Cry, the beloved country.
52
RIP USA?!
20
Trump unmakes America is enough said.
21
When one Conservative calls out this piece of garbage of a leader then and only then might I think that they have a chance.
25
I agree with everything you've said here, but take issue with the idea that Trump represents
"white culture." That's offensive, and untrue.
Trump represents himself in particular and boundless greed generally. He's like a walking, talking, cautionary tale on the level of myth. When he crashes and burns, his story will be told through the ages. Of course, that's if he doesn't take us all with him.
Back to my tender feelings... I'm white, and I
don't want to be identified with Trump in anyway whatsoever. And I don't want you or anyone else to assume that because I'm white, I share his perspective or benefit by it.
I don't, and I won't.
You could be laughing your head off about now listening to a white guy complain about racism, and honestly, it is ridiculous, but in my nearly 68 years I've been punched, spit on, attack by child and adult gangs...all by black people. And I understand it! I've also been called an "n" lover by white people. People are a mess across the board. The best of us are often just trying to "muck it out," a friend used to say. By that he meant that most people are just trying to get through the day and don't mean anyone any harm.
Keep up the good work, Mr. Blow.
66
This may not make sense to most people, here, but, what if you are a little bit wrong?
Mark Penn, Bill Clinton's pollster, finds 80% support turning in illegal aliens and not supporting sanctuary cities. Helping people that are in dire straights, is normal. But, when identifying characteristics are attached, humanity in general becomes focused by the individual.
Trump ran on a "law and order"plank on a MAGA platform. And, you are wrong if you don't think Obama did not feed that meme. A couple of examples, that I, as a Trump voter, considered when I voted.
2008 election day, several members of the New Black Panthers, threatened a local reporter at a voting location. Everybody laughed it off.
2009 Skip Gates was arrested breaking into his house. Obama said the Police acted stupidly.
2014 saw a local thug, rob a store, then assault a police officer. The thug was shot in self defense. The reported narrative was so misreported, it amounted to a fabrication. By taking so long to investigate and report the facts, the ensuing riot nearly destroyed the town.
White folks do wrong, too. Hillary Clinton used a private server during her election. She transmitted classified material on it. She had no criminal intent. So, no crime. The Director of the FBI made it so. Really?
And, I've heard all of the stories about cops shooting innocent Black men. Like Chief Brown of DPD said, "If you want to make a difference, join the force." I would not want to be on those front lines every day.
9
If your a Democrat and you want to make a difference between now and Nov. I invite you to stop making any large purchases, don't matter if its a new car or a new lawn mower, or anything in between. Just don't spend your Democrat dollars -- then watch what happens to this current administration. They only care about themselves, maybe just maybe when a couple of hundred thousand are out of a job or see there finances drop they will figure it out. Vote with your wallet, see you at the poles in Nov. Regards, RDM
20
Thank you for your consistently truthful, angry columns, Mr. Blow. It's not an easy time, especially as a journalist, to fight back, and you continue to do so valiantly.
27
It's time once again to remind the New York Times of their prominent role in the election of Trump. In 2016 we needed a progressive populist (Bernie) to go up against Trump. But the number of anti-Bernie pieces coming out of the Times (led by Blow) was only rivaled by its breathless coverage of Trump. Remember?
22
The most eloquent espousal of the truth and the horrific
effects of Trump's unexpected and very tainted election.
It is a truly an abomination and will lead to a much gloomier future for America and the world, even possibly a catastrophe. I believe Trump is that mad, ignorant, and odious.
He is not Presidential material. He is unqualified for any public office even Town Alderman.
After he meets his boss Putin, he should recuse himself to Siberia. He is even worse than that and deserves the dustbin of history as his fate.
16
I don't always agree with you, Mr. Blow, but you sure got this one right.
15
With a confirmed appointment of a Supreme Court Justice by Trump, won't we have de Toqueville's feared 'tyranny of the majority' come to fruition? I share your concerns, Mr. Blow. I think I will probably live the rest of days out under this fate. It's very very depressing.
12
RESIST. Today, tomorrow, and the next day!
16
Trump's America has been here since the beginning. This country was founded on "Genocide, Slavery, Misogyny, Pedophellia, and Religious Brainwashing". It's just that once in a while, Truth, Justice, Love and Understanding have broken through. Although this is obviously one of the worst manifestations of America the Beautiful that we've seen for awhile; we've been here many times. It will be another fight but this time let's bury the Hate that continues to raise it's horrendous evil head.
12
The irony is Trump is doing all those things that arouse his base while not really believing in most if not all of them. He doesn't care about abortion, he doesn't believe in God or at least in a God that would be greater than himself nor does he believe in any of the things that are dear to the Conservatives. Nor does he believe in any of the things that are precious to Liberals.
Trump has no core values. None whatsoever. He loves himself only. He appreciates other people inasmuch as they provide him with some sort of satisfaction: money, sex, flattery, applause to name a few.
This is what makes his takeover of the GOP and the possible toppling of America so baffling...and scary.
Progress is indeed very fragile.
32
To those who are threatened and feel that white people have to stand up for white people:
Do you not know that all human beings share a common ancestor and we are all of one blood? And in what way are white people being labeled rapists and criminals, "not their best?" In what way are white people being held back from education, employment and prosperity because they are white? In what way are white people being tromped down and arrested for the driving while white, waiting in a coffee shop while white?
We are all related. We all live on this one planet together, alone in the universe for all we now know. And there is enough for us all here if we share. My giving to you does not make me less, it makes us both larger together. Put away your fears. Be one in this country. If you were dying and needed blood, would you care what nationality the donor was? The blood of a person of a different color than you are will save your life just as well.
16
Dear Mr. Blow, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your columns in these dark days. You so eloquently express all the same disgust, anguish and anger that I have been feeling since Trump was elected, and I can tell you that I am a middle-aged white man. I also wanted to let you know this because I have seen some pretty nasty comments about your article today in the comment thread. I for one do not agree with those comments and entirely agree with every word you have written today. Best regards, Nathan
20
Not all of our blood and tears will ever be scrubbed away. When Hillary said "I'm standing between you and the apocalypse," it was only the awful truth.
24
"Taking the absolutely ridiculous position that there would be little difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has consequences." Well said and now we pay the price!
22
Perhaps there will be a way to reverse what McConnell did to install his Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. Perhaps great patriotic minds will find a way to describe McConnells actions as unconstitutional or treasonous. That the racist authority of the Republicans in the House created illegal acts, and those acts must be repealed. Let’s hope for some creative and substantive thinking can take place on the Liberal, Progressive, Independent and Democratic coalitions. And that they work together for the greater good.
10
Your words may be true but they are patently having little effect on those who do not read you Charles. You may be right but after nearly 18months Trump just ignores you all. Please for the sake of us all can you change tactics and find a way through his barrier.
1
I agree with all of this. But really, we have to stop calling these people "conservatives". Any real conservative will tell you that. No, Trump is a classic fascist in every historical sense.
15
What Donald Trump has proved: We are a collection of willfully ignorant, uninformed, stupid people mixed in with the informed, educated and wise, inhabiting geographical space. Nothing Exceptional about it.
The awaited Mueller findings have become the earnest hope of millions to stave off America's slide into the abyss of an overthrow without the requisite "bombs-bursting-in-air".
As Josh Marshall- publisher and editor of "Talking Points Memo" (www.talkingpointsmemo.co,) wrote today:
"The Mueller probe is the most immediate issue but it’s really just a proxy for our democratic institutions. I’ve said before that Trump is an autocrat without an autocracy. But he’s working on it and the question is whether there will be any check."
Will there be any check and if so; how?
5
So sad and all true....What the extreme right seems not to understand is the bad policies and retrograde thinking of the trump nightmare will also affect them as well. But it will be too late...They have made their bargain with the devil!
8
Wow.
It's hard to say anything else.
Although I already know most of what Mr. Blow says here, it is shocking to read it. Especially in the New Your Times.
"May you live in interesting times", goes the apocryphal Confucian quote. Unfortunately, we do. All too interesting.
8
The normal people are in charge again!
6
KEEP WRITING! Honest journalism is the last bastion!
10
The Democrats are now the only legitimate major political party left in this country. And that means that in the short to medium term, the Democratic party must be wildly ideologically diverse. The DNC establishment must stop having a fit every time a progressive wins a primary. Likewise, those far to the left (including me) must stop having fits every time a moderate Democrat---who in a saner time would have been a Republican---wins a primary. The stakes are far too high!
14
Really great, Mr. Charles! Also, I would like to see a change to the constitution whereby SC appointments are made under a term of years, say no more than 7 or 8. Why not?
5
Mueller's investigations will undoubtedly be concluded within the next 6 to 12 months. No new Supreme Court Justice should be appointed until then.
5
I wonder if Obama had not been reelected, would the steam have come out of the harsh, extreme voters just a little? They would not have had so much to rail against, the edge of their anger might have been dulled enough to make it possible to elect a Democrat in 2016. Unfortunately Hillary was not the best candidate possible, so it all worked to Trump's advantage. Time to pick ourselves up, make a new plan and stop feeling sorry for ourselves.
2
Looking back through U.S. history one can start to understand the underpinnings of the Civil War (aka War between the States or War of Northern Aggression) by looking at the undercurrents that were pulling the sides apart in that time. Civil society seems to have been torn apart, a society that was being built starting under FDR. Now we have a society governed by wealthy people pushing the Federalist Society and with them revolting against too much participation by "those people". We just need a little homegrown apartheid and all will be fine accordingly to them. Quite depressing.
3
The (DT's) list of 25 conservative judges should be investigated with the utmost attention to details (if they haven't already), and anyone who's character comes into serious question should be exposed for the whole world to see. They won't answer any questions in the Senate "hearings" anymore, so that would seem to be a total waste of time. But if their personal habits are anything like the POTUS, they should be rejected.
2
One of these days Trump will fall flat on his face tripping over his own ego. The people I am most afraid of are his supporters, since they will still be with us no matter what happens to Trump. They have become more like a cult than just political supporters and they will be even more angry than they are now if something happens to their king.
5
All Democrats need to do is invoke the McConnell rule and refuse to have any hearing before November and then work like serfs to get out the vote. On the off chance that Mueller winds up his work, we may have a better chance than it currently appears.
3
Charles Blow is 100% on target, unfortunately, as usual. What a dire spot we are in. I used to say prior to the election (to family, friends, complete strangers), "if you don't like HRC and think she's 'just as bad as Trump', not going to vote or write in Bernie or vote for Stein then get used to the term 'President Trump.' Now, if you think a "blue wave" is surely coming, think again. It had better happen, but "all hands on deck" will not be an overstatement of what is required. Btw, let's see what the Democrats can dream up to avoid the SCOTUS from utterly changing our country. Was it 100 million registered voters who couldn't be bothered to vote in the last presidential election? Trump won by 70,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan? How nice does "President Clinton" sound right now! Turn the record over and the B side has got to be "Nice Guys/Gals Finish Last." This may sound too simple, but hear this. Remember during one of the debates Trump was leering behind Clinton with his tough guy pose, on camera, visible to all. I really believe Clinton could have buried him at that moment by saying something directly addressing his bully, tough guy schtick. Not in a polite way, but Hillary Clinton being the real person being bullied as she was. Getting real is the only way to deal with this lying bully and his cowed fellow travelers. Don't count on a "blue wave", Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, whatever. Get tough, real, now.
7
I look back and am still puzzled how America arrived at this mess, and am increasingly shocked how weak America's democracy has become.
Yes, this is not a game and it can still get worse. Anyone thinking of not voting must know that this will increase the power of Trump and his blind worshippers. The only thing that can avert disaster is to speak up in protest, rally in support of candidates who will oppose Trump and by all means vote to break the power of Trump and the GOP.
10
Mr. Blow:
All of what you say is true.
I note with relief that although you use the words 'delay', 'prolong', 'derail' and 'reverse', you did not use the word 'forever'.
Yes, those of us your age and older are faced with the prospect - the near certainty - of living the rest of our lives in a dystopian world (country) molded by a dying breed. But the time of Liberty and Justice for All will eventually be upon us, and sooner rather than later, if we fight and resist in such ways as to delay, shorten, derail and reverse the agenda of the dying breed.
Over the past two years, many Americans for the first time received a whiff and then the strong stench of the poisonous right wing machine. In essence, they became aware of what African-Americans have had to endure for hundreds of years. The undying fortitude of people brought here as slaves, and their faith in the eventual coming of first, their freedom and now, attainment of equality and justice, should be a beacon for the rest of us. Our time will come.
And when it does, it will hopefully be forever and ever, amen.
7
All great dictators of the past align with the dominant religion of the land so as to maintain absolute power. Today is no different.
Trump's strongest supporters are the christian right. The strongest advocates against climate change are the very same people. They get their facts from their leaders, they are followers, unfortunately not of Jesus but of
those who use Jesus to gain power and riches
by controlling them.
4
Wow, Charles! You speak for millions of us.
I remember during Sam Alito’s hearing how how he said believed in the “unitary executive,” that a president has complete control over the Executive, including the DOJ. His flip remark in Janus about the “poorly decided” Abood decision — which mandated that members of public unions could opt out of paying full dues in favor of “ fair share” fees, which cannot used for political organizing — flies in the face of stare decisis, the time-honored court practice (at every level) of looking at previous rulings to inform current ones.
We have a lawless Supreme Court.
I have great faith that Robert Mueller’s investigation will show that Trump’s traitorous behavior was much worse than we imagined. I have zero faith that the Supreme Court will do its duty and refuse to crown a king.
7
Oh Charles, every word is true. I grieve with you. No moments today for optimism or silver linings. You have articulated the resounding significance of this Supreme Court resignation at this moment in history.
6
The evangelicals can now claim the prize they sold their souls for--the power to enforce the Biblical subjugation of women by controlling reproduction choice, the power to enforce the Biblical condemnation of homosexuality by controlling marriage, and the power to enforce all manner of restrictions against people of color in the name of Biblical order and the evangelicals' raison d'etre--the preservation of white purity.
But this was a deal with the devil, with the far right libertarians who cynically used this bigotry to propel themselves into power. So while the evangelicals may get their dream Supreme Court, the anarcho-capitalists are already claiming their own prize--the power to keep all the marbles by gutting welfare programs their taxes fund, the power to get even more by invalidating laws/regulations that fetter money-making with obligations for the wellbeing of their employees, their consumers and/or the public, and the power to convert public lands, public schools and public infrastructure to private ownership so they can collect yet more for their own private coffers.
These are are dark days for liberal democracy. I take comfort in the hope that, as painful as it will be, if the prospect of the imposition of Christian Shariah law does not propel enough Democrats to the polls to retake Congress in November, the full force of libertarian greed blasted down on those who voted Trump and his cronies into office will precipitate a new Age of Enlightenment.
11
The DNC needs to take responsibility for Trump election.
They rigged the primary to eliminate Sanders who had a huge following, propped up Clinton who ran a horrible campaign and now , they have no message, and no one is fighting back.
I left the democratic party last year, because it has been so disappointing ! There is no leadership, no courage, no spine, all words and no action...
I am appalled at the prospect of Trump continuing his rampage through America, but sadly, no one in Government is here to stop him...
6
Donald Trump is not transforming or remaking America. He is effectively sanctioning the awakening and release of dormant demons a large number of frustrated Americans already have within their corpuses. This ability has so far made him a far more effective politician than his Democratic opponents, despite his political inexperience.
3
It's amazing to watch the United States become such a backward country so quickly. Trump claims he wants immigrants from countries like Norway to come to the US. Does he honestly think that people from such progressive countries would ever consider living in a country like the US?
America is becoming more and more like the countries like the ones on Trump's ban. Countries where women don't have the right to make major decision for themselves. Where minorities and LGBT people are harassed and abused. The United States is less like Western Europe and more like Saudi Arabia every day that Trump, the deplorables and the Republican party run rampant.
18
Mr. Blow, I have read your columns and agree with you. Although I do not agree with your headline - this is not Trump's America. It makes me wonder it the man has ever read paragraph 1 in his job description. ( by the way this goes for all those of his supporters) We do not have a perfect country, but we did not elect him to make it worse. This is my America, and if we don't stay angry we will lose it> VOTE!!!!
" We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States "
6
I often wonder if evangelicals ever reverse the roles with a non-believer trapped in Syria and ask "assuming I knew what was being said and done in the U.S., how would I respond to the gospel message?"
Enter the American missionary saying, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!" Your initial hopes are dashed once you realize they don't actually HAVE any "ammunition" to share... that might have been useful. Instead he declares that he is on a mission for his god. You immediately prepare to run for your life (you've heard that before). But he goes on to extend you an invitation to a paradise where you won't experience constant fear of death... in the "next life." Now you're just irritated (you've heard that before too... from ISIS).
You ask about a rumor you'd heard that the U.S. had banned all Muslims from entering the country. She sheepishly explains that it's not "Muslims" just "majority Muslim countries." He concedes that it does seem like a moot point right now but hurries to explain about the U.S.'s "War on Christianity" and how Trump was their only hope to be free. You ask him about the "war" and he says something about holiday coffee cups, wedding cakes, school prayer and "activist courts." You ask if he's mocking you and swears someone named "Fox" explains it all better. You borrow his phone and type the words "Fox," "Muslim" and "Ban" into Google to get Fox's take.
The conversation is less civil after that.
4
great column today.
however, still I quibble :
Trump did not drag unsuspecting Republicans down his special rabbit hole. the GOP was ready and waiting for him... and if not the Donald, it would have been some other odious if less colorful Neanderthal that fit their bill.
don't pay any attention to that man behind the curtain! I am Oz, the great and powerful.
4
I totally agree with your column today and many others as well. But I have a conundrum: Donald Trump is reprehensible in almost every way as both a politician and a human being. But one thing he has proven himself not to be is an ideologue. (He has no hard and fast beliefs other than racism, misogyny, and xenophobia.) He wears the R for Republican today but has worn a D in the past. So if the Ds win big in November, it's possible that Trump could change yet again and the Ds might be able to pass legislation that reverses much of his damage. Can't blame a guy for hoping...
2
"They know as well as I know that the demographic tide is moving against them and will soon wash away much of their power."
I appreciate Mr. Blow's optimism. In the long run he'll be right, but the long run is very long indeed. Many people reading this column won't live to see it. However, what the republican/ christian/ NRA/ corporate elite know is that even when their destructive urges get rolled back they won't ever be rolled back *all the way*. They will still be ahead of where they are now, just as they're ahead of where they were after Reagan with 16 years of democratic administrations in between. It will happen "soon" on a geological scale, but so many lives will be lost and devastated in the meantime that the damage will never be undone.
8
Yes elections have consequences especially when those that are of voting age stay home and leave the job to others. Yes elections have consequences when mainstream "responsible" media doesn't do its job. Yes elections have consequences when a foreign government (Russia) meddles in our election. Yes elections have consequences when tribal instincts take over. Yes elections have consequences when the elites of a party try to engineer the results. Thank you DNC and RNC for forsaking America. We need a new party of the people, not special interests.
5
Charles, your eloquence and perfectly worded descriptions of Trump and our future will I hope be powerful motivators to improve the percentage of eligible voters who vote. But they do make me feel dismal in their accuracy.
5
Bernie Sanders' politics were certainly closer to mine than were Hillary Clintons', but I voted for the latter, as did millions of others because the alternative, Trump, was dismal, frightful, and dismally frightful. I despise some of my relatives for voting for Trump, and I will not forgive the many Bernie supporters who just would not hold their noses and vote, some of them claiming that at least a Trump presidency would blow up the system and deliver us to a better place.
Well, as Charles says so well, the vote mattered, and having mattered, we are witnessing a country blowing up.
Just how rough the slouching beast will become we don't yet know.
15
Mr. Blow, this among your most heartfelt and affecting pieces. That said, I would love to hear your views on what we could be doing, constructively, to fight the Trump/GOP juggernaut. I for one am furious at the way Rep. Waters has been maligned (and in this publication) for expressing the righteous anger so many of us want to hear from the Democrats. What are your thoughts on this? I'm always moved by your eloquence but I want others to me moved to action. I'm tired of despairing, Waters is right!
22
The mountain is much higher than it was before January 20. 2017, but our only option is to climb it, step by step with focus and the long view. My friends and I are starting with a list of vulnerable House seats in California, donating and putting boots on the ground in the red-to-blue district closest to us. Equally important, we are supporting great progressive candidates for a few specific red state legislative seats - of partisan gerrymandering is to be stopped, it will be at the state level. We are also supporting vulnerable Democratic Senate candidates. Hardball politics with focus are all we have left.
18
It's true that the Republicans used Trump as their agent to lock up the Supreme Court, more than likely for decades to come. But does this mean we have no recourse? Absolutely not. We need to change our mentality to stop hoping the Court will find in the dry parchment of the founding document all the tools we need to be a modern society, and start thinking about how that document needs to be amended so that the Court will have no further say about the right to privacy, equal protection of the laws, voting rights, abortion rights, or treating corporations as if they were citizens.
It will take time to build a movement around these goals, but they reflect the beliefs of a considerable majority of Americans, so with the right degree of determination we can get there.
Let this be Trump's legacy - the foundation of the better society he so foolishly thought he could erase with a bombastic stroke of his pen.
26
Most of your objectives can be achieved simply by firm enforcement of the first amendment prohibition of faith-based legislation by Congress, a body that appears to be an attractive nuisance to people who want to force everyone to obey what they believe to be the word of God, to avoid what they expect to be eternal damnation of themselves for failing to do it.
2
The ultimate Republican objective seems to be to wreck the credibility of this court to the degree that nobody can interpret the Constitution authoritatively.
5
Kennedy’s belief in the primacy of individual liberty and privacy over the “interconnectedness of civil societies” was what made him a so-called swing vote. Neither conservatives nor liberals are perfectly consistent in their preference.
2
All of justice is about dealing with the conflicts that arise out of people stepping on each other's toes.
The election of Trump has been the best thing for the life of democracy in this country. So many people had tuned out and dropped out -- the lowest participation rate in any democratic country -- because of the choices the elites had offered. Now the people are energized, whether it is the Parkland kids, women, 'progressives', leftists, unions, the fight for fifteen, black lives matter, teachers, immigration activists, children's advocates, the Medicare for all movement, and more. So in a sense you are right, Charles, that it DID make a difference to vote against Clinton and yet another stale dead center-right Democratic machine. IF she had won, we would be looking at another right wing wave in November 2018. Now at least there is a chance for real change because people have realized that democracy is not a spectator sport, and the suffocating hand of the establishment elites of BOTH parties can be thrown off, with an opportunity for a once in a century REAL political alignment. Will it happen? Who knows. But with a Clinton Presidency there would have been no chance whatsoever.
7
I am 66 years old. Too old to get a job in Canada. My grandfather came from Canada. My last name is French Canadian. I wish so much my Grandfather stayed. I will vote, I always do, but this feels so hopeless.
24
I am 62 and so privileged to live in Canada. It really is a cool place.
please vote, campaign, influence and motivate your friends. Here in Canada I can't do that. I rely on American progressives to end the madness.
5
The prez is only the dorsal fin of the menacing beast below the surface.
35
Hey all. One thing that is truly happening is that some white people have begun to know and feel what it is like in america if you are not white.
16
A clarion warning but unfortunately it conflates Trumpism with conservatism. Racism, misogyny, trade wars, attacks on the judiciary and law enforcement, destroying the checks and balances of our Constitution, and alienating the free world while kissing the backsides of dictators, are not part of conservative ideology. Read George Will, please. Trumpism is just kleptocratic anarchy. It is a steady erosion of our democracy -- which countless men and women have fought and died for, and which most of the world used to admire. Trumpism is not conservatism.
Yes, it's mind-numbing that a swing of 80,000 voters in three states, an obsolete electoral college, and the Democrats' failure to present a clear plan of hope gave us this monstrosity. Will enough Americans get off their butts on November 6?
21
The demographic tide won't matter unless the complacent Millennials get off their butts and vote. 51% of Millennials didn't vote in the 2016 presidential election according to Newsweek. Boomers vote because we remember our generation being drafted with no vote, and remember working to lower the voting age to eighteen. Maybe, now complacent and lazy Millennials will get their wake up call and start voting.
26
Amen! Well said.
3
When Trump was elected, virtually all of you predicted that the earth was going to split in half, we were going to be swarmed by locusts, we were going to be awash in giant floods, etc. The shrill voices of the left warning of disaster after disaster have lost all credibility, and rest assured we will not be hit by a giant meteorite after the appointment of a conservative justice. Get on with life, and go vote at the next election, and make sure the DNC does not rigg the nomination of someone like Hillary Clinton next time, so that you actually have a realistic chance to win a landslide presidential election against someone like Trump.
6
Hillary's outreach in 2016 to African Americans was dreadful. The black voter turnout rate declined for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election, falling to 59.6% in 2016 after reaching a record-high 66.6% in 2012. The 7-percentage-point decline from the previous presidential election is the largest on record for blacks. The number of black voters also declined, falling by about 765,000 to 16.4 million in 2016, representing a sharp reversal from 2012. If she had done more in Detroit (lost by 6K) , Philadelphia (lost by 44K, Jill Stein took 50K), Miami-Dade County (lost by 112K), Cleveland (trounced in Ohio, lost by 500K) and Milwaukee (she had a chance in Wisconsin, only losing by 22K, Jill Stein took 31K), we would not be in the mess we are in. This is a mess of our own making.
7
Yep. Agree.
It remains unclear to me about what Trump supporters want this country to be, what is this "greatness" that they are seeking. Was America at it's greatest during the Civil War, which freed the slaves? Much of the South is in denial of that fact. Was America at it's greatest in the 50's when there was fear of nuclear war & we faced down the USSR? (Now contending with a Russia that seems no less bent on our failures.)
What are the real aims and goals of Trumpism? It seems some kind of global dominance is one goal, yet the world is so much different that it was even 20 years ago. the US does not dominate the global economy. The US certainly has global military superiority, yet we haven't defeated the Taliban during 17 years of warfare. Trumps supporters seem to fear the fact that the US has more people of color than ever, so is a goal to make it "Whiter". Not a good possibility with the white population is actually declining. So now what???
22
Having seen a good number of Trump supporters being interviewed by various news outlets they don't seem to know much about his policies. They know chants and buzzwords. They cannot answer basic questions about what something means.
I think they are identifying with a TV personality and a fake billionaire.
They are angry and they feel they are owed something. Beyond that they make little sense as to what they believe.
9
Don't forget the consequences of nominating a presidential candidate—H. Clinton—who besides being automatically despised by roughly half the electorate (whether that's right or not is beside the point) ran the worst campaign in at least a generation, arrogantly thinking she was entitled to the job.
And of course, don't forget the consequences of a someone who would have been a leading contender for that nomination and that job—Biden—having to suffer the loss of a child to cancer.
What a strange world we live in!
5
While I applaud Mr. Blow's weekly serving of hysterical histrionics [ undoubtedly his finest alliteration] with a dash of the conservative conspiracy to capture the country, I am confused about who constitutes our traditional allies and enemies. Are Germans [WWI & WWII] traditional enemies or allies? Is Great Britain [War of Independence & War of 1812] an ally or enemy - traditionally speaking? The same with Japan, Korea, China, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Grenada and so on - well, most of the countries on the planet. This whole tradition thing seems to turn on whom we are cozying up to today. I wish tradition weren't so un-traditional. Oh well, NEVER TRUMP!
2
So they aren’t “traditional allies”, because 1812 is too fresh for some; they are just “allies”.
Or they were;I think the point is that we aren’t sure if we have allies anymore, and not because we suddenly decided we can’t get past WWII. It is because pushing around Australia and Canada is what Trump thinks is tough and bigly.
2
Mr. Blow,
Your column has hit a very raw nerve among your readers. Comments here attest to so much anger & fear as much about your column as about the meaning of its contents.
We are living in an era where fear is the overwhelming force behind the growing divisions throughout our country, from local to state to national issues. This same fear is the driving force across the globe, in Europe, Asia, Middle East, The Americas & Africa.
This fear & its consequences is not localized at any nation's borders. It isn't stopped or reversed by taking children from parents, hoping for a better chance at life. It isn't contained by carry permits or stand your ground laws.
It certainly not relieved through mass incarcerations, denial of workers ability to organize, voter suppression or sexual orientation.
This fear permeating the USA today is grotesque as it's overblown & outsized in proportion to the so called ills causing it. The real ills feeding this frenzy is a warped belief that what many see as progress is being bottled & sold wholesale as the dangers we face.
Benjamin Franklin said, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Both of these great American Statesmen cautioned us to not give into our worst instincts, but to trust in ourselves & our fellow citizens.
In these trying times remember what made America great are its people.
10
Why is there no mention that climate change, which is, BTW, accelerating noticeably in the last three weeks, not being mentioned in this discussion? Don’t all of you realize that unless we take part in the Paris Climate Accords everything you are worrying about is for nothing? It’s the planet, stupids! We must focus on the EPA, on getting Monsanto out of the business of poisoning our soils (how many know that FDR wrote that a nation that poisons its soils destroys itself?) We must get rid of the oligarchs who want to make slaves of us all. SCOTUS is an immense problem, but Climate Change is the enormous elephant in the room.
20
Please don't call these people conservatives. My father was a conservative, but, like him, most real conservatives are dead. You need another name for this movement. A much earlier version of these people was called 'no-nothings'.
14
I propose that we called them regressives.
4
My goodness, you are a good writer.
12
Wonder if Trump will be allowed to pick someone quickly, or if he needs to wait until his meeting with Putin so he can consult his opinion on the matter.
17
McConnell and the NRA will give him the list
4
I'm trying hard to remember that the arc of the moral universe, though long, bends toward justice.......but I'm finding it very difficult this morning.
24
The arc of the universe bends arbitrarily without hands to guide it
1
Since reading the Fourth Turning some years ago, I have often wondered what the defining moment of the fourth turn (the final crisis/nadir) would be. The travesty of electoral democracy that was Bush v. Gore? No. The two wars of choice in the Middle east and Asia. No. The near destruction of the economic system in 2008 by Bush-Cheney. Close but no cigar. The absurdist candidacy and election of Trump. Getting warmer but still....no. As the many reader comments/responses across many editorials and columnists in this publication seem to state this event, this change will be a defining moment that will very likely have extreme LASTING consequences for a very long time to come.
