Most sentient Americans know this election isn’t normal–and that it’s pivotal. And from all indications, it is very, very close.
If there was ever any doubt about the basis of Donald Trump’s appeal, his recent speeches should dispel them. As his mental faculties–such as they were– continue to deteriorate, he has become less inhibited, engaging more directly in appeals to fear and– especially– hate.
As a recent article in The Bulwark reported,
The Two Minutes Hate was a famous feature of Orwell’s portrayal of Oceania in 1984. The Two Months of Hate is now a notable feature of the 2024 U.S. presidential contest. Donald Trump and his allies are closing this campaign with two months of hate in a way we’ve never seen before. And it could work.
Trump has “abandoned any pretense of debating real issues or proposing serious programs. “In the closing weeks of this campaign, any mask of democratic normalcy and civic decency has been tossed aside.” He hasn’t just accused immigrants of “poisoning the blood” of the country, he has also accused Americans who disagree with him of being “the enemy within.”
Trump told Maria Bartiromo that an even bigger problem than “the people who have come in who are totally destroying our country” is “the enemy from within.” He called them “very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics.” And he said they could “be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”…
Are Trump and Vance being punished at the polls for this intensification of lying and hatred? Not at all. The Trump-Vance ticket seems to have gained a bit in the last two weeks, just as the hatred and darkness have become more central to their message. It turns out that what it means to be an undecided or swing voter is to be undecided about the choice between liberal democracy and authoritarianism. And the swing voters seem to be swinging towards authoritarianism.
It’s shocking and depressing. One could tell oneself in 2016 that Trump won despite the lies and hatred. Now if he wins, it would seem to be because of the lies and hatred.
If this seems chillingly unAmerican to most of us, it’s because we’ve opted to ignore the long history of American Nazism. That history was traced in a 2021 Washignton Post article.
Even during World War II, as the United States mobilized to defeat Nazi Germany and portrayed itself as an “arsenal of democracy,” Americans remained divided about who deserved to be treated as a full citizen. In an era when restrictive nationalist and authoritarian movements took power across Europe and Asia, even explicit appeals to Nazism attracted adherents in the United States.
As the article pointed out, the idea central to Nazi fascism — the argument that “real” Americans needed to be protected from those threatening “others” — was hardly foreign to Americans steeped in deep traditions of racism and nativism.
Trump recently announced that he will be holding a rally in Madison Square Garden–bringing to knowledgable ears an echo of the Bund’s February 1939 rally at Madison Square Garden. That rally drew more than 20,000 enthusiastic supporters under banners that included swastikas and images of George Washington.
It wasn’t just the Bund.
Father Charles Coughlin — a Roman Catholic priest with a popular radio broadcast in the 1930s — went even further, mixing anti-semitic rhetoric with direct support for Adolf Hitler. Eventually forced off the air in 1942 and nearly defrocked by the church for his pro-Nazi politics, Coughlin’s near-decade of national popularity reflected the appeal those beliefs had for a measurable segment of the American public.
The Post profiled a number of other prominent Nazi sympathizers, for whom “democracy was worth sacrificing to preserve the dominance of the White race — as they defined it.”
Just as the revived KKK in the 1920s enjoyed mainstream support, the ideas animating U.S. fascist groups were hardly fringe. In April 1940, when asked whether “Jews have too much power and influence in this country,” a national majority answered, “yes.” After U.S. entry into the war, public participation in pro-Nazi organizations ceased, but the sentiments remained. In July 1945, the number of Americans who responded “yes” to this question about influence had risen to 67 percent.
The war drove American Nazis underground, but nativism, anti-semitism and authoritarian tendencies did not vanish, even in the fastest-growing city in the country, Los Angeles. Los Angeles had been one of the largest centers of Klan activity outside the South in the 1920s and 1930s. A Klan member had been elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1923.
Polling tells us that America’s Presidential race is essentially tied. If that’s accurate, it can happen here.
How sad and pathetic that so many potential voters are so steeped in their own insecurities that they will follow this monster to his tomb. They ignore the warnings from insiders. They ignore the lessons from history. They ignore the fact that they are being conned (gold sneakers; watches; bibles, etc.) and grifted. Well, maybe that’s what we are as a society: A collection of willfully ignorant suckers and losers who follow the false god of grievance.
