These are hard truths for any American to absorb. In particular, anyone who has grown up in this country. “Democracy” has always been a shell game, designed to keep control of everything (money, culture, social rules, ...) in the hands of the wealthy class. And that class has almost universally been white...and Christian...and controlled by men.
Donald Trump, in himself, is basically insignificant. He happens to be the useful tool by which the wealthy have sparked the angry grievance of mostly-white middle and working class Americans against the rising tides of social and economic change. When Trump’s no longer useful he’ll be discarded and another “leader” will appear.
Our job is to understand that we are in a class war, and that we must find and do our best to inspire, organize, and help lead our side in this fight.
I have been trying to warn people about this since 2016.
There are two types of white people in this country: those who are willing to grow and change, and those who are selfish and only care about themselves and their immediate relatives.
The worst will come from them when Trump is convicted in his first trial and gets leniency to where he is out of jail/house arrest soon or if (Lord help us) a GOP candidate wins the presidency in 2024 and trump is pardon, if we look back to history. Hitler went to prison and when he got out, well, you know what happened! We live in a dangerous time and democracy and clear thinking must prevail!
Everything Trump has ever done was only self serving! He couldn’t care less about his cult unless what they believe and do is a direct benefit to him, the narcissistic, dangerous thug he is!
For them, it is either a feeling we have failed the founders, or a belief that we have offended God. In either case, they consider America to be irredeemable at this point. They've allowed agitators to whip them into a frenzy from the pulpit and through right-wing media. Since the rise of the internet, we see it increasingly with politicians as well.
It could be right to say that many have lost touch with reality. Or, never knew reality in the first place. Surly men raised to cherish their military hardware, and to be ready to strike at the approaching ”woke, Marxist hordes.”
The scariest to me is when you go back and look at Oklahoma City, these people's beliefs are right in line with Timothy McVeigh's. But we made a martyr of him. Not saying he didn't deserve to die. I view him as a cowardly suicide bomber. Didn't have the guts to do it. If he were still alive and supporting these authoritarians, people might better see the connection.
When their ideas (like banning abortion) are revealed to be massively unpopular in election after election, they just take it as evidence of how far the rest of us have strayed from God, and proof that we need a "firm hand" to guide us all back to the One True Path. Just like the Taliban, really.
But except for each camp of believers you list the GOP has dropped the view and raw power is more evident than ever. With globalization, corporate interests look at China and say who needs democracy if you have thriving capitalism and people willing to buy?
As long as they are happy fed and diverted it is business as usual per the population or the political parties.
You’ve nailed it! After 2019 I realize anyone who is still Maga by then, would always be Maga and I stopped having arguments or debates with most of them. There’s barely any sanity left. The regular conservatives don’t speak out anymore because they also get devoured by Maga extremist.
Everything about his history prior to his presidency, and everything since pointed to a degenerate narcissistic sociopath, whose only thing has ever been to serve himself at anyone’s expense. He did not do any thing that did not highlight or benefit himself.
Per both exes, he wouldn’t even help raise his vapid children, because they were of no use to him until they were able to help him in his fraudulent business but at that point they were grown.
I hear so many Maga say it’s not his personality, it’s his policies that they support. Those policies were/are horrible and stemmed from his malignant personality so they can’t compartmentalize him. He’s a disease. They are his incubators.
I've been enjoying James O'Brien videos on YouTube, he's a British talk-radio host and these MAGA morons phone into his show and they say, "It's his policies I support." Then O'Brien says, "OK, name one." And it's hilarious to hear them struggle to name even a single Trump policy. Sometimes they just hang up, completely stumped by this simple question.
I’ve done the same, so I completely understand. Surprisingly they sometimes gave me policies that were Obama’s and one guy even named a Bush policy. Or they would say things Trump said he was going to do in some speech.
It wasn’t a policy or anything ever even written up to be law or policy. It would be just something he said, such as “I’m going to eradicate debt!” and they would say it was a policy already in play. It was very baffling, because you can’t argue from that perspective of nonsense. Lol
It's like they've heard that "policies" are a thing you're supposed to have, but they really don't give a shit and can't be bothered, because they're just in it for the hate.
