History tells us that tribalism ALWAYS ends in fire and blood.
Donald seems to think that Civil War might be an answer to the country's problem; the difficulty is that the emperor has no clothes...
2
It’s amazing to watch Democrats pretend they don’t understand why we continue to support President Trump.
Are Democrats really this stupid - or just pretending ?
We voted for Obama because he was the least worst candidate.
We voted for Trump because he was the least worst candidate.
No matter what ridiculous thing Trump does it says - Democrats manage to do and say even more ridiculous things, such as:
- Eliminate ICE;
- Reward illegal aliens;
- Subsidize the military defense for rich industrial competitors;
- Divide America using “identity politics”;
- Label any opponent “racist”;
- Label all men “misogynist”;
- Label all whites “racists”;
- Label all firearm owners “nuts”;
- Support racist and sexist policies a/k/a “affirmative action” because it discriminated against white males;
- Demonstrate loyalty to their rich corporate masters above all others;
- and on and on.
Folks - it’s pretty easy to understand - Trump is simply the less bad option.
Democrats - please give us a reasonable alternative - and here’s a hint - it sure ain’t a Clinton.
3
Most of the people that I know who voted for Trump, say that they don't pay attention, or care about the warfare that is going on in Washington. Most don't know about tariffs or Putin or anything that directly effects their pocketbook. There really isn't any way to get through to them. I suspect that like to listen to Trump's boasting about how we better than everyone else, and that we'd be so much better off if weren't for NATO, Canada and Mexico. I would not be surprised if the GOP retains their majorities in both houses of Congress. Lazy people prefer to watch drivel on their phones rather than read an intelligent column in the NYT. I feel sad for America.
4
In a complex world, people crave simple answers. Change is the irresistible force in the universe that finds many Americans wanting to be the immovable objects. Why think for yourself if someone else can do it for you? Truth has lost objectivity and now exists in the eye of the beholder. Or so the current official occupant of the White House and his handlers would have us think. And too many nod their heads in tacit agreement. Situation ethics is reaching an apex with Trump. (Which presumes any ethics at all, which in and of itself may be a stretch). "The Emperor's new clothes" are from the best of Ivanka fashion designs and too many gaze in rapt awe at their faux magnificence. Little wonder she's gone out of business in the real world.
If there is so much denial as to what is going on, what is it going to take to get these people out of their partisan stupor? Likely a continuation of the present policies, such as unnecessary tariffs, until the impact of such causes the ultimate meltdown? Kicking the can of the day of reckoning down the road will only go so far. Sooner or later, the vultures will come home to roost, feasting on the economic and social carnage. And for what?
3
How do we know "Russians" and other "bad actors" aren't gaming the polling done by the pollsters? It would seem the protective measures in place for our elections are not present for Gallup, WSJ and others along with the generally suspect Rasmussen and easily gamed Survey Monkey polls. That said, the confirmation bias world we live in with no consensus concerning a truly "national media" we all trust...where are you Walter Cronkite?...versus the "partisan" world most choose to retreat to for their daily dose of news is the real problem. We all live in our own chosen and reinforced bubble.
2
I'm so sick of this 'both side -ism'. Political tribalism is what OBAMA was elected supposedly to end. Guess what?
When only one party is attempting to reach across the aisle, all the movement is in one direction ---> to the right. Because the Republicans long ago gave up even (esp!) the appearance of compromise.
And don't tell me it's all Trump's fault, and that its 'his' relentless tribe. All Trump did was bring Mitch Mc Connell's ruthlessness, Trey Gowdy's fanaticism, Paul Ryan's total focus on comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted, into sharp focus.
What happened in Nov 2016 was not a sudden break with some mythical collegiality, and it wasn't all the fault of the Russians either. It was the logical result of 30 years of dog whistling past the Klan rally which started with Saint Ronald in Philadelphia Mississippi in 1980.
Of course it was blindly enabled by the Clinton - Obama center right crowd, who thought some technocratic fiddling around the edges -- always with a view toward the right and especially Wall St, Walmart, and their own corporate donors -- would make people accept the austerity of the last 10 years, the theft of all but a tiny fraction of the productivity gains of the last 30 years by a small elite.
It was the abandonment of the people by the so called people's party that allowed this con artist to feed a desperate need for change with lies, false promises, and false hope.
It may be too late now. Only November will tell.
3
The left needs to elect someone from the church. Someone who commands respect and decency. Someone who will not play into Trumps hands by lashing back, making Trump look like the victim. Thats his whole game. The victim game. He keeps laying down "poor me" land mines as the everyone critical of him continues to step on them. We need an alternative. Someone who will forgive Trump for his lies and transgressions, all the while staying on message about centrist and left leaning policies that actually help the working class.
Frank, as usual, a good read. Trump is so totally disgusting a person and president that I unfortunately agree that people have become immune to a point. It is all about maintaining healthy blood pressure numbers in light of the next physical. Speaking for myself, I refuse to stroke out because of Trump, the 'Russian' barbarian ensconced in our WH.
But, these same people intend to run and get elected to office and also vote in a GOP change in 2018 and remove this abomination from the American presidency.
Root cause is Rupert Murdoch. Look what he orchestrated against Teresa May through Trump's interview with his paper. His Fox (Faux) News has and is enabling the Trump Gov't with its lies and distortions.
3
The difference between Trump and his base, versus Bill Clinton and the Democrats should be plain. When Clinton got caught up with Monica, Democrats did not rush to his defense and call it fake news. We didn't like it, but didn't deem it worthy of impeachment, much less removal from office. No one is perfect...including Bill Clinton.
On the other hand, we have Trump and his base. He continuously assaults our morals and ethics, and then calls it fake news when called on it. His base either defends his actions, calls it all fake news, or say they don't care. Never an apology. Clinton gave an apology...what a loser in Trump world.
Democrats and republicans are NOT two sides of the same coin. Democrats aren't perfect, but will admit to mistakes and not cheer cruelty. Republicans are hard core hypocrites, misogynists, racists, homophobes, and xenophobes who admit to no mistakes...ever. Score a 10 out of 10 on the shameless index.
So, no...Democrats would not have a leader like Trump...ever. In fairness, thinking conservatives don't consider Trump their leader: #nevertrump. That the current republican party is in bed with Trump says more about their lack of character than it says about Trump. Trump doesn't lead...he follows his base. If you think Trump would ever stand up to his base, you've been drinking your own brand of koolaid.
Here's an unpleasant fact...a very large number of Americans have lost their ethics, their morals, and their minds.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
4
The problem is that we have to admit that not all normal people share the views that the media declare obligatory. The best example is John King of CNN expressing his SHOCK in a CNN video report that Jeopardy! contestants - not stupid Trump supporters but as King himself says "only the smartest of the smart" - all of them, cannot answer the simplest question about the most important thing - the Russia probe. This shows that what is obvious and a must for MSM maybe is not of interest or of the same value for others. Maybe it's the same story with Helsinki?
An unprecedented out-of-control media attacks on the very inviting president is in a large part a reason for the current partisanship. And writing things like "Hemorrhoid surgery" only will drive Trump's ratings up.
It is PC to attribute Trump's support to tribes when in all actuality it is race. Whenever Trump grabs the shovel that he uses to dig himself in a hole Trump knows the best way to get his tribe to circle the wagons is to throw race in the game.Trump's promise to his tribe to Make America White Again trumps all of his shortcomings. Trump knows that whenever he gets in a bind that all he has to show his tribe is that he is tough on people of color.With his troubles since the Summit with his Boss Putin Trump has to hope The NFL season opener is soon. Ironic that he can kneel for Putin but those rich black guys in tights can't.
1
Unfortunately, blind defense of Trump is easy to explain. It consists of a potent blend of paranoia, latent racism, greed and religious zealotry. A good portion of what remains of today’s GOP is desperately and violently reacting to having gay and transgender equality suddenly become the law of the land. You have to understand that between these changes and the never-ending abortion wars, there are actually tens of millions of people who firmly believe that we are all now literally going to hell. Eternal damnation is a powerful political motivator for more than just a few stray zealots. Money is of course another eternally powerful political force. This explains best why much of the “intellectual” wing of the party is willing to look the other way. Nothing like a good tax-cut, excessive deregulation and a few more right wing judges to buy their silence. As with everything in their lives, self interest rules the day. Paranoia and racism tend to blend together, seething throughout all corners of the party. Fear of the other still runs rampant with many white voters who, despite a diverse nation, have still failed to befriend even a single person who doesn’t look and pray exactly like themselves. Ten thousand years of tribalism is had to eradicate in only a few generations. Today’s Trump GOP equips latent racists with a thousand lazy-minded excuses not to even try.
6
PRESIDENT TRUMP ANNOUNCES HIS “MAGA—BE A DUO-PATRIOT” INITIATIVE
By Bell Press Staff Writers Too Numerous to Name
(Washington, D.C., Bell Press) Buoyed by positive Republican poll responses to his Helsinki Summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump today announced his “MAGA—Be a Duo-Patriot” initiative.
Henceforth America’s the “Star Spangled Banner” and Russia’s the "State Anthem of the Russian Federation" (Russian: Госуда́рственный гимн Росси́йской Федера́ции, transliteration: Gosudárstvennyy gimn Rossíyskoy Federátsii) will be played in tandem and honored at all U.S. political and sporting events.
“I’m gonna sign an executive order,” Mr. Trump proclaimed. “All American citizens, especially professional athletes, will be required to stand at attention—hand over
heart—whenever these two anthems are publicly performed. Patriotism is best secured when imposed by fiat,” he stated. “No more fake patriots or freedoms in America.”
Trump for the first time revealed an agreement made with the Russian leader during their private Helsinki meeting: “Mr. Putin assured me—in the strongest possible terms—how can I not believe him?—that the Russians will do likewise—and that with their basso profundos—they will do it even better. What a challenge! I have ordered the military to round up American basso profundos—whatever they are—to meet this challenge. America will not be bested!”
1
I am 70 years old. It is hard for me to fathom that the long standing free trade unrestricted free market capitalists of the Republican party so quickly embrace trump's tariff taxes. What happened to the Republican deficit hawks that use to hammer Democrats as they now embrace and are responsible for a trillion dollar deficit as a result of a major tax cut to the wealthy and corporations that surely will be compounded by the tariffs. What happened to Republicans that wagged their collective fingers at Clinton and his sexual dalliances now that trump has been documented to have trysts with call girls even while his wife was pregnant and brags about grabbing women's crotches. What happened to the anti- Communist Republicans who approve of trump sucking up to Putin. What happened to the Republican hawks who now approve of trump's debasement of NATO. What happened to the anti socialist Republicans who now approve of corporate welfare and trump's welfare for farmers that may be hurt by his tariffs. Republicans have turned on a dime, just to retain power. It is time we jettisoned these self serving frauds. Vote Democrat this November. Send them packing.
4
Or perhaps the newfound realization of the impacts of human overpopulation has caused a primal reaction to defend one’s assets. Perhaps we on the “sensible” left deny that these impacts are existential, while those supporting Trump have decided to barricade. So which comes first in priority: defend our planet against climate change, or defend our country against the refugees of climate change and political persecution?
Perhaps all that really matters is 4 degrees of ocean warming. Then no type of party politics will capture our attention.
3
That the partisanship has the same structure on both sides is part of the Republican propaganda offensive. But only if there are no reliable ways of ascertaining the truth (such as the scientific method, jury trials, or even logic or eyewitness accounts) can the two have the same structure. In that case, it is a matter of faith, loyalty, interests, and shared values.
If we have learned anything about elections in the past several years, it is that polling is more art than science. As people have disconnected their phones and disengaged, the accuracy of polls has become worse and worse. Witness Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, neither of which was meant to happen (according to the polls). Similarly, I am skeptical of polls that show Donald Trump enjoying an 88% approval among Republicans. Let's see what happens in the poll that actually matters, when people cast votes in November. That is, the 40% of eligible votes who actually show up.
1
Trump’s approval numbers have been rising for some time – they’re overwhelmingly high among Republicans, but they averaged around 45% across everyone weeks ago and long before Helsinki, which, so far, hasn’t seemed to have had any effect on overall approval one way or t’other.
You guys have made clear your withering disgust of Trump, day-in, day-out, for far longer than the 18 months he’s been in office. If this trend continues, he’ll ride your contempt right into the White House for a second term in November of 2020. You might reconsider your methods: they’re HELPING him.
But, then, appearances are so much more important to so many of you. Actual success at what Trump sets out to do is irrelevant so long as you get to put your backs up and decry his persona, his policies, and his hair. You might consider that you have zero influence on those policies because you make no effort to engage in other than calumny.
We should note that Frank Bruni and the editoriat of the New York Times have every right to define what they regard as a “betrayal of American interests”; and everyone else has every right to think you loony. Consider that 45% of the people approve of Trump, and that includes a fair number of your own chorus.
And now it’s his “tribe” that are as “cracked” as their president. And it’s Republicans who have a problem perceiving reality. The realities we see are a tax system we agree with, steadily diminishing excessive regulation, a resolve to enforce …
4
… immigration laws and protect our borders, a more realistic view of domestic terrorism, an ISIS basically destroyed, and a refusal to interminably kick cans down roads named “North Korea”, “Iran”, “China” and “Russia”. Unlike the man he replaced, he seeks to DO something about ALL these matters in ways we approve. No wonder we support him, despite his persona, his policies, and his hair.
Yet your only flabbergasted response is “He’s … ICKY!!” If YOU guys want to regain your relevance to the conversation on Trump, you’re going to need to be a little less unbalanced in your appraisal of him, and little less contemptuous of the views of millions and millions of your fellow Americans. Or … you could continue focusing on your own narrow perceptions and interests. Laundry, for example, or hemorrhoid surgery.
5
… immigration laws and protect our borders, a more realistic view of domestic terrorism, an ISIS basically destroyed, and a refusal to interminably kick cans down roads named “North Korea”, “Iran”, “China” and “Russia”. Unlike the man he replaced, he seeks to DO something about ALL these matters in ways we approve. No wonder we support him, despite his persona, his policies, and his hair.
Yet your only flabbergasted response is “He’s … ICKY!!” If YOU guys want to regain your relevance to the conversation on Trump, you’re going to need to be a little less unbalanced in your appraisal of him, and little less contemptuous of the views of millions and millions of your fellow Americans. Or … you could continue focusing on your own narrow perceptions and outrage.
@Richard Luettgen, you're employing your usual straw man arguments. You're an enthusiastic Trump supporter, which you have every right to be. The rest of the country has every right to disagree with you. We also have every right to think you're ignoring what Trump is doing.
Do you approve of Trump's secret two-hour meeting with Putin, and his subsequent willingness to turn over American citizens (including an ambassador) to the FSB (formerly KGB) for questioning? Do you approve of Trump's lack of transparency in his meetings/phone calls with Putin, the latter of which will no longer be transcribed? Do you think Trump has achieved anything in North Korea besides a photo op? Do you think he's done anything at the border besides separating children from parents?
Many of Trump's supporters believe what he tells them, so if he says construction on the wall has begun, they assume it's begun. If he says he can win a trade war, they assume he's an experienced negotiator who is telling them the truth, ignoring all evidence to the contrary. He signs a tax bill that shifts taxes away from corporations and the one-percent onto the middle class, but he tells them that it's a middle-class tax cut, so they believe him.
From my vantage, Trump is adding to regulations, especially those that affect individuals, like the domestic gag order on doctors who work at women's clinics, or the applications for waivers to his tariffs.
2
One of the most positive things the Democrats can do is provide the country with new names and faces together with some fresh ideas. I keep getting polls asking me if Clinton, Pelosi, Biden should run in 2020. My answer is no, as much as I like and respect these democrats. No, the party won with a new face in Obama and should do it again. The American people want to believe in hope and progress.
They are fed up with Trump's turn back to the 1950's.
