And NYTs liberals just want a candidate to make them feel better and tell them they aren’t really racists. If there is a white supremacist patriarchy, it’s got nothing to do with them. A candidate who quietly supports those things without the celebrations.
10
Uh, this white supremacist patriarchy you keep writing about? Is Joe Biden part of that? Or Chuck Shumur or Nancy Pelosi? Was HRC. And if Elizabeth Warren is elected will SHE be part of it?
I'm going to assume Barack Obama wasn't. But what about his Supreme Court appointees? Since white supremacists control everything in your view, then I guess Ms. Sotomayer and Ms. Kagan (and OBVIOUSLY Mr. Merrick) were all white supremacists.
You need to tone down you rhetoric, Mr. Blow.
I'm sure there ARE still a few white supremacists, maybe 2-3% of the white population. But everyone I know or see or read about seems committed to living in a civilized, cooperative way, with respect for all. Please don't tell me you think that living that way and encouraging others to do so, too, is "acting white."
36
The Vietnam War draft dodger relishes imbuing himself in the American flag to incite patriotic following in the context of promoting national security. The shallowness of this cleverly stage choreography skillfully masks the underlying vicious racial overtones and extreme xenophobic fervor. Dancing around and deliberately skirting the issue of race and ethnicity though resorting to otherwise bland but telling terms of security, the flag, patriotism, and loyalty, the Republican party and the artful draft dodger freely dump copious abuse upon persons of colour because doing so incites and inflames their myopically narrow base of MAWA/MAGA supporters. Their white skin privilege assures their continued advantage at the expense of black and brown persons, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ individuals. As long as their sinecure positions are protected and preserved, the Vietnam War draft dodger has wholesale license to foment and engender intense racial internecine and incite sheer xenophobic hatred. These measures are intended to prompt and increase white voter turnout in 2020 to protect the diminutive dwarf, and the GOP from political oblivion. The GOP lacks the testicular capacity to challenge their leader, which they recognize is political suicide. Ostracism, being primaried, ridiculed, and shunned are the hard cold facts of life here, and Republicans in Congress have no spine or guts to stand on their own feet. The colour demographics here are rapidly changing for the best. Race matters.
27
Blow is given free reign, by the Times, to express his vitriolic political rhetoric which is racially divisive and smears many, if not most "Americans, as supporting a "white supremacy patriarchy".
This apparently is due to his "black privilege" which in the eyes of the Times justifies the publishing of his demagogic rants.
32
Come on guys we know the score...MAGA hats will eventually be re-acronymed to MAWA.....Make America White Again
19
From Charles Blow, I mostly hear outrage against the supposed "white supremacist patriarchy." This phrase is a hateful, demeaning, racist, sexist trope that has apparently now become acceptable in a family newspaper.
When we had Obama for President, did we have a "white supremacist patriarchy"? The country hasn't changed since Obama, nor has the system in which we live. Our nation just finished constructing a museum on the mall to honor blacks and condemn slavery. We have women on the Supreme Court, in Congress, leading corporations, and at the highest levels throughout our society. **There is no white supremacist patriarchy, Mr. Blow.**
Every social problem, including illegal immigration, Charles Blow now sees as a manifestation of "white supremacist patriarchy." What is it about whites, and about men, and especially about white men, that has got Charles Blow so incensed as to criticize them in almost every article he writes?
28
Trump is a very sick man; and this is a very sick nation.
50
I hope that Republicans and independents will look at ALL of this, ie, Trumpian mean-spiritedness, etc, and use common sense to help vote the moron out in 2020 because it does not look like he will be impeached or leave on his own terms.
21
Trump, and his faithful cadre of republicans, remain faithful to the 'necessary' cruelty to dehumanize 'non-whites'...at the altar of 'white nationalism'...if not supremacy, a most stupid proposition to justify, and keep, this odious inequality and the power of the whip.
13
Wow! This is a new angle for you—
7
With apologies to George Gershwin. Trump yodels. Summertime, and the nasty is easy. Summertime, and the Rotten is high. Your Daddy's gone. Your Mama's good lookin. Evangels love me cuz I'm so nasty at crookin.
6
Another tiresome column where everyone who doesn’t toe the line on the left’s agenda of political correctness, wokeness, virtue signaling, etc . . . is evil. Now the term de jour is “white supremacist patriarchy”.
So, reading through the column, the list includes abortion, ACA, immigration policy, criminal justice reform, education, welfare reform—did I leave anything out? If you don’t agree with Blow you are a bad person. Worse, you are philosophically descendant of “flayers of flesh” and other ogres.
Go to the DNC website and read the platform. If you don’t agree with it, you are: if religious, a hypocrite; if white, a racist; if a citizen, a xenophobe; if male, a misogynist; if well off, greedy.
Has The NY Times really reduced itself to this? Someday, I like to believe, the paper will look back on this period with embarrassment—that it temporarily lost it way and became agitprop in both editorial and news divisions. And then, maybe, it will restore a sense of civility and intellectual balance to its pages.
26
Whited Sepulchers R Us !
Imagine if Jesus Christ showed up and witnessed modern Trump Republicans practicing their cruel 'Christianity' and their neo-Confederate demonization of female sovereignty, homosexuals, non-whites, their absolute gun madness and their worship and welfare for the rich.
"Did you learn not a single thing at all from my Sermon on the Mount, you hypocrites ?".....Jesus would ask.
"Throw him out ! Get him outta' here !"....Trump would say.
And Trump's Hate Rally disciples would dutifully throw Christ out into the streets to honor their new Messiah, Donald J. Trump.
Nice GOPeople......not a moral bone in their bodies.
November 3 2020
93
Trump’s very first act was to reinstate a gag rule on foreign aid agencies regarding abortion. He inflicted his power on the perfect subject: poor women who couldn’t vote for or against him, who couldn’t speak to him, and who would basically never appear in the American press.
At the slightest exercise of power, Trump wilts. Case in point: the NRA. Also the threatened tariffs on Mexico. Battles in court he likes. Actual power in opposition leaves him sucking his thumb.
24
Thank you, Mr. Blow.
22
Worth watching
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/08/241076/the-family-netflix-donald-trump-chosen-jesse-interview
1
Mr. Blow:
Thanks for your column!
13
Mr. Blow,
You continually neglect to discussion the Christian-identity politics of Trump's/base's white supremacy. Why is that?
6
From "The Battle Hymn of the Donald"
He has taken little children from their desperate parents’ hands,
Ridiculed the climate crisis that he fails to understand,
Embraced the cruelest tyrants who rule over darkened lands—
His lies go marching on!
Chorus
Donald, Donald, hallelujah!
Donald, Donald, hallelujah!
Donald, Donald, hallelujah!
His lies go marching on!
Full text: https://www.ellsworthamerican.com/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/the-battle-hymn-of-the-donald/
4
Spot on.
14
The Criminal in Chief is no fool, "The president has said he thinks mentally ill people are primarily responsible for the spate of mass shootings in the United States". Yes he is responsible.
Following the worst defeat of any incumbent in presidential history will be the most dangerous period ( Nov 3 2020 to Jan 20, 2021) the United States has faced since the Cuban missile crisis.
All government agencies especially DOD must plan for a possible national calamity. Congress must prepare for almost 90 days of unmistaken horror by the lunatic in chief.
Thee only way to prevent this horror is for Congress to impeach and convict the con man in chief so that the New York State Attorney General can arrest and escort him from the White House immediately after the Senate conviction vote.
23
The lust for punishment, as Blow describes it, is yet another tributary of the river of hate and sadism fueled by this hateful man in the White House that knows no bounds.
19
"white supremicist patriarchy"---enough nonsense to turn almost anyone into an admirer of Trump, hard as that seems.
Is Mr. Blow an English professor? They talk like that.
15
The cruelty is the point for 400 years and counting. The white racist patriarchy has got to go.
Vote. Register people to vote. Our vote matters so much that billionaires spend millions to keep us from voting.
10
The TU in POTUS are unnecessary. And misleading.
These days POTUS stands only for the words Perpetrator Of Trump University Scam.
7
We who support TRUMP , read Times newspaper, take offense at charge we enjoy seeing children being deprived of the flu vaccine or detained pending asylum hearings.As JJ Susini would ask when I made a point over dejeuners on his terrace at 11 Rue Cernuschi or previously in his planque in Algiers while still "en cavale""D'ou viennent vos renseignements?"Where does his information come from?Kith and kin, everyone I know would DISAPPROVE, and hope children being detained would get their vaccines. Mr.Blow might try doing investigative reporting before saying something so foolish. In same issue the c-in-c is smeared as an anti semite, ridiculous charge given his daughter's conversion to Orthodox Judaism, a racist, white supremacist, equally baseless, and anti immigrant whereas he has always said he approves of LEGAL IMMIGRATION,but opposes as do we ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. Amazing that author has had the best of everything in life and "ball room bananas"as EH was wont to write--6 figure salary plus, children enrolled in ivy league schools, expensive digs in ritzy section of Bklyn Heights where studios rent for $2,000 and homes sell for millions,yet he is still unhappy with America and half the population which voted for Trump. Author should compare his privileged existence to that of reporters in developing countries, Kamel Daoud for 1, author of "Mersault:la Contre Enquete,"who puts his life on the line every day because of his opposition to status quo in today's Algeria.
3
If 'the choosen one' in his own demonic mind gets a second term, kiss whatever America was goodby! America was by no means a perfect country, what country has ever been, but in my 75 years in this country I have never seen more evil seep into America.
He has to be stopped in 2020 or I fear this country will be torn apart much like the civil war of 1861. We can not and must not allow this sick individual to rule over mine and your country! I can't believe the people of this land will betray all that was good and great and put this cult back in power.
15
Traditional conservative and Christian values were never anything but a mask worn to hide hatred, bigotry, and bloodlust. There are no good Christians or compassionate conservatives. There never were.
14
>> The gay rights movement was born of fatigue of people being targeted and punished for the way they expressed their love and their gender. This has evolved from sodomy laws to anti-gay immigration policies to marriage exclusion to H.I.V. criminalization laws to bathroom bills.
Revisionist history, conflating the gay rights movement with contemporary transgender activism. I guess it saves space?
3
Donald Trump is sadistic and cruel because he trusts nobody and loves nobody. Believing himself to be the greatest man alive, he feels nobody else is worthy of him — friends exist only to exploit and be exploited; the same is true of lovers. It's the only kind of human transaction he knows, and as the greatest man alive, he assumes it's the only thing anyone else knows.
Incapable of love or friendship, he derives pleasure from hurting those he despises and mistrusts. Anyone and anything he doesn't destroy first could come back to destroy him, so he proves to himself (if nobody else) that he is the greatest man alive by winning every contest, or at least claiming to do so. As the greatest man alive, whatever he proclaims is so.
The blackest hole in the universe resides where Donald Trump's soul should be.
9
There is great evil at work in this administration. One of the most dangerous activities is the active support for viciously crazy conspiracies theories that pick up and exploit the most heinous of longstanding prejudices. Recently it was revealed that the second biggest purchaser of pro-trump ads on Facebook are organizations linked to the bizarre Chinese cult Falun Gong. According to Maddow, their newspaper, The Epoch Times, publishes and republishes the most extreme claims of the fantasist right. We are in danger of losing an election to people who believe in chem trails and the lizard people. Trump is reviving the dual loyalty libel on Jews that has led to the slaughter of millions. A family member asked me yesterday, "Where are the butterfly nets? Why is this man not confined to a rubber room?"
13
Donald Trump's cult of Cruelty, Hate and Lies is undermining Democracy and he will keep pushing for a Fascist Dictatorship. If the American people don't put a stop to this madness in 2020 the end of American Democracy is very near.
9
All correct, but not solely an American problem.
People have innate tendencies towards altruism, but also towards cruelty. Society is there to try to suppress the basest cruel instincts.
When a leader appears who says that not only is cruelty not bad, it's actually good, that leader gains huge appeal for many.
Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, but also all of the right-wing nationalist movements all over the world.
2
I'm still waiting for Mr. Blow and his associates at the NYT to come up with a proposal to address the current crisis at the border. If we grant asylum to 60,000 people each month (the 2019 YTD average) from Central America, why wouldn't we give the same privilege to people from Africa and Asia who are equally oppressed but can't afford to get to the US border?
12
>“The new regulation would codify minimum standards for the conditions in family detention centers and would specifically abolish a 20-day limit on detaining families in immigration jails.”
^^^Well, all other things being equal, that's better than separating children from their families, isn't it?
2
To understand Donald Trump, you need only to watch "A Face In the Crowd" with Andy Griffith. The only difference is that when they learned the truth about Lonesome Roads, they abandoned him. The people today seem to like him better the more they know he's duping them. While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, he secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants. In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is important and what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for dirty tricks and destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
7
The only person here inflicting pain on our country is Mr. Blow.
14
Oh, Mr. Blow--you've made me tear up again. Keep shining that light, sir. We need our truth tellers more than ever. Thank you.
5
"... cheer, in much the same way that the 'Rome mobs in the Colosseum did as people were ripped to shreds by lions. '"
What are your primary sources? In Latin? Which translation? Secondary sources?
Just askin'... Cheers!
1
Why aren't Melania's parents incarcerated indefinitely?
6
Martin Luther King said ‘nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity’.
Combine that with an Old Testament lust for punishment and you get a dangerous mean spirited administration.
6
Charles, I support your statement but rewrite the headline and then suggest to you that we must create a new American English vocabulary for use in discussing the King of Racism, the President and his followers.
My version: “President Trump inflicts pain on minority groups identified by him in his never-ending effort to enlist as voters in 2020 a very special subgroup of the 75% of Americans seen by the Census Bureau as belonging to a white "race".
Why this phrasing? Answer: The USCB defines the white “race” as consisting of persons "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa."
Is it not immediately obvious to you, Charles Blow, that the President and those referred to here as White Nationalists (WNs) cannot possibly accept a definition in which WNs are seen as belonging to the same “race” as MENAs, the name that the USCB considered using for a new American “race”.
The WNs have already turned to big Y genome analysis in the delusional belief that this will enable them to create a new White Nation led by those whose Big Y shows that they belong to a “race” that never existed, a genetically distinct white “race”.