God bless America. In the coming decades we are certainly going to need it.
11
I differ with Mr. Blow on one detail. Wealth and power are inseparable. They are different, but very rich people (and those ambitious to be so) on the whole don't, I believe, seek one separately from the other. Some of them see power as a way to secure wealth, some see wealth as a way to power, but both are goals that support each other. I think we see right now that wealth is seeking and gaining power in order to hold and gain more wealth, more than that power is seeking wealth, but still they go together.
12
Some of the comments to this opinion column claim that contrary to the title of the column, Trump is not remaking America but keeping it the way it always wanted to be despite Obama's efforts. I can see why it may look that way because there is a strong sense of reliance on individual effort and destiny in the DNA of American society, history and culture which does not gel well with Obama's support of communal initiatives and the role of government. However, America also always claims it is exceptional. Even an elementary reading of the US history since the 18th century does actually support that claim. This is why I do think that Trump is remaking America because he is making his country look much more like Hungary rather than an exceptional country with respected values, principles and ideals that many want to aspire to. The populist, right wing government in Hungary is setting the tone on immigration for example and literally says that Europeans should think of Europe first. This, only about 30 years after the Berlin wall fell and people were desperate in those months before the fall, to cross the Hungarian border to leave the Eastern block. How fast we forget about history and why the European Union was created and expanded. I have been a life long admirer of the leadership of the US. It is beginning to look like a small minded country with massive military power. Anybody who has the right to vote in the US and who does not vote is incredibly irresponsible.
19
Trump unmakes America.
21
Mueller, Mueller..
14
Mr. Blow speaks of ‘White Culture’ and seems afraid of it.
I challenge him to find a non-white society or nation that is as rich and compassionate as ours.
10
With or without children in cages?
8
"They want to protect what they call 'American culture,' which is more aptly described as white culture."
More racist tripe from Blow. If a white person started rambling on this way about black culture, they would immediately be described as racist. It is no different with Blow.
10
You are right that Blow is wrong to call it "white culture" when so many whites vehemently disagree with what Trump and his supporters are advocating.
Having said that, everyone of all colors who did not vote needs to get out and vote against Trump and all the enabling Republicans.
2
OK, so comments are moderated for civility? Really? And CB writes outrageously nasty columns excoriating Trump and anyone White? What is the definition of civility then?
10
not yours. your hyperbole is unnecessary and not true.
4
This may be the best column Blow has ever written.
20
No. His best columns were the ones expressing how great Hillary was, and telling us how Bernie had no chance to be elected. Blow told us Bernie did not reflect the Democratic Party values. Those were great columns.
I did not vote for President Trump or Hillary Clinton because neither candidate were palatable. I feel unease about Trump's tariffs because they may induce a worldwide recession, if not an American recession. However, I am glad I have a Commander-in-Chief who wants to secure the U.S. borders to reflect we are a sovereign nation. It is not racist to want secure borders. I am not in favor of separating illegal aliens, children from parents. However, they need to apply for American citizenship through the legal process. The Rio Grande is not Ellis Island, nor is San Diego. The United States of 2018 is not a turn-of-the century with mass waves of immigrants from Europe. We lack the resources to accommodate all who merely want in. I would love to immigrate some day to Australia or Switzerland, but I can't just show up.
2
" We lack the resources to accommodate all who merely want in."
We have better resources now than when the mass of millions of immigrants arrived a little over 100 years ago in NY and Republicans, horrified at so many Italians and Jews crowding our streets, slammed the border shut making it much harder to enter, thus denying the US the talent of millions of Jews trapped (and killed) in the Holocaust, and the talents of many who desire to contribute to the US since then.
We are wasting resources ripping loving families apart and storing children and their parents in jails thousands of miles from each other.
we are denying ourselves the presence of good, hard-working families in our communities.
Yes, there are some immigrants we would be better without (Trump's brothel-owning grandfather and his grifter spawn) but anyone who understands American understands that it was built upon the hard-work and dreams of millions of immigrants.
Trump's behavior denies our history, is anti-American and is destroying what has made us great.
5
Sadly, too many are willing to give up some freedom to a dictator who promises to take away more freedom from
others. What comes out of his mouth is what is in his heart.
7
I know this is a pipe-dream but imagine the good Trump could do by nominating Merrick Garland to fill Justice Kennedy's seat.
2
Wake up, America, we are headed for civil war. Though I agree with almost everything Mr. Blow writes here, his company in my misery is no consolation. Winning a great blue wave this fall is no consolation. What will we have then, even if Democrats improbably win both the House and Senate? A couple of days of drunken, elated celebration for sure. But then what? The 42% or so of the country who supports Trump unconditionally will still be here. The anger from the left will still be here. Only now the fight will be ever nastier because the stakes are that much higher and Trump's adversaries (the Democrats) that much more emboldened and Trump that much more geared up for fighting. And we know how he fights. On top of all that there is Mueller, the Trump Foundation, the ubiquitous corruption happening via conflicts of interests in this administration. A Democratic majority in Congress will bring all this to the fore, causing Trump to act like a caged tiger with a brain tumor. Then there's 2020. Does anybody really think Trump is going to leave the leave the White House on his own accord even if he loses the election? Trump already told us he would only accept an election result where he is the winner. He TOLD us this. So let's all stop being in denial: the most likely outcome to where we're headed is violence. There may be no way to avoid it, but whether you agree with Mr. Blow or not, his calling out the seriousness of our situation is not hysterical. It's logical.
19
Trump is a compulsive brawler. He just can't help himself.
Mr. Blows essay reveals a devastating and frightening truth for all Americans. America is on the threshold of transforming from a free democracy to an ugly distortion only recognizable through the lens of histories dark regimes. The ninety-percent approval rating within the republican party signifies a cult like adoration that excuses the most heinous, outrageous behavior ever exhibited by a leader of a free democracy. The MAGA platform is an obvious strategy to re-impose the imprint of the "whiteness" of America that existed prior to the imposition of civil rights, gay rights, voting rights, housing rights, desegregation and the protections afforded non-Christian religions. I am afraid that MAGA is the least of our worries. Trump is leading a movement intent on the dis-articulation of American institutions. The very institutions that were initiated by the founders of this nation and those created throughout our journey by leaders building a democratic nation anchored by the rule of law. The executive branch of our government has purposely infected the institutions under their direct control with viruses design to render them impotent. The appointed leaders of these agencies are mandated to render them "toothless". In turn, the self imposed uselessness of these agencies will serve as the argument for their closure. Congress is a pointless body of sycophants and SCOTUS is in danger of becoming the enforcement arm of the Trump GOP., We are all in danger of losing our nation.
15
It is already lost. End game. These are the crucial years for addressing global warming and remaining unaddressed, it will become runaway and inexorable.
10
There is no possibility that limitation of supply will block emission of another 2 trillion metric tons of CO2 over the next 50 years. Fracking will boost output from the Permian Basin alone to 5.5 million barrels per day shortly. And fertility clinics remain the most lucrative single medical specialty.
3
By far the best column published in your paper that concisely analyzes what the white right wing mind is about and why the base will never budge. I will be dead before the fix arrives.
Mr. Blow speaks of the long game. This is where the GOP demolishes the Democrats. Their REDMAP gerrymandering plan after the 2008 elections and McConnell's Machiavellian move to get Gorsuch on the bench, right wing radio, Murdoch and Sinclair control of TV media to disseminate propaganda, ALEC shaping state after state like a GOP fast food joint that is the same everywhere.
However, the white supremacists do not breed as fast as the non whites. That and mixed race couples will guarantee that by mid century whites will be minority Americans. There will be an ugly struggle for elite whites to keep iron control as they always have, but in the end sheer numbers will win.
I'm sorry I won't be able to see that. Let's hope that future USA will not be as corrupt and ugly as the one we have now. South Africa proves that black political control is not any better necessarily.
All races and cultures have done abominable things. I have a bad feeling that the New Deal, the post WWII prosperity and the new US led international liberal Democratic order after catastrophic destruction may have been the acme of international respect for the US.
Trumpism took off the blinders about the nation's character.
16
"Over that time, the court will operate with his undeniable imprint. In this way, a man whose candidacy was a joke, whose election was a fluke tainted by fraud, and whose presidency is a bane will get the chance to remake the American bench."
To those dems and independents who could not hold their nose and vote for Clinton - this is on you!!!
14
What galls me is the incredible run of luck DJT is experiencing. Enough to make one believe in the existence of the devil.
13
Yes, I keep thinking: signs of the Beast: lying, lust, gluttony, greed, 666,,,,,,,
2
There are no politicians in Canada (federal level) that come even close to being called a nut job, a racist, a bigot, a xenophobe, etc...
Just hope it continues this way.
All I can say to you right now is keep the fight alive.
Hey, China might even become are closest ally.
8
Re, your headline: Trump doesn't "re-make" anything. His sole talent is to destroy.
15
The notion that there is or ever was a white culture is nonsense. Africans were brought here as slaves and immediately changed American culture, as did the Irish, Jews, Hispanics, Italians, and every group whose blood, sweat, and tears created American culture.
Wanting to go back to white culture simply means white, Protestant men subjugating people of different colors, religions, and races. Nothing new here folks. Just racism repackaged to make racists feel okay about their prejudices. VOTE!
14
The arrogance of this psychopathic bully having any influence at all -- on anything or anybody -- is absurd.
And yet here we are.
He could very well be re-elected.
4
When I was a kid I used to wonder why didn't all the Jews flee Germany? Why did some stay when the Nazis rose to power and were clear about their intentions? It seemed, in hindsight, so obvious that all Jews needed to flee. Since Trump was elected, I've realized that this question is not so simple in real time. I vacillate between feeling like this country is irretrievably lost - leave now - and "don't be crazy" this is just a low point that will pass. I think of the frog in the slowly heating water - when do you realize it's boiling and you need to save yourself? For the first time, I understand what the Jews who stayed may have told themselves and wonder if we aren't all telling ourselves now "it won't happen here" when in fact it could?
32
This disaster would have happened with or without trump. Once Mcconnell illegitimately refused Obama’s SCOTUS nomination, this outcome was guaranteed.
When the worm turns and the Democrats control the government again, Gorsuch must be impeached and removed. It is the only way to neutralize McConnell’s unconstitutional usurpation of power.
12
Shortly before the November 2016 election, I submitted a comment to this forum, directed to those on the Left who refused to for Hillary (and who were quite vociferous at the time), trying to explain to them the risks of a Trump presidency to people like my family, ethnic and religious minorities (although all U.S. citizens, native born). We now know thousands of them sat out, voted for Stein, or otherwise wasted their vote, and it cost us the election.
The most common refrain from the Bernie/Stein crowd was that they just didn't have the "conscience" to vote for Hillary. So my question to them was, from a person who stood much more to lose than most of them would, would my family be on their "conscience" should Hillary lose?
I've thought about this nearly every day since November 2016. Perhaps those who didn't vote for Hillary knew the alternative would not hurt them or their families. The vote was certainly their choice to make.
But I never, ever want to hear anything about "voting one's conscience" ever again, from any of them. They are responsible for where this country is now. They are responsible for a sitting president who says that the KKK and neo-Nazis are some very fine people. They are responsible for the increasingly emboldened threats and slurs people like my family face, and now with the tacit support of the Supreme Court, will face for decades. We seriously question whether we will be safe here. And this is what should be "on their conscience".
23
I couldn't agree more. Shame on them.
3
I have to laugh and shake my head. Liberals democrats are so naïve, they are so sure of a blue wave in November, while more and more it seems for certain that a red storm is coming. The whole democratic resistance may boil down to NYC and a few counties in California.
4
No.
"The whole democratic resistance" may boil down to a few million votes more for Democrats than for Republicans. As has happened in the past. More than once. With perhaps nothing to show for it. How is it that red piddles supersede blue majorities? It's called gerrymandering, not naivete. You laughing and shaking your head at that?
3
Charles, your bare, strong prose encapsulates this sad, angering, sickening day perfectly. My heart aches. I write this lying in bed, wide awake, at 4:06am. Where is my America? Like young migrant children, I despair at being reunited with a President, a Supreme Court, a government, a leader, that has the best interests of all Americans at heart, not just Dum Dum’s ‘base.’ A summit with Putin? Kim Jung-Un’s henchman in the Oval Office? Stolen Supreme Court seats? A liar spreading untruths every day? Women’s right to control our own bodies in doubt? Our American nightmare.
15
You're right, it is too late for boos, African-Americans didn't vote, or some voted for Trump. Live with it.
3
Your comment's a bit offensive.
1
The U.S. Constitution was written more than 230 years ago, and it really doesn't apply to the nation we are today. The Amendments are also out of touch with our modern world, sloppily written, turgid and purposely difficult to pin down.
We need an entirely new clearly written Constitution that does not need to be interpreted every time someone somewhere sneezes and sets up a dust storm in our precious living rooms.
Why not renovate the entire shebang -- rework the legislative, the executive, the judicial -- what's to stop us? And this time, don't leave it all up to a tiny bunch of snotty white men to tell us how to live.
4
Because if we actually did manage to convene a new constitutional convention, the right wing would work its mischief. We could actually end up with something worse than what we have now.
7
It is time for some hardball from moderates and Democrats. Where is Larry Flynt when you need him? I do not believe for a second that Donald Trump has not made sure that many of his multiple mistresses and girlfriends have not had abortions. He didn't even use protection with a porn actress and a Playboy model, when he was newly married! Fourth Estate, find it out, get it out there. He wants to make abortion illegal and punish women who get them? Let's see about that. FIND IT OUT!
9
Joe Biden is about as hardball as it ever gets in the Democratic Party.
4
Congrats, Mr. Blow. This article is a excellent exercise about a sad truth--the Trump presidency. This man exposed everything dark and sinister about American society, elevating racism and bigotry to an accepted norm.
Trump nurtured American society's latent sordidness. He fed their distrust of all things outside the confines of their narrow comfort zone--obscuring truth behind vicious, oft repeated lies. A certain segment of society gorge themselves and became tipsy drinking in his clownish performance and unhinged rhetoric.
It is unendurable to think that this real estate shyster will leave a legacy for generations through his SC appointees,
7
I totally agree. And its an absolute disaster that was foreshadowed by McConnel's despicable blocking of Obama's nominee. Once again I hold Trump voters, and especially women who voted fro him responsible. Don't tell me that you could not know what has and will happen while this man is in the White House and the spineless, unethical, and immoral GOP is in power. IS your fault!
12
If I made the same type of generalizations about African-Americans, I would rightly be accused of stereotyping. To make such sweeping charges against all conservatives is an act of intellectual laziness nor worthy of a NY Times columnist.
6
Secession is the only answer. The Northeast and the West Coast must break away to move forward as America while the rest of USA, USA can devolve into Trumpistan.
14
But since the Blue States subsidize the red states with our tax dollars, we then will find ourselves with a heavily armed failed state on our borders.
Anyway, that must be Putin's goal, to break up and weaken the US much like his beloved USSR was broken up.
2
Democrats dominate virtually all large cities and college towns across the country as well as the Black Belt, the Latino-dominated borderlands and the Indian reservations. Democrats live in every county in the United States. Country and city are economically tied. This isn't like the North and South in the 19th century; there's no realistic way to split up anymore. We're stuck with each other, and somehow we're going to have to learn to live with it.
I guess the only hope I have now is to work at the community, city and state level. We're going to have to help each other, since we won't get any help from Washington.
3
Okay, I get it. A lot of us want to believe Trump voters are all fat and ugly just like him (a picture of Trump on a t shirt requires an extra large shirt to do him justice). But while it may give us some schadenfreude to believe that all Trump supporters look like this picture, the reality is that Trump supporters look just like the rest of the white population. Putting pictures like this one on this column is just the thing to convince people who support him that they are being mocked. Why not put up pictures of his real enablers: Putin, Orban, Bannon, the entire racist alt right, McConnell, Cruz, Mnuchin, Pruitt, Zinke, DeVos, Gorsuch? They, not this woman with her hideous t shirt, are the people who are his real enablers and supporters.
10
You. Have. To. Vote.
Young Americans have died—and die—in the muck and sand for your democratic rights and freedoms. When you don't vote, you spit on them and their families.
For this reason, abstainers, Bernie-or-Busters and Greens are just as "deplorable" as Trumpists. You helped to deliver Trump.
Redeem yourselves. Vote.
13
I have campaigned and canvassed and voted for the Democrats. I will continue to do so. May masses of Americans join me! Thanks for your columns!
5
I was in a rare good mood when I walked into the NYTimes' Gloom & Doom Online Auditorium to hear Charles Blow singing "It's the End of the World as We Know It" backed up by a growing choir of commenters. (Okay, commentators, happy now?)
I always agree with Charles: 45 is a terrible man and a terrible president, and he has untold millions of acolytes supporting him. That can be scary, especially when you dwell on it and throw in some healthy paranoia (is that an oxymoron?).
But I found America, at least, my small part of it, to be in a glorious mood yesterday: People were smiling, talking, laughing, shopping, eating at themed restaurants, working and sweating, and driving like they desperately needed to soon find the nearest restroom. Another ordinary and somewhat boring day here in the Sunshine State.
Maybe it's the calm before the storm, though. Maybe I and everyone I love will soon be frog-marched into cages to be tortured and killed. Maybe 45 will push his Big Button. I not only hope and pray not, but, forgive me, fellow liberals, but I just don't see hell on wheels right now coming down my street: Granted, maybe I should. The sky could fall any moment and crush me.
But today, just for a while, I'd like to be mellow. Soon, I will, no doubt, hit the online barricades brandishing my rhetorical pitchfork and Wiki torch (now on sale for 40% off) and lament our shared fate.
Perhaps my rare peace of mind is merely the result of entering the calm eye of Hurricane Donald.
1
To Jim: I remember September 10, 2011 when I and some friends sat on a beach south of Santa Cruz on a glorious sunny day with dolphins swimming by in the ocean. We had a book club and were discussing Ray Bradbury's, "Martian Chronicles." It indeed was the day before the storm that would hit this country. It really hasn't been the same country I grew up with and I miss the innocence even if it was misplaced. The optimistic America. I am horrified at what Trump has done in two years. I have friends of all backgrounds and a husband from India. I want an inclusive country, not a paranoid, sick one that I see emerging from all these terrible changes.
15
Er, I suppose you mean September 11, 2001.
You're right, though, about our 45th president, the worst guy ever to live in the White House. Worse, millions of people love him and what he says and does; they worry me as much or more than him.
Sometimes, though, I get indignation fatigue: I just gotta let it go for a while. I need some R&R before I get back in the fight.
I wish I knew what to do to change things for the better, but the options seem few and ineffective. We've fouled our own nest, and now we must live in it. Life can be frustrating and miserable and unfair.
1
In conservative circles, not only is your well-being not linked to mine, but neither is your wealth. When the final elements of the latest tax revision are installed, the majority of Americans will be burdened beyond their belief – and the already-rich rewarded beyond their astonishment.
Mr. Blow, you are much too kind, if not dissembling: Mr. Trump, his base, and the ultra-conservatives in Congress are not remaking as much as destroying America.
12
Take it from somebody who knows who normal rich people are. They're fleeced under the tax cuts for jobs bill too. It is strictly intended to lay the groundwork of us paying corporations for jobs.
4
America is a number of thriving city states in thrall to a very backward rural population, held together by an outdated Constitution. This is true in all modern countries. Think of London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, etc. It will, & should, end in dissolution.
12
The Republicans cannot win elections based on the strength of their policies and ideas. Rather than confront this reality, and doing the difficult work of retooling themselves, Republicans change the rules. A disenfranchised majority will be ruled by a power-hungry, self-serving minority party. This is not how representational democracy is supposed to work.
13
Well, it has been going this way for the past 40 years under the repubs. For the last 20 years I've been saying, every time the right wingers do something anti-American, that this can' t last; it has to be the last gasp of the right wing wackos because the MAJORITY of Americans don't agree with what they are doing. Yet they keep coming. They are in the minority but they gain power. It is clear now that our political structure is totally out of whack with what the MAJORITY of the American People want. That is due to the antiquated Electoral College and the radically skewed Senate representation (only 11% of the people -mostly right wingers - are represented by 40 Senators) that keeps the right wing in the game. If those two things were fixed then the country would swing Democratic for all time because they are the MAJORITY of AMERICANS.
12
Sorry Charles, but it looks like we will not win either chamber in November.
Nor is Mueller going to cause Trump to drop one sweat.
McConnell will fill the vacancy before November and there will nothing we can do about it(maybe scream a little more)
Murdoch and Trump have won, bigly.
We are inept, lame, weak, no guts. We will "win" again when we don't have Pelosi and Schumer @ the top. They are complicit and will not leave voluntarily. I see a debacle coming, not a blue wave.
It's very depressing all over.
I gave up.
10
You don’t speak for all of America I’m afraid. Certainly not me. And certainly not the 90% approval rating President Trump has with his Republican Party.
He’s winning, MAGA and you just can’t stand it. You have never written a single column giving Trump one iota or credit.
2
There is no such thing as a"conservative." All we have is people who want to build a civilized society and those who want a dog-eat-dog world in which the psychopaths rule. The Congress and the Courts are supposed to moderate the psychopaths. But for the last 40 years the psychopaths have been winning. Our country is no longer a beacon of hope for people. It is now just your average plutocracy for which the Congress and the Courts are only too happy to do their part to promulgate. The new SC justice, like the other "conservatives" on the court, will just be your average corporate hack put their to be sure the American People do not get in the way of the plutocrats.
12
An excellent summary of the situation which now faces the United States of America. Some days I cannot believe what is happening to this country. For how many generations will the Trump blowhard cripple the advancement of humanity and equality here and throughout the world?
3
The saddest part of the coming failure of America, the inevitable shift of power from federal government to the states as people use what democratic power they have to vote in their own interests, is that women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and decent humans will all suffer badly in red America.
11
Whenever we think it cannot get any worse, it does get worse. Whenever we think the pace of the depredations is slowing, the pace accelerates. Whenever we believe a limit applies, for instance, the Constitutional oversight duties of Congress, the limit evaporates. When people rightly say, "vote," then partisan racial gerrymandering is made the law of the land. Somebody brilliant said the following: when somebody tells you who they are, we should listen. Trump and his cult told us time and time again that they would do absolutely anything at all, including treason, in order to create a white male supremacist fascist state.
19
excellent, well thought out piece. we can only hope that the new scotus is one the dems can abide. no more thomas, scalia, alito, gorsuch types. one can at least hope.....
2
"A man whose candidacy was a joke, whose election was a fluke tainted by fraud, and whose presidency is a bane." A fittingly humiliating way for the USA to end. The rest of the actual civilized world will bid us good riddance - in fact, they already are.
9
I too am upset by this turn of events, because I believe the Supreme Court does its best work when not mired in strict party lines. Oddly it seems that conservative white men cannot wait to overturn Roe v. Wade. If you look at the #me too movement, these have been the people that have most likely benefited from legal abortion for their paramours. Fortunately along the way poor and disadvantaged women have also benefited. I guess this is what they hate!
6
These people are paving the way to govern by pronouncement of what God thinks about everything.
7
I start reading a Charles Blow column with bemusement, like when my mind is totally shot late at night and I switch to a Bravo reality show to see how low people are willing to go. It is amusing how someone can have a world view such as that the American nation was founded on exploitation and bigotry, original sin that can never find redemption short of tearing down all its structures, monuments, core beliefs. Somehow, though, rather than the ridiculous mirth of that reality show, which in my fatigue and stupor puts me to sleep smiling, I am astonished how enraged I feel each time when I read Mr. Blow's hate. Bad reality shows are for bedtime. Mr. Blow's columns, if read at all, should definitely be a morning thing, when all your faculties are still intact as you deal with his assaults.
2
"... he wants to weaken America’s faith in truth and facts themselves."
"Seventy-two percent of Americans believe "traditional major news sources report news they know to be fake, false, or purposely misleading," according to a new poll from Axios and SurveyMonkey released on Thursday."
4
And there, in a nutshell, you find the cause for our present situation
3
What's the alternative? Faux News?
2
@Jake Ballard,
WSJ, TheHill, RealClear Politics
Or as evidenced, this is how Trump subjugates America. He's using an ethnocentric SCOTUS with a bigoted majority to establish an imperial executive branch by rubber-stamping his whimsical decrees to oppress anyone he dislikes anyywhere and anytime. He was elected with a minority popular vote and his racist enablers obstructed Obama from appointing a Justice to replace Scalia. Trump is all about less rights and freedoms for all, and the SCOTUS are now complicit in the slide toward authoritarianism.
American democracy, what democracy?
5
Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got till it's gone . . .
4
Credit where credit is due. The Green Party gave us George Bush and Donald Trump. Jill Stein sat at the dinner table with Michael Flynn and Vladimir Putin.
15
Mr. Blow writes the same column every week. I admire his persistence, if not his perspective.
3
Your voice is the humanity of our nation. Your eloquent distillation of facts, facts so ugly and repugnant, you make the point that we must take the hard look, call it as it is and move forward.
Thank you for your essays. I cling to every word. Patriots like you, Sarah Kendzior, Amy Siskind, Steve Schmidt, are the voices of Truth in this time of lies.
15
Yes, things look bleak, but all those tired old white will soon be dead (of natural causes) and with them will die the Republican Party. Trump's only lasting legacy will have been to have hammered in the coffin nails.
7
I've had that same hope for over 25 years.
1
And can you imagine a more incompetent, unqualified, and amoral individual than Donald J Trump remaking America!
This is a horror that will be played out for decades to come.
10
And here we thought Obama was playing the long game....
The populist trend around the world demonstrates how weak the role of the recently evolved frontal cortex is compared to that of the much older reptilian brain. The drive to survive in the face of accelerating change causes most humans to "blindly" follow whoever demonstrates viscerally the most power: Xerxes, Alexander, Ceasar, Genghis Khan, Tojo, Hitler, Mao, Idi Amin, et al. Civilization is a thin veneer. Sure, our technology helps us explore the Universe, but most of it is used to expedite and simulate mating which was overdone even beforehand.
7
Enrico Fermi nailed it right out of the box. When technology overloads the reptilian brain, history implodes.
3
the return to sanity depends on one man......Robert Mueller.
How did we get here? Is this America?...It would seem so.
What a bunch of phonies we must be.
the shame I feel is wordless
5
The return to sanity depends on we the people , don’t lose heart
3
I don't know whether Justice Kennedy is ill, but why on earth could this man, given one of the greatest privileges in the world, not remain for another 5 months at the Supreme Court? He should have been carried out on a stretcher rather than allow Trump to destructively pervert the course of American history and progress.
Again, this shows that the checks and balances in the American system of government are weak in the face of a fascist demogogue who was elected by a series of flukes. Wake up call.
16
Finally someone who is raising the real question! Why did this Justice not wait after the mid-terms?
8
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!
I have no doubt that Kennedy was pushed out, so McConnell could get the Supreme Court of his dreams before the Republican bloodbath in November.
3
Sure, if by 'remakes' you mean 'destroys'.
2
Are we headed towards a totalitarian dictatorship and/or a Second Civil War? I know this is a very uncomfortable question but how many of us thought the question, —is the president of the United States a white Supremacist?— an outlandish and preposterous question? Well, here we are folks: the POTUS is a white Supremacist and we don’t have the luxury of living in denial anymore OR is denial a coping mechanism which we cling to— to keep our sanity.
12
What will it take for America's traditional allies to wake up and realise that their former friend is a plane shot down ? Civic-minded artists, performers, athletes and tourists from overseas MUST give Trump's America a wide berth until this traitor and his ilk eventually disappear from the scene.
3
The headline should read "Trump Destroys America."
8
Charles M. Blow employs a rhetoric that is more charged and more divisive than Trump's. Dividing a nation into races is one of his constant themes, ignoring the fact proven by DNA analysis that we are a racially mixed nation. Calling Obama "black" is just as wrong as calling him "white" because the Obamas are all of mixed race. And using charged terms like "white privilege" complete ignores that the great majority of whites don't live lives that anyone would call "privileged" in any meaningful sense of the word. The social problems in this country have been allowed to fester for decades and are not Trump's fault. To the contrary, the failure of the established elites to respond to the issues afflicting America has caused Trump and Charles M. Blow decided to completely ignore these issues and has nothing to offer in his columns.
3
Just how do you define privileged? I consider myself privileged knowing that when I shop in a department store, I am not followed around by employees expecting me to try to shop-lift an item, or when I go into a coffee shop and wait for a friend, I am not asked to leave, or when I walk my dog at midnight because it's cool enough to go out and exert myself, no one calls the police.
5
Aw comeon this is just a little too much hyperbole for one column. Having read this I feel like a whipped helpless puppy waiting to be kicked again. There are ways in this country to fight against this monster and his cronies. No scenario in the good ole USofA ever turns out the way the demigogs believe it will. Now is the time to send loads of money into the midterms and get ready for the victory that has already been signaled. All I see at Trump rallies is these white men sitting there like lumps. They can be defeated because they are in the wrong on everything honest and good. Do not give in the despair!!!!!!!!!
4
"He is their orange life raft in the middle of a blue ocean.".. wow, that's a racist remark, Charles. I think you need counseling. The anger, hatred and vitriol you spew in every column gets more severe each week. I think you're scared that 63 million people (at least) support him will somehow allow this country to go back to the dark days of slavery. Relax. You really don't understand or know what's in our heart. I am a Trump supported and know many who also are supporters. We talk and I can tell you that it's nothing close to what you think. Sure, there are bad apples - heck, the Left certain has its share - but you just don't get us. Look, we will probably never see eye-to-eye on most issues. But, you have us wrong. We don't have the hate of people like you think we do. I'll give you this; I believe you love this country and are passionate about doing the right thing. Newsflash - so are the overwhelming majority of Trump supporters. Reflect on that just a bit.
6
How can we know what’s in your hearts Pierre when the person that leads and represents you bullies, demeans, lies, and spews divisiveness and hatred on a daily basis. One can only think that people who support him, support and condone his behavior.
3
All I see is a quantum jump in lies and grifting.
11
How does the desecration of institutional norms and traditions, the sowing of doubt in all things known to be facts, the vilification of Brown people, LGBT, and various others, equate to a love for country? I sincerely want to know what’s in your heart because many of the actions Blow has taken issue with seem counter to what the country stands for.