6
It's the fault of all those damn antiwar hippie peaceniks in the Republican party, starting with Trump himself. They're constantly preaching appeasement, attacking America and American values, and undermining the guiding principles that keep this country strong. Somebody should round them up and force them to get haircuts, take baths, and get jobs.
(Note to the easily confused: This is intended as satire)
2
As a former student of statistics, consumer research and poll taking - what are the odds of the respondents to these polls gaming the system? Do we have a random sample on 'on the street' or 'telephone interviews' or do the respondents go online and respond to a survey? People may just answer the questions - to agree with the survey taker, when they commence the survey. When asked if they are a republican, they answer all the questions in agreement, driving positive numbers.
Any person with common sense who can see and read what Trump is doing to the country, should have come to realize what a terrible President he is along with his entire administration. They are only serving themselves. Yes, he is doing what 'his masters' and 'handlers' want him to do. But Americans for some strange reason do not like things that are good for them. We are taught that national health = death squads, or because it takes away the top ranked positions of doctors? We to believe in the Hollywood myth that we must all stand on our own two feet and not rely on the government, even though we pay taxes for services. Our ailments will be cured after our neighbor brings over a 3 bean casserole for dinner?
In most countries Trump would have been removed by a vote of no confidence or by more violent means. But we have put our faith in government to correct the situation. But we can give our government a nudge or push by voting for those who will fight people like Trump and his masters.
1
Why is Frank Bruni afraid to say what the poisonous filtering mechanism is in our national political civil war: Fox News. Truth has gone under the counter-narrative. Behind every tribal true believer in Donald Trump lies Fox News' twenty-year-old destruction of democratic discourse and the common-ground style politics of Republicans like John McCain.
6
I think Trump is a very incompetent person; a very uniformed person, an unauthentic person and a racist creep.
But someone needs to answer some of Trumps questions
1. Was the DNC server examined by our national security people, directly or indirectly (its main discs?). If so say yes; if not tell us why not.
2. Explain the criticisms in the articles by the group of computer experts (VIPS group) who do not accept that the DNC server was hacked by Russians or anyone. They give quite a few pieces of what they call evidence. Like many people I am not capable of understanding that evidence. But someone has to explain, at least in general terms without giving away security secrets, why the VIPS group is wrong. You can read about the VIPS story in The Nation magazine: A New Report Raises Big Questions About Last Year’s DNC Hack. That connects you to other references.
2
@Frank, the DNC server's main discs were examined indirectly by the FBI, which was provided copies of the discs, according to testimony by Comey. The FBI also worked with CrowdStrike, a private security firm, to oust FancyBear (one arm of Russia's military intelligence's cyberwarfare units) from the DNC network.
The VIPS group is divided about whether Russia conducted the attack, and that division was illustrated in a second article by the dissenters that was also published in the Nation.
The theory pushed--that the Russian attack on the DNC was somehow favorable to Clinton because of its publicity value--is obvious nonsense. Furthermore, FancyBear (GRU, or Russian military intelligence) also hacked Podesta's emails and released them under the same handle (Guccifer 2.0), and nobody disputes that the GRU was responsible for this hacking, or for the hacking of various states' voter registration rolls. The FBI directly examined Podesta's server and the state systems. Likewise, no one disputes that DCLeaks, which published the leaks, is a front for FancyBear and the GRU.
I think the Russians will try to muddy the waters about this Russian cyberattack from both the left and the right. This would be my explanation of the original story. One particularly destructive aspect of this story by some VIPS members is that it enables conspiracy theorists to continue to claim that Seth Rich was murdered by the Clinton campaign.
1
Dear Frank,
Trump's approval rating is not based on love for Trump, but hatred for those that are opposed to him.The Trump supporters look upon the Democratic Party as being run by Jews & Blacks, who are anti Christ, anti guns, swindlers & muggers, & most of all Anti America.Hatred runs deep, & is a bane to our existence.It took a recession to elect Obama,& it will take another one to elect a Democrat.We are infected with this hate, as illustrated by Trumps success.
6
This past week I saw an article with a headline that summed it up nicely. His supporters stay with him because he hates who they hate. Gays, strong women, dark skinned people, middle managers, professionals, readers, thinkers, doers, foreigners, immigrants, and non-christians.
4
Do you live your life based on polls?
The GOP represents all that is weak and regressive about America: crackpot, ripoff religion, gun worship, homophobia, misogyny, racism, contempt for learning, nature and the environment, pathetic public education, adult illiteracy/ignorance, wage slavery, poor health and sleaze. They call themselves conservative and they get away with it even though they are radical. They say they stand for family values yet their politics is mostly a way to exercise their cruelty. The GOP is a Fox News- NRA- Evangelical Church- Putin- Koch and Mercer project. And it's one stop shopping for anyone who wishes to undermine the U.S., offering useful fools by the million to whom government is nothing more than reality TV with their favourite buffoon floundering from crisis to crisis propelled only by an empty mind and a foul mouth. But more than Trump, its time to break the Republican Party once and for all with the weight of a clear majority in the coming elections, which are truly going to put America's soul to the test.
1
A more recent Quinnipiac University poll shows a 38% approval rating. Fivethirtyeight.com
rates this organization’s polling a bit higher than the NBCNews/Wall Street Journal poll.
1
Trump is a Marxist-Leninist.
Contemporary policy wonks will recognize Lenin as the “godfather … of ‘post-truth politics.’” Offer the electorate “simple solutions to complex problems.” Lie shamelessly. Designate scapegoats to explain all misery. Winning is everything, the ends justify the means. In politics, Lenin decreed, “there is only one truth: what profits my opponent hurts me, and vice versa.”
2
Castor oil.
A side effect, some distastefulness.
Ultimately castor oil will make one better, but it sure does not seem too palatable at the time.
Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh; and about 40% of Article III judges (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/06/14/are-trumps... ) are bringing about a state of good national health.
Undoing 44s fiats (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/11/donald-trump-barack-obam... ).
These are what we need to watch and see accomplished to gauge efficacy and continue support.
Don't believe the hype: https://youtu.be/9vQaVIoEjOM (Mr. Blow might be on to something, https://nyti.ms/2LFJyBI )
1
@WorkingGuy, in what universe is Trump bringing about "good national health?"
He's destroying our alliances and undermining the world's faith in America. He's caused soybean futures to drop by 20 percent, and his tariffs threaten everything from Idaho potatoes to South Carolina auto factories. He's undermined faith in our Justice Department and FBI. He's undermined democratic norms like transparency and faith in a free press.
Why do you think he's distasteful?
1
The Government-Owned by Putin (GOP) party embraced insanity years ago when they took in the tea party. They wanted the voters despite the fact those voters didn't have a party mentality. They were just angry their lives hadn't turned out the way they wanted them to. Resentment drives them. The GOP embraced this with no thought about the fact you can't really control mobs.
Then Russia jumped in and exacerbated the whole thing. Trump is the icing on the cake. Egotist, misogynist, racist, criminal, that wants his big thug buddies to love him. And Congress plays ostrich with the future of our country. November, dudes; November.
1
What did Trump give almighty wise one?
I guess you never heard of Bill Clinton.
1
Frank, I found a way to see what it's like to be black or overtly gay or a non-white immigrant or any other kind of local 'undesirable' here in the South.
Wear an anti-Trump T-shirt to a country-boy eatery.
The hatred was palpable.
2
Several years ago I wrote an essay in which I portrayed America in a battle between the Tea Party types and the Other. The former were and are largely white Anglo Saxons, usually drawn from the lesser educated part of the population. The Other was all the non-white, non-Christian, Hispanic component of the population (today over 40%), allied with the intellectual and technological elite, maybe 5% who are not already in the 40%. What rankles their adversaries, who perhaps amount to about 35% of the population is that 40% plus number will grow to over 50% in another couple decades. Newborn infants in that 40% already exceed in number the rest of the population. So, it is the last stand of the white supremacist. If you don't believe me, watch the coming white supremacist parade scheduled for DC in a few weeks and notice the defensiveness of their slogans. My question is will they destroy the country before they lose the demographic race?
1
"But the impulse to filter out dissenting views..."
Rather ironic given that the NYT front page has become nothing but a series of articles and opinions attacking Trump.
3
@Robert It hasn't, but, no, there's no irony. Most of the articles quote trump and his supporters directly. Would that the words and actions we can all see for ourselves were judged without left/right filters. And yes, if you see it and hear it it is TRUE despite what Trump decrees.
1
The dynamic is not all that complicated. Any enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine. Trump hates (claims to hate) "elite intellectuals." His supporters really hate them. Trump disdains black and brown folks. His supporters do too. Trump dislikes immigrants enough to seize their children. His supporters also find them slightly less than fully human. Trump supports mindless nationalism and attacks those who don't stand, salute and genuflect to authority. His supporters resent anyone who resists patriotic conformity.
Nothing else really matters. His fans don't hate Putin so they don't give a damn if Trump likes him.
So, people don't really love Trump as much as they despise the people he demeans and attacks.
2
Trump’s core supporters are suffering from mysterious case of untreatable (also, unfathomable) cognitive dissonance. Frank Bruni identified some of the reasons. I think this is something, if America survives Trump, will be studied by the scholars of human psyche.
Trump is pure id, and he has somehow touched on the collective id of his supporters. His supporters wanted to wreck everything after tolerating years of being conned by mainstream conservative politicians, therefore they fittingly went with a conman as a human wrecking ball. However, his supporters, for whatever reason, do not realize that their anger or hatred is misplaced. It’s not the race. It’s the lack of basic economic and social opportunities that has plagued everyone regardless of race coming from the working class background.
This is in the making for past forty years or more. America has changed enormously in those years, but things have not improved for many in this country because they were consistently fooled by the republicans to vote against their own economic interests. That’s the only successful election strategy republicans are still using, and Trump is the culmination of those efforts.
Trump represents a tipping point for America. He has created this environment of collective disgust and disbelief on the one side, and a hypnotic trance on the other. Nobody knows how it will end.
2
I honestly don't know that Democrats would behave better. Most Democrats and general anti-Trump people have limited ability to take the few things that Trump may have done either well or maybe just not awfully and recognize those moments as such.
Second, as an addition to Bruni's points, I add that many Trump supporters also use the reasoning that "Obama did so many things that were so much worse!" to justify their support. Likely that's inspired by bigotry. On the bright side, one of the best moments to highlight an incumbents' failures and their inability to stop blaming their predecessor for the mess they themselves created is during a campaign against that incumbent. Let's just hope that there is an opponent who can properly highlight the facts and organize a very strong campaign that wins in the Midwest and parts of the South.
1
Donald Trump is a classic demagogue. There have been others before him in American history, but he is the first of them to rise to the presidency. Why now? Have Americans changed? My guess is no; the potential was always there. The realignment of the parties after the civil rights breakthroughs concentrated those most susceptible to demagoguery into a more coherent voting block, while technology created superhighways for the spread of disinformation and propaganda. We now know: it CAN happen here.
2
While the Trump Show is being broadcast on all channels, Trump and his minions are perpetrating terrible things to our environment, consumer protections, civil rights, health care,and the security of our nation. I find it outrageous that loyalty to tribe and tribal chief out ways loyalty to our country.
3
"Americans on one side of the political divide don’t just disagree with those on the other. They see them as threats to the country’s well-being. "
This is the root of what is happening.
I have a relative that always has Fox blaring. When I'm over there I see & hear them agitating their base. Back when Obama was in office they had red-faced commentators pounding the table in anger about Obama who "wants America to fail!" and if there is a problem it's "they're doing this deliberately!"
After years of such exposure the Fox diehards are going to support Trump to the bitter end, furious at the Democrats trying to destroy the country as they've been told.
But this partisanship is entirely on the Republican side. You didn't see Democrats at party rallies chanting "lock him up" or calling out the press as the enemy of the country. No, just one party says that...
7
It's 150 years after the Civil War -- not only is nobody alive who fought in it. none of their grandchildren are either. But people are still fighting it ... many of those who support Trump are.
This is a warning about what will happen when Trump falls; and everyone can see it coming. Trump's supporters are so vehement precisely because they know his presidency, and perhaps his person, are doomed.
"Calling Elvis ... is anybody home?" They'll be at it, in declining numbers, for another 150 years at least.
1
The gloves have to start coming off at the top. If Republicans is hint this is a good political play, they need to back it up with facts. Their emotions or hating American politics did not raise tariffs, did not give a mediocre tax cut that is temporary for them, it did not protect them from horrible healthcare and threats of denying preexisting conditions.
They have to face that bonds are not as menacing as cyber attacks so our bluster is losing sway which is why countries are pushing back.
American companies are already going under. Trumps wants to save steel, well American nail workers are laying off or closing or moving. Now he wants to save farms but what about all of the jobs and companies that are subsidiaries?
And this is definitely not black and white.
It will be interesting to see the current poll numbers for Obama from the loyal Trumpists. Not that it matters but still interesting.
1
It's even worse than Frank describes. Trump's supporters share his disdain for democratic norms, checks and balances, ethics, and the truth. And most of them have guns.
2
@Richard. They will disdain the democratic norms until they need help from the government.
2
My guess is that there is what also happens in these polls, when someone they see as an "elite" from the NYT or other news organization, they decide they will not tell the truth even if they feel differently in their heart of hearts. I think a lot of them are seeing what a mistake they made but are not yet willing to admit it. Least of all to someone who've they traditionally thought of as the enemy. I wouldn't take these polls too seriously right now......
All the ideological and moral beliefs Republicans expressed in the past have now been demonstrated to mean exactly nothing. All their outrage at the opposition was sanctimonious and expedient. It is always about power and money. Using power to direct more money to those who already have too much. Trump is a dysfunctional, raging blowhard, and they eagerly follow him.
8
Such is our tribalism that I have become convinced we will never reconcile sufficiently to make a more perfect union. When or if Trump is removed or replaced, those who supported him will remain. Reconstruction will never happen. Whether you know it or not, the great experiment has already ended.
2
It is cultural differences that lead to the political differences. They are much deeper and much more difficult to compromise on.
1
Donald Trump will continue to hold on to his base even as it shrinks in size. They trust him because they really want to believe in him, so when he says, "don't believe what you see or hear or read, believe only what I tell you", it requires an almost Orwellian acceptance of the leader to continue their support. Trump has a unique ability to read his people on a real-time basis, shifting the message as he sees fit and when he senses support is wavering, to almost instantaneously change or deflect the message, as he demonstrated when he recently tacked from blaming America for the poor US-Russia relationships to Russia will attack the 2018 elections on behalf of the Democrats because they know he is the strongest President. He even has the ability to maintain opposing sides in an argument at the same time. Hence, his tariffs with China hurt farmers, dropping soy prices to ten year lows, so he proposes to give them $12 billion from CCC to prop up support without explaining that CCC's mission is already to support agriculture and that their entire budget for 2015 was hmmm, oh yes, 6.4 billion dollars. At some point however, his "house of cards" will be unable to support itself and no matter how he tries to correct course, will reach a sudden and rapid demise.
2
You want a tribe: How about 93% of the black vote went to Obama, not once, but twice? Or is that just blatant racism?
3
No, Alice's Restaurant. The fact that 93% of blacks voted for President Obama is a wonderful measure of Intelligence.
15
Yes, I've never been able to figure out why blacks won't vote for Republicans who've labeled them as welfare queens, strapping young bucks buying steaks with food stamps, thugs, criminals, and just plain lazy folks looking for government handouts. Go figure.
6
Surely you know that the republicans have used fear and hatred of minorities as a tactic for generations now. That's the racism in this picture. Pretending that their scapegoats would rightly vote for them? Preposterous. But again, I think you know that.
4
Let's not get bent out of shape here.
If I understand recent Pew reports correctly, his "base" consists of 88 % of people who identify as Republicans, which sounds like a lot until you remember that Republicans make up 26 % of the electorate (Democrats are 36 %).
So his "base" is less than one quarter of the voters. I suspect most of them would vote Republican no matter what, just like most Democratic voters would vote Democratic no matter what.