We will get what we deserve if this creature from hell is put back in office. Kiss your butts good-bye. Ukraine will be crushed by Russia. NATO will dissolve. North Korea will invade South Korea. China will attack Taiwan. American women will be returned to 19th century status. Their health care will be altogether forfeit. The poorest among us will be paying the most in taxes. They’ve written it down.
Republicans, clearly, are the weakest minds among us. They will gladly cut off their noses to spite their faces as well as turn their women in subservient house maids. They’ve written it down. As with the Reagan/Gingrich party, they will destroy everything they touch.
Happy election day.
It’s interesting that two thirds of the country believed that Jews had too much power and influence. My contention has been that we are divided into thirds one third on one side and one on the other. The last third don’t really have a side they’re the low information voters. It certainly shows that too many of us were, and still are, easily influenced by unchecked information. Garbage in, garbage out.
I’m glad that Harris went on FAUX News. If not for Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, the people who watch and believe would never be exposed to a different point of view. Pete and Bernie are both great representatives of Earth One, but neither is the party leader. We need more than an hour of rationality on the airwaves in order to turn that one third of people away from the nonsense.
The much missed “Fairness Doctrine” was based on the fact that the airwaves are a public entity and therefore could and should be regulated. Who paid for big chunks of the satellites that are used to send the garbage into your home? You might think it’s all Elon, but he does it under contract with the US. That’s right, we the people pay.
As an aside, I sincerely hope that someone reviews that contract, so that, when it comes up for renewal, we can include some control over the use of satellites. We’ve given control of waaaaay too much to a loose cannon.
I read Rachel Maddow’s book Prequel earlier this year. She lays out the history of American Naziism, and it is chilling to see how it’s gained momentum under Trump and MAGA.
I watched clips of Trump in Latrobe, PA last night, idolizing Arnold Palmer for 10+ minutes and culminating in an appreciation of the size of his penis and then going on to call Harris a “shit vice president” who is fired and needs to “get the hell out of here.”
In another speech this week, he criticized President Lincoln for not cutting a deal to avoid the Civil War.
There is no longer even a shred of decency or civility, not even a pretense of competency to be president. And half of America seems to be fully on board embracing the lies and the hate or at least pretending this is normal.
Can it really be true that half of the electorate in this country unimaginably plan to vote for trump, unquestionably the worst president ever, and now the worst candidate for president ever. Sheila and others point out that history reflects a rather constant tendency towards the fringe – two thirds anti-Semitic views in the 1940s – and my feeling is that trump has managed to turn over enough rocks in the past 9 years that the magas are back in the light and running around free and crazy. The heaven-hell, good-evil struggle continues today, and will no doubt into perpetuity. It’s just the way of the world, and I think those of us living on the sane side of earth simply struggle to grasp that others can think the way they do.
What does Trump’s appeal (no policies, no ideas, no humanity) say about the US? I think it’s a reflection of the failure of public education probably as a result of the overlay of politics and continuing interference of politicians in a process they have no interest in making successful.
There is a growing population of people who can’t spell, speak coherently, or write. I think these are the people supporting the Nazi ideas of Trump, which they accept at face value for no good reason. The worst part is they have a vote.
I have reached the conclusion that Trump’s main body of voters is made up of those who view his TV Host experience on “The Apprentice” is now hosting a “reality show” to bring “1984”to life in this nation. He openly plans to use the DOJ and our own military to enforce his personal Rule of Law to end all Constitutional protection for his enemies which consist of all who disagree with his sick mind and his dancing ability. His references to there being “good people” among the American neo-Nazis and idolization of Hannibal Lector are gathering the American “good people”, who, like those German people at the end of WWII, knew nothing about what was really going on in their country.
What form will Trump and MAGA’s “Final Solution” to their problems be?
“Trump has “abandoned any pretense of debating real issues or proposing serious programs.” I have never seen any “…pretense of debating real issues or proposing serious programs.” in the decades of media reports of lies, cheating and driving out of business many who created his “Trump developments” and his sexual escapades before he slithered down that escalator in 2015 to announce his candidacy for President of the United States of America.
IT IS HAPPENING HERE AND NOW. WE CAN STOP IT BUT WILL WE?