12
Mueller, it's time to begin the end of this illegitimate presidency.
10
A regression of our society to an earlier time? Yea. How about the Civil War?
4
Whatever you think of Mr. Trump, one must agree that he was bold enough to go where other politicians would not. That is, blatently playing racism to obtain and retain power. What began with Obama's birth certificate, now centers on immigrants and Moslems. Surely the LGBQ folks are right behind. It sells, and will bring out the worst in America.
4
A reality television performer with a mindset from the 1950's could transform precious America forever. With a complicit
and greedy GOP Congress.
--Just yesterday union dues now violate the first amendment but religious tests for immigration and travel do not.
--Doctors can officially lie to pregnant women, and must read pro-life propaganda to them.
--He'll stack the courts with extremists from lists handed to him. And gone will be women's reproductive rights.
--He'll make money on goods he has made in China while slamming companies like Harley-Davidson. His white house is part autocracy, royal family + cash cow.
--He'll continue saying outrageous remarks on twitter.
“The idea he would tweet without anyone reviewing it or thinking about what he’s saying is frankly pretty frightening.” (Larry Noble, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C.)
"Trump is the framers’ worst-case scenario—a president who would seize office + attempt to exploit his position for personal financial gain with every governmental entity imaginable, across the U.S. or around the world,”
( Norman Eisen, the chief White House ethics lawyer for Obama.)
7
Good to see he will get this pick and another as well in his 8 years as president. You and Maxine go and have a couple of drinks.
1
Of course, when there was a black President, the GOP invented a rule that said we had to wait if there was election coming up but now there’s a white President we don’t have to wait.
Just a reminder how throughly racist the GOP is.
Of course it was Mitch McConnell, a white Southerner who invested that rule.
Everyday it becomes more apparent that the Confederacy really won the Civil War and more importantly what a mistake Lincoln made in keeping the Union together.
Think how better off we would be if we didn’t have the virus of Southern racism and white supremacy corrupting this country.
19
These foul people write laws knowing that they will be exempted themselves from them.
10
The States of the former Confederacy are parasite States. They have the lowest education levels, the worst health, the highest obesity levels, and the highest dependence on social safety net programs. They are net takers of the federal dollars. We would be better off without them.
13
There's nothing to add to this, Charles, you've said it all. Tragic.
14
Meanwhile, on the trade front..
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-fake-news-trump-support...
To be honest I would be reluctant to drive through a red state with a Canadian license plate with this kind of egregious junk cluttering the minds of Trump supporters.
4
I think it is human nature for people to feel solidarity with people who look like them and have similar backgrounds - which is not to say people should simply accept it. They should be conscious of it, but it's not always racism.
I think you could argue that the failure of the African American community to turn out in force and vote for Hillary Clinton could also be called racism - "all white people are alike". Obama has said that if he had been running against Trump, he would have won - and I'm guessing it's because he knows he can count on voters showing up. Which Hillary Clinton, and progressives like Russ Feingold couldn't.
This is not an acceptable state of affairs.
The fight against Trump and the Republican agenda he is enacting is about more than race. It is about money. Wealth does equal power, has always equaled power, and to the extent that a Democracy levels that power, it is perceived as a threat. Hence the hatred of 'big gov't'. Opposition to the ACA was based not only on the transfer of wealth, but on removing the leverage that employers have over their employees. What consevatives really love are corporations and shareholders, and they want to run the country for their benefit.
This is about class more than race, and when you discount the conservative Hispanic voters in Florida or the black conservatives/Republicans in order to reduce this to a race struggle, it is a mistake.
4
Hi Charles. As always, I appreciate your words. They reflect what I think and feel. One thing to keep in mind is that those of us who line up with the Dems/Independents but live in red states, don't seem to have a way to be part of the change needed. I find it very discouraging when I cast my vote since I live in a red state. It feels like my vote does not matter. I still vote as it is my right and civic duty to do so. I live for the day when the electoral college's impact on the election is not winner takes all. It should be proportional if it has to exist at all. I ultimately think the popular vote should be the way national elections are determined. Then it would have been President Gore and President HR Clinton. Let's all keep the faith we get out of this one alive. I shake my head in disbelief everyday right now. The only comfort is I know I am not the only one out there; there are millions of us.
4
Charles, please don't hold back.
1
You nailed, it Mr. Blow. Between generally low voter turnout in this country, and the pervasive sense that "my vote doesn't count," we have let neither conservatism nor progressivism rule the day.
It is being ruled by apathy, a lack of commitment to civic duty, and the misplaced notion that it can't happen here. Now, Trump and his core supporters are driving a big Mack truck into the abyss of apathy and destroying things you said you held dear.
Well it is happening here, folks, and it's happening now. Those of you who failed to exercise your civic responsibility by voting are responsible. How does it feel?
You have one opportunity to stem the seemingly inexorable tide from swamping decades of progress in this country. Get off of your butts and vote like it matters this November, because it does. It's up to you.
4
The majority of Americans did not vote for Trump and they are outraged by his words and conduct in office almost everyday.
The outrage that many Americans feel can become overwhelming at times, which in turn can cause adverse effect on one's emotional and physical health. Yes, it is that bad.
But we must also remember that, in the final analysis, a habitually lying president will not succeed for the simple reason that truth can not be suppressed, and dishonesty can not be sustained.
8
Great article summarizing Evangelicals got what they wanted on their two key issues for abortion (which will likely become banned now) and Supreme Court. I have no words other than Democrats need to focus and stay on message. We've got to stop berating 45 for who he is and his actions which just digs his base in deeper and deeper. He lied about North Korea who still has nukes. We all know he lies and he sucks up the air with his lies and we get caught in the crossfire. Let's speak issues and what we can and will do. Stay on message as we steer the course.
3
Despite all the social consequences Mr. Blow enumerates, the most important aspect of the current lack of planning and leadership in the executive and legislative branches is that technology and scientific advances do not respect political ideology.
While the U.S. decimates its educational system in favor of religious ideology, decimates its science in favor of corporate product protection, decimates its technological infrastructure in favor of Net Non-Neutrality, decimates its knowledge of global innuendo in favor of Trump's doctrine of the day, other countries, either run by democratic consensus or totalitarian dictatorship, are modernizing their societies, their communal knowledge base, and their technological infrastructure.
The geek will inherit the earth, everyone else will watch Roseanne.
6
Maybe it is time for people who are affected by a very conservative Supreme Court, Senate and Congress, as well as President, to leave the country and emigrate to some of our "former" allies which are more socialist than the United States will ever be and have a "safety net" for ordinary (non rich) people.
7
"They want to protect what they call “American culture,” which is more aptly described as white culture." White male culture to be accurate. Plenty of women I know are outraged about what is going on.
I can't help but think that the people who voted for Trump are getting exactly what they want or thought they wanted. A country that is returning to the 1950s in attitude and practices. A country where Jim Crow laws are being brought back. A country where patriotism means agreeing with everything the president and his minions say or do, or else. A country that has not practiced critical thinking since Reagan was in office.
Obama was an interlude between incompetents. However, W, for all his shortcomings, had governed a state. Trump is a failed businessman and an incompetent politician. He is an excellent liar, rabble rouser, and womanizer. He serves one master: himself. Therefore, Trump was not the mistake. It was Obama because he was an outlier. Even his own party didn't give him the respect and support he needed to succeed more.
If you like a WASP America that is run by and for old rich white males this is your time. If you are not in favor, do not have a small fortune to live off of, or are part of a group that has experienced bigotry, racism, or any other sort of discrimination, life is going to be hard from now until Trump is gone or longer. The meek do not inherit the earth, not while the rich run it.
8
Court packing is an option worth looking at. Republicans may be giddy that they've been able to exploit the system to turn the courts into an arm of the Republican party, so it may well be time to finish the breaking process.
Trump could appoint a 6-3 majority, but a democratic successor can appoint a 7-6 majority.
Justice reform is needed to make sure that the system cant be broken again (ex constitutional amendment requiring 67 votes to confirm a justice). But in the meantime wiping out Republicans Ill gotten gains is the first step in fixing the system.
5
If "American Culture" is so bad, why are so many millions trying to immigrate here?
3
By the close of the last Republican administration, more immigrants were heading back out than into the US. Additionally, being better than El Salvador or Guatemala is a pretty low bar.
6
Have you heard of the concept of relativity?
4
First, I don't think that "many millions" are trying to immigrate here. A slight exaggeration I would say. Second, our culture has been progressive, open, generally good and kind. Our country right now? Not so much. Ignorance and greed are running rampant in the USA. Tomorrow promises to be dark and gloomy for many of us. The desire to live here will weaken an die.
2
Republican leadership doesn't really care about social issues, nor do affluent suburban conservatives for that matter. Most people with a six or more income figure live in a neighbourhood without gun violence and with good schools, can afford their own healthcare, can just fly to another country to take care of an abortion if needed, drinks bottled water etc. It's all about passing the corporate agenda of the plutocrats (mostly deregulation) and lowering taxes by cutting government services, the rest is just pleasing the useful idiots to get there.
7
Thank you, Jill Stein and your self righteous followers from the left. From child snatching to the supreme court, the consequences of your miscalculation are monumental. At least you saved yourselves the indignity of voting for evil Hilary, and that was so important to you.
13
It wasn't just Stein followers, it was also bernie bots who stayed home in protest that Democrats didn't choose the socialist Independent over a life-long Democrat.
3
Tick, tock, Mr. Mueller!
6
Lock Her Up will soon be replaced by Lock Them Up
4
Don’t forget. He scared the pants off North Korea’s leader and brought about communication which brought about new directions like stopping our military exercises. Mr. Blow is obsessional...or he’s found a niche industry. Trump lies in such an obvious manner that few of his followers believe every single word he says. The media lies through omissions...a far more subtle and effective form of lying...because you have to read half the day to see their lies...like the Time magazine cover and the relevant mom who left three other children with the boyfriend who had no idea where she was until he saw tv ...and she was previously deported. Her missing any one child is a stretch....like a Trump data point.
North Korea is rapidly upgrading its nuclear reactor, despite empty platitudes to the US. Trump just got a photo op, which is all he cared about. Trump bowed to North Korea's wishes to suspend the military exercises - to the alarm of South Korea and surprise of the Pentagon - and got nothing in return. You should read the news more closely.
5
Which news is true?
VOTE!!! And get people you know to VOTE!!! Protests, opinion pages, anger does nothing.....they have the power and will use it no matter what else happens. FBI finds out Trumps a criminal? Nothing will happen to him.
6
.....and the planet is inexorably warming.....
3
Mr. Blow, Just so you know, not all drunken apostates dance around golden calfs and vote Republican. Many of us dance around our golden retrievers and vote Democrat.
4
"calves"! Dang it:-).
1
Thank you, Charles. It really helps to know you are out there.
5
Mr. Blow has got it mostly right in this article. Thank you. I am scared for the future of the country. We need to call the “Republican” party what it mostly is now: the Party of Reaction. We are sliding into a fascist mindset: scapegoating of marginalized persons, use of the Big Lie technique, posing as supporters of the democracy they are attempting to subvert, uncivil discourse and snarky sarcastic swipes at public figures who do not share the Party of Reaction’s views. Blaming those with little power. Cult of Personality. The Leader’s (that would be the current incumbent of the White House) demands of fealty to him and not the Constitution—from Congress and the Supreme Court as well as the Executive branch. The pure hate that spews daily from the incumbent’s mouth and twitter account are what authoritarians do to destroy democracy.
My comments are not original with me, of course. Perhaps my comments are extreme; that is, until they are not extreme. This country will never be fascist: until it is. Once we slip into fascism, it is too late.
Politically, it is 1933. Whom do we pick? The Party of Reaction? The Progressive Democrats?
You know my answer. Regardless of political persuasion vote for the Democrats this November. An America governed by the Party of Reaction is no longer America, land of the free. It will be something else, where private interests govern. As Mr. Blow said, elections have consequences. Vote Democratic. Vote Progressive.
3
I feel for the young people of America most of all -- while the most advanced nations still strive to move ahead, the dinosaurs of the reactionary right are taking this country backwards. The damage will run deep long after the good ol' boys in the Republican party retire with the tax cut and enhanced wealth; there will surely be lots of golf in Florida with a grateful Mr. Trump, the least he can do to reward their spineless submission. How grim that the pathetic souls in the GOP base, with their mindless loyalty to the worst President in modern history, have sabotaged the future of their own kids and grand-kids.
And how ironic that those who imply by their actions (if not crudely chant as those Neo-Nazi frat-boys do) their craving for racial supremacy, are the worst argument for supremacy there is.
4
Sickening. I am truly ashamed of the direction this country is taking ... there's no other way for me to put it. To think, my beloved son will be forced for years to come to live with the end results of some short-sighted choices made today by a minority of hypocritical, selfish, fearful, angry, ignorant voters ... it's too painful for me to contemplate.
7
Mr. Blow says of Obamacare: "This is precisely why conservatives hate it. They prefer a Darwinian ecosystem of care in which health corresponds directly with wealth". I know a lot of conservatives who oppose Obamacare. This sentence describes maybe 3% of them. Not all conservatives are racist pigs, Mr. Blow. Treating them as if they are is the kind of move your favorite President likes to make.
3
"a lying, bullying, womanizing autocrat-idolizer". Sounds like you're talking about Bill Clinton.
2
Can we please stop electing mealy mouthed coward corporate Democrats into office. Forty years of Mr. and Ms. nice guy gets you this. A corporate government that owns both sides .Progressive candidates or fascism. It's your choice milktoast Dems.
2
A Yankee carpetbagger become a southern hero. An elitist that hates the NY City plutocrats, but now does their economic bidding. A ladies man who objectifies and abuses women. A draft dodger who cozies up to communists and fascists. A father of his immigrant wife's child who will never be deported and ripped away from him simply because his mother gained entry under the lie that she was a genius. Now, a president who turned the oval into a satellite office of the Kremlin. I've stopped reading fiction.
This is what you get when you adopt the attitude, "I really don't care. Do you?"
8
It is time for me and my family to abandon the south.
2
'America' is white women who always vote Republican and go to holier than thou churches to denounce the evils of Democrats and Liberals. So it ain't you, Charles. America ain't you. 'America' is ignorance, true-believers and rage.
4
Excellent piece from Charles Blow. Hard to see how anybody could say it better.
7
Nonsense,
Trump is not remaking America. Trump is America.
Trump represents the white European American majority that voted 55%, 59% and 58 % white McCain/Palin, Romney/Ryan and Trump/ Pence from 2008-2016. Trump won a majority of every white socioeconomic educational gender geographic demographic cohort in 2016. Beginning with the 62% of white men and 54 % of white women who voted Trump.
Trump represents the arrogance of James Comey along with the ethnic sectarian supremacist autocracy of Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin and Muhammad Bin Salman.
Trump represents the return of Ronald Reagan without any of the without any of the acting, governing and political talent and experience or gift for rhetorical misogynist racist xenophobic euphemism. Reagan was for states rights while attacking welfare queens and big bucks with food stamps. Reagain imagined that Dr. King was a communist.
Trump represents the moral degenerate serial adulterers, assaulters and harasaers. Trump represents the cowardly dishonorable and unpatriotic military draft dodger service evading white American majority. Trump represents the rich white minority who inherited their wealth.
Listen to "This is America" by Childish Gambino.
7
Great column!!
3
Wah, wah, wah. A famous President once said "elections have consequences".
1
Charles -- how many times have you written this column. I mean it's basically the same day after day. Trump is horrible. Awful. The worst person to live. I am so blah blah blah.
Just two points. You say that Trump is attacking institutes that seek truth and justice like the FBI and the media. What bunk. I'm sure the rank and file FBI agents have integrity. But it is very clear that in 2016 the top brass of the FBI attempted to and did use their positions to influence the election.
As far as journalists seeking truth...come on. I can go through the Times on any day and find slanted editorials and news stories that simply omit information or cherry pick facts to support a partisan narrative. Such as you columns CB.
1
Mr. Blow, a Conservative need not be a Republican.
2
Demagogue definition: a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument. Remember what seems like decades ago when this term was used during the election to describe Trump? It could not have been more true and prescient. Stupid America.
5
“Donald Trump, a lying, bullying, womanizing autocrat–idolizer,” why don’t you tell us what you really think? “Taking the absolutely ridiculous position that there would be little difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.” I’m with you here, but, and a big but; I could not in all good conscience vote in the last election. I felt; and I believe many did, set up with the likes of a Machiavellian type, that being Clinton, and Mussolini type, not Hitler as many so mistakenly think of DT, and that left me dumbfounded. A country, with the vast resources and knowledge of the US, the diversity of intellect, talent and shear know how, well—the likes of these two seems so “unlikely,” as to border on absurd. I agree DT is a buffoon, a clown. A mark that the US will endure for decades; but with so little talent in politics and so many egotists seeking a trophy for their mantle, where are we, the US populace in all its diversity to turn? “So now, if you are a woman, a minority, an immigrant, a person who is L.G.B.T., the rights you have acquired could be in jeopardy.” This, my friend, is too narrow; we all will endure this president and for many years to come. Maybe some will suffer more; maybe they’ll need to turn up the sophistry and propaganda engines to maintain a semblance of dignity; but we’ll all suffer—ALL OF US!
Well, thank you for being part of the problem and for being so short sighted. Obviously, the right decision.
2
Amen.
1
There are so many important issues in the world than calling President Trump names. Everyone knows the NYT hates poor Trump.
Time to get on with serious issues. DNA evidence getting innocent people out of jail, the plight of native Americans, the list can fill the NYT front page.
Get over President Trump and get on with life's real issues.
1
Trump calls literally everyone else who don't toady up to hm names, not to mention complementary names for despots, and attacks on restaurants and companies. Sauce for the goose.....etc.... There will be an economic reckoning, when unknown, but certain.
2
The NYT can do all that in an "editorial" column, which is the newspapers view on a subject. This is an "opinion" column, which means the writer uses it to express his/her own opinion.
2
Still mad, Mr. Blow?
You ran out of adjectives long ago.
What do you offer but more spleen and rage? Rage has been your stock-in-trade long before Trump was elected.
Some of us well-remember your "reaction" to the Texas police murders. But hey, that was yesterday's stuff.....
3
Thank you Charles Blow. For your uncompromising commitment to calling a spade a spade. Keep it up. We need you.
5
Trump's not remaking America, this is the culmination of 60 years of Republican propaganda that began with the signing of the Civil Rights Act and the recruiting of Dixiecrat Segregationists followed by the creation of the toxic tent that now includes segregationists, neo-Confederates, white nationalists and out right Nazis. Trump isn't competent to remake anything, this is us, the evil, hateful us that is now fully free roam. They've simply distracted us while they pillage and burn.
4
Blow's hyperbole is a microcosm of the usual Democrat, liberal and progressive mantra. Anyone that does not slant far left in their political beliefs is evil, and worthy of being censored for not kowtowing to his own one sided viewpoint. Look at The Times Opinion page today. Every single piece screams bloody murder about the fact that a Republican will get to name the next Supreme Court nominee. There is not one single dissenting opinion on the page. Not one. That tells you all you need to know about the agenda of the left, and The Times.
2
There is no more exaggerated and inflammatory hyperbole from anyone, anywhere in the world, than that coming every day, from Donald Trump.
6
Right on Mr. Blow!!!!!!!!!!
Just think about this: Before the end of Trump's first term Obergefell (same sex marriage) will be overturned. Whether or not he is re elected, Roe v. Wade will be overturned or at the very least severely compromised in ways not imagined yet with in a few years after that.
4
We don't have equal voting rights in presidential elections. Yes, a candidate can lose the popular vote and still win the electoral vote. Read the Constitution. It's all about minority rights. And each state gets to write their own election rules. Nothing about popular votes being equal.
5
True. And this represents what may prove to be a fatally anachronistic structural flaw in the system as it plays out in the 21st century.
Nothing says the Constitution must withstand and prevail, without amendment, over all of the economic, demographic and cultural changes that have transpired in more than 200 years since the document was drafted - no matter how wise and prescient the Founders may have been.
The Second Amendment is a murderous disaster. The grant of two Senators per state, whether the state population is 100,000 or 10,000,000, has created an intolerable disconnect between the will of the majority of voters and our representation in the Senate. And without question, something must be done to curb the influence of private wealth on the public election process, unless we're all happy living in the Republic of Koch Brothers, et al., Inc. - which most of us are not.
7
I once attended a lecture on economics in a university setting that was attended by many men in silk suits that were wealthy and living the good life. When I saw that the classic economic theory ignored the poor and ignored the environment I spoke up and said you are ignoring the poor and the helpless. One of the men answered and his reply was only that all systems have their waste.
You can blame classic economic theory that had no concept of the environment when it was formed and did not take the poor into consideration. But that man's reply was shockingly blind and callous. A world of denial was in his reply. It really shocked me. It showed me how naive I was.
So here we are.
6
Reminds me of the clip they showed on TV yesterday with
Sessions making jokes about the abducted children and the audience and Sessions laughed. LAUGHED!!
Now that's Evil.
6
Silk suits for both men and women are available. You just have to be able to afford them.
The American Communist Party has been illegal in the US since 1954 and remains so today. The legislation president Eisenhower signed was based on the theory that the Constitution and its guaranteed freedoms are not a national suicide pact. There are political tactics and actions that are an existential threat to the American Republic and must be deligitimized.
How shall we think of the Trump Party spawned by the old Republican Party in light of this historical fact. Are the actions of Trump Party Senators a direct threat to American democracy? Should the Democrat party filibuster any Trump Supreme court nominee until after the 2020 presidential election. If they do, then Trump Party politics are universalized. If they are true to the constitution, then progressive politics with allegiance to minority rights and representation is dead. Either way, America’s democratic government is dead by suicide.
2
The real problem is that the world is getting more and more unlivable due to a human population way out of control that is killing the natural world and feeding on an artificial culture. The world's resources are all strained and people in the affluent US see the handwriting on the wall and are terrified. Huge corporations that thought the earth resources were endless are in shock. The rich fear the future and the result is to grab what they can now. All this uncertainty and fear has caused a huge political shift towards barricades and walls and greed and hording and the devil take the hindmost. Everybody knows we are on a finite planet and that planet has been depleated by our out of control population and no one sees a way forward. Many see a frightening end. This is what all this chaos is really about. Beside this problem mere politics is useless and no one sees a real way forward.
1
"Donald Trump, a lying, bullying, womanizing autocrat-idolizer, is fundamentally transforming America in very real and lasting ways, in ways that have left decent people slack-jawed, enraged and exasperated."
Donald Trump seems to think that he was coronated Emperor Donald on January 20, 2017.
He understands very little about US law under the Constitution. He is accustomed to being the only person who has any say in the operation of his mom and pop sole proprietorship businesses (formally organized as LLCs) in which he is the only stockholder-owner and there is no effective Board of Directors. Now he has both "stockholders" (the voters) and a "Board of Directors" (the Legislature which is constitutionally tasked with oversght of the Executive Branch). He has little desire to be controlled or advised by the owners of the US, the people. He thinks he OWNS the US Government.
He is transforming not only America per se, but also our relationships with most of the countries of the world, and in my opinion, not for the better.
We were warned in 2016, by even conservative newspapers, such as the Cincinnatti Enquirer, which endorsed HRC after not endorsing a Democrat for POTUS in about 70 years, that Donald Trump was (and is) unfit for the position of POTUS.
The editors of that newspaper said "Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to our country."
They were 100% correct.
Vote a straight Democratic ticket on Novemver 6, because our democracy depends on it.
4
Charles, what's going on now is scary, but it's all based on Trump's illegitimate criminal presidency, which is like a crooked stack of dimes--he higher the stack, the more unstable it becomes. When Trump falls--not if but when--he'll crash hard and the vortex will take down everyone who has enabled or collaborated with him.
6
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Hmmm ... sounds familiar. Where have I heard THAT before?
What a novel set of thoughts. Must have been written by a bunch of radicals ... who were fed up with an autocrat who thought he was the only only one who had any say. Ya think?
3
This is why McConnell is a golden boy to the extreme right. He and the other Trump sycophants and hangers-on realized all along that Trump would be an incompetent, unprepared president, and yet they still they stuck by him.
Backing Trump and stealing not one, but essentially two, Suprme Court seats, makes McConnell a hero to the extreme right - their white knight in shining armor.
7
pkbormes -- McConnell didn't steal two supreme court seats. He didn't steal 1. Gorsuch filled the seat held by Scalia. So that's essentially a wash. And if you may recall deep down in the recesses, Obama and the dems lost the house, then the senate. If Obama had not lost the house he would have gotten his nominee through. But he didn't hold the senate.
Whom the gods destroy, they first make mad. That applies to the entire Republican Party. There used to be core principles when it was the Party of Lincoln such as equality, or when it was the Party of Roosevelt such as the environment. In the not too distant past, Republicans supported a woman's right to choose, free trade, strength against Russia and other enemies, family values, law and order, close alliances and honor.
Its descent into a party of bigots and billionaires, ignorance and zealotry, and cruelty and fascism has been startlingly fast.
Everyone must vote Democratic this fall and later. The GOP United States is lost in some 19th-century stew of white nationalism, outdated industry, superstition, Know Nothing party politics and human atrocities while the rest of the world moves on. There is no future if the GOP destroys all basic rights for women, LGBT, Hispanics, Muslims, minorities and a cultural revolution that attacks science, research, technology, and knowledge.
The malevolent spitefulness, anti-intellectualism and retreat to barbaric thuggery is seen now everyday on Trump's tweets and rants, his followers' paranoia and bitterness, and his enablers' greed.
The GOP and Trump are devouring this nation for power, money and malice against others.
6
Charles, it's not just trump's imprint... but the Republican shills for him who will affect us for the rest of our lives. We can change that, of course, with the 2018 mid-term election.
As Charles said at the beginning of his article today: elections have consequences. We ALL need to vote this November.
3
It's come down to this, Charles. The nation is at a crossroads, the fate of the nation at stake. Either you're for Trump or against him.
There is no doubt to my feelings. Having known this creep for decades, I wouldn't trust with my daughter let alone his own. He is a man who lacks a moral compass, a code of ethics, scruples, any sense of decency whatsoever. He is a psychologically imbalanced threat to the nation. To diminish his clear and present danger to the United States is without dispute. That resistance must begin immediately.
Those who are Trump apologists must also be suspect. For no one in their right mind could find any logical reason for his defense. Trump's actions are indefensible. There is an absolute right and wrong in this equation. If you stand with Trump, you stand with evil, you stand with the most despicable person ever to occupy the presidency.
There's is little doubt left: We are approaching a second Civil War. It will not be bloody like the last, but the damage it will inflict on this nation, the scars it exact, will last eons. It saddens me to say, but we are at a dramatic fork in the road of history. But the time for discussion is over. It is time for action, it is time to man the ramparts. There is no other alternative.
DD
Manhattan
6
Thank you, Dennis. Those of us in or near NY, or from NY as in my case, know exactly who Trump is.
From your body of comments, I can tell you are an older American, as am I. We've seen this country work to be better--civil rights in the sixties, medicare, social security, the end of McCarthyism (a little before my time, but recovery from the wound he inflicted on America is still, in some ways not completely healed) and the Great Society Lyndon Johnson hoped for. It was sad to have his presidency end on the sour note of Vietnam--he was a truly decent man.
I believe most Trump supporters couldn't pass the citizenship test we give our applicants. I'd bet money most have never read the Constitution Khzir Khan held up at the Democratic Convention. Few could name our three branches of government and their functions. I'm serious about that--I know these people. Giving up on civics education has taken its toll.
Even if the upcoming elections turn the tide, the hatred of Democrats, especially liberals, instilled by right wing media is too entrenched. We will not be a united nation again for many years, no matter what happens in the near future.
4
What about the billionaires that are “ Citizen United” approved
Puppet masters of all things political and zionist .
It
is hopeless
Notice very little about Mueller these past two weeks.
Dems keep wanting civil discourse w boy king trump and minions.
Dem. Leadership keeps placating and cajoling on the fence repubs. Like collins et al.
So far whatever strategy there is seems murky for those voters waiting for concrete steps to take.
Example:
How can citizenry have back yard picnic voting registration parties. .?
Where do we get the forms and where can we set up voter registration parties.
High schoolers and college kids make sure you have voter reg. Cards on hand at all gatherings.
Vote but will russia run the trump machine and nullify democracy?
1
Sadly, this is one of the best columns I have ever read!
4
It is difficult to fathom that this entertainer , this fraud of a businessman, this misogynistic serial liar, is not merely the president of this great country, warts and all, but is remaking it in a dystopian vision of itself.
Each day brings more and more frightening news. Caged children, children taken from parents, demonizing the press, individual citizens and businesses, all are normalized. Even the liberals abet, CNN for ratings, WAPO and NYT editorializing about manners TOWARDS this administration as the president himself uses the incidents to incite his legions of deplorables.
While Bill Clinton is grilled for Monica still, Gillibrand throwing the Clintons and Frankin under the bus to prove her moral creds, the republicans are stealing every branch go government and chip away at our rights.
Where do we turn who do we turn too?
I'm weeping now
3
Thank You Charles M Blow! It is haunting to think that Trumps "legacy" of dishonorable unethical governing for the 1% and Trumps rallying cry for White Supremacist American may be passed down in a second Supreme Court Appointee. The idea of having to live with the consequences of the bigoted Republican Senators refusal to pass or even consider Obamas nomination is more then disturbing. The Republican Senates explanation for that shade was 'This is an election year' but we know the Rep.Senate will slither out of that skin into something shiny and slippery for this formal occasion all the while using a magicians trick of illusion to maniupulate the audience.
I wake up everyday hoping this has all just been a terrible dream.
I wish Kennedy could have held on until Trumps reign of terror is over, if not for us then for the children.
1
Charles, your words always resonate with me. I knew Trump would be a terrible president but I didn't know how bad. I am protesting everything Trump does, every chance I get.