Luckily, Democratic contenders are not wasting much time, money or energy trying to kowtow to the Trump base by watering down their positions.
Besides, the more time and energy he invests in his base, the more disgustingly and outrageously he acts, the more he alienates everyone else!
6
Every demagogue has his loyalists. It's certainly not about any specific ideology, so it must be about the comfortable feeling of siding with the guy who seems to have all the power. Trump is a master of dominating the 24/7 news cycle, but he's also a master of making himself the victim of any negative statements from opponents to his policies, sucking up to other demagogues, or demeaning attack tweets.
Unless we can change the narrative by delivering a sound defeat in November, his loyalists will continue to ignore the clear signs of his disrespect for our system of government. If we don't, we're in for much worse.
As a 2 time Obama voter turned to Trump I reject this callous interpretation on his summit. You trust the Intel agencies where the leading Muellar FBI agent cursed Trump and promised to 'Stop Him'?. I agree with Trump policies and that's all that matters Frank and I don't care he had flings in the sleazy casino world. Policies? yes like halting outsourcing, ending H-1B visa abuses, NATO budget, illegal immigration, crime, employment for minorities, getting along with powerful Russia, ending tariffs against US companies and lowering corporate taxes. Enough frank? you understand now Frank? did not think so.
3
My theory on all of this is that Fox News and, to a lesser extent, a small handful of other conservative media companies, created the tribal partisanship we see in conservatives. With flashy production, easy-to-follow narratives and constant reminders that "their" country is being attacked from within, Fox keeps is viewers enthralled. Segments usually end with broadsides against a pre-determined cast of villains and boosts for the heroes thus providing its viewers with an emotional payoff that's exactly like watching a fictional TV show, which is what makes it so addicting. And it appears that they now really do believe that the most absurd things imaginable are real. Consider, as an example, that Trump's "fans" (which is what they are) actually believe that dozens and dozens of federal agents, DOJ lawyers, judges, journalists and even his former employees are all conspiring together to fabricate the Russia scandal. They will tell you, with a straight face, that people who built serious careers put their own reputations--their lives!--on the line to malign Trump! It's nuts. So then defending Trump is like defending Jack McCoy or Hulk Hogan. It's their duty or something to defend this character they've grown to love on TV. He's their hero and he has to succeed; because who wants to watch a show in which the bad guys win? That's too depressing...
3
"Research shows that, increasingly, Americans on one side of the political divide don’t just disagree with those on the other. They see them as threats to the country’s well-being."
This isn't just a matter of perception. Those on the other side really are a threat to the country's well being. But I don't think this is a new phenomenon. Are we really more polarized now than we were during the Vietnam era? The civil rights movement? The 1960s?
What is unique is that the current crisis is a manufactured one. Our endless wars have faded into the background. There are no riots in the streets, or at least none of note. Music, style and fashion are stable. The economy, in aggregate, is doing well.
But deep long-standing cultural fissures and unbridled greed have been fomented and exploited for personal advantage in a way that is unprecedented in postwar America.
3
Using five (5) deferments and a bone spur to stay out of the military, and then putting down John McCain for getting himself captured told us all we needed to know about Donald Trump's love for country. He says "America First," but it has always been "Trump First." His speeches about making America great again are only to appeal to his base; he has not interest in America's greatness. He appeals to the worst in all of us, and we deserve what we have gotten - not individually, because many see him for what he is - but collectively we deserve him. SAD!
See: RevolutionOfReason.com
2
What do you expect when you elect to have a crime family run the government? The congressional GOP hitmen and bodyguards don't want to get knocked off and so are compliant with the mob boss. The citizen gang members just continue to pay their extortion loyalty to the family. Surely you have seen the movies and TV series many times.
3
All you ever need to do is ask yourself is why do Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists continue to run as Republicans?
Trump supporter's defense (if not deference) is the political equivalent of Stand Your Ground laws: "there is no duty to retreat from any place where they have a lawful right to be, and that they may use any level of force if they reasonably believe the threat rises to the level of being an imminent and immediate threat."
Threat is emotional, not rational; an article of belief. Trump inverted the logic. By producing threats, (China, Immigrants, EU), he creates the reassurance that there is ground to defend, the antidote against cultural and economic displacement and unmooring . This he has in common with Putin, whose defense of Fatherland Russia legitimizes nationalism and autocracy. And this runs in the same vein as the Blut und Boden ideology of Nazi Germany.
Trump puts supremacy before democracy, and applies the same principles domestically and in foreign policy.
Nearly 250 years ago, during the Revolutionary War, a frustrated General George Washington, the future "father of our country" (a title I would not want: too many of the children are derelicts) -- anyway, a frustrated Washington accurately decried the "antic behavior" of many in his army: "these ignorant, nasty people."
Of course, some things never change in humanity: principal being the endless mental clash between the Intelligent and the Ignorant. (We may be created equal; alas, are brains are not.)
Thus the ongoing division between the Rational among us and Trump's base of Baseless Political/Social Neophytes.
It is Beyond Astounding that these people admire the Lying, Cheating, Socio-Politically Destructive president: swallowing everything this Oaf says and stands for as The Truth.
Yes, there are the Brainy and there are the brainless.
We've just got to feel horribly sorry for the latter.
2
@Ken
Agreed, but how can we go about making the far left see the error of their ways?
1
@Robert: No worries. The "Far" Left certainly isn't perfect. However, compared to the Disgraceful Right (i.e., the GOP), Democrats -- as a whole -- are (1) by far more civil, (2) by far more socially responsible, and (3) by far more rational.
Frank Bruni seems not to realize that BOTH sides in a debate can be disastrously wrong.
Yes, Fox News is hyper partisan, fawning over a highly flawed president.
But the NY Times is also partisan, just in the opposite direction. And it has forgotten the poor who it claims to serve.
People in middle America are dying because they do not have access to timely cancer screenings. But the NY Times never reports on this.
Instead we get article after article about how another celebrity is outraged that Harvey Weinstein got away with sexual harassment.
Talk about sex and violence. Yes it sells papers.
But Hillary Clinton started out pushing for universal health care. And by the time she became a presidential candidate she had sold out to health care companies.
Why not report on THAT?
Democracy is unraveling because Americans are uninformed, or are informed about the wrong things. About tasteless jokes that get people like Roseanne fired, but not about the issues that actually matter to Americans.
Like population growth. It is mentioned by UN Commissions, sometimes by British newspapers, but the NY Times has an editorial policy that essentially CENSORS all discussion of population growth.
Global warming is caused by POPULATION GROWTH.
California is running out of water because of POPULATION GROWTH.
China is becoming more powerful because it adopted a one-child policy.
Yet Americans who are worried about illegal immigration are branded as racists.
2
If the Russians have tried hacking our elections, wouldn't it be much easier to start by hacking these polls?
1
The Republian Party is blatantly the party of white supremacy and fascist, strongman rule. They no longer even pretend otherwise. No surprise that a bigoted enemy of democracy would be supported by others with the same belief system. We have become Germany of the early 1930s.
Yes, it is becoming more apparent that the Trump cult has put aside any notion of the principles of democracy, and has abandoned any expectations of moral character in an elected official.
It is most discouraging, but I think most Americans have not become brainwashed.
The hyper partisan take-no-prisoners and cooperate with no one approach started with Delay, Gingrich, then morphed to Cantor and McConnell - Obama tried to engage and work with Boehner, basically a waste of time - as for Ryan, pardon me while I upchuck at his boot-licking visage - the GOP has not been into ANY bi partisan approach for 3 decades...ye shall reap what you sew - that's just for big Mike Pence - another solid and noble statesman.
1
It's funny you should mention Democratic support for Clinton in 1998-9. It did presage the unreflexive Republican support for Trump we see today, but there was one big difference: what Bill Clinton was accused of, lying bout an inappropriate but legal sexual relationship, was not really all that big a deal. It did involve a perjury, but it didn't show him to be a truth-defying, deeply compromised jerk whose continuance in office is a danger to us all, which what those who have strong feelings against Trump consider him to be.
I'm in an unusual position because in 1998 it seemed obvious to me that Clinton had gone too far, and that if he continued in office it would (1) send a bad signal to future presidents about misbehavior; and (2) usher in two years of deeply-0wounded, ineffective presidential leadership. Along with about six other liberals and Democrats I was willing to argue that Clinton should step aside. Had he done so, of course, Al Gore would have become president, would have easily been re-elected in 2000, and we probably would have been spared the 9/11 fiasco (a Gore administration would have been paying attention) and surely would have avoided the War in Iraq fiasco. If Bill had resigned after the Senate trial in 1999 our history would have been very different, and probably better.
6
Focusing on the cult of personality of Trump rather than the fascist regime he is heading is distracting, may be amusing to some; to point out how idiotic he is, but takes away from the reality. A fascist coup took place in November 2016 and the legal take over of the institutions of government progresses full speed ahead. What is happening in Executive agencies, Courts and regulatory system goes uncovered by all media, instead focusing on what he spends to go play golf. Clarity on this coup is what is necessary, not a focus on his cult.
Hey, just deal with the reality. Pence would be worse. So far, Dems haven't come up with a viable candidate to go head to head with Trump. If that continues, many Dems will drop out of voting, and Trump will win again. No matter how many sex dates he paid off.
2
Foxification and other forms of ignorance triumph.
A nation gets the government it deserves.
The United states we knew is dead.
1
I have puzzled for years over how the German people could get behind and support a madman like Adolph Hitler. Now I know. Trump is following the same blueprint. And we all know how that turned out.
3
"Republicans forgive Donald Trump his surrender to Vladimir Putin, ..."
It's a surrender only if there was a contest or competition of some sort. But if Trump were to have been, say, a puppet of Vladimir, there would have been no confrontation in Helsinki, hence no surrender, just part reality TV and part secret meeting.
Add that to the trashing of Allies, NATO, the EU, TPP, NAFTA, then the tariffs, etc...
I was scared there for a minute, but I just remembered Trump answering Hillary:"No puppet, no puppet, your'e the puppet..." during a debate. Now I can rest at ease and I can erase from my memory this fake news nightmare that keeps coming back where Vladimir answers a journalist's question by saying that, yes, he was hoping Trump would win the 2016 election.
Can you imagine if all that were true? We'd be in deep, deep trouble.
2
For God's sake, get off this binge:
Always talking about Trump's core. The 30 percent to 40 percent control everything. We the 60 percent and 70 percent are helpless. Even when we constitute the majority of the populace, we are helpless - we do not amount to much.
That's what you guys in the media did during the campaign in 2016 and now back at it again repeating your damn ditty in 2018. In 2016, the media talked all day, every day about Trump as if there was no one on the other side. Hillary laid out her programs and policies in some details, you stayed focused on Trump's shenanigans as if the contest was for the job of a clown for Barnum Baily Circus.
Well, while you got your kicks and money, we got stuck with this clown, Trump. Does it ever occur to you guys that the public may be sick of reading about him, seeing his face and hearing his stupid voice? Take it from me. Even though I live alone with tv as my only company, I do not want to hear about Trump or see his face. The sound of his name sickens me as does your riff about Trump and his supporters.
3
It's all just so damn sad.
4
Republicans today are in the same kind of trance that many Germans were in in the 1930's.
And it was very similar circumstances. The average German had been downtrodden by the aftermath of of WWI, our average Americans have been decimated by Globalization. In both cases their own elite led them into ruin, but they bought the con-job from the propaganda machine.
And the elite needed someone to blame.
Plenty of people who voted for Trump are sickened by his performance in Helsinki, and his behavior in general, but what is the alternative being offered by the Democrats? Candidates who call for open borders? Lawmakers fighting to abolish ICE? Socialists!?
Republicans will vote Republican and Democrats will vote for a Democrat, but independent voters would rather keep an agent of chaos in office than elect a proponent of the far-left and return to the status quo.
Unless the Democrats can find a moderate candidate by 2020, Trump *will* win again.
1
Is it at all possible that Russian hackers are manipulating the data from opinion polls? I would like to know if anyone is researching this possibility. It is inconceivable that Trump's support could go up after Helsinki, and it suggests that the polls are not trustworthy, at least to me.
6
I think Republicans who were aghast at the Helsinki debacle nevertheless will act to maintain Mr. Trump’s free hand - they’ll vote Republican in November. In fact, if Mr. Trump is still in the game in 2020, they'll vote for him then. Consider the counsel of Newt Gingrich. He said Mr. Trump’s denouncement of the U.S. on Russia’s behalf "was the most serious mistake of his presidency.” Then Mr. Trump read aloud, “I meant to say the opposite.” And Mr. Gingrich immediately concluded, “we’re fine."
But I also think, based on my gut feeling about humanity, that if 100% of U.S. voters were to cast ballots this November, the Republican impaction would be flushed out of Congress and checks and balances would be restored.
The turnout for this year’s elections has to be of thunderously historic proportions. Pass the word.
10
Frank,
It is clear that self-identifying Republicans are a species in decline. The older the demographic, the more likely their GOP affiliation. And since the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers are slowly dying off, and young people just entering political life are not enthusiastic about the GOP, it stands to reason that the GOP is in at least long-term decline.
Meanwhile, Frank, you make the all-too-common mistake of cherry-picking a single poll to buttress your case that Trump's popularity actually increased last week. If you keep an eye on the RealClearPolitics and 538 polling averages (which someone in your line of work should be doing regularly), you'll see that Trump's overall approval rating has remained relatively consistent at around 42% for the past 2-3 months.
Finally, we already know that Trump's base will support him even if he is caught on tape admitting to giving Putin our nuclear launch codes, so what exactly is the story here?
1
My political awareness began with the Nixon Administration. Perhaps that is why I believe the downward spiral of political truth and honor began then, or perhaps it did actually begin in full swing there. Lies were obvious but as long as a politician could come up with some ridiculous explanation it was excused. As long as the narrative reinforced a reality that was offered as some version of an American Dream.
Any President, politician or public figure that proposed a truthful version did not last long or was hopelessly attacked, i.e. Carter, Obama etc.
Trump is the final incarnation, his dismissal of climate science is the perfect example of the unwillingness of the American Tribe to bear witness to the truth.
6
Stop saying that there is a dangerous political polarization in the Country . A more apt description is that one of the 2 main parties lost its collective mind . There is no equivalence here The GOP is not longer a serious conservative party . It is not even a reactionary party . It is a mad party following a mad leader . There is nothing wrong with America once the voters send this clown back to Trump Tower . Trump is an aberration and an abomination. Once he is gone , the Democrats will control politics for a long period of time . But after a long time out of power the Republicans will regain their senses and will become again the Party of Lincoln and Reagan . The USA will become again " a shining city upon a hill ". Trump will be only a bad memory .
4
I'd rather the Democrats were more united, but their divisions don't blow up the party. The other party -- which can't really be called Republican any longer -- has become Trump's.
1
I’ll extend THEM courtesy and understanding when they exhibit an iota of realistic concern for our Country and everyone NOT a straight, white, “ religious “ male. In other words, a VERY cold day in Hell. Seriously.
17
As a group, Republicans are amazingly uninformed. And this isn't a new phenomena. It started with right wing talk radio and the advent of Fox News. These medias are keeping voters locked into their prejudices and simple solutions to difficult problems. We could name it Bumper sticker mentality. They are not deplorables but only misinformed. But will probably stay uninformed .
2
@tom
"But will probably stay uninformed" is a lock, but the most upsetting factor is they choose to remain so. It is easy for them to remain scared and angry at all the "takers out there", never thinking they themselves are a very large percentage of that tribe.
1
I was on a flight from DC to Atlanta yesterday. There was a group from a baptist church on the flight coming from a convention and many had Trump hats on. I was seated in the middle of the whole group. I tried to ignore them but what I heard in their conversations was typical of what I hear from 'conservatives' all the time which is - "they (liberals, progressives, democrats) don't believe in God, they believe those liberal MSNBC and news media and they don't love our country."