We must begin the discussion of ending use of the USCB system. In the meantime, Times columnists must create a new language because the word “white” just won’t do in writing about the WNs. I prefer NN as the designation for this fictional “race”.
And you?
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
It's not Americas fault that people of color create undesirable societies that people flee from. They should be held responsible for their failings.
7
Right on writing as usual.
7
And, he and the administration admit that the treatment at the border is designed to discourage people from entering the USA. A deterrent that has been turned into punishment. Thank you, Charles M. Blow.
2
Let’s try for a little accuracy, something the Times doesn’t believe in: they are NOT being held indefinitely. They are being held until their court date. It wasn’t that long ago that liberals were going berserk about children being separated from their families; now they don’t want them kept with their families.
10
Another nail in Trump's coffin as the worst American president ever. Soon we'll need to compare him with other "presidents" to describe the full measure of his non-worth. Putin? Duarte? Maduro? Petain?
4
Mr. Blow you have summarized history. It's all about white male control. Thank you for your concise article.
4
Excellent.
4
they are abusers and bullies.. they were most likely abused and bullied at home as children.
4
Cruel oppression has always been an integral part of Plantation America. Those cheering Trump’s viciousness are modern versions of those who enthusiastically whipped slaves, shackled children, butchered native tribes and participated in lynch mobs. Any feelings of guilt would be soothed by religion or singing songs like “Why darkies were born”.
5
(R)eagan and Chickenhawk George wrapped their venality in enuf' amiability that many were fooled into believing that the (R)s weren't really all that sanctimoniously vicious. GoodBrain has, at least, done us the favor of exposing our fellow conservative citizens for what they are (and have been) - judgemental, uncaring, mean-spirited, vengeance-seekers.
Not sure how we deal with that open reality, but at least now we know.
BTW, the 1994 Crime Bill that stuffed our prisons full of brown-skinned citizens who had committed minor crimes? Written by Joe "The Walking Gaffe" Biden and signed into law by the Republicrat, Bill Clinton. Just sayin'.
Cruelty is the entire point, and the deplorable Trump loving “evangelical” base are all on board. They aren’t true Christians. They are all phonies.
4
Sad but true.
Please continue to shine your light, Mr. Blow. Sunlight is the most effective disinfectant.
217
I thought his holding the immigrants indefinitely was to give his pals who have privatized these holding pens lots of money. We pay quite a lot for lack of humane care. But your argument sounds true as well. I am a white women from a lower middleclass background in my 70s and grew up in a rural white area in Wash state in the 50s and early 60s. I am trying to remember the men back then to find that cruelty and need to dominate other races and women. I got the feeling as a child that they did not feel they were worth very much. They were kinda reticent and I noticed that they did not treat their sons with much respect either. Peter Fonda who just died was asked to play the part of a son whose father never gave him any recognition or a sign of approval in some film and when Peter had done such a good job playing the son, he was asked how he did it and Peter said he sat at the dinner table every night with a father like that. Wasp men compete with their sons. I have noticed myself whites do not have that warm bonding that blacks seem to have or any other minority seems to have. I went to a black friend's play a few weeks ago, it was an all black cast and set in Ancient Africa and it was wonderful, and the black audience got references which were beyond me. After a talk back the crowed lingered and there was such sweetness and community, I felt very much included. In short I think white men have always felt left out and unimportant and cruelty is all they have.
217
@cheerful dramatist
*some white men
But yes. So sad.
2
@cheerful dramatist
thank you for your sensitive commentary
4
Yes to this entire essay. Thank you for calling out the white supremacist patriarchy. It needed to be said. As a middle-aged neurodiverse woman who has never benefitted from this white supremacist patriarchy, I have longed for this day when those such as the esteemed NYTimes would call out the Empire and the Emporers with no clothes.
One more thing. The white supremacist patriarchy props itself up by feeding the masses with the idea of a white, male God in Heaven. What the masses do on this Earth - consuming resources without concern - doesn't matter because many believe that they're going to the great beyond anyway. There is a disconnect there from the Earth, the brown Mother Earth. To those who believe the patriarchy, the earth is merely here to serve them.
4
He does come across as a sadist. What's even crazier is that he doesn't even believe anything he says. He just says anything that he believes will get him elected again.
He has no conscience.
10
It’s hard to imagine turning the legitimately serious issue of race into a hysterical melodrama, but Charles Blow manages to do it every time.
He should consider the idea that some people (even women) have good reasons to be against abortion; can see a fair distinction between crack dens and prescription drug abuse; believe that illegal immigrants should be detained and disincentivized; and believe that black men are disproportionately victimized by bad policing because they have more police encounters.
We should be discussing why these issues impact people of color instead of always assuming a secret white supremacy plot.
13
He Rules By Fear
3
Nonsense.
What 'minorities'?
There is only one biological DNA genetic human race species that began in Africa 300,000 years ago.
What we call race aka color is all about the production of Vitamin D and protecting genes from damaging mutations.
What we call race aka ethnicity aka national origin is a malign socioeconomic educational political demographic historical myth meant to legally and morally justify black African enslavement and separate and unequal.
Despite my paper and genetic documented white European, black African, brown aboriginal and yellow Asian ancestry I am defined as all and only one-drop 1/32nd black African in America. While I do not run from nor shun this designation when asked I proclaim my race as human and my national origin as Earth.
The only human race minority is the 2-5% of Europeans and Asians who have Denovisan and Neanderthal DNA. While the humans who left Africa carry the near incestuous in-bred genetic bottle-neck markers of a tiny population that nearly became extinct. There is more genetic diversity in one African ethnic group or village than in the rest of humanity combined.
See 'The Race Myth: Why We Pretend That Race Exists in America" Joseph L. Graves; 'Watson Defined"
3
I remember clearly when President Obama won his second term. I worked in a large area with about 60 people. There were only a few of us who were supporters of Obama. Some white women like me a few African Americans and a few Hispanics. However on the morning after his re-election the place was like a tomb. Silence reigned. All these fine white men and women were angry that Obama had won. It just supports what mr blow writes. And showed their true colors.
7
Charles, you are always insightful, honest, and proscriptive of positive change for ‘we the American people’.
However, since we are in what the Chinese would say are “interesting times” — equating with dangers of chaos — I will cut to the chase in your first sentence here.
When you open your column with, “There seems to be no limit to the cruelty Donald Trump and his administration” — I would suggest this harsh reality and truth instead:
“There IS no limit to the cruelty Emperor Trump and this insane VICHY regime” are inflicting on any immigrants and/or any Americans who resist this Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Empire of UHNWIs (and their banking and corporate cabal) which has installed him as their faux-Emperor.
DUMP
EMPEROR
TRUMP
“We can’t be an Empire”
4
I read recently a study on different kinds of fascism. It revealed a constant in all types: cruelty.
This is the fuel that feeds the engine of white supremacy. Mr Blow terms it a 'lust for punishment.' Yes, and Republicans enable it while Democrats won't dare challenge it with impeachment proceedings.
It has become disheartening to be a part of this society.
2
Mr. Blow could also have pointed to Jeff Sessions's speech condemning illegal immigrants as criminals who must be punished for their lawbreaking because the Bible so requires.
2
People have to start taking Trump seriously. He is a master of distraction. Every day he says something outrageous to distract people from the real calamities taking place, like putting immigrants in permanent detention.
This man is deranged evil Bond Villain, and he is going to absolutely destroy this country, one baby-step at a time.
And, trust me, that is NOT BY ACCIDENT!
Viral contagion is no joke. It is not bound by race, class, income or immigration status. Babies will die because we are hard hearted and refuse to pay for ordinary shots.
Some border security professional will go to work soon, come into contact with a vector and bring the virus home to his or her child. That child will in turn take it to school and share it with classmates. Somebody will die because someone in these circumstances always dies.
The bitter, stupid, mean-spirited decision not to care for immigrant children is something for which all of our families may pay a price.
Like Mr. Blow I lost all patience with this administration while it was being sworn in.
At the same time I did not expect DT to try so hard at making us all ill.
3
That's right Charles. I'm sure our very existence sickens you, but there are about 70 million Americans who are outraged at who's sneaking into our country and will support Trump for his immigration policies alone. And don't even get me started on democratic support for drivers licenses, healthcare, and in state tuition for illegals. Add in democratic support for black reparations and you'll have a tsunami of Trump support.
11
For 2½ year I have been going through a constant cycle of sadness, anger, confusion, shame, embarrassment, and just a deep feeling of incomprehension as I struggle to understand how 40% of the USA approve of this narcissistic thug. I am exhausted. But mostly I feel sadness, as I watch the Great American Experiment fade away.
5
Maybe it's time we went ahead and called the President an evil human being. All of his charm, bombast, and faux courage are nothing but tools to manipulate the masses.
Mussolini is the best analog. When Italians wised up to him, they hated him, along with each other, for allowing themselves to be led by a vicious fool.
Italy righted the ship. How we describe the horror of Trump's deeds, cop to our own weaknesses in having put up with him, and then recover will be key. As for Donald, he's already done, you could stick a fork in him.
2
All the horrors you write of above: the drug war, slavery, anti-immigrant hatred, oppression of women and all minorities - they all stem from one thing which has given them "legitimacy" and strength forever - religion, Mr. Blow, monotheism and Christianity in particular. Its the connective tissue of MOST oppression. Note how the Christians flock to Trump despite his failings. Religion is a bigger enemy of freedom than any jumped up narcissistic grifter in the W.H.
3
I hear it too! "Those law breakers deserve to pay! If they don't like the penalty they shouldn't have committed the crime!" Their faces contort and redden, and sweat beads glisten on their foreheads. The brutality has been justified...
2
Absolutely. To use one of Mr. Blow's examples, scratch a "pro-lifer" concerned about "the babies" and you will find someone ranting about women having to bear the "consequences" of their "irresponsibility."
4
While other opinion columnists beat around the bush and nip tentatively at the edges of our current state of affairs, Charles Blow goes right to the heart of the matter and says what needs to be said. Thank you Mr. Blow for consistently and unflinchingly pointing out that this lunatic emperor of ours wears no clothes. Your columns help me feel just a little bit less alone in these crazy times.
2
I'd like to know why the employers and CEOs of the companies who employed undocumented aliens - including Trump organizations - are not being rounded up, charged, indicted and/or put in cages.
14
Wow. Trump may be a horrible person but all of these insinuations that people who voted for him must be horrible racists, sadists etc. are profound oversimplifications and racist in their own way. It's of equivalent intellectual validity to "Liberals hate America." People being "sadistic" about enforcing immigration laws might argue that not enforcing them is actually "sadistic" towards legal citizens in the long run. Trump voters will be here after he is gone and we need to find civil common ground or we will have a civil war eventually. Branding millions of Americans with these sweeping insults will only make compromise more elusive and reinforce existing racist narratives.
10
i like Trump and will vote for him in 2020 because he dealing correctly with illegal immigrants. He is making deals to prevent the invasions of illegal aliens from Central AMerican who are nothing but Asylum shoppers.
8
And a taste for exploitation, I would add. Keeping people down, using them, and yes, claiming their misery is their own fault.
3
Yawn, again. We know the symptoms. The cure is impeachment. Try writing about that.
1
Trump previewed this punishment nonsense during the presidential campaign. He said a woman getting an abortion should face a form of punishment.
He said it to Chris Matthews.
6
It's hard to believe that Republicans haven't been wholly invested in this immoral cruelty since at least Nixon. But America has been committed since its founding, one way or another.
2
The writer and the commenters sadly get much right. Trump is a kind of folk hero, and indeed, a bully that picks on the weak. But what is at the forefront, is the anger he has tapped into among those who feel abandoned: white men without college educations. You can thank the demise of labor unions for much of that. The unions had their problems, but they also provided a voice for those who had no power themselves. Now that the Supreme Court has completed their demise, let’s not let Trump claim to speak for blue-collar workers. Wake up, Democrats!
17
A vindictive conman, gaslighter and absurdist. And he will not change for the better. Why oh why is America, Americans, Congress, the Senate allowing this dangerous, destructive behaviors to continue? He is a clear and present danger.
Donald Trump has never ever suffered any consequences for his cruel, perverted and delusional words, actions, behaviors, throughout his life.
Consequently we have a laundry list of woes, mostly at the pleasure of Vladimir his friend. The derisory slogan of Make America Great Again, is ironic as he daily dismantles law and order within and outside the USA. How will he be stopped? When will he be halted and when can we restore and repair his evil mans handiwork?,
8
Charles, don't be so quick to condemn conservatives of the Cage-Children Party...for they know not what they do.
The Atlantic reported in the March 2019 issue conservatives are biologically predisposed to feel disgust towards others who do not look like them.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/the-yuck-factor/580465/
Conservatives of the Cage-Children Party can't control their loathing of nonwhite minorities. The biological wiring in their heads shorts out when they see African-Americans in respected positions of power, when they see Latino Americans working in their neighborhoods, when their doctors are Asian-American or Jewish, when they see gay relationships on TV and in movies, even when male conservatives of the Cage-Children Party look into the eyes of their wives and daughters.
The question is, "Do members of the Cage-Children Party have free will, or are they simply acting on their twisted and frayed poorly-wired brains?"
As we fund research to study and treat diseases, we should fund studies to determine if the wiring in conservative's heads can be repaired. Can new pharmaceuticals be developed to treat their damaged wiring? Is surgery an option? Radiation?
The point is, the Cage-Children Party and their leader Donald Trump may deserve our pity more than our anger. Of course that does not mean we should not do everything in our power to constrain them...including institutionalizing them to keep them from harming us and themselves.
2
Not vaccinating the immigrants held in small spaces will have an effect on all people in the "United" States.
It will not be long before there is a major outbreak of flu in those "concentration camps".
However, it will not be contained to those camps. The guards and others who work there will take it home to their families, their infant children who are not old enough to be vaccinated, the elderly, others who have compromised immune systems including pregnant women whose immune system is compromised simply by the fact that they are pregnant. Some will die, which means they will cause their "unborn" child to die.
It will be a public health crisis. Where is the CDC in all this?
