Last comment on “alphaness.” It’s a small component of many that comprise a good leader.
For some reason people get butthurt over this concept.
Moving on: Trump withdraws from TPP
You’re right–I can’t say that I’m the least bit concerned that Madonna is going to blow up the WH. Call me naive, I guess.
That dog’s not even close to hunting. The Dems can rightfully be accused of not paying enough attention to the plight of the white working class (as can every Republican-nomination wannabe not named Trump). But demonizing them as the ‘other’? Outside of HRC’s overestimation of the number of deplorables among Trump’s supporters, nothing about the Dems’ campaign can be remotely construed as such.
I’m the moderate here, not you.
I rest my case concerning you and the narrative.
Here’s what’s going to happen. Trump and the GOP are going to 1) gut the social safety net, and 2) slash taxes for the wealthy. Life is going to get much tougher for the white working class (and almost everyone else)–unemployment is going to go up; access to healthcare is going to go down. In anticipation, the Trump admin realizes they have to engage in a scorched-earth disinformation campaign against the media, so the public will be dismissive of MSM reporting on these subjects, and more receptive to what Kellyanne Conway today called “alternative facts.”
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I rest my case.
You won’t even criticise Madonna. Nor do you recognize that it’s not Madonna who is to be feared but those who are motivated by her words. Inflammatory rhetoric is dangerous, and I dare say the spike in violence we have seen is the result of inflammatory rhetoric. And yes, “war” when referring to the media was a stupid comment. Then again, accusing Trump of some conspiracy with Russia was pretty damned irresponsible.
You don’t see the references to “depolorables” as denegrating the “other.” You don’t recongize the plight of middle America. You ignore the constant harping on Trump’s support coming from “uneducated” white males.
The thing you don’t understand and refuse to see about people like me is that I spent months on the fence about whether to go for Clinton or Trump. The choice sucked, but I’m not about to go along with my peers at the cost of the working class. If the working class had actually been recognized by the Democrats then Trump would have never won. You know that. You don’t want to admit it, but you know it.
I won’t try and return your prediction game, and try and predict the future with Trump any more than I did with Obama. You’re a smug, close minded, extremist. You earned Trump. Enjoy him, and enjoy trying to tear the country apart because of him.
‘Criticize’ meaning to say something like:
The ‘deplorables’ HRC was referring to–ie, the alt-righters–are deserving of denigration, don’t you think?
You know nothing about me, so perhaps you should refrain from making such comments.
‘Admit it’ meaning to say something like:
It sounds like we’ve reached the end of anything resembling a civil exchange. I’ll let you have the final word. Here’s hoping you choose to leave things on a higher plane than you did above.
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That’s very mild criticism for someone who talked about blowing up the White House. If that’s as far as you’ll go, then yes, I’d hardly call that appropriate level of criticism. Given that and your other comments, I’d call it minimizing the extreme level of rhetoric and justifying it.[quote=“EyeDentist, post:124, topic:225493”]
You know nothing about me, so perhaps you should refrain from making such comments.
Please do tell. I come from a good chunk of working class stock and though I know have a couple of graduate degrees and spent much of my career working with the elites of this country, I’ve never lost where it was where I and most of my family comes from. I’m a mix and I know it. I need people to get along because I don’t fit otherwise.
Half of Trump supporters are racist homophobes? No. I don’t think anywhere near half fit in that category anymore than half of Democrats are communists or anarchists. Remember my comment by 200 people showing up as white nationalists? They’re a laughably small minority of this country and because of that I don’t think I’m as afraid of them as I’m afraid of the left, large segments of which seem perfectly okay with applauding Madonna or turning a blind eye to poltical violence. I say this because I know many people who are very well educated, rather well off, and yet do exactly that.
Not paying enough attention isn’t the same as using them as the “other” and otherwise completely ignorning them.
I’m happy to engage in civil exchange but start responding to my full statements rather than cherry picking. We are both a bit old for this line by line thing, but hey I’m going with it for your sake. The long and short of everything I’ve said in here is that I’m damned terrified of what I’m watching. I’m just less terrified of Trump than the larger moves the left have made of the last couple of decades, particularly in tramping down free speach.
Edits: forget it. Trying to be civil with the uncivil and extremists is a waste of time.
Man, she’s totally demagogueing.
Isn’t ‘demagogue-ing’ the name of that dance she did back in the 90s–you know, the one where you put your hands around your face and stuff?
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It was something with a gue at the end. I never looked at her face much. That diastema always kinda threw me off.
EyeDentist, here. This is a very good article, though I cringed a few times in how disconnected the author is, she is absolutely trying to understand her father-in-law. If it wasn’t for her marriage she would be like so many other people I’ve come across.
I sympathize greatly with her here, but I think she’s also missing the fear of the left that I (and much of the working class) have:
“Saying this is so unpopular that I risk making myself a pariah among my friends on the left coast. But the biggest risk today for me and other Americans is continued class cluelessness. If we don’t take steps to bridge the class culture gap, when Trump proves unable to bring steel back to Youngstown, Ohio, the consequences could turn dangerous.”