Oh I like a friend tell me what a great businessman he was...you know, with the 6 bankruptcies. They don't know but they sure signed up for the total belief system
I'm going to quibble on this question of whether it's a Trump-worshiping cult. Because they don't need to love Trump, what's essential is that they hate us. I think that's what the liberal commentators (like the folks on MSNBC) either don't get or are afraid to say. Trump really doesn't matter, their hatred of "the other" is now so great they'd defend anyone or anything rather than agree with us about anything. We saw this at the second impeachment, Trump had just tried to get Senators and members of Congress (and his own Vice President!) murdered, and they still couldn't vote to impeach. Because they saw impeachment as a win for Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, and that would just be intolerable, a vote for impeachment would be "giving aid and comfort to the enemy."
For the GOP/MAGA cult and it’s minions, hypocrisy is their superpower.
And yes, at least since Nixon’s treasonous deal that upended the peace talks between north and and south Vietnam, the GOP has been pretty much okay with treason, and less than enamored of democracy and the rule of law. Unfortunately it is taking a long time for many of us to begin to shed our cherished illusions about a “loyal opposition”, and remind ourselves that fascism in America has been around a very long time, at least since the slavery days and the civil war.
My problems are not with MAGA cultists, These moderate, liberal, progressive folks are relatively sane Whites. They refuse to see this Nation as it really is - domestically/internationally, and are reticent to combat the ills that confront this "Awful Society."
I feel like I'm losing my mind, but it popped into my head this morning that Trump is suffering a huge "oh shit, what have I done?" moment after a lifetime of successfully manipulating people and events to his advantage.
Picture this: Trump believes that his Jan. 6th attempted coup was a good start in attracting more MAGA fans who have been persuaded to believe that the Democratic party is going to destroy America. As a cult leader, he knows that there must always be a fresh scandal to feed the base, a new instance of persecution making the Dear Leader Trump into a victim of these evil forces. Trump has in his illegal possession boxes of papers containing some top secret documents and that he must turn them over to the National Archives. His lawyers tell him that he can't go to jail for possessing these documents, so he thinks, why not keep them and let the FBI turn it into a criminal case, since I won't go to jail for it and it would be a great way to stay in the headlines and blame it all on Joe Biden, the FBI and whoever? But... refusing to return the papers becomes a case that snowballs under the Espionage Act, beyond his worst nightmare. He may still be hoping it will all go away (he won't take a plea, because it would mean it isn't a witch hunt after all), but all the legal pundits are saying he's "toast." We're seeing Trump in panic mode, a man whose lifetime of grifting and manipulating is about to turn on him, bigly.
No dou t. Or, how about the "cloth-cost" Republicans vs what the "business-class "millionaire & now billionaire Republicans ?
Well, they certainly made the Dems fall for it in the 90s! The Clinton argument was having it "both ways". You had to be pro-buzz just like you I had to "support the troops" in the 2000s ( because you certainly couldn't support the war).
Basically since the 50s a pro business agenda IS the flag & the USA agenda. Or that does seem to be the message per those special Interests.
I will feel "patriotic" for my country based on values declared but not achieved. Maybe a fantasy but one that as a real framework of our laws, we strive for and fight for us all.
I say this true statement of yours is in fact a founding paradigm: What they celebrated was a personal vision of the country as an instrument of their will. They supported the country as long as it carried out their will, as long as it served to make them feel better about themselves and their worldview. I think this is the paradigm that formed our culture. This is what we are up against. Paradigms are the difficult to dismantle--an understatement--almost impossible to crack. Education is an anecdote. That’s why our culture is fighting so hard to ban books and denigrate anyone trying to promote a new way of thinking, of studying the past and admitting our mistakes to improve the future. I think the fight against it is what is causing despair and violence among our young people. We need to put down our guns and face our past if we want our young people to feel hopeful. Will it become clear to enough of us soon enough to turn things around in the U.S.? I hope so. Thanks for trying to help clarify things for me and others.
You need someone to proofread and spell check. I don't mean to harass you about it, but what you write is too important. "Irrevelent" appears not once, but twice - in the same paragraph. I assume you mean "irrelevant."
A few months ago Dan Froomkin published a great essay on how utterly abysmal the opinions columnists are at the WashPost. Except for Jennifer Rubin, he skewers all of them. Marc Thiessen is, imho, the worst of them but there are so many. There is a big, smelly stable of right wing liars at the paper thanks to Jeff Bezos.
These are hard truths for any American to absorb. In particular, anyone who has grown up in this country. “Democracy” has always been a shell game, designed to keep control of everything (money, culture, social rules, ...) in the hands of the wealthy class. And that class has almost universally been white...and Christian...and controlled by men.