3
Some things never seem to change,and author, forsaking creative, honest, investigative journalism for usual pejorative criticisms of Trump and by extension those of us who unconditionally support him, is venting his frustrations once again at having a man elected fair and square WHOM HE DISAGREES WITH by over 61 million in the WH. Over a century ago, JP Carr wrote perhaps world's most famous epigram, "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose," and if there is 1 constant in Times newspaper op ed columns, it is author's resentment of the c-in-c. Moreover, find it amazing that an African American writer would not take umbrage at discrimination and humiliating affront of which Ms. Sanders was the victim.Next time for sure she will choose a Hispanic restaurant, or an African American 'restau" or maybe an Algerian bistro where she could enjoy a delicious "merchoui" preceded by delightful merguez sausages on a stick as an appetizer, and not be degraded by someone like Ms. Wilkinson, whose aggressive, inexcusable conduct merited appointment of a security detail to the press secretary by the Secret Service.If that is not going too far, Stephanie Wilkison, I don't know what is!
Oh dear. The end is near. But, on the bright side, the sun did rise this morning. Remember, election in 2020. Hopefully, by then, most potential voters will realize that we’re most in danger from the rocks being thrown by the loonies on the right and the loonies on the left. When most voters stay home, the country becomes like a prison and the gangs rule. Then, you have to choose your gang. What’s really the most annoying, though, is all the whining.
Craven political hack Mitch McConnell and his band of GOP liars and thieves stole a Supreme Court seat before Trump was president. There was talk of not filling the seat at all if Hillary Clinton was elected.
The sad state of affairs in which we find ourselves is a function of the GOP and the voters who vote for them.
And, bigoted Christians are killing Christianity. The number of people who profess no religion is growing, and this is no doubt due to the hypocrisy of so-called Christians who will deny Jesus in exchange for conservative judges.
4
The Supreme Court has always seemed like a flaw in the system, America's Mullahs.
Lifetime appointment of justices is a life sentence for america.
Rolling back liberalism has been a long game indeed. Gingrich lived to see his dirty war succeed beyond his filthiest dreams, & their just getting started.
This already has been going on my whole adult life.
Since Reagan rolled in when I was 15, the sunny liberal dream of summery days on Sesame Street of the 70's has been darkened by reactionary ambitions of greed & anti-egalitarian regression.
Liberals played a big part in their own demise, they stopped being a movement decades ago, & sold out to apathy & easy Wall Street winnings.
Obama wasn't a movement, he was one man who attempted with astounding success to do it all himself, through the power of his own personality.
But it was abundantly clear with the failed resistance to the Iraq War, the tepid complicity of Pelosi & her Democrats, that Peace & Justice had lost its mojo.
After the Democrat's pathetic fail in 2016, the single women's march followed by crickets, it's clear that the liberal muscle has atrophied from its 40 years of apathy.
They'll have to start over from the beginning.
Meanwhile the long war laid out by Fox & Gingrich is on a roll for the foreseeable.
As long as the Obama Boom keeps the proles employed & the limousine liberals making mad money, not any of Bloomberg's token campaign contributions will be putting Liberalism back together again.
4
Charles, this column is beautifully written. Words like "abomination" are brilliantly on target. And your most chilling realization that the buffoon-in-chief's hijacking of the SCOTUS will remain for the rest of your life -- frightening, truly frightening. My life, too. I'm literally sick to think that our hard won freedoms, as in Roe and marriage equality, are in great jeopardy.
Thank you for an excellent, but thoroughly depressing column. This goes beyond liberal vs conservative; it is basic decency vs idiocy. Every day I dread reading the news. Yes, every day. But I need to stay informed, so I read. And then weep silently.
6
And if you keep insisting on making it us versus them, and keep insisting that the only distinguishing feature of them is "white", they are going to win, Charles. You may be convinced that a non-white tsunami is coming, but the present is the present, and in the present, white males could, if they all banded together, outvote all people of color combined by 3 percentage points.
So if your only strategy is to be anti-white, to rant day in and day out about how much you believe the whites are going to lose in the future after your own beliefs are implemented, you will continue to make that white male voting block a reality. Just stop. What you are doing is no less injurious to progressives succeeding than all the stupid reasons for not voting you list.
Just stop with the all race all gender all ethnicity white bashing long enough to let us help stop the regression. Then you can go back to all the reasons why we white people are evil, and a dying breed. We need unity now, and unity requires that I sacrifice, and that you sacrifice. And what you need to sacrifice is your divisive rhetoric and your belief that at the bottom of all evil plaguing American society is a white male.
3
ondelette, speaking as a white woman, I fear that Mr. Blow is correct. Simply put, Trump's raison d'etre is white supremacy. He professes it publicly and has not tried to hide it.
Mr. Blow acknowledges decent white folks' participation in the resistance with these words:
“If you are just a decent person who believes in expanding equality, respecting choice and identity and civil rights, your vision of America is in jeopardy.”
It won’t happen in my lifetime, but some day we will all be just people, not white, black, or brown. I am heartbroken that this administration and Republican Congress is delaying that day for decades to come.
4
Agreed, Charles, and American exceptionalism is now exposed as being exceptionally stupid. Those who didn't vote; those who voted for a third party candidate who couldn't win but simply drained votes from a more deserving one; those who thought Trump could save jobs in dying industries; those who thought he would make everyone rich, and those who simply wanted a wrecking ball in Washington D.C have only themselves to blame. The wrecking ball has turned the shining city on a hill into a rank sewer of greed, corruption, self-dealing, religious intolerance, racism, right-wing extremism and dilution of all our democratic institutions, from the free press to an independent judiciary. While Ireland legalizes abortion, we're about to outlaw it. While other nations welcome refugees, we spit on them.
4
All true, Charles, and the lying, bullying, womanizing autocrat-idolizer is quite happy about it, not because he cares about the outcome, but because he only cares about using his power to make himself feel big.
I share this bleak outlook but at the same time take comfort in the inevitability that as the old white oligarchs die off their way of life will die with them. What feels like a particularly bad time of incoherence, brought on by the stupidity of Trump and his voters, will fade as the next generation grapples with the problems left unsolved due to greed of the "no new taxes" crowd. Take the Trump offspring and compare them with "huddled masses, yearning to breathe free". No contest.
1
What must be said:
Having just been snarly with our European allies, Donald J. Trump chomps at the bit to meet Russia's Putin.
This despite Putin known to order a campaign to get Trump elected by harming his opponent & penetrating U.S. election systems/databases.
After getting Trump elected & working for free, Trump staffer Paul Manafort got $10,000,000 from Russia.
Legal mind Seth Abramson noted that Senate Democrats should reference the Mueller investigation: “No man suspected of conspiring with America's enemies should be given a second stolen SCOTUS seat until he's been exonerated.”
2
Bravo, Mr.Blow! So well written, so true, such a nightmare.
3
The American right-wing has always been much better at the long game. Their job has been made easier by how badly the rest of the country, fixated on the short term, has played. The last election saw those on the left destroy themselves while thinking they were both pious and smart. I argued with many who refused to vote for HRC, and still insist to this day that they did the right thing. I, on the other hand, would have voted for just about anyone else, even Republicans I despised, rather than Trump. What's all the more depressing is that I was certain that Trump would win when others, against reason, were confident he'd lose. I understood to my core how dangerous he was, while they refused to even look at it. Very likely the bigotry I have personally faced led me to understand what Trump actually was the way that few others, besides his racist followers, truly understood. Trump's followers understood his bigotry and loved him for it, I understood the depth of his hatred and bigotry and recoiled. Trump is a bully, and not just any bully, the ugliest nastiest white boy you ever met in grade school. The psychopath who also has the most powerful family in the world which is forever enabling him and praising him to the skies every time he goes up to any other kid just standing there, minding their own business, and punches them in the face. The only chance to stop him now is at the ballot box. Do Americans finally understand what's at stake now that the country is in ashes?
8
There’s only way to confront a presidential bully and a congress whose abdicated its institutional (and constitutional) responsibilities to become an important check in the balance of power—The ballot box!!
VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN, VOTE ALWAYS!!!
2
I can't understand how Justice Kennedy could resign now. I know that he was appointed by a Republican president, but how could he allow himself to be replaced by a Trump appointee? RBG is older than Kennedy and is my hero for doing everything she can to hold on until a sane and qualified executive returns. This is a serious blow, but our country will be in truly dire straights if anything happens to her!
6
If Trump’s recent rambling and at times incoherent rally speeches reflect his decision making skills there is cause for serious alarm.Trump questioned Clinton’s health and stamina and crisis management skills. It is now time to question the state of mind of an overweight 71year old man. Is Trump showing signs of early stage dementia? Was Kim correct? Is Trump a dotard?
1
"Conservatives want to arrest America’s development and send our country into regression"
Yep, Blow is on to us, that is exactly what every conservative I know wants to do.
Seriously, how can you read lines like that with a straight face? How can you write lines like that with a straight face?
1
How can you deny with a straight face?
Trump's campaign was "Make America Great Again" not "Make America Great." There's a big difference there.
6
Maybe because it's true. And yeah, I have evidence. Lots of it. They even go after military veterans if those veterans aren't members of the tribe.
4
“So now, if you are a woman, a minority, an immigrant, a person who is L.G.B.T., the rights you have acquired could be in jeopardy.”
I am a minority (Asian) and an immigrant (legal). And I can’t wait for the Supreme Court to strike down the openly racist policy called affirmative action, which hurts Asian kids and results in institutions like Harvard rejecting Asian American kids by assigning them low “personality” scores without even meeting them.
2
As a former NYer I knew it would come to this the day after the election. Also to be noted, Mitch McConnell is a supreme court justice thief. The payback, his wife Elaine Chao gets to be Secy of Transportation. So cheap!
2
Don't think for a minute this court nomination is a legacy for Trump. If it was up to Trump, he would have wrestlers, porn actresses, or washed up celebrities on the court or in positions of power. Or someone on Fox News. It's too bad Rudy has a job because I could see him nominating that huckster....He is doing the bidding of the far right, the evangelical right, and of the moneyed influence purchasers. I am sure that before he was told to nominate Gorsuch, he had never heard of him or thought about his record as a jurist. The court is not going to be a legacy to Trump, but a legacy to GREED.
4
Tom: Yours is a short sighted view of the judiciary, and not complimentary. I don't care if Trump nominated someone with the moral, ethical standards of a Spiro Agnew or Harold Carswell, the appointee, if he were qualified in terms of experience and c.v., would grow with the job, the post of SP Justice!Finished only 1 year of law school successfully, but absorbed enough to conclude that no SP nominee would necessarily be beholden to the c=in-c who had appointed him . SP Justice Kennedy was appointed by RR, but turned out to be an objective interpreter of the law, although initially went along with RR's views. It was Robert BORK who was given the shaft, for your edification! Who isn't greedy in this world? O used his political connections to acquire a choice piece of land in downtown CHICAG0, thanks to his relationship with a known racketeer who later went to prison on a Rico conviction, but liberal media kept a guarded silence.As character played by Woody Allen in "The FRONT, " says, "You gotta look out for number one!"But what does this have to do with appointment of a new SP justice?Get over you bruised sensibilities, your nostalgia for an HRC presidency, and cut the c-in=c some slack!The Donald is looking out for your interests, mine and all Americans!
Trump and his rubber stampers are well on the way to returning America to the 1950's or earlier. Promise to let the rest of us know when you arrive and what it's like. Bon Voyage.
2
Yes Trump was legitimately elected. Sometime before the election Jane Goodall that we, as a species, scarcely have any defense against alpha male ape behavior, knocking over trash cans and beating up on subordinates. Trump is a legitimately elected, terrible leader. An Ill wind that blows no good. Lying is his main public policy tool. Beating up subordinates is another.
Bad people should really not occupy public offices. If Trump has any good ideas, let’s remove him from office first, and then implement those ideas.
1
sad. conservatives (wherever in the world) have no sympathy or even emphaty for other people. they are largely narcissistic and self-serving and shameless. and these must be what distinguish conservatives from liberals, at least in the province of politics, for now..
2
Justice Kennedy’s retirement is a terrible blow, but not unexpected. The threat now is not basic conservatism, but an accelerated push toward fascism and totalitarian rule. Too many people in the 30s in Germany did really think that wad what was happening to them, until it was too late to change the takeover by the Nazies. I fear that will be the problem here, as this administration, Congress, and now the Supreme Court move against many parts of this society , starting I suppose with political opponents, minorities, immigrants, and women. We should remember that the first concentration camps were for political prisoners and other “undesirable” types including LGBTQ individuals, before the camps became extermination camps.
I assume the President, GOP and now SCOTUS would like to go that same route. Those who have reasonable fears about this should consider whether to leave while they still can or to stay and try to fight for the real America. May be a difficult choice for many.
4
OK Dems. You didn't like Hillary and couldn't stand Trump, so you didn't vote, eh? This year has shown you clearly that elections do have consequences. Stay home again and see what else happens.
2
"It’s happening right now in large part because too many people thought that it could not." maybe it happened bc - much to our surprise & dismay - too many people thought: "why not?"
2
Between rounds of golf, Trump's only area of interest in American life appears to be illegal immigration. He obviously hates Hispanics which is no doubt an indication of his racism. This is an agricultural area with a lot of Hispanics who do all the farm work. Without them the farming business would crater. Also, rather than being the rapists and murderers described by Trump, the ones I have met appear to be hard working people who love their children and support their families. A lot of them are probably illegal but I don't care. They are more of a credit to the country than is Trump.
9
A lot more Hispanics in this country are legal and here long before other Europeans left whatever country they were leaving for whatever reason.
6
The position of the United States today is similar to that of Germany in the 1930s. Now, as then, many people are struggling economically and they are looking for a scapegoat to blame. In the 1930s, the terms of the Treaty of Paris crippled German recovery from WWI. Today, technology, foreign competition and corporate policy have left many without a path to decent employment.
In Germany, an evil person with evil intent surrounded himself with evil believers and released hell on earth, not only to Germany but the rest of the world. He spun a tale of lies and promised prosperity, and the people voted for him. But the cost to the German people and humanity was staggering.
Neither the United States not the world can that mistake again. We, and other nations, hold the power of world destruction in nuclear weapons. For seventy years reason has held that power in check. But reason is not in great supply anywhere in the world.
The 2018 election will go a long way toward determining the future direction of the human race. Every person who believes in good needs to get out and vote, because those who believe in evil will be casting a ballot.
19
This is a good time to be American. Trump saved the nation and it's law abiding citizens. Trumps appointment to SCOTUS will steer the country back in the correct direction away from the harmful values of amoral liberal democrats. For decades the liberals have undermined families, American workers and the social fabric that makes The United States a great place to live and work. We have grown so tired of the socialist progressive agenda, it was killing the American dream.
First, the entire country isn't horrified Mr. Blow. Many will be relieved to have a conservative SCOTUS as the Democratic zeitgeist turns to socialists with their confiscatory policies. Second, we've heard this same gnashing of teeth over every Republican/Conservative elected and appointed in this century and the last - somehow the Republic is surviving and continues to function. To much of America you're simply crying wolf and nothing more.
4
It is a big price that mankind will pay for Trump's attacks against decent values. I have always maintained hope because Good intentions always prevail over Bad intentions - the formula behind all religions.
And then I learned the story of Archimedes, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, who had discovered the basis for calculus before being murdered by an invading Roman soldier despite orders not to kill him. It would be 2000 years before the rediscovery of calculus by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, the same calculus that provides formulae for space travel. Good prevailed. It will always prevail. But 2000 years was a big price for mankind to pay.
2
You’ve stripped away the distracting diversions and bared the heart of the matter. It’s all about naked power in a world that’s inexorably evolving from tribalism to globalism — from white, male dominance to racial and gender diversity.
It’s also a world where virtually unaccountable power structures — corporations, authoritarian governments and other players who effectively operate outside any legal system — are overtaking the democratic order that has held civil society to account throughout the nuclear era.
We must get down to the raw, blunt issues facing America right now, today. There is no time for intellectualizing. Progressives need to meet this challenge at the gut level, while maintaining moral integrity. Not easy to do in the heat of battle, but absolutely necessary if the America I grew up in is to survive intact.
1
Sums things up well. However, it's not just about Whites preserving their advantage, it's about the .1% taking it all. And would have preferred a more overt "call to action" at the end, since the natural extension of what you're saying is blocking the next Supreme Court nominee and flooding the polls with Democrats in the Fall.
1
Excellent column. Reflects my views totally.
2
"Excellent column. Reflects my views totally."
Well. There you go.
The most important thing for the sane future of America is to vote in November.
2
Since you can’t leave the sniping against Bernie supporters alone, it has to be noted again for the record, that the DNC and big media (look in the mirror)shamelessly fixed the primaries in undemocratic ways, when there maybe could have been a more viable eqaully populist but socialist candidate running against Trump, instead of just another Republican light corporatist. Look at how a female socalist Bernie supporter won the race yesterday in NYC against a propped up DNC corpratist and try to show a bit of insight and perspective for real progressive change Mr Blow.
1
If conservatives are so obsessed with preserving the past, they need to turn our country over to the Native Americans who were here first, and who took far better care of our environment.
Conservatives, white people were the original illegal immigrants in North America. Should we all just self-deport?
3
I agree 100% with Charles on this one. We can vote ourselves out of a Trump SC. Failed state?
errata. "cannot" vote ourselves out of a Trump SC.
I'm not surrendering or giving up. I'm just going to take a break. Wake me up on November 7. Until then, I am indisposed. Sorry.
2
at 65 the rest of my life will be under trumps legacy too. the outcome today is white (i am) rule for the whole century. this horrible moment in all our lives will linger and resentment, bad as it is, is bound to be worse in all aspects of american life. but with this mans legacy to destroy all i truly do not believe we as a species won't be here by 2100. when you know that everyone and everything comes to an end maybe trump is the third demon that will destroy the world. he seems to be off to a heck of a start.
4
Additionally, Trump is wrecking the stability of the world by undermining democracies; whether Erdogan or Orban, Putin or Matteo Salvini, Trump is feeding nationalist sentiments that thoroughly endanger a world order that took decades to build.
The danger is therefore tenfold, for emerging democracies need time to mature and put behind histories of warfare and unimaginable human destruction.
EU's greatest enemy is Trump! Can we imagine a return to divisions of the past? Yes, we see them growing; it is owed to Trump's specter that literally infects the minds of nationalists be then Hungarian, Turkish or Italian; infected with the hatred that has but one outcome; weakening of democratic principle, rise of dictatorships, divisiveness in Europe and elsewhere.
Trump is infecting the world with hatred. He has become a global plague. Trump is nothing less but a monster!
The November mid-term elections will have more stake than any election in my generation. The big question: Will people actually take the time to vote?
According to a recent NY Times Editorial, only 36% of eligible voters turned out for the last mid-term election. That is pathetic. Come on America! Time to actually get involved in your country's politics. All elections matter, but this one coming up REALLY matters.
4
I think you underestimate the power of angry women and their voting age millennial children.
3
As a Navy Vietnam veteran, Fire Control Technician (Gunnery) 3rd class ('65-'69), retired federal field (prosecuting) attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (1995-2010), and lifelong Democrat (i. e. worked for George McGovern's presidential campaign and many others) I shout, "Bravo Zulu" ("Well Done" in Navy terminology) Charles.
That said, let us not forget, and pause to ponder, the following inconvenient facts that demonstrate that disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporters elected Donald Trump, to wit:
(1) Trump won Wisconsin by 22,000 votes. 51,000 Sanders voted for Trump in Wisconsin.
(2) Trump won Michigan by 10,000 votes. 47,000 Sanders supporters voted for Trump in Michigan.
(3)Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes. 116,000 Sanders supporters voted for Trump in Pennsylvania.
The source of these facts are: Vox.com and University of Massachusetts Political Science Professor, Brian Schaffner.
Thus, I would argue that these facts bode ill for any Sanders supporters who contemplate reviving what I call appropriately "the Sanders Cult" in 2020. For it's disgraceful legacy in electing Trump will haunt this country and the planet for decades to come. That of course assumes that we, and the planet, live that long.
2
I totally agree with you. The self-proclaimed socialist, who emphatically shouted out that he was not a Democrat, borrowed the party because he thought real Democrats would vote for him. He owns the trump electoral college appointment and should not be forgiven for it.
1
When Trump goes to Duluth, Michigan, when he goes to North Dakota, do you live stream his adoring crowds? There is a channel that will show you these speeches. It usually has the phrase, "massive rally" as part of it's title. if you bother to read the comments that viewers post, as the rally is going on, about one on five of the comments is rabidly anti,-Semitic. While those of us in New York are despairing the prospect of the next 30 years of Supreme Court decisions being Arch Conservative, these people who support Trump and also detest "foreigners" are quite delighted.
2
I wonder if, in order to energize his base, Trump will appoint a right-wing radio shock jock to SCOTUS such as Hannity, Limbaugh, or "The Great One", Mark Levin.
1
Probably someone even less qualified, like jared.
1
We have an opportunity here. The Merrick Garland precedent should be used to allow a delay a vote on Trump’s nominee till after the mid terms. If the thought of another Gorsuch doesn’t galvanize Democrats and Independents to vote in record numbers to take back the Senate, then we are truly in a hopeless situation. VOTE!!!
1
As a candidate for my states legislature, I am out door knocking every night. While being a Democrat in a red state is a hard slog, it has hit me that most of the red voters here are beyond reaching with any kind of emotional argument, data or evidence that Republican policies are hitting their economic livelihood hard. They like what they see, they see Trump as saving them from godless Democrats who kill babies. Oh, and we love immigrants more than we love America. It is a scary, scary place place. I've come to the point where I think "this is America", not "this isn't America". I'm not sure what to do except continue what I'm doing, trying really hard to talk to people.
1
Trump’s boasted about grabbing women by their private parts, now his court is going to do it to their reproductive choices.
2
The Republican autopsy of the 2112 campaign made it clear that changing demographics would render the Republican Party irrelevant unless it adapted it’s platform to become more inclusive. Numerous articles and news stories followed outlining a supposed “browning of America “.
Trump staked out his turf in 2013: he could ignore recommendations to adapt by uniting white Americans in one simple implied fear: the browning of America is the decline of America. Voter suppression, gerrymandering, mass imprisonment, are tools to retain power in the hands of that group. Muslim ban, Mexican rapists, redefining asylum seekers and refugee claimants as “illegals”, are meant to stoke fear and hatred, not to accentuate security and respect for the law.
1
I Agree with Mr Blow- Everything I’ve spoken and written for, marched for, equality and civil rights- the values I’ve taught my kids , that giving to others brings happiness, that empathy and humility are criteria of emotional maturity—possibly down the drain for America 21 st century as 45 succeeds in turning these values upside down-I’m 81 now, struggling to believe my participation in social movements emphasizing inclusion since the 60’s wasn’t a life wasted , hoping my wonderful kids & grandkids have a strong participation in undoing Trump’s damage in our Future America
2
All this because more than half of the American electorate couldn’t imagine a woman president...better a Russian puppet with oligarchic and autocratic instincts. The impact will be lasting and unfortunately it won’t be on the US only.
2
"Elections have consequences", and the constitutional abuses and excesses of the Obama administration were the last straw for many Americans. The campaign rhetoric of Hillary Clinton just cemented any remaining opposition to the statist-collectivist abuses of the Progressive left (like Kelo vs. City of New London).
And so, the left-wing Progressives, like our writer, are now facing a permanent loss of influence at the state and national level.
Couldn't happen to a better bunch.
I very much doubt that is happening in our state.
Charles, you nailed it. I have been struggling to understand the meaning of all the Trump/Republican strategy. Your article just cleared it all up. Although knowing all this repulses me, at least it cleared up the Why? I thank you for the insight. America, please wake up and stop wondering how we got here, just get your back up and do something. Start by voting and then...........we will see. Good luck
2
And, IMHO, your last sentence is the most important.
1
Right you are Mr. Blow.
As I have observed the “general public” during my lifetime, and how “We The People” have reacted to corporate marketing, all this seems unsurprising, predictable, and sadly inevitable. So many of us choose products and services that are detrimental to our long term survival, is it any wonder we allow ourselves to choose this Trump presidential product? Frank Zappa knew what Gross Domestic Product looked and smelled like. Now many of us are finally starting to realize how bad it tastes.
Remember America, you get the government you don't vote for.
3
Each day brings a new abhorrent revelation that turns my stomach. I live in fear that this "president" and his Republican congressional toadies will destroy all that I hold valuable. Mr. Blow, I agree with your sentiments, and I admire your ability to state them so effectively. But I am heartsick and nearly without hope that your eloquence--and any of our efforts--can make an effective difference.
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Mad, ad-hominem attacks like this cannot be left unanswered.
"Donald Trump, a lying, bullying, womanizing autocrat-idolizer, is fundamentally transforming America in very real and lasting ways, in ways that have left decent people slack-jawed, enraged and exasperated."
What do you mean by "decent people"? I think you actually mean "law breaking". Trump believs in the rule of law and the Constitution. You don't, Mr. Blow. You believe that we should have a left wing dictatorship set up to enforce only the laws it
likes, not the ones the citizens themselves like, as testified by their electing Donald Trump: the laws that are supposed to regulate immigration.
2
No Charles, you are decidedly NOT hyperbolic. Unfortunately this has been going on for a long time, a well planned and executed slow moving coup de'tat financed by the billionaires' club. It happened right under our noses, but truth be told the 'Golden Age of Democracy' was really just a very short span of human history......the elites have always hated Democracy, and liked the old ways better. Aristocracy, feudalism, monarchy, and now some form of fascism, but they do not like sharing; power, resources, or money. We are here to serve them as far as they're concerned. Too bad so many didn't vote. The irony of so many self proclaimed 'Real Americans' supporting the elites is completely lost on them.
1
Your opinions have been spot on. My only objection is the focus on Trump instead of what seems to me the bigger issue, that is the general American public. If you would simply switch the word Trump with white racism your criticism would ring truer. The current American crisis isn't happening because of Trump alone. The past 8 years, under Obama, put America back on a positive track. The big problem for many however wasn't the actual state of the union, but that a Black man directed it. Honestly, what was so bad under the Obama presidency, and all other administrations, that we all of a sudden have to start separating children from their parents and banning decent people from predominantly Muslim countries to make things right?
2
Trump AND REPUBLICANS. Don't forget the second half.
1
Trump IS remaking America. Trump has done so many great things to rebuild our country and make it better for the (legal) citizens. This article is very personal rather than political, mostly calling President Trump names and bashing him every chance he's given. However, Trump is doing the most he can to make America great, such as denuclearizing North Korea, which is a huge deal. No other president in U.S history has even had the guts to speak or negotiate anything with the Kim Dynasty. Our last president, Barack Obama, called him our worst enemy and a real threat. That was true, but now we've managed to DENUCLEARIZE their entire country. All we needed was a courageous and strong president, and that was President Trump. He knows how to get things done and he knows how to stand strong and put America first. Putting America first is not a bad thing, but so many people think so. As a woman, I don't fear that my rights are at risk, and I most definitely am not ashamed of my president.
[email protected]
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You did not read the latest that North Korea is upgrading nuclear facilities. They got trump to stop military practices & gave nothing back. He did nothing toward denuclearization but gave them a road ahead. His lies will just keep being exposed. “What tangled webs you weave, when first you practice to deceive.” He has demeaned our allies & their will be no support if all his talks with communists & dictators go wrong.
2
What an absolute nightmare.
On the cusp of peace, prosperity, finally what felt like an acceptance of women, religious minorities, the richness of the world's people, people of color - President Obama! -
All of this was the of full display, the proud centerpiece of Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Yet we are confronting white nationalism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia and court-sponsored religious bigotry. Yes. SCOTUS against all common sense and the Constitution has empowered white right wing Christians and they are threatening our rights, even to our own bodies.
I still don't believe the election results were kosher. It doesn't make sense that this ghastly, vicious, unqualified buffoon is in the White House.
But here we are, with traumatized children locked up in internment camps, long time productive residents with families and businesses deported -
Oh my god. How did this happen.
3
Mr. Blow, thank you for your strong words. You are not exaggerating the seriousness of this situation.
2
Elections have consequences, as do who the DNC chose to run for President. So much angst, pain and heartache of the last 18 months would have simply been avoided without Hillary. Anyone and everyone but Hillary would have mauled Trump, but no, the king makers, erhh . . . .Queen makers knew better. So easily avoidable.
1
Until the fateful German election on Jan. 30th, when an Austrian paperhanger was appointed Chancellor, that country was called the Land of the Dichter und Denker - Poets and Thinkers.
He won only about 35% of the popular vote.
After that time, many Germans who saw the writing on the wall started calling their country the Land of the Richter und Henker -
Judges and Hangmen.
Fast forward, Judges, done
#45 saying drug dealers should get the death penalty, to be decided
People without adequate health comes pretty close to a death penalty as well.
3
Justice Kennedy was no moderate; he was fully conservative but not an extremist like the other conservative justices on SCOTUS. The few times, when Kennedy voted with the truly moderate justices and RBG (the only "extremist" liberal on SCOTUS), had more to do with his conservative ideal of upholding individual liberties.
One has to wonder, if Justice Kennedy was such a "moderate", why would he choose to retire now, knowing what would likely replace him? Barring any debilitating health problems that demand retirement, at Kennedy's age, what's one more year? Wait and see what happens in the 2018 midterm elections. Nope! Retire now when Trump/Pence and McConnell will ensure an extremist conservative replacement.
As far as Trump/Pence destroying the structure of the Republican Party, I say phooey! The GOPs have been goosestepping their way to the extreme right since the 1960s and, especially, since Saint Ronnie wedded the Religious Right. Trump is just loudly saying what the GOPs have been saying in whispers and coded words for decades. Pence is there to do his bidding and ensure that the USA becomes not just a fascist state but a theocracy as well.
Here's a must read from Fintan O'Toole in The Irish Times:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-trial-runs-for-fascism...
4
america was never great, just ask indians and africans. america is a rapacious business, disrespectful of human rights. trump is bad karma and payback for believing that the consequences of stolen land and enslaved people could be somehow be swept under the rug of history. it’s high time to begin asking structural questions and to call america what it actually is, a white european colonial failure.
This to those who thought they are too good to voter for Madame Hillary and now they helped to elect Donald J. trump most unqualified person to be the President .
Oh, but Hillary send emails from her personal computer he said.
The vile liar of a man has very little self esteem who instead of doing his work for what he was elected for goes around attacking people who he thinks are ignorimg him.
Now we have reached a point of no return in sight .
And the Glass Ceiling remained intact !