If it’s ANY consolation, the current polls are being polluted as pro-Trump agents are flooding aggregating sites to skew results in Trump’s favor.
My understanding is they have 2 motivations — to keep up MAGA morale prior to the election and to heighten the shock of a massive 11/5 popular loss to increase the sense of “deep state corruption” to further weaponize their Putin-paid initiatives against constitutional democracy.
Yes, it is indeed the “enemy within” that is our most current threat, but as we know, whatever t*ump says is confessional. Whatever he accuses others of is actually what he is doing, a trick he learned from his lawyer Roy Cohn. He is the threat he is warning us about.
But it is now becoming clear to me that the real threat behind t*ump is JD Vance, as Heather Cox Richardson posted last night. That t*ump is unhinged and incapable of actually functioning as President does not matter; Vance will do the work of governing while t*ump sits by in his smugness, crowing about “winning”, and if the 25th Amendment is invoked when it becomes apparent that he cannot perform the duties of the POTUS, Vance will ascend to the office. And he is totally owned by Peter Theil. It is a brilliant and chilling analysis by HCR that fits like a glove.
Or maybe I am just too caught up in conspiracy theories. In any case, we have just two weeks and two days to GOTV. Time to get to work.
Vernon’s description of our fellow Americans is, sadly, on point – especially this part: “Well, maybe that’s what we are as a society: A collection of willfully ignorant suckers and losers who follow the false god of grievance.”
It is clear V.P. Hariss is the only Presidential candidate who will respect our U.S Constitution and honor our Democratic Republic!! Vote Blue in 2024.From the President all the way down balott in Federal, State, and local races. Then on November 5,2024, use your BLUE WAVE VOTE to SAVE AMERICA’S DEMOCRACY!!
IT’S OUR ONLY CHOICE!@
OTHERWISE, 45 the Dictator and his 45elected Cult members will implement Project 2025.Their plan to make AMERICA a DICTATORSHIP!! American Voters DO NOT allow this to happen!!!
Never have I seen so many otherwise level headed people go off the deep end as what constitutes the electorate in this election. Otherwise intelligent folk of all walks of life have been convinced to believe that only their help will prevent the world from falling into the hands of a lunatic. “Only two hours left to meet our goal!” “We’ve been tracking you and you still have not sent in your donation.” “The other side has more money!!!”
We’ve been had folks. And as JoAnn would write, “Follow the money!”
Truly, ask yourself who benefits from the public believing that this race to the White House is close? The answer is that the money raisers on both sides benefit. And boy do they benefit!
On Harris’s side it is the professionals who have already squeezed over a BILLION out of the left and still are asking for more. Are they working to raise this only as volunteers, or do they get a piece of the pie for their efforts? On the Trump side the money end is an in-house project, complete with side grifts hawking everything but the Mar A Lago kitchen sink.
And these money making projects only work as long as people are convinced that the race is a dead heat, and their monetary help is needed to win. Even the news media has gotten into the game by constantly touting how close the race is in fearful headlines sure to sell clicks and copy.
Go ahead and tell me I’m crazy. I’m calling it like I see it, and what I see is a fearful public getting had.
Anybody that has studied American history knows the amazing turnaround of Nazism and the anti-Semitic tastes of Americans. Before the coronation of Israel, Jews were lumped into the same category as blacks and Chinese. Jewish architects who attended and graduated from our local university could only design and build houses in specific areas or were excluded from the more prestigious areas. Israel and the US have spent major money on propaganda since the 50s to correct that attitude, but I believe anti-Semitism still exists in US citizens.
In 2024, the US media’s narrative is now that anti-Zionism and anti-Israel is anti-Semitic. It would seem the Jewish oligarchs do own an outsized influence in our government and oligarchy.
As we discussed several weeks ago, I do not trust any poll in the US. For some reason, they seem to inflate the media’s horse race coverage. You can almost hear the Derby announcer calling the race to the wire. If August showed a blowout by one side or the other, how many Americans would stay glued to their TVs for election coverage? How would the oligarchy sell its products or messages if people didn’t watch their TVs?
I don’t watch TV except for college football season, which coincides with election season. Yesterday, I watched plenty of commercials; they were all Republican lies against their Democratic opponent. As Vern highlighted above, most Americans believe them verbatim despite the blatant lying to me. Memes are generated and shared on social media despite a lick of sense. I see doctors and nurses sharing incredible right-wing propaganda. These highly educated people are extremely closed-minded and cannot differentiate the truth from the false.