13
Mr. Blow hits it out of the park. It is obvious to any casual observer of human life that any type of supremacy based on race, gender, etc. is a fools belief. White Supremacy has held this country back from fulfilling its potential. As a lifelong resident of Cleveland, OH, I have seen the debilitating effects racism has had on our community. Fear and cowardice are forces fueling supremacy. The Trump apparatchiks claim to worship at the alter of competition but only if the game is fixed.
7
The use of cruelty by established institutions of power and privilege to intimidate and punish their opposition is an ancient story. Jesus was tortured and suffered the most cruel form of death sentence because his message of love on behalf of the underclasses was deemed a subversive threat to institutional power. Four hundred years earlier, the governing council of Athens sentenced Socrates to death as punishment for his ideas of social justice and the common good, which were deemed impious and subversive to institutions of power. It is not always or even primarily about race, or religion, or gender, although demagogues often use such categories as convenient markers to promote division and generate popular support for themselves. It would be a mistake to acquiesce in the demagogue's attempt to turn Americans against each other. There are millions of white Americans who stand together with you in opposition to this cruel President and his cynical GOP enablers.
7
In the meantime, we are fascinated by his bizarre comments about Greenland, Denmark's PM and his self appointed designation as the "Chosen One." More distractions in this gut wretching time. The real story is the cruelty being inflicted on our southern brown skinned neighbors in the name of white supremacy. There is no supreme race, only the human race which is looking really bleak these days. Thanks your your column
6
This has to be the most important thing we all need to do. Vote. and get this horribly cruel angry man out of our White House. Why we are not all protesting is beyond me.
2
Everything you write is completely true and accurate. What are we going to do about it?
3
Why do so many comments have to quote Bible scripture? It is way past the time people realized this country was founded on separation of church and power. Respectfully, organized religion has been a constant reason for war going back to prehistoric man. Your god, this god, that god, one true god, Christ, Mohammad, Allah, Crusades, Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, and of course, the never ending evangelical scorning hypocrisy in this country. Climate change is ignored as it kills every day and ruins the planet. Maybe, if we all stopped looking to the unknown heavens and their many gods and stop wars about which one you believe in, we could end the destruction of the earth for all the future generations. Do we really want to pass the state we find ourselves in now as our history and legacy.
3
The man currently occupying our Oval Office is the embodiment of Manifest Destiny.
1
Lord, Mr. Blow, that is truth. May this soon end. Let us be thankful that this monstrosity exposed the stain that lies within too many hearts.
3
This is one of the best columns Mr. Blow has ever written. "Punish the sinners" from those who have supposedly never, ever sinned themselves (or haven't had the opportunity TO sin.) This phenomenon is centuries old and still exists in today in the body of "conservatism."
4
"The woman was a reckless custodian of her body and dared to have sex, unprotected..."
They want to deny abortion to women whether or not they used birth control.
They're going after birth control too.
It is a full-front assault on our autonomy, our psychological and finanicial well-being, our ability to achieve and thrive.
9
Typically, the media and politicians are loathe to call out Trump’s followers for their support of a xenophobic, racist, sexually assaulting, misogynist, corrupt-to-the-core, pathological liar. They don’t want to lose potential followers or voters. But, as always, Mr. Blow utters the brutal truth. Trump is all of the above and his supporters and the Republican Party have signed on. They ar not dupes: they are complicit. They are a waging a somewhat cold civil war and, as Mr. Blow clearly states, they are out to inflict punishment. They’ve thrown down the gauntlet and need to be called out and confronted.
3
'Punishment' aptly describes these policies and their results, but so would 'sadism'. Trump gets pleasure from inflicting cruelty, as do all bullies, as do many ICE guards and Border Patrol officers, while his base enjoys the vicarious pleasure of inflicting suffering. This is worse than deplorable. It is sick.
2
Essays about issues of social justice don't get any stronger, clearer, or more historically accurate than this. Thank you.
4
Absolutely agree---Republicans in general believe that inflicting pain is character building. From soft pain---holding back on flu shots---to hard pain---the death penalty---their continuum of "sticks" are the only tools in their social/cultural tool box. The disdain Republicans now have for liberals is their belief we are uneasy with pain and humiliation---Real Republicans, or let's say real white men, know the value of pain and have no problem inflicting it.
6
trump needs our sympathy. It's the most difficult thing to be a racist and have to beat around the bush in your efforts to express it. How he'd love to come out and say, "The white race, particularly the wealthy, are the only people on earth that deserve the good life. Why shouldn't they hog the benefits of society when the colored races are so inferior?". But, alas, he's got to take into account there are among those who voted for him, and might again, that don't go that far in their misconceptions about what's best for America, and he's got his eye on a second term and may need them.
We we better not let him get it.
1
The current occupant of our oval office is the embodiment of Manifest Destiny. It was always evil and it still is.
2
St. Paul told followers, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves ... leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord,' No, 'if your enemies are hungry feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink .... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Unfortunately, the right wing conservatives / evangelicals, et. al. ignore such passages as they self-righteously place blame and cruelly force those they determine are sinners (not likely God's judgment) to suffer much pain - even the loss of their life. They express - do - evil rather than good. We weep and are shocked by the vindictive judgments.
1
I think you hit the nail on the head when you described potus as a folk hero to many people. A folk hero is not real, he's imaginary, so normal behavior, logic and laws do not apply to him.
Interesting that the NYT's photos of him usually depict him as far above us and alone, behind a podium or getting on of off a plane. Those photos further the notion that potus is not on ground level like the rest of us.
3
Mr. Blow – you can’t expect apples from a mango tree. Trump and his”base” are glued by a strong epoxy bond called racism. The sentiment is so strong that it pervades every molecule of their body and soul. So the “news” about Trump and his unmovable 40% job approval rating should come as no surprise to no one.
But, honestly, more troubling, in my opinion, is to digest the lack of interest and urgency from the democrats in Congress to impeach this madman. That’s political malpractice.
2
Ok, Mr Blow, let's go over it again.
Mr Trump is an ego maniac demagogue and those are some of the nicer things I can say about him.
The only two things that he needs is ego gratification and money.
If any race, group, ethnic background. religion worships him, he will be for that group.
Yes call him out for being a bigot but if you obsess on it like you do or like Hillary did with Neo feminism identity obsession you play right into the demagogues, hands.
Address issues that can be solved in a moderate, progressive way where all Americans will benefit not just blacks, women or any other identity group.
2
I'm old enough to remember when JFK was running for president that there was concern that a Catholic president would have dual loyalty to the U.S. and the Pope. History repeating itself??
Malignant Narcissists NEED to inflict pain. Seeing others suffer is the only way they can assure themselves that they are in control.
6
Good article. The only solution to Trump/GOP eople out of office in Nov 2020. All of them. The GOPers may be quiet, but they vote for and support Trump's proposals every time. Out with them! Bigly!
'Long-simmering punitive lust' is SPOT ON!! The right's punitive lust has been simmering maybe since Brown and at least since Griswold, never mind Roe and the case where segregated white academies couldn't hide behind religion and be tax-exempt that way! Lust for the punishment of others has DRIVEN the right wing AND, mostly, the GOP for virtually all my adult life! The time was yesterday (and still is today) to ram a horse-doctor's dose of their own toxin down their throats--but not gratuitously; only if the occasion seems to require it to get them out of the way of building a better and greener society while we do all we can to save our planet!
Democrats fall in love. Republicans fall in line.
It's not something new. Die-hard Republicans feel that they have joined a group that will afford them privilege. Being part of a club that has benefits. Most who join in do so at a low level, meaning that the privileges may be scarce, but they do feel like perhaps someone has their back, like if they had legal issues. In other words, the top 1 percent or so get the lion's share of the benefits, and the Joe the Plumber types not so much.
I am quite certain they hate "college-educated white male Democrats" a lot too, though perhaps in a more subtle manner. And around 50% of college-educated white males identify as Democrats. They pretty much hate "others."
You heard this a lot in the G W Bush years. "you are either for me or against me" meaning friend or enemy, no real middle ground.
I believe that this is largely rooted in our primate ancestry which we all share. Primates generally have harsh hierarchical social structures, and going agaist this is subject to the harshest of punishments. I read an article in Scientific American many years ago about a particular species of monkey that had been studied extensively, and it was pretty chilling to be honest. Any bucking of the order was brutally dealt with.
Trump has simply understood this reality, with coaching from Roger Stone in particular, and taken it to the next level. If you knew the full truth though, I think that Karl Rove was/is the king of this jungle culture.
1
“dared to have sex, unprotected”
Or: protected. Getting pregnant doesn’t require unprotected sex. Birth control isn’t infallible. Many women who get abortions are married.
Mr Blow is more right than he seems to realize. Women aren’t being blamed for having sex, unprotected. They’re blamed for having sex, period.
3
Two family members were having a discussion over lunch at a private golf club about the Democratic proposals for health care. They were weighing the pros and cons of the proposals and trying to decide whose ideas were best. A man at another table heard them and wanted to know why they were interested making sure everyone had health insurance. One of the family members said, "Well, without health insurance people will die." The man replied "I don't care about that", and walked away.
3
And I bet he calls himself Christian. In fact he probably thinks there is a war against Christians.
1
An example of this from education policy is "no excuses" charter schools that punish black children harshly for the slightest infractions, such as not folding your hands on your desk or not tracking the teacher with your eyes. The schools justify these practices by claiming they're needed to produce high test scores (as if that's the most valid measure of academic success) but what they really produce is obedience and subservience. As Jonathan Kozol pointed out 20 years ago in "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America," these practices were adopted from the prison system.
1
I am sickened by this analysis. It cuts to the core of my belief in the goodness of people. It is disheartening that so many Americans cheer on this cruelty and hate. I hear it in the roars and see it in the faces of the people at Trump's travelling big tent revivals.
For a predominantly Christian country, what’s happened to the teachings of Christ? How did Christianity become so perverted?
2
The religious right aren't completely crazy. They VOTE.
Trump barely carried Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pa., which enabled him to barely slip into the power.
We have had chaos and corruption ever since.
1
Those who argue that it is up to the four Central American
countries to fix their own problems, and that it is not our
fault their citizens are fleeing in droves, are ignorant of
this country's historic role in manipulating/dominating countries in our hemisphere of influence to protect our
"vital interests". They are simply unaware of this country's deep moral complicity in helping create and maintain cliques of powerful domestic agents who dominated their countries and thoroughly made life miserable for the large majority of
their poorer citizens.
This historical amnesia, or plain ignorance, resembles the mental universe of those commenters for the 1619 series
who believe, apparently quite genuinely, that slavery
was a problem/outrage/abomination then, but that was then
and now is now. They see no relationship at all between
the present structural poverty, gaps in educational achievement and personal wealth, disparities in access to quality housing and health, and the post slavery history after the Reconstruction was abandoned and the ruthlessness of jim crow south began.
This inability to connect the dots, or resistance to understanding how the present and the past are intertwined, reflects the pathetic nature of this country's secondary school systems, which are under the thumb of parochial cliques. This explains, in particular, the absence of rigorous national standards for teaching, not skimming over, history.
5
I lived in Mexico for several years. Like many other Americans I resided there without benefit of government permission.
We were confident that we would not be arrested and deported. Indeed, none of us were.
Some one million Americans live in Mexico.
Mexicans offer warm welcomes and the utmost in courtesy and accommodation.
Thus, it's not surprising that Mexico is home to the largest number of Americans who reside abroad.
Of course, Mexicans in this county without permission live in fear, dreading the day they will be detected and ejected.
Sadly, many of us Mexicans expect to encounter racism and cruelty.
It's always been so.
In long talks with my grandparents, Mexicans raised in Texas, European-Americans routinely subjected them to gross mistreatment.
My grandfather was arrested, pistol-whipped and tied to tree in an effort to have him confess to a crime he did not commit. This was in 1925 in Sierra Blanca, Texas.
In sum, my family is replete with tales of European-American cruelty.
3
Record low unemployment for minorities in the U.S. undercuts the constant appeal for racial divisions. Real people with real jobs are having meaningful advances in their lives that never existed before. For all of his flaws, Trump has won where all others failed. Tragic that some people resent that fact simply because the world does not revolve around their idealized concept of themselves.
5
@JW Too many of those jobs are paying minimum wage, or something close to it. Republicans continue to oppose raising the minimum wage, while seeking to provide greater restrictions on qualifications for government assistance. (They call them, "entitlements," to impose a greater social stigma on recipients.) Meanwhile, the low unemployment numbers are due, in part, to the fact that a large number of people are not actively seeking employment, having given up hope. This is not a Trump success story.
4
@JW: That blathering idiot just intimidates you folks to agree with him. You are the same people who bawled all over deficit spending when the Democrats did it. You don't even know yourselves. You'll know that Trump pulled off another scam when the Fed is forced to monetize his debt.
2
Charles is correct in noting that for Trump's supporters, he has attained the status of folk hero. They have yet to learn that a faux hero is not the same as a folk hero.
9
I think most NYT’s readers would agree with this column. I do.
But what we need now is a serious effort by black and Hispanic organizers to work like crazy to get out the vote in 2020. This made a huge difference in the Civil Rights Movement and if done again could turn the tide on Trump. Where are the leaders who could inspire this?
8
Still waiting for the Democrats comprehensive immigration proposal to replace Trumps. It reminds me of Nixon's secret plan. Congress has the power to set policy. Sure Trump might veto it but it would be nice to know where they stand before 2020.
5
The only thing I would add is Trump is an "equal pain inflictor on all races." At the same time I do admit it seems that minorities are much more attuned to his con jobs.
It will take decades, if ever, for this country to recover from the damage that Trump has caused to our reputation throughout the world. It may never happen. The fact that he was elected sends a message to the remainder of the world that we cannot be relied on to live up to the constitution.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Somehow I can envision Trump agreeing with what it says.
The Colosseum of Conservatism, I never thought of it in this way, but the author is spot on. His review of conservative history in the treatment of those whose skin color is not white, is eye opening for any who have not followed American or World history.
Republicans should take note. Do they want to be the lions or the Christians?
4
@allen Roberts
Slavery, theKKK, Jim Crow laws, etc. all brought to you by the Dems.