3
Our immediate and extended families have called off trips to the US indefinitely. We see no difference between the US today and apartheid South Africa in terms of government ethics, morals, and corruption, and we also refused to enter apartheid South Africa.
Some of the other countries on the list include Somalia, North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Haiti, and Angola.
I think that says it all.
1
Very eloquent, incisive and profoundly argued analysis by Charles Blow.
3
Thir country is now led by Fascists and supported by 30-40% of voters. I loath them all, but Trump is just the megaphone. We are no longer a special land. We are struggling in a Civil War.
3
Every Liberal that didn’t vote for Clinton should be utterly ashamed of themselves.
5
Excellent article and Trump's ascension and election was not tainted by fraud but a total fraud.
He needs to be removed now as the evil pervading America and emanating from the WH.
1
Blow nails it, as always. As a side note, this line struck me: "This is one of the reasons that Trump’s base will never abandon him. He is their orange life raft in the middle of a blue ocean." We're all going to need life rafts, with the climate denial dream team in charge...
1
Let's call out the co-cospirator here: Mitch McConnell who is the hypocrite of the era of Trump. He has completely reversed his position on when and who gets to expedite a nominee to the high court.
The Republican Party has destroyed the American Middle Class. Step by step since 1980.
1
What if this is what we want?
1
Finally, a Trump supporter might be admitting that this is exactly what he wants.
Very refreshing.
2
You are right on Charles Blow. There are not enough negative adjectives in the English dictionary to describe the poisoning of our democracy by our president.
We can no longer depend on our elected officials. I believe that it is time for a people's revolt.
1
Beautifully written epitaph for our new nation of Am-A-Wrecka.
America is a flawed system of violent rebellion by malcontents and religious demagogues who egged on revolution against clear biblical counsel to submit to the King G+D has placed over us.
The Declaration's pious rhetoric about all men having the right [sic] to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness was never meant to promote social equality, but rather the right of wealthy white colonists to defy their entitled royalist brethren across the pond.
This pompous creed also is highly Darwinian, justifying the privileges of greedy individuals over the collective welfare of society.
The churches no longer serve to moderate these excesses, as Christians now crave power privilege and protection and are happy to crawl into the protective embrace of Donald J Nero.
American Christianity offers about as much hope to the beleaguered masses as the religion of ancient Egypt offered to those outside of Pharoah's court.
America has always denigrated labor and idolized rich plantation owners (today's CEOs). In today's America working class people are seen basically as slave labor without inherent rights or dignity.
America is a failed model utterly and despicably. The uber capitalism that characterizes America (based primarily in NYC and about which the NYTimes rarely utters a peep) perfectly enslaves the masses.
Charles, you reduce me to tears! Please, everyone, VOTE!
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My fear is Mr. Blow is very accurate in his description of what’s at stake . Are our memories so short that we forget how our forefathers and mother’s were seen as” other” and discriminated against at the beginning of the immigration wave in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
Are we willing to look the other way if we mistakenly believe we will benefit economically from discriminating against “ the new other”.
We still can’t find our way through the legacy of slavery .
I wonder if somehow public education has failed to teach history . It’s not that long ago that we watched Europe turn away from recognizing the horrors of Stalin and Hitler.
I think psychology has not helped people find a way to avoid either devaluing people or overvaluing them. Dealing with people for who they are AND who they are not, helps avoid the lurching from one inaccurate extreme to the other. Today’s politics just reinforces the all or none mentality. I worry about how much worse this degradation of our values has to get before people who are in a position to act do so. When do values and character matter more than re-election.
Mr. Blow, great article, but painful to read.
1
Not Darwinian, Hobbesian.
The Jill - Gary - Bernie-or-Bust - the Intercept crowd are still unrepentant for voting not-Hillary. Blaming Hillary for not being a better candidate, blaming the DNC for somehow rigging a primary that Hillary won by millions of votes, blaming Hillary voters for not voting for Bernie...
I'd go with something like "Are you happy now" or "Good god, do you see what you have done?" but they seem to be totally cool with the situation.
God help us all...
2
We can only pray for a Souter.
1
This is the current political reality, distilled:
The Republican Party stands for fascism. It represents the worst of America.
The Democratic Party stands for democracy. It represents the best of America.
There are no shades of gray here.
Vote Democratic on November 6. It's as simple as that.
3
A great day for America. I am almost euphoric that we do not have that disaster called Hillary in the WH right now. Take all the cheap shots you want, people aren’t buying it anymore. The republicans will keep the House and Senate and Mr. Trump will be re-elected in two years. You and your propaganda will be one of the reasons why. Thanks Charles, keep it up.
3
"He has overtaken and destroyed the structure of the Republican Party".
Mr. Blow goes for the easy shot.
Trump overwhelmed nothing. This IS the Republican party.
Trump is a creature of the Republican party, not the other way around.
McConnell/Ryan are the source of evil; the Supreme Court is the corrupt and unstoppable engine of legislative change; the House and the Senate are the distracting side show, the rodeo clowns, the self-regarding but ultimately useless rabble who only need to vote as instructed, be pretty (Oh! Mr. Portman!) as they lie straight into the camera, and speak in soothing, post-Third-Reichian tones as they lead their country down the bloody path to fascism.
The Kochs, DeVos' and others are the dark power behind the Right-wing circus. And, folks, they profit way more as you struggle to keep from going down than they ever do when your lives are easy.
3
Only if we let him.
“Preserve White Culture” sounds to me like a “Dog Whistle” that White voters can hear loud and clear, and is the primary reason the Democrats remain largely irrelevant in national politics. So keep blowing that “Dog Whistle” and you can be assured the consequences of lost elections will guarantee the lifetime dystopian nightmare you dread.
1
During the summer of 2016 I made a constant plea to the self-righteous and sanctimonious Bernie Sanders supporters to think about what they were doing by bashing Hillary Clinton. "It's the Supreme Court, stupid," I'd post on Facebook. But they wouldn't listen. They insisted there was no difference between Hillary and Trump. They stayed home in November or they voted for Jill Stein. They helped put Donald Trump in the White House. Two years later they will still not admit to their culpability and they still hope their ancient guru can become president in 2020. He divided the Democratic Party two years ago and the fear is he'll divide it again. I was right about the Supreme Court. I wish I was wrong.
3
Who is going to do the homework a find out how many abortions the Trump family actually paid for or were involved in including Donald who can do anything?
2
Hi America,
There is a need for you to think big - the election in 4 months is so simple: if you wish America to become an authoritarian state as Russia, Turkey, Venezuela or other states that supress human rights then you look for a republican candidate !
If you want your freedom and human rights, then find your democrate and give her your vote.
The remaking of America is happens now before our eyes. There is a reason for Trump and his poker game, the gain is almost there! What he needs is just another lojal judge in the supreme court!
1
Confronting a self-styled "counterpuncher" with a tailor made punching bag has consequences.
Over 200 million Americans live in the 100 mile band of land around the perimeter of the U.S. mainland. That's about two-thirds of the population. A strong majority of these 200 million folks are progressive and their backgrounds are diverse. Nevertheless, the minority living in the vast 'heartland' and in regressive, economically depressed pockets of West Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and other states, are driving the American bus.
I have a hunch that unless something changes in a big way, these 'United' States will not remain united far into the future. California, Oregon and Washington on the west coast don't have any reason to 'unite' with North Dakota, West Virginia or Alabama, which take a big chunk of the taxes they send to the U.S. Treasury and offer them nothing but grief in return. New York has no reason to take direction from Wyoming and Mississippi, by way of Donald Trump and his minions in Washington, D.C.
This country is an inexorable, slow moving political and cultural train wreck. And it's days of 'unity' are numbered.
6
What I am feeling is, pleased as punch. There are different ways of interpreting the Constitution, and I look forward to seeing opinions that make sense for a change rather than the Democratic flavor of the month. I guess that makes me indecent.
1
I think that those of us who value equality and fairness, brotherhood and compassion are fooling ourselves believing that the solutions to our problems and the source of our progress lies in the corruption and dysfunction we see in the federal government. At best it's two steps forward, three steps back from any point of view. It's time to assist the republicans/conservatives in helping to shrink it down to a size where we CAN drown it in the bathtub. Then we need cut federal taxes for everybody so we can use that money locally to get the services and facilities we need to live in the modern world. And those people that want to return to the 1950's are welcome to do that. This doesn't work anymore, we need to do something different. There are about 163 million people that want to move forward with a progressive agenda, and 163 million that would rather live in 1952. 163 million people is about 2.4 times the population of the UK, twice the population of Germany. That's a lot of people. We've got to be able to come up with a system that accommodates both groups to their satisfaction without all this bickering and the resultant evolving hatred. That would surely be much better than what we have now... because this doesn't work for anyone.
2
The Republican party made no secret of its strategy to achieve a dominant position from which to govern: Elect state representatives and patiently wait for the census and the opportunity to redistrict. Meanwhile the Democratic party's governance strategy became increasingly dependent on holding the presidency, issuing Executive Orders in lieu of passing law, and the composition of an aging Supreme Court.
1
Charles, you are exactly right when you say elections have consequences. Those that said Hillary and Trump are the same and didn't vote or voted for Jill Stein share the blame for this.
This Fall, people must make it a priority to vote. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Elections have consequences. Be sure to vote!!
8
The DNC also shares the blame.
2
For the life of me I can't figure out why Kennedy decided to retire now... He had to know what his action would do to our country. Apparently we've read him the wrong way all these years. I am so sad but heartened by the comments I've read here. I'm heartened too by the energy of the next generation that will fight to get our country back. I just hope that it doesn't come to that... 'fight.'... Our fellow citizens are being incarcerated at staggering rates, killed in the streets, asylum seekers are being incarcerated and separated from their children... the list goes on and on. When will it be that they come for me? I've always felt might be possible even though I am a white woman of means. it might be possible because I am vocal about my progressive opinions and critical of the current administration. It might be possible because my parents were immigrants and I can easily be made out to be the 'other.' Is America waking up to this threat that is upon us? I speak out for others because it is the right thing to do, not just because I might be next. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE! We are in this debacle because so many Democrats didn't vote. We only needed 85,000 more in 3 states to have prevented our current situation. The only thing is, if Hillary had won we would not have not known just how bad Trump was going to be.
7
Mr. Blow: I think you hit the nail on the head. The conservatives want to retain power without thought or care for the good of the many. If I thought armed revolution would be successful I would support it, but that's just a dream. The victory will have to be through the ballot box.
1
So, where was everyone in 2010?
The Kochs put money into primaries to nominate their favorite candidates, and Republicans turned out in droves to curb the power of the "socialist" president. They went after the entire downticket, winning a bucketload of state houses. Then followed redistricting and voter ID. And I don't have to mention the damage school committees can do to the educational system.
Ya gotta vote, folks. Primaries, midterms, downticket, everything every time. Democrats like to sit out nonpresidential elections, and it's costing them.
Today i feel the same profound sadness I felt the day after the election! I have no more words.....
7
The saddest truth in all of this is that unethical behavior is being completely rewarded. You are winning if:
- You reached out to a foreign government to help you win an election, and then get to pick probably three Justices before the law catches up to you;
- You voted in the last election solely to make that happen;
- You blocked a rightfully nominated candidate so that your side would choose the next one, and you get to do so in the exact same part of the election cycle that you said was why you blocked it in the first place.
This is just one thing, but I could go on and on. So. Much. Winning.
It is really ironic that many of the Trump voters (who are white non college graduates) are dying prematurely due to drug dependence, obesity and other factors. The GOP, by withdrawing healthcare access, is doing their part to make this happen. This is only increasing at present and is helping to accelerate this demographic shift that will ultimately free us from this racist Republican party. I hope women and minorities and immigrants will all take the 2018 mid terms as an opportunity to halt this slide into American carnage that Trump is pushing. Take back the state governments, the Congress and reverse this horrific present and possible future.
If conservatives want to restrict immigration to protect their ideology and vision for America - note we are not talking about race - what’s so wrong with that? A flood of immigrants that vote themselves benefits, meaning vote liberal, is indeed a threat to what many of us hold dear about America - freedom, including the freedom to fail and the ability to get wealthy without government interference. Immigrants voting for high taxes are immigrants taking something away from me and my kids.
There is nothing racist, immoral, or wrong about protecting ones beliefs. If immigrants were voting Republican, I think the debate would be flipped on its head.
2
The destructive Tsunami Wave that is the Trump/GOP take back of America just reached the shoreline. And just like Crowley, the Democrats didn't listen to the warning sirens.
Mitch McConnell versus Chuck Schumer in the Senate? If past is prologue, Chuck has the bite of a mouse and Mitch will be eating him alive and spitting out the bits on the Senate floor.
Can progressives of all strokes ban together to gain a measure of power in the Congress this November? That would mean the Bernie Bros would have to finally give up their Hillary hate, the Latino vote would have to give up their Democratic anger, centrist Democrats would have to give up their money ..... Giving up all the infighting for common cause of electing Democrats period.
For myself, at 64 I am only concerned about the future my daughters will have in an America with second class status unable to act as fully empowered adults. I am concerned about the possibility of further erosion of civil rights for Americans of color.
The further degradation of health care, education, climate. The list is long, too long.
I pray that the Democrats will become united and disciplined and actually DO something to stop the white male christian onslaught.
For the past 2 years we have heard Trump define HIS America.
It's time finally to retake OUR America.
Thank the "Bernie or Busters"
Thank those that stayed home and didn't vote because "both candidates were equally as bad..."
Thank those moderate Republicans that don't like Trump, but could not stomach a vote for Hillary, so they stayed home and did not vote.
Thank the uninformed for being too lazy to understand the consequences of their lack of action.
You are getting the government you deserve.
8
Most Bernie supporters voted for Hillary. The DNC might learn that Democrats can’t win by continually maligning progressives.
1
Thank you Charles,
This is a fine combination of Jefferson v. George III in the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Paine in Common Sense.
Hopefully, by the time the Democrats have successfully stalled on any replacement to Justice Kennedy (something of an oxymoron!) the Manafort trial will be underway and Robert Mueller's report will be released to Congress .
The truth will out!
1
Charles, EVERYONE's rights are in jeopardy. Women, minorities, etc., are first in line, but we're all in the queue.
2
I’m having trouble keeping the faith, trusting that goodness and justice will prevail. I’m worried our spirits will be obliterated and many of us will sicken in body and mind with all of this negativity and stress. I am worried and discouraged and in disbelief.
1
So long, democracy. It was good while it lasted.
5
Fact is: The GOP coup has already occurred. Many of us are aware of it and are justifiably alarmed. Recovering will require a massive turn out of blue voters, along with those who can't make up their minds but are now reading the news. No third party needed.
If Republicans are, in fact, only 27% of the US population, why can't we overcome? No reason.
Recent developments give us hope, e.g. voters in Queens and the Bronx showed the way. My wife lived in Jackson Heights as a child. It is now a real smorgasbord of nationalities, religions, and colors. Not all white Americans buy into the clearly racist regime the GOP has worked on for several decades. We are a good people.
The young guard surfacing now are absolutely not stuck in any rigid ideology. They support common sense solutions to very real problems. Wedge issues just don't work with them. The D's old guard must recognize this and help this movement along.
Being POTUS though is not, necessarily, the best place for a youngster. It is the most complicated and most important job in the world as it is today. Personally I would prefer a Senior who already knows the POTUS drill from experience. Combined with a younger, energetic person with the right balance of intelligence, courage and instincts.
Know any one like that? I do.
2
Good column. Good writing and substance. I’m not sure of what I could add.
3
Thank you so much Mr. Blow. I must respond to commenters focusing on individuals instead of our electoral process, which President Jimmy Carter has determined does not meet international best practices standards. The disenfranchised, including in FL, WI, MI, OH and IN, our undemocratic, slave-era Electoral College and the US being the only wealthy democracy that holds elections on a non-holiday weekday are the reasons why we have this Supreme Court. Any impact of “protest voters/non-voters” was minimal compared to the impact of the US’s shockingly undemocratic electoral process.
4
The body politic is dying. Until humans can dissolve the poisons of ideology in all their extreme forms we will continue to choke and burn on our own ashes. Look at what we've become. I don't even know what we are anymore. Still, I will vote democratic in November and fight this "abomination" of spirit and soul until my very last breath. If it takes some kind of civil war, so be it. We need to get the poisons out.
4
"Taking the absolutely ridiculous position that there would be little difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has consequences."
The revolution that Sanders' supporters who stayed home or voted Green hoped for has happened-and WE are the losers: the United States democracy. Evil people can run for office any day of the week. It's up to responsible voters to keep them out of office. Instead, vote abstainers handed Trump two Supreme Court Justice seats and 100 alt-right YOUNG federal judge seats who will destroy our environment, the middle class and civil rights for generations.
From the conservative voice of Lamb to the progressive voice of Ocasio - Democrats must build a coalition of voices that represent the variety in the party, and stand against Trump - one and all. Every single Democratic candidate is better than giving Trump a majority again in November - every single one.
For the far Left still angry about Clinton - get over it. For centrist Democrats angry about Ocasio winning the primary this week-get over it. Take a page from Crowley's book, his music book. He sang Born to Run after his ridiculously embarrassing loss to Ocasio (who, by the way, is close to Ted Kennedy's age when he was first elected Senator - and she has great education and a lot more work experience then he had! That's the script, people!)
Put Axelrod and Plouffe in charge of the DNC for effective strategy. STOP the infighting, and START playing to win, TOGETHER.
2
So much for an independent Judicial Branch. Trump now has the chance to complete the transformation of the Judiciary into an arm of the Republican Party. Or, perhaps more accurately, into an arm of Trump's ego. This is even more fightening because it achieves one of the necessary step towards autocracy. Trump has never tolerated the inconvenience of the rule of law. So the ballot box is now our only weapon? The Republicans have banned that weapon with their court-approved gerrymandering. The end is nigh, brethren.
A sick, co-enabling political structure has formed. The Repulicans see Trump as a ticket to their power. All they have to do is abandon their own consciences. Trump sees the Republicans as spineless minions, pawns whose only purpose is to carry out his wishes. He likes to see them cower with fear; they eagerly cower in fear because they have long ago abandoned any pretense of historically conservative values. Its all a mockery of the Constitution and the ideals of the Founding Fathers. The end is nigh, brethren.
2
The night Trump was elected, I knew things were going be bad, very bad, for all of the reasons cited in Mr. Blow's fine article.
What I didn't fathom at the time was that my worst fears about how bad Trump was going to be were utterly naive, and would pale in comparison to the hideous reality of his "presidency." Trump has been in-a-different-galaxy-worse than I could possibly have imagined, beginning with the Muslim Ban, proceeding through to the destruction of our environment, separating children from their families at our border, lying on a minute-by-minute on just about every topic, blowing off the Emoluments Clause, cozying up to the worst dictators on the planet while happily trashing our most loyal allies, destroying our administrative agencies, and publicly (and with glee) trying to destroy our free press -- to name a few of his many transgressions.
And now, the final check and balance on Trump -- the Supreme Court -- is about to be destroyed for generations. In short order, we will find that only the free press, which is on shaky ground indeed, has any hope of slowing down this fast-moving train wreck.
In my wildest dreams I never thought that the United States (which, despite some terrible misdeeds has until now been, overall, a true beacon for the world) would, in the blink of an eye, cease to exist as the world has known it -- and worse, that many of the most terrible changes we have witnessed in the past 500+ days, can never be undone.
1
I have said for some time that (unfortunately) there has to be some pain before people wake up. Many Americans are clueless about what candidates serve their interests.
Americans are quick to forget what it’s like to live with no unions, devastating pollution and no woman’s right to choose. They may be awakened soon.
8
How I wish I could disagree with something in this article! I don't.
Me thinks Trump is tied to Putin. I truly believe that America's demise is in deed a reaction to their relationship. In one Presidency, and within a year plus of time, the effects of Trump are taking its toll on our democracy and no one seems to be fighting for our Constitution. With all the Russian ties to Trump's campaign, it certainly stinks. We are losing allies and civil thought processes and appears this is exactly what Putin wants. I shudder to think about the remaining years of Trump and what it will do to America. Now Trump is meeting with Putin in Finland?
1
For selfish reasons, I might add: "because he wants to weaken America’s faith in truth and facts themselves."
2
President Trump does not operate in a vacuum. He has support from a statistically meaningful plurality and numerous self-interested Republican politicians. Mr. Blow is correct that these Republicans recognize that their power can be eroded if everyone votes. However, I would not assume that there is an agreement by a majority of Americans as to which policies are wrong. The Democrats inability to articulate solutions that work for the majority - those who occupy the vast area between but not in New York and San Francisco - makes it difficult for them to win the support they need to prevail in elections. Unfortunately, it is heading into a binary classification of "haves" and "have-nots". This is misguided because not all people who are successful and pay taxes are those of "privilege, power and prestige". Some are individuals and families who worked hard, followed the rules and now fear that the fruits of their labor will be taken away. The Democrats need to focus on meaningful and functional strategies to assure that core middle section of America that fairness in the eyes of a Democrat does not necessary mean attacking success. If they don't, then the triumvirate of self-serving politicians, religious hypocrites and a narcissistic leader will continue to erode what could be the greatest country.
1
How sad to have placed our hope for fair-minded justice on judge Kennedy. Give him his due on LGBT and marriage. But he has voted with mind-numbing Alito, Thomas and there Conservative majority much more often. His legacy is Bush's presidential victory, Citizens United and the rape of the electoral system by big money. The good he has done can be undone with his untimely retirement.
Why now and not under Obama? Why now knowing Trump's corrupting influence. Knowing he is going to plunge the court into a period of polarizing, harsh criticism and cause social upheaval? Winners and losers? --Trump is purring and the Senate Majority leader who unleashed this detestable homage to 'if it's legal it's ok' and 'the ends justify the means' approach to judicial appointments is crowing. 'Look what I did!..."
The only judicial decision that matters is Kennedy's unnecessary departure while Trump is in office. That is his sad legacy. Forget that he was thoughtful, mentored staff, puzzled over legal ambiguities. As long as Alito and conservatives can claim a case was poorly argued and reverse a 40-year decision and precedent (Janus) to bolster their conservative agenda anything is possible.
America's Supreme Court will soon be in the hands of plutocrats and their conservative allies. America can forget the courts for the next 2-3 decades. Another old white man has delivered America to the enemy and we need to storm the ballot boxes.
1
What Mr. Blow fears and therefore cannot state is the increasing support President Trump has been able to garner from black and Hispanic voters. The booming economy's benefits are like a dagger to the hearts of the liberal haters, therefore they have been backed into the untenable position of having to root for failure and to crucify the president. Americans see through this perfidy. These voters have long embraced the quintessential American virtue: liberty. They fully comprehend that the dependency fostered by the democrats is anathema to individual agency and initiative. That does not mean that they are heartless or "indecent" as Mr. Blow self-assuredly implies. No, Trump is not "remaking" America. He is simply returning it to the people and to the values that gave rise to its greatness.
"Elections have consequences. Not voting has consequences. Falling for Russian propaganda has consequences. Voter suppression has consequences. Taking the absolutely ridiculous position that there would be little difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has consequences."
Right, Mr. Blow. Here is a lifetime lesson.
After reading Blow's comment, I am even more convinced that we have two Americas. Those who want and those who do. As one of those who do, I don't think we can really function as one country.
Perhaps the time has come to divide the United States. I really do not want to be a part of Blow's America.
A lot of Trump haters said they would leave the US if he were elected. They didn't.
A lot of bad feelings between Red States and Blue States are coming to the surface. I think it is time to start severing the relationship. Divide the country in half, as neatly as possible between red and blue and provide some assistance to those who want to relocate. I am tired of being a part of Blow's America
And, I absolutely don't want to be a part of yours. Let's get this thing going.
How is it you know they didn't leave? NYT commenters have said their goodbyes in this very forum.
1
The past is likely the best predictor of the future. Republicans are always motivated and will march in line. Republicans understand power. Democrats believe in compromise. That's finally reached its limits. That Republican voters are marching over the cliff and into the pockets of oligarchs, charlatans, and grifters is nothing new. Compromise also means being compromised so Democrats will not turn up in sufficient numbers no matter the admonitions of those pleading here and else where knocking on real doors. America failed Democratic Citizenry 101 from its beginnings---when some human beings were deemed only 3/5ths human. The rest is commentary on that fact. The shadow of our "values" has finally come into the light and we will reap the failure that will follow when we at last crash into the ground beneath us. Gravity's going to win and this experiment with democracy is going to fail---because Americans don't want to do the work that democracy demands. People who write in these margins aren't enough. Go out there and look around you. America is not up to it. Democracy is too hard.
2
Mr. Blow, you write about Trump,'a man whose candidacy was a joke, whose election was a fluke".
If those voters who came out for Obama in areas like Detroit, parts of Wisconsin, etc had not stayed home in 2016, Trump would have lost.
Please, Mr. Blow, work on motivating those voters to show up in 2018 and 2020.
1
Safe, legal abortion, to be employed only if safe, legal contraception has failed in family planning: a top target for the hijacked GOP, its "spiritual leaders" and its moneybags.
When Judge Pat-Eller Reflex, a knee-jerk rightest zealot, is sworn in as Supreme Court Justice, it will be back to the bad old days. The days when the only indication for terminating a pregnancy was "I'm rich, I'm GOP, and I don't want this pregnancy."
I have grieved for the bleeding, feverish, dying women under my care; the ones who were not rich and GOP. Since only women, poor, and racial/ethnic minorities and their families will suffer, McConnell, Ryan, and the president will be doubly pleased.
Will some radical minister or priest inform our leaders that we are all in this together, and that "nice people" come in all shapes, colors and sexes?
1
A criminal President picking a Supreme Court Justice. We all knew it would get ugly before Trump exits, and each day proves us right—unfortunately. When, or if, Trump is convicted for any of the various crimes he is accused, can Congress pass a law to nullify the judicial appointments of a convicted criminal? Even the life appointments?
1
June 28, 2018, on the occasion of the announcement that Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire, is the day I lost faith. I've been hanging on by a thread, but my hope and my soul were crushed yesterday.
9
This has been driven by America's religiosity. Believe whatever you want, but it's way past time to take seriously the separation of church and state. The influence of the Christian right on our nation is pernicious, and must be stopped.
3
You got it right, Charles, you got it right. Reason is a frail reed crushed by greed and ignorance, but decency is rare and beautiful and always will be. This country lost its soul in November of 2016 - voted it away - and the Roberts court with its stolen reactionary seat has jumped on the Trump bandwagon: That's all it is, a sleazy band wagon. Maybe decency can survive, maybe not. Regardless, thank you for describing what is happening. Votes matter - and so do words.
2
It's over people. We lost our country. It will be slow and painful rather than quick and easy. This started with Nixon and it took a hiatus with Ford and Carter. It started up again with Reagan and we have had a slow and steady decline since that time. It began with "welfare queens" and the "crack epidemic"... a slow deterioration of minority progress that was manufactured by the right. It continued with the Willie Horton ad and the attack of the Clintons. Bush II took us down the rat hole of wars. Obama was too cautious. Ryan & McConnell are true evil geniuses. I loved you America, you tried hard but in the end greed and fear won.
4
Well said. Very eloquent. As Colbert said, Trump is the Wombat at the control of the plane, and he is careening out of control just to bring down a cabin full of diverse people. The Republican party is the party of white people. Period. I disagree that these people can be called "conservatives." Conservatism is extinct in the US. These people are right-wing extremists, concerned only to corporatize the polity, to turn all social benefits over to profiteering. It's easier to do that if you "racialize" the polity. That way Darth Becky sitting in front of Fox will more easily vote the straight corporatist ticket, never realizing that she's cutting the social net out from under her feet. I too will have a Kangaroo Court for the rest of my life. I don't want to live in a dictatorship. I'll be marching and "activ-izing" for the rest of my life. The Right is trying to make the price of freedom unbearable. However, we are the greatest generation now, the one resisting totalitarianism in the US.
The best advice given by Charles and most commenters is to vote. I also advocate raising the public ante by raising your voice, raising it any place you can. We each have different abilities to express our opinion, find it and express that opinion on paper, on the phone, on the internet, on the sidewalk in front of your Senators office and in the street if necessary because your right to vote or to have your vote count is in jeopardy. If Republicans have their way 2018 may be the last time YOU get to vote or for your vote to count. The Pubs and Mr McConnell will continue with their usual machiavellian habits to foist their version of America on us, but make no mistake once they own the Supreme Court their most important and deadly goal will be voter suppression on such a scale as to make Russia look like a Democracy. There is no doubt trump is dangerous, dangerous like a chain smoker in a fire works store, but he is just a distractor/ distraction. trumps best ability for the pubs is his ability to sign his name. But make no mistake the Pubs will unleash the dogs of war on voting. Voting is what makes a Democracy and if they can take the power out of the vote they can kill Democracy.
The words and actions of the current president are not going to change me. I will be kind to all I meet. I will welcome and learn from people who have a different life experience from mine. I am not going to allow one angry puffed up man to ruin another day.
3
The Democrats lost because of their own failures. They had an opportunity to remake the health care system and instead they delivered the American public to the greed and the callousness of the insurance companies.
They could have neutered the fictionalization of the economy instead they appointed the same orthodoxy of Summers and Rubin.
The American public was anxious about it's well being. Instead of addressing that , they chose to covert with the celebrities pushing the environmental agenda. Pushing Mass migration.
Mr Obama's cabinet was chock full of Harvard/Princeton/Yale alums with no experience of the real world and it's concerns.
Hence, they lost.
2
Nancy Pelosi must step down as leader of the House.
She claims to be progressive when half the country is calling for this guy's impeachment. How many reasons for impeachment does she want?
Now women's rights are hanging by a thread because she refused to fight back. And she has the gall to criticize Maxine?
Both parties are in trouble. GOP for the reasons the author mentions, and Dems for hyper-liberal social justice warrior agenda. Political correctness at all costs, even if it is unconstitutional and deeply hypocritical.
1
Do you mean Americans like expensive for profit health care that drives them into bankruptcy if they get ill?
Americans like military style assault weapons whose sole purpose is to massacre people, including children in their classrooms?
Americans like breathing dirty air and drinking dirty water?
