not to oppose them this time around. At least the former group of voters know who and what they are, and when they gloat about it and tell us to “get over it,” so do we.
As for the second group of voters, I think the reasons they supported Trump range from some degree of self-delusion (gentle voters who truly feel left behind but don’t want to face the dark implications of Trump’s rhetoric and actions- “let’s give him a chance and see how he does”), to pure hypocrisy (the contorted cognitive dissonance of most elected Republicans who backed him- “I won’t endorse him, but I support him” or “That’s not what our party stands for, but I support him”).
Bemused didn’t so much tell us about a third category of Trump voters as confirm what Shelia
and Bouie were saying. If you are offended by being told what you voted for when you voted for Trump, maybe you should be. It’s what you do with that after that matters.
“A voter would have to have been blind and deaf not to hear and understand Trump’s central message.”
Everyone heard his message loud and clear! This election campaign brought out into the open just how much racism and hatred exists in our midst. It has made me painfully aware that I may never be able to respect some of the people that I know. I will certainly never be able to view them as the same people that I thought I knew.
Many people couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hillary because they believed the fake news stories that were being published by the dozens. They believed them because they wanted to believe them. She had, after all, been investigated nearly non-stop for 25 years. What does it say when Bill Weld, former Republican governor of Massachusettes and this year’s Libertarian candidate for VP, goes on television and says he has to defend Hillary because nobody outside of the DNC will?
Now let me ask everyone here to channel your anger into something positive for this country. We know our candidate got more than two milllion more votes than Mr. Trump, but we have to acknowledge the fact that, barring real surprises in the recounts, Mr. Trump won by the rules of the games as it is currently played. It’s time to focus on 2018. Make sure this doen’t happen again in our collective lifetimes.
Nancy,
I could not agree more. Thank you for expressing my personal sorrow about some of my family members. I swear, I feel that we are living in Germany 1933.
I think the voters who confuse me most are those who were diametrically opposed to Trump and everything he stands for but the voted for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein; neither of whom had the chance of a fart in the wind of winning. Math was my worst subject throughout my years of education but even I knew that voting to two minor options would make it easier for Trump to win. I told them; Bernie told them, Hillary told them in her own words, President Obama debunked Trump’s campaign rants that the election was rigged by saying the Republican governors would not be rigging the vote for Hillary to win. Soooo…was Trump bragging, in the same way he bragged about his vast amount of knowledge and the size of his most prized body part that HE had rigged the election?
We do not have to like our candidates; we do not have to agree with every word they utter but…we do HAVE TO TRUST THEM to earn our vote.
Did PJ mention gravy – swoon! 😉
Sheila: “A vote for Donald Trump represented one of two things, both reprehensible: either the voter was attracted to Trump because of the bigotry, or s/he didn’t find it sufficiently offensive or problematic to justify withholding support. There is no other category.
We have all heard the stories about the good Germans who refused to see that what was happening to their country after Hitler took power was not “politics as usual,” who refused to call out the virulent anti-Semitism, who didn’t want to “rock the boat.”
And then it was too late.”
That’s what we’re dealing with in a nutshell. No one can be more accurate. Anyone who doesn’t want to agree because of their bigotry or just plain old cognitive dissonance will eventually if things are not turned around be just like the “good Germans” or possibly even worse since we are much more connected worldwide through the internet than the Germany of the 30’s.
Unfortunately, from my over 50-year continual observation of the center of this, EXPERTLY DISGUISED, neo- fascist movement Trump/Pence is leading, it is my opinion for whatever it is worth……. it might already be too late.
“A vote for Donald Trump represented one of two things, both reprehensible: either the voter was attracted to Trump because of the bigotry, or s/he didn’t find it sufficiently offensive or problematic to justify withholding support. ”
That it, right there, the reason Trump was able to play the Electoral College game and win. I have lived among the deplorables all my life; grew up in Elwood and lived in Tipton for many years. There are many good people that live in Trump-voter land and one of the biggest reasons they went out to vote for him and a straight GOP ticket is, as Sheila states, “s/he didn’t find it sufficiently offensive or problematic to justify withholding support.” These are people that have been disenfranchised by a political system that has gerrymandered their district to the point of making their votes irrelevant. These are people that have missed the recovery from the recession and struggle to make ends meet while trying to get a disinterested governor and state legislature to listen to their cries for help with a devastating drug problem.