Donald Trump, in himself, is basically insignificant. He happens to be the useful tool by which the wealthy have sparked the angry grievance of mostly-white middle and working class Americans against the rising tides of social and economic change. When Trump’s no longer useful he’ll be discarded and another “leader” will appear.
Our job is to understand that we are in a class war, and that we must find and do our best to inspire, organize, and help lead our side in this fight.
I have been trying to warn people about this since 2016.
There are two types of white people in this country: those who are willing to grow and change, and those who are selfish and only care about themselves and their immediate relatives.
Trump supporters are the second group.
The worst will come from them when Trump is convicted in his first trial and gets leniency to where he is out of jail/house arrest soon or if (Lord help us) a GOP candidate wins the presidency in 2024 and trump is pardon, if we look back to history. Hitler went to prison and when he got out, well, you know what happened! We live in a dangerous time and democracy and clear thinking must prevail!
Everything Trump has ever done was only self serving! He couldn’t care less about his cult unless what they believe and do is a direct benefit to him, the narcissistic, dangerous thug he is!
For them, it is either a feeling we have failed the founders, or a belief that we have offended God. In either case, they consider America to be irredeemable at this point. They've allowed agitators to whip them into a frenzy from the pulpit and through right-wing media. Since the rise of the internet, we see it increasingly with politicians as well.
It could be right to say that many have lost touch with reality. Or, never knew reality in the first place. Surly men raised to cherish their military hardware, and to be ready to strike at the approaching ”woke, Marxist hordes.”
The scariest to me is when you go back and look at Oklahoma City, these people's beliefs are right in line with Timothy McVeigh's. But we made a martyr of him. Not saying he didn't deserve to die. I view him as a cowardly suicide bomber. Didn't have the guts to do it. If he were still alive and supporting these authoritarians, people might better see the connection.
"a belief that we have offended God."
When their ideas (like banning abortion) are revealed to be massively unpopular in election after election, they just take it as evidence of how far the rest of us have strayed from God, and proof that we need a "firm hand" to guide us all back to the One True Path. Just like the Taliban, really.
Maybe.
But except for each camp of believers you list the GOP has dropped the view and raw power is more evident than ever. With globalization, corporate interests look at China and say who needs democracy if you have thriving capitalism and people willing to buy?
As long as they are happy fed and diverted it is business as usual per the population or the political parties.
You’ve nailed it! After 2019 I realize anyone who is still Maga by then, would always be Maga and I stopped having arguments or debates with most of them. There’s barely any sanity left. The regular conservatives don’t speak out anymore because they also get devoured by Maga extremist.
Everything about his history prior to his presidency, and everything since pointed to a degenerate narcissistic sociopath, whose only thing has ever been to serve himself at anyone’s expense. He did not do any thing that did not highlight or benefit himself.
Per both exes, he wouldn’t even help raise his vapid children, because they were of no use to him until they were able to help him in his fraudulent business but at that point they were grown.
I hear so many Maga say it’s not his personality, it’s his policies that they support. Those policies were/are horrible and stemmed from his malignant personality so they can’t compartmentalize him. He’s a disease. They are his incubators.
I've been enjoying James O'Brien videos on YouTube, he's a British talk-radio host and these MAGA morons phone into his show and they say, "It's his policies I support." Then O'Brien says, "OK, name one." And it's hilarious to hear them struggle to name even a single Trump policy. Sometimes they just hang up, completely stumped by this simple question.
I’ve done the same, so I completely understand. Surprisingly they sometimes gave me policies that were Obama’s and one guy even named a Bush policy. Or they would say things Trump said he was going to do in some speech.
It wasn’t a policy or anything ever even written up to be law or policy. It would be just something he said, such as “I’m going to eradicate debt!” and they would say it was a policy already in play. It was very baffling, because you can’t argue from that perspective of nonsense. Lol
It's like they've heard that "policies" are a thing you're supposed to have, but they really don't give a shit and can't be bothered, because they're just in it for the hate.
Oh I like a friend tell me what a great businessman he was...you know, with the 6 bankruptcies. They don't know but they sure signed up for the total belief system
I'm going to quibble on this question of whether it's a Trump-worshiping cult. Because they don't need to love Trump, what's essential is that they hate us. I think that's what the liberal commentators (like the folks on MSNBC) either don't get or are afraid to say. Trump really doesn't matter, their hatred of "the other" is now so great they'd defend anyone or anything rather than agree with us about anything. We saw this at the second impeachment, Trump had just tried to get Senators and members of Congress (and his own Vice President!) murdered, and they still couldn't vote to impeach. Because they saw impeachment as a win for Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, and that would just be intolerable, a vote for impeachment would be "giving aid and comfort to the enemy."