The mere fact that someone as illiterate as Trump is a national candidate for President should scare Americans to death, but voters and non-registered Americans aren’t phased. We have access to the greatest fact-checking devices at our fingertips but cannot use this knowledge.
Those of us who share and post on this blog and similar blogs should be scared of the trend of blatantly ignorant Americans occupying space in our country. The oligarchy isn’t much brighter than the average American.
I don’t think the race is as close as pundits are saying. Republican leaning polls have flooded the landscape over the past several weeks. Simon Rosenberg’s substack explains that. New research is suggesting that voters want to be entertained not informed and literally view the election as a reality show. So all of us need to stop wasting our time trying to figure out what they are thinking—-and figure out what to do about it. At times it feels like the entertainment of progressives is to talk about how stupid Trump voters are—so we get pulled into the “island”. Our next post this week talks about the Charlemagne interview and fascism . We have the Madison Square Garden image of the Bund rally. Help us grow the pro-democracy movement and ask your friends and colleagues to subscribe. https://hoosiersfordemocracy.substack.com/
We can win this thing! Vote early and donate to every campaign you can and volunteer these next 2 weeks as much as you are able! Let’s close strong.
We have found that we are a sad bunch of virtually human entities in this country.
Tfg never had a bottom, and the pit is soooo deep that no one knows where it could end. If he wins, we will, very sadly, tragically, find out.
I can’t believe no one wished you a Happy Birthday Professor! Since our birthdays are 3 days apart, I always remember it.
Happy Happy Birthday. You share one with our future POTUS Harris too. Lucky ladies indeed.
Thank you for your wise and meaningful posts day after day. Take a break. You deserve it. Cheers!
Without looking up the statistics, I know that the communications into most residences here and now include many hours of entertainment brought to us by almost as many hours of commercials with the same message: roughly, the safest, most comfortable humans ever deserve even more safety and comfort. Messers Pillow, Trump, and Murdoch add to the din even though they are much safer and more comfortable than most of us.
Of course, those unaffected by that message, most living elsewhere, are astounded by that and gasp, WTF! What level of comfort and safety do they think they’re entitled to?
As one of them, that thought rings so loud and clear that I refuse to believe we can’t be represented by enough votes to silence that craziness forever.
Theresa Bowers isn’t crazy; I think both sides are using fear tactics, “our side” are unrecognizable as outright threats but dispensing fear that if we don’t keep sending more money we will lose this election. This puts both parties as being in a bidding war to buy the United States and have the election results viewed as “Paid In Full” by whoever comes out ahead. Those young voters both sides are seeking to “pick me, pick me” have no knowledge of the WWII or even the Viet Nam and Korea war years of losing family members and friends who gave their lives to save Amarica or the real fear we lived through during the Bay of Pigs days of waiting. We old folks carry those truths in our memory banks and the young ones have read something about life in America during those times in history books. Trump is a figment of his own imagination and a legend in his own mind; he has suckered in those who grew up on TV sitcoms and dramas; real life as Americans have known it, warts and all, will be another memory in our memory banks if we don’t have the strength to face Trump, MAGAs, White Nationalists and the Freedom Caucus and take them down. They are in reality that painted tunnel through the mountain that Roadrunner keeps running into.
the Al Smith meet,seems the hierarchy of the catholic church found it funny to invite trump. but then again their probably licking their lips to become part of trumps on demand goverment. seems the vow or poverty wasnt in these peoples lives. instead we have rich and famous vestments to help rule,over providing the flock freedoms from exploitation and wrath. maybe trump will void the churches suits too. since were all into WTFs, nothing better than to watch from the sidelines as the trumpers here in NoDak, and im in Mt this weekend, im saving the conversation,and watch as the public ignores the trump takeover and go about the merry ways as though nothing will change.
My wife pointed out to me, as a cashier, that someone under 21 cant purchase a lighter/matches. but he can but AR if hes 18.. I waiting to see how my neighbors change after this propaganda war of foxites/trumps..hopefully i get the last laugh..best wishes all, we all did something,many will do nothing..
Happy Birthday!
