I disagree with the statement that Trump supporters always knew Trump was a "narcissistic, lowlife, liar, miserable human being" I don't they think this. These people deny these things regularly and they defend his actions endlessly, even debating actual facts. I think herein lies a very big problem that was NOT touched on in the article. It would be nice if Trump was seen for who and what he is and people decided to accept that for whatever reasons and we as a country just need to straightforwardly tackle that (not that it would be an easy issue to tackle since it represents the moral bankruptcy of many Americans) But the problem is far more complex since the people who support Trump do NOT see him as he is, they do not see him as a spoiled elite and a racist baffoon and the other accurate adjectives used in this article. They also do not believe he does the filthy and corrupt things he does (just like Trump himself - think mocking of disabled journalist just to name an oldie but a goodie) No these people think he is something close to a God who happens to be un-politically correct and tells it like it is. They don't think he's miserable or a lowlife, no way. And they view him with the rosiest pair of glasses that ever existed. And these people are as low as Trump is (but those rosy glasses are used on themselves as well) Now, how do we go about fixing this one?
228
"They’ve known all along that he’s a needy narcissist, a womanizer, a lowlife, a liar, a braggart and a generally miserable human being."
So what, they just didn't care?
Of course they cared. It was not a yes or no choice, it was a choice between two.
Those who ask, "why didn't they care" simply won't talk about what ELSE they cared about even more. They'll make stuff up to blame rather than face the reality -- they say it was misogeny or Russians or something, not facinig that those voters just plain rejected the donor driven compromises with neo-liberal economics and war hawk plans of their deeply distrusted Republican-Lite.
56
So they elected an insane ignorant autocrat? Good choice! Can't disagree with that logic!
3
White male dominance isn’t going away. Nor is fear of "others." These instincts are probably hard-wired in us from millions of years of evolution. And America is no different in this respect. Europe has its own far-right parties motivated by the same dark impulses.
What’s to be done? The important point is to remember is that existential threats to social norms bring out these impulses in many otherwise reasonable people. It’s as if they had a button that is pushed when such threats appear. When they go jobless for long periods, for example, they become susceptible to racist appeals, and the false promises of authoritarian leaders.
Liberals can help by showing a little understanding for what is probably a universal human failing. Don’t press those buttons in times of stress, when you know exactly the reaction it will cause. With months to go before a crucial election, don’t for god’s sake call for free college or for abolishing ICE. When you know that immigration and self-reliance are two existential issues for many fellow Americans right now. At least wait until after the election. If you want to win, that is.
Yes, these people—whom liberals love to hate—are "fellow Americans," like it or not. They are not going away. Baiting them at every turn doesn’t help; it only makes matters worse. Ultimately, we are all going to have to get along if we are to survive as a democratic society. The only alternative is authoritarianism. Which will it be? It’s your choice.
135
Right out of the Saul Alinskg playbook - don't let the voters know what you really think, wait until after the election to impose your ideas on them. A little like Obama leaning over to tell Lavrov, don't worry I'll have more flexibility after the election.
1
@Ron Cohen Emigrate...there are better places.
Baiting them? How about educating them? It is not okay to be racist. It is not okay to treat women poorly. It is not necessary to own “Tons of Guns” to protect what little these men have...little egos included.
4
>
DJT's supporters, brainwashed by Fox News, are by far a much bigger problem than DJT.
He'll leave sooner or later they are staying.
147
“Old white guys are scared of losing what they’ve got and young white guys are scared of losing their turn at the trough.”
As told me by an old white guy.
147
"...There’s a deeper question...Americans elected Trump. Nobody else did. They came down to his level. White Christian males...made a bargain with the devil... So the real question is...What have we become...?" [op cit]
--
Our history tells us that here in America, these ”White Christian males,” have been in charge of just about everything, ever since the Pilgrims landed. And now, many of them are feeling threatened. And they're fighting back.
What would you expect? It's natural to do so.
—
It turns out that Donald Trump is the archetype of the angry white male, who loves to fight back. And that's why he's President.
And until things change, we're going to have a succession of leaders just like him, at every level.
—
God help us!
60
The world that once stood in Awe of us now Mocks our crassness. We would love to believe our rush to the basement will cease once Trump is impeached or loses in 2020. Once the genie is out of the bottle it is impossible to put him back in. There is no guarantee the aggrevied white population will not support their champion again in 2020.Since the only real way to protect white priveldge is to have more babies you can be assured Trump will use the build a Wall con again.White Christians have shown they will put their purported morality on the shelf to keep Sunday Morning the most segregated time in America.
78
"Saw so many taken before their time". What possible conflict was this so-called religious man, a pastor, in that he saw so many dead, all the blood, etc? And he was in the Navy?
A gigantic portion of this country has been lied to relentlessly for over 20 years. They now tell the lies themselves.
Liberals are cowards means conservatives are brave - not true.
How many 'Oath Keepers' are lying about their service. How many 3 percenters are subverting justice daily on the back of a lie.
We're in a self-perpetuating lie machine, enabled by Ronald Reagan, and weaponized by Fox News, con-man pastors, paranoid quislings, local government fascists, outright racists, and the rest.
The Fairness Doctrine. Reinstate it or suffer the whims of whatever power, foreign or domestic, chooses to angry up the stupid.
94
The country has been watching the Democrats dissemble ever since being confronted with the fact that even when cheating, and using the organs of state against your opponent, Democrats could not maintain their power.
What started off as a breathless accounting of “Russian Collusion”, has turned out to be purchased and planted lies from Russians, of all people, the Democrats used to work themselves into a lather.
The Democrats demanded to investigate their own lies.
And they came up with nothing.
Watching them grasp at every straw: prostitutes, porn stars, women extortionists, heck, they even think Amarosa may convince the American people of their righteousness.
Sad, really.
The hysteria is the only thing they can think of to distract from the evidence of what happened that is now gushing forth.
The Democrats are desperate to make sure their crimes are ignored, and they must win the house or the DNC might as well bulk order their orange jump suits now.
36
"White Christian males losing their place in the social order decided they’d do anything to save themselves, and to heck with morality." It's not just white Christian males, it's females too (though mostly males). When you look at Trump's adoring crowds, the women, colluding in the sexism aimed at them, stand out to me. All of his supporters are nothing but cultists.
102
“...they’d do anything to save themselves, and to heck with morality.”
Pretty much sums it up. I live in Trump Country. Supporters fall into two camps; those who know exactly what he is and those who always vote Republican, no matter what. They know they made a deal with the devil, but in their minds, it’s worth it to keep their way of life. They are terrified of immigrants, blacks, Muslims, and Jews taking over. Do they actually know any immigrants, blacks, Muslims, or Jews? Not likely which makes it even easier to believe the conspiracy garbage that is spewed over the airwaves. No matter how bad Trump is, he is still superior to the likes of Hillary Clinton who will take their guns, take their churches, make post-birth abortions legal, and turn their children gay.
America fell this far years ago but pundits outside of flyover country didn’t notice.
154
spite is what drives trumpland.
80
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
—Pogo
48
It's hard not to think the NYTimes is taking the hard-core Manhattan/Palo Alto view in every single article these days. As a national and global newspaper, perhaps every tenth article could take a more national/global view on Trump? Please?
The nation went through a tawdry, pointless, utterly political impeachment attempt with Bill Clinton. An attempt to nullify a Presidential election by other means. Political enemies who could find nothing else went with a tabloid oriented sexual inquisition. Monica as well as Hillary and the First Family marriage were collateral damage
Here we go again.
13
Im over-tired of this notion that an independent spirit is owned only by those out in wide open spaces. That us Coasties, in or near cities dont have a deep and intractable indpendent spirit. Its insulting at this point, that journalists, such as Cohen keep promulgating these myths.
Stop it already. People in big sky country dont own anything patriotic, or what it means to be a true American.
So Mr. Babcock, et al, all knew the true Trump. Yet, they are all the same traits they have disparaged Bill Clinton for, or any number of others the Babcocks have disparaged over the decades. But for Trump they gave him a bigly pass, based not on his record of experience getting Big things done, not his stellar business record, and not his humility and admitted human weaknesses. But solely on his grade school level of rhetoric.
For some inexplicable reasons, they gave a bigly free pass to a completely inexperienced, completely narcissistic baby-man, with out dated economic ideas/beliefs, full-on race baiter, if not racist, who pathetically pandered to their religious beliefs, used vile language, and promoted violence agaisnt detractors.
Why? Why does it seem journalists like Mr. Cohen dont dig deeper and ask the obvious gorilla in the room question? Why, if after all the things you claimed to know about Trump (which I doubt) that contradict your beliefs in positive character traits for anyone, much less a President - did you still vote for him?
We know you did, but really why?
84
Is it not ironic that 80% of NYC (including more than 77% in trump's birth borough of Queens) voted for Ms. Clinton?
(Throw out Staten Island -- as 'the rest of us' do regularly and routinely-- and it's over 90%.)
47
Who are we? Are you sure it’s not more accurate to say, “Who are they?”
11
I have often wondered if the US will need something akin to a de-Nazification program once this national nightmare ends.
53
"the obsession with self-reliance"
So wanting self-reliance for myself and hoping others want that too, is a borderline mental disorder? If so, Roger's article is aptly named.
3
As for 'exceptionalism' .... whenever a person or group (Americans) or species (humans) brags how exceptional they are, it's always a wind-up to commit an atrocity on some other person | group | species.
34
When you make a deal with the devil you end up paying with your soul. Redemption only comes in fire, which burns the soul clean. I see the Village Idiots seventh bankruptcy, which will be called the Second Great Depression, as that cleansing fire. There won’t be much left afterwards, though. Perhaps Pastor Babcox will have some comforting words for us.
36
.....and most, if not all of them, are Christians.
33
A question for Trump supporters - when your time comes and you see God at the pearly gates, how are you going to explain yourself to Him?
64
“They’ve known all along that he’s a needy narcissist, a womanizer, a lowlife, a liar, a braggart and a generally miserable human being.”
And despite that knowledge they handed him the full power of the presidency? And despite their discomfort, they will annihilate any senator wanting to put a check on it?
35
There were 3 groups of voters: 1. the group who voted by identity, as they always do. 2. the ones who are drowning, and confused a plastic bag for a life raft. 3. Still another group -- the white males of the entitled generation, formerly called the me generation -- don't like their shrinking role in the world, ceding power to the second stringers -- women and minorities -- and so they voted for the guy who would restore order, and their rightful place in the world. Is this all narcissism?
31
How can you believe in the greatness of America if you know what Trump represents?
If he's a narcissist and race baiter and pretty dumb, then what are we in the eyes of his flock?
I've talked with a pastor who told me no one in his congregation voted for Trump, but he and they were glad he was elected. This is where we are. I do not know if he expects that because Jeruselam is now Israels' , the apocalypse will happen, but i can certainly see this is the evangelical wish.
If Donald Trump is in heaven, i truly want to be in the other -place.
21
AS ALL WAYS A VERY GOOD ARTICLE SIR, he is not good for America, this country is not one of this companies , if it does not work, oh well we do some think else, him and his followers scares me, his forigen policy , his immigration policy , and his lays and who he is is not for our country, he is a embarrassment for USA, and l really believe his mental health is not good, sir it was so nice to see your, article take care
9
This will be the clearest, easiest, most joyful midterm in history. Throw em out! Throw em out! Throw em out!
37
"...why would I not be able to limit what you can say about me under the First Amendment?"
It IS limited, dummy. Try yelling "Fire!" in a movie theater, then look up the law on slander.
47
An Op-Ed piece is strong and effective, when it whacks you on the head a couple of minutes afterwards with a revelation, a recognition of a truth lying before you that you had never bothered to notice.
The revelation, unfortunately, was my revulsion of the reverend babcox, of his obsession for guns, of his pretend christianity, of his morally depraved support of an even more morally depraved president because it suits his morality with the small “m”.
I want nothing to do any more with the babcoxes of this country. I have no desire to engage, to discuss, to compromise, to be in the same room with him or his like. The tragedy of trump and his effect is that, I fear, the bonds of communal american identity are forever broken.
I am appalled by my reaction but i don’t care........
61
"They’ve known all along that he’s a needy narcissist, a womanizer, a lowlife, a liar, a braggart and a generally miserable human being." Beyond that, he is totally unAmerican, shunning everything we once held sacred. Indeed, Trump supporters have made a deal with the devil and there will be the devil to pay.
28
So those who are only haters of the president and Democrats know who he is? Partisan much?
3
Just a dang gum minnit, fella. Americans did not elect trump. A majority rejected him decisively. Our rigged electoral system installed the loser. I take great comfort in that fact because it means moral rot has not yet infected the majority.
59
me thinks, it's the swagger of the crime boss...alot of white men wish to rule over others and demand loyalty. This comes from the reality that they are nothing and will never be anything, this includes trump. They like him are failures and lack competence, punish and step on those others, those women, only than can they raise themselves up. This is the whole reason to be for slavery.
The bigger problem is that people, who should know alot better allow it, why? Total power...always.
But I see for now, that American justice can not be silenced and this "house of cards" we fall into the dust and debris.
8
I'll say it very simply after having heard BBC World Radio interview many, many Americans who put Donald Trump in office.
The BBC interviewer was very careful to first say to each interviewee, "You are familiar with the Trump video, the recent court cases that found two of his early aides guilty, of the facts about Mr. Trump's adventures with two women not his wife, and much more, correct?"
Answer: Yes, but Mr. Trump is just perfect, many things said about him are not true, and of course, nobody is perfect. He is making America great again.
Not exact quotes of course but my summary of what many conveyed.
And for perspective on how far the world has fallen, today the Nordic Motståndsrörelse (NMR - Nordic Nazi organization) has been given permission by the appropriate Swedish agency to demonstrate in Stockholm bearing their flags, Nazi symbols, and storm-trooper boots.
But there is a difference, NMR is not supported by the Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, and we will engage in peaceful voting in just a few days, Sunday September 9th - or early, as I shall on Monday.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
10
The news that whites would become a minority in another two decades had just bubbled to the mainstream surface as Trump was beginning his campaign. Coincidence?
11
Guns and religion. The toxic American right wing cocktail that has inebriated so much of our citizenry. Looks like we're stuck with this addiction for a very, very long time.
40
@maxdupont.....
I am relieved to see your comments.
My sentiments too.
In our schools ......1957-1970
We were indoctrinated,it wasn’t real historical facts being taught ,it was a dreamworld.
I have woke!!
4
Many of the President’s supporters, as well as conservatives who would have preferred another Republican candidate, are deeply offended and now exhausted by the disimissive, self-righteous pontificating of the left and columnists like Cohen and Blow. It might be worthwhile to converse with Republicans who reside outside of NYC to gain some perspective. Unless the Democrats offer a narrative broader than one embracing socialist, ageist, pro-Palestinian, and anti-business leanings, the Democrats are leaving the rest of us with few options.
9
You are allowed to hate trump supporters and so you do it, quite well. I'm impressed by the variety and persistence.They are your only other and so bear a heavy load. I can under stand hatred based on identity I'm from Trump country and there is racism here. All but the most pitiable try to overcome it.
3
The White Fallen (race to the lowest) bargain began with WMDs and start of Iraq War in 2003 (which still continues to this day) followed by the Bailout yet not prosecution of Wall Street and Bankers in the 2008 Mortgage Crisis to the 2018 GOP tax cut...the devil was on our heels for a while, we just elected "God's fallen angel" to the White House!
10
You elected a game show host as president: what did you expect?