I'm not going to defend trump or say that racism is not a big part of what he and many of his supporters believe when it comes to the crises at the southern border, but there is more to it than that. Something like 470,000 people were caught at the southern border this year so far. That is an invasion. No country on earth can absorb (or should be expected to) those kinds of numbers. It's obvious that the surge in families with kids is being done in the express hope of using them to get into the U.S. Detentions are a vistage of an earlier time before significant parts of whole countries decided to rush the border. Rather than either catch and release or detentions, the goal should be to discourage people from making the journey. This should be done by swiftly deporting people back to their home countries to apply from there and getting the word out that it is a wasted journey to just show up, present your kid and expect to be let in. Polls show that most Central Americans will keep coming even if conditions improve in their home countries. That's too bad but it's not our problem. We can try to help them improve their countries, but we simply can't take in whole portions of the countries of the northern triangle. The problems of the world can no longer be fixed by simply moving everyone to the western democracies. Our laws need to be changed to reflect this.
7
@Al the issues at the border would be ameliorated if we had a president that was proactive not reactive. Instead of offering more assistance to stabilize these countries, we cut funding. We haven’t done what you say we can do. It is a huge fallacy that people want to leave their homes and move to the US and Europe. People want to stay in their homes and remain among friends and family. When people have no options, that’s when they choose to flee their countries. These people are desperate and the administration has done nothing to reduce their desperation. We are going to be seen by history as a time when we responded with brutality to the needs of the weakest.
4
Please cite those polls. Their alleged results fly in the face of most reporting and anecdotal evidence regarding the motives of the migrants.
1
For a country of 350 million people, taking in 470,000 people more is a drop in the bucket. Consider how many refugees little Lebanon has accepted from Syria. The Republicans have been able to make a mountain out of a mole hill. There is no crisis at the southern border other than the one created by Trump.
8
Societies with fixed world views allows for punishing those who do not fit in that society. Their rigid hierarchy of order demands punishment. Nothing in this administration progresses our society towards wholeness, health, wisdom, justice or peace. Only exclusion and isolation for those who do not fit the profile of the ethnic nationalism the Republican Party is increasingly promoting. November 2020 will be, I believe, a crossing of the Rubicon for our country if this administration is allowed to continue. Pax, jb
283
Didn't Jesus say, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?" Why do evangelicals continue to support a man who insults others constantly, hurts people, takes away programs that help people, and wants to take away our clean air, water, earth, and wildlife? Do they love Trump more than they love the teachings of Jesus?
755
@Linda
IMHO, evangelicals are not followers of Jesus. They follow all the fire and brimstone of the Old Testament.
74
@Linda: Rabbi Hillel, more or less a contemporary of Jesus, put the Golden Rule in the negative: "Don't do to others what one abhors having done to oneself." I think this version is wiser because it is much easier to reciprocate in kind.
40
@Linda. Nonsense. We can't run a country based on biblical sayings (I'm not a Christian, not that it matters) or poems on the Statue of Liberty. The world is spiraling down hill and letting hundreds of thousands of people (soon to be millions) into the country and having to support them is no more a solution than locking them up. We need to send people home, discourage them from coming and try to help them improve their countries. The supply of poor, uneducated, people with big families who want to come here is limitless. Our ability to take them in and take care of them along with the millions we have now in need of those same resources is not.
2
Since we have now essentially been manipulated/conditioned to believe that the only effective way to make a point, or show that we exist, is to scream at the top of our lungs, to counter the
great incessant roar reverberating in our mind's ear, those who have no interest in entering this colosseum of
distinctly American out of control, bizarre, cruelty need to vote next November en masse, quietly and with great dignity. It should not matter how long the lines are, be they due to malfeasance, technical or bureaucratic. Turning out to vote, filled with the resolution to put an end to this moral catastrophe and ethical collapse we've been forced to live through is the only option that
has a chance at saving us.
Is this not yet completely clear to everyone?
360
@bl This post brought tears to my eyes. How did we get here?
18
Yea, but in Trump’s bible it says he’s the chosen one. It’s right there in 2 Corinthians.
4
More or less, sadly, we all have a lust for punishment.
2
This column brings to mind Reagan’s rants about welfare queens, his push to make catsup a vegetable so as to pay less for school lunches. It also reminds me of when Bill Clinton “ ended welfare as we know it.” When hasn’t there been a war on the poor in our country?
16
@Ellen Franklin Roosevelt's administration.
1
Absolutely right on the button. Do not stop. Proceed to continue to report the truth.
Conservatives at the Coliseum. Feed them to the lions, don’t insult the Gladiators!
7
Well said, Mr. Blow. I wish more people realized this.
13
Thank you Charles. Each day is worse than the one before as we try to hang on staving off anger mixed with anxiety and deep depression. Your writing brings clarity and a belief that there must be kind, sane people somewhere out there. Please don’t quit your job.
13
The overwhelming Evangelical support for Donald Trump falls into two camps - there are the ones who go to his rallies en masse and get a kind of “hate-high” when the president rants about walling the US off from the rest of the world of “others,” -including those in their own country. For them, Charles Blow’s comparison to the Roman Coliseum could not be more apt, except that they fist pump their “emperor” instead of giving a thumbs-down.
Then there is the camp of divine hypocrites led by Mike Pence and the rest of the Bible-thumpers in the GOP congress who stand passively by as children are caged at our borders and men, women and children are slaughtered wholesale in this country’s never ending string of mass shootings. They may not scream and chant like those at Trump’s rallies, but their silence is deafening.
You can decide which camp is worse, but personally I go with the second.
14
You left out abortion. Millions vote who are completely ignorant of economics and history and the constitution, but who know in their bones that abortion is murder. That single blind emotional issue is responsible for more Trump votes than Clinton’s emails or Putin’s lackeys.
2
This will seem strange, but thank you to Mr. Blow for making me nauseated. For clearly, calming listing the many confirmed instances of cruelty of this administration to All living creatures except for old rich white men. It seems that he has adopted his policies on how to mistreat even his own citizens from the dictators in Russia and Saudi Arabia.
9
The words Right and Left came into politics during the French Revolution, when those that sat on the left wanted a Constitution, and those that sat on the right wanted a king.
In the U.S. the Right was loyal to the king, then opposed the ratification of the Constitution.
The Right inserted the worst parts of the Constitution, like acceptance of slavery (later removed by an Amendment making slavery illegal).
The Southern Right left Our Union and attacked it. The modern Right worships the Confederacy.
The Right created the KKK, a domestic terror organization, and Jim Crow, the use of State Terror against U.S. citizens (based on identities created not by the victims, but by the terrorists).
When millions of activists and protesters persuaded LBJ to sign the Civil Rights Bill, Nixon invented the Southern Strategy, to draw the rest of the racist Right out of the Democratic Party and into the Republican Party. Since then, this has become what I call the Rural Strategy, pitting the low population areas that have outsized political power because of the Senate and electoral college (neither are going away so work on something we can actually fix) and the fact that anti-social racists like to live away from cities, to put their minority in power.
It is time to realize that the Right opposes and attacks our Constitution (except the 2nd Amendment which arms them). The Proof is Trump who is popular with the Right because he attacks the Constitution and takes the side of our enemies.
15
Like slumlords everywhere, Trump thinks he is doing the "unwashed masses" a favor even taking their money. And he thinks he deserves that money!
After all, he is the landlord. As president, Trump thinks he is the landlord-in-chief, and we as mere tenants / serfs, should be thanking him for even letting us stay on his property.
And his property? The deluded infant thinks the US is his property. And he will kick out the riffraff. That is rising to include the press, the "deep state," all Democrats, anyone who dares criticize him.
The slumlord as dictator. This is truly an American story, sad though it is.
7
"And this insatiable desire to inflict pain has particular targets: women (specifically feminists), racial minorities, people who are L.G.B.T.Q. and religious minorities in this country. In short, the punishments are directed at anyone who isn’t part of, or supportive of, the white supremacist patriarchy."
I agree that Trump targets these groups because their very existence threatens the white supremacist patriarchy, but I think he also targets them because historically they've had less power, are therefore more vulnerable, and have a harder time using the system to fight back and exact a measure of justice. Typical bully behavior -- never pick on someone bigger or stronger.
So part of Trump's particular animus is that he's a horrible racial, religious, ethnic and gender/sexuality-based bigot, and the other part is that he's just a nasty (your expletive here).
21
The American credo:
Rules for thee, not for me.
7
Conservatives are not for punishment; conservatives want revenge. They don't want only to impose their points of view. They want to destroy anyone who opposes their points of view. Conservatives wish everything the way which makes them comfortable, and one must conform to the norm. But, life isn't pleasant; growth is messy, uncontrolled, it requires constant adaptation to new realities. When one isn't able to adapt, one dies, it is nature's law. I wish people could learn, enjoy the plurality in each one of us. I am an atheist, a liberal, and I don't care if you pray. I don't care if you vote republican or democrat, or if you don't vote at all. I don't care if you are in a same-sex relationship or a straight one because it doesn't concern me; it is your business. I don't care which color you identify yourself on the color spectrun. No one is qualified to help you but yourself, if you are religious try to live by the gospel of your savior. After all, he was the one who said: (Mathew 22: 37-39 - King James version)
"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like, unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
5
"The public is not to see where power lies, how it shapes policy, and for what ends. Rather, people are to hate and fear one another"
- Noam Chomsky
Demagogues and the powerful puppet masters behind the demagogue wannabs have always used fear and hatred to keep their "tribe" distracted and pliable. It works.
The conservative media ecosystem in conjunction with GOP politicians have been targeting the "usual suspects" for decades to keep their base distracted, angry, loyal, and entertained.
While the marks are cheering the sight of the "Other" being thrown to the lions in the "Colosseum of Conservatism" the powerful get a trillion dollar tax cut, carte blanche to destroy the environment for profit and political cover for financial shenanigans of all types.
The problem of course is that the spectators demand an ever increasing violent spectacle to stay distracted. It can't go on forever and the utterly ridiculous white supremacist Trump is a sign that we may have hit peak "bread and circuses" in this cycle:
Trump has gone too far, been too obvious, too inept. Too many Americans are tired of being thrown to the lions. The powerful need a distraction for the masses, not a freak show that wakes people up.
6
Our society cannot hold up social status and material wealth as lauded goals, and then wonder why some of the worst parts of people are brought forth in the face of competition. A lot of people are feeling like they are losing and are very angry about it. Perhaps the problem is all these immigrant freeloaders taking our jobs!
People are also at an all-time high in dissatisfaction with the government. There are consequences to corruption, one of which is perception. At any other time and place, “campaign donations” would be seen as what they are: open bribery of public officials.
Additionally, public schools have faced continuous budgetary pressures which has meant that today, our public education system is one of the worst in first world countries. This means that adults arrive in public life without having critical thinking skills, basic knowledge of the world, about America. The idea of investing in the education and future of our children, investing in the infrastructure including things like beauty, music and art is rarely discussed. Instead it is lower taxes! Helicopter parenting rarely seems invested in raising ethical, moral and decent people. It also doesn’t seem invested in raising happy people either. Everything is about cutting costs, increasing efficiency, results, tests, goals, go, best, achieve!
And we wonder why this whole mess appears to be bringing about the worst in people? Why some are embracing a narcissistic orange lying embarrassing clown?
3
Trump supporters live the Old Testament and have conveniently forgotten the teachings in the New Testament. They have heard decades of Republican preaching that liberals are bad and only stand up for minorities to get a free ride by taking the hard-earned tax dollars that conservatives pay. These lies have reinforced a belief that their Christian religion is under attack (it is not, they’re free to worship however they want) and their white culture is disappearing under an assault by minorities and immigrants. It offends them to see non-white people in positions of power because “they” are not deserving, as evidenced by the irrational hatred for Obama, a man far more Christian than Donald Trump will ever be. Many Trump supporters may even know that his actions have hurt them financially (like soybean farmers), but it is more important to them to protect white privilege and to keep supporting Trump because they know that Trump is doing things that liberals hate, and making liberals angry is highly satisfying to them. That insanity is contributing to an uncivil society and to the very destruction of our democratic beliefs solely to continue hating for the sake of hating.
219
Sometimes I get mad when everyone at the hospital is Russian and so are all customer service personnel, but my son cannot find a job that pays more than $11 per hour and when the roads are crowded by the 100 new people per day my city absorbs and traffic is a nightmare hellscape of Mad Max proportions and then no one who was born in this city but not into wealth, can afford to rent, let alone buy- well folks can get to feeling a bit xenophobic.
7
@BG
"Trump supporters live the Old Testament and have conveniently forgotten the teachings in the New Testament."
Like the teachings of Jesus, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", which is actually a paraphrase of Hillel the Elder's teaching "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."
Be careful when talking about "Old" Testament versus New Testament. It buys into certain tropes.
30
@BG Yep. I--a woman in my 70s, married 50 years, often get accused of "wanting more taxpayer dollars to support your six kids from different baby daddies" when I speak rationally to conservatives in local online comments forums.
This often happens after I've specified my marital status and age. Such commenters are either trolls or so angry at being reminded of the Golden Rule that they don't bother to think.
28
"They ask how the religious right could warm to a man who is the opposite in terms of character and piety to all that it has hitherto professed."
The religious right, like the Republican Party, use their religion like a weapon to be used to gaslight their followers and the public at large. Trump fits perfectly into that deception and they use him at their peril.
10
I keep coming back to a quote I came across about 2 years ago that I think speaks to the 'Trump’s draconian treatment of people' that include those that blindly follow him;
"The darkness is coming out of the woodwork being squeezed out of many places where it formally hides."
I pray every day that there will be an historial multitude of fellow Americans who feel the horror of such hatred you speak to Mr. Blow and cast a vote of No More in 2020.
3
What is an alternative to the white supremacist patriarchy?
I've been wondering this as I grapple with the climate crisis we are facing. I'm not sure what to name it but I believe the alternative to white patriarchy is Earth-centered - the source of all of our daily nourishment. The term Mother Earth can be seen as cliche but it rings true to me. None of us - including all our brother and sister species - would be here if it were not for the sustenance we receive from the earth - food and water and shelter.