An older gentleman across the aisle from me engaged me in small talk and asked me who I worked for. When I told him, he said: "You must like the same people we like." What I wanted to tell him was "no" we don't like the same people and if you really cared about our country you are backing the wrong guy. I also wanted to tell him that I loved my country as much as he did, otherwise I wouldn't have spent 27 years in the military, nor would my father have served 22 years, nor would my daughter have served as an Army helicopter pilot spending 15 months in combat in Iraq, nor would my father in law spent 20 years in the Army. I was on active duty when our country decided to invade Iraq under false pretenses and the disaster which followed. I began to question everything I thought about the 'party' and now I'm a different person politically. I wish that more people would think critically about what is going on right now and where we are headed with this administration.
40
@Southern Boy You should have told him in exactly the cool, calm way you just did above. Maybe, just maybe, he wiuld have learned something?
12
@AE Mohr
Unfortunately I don't think so. I know from the (fortunately few) in-laws I've tried to talk with about Trump. They are like cult members. They will deflect, repeat obvious lies, anything to avoid confronting the obvious. They're truly frightening.
This country is in a perfect storm of forces pushing demagogic fantasy over reality and a widespread belief that truth no longer matters.
Well funded propaganda outlets from Fox News, right-wing think tanks, alt-right media
social media mined and used to promote lies, disinformation, and cruelty
and wink-wink permission by Trump and the GOP to turn democratic liberals and our allies into enemies, and our authoritarian enemies into co-conspirators, collaborators, and colluders.
The enemy is not us--although it has been manipulated to be so by the perfect storm forces. The enemy is the nefarious efforts by the right wing and its crackpot billionaire donors to weaken government (kill taxes, kill social programs, kill regulatory agencies). For what? For all the money and all the power for the 1% (and there will never be enough of either to please and quiet them).
As long as they can keep us divided and hating each other, guess who wins and who loses? And how long will it take to figure this out? My guess is about a generation, if we can last that long as a viable democracy. And at the moment, that is a Big IF.
3
The Republican electeds were outraged after Trump's Helsinki performance. One could almost think they wete going to take action. But no, sitting on their hands, has
resumed.
Letting Trump control them is a hallmark of these Reeps, as is forgetting they must check the President, not acquiesce.
If Trump's sexism, racism, xenophobia, religious prejudice, enriching himself and family as a perq of his office and lack of governing skills hasn't turned them off, Putin won't.
They passed a tax package benefiting only their class and those richer than them. Thus classist law is Constitutionally forbidden--they should have all recused themselves from voting, and created a fair tax package that benefited all. But no...and $1 trillion was added to the deficit.
Only Congress can lay tariffs, according to the Constitution. But this Congress lazily let Trump create a trade issue, call it a national security problem, and began plastering tariffs around the world.
Now he wants to shell out $12 billion to farmers harmed by his very own tariffs. In the meantime, Puerto Rico still has no water and electricity.
Republicans jettisoned ethics and their oaths of office to back a guy with an ugly soul, no desire for public service, and lust for control and riches. They have become Trump.
Their base is onky 25% of the electorate.
The Dems are at 25%, too. Lacking insane rage as a motivating force, the Left must capture the other 50% with a progressive platform.
7
My fear, perhaps that should be capitalized, is that we are truly headed for another civil war that coul break out if the president and his tribe begin to be marginalized. That could happen with a turn over of congress in November as the ring of illegal voting will not be talked but screamed by the president, Fox, and the rest of the far right. There will be no way to convince them otherwise. I certainty hope that I am wrong, but with each passing day an outcome of that sort seems more likely.
3
The hint that Bill Clinton was anything like Donald Trump raises many questions about Bruni's overall views and fitness.
What's there for Republicans to forgive? The trump White House purged the incriminating parts off the "official" video and transcript of the Helsinki press conference. Since the base only gets their information from trump, FOX News and Russian trolls, they're unaware of trump's treasonous behavior.
"They were caught on camera and preserved forevermore: visible, audible, irrefutable." Really?
For the sad reality, an astute reporter for The Atlantic shows otherwise at https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/putin-trump-el... . Notice the whitewash of the "official" White House and Kremlin transcript of the Helsinki event. It's the new era of vanishing facts, science, and truth. Reuters' question to Putin “President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election ... ?” was "disappeared" from the official transcript and video in both the White House and the Kremlin. WaPo thinks it was a glitch - really? BOTH video and transcript?
"judgmental religious conservatives and once exuberant free traders" There's a reason pedophiles, neo-Nazis, misogynists, anti-Semitic, bigoted political candidates gravitate to the GOP.
Poll numbers show an emerging blue wave for November. Remember how those same polls also showed Hillary winning 2016? Same will happen in 2018. The GOP supports Russian interference in our elections on their behalf by obstructing any investigations into Russian attacks in 2016. They want the Russians to attack again!
11
Let us not forget Nixon enjoyed 50% support from his GOP lackeys the August day in 1974 he boarded the helicopter after resigning in disgrace.
As we teeter on the brink of yet another GOP economic disaster; one brought about by uncontrolled spending, runaway deficits, lack of regulations, and conditions not unlike the previous disaster, remember, ignorance stubbornness, stupidity, and freed brought us again to our economic knees.
3
It's been "anti-trump" almost all the time from non f-x coverage, trump babbles this, trump blusters that, trump lied here, trump lied there, 24/7 trump trump ...
The media space has been overwhelmed by its obsessive compulsion to rub all of our noses in his filth with no consideration whether it merits attending to. NYT
has tried to headline the lying parts, or the zero evidence parts,
but that too is irrelevant. Nothing he says has any staying power, substance, coherence...so why even bother
tending to it?
It would be just as useful to cover all this garbage by
publishing redactions with lots of blacked out
spaces where the lies, vile asides, demagogic attacks,
etc. were located. One could then interpret the significance of the redactions without
having to bother us with the irrelevant verbiage.
The trumpican cult is what it is. The society has always
had a large component that is xenophobic, racist, anti-intellectual, authoritarian, violent, paranoid, deeply suspicious
of the other, etc etc. These form, by now, the reservoir of his feral support, whose latest display of group think is the nbc-wsj poll. Nothing can/will affect this.
More telling is that this coverage has crowded out
fuller coverage of the details/consequences of the policy.
Instead, there's a helter skelter grab bag of its true awfulness.
To me, the poll indicated too many people don't fully grasp what's been going on underneath the distractions.
3
I know they don't like being called "stupid" since nobody would, but obviously no human being past or present deserves the blind and infinitely forgiving loyalty that Trump's fanatics give to their terribly unworthy hero. And the pathetic truth is, when the time comes and they're left holding the bag of his policy disasters, that loyalty will not be reciprocated -- they'll go to the wall for him but he'll go off to the golf course, his security team there to keep trespassing fans away. He merely uses them, the only base of support he can get. They are lost to rational debate. They cannot be reasoned with, only outnumbered, and the in the long run the numbers are with their political foes.
("Partisanship makes you stupid," wrote Mr. Christopher Hitchens.)
7
DJT is not the leader of this tribe. He is merely riding the wave initiated by Justice Powell in 1971 and amplified by the rich industrialists through their think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. This tribe has declared war on American Democracy and has won a number of battles over the past 3 decades.
The only peaceful weapon that Patriotic Americans have is their vote. It is a powerful weapon if aimed correctly.
Resist, march, register and vote this November. Make the present American Revolution a peaceful one.
3
"...the readiness to regard all political rifts as Manichaean and the quickness to hunker down are bigger than one corrupted party and one cracked president. They bless Trump as he blusters on from Helsinki. They’ll curse all of us for some time to come."
The resulting tribalism Mr. Bruni so well describes is the ugly convergence of tech, tech and more tech, all in the form of pretty much useless social and media platforms. First, while Trump and his tribe are the first to use Twitter as the vehicle for political action and official statements from the White House, as Twitter grew, it became the playground for trolls, bots and the breakdown in civil discourse and the embrace of personalizing all disputes, factual or otherwise. Trump just took the playground and made it into a college campus, so to speak.
Second, FB, which snoozed through its early years as the feel good platform of lost connections and family bonding. About the time Zuckerberg began ramping up FB as a media / cash / advert platform by selling data to analytics firms, Trump's band of tribals came along and deployed this platform to a T, along with the help of Russians.
Finally, beginning in the mid 2000s, it was no longer uncool to shoot pictures of yourself, and promote yourself and your ideas, as vapid as they were, to the world. Thank you iPhone, for the generation that believes that promoting the individual is above all else.
Trump took these forces and made his tribe, and it worked too well.
3
Would love to hear from economists/sociologists if this would have played out the same way with Trump's base if Trump had not inherited a near-perfect economy that Obama gifted him. My guess is that many are followers merely for the entertainment value they derive from vicariously venting their anger, any anger, through him. His lies do not hurt them - yet, but when they do, e.g. 'Oh you've been laid off directly as a result of one of his tarriffs?', they will realize that they can only hide behind his lies for so long before a mortgage payment cannot be met.
1
The majority of people - I know who support Trump are highly educated - professionally successful people - they are people I know, care about - friends and family - who live across this country -- this is why this is so scary -they all are blindly following Trump and Pence -
They all watch - Fox News - and they all totally believe the Russian interference in 2016 elections is a Fake News Hoax spread by the Liberal Press -
They find Trump obnoxious - only - not dangerous - and they are besides themselves that Trump is sticking to Europe, Mexico on Trade - and - they are ecstatic about Trump's Supreme Court success with the appointment of Gorsuch - and now - hopefully with Kavanaugh -
They are not uneducated or unaware - they are deliberately supporting this man - even though they are lividly against - Clinton & the whole Monica Lewinsky against their Spiritual Core Values - as they - dismiss all of Trump's sexual encounters as - 'before he was President' - as - it is acceptable to sow one's wild oats before President - as before being married.
But - the Truth will continue to come out - and the biggest truth of all to come out - is: November 6, 2018.
So, everyone needs to go vote - straight down ticket for Democrats - including: Governor, Lt, Governor, Mayor, Judges, Sheriffs, School Committee - US House Representative - US Senate - vote all these people out - so, those who wish to truly work together are voted in, by WE the People to truly lead.
3
It shows the lack of moral compass in so many Americans. They read their Bibles every day, but they skip over Mark 8:36 - "What profit a man if he gains the world and loses his own soul?"
Repubs are delirious with the notion that they may very well get everything they want in life - total destruction of the government, to be replaced by corporate hacks; institute an official religious government; total destruction of the environment in pursuit of profit; close off the borders to non-whites; push gays back into their closets, etc. They really could not care less if Trump is in collusion with Putin - if they get what they want they will let Trump do whatever he wants - as they have so far. With Repubs in charge the USA is pretty much done as a democratic, free country. By the time trump is done - and that may only be when he dies - the US will just be another banana republic totally dominated by corporations and a corrupt dictator. But Repubs will have gotten what they want. Tough for everyone else. Such is what happens when you elect traitors.
1
As long as they perceive that it doesn't personally affect them, people don't care. During the 1940's Germans didn't care that 6 million people were brutally murdered by their government. The overwhelming majority did nothing to resist or stop Hitler.
3
It is clear to me that the majority of the GOP supports Trump because they are attracted to autocracy, not democracy, to a "strong man", not a liberal in the classic tradition. Let's face it, a large part of the this country's population is flummoxed by the complexities of modern life and doesn't have time nor the intelligence to follow the trade wars, NATO dismemberment, tax policies, EPA regulations or Trump's peccadilloes. Better to just believe in someone who will guide the nation through these complexities with "straight talk", not canned political platitudes. And whatever else you can say about Trump, he does talk to his people every day via Twitter in the kind of plain English they can understand.
This phenomenon isn't limited to the U.S. Autocracy has always been attractive, whether it is historical royalty, or simply strong men like those in China, Hungary, the Philippines, Venezuela, Cuba, Poland, and the list goes on. What surprises and disheartens me is the extent to which this perniciousness exists in the oldest democracy in the world. A "shining city on the hill"? No longer.
Tom Nichols has a thread on Twitter (@RadioFreeTom) describing his encounter with two Trump loyalists. If these 2 are at all representative of the crowd, hatred of both President Obama and Hillary Clinton (based on falsehoods) is all they need to support Trump. Unreasoning loyalty is pretty tribal.
3
I suppose the next chapter in this story of extreme political tribalism will run along one of two lines:
America will enter a new phase of national aging in which it recognizes that it's not so different from those parts of the world where we see irreconcilable sets of people locked in endless struggle. There will be no further talk about seeking national unity or reaffirming shared values, except as a vain election-night attempt to de-energize the losing side for a while.
Or America will emerge from this fever soaked in sweat but set on the road to recovery. The tribalism of Democrats is an antibody that will decline as the virus it's fighting is cleared from the system. The tribalism of Republicans has been largely absorbed into the cult of personality around Donald Trump, which will tend to be cleared -- not only because Trump must pass from the scene, but because his believers will. Though they include people of various ages, they form a single generation in political history, and any second generation is likely to be much smaller. People are acute observers of their parents' foibles. The more doggedly the parents believe in Trump, the more strongly the children will be inoculated against belief in anything that smacks of him.
The bonding of Republican tribalism with Trumpism was the birth of hope that it will decline and that Americans can start getting back to healthy political competition. Donald Trump himself could turn out to have been the decisive antibody.
The litany of not simply misguided but outrageous statements and actions of Donald Trump never ends, and now abuts frank sedition. Yet to discuss such matters with a large percentage of Republicans is virtually the same as trying to talk with a follower of Jim Jones about his virtues and shortcomings. To an unbelievable degree the Party has simply abandoned reason. All this shall pass, as they say, but whether before or after irreversible catastrophe for America seems very unclear.
9
War, stagflation, a hate-filled, obnoxious drunk weren't enough to bring down the last certifiable GOP autocrat.
But actually breaking the law was enough.
So, we can only hope that Trump's illegal activity bubbles up to the surface while some of the country is still intact. Short of shooting someone on 5th Avenue, that is.
I'm very pessimistic, but even I can't believe that Trump's mesmerized mob will still support him. But then they voted for him in the first place, as they did for W, twice, so maybe they really can't be mis-underestimated enough.
3
You wonder why Trump's supporters are so steadfast? Look to yourselves liberals/progressives/Democrat-Socialists/Communists, or whatever you're labeling yourselves as these days.
Trump was a flawed candidate, and is a flawed president. His flaws are deep. And I know you won't want to accept it, but Obama was just as deeply flawed as a president, and Hillary was deeply flawed as a candidate, just in different ways. What drives Trump's supports to "stand by their man" is the rabid and unhinged attacks and outright lies against Trump, and anyone associated with him. The left loved Trump when he was just a real estate developer, but flipped to hating him the minute he became a republican candidate. Same guy, just in a different role. The left has taken to violent demonstrations, screaming in the face of people, spitting on them, stealing items of clothing, and turning people out of restaurants based on those individuals working in the Trump administration, or simply wearing a hat or shirt expressing support for Trump. If that's not unhinged, I don't know what is.
All of that behaviour drives Trump supports to "circle the wagons". The message of the left is one of hate. Only haters are interested in that. The worst you behave, the stronger the circle will become. You've poisoned most of the "middle" and undecided voters with these crazy antics, and I suspect that will show in this fall's elections. Look to yourselves this fall if the election doesn't go your way.
3
When Bill Clinton was in deep, deep trouble, his presidency imperiled by potential impeachment, I kept in mind the source of his difficulties. Clinton was under withering attack from the moment his won the election in 1992. There was no traditional honeymoon; it was made clear that Republicans did not believe that any Democrat should occupy the White House, much less one who rose from the isolation of Arkansas and did not come from an "established", meaning wealthy, family. He was unworthy in their eyes.
The effort to rid the country of Clinton followed the ordinary script of Newt Gingrich: search and destroy. It was the only way someone of Gingrich's background and character could ever hope to achieve a leadership position. So, elevated to Speaker in '92, Gingrich and company went after the biggest game of all, the president.