40
This is a great article, Mr. Cohen at his best, and non partisan almost, although I would disagree about the "fallen part!" America is experiencing a rebirth, a renascence under THE DONALD, who reminds us of the importance of border security, of putting the citizenry first, of the fake news dispensed as real news. Trump has seen through all that, and we, his supporters agree with him on about almost every thing he says. Victor Davis Hanson advised The Donald to go carpe diem on everything he does and says for us, "les citoyens,"to seize the day because he just has so much time to get his agenda through, and "il ne faut pas se faire d'illusions:"the day he leaves office is the day that layoffs will resume at ALL the news outlets, Times newspaper included! Those at MSNBC, CNN who pretend to deplore Trump's presence in the Oval Office would not have jobs were it not for him, since all they do 24/7 is talk about our vox populi and what a "despicable human being" and bad president he is. Though RC was out to lunch when , as a Paris correspondent-- he missed forced eviction of "les classes moyennes" and "classes laborieuses" from Paris and other cities beginning in 1960's by the "gagnants,"the wealthy, preferring to focus on the beauty of the poetry of Guillaume Apollinaire--fat lot of good that did for the victims of "delocalisation "like those in Macron's home town, just 1 example, but RC is really cooking in this present article: a "triple ban" is merited for the author!
1
"You get the president you deserve."
12
So you know then. Always have been impressed with your writing. What do people turn to when they have intractable problems? And what kind of thinking can solve these problems?
1
So white Christian males turn to Trump save themselves? I thought they were already saved by Christ? Christ never promised life on earth would be easy. In fact, didn't he teach that to save yourself, you need to give up earthly life?
Maybe Christians should start actually reading their own Bible.
24
The more that is revealed in the criminal investigations, the more one has to wonder how these fine gentlemen got so far off kilter, and why no agency (IRS, Judicary, Homeland Security) was able to see what was happening and intercede prior to this current mess. Were one paranoid, one might think that this may have been known, but kept silent by far more than the National Enquirer. Time for the Secret Service, perhaps, to loosen their control of the presidential bubble so that our president becomes aware of the huge constituency that thinks that this stinks.
9
What about all the people who love guns and legal marijuana. After all it is a purple state.
5
We can impeach Trump but we can’t impeach millions of his voters who have proven that democracy remains an illusion. This country has been founded by white men for white men. It will take a revolution to change this, a break up of the country into a white apartheid state and a pluralistic democracy.
15
Roger Cohen,
Your statement: "I've never met a Trump supporter who did not know exactly who he is"—
Is patently ludicrous.
Trump is the definition of a con-man, and you know what "con" means.
9
American culture has always been defined by an insidious race/gender hierarchy, where white males are at the top and to heck with everyone else. There's a reason why studies show that all demographics of children of all races and genders felt lower self-esteem after watching American television, except for white boys, who were the only demographic feel improved self-esteem. Trump got elected because he convinced enough white males that their position of privilege was in jeopardy and drove them into hysteria.
22
Doesn't this pastor read the Bible? He should pay attention to John 8:44: "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires . . . for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
11
If you change the names in the article from Donald Trump to Bill Clinton the author’s premise is just as valid
5
I would love to read an explanation of how Cohen went from being a conservative Republican supporter of George Bush(2) and his stupid, moronic imitation of Vietnam which , no one with brains in the USA thought had any connection to "9/11/01" , and is now making noises about being something more considerate, if not really soft.
One day, I hope Mr Cohen will explain his change of politics-as his earlier hero , Mr Bush, was equally stupid and far , far more wasteful of American blood and lives , as well as abusive of the Constitution, than the penny ante punk "Mr T."
(Does he have Grandchildren, now? The usual prod and spur to the aging conscience.)
5
ON Pastor Babcock: i have listened to that diatribe by the Christian right on guns, immigrants, abortion and healthcare and all which underlines their wish to believe in a president in the same way they believe in God. An omnipotent figure head that is all powerful and looking after their best interest. Understandable, but in action does not add up to anything Jesus would have consigned to. Adding more kill power to the electorate, handing over the spoils from the poor to give to the already rich, robbing those with pre existing conditions of benefits to cure for the sake of enriching the insurance lobby and their clients, taking away their charitable deductions and safety net programs for those unaborted children
14
What does it mean to be an American today?
It means to be ashamed of one’s country and the ‘leaders’ in it!!
What has happened to the children who were separated from their families at the border??
21
@ L'oss, what are you talking about? Obama had hundreds of executive orders, ACA keep your doctor issues and birthers, and the MSM covered it. Hillary had Benghazi and an email server, and the MSM covered it. Bush 43 had some tax cuts, 9/11, two wars, torture and the MSM covered it.
Trump has a fine economic run just as Obama did for seven years, and the MSM is covering it. Trump is a scandalous narcissist, and the MSM is covering his lies, bullying, and incompetence.
10
Your characterization of early America is of what Colin Woodard in American Nations describes as Greater Appalachia, the most dysfunctional of all the Nations, not the communitarianism of Yankeedom, arguably the most successful of the Nations.
11
Too many unamerican, namby pamby politicians have caused the decline in middle class living standards. Only Trump is tough enough to skewer China, NATO and the EU to bring our sovereignty back. Hail America!
3
Blame it on isms...more exactly Ruralism vs Urbanism. Ruralism being insularity, white rule, latifundias, anachronism, religiosity, dogma, righteousness, racism, hubris... All these make for an ideology which renders Trumplandia a rachitic body of primal archaic impulses, jerk-knee reactions, jingoism, irrationality, pigheadedness, hatred - very UnAmerican!
Cities are multicultural, evolving, manageable, tolerant, pluralistic, democratic.
America must learn how to mitigate the enormous rift or chasm between Ruralism and Urbanism. And as most food stuff is grown on white owned rural lands, the very survival of American democracy depends on this resolve! This is and will continue to be difficult, very difficult.
3
Babcock, see doublethink 1984, is definitively unworthy of thoughtful consideration on two counts: he is a “Christian minister” who supports Trump, he, like all 2nd Amendment fanatics, cannot read.
Missing in this essay is what is missing in America: accountability. Who is responsible for Trump’s presidency? Who created the unregulated gambling casino and financial crisis? Who invaded Iraq based on lies? Who exploited racism and called it the “Southern Strategy”? Who poisoned democracy by telling Americans that “government is not the solution, government is the problem”? There is no accountability, growing lawlessness at the top, widespread corruption, and a general population that is manipulated by Putin, FOX, AMI, and the GOP for selfish ends in the complete absence of accountability.
Until our intelligentsia denounces false equivalence, and acts like the Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact we flounder.
Is Trump a traitor and beholden to Putin and MBS? Does the GOP have anything to offer but racism, hatred of Hispanics, Muslims, male supremacy, and fear of others?
It’s time to ask which vices are acceptable if “I make money”.
17
Mr Cohen is missing the forest for the trees, perhaps purposely for the sake of influencing his readers. Why did Trump win? Was it because America was longing for an ultra rich, brash braggart? Of course not. It was his policies, and his past experience and ability to get things done, that he recited over and over again at every speech. And that’s what has liberals scared to death. This feigned outrage over Trumps morality is really a lame attempt to turn his voters on him. You don’t see Cohen arguing Trumps tax cuts are bad, or his enforcement of immigration law is bad. Or the manner in which Trump decimated ISIS is bad. It’s because he was a womanizer. That’s why his voters should turn against him. Pay no attention to the roaring economy, the immigration and border enforcement, or the fact that Europe and China are being forced to change their trade ways. And as for the Cohen payments to Stormy - it’s not a campaign violation for a candidate to spend money on his own campaign. Contributors are limited, not candidates. How else could rich folks finance their own campaigns? And if what Trump did was wrong, why isn’t the Times paying no never mind to the fact that Hillary and the DNC paid millions for that dossier, quite obviously to “purposely affect the outcome of the election”. Those payments weren’t designated as “campaign contributions”, were they? They arent because it wasn’t illegal, just as Trump paying hush money, which in of itself isn’t illegal either.
Wake up
9
America, we're better than this! We can make America decent again. We can make America honest again. We can make America moral again. We can become that shining city on a hill that inspires the world. We need to rediscover our ideals. While we always fell short of our aspirations we've now seemed to have abandoned them.
Most of us had ancestors came to America seeking religious freedom, freedom from persecution, or the opportunity to make their own destiny. Our fathers and grandfathers helped save the world from the Nazis and when the war was over they helped rebuild war torn countries so they could establish prosperous democracies. They're probably rolling in their graves at what we've become.
We want to be proud to be Americans. Let's make sure we go out and vote in November.
17
"White Christian males losing their place in the social order decided they’d do anything to save themselves, and to heck with morality. They made a bargain with the devil in full knowledge."
This is an excellent description of what happened. Add Republican gerrymandering along with making it difficult for people that don't fit that description to vote in Red and Violet (red-purple) states ensures that the odds are good that we'll get results like this.
18
The earth has always had its chest thumpers, it priests of ego, folly and avarice. It has never had as great an opportunity to gather accomplices. These pied pipers lead down a road to achievement through false swearing, lying, and cheating; sing a chant that simplicity and truth were synonyms of folly; that anyone not a rogue is only half educated. The faint whispering of history is drowned out. The demagogue will die and be buried. Where then will the mob look for its next sale charmer?
4
America is built on the fantasy that everyone is entitled to live in their own personal fantasy. The fantasy of the Trumpists is that the country is best run by people as ignorant and stupid as they are.
24
It's funny that all the repentant Republicans are up in arms over Trump. They seem to have forgotten that 40+ plus years of their "Southern Strategy" of trying to domesticate the racists in their camp are what have produced this mockery of a Presidency.
14
Well they've elected what used to be called, as I remember, a drug store cowboy, all hat and no cows - or something to that effect. And in the Confederate states, a good old boy. And, for the most part, they're proud of it. Nostalgia won't swing it Mr. Cohen. They're racist, bigoted, proudly ignorant, poisonally patriotic or something or other - varing only in degree. A sort of lynch mob without a rope.
The rest of us better shape up too. We've got a country in sorrowful shape: infrastructure, health care, education not to mention the finacial system, overstuffed military industrial complex. It will take money from all of us, especially the 1%.
19
"I have always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is," said Voltaire, "'My God, make our enemies very ridiculous!' God has granted it to me."
As each day, as President Trump's term passes, Voltaire's observation comes back to me.
“Rivers know this," Winnie-the-Poo observed, "there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.”
To those impatient for the President Trump's demise, be patient, we shall get there someday.
17
Pastor Babcox: Channeling Elmer Gantry. HYPOCRISY writ large.
15
Why are we so shocked at the human capacity for hypocrisy? Especially among hard-core Christians?
12
In my nearly 60 years of life, I have found many religious leaders and their followers to to be morally corrupt, and find Trump supporters to be the same. When most of the Evangelical/Christian community throws their hat in with a man who exemplifies the 7 deadly sins, you know the rot is deep.
46
Trump's major accomplishment has been to completely destroy any claims by the GOP or their Fundie-sycophants to being concerned with 'family values', morality or decency.
16
Roger:
These are all fine observations, but Donald Trump is a product of New York. Not the man bun wearing flannel shirt Brooklyn New York or the Localvore Hudson Valley Foodie New York, or even the Upstate Live Free or Die wannabes in the Northern Tier New York. He is a product of the Alpha-male Narcissistic Scam Artist Organized Crime New York of my fathers generation.
Stop trying to romanticize some forgotten ideal. All you need to put Trump in context is Goodfellas or any Martin Scorsese movie. The entire point of The Godfather series was that the mob was as American as apple pie. If a bunch of rubes in the flyover states want to believe that a New York Teal Estate developer is their savior, they get the Jesus they deserve, not the one they need.
You want mythology? Right now we need Elliot Ness, not Buffalo Bill...
23
And I have never met a Hillary supporter who knows exactly who she is.
8
This article, like many, describing DT's voters and analyzing their motives for electing him keep missing an obvious condition. DT isn't governing. It's getting to be almost an hourly reporting by the school newspaper of the biggest self-centered loudmouth in the junior high lunchroom saying and doing whatever he wants, while the school administration cowers in their offices. There's no leadership, folks. The "school" is going nowhere.
31
My paradoxical take: America needed Trump to happen. To varying degrees, we are all poker players in the game of life holding our cards close to the vest while presenting facades. So Trump, the scam artist supreme, barges in with the cocky scorn of one who sees through the game and plays his trump card. “All you phonies out there who like to think of yourselves as being such good people I’m calling your bluff. I'll give you what you really want. I’ll market test to see what works best, already have good idea, and watch you sell out. Those who don't go along, I attack. What I’ve learned is that everybody’s got their price except jerks. I don’t believe in that malarky about values for their own sake, and I’m going to show neither do you.” (Faust in a nutshell)
With this challenge cards have been exposed - not just of believers, but also those playing along out of self interest or treating as a gadfly cognitive shell game; fickle as the wind types; ivory tower types parsing minutiae; those parroting cliches; AND those expressing passionate convictions in opposition. So this art-of-the-deal huckster has given us a real-deal gut check that has exposed much of who we are. He has forced me and so may others to reach into ourselves as never before. So thank you Mr President for being a formidable foe. For bringing truth to light through lies. For revealing our charades through your own. Next, we cleanse ourselves of your presence.
8
The American people chose Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by nearly 3 million votes.
24
Mr. Cohen told the good pastor that "words don't kill".
That is the one sentence I can't agree with.
In Jewish law there is a word, called the 'evil tongue' - Lashon Ha-Ra. That evil tongue has done immense harm in history, not only to the Jewish people but all over the world, having lead to industrialize mass murder, wars and the destruction of individuals.
That 'evil tongue' now appears on a 24/7 basis on the Twitter account of the evil man in the White House, one who is busy to destroy not only his enemies, former lackeys but democracy as we know it.
18
This is a sad but true commentary. What angers me the most are people like the paster mentioned here who openly admit knowing Trump's charactor yet voted for him anymay.
All those who voted for him having knowledge of the same have brought our country to shame. We all suffer because of this.
16
I was in Ridgeway last week, as I live in Colorado. I drove over Owl Creek Pass, a dirt backroad into the wilderness.
It dont got nothing to do with the “West”. This is my adopted state, I am from Minnesota which aint in the West, nor the Midwest. Its in the North, the far, far North, were wilderness lakes - aint no people living there, are more numerous than the 600 13,000 foot peaks in this state. Never mind the 14’ers, which every Easterner wants to hike.
Libertarian? Who’s libertarian when its 40 below zero?
2
One good thing about our current events is that we finally get a true picture of fundamentalist Christians, and it is not pretty. Only in America.
24
If you decry the American public's intolerance for being lied to by coast-based news orgs headed by political advocates, that goes back to the 1980's when every J school professor-Vietnam protestor wanted his students to be the next ''Woodstein.''
That is where journalism departments because the first proud training camps for angry liberal-socialism. Now it has gone far enough that some say the entire media will have to be allowed to die back until honest, pro-American J schools arise from the ashes and truly independent students emerge.
5
The romantic image of a libertarian historical West is hogwash. The real images were of cowboys, all men, dancing with each other of a Saturday evening, half wearing the bandana on their wrist. And the first thing you did when riding into Dodge or Tombstone was to surrender your guns to local law enforcement. Trump yahoos aren't carrying on a grand American tradition but rather refusing to mature past their pull-ups.
20
The problem is even more basic: you can't fix delusional. And the comments by that pastor are nithing short of delusional. The Guy points out exactly why we need federal gun legislation and doesn't even realize it. Yeesh...