1
Your comment isn't too clear, but what I mean about Dems is claiming to be open-minded and compassionate, then threatening and ruining people's lives that don't agree with them. It means chastising a business for asking non-paying customers to leave because of skin color, then cheering a restaurant that kicks out Trump supporters for no reason. It means claiming to be color blind and for racial harmony, but pushing for affirmative action which is discriminatory towards Asians. Hollywood is supposed to be the face of the Democratic party, but I cannot think of a more racist, sexist industry. That's what I mean about liberal hypocrisy.
Don't say we weren't warned. Enough liberal voters put ideological purity before reality in November 2016 to make this nightmare reality.
However much Mr Blow and those of us who agree with him express our outrage at this disaster the fact is the only way we effect change is to vote. We also should never forget the reason we are in this situation is because liberal voters cast “protest” votes in the last election or refused vote as a childish reaction to not getting their way in a primary election. To those white working class and union member voters who went with tRump you are seeing the results of voting out of fear and prejudice. Those coal jobs are not coming back and his ignorant imposition of tariffs is starting to cost you jobs, increased costs and loss of export markets. You are getting exactly what you deserve.
The marbles (all of them?) are going away ... all the way to collapse?
"It’s happening right now in large part because too many people thought that it could not."
I contend: that explanation is superficial, hence weak.
In general, I submit that you and nearly all the columnists I read, Left and Right, would make more accurate and powerful assessments if you took your pattern recognition from the 4.54 billion-year sample space of evolution, which includes physics and complexity, rather than human history.
There are patterns in human history, but the ones from evolution are more reliable, in part, because they're more fundamental. Because let's remember: "Initial conditions rule in complex systems." Stewart Brand
And here's a selected, fundamental (initial condition) relationship code that is very scary and yet has great explanatory reach: Fitness > Truth.
Some sub-codes of that code are: Me>U; Us>Them; Short term > Long term.
Re Fitness > Truth
Here's a quote set from the brilliant Donald Hoffman (cognitive scientist, UCI)
"Fitness and truth are utterly different things."
"Organisms that see the truth go extinct when they compete against organisms that don't see any of the truth at all, literally none of the truth at all, and are just tuned to the fitness function."
"Perception is not about seeing truth; it's about having kids."
This is one of your best, Charles. And we need your talent of speaking truth to power more than ever now. Please keep it up.
1
Trump isn't transforming America. He is showing us what America really is.
5
When it is proven that Trump is an illegitimate president because of an unimaginable amount of Russian interference, then all the appointments made by Trump, including the Supreme Court, must be overturned.
Indeed, my friend.
I rely on you to always speak for America.
You are always a good man, and I seriously cannot express myself sometimes. You do the hard job.
1
Remakes is the wrong word, destroy is more like it.
3
Trump and his minions are not "conservatives" in any sense of the term I'd recognize. They are reactionary radicals...
They claim to be against redistributing income, but they are the experts at that -- redistribution from the bottom and middle to the top and, via deficits, from the future to the present.
The worst thing, for me, began with Reagan and is in overdrive today: the unapologetic attitude there is no need to be concerned about the public good, the integrity of our institutions, or about anyone other than oneself. Enrichissez-vous!
8
Im keeping my American flag folded up in the bureau drawer on this Fourth of July for the same reasons it stayed in the drawer when Joe McCarthy, George Wallace, Robert Byrd and David Duke were hitting their stride in American politics.
Accepting a Trump-America is un-American in my book and always will be even if it means continuing a sustained hatred for Trump and every single last person who buys into his evilness.
2
That person in the White House is working very hard to remake America in his image, one of vulgarity, sexist, bullying, racist, homophobic, xenophobia, ineptness, etc. etc. Sadly what's left of the republican party is so afraid that if they try to contain him or oppose him, he will call them names and humiliate them as he has done to others. It's obvious none off them care enough about our country and where it's going. What Maxine Walters said the other day surely didn't help the Democrats. She should be reminded of what Michelle Obama said, "when they go low, we go high". Hopefully the Democrats will dig in and stand firm against "t"'s nominee for Kennedy's seat on the Supreme Court.
Many things can occur in the next few months.
Kennedy's departure might be a blessing for the Democrats. The enemy is in the open now. Easier to destroy it.
3
Trump's white America is trying to preserve their version of the plantation - even though many were never masters. They have deprived equal rights to those that are equal because they are afraid. Their ignorance isn't even bliss. Their own losses under this president aren't even understood. It's denial. They have dragged us all back into a world with little light. They seek to deprive others who could have found better answers for all. I hope for change - I fear for explosion.
2
What Trump has shown us in black and blue and blood, the office of President has become much to powerful in this country. Regardless of political persuasion, we should all agree, no one man should have the power to do what this man has done to this country. No matter how twisted, cruel, disruptive and distorted Trump is, there are people out there who are worst and if we survive Trump, the next Boss could be even more horrific and we should make it right now, if we get that far.
The truth can be depressing. When the 99% of voters who supported trump realize that their income, well-being and freedom have been lost, perhaps they will awaken. Is Civil War II in our future? What a revolting, crazy but possible thought. Vote in 2018 & 2020 as your and my life depends upon the outcome. Time for a new beginning.
5
They will never awake. Racism is much stronger a factor than economics. B
2
Yes, well put on the wrecking of America by the Trump regime. Certainly in the health care area. I'm a retired person and my Medicare Advantage Plan, a federal program in which my medical provider, Humana, is abusively breaking rules and regulation regarding my health insurance plan and illegally raising my copays to levels I can't afford. What I will do now is unknown. This is due to the horrid health care insurance system in this country; a greedy, capitalistic nightmare for many of us. And Trump of course supports these obscene and greedy insurance company's.
Your view may be too optimistic. Rome regressed for a while and then collapsed.
Once again Mr. Blow starts off by only discussing and highlighting Trump's good qualities and positive attributes. Let's not forget the nasty things he's done and how he is destroying world institutions.
2
Thank you Mr Blow for your weekly articulation of the Trump led Decline of America. But when you boil it right down what got us here, it is voter apathy by the Dems. The party just has not bothered to vote. This must change very quickly of course. After all Merrick Garland would be sitting on the Supreme Court today if Democrats voters had not fielded a pathetically low turnout in the 2014 mid-terms.
My first vote was the Midnight Vote in 1976. I have never missed a vote, nor have I ever witnessed the likes of what is happening today in American politics as I eagerly anticipated becoming a grandmother. I am deeply ashamed of the hijacking of the Republican Party into what it has become. But this is my country, I won't be going anywhere and will fight for a better place for my grandchildren. This better place has no place for racism, lies and corruption. We have a POTUS with a criminal mind, who befriends dictators and insults our top law enforcement. He is a showboat and a bully. He holds bully pulpit rallies, many of his supporters believe these are paid tickets. But they are free. Crowd size? Much less than my small town and who wouldn't go out of sheer, morbid curiosity - just as we went to Rosemary's Baby or Jaws. I refuse to believe the country has completely succumbed to the likes of Donald J. Trump and his grotesque view of the world. We must keep our eye on the future, hold close our allies on the world stage, use our voices and our votes to restore the damage done and proceed from there. We must not lose heart, but take seriously the threats to our nations values and the principles we stand for as a nation. Old enough to be wary, but young enough to know that wisdom and goodness will prevail if we hold on and fight for our country.
2
Trusting in the Supreme Court to protect you from democracy (as liberals did when they removed the abortion issue from democratic control) also has consequences. After all, they may change their minds in 4 decades.
'It Can't Happen Here'; Sinclair Lewis. 1935
The book was about how it can happen here.
It is happening here.
There is no quick way out.
As Charles said, this is it for the rest of my life.
It's now a generations long struggle in front of us.
He has seen the Kim N/K model up close, and that's
what he really really likes.
But finding that route nearly impossible he
will likely settle on the Erdogan/Turkey model; That of suppressing, subverting and corrupting the current institutions of our republic to his will.
Did you see him in South Carolina a couple days ago? His appetite knows no bounds, and he will do anything. Even shoot somebody or lots of somebodies at the corner of 5th Ave. and Main St.
Hmmm, , Main Street; Another S. Lewis book.
Democrats must turn out to vote in 2018. All minorities must
turn out to vote like never before. Trump must be defeated
in 2000. Our children are counting on us to do the right thing
and that means Trump must be defeated.
2
Not long ago I would have thought this op-ed way over the top. Sadly it is hard to disagree with any of it.
One glimmer of hope though. Supreme court justices can be impeached. But Democrats need to vote!
1
Certainly, we will have to work much harder and smarter to protect and expand the progressive goals. That is a given. What is not being talked about is the huge military-industrial complex expansion that now consumes more than 54% of the total U.S. budget. President Eisenhower warned us about that in 1948. The trillions of dollars we have wasted pursuing manufactured wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afganistan are a huge reason for our dangerous debt load. Yet, thanks to Republican legislatures, we continue to feed the military-industrial at the expense of infrastructure, healthcare, education, alternative energy and a host of needs crucial to our cities and our citizens.
2
Somehow we have believed in the infallibility of the framers and their work.
They never seemed to anticipate the danger of having a class of elected governing officials with no term limits.
This has been a long problem in the legislative Branch - it is also a problem in the Judicial - Clarence T is a great example - he has been around forever, will continue for a long time more and contributes zero to the discussion of our democracy. We need term limits on all elected and appointed officials.
3
I have long been in the middle valuing the debate across the aisle and having views which come from both parties on a variety of issues. For years there was healthy tension and productive debate and then things began to shift under Obama. I don’t believe it was Obama’s himself (who I respect as a president and a man). Issues which used to be things we debated began to shift to issues for which there was only the right answer and the ‘evil’ or ‘wrong’ answer. For several debates on issues championed by the left a very important rhetoric took shape: hate speech and hatred of anyone who could dare to take an opposing view on new and challenging issues. Extremism became adopted first on the left (and extremism is simply the labeling of any dissent or debate as hatred and evil on issues which fair minded people disagree left or right) and now what we are witnessing is the response to a feeling of being silenced from the right. They couldn’t say what was on their mind any longer at work or debate issues that were new for them such as transgender rights and others and that silence produced anger as it always will. Then they did what you would expect they spoke with their votes and elected our current president who was able to say whatever he wanted. What will plague us as we move ahead is extremes on left and right that keep widening and demands that you are either with some group or a misogynist, bigot, and worse. Bring back the middle and civilized debate.
2
Is it possible that Trump's endgame is a global geopolitical realignment in which a US/Russian coalition balance against China? We need to look at the obvious. He has dispensed with diplomatic subtlety and is driving for blunt economic and military force. Not to mention expansion of his real estate brand. And isn't it just possible that when markets fail, he and his cronies will reap the rewards? Consider at Wilbur Ross' recent short sale of the shipping company stock.
3
Trump has never uttered the term "geopolitical realignment". Trump, Ross, et al are in for their own personal gain; nothing more, nothing less
If Mr. Mueller has had enough with the continuing obfuscation of Trump's lawyers regarding him being voluntarily interviewed by prosecutors, I would hope that Trump is subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury well before Justice Kennedy's replacement is seated.
Assuming such a subpoena is upheld by a lower court, or courts, the Supreme Court would probably be deadlocked, 4/4, on the issue thus allowing the critical grand jury questioning to proceed. The Mueller team, upon Kennedy's retirement, is most likely already considering this strategy.
13
A despairing piece indeed, with not even a call to get out the vote. The mid-terms are starting to look like a half-hearted desperation play. Anyway, what would a few more Dem seats actually accomplish beyond even more gridlock and entrenchment?
1
We do prefer rugged individualism, not collectivism as is rampant in Europe, Central America, Africa and to some extent Australia. We also believe in the rule of law! Note, if your standard was what we accepted we would soon have power anyway. After all, you keep talking about us becoming a minority. In your scheme of things only minorities get to control the agenda. Only minorities have rights that can force the majority to bow to their wishes. In your scheme, we do not rely on the actual text of the Constitution, but whatever justices (who favor our position) say it is.
Your policies of socialism have been tried throughout the world. They are a mistake. America is stronger when we act individually in most things (military, law enforcement and firefighters excluded). Think of our richest Americans all of them either operated initially alone or just a small group of private individual Americans.
Lastly, it was your side that ran on "FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGING AMERICA".The most offensive campaign in our history with respect to our values. Ginsburg will be gone soon, but not soon enough. Bryer will follow. In a couple of years, the court will be at least 6-3 or 7-2 for 30+ years of judicial philosophy that is originalist. If you don't like it, move to a socialist country, but leave our beloved America as a beacon of capitalism and rugged individualism!
2
Western Europe: By almost all metrics happier, healthier and, more equitable than America. But no, keep telling me about what a failure democratic socialism is is while Americans go bankrupt over medical debt, 20% of our children live in poverty, and the average American hasn't seen a real raise in decades.
2
Gosh Matthew, I sure hope you stay clears of the public highways and roads. Sure hope you don't watch TV or listen to the radio on public owned airwaves. Absolutely don't play tennis or take a walk in a public park, and heaven forbid you send your kids to public schools. I hope you are operating your own drinking water and sewage systems! Most of all, "just say no" to the scourge of Social Security and Medicare.
1
For many of us, Trump was elected because our parents voted for him, and they voted for him because they didn't want us, their children, to enjoy what they themselves enjoyed. For example, many of the older generation who voted for Trump are living on a union pension, but actively voted for a man who has destroyed unions for their own children.
But very, very soon, a powerful generation will come of age and start voting. It is a generation that grew up in cities, with diverse friends, who take Roe v Wade and gay rights for granted. And they will be encouraged by those previously mentioned children- the children of Generation X and the older millennials- to vote for an America which worries about progressive issues, except for one.
They are not going to worry about the huge aged boomer population. They are going to remember today with vitriol.
I know a lot of boomers didn't vote for this sociopath. But enough did, and younger people have been so hard hit, and will be suffering from the financial problems of the conservative age for all their lives, that when something is going to have to be cut somewhere, younger people are going to look at aging white males and say, "we just don't want to look out for you."
Mr. Blow and I are the same age. I fully expect that, being the man of integrity that he is, he will be writing columns about elder abuse in about ten years.
10
Left wing dem my whole life, have made good money and happily paid taxes and voted at times to pay more. Support my public schools and library with far more than taxes-- donations and sweat equity tell the story. That said, I both replied and recommended your comment. As a 60 something, I find your generational warfare frightening but oddly compelling. That said, please shoulder some blame for allowing the right wing boomers you rightfully despise-- to have their way-- by not voting in EVERY election, by not running for office yourselves, by voting for never gonna happen folks like Bernie, Jill, Gary and 18 years ago, Ralph.
1
I'm the same as Karen. Don't blame every boomer for the plight we're in.
And, I hate very much to tell you this, but there were plenty of college-aged young people holding up Trump signs. I remember very clearly, on Super Tuesday, when I cast my primary vote for Sanders, our local news station was interviewing one lovely black young woman holding up a big Trump sign.
Get your own people in order.
Oh, and elder abuse? Is that some sort of threat?
1
“When in the course of human events...” Well it has become necessary! It is not the time to bemoan what has happened but resist.
The four minority members of the Supreme Court should resign to expose the court for the political hacks they have become and to further undermine their authority.
We should have a massive movement to resist paying education debt that is crippling our young people.
A new union movement needs to develop that is not beholden to the monied.
Massive movements of civil disobedience need to form.
Thomas Jefferson thought that every generation should have a revolution to remake the government, the time has come. The republicans have dishonestly hijacked the system with the complicity of the democrats.
2
Yes, it has. That is why we started. The start was the defeat of the establishment. Now onward. We won't go back. Don't try to sell that again.
World.
Powerful Leaders are remaking the World, not their countries. Trump is not educated enough to work at The World Level. He would never get hired by these highly intelligent firms. Small minded, that is what Trump is, and the rest of the people that support him.
Trump is out-of-touch with what is really happening in The World, at that Boardroom Meeting. He is not included because he does not think Worldly, he does not think Brilliantly. He is not aware of current, Future Plans for The World. The USA should have voted for Hillary.
2
A supposedly democratic political system that can allow an anti-democratic minority to seize total control is obviously fatally flawed. Every structural flaw has been ruthlessly exploited by the Republican insurgency. But the the most telling flaw is an uninformed and apathetic electorate. Our democracy is not quite dead but its condition is grave. If democracy by some miracle survives, the structural flaws need to be fixed, particularly those relating to voting access.
9
This Republican rule by coup with Supreme Court validation really started in 2000. The world watched in disbelief as the eleciton was neatly stolen from Gore. The Republicans, with the cooperation of Jeb Bush and a coterie of clowns in Florida thwarted the will of the American people.
The consequences of having the moronic frat-boy Bush in office should not be forgotten or minimized just because Trump is such a Dickensian caricature. The Walpurgisnacht of death, destruction, and disruption caused by our careening into Iraq on the ridiculous WMD pretext are still reverberating.
When Trump declared, Republicans first held their noses in encouraging numbers, but their lack of character finally manifested, and they fell in behind him, Good Germans all.
Barak Obama and the democrats in Congress deserve some of the blame for this predicament. When Mitch McConnell announced that republicans would refuse to consider any nominee to replace Scalia, Obama should have made a recess appointment. He should have done the same for all the other federal judges that the republicans blocked (and whose seats are now being filled by Trump). Instead, he chose to play it safe, to play nice, to try to get along. This was the biggest failure of his presidency -- not learning to play to win. Maybe the next democrat president, if we have one, will have learned this lesson.
25
Good grief! If Obama did have such options and did not take them up, that is a huge fail. Hard to accept given McConnell and his GOP cronies consistently, over the entire Obama presidency, declared they would do everything they could to block his policies. Why weren't they called out for sedition?
1
I very much admire Barack Obama, but he was a gentleman-scholar-president who expected us to be better people than the ignorant fools 60 million people proved to be. Some of my own relatives are among those fools. They're all-- "Trump was supposed to help us" now. Too late.
Obama was the right president for a different time. We needed someone who could play dirty and throw a mean punch once in a while. And, I'm with you, make a recess appointment.
I agree that Obama handled the Garland nomination wrong. He should have realized where the Republican Party was going and known that his mantra that “there is no red America and no blue America” was totally silly rhetoric. When McConnell announced that the senate would not consider any nominee, Obama should have taken the position that the senate had abdicated it’s responsibility, certified Garland’s appointment and sent him over to the Supreme Court to take his seat. If the Supreme Court refused to seat him, he should have precipitated a constitutional impasse by filing a law suit in which the Supreme Court would have had to recuse all of its members. A total mess? Of course, but that’s what a fighter would have done. Instead he kicked away a seat in the court, and the country is going down the drain anyway. Obama was a silver tongued nebbish who never saw a fight he wouldn’t run from. He had no credentials for real leadership. Now we hear he is actually interviewing potential candidates to run in 2020. And who are they? Pete Buttigieg, Deval Patrick and Mitch Landrieu! Where does this guy get off losing control of a majority of state house, the House of Representatives, the senate and now the Supreme Court that he thinks he should be picking our next president? The country’s infatuation with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has been a very expensive lesson. And now Joe Biden a 77 year old with his foot in his mouth is the favored candidate. Democrats deserve this.
1
Yesterday my 13-year-old son asked me if we Americans have more rights than in other countries like England. and I said "Yes, for now, but..." and I began to warn him about a government that breaks its own laws as a threat to freedom. He interrupted me, saying "Okay, I don't need to hear a rant!"
But I don't rant. The fact is that young people, say age 18-30, don't care enough about their own freedom. If young people voted in anything approaching the percentages that older people vote then the entire nation would be blue. They may come to regret their apathy.
32
A couple of nights ago, a young lady named Alexandria Ocastio-Cortes defeated a longtime Democratic congressman Joe Crowley in a key congressional primary race.
She is 28 years young.
And there are many more like her that have won both low level and high level offices in special elections and primaries all across the country.
Seems like many of our millenials are making their voices heard in the era of Trump.
9
It is a very contentious statement to claim that people in the US have more freedoms than their UK counterparts. This and so many other specious claims made by Americans who make such claims without ever checking what the actual reality is, goes a long way in explaining the current toxic state of the nation.
10
I am so proud of my 17-year-old grandson who will turn 18 before Election Day and who has been working diligently for several months on his chosen Democratic campaigns. He has done his homework and knows every issue inside and out. He puts his intelligence, his enthusiasm and his computer savvy at the service of "his" candidates. May there be a tsunami of such young people!
Sadly, the Democrats were unable to combine passion and intellect in the election in opposing Trump. Unfortunately, Trump was granted the credibility of being the change candidate. Immigrant revulsion trumped LGBT rights in terms of voter passion. Or, the other side had more passion in their dislike of Hillary Clinton, and more passion in Trump as a vehicle for thepower they wanted back after Obama, than its opponents had passion for their candidate.
Competence, experience and knowledge was mercilessly thrown in the back seat by arrogance, pseudo-change (the carnage he spoke of?...give me a break), and ignorance.
Elections can have sad consequences.
2
How about the hottest low temperature ever recorded by meteorology last night? 109 degrees Farenheit. The global frog pot just keeps getting warmer.
4
"Elections have consequences." If finally enough who voted for Ralph Nader, Jill Stein, or not at all accept this reality, maybe there will be some redemption in this nightmare.
11
Gary Johnson? 6,000.000 votes against liberalism's orthodoxy.
2
Wonderfully insightful and succinct in your analysis Mr. Blow. However, Darwin revealed that the symbiotic nature of our ecosystems reflect an accomodation that is beautiful and reciprocal. Even parasites offer benefits across species. "Primitive" human societies were cohesive in their respect for and suppport of the weak, maimed , old, and deranged in the group. These were not just survival values but spiritual tenents that formed the origin myths that bound the people to the planet.
Human overpopulation and mass neurosis fueled by techno-disconnects from the old ways of human interaction coincide with our alienation from human rights and respect for individual and cultural differences. As a consequence we border self-destruction; always near the edge of killing off our selves and those seen as so unlike us as to be intolerable.
The laws of nature are the laws of God. Even wolf packs reserve meat portions from the kill for the injured, weak, and aged. Go against God's word in the natural order of things and pay the awful price. In the end it is a spiritual dilemna we face that can only be resolved thru our individual day to day give and take we share with our fellow man and woman. Nothing need stand in our way. Not SCOTUS. Not Trump. We the people shall rise above. We shall find another way. We will overcome.
2
I guess that the Mueller and other investigations will be ignored when the findings come out.
6
"This is one of the reasons that Trump’s base will never abandon him. He is their orange life raft in the middle of a blue ocean."
He is more like their ice floe, and they are more like the polar bears that desperately cling to it. The analogy breaks down in a salutary way, however; the wider sea is blue.
4
Charles, just as you said here that "election has consequences", so is not voting or voting for a well known demagogue or voting for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson and not voting for Hillary like you said many Democrats did in a cynical way thinking Hillary couldn't win or a woman could never become the president of America since it's a White male dominated country as we see with Trump's current cabinet which is as White as anyone can see and as male as anyone can imagine.
And now with the well known news that was circulating for about a year that Justice Kennedy could resign at Trump's insistence so that the same president, who won with a wink towards the politburo in Moscow, could now appoint a replacement Justice in the S.C.O.T.U.S. with his long leash tied to a fence in the West Wing or to the oval shaped table in the Oval Room.
Now if this thought which is nothing but a terrible nightmare for us on the left doesn't scare all the Americans, then nothing can shake our conviction that our country is in morbid danger of disintegration under a ruthless autocrat who wants to "Remake America" like you said, in his own way.
With the Supreme Court totally under his control since five justices are already bought by Trump along with the entire Republican party which should be called "Trump Party" as ex-G.O.P. speaker John Boehner enlightened a gathering of like minded Republicans after he found out that Trump bought almost every Republican members of the party using his own money.
3
This makes it even more important to amend our Constitution to rid this country of lifelong appointments to the Supreme Court and also to rid ourselves of the Electoral College and moving to the popular vote.
It is a gross understatement to describe these steps as even possible in our lifetimes but they would certainly allow for adjustment in governing philosophies and true vote count recognition.
As it is, Trump setting our long term venue is an appalling concept.
8
McConnell should be impeached for denying a vote on Garland. The people voted for Obama. And with his election the people should've got his SCOTUS choice. McConnell stole that right and gave it to Trump. Now we have Gorsuch. And now we have, as I see it, immoral SCOTUS votes about unions and gay rights and the travel ban.
Why did Democratic leadership sit on their hands while McConnell played hardball? Where is Democratic leadership now? It's no wonder Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Joseph Crowley in the Democratic primary in New York. The people are sick of old school, largely white leadership in BOTH parties.
The white, old school majority may be winning key battles with a new SCOTUS after Kennedy. But the war for truth and justice is just getting started. Ocasio-Cortez is a very good sign.
5
Though unprecedented, should 45 be removed from office, The People reserve the right to also question and remove all those appointed by an illegitimate POTUS. In that event, surely there will be calls to not further disrupt our system of government. Nevertheless, whether by legislative action or suit, this Administration should never be allowed a legacy - rather only to serve as a warning for future generations.
6
Dear Mr. Blow,
There are times when we are our worst enemies. I believe that we must be our brothers keeper if we are to live in harmony.Unfortunately,there are millions of Americans that believe that Romney was correct, when he said that 40% of Americans are takers, and our tax money is being wasted on them.Unless we can refute this consensus, the Democratic Party will continue to lose control of our Government.
7
It's easy to refute- his numbers were predicated on retired older people, children, students, disabled who do t currently pay taxes but no one would consider Grandma or your preschooler "takers". The number of able bodied adult non working 'takers' is quite small, smaller still if adjusted for those who would love to contribute but are taking care of old or young or live in area where no job,etc.
I've found though that those who believe in romneys takers narrative are resistant to these facts. And if you point out that if they look around, surely they will notice half the people around them are not takers, they will claim they are all others far away, different, thus feeding bias and bigotry.
4
Laurel, you are incorrect. 61% of that 47% were workers. 22% of that 47% were elderly, students, and people with disabilities.
The number of able bodied workers is not small.
It was 47%, and many of those people live in your state. I'm sure if those people who voted for Trump looked at their tax returns they'd say, OMG I didn't have to pay any federal income tax because I'm dirt poor. I'm the 47%!!!!
But, they didn't, because they don't consider themselves moochers expecting a handout, bless their little ignorant hearts.
1
Perhaps president Obama had the only viable counter to GOP/Trump policies: "Don't boo. Vote." The midterm elections will be consequential.
9
What many do not seem to grasp is the fact that all of the hysteria surrounding Trump’s actions does little but ensure the so called Red Wave will not occur, and it is highly likely Mr. Trump will be re-elected in 2020. The worst example of this - in the past few days - was Maxine Waters absurd rant about pushing back on Trump officials. She succeeded in making both her party and herself look deranged. What Americans want is intelligent, well spoken, responsible individuals to lead our great country. Neither party seems to understand this.
5
We had an intelligent, well spoken, responsible individual to lead us. And many dissed him from right and some from left. And flat out racism directed the narrative about him all too often. And his own party acted like he should be a magic messiah and allowed reactionaries to be voted in a mere 2 yrs later. We had an intelligent, well spoken, responsible individual running......yet she was a woman, and "shrill" and the left knocked her for even talking to financiers while the right made up lies and calumny about her and neither paid any attention to her well thought out platform, indeed they even pretended not to see it on her website and in her talks.
This is on us the voters - if we want what we claim to want, vote, be adults, read policy, examine your own biases and how they work against you.
T "dub ya"- I think your first red wave thought was meant to read Blue Wave, no?
Mr. Blow, every word, every single word you have written here is signalling the further darkness falling over your country. We, meaning the rest of the world, watch in utter disbelief as Trump's enablers (the Republican party) stand silently on the sidelines. Is having a job in government more important than country, someone needs to explain this to me. Why, I ask myself daily, why are the Republicans in office not banding together and saying “we must get this dangerous man out of the Oval Office”.
The Supreme Court pick will be another body blow, but allowing this administration to continue on unchecked just means the loss of your democracy sooner rather than later.
12
Justice Kennedy has made commendable decisions regarding many issues but others had devastating effects. Citizens United handed the electoral process to wealthy, conservatives and they ran with it and stacked State and Federal positions with their shills especially in the South.
This past week his swing votes were appalling. It is apparent that Trump and the judges he sent for confirmation, political appointments are equally unqualified for positions they hold.
The majority of the judges handed more power to a man unfit for office, that alone should have been taken into consideration. Domestically and globally we are headed for ruin.
6
So, as Charles implies, this is where Calvinism/Social Darwinism gets you.
If you start out with a belief that the basic rights of human citizenship should only be advanced to certain groups of people, and not all, then it makes perfect sense to protect the resources of your own tribe by denying them to other tribes.
The Calvinist idea is that only people who've shown being worthy of God's favor, generally by being able to accumulate wealth on Earth, are also worthy of being shown favor from the government or social institutions. In fact, as that reasoning goes, the poor, or any other unworthy group, should not even be the subject of private charity, as they have shown they don't deserve it, and that will take resources away from those who do deserve such things.
Our oligarchs may have forgotten the religious roots of a lot of this, but it's revealed every time you hear a line like "if you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"--and of course in their behavior, which involves comforting the comfortable and continuing to afflict the afflicted.
American culture has always had this broad streak of "I me mine" in which liberty is defined as commercial liberty foremost. If you can't make it to the favored class, well, then, die already. As Charles says, for these people, no one else's well being is ever linked to theirs; life is zero-sum game and they will take whatever they can.
Don't like where this be heading (pun intended)? Better learn to protest And vote.
15
My Trump supporting family are a great example of this. I'd be rich myself if I had a $1 for each time one has said,"We are so blessed!" after showing off their latest airplane, house, boat, jewelry, etc. They truly believe they have been "rewarded" with wealth by God. Of course, they will never admit those rough times when they almost went bankrupt, or how various government policies/laws helped lift them and their businesses. No doubt that they work hard for what they have, but their view of their financial success if also somehow attributed to their belief in a higher power. And that higher power has bestowed on them these riches because they are better than other people
6
Two words loom vaguely through the dust cloud of Trumpian chaos: South Africa.
The aim of Donald Trump and his party, whether conscious or intuitive, is to cope with demographic shift by establishing a regime very roughly comparable to the one that ruled South Africa until a quarter of a century ago.