Unfortunately, like Nixon before him, Clinton provided ammunition, but it was blindingly clear from the get go that the Whitewater land deal was a puffed up nothing ball that could be used for other purposes, as it was by Kenneth Starr.
Flash forward to 2018 and many Republicans see their own reflection in criticism of Trump and the efforts to wedge him in. Trump's blundering verbal barrages and his going all kissy face with Putin don't matter. Nothing matters. He could set the White House on fire and they'd forgive him. They signed up for the "to the death" form of political warfare and they are locked in to standing their ground.
10
Doug Terry: Thank you for this short summary of hypocritical Republican tactics. Yes, for them this is all out war. Meticulously search every nook and cranny to destroy your opponents; if you can’t find anything, invent something and endlessly rag on it. For Republicans, money, time and lack of evidence are no obstacle. Winning is everything, by any means necessary.
After Helsinki, I no longer have much hope that the midterms will provide much of a cure for the disease that is Trump. That should have been the tipping point, but it seems we are already too far gone. Our place in the world, our once great nation, are being degraded, perhaps beyond repair in the near future. We are in the throes of a collective madness that bodes ill for our beloved country. Sounds familiar?
4
It's become so cult like that the only way Trump could lose any voters is if he asked them to stand on 5th Ave. and shoot themselves.
They're support is not based on what Trump stands for. It's who Trump stands against.
10
The White House official transcript of the Trump-Putin joint press conference omitted a reporter's question to Putin about whether he supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election, to which Putin answered yes. It was reported last night on MNBC that the White House video of that press conference deleted the audio portion of that question, making Putin's affirmative answer unrelated to the question of whether he supported Trump.
MSNBC also reported that the Kremlin transcript of that press conference omitted the reporter's entire question and Putin's answer as if it never happened.
Were these omissions on both sides just a coincidence, or, as much more likely, someone on one side conferred with someone on the other side as to how to change "the official records." It seems both sides colluded last week to scrub a piece of evidence which would support collusion in the 2016 election.
After the official record was scrubbed, Trump went on to assert that Putin will be supporting the Democrats in our 2018 elections. Trump also told the VFW convention not to believe what they actually see and hear in the media (just in case they hear that Putin supported Trump in 2016).
I will be waiting to hear if a question about this is asked at the next White House press conference. I may even believe my own eyes and ears if this happens.
15
Yes, yes, we know. Come on, NYT. Stop with the hand-wringing opinion pieces and start talking about the positive things elected progressives can do for us. Pound on that every day, tell us about it, analyze it, and do it without the dire-OMG-warnings about moving too far left. Point out how conservative policies are hurting us and how progressive policies will help us. Demand that Democrats running for office tell us their plans. We don't have much time left and we can no longer wallow in our slough of despond. There is NO TIME.
I'm not saying to forget Trump and Republican atrocities altogether. Maybe give us a once-a-week summary. Keep Mueller's feet to the fire. But no more hand-wringing. Mr. Buni, if you and your colleagues will saturate the opinion page with constant analysis of positive progressive policies, the Dems running for office (and the DNC, in general) just might get the hint they need to start providing solid, hopeful information to their voters. We need this now. We are out of time.
8
Similar sympathies to Trump supporters can be found in the Vietnam era "America - Love It or Leave It" which similarly defied the healthy democratic debates the Founding Fathers felt were appropriate for self-governance. And Nixon's "enemy" lists and so forth. As David Brock so adeptly pointed out, the GOP has practiced "enemy politics" since USSR collapsed, enemies being liberals, and way too many people drunk that KoolAid, and don't understand the personal and national costs of being hateful and closed minded as the world rapidly changes. Trump supporters remind me of a parent who, getting divorced, chooses the nastiest jerk attorney they can find to punish their former loved one(s) since they personally are wounded by the divorce - creating hell for everyone that didn't need to be so, and was the opposite of what religions say to do....but revenge feels good in the moment.
7
I am surprised that many columnists and pundits are perplexed with level of support for Trump among Republicans and conservatives. Trump is doing exactly what they want him to do. Trump is packing the courts including Supreme Courts with list provided to him by Federalist Society, he has gutted and in his way to repeal laws that deal with environment, consumer protection. and voting rights. His immigration policy is driven by Miller and Sessions. He is very close to the conservative Christians. The other important factor contributing to his popularity is White Nationalism. So unless the Liberal, progressive and the Left wake up and vote in unprecedented number (including young voter) Trump and GOP will win again and agin and change USA for worse for a generation or more.
8
Frank what you describe is not partisanship, it is a cult. Partisanship means you have a set of ideals that you believe and fight for. Trump Republicans no longer believe in fiscal responsibility, sober foreign policy, moral underpinnings, family values or American patriotism. Near as I can figure traditional, conservative political thinking is only practiced by intellectuals, some of the honest commentariat and those representatives heading for the exits. No, what ya got here is a cult. A cult of personality led by a man with a profound personality disorder.
7
In 1984 the movie "Red Dawn" came out, about a bunch of conservative kids who fought back with guerilla warfare against a Soviet invasion of the United States. I said to my friends at the time that the movie was a fantasy because the Republicans/conservatives wouldn't be the guerillas, they would be the quislings and the collaborators.
Looks like I was more right than I knew at the time.
6
Brings the Venezuelan Chavistas to mind. Rode the Chavez show right into the ground.
The American political process is run by, and vigorously protects, the two major parties. You got it right when you described the common tribal mentality as "whatever his flaws, his detractors’ are worse". The media falls into line with the major parties in preaching that elections are only really between the republican party's candidate and the democratic party's candidate.
So what if elections are about the lesser of evils to millions of us, and so what if that means we all continue to vote for evil--for empire-building, militaristic, dishonest, and greedy people who perpetrate war against weaker nations, engage in massive surveillance of Americans and regularly confiscate and redistribute wealth to their cronies?
This political system places the worst among us at the top of our government. It will continue to produce people who obviously lust for power but are slightly less evil than the other guy as long as voting is seen as an either-or choice. Americans (and the news media) should cool down their rhetoric against third parties and those who are considering voting for them. We need a better selection of candidates than those propped up by the two major parties.
3
In looking for some shred of a silver lining, I’ve got to place my faith in our younger generations who were not necessarily raised in an “us vs. them” world. Yes, they are self-indulgent and absorbed, but far more interested in the environment, technology and more aware of the world via their cell phones, social media, etc. Surely better leaders can come from this apolitical group? They have little to nothing in common with the old white men who make up the Republican trump party today. I am playing the Long Game, but it helps to not focus on the destruction being wrought before our eyes.
1
Politics has come down to this: “Our creeps are still better than your creeps”
4
Without question, Americans are the dumbest people in the modern world. You can look it up. It's in the data.
3
What is always interesting to me about surveys and polls, is that not once in my 67 years have I participated in one, nor do I know of anyone who has. So sometimes, when I hear about survey numbers, I wonder who it is that gets to give their opinion. To solve this dilemma, I exercise my right and citizens' duty to vote, every official, every election, every time. Vote. So, no matter how much we may be frightened at the neglect of the GOP to be horrified by this president's behaviors, remember, for people like me, a poll only represents the people who were asked to participate, and come November, we nonparticipants are gonna vote, vote, vote.
2
This tribalism is disconcerting, and the connection with Civil War racism is valid. My conservative acquaintances don't want to believe that Trump is betraying them and the country. "That's fake news," they say. Donald Trump tells them "Don't believe what you see or hear. That's not what is really happening." How chillingly Orwellian! Trump wants to be king, and many of his supporters want him to be king because only then can they stop the rise of brown and black Americans, Latinos and Asians--and women into positions of power and influence.
6
This is classic cognitive dissonance at work. Check out Leon Festinger's "When Prophecy Fails" from the 60's (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1835405.When_Prophecy_Fails). The more they are disappointed the harder they believe. They can't believe they were so gullible in the first place. There is very little hope for this syndrome. Essentially they will have to die off. Thus the Dems need be be very proactive in changing the narrative from what they're deprived of to what the Dems can deliver. Forget about "converting" the
1
I think that Marshall McLuhan back in the 1960's in "Understanding Media" said that the proliferation of mass media would lead to an increase of tribalism. This was when television was the latest thing but before the internet. Now with social media every interest group can create a place where all of them can gather without regard to location. My favorite example of this is the Facebook site for incels (involuntary celibates) but there are many more including political sites for every taste. This, along with the two party system, is what has led to the political polarization that we have today.
On the other hand I must note that we are not nearly as polarized as we were in 1861-1865. It is also noteworthy how much the Civil War remains a polarizing event 153 years after it has been over. This confirms William Faulkner's remark that "the past is never dead. It's not even past."
3
Well, Bruni got one part right. I'm not a Trump fan, but I do find the Liberal (Democrat) agenda to be repulsive. While I've given up hope on the @GOP to ever actually act as a party of fiscal restraint, at least they're cutting my taxes. Dems want:
- Open borders, amnesty, and absolutely no E-Verify
- Identity politics and the subordination of my rights to entitled minorities
- A corrupt Welfare state that represents an all-you-can eat buffet with no work requirements
Repulsive doesn't begin to describe it.
4
@RJ
I'm an eastern elite liberal. I do not believe in open borders. I believe we should have a sane policy on immigration that is enforceable. I believe, as did Reagan that the effort to deport all the existing undocumented would not be worth it. We need to find another solution.
I'm not sure which of my "rights" is being subordinated to minorities. I don't think I have any more "right" to good jobs, good schools, good health care then they do. I do believe that anyone doing business should serve all and not be free to deny anyone service because of religious convictions. I firmly believe that the market place is public.
I urge you to actually delve into the literature on "welfare cheats". The picture is very much different than you have been led to believe.
18
who said that's what Dems want? The GOP tribe! I'm a Democrat, and that's not what I want. There's the problem right there. They created a straw man, and you believe it.
18
@RJ "at least they're cutting my taxes."
Where do you think the money comes from to pay for things Americans want? i.e, good roads, safe bridges, etc. Cutting your taxes is NOT fiscal restraint, it merely reduces our country's income.
1. Democrats do NOT want "open borders." They support improved border security, but believe Trump's wall would be an ineffective waste of YOUR tax dollars.
2 Your rights are in no way "subordinated" when the rights of others are respected.
3. Welfare DOES have (and enforces) work requirements.
12
Yes, but what do we DO about it? We can’t teach critical thinking and reflection overnight, but surely the tribalism must end before it rips us apart.
2
Trump's style of politics breeds hyper-partisanship. If a political opponent concedes anything to Trump, he will not respond in kind. Trump will gloat, say "I told you so" and offer nothing conciliatory in return. This poisoning of our national dialog is probably the worst of Trump's many failings.
1
My daughter and I have been playing a new thought game called "What will it take for 'The Base' to turn against Trump". We haven't come up with anything yet. Collusion? Obstruction of Justice? Money laundering or other crimes? No. No. And No.
2
Never forget that he is in power because the opposition offered to do nothing other than "same old, same old" and he promised "to make America great again". They believe he is doing it, despite the carnage he is creating in the process. Why are you surprised?
2
President Trump’s narcissism, amoral behavior, abusive language and use of power, disrespect for the law and justice system in our country, and especially his pathological lies can all end today with a revolt; a revolt not by the people but by the GOP. If only the GOP can find the courage and the backbone they so easily surrendered, relinquish their self-serving agendas and stand up for the country, people and the truth against this tyrant of a coward, maybe then things will change. President Trump has done so much damage to this country and the world in his short tenure and will continue to do. Unless Mueller’s investigation proves the President has committed obstruction or other criminal wrong doings, President Trump will continue his tirade of lies and alternate reality of truths. I just cannot imagine what this country will look like after his term is up.
BTW…….whatever happened to Trump’s income tax returns?
8
Evangelical Christians are trained to think in Manichaean terms from childhood. Dispensational theology is a particularly twisted form of Calvinism in which those whom God created for destruction are gathered together for one final battle in the Middle East while those whom God loves are raptured off the face of the planet to watch the destruction from the clouds. That's why Israel is so important, it's where the battle starts with the destruction of the unbelieving Jews. That's why moving the embassy to Jerusalem is so important, it's a milestone on the countdown to the apocalypse. That's why global climate change is of no concern, God's going to make a whole new planet after we have destroyed the one we now have. I'm not making this stuff up. It is taught in every Community Bible Study across the South. It's the worldview incorporated in every Sunday sermon, if you're Southern Baptist, Pentecostal, Evangelical or a Fundamentalist Christian. These guys are modern day Darbyists waiting for Christ to return any day now. They can't hear anything we have to say.
29
@Jack This is so terrifyingly accurate. One will never succeed in persuading them of any alternative viewpoints because they believe they know God's will because they are special people chosen by their creator.
It's beyond me why Mr. Bruni and everyone else who continues to write about Trump's rise in the polls among his supporters don't realize that they are NOT in the majority -- because most Americans see what he and his administration are doing to this country, and don't like it.
2
For 8 excruciatingly long years, we had the Cult of Obama and to his supporters, he could do no wrong. No one really noticed that as such because the MSM never pointed out failings and flaws. They were part of the Cult and leaders of the cheering section. They still are.
What is forgotten is how many disapproved of Obama. His public approval ratings and approval of his policies were on par with Trump’s (often lower) and, according to Gallup, the 4-year average of his disapproval ratings for his 2nd term is slightly above 49%. That’s not good but you still rally ‘round Obama and Democrats while trashing Trump. That does not reflect reality.
Shoe is now on the other foot. Your ox is being gored. Others are happy with someone of whom they approve and you don’t.
Amazing that Trump does as well as he does with the MSM arrayed openly and bitterly against him at every turn.
That might be painful for you, Mr. Bruni, but such is Democracy.
2
@Parkbench Hey Parkbench! I enjoyed reading your comments. You have really spoken to what is going on. I can also see why your comments were not among those that were NYTimes picks. I am glad that you wrote in.
Frank, who usually is tapped into empirical reality, writes "I doubt that Democrats, faced with a leader like Trump, would fall this pathetically into line". Huh? The Obama Administration had full, unconditional support of the party and its allies in the media. Regardless of its incompetent foreign policy, its surrender of the Ukraine and Crimea to Putin, it's reckless disregard for separation of powers and it's political weaponization of the IRS, President Obama enjoyed Borg like unanimity from his party. The media was even more kowtowing, spending 2008-2016 in a rapturous stupor, only to awken when the GOP took over. Spare us the delusion, Frank.
1
check the facts. Every time "weaponization of the IRS" I'm guessing we're dealing with a Fox n Friends fan. it turns out the IRS was investigating all political "educational" groups and the one they wound up fining was a progressive one! This happened years ago but Fox forgets to mention it.
9
When national security experts study terrorism they always concluded on one culprit: Ideology. What is ideology? Whatever the terrorists believe. Ideology is a set of beliefs, faith, dogma, traditions, viewpoints, perspectives, doctrines, understanding. Closely tied to ideology is "identity": from personal identity to tribal identity. The flag, baseball caps, membership, circle the wagon, etc are all ramifications of tribal identity.
Human mind is a flawed filter system. The filter turns people blind to anything that falls outside of their adopted ideology. Wise ancient sages informed us that all human conflicts stem from two sources only: self-righteousness and self-interests. The common denominator is the deluded sense of self, the ego.
So here we have a selfish egomaniac, a double-down liar, adulterer with no moral shame, a treasonous elected official and his relentless tribe of like-minded people. That says something about the State of the Nation.
4
@Observer Hmmm??? Could those same adjectives be applied to FDR? Egomaniac? Adulterer? Liar? Hmmm??? JFK? Oops, I am sorry those guys were all saints. Guess I picked the wrong examples. Although Warren Harding was a Repub.
If Donald had a modicum of imagination or vision, he could've done things to expand his base, and he could've done it without alienating most of them. It isn't like they have anywhere else to go. Instead, he doubles down and maintains his status with them. He is playing electoral college roulette. It worked for him once and it may again. A lot can change between now and then. The mid-terms will be interesting.