19
Two brief counter-points, applying the R.Niehbur lens of “collective egoism”:
—1. It’s not that “America” has FALLEN, so much as the Republican party has succumbed to SELFISH GAIN (“America first” = me first), handing a Nativist the keys to the kingdom. However, by disengaging, too many of us passively ‘voted’ by staying home, and democratically share in this responsibility.
—2. It’s not that “white male Christians” have THROWN AWAY MORALITY, so much as they & their churches ordained a COMPROMISE with DJT to institutionalize a “Christian” nation (consider the “Holy Roman Empire,” and we have a little bit of history repeating); they confuse their individual FAITH with the institution of RELIGION, as do the many Catholics who side with them.
*Footnote, the Veep awaits his turn at the throne.
10
I'm not religious, but when I hear "good Christians" stumbling over themselves to justify Trump, I have to think of Matthew 4:8-9. Satan leads Jesus to the high mountain and offers him the world, if Jesus will just fall down on his knees and worship him.
if there is a Satan in the world, it is Trump, who hates the truth and Tweets in the darkness of the early morning hours. And Christianity has fallen on its knees to worship him - for what? A last-gasp panic attempt to maintain its earthly kingdom.
14
Why is the “essence” of what America is the vast expanses of middle-America and not the magnificent and cultured cities that we’ve built from nothing? Methinks New York, Chicago, LA and San Francisco are the quintessential Americas, while middle-America - while expansive and beautiful in parts - is a wasteland no right-thinking person would want to live the rest of their life in. (A visit, sure....)
20
In his boundless need for attention, Trump is the representative American.
13
I’ve concluded that Trump supporters share his sense of unwarranted self regard. They think they are better looking, smarter, and more accomplished than they actually are. A+s all around!
26
We've become the country made up of two friends running from a bear. You're view on life becomes limited to being just fast enough to out run your friend.
9
"...white Christian males losing their place in the
social order...?" I don't like Trump,but it is that
attitude,precisely that attitude, which created
Trump supporters in the first place.white males
helped build this country along with every other
race who came here. they deserve respect for
that alone along with all the great scientific and
artistic achievements they have to their credit.
the more you marginalize them, as Mrs.Clinton
did in the last election, the more they will vote.
12
Donald John Trump, Sr. is Ronald Wilson Reagan without any of the political, governing and acting experience or talent. Reagan without the gift for rhetorical misogynist racist xenophobic bigoted euphemism.
Reagan began his campaign in Philadelphia Mississippi talking about state's rights, Reagan maligned an imaginary Chicago welfare queen and a strapping young buck in line at the grocery store with food stamps waiting to buy T-bone steaks. Reagan wondered if Dr. King was a communist.
Reagan never balanced a budget. Reagan cut and ran from Lebanon. The only war Reagan won was against Grenada.
America has never recovered from Reagan's myth. Reagan had only two wives. Reagan was a military veteran who spent World War II making movies. Reagan was born and raised poor.
12
Trump supporters are with Trump because he is anti-establishment. As long as he is making the media and the Democrats angry he is doing what they want. But, if it is proven he conspired with a foreign enemy to cheat America, I believe that will be the end of him even amongst his supporters. No American will accept a traitor as our president.
3
The trump supporters are the ones who have fallen low. They flushed away expectations for a brighter future when they voted for such a despicable man and the widespread corruption that is the current WH administration.
12
Roger, Dan, et al. "Empathy is at the core of who (most of us) are." --- but Emperor Trump, and all damaged 'Empire-thinkers' are so very different" --- that even the "Times" best minds are having trouble seeing his 'forest of Empire through the trees of issues'.
Within just this week Emperor Trump has exploded an IED of racist classist divisive hate cloaked in his Tweet about South Africa's 'Land Reform' to signal his real base (the 26,000 global UHNWI's) to the fear and fight against 'Wealth Reform' here. [He has also 'signaled' his deadly base about the need to force government and 'we the people' to pay for the global oil industry's multi-trillion dollar 'negative externality cost' mess of global warming, and has likewise 'signaled' the uber-wealthy that if they're not 'in with him' on this mega scam, "Every one of Them Would Be Very Poor’ If He Gets Ousted”.
Aside from this triplet of veiled threats, Emperor Trump is now trumping even what he successfully did against the big banks to avoid his certain bankruptcy, by doing "The Big Call" (not "The Big Put") --- Trump is now playing deadly serious Poker "raise-you", in cancelling any talks on denuclearization not only with North Korea, but also China --- which will be far riskier, for him, but also for all we 'global citizens', than his 'playing chicken' and WINNING with the Big Banks during his 'Empire-building' days in merely NY real estate.
This real estate he's betting to win is our world.
Wake-up these "Times".
2
I suppose there was a time in the past when America’s celebrated “rugged individualism” went hand in hand with the notion of “the common good.” Alan Ladd and Gary Cooper may have been “rugged individualists” in “Shane” and “High Noon,” but when they came out shooting in those lawless times it was for the “common good” of the community, and not to satisfy a personal “gun fetish.”
“Rugged American Individualism” has become an end unto itself and “the common good” seems to have disappeared by the wayside.
10
The notion that some faceless bureaucrat in Washington was bossing around free men in the wide-open West is an old, anarchist idea.
For years, there has been a belief that decisions are being made for average Americans by an elitist group of pointy-headed intellectuals with graduate degrees from fancy colleges in New York and California.
Many of those decision-making snobs have parents or grandparents who migrated from worn-out, war-torn Europe to our coastal big cities a century after the hard work of carving a nation out of the mountainous wilderness of the American West was done.
This is the cowboy story of resentment and victimhood, out of which a love of guns, a hatred of newcomers and a disdain for the law has taken root.
We cannot change those minds easily.
As for Donald Trump, he is a man those libertarian westerners would normally hate. He is a self-important, big-city huckster. He is a spoiled rich kid who became a fast-talking con artist.
Trump, however, has one important asset: The liberals in California, New York and Washington hate him.
Trump is “the enemy of my enemy” to the ranchers, cowboys, miners and roustabouts.
9
America hasn't fallen. We've been left for dead by our elected officials.
In November, they'll finally see how alive we actually are.
Far too many old boy Republicans, with their 1950's take on the country, think women belong in the kitchen. Wait until they see how we much we like to clean house!
25
I want to give a shout out to Pima County, AZ, that voted 54% Clinton and 41% Trump. We're westerners too, but we live near the border in a diverse county that is 37% Latino. It's pretty clear that living in close proximity to diverse populations make you more open-minded.
20
Cohen says "They (Americans) have known all along that he (Trump) is a needy narcissist, a womanizer, a lowlife, a liar, a braggart and a generally miserable human being. That’s why the “Access Hollywood” tape or the I-could-shoot-somebody-on-Fifth-Avenue boast did not kill his candidacy". So, the question to Cohen is, why the American people elected Trump knowing he is such a horrible man? Was the other candidate worse than Trump? Why the American people trusted Trump with the presidency rather than Hilary? Why a candidate supported by pundits like Cohen, most of the media and establishment was not trusted by the people? Probably, it is because they don't trust pundits like you and fake news, and they thought that the establishment is acting to protect its interest rather than the people's interest. Based on what has happened so far in Trump presidency, I don't think we can blame them. Even though Americans are feeling and doing better than before, fake news is trying 24/7 to destroy Trump. They are trying their best to create a manufactured crisis, "shocking bombshells" , out of phony issues every day to discredit the President. As a result, more people are going to mistrust you and fake news.
9
Cohen says America alone elected Trump. Is that correct, given the reports of Russian meddling???
5
''It’s also why the itch to believe that the moment has come when everything starts to unravel must be viewed warily. ''
When his family members are indicted will be that moment.
Specifically Jerod. Has his father has told to him about wasting time in prison?
A cautious man would have his parachute harness packed with what was needed to survive if he suspected the plane might crash. .
1
The Manafort trial had nothing to do with Trump and many people who know the law say that the payments to the gals were perfectly legal. Time will show that the conspiracy and crime were on the other side.
1
The beginning of the fall:
“In 1985, under FCC Chairman Mark S. Fowler, a communications attorney who had served on Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign staff in 1976 and 1980, the FCC released a report stating that the FCC FAIRNESS DOCTRINE hurt the public interest and violated free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
In 1986, the 99th Congress directed the FCC to examine alternatives to the Fairness Doctrine and to submit a report to Congress on the subject.
In August 1987, under FCC Chairman Dennis R. Patrick, the FCC abolished the doctrine by a 4-0 vote...”
Then came Limbaugh, Murdock and Jones.
We need to reinstate The Fairness Doctrine. Airwaves are public domain.
19
"the Second Amendment was designed to create a militia 'equal to the government to ensure self-reliance,'”
Robert Babcox, I want to buy a briefcase nuke. I don't have time to go to the range and become a marksman, but when I walk down the street I still need to feel safe. If we are entitled to having weapons equal to the government, a briefcase nuke is the perfect answer. I could outfit it with a hair trigger so anyone trying to attack me from behind would think twice.
Mutually assured destruction options for individuals are the best answer for a truly civil society.
11
What does it mean to be an American today? It does not mean being a Trump supporter or a liberal Democrat supporter.
It is means being an apathetic.
It means not understanding anything at all about politics and finance.
It means being politically unaware.
And this is not arguable.
It Is nothing new and did not emerge with Trump and Hillary. The non-voting non-participating majority has been there for decades.
Roger Cohen is correct Trump is a symptom of this.
Trump is what we get with a lifeless politics, a dull witted creep.
Removing Trump ( I want that) will not change the general situation.
How far has America fallen? It may in fact collapse. I do not know. The US left and right are mundane as can be and really out of time. The Trump thing is a drag. so we can go father down into the depths.
70% of people did not trust or like Trump or Hillary. And yet somehow these are the two we had to pick from. If that is not a dead drowned politics, what is?
Thanks Roger Cohen for the pertinent question.
5
So, in order to survive in the world of Trump, we have to throw out morality like dirty dishwater. No, thanks, I don't care to live like that.
7
I believe that a great deal of Trump supporters were either lazy, scared and/or greedy. When they walked into the voting booth to cast their vote, they weren't thinking about their country, but rather about themselves as individuals.
Now we are in this mess and about to lose our democracy if things don't turn around after the midterms. Better than Hillary Clinton? What a joke that is.
12
We should not forget that the American people elected Hillary Clinton. A flawed, outdated system elected trump.
13
I think it is the prevalence of ignorance in our society. Why did voters turn against Hillary Clinton? Surely not because of her record of instituting health care for children, or support for Social Security and Medicare.
Rather I believe it was the constant rant from Fox news, the National Enquirer and Russian bots promoting the lie of the day. The Benghazi hearings which proved nothing and cost us around 7 million dollars were not helpful to her cause. But that was the sole purpose of the hearings.
Until the voting public gets a bit smarter and uses facts rather the drivel and innuendo to guide their voting interests, we will have more Trumps.
24
After reading the comments from the white, right-wing evangelical Pastor Babcox, one thing is clear: you can't convince these people of anything, and to try to have a rational conversation with them is a waste of time. They're like the Medicaid recipients who inhabit the bars in the middle of Pennsylvania, and give forth with their muddled commentaries on why they support Traitor Trump.
The only thing we can hope for is that there are more of "us" than them.
12
If I were to pinpoint where modern society and in particular American society went south it would have to be the camera feature on cell phones and delving a bit deeper than that- the selfie button.
Social media has turned everyone into narcissists. In the old days when film had to be developed in the lab there was some photographic restraint, much like making long distance calls. You just didn’t do it on a whim.
Nowadays everything is unlimited and photography is a perfect example of this gluttony as our society falls deeper and deeper into this horrific trough because of our lust for recognition and craving to be liked. It’s quite pathetic.
10
I don't think the author likes president Trump. He seems to agree with Hillary that Trump supporters are "deplorable". Way to go Cohen!
3
When large numbers of rugged individuals realise that only a very small number of law-rigging and tax-evading individuals and the corporations they inhabit are living a free, luxurious life, well-removed from anything that could remotely be considered rugged - and that they are doing so at the expense of the millions who slog through their ruggedly individual lives powerless to do anything about their serfdom on which the present-day lords in their gated castles depend - only then will things change.
But I am afraid to say that too many of the virtually dispossessed truly wish they were members of the 1% club, ignorant of what it takes to become a member. Worse, willing to do what it takes to become a member.
Blame whoever you want: reality TV of the ‘rich and famous’; the Republican Party; Hate Media; or their personification in the present Presidency. The concept of rugged individualism in modern America has little room for your neighbor even if she/he is across the street, much less two miles down the road. In the modern iteration, neighborliness extends as far as a Bake Sale; anything more is the boogeyman called socialism.
10
Thanks to Roger Cohen for setting the stage for the thoughtful comments posted on this page. Where there’s insight, maybe there’s hope.
4
Get real, Roger. Every person who supported and voted for Bill Clinton knew just who he was and what he had done repeatedly to some many women. And every person who supported and voted for Hillary Clinton knew just who she was and that she aided and abetted Bill in his assaults and that she lied, lied, lied about everything. So it's a bit hypocritical to say that America is fallen because Trump supporters do just what Clinton fans have done for years.
3
Question posed: What are we...
Pathetic.
Ignorant. Americans cannot articulate how democracy works.
Pompous.
Conflicted.
Militaristic.
Murderous. We commit more murders than any other culture.
Poor. They only reason the economy appears so robust is because so many Americans have multiple jobs, and Trump is irrelevant to that.
Sick. American food kills tens of thousands and it is sugarized, salted, saturated with fat, addictive, and Americans are obese.
Always right. Right? Try the word intransigent.
Mean. Thousands of Palestinian children are about to starve to death. Famine is famine.
Cruel hypocrites. 500 children condemned to ruined lives. Institutionalized.
Evil. Who can define evil. I can. Let us begin with the genocide of Americans Indians. Let us look at Educated as an institution designed to keep African-Americans in their place.
Sexually destructive. America hates women.
Authoritarian. Cops kill and kill and kill. We all know who they kill.
Evil. Did I say evil? Let me say it. Evil.
Staunch believers in mythology. God.
Environmentally irresponsible. Hotter and hotter and hotter.
Haters. Anyone not like them.
Repressive. We put our own children in prisons and detention where they are sexually assaulted as the policy of revenge.
Afraid. The future scares us.
Politically enraged. Serial sexual predator.
I, too, think that America should cease to exist. Trump.
14
Last year, I left the dangerous fascism of Wyoming for Colorado, then bought a house in New Zealand as "Plan B."
It's clear to this lifelong Republican that Amerika is now a bankrupted and collapsing global military empire, with two entrenched parties pretending to represent "difference" in how the nation commits a continuance of political violence...at home and worldwide. Nothing shows this more clearly than NDAA 2012, signed by Obama, with two fascist articles added by Lindsay Graham and John McCain: article 1021, no-warrant military arrest of US civilians inside the country and 1022: no right to trial- ever.
2
You missed it. Must have been all that fresh air. It’s called white supremacy.
8
Well said Mr. Cohen. The majority of Americans are asking the same questions...mostly, who are we if Trump represents America?
I join most Americans is feeling disgust, shame, bewilderment that so many fellow Americans sacrificed their morals (if they had any) to vote for a despotic sleazy low life toad who is bent on creating chaos to divert our attention while he steals everything he can.
To those who support Trump please explain why you thought Trump would be good for you when you know he lies with every breath he takes? If he cannot be trusted to be alone with your daughters, why would you trust him to be in the White House?
And most of you must be different than Babcox who claims to have no racial bias. But you believe in a god? So does that mean your god is a white supremacist? Does your god have an arsenal of assault weapons to use against Zeus? You need to take a few minutes to question yourselves. Just who are you? What are you? What is your purpose in life? How is it that you have no respect for others different from you?