In my Trump-voter land, everyone is corralled into a voting district that is so outrageous that the GOP candidate is guaranteed a win, so there is no need to vote; they watch FOX news or talk to people that watch it non-stop so they believe all of the Hillary Hate; they can’t get insurance regardless of Obamacare because the state has refused delayed participation for so long; they saw the never ending coverage on television (my people still watch TV, unlike many of the elites) of the Donald and they saw someone who seemed strong, not like those pandering politicians that actually try to work with others. They want someone to impose their will on them, run things, fix things and they were willing to latch on to anyone that talked their talk even if they have never walked their walk.
If there is any blame to be dished out, it should be on the never ending reality show style media coverage Trump received at the expense of all other candidates in both parties. That is what won my people over.
I should have stated also, that I may have lived in Trump-voter land, but no longer. I proudly voted for Hillary.
Sheila: “When Trump voters are accused of responding to racist demagoguery, nice people clutch their pearls. Michael Lerner, for example, wrote in the New York Times that “Many Trump supporters very legitimately feel that it is they who have been facing an unfair reality.” Lerner attributed the vote to “people’s inner pain and fear,” and blamed liberals for failing to sympathize with those emotions. He acknowledged the racism, sexism and xenophobia employed by Trump, but insisted that the vote didn’t reveal “an inherent malice in the majority of Americans.”
I beg to differ.
As usual, Sheila is right again. I’ve had continual conversations with RABBI Michael Lerner over the years. He understands anti-Semitism as well as anyone in America. He’s a very strong man. His response is based on the fact that the anti-Semitism is now at a point in America that the American Jews cannot raise a defense as was the similar case in Nazi Germany when the virus reached epidemic proportions.
On this point, for anyone who is still interested, I would recommend :”The Hitler Virus: The Insidious Legacy of Adolph Hitler” by Peter Wyden (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001).
Two critical issues, perhaps more significant than the racism etc, of Trump are absent in this discussion: corporate capitalism and climate change. Only two candidates spoke about these, Sanders and Stein. Trump represents corporate capitalism and its evils. He denies climate change. Thus he is disqualified as a competent leader of the U.S. and the world in the 21st century. Clinton also represents corporate capitalism and was pushed to talk about climate change by Sanders. Thus she is little better qualified than Trump. And let us never forget Mike Pence – the theocrat and homophobe extraordinaire.
We cannot abandon the trenches if our democracy or what is left of it is to survive, to be sure, but we should be aware of what is going on today before the Orange One actually takes office. The Dow has surpassed 19,000 and is climbing even before Don the Con assumes the throne.
Ordinarily that would be a good omen, but not these days. Donald’s talk of less taxes and less regulation of the rich and corporate class is partly responsible for the Dow’s jump to historic highs. The increase in capital value of corporate stock measured by the Dow depends not upon corporate performance as touted by text books in business school; it depends upon lower taxes and less regulation and most of all the continuing authority to take the lion’s share of the income of the economy away from corporate workers and others whose contributions to our economic performance have been hijacked by Wall Street into the mix constituting what is known as “shareholder value.”
Wage inequality, in my opinion, is the biggest single domestic issue our country faces today, and Trump’s promise to bring good wages back to America is just another impossible claim to garner votes since it is incongruent with his simultaneous policy of making the already rich richer via “shareholder value.” Continuing theft of wages into the capital column is a necessity if the Dow is to be strengthened.
Those who voted for Trump and await those good-paying jobs that are coming back to America are going to be disappointed when they finally learn that the wizard behind the curtain at the end of the yellow brick road whose policies favor a continuing and even accelerated reduction in their share of the economic pie cannot simultaneously in fantasy-like fashion raise their take home share while raising shareholder value. It’s a matter of arithmetic.