1
The only force that could possibly reign in Trump are Republicans in Congress but they are afraid of antagonizing these die-hard Trump supporters since that would most likely lead to their losing their seats. Since nothing is going to change the minds of Trump's base, it will take a startling revelation from Robert Mueller for Congress to finally grow a spine.
3
@Ronald Aaronson Die hard supporters ???? Oh, do you mean "citizen voters?" Kinda like the folks who get to pick their politicians. He got picked and apparently, from the polls, the voters are still OK with it all.
@Sergeant Altman
Actually, a majority of voters voted for someone other than Trump and Clinton got 3 million more votes than he. Even if 90% of Republicans still support Trump, they are only 27% of the electorate. Independents are 43% and Democrats are 29% and they, especially Democrats, do not approve of what Trump has been doing. So, no, the majority of voters in this country are overwhelmingly NOT still OK with it all -- just "die-hard" Republicans.
And to clarify, although I didn't think it necessary: I use the term "die-hard" in the sense that support remains fairly constant for this guy despite whatever abominable words he may utter or deeds he may commit.
Trump's ignorance, his rage, his racism and even his being a Russophile are ALL features, not bugs.
If Democrats want to win, they *must* give up on the idea of winning back *any* Trump supporters, and concentrate on putting together a coalition of POC, educated women and young people who will get out and VOTE.
Once they give up on the idea of wooing Trump voters, they can start telling the truth about the tenuousness of our position as a democracy.
2
Trump's base is, as with every president, the core of his party. Self identified Republicans are now about 26% of the electorate. Trump has an 88% approval rating among them. 88% of 26% is what? About 23% of the country? And yet the media, yes including Frank Bruni, endlessly obsesses about these people. Why? Because they're loud? Because they're white? Because they're driving all of Trump's stupid policy choices via Fox and Friends and Sean Hannity?
How about the 75% of the country that hates Trump and Republicans to a varying degree from some to intensely? What about us? When do we get endless coverage?
The country is not with Trump and his MAGAT horde. The country is not with McConnell and his power hungry minority majority. The country is not with Ryan and his spineless caucus.
It's about time the media, especially both sides obsessed outlets like the New York Times, recognized it.
2
It doesn't seem that Trump is trying to motivate his core supporters and to sow defeatism in his opponents. The problem with his strategy is that he uses the same message (me, myself and I) to achieve these two objectives.
Trump is not Hitler, no reasonable person is afraid of him and his supporters. He will be worshipped by his supporters and ridiculed by the other voters.
"...the volume and velocity of his offenses turn them into a blur, just as the alarms that we in the media sound become white noise."
Indeed, Frank. And that's exactly the Bannon-Trump-Republican strategy: be so immoral, so unethical, so sadistic and so unAmerican that decent people cannot stand to see or hear this horrible man and so tune him out while his cult of defectives enable and celebrate the most egregious of offenses with a perverse glee reserved for the criminally insane.
I am a pacifist at heart, and even I fantasize about Trump's violent demise and would celebrate if it comes. I hate that truth. He and his neo-Brownshirts are deliberately forcing decent, moral people to extremes they could never imagine, and that will not end well for anyone.
8
"They simply notice that their man is under attack, and they rise to defend him." You keep missing the point. Trump's numbers are better for one reason, and one reason only:
The ECONOMY is booming again after a decade of stagnation. Every other issue is a side show, For some reason (I have a few guesses!), the press just can't see it.
2
@c smith
The economy began booming in the Obama administration. You can look it up.
The economy is NOT booming for everyone right now. Perhaps you missed the articles yesterday about Trump's 12 billion dollar giveaway to farmers, who are suffering because of Trump's own trade policies & tariffs!
Lobstermen in Maine are very worried about their livelihoods, due to the tit-for-tat tariffs by the Chinese - 40% on live lobsters & 35% on processed lobsters. But the Chinese don't have to give up their taste for lobster. They can just buy them from Canada.
So much winning!
1
The creation of and the apparent, but limited electoral successes of the current White House occupant can be laid at the feet of groups of actors on both side of the political spectrum. The one idea emerging from the "them and never us" politics of the moment is greater, broader, and more inclusive leadership required of future elected officials.
It behooves these leaders to work harder to heal than the triangulation politics of the Democrats or the racism so skillfully applied by the Republicans.
Also, a re-thinking of just how the news is disseminated in the future should not be left out of the list of future requirements for a better political climate and the necessary reunification of the nation. Too much of the reportorial thrust has been intellectually shallow, overtly biased, and hyped to a painful extent. For the future superficiality, can kicking, and acceptance of the current will doom us to even greater loss of what truly makes American great.
2
Politics has become just another sport that has fans and owners and coaches and franchises. The “juvenilization” of our society has led voters to think of the two major parties as “teams”. Now, everybody knows that a truly die-hard, “loyal” fan sticks with their team no matter what. Winning is all that matters. Before you know it, they’ll be calling the White House the Koch White House and selling helicopters and anti-aircraft missiles on the front lawn in between sessions of Congress.....
2
“Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” Donald Trump 7/24/18.
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" - the "Wizard" of Oz.
It is inconceivable that Republican voters cannot understand the magnitude of Trump's capitulation to Putin in Helsinki.
Perhaps, as someone else commented, these voters are simply afraid to admit that they were wrong, or that they were fooled. The only consolation is that, as Frank Bruni points out, a dwindling number of voters now identify as Republican.
- Dee, Esq.
4
I will accept that some will support Mr Trump, no matter what.
I take exception to your supposition that Democrats would not support such a President for long if he or she performed like our current President.
You must have forgotten the eight years of President’s Obama’s failed policies— especially foreign policy. Despite his flowery rhetoric. As Mr Churchill once opined—“No matter how beautiful are your policies, you must occasionally review their results”.
Democrats never waivered in their support of him, as evidenced by the 2012 election.
1
Let’s move away from the platitudes and not so discreet charmless interests of the bourgeoisie, and do some real reporting on issues impacting everyone.
Trump’s fiddle is playing up the “illegal immigration” is ground zero for all your troubles tune. One wonders how Trump's so-called "Tribe" would react if they actually had access to the facts. The notion that people are so inured to the real world is a bit hard to believe; ignorance can kill you. It also applies to trade deals as well as military treaties (NATO). Everyone is taking advantage of this group of people. Everyone.
The culprit, however, is not just Fox News, it’s the fault of the main stream media as well which has been touting the notion that the country is becoming a “minority” majority nation for the better part of the two decades. Trump latched on to it and the rest is history.
Yesterday, the NY Daily News laid off 50% of its staff. The publisher claims that there’s little appetite for buying dailies. When the paper had investigative journalists like the late Jimmy Breslin, who walked the streets of the city for stories impacting local communities, people paid attention. But when the paper devotes miles of ink to a Kardashian-like stories with no bearing on people’s everyday life, why should they spend their hard earned money? Ditto, the national networks. Stories about pandas are cute, but not when safety regulations are being decimated.
8
Trumps followers bring the adage “ ignorance is bliss” to a whole new level.
18
To this excellent article on tribalism should be added one on tribalism in connection with Scott Pruitt by Vox some days ago:
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/4/7/17205276/scott-pruit...
2
The left freaks out about the trivial stuff Trump does -- like his tweets -- and ignores the policies. Republicans like many of Trump's policies and political ideas -- and they like his SCOTUS nominations.
They are glad HRC isn't president. And that Schumer and Pelosi aren't in power.
And they find the MSM daily fact free tantrums annoying.
Helsinki wasn't a failure -- as much as the leftie press gleefully braes it was. He was asked an idiotic question -- which he could have answered better -- but what was he supposed to do -- threaten to punch Putin in the mouth in public if he didn't confess then and there?
You can't indict Putin over Russia's pitiful attempts at influencing our elections. I say pitiful because FB ads were a joke and everyone knew HRC and the DNC were baggage. And while the intel community may believe that Putin was behind it all, I guarantee they couldn't prove it in court. And not a vote was changed due to whatever they may have done.
So all the leftist whining isn't doing anything except making you look silly. Those in the middle and to the right want: 1) control of borders & immigration, 2) strong economy 3) strong military & Nato paying their share, 4) lower taxes, 5) Nuke free NK & think Paris accord was a bad deal, ditto the Iran deal, that the ACA was at best badly crafted.
And they are tired of identity politics, sanctuary cities, attacks on the police (based on false media narratives), etc.
Deal with it.
1
@Ralphie By “ deal with it” I assume you mean be silent. Best of luck with that.
9
@Psst Actually the more the left tries to de-legitimize Trump's presidency, the better it is for the right. So natter on. It's amusing that adults can be so infantile (leftist adults).
@Ralphie Ralphie, You nailed it! Great post. I doubt that I would want Trump over for beers but I like the results he is getting.
Why are Trump's poll numbers up? That's easy...
This Clinton voter sees the exact same thing happening now that blinded the NYTimes and other media from seeing what was happening leading up to the 2016 election (who can forget the NYTimes almost daily reminder that Clinton was gonna win and how Trump had NO chance): most folks know Trump is an amateur. So when he acts as such, they wait to see where it goes, rather than jump to pants on fire immediately.
But yet, to the NYTimes and others, Trump's boorish and amateur behavior is the ONLY story. So much screaming about every thing he does- literally, every week, a new MAJOR event in Trump world (that quickly gets pushed aside for the latest)- has a dulling effect- like being lulled into thinking Clinton had it wrapped up before any vote was cast (91% chance the NYTimes told us).
For his supporters, I can certainly understand why this forces them to like him even more. And when you call them (many who voted for Obama twice) racists, Nazi sympathizers, etc. you only strengthen their support for him.
1
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." --Churchill
Not to worry, Mr. Bruni: the Democrats are blessed with at least as many idiot voters as the Republicans. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Donna Brazile became standard-bearers as reflections of the party's core, not through accidents of fate.
1
In a recent trip to Nuremberg, I visited the museum there and was reminded that 99.9% of Germans supported Hitler and the Nazi party. We all saw the picture of the German crowd cheering for Hitler to a disastrous end. We are lucky that more than half the citizenship is against Trump and what he stands for but we have to accept that he unleashed a torrent of racism, islamophobia, xenophobia and anti Semitism that is likely to remain with us and could end up tearing apart our society and our country apart. The white (slowly diminishing) Christian majority refuses to accept that the demographic is changing and want to continue to dominate other races, ethnicity and religions even if they turn this country into a while apartheid nation.
16
Your statistic is wrong. The fact is that many were and remained against Hitler, even among Germans, and were imprisoned, killed, driven out of Germany, fought with the underground, etc. Hitler's ascension and popularity were bad enough without grossly overstating statistics for effect. We owe those who opposed him that.
10
Don't take my word for it, I invite you to visit the museum in Nuremberg. I got my statistics from the Germans, feel free to write to the museum and disagree with them
It is neither necessary nor sufficient to visit the site you recall as the apparent sole source of a statistic that would require the German Confessing Church, the Jewish population, and more to count as supporters of Hitler. The internet is replete with sources that delve into exactly this issue. I recommend that anyone interested in this matter study them.
1
The theory that there exists some statistically significant bloc of upright disaffected Republicans seems to be overplayed by Dems who are having trouble adjusting to the reality of what is clearly a total and irreversible Trumpian hijack of the GOP. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but outside the editorial pages of legacy media publications, mainstream cable news punditry, and the Heritage Foundation, these sorts of tweedy, traditional Republicans don't exist in any meaningful sense.
The interesting question is why so many liberal commentators cling to the illusion that the GOP retains some steadfast core of principled conservatives that are still amenable to compromise. It's time for Dems to deliver their own responsible populist message and stop triangulating with a party that proudly represents the most vile instincts of American society.
2
I know many Trump supporters who say they supported him because he promised to bring jobs back and make America great again. They believe he will. And, they did not like Hillary Clinton or her husband, Bill, and they frequently mention Bill Clinton's sexual dalliances. Those who don't support the current administration must refuse to allow discussions of personality to end for the peace of things, and must be firm in directing the discussion into concrete policy issues, such as, how and when and where we started to lose jobs first. We must be keep principles above personalities and, if the other side cannot, we much call them on that.
1
The Long term political program of the Koch Brothers and others has had a salutary effect. When government is imaged as the enemy and there is little push back, expect totalitarianism.
In "Dark Money, The hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right", Jane Mayer exposes the conspiracy. That, for example, the EPA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can be shuttered, when they protect us all from corporate and financial abuse, is an example of how far we have fallen from knowing what's good for us and what's not.
1
A big part of the issue is that Trump isn't an outlier. He is the Republican Party, just a more uncouth version of it. The Republicans haven't believed in reality for years. I remember before the 2004 election when a poll showed that 46% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein had attacked the US on 9-11. They still believe that they are the party of fiscal responsibility and family values, despite their massive deficits and their leaders (Trump, Jordan, Gingrich, Vetter, Guliani, etc.).
If you want to change them, you first need to pierce their information bubble. I don't know how to do that, but a start might be for reality based media like the NYTimes to stop publishing false equivalencies between the moderate Democrats and the extremist Republicans.
41
The Republican party is shrinking. We'll see how many moderate Republicans, independents, and cross-over Democrats support GOP candidates this fall.
1
@Dr--Bob Good question. I, too, will be watching.
This is an excellent column, but it only scratches the surface of a profound difference between not just Americans but people the world over. On one side are those who see life as essentially a contest of wills in which the victors deserve the spoils. "Winning" is everything - by whatever means necessary. These people tend to vote Republican. On the other side are those who regard life as a matter of preserving a larger community, a level playing field ordered by rules and a sense of "fairness." These people tend to vote Democratic. From the beginning, America has been a battleground between these two views of what the country should be. It's not so much "the curse of modern partisanship" as the price of forging and maintaining an increasingly complex democracy.
18
What Bruni describes is a retreat to authoritarianism in the face of multiple threats to the moral order: loss of jobs, loss of cultural relevance, loss of demographic primacy, all coupled with the threat of terrorism.
We humans always need someone to blame. In the existential crisis faced by working-class whites, that blame hardens into hatred. From that hatred, it is but a small step to unquestioning support for the authoritarian leader.
The future of this country may depend on whether liberals (who view themselves as paragons of civic virtue) can, themselves, overcome the need to blame, and work constructively for solutions to our many problems. Can they avoid "whataboutism," and build bridges to their fellow Americans in dire need. That is the central question of our time.
For an expansive treatment of these issues, I recommend this superb article:
• "When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism," Jonathan Haidt, The American Interest, June 10, 2016 http://wp.me/p4ja0Z-Apc
5
@Ron Cohen Thanks for sharing this article. Sheds light amidst the heat
@Ron Cohen To get some insight into the current cultural dynamic I read Haidt's "The Righteous Mind". That book should be required reading for everyone in the media and in politics. I have concluded, perhaps wrongly, that there are no angels. Just people who believe in... stuff.
Enough about partisanship. We need to name this for what it is--a cult. Trump has made himself into a cult leader in the way that Mao did in his last years. Sanity has been hijacked by devotion to an individual. Sad.
24
Let them curse. The recent Washington Post reporting from rural Alabama shocks. The locals there believe the Christian admonishments to the brotherhood of man only apply to Americans, and that one may. for instance, sinlessly cage all other children, and that Trump is God's agent sent to defeat the Satanic Hillary Clinton. One can only resolve to defeat such people at the polls, and send the awful power they have seized back to the fell precincts it has always inhabited, where lynching once flourished, and where these voters express fear and dismay at a memorial to the victims.
