Many writers on socioeconomic policy have warned that the old industrialized democracies are heading into a Weimar-like period, one in which populist movements are likely to overturn constitutional governments. Edward Luttwak, for example, has suggested that fascism may be the American future. The point of his book The Endangered American Dream is that members of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workersāthemselves desperately afraid of being downsizedāare not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.
At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote forāsomeone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots. A scenario like that of Sinclair Lewisā novel It Canāt Happen Here may then be played out. For once a strongman takes office, nobody can predict what will happen. In 1932, most of the predictions made about what would happen if Hindenburg named Hitler chancellor were wildly overoptimistic.
One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past forty years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. The words āniggerā and ākikeā will once again be heard in the workplace. All the sadism which the academic Left has tried to make unacceptable to its students will come flooding back. All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.
They might, did you notice this was the first election were religion was a non-issue, and after both Bush presidents the war issue was more on Hillary instead of the republican candidate. And another big one, republicans always got the blame for being in bed with big business but anyone smart knew both sides were guilty on that. This time it was 90%+ on the dem side. Then with Hillary aside (and Bernie because of age) who do the dems have left? Pick your ideal republican candidate, what democrat would you be nervous them running against?
I was going to say Webb. He would have left Trump in the dust. But his own party has gone so far to the left that they will never nominate a moderate again
I think weāve chatted enough on here to know that we can disagree amicably, so Iāll pursue this one with you a little bit, if I may.
Youāre right that the media has an incredible knack for taking remarks out of context and/or blowing them out of proportion as clickbait, and youāre correct that safe-space liberals are too sensitive. But there is plenty of behavior in Trumpās past showing that heās not terribly tolerant of others. This isnāt about whether āMexico isnāt sending us their bestā remarks are racist (a clumsy remark, but Iām smart enough to understand thereās a difference between what he actually said vs. calling all Mexicans rapists) or using the phrase āradical Islamic terrorismā (which, again, isnāt saying all Muslims are terrorists, merely acknowledging that there are Muslims who are radical terrorists).
But Trump has been sued by the DOJ for refusal to rent to blacks, for one example, and has made a couple remarks to the effect of not wanting black guys counting his money, and has questioned whether American-born judge had a conflict of interest in his Trump University lawsuit because of his āMexican heritageā which (agreeing with Paul Ryan) is kind of the textbook definition of a racist comment.
Anyways, whether he qualifies as a āracistā or not, the more pertinent question IMO is whether his āracismā (perceived or real) will
affect his ability to govern
affect the social attitude throughout the country toward minorities
I think the latter is the primary concern of most American-citizen minorities right now.
Of course, I think that itās unfair to characterize all Trump voters as racist, but (confusing phrase coming) itās hard for me to believe that itās hard for others to believe why minorities, even quiet, normal, hardworking, not-on-welfare, not-part-of-Black-Lives-Matter minorities (like the Indian and Arabic and Chinese doctors I work with, to name a few) are concerned that seeing someone like Trump in charge could be a bad thing for them.
Part of trying to heal the divide and move forward will be letting Hillary-related investigations die quietly. It would be counterproductive to say, āLetās all work together and make nice, but first weāre gonna put your standard bearer in jail.ā
I donāt think anybody will have the will to pursue her now.
Well, now these people understand what it was like watching Obama get elected for quite a few million people.
Turns out those fears were mostly overblown (generally speaking, Iām not saying Iād give him above a D+). I fully expect the Cheeto fears to be roughly the same.
But end of the day, Trump wants to win right? Wants to prove he was right about how awful Obama was right? Wants to walk out of Penn Ave middle fingers to the world like āI told you fuckers I had thisā right?
Right.
Which means he isnāt going to just go āliteral Hitlerā and pushing Jim Crow policiesā¦ Although he is a democrat so you never know.
End of the day, fear is an emotion. Emotions arenāt good or bad, they just are. I canāt control other peopleās, and the SJW left as made me not give a fuck about their feelings to be honest. Iām going to treat everyone like an individual and continue on the way I always have. I suspect 99% of people will do the same.
Now for the asshole post I would have made last year or the year before:
Yes because so far all the violence has been from the LEFT against people for Trump, so those people should certainly without question be afraid of something that hasnāt happened yet, but have done onto others.
If we call it common courtesy, civility, and an assumption of goodwill, we can never have enough of these things. This is basic golden rule stuff that most of us learned from our parents, if we had a decent upbringing.
Legislating āoffensiveā speech, attempting to silence or shame people with different viewpoints, being ok with historically aggrieved or disadvantaged groups mistreating others, elevating victimhoodā¦ This is all negative.
We recently had student protests at Berkeley where a group of minority and LGBT students blocked a foot bridge, and would not allow white students to pass. To get to class, they all had to go around. The minority students seemed to think they had the right to harass other young adults on the basis of their appearance, to āteach them a lesson.ā This kind of thing has risen out of the PC movement, and it doesnāt build bridges of understanding, pun intended. A bit of a threadjack, but you can watch a video here.
Fair points through out. I guess the distinction I draw is between prejudiced and outright racist.
To me, the vast majority of people have some prejudices. Flat out racist is different. Racist would be if there was an unspoken policy of āDo not hire blacks.ā. And believe me, I know for a fact that this absolutely exists.
Not saying he isnāt prejudiced in some regards, but I am saying he is not racist as I understand it.
Disclaimer- I could have a lesser or different understanding of it than others. As Iām mulling it over and fleshing out my thoughts, Iād best describe the two (in my mind) as this- Prejudice is a preconceived notion that a person should not be trusted. Racist is a murderous hatred of a person of another race. Most prejudices can be gotten over through exposure. Racism on the other hand, can not.
Regardless, this stuff is stupid and so easily avoided. Weāre going to have a helluva time recovering from it. Freedom of religion is fundamental to America. Saying he wanted more careful vetting of refugees wouldnāt have piqued my ire like the religious comment did.
If it wasnāt racism, his response about the Hispanic judge sure sounded a lot like racism to me. Ticked me off.
My advice to Trump, on the first day, put someone with class and tact in charge of your Twitter account.
Iām not well versed or educated enough to know whether or not that was a hard game of dirty politics or if there is truly something worthy of prosecution there.
Iām willing to get past it as far as everything goes, but it was also important in forming an opinion which drove who I was going to vote for. Had all things been the same but for the hard earned perception that she can not be trusted, I could very well have voted for her. Iām not a hard core conservative by any stretch. On the clock Iād be at about 12:03 leaning to the right.
While on a work trip this week, and after way too many drinks, I asked an overweight feminazi architect why it was ok for her to call me dumb, but I couldnāt call her fat.