Roger is right, ridding the White House of Trump will not solve our deep, deep problems. First there is Pence, then there is the GOP itself, finally there are the millions of Trump supporters who have a very different idea of what America is and stands for. Would you all move to Texas if we made it a separate country? Please!!!
24
"White Christian males losing their place in the social order decided they’d do anything to save themselves, and to heck with morality. . . . '
"Many white Christian males . . ." would be more accurate.
5
if you think the National Enquirer is the only one with the graveyard dirt, look into TMZ - they too know where the sex, lies, AND videotape are stored on #45 and his minions.
3
Trump supporters, what will your grandchildren think of you?
8
Repeat after me: Americans who voted in 2016 DID NOT elect Donald Trump. The Electoral College did. Thank you, Madison, et.al. Though to be fair, I think if you came back today, your reaction would be “Are you numbskulls trying to govern using THAT old thing?”
12
Mr Cohen ... is it all possible that hyper globalists such as yourself and your colleague Mr Tom Freidman share responsibility for the emergence and rise of " Trumpism "?
4
The uncrackable devotion to and support of Trump fascinates the press, which is why newspapers and TV networks periodically fan out across rural landscapes, visiting American Legion halls, pool halls, and Wal-Marts, asking them, "Do you STILL support him?", as if we think they're bound to change their minds sooner or later. But we should not be so surprised; there's an element of embarrassment in it. It's HARD to admit you were wrong. Also, let's remember that during the 1999 impeachment of Bill Clinton, his poll ratings remained amazingly high. Was that because all those supporters thought that what he did with Monica Lewinsky was perfectly OK? Of course not. Even his supporters were at least privately appalled. But they were afraid that the assault on him, which they knew was his own damn fault, would cause the whole administration and every other good thing in it to crash. (As it was, it ruined Al Gore's chances.) So if reporters went to Clinton supporters amid that crisis and asked, "Do you still support him?", the answer was always yes. That explains Trump's supporters. It's not that they all like or admire him, but they care more about keeping their gun rights, driving out or repelling dark poor people from abroad, and battling abortion and acceptance of gay people. As long as he stands for those things, his personal behavior to them is secondary.
10
Roger, you need to talk to more Trump supporters. I have talked to some who told me they intended to vote for him because "He is a millionaire, so he must be doing something right", "He is a billionaire, so we ought to give him a chance!" and "It's about time we elected a businessman."
Here in Texas, most people just did NOT know anything about Donald Trump other than his TV appearances.
343
“If I can limit somebody on what weapons they can buy, why would I not be able to limit what you can say about me under the First Amendment? When we endanger one right, we endanger them all.”
But we already limit somebody on what drugs they can buy: aspirin, yes - crack cocaine or heroine, no... because we view the dangers for the latter outweigh the benefits. Can’t the same be said for certain weapons?
15
It will not be extirpated, period. If America could not become a kinder, gentler nation when times were good, how in god's name will we do it now that times are turning bad? We had a choice in 1980 - and we chose Reagan. The rest, unfortunately, is history.
14
Also Will Storr discusses this decay, at this paper on the same day, in "The Metamorphosis of the Western Soul." I do not know if these impressions are of many coincidences or of a consistent manifestation, but the problem does grab one's attention in the monstrosity in the White House. I will gladly settle for a generation or two to lift this cloud, if one could start as soon as possible with that fountainhead of its celebration.
1
Mid-term elections will tell us whether Americans still trust their president. Often it is the commander in chief’s party to lose but we all know that in this moment of history we can’t rely on surveys and projections. I hope that in 2020 Americans will be able to choose the proper candidate that can lead to a real democratic renaissance after this terrible presidency based on fake news, misinformation and political incompetence. Maybe Trump will face impeachment, maybe not, but to regain your place as leader of Western world you have to act quickly to re-establish the values that made you such a leading and inspiring nation.
8
I keep going back to Roy Moore as the starkest example. Here is someone who was banned from shopping mall for harassing young girls. Yet millions voted for him in his senatorial campaign. They knew full well what he was. I doubt a single one of them would leave their children alone with him.
Conservatives are perpetuating self sabotage through voting.
17
Although it is still incredible to me, I have to agree with Mr. Cohen that many Trump supporters are quite tolerant of a substantial level of moral shortcomings on Mr. Trump's part. However, one has to ask oneself, "How far can that tolerance extent?" A better question is "How far should it extend?" Should commission of crimes by the President, such as violation of campaign contribution laws, be condoned? Should his descent into a mobster mentality, in which he praises Manafort's decision not to "break", not to "flip" and show disloyalty to his mob boss, be tolerated? If Americans are ready to overlook such moral depravity in our nation's "leader", what have we become, as Mr. Cohen plaintively asks?
7
Trump voters knew full well what kind of person he was, but voted for him anyway. It makes me wonder who else they may one day vote for? Someone who promises them a better life, but one in which they give up a few rights--like, not so much freedom of speech? Or, no right to due process or trial? Will they agree to spy on and report their neighbor's and family member's activities in return for a good economy? Will they accept more jobs for those "White Christian males" in return for laws prohibiting the employment of others? Has compromising on Trump readied them for an even more ruthless leader, one who will be even more charismatic, whose promises will be even more enticing and whose morals will be even more corrupted?
9
“Mythologized self-image”. Well, you’ve certainly got that right. It’s often said that Louis L’Amour is the most realistic chronicler of the old West. The rugged individual- the wagon that left the wagon train-wiped out. The rancher that didn’t come into the fort when Indian attacks were reported- wiped out. The settlement of the West- how many times do we have to say it- was a study in coming together to get things done, to say nothing of towns having to ban guns for safety’s sake.
Individualism? The Cattleman’s Associations, Mining interests.....group efforts to pass favorable laws (see still, open range freebies as compared to raising cattle in the East).
Libertarians love the myth, until a feed lot moves in next door and fouls the air, pollutes the stream, raises dust with mega trailers. Then they run for regulatory cover....and find it so starved for tax money it can do nothing.
‘Until they need Medicaid’. Exactly. Or, until they need pallbearers for the next school shooting victims of those beloved high capacity mags. And what’s the total for Colorado on federal money there - Air Force bases, payrolls...highway funds....
Like today’s fancy rodeo riders, not even remotely connected to cowboys on the old trail drives, today’s dressed up individualism is fake news- peddled by the same conservatives that find it useful.
14
The Cohen and Manafort convictions should remind everyone that no one in this country is above the law. But we all know that that is not true. Increasingly, our culture has sanctioned the idea that you can beat the law if you're wily enough, powerful enough (and perhaps white enough). CEOs responsible for the Great Recession go unpunished despite the toll of their financial recklessness. White policeman go unpunished despite unjustified killing of innocent black people. Presidents (Clinton, Trump) are deemed untouchable despite the damage done to the presidency by misbehavior that would get anyone else fired. (Only very recently have powerful men begun to pay a price for sexual violence against women.) As Roger Cohen knows, a central myth of the American West is that one's land is sacred (even though it may have been stolen from Native Americans), that one has the right to defend it at any cost, that to do so it's sometimes necessary to take the law into your own hands, that the benefit of doubt favors the stubborn individual over society as a whole or a government that "take away" your freedom. Trump, by his amoral sexual behavior, his unscrupulous business practices, his slanderous attacks on critics, his refusal to release his tax returns, his open contempt for the Justice Department and FBI, has long declared, in effect, that he is above the law. And millions of Americans see in him a model for what they would like to be, if only they could.
13
There is only one simple and most honest answer to not only, Why Trump in America, but why the same disease has infected much of the rest of the world:
Rigged markets, cronyism, and dishonest capitalism - no matter which party is in charge.
On the other side, in America, is corporate media captured by vested interests, and the emergence of a police state.
Where are all the 2nd amendmenters who cherish this right to keep government in its place? when they vote, they only entrench the power of the state and just watch it grow.
2
Anyone who rooted for Obama to fail..and anyone who roots for Trump to fail ..are anti-American as far as I am concerned. I have friends and relatives who winced every time positive economic figures were announced when Obama was President, I have other friends and relatives who do the same now that Trump is President. God help us.
2
Cohen gets it and so eloquently frames exactly the state of our union. We have large swaths of the country (including the Republican Congress) that has turned a blind eye to egregious moral and criminal corruption because they believe Trump represents their best shot at retaining their sense of identity, power, and place in the world. This is a delusion that will not abandoned easily.
10
It's not that simple, Mr. Cohen. Trump rose for the ashes of the Iraq War and the financial crisis, both examples of gross incompetence by establishment politicians. He also rose from the Democrats rejection of their blue collar industrial roots as shown by their support of both NAFTA and China's entry into the WTO. Trump is Pat Buchanan with business street cred who was able to tap into establishment vulnerabilities after the twin disasters since 2000. Even BO was a by product of HRC's support for the Iraq War. He would never have beat her out but for that. So Trump is a result of gross incompetence of the ruling class. Without that he never would have emerged.
2
Individualism aside, when Trump says in all earnestness that if he were impeached the stock market would crash and everybody would become very poor, do these Trump supporters actually believe that, or are they okay with a president who has lost touch with reality?
8
Let us never blame the Democratic Party and it’s leadership, I’m talking about you Debbie Wasserman. Let’s never blame the Clintons and their sense of entitlement. They were the smart ones, not greedy and serving the rich. Our entire system is devoid of morality, it’s based on money and bribery, oh I’m sorry I mean lobbyists. So spare me the false equivalence, I held my nose and voted for her. But no one, and I mean no one really wanted her. Thanks Debbie, thanks Vlad.
5
Mr. Cohen’s column today is one of his best and most insightful. Through work I do, I come into contact with one demographic that largely supports Trump. Their support isn’t based on any thought process or even FOX; they like him simply because he channels their misplaced rage. At the risk of generalizing, they are white, lack education, do unskilled manual labor, if they do any work at all. They do not put much effort into programs that would give them skills, nor do they instill the need for education in their children. They smoke, have poor health habits, and their families are impacted by the opioid crisis. “Lock her up,” is a feel good chant, just like cheering for your team at a football game. Trump instinctively knows this. As he said, “I love the poorly educated. “
.
24
"Why the scorn for handouts, the equating of universal health care with socialism"
Two very different questions, yet I will make an attempt to shed some light on each:
Handouts: I worked in the Welfare arena, both welfare and Child protection. I am all for helping our neighbors when they stumble and need a helping hand, but make no mistake about it, each new program we create encourages some to make a career out of government assistance. SSI is the worst, giving benefits without limits has created a whole class of people who fall off the the productivity train. Many SSI claims need to have limited time frames, but even the few that in theory do, we don't enforce.
Socialized medicine: Absolutely everyone should have the right to healthcare, regardless of financial ability. With Government control (directly or indirectly), the consumer has less and less ability to control their fate within "the system." My Medicare provider switched away from my Primary Care Physician, one that I am deeply involved with because of several ongoing medical issues. This happened in the middle of a coverage period, I will not be able to change providers and get back with him (if ever) for 4 very long months, during which my diabetes could get way out of control. My PCP cares, will the next one, who likely will be one of a series of revolving door Drs?
I understand that the world was an ugly place before social programs, but I just wanted to point out that its not all black and white.
2
There is no simple, one size fits all reply to Mr. Cohen's question as to who we are as Americans. The United States is composed of innumerable cultures, value systems, clans and histories that extend along a very broad spectrum. We range from Old Order Amish to Silicon Valley technomages - from Know-Nothing, white supremacist militias to University intellectuals. There is little in the way of unifying beliefs. Even those terms almost everyone uses - such as freedom of religion - mean very different things in practice to different people. To offer an extreme example, my own family, which has lived in New Jersey since the long ago time it was a feudal manor governed by the Lord Proprietors has very little if anything in common with the congregation of the preacher Mr. Cohen interviewed. Everything from values to education to table manners is going to be very different indeed. We cannot solve these differences by compromise. They run too deep. If the U.S. is to be seen as a dignified and responsible leader on the world stage, the Trumpians must, in the end lose. The supremacists must lose. The fundamentalist Christian "Taliban" types must lose. The Trump enabled, 1% exploiters must lose. The destroyers of the environment must lose.
15
Cohen: "Americans elected Trump. Nobody else did."
Perhaps not true; still the question before the American People. So far, we are discovering daily, to our great dismay, the total lack of character of Mr. Trump and the people surrounding him.
13
Donald Trump recognized from the start that once again politics had been brought back down to the personal level, an understanding which he alone was free to incorporate into his campaign. It was his plane, or was it the plane he operated on, both?
A more accurate headline would have read, How Far America Had Fallen, it would better explain Trump the president. The issue is why he is there to begin with, not so much who he is, the important part of this story that is rarely ever mentioned. It didn't need to turn out this way, what had been done to our government that allowed a Donald Trump to usurp the office.
2
He speaks their language. I don't think it's more complicated than that.
I can only be grateful that I was lucky enough to be born and raised in New York City, among the best and worst of who and what America is and can be. What do people born in the Red Gash have to look forward to? Maybe that's why they only want to look back.
8
What has always puzzled me is why so few of the gun-enthusiasts and individualists I know out here in the west did not take the opportunity to serve in their country's well-regulated militia, aka the U.S. military.
66
Spot on
7
He is a symptom of a failed system. Not enough people vote. And when they do, their votes are either diluted or negated by an antiquated system that is not reflective of the majority’s will. Or, as with Bush 2 and Trump, they steal or cheat their way to the Presidency.
Frankly, I am sick and tired of Republicans running this country when they do not receive the most votes, whether it be for President or when you total all the votes for Congress. This is not democracy.
9
That's what I have been saying, the voters, the people, are ultimately responsible for this presidency called Trump. Roger didn't elaborate on why people like Bobcox support Trump but it's easy to guess. I used to say Trump is the GOP's Frankenstein. But I think I should revise that: Trump is really American Right's Frankenstein.
Although the GOP's politics has been divisive, racist, and promote delusional and reactionary thinking, I think they would not have been so successful if the Republican base were not already somewhat racist and reactionary. For lack of better explanation, I am forced to conclude that conservatism also embody within its ideology the tendency to authoritarianism and a disregard for truths that don't fit their own perceptions. These are not people who endear to the fair play spirit of sportsmanship.
I have been reading various conservative and liberal websites looking for decency and sanity. I am not aversed to anything "Right" perse, or automatically accept anything "Left." What I look for are accurate understanding of our reality and honest proposals for self governance that actually benefit us and hopefully the world too. There are some signs we are not all lost. But is it enough to save this nation I think IS still great?
4
Let it never be forgotten that we created President Trump. Trump created Trump, but we made him President. What should be most concerning is that Trump in my estimation is no where near the bottom of what many of my fellow Americans would tolerate as President. I ask Trump supporters is there no bottom?
4
Empires fall. America is no exception.
After an ultra-chaotic period, a world multipartite government will emerge. In a couple centuries, we will look at America as fondly as we are doing to Greek and Roman ancient civilizations, both sunken in their own hubris.
10
Perhaps Americans appreciate rather than critique?
With a history of an advanced society extirpating the original inhabitants of the land they appropriated, it is far easier to appreciate your acquisition than to critique the manner thru which it was acquired.
Trump is the first real existential threat to being an American.
There were not enough communists to even threaten Capitalism and Socialism is still referred to superstitiously.
However, onsite, in America, in the form of Donald Trump, we have a threat to our existence as Americans. Maybe it is time for Americans to begin a critique of themselves and cease the endless self appreciation of who and what we are - before we grow further into the image Trump has created of us.