Fellow billionaire Mark Cuban predicts not a recession but a depression with Trump’s election. I disagree. I think it will be the latter, though which if not corrected quickly, could fulfill Cuban’s prediction. Such a correction would require New Deal Keynesian thinking, a quality not much in evidence in these days of Republican adoption of austerity economics.
Meanwhile, yes, to the ramparts! We have to somehow keep the country and our social cohesion (or what is left of it) intact so that we (the majority) can have a say in our future and that of our progeny and theirs.
There’s a third category: Those who found Hillary and her Foundation’s self-dealings offensive and discounted Trump’s statements as election-style pandering. Hillary and Bill have a long list of dubious behaviors ranging from the missing Rose Law Firm billing records to the Lincoln bedroom scandle to questions about the Foundation’s fundraising/State-department influence peddling. In most other countries, if you had an influential official who’s net worth rapidly increased by over a hundred million dollars while in office, you’d rightfully wonder. And if you dislike her enough and are willing to discount Trump’s odious statements, you might hold your nose and vote for him.
Just after I clicked the post comment button I came across this article in which the author supports my point, albeit far more eloquently, and without pandering to gravy enthusiasts:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/trumpisms-false-promises/508844/
William,
“And if you dislike her enough and are willing to DISCOUNT TRUMP’S ODIOUS STATEMENTS, you might hold your nose and vote for him.”
And eventually, you will join the ranks of the “good Germans”as you were responsible for putting Trump into office and now you’re stuck since you didn’t have the courage, to be honest with yourself in the first place. You surely won’t find civic courage now.
Wow, William! The Clintons are “odious” because they managed to make a some money off their fame (and actually, they brought in most of the money at times when neither were in an elected or appointed office) and raised millions of dollars for charity?
But Trump, who has spent his entire life, ripping off everyone from the workers who built his edifices to himself, to the banks who financed them, to the taxpayers who paid for his repeated bankruptcies while he paid no taxes is qualified to be President isn’t “odious?”
And Oh Man! The Clintons are “odious” for raising money for a Foundation that has spent millions and millions around the world to help eradicate Aids and other health problems?
But Trump’s using his Foundation to buy portraits of himself and pay off his personal debts while giving virtually nothing to any good causes isn’t “odious?”
William if you believe all that, you have been in the “echo chamber” too long.
Frankly, I don’t know and don’t understand why any sentient, thinking person would or could vote for Trump.
All sorts of post-election analyses have been done. A large proportion of Trump voters appear to be those who live in the “Clintons are odious,” I hate Hillary,” world created by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingram, James Comey, and Ann Coulter (most of whom were probably “reflexive — I always vote Republican anyway” voters). Another proportion seem to fall into the Rust Belt states’ workers who no longer have good Union Jobs with high wages and good benefits. Another proportion seem to be the truly deplorable racists and would be fascists that have come out of the woodwork in response to Trump’s blatant pandering to their beliefs. And there were also likely a good number of those who vote Republican without thinking at all about who the candidate is or what they promise to do because “I always vote Republican.”
But who the people who voted for Trump are and whether they all are personally racists and fascists is now beside the point. A willfully ignorant man, with no guiding moral principles, has been elected President. What he believes in, if anything besides himself, and what he will actually try to do once actually in office is not totally clear given his recent “waffling” a bit on a few of his promises.
But it is more than abundantly clear that the people Trump has surrounded himself with and who says he will appoint to be in his Administration (His personal deal with the Devil!) are people who are anti-government, openly racist and have fascist beliefs. They, by and large, want to destroy the Federal government as it exists except for those parts they can use to force their beliefs down the rest of our throats. Just look at Kelly Ann Conway publically opposing Trump on Mitt (I think she believes she was the one elected to be President and she might have some basis for thinking that!).