1
@the quiet one
As an agnostic, I’m stuck by the irony of the biblical phrase about the meek inheriting the earth...ironic because that’s who’ll be left once the so-called bold finish destroying things and the survivors crawl out from the smoldering rubble to behold a wasteland beneath a crimson sky.
3
Phil Hurwitz, ..."If Americans don't defeat trump at the ballot box in 2020, then what we are now seeing in Hong Kong could be our future."...
Yes, but in the U.S. there are over 300,000,000 guns. Hmmm...
Tear gas vs. guns
Rubber bullets vs. live ammo
Perhaps a different outcome.
2
Charles, I think you are absolutely correct. Trump and his followers enjoy punishing those who are not supportive of the white, male, heterosexual standard. Whether because of their skin color or sexual orientation or because of their choices in politics or lifestyle, if they stand against the 'norm' then they must be punished. If Trump wins in 2020, what form will his punishment take? And which new groups will he target?
5
Dear President Trump,
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
—Abraham Lincoln
Mr. President, with malice toward none and charity for all, doesn't mean you won't be prosecuted for your betrayal of America's values and your abuse of power.
6
I just want to add that, as a black woman, I can say with certainty that black women are also victimized by bad policing. We face some of the same issues as our men, and then some. But really what I most wanted to say is that our ancestors figured out a long time ago that we are truly all connected. This is a scientific reality. It cannot be changed. Saint Francis or Jesus or whoever it was who said it is right, "whatever you do to the least of my brothers that you do unto me." We hurt ourselves when we create harm for others.
18
The conservative movement has always been about conserving white patriarchy. It’s not about *state parks*… It’s about conserving the power and economic might of the United States in the hands of a small group of Caucasian men. To think otherwise would be folly.
4
The cruelty is the message. Liberals ask ourselves, how can the conservatives do this? How can they allow these atrocities? The very empathic ability required to feel the pain of another human being, who is not of one’s own DNA, is non-existent in Trump’s cult. And yes, it goes back to slavery and to the founding of America as a national entity.
There are many questions but the answer is always the same. People who are incapable of recognizing and acknowledging that all of humanity is one family, cannot comprehend an America organized and operated for the well-being of the people who live here. Just as they are incapable of the awareness that we are all in the same sinking boat: planet earth. They say Medicare For All is too expensive, but the actual motive for fighting the only healthcare system appropriate to economy of scale is their ability to be cruel to women and children and other vulnerable people. They say they suffered under Obama for eight years because the election of a black president signified to them the ending of white supremacy.
It is time for Liberals to step up and recognize that one-third of our populace is inherently cruel, selfish and controlling. We will not change their minds or hearts. We will not compromise on legislation. Fortunately the young generations are more egalitarian. What we have to do is take charge. Two-thirds if us must set the rules and drag the other third along. There is no allowance feasible for corporations to be persons.
5
I still can't believe Trump is still the President. And it still bothers me that so many fellow Americans supportr him. We are suppose to wait for the next election to rid ourselves of him. He does crazier things by the week. There are plenty of weeks left between now and the next election. What is he going to do next?
Why do we sit here and wait to find out?
5
I have asked various people why they support Trump and they each say that they are opposed to Democrats. That's it.
The GOP/Republican Party has succeeded in demonizing "Democrats" to such an extent and degree that they have brainwashed American voters into believing their lies and fraudulent misrepresentations about "Democrats".
Therefore, it isn't they they support Trump, it's that they oppose Democrats.
If Democrats can turn that wave of hate around with reaching out to people to break through their brainwashed perceptions our nation might have a fighting chance of resuming some degree of social normalcy.
However, as long as the GOP/Republican Party is allowed, unrestrained, to demonize Democrats they will manage to hang on to power.
3
A couple years ago, wanting to find out why there was so much hatred in the USA, I started reading about the Puritans, which led me to Calvin, that French lawyer and self-made theologian. Mean-spiritedness in the name of good barely defines the man's philosophy. His god was the god of punishment, keeping score on our transgressions. His ideas on the scripture outdid in dogma any self-respecting catholic theologian. The Puritans exalted Calvin and they were loathed from England to the Netherlands where they stayed before sailing to the so-called New World. Happily established on the shining city on the hill, first they tortured Indians, then uppity women. When it comes to self-loathing and inflicting pain as a cultural and social norm, look no farther than the Puritans' impact on who we became as a nation and Calvin's influence on them.
2
Calvinism isn’t destiny. Switzerland has stronger Calvinist roots than the United States, and isn’t known for hatred, incarceration, or war mongering.
What sets the United States apart is slavery. Slavery begat racism, and racism underpins numberless institutional injustices, from healthcare to education to housing to wealth.
2
Precise column, Charles Blow, hard to read, even harder to accept. But thus is it so.
There is a barbarism to this country that has run through our history. I particularly was struck by this lust for punishment aimed at targeted groups that "the ruling class", aka conservatives, hates.
And fears: I believe that underlying this heinous and perverse enjoyment of physical and spiritual attacks on women, gays, African Americans, Muslims and Hispanics is driven by fear. Fear of losing what they have (special status, job opportunities) or not getting what they feel entitled to.
It's based on an "Animal Farm" mentality where some are more equal than others. Donald Trump is doing the sorting--he's the decision maker as to who gets the next lightening bolt.
Now he's attacking American Jews, making me wonder, who's next and where will it stop? It's up to us to stop it while we still have self-determination.
7
"However, now that there is an opioid epidemic disproportionately affecting white people, there is a concerted effort to rebrand them as victims rather than criminals and to treat them with a compassion that was denied nonwhite people addicted to drugs in previous eras."
Seriously? I don't recall doctors prescribing crack cocaine to their patients, so there is more at issue beyond race, e.g., the circumstances under which the addictions started. I see a huge difference between someone who followed their doctor's approach to pain management following a surgery or work injury and someone who sought out an illegal drug for recreation or escapism. That Charles Blow can't see that distinction is more a reflection on him than it is on his imagined "white supremacist patriarchy". And I know, to even suggest that every problem in America doesn't have its roots there automatically makes me a racist misogynist in the eyes of the thought police, but I'm willing to say it anyway.
4
Fair point, many opioid addicts started with a prescription. But they ended with a proscription: heroin. Why, if not race, isn’t there a popular clamor to lock them up? No one forced them to take their medication into their own hands.
2
Yes, Trump is only president of a particular group - basically the old Confederacy and their sympathizers - and he doesn't even attempt to disguise that fact.
I'm surprised that he hasn't suggested that the West Coast secede by now.
2
Charles, thank you for continuing to fight for justice, truth and reason in every column you compose. I never miss your insightful pieces. Ever. Know that you are appreciated and supported in what you do. Thank you, thank you.
5
I was reading the description of his latest rally by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone, and the term "mob" definitely came to mind. This is not a case of people being hoodwinked or conned, or misled. Most of them know he's a Con Man, and they don't care. This is a case of people, Americans, actively seeking to inflict harm on others coming here for shelter. They know what it is, and they prefer it to humane treatment. They also don't want a free press, and only want to hear what they agree with. Truth has nothing to do with it, only winning, and then supposedly getting their way. "Lock Her Up!", with no due process. "Send Them Back", ignorance and hate personified. Turns out we're no better than any other group of barbarians. Our arrogance has blinded us, and now we have to own up to what we've become. If we can root for someone like Sean Hannity or Ann Coulter, or Donald Trump, that says it all about our country, and it ain't good. Shame on us.
9
"As Trump increases the pain, a great roar goes up from the Colosseum of" Authoritarianism. Mr. Emoluments base is neither conservative nor republican. We can not passively hope for justice & accountability.
We must commit to bringing accountability in 2020 by sweeping Mr. Emoluments & his grifters from office. An historic Blue Wave that retakes the WH & Congress is our civic & moral responsibility. We must awaken independents & Dems across the spectrum to vote Blue.
What and who are Republicans supporting? How can one love America’s founding principles and vote for Trump? Do tax breaks justify keeping a president that inspires white terrorism?
Anyone who fails to comprehend the decision we face and the obvious answers to these queries, unfortunately, is unreachable at this point. The rest of us will simply have to outvote those lost souls.
1
Mr. Blow has essentially captured Trump's personality in one four-letter word: lust.
Whether it is his lust for unfettered access to women, lust for an extra and bigger slice of chocolate cake, lust for power, lust for validation, lust for accolades, lust for the sound of his own voice or, yes, his lust for punishing anyone who he perceives to be his opponent, it is Trump's deeply seated need to satisfy his lust that most consistently drives his behavior.
Barry Goldwater famously ran for president with the campaign slogan "In your heart you know he's right." With Donald Trump, for many, it is "in your guts you know he's nuts."
That they continue to support him, in spite of it, says a lot, and it isn't pretty. They're letting him eat his extra slice of cake, and have it, too.
2
Harshness, denigration, enforced servitude, coercion, terror and abuse befall the marginalized and vulnerable. Racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and childism (yes) are social constructs used by the dominant group to label human beings as less worthy for arbitrary characteristics as a justification to exploit them for their own purposes. The threat of punishment against anyone who strays from the established hierarchal order of worthiness is ever present. Its originates from every religion ever invented. What needs to replace it is a hierarchy of responsibility and service designed to fost the full potential in every human being.
1
This is the death howl of the white male patriarchy. Self centered male egos are losing power. These men are afraid of their own impotence, and feel backed into a corner by social change which validates and gives voice and influence to others. They turn to platforms like 8chan because their views are so unacceptable. Their actions become more and more egregious -domestic violence, mass murder, police brutality. It is a dangerous time, as they act out with lethal weapons in a male-designed world.
We require bold, systematic change that will level the playing field and demonstrate daily that ALL persons have value and deserve respect and support.
6
Trump has taken the hitherto unspoken essence of the Republican Party (spite, resentment, desire to inflict punishment on those different) and boiled it down to a thick, nasty sludge of toxic white entitlement.
I am a 50-year-old white guy living in northwest Georgia. I work with people who have this mindset, and for the life of me I cannot figure out from where exactly the hostility arises. These are seemingly normal people, with good jobs and nice homes and quiet, peaceful lives. But when talk comes to undocumented immigrants, or black men convicted of crimes, or transgendered men or women, they know no limits to cruelty and venom.
I do believe the nation as a whole will survive them, and history will look back at this period in wonder and dismay. The challenge ALL of us face is dire: how do we gracefully move past them without allowing them to burn the country to the ground?
6
Supremacist ideas have always been lurking on or close to the surface; the Times 1619 Project proves that. The 2008 Great Recession, caused by vulture capitalists, destroyed the American middle class and a weak recovery made it possible to bring supremacists and Trump to power. Vulture capitalists are close to a reckoning; to combat the attack, Central American refugees are being scapegoated.
For years now, selective “social researchers” have been opportunistically “forecasting” a shift to becoming a “minority” majority nation. The implication being that the American way of life is being destroyed.
In a “triumph of the will” campaign, people like Stephen Miller, are working hard to divide the country along ethnic, religious, gender and orientation in order to retain power and influence. Indeed, Edward Blum has been litigating against affirmative action on behalf of, on the surface, Asian student quotas. Blum’s goal is to limit African Americans from entering the Ivy League and thus the perch of power.
In the current political climate, any politician upending discriminatory policies is labeled “radical”, or worse, “Socialist”, thus the commentariat‘s embrace of “centrists.” Attack on some communities are coming from nationalist supremacists and the so-called good guy “centrists”.
1
Trump doesn’t even try disguising his wanton cruelty with immigrants. He uses draconian treatment to ‘make examples’ out of vulnerable people, and says that anyone who doesn’t want to meet their fate shouldn’t come.
1
The paragraph
"The whole discussion of abortion and those who oppose a woman’s right to choose this legal and legitimate medical procedure is in part rooted in punishment. The woman was a reckless custodian of her body and dared to have sex, unprotected, at a time when she wasn’t prepared to be a mother or with a man she didn’t want to be her child’s father. For shame. She should be made to complete the pregnancy, give birth to the child and raise it. This is her punishment for sex."
is the most true and honest characterization that I have read lately. Punishment and hate are the underlying themes of all of it.
13
As always Mr. Blow brings his insights to the horrors of our current President. Mr. Trump is an eager crowd pleaser who, due to his utter lack of intelligence and eloquence, needs to appeal to the techniques of professional wrestling promoters to win over the crowd. He enjoys being the hero and the villian whipping the crowd into a primal frenzy. The results while visceral, have no value or substance beyond a nights entertainment with the exception of the people who are inspired to commit mass murder. What a waste of time and energy. What a national tragedy.
1
Christian religion in America is largely that of a 'punishing God' and from there it is only a small step into taking this punishing philosophy into your own hands for these who have only the narrowest and most bigoted view of their own righteousness. This probably goes back to the Puritan beliefs in fear and guilt.
Where is the God of compassion and mercy? Has this God of compassion become incompatible with 'conservative' beliefs?
9
I am a Democrat, a believer in equality for all. I am also a believer in facts. So, in response to beliefs (considered "facts") about police shootings of black men, touched on in this article, I decided to find the truth.
Results of a recent study conducted by Michigan St. and the University of Maryland, which has been quoted from in this newspaper, will surprise many. Though it did confirm there are a disproportionate number of black men gunned down by police (though at a lower rate than Native Americans), it showed that racism is not to blame.
The following quotes are from a Michigan St. article summarizing the findings. Digest them as you wish. And, please, no name-calling. I am just the messenger:
“We found that the race of the officer doesn’t matter when it comes to predicting whether black or white citizens are shot. If anything, black citizens are more likely to have been shot by black officers, but this is because black officers are drawn from the same population that they police. The more black citizens there are in a community, the more black...officers there are.
We found that violent crime rates are the driving force behind fatal shootings. The rate of crime by each racial group correlates with the likelihood of citizens from that racial group being shot. In a county that has a lot of white people committing crimes, white people are more likely to be shot. In a county that has a lot of black people committing crimes, black people are more likely to be shot.
2
Absolutely correct. The right wing is obsessed with punishment.
Liberals get upset about the suffering of innocents. The right wing stew at the thought of all those they hate "getting away" with things. A drive to inflict punishment is one of the principal characteristics of right wing attitudes.