7
I was just saying to my husband the other day that the Eastern states are the real America. Remember the founding fathers and the 13 colonies. How about we look to the intentions of the very first Americans rather than the last? We may find our salvation there.
You really have no idea do you? No, we voted for Mr. Trump because we knew that he would be way better than Hillary. It’s that simple. Sure, his tweets aren’t ideal but his Supreme Court picks are. I don’t like the fact that he had his attorney pays off women but I do like his tax cuts. Adults focus on the things that matter and so far this president has been phenomenal.
74
@JPAny working class person that thinks the billionaire egomaniac will help them is delusional.The tax cuts favor the rich and will drive our nation into bankruptcy.
@JP Spend spend spend, cut taxes. It's the republican way. And never mind about morals, ethics, or the rule of law. Winning is all that matters.
That and building up the war machine endlessly because it's the biggest red state job program ever devised.
Too bad Trump is in Putin's pocket.
@JP The problem with those who voted for Trump is that as a group they are incredibly selfish, just like Trump. I'm aghast at how low we have fallen. I plan to both shame and shun all the people I know who voted for him. I don't need them in my life. I'm a very proud American Patriot, and will use every bit of energy I have left in me (I'm a cancer patient) to fight this cancer (pardon the pun) in our country.
Americans did not pick Trump. They picked Clinton by an almost 3 million vote margin. The electoral college picked him. We should ditch the archaic EC.
12
Sure white Christian males voted for Trump. Trump wanted their votes. He asked for their votes.
Clinton did not. She called out each and every demographic group under the sun- women, Latinos, LGBTQ, blacks, etc. etc.- yet never mentioned white men, and certainly not Christian white men.
Was it white Christian men losing their place in society that made them (and their wives) vote for Trump? Or was it a recognition that Clinton had no interest in being their president?
As I’d never vote for Trump, I can’t say that I know for sure.
But ignoring the second largest voting demographic has consequences, and blaming them afterwards for an outcome you don’t like doesn’t really help.
Here’s a thought... in the next election, why not try to appeal to white Christian men instead of blaming them for last time?
It’s more likely to lead to a productive outcome.
7
Um, there are plenty of limitations to the 1st Amendment- libel/slander laws, false advertising, fighting words, child pornography, etc.
There is no reason that our 2nd Amendment Rights can't be similarly limited when the government has a clear and overriding interest. Should people be allowed to mount machine guns on their cars? Should they be able to purchase surface to air missile launchers? Build chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons in their garages?
Only a crazy person would say that such regulations aren't constitutional. And anyone says that they are has agreed that the 2nd Amendment has limits, so what we're really arguing about is where to set those limits.
9
The root cause is a mix of absolutism and fear of change. Trump and his fellow despotic leaders give license to their followers to unleash their fears and lash out at those who disagree with them and particularly at the near-enemy.
We see the rise of absolutism and despotism all over the planet. While the world moves forward, the absolutists, supported by the despots, try desperately to turn the calendar back to some halcyon day that never really existed except in affected memory.
The absolutists are largely fueled by both religion and rage. Their position is simple: We are right - you are wrong! All of our problems can be solved easily by putting us in charge of everything, we'll even turn back the calendar to make it easier.
We blame all our ills on somebody other than ourselves. We lash out with abandon at anyone with the temerity to disagree with us.
Little wonder that Trump, and the other despots, have rabid supporters (although we're seeing the same faces again, and again, and again,...) They are going to return us to a golden age that never existed outside of affected memory.
Yes, Trump is a symptom of a global effort to stop time and put the absolutists in charge. A Brave New World awaits the global revolution. Hopefully, I won't live to see it happen.
1
". .. American individualism has morphed into narcissism, perfectibility into entitlement, and exceptionalism into hubris. Out of that, and more, came the insidious malignancy of Trump. It will not be extirpated overnight."
To me, at least, this reads as both glib and smug, and is pretty much useless. It lays the blame for Trump on abstract, subjective characteristics of the national culture or psyche, when in fact the reasons for the Trump presidency are much more concrete, and something we can actually change.
Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office precisely because the Democrats offered no alternative to the decline of living standards decades in the making, and people were tired of it. Enough people, anyway, to get Trump elected. Had Bernie Sanders been the nominee it might very well have been a different story.
Donald Trump was the outsider alternative to no alternative, the alternative to what the British call a "stitch up". If his election isn't a wakeup call for the Democrats, nothing ever will be.
5
That argument about how "the Second Amendment was designed to create a militia 'equal to the government to ensure self-reliance,'” is truly preposterous. Until civilians can buy tanks, stealth aircraft, missiles, and nuclear material on the free market, we will never be "equal to the government" in fire-power, and will never be able to protect ourselves from a government that's veered out of control. Therefore, people who pretend to be buying assault rifles to assure their Second Amendment rights to protect themselves from the government are either lying to themselves or simply trying to convince the rest of us that they have a good reason and a right to buy such things. It's ludicrous. And so are they.
28
@DC Davis I hear the “we have to protect ourselves from the government” reasoning all the time. All. The. Time.
I have asked gun loving people if they should be able to own bazookas, flame throwers, and the like and the answer is invarioubly “yes!”
5
America has fallen because of the greed is good mentality of the 80's. Trump amassed his fortune in the 80's. He is a product of the greed is good mindset. So all his policies as president are based on that mantra. How can you expect him to be kind, compassionate, understanding. Or have any emotional empathy towards the plight of the less fortunate? It's not in his nature. His love is for money. First and foremost. So, you ask why has America fallen. Look at Trump and you have your answer.
5
The tragedy is that despite all the indicators about this detestable human being, so many still voted for him. Apparently abandoning their honor, their morality and their dignity was not too high a price to pay. We will have to wait until November to see whether there is any chance that the direction Trump has taken the country will be repudiated and reversed.
6
“Trump was a symptom, not a cause. The problem is way deeper than him.”
...and deeper into our history. Hubris, the ugly American, was no stranger to the world in the last century, particularly in Vietnam. Have we apologized for that? There are many other examples that native Americans can tell us about. In Trump, exceptionalism has not morphed into hubris, rather hubris has met its nemesis.
17
@BeamInMyEye
I would add our meddling in the affairs of our Central American neighbors- decades of supporting repressive and murderous governments for the benefit of Americsn businesses. Then Americans rail against desperately poor people who leave those countries because of violence and dysfunctional economies that give these people little or no chance to survive and thrive.
6
Roger, I don't live in the West, but I will vote for Trump and Trump supporter in November. If you think that Trump is a narcissist, which he is, read what Mr. Soros had to say about president Obama - the biggest disappointment of all. Trump is a narcissist, but he might as well be the type of narcissist that Freud admired - one primed for leadership and able to effect changes.
6
What kind of change? Dirtier air, no new professions for coal miners?, more money for billionaire?, plans to destroy Medicare and social security? , loss of respect in the civilized world? Lack of civility? Rise of nativism? Yeah, sure looks like we’re making Amerika great again.
13
dear Rose
your dear "narcissist primed to lead" is also proven liar, corrupt, has a very deep disdain for strong women, and is a racist. I take it that none of this matters to you. 45 is extremely vindictive and we should all fear what he will do as he gets trapped by his own deceit. We are in big trouble, and we have you and yours to thank.
9
Americans did not elect Trump. 77,000 people in three rust belt States did. People with no discernable skills were upset they could no longer make $50,000 a year, and needed to blame someone.
32
""That’s why the “Access Hollywood” tape or the I-could-shoot-somebody-on-Fifth-Avenue boast did not kill his candidacy.
It’s also why the itch to believe that the moment has come when everything starts to unravel must be viewed warily.... But who’s the enforcer if Trump has broken the law? It’s Congress —..."
That's exactly what I continue to view skeptically about the mainstream press, their hopeful and breathless belief that the collapse of the Trump administration is inevitable and in view. Pay no attention to the dozens of "other" times we were certain of his imminent demise, this time it's really going to happen.
Ok, if it makes you feel better.
The only way he leaves office is if he is voted or termed out, and if somehow we can manage to defeat him in 2020, it's exceedingly easy to imagine him coming up with accusations of a "rigged" election and the court fight to end all court fights.
Trump isn't an aberration, he embodies everything we've always been but were reluctant to display openly due to the quaint political calculus of prior era's. Trump has no such reservations, he's thrown out the old "playbook" and people love it.
He's more than a "symptom", he is what we are.
6
Well as someone once said, we are more rationalizing creatures than rational. What else explains how a pastor can support a person he knows to be immoral. Well that and George Carlin's observation about how stupid the average person is and then realizing that half of the people are stupider than that.
29
Trump supporters, almost to a man and woman, will tell you that Trump "tells it like it is."
That, of course, is about as far from truth as any given statement emerging from Trump's mouth or Twitter thumb. Trump is, if anything, merely telling it like they want to hear it.
It's analogous to a state trooper showing up at your door and informing you your spouse has been in a terrible car wreck...and didn't sustain a single scratch. He or she is dead, of course, but you heard what you wanted to hear.
8
"White Christian males". I'm a white, Christian, male. I'm also gay. As a gay person, we have been denied the rights, protections, and dignity of our fellow heterosexual Americans no other group have been subject to since 1965. Homosexuality is not a choice, like religion or where you live. "White Christian males" may "pass" at first sight, like light skinned blacks did in the age of Jim Crow and slavery, but once we are discovered, we risk losing jobs, loved ones, housing, etc., that everyone else takes for granted and is protected by law. No offense, Mr. Cohen, but Trump has surrounded himself with a lot of Jewish males, why are they excluded from your generalization?
Lumping "white Christian males" into a homogenous monolith is racist, bigoted, ignorant and supremely arrogant.
6
NY Times--If I see one more op-ed trying to understand Trump supporters I may cancel my subscription and go over to WaPo or the Guardian. We have 70 or so days until one of the most important elections in US history, and the Times is STILL talking about Trump voters and what makes them tick. We know who they are. We know what they will do in November, and we know that they won't budge. Can we talk about the rest of us? We are not a silent majority. It's just we don't get constant, non-stop coverage in the media, which helped getTrump elected in the first place. We have to stop buying into an idea that has been ingrained in us, and normalized in our media for the past two years, which is that the minority rules. We need to start talking about the midterm candidates and how the rest of the country is feeling.
14
The most galling thing about Trump is the tolerance of his history of breaking promises, whether contractual with people who painted his properties or personal with wedding vows. This has now spread to our international reputation with allies and immigrants alike.
With the breaking of faith with Iraqis and Afghans who helped our troops with a promise of a U.S. green card, to a Pakistani reservist who was kicked out because of a policy which changed 20 days after he was sent a termination letter.
It's becoming known as arbitrary and capricious--a nation of whims--rather than a nation of laws. It's destroying our judiciary for partisan purposes, and proposing a Supreme Court nominee with a history of living above his means and an unexplained $100K debt for "baseball tickets" which was paid off by unnamed "friends." That is the very appearance of impropriety that was cautioned in my legal ethics class back at NYU in 1977 or 1978, not to mention by the Bar Character and Fitness Committee.
It's as if the Statue of Liberty was replaced by a "renovated" version with fake blonde hair who, instead of holding a lamp against the darkness, flips the world the bird and with her other hand lifts her skirts above her waist. Instead of Emma Lazarus's poem at the base, there's the question, "What Have You Done for Me Lately?"
The Trump/GOP alliance with Russia is just the tip of the corruption.
13
What a cry baby.
In such a big, complicated world divided into countless ethnic and special interest group, you can't possibly not offend somebody.
And with no exceptions, you can't get to be a corporate leader or major politician without stepping on a few toes and a few questionable deals.
Show me one world leader, corporate head, general, or admiral that has everyone liking him/her for everything they have done.
I really could not care less about who he sleeps with. Many of his detractors are just jealous.
By the way, Trump is doing the best job of any president I can remember. Giving Obama any credit for the economy is like giving Thomas Jefferson credit for winning WW2.
6
Obama inherited an economy in distress and turned it around. The collapse of the financial market was caused by a failure to control the banks lending practices. New regulations solved the problem. Now the administration wants to gut these regulations opening the way to a repeat of 2008. Give it time and we will have 2008 all over again.
19
Exceptionalism is a big and beautiful word. Yet it is meaningless.
9
Out here in Colorado, we are watching a governor's race where the Republican candidate, Walker Stapleton, has a family legacy (that he proudly promotes) of a great grandfather who came to the state in 1915 from Kentucky to promote and develop the KKK.
Benjamin Stapleton eventually became the mayor of Denver, and appointed KKK cronies to positions all over the city. It was only with a series of corruption prosecutions that the state attorney general rooted out the Klan in the 1920s.
Sound familiar?
With a felony DUI and hit and run charges in San Francisco in 1999, Walker Stapleton has become the 'best' candidate that the Republicans could field in the 2018 race.
You should have seen the other guys.
Cohen is falling for the mythic West that prevails in the Big Flat, the rank horror at minority advancement, and a prevailing sympathy for the Lost Cause and the Confederacy of the Southern Slave States.
Now they fight the Culture War instead of the Civil War. Trump is their leader, and no level of perfidy will be too much for the True Believers and Evangelicals in the Big Flat.
Just look at Walker Stapleton.
21
Trump thrived because America has been weak on prosecuting and punishing white collar crime.
9
"We" are not Trump. Only some of us are. The Trump element in our country has always been there, the right question to ask is not how far we've fallen but why we haven't progressed beyond a society where Trumps are possible. You can point to recent developments, social media for example, that have allowed the Trump message to proliferate but it still boils down to the 3 Gs: God Guns and Gays. It's my belief that recent progress on the left with gay marriage, a black president, the ACA, scientific proof of climate change etc, has activated elements on the right that have always been there and will be for some time to come. A blue wave is coming but it doesn't mean America is changing. Remember how the world celebrated when Obama won? Everyone thought America had finally come to her senses. When people actually buy into the garbage they see on InfoWars I really don't know how to change their minds.
19
The stupidity of so much of the American electorate just appalling in the face of a raving maniac who wants above all to be a dictator. It is beyond my comprehension that so many people supported and now continue to support a mentally deranged spewer of hate and racism and spells the end of the democratic way of government for the United States until Trump is permanently removed from the scene. Time is rapidly running out.
38
I've been thinking a lot about this. I live in the rural South, and almost all of my voting neighbors voted for Trump. (A lot of people don't vote here.) I have also observed a decline in character, for lack of a better word, around here: many white men are unmotivated and disorganized, and not just the old guys. Young men no longer seem to have any desire to start a business, or do well at work, or even be stable enough to have a girlfriend. They live with Mama, and she takes care of them. Some of my women friends support men who do absolutely nothing at home or outside the home. It is very hard to get a contractor to start or finish a job. Men lie a lot and cheat a lot. And they elected a cheating liar. It's not too surprising. At the same time, these same men are extraordinarily gullible: they believe the lies of others. This is not going away any time soon.
1064
Charles Murray wrote about the people you mention in Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. Perhaps instead of elite liberal sneering and hatred of these Americans we viewed them as another protected class, we could help them instead of wishing for their demise.
8
@shannon, here in Los Angeles I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon: All the tips of big mature trees are dying back leaving halos of bare twigs and branches where a large green crown once was. Suckers are in plenty shooting from the trunk’s base. That’s all the trees have the water and will to produce. People and trees all come from the same place.