I sincerely hope the analogies to 1930’s Germany and Hitler’s and the fascist’s rise to power turn out to be overheated rhetoric, but the similarities are too clear to be ignored. If the people who voted for Trump — admittedly a truly disconcertingly large number — can overlook or not see who or what Trump is and who and what the people he is surrounded by are, they will in fact turn out to be the “Good Germans” Marv refers to who stood by and let it happen.
If these “good” Trump voters don’t speak up and oppose the racist and fascist policies that Trump and his cohorts have said they will try to put in place, then they are in fact supporting racism and fascism, and fairly deserved to be labeled as such themselves. Unfortunately, we all too soon will get to see which it will be. But whether they are just standing by or fully support those policies, the rest of us will be called upon to stand up and do whatever we can to oppose the incipient racism and fascism that appears to be coming or we will be “Good Germans” too. If that involves publically pointing out racism and fascism when it rears its ugly head, so be it.
There are a number of interesting features about this phenomenon, one of them being the fact that there are so many factors which can reveal or lead to illegal or unsavory behavior which could bring down the “Trump empire”. The big kahuna will probably be the factor that brought him to where he is: his finances. In the current Economist is the article “Donal Trump’s Conflicts of Interest”. Everyone is afraid that he will earn truckloads of money being president, but the author says that “old assets in mature industries, a patchy record, disrupted management and controversies over conflicts of interest” is more likely to lead to stagnation or falling values. That, in my opinion, could be a little scary for a person who attaches so much of his self-worth to the amount of money he has. When people feel desperate, they sometimes do desperate–illegal or unsavory–things that lead to real trouble. I think all of us will stay tuned to that station.
My worry is that some will get over it and join the coalition of deplorables and those who only and always vote R. That would surely mark the end of the great America experiment in democracy.
We must always keep in mind that what brought this on is the destruction of the GOP by Bush II whose Presidency was a gift from his Dad who like many fathers didn’t accept his son’s limitations.
That debacle led to a dysfunctional Congress during the Obama administration which led to a party who couldn’t come forward with a single qualified candidate for 2016 and a long string of lies about their opposition and gerrymandering on steroids.
The biggest and first obstacle to the TrumPence autocracy was that they had to conquer the GOP first.
We must never give up active resistance or we also become the enemies of democracy.
Pete:
The destruction of the Republican Party has roots way deeper and farther back than Bush II. I would go as far back as Ike, in one of the few missteps in his career, picking Tricky Dicky Nixon as his VP. Which later begot us Goldwater. Then Tricky Dick as President which brought us the “Southern Strategy” (thinly veiled racism), the War on Drugs (again thinly veiled racism with the added bonus of taking a few Hippies down too), and Watergate; not to mention Roger Ailes who worked in the Nixon administration. So the table was set long before the Bushes got into the act.
I know some folks who are no racists or sexists and who voted for Trump despite his many foibles because he expressed (and stoked) their frustration at the decline of the middle class since the 70’s with neither political party addressing the situation. Trump SEEMED the only one willing to throw out the baby with the bathwater if necessary to chart a new path. These voters thought “finally —– someone who gets it”.
Other than building a wall with Mexico paying for it (a scam) and imposing huge import tariffs (from which he’s also backtracked to support tariffs only on imports of companies which outsource in the FUTURE), and scapegoating minorities, Trump offered no realistic plan to fix our economic situation. Oh – and he does want huge tax cuts for our wealthiest Americans like himself – a plan that didn’t work for Dubya and won’t work for Trump. He’ll also keep recommending billionaires for cabinet positions who will benefit from those tax cuts for the wealthiest but who have no clue about the middle class.
Voters decided to ride the back of this tiger, are being salt and peppered, and soon will be Trump’s for dinner. Unfortunately, those of us who didn’t climb aboard this tiger will be devoured as well unless the voters become so indigestible that the tiger surrenders.
What percentage of the people telling us to get over it are:
1.white heterosexual males or
2. people who feel the need to make a good impression on some white heterosexual male, or
3. people who are afraid of offending some white heterosexual male?