Di·a·ste·ma: a gap between the teeth
My word for the day. Thanks.
The markets and consumer sentiment seem pleased with things. I don’t put as much weight on such measures as some, but unless you’re willing to write them off, it should provide some pause and counterweight to the alarmism.
This is one of my favourite videos from the election.
Really encapsulates what’s happening in America.
Civilized vs uncivilized
Me too. The one thing she most obviously missed it that the “WWC” doesn’t want to be observed from a safe distance, and pandered to as a form of virtue signaling.
She’s basically the problem, regardless of whether or not she thinks she’s presenting the solution.
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That was exactly my reaction when I read it the first time back in November, but we also have to recognize that she’s at least saying that these voices need to be heard. That’s far more than I’ve seen previously, particularly from elite academia. There’s a very real class system developing, and I think she unfortunately must speak that way to get her point across to her target audience.
Yeah, there is. It’s a more like a new presentation of snobbery. We saw it upthread a little bit with the “what smart people already know” dude.
What these ingrates don’t realize is that they are shitting on the legacy of the people who worked hard to enable them to reach those heights from which they poo.
The ones who are really out of touch are 3+ generation Northeastern wealthy with elite education. There are people who have never been to the South or the middle of this country. When they travel they go overseas. When their kids volunteer to go help the poor they go overseas with Peace Corps. They don’t know Appalachia or the rural farms of Indiana or Nebraska. Yet, the group that troubles me most are the ones who are first or second generation educated, and yet who try to fit in with that group by denegrating the Bridge and Tunnel crowd or flyover country. It’s far easier to fit in by supporting the establishment Democrats than by trying to think independently. Yet, if they are to survive and grow in their careers with the elites they must do so. Of course, the establishment Republicans aren’t much better. The Bushes, the Kennedys, and Clintons have a lot in common. Trump, if he’s real, is a “class traitor,” much like F.D.R. I hope he’s real.
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Thats a bittersweet victory of sorts. A lot of people work very hard so that their kids can be assholes!
Just joking, but only half joking. If my son doesn’t have to experience a lot of the hardships that my wife and I have, we will consider our work a job well done. If he lacks grounding and respect for that, it’s also a personal failing.
The way I see it, a lot of what we see now that isn’t just affectation is the decadence and failure of the previous generation to raise the current one with a decently grounded value system.
Good post.
I have had a concern over the last several presidents’ terms - concerning grabbing more power than the Constitution seems to grant. I acknowledge others (LBJ, FDR) have seemed to do likewise.
The Executive usurps the power and duties of the Legistlative, often in concert with the same political party. I would have to research, but would speculate that as the Executive’s power consolidates, he is less concerned about the support of his own party other than for appearances, rather than of necessity. At the most basic level, Executive ceaselessly takes power, almost daring any to stop it or become submitted.
I was confused by your saying comparison to Caesar and the Senate was unfounded. It seems contradictory both to the balance of your post and where it seems the US is headed. You have probably noted several of my posts bemoaning the impotence of the Congress, which l hold to be the primus inter pares. Second to this would be states losing their power to the Federal government, to the degree that we lose our status of being a republic.
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Sorry, I messed up - English is my fourth language after all - I meant to say that “could prove unfounded” although it sure as hell looks like the comparison is appropriate.
One of the reasons why many Kremlin-watchers and people like Garry Kasparov are freaking out is that, well, we’ve seen something eerily similar before somewhere else and it didn’t end well…
For example, one small detail - the line that caught my attention was Conway explaining why Trump won’t release his tax returns:
“We litigated this all through the election. People didn’t care,” Conway, a top Trump adviser, said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“They voted for him, and let me make this very clear: most Americans are — are very focused on what their tax returns will look like while President Trump is in office, not what his look like.”
That jarring quote was a logical consequence of the principle of General Will, first formalized during the French Revolution which, dangerously, stipulated that all laws and customs are subject to the “General Will of the People”. And who and how decides what is this “General Will of the People?”
The “General Will of the People” concept was later used by a wide array of dictators and strongmen, the core concept being the following - the Great Leader cannot be constrained by petty laws, therefore he establishes a direct contact with the People, listens them out and acts according to their Will overriding small minded bureaucrats and legal constrains because he’s simply a humble servant doing the bidding of the People.
So echoes of this can be seen in Conway’s statement - tax returns do not matter because The People voted for Trump, expressing their General Will. If they cared, they wouldn’t have voted for him - or to quote the President “Why didn’t the protesters vote?”
So the question remains whether this principle - the People expressed their Will by voting for Trump - will be applied to potential future legal political and ethical challenges facing Trump or will they simply be brushed aside with Conway’s remark that the People have spoken.
Based on the distinctly Kremlin-style government I’ve seen in the first few days, my bet is on the latter…
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