5
There was a comment that said the Democrats were to blame for the divide and portrayed Trump supporters as victims of the RESIST movement. Hardly. The current division of America and the extremism of the GOP is not failure on the part of Democrats. It was a populace to whom Trump gave "thumbs up" for open bigotry, for "me first" mentality like those who shoved others out of the way to board lifeboats when the Titanic was sinking, and have (like their leader) very little understanding of the nuances of government. They believe that if Trump claims credit for something good, or says something is bad, are either too lazy, too besotted or too narrow minded to find out if he is telling them the truth. There was, and is a lot that Dems address, but they don't promise things that aren't real. How are those Trump supporting farmers and recently laid off factory workers feeling now? They still defend him. They still think the jobs will come back. They still think coal will come back. They ignore that we have been cyber-attacked. They still think Hillary has horns and a tail. So I WILL still resist...to help our democracy survive, to encourage fairness and tolerance for EVERYONE. To resist is not to create a division -- it is to say loudly that what Trump is doing to our nation is like murder, and I will not stand aside and do nothing. Trumps crowd has been whipped to a frenzy, but maybe when saner minds are leading, we can mend the divide.
4
Remember, with regards to Republicans, there's nothing new here. How about the former darling Sarah Palin. She was the warm up act for Trump. The list is long of republican nuttiness that ultimately led to Trump like the freak show of Tea Party Republican candidates that ran for office who thankfully lost ("Victims of rape don't get pregnant "Todd Akin and "I am not a witch" Christine O'Donnell). And what about Rush Limbaugh and Fox?
There is simply an entire industry that is built on exploiting people's ignorance and fears. And it's a profitable industry. There's money to be made here and the puppeteers know it.
39
Lincoln, speaking to a house irrecoverably “divided against itself,” said “we are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” Is the current ferocious divide a Trump-inflated mania, or is he only the sign that red and blue have become intolerable to each other? The question now for red and blue partisans seems to be whether there is any basis for agreement on the most general of sentiments.
If there is no agreement at all, there can be no loyal opposition. And if there is no agreement at all, not even on the facts or the terms of discussion, then calls for civil discourse are vain. Because who will reasonably urge discourse with - or civility toward - the intolerable.
So, do our red and blue factions now consider each other intolerable? If so, then our future is up to the undecideds.
Are such people centrists? Do they have some third, unspoken, vision? Or are they “swing voters,” who contain both views of America, at once and unresolved, voting and acting as one or the other narrative seems applicable to a given issue or candidate or moment?
To judge from our elections, most centrists are in fact swing voters, choosing now red now blue candidates. These swing voters, paradoxically, have helped to place in our legislatures and on our courts representatives of both extremes, red and blue. Partisan or centrist, it seems we have all conspired to elect individuals intolerable to each other and incapable either of sustained leadership or of compromise.
1
“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public” - H.L. Mencken. Does that sound like an elitist position? Well, as some many Trumpists are fond of saying, "Get over it." The evidence (Remember that stuff? You know, like facts) is overwhelming.
44
Your President & Co. are not interested in international affairs, climate or whatever, except if it either seems to be "threatening"(or is fabricated as such) or makes a "profit" of some sort. The NY times, Wash. Post, CNN etc,can go on with comments or questions but it won't matter. The Trump mob laughs and the Rep. voters don't read or listen to this.Only if his mob and the Rep. voters begin to feel the negatives in their wallet, rich or poor, or the climate is turning more nasty ,the tide might turn. It is possible that this conman and utter narcist will eventually fall in his own sword. Perhaps the rest will go down as wel then. Best is in my opinion : concentrate on digging up the dirt to remote that lot, to try to get a better political system, get rid of that gerrymandering, better political info and education towards the whole population (yep, difficult in a split society and media-landscape as in the USA) and modernise that Democratic Party. If ever the Dems get back in the White house again, first thing is to invest on all fronts in these poor parts of the USA.
Seen from Europe, concerning many themes Trump & Co are a real threat towards the world.(Wat he likes in fact; gives satisfaction to his self-esteem that needs propping up every minute..something very wrong there) Really don't know why such a corrupt lot can not be unmasked and removed faster. Well, succes. Next time hope we will see a better President. Mrs Clinton would have been normal at least.
5
I read so many articles with quotes from Trump supporters, I find what they say completely irrational.
34
Trump "channels" anger and frustration by scapegoating anyone and everyone --folks who are featured in the grocery tabloids for the past 50 years, whether they be elected officials (both parties), celebrities, professional people and/or minorities. His is the politics of resentment, and he can find plenty of class resentment by working both ends of the class spectrum-- he is simply the yellow journalist in chief. He has seized the presidency, the national microphone, and he hourly stokes anger. Those with the most anger and hostility love him, and there are plenty of our fellow citizens who are "mad as hell," and they are not going to turn on him-- he's their hero.
15
Both parties have morphed into organizations that differ greatly from their original platforms. Isn't it time for a new party that takes the best ideas from both and creates something that's good for the majority of Americans? It's too hard now to identify with either group, and disgust could have been the reason why some people stopped voting.
1
Just factor in Obama derangement syndrome and skin color and it will all make sense. They always say the "something had to change", but can't really point to what was so bad economically 18 months ago, except on little thing.
Mr. Bruni, it's time to admit, the followers of Trump other than the wealthy are just flat out stupid.
That is the only way to explain increasing support for the horror show we witnessed last week in Helsinki.
The average Joe, supporting someone who is as horrifyingly unfit at this man has no other explanation.
29
I don't believe integration and the anti-Vietnam War movements, for example, were successful as result of all the strongly worded comments sent to the New York Times comment board.
It was people leaving their houses and going into the streets, over and over and over again. The civil rights and anti-War demonstrations, for example, were not populated with people pushing baby strollers; and, they were not one off events.
Sorry, these events we call "protest marches" are really parades. Remember the women's protest in Chicago in 2017? The authorities told the protesters that they could not guarantee their safety, so the protesters disbanded and went home.
Why isn't there a permanent protest encampment on the Mall? Why aren't there demonstrations every week? If the civil rights demonstrators and anti-War demonstrators waited for the Senate majority leader or whomever to say or do something, well... you get the picture.
13
@Here we go Excellent points. It was a true resistance. And we cannot forget the bus boycotts.
2
As I understand it, approx 26% of eligible voters are republican. So 88% of 26% is approx 23% of eligible voters.
This clown can be beat, but people must vote.
It starts with the November midterms. Don't sit home and whine, or wait for perfection-- a democrat congress will put the brakes on most of this insanity.
*Note: I am not a registered democrat; but I will never again vote for any republican (national or local) until they stand up for the nation and take down this wanna-be dictator.
53
" A house divided against itself cannot stand." America is divided against itself. And it is going doing down in flames unless it can change course.
Another op-ed piece in your paper today, " Trump Reveals Himself as the Bully of His Allies" makes the case that the rest of the world is already making plans without it.... all this thanks to "Donal Trump's Relentless Tribe" and the complicity of corporate America.
24
So many of the commentators, and comments, focus and fixate on why voters like Donald Trump. Perhaps it would be more efficacious to try to understand what it is about our politicians and policies that they so loathe, find so repulsive, that a near majority of voters would rather vote for an odious individual like Donald Trump. From what I’ve observed, almost no one, including his supporters, likes Donald Trump. They just see him as better than the alternative.
1
"They bless Trump as he blusters on from Helsinki. They’ll curse all of us for some time to come."
There is a magical spell that can lift the Curse of Trump Supporters:
Step1: Declare with conviction, I will not vote Republican but I WILL vote
Step 2: Enter polling place
Step 3: Pull the lever, check the box, press the button as appropriate.
The curse removal spell only works if it is cast more times than the curse itself, so everyone who is pro democracy and pro American needs to learn it and repeat it every November.
Getting enough participants has proven difficult at times, but it could be worse. At least we can get rid of Trump without having to destroy seven Horcruxes.
I think.
28
"His shamelessness is actually his saving grace."
The worse he acts (to liberals or the otherwise sane), the more popular.
What's left unsaid here in an article about partisanship is the word "cult." Many have noted that Trump's base seems to have been hypnotized into accepting behavior that, by another man or woman, party or country, would be excoriated.
More than tacit acceptance, it's active "groupthink." More and more, today's world is indeed resembling the writings of George Orwell, where up is down and black is white if the beloved (or forceful) leader says so.
Yesterday, we learned that the White House doctored up the Helsinki tape to exclude the very important question and response about whether or not Putin favored Trump.
Of course, this drives Trump up a wall, so it got removed.
Today I heard White House policy will further restrict information, refusing to share with American taxpayers whom their leaders are meeting with, what was said, and what's been promised.
A little know tidbit from the secret Helsinki meeting is that Russia attacked a US commander in the Middle east for daring to go against the president's "agreement with Putin, that of course he had no idea about.
This example is Kafkesque, with people accused of not knowing information they have never been given. This goes way beyond partisanship--it's censorship for propaganda purposes.
Disorienting? Yes. Dispiriting? Yes. Dangerous? Absolutely.
154
Yes. His followers are like those of the last century who sought easy answers to the problems of their time in regression to childhood encouraged by authoritarian leaders, the Big Daddy who would keep them safe and make them happy if they just believed hard enough and followed unquestioningly. They too wanted their followers to ignore what they read and saw, as Trump told his to do recently, and just believe whatever he said. And they did. Not because they were poor and forced to it; there were other options in that case, many. But because it was easy, it was even fun, the shouting, the belief in their own superiority, the spectacles, the hatred, even. They find meaning in this false narrative, and objection to it is heresy because they don't want to give it up. Resistance, and success in that, is necessary now. Last century, it took war to free the world from that oppression; we must stop it before that point this time.
95
@ChristineMcM
"More than tacit acceptance, it's active "groupthink.""
Human beings are herd animals.
I think we should all call out our Trump-voter friends and relatives, difficult as this is to do. I am reluctant to do it too, but it is time to shame them for supporting the insupportable.
I remember Watergate, and how the tide turned at long last. Part of that was neighbor talking to neighbor, and simply not being able to defend him any longer.
14
@ChristineMcM First of all, I don't like to keep bringing up Nazism and WWII. But, I will say, now we know how a very cultured country could fall into barbarism. My husband who is German (he's been a naturalized American citizen since the early 1960's) is very alarmed. He lived thru that era and now is wondering if he's now considered a 2nd class citizen. We are even wondering if we should spend our few years left in Germany. We have family and friends there and would be welcomed. I mourn for what too many people in this country have become; haters.
13
Is it possible that Trump is a perfect fit with fundamentalists, for whom any questioning becomes an attack? After all, once one belief falls--that Noah's flood did not carve the Grand Canyon in forty days, what is left to prop up the others? Maybe the resurrection did not happen either. Maybe we are just dead when we die? Of course, we know that many deeply religious and spiritual people find a way of reconciling their faith with doubt, but in that case we are talking about faith and the verisimilitude of lived experience. For the others, don't suggest gently that if we really want to reduce or even stop abortion, perhaps we should really make long-term birth control cheap and readily available, and if we care about children, our caring should not stop when they are born. Don't suggest that if God selected Donald Trump, doesn't it follow that he likely chose Obama, too, if we are going to be consistent. We can't talk because we are the enemy.
27
This problem is not unlike a problem that we face in epidemiology called the "health worker survivor effect". "The 'healthy worker survivor effect' describes a continuing selection process such that those who remain employed tend to be healthier than those who leave employment. (Epidemiology. 1994 Mar;5(2):189-96.) Just replace a few words and it becomes: 'The Trump Supporter effect describes a continuing selection process such that those who remain loyal to Trump tend to be more unquestioning and determined than those who no longer support Trump.'. This and other articles suggest that there are methods to begin to resolve this issue and I recommend that that Nate Silver and his group look at epidemiological experience to find help.
2
According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, only 38% of Americans approve of Trump's job performance since the Helsinki Humiliation while 58% disapprove. Let's see if $12 billion will buy back some of those soybean, corn and hog farmers.
64
@Christy - I keep hoping that our farmers and their families are as intelligent as I think they are and won't be fooled by this further idiocy from Trump.
Maybe this never was about Rep. vs. Dem. , or liberal vs. con.
Maybe it’s about fear and hatred vs. virtue and morality.
Prior to,the election, I knew people who,walked around with clenched fists and clenched jaws. Their,hatred of Obama and of Hillary and of anything “different” unhinged them. Trump was largely regarded by those opposed to,him with disbelief, contempt and some humor. But, little,hatred. Trump has essentially founded a new political,party..the “FHV Party”...fear, hatred and victimhood.
These traits existed in many of our fellow citizens long beforenTrump. But,,he has cynically stoked their fear and hatred and tapped,into,it.
Trump will be gone at some point,,but, those who,fear and hate will remain.
103
88% of Republicans support Trump, up to and including his personal scandals, corrupt policies and cabinet officers, racist policies, destructive trade policy and the treasonous behavior we were treated to last week. These people hang onto every word that rolls off the forked tongues of the likes of Reverend Jeffress and Rand Paul. Jeff Sessions even got into the spirit today, chanting "lock her up" with a bunch of conservative high schoolers. Rand Paul, at the same event, when John McCain's name passed his lips, was greeted with boos.
Trump continues to enjoy the same free attention as he did during the election cycle. Democrats, on the other hand, are both woefully inadequate in their response to Trump and their shrinking violet attitudes. They are also still in hot pursuit of that mythical Republican unicorn who votes Democrat, rather than shoring up the base and getting the independent voter back.
The number 88% seems imposing, daunting even. But what are we talking about? There are as many independent voters as there are Democrats and Republicans.
Democrats not only need new blood, they need to cede the reins of power lest they lose so much more, there will nothing left to pass on.
---
Dems’ Red Scare vs Trump’s Agitprop: Who Ya Gonna Believe? Trump or Your Lyin’ Eyes?
https://www.rimaregas.com/2018/07/24/dems-red-scare-vs-trumps-agitprop-w...
22
@Rima Regas,
the base isn't big enough to overcome the electoral college or out-sized influence of red states. there are many more red state with low populations yet still get 2 senators- disproportional representation. the left will continue to lose if you follow the voting trends over the past decade or two.
the population of this country has got to redistribute itself, create little berkeleys, madisons and ann arbors all over the country. tech companies can buy half of montana and give everyone a home for the price of coffee for a year in SF.
this is the new way to think: not ceding more than half this country that could be richly developed, vibrant with new economies and space and work for everyone including immigrants and refugees.
2
@JA
What you propose is interesting and a good idea, even if it isn't done for the reason stated here. But these kinds of shifts take a long time and a mindset that we couldn't be further away from at this point in time. It certainly couldn't be effected by November, elections 2020, or 2024.
Alabama's special election taught us that we can excited the base and engage it to win. For that, you need a compelling message and leadership. We have neither at the moment.
As for the number of voters that comprise the Democratic base and independent left-leaning voters? These are the numbers from 2016. We need to get those who didn't vote at all and those who voted Trump to come back. If they do, then we can win.
See: https://www.rimaregas.com/2016/11/27/silent-class-revolt-most-democrats-...
@Rima Regas,
I understand the immediate urgency as well. for 2018, I would vote for any and all dem that won the primary depending on where I lived: I would vote for Conor Lamb in PA, Osacio-Cortez in NY, I'd vote for Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill, whatever.
can't do anything in life unless you can get yourself in "the room where it happen".
like the repubs do, I'd vote for a democratic broom with a wig on at this point.
If Trump had been allowed to succeed or fail on his own actions, support would not be coalescing and hardening.
But he wasn't. He got all caps 'resistance'. Us vs Them.
And to 'resist' him was to continue to belittle the very real issues that led people to vote for him.
And belittling those issues denigrated those people who have legitimate concerns and challenges in their own lives. So Trump support became personal; voter vs voter.
It's no longer about supporting him because he is in any way likeble. His policy actions are probably a mix of support but really his supporters want to see the 'resistance' fail.
They are not voting for him but against you and that would not have happened if Democrats had been at all serious about addressing the issues that actually concern people in their day to day lives.
They want him to succeed so that the people who hate him, and by proxy them, fail.
28
@CNNNNC
They did not vote for him but against Hillary. Tragic.
2
@CNNNNC
It's not just you, but many take some observations (perceptions even) and concoct a theory to explain them. I guess it's a human thing. But, like in mathematics, it is possible to fit many different curves through a small number of points. Just because it fits, doesn't mean it represents the underlying reality.