Whether we like it or not, we live in a paternalistic society and deferring to white heterosexual males is so habitual that we are not even aware of the logic or lack thereof of our reasons for our behavior. In my working lifetime, the enterprises that have employed me have for most of that time been headed by a white male. Even though I am a financially independent adult, there are times I do things or don’t do things because of what my father or mother or grandfather or grandmother or employer might think rather than the merits or problems created by what I am doing or not doing. We need to examine our motives for saying and doing what we say and do.
David F.,
“If that involves publically pointing out racism and fascism when it rears its ugly head, so be it.”
It’s not when or if, It’s ugly head has already been reared. If not confronted by a countervailing force befoe January 21st, it will hit with the force of a tsunami that’s been building up since the early 90’s. Like a tsunami, the force of the movement is sub-surface, which allows for a massive misperception that will be followed by a catastrophic miscalculation.
Marv; today on Facebook I received a post from “Jewish Voice for Peace” asking for donations. All comments said basically the same things; that JFP supports terrorism, is anti-Jewish and anti-peace. Are you familiar with this group; are the commenters anti-Semitic or are they right? There are many bogus Facebook posts but even more nutcases making comments.
Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept reported as follows on 11/22/16 > A glittering array of media stars and network executives made pilgrimage on Monday to the 25th floor of Trump Tower to meet with the president-elect. They all agreed that the discussions would be “off the record”: meaning they would conceal from their viewers what they discussed.
Greenwald says it better than I can:
“To begin with, why would journalistic organizations agree to keep their meeting with Donald Trump off the record? If you’re a journalist, what is the point of speaking with a powerful politician if you agree in advance that it’s all going to be kept secret? Do they not care what appearance this creates: the most powerful media organizations meeting high atop Trump Tower with the country’s most powerful political official, with everyone agreeing to keep it all a big secret from the public? Whether or not it actually is collusion, whether or not it actually is subservient ring-kissing in exchange for access, it certainly appears to be that.”
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/22/media-stars-agree-to-off-the-record-meeting-with-trump-break-agreement-whine-about-mistreatment/
So the McMega-Media continue their abject crawling to people in political power in this case Trump. Trump equals ratings and that equals profits so look for more 24/7 reporting on Trump to the exclusion of all other news.
JoAnn,
Marv, “All comments said basically the same things; that JFP supports terrorism, is anti-Jewish and anti-peace. Are you familiar with this group; are the commenters anti-Semitic or are they right?”
I would have to see the comments specifically. I could be wrong, but the commenters who are probably Jewish feel efforts by the JFP are lending aid and comfort to the enemy by trying to make peace in a situation where peace is almost impossible at this point in time. In other words, the commenters see those Jews working for peace with the Palestinians as working for the enemy of the Jews and anyone who does that is thus the enemy of the Jews even if they are Jewish. Anti-Semitism is rampant in California and this group has tried to show empathy for the Palestinians for many years which to many Jews is tantamount to treason.
In my opinion, both sides are fundamentally wrong, that’s why I stay out of the discussion and stay 100% focused on the problems in America which are slowly reaching as big a mess as that between the Israelis and the Palestinians. As an attorney, I handled matters for both sides, as well as have friends ( or maybe had friends) on both sides. Consequently, I don’t take sides in the ongoing hostilities even though much of my ancestry is Jewish. Because of my stance, there are many Jews who see me as a traitor. I understand where they are coming from and would never venture to try and persuade them otherwise. I’m not that stupid.
Bemused, perhaps the Trump voters who acted out of spite after being condescended to deserved to be condescended to. Are those of us who refused to support a cheating, racist, misogynist bully supposed to give those who supported such a man big hugs and tell them that their views are legit? No, we must stand up to them, and him, and defeat them.
Really, Hillary may have made her great gaffe with the basket of deplorables line, but she could not have been more accurate in what she said.
In re-reading my commentary, I find that I used latter instead of former in my description of the coming economic downturn. It should have read “former.” Mea culpa.