4
You tell it like it is, and it's wrenching to read about it.
The new and now-indefinite detention of migrant children and their parents will only enrich the pirates who own and run the cages at the border. They have been charging us taxpayers $750 a day per child or adult.
Since these migrants sometimes don't even get soap or tooth paste, flu vaccines or decent food, the cruelty is made worse by profit margins that are absolutely obscene.
oz.
1
Bullies always prefer picking on the weak for the amusement of the bully's pals.
The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act defines child abuse as: "An act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm."
Separation and indefinite detention? Sounds like Trump is violating federal law with this rule. An impeachable offense?
2
These years will be remembered as Trump’s reign of terror.
And all of those who were silent will be noted as complicit.
And they will have earned their notoriety.
1
"Punishment" suggests that there is an underlying offense. What we have here is a lust for hatred, brutality, and cruelty for no reason at all.
1
Much like a child yearns for attention and quickly learns how to get it, Trump learned that he gets more attention for being mean, insulting, and generally cruel. And it can no longer be a mystery that attention is everything to him, however he can get it, and however much it costs. That narcissistic need for constant attention made him bankrupt numerous times and a global pariah financially, but now the country has the misfortune for paying for this man's narcissism. But so long as the Republicans get their agenda through, they're happy with the country being a laughing stock and being sold down the road into massive debt, as well as watching all America's rivals emboldening themselves.
The sickness reaches far wider than this one man.
1
Please, please, please the issue is not Trump. It is the base that voted him and still strongly support him. This must be addressed.
How the most marginalized and affected continue to support GOP which keeps acting in favor of ultra rich and running high deficits without infrastructure investments is the problem? Is racism and xenophobia adequate motivation to cut your nose to spite your face?
1
So true. So obvious. So tragic.
Be sure to check out Pete Buttigieg’s comments on the hypocrisy of the *religious right* from the Democratic debates.
Great words ...
Progressives need to up their game. This nightmare has to end.
3
And yet so many well meaning commentators tell us that we must listen to these people and strive to understand them. You understand them perfectly Mr Blow. Thank you for your fight.
4
Your column Mr. Blow reminds me of what Hannah Arendt writes in, "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil." She explains, "Evil comes from a failure to think. It defies thought for as soon as thought tries to engage itself with evil and examine the premises and principles from which it originates, it is frustrated because it finds nothing there. That is the banality of evil."
Trump's actions defy thought, they make no sense, they are empty, and they are less than inane. It is frightening when we are faced with a man sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States who doesn't know how to think. Even more so, tragically, Trump has a whole tribe of people who relish every thoughtless word he says.
2
Charles, I respect you and the NYT, but I am tired of progressives pointing out what a monster Trump is. All Americans know that. What no one seems to have is an alternative that expresses a positive vision for fixing immigration, infrastructure, and all of the other ills our nation faces. I want my vote to count for something more than just "never Trump." Come on, Dems... Take the lead!
101
@Scott Dems need to keep pointing it out because the nation is fatigued and we are afraid it will all be the new normal. I agree with you that if Dems in Congress took the lead and wrote clear, to the point bills and Published them for the citizens to see and watched the GOP do nothing with the bills it would be powerful.
32
@Scott Progressives will stop pointing out what a monster Trump is when he stops being a monster. Silencing counterpoints is dangerous and unAmerican.
64
@Scott You haven't been paying attention to the positions espoused by the flock of Democratic candidates, have you? Don't worry; there's plenty of time in the next 14 months to catch up.
60
I think this captures the mindset of the supporters. I would just add that there is good money to be made in privatized prisons to hold these people and that is a typical GOP policy, and not specifically Trumpism.
14
At the foreign policy debate during the Republican primaries in 2016, Donald Trump said he'd "bomb their families" when asked about how he would deal with continuing resistance (from ISIS in Syria, I believe). This promise to commit what is basically a war crime was met with cheers by a Republican audience. Not one primary candidate objected. No moderator followed up. Not one military Trump supporter stated that they would not be willing to purposely kill civilians, even though members of the military take an oath not to follow illegal orders, and this defies United States policy and the Geneva convention.
Cruelty is a part of the Repulican party. It's not a bug, it's a feature.
38
wait, didn't Bill Clinton sign legislation that put many many people of color behind bars for low level offenses including marijuana possession? Isn't Trump rolling this back?
in the interest of intellectual honesty, Trump has some awful qualities and also some positive policies. As did Clinton and Obama before him.
fellow progressives, if we believe in intellectual honesty, let's be open to the facts and have moral courage to call our friends and journalists who display bias.
8
@Yes To Progress. Trump supported this one very tiny part of the criminal justice reform legislation. But this one act can’t possibly stand as evidence of intellectual dishonesty in the appraisal of this President. The weight of all the other racist and punitive acts far outweighs whatever value one could assign to the change you cite.
3
@RubyM, I think we all hate a trump so much it biased our hearts and minds
@Yes To Progress NYT wouldn't approve my similar comment so I'm surprised they posted yours. Thank you for this! Regardless of your politics, failing to call out intellectual laziness or hyperbole among your fellows only hurts your cause.
Never forget the Trump supporter who complained: "He is not hurting the people he is supposed to be hurting". This was in response to her hurting as a byproduct of some Trump policy.
This is the cruelty of the Trump supporter. Trump was elected to hurt the many 'others' in very public fashion so that his followers would see and revel in the 'others' pain.
34
@Elizabeth Mr. Blow's comparison to the colosseum is spot on. I have seen some of the rallies on TV and sit stunned at the nastiness. I still believe (hope) that away from the mob mentality that these people are more kind and decent than they seem. I hope.
4
A good course in anthropology would enlighten those willing to learn. Every society - every one - wants the same for its people. We are more alike than different. I cannot imagine the emptiness of a group of people who would punish the children of others. But then, we haven't seen such craven emptiness in office before. Not in this country, anyway. What's that saying? "Bread and circuses." Except, the bread is stale and the circuses aren't entertaining.
6
Thank you for this essay. It reminds me of what James Baldwin wrote in The Fire Next Time: “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
66
@the quiet one: Bingo! And the pain they ignore is their FEAR. It's so important for grown men to understand why they are so scared--but few do.
18
@the quiet one
Thanks for adding this to the discussion.
8
@the quiet one
Good Comment.
I think that hate is driven by fear and fear by insecurity.
From my personal experience, the people who hate dark-skinned immigrants the most are people who seldom or never meet them. But these people are insecure about their place or role in life and want to blame someone.
Best wishes.
9
Thank you, as always, for an insightful, well-written and well argued article. Love the new saying that you coin, the "Colosseum of Conservatism". It certainly is that.
31
Thank you for extending this beyond Trump. What enables him are the Republicans in Congress who support his depravity, and beyond that, the 63 million Americans who voted for him.
The question now becomes, how does our society return to civility the day after Trump is gone when we know that half of us were part of his roaring crowd?
51
@Steve
I think (hope) it's closer to 1/3 than half. Trump's roaring crowds have always been with us though, and they weren't especially well hidden before either.
That being said, I'm not sure that our society does return to civility.
15
Mr Blow correctly notes the transition of (white) opiate abusers from criminal to victim, but he missed the further punishment being inflicted upon the legitimate users of these medications. In an effort to "stem the flow" of opiates, laws have been written which cause doctors to refuse to write prescriptions for people in real, non-addiction related pain. (No more than a 30 day supply, each refill requiring an office visit [at $160, or so, a visit], etc.) This fits nicely with the views of Trump and his followers, that the unfortunate are somehow "unworthy," unlike themselves, and deserving of being punished for that unworthiness. Comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted.
15
@John Vesper Studies have also shown that doctors were less inclined to prescribe opioids for blacks. Not clear whether it was race based, i.e., blacks more likely to become addicted, to be 'faking it', or financial, i.e., affordability of the medication. But in any case another striking example of how race enters into the drug issue.
3
You’ve got to give trump credit for recognizing and exploiting hate and anger that’s just under the surface. Too bad he’s exploited it for his political gain rather than to help heal.
13
@Brad Sometimes I wonder how much it really is just under the surface, and how much it is simply created in real time, out of disparate but potentially explosive ingredients. I think the distinction is important: if we want to prevent such disasters from occurring, we likely have to address broader issues that may not seem directly related, at first glance.
7
@TMJ
You can't have a fire without tinder. It's there. trump is the arsonist with a lighter.
2
As your article indicates, Mr. Blow, the desire to inflict pain has long been a component of the conservative mindset. To complement the evidence you cite, I'd suggest, for any of your readers who may be interested, a simple experiment. Go to Google and look up "Public opinion polls on ...." and then, doing one search at a time, fill in the blank with, for example, capital punishment, torture, spanking children, tough love, and so on. Among other comparisons, many polls will compare conservatives and liberals (or Republicans and Democrats) in their attitudes toward these forms of control. And when you look at the results, you will invariably find that a higher percentage of conservatives than liberals favor the option that involves inflicting pain.
19
Trump's new policy regarding the detention of immigrants is meant to stem the tide of illegal immigrants attempting to game the system by overwhelming it. The current system rewards line jumping by those rushing our borders by forcing government officials to release them into our country where they mostly just disappear. Those of us who wish to have our laws actually adhered to welcome this change. Besides, the detained immigrants are, after a period of processing, free to leave these detention facilities, just not into our country.
15
I lost my faith in religion as a teenager. I was asked to participate in a Youth Sunday in which two services were led by the youth exclusively. At the first service, I purposefully did nothing, remaining mute and hidden in the apse. I joined those who did that service in a receiving line to greet the departing parishioners and what horrified to receive specific thanks for a sermon or a reading I had not offered them just a few minutes before. A simple "thank you for the service" would have sufficed but the attendees were there to get a holy ticket validated and not to participate or to learn.
Some time later when living in Little Rock, I witnessed the collision of a marathon run with the end of services on Church Street on the course of the run. Congregants in cars seeking an exit blared their horns at the hundreds of runners streaming by. Tolerance, forbearance and grace may have been offered in sermons and homilies that day on Church Street but the message fell on deaf ears.
America does not revere the Gospel from any holy book. It reveres white patriarchy and it does so at the risk of becoming the unwitting recipient of retribution from those who do not get a seat at the table before these false gods.
"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." - Matthew 25:40
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
41
Mr. Blow, I wish you and Bret Stephens or David Brooks would have a joint op-ed where you discuss conservatives and their role in the suppression of anyone not male and white in this country. These two men particularly seem to regard Trump as a surprising anomaly instead of naturally born from the roots of a conservatism that insists we all have equal footing and simply need to pull ourselves up by our own “bootstraps.” This mentality has held more people down and impeded progress for non-whites and females. If conservatives were held accountable for the harm they cause with their “small government,” we might actually get voters to see what they truly are: anti-humanity.
138
@AT
If you lived in the real world you would know there's a lot of white on white systemic oppression. It's called class warfare.
A little more real world advice: If a man says he pulled himself up by his boot straps, be he black, white, red, brown, yellow or blue, you best keep it to yourself. He's not going to like your version of the truth.
1
I think that this actually predates the creation of the USA itself. It is appropriate to remember that the Dissenters who came to America did so because they were persecuted (or felt persecuted) in England. They felt that the Anglicans were too lenient in their interpretation of Scripture and wanted a place where they could be more restrictive.
That was the North. In the South, of course, there was a slave-based plantation economy.
The idea of equality, freedom and all the rest may have been a key element of the Declaration of Independence, but it has never been truly central to the political interpretation of society (as Mr. Blow's examples illustrate clearly).
So, long story short, Trump is the culmination of something that has been very present in your society for a very long time. And that explains his popularity.
61
@Rudy Flameng
Of course it predates the creation of the United States (1776); that is exactly what The New York Times magazine series "1619" is all about. I suggest you and other readers take the time to read the articles to better understand the real beginning of the United States and the role slavery (which is extremely inhumane) has had not only on the development of the country but also on the continuing development and implementation of programs of all sorts throughout the history of our country. This is the root of conservatism.
5
A as a longtime citizen of a State that elected Jesse Helms again and again, I can say with certainty that Trump’s worse impulses actually represent the heart and soul of Republicanism as defined and as it has evolved since the passage of the civil rights act of 1964.
325
@Cliff I didn't know Republicans had hearts and souls.
9
The odd thing about our political rights -- secured by blood and tears -- is we don't use them.
Most Americans don't vote, don't pay attention unless it's a junk food promotion on Instagram, don't know what's going on unless it's a NFL player with a bigger head than helmet.
Most can't name who speaks for them in Congress (which may be why the elected only speak for their donors), how many Justices sit on the Supreme Court (not just who really, really likes beer). A third of Americans surveyed agree Japan is bigger than China and twice as many can't locate Japan on a map. (One-third are sure HK is China's capitol.)
For a nation founded on ideals other than the right to conceal or open carry a weapon of mass destruction in church (but not in state legislatures or Congress where NRA-elected solons decree the inviolable right to fire at will followed by thoughts and prayers), the only right most care about is their right to do anything they want without the minimal effort demanded by a functioning democracy.
We have the right of mass assembly and protected expression of dissent.
The folks in HK are out on the streets en masse, clashing with police, day after day. Their reasons don't begin to approach the meat-axe butchering of American democracy and global unanimity by Trump.
But lieu of mass disruption or a general strike, we just roll our eyes and utter without conviction, "next year".
It's more fun keeping score on Hong Kong.
195
@Yuri Asian
Back in 1958, as a high school exchange student in Minnesota, I was struck by the remarkable difference between the level of teaching in my English honour class, where I was actually taught how to express myself in writing, in whatever language, and in my general history class, which actively promoted the kind of mentality so well described by you here....
It was clear that my school was seeding the student body, all of it while everybody enjoyed a level of prosperity that was unthinkable anywhere else.
I could see that people around me felt they were different, on a different plane from the rest of the world. In a way, it was true. But on a deeper level I obscurely felt this was not so, but had no actual knowledge of the harsh reality.
Perhaps one good thing coming out of the Trump presidency is that, finally, America has to accept it is a country like all others...