I say very roughly comparable. What that means is a de facto regime of white rule fashioned from the compromised elements of America's democratic system of government: gerrymandered electoral districts, radically partisan Republican majorities in Congress, a judiciary packed with activist agents of the regime, and a race-baiting demagogue in control of submissive law-enforcement agencies.
To some Republicans, white rule might be icing on the cake of plutocratic rule. To Trump's fanatical base, it would be the all-important daily ration of tribal security. To Trump himself, it would be a whole banquet of anti-other social conditions, lucrative opportunities, and intoxicating triumphs over his liberal enemies -- with two scoops of ice cream.
An actual system of apartheid would be unnecessary. America would be old South Africa with all modern conveniences and laissez-faire inequality.
2
Okay, I will take your analogy. But here is this: the democratic party is not made up of just the lower economic class, under-served people, minorities. There are tons of very well-to-do dems-- of both sexes, all ethnicity, all ages-- who are appalled. Do we all accept this apartheid dystopia you describe? Or is the moment of tipping here, now? I for one am not going to sit back and watch. Are you?
Charles, I use this sentence of yours to justify submitting a comment that otherwise might seem off topic:
"Conservatives want to arrest America’s development and send our country into regression. This is about the maintenance of their power long after they have lost the dominance of numbers."
I have news for you, based on what I experienced as I was trying to leave America after 21 pretty nice days in the Burlington VT area. America is in all too many areas a case of severely arrested development that cannot be blamed on Donald Trump.
Every year after my annual visit to my country of birth, my final stop is in Albany NY, a city of towering white marble buildings but lacking basic amenities like department stores and a train station. Since there is no viable train service between the capitol of New York and the capitol of Massachusetts I must use a bus to get from Albany to Logan.
I did. That experience was so appalling, demeaning, and disgusting that it showed me and the other two Europeans - from Manchester UK - that the USA is somewhere back in the 19th or early 20th century in that domain.
Trump is not responsible for that. America needs somehow to start all over again. I see no reason to believe that is possible. As always, it was a pleasure to return to a 21st century country, invigorated by 25 days of experiencing the best of America, but dismayed by the worst.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen USA SE
19
In the early 20th Century there was a train, and it was a pretty good one.
Choices, bad ones, were made again and again for a long time. That is why the establishment so offended Americans that in many places they just wouldn't vote for it again.
Sweden has gone through the same. It was not always what it is today. Back when Americans had those good trains, Sweden was actually pretty awful for many of its people, who left in droves to come to America.
5
Larry, being originally from New York and now living in Massachusetts, I can assure you that you are exactly correct.
The downfall started with Reagan. A feckless Democratic party could do nothing to stop the train wreck. We're lost--be glad you have dual citizenship.
3
@ Mark - I recommended your reply but the time you refer to is far back in time. I know a fair amount about what went on then and there is a remarkable new novel about one faction of Swedes who went to Swede Hollow in Minnesota.
All my relatives and those of my Swedish (dual citizen) wife came to America between 1865 and 1890. Sweden was then a poor country in which people were starving or very close to that.
I know nothing about the trains then and could find out but think that is much too far in the past to be relevant now.
The point I make in my Blow comment is one up front - a country with the self image the US has should have no place for the truly appalling public transportation system between Boston and Albany. The unstated point is that although 100s of comment writers point out US infrastructure failures in single sentences, the Times rarely if ever examines those failures closely.
That comparison is one I cannot avoid because the contrast each year in what I experience in a 4 day period on the one side and then the other is so extreme.
I have been careful at my blog to report on the best of what I experience in my part of the USA.
Larry
I truly hope that folks who voted for Jill or Gary rather than "the lesser of two evils" are realizing how truly evil the greater one was, and how long his legacy will now last, no matter what happens in the midterm elections, because the Supreme Court is for life. My worst fear now is that these same voters will believe that the midterm elections won't matter, because it's too late.
33
Goodbye, America. It was nice knowing you. Maybe if voters would have had the smarts to remove the choice of judges from for-sale politicians and left it to the consensus of law societies, history would not have recycled itself back to the 1930s. Get used to living in a world ruled by the few for their benefit, where you will eventually have no rights, except as a serf.
8
I share Charles Blow's sense of alarm, but i wish he would stop generalizing about the opposition to progress as "white culture." Yes, we must acknowledge that whites enslaved blacks for centuries, fought a war to preserve slavery, blocked civil rights and are currently engaged in voter suppression, backed by a conservative Supreme Court. But whites also wrote the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, sacrificed their lives to win the Civil War, created industries that employed Americans of all colors, welcomed immigrants from non-white countries, marched with Dr. King, and today lead the opposition to Trump. Mr. Blow's sweeping sneer at "white culture" mars his otherwise eloquent essay.
13
I am terrified, and sad.
The never ending nightmare.
23
Analogies of Germany in the 30's with decency being stripped away, a chip at a time, until we reach it's dystopian climax are here every day
Every day I engage strangers different from me (I'm an old white guy) and ask them if they are registered. I ask if they have family and friends out of state. I ask if they have urged them to register to vote, and to vote. I politely urge them to do so.
We all need to find a way to increase the voting participation of our own and others. To continue to ignore this lack of participation will be fatal for our democracy.
22
I think the worst thing I have seen since 2006 is the Bernie liberals who either voted for Trump or Stein with the hope that letting it all burn down will punish the Democrats they blame for Bernie's loss and in the end lead people to give them what they want. Some say these people don't exist, but I've seen them and they voted in large enough numbers to be part of what tipped the scale to Trump.
I have also seen commenters say the Democrats need to reform to win. But in the last elections our presidential candidate won the popular vote by 3 million, we outpolled Republicans in the House and vastly outpolled Republicans in the Senate. Protections designed to create balance between the majority and minority of voters have been turned into levers of power for the Republican minority to take and hold power.
Last, we Democrats must also remember that as decent and intelligent a human being Barack Obama is, he was a lousy president. He failed to grasp how power is wielded in a Democracy because he was inexperienced. Democrats need to focus on competence. Period. It doesn't do any good to finally win an election only to have the winner turn everything over to the Republicans as he watches over the hollowing out of the Democratic Party.
4
Keep saying you won. But you lost. Who's President? Not the one who could win only in California and the like.
3
Trump could not have achieved his virtual overall dominance without the tacit approval of the Republican Party. Members of the House of Representatives and Senators value their precious little 'seats' more than the integrity of America's values and institutions. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
19
Mr. Blow, I am a woman with daughters, and I am scared for us, for all my sisters throughout this nation. Because of a misogynist, a disgusting man, we risk losing our identity, our rights, our individuality.
My husband and I are an uncle and an aunt to a wonderful man. We love him and his husband. But now, they risk having the life they waited so long to share taken away from them.
I am a Californian, and I embrace our Mexican community. They help take care of my husband who has advanced PD, teach our kids, are our friends who love their families, and respect this country of ours, never dreaming of harming it in any way.
Mr. Blow, a part of my ancestry is Middle-Eastern, a small percentage, but enough to connect me with thousands of people who are just like everyone who journeys this long road to peace. They are Muslim, I am Catholic, but there is no difference,
Because of one man and his determination to turn this nation into a theocracy which suppresses the "other," because of his profound evilness, he will appoint judges to the highest court of the land who share his warped ideology. They will control us for another generation. They will stomp on our children's freedoms for years to come.
10
It sometimes seems just one flap of a butterfly's wings tips history one way or the other.
In 2000 without Ralph Nader's (vanity) candidacy Gore would likely have won, and we would have avoided the hasty 5-4 Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision that put Bush in office. It didn't help that Gore played Queensbury Rules in the post-election street fight.
In August 2001 the Bush administration arrogantly brushed aside well-founded intelligence warnings that Al Qaeda planned an attack. Possibly 9/11 would have been averted if Gore had been in office. Or at least there might have been a more effective, less disastrous response.
The rest is history.
Clinton could have easily won the last election if she and Sanders had effectively united their bases against Trump. A friend of mine threw away his vote because he didn't like either major candidate. Vanity again.
The rest will be history.
Democrats, Republicans, well-funded behind-the scenes special interests: Putin is a far more potent and dangerous enemy than Al Qaeda could ever be.
Figure it out or perhaps we may all be history.
6
Trump rule has remade America. Last night I worked a phone bank fo a Democratic Congressional candidate and met Joe. Actually his name isn't Joe, but he uses Joe when making these calls because his given name is Muslim-based. But Joe knows that the only way America can be remade again is at the ballot box, and he is doing his part. So we must register to vote, we must vote, and we must stand behind and work for candidates seeking to restore a civil, just, impartial, fair, and all-inclusive United States.
5
I agree with Mr. Blow's comment, "This is how a country's progress can be crippled". The USA is banking more openly on white supremacy. The emboldened supremasts are making that clear. That leaves a large population of non whites looking for a better life. For Canada, "your loss is our gain". A simple example from my experience. North Vancouver BC, just across on the seabus from downtown Vancouver, has a large population of Canadians tracing their roots (quite recently) back to Iran. The plaques in front of local businesses show Iranian names practicing as oncologists, Family Doctors, dentists, eye surgeons, bankers, merchants, orthodontists, etc.. We see teachers, e.r. nurses, university faculty, clerks. bank clerks, hotel employees, with Iranian names.
These citizens, fully enmeshed in provision of important service, represent Canada's gain. It will be crippling for the US when the shrinking pool of excellence caused by whites first, if not only, plays out.
3
Thank you for putting into words how I feel. I have been writing my representatives even though I know it is futile. I am sadly now at the point of giving up. If people don't care enough to vote or bother to find out what is happening, then nothing will help. Trump is a great example of how the lack of knowledge about our history, government, and Constitution is so dangerous for the future of our country.
17
Don't ever give up! That's also how he wins. I know it's depressing and demoralizing, but it's our job to save democracy.
I think that Kennedy put the first nail into the coffin that will soon enshroud our Democracy. He did so deliberately, knowingly providing Trump with the last link in the chain that will push Trump and his allies, including Putin, over the top in his quest to conquer this country: a packed ultra conservative Supreme Court that is in Trump's back pocket. At the same time the intensity of the news has increased in chaos on a magnitude of ten over what as the previous day and will continue on this scale until after the November election. It is a frenetic dash to take total control of the country before opposition can apply checks, balance and norms to prevent it , and it is very close to success. Our very last hope is the November election and taking back the house. Vote Paul
10
We need to face the truth: The "American Experiment" is coming to an end. Groups of people who value their own self-interest over the interests of all Americans have infiltrated and despoiled the machinery of our democracy. Many other countries have taken our place as the most advanced, committed expression of egalitarian democracy.
28
We're on the precipice of losing Roe, Medicare and Social Security in the next 18 months to 4 years. Not cutbacks - all of it entirely.
The Right will finally undo the New Deal and it will 1850 in America again.
27
They have worked long and hard to undo the New Deal but they won’t stop there. Voting rights, civil rights, equal access are all under threat.What will the US look like then?
13
Medicare and Social Security are on the third rail of politics. Even Republicans won't touch it.
Your columns always hit home with me. I'm 70 years old, so any Supreme Court justice appointment will likely outlast my lifetime. But I saw my 21 year old granddaughter last night and I shudder to think how the permanent "conservative" court will impact her life and her world. For her sake I will be keep organizing for women's rights, union rights, civil rights for as long as I have an ounce of strength left in me!
59
There can be no blunter, straighter, truer statement of where we are, or where we are going, than this. It is tragic, sad, and painfully accurate. And it's hard to find realistic narratives that paint better outcomes. Trump did not cause this daytime nightmare, but he has shaped it, mastered it, and intensified it. He and his followers and influencers have risen to a level at which they can ensure America leads the world in moral down-drift, all in the name of conserving bygone values. Naming the evil might normally help defeat it. These, however, are not normal times.
62
By midcentury, vast areas of currently heavily populated land will experience wet bulb temperatures above 90 degrees F. for extended periods, which is fatal to those who cannot remove themselves to a lower temperature within about an hour.
3
I agree with you, Charles. 100 percent. But ... Democrats need to accept responsibility for what has happened since Obama's election. It's not enough to merely be in favor of laudable values. In politics, you have to mobilize public support for those values. The Democrats consistently failed to do that. They lost Congress, they lost statehouses across the country. Politics is a contest. The best basketball player isn't the one with "Good Basketball Player" on his uniform. The best basketball player is the one who makes baskets. The Republicans made baskets, the Democrats didn't. The country needs better Democrats right now.
67
Competent government is really quite boring. That's why Trump will have nothing to do with it.
1
Obama really should have let Hillary go first. He is just another narcissist who fell for false flattery and wound up fleeced of all respect and legacy.
1
Sadly the truth at the heart of the American "justice" system is about to be laid bare, even more so than when Bush v. Gore was issued. It is about power and the preservation of power. It has very little to do with any real notion of any mystical rule of law. It has virtually nothing to do with justice. We are about to return to the nineteenth century.
56
It is a pipe dream that a private citizen of modest means will ever get a respectable decision from a US court. The whole system is a shakedown operation benefitting only lawyers.
1
Unfortunately I have no faith that progress is inevitable. We saw progress with the dissolution of the Soviet Union that has now resulted in a corrupt Russian government with a resurgent military. We saw progress in the Arab Spring which quickly devolved into military takeovers. I think that if the court and other institutions are being manipulated to block progress, the only next step to keep pushing progress forward is Revolution. And that really scares me, because it means we have lost faith with one another, and that in today's world with resources more scarce than 200 years ago, no oppressed slave population to exploit, no innocent Native American peoples to pillage, we will all just scramble to keep what is ours -- who knows what the outcome will be? The best we can hope for is the dissolution of this Union and the establishment of variously governed separate states. Some will be Progressive democracies, others will be combative plutocracies.
26
I agree that there is no inevitable progress and that history is a jumble of steps forward and back. But there has been a improvement in many aspects of life regardless of economic melt-downs and flare-ups of bigotry and nationalism: a reduction in large-scale warfare, improvements in health and longevity, advancements in science and technology. If the American experiment ends in revolution and the dissolution of the republic, and progressive democracies face off against combative plutocracies, I fear for the future of the entire world. There will be few checks on greed or violence, raising the likelihood that squabbling nations will descend into wholesale slaughter and even nuclear holocaust.
And they'll all undermine each other as the Earth shrinks down to a pinhead.
U got TDS real bad, Liz.
Civics used to be a required course, beginning in fifth grade through high school. Every student had to take classes in and be tested and pass a test demonstrating our understanding of our constitution and how our country elects its representatives and functions as a democracy. Reagan dropped that requirement. I find a majority of my fellow citizens have either forgotten those lessons or never learned them in the first place. Many I speak to don't know that it is the congress that makes all laws and budgets, decides all spending, and at least can be replaced by ballot every two years. We blunder through a weird political climate with zero comprehension of nothing but what we see on TV screens, all of which are owned and controlled by large corporations for the purpose of convincing us to buy stuff or believe things. We are doomed.
48
Civics is starting to be required again. My kids, in a red state even, had to take government and pass a civics test like the one for naturalized citizens. But there are right wing organizations out there, trying to pass themselves off as helpful materials, that would like nothing more than to warp that teaching. Fortunately most teachers everywhere value truth and learning above partisanship.
10
I'm with you. I went to a Catholic grade school in the fifties. We are a nation of laws. We separate church and state. I learned this in second grade. By fifth grade, the branches of government, system of checks and balances, and all the rest.
The Catholic nuns were big on separation of church and state. The attitude, then, was if we all obey secular laws, the government will let us observe our religion in peace.
Not so much now. I'm about to have religious doctrine shoved down my throat by religious fanatics. Not my country anymore.
Thank you for this passionate column.
Of course if despicable Donald Trump is allowed to reshape the Supreme Court, and America’s future, as he surely will be, then there are other people to hold accountable.
Mitch McConnell. Paul Ryan. Any Republican representative or Republican voter eager and ready to build walls against “dark” foreigners, punish sexually active women with the old old penalty (pregnancy, or a potentially septic illegal abortion), shame gays, and send lots of African-American men to jail. Or at least keep them from voting.
Trump is not alone.
55
you left some people out ... HRC who blew the election. Bernie who let her collude with the DNC and get away with it. DWS who managed the collusion. Podesta who made his password admin123, something any hacker doesn't have to work at to hack. etc. etc.
and that's how we got Trump.
1
Held accountable by whom? God?
Thank you, Mr. Blow. You are a voice of reasonableness and decency in a difficult time. The world needs America to work as it should. We are with you.
39
Reagan chipped away at affirmative action and the social fabric. Clinton established the mass incarceration machinery. Bush manufactured wars and cut taxes to enrich Blackwater and the military industrial complex. Obama tried to obviate his blackness by kowtowing to the GOP (initially). The dismantling of good governing was already under way. Enter Trump. We’ve been moving backward under the guise of moving forward. Brown v. Board, voting rights, civil rights, housing access, equal rights, gay rights, abortion rights have been met with deep, consistent resistance: white flight, housing discrimination, job discrimination, community disinvestment, defunded public schools, Barbecue Becky, Permit Patty. The unraveling of rights proceeds apace.
The left and progressives respond with Occupy, Me Too, Black Lives Matter, Never Again, Bernie. But every protest is maligned or misrepresented by a soulless, hypocritical right that never sleeps.
For generations, African Americans received the brunt of the body blows. Still do. But the targets are ever-widening—women, Asian and Latin American immigrants, Muslims, children in cages. The only people who aren’t surprised by the devolution of America are African Americans. We have the Antwon Roses and Sandra Blands to prove it.
Mr. Blow shouldn’t be surprised either.
29
U got TDS too. Real bad case of it, AB
As Bill Clinton reminded us some years ago: Democrats believe we’re all in this together. Republicans believe you’re on your own.
49
Is Trump remaking America, or is it the media? Television, radio, internet, Twitter, Instagram and so on carry the sickening drum beat of non news every day while McConnell undoes democracy and seats a pretender to the Supreme Court. Ryan lies and tell the public that our economy can stand a tax cut for the wealthy and blockbuster deficit spending, too. Wait until Social Security is gutted to be sorry? When abortion is illegal? A Trump re-election rally should not occupy any major news story, but his last scripted rally will be played over and over again like a gnat in the ear. What generous free advertisement! Our country teeters on the brink, Trump is telling lies, and it is Network News. Editors and producers, please explain?
24
Dear Charles, your opinion pieces provide me, an outsider, with a depth of insight into your country and it's extraordinary politics which I do not get from other writers. You help me to understand what it feels like to be a US citizen in 2018. What it feels like to see your country and its moral and democratic values being trashed in front of you. To experience this unprecedented assault on truth. There is a dignity, grace and reassuring weight to your righteous anger which acts as a reminder to us all of the inspirational power of words. Thank you.
62
To GM in Scotland and Charles Blow, It is always the replys from other countries that make me cry. It's like please don't think The US is as terrible as it seems. In one way it is, but there are so many fighting and one is Charles Blow. So thank you Scotland and thank you Mr Blow. We shall all Remember in November. The Moral Resistance.
1
This is so depressing. This is not my home country anymore. People, we need to get out and vote!
39
Before we let Trump appoint a new Justice we should what crimes Trump committed. Let Mueller complete his investigation first.
36
Right we can't have trump acolytes deciding whether he
can pardon himself
1
Mewler been investigating long time, lp. They ain’t got nuttin by now ? They been tapping his phones and his email for a few years now, lp.
This president scares me. Years ago I had a friend who aborted a fetus by using a coat hanger. She ended up in the hospital and nearly died. I don't want to see this happen again in our country. Our president only cares about himself and his power. He is willing to do most anything to retain that power. He is a monster in a blue suit. I fear that the old adage that "he who shouts the loudest wins the battle" is alive and well in this country.
30
No, no, no: This cannot continue. The Democrats need to stop any nomination by any means necessary. Convince Republicans not to allow this vote. Dig up dirt on nominees so they have to withdraw. Unfortunately this fight has to meet Trump’s dirty level.
Speaking of Trump, how much is his worthless trip to meet Putin costing us taxpayers. I certainly hope Congress has maintained enough control so that sanctions cannot be lifted on Trump’s whim.
16
If I was not watching this fiasco; I would not believe it. The most immoral, under qualified, and intellectual know nothing man in American history is going to stack the Supreme Court in favor of the rich and powerful 1%s for generations to come. America; you are in serious jeopardy of becoming a permanent Oligarch society where the rule of law has been tilted against the underclass for the rest of your lives. Is there no end to the Trump nightmare?!
68
You are certainly right the mob Don in Chief hammers the last nail in the coffin of the myth of an exceptional and meritorious USA, the myth of free and fair American democracy. The Don speaks one truth- he's right when he says the system is rigged in favour of obscenely wealthy and self serving people that look like him, orange tan and yellow muskrat coiff or otherwise.
1
hey he went to Penn you know! that's one of our finest institutions.
I watched as Chavez destroyedmy beloved, wealthy Venezuela. It took decades. Little did I guess how much damage Trump could do in so little time.
66
Venezuela was wealthy only for a very few, which is very much the vision of Trump for America.
2
Socialism killed Venezuela. Trump isn't a socialist.
A factor to consider that could alter the makeup of a conservative Supreme Court - if the Democrats take over in the next elections and any one of the current SC members is no longer capable of carrying out the duties of the office due to age, illness, death, etc. and has to step down, a liberal could be appointed to fill that place.
A generation is a long time.
8
Ah, but that means that sensible people need to vote and that is never a sure thing. Low voting got us where we are.
For the next couple years, Trump (or Pence, if Trump was gone) would have to nominate the judge, and there is no way that's going to be a liberal justice.
Thank you Charles for voicing all of my thoughts! We live in dark times to be sure.
Elections do indeed have profound consequences. Vote in November and for the rest of your life because our lives depend on it!
21
what exactly is different?
my brokerage account is a little better off, political cable shows are a little more entertaining, otherwise not much has changed.
please aluminate.
America is hopelessly divided. Trump is an effect of this stark division. If not Trump, there will be someone else to expose the divide. Half the country does not like where America is heading - a multicultural, multi-racial society based on liberal democratic values. What that half longs for is a white-controlled society based on conservative Christian values. The Supreme Court balance is the least of our problems. We are very close to a very ugly and violent phase of American life, such is the resentment and anger on both sides. A civil war is not unimaginable, that is how bad it can get.
27
Liberals, and those that believe in democracy and civil rights, need to get the moderates to our side and to do that we can't act like some knee-jerk broken record liberal that ruffles their feathers and makes them want to scream. We have to speak straight up, with honesty and without hyperbole. We have to be calm and understanding.
The problem with the Far Right is they fear us, the power cities, and <shivver> diversity. We are a cesspool.
They fear losing white dominance and privilege more than anything else. That's where it begins.
To alleviate their fears maybe we need to help them in a way that their xenophobia gives way to the economic reality of stratification.
How do we address that? How do we connect? Give them opportunity that outweighs their fear.
10
Trump remakes America because it was already remade by racists and reactionaries long before he arrived. Trump's disastrous budget exploding the debt and consuming everything, including Social Security and Medicare, is Paul Ryan's scam. Ryan started over a decade ago, then in 2012 came out with his "Restoring America's Promise". (Yes, sounds just like "Make America Great Again"). Ryan's budget was a deadly child of Ronald Reagan's discredited "Trickle Down". Mitch McConnell, in the Senate since Reagan's first term, destroyed the foundations of American democracy by gifting our country to oligarchs. McConnell was behind McConnell v. FEC and Citizens United which handed our elections to billionaires. Trump perpetuated the racist "Birther" lie about President Obama while McConnell used the filibuster to kill anything Obama agreed with, even Republican legislation, all to destroy the first Black president and create a narrative that government doesn't work. Ryan and McConnell are behind Republican gerrymandering. Trump's true godfathers are Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Nixon gave us the "Southern Strategy" which Trump consumed and regurgitates daily; Reagan created a right-wing cult, an Imperial Presidency, and then discredited the very idea of good government by repeatedly telling Americans that government was their enemy. These men also destroyed our independent judiciary. These men and their cohorts are the reason Trump can rapidly remake America into an autocratic state.
23
Tyranny by an extremist minority - If voting is suppressed, districts are gerrymandered , low population states weild ridiculous power over the rest of us, then what recourse do we have? The Supreme Court was always the last bastion..
16
I agree wholeheartedly Charles but voter turnout in midterm elections has always been poor. Many people are turned off to politics especially now under Trump. Would that we could explain to all Democrats how important this election cycle is.
19
Powerful words, Charles. I will use my voice and my vote to fight the sheer ugliness of Donald Trump.
23
It is a mistake to assume that Donald Trump even understands what the Supreme Court does. It is a mistake to assume he knows anything about the Constitution.
The low information, high resentment "base" that put him in office was orchestrated by Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. Trump is simply the loudest, largest, orange puppet in American history. Now the Federalist Society will finish the takeover of the Supreme Court.
Trump is not remaking America, Charles. A shadowy group of racist nationalists jumped on his absurd bandwagon and are now running and ruining the country.
32
I have long suspected that Trump, who is obviously very stupid, is the tool of somebody a lot smarter than he is. Somebody realized that there were a lot of frustrated voters out there that liberals and Democrats knew nothing about, and that the Electoral College could be exploited to award victory to a loser. Thus the Democrats were blindsided and Trump "won" the election. Wish I knew who Trump's handler was. I think the Democrats should try to find out, too.
It's clear the objection to Trump has always been personal, not political ( he was criticized for getting North Korea to de-nuke!). His enemies find him unacceptable as a human being. Trump is who he is, for better or worse. He's not your typical, plastic, phony baloney, scripted politician, and that's one of the reasons he was elected. He's a revolutionary. I voted for Obama twice and he was a HUGE disappointment, which is an understatement. Obama's failures gave birth to Trump...I mean, that's obvious enough, right? Is Trump perfect? No, but I don't care if my mechanic cusses a blue streak and has dirty fingernails, as long as he fixes my car. Obama looked great, he had charisma to spare, he graduated charm school first in his class, and when he spoke it was like butter, but when I got my car back it was stuck in reverse and repeatedly veered into a ditch.
6
Thomas (Dallas): That's just not correct. Of course, we do find him unacceptable as a human being -- the gaslighting, egotism, cheating, racism, manipulation, calls to violence, misogyny, lack of empathy, bigotry, admiration for tyrants, and on and on -- but we also find his policies unacceptable (trade, environment, economy, healthcare, science, education, public lands, civil rights, the free press, and on and on). Obama was far from perfect but this is a whole new ball game.
1
at least you had a car.
Trump reminds me of a school bully who beats up the smarter kids, and those of the "wrong" race. If that's a "personal" reason for despising Trump and thinking he should be kicked out of office, so be it.
1
Add to the tragedy that Hillary Clinton's voting for invasion of Iraq lost her a lot of supporters.
9
Not only that, she was just the wrong candidate at the time and was undemocratically propped up against a more popular contender. It’s not like Trump was a strong candidate, but she was just completly ill suited to even beat him.
2
She did a lot more like it, from Libya through Syria, to Honduras. It was a horror show, prettied up in retrospect by those who see only what they don't like today. They can't face that they got us to here.
2
This is what being lazy gets you. Some 41.4% of voters sat home. Trump told you that you would grow tired of all of his winning. And this article is just another rant by the losing side complaining about a bad call in the first minute of the game.
4
Conservatives play to win at all costs, democrats/liberals seem to like to just play. Real world politics democrats/liberals. Don’t be naive of consequences when you place a “protest vote”...which is the same as not voting.
9
Correction: We liberal and inebriated apostates do not all dance around golden calves. But early in the morning, we may misspell the plural form of calf.
Apologies to my peeps for the embarrassing error that I didn't notice until I hit submit.
2
In many ways, the Warren Court and the Burger Court were the worst things that could have happened to the Progressive movement.
Both courts taught liberals and progressives that rights could be ensured by lawsuit. Both courts taught liberals to bypass the political process and take the easy path. Why convince millions to support politicians who would support legislation that expanded rights when you could achieve the same purpose by convincing 5 Supreme Court Justices?
It wasn't always that way. Historically, the Supreme Court has been conservative to the point of being behind the times. Anger over activist conservative decisions such as Dred Scott, Plessy and Lochner eventually led to real change.
Women secured the right to vote through amending the Constitution. African Americans secured rights through the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Unions helped enact the New Deal.
But, as a gay man, my right to marry depends on an easily overturned SCOTUS decision? I've never been comfortable with that. When will Congress pass the Equality Act? Where are the groups pressing Congress to pass a law securing my right to marry?
Where are the groups marching for laws to protect a woman's right to choose? A SCOTUS decision is not a law.
Rights must be affirmative and secured through legislation and amendment.
Perhaps a conservative court will teach progressives and liberals that it's once again time to expand and secure rights through elections and legislation.
18
While I agree with the need for a constitutional amendment, I don't see why I should get to vote on another person's right. Your right to marry should be a given right, not something we all get to vote on. When have we ever gotten the opportunity to get together and vote on whether white straight males should have their rights?
1
Involving the Supreme Court was necessary in the 1950s because crooked Southern politicians had a lock on the government and could block all reform. But having used the Court to break up the oligarchies, the liberals should have trusted democracy to safeguard their reforms.
When the abortion controversy came up, reformers equated popular abortion restrictions with Jim Crow laws and urged the court to strike them down. Did it ever occur to them to have a public debate on abortion and a vote, as they just have in Ireland? No.
While I disagree that gay marriage should be legalized, I agree with your point that these things should be decided through legislation. Hoping the courts legislate from the bench in your favor is not very reliable. It only causes civil unrest.
Legislation on the other hand comes from the will of the people - a majority. It's decision will more likely be accepted and help to change the people's views on things more permanently. Maybe even mine.
I salute you for putting democracy and common sense ahead of personal gain.
Charles Blow's argument of cause and effect are totally persuasive; however, I disagree with the notion of Remaking America. Trump is no so much remaking America as legitimizing the seamy side of this country that has been there from the very beginning. When Jefferson said that "All Men are created equal", he was not taking about red men, yellow men, black men or brown men. And he was most certainly not talking about women. He was talking about white anglo saxon protestants males. England, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, and France all ended slavery decades before the US and none of them fought a civil war over it that claimed more than 600,000 lives. Wounded Knee and the Trail of Tears did not take place in another country nor did the Japanese Internment camps. Neither did the lynchings of countless African Americans long after the Emancipation Proclamation. Make America Great again? America will never have a chance at true greatness until every American take ownership of all of this and vows not just with their words but with their deeds to never let it happen again.