1
"and finally a president who doesn't sneer at people in uniform"? Are you kidding me? His entire life is a sneer at people in uniform. We have never had a less patriotic president. Is it patriotic to avoid military service with a multitude of fake deferments? Is it patriotic to sneer at gold star parents? Is it patriotic to avoid paying taxes so that the "tired and poor" among us carries a heavier burden? His entire life is a sneer at patriotism, shared responsibility, civility, empathy for those less fortunate et all. You have been bought off with a reckless tax giveaway and what sounds to me like an education (or lack of it) from "Fake Fox University ". Deplorable!
61
Michelle Obama’s was so right, the presidency reveals who you are. And who Donald Trump is is abhorrent. And his supporters cling to him as a “messiah”, who in reality has taken full advantage of their ignorance and gullibility. I just hope the sane majority prevails in November.
35
I always find prideful American talk about "self-reliance" highly amusing, since so much of its economic power depended on slave labor, or as Abraham Lincoln said, "wringing your bread from the sweat of another man's face". And if they did not latertechnically enslave other minorities, Americans were very successful in exploiting them to near death. Some self-reliance.
4
We could have easily come to this same point in 2008 if it were not for the election of Barack Obama. He was a relative newcomer to politics, and he had cross generational appeal due to his message of hope, peace and prosperity. The Republican party ran on a devisive platform of fear and loathing. People, especially millennials, wanted positive change.
After Obama was elected the Republican Party did everything in its power to undermine him and his vision of hope. As Mitch McConnell proclaimed, the primary goal was to thwart eveything Obama proposed to improve the lives of Americans, and to ensure he lasted a single term. After all, he was a person of color, an enigma to the Republican party.
They could have succeeded in 2012 when the Republican platform was even more firmly based on fear of others and the message that our government was out to destroy us all. They failed because they had inept and ignorant candidates like Sarah Palin As the face of Republicans. They had the belief that people would accept an incompetent, questionably attractive, unqualified, and truly stupid woman as VP, which says a great deal of what Republican leadership thinks of women in general.
Democrats are also to blame. In 2016 they pushed Hillary Clinton as the ideal candidate, even knowing her fatal flaws. Was she qualified? Yes. Did she represent the same optimism as Obama? No. She was tainted for a number of reasons, including opportunism and self-entitlement. That says it all.
17
The phrase "American Exceptionalism" gives me heart burn. The thing about us that is exceptional is our arrogance.
10
From the Christian point of view, when voting in the US, you have a choice between two sinners. No illusions there. Even the pope is a sinner. They are all human beings. And we cannot judge the person, for judging the person is for God only. We can judge their actions as Christian or not Christian based on Jesus teachings. But not all is black and white when it comes to actions when we focus too much on intentions (he is doing this because he hates women, or he is a racist white supremacist, etc. etc.). He is an adulterer but Jesus protected the adulterer from being stone to death, however he did not condone adultery. And Trump is not trying to institutionalize adultery (unlike same sex marriage was institutionalized). Then he hates immigrants. He married one. No, he hates brown immigrants and Muslims. The case for that is weak. Legalizing immigration in this country is long overdue. Illegal immigrants living as second class citizens among us, and the abuse some of them go through to get here and while in here, dehumanizing. We want to “help” illegals but many expect something in return: cheap labor. So it is not out of love but out of self interest. And so on. So the situation is not as black and white as it is portrait in this article.
3
I strongly disagree with you first sentence, and all the others seem like rationalization.
8
To paraphrase Pogo, we have met Trump, and he is us.
6
Reverend Babcox, just another guy redefining "militia": to suit his own purposes. Anyone know how many times "militia" is mentioned in the Constitution? Five times! Can you name them? Article I. "The Congress shall have Power...; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;" Article II. "The President shall be Commander in Chief of ... the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;"
The militia is in the chain of command. It's not some outfit to protect citizens against governmental tyranny. That's something gun sellers came invented. The right to "keep and bear" derives from the need to mobilize & execute as required. These are "citizen soldiers", the military reserves, "organizing, arming, and disciplining" means what it says. You "keep" arms for a mobilization & "bear" them when "called into the actual Service." "Organizing" means training and compensating. They're not freelancers. There's no individual right. Pro gun 2d amendment folk just quote the last part. Sorry, but originalism can be a drag, but sadly, money won out.
7
"Some things are worse than death, he said."
Uh, no, there's nothing worse than death.
2
As I sit here reading this op-ed and responses to it on this sultry August Saturday morning, I find that I'm caring less and less what happens in the months and years ahead. Trump and GOP's success in taking over a democracy and twisting it for their own ends has me feeling hopeless and helpless. American Democracy has met its match, and by God, it's Donald Trump and a greedy, hyper-partisan, power-hungry, immoral political party. Along with a rabid, racist, fear-driven 40 percent white base, they are holding us all hostage until America is ruled by white men again. Trump's base and his party do not care what he has done that is criminal. They do not care who helped him win the election. Bob Mueller can bring out a damning report and it won't make a difference one way or another. Any sign of impeachment will bring civil unrest and perhaps a second civil war. The America I grew up and lived as an adult in died on election night 2016. I don't believe it's ever coming back. This is our new world--Trump's fallen America. And we have to learn to live and survive in it.
33
@Meg
On the bleakest of days, I share your despair. In order to get out of bed every morning I have to believe in the goodness of most people. Call me an optimistic survivor.
9
I don't know what's worse, the idea that Trump supporters know exactly what he is and continue supporting him anyway, or that they are a bunch of cult of personality members, blindly believing and blindly following the words and proclamations of someone who meets all diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder. If the former is true then evil is following evil, and the malicious, those who would do harm to others intentionally, have taken over the country. If the latter is true, then the deluded are following evil, and the malicious, those who would do harm to others intentionally, have taken over the country.
10
According to all the NYT has reported over the last two years, we've fallen pretty far - with Americans, with allies, with my son and his family, because of his lurid life, because of his constant lies and hate-speak about Mrs. Clinton and others, and because he spends so much time NOT being a president - golf, TV, tweet, name-call, deny, tweet, golf, TV - wash, rinse, repeat.
This stuff has been going on since Ann Coulter, Glen Beck, Laura Ingraham, and Rush Limbaugh put hate-speak and their un-American views in the ears of Americans. Trump is their baby - and he acts like one. Canada has a leader, we have a 5th grader. And believe me, I know. I've been on that playground as I taught 5th grade for 24 years!
12
I remember a time when nobody believed a person who had been divorced could be elected president. Times sure have changed.
16
Only in the eyes of the liberal media has America fallen. As an informed American, I follow the liberal media so I am aware of how it manipulates the facts, interprets events to fit its perspective, leaving out important details. Mr. Cohen's op-ed is a perfect example. OK, Mr. Cohen, so you don't like Donald J. Trump; I imagine you loathe him just I and millions of Americans loathe Hillary Rodham Clinton, but at least report and write about issues honestly. You say that you have never met a Trump supporter who does not know exactly who he is. Do you know exactly who he is? Or do you just know what you and the rest of the liberal media have written about him? I know who he is: he is not Hillary Rodham Clinton, and that's all I need to know, and the reason why I voted for him to the President of the United States of America. Thank you.
6
Canada also had wide open spaces except bigger, but we had for the most part peace and order in the west. People did not go around pretending that guns were required to interact with neighbours and believe your neighbours should be regarded as threats to be fended off with guns. Healthcare in Canada originated in a province in the middle of the west that makes Colorado look like a postage stamp. We knew that American militias far from proving competent were hammered in almost but not all the battles they fought. Any American who knows their American history knows that attempts use force to establish a political claim was crushed by the very people who lead the revolution.
So put aside the mythological nonsense that of the land or a misinterpretation of history or of the American 2nd amendment is the basis of the gun culture or Trump support. It is the result of well organized political, religious and business interests.
934
While I do not trade in biblical essence, I like the metaphor of 'selling your soul'. One thing is clear -- and Cohen says it really, really well in this piece -- the Trump enablers very clearly wake up every morning prepared to sell once again whatever little bit of soul they have left.
And here is the irony: the apparent new wealth Trump is spreading around is nothing more than the temporary overflow from people and corporations no longer paying the taxes needed to keep us on the rails.
Something will have to give. Do not think for a NY second that those sold-souls in a Republican congress won't go looking at your Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to make up the difference. It is not even necessary to speculate whether that was the real intent of those fake "tax cuts".
18
‘Who have we become?’ It’s an ideological question. ‘What are enough of us willing to settle for?’ is perhaps a more practical thing to ask.
As voters acting out of economic fear and insecurity, we have settled for government as spectacle and team sport. Days are wasted pondering Trump’s hostility toward his attorney general while no comparable attention is brought to bear on the effectiveness of that attorney general as he turns the president’s racially biased and xenophobic campaign statements into domestic law. Meanwhile the other team’s media covers the stories that place these policies in a rational frame regardless of their veracity.
As fans, we will root instinctively until the season runs out and our attention moves to another sport. But while the season lasts there is always the chance that we will make the postseason. As exemplified by New England sports fans, “my team right or wrong,” will rationalize an awful lot of dirty sport. Politics is no different.
I would suggest that the president’s fans are willing to interpret his petulance and open hostility toward. . . you name today’s target. . . as authenticity, backbone, sincerity of a sort. It follows that it could be the erosion in our ability or motivation to recognize this quality of authenticity that is at the heart of the problem.
5
Gandhi once said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." You want change? Get out and vote. Trump was elected by approximately 26% of the voting age population. Around 28% voted for the "other" candidate. Where were the rest?
A democracy relies on a well-informed population that takes personal responsibility to engage in the process. To blame others for where we are today is disingenuous.
Instead of wasting energy hand-wringing, channel that energy in getting your neighbor, your friend, your family, yourself out and vote. Become the change you wish to see.
25
Humility has been dragged out on to 5th Avenue and been shot. That's what's happened.
13
Roger, you're right about the Trump's followers who want to stick to their messiah no matter what he does. Even Robert Babcox, the pastor that you spoke to, wants to stick by his president for "sticking to his campaign promises and....bravado, getting the economy revved up" like you wrote here in your piece.
Actually we've seen these type of Americans before in the Gold Rush era in the Sierra Madre Mountains California in 1800's.
Chinese citizens who bore the brunt of zero below temperatures and laid the first railroad tracks in the United States were brutally tortured and murdered by the fun loving drunken White Americans panning for gold in the rivers nearby.
No wonder poor Chinese laborers started sleeping in the cold caves of the mountains or on the railroad tracks they were laying to protect themselves from the marauding drinking American thrill seekers.
We also know that those Chinese 'undocumented workers' never got their recognition due to the totally xenophobic Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which forbade them from doing anything that White citizens could do.
Actually the congress literally told them "Do the hard labored jobs that we Americans do not like to do.But stay indoors after your work is finished. We do not like to see your faces when we go outside."
Trump and his supporters are literally telling the 'undocumented workers' of our time the same thing, "Just do the work we White Americans do not want to do and then go back to your country."
Go figure !
7
What makes us think going in search of a brutally dishonest myth will bring us any closer to the truth about ourselves?
7
"Americans elected Trump. No one else did." I beg to differ. This guy cheated, lied about affairs, broke laws, almost certainly colluded with the Russians, and without a doubt had help from the Russians..... And with all that, lost the popular vote and had a razor thin win of less than 80,000 votes. Take away the cheating and the Russians and you have a president Clinton. An illegitimate win isn't a win.
20
This story tells you a lot about the alternative.
1
Sadly, Mr. Cohen, you have nailed it. I no longer recognize the America into which I was born almost 76 years ago, a strong, patriotic America brimming with high ideals. It breaks my heart to witness our falling away from those ideals, and it scares me. We were a bastion against the forces of evil and hatred I hoped we'd vanquished in WW II.
Now, however, I feel the walls of that bastion crumbling all around me and the hate creeping back in. I realize, of course, that the hate was never totally vanquished, only shamed into hiding. Now, to my horror, our nation's elected leader is emboldening and empowering the haters and luring them out from under the rocks where they'd been hiding.
"Unnerving" barely begins to describe the recent gradual revelations that we apparently are not the nation I'd long hoped we were. As heroes such as John McCain pass from the scene, who will rise up to turn us back onto the higher road I'd hoped would be America's destiny? Adding to these worries, it's becoming clear that we can no longer look to our elected representatives to step up and take on this task. Sadly, they apparently truly do represent who we've now become.
6
From the Wikipedia entry for Trump World Tower -
"...the building is 861 feet (262 m) high and has 72 constructed floors (but lists 90 stories on elevator panels)..."
Those you discuss live on the missing 18 floors.
463
America has risen under Trump, nationally and internationally. Only Trump haters, liberals, leftists and socialists don’t see this. There is no use trying to change your mind as you won’t change my mind, so I keep my comment short.
3
Amazing. Trump supporters always knew he was "a generally miserable human being." They still know it and still support him as the leader of our nation. So the answer to "What have we become?" is 'despicable human beings.' So much for "a more perfect Union." Maybe I'll use my Second Amendment right and shoot myself.
4
Amen, Roger. My fellow Americans elected Trump, the man who I’ve never heard anyone say a good thing about since, forever. They elected him anyway. They knew who he was and elected him anyway. I guess I don’t really know my fellow Americans but I am disappointed. Call me old-fashioned, but I’d like to think that my president has a sense of morality, integrity and honor. That almost half of the voters don’t agree is unsettling. I’m a Navy vet, and have always considered myself a patriot, but, Honestly, I’m not as proud of an American as I used to be.
14
"White Christian males losing their place in the social order decided they’d do anything to save themselves, and to heck with morality. "
I think this is a legitimate POV. Another way of looking on it is that the Obama Administration systematically promoted the stripping of white heterosexual American Christian men of their (imagined?) power. Mainstream publications such as the NYT, WaPo, LAT began to systematically undermine whiteness ("white oppression"), promoting the BLM meme of non-white victimization, right to unchecked immigration, showing Schadenfreude about the opioid crisis, showing double standards for misogyny when shown by males of different races ... after a while, this can become jarring.
4
An excellent, thoroughly depressing essay. Cohen describes the problem both thoroughly and eloquently. It is definitely true that most DT voters were motivated by fear and hate. We have fallen badly as a nation. Hopefully we will be able to renew ourselves both spiritually and politically, otherwise, we're lost for generations.
6
We did not elect Donald Trump. Let's not forget that he did not win the popular vote and that he won the electoral vote thanks to the gerrymandering of previous years and to the support of the Russians. We might be dealing with an illegitimate president. Our main challenge is how to fix a broken political system that is no longer truly representative of its citizens. How do we do that?
17
There is a fundamental contradiction between the 'rugged' individualism of American tradition and America as a nation officially far more religious than most industrialized countries.
The idealistic concept of "I am my brother's keeper" rooted in Christian tradition stands in opposition to American disdain for universal health care, guaranteed maternity leave and other social support systems enjoyed by other countries.
Why?
8
To Steding's list at the end of the article, I would add that fierce independence has morphed into weak-minded servility to authoritarianism. Patriotism has turned into abject selfishness. We have become so convinced of our exceptionalism and entitlement that, despite being the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, we jealously refuse sanctuary to people fleeing unimaginable violence in their home countries. We tear children from parents to scare future refugees from seeking safety on our shores.
706
There is nothing of value that Trump Republicans can tell the rest of America anymore. The Republican Party should have shot down Trump's candidacy when he denigrated John McCain during the campaign. They should have ended Trump's campaign so fast that it would have made his head spin; yet, they gave him a pass on the McCain insults and so much more. Trump Republicans willingly endorsed the moral rot and the cynical moral relativism that is flowing in the currents of political and social discourse today. They too are the vessels of that rot. Frankly, I am tired of the admonitions that I should feel obligated to 'reach out' and understand Trump Republicans, especially if, as you say, they know full well the character of the man whom they gerrymandered into the presidency.