22
@Yuri Asian
Here’s one of my favorite bizarre facts, from a survey done back in the 1990s, as reported on NPR: fully 20% of the adults in this country believe the sun revolves around the earth. That’s some core group, that group.
10
@Yuri Asian - reminds me of what a friend once told me - 'I only worry about money when I don't have it'
so - freedom may be taken for granted - until we don't have it - when suddenly it can become the most important thing to you !
human nature, etc. ...
4
Probably true and therefore depressing and frightening. At some point, no humane and reasonable words will make a difference. The 2020 election will tell us if that point has come, and thanks to Mitch McConnell that election may not even be the true will of the majority. .
61
Confederate values (small government and respect for established customs and social statuses) were always widespread, and not just in the South. The Reconstruction dream of a biracial society, with liberty and justice for all, appeared unnatural, unworkable, and not desirable to many Americans. The Jeffersonian hypocrisy of pledging allegiance to these values while supporting a society that violates them is alive and well.
In the latest installment of the Civil War, the Confederacy is once again winning.
49
The perfect storm that put DJT in office started with Johnson was POTUS and slowly, deliberately, built towards this terrible end. So many factors convened to make his election possible it's hard to single out the most significant one.
When religion is used to teach hate and people do not have the education, sophistication or exposure to understand even the simplest thing that requires analysis, things get bad quickly.
Some people know that all human beings are created equal, and should be treated equally with respect and dignity. Some people realize that no one "owns" the earth but all share in her richness. They understand that money has no inherent value and that power over others through force and domination is a sign of weakness. Other people have never been exposed to such ideas. They have been taught to hate, to be suspicious, resentful, envious and vengeful. The churches that preach hate, the TV network that reinforces lies, the social media that transmits outrageously ridiculous information as if it was worthwhile, all have contributed to his "reign".
He could decide to stay and declare himself Emperor and then, maybe a savior. One wonders if the GOP or the "base" would object. Maybe millions of them would cheer -- we know it has happened in the past and could again anywhere, not just here.
Your column is SO important. I wish you wrote every day. Tell it like it is, Charles.
By the way, congratulations on the opera which got wonderful reviews. Bravo!
122
@Jeanie LoVetri... Your comments are spot-on,for sure,sadly so and their implications for the country transcend the results of the upcoming election. When I attended University on the G.I. Bill in the '60's it was to obtain an 'education,' to learn how to 'think.' Different than today when it's only about getting a job and taking one's place in the superficial consumer-culture that defines America. Blindness everywhere.
42
Mr. Blow: Your piece regarding the cruelty of Don Trump’s followers is spot-on. I write only to point out that there are conservatives who do not cheer the misfortune of others at the hand of the United States government. Many of us resigned from the Republican Party after Don Trump became the party’s presidential nominee. Some gave up trying to allign conservative principles, to include the embrace of others, with the current Republican Party’s platform and disingenuous candidates. I encourage you to distinguish between the hate of Trumpist Republicans (which you compelling call out in your op-ed) and conservatives who refuse to support our current president but who respectfully disagree with many elements of the Democratic Party.
56
@Mark Larsen
Republicans were sold a bill of goods with Nixon, and they bought it. They loved being the long-suffering Silent Majority who did not speak up or protest although they should have acted and saved the country from pacifists, uppity blacks, drugs, free love, socialism, and who finally elected someone who stood for law and order and respectability.
They bought the same bill of goods from a better, more believable salesman (everybody knew that Dicky was Tricky), and believed that ignoring or denying problems would make them go away and Voodoo Economics would balance the budget. When they lost control of the government to Slick Willie, they approved it when their leaders started playing hardball. They loved Dubya until his war did not go well and the economy crashed, and then they basically decreed that he had never existed. They were happy when their leaders fought anything that Obama tried to do, including using government power to help the economy recover from what happened to it under Dubya the Unmentionable.
Official Republican positions and policies have not respectfully disagreed with Democrats for decades. Instead, they have rejected respectful disagreement for anything-goes warfare.
The only way for Republicans to respectfully disagree with Democrats is to join the more conservative parts of the Democratic Party, because its members still know how to respectfully disagree. Republicans have lost this ability even among themselves.
9
@Mark Larsen where are your kind in the halls of power? If they do indeed exist, they are silent. The other hypothesis is that although you call yourself a conservative, you are not.
1
You got it, Mark.
Exactly--it's just sadism, the same impulse that makes conservatives so enthusiastic about capital punishment and "enhanced interrogation." They'd gladly impose corporal punishment for speeding if they could find a way to ensure it only applied to minorities.
Ask yourself: if the punishment should fit the crime, what is the appropriate punishment for unlawfully crossing a border? Is it a fine? Deportation? Or indefinite detention in a prison camp, without access to soap, medicine, or legal representation?
73
Exactly--it's just sadism, the same impulse that makes conservatives so enthusiastic about capital punishment and "enhanced interrogation." They'd gladly impose corporal punishment for speeding if they could find a way to ensure it only applied to minorities.
Ask yourself: if the punishment should fit the crime, what is the appropriate punishment for unlawfully crossing a border? Is it a fine? Deportation? Or indefinite detention in a prison camp, without access to soap, medicine, or legal representation?
6
...and it was Eric Garner's fault for resisting ...
CHANG: O'Neill was saying that, actually, Pantaleo wasn't relying on his training, that he maintained the hold too long. The chokehold is banned by the NYPD, and that's why he found Pantaleo's conduct improper.
YOES: Well, a thorough review process through a number of different agencies reviewed it. And you know, of course, this is subjective. I think what we have is - clearly is a tragedy here. We know the outcome. And it's hard to separate ourselves between the outcome and a particular incident - the training and the actions that were taken. But officers across this country are forced to - put in a situation where they have to restrain individuals as part of their responsibilities, their job.
1
@John H. Clark Why does a police officer have to use force -- deadly force, as it turned out -- against a man who is selling individual cigarettes? And this same police force does nothing about a man who is openly -- yes, openly -- trafficking young girls for sex?
3
Mr. Blow, thank you for this excellent article, even though you can only skim the surface. The questions and the answers are in people's souls. Too often it's horrifying.
46
@Jim Hugenschmidt
And so Christian.
“The new regulation would codify minimum standards for the conditions in family detention centers and would specifically abolish a 20-day limit on detaining families in immigration jails.”
Since when can a new regulation countermand the effect of a judicial order like the Flores consent decree? Smacks, as usual, of executive overreach. But then, someone with Trump’s waistline is used to overreaching.
41
@1954Stratocaster
1 have been screaming all along, “why aren’t more judges being hired for asylum hearings?” Now we know.
3
Is it not interesting how many of those who oppose Trump are not directly harmed by him or his policies? They are empathizing with those who are harmed. Conversely, many of those who support him derive no concrete benefit from this support. In fact, they are harmed by his healt h, economic, trade, and environmental actions. So, the explanation for their support must be emotional and psychological; or, perhaps pschopathological. The support of women is perhaps the most difficult to understand.
120
@arp
Trump's supporters who do not receive the concrete benefit you mention, back, revere as their hero and support because of one reason; they support his hate. There are people (including women) who just live to hate. That collective emotion is what Trump tapped into, what he understands and relishes over anything else. That hate is what breathes in his supporters. That hate will continue to fuel Trump's support.
10
The greatest threat at this moment to the vitality, stability and national security of the United States is Donald Trump . The second greatest threat to our national security are the Republicans in Congress who support Donald Trump.
400
@RD
I am not sure I would concur with your priorities there.
What would be able to accomplish, were it not for his blindly following enablers?
Not all that much, I would assume.
11
It’s not just about enjoying the punishment. It’s about the feeling of power to be able to inflict that punishment. Authoritarian leaders, the high SDO types like Trump, glory in having power over others.
Their authoritarian followers love it because it reinforces their own feelings of worth, and because it gives them targets to vent their fear and anger on.
John Dean’s Conservatives Without Conscience spelled this out years ago. If more people had read it, Trump would have never been allowed near power.
It is something we ignore at our peril. There is nothing unprecedented about Trump and his followers, or our reluctance to recognize them for what they are. American exceptionalism has always had a strong component of wishful thinking.
104
I agree completely with what you say. Having lived for a number of years in a very conservative, predominately evangelical community in the Midwest, the most notable aspect of discussions was always desire to punish, rooted in and justified by images of an angry, vindictive God...images their own theology claims the loving Jesus came to replace.
244
@Michael K.: "God" is only a projection of human nature onto an imaginary universal tyrant by narcissistic fools playing tyrant themselves.
9
I have to say I am creeped out by the numerous ways described in this column about the way the criminal justice system pursues the punishment of the least powerful with such zeal. It reminds me of recurring instances in which firefighters prove to be arsonists. What if a disturbing segment of our police and judges are sadists? What if the system attracts them?
87
@Terrence
A dear neighbor of ours, who was a part-time constable in our county, once observed that sometimes the only difference between the cop and the criminal is the badge. This was in response to the behavior of another neighbor -- a bully cop with a short man complex, a big truck, and a bad temper.
10
@Terrence
Utter wisdom. Thank you.
3
What I find sad is when Trump supporters I have spoken to takes so much joy in hurting others. And pointing out that they seem gleeful in other’s pain makes them laugh- so confusing. I wonder what is behind that. Is the Trump supporter somehow getting revenge on those who have hurt him? Does it make them feel powerful for once, and they like identifying with the victimizer instead of the victim? Now that I think about it, haven’t I heard that before as the motivation of serial killers?
65
@Bjz
Watching his reality show “The Apprentice” only one time to see what the hype was all about, I realized that his and others’ pleasure taken in the firing of people was not something to celebrate. It was something that NBC & the media should have been criticizing all along. We were a warped society even then. I suppose it’s that we reap what we sow.
17
@Bjz
As has been stated, sadism is behind it. It's not just trump who is sadistic. If it were just trump, he would not be president now.
Remember "lock her up". "Send her back". Those were sadistic statements by his base.
5
Remember the difference between “authoritarian” and “authoritative” parenting?
The former can be summed up as Do What I Say But Not What I Do, or Because I Said So. This is the core parenting philosophy of a lot of cultural conservatives. This sort of parenting accepts corporal punishment as part of the deal, and considers children to be more like property than humans to be nurtured.
The latter parenting strategy is more about creating trusting relationships. Children learn from mistakes and are loved for who they are, not simply for how obedient they have been today.
Trump, and the conservatives who support him, are authoritarian not authoritative. Just as authoritarian parenting has been discredited, Trump is a failed president and conservatism as it is practiced in these times is hollow.
The latter
50
Sadly, the people who need to read this won't, and wouldn't even understand it is about themselves.
279
The crack epidemic of the 1990s and the opioid epidemic of today are not comparable. Revisionist progressive historians continue to cloud the historical record. It's beyond question that by the early 1990s, African American citizens wanted an immediate response to the crime & violence in their communities. It was out of control...that's never been disputed by anyone. Everyday young black men were being murdered at an alarming rate. That's a fact. The dead are the tip of the iceberg, those who were maimed, beaten, robbed, fled their homes or lived in fear reach into the millions. Cries for police action were unanimous. The 1994 crime bill which was a response to these calls wasn't perfect. We know that 25 years later...that's hindsight. The fact is influential black pastors who lived in these communities signed a letter encouraging the Congressional Black Caucus to support the bill. The bill had the support of 10 black city mayors who were desperate for a solution to this problem. And in the end over half of the Black Caucus voted for the bill, so obviously they didn't think it was bad legislation. And let's be clear about something else. It had overwhelming support in the Senate...passing 95-4. To blame racism for consequences that no one could have possibly foreseen is frankly outrageous. No one is being shot, maimed or killed in the opioid epidemic. It was a legal drug that was overprescribed by cynical & greedy doctors. It requires a totally different response to solve.
28
@Bill Brown: People complain about the opioid epidemic, too, just like they did about the crack epidemic. The difference is that in one case, the (reluctant, and underfunded) response moves toward sympathy treatment, and in the other case, the response was demonization and punitive violence.
You are right about many Black leaders signing on to the crime bill, if not as wholeheartedly and unamimously as you picture. Humane alternatives were off the table in the racist America of those days. There is no reason at all to think that crack addiction wouldn't have responded to treatment and rehabilitation, just like any other form of addiction. As it happened, treatment and rehabilitation were not readily available, to say the least...
Not that they are all that available to today's White addicts, either. We don't want to exaggerate society's sympathy with the White opioid addict; there's plenty of cruelty to go around.
24
@Bill Brown. Absolute, Fox News inspired nonsense...
1
There are many politicians trying to foster similar ignorance here in Australia. Members of a miniscule (but loud) group of conservatives try their level best to repaint a picture where we white, heterosexual men are the truest victims. It's baffling.
42
@James Tapscott
Victims no, yet more and more blame is laid at our feet.
Recall the white Australia policy - introduced by white men and rightly removed by white men.
Immigrants don't come here because of our faults, white supremacy or white heterosexual male privilege.
They come because it's a good place to be or at least better than where they were.
And immigration works best where it's controlled.
@James Tapscott: There seems to be about 40% of all populations of 'western civilization' that believe in white supremacy and wish to be as cruel as possible to all 'others'. It's frightening that their voices are so loud and insistent.
3
I can only pray that what donald trump fake commander in chief will experience the same pain to his family that he has welcomed to the less fortunate of Our Country, not his.
24
@Janet I
You pray for pain to be inflicted on the president's family? Do you believe that God would sanswer that prayer?
What pain has he, "welcomed to the less fortunate of Our Country"?
I loath Donald Trump.
But I stand with the VAST majority of Americans who will not accept as our responsibility the failing states of Central America.
Argue until you are blue in the face. But these folks need to fix their countries. They cannot come here.
18
@Will.
Trump has no agenda beyond being an
attention queen. Any expectation of he
or the party that co-opted itself to regain
power in the Executive branch actually working
the problem of immigration is unfounded.
Wide open borders (as alleged by the Fox
propaganda machine to be the Democratic
Party immigration policy) cannot be a solution
but neither is a border lockdown. In business,
you look to work smarter, not harder.
Using this logic, a part of smart immigration
policy is to mitigate Central American
immigration at its source.
35
@Will.