The first time I saw that bathroom picture last week, I assumed it was just a hilarious meme.
I assumed that too. Reality of what he has done is almost too horrible to believe.
I'm tired of living in the worst edition of The Onion.
No, but really fitting as I can imagine him reading in his library vs thumbing his phone; or both.
We all must work to make sure that no matter who the nominee is, most likely trump, is defeated soundly.
For the GOP/MAGA cult and it’s minions, hypocrisy is their superpower.
And yes, at least since Nixon’s treasonous deal that upended the peace talks between north and and south Vietnam, the GOP has been pretty much okay with treason, and less than enamored of democracy and the rule of law. Unfortunately it is taking a long time for many of us to begin to shed our cherished illusions about a “loyal opposition”, and remind ourselves that fascism in America has been around a very long time, at least since the slavery days and the civil war.
So much to (un)learn, so little time.
My problems are not with MAGA cultists, These moderate, liberal, progressive folks are relatively sane Whites. They refuse to see this Nation as it really is - domestically/internationally, and are reticent to combat the ills that confront this "Awful Society."
I feel like I'm losing my mind, but it popped into my head this morning that Trump is suffering a huge "oh shit, what have I done?" moment after a lifetime of successfully manipulating people and events to his advantage.
Picture this: Trump believes that his Jan. 6th attempted coup was a good start in attracting more MAGA fans who have been persuaded to believe that the Democratic party is going to destroy America. As a cult leader, he knows that there must always be a fresh scandal to feed the base, a new instance of persecution making the Dear Leader Trump into a victim of these evil forces. Trump has in his illegal possession boxes of papers containing some top secret documents and that he must turn them over to the National Archives. His lawyers tell him that he can't go to jail for possessing these documents, so he thinks, why not keep them and let the FBI turn it into a criminal case, since I won't go to jail for it and it would be a great way to stay in the headlines and blame it all on Joe Biden, the FBI and whoever? But... refusing to return the papers becomes a case that snowballs under the Espionage Act, beyond his worst nightmare. He may still be hoping it will all go away (he won't take a plea, because it would mean it isn't a witch hunt after all), but all the legal pundits are saying he's "toast." We're seeing Trump in panic mode, a man whose lifetime of grifting and manipulating is about to turn on him, bigly.
No dou t. Or, how about the "cloth-cost" Republicans vs what the "business-class "millionaire & now billionaire Republicans ?
Well, they certainly made the Dems fall for it in the 90s! The Clinton argument was having it "both ways". You had to be pro-buzz just like you I had to "support the troops" in the 2000s ( because you certainly couldn't support the war).
Basically since the 50s a pro business agenda IS the flag & the USA agenda. Or that does seem to be the message per those special Interests.
I will feel "patriotic" for my country based on values declared but not achieved. Maybe a fantasy but one that as a real framework of our laws, we strive for and fight for us all.
I say this true statement of yours is in fact a founding paradigm: What they celebrated was a personal vision of the country as an instrument of their will. They supported the country as long as it carried out their will, as long as it served to make them feel better about themselves and their worldview. I think this is the paradigm that formed our culture. This is what we are up against. Paradigms are the difficult to dismantle--an understatement--almost impossible to crack. Education is an anecdote. That’s why our culture is fighting so hard to ban books and denigrate anyone trying to promote a new way of thinking, of studying the past and admitting our mistakes to improve the future. I think the fight against it is what is causing despair and violence among our young people. We need to put down our guns and face our past if we want our young people to feel hopeful. Will it become clear to enough of us soon enough to turn things around in the U.S.? I hope so. Thanks for trying to help clarify things for me and others.
You need someone to proofread and spell check. I don't mean to harass you about it, but what you write is too important. "Irrevelent" appears not once, but twice - in the same paragraph. I assume you mean "irrelevant."
A few months ago Dan Froomkin published a great essay on how utterly abysmal the opinions columnists are at the WashPost. Except for Jennifer Rubin, he skewers all of them. Marc Thiessen is, imho, the worst of them but there are so many. There is a big, smelly stable of right wing liars at the paper thanks to Jeff Bezos.
She used to be. Now she supports Biden and abhors Trump.