1
Your view sounds credible, but is mistaken. The hatred and passion were in the populace well before Trump gave it voice or anyone resisted his falsehoods, accusations, and attempts to sunder us from each other. When a black man won the presidency, the racist remnant, a large remnant and a virulent one, was awakened to fury. The reliance of Trump on vilification of immigrants and implicit vilification of races other than his own, the resurgence of misogyny that his actual attacks on women finds appealing--these were already here. And your idea that not fighting would placate these partisans is the opposite of useful. Should we not have elected Obama, to please them? No. They consider that idea placation, which it is, and which they despise us for. The thought that they are children or idiots for us to tiptoe around or educate makes them laugh, and not in a nice way. Yes, they vote against those they hate, but they will not stop hating even if we pretend they are right or virtuous. This is a battle, and counseling niceness, while sounding--nice--betrays a basic misunderstanding of the dire situation.
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Sure you can nit pick over the small downtrend in the percentage who identify as Republicans, but it is all window dressing around the devastating pattern that reveals a substantial plurality of ongoing support for the behavior and policies of Mr. Trump. I will continue to be embarrassed by my country’s democracy until the contests between a candidate who offers reasonable and compassionate solutions and one who spouts hatred begin to consistently come out in the range of 80/20.
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Mr. Bruni, it’s likely that Republicans and supporters of this president have spent so much time defending him and believing in his message that abandoning him now is no longer an option. Their emotional investment in him is complete and total. His insensitivity, his unfitness, his racism and intolerance, his lying and faithless personal behavior, his snubbing of protocol and political norms have endeared him all the more to a fawning electorate who see him as an extension of themselves. To be appalled by his behavior is to acknowledge their own flaws, something they’ll never admit to. He’s allowed them to exhale after decades of feigning niceness and civility. They don’t have to fake it anymore.
They see America and the world through the same warped prism he does and his office gives their prejudices and intolerance credibility. His hate resonates with them and justifies their tribal instincts. He validates their personal scorn for minorities. They take comfort in this president because he is their shepherd, and in him they trust.
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The real fault isn't those voters/republicans who support the president; the real fault is with members of his party in Congress who refuse to aggressively stand up to him. Give the man a few losses, call him out from the well of the senate. Sure, these elected officials may be primaried, but they also may draw more support from independents and even democrats who like some of their policies -- lower taxes, more restrictive abortion rights, whatever. That they are cowardly and cravenly holding onto their party without holding as firmly onto their principles espoused just a short time ago is the real scandal.
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"The real fault isn't those voters/republicans who support the president..."
Uh, yeah it is.
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Frank Bruni's columns are so passionate and persuasive—at least to people like me, the members of his "tribe"! I admire him for his clear and unaffected writing, as much as for his ideas and opinions.
Particularly effective is the use of the curse/blessing antithesis in the subtitle of today's column. Our tribe believes Trump to be one of the most pernicious people at the pinnacle of American politics — and we are aghast that Republicans don't agree and would ever support this man.
But the thinking/feeling goes much deeper. We cannot see ourselves as a "tribe" at all, opposed by other such groups. Rather, we think we are the ones who are absolutely right about all this, the ones who understand how our system of government is supposed to work, and who believe that our institutions are suffering almost irreparable harm, along with our stature in the world.
The frustration becomes enormously depressing and does lead many of us to to try to turn off our attention — until we are pulled back into high-alert mode by the President's latest fiasco or flagrant violation of his Constitutional oath.
But: it is midsummer, and with Bruni as one of our most eloquent commentators, let us look ahead to the election in late autumn—with hope that it will mark the start of a turning point, when a great majority of Americans unite into a band of citizens crying "ENOUGH"!
Help us to keep that hope alive, Frank, and we will all be in your debt.
What worries me is the magnitude of disaster our nation will have to suffer before the GOP ultimately opens its eyes to what they have done to our country.
Some years back they entered a kind of consensual delusion -- denying facts, fueling themselves on their own exhaust - a growing pool of lies and self-deceit. They're more at war now with rationality itself than with Democrats or our NATO allies. Trump is only a symptom.
A familiar list of societies and cults have become so deluded in the past and it always ends badly -- very badly. Reality has a rude way of reasserting itself.
Democrats would like to believe that a healing turn will come in November. That calm voices from the rear seat of this careening country will somehow bring sobriety and reason to the drunken drivers up front. But that seems very unlikely now. The delusion still has its grip. Most of the GOP have not even reached their denial stage -- they're still doubling down on delusion.
No, some truly unmistakable disaster will have to come before the GOP can have its "what were we thinking" moment. But we're all in that careening car together, and we're all going to get hurt in the certain crash to come.
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@Dan As one republican once said, "the republicans make messes, knowing that the democrats will come along and clean it up."
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@Dan
They will never open their eyes.
Remember Jonestown. No one believed that could happen.
The only hope might be if an equally compelling and respected leader emerged --- or group of state and local leaders rebelled and delivered a powerful narrative that RESONATES with these voters.
Even the best snake oil salesmen were eventually run out of town .
Alas, the GOP have no such leaders with the GUTS to step up.
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@Dan
The magnitude of the impending climate disaster should just about finish it once and for all but by then it will be too late for anything but recriminations.
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We have, Mr. Bruni, a national division as complete and—in many cases, worse—than anything that occurred before the South broke with the Union, nigh on 160 years ago.
No longer do we have a country composed of disparate parts and regional “personalities;” we are a nation of ramparts and battlements and swinging maces that seeks no compromise but the total annihilation of any opposing viewpoint. We are no longer neighbors with a common purpose; we are deadly enemies who won’t be content until “the other” is no more.
Riding the heady crest of this wave is the president of the United States, a man to whom decency and honor are as pustules, scabs and gleaming sores that the Republican viewer shuns—but embraces nevertheless.
Donald Trump has succeeded where none of the 44 before him could have possibly done. This is because America has lowered the minimum basic requirements for the office to an astonishingly useless degree that precedent no longer applies. If one examines the qualifications of every one of his predecessors—the worst among them (Tyler; Buchanan; Fillmore; Arthur; McKinley; Wilson; Nixon) included, one sees, without dispute, that No. 45 is quite beyond the barest requisites for applying for the post.
He was elevated—and remains so—by a party that has forfeited any honor and sense of rectitude because it has sold what’s left of its soul to the narrow vision of tribe and anger.
We’re still fighting a Civil War; it was never over, as Republicans have been saying.
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@Soxared, '04, '07, '13: As Trump escalates the rift, and he surely will, it will come to blows. There's no undoing the damage he's already done, no mollification or negotiation is any longer possible. He is the patron saint of the perpetually aggrieved, the pied piper of every wannabe Archie Bunker. He's also a criminally insane psychopath but that doesn't bother his cult.
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@Soxared, '04, '07, '13
So true. The values and propaganda of Trumpists echo those of the Confederacy. The rich get small government, tax cuts, and spending that supports their interest. Minorities get ripped off and law-n-order to keep them in line and remind them who runs things. Trump supporters correspond to the non-slaveowning whites, who get an identity as white while they are pushed aside by the rich.
In the Confederacy, this regional and racial identity was strong enough to keep an army fighting against its own economic interest, although with many individual desertions and Southerners who chose to fight for the union. If the identity of Trump supporters is as strong, we will need not only to win but also to do a better job of reconstruction.
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13
Beautifully said.
Pointing out the hypocrisy of Trump and his enablers and all Trump's lies, narcissism, and on and on ad nauseam appears to have no negative effect on the Republican voters. That being so, the Democrats, and those who support them, need to now start focusing and drawing attention to what the Democrats have to offer as an alternative if the Democrats hope to flip the House and Senate in 2018 and beat Trump in 2010. Don't fret the labels, stick to the specifics of what the Dems can do for the American people - universal healthcare, tuition-free higher education, living wages, and individual liberties above corporate liberties. If Democrats are afraid of taking a stand on these issues, then let the Republicans stay in the driver's seat and quit complaining.
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"Universal healthcare, tuition-free higher education, living wages, and individual liberties above corporate liberties".
This will be written on the Democratic Party's tombstone.
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Yes, part of this phenomenon of Trumpist apologetics has to do with disdain for the Democrats. But that is only a symptom of the real malady, which is a sort of Trust dysphasia. A misplacement of belief caused by the media manipulation that Trump and Republicans (with the help of Fox News and Right-wing-Radio) have created.
It really started with the Reaganites and was fed by the Gingrich and Evangelical furor’s of the 90’s. It was strengthened by Palin, Limbaugh, and the Tea Party’s opposition to Obama. But it takes advantage of the ignorance and fears of the common man to grow and strengthen.
Most of Trump’s staunchest defenders are misinformed and misled.
Recently I reposted a video in Facebook that expressed my distasteful for Russian interference in American politics. The response from those who opposed it was surprising. Most of the disagreeing posters based their opposition on articles from right wing blogs and sites such as Newsmax. And most of these articles were attacks on the Clintons, Soros, and Obama that we’re based on lies and discredited rumors, (e.g., the Russian Uranium deal.) And many of these Trump apologists were Cubans I know who previously disdained anything from Russia.
Me. Trump, with Mr. Putin’s help, has taken advantage of the ignorance and fear of the masses to create the societal crisis we are now suffering. A crisis which only creates more distrust and mistrust to consolidate the power of the corrupt and privileged.
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@Chad To make this all worse: The White House or the Trump administration has now edited the video of the Q and A from Helsinki to eliminate completely the question asked of Putin--Did he support Trump in 2016, and did he take active measures to help Trump win in 2016?--and Putin's affirmative answer:"Yes, I did. Yes, I did." The White House's official transcript of that exchange in Helsinki also eliminates any suggestion that Putin favored and helped Trump get elected. (Rachel Maddow had the video evidence and transcripts, on her show last night).
So, when Trump begins Tweeting that Putin wants to elect Democrats, as he did yesterday, his followers who don't spend their time watching live press conferences will go to the Web and find FAKED Trump versions of what happened. "What do you mean, Putin supported Trump? Lies!" they'll say.
Unbelievable! How can we fight against this kind of autocratic distortion of evidence of truth?
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Its not about facts. The people who support Trump are not capable of collecting and evaluating facts. They hear Fox say one thing and CNN the other - and they decide who to trust based on tribal identity. So wheneverTrump does something absolutely crazy and rightfully get attacked for that by the reality based media - his supporters do not evaluate the realty and facts of those attacks. Instead they see the attack and by reflex support the man even more (because he is being attacked by this evil tribe of "others"). Fox news have created an alternative narrative (disconnected from facts and reality) that allows these people to be cemented in their tribalism.
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@Ivan
It is even more simple than that. Vladimir Putin appears as a strong white male. No matter to Trump sheep that he could be fascist, communist, certainly authoritarian, a dictator, a murderer and a thug....he is above all a strong white male who is the model for what they love in their biased view of Trump. Another strong white male figure to stomp down all those non-whites, strong women, nasty reporters insisting on facts and the inconvenient Constitution and Bill of Rights which their tribe views as radical leftist rant when someone like National Public Radio dare read it on air.
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@Ivan I like the term "the reality based media". Previously people have referred to "the principled media", but that is not strong enough now. It is the disengagement from reality that creates a tribal mob that not only will not listen to reason, but will reflexively attack it. I wonder often whether there are KGB analysts who know well how this works, and are helping to stage-manage Trump's attacks on reality to increase this derangement.
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@Ivan Fox News, if we can call it a news outlet, is Trump's propaganda machine. Rarely, does anyone in that organization have a critical word for Trump. Trump supporters talk about him as if he were saintly, or dare I say it, like the dictator he wants to be. When will his tribe start saying Hail Trump?
Trump's support will not decline until he is exposed as the "loser" he keeps trying to prove he isn't.
The only people not clued into his petty smallnes are his supporters. The rest of the Republican Party and even some Democrats caught like deer in the headlights of his act are completely aware of the emptiness behind his eyes, but are, nevertheless, unwilling to oppose him openly.
Some because they fear losing to him, some because they think he'll win the culture war for them, some because they think he'll dismantle the remaining rules that restrict the acquisition of greater wealth for them.
So long as those who see him for what he is continue to feed the crass illusion of his "greatness" and "strength" and "populism," his existing supporters, @37% of the electorate, will not waver - the cultish nature of their indoctrination after years of fear- and hate-mongering by right wing propagandists has too strong a hold.
It's time to step up, folks, and stick a pin in the alternate reality bubble that Donald Trump uses to sustain the illusion that he is a "winner."
He's not. But so long as those who have the power to do so fail to step up and repudiate him and everything that he and his allies are trying to do, they make losers of themselves and the country that they are sworn to serve.
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@Teg Laer I wish you were right. I really, really wish you were right. But the people I know who voted for Trump continue to support him without question. These are decent educated people who live good lives but will not tolerate one criticism of their president. All they tell me is that the media is "bashing" him and they will no longer listen or read about him. So now, they don't even know what he is doing.
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@Teg Laer His accomplishments will speak for themselves. I don't think he's worried about much looking at the bigger picture. A winner does. A loser spits invective. Haha Just saying.
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There is a long article from Nov 2017 in The Atlantic which sets out a detailed argument for another aspect of why trump's supporters are so doggedly loyal to him - that he *does* embody for them their deep-buried desires for an earlier time when the "politics of white identity" was supreme and controlling:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-nationalists-de...
One paragraph from there:
"It was not just Trump’s supporters who were in denial about what they were voting for, but Americans across the political spectrum, who, as had been the case with those who had backed Duke, searched desperately for any alternative explanation—outsourcing, anti-Washington anger, economic anxiety—to the one staring them in the face. The frequent postelection media expeditions to Trump country to see whether the fever has broken, or whether Trump’s most ardent supporters have changed their minds, are a direct outgrowth of this mistake. These supporters will not change their minds, because this is what they always wanted: a president who embodies the rage they feel toward those they hate and fear, while reassuring them that that rage is nothing to be ashamed of."
(another paragraph cited in a following post...)
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@huiray
...and from earlier in that Atlantic article:
"During the final few weeks of the campaign, I asked dozens of Trump supporters about their candidate’s remarks regarding Muslims and people of color. I wanted to understand how these average Republicans—those who would never read the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer or go to a Klan rally at a Confederate statue—had nevertheless embraced someone who demonized religious and ethnic minorities. What I found was that Trump embodied his supporters’ most profound beliefs—combining an insistence that discriminatory policies were necessary with vehement denials that his policies would discriminate and absolute outrage that the question would even be asked.
It was not just Trump’s supporters who were in denial about what they were voting for, but Americans across the political spectrum, who, as had been the case with those who had backed Duke, searched desperately for any alternative explanation—outsourcing, anti-Washington anger, economic anxiety—to the one staring them in the face. The frequent postelection media expeditions to Trump country to see whether the fever has broken, or whether Trump’s most ardent supporters have changed their minds, are a direct outgrowth of this mistake. These supporters will not change their minds, because this is what they always wanted: a president who embodies the rage they feel toward those they hate and fear, while reassuring them that that rage is nothing to be ashamed of."
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I am completely anti-Trump. Disgust is far too weak a word. However, what may be even more troubling (because paralyzing) is the mirror image the Trumpies and the anti-Trumpies have of each other. To get a taste, just look at the way the mostly anti-Trump commentators on this very article here speak of the opposition. Then substitute the cluelessness and evil they ascribe to the Trump camp, and put in the word "Democrats "or "liberals" in their place. There would be no change in the meaning of their sentences; in both cases, it would just refer to the other side of the aisle. I'm not saying there is equivalence at all between Republicans and Democrats here, given my view of this demonstrably slimy and inept Administration and Congress. But then again, I'm on MY side of the mirror!
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@Adam Phillips, I think it's possible for both things to be true: the country is deeply divided, and one side appears to have the facts on its side.
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It isn't just that you're on your side of the mirror that makes you believe there's no equivalence. There really is no equivalence. Examine issues, facts, history, and acts, and you will see that.
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