Theresa Bowers. Excellent analysis.
Happy birthday to my fellow Libras, Sheila and Aging Girl (god knows, I’m aging, too)! Let’s hope we have something to celebrate in two weeks!
It’s not so much a pro Trump sentiment,per se.
Trump is seen as the anti-establishment candidate and many of your fellow citizens are sick of the establishment and the same old shit.
Kamala is her own worst enemy. She was selected by the wealthy donor-class and her win will be seen as a coronation by the establishment.
Let’s not forget the bifurcation between Democratic Party supporters in 2016. We must consider the rhetoric from former Republicans that are now considered core DNC voters.
Democrats have spent the last decade demonizing everyone,even their fellow Democrats. You’re not going to get a lot of support when you constantly harp and wish that working people should die.
There isn’t many amongst former blue voters that are going to show up to vote for the candidate supported by Dick Cheney.
Lastly. You don’t get to wag your finger at the authoritative attitude of others when your favored administration is strengthening the entrechment of the influence upon our system by the MIC …via the billions from the treasury to the MIC to underpin nazis in Ukraine. Never-ending supporting ethnic cleansing elsewhere.
Trump is getting support from those sick of the same. Those supporting the DNC are voting to keep their comfort and status. I’m staying home.
Waiting to see which way the voting will break on November 5th is nerve wracking, and many entities (parties, media, businesses and municipal interests) are taking advantage of that uncertainty. How do we effectively resist un-American currents/movements and keep the ship on course to the seas of Democracy and preserve our Bill of Rights? Clarification and unity is vital to that end. I agree we’re all being played by disinformation (intentional) to confuse and divide. Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine would cut/balance out a lot of untrue conspiracy theories that stoke fear that then can be manipulated by bad faith actors to coerce citizens to the contrived dominate group think. Their (Maga) self-righteous thinking and movement go after their appointed enemies with a vengeance.
US is in a civil war to decide our direction. I’m heart sick to see there are so many Americans that don’t seem to realize the seriousness of this election. They don’t seem to know the evils of authoritarian lawlessness (that could happen here) or appreciate the structure for freedom that we have in US.
Some say we get what we deserve, but I still think the US doesn’t deserve the horridness of DJT and MAGAS leading this country!
It’s interesting how Trump is described as a character from the world of entertainment -and rightfully so…yet so is Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy’s biggest claim to fame outside of politics was to play a piano with his punishment. And that is the clown this administration has chosen to give billions upon billions. Yep,Americans are suckered and lovers and that description isn’t exclusive to Trump voters.
Punishment should have read as PEEN.
Ian, Are you sure that the very Jewish Zelensky is a Nazi? Ukraine is a country with a long history of being conquered and eventually breaking free. Their latest being the old USSR. They had a taste of freedom after the fall of the Soviet Union, but like Peter the Great, they want to be more European than Russian. Putin was fine with the independence part, as long as he had his puppet in charge. When the people threw his puppet out, he couldn’t let NATO live right next door. He attacked.
If we look at real world, we can see the lesson to be learned. Putin’s aim was the end of NATO, but after he started his war, he made it stronger, adding Finland and Sweden. The same is happening now in Gaza. BiBi aims to destroy Hamas. What he’s doing is creating a whole new generation of militants.
Ukraine is a country where Stepan Bandera is a hero.
Netanyahu is deliberately targeting civilians and the IDF has willfully killed UN peacekeepers.
Kamalot has much blood on her hands.
I wish I had not voted for Biden. This administration has a depraved indifference to life; globally and domestically.
Inflation
War
Normalizing Genocide
Censorship
Putting a joyful face as a figurehead will not change any of that. Why would you claim it is now the time to turn the page, when the you’re the one who had written the very same page you now want to turn from?? Crazy.
While everyone offering their own insight on this blog is appreciated, I am spending my time looking at historical offerings about the Nazis Ruse to power from economic, nationalistic, and psychological perspectives in Eric Fromm’s book “Fear of Freedom” (published originally in 1942), starting at Chapter IV, “Psychology of Nazism”, pg 179 in my copy.
I am finding he has laid out many of the overlapping and complex urges which gave rise to another Authoritarian Government.
I, unlike many of you, am still questing for reasons many of my fellow Americans see the world so differently than I do.