Nice advice, but those countries would today be much more stable if the U.S. hadn't been destabilizing them for a century. They've tried "to fix their countries." Go back and read your history.
127
@Will. Well, I might agree with that, IF we hadn't destabilized Guatemala back in the early '50s with a CIA-backed coup against their freely elected President Arbenz leading to a 36- year (yes, that's right, 36) civil war which even now has not truly been settled, and IF we had not gotten involved in more covert activity in Nicaragua back in the '80s (remember Iran-Contra). It seems we owe the region a lot.
155
Simple, accurate and searing. You forgot one thing : HE, and his Fans, enjoy it. It brings true pleasure to the impotent and powerless. They don’t care about the harm they cause, they only know it makes them feel good.
Seriously.
334
@Phyliss Dalmatian
"...makes them feel good", yes, and even Great Again.
13
@Phyliss Dalmation - exactly. Miserable, angry people - many who are poor as well - blaming others and feeding off Trump's angry words and deeds. Sad.
14
@Phyliss Dalmatian—You are on to something Trump must have sussed out long ago. Cruelty doesn’t just make his otherwise impotent sycophants feel good, it makes them feel great again.
11
The level of depravity to which this monster Trump sinks the country knows no depths. We are in a moral crisis that could become an international or economic crisis at any time. Given this consensus amongst those who oppose this beast what I don't understand is why and how the Democrats go out on a 5 week summer vacation. Something is very wrong with this picture.
52
In the column above this one Gail Collins comments about Trump's assumption of God or Godly status. Evangelicals are famous for believing in a God of the old testament, a punishing God of retribution. That they seem to worship him in this way becomes perfectly as he carries out their belief that Democrats and the poor need to be punished for their supposed sins. After all if you are poor or an immigrant you are not favored by God or Trump. Right?
But I also see Mr. Blows Caesar analogy where Caligula and the rest turn thumbs up or thumbs down at the whim of the dictator leading to a blood bath below. Mr. blow, you may have mixed metaphors ut they both apply to our egomaniac in chief.
25
@just Robert: That cliche about the punishing God of the Old Testament is just wrong. All the great quotes about mercy and justice and good treatment for the stranger are directly from the Old Testament. What was Jesus trying to do but live out the words of Micah,to do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with his God? Well, let's not get into what Jesus was or wasn't trying to do, but, you see what I mean...
8
John is correct that the John is correct The John is right The Judaism of Jesus' time was neither vengeful nor merciless.Much of American Christianity is Pauline, which has a grim and misogynist side. At least once Pauline Calvinism was communitatian and even intellectual.
1
@John Bergstrom: "God" is only a projection of human nature onto the whole physical universe to explain its existence. It is something people should grow out of into adulthood. When they don't, God becomes a rationale for tyranny.
3
I wish NYT would do an analysis of US policy and actions that contributed to current conditions in Central America that cause people to flee - something like the recent 1619 Project.
196
@Jc • See if you can find the book by General Smedley Butler "War is a Racket". By the end of his career, Butler had received 16 medals, five for heroism. He is one of 19 men to receive the Medal of Honor twice, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal (along with Wendell Neville and David Porter) and the Medal of Honor, and the only Marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions.
Butler participated in a series of occupations, "police actions" and interventions by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean, commonly called the Banana Wars because their goal was to protect American commercial interests in the region, particularly those of the United Fruit Co. This company had significant financial stakes in the production of bananas, tobacco, sugar cane and other products throughout the Caribbean, Central America and the northern portions of South America. These interventions started with the Spanish–American War in 1898 and ended with the withdrawal of troops from Haiti and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy in 1934.[12] After his retirement, Butler became an outspoken critic of the business interests in the Caribbean, criticizing the ways in which U.S. businesses and Wall Street bankers imposed their agenda on United States foreign policy during this period.[13]
26
@Walter
Thank you for your comment detailing Smedley Butler!
He also reported, and shed light upon, a plot by a number of very wealthy Americans to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt and impose a Fascist government. This was in 1934.
The story is very complex, and involved members of very prominent families. Smedley Butler was a patriot. What he prevented in 1934, however, is happening before our very eyes today.
8
@Jc: Excellent idea! Our crazy "War on Drugs", by which we give monopolistic opportunities to the most violent and corrupt entrepreneurs, foreign and domestic, would be a good place to start.
1
You are absolutely right especially about abortion--I have felt for years that our attitudes and laws about abortion were all about punishing women for having sex
278
@Dave Davis
I think abortion and birth control have become proxies for female equality and autonomy - the ability women now have to choose a 'non traditional' path in life, and to compete directly with men for well paying, prestigious careers.
59
@Dave Davis yes, you are correct. The men want to have sex and don't care to protect themselves, yet the women are in trouble if they get pregnant.
24
@Dave Davis And it is funny, but not in a "ha ha" way, that the very people who try so hard to seduce us or sexually harass us into submission are the ones who are punishing women for having sex. It is almost as funny as demanding a government that is so small, it can fit inside a woman's uterus.
13
"But none of this will disturb the people who support Trump. This is a large part of the reason they like him."
No.
Trump is not a strong president, but he dismantles liberals on immigration. What would Blow suggest - he doesn't seem to offer one up? That we allow anyone to cross the border and apply for asylum, be able to get fresh beds, fresh food, ample space, daycare? Why apply for asylum in Mexico when we can go to the US? These are economic migrants and illegal immigrants.
If you want a topic that will make Trump win in a landslide, immigration is one (free healthcare/education for illegals), another is reparations.
Least when the progressive left sinks in 2020, they'll go down patting each other on the back.
11
@Scott
This isn't about immigration....it's about Hispanic citisens voting for an African-American , successively, at the rate of 67 % and 71% for President and contributing to the success of two campaigns.
Immigration was an issue before those elections, of course, but after the above it became a manifestation of a manic, collective breakdown of a particular demographic.
25
@Scott
"These are economic migrants and illegal immigrants." I wish Native Americans and the Spanish had said this to Anglos.
6
I think research indicates that immigrants contribute economically more than they cost. Immigrants come to work. No one advocates open borders. But we must show humanity. Separating children from and throwing them in cages is criminal. $750 a night per child.
If you believe health care is a human right you would not deny health care to anyone. That detained children have already died of the flu and the children are not being vaccinated is criminal.
13
Despite being part of an obviously dominant patriarchy, white nationalists behave as if they are victims or an endangered species.
I can't help but hope that the latter becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in my lifetime, because I am tired of having to work around it or rise above it.
47
So well-written and all so true.
49
Alabama is my home. I cannot tell you how many “Christian” folk here revel in Trump’s cruelty. It is shocking and horrifying.
597
@bamabroad
From what I have seen, nearly half of Alabama voted for Roy Moore because he said that he opposes the last 27 Amendments to the Constitution. His sexual problems were just a distraction.
The Right has always wanted a king. All of their talk about government being the "enemy" is contradicted by their fervent belief that that police and military should operate with near impunity, especially against the poor, minorities, women, and the LGBTQ. (The Right invented most"identities" not the victims.) It is only when the government invests as much in minorities as rich white men that suddenly "reverse!" discrimination becomes a problem.
The Right doesn't call Our government "the enemy" because they are Anarchists that want to abolish all government so we can provide "mutual aid," to each other. The Right wants to base state violence on the whims of a white, male "unitary executive." The Bush administration used the mythical unitary executive to declare that torture ordered by the president is legal, even though U.S. law says it is not.
The Right says that Our government is their "enemy" to weaken checks on presidential power. They are trying to make Congress and the Courts powerless, so that they can more efficiently control state violence.
Trump keeps calling for violence without due process!
Trump is the most rude, reckless, arrogant, ignorant,...and impatient of all the billionaires, but he has the same basic interests as most BILLIONAIRES WHO OWN THE MEDIA.
19
@bamabroadnot only in Alabama. Shocking and horrifying is right!
12
Trump admires dictators, and it does not seem far fetched that he may harbor an envy of their freedom to brutalize.
He certainly seems to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in inflicting pain on others.
At the same time, he is hinting at jailing the Russia investigators.
Trump is anti-American.
All of his dreamed of powers are in direct opposition to everything that America stands for.
150
Makes sense to me, Charles. The punitive blood lust to punish, to overpower, and to impose the white patriarchy’s will on those of us who are not white or male is crystal clear through this lens. The crazy disjunctive paradox of no birth control, no abortion, and no child support or daycare provisions for lower income women is explained through your theorem of punishment of women for daring to have sex.
I’m nauseated but glad to say, I vote.
87
The only route to salvation is to accept Donald J. Trump as your personal savior! (See "The President Goes Godly" by Gail Collins elsewhere in this newspaper.)
5
It didn't take Germany long to go from speaking against Jews, Roma, leftists, LBGTQ people, etc., to appropriating their resources, to ghettoizing them, to expelling them, and, finally, to Final Solution-ing them.
How long do you think it'll take here?
Maybe a bit longer, because in the US there are even more categories of people that are in the way of white male hegemony.
But not that much longer, I fear.
84
You expose the existential underbelly of our social pathology. Punitive rage rationalizes and supports the violent exercise of a collective sadistic acting out. Schadenfreude, finding pleasure in witnessing another’s misfortune, is an unfortunate common pathway to release personal frustrations, feelings of inadequacy and jealousy.
Good leadership, like good parenting, inspires altruism, compassion and empathy. Trump’s leadership is antisocial and fuels the worse traits in people.
50
@Kenneth Cohen agree. A great leader brings out the best in everyone, a terrible leader brings out the worst.
2
Excellent column.
What we are witnessing is "Conservasadism"
76
“Punitive lust” Charles? I would prefer to be more direct, and call this Conservative pathology what it simply is: Sadism. Is not Trump’s resident immigration sociopath, Steven Miller, the personification of this Administration’s rampant sadism?
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That thumbs up with the orphaned baby in El Paso should have been a Roman emperor's thumbs down. Trump hated the parents' ethnicity as much as the killer did.
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And yet there are plenty Hispanic Trump supporters.
Behind the white supremacy is hate of the other that legitimizes cruelty as in child separation of immigrant families, locking them up in concentration camps, and unleashing hate speech and outright terror like the gun massacre in El Paso. There is no spirit of religion with its call for love over hate or for tolerance over bigotry. It's all inverted in an Orwellian Big Brother in the form of Donald Trump who is a racist, a white supremacist as was his Ku Klux Klansman father and who lacks any compassion or empathy due to his narcissism disorder. There is a word for this; it's called evil.
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Let us even more succinctly describe the Repubs - conservatives who support Trump: Sadists!
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Trump is a racist, a bigot, a con man, a white nationalist and a Russian puppet. I don't think those that support him care one bit because they either share his ideas or only care about the money they are making under his economic policies.
Every day I wake up knowing this atrocious human being is in the Oval Office and every day I have to tell myself things will change in our next election. I have given up hope the democrats are going to impeach this man. If this man is reelected, I will have to make plans to leave the US because my mind and my body will not survive another 4 years of misery.
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@Lily Quinones
Economic policies? What economic policies? With the tariffs and the chaos and uncertainty he’s created, the economy is doing well in spite of Trump, not because of Trump.
The economy would have been on steroids under Hillary. Of that, I’m sure.
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Tell it.
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Trump and his supporters are Nazi-sympathizers—the ones who aren’t *actual* Nazis, I mean. Perfectly in character for them.
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@Mexican Gray Wolf Or "Nazi-adjacent."
Saint Thomas Acquinas argued that the blessed in heaven would delight in seeing the suffering of the damned. Resentment by the Christian Right goes back a long way.
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"A sickness unto death",claimed Soren Kierkegaard", describes an individual "in despair" who has denied that the true human being must be grounded in love.
We have a President incapable of loving the other.
It is a soul reduced to the transaction. We are, indeed, experiencing the unreal. There is no connectivity to Trump's world view. All is to be consumed.
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Chris Hayes said that in 2016, Trump promised to help and he promised to hurt.
All the promises to help have gone unfulfilled, from health care to infrastructure to opioid addiction to great trade deals to a middle class tax cut.
But the promises to hurt, to get back, to make them pay, to shut people up and make them angry, have been fulfilled with a success and enthusiasm we could not have predicted.
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@Yeah , I'm afraid this Trumpian viciousness was entirely predictable from the day he descended his golden escalator to announce his run for office.
As a former resident of Palm Beach, I can assure you the grape vine was ever abuzz with stories of Mr. Trump stiffing contractors, suing the town for special zoning exceptions, and generally being a king-sized prat. Once he established himself there, it didn't take long to realize that winning, for him, always required someone else to lose.
Two of his favorite things have always been other people's $, and other people's pain.
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We are glad you are there to outline and give voice. I am currently subscribing to NYTimes, WaPo, New Yorker because of the studious, well crafted voice given to humanitarian issues, the plight of people, that I as a young social worker in the seventies hoped to relieve.
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States have declined to accept Medicaid expansion under the ACA.
Perhaps this explains their "rationale" for refusing to help those less able to afford coverage.
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@ddruby
Except for the part where many who have Medicaid in Red States are white and those same white people voted for trump.
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Mr. Blow, it turns my stomach to read this, but you are absolutely right.
Thank you for writing about this in such a straightforward way.
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Very insightful, Charles. I believe, with all the hope I have in America, that a large majority of our country is appalled by the spectacle and wants the Coliseum closed down and the emperor dethroned.
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@Robert Knox
If you were right, the next elections would already be a slam dunk in favour of whatever presidential candidate the Dems chose. That's not what the latest polls seem to indicate. That said, I wish you were right.
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"And as Trump increases the pain, a great roar goes up from the Colosseum of Conservatism."
trump and his gang want to go back to a time in America; the one that existed before the enactment of the Civil War amendments.
If Americans don't defeat trump at the ballot box in 2020, then what we are now seeing in Hong Kong could be our future.
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@Phil Hurwitz
It might if people were that interested.
The strength of these monsters is that no one will stop them, they control the voting machines now, as well as the suppression campaign.
An 'election' more than a year away is cruel comfort.
We did this to ourselves and I believe now that it is too late to stop the wholesale degradation and deconstruction of a once proud nation.
Some hideous way will be found to stave off defeat.
Too many are profiting in some way from this.
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