10
Yes Trump is a symptom not a cause, but the way he campaigned and got elected? That symptom was brought forward in a way no one would have imagined: so much violence; so much horrible arrogance; so much individualism in the worse sense; so much stirring and egging on the gut-feelings of his supporters with threats of catastrophic events recently reiterated in his latest statements that an impeachment would rapidly bring America in the doldrums economically and a stock market crash would be expected effectively asserting, only his narcissism would save the Country and the world at large. How callous is that? He treats others as dumb children unable to understand his ravings of omnipotence, and demands total deference from his forgiving supporters that irresponsibly do not really care about anything but hating the Democrats. He is a liar. After Brexit there was a little alarming financial turmoil swiftly absorbed. Even Berlusconi did the same with something like "after me the deluge" when he perceived his regime was over and nothing disastrous happened. Reckless populism is the cause and exploiting terror causes symptomatic irrationality.
2
"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." A. Lincoln
When are we going to stop being fools?
3
Have any columnists here ever tried to really figure out why Trump supporters support him? Or ever managed to effectively combat the denial that his support has much more to do with populist anger against hypocritical do-nothing tokenist yet arrogant establishment politicians (of both parties) than with any great liking of Trump himself? When can we at least finally shred the absurd pretense that Trump and his supporters came suddenly out of nowhere in 2016?
5
I guess the gun-living pastor thinks we should each own a tank, a bomber and a sub so that the archaic militias referred to in the archaic Second Amendment are equal to the power of the government's arsenal.
He might also want to read up on First Amendment jurisprudence before saying uninformed things like, " If I can limit somebody on what weapons they can buy, why would I not be able to limit what somebody can say about me under the First Amendment?" In fact, there are all sorts of limits on free speech, including libel, slander and defamation. If rights never came into conflict, we wouldn't need courts.
And by the way, pastor, the problem isn't trump's cell phone. The ptoblem is trump. You know, cell phones don't say stupid things. People say stupid things.
9
If America has fallen, we can thank both parties and the 4th estate. The choices for president in the last election were pathetic and I, like millions of others, could not vote for either choice. Does anyone remember who finished 2nd for president in the New Hampshire republican primary? Of course you don't remember because the winner got an inordinate amount of press coverage which did not cease until Mr. Trump was elected. The press must be honest that from day one Trump was a gift that they treated as a golden goose. Trump has been and continues to be a media money-maker. Kasich came in 2nd in New Hampshire but he was too moderate to warrant much press coverage. The tail(the wing nuts)wags the dog because they make better copy.
4
In the Trump era, truth is kicked to the curb as he believes in a deep state of officials out to undo him.
We see a radical collapse of opinion trumping facts, a presidency reduced to soap operas + distractions. Thousands of lies become business as usual.
Accommodating Putin is his foreign policy....trade + tariffs harm manufacturers/farmers. Wages lag for workers. Having benefited from his tax plan, his current agenda is image, the fallout from trials of the president's men---and shading truth at all costs.
4
I have been a life-long moderate Republican. I contributed to Rubio’s and then Kasich’s campaigns during the primary since I thought Trump was a poseur and charlatan. I did not vote for DJT in the election - I went for the libertarian candidate (Gary somebody?).
And, yes, I support some of Trump’s policies and some of the way he’s disrupting the way we govern.
However, I find most Democrats even more reprehensible than most Republicans.
Democrats like Pelosi, Cuomo and the clowns that run states like Illinois and cities like Chicago are the worst. They have a disdain for the reality of how the economy and business work. Yet, they allow grifters and grafter - the likes of the Al Sharptons and the Clintons - to actually cloak themselves as ‘do gooders’ and put these clowns on a pedestal. In actuality, the likes of Bill and Hillary are scam artists like many in the private sector, but they just don’t have the intelligence or risk taking ability to make it in the real economy.
I’ll take a moderate to conservative, business atuned Republican over a moderate to liberal, government oriented Democrat any time. Business and economic missteps can be recovered from. Badly thought out and implemented social engineering projects - such as ObamaCare - are with you forever.
1
Who are we? We are a country of many lazy individuals with zero unity and zero intellect. People think it's funny to watch the tweet storms and assorted pieces of crazy that go on. These people are so busy laughing at these antics and hooting and hollering at rallies that they don't see the shredding of programs that benefit them being pulled out from under them or if they do, they blame it on the previous administration, current Democrats, or the boogeyman. But never is the blame directed where it should be.
But those people vote. They mobilize and vote. That is what is scary. The apathy of the rest of the country is why he is in office. Wish as I do, I just don't see that changing next time around.
15
Trump didn't win it the Democrats lost it. People who were facing economic disaster couldn't care less that he might destroy the country's democratic policies. In fact they were probably rooting for it. Unfortunately they listened to his lies, ignored his background and chose the wrong champion. The social issues which the Democrats spent most of the their energy and time were no where as important to them as their economic woes. Taft Hartley , the Smith Act and consequent destroying of the unions led to this mess.
2
I am a lifelong liberal who has never voted for a Republican for federal office. My experience supports the notion that Trump supporters know exactly who Trump is. But the question that Democrats should be asking is why they prefer that to the Democratic alternative. It’s time for Democrats and progressives to take a close look in the mirror. It’s too easy to claim that the problem is with the American public. We greatly misjudged what winning the culture wars meant. And our resulting arrogance and self righteousness looks pretty ugly from the other side. Too often we’ve used the word “hate” to characterize whatever it is we happen to disagree with.
Lavon Page
8
Its also worth noting that one of the reasons Trump is president is Clinton's own narcissism, hubris, and sense of entitlement: How else can a person explain her lack of campaigning in the Midwest?
6
"Frankly" and "I have to tell you" that our colossally unfit and grossly incompetent president will be upheld in the Mid-Term Elections in 2 months. Unless a worse scandal or event occurs between now and 2020, the world will witness the crumbling of the Trump Empire and America's beautiful Manifest Destiny falling into the dustbin of history. The authoritarian fist of President Donald Trump -- America's unforeseen leader of this moment in history -- will win through.
Roger Cohen, you're an American citizen now, and can put in your American two cents about the pass our country has come to in this presidency of Donald Trump. As long as Trump's base of uneducated and entitled white supremacists against immigration and human rights holds power in the Houses of Congress and the White House, is as long as we will witness the fall of the American Empire. Too bad. Too sad. But hey, history and time passing teaches us that sooner or later tyrants fall.
4
It is critical to understand that most Trump supporters receive their news from Fox and the Right-wing media. Their narrative—reinforced minute by minute—is that the Left is the enemy, intent upon destroying the country.
For example, I listened to Limbaugh yesterday emphatically define (yet again) the Justice Dept. as a political arm of the Left. Talk of the Deep State and other conspiracies are replete throughout the programming. It is easy to just shake one's head in disgust, but this is dangerously insidious.
Fox News, Limbaugh, Hannity, Tucker Carlson et.al are not just provocative. They are aggressive and hostile. They practice divisive politicization as a means of creating a cohesive block that will not negotiate.
This has proven more dangerous to democracy than any terrorism. And it must remain legal (imagine if Trump had the power to limit news organizations!).
We are in a pickle.
14
Republicans once celebrated leaders who in the name of freedom implored autocrats to tear down their walls. Now they defend an autocrat who is intent on building walls on our borders and creating enemies beyond and within our borders. Now they defend an autocrat who takes their sense of tyrannized, victimized group identity to whatever tragic ends this pathos might bring. Trump is their AR-15 president. Their night watchman for bringing to their enemies their worst nightmare -- all the in-your-face their uncivil leader can muster.
2
"White Christian males losing their place in the social order decided they’d do anything to save themselves, and to heck with morality." That's a pretty broad and unfair analysis in my estimation. I rarely use statements that begin with, "As a ..." but as someone who falls into the categories mentioned, I can say that I loathe everything about Trump: His ignorance, his bigotry, his destruction of behavioral and civic norms -- you name it. And some of the most outspoken Trump critics I know are in the aforementioned categories.
2
I'm afraid that Donald Trump is not so much a symptom as a symbol of how the rest of the world may secretly see this country: A crass, power-crazed, racist bully who stomps around the landscape proclaiming that our inherent superiority and strength gives us the right to take whatever we want from anyone not big enough to stop us.
Before we can successfully heal from the diseases which plague us, we're going to have to be brutally honest about what they actually are, no matter how uncomfortable they make us. And we're going to have to realize that the bully is weakening, suffering from the tolls that egomania and greed ultimately exact. The infection began to take hold in the days of the Viet Nam War and has been eating away at our very fiber till now when we find we are having a hard time thinking straight and catching our breath.
If we fail to begin the necessary surgeries in November, it may be too late to catch it in 2020.
3
Trump supporters like Trump are angry and resentful of the so called liberal elites. Yet they vote for the Republican Party agenda that represents solely the economic interests of the actual ruling elites.
This include tax cuts for corporations and extremely wealthy, deregulation of environmental and financial rules, and privatization of social programs with intended cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
They do this like Trump by railing against any type of gun control, raving against immigrants, taking anti abortion and states rights positions, and using voter suppression to limit the power of minorities.
This is their Southern Strategy which is to appeal to White Evangelicals and their prejudices with dog whistles and with Trump with his crude demagoguery and lies.
5
At least for some evangelical Christian Americans, President Trump is simply part of God's greater purpose. (This is one reason why Vice President Pence puts up with such abject debasement and continual humiliation.) The President's law-breaking, his scorn for democracy and the rule of law, his association with criminals and lowlifes, and his complete lack of ethics and amorality - none of that matters. God uses flawed and even evil people for His purposes.
For such evangelicals, no amount of evidence, no facts or truths ("alternative" or otherwise), no investigative journalism will convince such people, because their belief in President Trump is based on faith not facts. Moreover, evidence against the President is perceived as an attack on their faith. And, of course, such thinking has much broader policy implications (i.e., climate change, access to contraception, etc.)
How do you counter that?
3
Mr. Cohen hits the nail on the head. The world is full of malignant people like Trump but we freely chose to make him our president with full knowledge of what he was. It can thus be said that there is something rotten in the state of America that will remain after Trump's time is over.
10
Mr. Cohen, unfortunately this opinion piece is spot on.
I was born in Alabama in 1957 and lived there 43 years, the remainder in New Mexico, where as a white male I am in the minority.
This has brought an interesting perspective: Living with Native Americans and Hispanics that my race stole land from (and of course Hispanics stole it from the Native American as well, before we stole it from them).
Humans are at their core takers, predators and cost-offloaders. Our present situation demonstrates that not even religion can successfully rein these tendencies in. People will willingly vugarize their religion to serve their wants, fantasies, and bigotry.
Grace, humility, mindfulness, thoughtfulness, and kindness are the traits that will make America Great Again, not the vulgarity, crassness, and cheap spectacle that defines our society at the moment.
Somehow we must reset our morals, ethics, and world view to be truly successful as a people, as a nation.
MB
9
I really think its to soon to decide how far America has fallen, after all its just two years into 200+. Yes, trump is president however I wonder why. How much was because white supremacy ruled or a very bad opposition candidate. I wonder just how bad the present actions of the government really are to how very rotten trump the man is, do we separate the two? I believe there is real hope, I believe we need to roll congress over, replace people like Mitch with people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elise Stefanik. I hope/believe this will start in November.
1
Donald Trump was a middle finger sent to Washington by people who felt that government had been ignoring them and catering to the rich, the poor, and themselves for the last 4 decades. As long as the economy remains strong, and Trump continues to humiliate everybody and trash the place, his base will be happy, because he is doing exactly what they wanted. It was an exaggeration when he said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and stay popular, but he’d stay popular with his base if shot a certain type of person, a Muslim, for instance.
The inability of 40% of the country to think critically about any of this means we are in for a rough ride.
5
Indeed, Trump's awful image and worse misdeeds were well known for a long, long time. And elected him in spite of them (or because of?). Even the religious type, still hopeful to allow religious dogma to supersede secular state affairs (in spite of it's stupidity, in this day and age, and advances in science and technology counter to a narrow, and provincial, concept of life), has embraced this charlatan, whose only interest is himself and the enrichment of his clones...while trampling on this suffering democracy of ours. Contrary to the expected 'enlightenment' due to the profusion of Internet information, we have lost our ways, stopped thinking for ourselves, know close to nothing, always eager to believe in conspiracy theories, anything to escape our deadly routines and be entertained, hence, the welcoming of a malevolent clown, Donald J. Trump. If Trump is a sadist, we have become masochists seeking punishment. As they say, each nation may get the government it deserves. But this bad?
6
"Who are we, goddamit? What have we become?" That's an easy one, I'll take it. We are humans with all the follies, foolishness, and frailties we've had since recorded history began.
The thing is that we’ve allowed the idea of the amoral agent to become accepted practice. If it’s OK to hire a shark as a lawyer, who cares nothing except for “winning”, wasn’t it predictable this would infect our politics?
1
Whichever political movement or party is the first to recognize the vast overlap between "gun lovers and legalized marijuana lovers" as Mr. Stephens calls them, will be the dominant political party moving forward. Its ignorant and perpetuates stereotypes to think that these groups are wholly separate or "split" from each other as suggested here.
Clearly, Mr. Trump found a rich vein of anger in this country to mine. By blaming the Other, by telling his base how they are the elites, by proclaiming only he can fix it, by pledging to drain the swamp and Make America Great Again (or white again), he won the Electoral College.
What I do not understand is the widening gulf between what he says and what he does. Massive tax cuts for the uber-wealthy, pledges to remove the supports to the ACA, implicit and occasionally explicit threats to Medicare, Medicaid and SS, unending support for destructive fossil fuels, shredding families and locking children in cages, disparaging foreign nations and institutions while preening before Russia and "negotiating" with the DPRK without any tangible results does not make us better again.
I shudder if this is what Americans actually prefer--a peevish, small-minded, selfish nation governed by a kakocracy.
4
The argument that Second Amendment was designed to create a militia “equal to the government to ensure self-reliance,” is just so silly. It's an argument that is designed to disguise white supremacism objective. For a powerful and effective "militia" would imply that you have a homogenous population that shares a unified culture. In other words, the speaker is talking about pockets of white communities that see gun ownership as a means for intimidation as well as survival in the time of changing demographics.
3
Being a 'true believer' is not the same as knowing what reality is. The gravitational attraction of purity creates it's own space. Living in a time of rapid and radical change has pushed people from ALL political dimensions to grasp and claw for the willing stupidity of 'populism'. It is hard to think. It is hard to be and stay aware.
I love the "Someone should take away his cellphone" rationale for justifying this contemptible presidency. So, it's the phone's fault? No, the issue is the phone's user and what his ceaseless input says about his core character as a leader of a formerly great country.
7
Great piece, there is a lot for Americans to consider and work out.
But please, people, let's start in November by just getting rid of the Republicans in as many places as possible, because we can't make any progress until we do that first.
And that's just the way it is, unfortunately.
You don't like the way things are? Show up and vote in November, for the country's sake.
Voting is way more effective than protesting, by the way, think about it. Just vote the bums out!
3
"[Babcox] said the Second Amendment was designed to create a militia “equal to the government to ensure self-reliance,” and that therefore the ban [on large magazines] should be overturned."
In no small measure, this ignorant, utterly selfish misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment serves as a signpost pointing the way to America's exceptional decline. The 2nd Amendment was included in the so-called "Bill of Rights" to allow *states* to maintain their own "well-regulated militia" as a hedge against the accumulation of overwhelming military might in a federal standing army. Well, guess what? Individual states lost that hedge 85 years ago when the "National Guard Mobilization Act" merged state militias with the federal standing army (now known as the Dept. of Defense).