33
If Jefferson "was talking about white anglo saxon protestants males" remember that at that time even they did not have that equality.
It was an aristocratic society run on a slightly modernized feudalism.
We came a long way because of Jefferson. He did not deliver us to Eden, just took us a long way down an even longer road. Don't blame him, just carry on.
2
Hillary and the Democratic so called leadership, Chuck & Nancy & friends on Wall Street, have to share the blame. They have neither crafted nor presented messaging or policies which prove they offer a real alternative. Trump's flaws were on full display during the campaign; his governance is consistent with his character, and wholly predictable. Nevertheless, enough voters fell for his con in part because Hillary and the Dems failed to convince voters who were formerly reliable Democrats that the party could change the course away from Wall Street, and address the pot holes on Main Street. Sadly, Bernie offered slogans and pie in the sky, but promising a chicken in every pot means little if the chef does not know how to cook. His Medicare for all, free college etc were great campaign slogans, but not practically achievable. On the other hand, the tax cutter can always cut taxes, and the tough guy can always give the powerless vicarious strength. Demagoguery works...it will not be easy for the Democrats to craft fair and rational policies that convince voters to cast their ballots their way.
They really haven't tried.
6
They convinced them instead that the party of Hillary and Schumer did not even want to change that course. They were Wall Street.
Realizing that is the first step to defeating what Trump threatens, like in an AA meeting.
2
No matter how you try to rationalize it now, yesterday's events were easily foreseeable and more than enough to convince liberal voters to cast votes their way.
Oh, heavens. This assigning of blame to the party and the campaign really has to stop.
The awfulness of Donald Trump -- as a thinker, as a businessman, as a chunk of human ectoplasm -- was radiantly apparent during the campaign. His lack of fitness for the presidency could not have been more obvious. Yet many Democrats -- confusing the role of citizen with that of theater critic -- decided that it was more important to register their disapproval of...whatever, and stay home or vote for useless Jill Stein.
So now conservatism is truly ascendant and the coming years are going to be an unending nightmare. Advocacy of small government represents an act of violence aimed at the vulnerable, and many will suffer.
I empathize with Mr. Blow's despair. I am 68 years old, and for the rest of my life I'm going to be nauseous whenever a SCOTUS decision is issued.
Democratic citizens had one job in 2016: not to elect Clinton but to stop Trump (which obviously required voting for Clinton). They blew it.
1
Excellent statement of the case!
3
I’ll be brief and succinct, as I have in most of my past comments:
VOTE. 11/6/18
For the love of all we have fought for in this country over the centuries, people:
VOTE!!!!!!!!!!
28
Neo-Fascism, Trump style. All dressed up in reality TV trappings. And truly horrifying: that's exactly what HIS Fans have been waiting for, their entire lives. Thanks, GOP. November.
12
The economy will tank soon and then both the corporations and the typical Trump supporter will be sorry they supported him. At least, if they are honest. Although the brainwash may be too effective, so they may never wake from their cult addiction.
I am not sure demographics changing is a sure bet that conservatism is going to decline. Many minorities voted for Trump. Many people believe in a magic man in the sky. If they believe that, they can be trained to believe almost anything.
I am not sure what white culture is. Maybe you meant white supremacist culture, which is synonymous with the beliefs of evangelicals and the GOP.
Humans become stupid in good times. Suffering will have to increase before a real change takes place in the gullibility of the general populace. It is actually what most people deserve for being such baby-brained consumerist children that live in a world of magical belief rather than a fact based reality.
4
It is too late for moderation and respect. The bolder has broken free and is rolling. Like it or not the time of American Greatness is over. We have 2 maybe 6 more years of authoritarianism light:
White Fascism if you will. After that we will be in a race a demographic inevitability and be a mid-sized country by population with a disproportionate economic influence. We will no longer have international influence or sway. There really was not Manifest Destiny and history is filled with former super-powers.
9
I'm afraid America will forever be under the tyranny of the Straight White Male. God help all those who aren't "blessed" to be one. I'm Black, a woman and disabled- I can't say I'm necessarily in a panic because we Black folks have always known what this nation is really about. But I'm scared for my LGBT people, my Muslim people- what can we do? Truly I'm upset at Democrats, who since LBJs death have utterly dropped the ball on pushing progressive ideals and policy, ceding the country to rural and Republican hostile hands. It used to be a joke but in my household we are seriously considering moving to Canada- we have family there, can't be crazier than where America is headed.
12
With much trepidation, I am waiting for the day in the not-too-distant future when Trump, in the company of Putin at their "summit," announces the formation of a new international entity, a new nation from the marriage of the USA and Russia which is to be known as the International Union of Strong Men. This new country will lead other like-minded nations - North Korea, Venezuela, Syria and Iran for starters - in promoting the importance of sheer brute strength, unyielding opposition to weakness and brook no resistance from panty-waisted liberals who "ought to stay in the kitchen with the women and wait for the men to return home after a hard day's work."
4
There is a term the Russians use for people like Trump, which translates as "useful fool." Trump may admire Putin for reasons of his own, but I don't think Putin views Trump as anything more than a fool who is useful to his long-term goal of pushing the US off the world stage and fracturing Europe. Trump is certainly succeeding at that.
I feel as though we’re all in the out-of-control stagecoach in the Western movie that’s hurtling towards a cliff; with one last chance, maybe, to avoid going over the edge. I’m guessing that someone out there has got Trump’s tax returns or other items that Trump doesn’t want the world to see, and that could affect his political fortunes adversely, if it were known. Even a slight delay of the appointment of the next supreme court justice would be bad for him but a big help for the rest of us. I hope the person with the key data will do a Pentagon Papers with it and let us see it; now, before it’s too late, while there is still a chance to keep us all from going off the cliff.
18
I have only voted for president twice in my life. The first time when I voted for Carter and the second when I voted for Obama. The other times I cast my votes for a liberal Supreme Court. This last election stunned me because we had a Justice on the line and people still had apathy. Maybe we do get the government we deserve but I have voted in every election, even the odd ones with one candidate and I still feel marginalized. I’m close to giving up hope. The only thing now that consoles me is that I don’t have children.
8
Can you imagine the kind of justices Hillary Clinton would have chosen for the Supreme Court? That is truly a frightening thought. Thank God President Trump was elected to prevent this disaster from occurring. He promised he would make the Supreme Court a more equitable court and he is certainly delivering on this promise. This is a miracle.
We would have seen our country continuing to deteriorate even more than it had under Obama if Mrs. Clinton had gotten into the White House. He selected some of the most liberal justices we had ever seen. She would have selected those who were even more progressive. Our rights would have been taken away. Now we will be brought back to normalcy. We have Mr. Trump to thank for this wonderful turnaround. Happy days are here again and so is democracy. Conservatives have something to celebrate and it is wonderful.
9
How can a court be equitable if they seem to be voting along partisan lines?
7
Please explain to me how giving more power to the already powerful is "something to celebrate and it is wonderful."
There is no moral system I am aware of, either secular or religious, that endorses anything remotely like taking more the have-nots while giving more to the haves, and those who advocate such approaches are rightfully condemned as history's pariahs.
I don't know whether this is a tongue in cheek response or not, but it certainly doesn't come off as such.
American history, has been largely about the democratization of our republic and throughout, conservatives, whether they admit it or not, have always been always been against that. Comments like these, if they are indeed forthright, only serve to illustrate the point.
12
Conservatives do have something to celebrate. But it is not at all wonderful. The lasting damage that Trump is doing to the country is grievous. History will judge Trump and his supporters harshly.
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Thank you, Charles Blow, for an article that captures so well how I feel, the true fear and anxiety. In addition, reading reader’s comments further helps validate how I feel.
They are coming for our kids.
Last couple of weeks, we’ve seen it with the separation children at the border crossings. This morning, a news item featured proposed legislation in Ohio that would mandate public school teachers, workers and therapists to notify parents of children’s “non gender-conforming” behavior and choices, e.g., a boy who chooses a “girl-oriented” theme, style, whatever.
I have a gender non-conforming son, almost 18 years old. From his first days at preschool and before, he has always chosen “girl things”. We support him, and we’ve only ever had support from schools. My fear of persecution for him seemed irrational, but real, on election night in November 2016, when it began to dawn that Trump might be elected. I told myself it was just irrational fear, stoked by anxiety about such a drastic change in presidency. Who ever imagined it - yet - here we are - persecution could be possible.
They are coming for our kids.
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I often feel like I am living in an alternate universe where nothing makes sense anymore.
Although I am an optimist, my gut often tells me that things are going to get worse before they get better and this is what scares me.
The level of anger expressed (on both sides) have reached a point where I think the anger is morphing into hatred and that does not bode well.
Trump unleashed the darkness in many and I think that will play out until people realize that darkness never wins the war. It may win some minor battles but light always wins in the end. The question is how far more do we need to descend before civility and sheer human decency makes a comeback?
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Anyone with a capacity for empathy surely knows who is paying the greatest price. But, not unlike climate change, every living creature is a victim of this man, these people, and the .1%.
Like another commenter here, and like a few others I know, if I were younger I would move. Every country has its own set of problems as does the country I have picked out, but here we are about to read reap the rewards of our long-term flaws of racism and other bigotries, added to lack of real attention in engaging with the political community. Mister blow is right in saying that the conservatives plan in the long term, not caring how many bodies they march over in their quest for power and profit, while many of the rest of us merely want to be left alone. The group of people whose goal is control and suppression have depended on apathy from a too-large group of the general population.
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Chill out Charles. The selection of a Supreme Court judge is one of the few areas where Trump has behaved like a person who actually is sane. Even if another Republican had procured the GOP nomination for President in 2016 and won the election, he likely would have ended up picking the same kind of staunch conservative to replace Justice Kennedy that Trump will select.
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The country will survive the next Supreme Court nominee. Putting aside the fact that McConnell stole a Supreme Court seat from Obama, there are three branches of government. The Democrats need to be in charge of at least one of them, and preferably two of them if they want to influence policy in this country. At the moment they are in the wilderness. If they cannot figure out how to get their candidates elected then I guess the country will decide to go Republican. If the Democrats keep Pelosi and Schumer in the leadership it is likely the Republicans will win this fall. Where is the leadership from these two? People need a reason to vote for Democrats beyond immigration and abortion. It has been obvious for a long time that support for legal abortion is a losing cause for Democrats, yet they have clung to it as though it were the holy grail. Now it looks like they have been out maneuvered. Again.
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Please explain why abortion rights is a losing cause when 71% of Americans support it.
They have been out maneuvered by obvious hatred and racism that is loud and obnoxious, too. And they respond rapidly in polite tones, like Neville Chamberlain having a polite chat with Germany's entourage pre-WW II.
To be fair, Mr. Blow, Trump's next appointment (and the next two or three thereafter, if he wins re-election) to the Supreme Court is the least Trump-like of all of his actions. He has a list of qualified candidates and he chooses from them. Almost all of the Republican Party is on board with selecting from those on the list. Those on the list are well within the range of acceptable and qualified candidates (i.e., about as strict constructionists on the one side as Ruth Ginsberg is a "flexible" "evolving" constructionist on the other side). You just don't like having your policy dreams constrained by the words of the Constitution.
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The concept of "fairness" is wholly alien to a fire-and-brimstone jeremiad ending in "This is an abomination and this moment of revulsion must burn itself into the psyche of the American electorate. "
I read these articles for what is known by gen. Z as the lulz, and would advise you to do the same.
if you know anything about the Constitution, then you know that the right wing wants to change the Constitution to whatever is in their interests. I do not see anything in the Constitution that says that corporations are persons. The list of right wing "flexibility" is as long if not longer than any other "evolving" constructionist.
I have family members who voted for Trump who thought his government would be made up of competent professionals. After all, the republican congress was still in charge of his appointments.
How's that working out?
If there's anything that should incite a revolution, it should be this. The GOP abused democracy when they rejected Garland, and although the Dems put up little resistance to this affront to ethics, it must inspire even the most apolitical of Americans to seriously question the legitimacy of these justices. Trump is a president who lost the popular vote, appointing people to an undemocratic court, while using broad executive actions to expand his power. At what point do we go beyond criticizing the oligarch and start questioning the system of government that allows him to wield such power?
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You only have some of the "rights" you have because you used these techniques to obtain them. Abortion was not legal until 1973. For Almost 200 years no such right existed. Then 5 liberal justices found something that does not exist. In 2015, more than 220 years 5 liberal justices found a right to same-sex marriage. Conservatives have argued for decades that justices should not make these decisions, but our representatives. The Left said no, judicial tyranny is what they want. Well, you have reaped what you have sown.
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No. The fact that you denied me my rights, doesn't make me not have them be my rights. The fact that people like you got to enjoy rights while denying them to others doesn't make your rights more of a "right" than mine are. You think this way because you have been conditioned to think that your rights are rights, and mine are privileges. If the position was reversed, and you woke up tomorrow as a black woman, how quickly you would change your tune.
Uh...Roe v Wade was a 7-2 decision.
What about Merrick Garland?
I don't even understand how McConnell was allowed to block that nomination. Why was that legal?
Chuck Schumer has it right. It's an election year and, using McConnell's logic, there should be no appointments to the bench until after the midterm elections.
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It wasn’t legal. Total subversion of the constitution. This from the party of originism.
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Today's paper reminded me that neither Nixon nor Clinton was allowed to promote a justice while they had legal charges pending. Compare their violations to just what is known against our current president; surely we have grounds to deny him any influence in this crucial matter. This is much worse than the Merrick Garland situation: selling out our democracy to our historical enemy is treason by any definition. We can't consider going forth until Mueller reveals all the evidence and we know how we got here.
1
Excellent column as always. I am totally depressed.
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As the Roberts’ Court preformed religious gymnastics with this week’s decision on the Trump Muslim Ban I thought back to the notorious decision of the Rehnquist court. Bush v Gore changed the course of history but the decision ended with the most ignored words of the decision- “Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities." Eighteen years later the Bush v Gore case has been cited in numerous Federal election cases totally ignoring the warning of the Rehnquist court warning. In 2013, retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who had voted with the majority speculated that perhaps the Court should have declined to hear the case, which "gave the court a less-than-perfect reputation". With this warning by former Justice O’Connor the Democrats should stand their ground on a Trump judicial nominee as if their lives and democracy depended on this decision. Court decisions have consequences. Lasting consequences and can change the course of history.
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As I recall the nyt or wapo hired a firm to do a recount of the votes in Florida in the contested district. The result was that Bush would have won even under Gore's rules
If Trump had a shred of wisdom, he'd pick Merrick Garland for Robert's seat.
As it all stands now, a revolution is coming, but not the one that Trump wants.
We are poised for a civil war.
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Civil war over what? Control of our borders? LGBTQ rights? Not really very reasonable to assume such.
Putin's mouth waters.
You're the first person who's written what I've been think for a long time: America is headed straight for a major war, but within it's own borders.
The Second American Civil War (ACW II).
Ironic that the causes won't be terribly far removed from the first ACW.
Control of the Senate is critical. It is imperative that Democrats who typically don't vote in midterms turn out. But the focus must be on policies that help all Americans, on the diversity that makes us great, environmental health and an end to corruption in politics.
If Democrats focus on Trump or the Supreme Court or identity politics, Trump will remain in office and may be able to replace Ginsberg and Breuer.
If Democrats seek to represent the needs of all Americans, including the many Trump supporters who are not racist (yes, there are many - they previously voted for Obama) - all will be well.
Obama won by sounding notes of unity. Remember thst.
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''The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.'' Yes, it does. Two steps back, one step forward. To those of you who don't have the opportunity to work with the younger generation every day, like I do as a teacher of many wise, creative and caring students, the world is undeniably a scary place.
However, it is much more than lip service to say "the future is our children'' For every Steven Miller, Sarah Huckabee Sanders or Tomi Lahren (a generation just slightly older than my students) there are multiples of polar opposites. Kind, brilliant, energetic voices who will not stand for the race to the bottom, a return to the dark ages. Even with a re-alignment of the Supreme Court I have profound faith that these U.S. citizens who will soon be coming of age and hitting the polls, will not let this happen. The 28 year old from NYC who was just elected to Congress is an example. So are the Parkland survivors.
When they unleash their power, and utilize social media in the manner they have become accustomed to since they were born practically, bitter white men who live and thrive in the "undrained swamp" will be thrown out...merely one brief paragraph in the history books that our great-grandchildren will be studying from. We are a nation and a people that thrive on challenges, as we sway back and forth in the wind but eventually bend towards justice.
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For the sake of our children and grandchildren, I hope you are right. But "this is no country for old men" (unless you are a tycoon).
I grew up idolizing FOR and the vision he had he for this nation. Now the GOP is reaching its long-sought aim of dismantling his achievements, brick by brick.
I am afraid that "the lamps are going out all over (America). We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
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Replacing hatred of one group with hatred of another is never, ever going to get us anywhere good.
Neither is "(young people) utliz(ing) social media in the manner they have become accustomed...". Social media has destroyed civil discourse and disconnected us from each other in every way that actually counts. It has conditioned us to respond first and think later (if at all), to accept as fact anything that comes across our Twitter feed, and caused immense damage to countless of our fellow humans via the dangerous and desructive tsunamis of internet "outrage" regularly unleashed by the social media generation.
One needs to look no further than Trump himself and the (I fear, sometimes, irrepairably) fractured state of our union to see the true nature of what social media has unleashed.
If young people truly want change, they will start listening to each other, especially those who feel different than they do. They will stop trying to shout each other down and start finding their common ground. This is, in fact, the challenge that all of us, regardless of age, face right now; to stop acting as if those we don't agree with are somehow less fundamentally human, less fundamentally worthy, than we are.
1
Unfortunately 28 year old Ocasia-Cortez only won the Democratic primary and must win the election in November. But I agree the young people I know through my stepson are progressive, open-minded and smart. Definitely not fans of authoritarian dotards.
I agree with everything you say, but as a white person, I am concerned about the label "white culture." The culture that Trump promotes is not white per se, but anti-black, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-union, anti-poor, anti-educated, anti-fairness. Calling it "white" denigrates all the fair minded white people who oppose his goals. We white people, black people, gay and straight people, fair people, educated people, poor people and yes, some rich people also, people who love this country's founding ideals must come together once again to remake what Trump is in the process of unmaking.
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With respect, I hope Mr Blow and similarly out-of-control hysterics persist in identifying "white culture" as the enemy. Whites still identifying as Democrats are sure to sit up and take note.
Trump is no more cultured than a mob boss.
1
Plain and simple, the Republicans united their base to bring about change for the whole party. Where are the Democrats? Where are the voters that helped usher Obama to victory, twice? Why are we not taking on the issues of abortion, affirmative action, gay rights, women's rights, etc., in large numbers to bring about change?
Perhaps it could be said that we expect the government to solve these issues for our constituents without much of our involvement. Or perhaps it's that we really don't care about many of these issues that much in the first place, and our lack of empathy sidelines our ability to fight for the good of all of fellow constituents. Perhaps we cherry pick what's important to our agenda and stay home or remain absent to fight for the interests of the entire party. Or perhaps some of us walked out on America a long time ago and remain unconcerned for whichever way political winds blow.
As a group, we seem not all that interested in fully exploring, understanding or appreciating the rights provided to us under the Constitution until they are compromised or removed from our reach.
Whatever the cause might be, what are we going to do individually and collectively as a party to push the needle the other way, to gather for the common good?
I urge people that were upset about the legal events of the past week to unite and to get involved. To try to want to learn the issues and to encourage activism and support for all the issues.
Make your vote count!
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It never matters where I live. The fact that where one lives matters most of all is the fundamental inequality underlying the whole basket case of lies this nation has become.
Hillary lost because people of color did not turn out to vote for her. They did not understand the consequences to themselves.
Two facts account for our miserable fate. First, Democrats chose a poor presidential candidate. Second, many Democrats didn't go the polls to vote for that candidate while Trump supporters did vote. Like it or not, that's how our constitutional democracy works. Trump is doing exactly what he promised to do. Not enough voters were horrified by those promises to vote against him.
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You are absolutely right. But after hearing Trump promise during the campaign that his only litmus test for a SCOTUS nominee was commitment to overrule Roe v. Wade, why did 53% of women vote for him? That alone should have disqualified him from consideration but people who really care about this issue still sat on their couches, voted for 3rd party candidates, or voted for Trump.
2
You seem to have forgotten the FBI's actions to taint Hilary and the Russian intervention. Silly me, I actually thought those 2 facts were important.
3
Don’t forget the help that Putin provided to Trump's election . . . and the power of fear and lies. Our primitive brain has taken over. We can’t discern truth from nonsense. This is what comes of short-sightedness.
We have allowed our educational system to fall into disrepair. We say our children are "precious" but we won’t provide the necessary tax revenue to fund proper schooling. We'd rather put our money into houses we can’t afford and thousand-dollar phones that will be obsolete next year than pay taxes. We want bling, not substance—easy solutions, not work. Consequently, students are no longer taught to think through a problem in order to arrive at a solution—they are taught to memorize answers to test questions. While standardized testing is an easier way to assess memorization skills and arrive at a score that really tells us nothing about the child's ability to think, it doesn’t teach critical thinking. We have germinated a generation of of non-thinking folks who can spit out answers they've been taught but can’t come up with well thought-out solutions on their own.
Our primitive brain is attracted to shiny stuff because that helps animals find water. If it sparkles and calls attention to itself, the primitive mind assumes it is a necessity. We should be beyond that point, but we seem to have reached a point where we are no longer evolving.
We're in over our heads and we're panicking. You can’t think well in this environment.
And if things get really bad, the wealthy can simply leave.
23
"America, love it or leave it!" has been ringing in my ears since the 1960s.
"Elections have consequences. Not voting has consequences. Falling for Russian propaganda has consequences. Voter suppression has consequences. Taking the absolutely ridiculous position that there would be little difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has consequences."
Mr. Blow--No truer words! Thank you.
signed ~ a proud Hillary voter who knew how important the Supreme Court appointments would be.
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Voting in presidential elections has remarkably little consequence for most, whose votes are automatically discarded on flukes.
Hillary Clinton was the least electable Democratic candidate, the only one that Donald Trump could beat (yes she got more votes but in this country that is nothing more than a consolation prize). A tailor made punching bag who only emerged from her safe space to make idiotic pronouncements ("I Short Circuited", "Put Coal Miners Out Of Work", "Basket Of Deplorables") and then apologize for them. Hillary Clinton put self above country and bears full responsibility for Donald Trump whose candidacy was a put-on and never wanted or intended to become president.
1
After all the automatic vote discarding, only 80,000 votes installed the psychopath who will blow up the US as its president.
While I want to believe that the tide will turn against the rich and their paided off conservative strategic thinkers. The rich such as the Koch and the Mersers have been plotting for years to stop the tide of progress which most American want. I think Americans are in for a fight which will test our country like no other in our countrys history .
I think you are missing one important element which has changed namely the amount of influence and control the wealthy have to control all elements of government be they Republican or Democrat. They are not going to give up their privilege and power without a fight.
The only hope for Americans now is to rise up and vote in numbers large enough to push our country forward against those who would enslave all Americans to their vision of a county which the only factor that matters is how wealthy you are..
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In all fairness, there are plenty of wealthy people who believe in just and progressive causes. (Only, there’s just not as many.$
True Dan. I agree not all wealthy are bad people or even conservative but it seems so tipped towards the 1% who are conservative I am unsure how we right the ship of state when everything is geared towards making them more powerful and more in control of government all in the name of preserving the wealth of a few.
Charles Blow is right. I have been following the strategy of the Republican Party for years. They keep sending out test cases until they have normalized an extreme position to the point that they can pass it into law. Now the Supreme Court will be controlled by the Conservatives and much of what I believe will be trampled for the foreseeable future. However, The Far Right is very wrong if they think I will accept Trumpism. Almost three million more people voted against this man. In return this man gave that majority not one single leaf off the olive branch. I know because I have looked for that gesture. He thrives in ridiculing our leaders and our beliefs. That bullying, like all bullying, breeds extreme discontent. Many had hoped the rule of law would sustain our voting and civil rights but that belief appears to be in serious jeopardy. I pray that our system can bring resolution peacefully. I have rearranged my schedule to act politically and positively.
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Justice Ginsburg is 85. Justice Breyer is about to turn 80. The Court is likely to continue to move rightward (or Trumpward) before it moves back to the center.
21
Only means of turning the tide is to get a Dem in office before it’s too late, and by overtaking at least 1 branch of congress and passing sound laws that SCOTUS can’t overturn.
So, the fight to recover is today K D P. You are right, the move to the right has some momentum. The reaction against this evil has to be this year to move the pendulum in the leftward direction.
It will be decades, assuming the US even stays in one piece.
It is interesting how the comments in response to Mr. Blow's opinion on the consequences of not voting can have long-lasting effect veer from inventiveness towards Supreme court Justices to alarmists calls for rewriting the constitution.
The comments here, in my opinion, reflect the tenor of the debate and conversation currently occurring between Americans of different political ideologies. I choose "different political ideologies" over "Republican vs Democrat" or "Conservative vs Liberal" because I think we are in the midst of revisiting many of the same base issues our Founding Fathers fiercely debated - "What is the fundamental role of a Federal government?", "What are our individual rights?", "Who determines those rights?"
At the time of Constitutional Congress, Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican party strenuously argued that state and individual rights trumped Federal rule. Alexander Hamilton and his Federalist party countered that Federal guidance was essential to form a cohesive union and a common good. Both arguments appear to be at the heart of today's debate. Our nation grew as a result of those fiercely contested contests; neither the Democratic-Republicans or Federalists parties remained.
Perhaps history is repeating itself now.
10
I don't think even the most famous jurists in this nation have their heads on straight about the delegated powers from the people, not God, principle that is the core innovation of the US Constitution's rationale for legitimacy.
1
The only part of our laws with re-writing in the face of Kennedy’s announcement is electing a president through an Electoral College that counts some voters as 3/5ths of a human. This is not equal representation whatsoever. The minority should not be allowed to rule over the majority. Period.
1
That an appointment to the Supreme Court is a life-time appointment would not be such a bad thing were politics not involved in the nomination and selection per se. However, since these are de facto political appointments to begin with, it is only reasonable for there to be staggered term limits of perhaps 10-12 years for these appointments. The country should not be "saddled for life" with a justice that was selected by a congress that was not "in tune with the times" and made a bad decision for political reasons.
46
how about linking the term of a justice to say 2 years beyond the term of the president who nominated him or her. the next president would have the option of keeping that justice in office.
1
Yeah. Like Clarence Thomas.
The night I learned Trump won the election I had the exact reaction I had 30 years earlier when my father died. It was a mix of grief, denial and disbelief followed by nausea. That night in 2016 it felt as though my country had died. It was not an overreaction.
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@Jennifer I agree completely. The night Trump won many people had that visceral reaction of grief, disbelief, nausea. I think people from the NY area, myself included, felt this most strongly. We knew better than most who this guy is - in NYC parlance, a lowlife in every sense.
I didn't imagine the specifics, but I did know the level of farce and malevolence would be sky high. If anything it's worse than that terrible foreboding.
1
"They know as well as I know that the demographic tide is moving against them and will soon wash away much of their power."
That's like global climate change. Long predicted, never proven and yet to happen.
"If you are just a decent person who believes in expanding equality, respecting choice..."
Unless, of course, your choice was Trump.
The topic de jour, Kennedy's replacement, has really got Mr. Blow and 20% of America riled up. Maybe I can calm those jangled nerves, with wise words from our last President, "...during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning, but, he also left no doubt about who's in charge of these negotiations. "I won," Obama noted matter-of-factly,..."
Mitch McConnell is not my favorite politician. He prevented Garland from going to the SCOTUS. That was too risky, by half. In hindsight, he was right. If Hillary had won, she would have selected someone else. And Ginsburg had said she would retire after Hillary was elected. And, we can all bet, had all of the roles been reversed, the Democrats would have done the same thing.
1
Other columnists camouflage their feelings (if they even know them) in satirical or philosophical rumination, in piling up of statistics presented in bar charts or pie charts. Mr Blow speaks directly to his reader. To read him is to know his good heart and be all the more grateful for his powerful voice.
5
I agree with every word but, missing among the groups whose rights are in jeopardy are ordinary working Americans. The attacks on worker rights by Trump and his allies on the Robbers Court (not a typo) are unprecedented since before the New Deal. Yesterday's Janus decision was just the latest in a string of anti worker actions and decisions designed to strip employees of any power to successfully demand decent wages, benefits, or job and retirement security. I fear it will get worse, much worse, before it gets better.
10
Nothing encapsulates my thoughts more equisately than this piece. I usually leave my politics to twitter and leave off facebook but I did both.
4
Worst day since 11/8/16, and it's not even close. We can rejoin global accords, tax codes can be rewritten, so much of what he has done can, over time, be reversed -- just as he has effectively undone so many of Obama's achievements.
But with soon-to-be FIVE staunchly conservative SCOTUS judges -- each under the age of 70... well that makes it a lot harder to keep a straight face when I tell my children that this whole experience is but a blip.
It isn't a blip. It's virtually certain now that Donald Trump, the guy from The Apprentice, will haunt us not just for four years, or (likely) eight...
He'll still be haunting us from his grave.
13
Thank you, SNA, I feel the same. It’s unbelievable that such a person as Donald Trump has succeeded in reshaping our country to the extent he has. The most vile, indecent person to hold our country’s top office. Shameful. And thank you to the real deplorables - the people who couldn’t be bothered to vote or voted 3rd party. How’s the country working out for you now? Are you staying home this November, too?
The current trumpublican party is the fulfillment of Ronald Reagan's 'morning in America'. We should all be in mourning.
With a new justice chosen from the Federalist Society list, pre-approved by the Koch brothers libertarian acolytes, the highest court in the land will be able to legislate from the bench an agenda to create a country of Reagan's idealized 'rugged individuals'.
Citizens cut off from any community engaged in advancing social good and cultural ideals for the many, anarchists dedicated to conflict and aggressively preventing any government action that seeks to make citizens equal.
The overall assault on citizen rights has truly been a 40 year long game plan.
Bring in the closer - time for trumpublicans to strike out in the 9th inning of this game.
3