Regardless, the 2nd Amendment neither specifies nor implies that *individuals* should be granted unlimited access to "arms," which is exactly what this so-called "Christian" pastor is advocating. To then claim the amendment aims to "ensure self-reliance," as Babcox does, is to step off the cliff into complete self-delusion. In so doing, Babcox exemplifies what William Steding correctly concludes is the underlying cause of American decline: "individualism has morphed into narcissism, perfectibility into entitlement, and exceptionalism into hubris."
So, in November 2018, will it be America reborn, or America RIP?
5
After the election, I remembered the words of George Carlin:"If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to have selfish, ignorant leaders." Trump is the duplicate of selfish, ignorant Americans. Somewhere along the way Americans lost the true American way. The great experiment has now turned into every other selfish country that caters to the aristocracy/rich and chastises or punishes it's poor and immigrants.
7
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
". . . American individualism has morphed into narcissism, perfectibility into entitlement, and exceptionalism into hubris. Out of that, and more, came the insidious malignancy of Trump."
This wouldn't have been possible without the insidiousness of the internet a la Facebook and its ilk.
3
Fascinating read. This article in particular, unlike others at times, needed/needs more information. You left me wanting to read more. I hope a book or a longer, deeper journalistic article is forthcoming.
1
@Norbert
I propose to make a gallery of photos of all the "elephants in the article" first.
You remember this special kind of elephants? They used to live in many "rooms" but were driven out there when social media killed debate culture. This machines and tweets are just too small for such big animals like the "elephant in the room" species.
But some have found their new homes in essays and articles. This essay is a good sample for "the elephant in the article". It seems to be a whole flock of elephants here.
Criminal conduct and trampling the Constitution are not mitigated by employment levels.
As for the military
Adm. McRaven told Trump: " A good leader sets the example for others to follow," "A good leader always puts the welfare of others before himself or herself." " Your leadership, however, has shown little of these qualities." "Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation." “If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be.” "Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency."
9
So that’s the way to vote Congress out? Vote for a derelict? New strategy to me.
Mr. Cohen, how you could be so feeble in your "argument" about guns with this "pastor" is beyond me. Your questions should have been,
-Why does anyone need a high-powered firearm? Given that almost no one does, for the safety of us all (because, inevitably, human nature being what it is, one of us is going to off our rocker at some point, and then the last thing we want is an available gun near that person) why not just make a sacrifice, and go without your toy?
-If it's about having a militia armed to match the government, presumably you believe in the retail selling of small (or, for that matter, large) nuclear weapons? Because no number of guns, bump stock or not (whatever that means), can match the arms of the government. So, presumably, Babcox," you are an advocate for the legalization of nuclear bombs? After all, nuclear bombs don't kill people, people kill people, so it shouldn't be a problem. Yes, or no, Babcox? Agree or not?
-You mention a militia, Mr. Babcox. Where is it? What militia did the Newtown killer belong to? And where is the "well-regulated" part? Do you not realize that we have a militia already, and it's called a police force? How is that not a well-regulated militia, Mr. Babcox? Explain.
That you didn't ask these questions, Mr. Cohen, makes your own "protests" about the craziness of these Trump voters sound insincere. Could your questions have been any more softball, allowing Babcox to provide answers that simply romanticized him? Ugh.
4
Thank you, Roger, thank you !
Lately, it has been exceptionally difficult to get any of the Democrats to put their smug, condescending elitism on display for all to see. It's almost as if they were starting to get the sense that describing 45% of the nation as deplorable may have been detrimental.
But that sort of "funny feeling" becomes easy to repress when you know you're and your fellow travellers are right and the rest are just troublesome baggage.
This is exactly- the - defining characteristic of the statist-collectivist Progressive ideologue; the same characteristic that brought the would-be tyrant Hillary Clinton and her band of anti-American globalists down in the 2016 election.
And thanks to writers such as yourself, the housecleaning will continue this fall.
You thoughtfully reveal that you will never even consider that federalism is important to some people; also the notion of the primacy of the people over the state, and other absurd and deplorable notions - such as, people are responsible for their actions, not society.
Thanks again.
I've never met a Trump supporter who did not know exactly who he is ?
Neither am I, so I stopped discussing anything with them mostly with the neighbors because what`s the point of wasting my time.
But interesting enough they all had Romney sign in 2012 in their yard but no one had a trump sigh i in 2016, they all are secret trump voters .
But they still sleep at night while I lay awake !
4
Funny story.
The other day a new friend was telling me that, a year or so ago, she'd found a gopher tortoise hole in her front yard. She enlarged the planting bed so it accommodated the hole, and spent many relaxing hours in the shade of a nearby tree, watching the hole, waiting for a glimpse of the tortoise, its friends, its offspring.
One day, her sister came over for a visit, and suggested that she fill in the hole.
A little later in the conversation, I turned to my new friend and said, "I bet your sister is a Republican."
She looked at me like I'd grown two heads, and said, "How'd you know?"
Duh.
5
John Wayne wasn't real. He was a movie character.
Just like "world-class businessman" Donald Trump.
Maybe Martin Sheen should run for President?
1
The thought that an individual is still "king" in a mass society is absolutely ill received. Order and rules have to dominate. This sounds like a "despising of man" but otherwise we all can't get along well.
You can make absurd ideas hop along inside the four walls of your study. But outside civility has to reign.
2
I have prowled around Face Book to see who exactly are the individuals high on Trump and still demonizing Hillary. Some FB pages look suspicious, some look real. Reading those makes my stomach turn. Such total ignorance of facts. Such incuriosity for truth. A total lack of conscientiousness — a vital virtue in a democracy. There is always a crude element in every society, but the shock is how so many in 2016 voted their way. Now this vile aspect of the U.S. soul has incumbency going into the Midterms. Goodness help us all.
8
Who are we, today? For most like me, over 50? Small. Scared. Making America a Third World nation.
For all our wide open spaces, we are closed minded, left or right. And we are so gullible to think this “boom” of a sugar-high tax cut that only helped the rich will endure. I see those called “losers” by Trump every day—friends without college slowly dying without adequate health care and underemployed, the homeless, Millennials unable to buy a first house, immigrants doing tough work and keeping their heads down. That is America, now.
The sugar high will end and then we will be rid of this evil man. But we will be smaller, more divided, and poorer than in 2008.
I hold out hope that the more tolerant and educated young people—the only good people in Charlottesville a year ago!—will set things right, but they will have to start with a bankrupt nation, 20+ trillion in debt.
3
Babcox's argument is that individuals must be well enough armed to protect themselves from the government. Does he want his very own RPGs, stinger missiles and tanks? (only the Kochs can afford their own F-15s).
13
@D. Yohalemn He needs his own tactical nuclear weapons as well.
I think you need to look deeper. I was in Alberta, Canada this week, described by Canadians as the “Redneckiest” province. It is still left of our liberals. Bernie Sanders might make a good conservative candidate. Canadians believe everyone needs a leg up sometimes and a compassionate country is preferable. They love their beautiful country, get outside, help others, educate themselves, and don’t watch much TV. Americans need more constructive passtimes and more intellectual pursuits. If you sit around hugging a gun too much, everyone looks like an enemy and nobody looks like a friend.
7
Could it also be that Democrats lost their way these last 50 years. My grandparents, the generation of the Depression, loved FDR. He stood up for the working man, the common man. He said in 1936, speaking against the rich and powerful, "never before have these forces been so united against one candidate in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred". That party is gone, replaced with one focused only on social and racial issues. Abortion, transgender bathrooms, immigrant and minority rights, all while exporting factories to China and Mexico. If you are a white male with a family, living in flyover country, you tell me why he should vote for a Democrat. The Dems seem to have written this guy off, the guy whose family was probably Democrat a few generations ago.
6
If you want to have health care, Medicare and Social Security, not to mention clean air and water, it will be the Democrats who have your back. Don’t take my word for it. Pay attention to how the parties vote on all these issues.
9
No mention of Fox News, Roger. When trying to understand the difference between Trump supporters and the rest of us, look at what makes up each ones information and opinion diet. Garbage in, garbage out. You can indeed fool some of the people all of the time, and they're your target audience.
4
"What does it mean to be an American today?"--Any reliable data on what kind of intellectual level is required to understand or explain this question?!
It would be interesting to know just what sect, cult, denomination or religious faction this Rev. Babcox is associated with. I'm guessing he's an evangelical, that has little or no formal theological training or education. Those types thrive in small towns in the hinterlands where education is limited as are libraries and big city newspapers, so Sunday mornings are filled with what ever drivel the local snake oil salesmen can rant about.
Individualism? Ha! More like self-centered bigots and racists. Just look at interpretation of the second amendment. Some of these people seem to think they are still fighting the Indians and stealing their land. These people want their individualism at the cost of other peoples individualism.
3
Every New Yorker truly knows what Donald Trump was and is, and that's why they wouldn't have him for dog catcher, and why he didn't even win the GOP primary in his own home district.
4
@rich Not every New Yorker. Don't forget Staten Island and its love affair with Trump. Fifty-seven percent of Staten Islanders voted for Trump; only 40 percent pulled the lever for Clinton.
2
Americans did not elect Donald Trump. The Electoral College did. Americans voted for Hillary Clinton.
5
Commenters who appeal to logic, civility and reasoned debate ought to understand that the President has shown nothing but utter contempt for those pillars of civilization—and that’s what his supporters voted for.
I will continue to contend that those citizens for whom “Whiteness” and “Christianity” (or any other religion) are organizing principles have hitched their wagons to a tradition that has always been inherently fearful —and ultimately violent towards everyone not in that group.
There has never, ever, been in our history an essentially all-White party that wasn’t a catastrophe for anyone not White. And never one that didn’t rely on an autocratic lawless leader, an intimidated press, a passive legislature and sympathetic judiciary for its continued existence.
Until a majority of White people come to grips with historical reality —and not Reality TV,—we make it o.k. for the existence of this malignancy.
11
Trump's appeal rests in his attitude toward the other, which includes the undeserving poor, the criminal immigrants, and the stifling regulations. Never mind what the realities are - doesn't perception trump reality? Aren't people capable of rationalizing anything that they need to believe?
We will come together when we see immigrants as an asset, and understand that the better the poor do the better we all do.
424
@Javaharv Your comment ignores the non immigrants that vote for Trump. When will we come together as you say to consider ordinary non-immigrant Americans as an "asset"? too deplorable?
Roger, As you can see I live just down the road from Ridgway, if you don't make the canonical left turn to Telluride.
From this 100+ year-old town, "in the middle of nowhere", one of the best kept secrets in Colorado (a citizen since the summer of '65), let me school you on a false pardigm concerning the West.
"Rugged individualism" practiced by rancher's "two miles down the road (try 30 in some cases) had nothing to do with colonizing the West or maintaining society, once settled.
The reason for the existence of those ranches and small towns, including Ridgway, was COOPERATION.
Ridgway used to be a dusty "beer stop" on the way to Telluride, now undergoing rapid gentrification. It is riverside. But take a ride further west to some very harsh but beautiful landscape.
Without cooperation no one could maintain a life out there. Even the mountain men came back to town.
We are now in serious drought. Our ditch is dry, reservoirs low. We meet the test as we have in times past by cooperating not by going on our own and neglecting our neighbor, even the one 30 miles down the road.
Some of these western towns began as socialist communes, not random accumulations of rugged individuals.
The rugged individualism of the West is a cigarette ad, not reality.
8
Pastor Babcox proves the point as to why we need federal rather than state gun enforcement. If your argument against drug laws was "I can buy them someplace else," you'd look a lot more silly than the law. Indeed, Utahans can take a short drive over to Colorado and buy as much marijuana as they want. Bringing it back across the state line is still a criminal act though. Getting away with the crime doesn't make it legal.
The fallacy of Babcox is even more evident in the case of guns. Illegal interstate gun trafficking is largely responsible for violent deaths even in areas with strict gun controls. Babcox is arguing its okay for one state to undermine the laws of another. You should think about how ridiculous that sounds. I wonder how the good pastor feels about gay couples from Nebraska traveling to Colorado to get married. Nebraska might as well legalize gay marriage too.
There's a good reason the federal government gets involved in certain issues. There's also a good reason federal law supersedes state law. Guns are one of those issues where we need better guidelines from the top.
4
Come on, Mr. Cohen, how many Trump supporters have you talked to?
Very few are rightwing, rabid, gun-toting Western preachers. Many of his voters were independents, many were conservative Republicans, many were country club moderates who couldn't stand Hillary, etc.
Each of those groups is different, and each is diverse in its own way. What's more, their understanding of the depth of Trump's corruption is only beginning to dawn on them —indeed, even for many of us critics of Trump, the depth and breadth of his criminality are increasingly shocking!
The Trump supporters' willingness to tolerate his misdeeds, lies, malfeasance, and racism are reaching the breaking point and a tipping point. With his key aides having been fired, resigning in disgrace, being charged, pleading guilty, and now being convicted, it is only a matter of time before the dam breaks — even for many of his worst, ost deplorable, die-hard supporters.
There is a limit for us all — and, now, when even some Fox Fake News anchors and reporters are disputing Trump and resigning — that is having an effect.
329
@Stephanie Bradley Agreed. However, until Congress meets its Constitutional mandate of oversight; until Congress develops a moral compass; until Congress has effective leadership; until Congress develops a spine this malignancy of division, conspiracy and the politics of hate will continue to grow.
5
@Stephanie Bradley The jury whom Fox interviewed is a fine example. The press often goes for the juggernaut and this shows. Good on you for realizing how aweful he is as a person, let alone being then POTUS.
@Stephanie Bradley Well, duh! Please don't try to weasel out of responsibility by calling a shovel a spade. "Each of these groups", as you posit them, share mightily in putting their own self-interests (whatever they are!) ahead of common sense and at least some soul-searching before spite. Value judgments are not reasoning. Your comment fails as badly as those "country club moderates". Unfortunately, we all are having to pay their bar bill. Look in the mirror.
3
" He said the Second Amendment was designed to create a militia “equal to the government to ensure self-reliance,” and that therefore the ban on the magazines should be overturned."...….Completely ignoring the fact that the "well regulated militia" was to be regulated by the states. (sort of like the National Guard). If the states are supposed to regulate the citizen army then I guess they should be allowed to impose any restrictions on the size of a magazine that they want. And further, countries like Switzerland with a citizen army, send the firearm home with the ammunition in a sealed container, which is inspected to verify compliance with the seal when the citizen returns for their annual training.
6
We have to stop thinking that Americans elected Trump. The majority of Americans voted for Clinton, even in spite of the huge amount of negative propaganda against her provided by the Russians. Trump won the Electoral College by a small margin--70,000 votes or so. The Russians had access to voter rolls and deleted people. Quite a few votes were "lost" in Michigan due to faulty equipment in Detroit and Flint. I think that we are being naive to think that we elected Trump. The election was hacked by the Russians and the next election will be even more hacked, also by the Russians, but with assistance (such as happened in Michigan) from various Republican actions--voter suppression, and gerrymandering being two.
12
Your questions "What does it mean to be an American today? Who are we, goddamit?" need to be answered, not just asked. A true leader would exemplify what it means to be an American. Trump is not a leader at all. But, in his campaign and presidency, incoherent and disgusting as they are, he is providing his own answers to those questions. His answers are resonating with some sectors of American society. I cannot believe that his answers resonate with the majority of Americans.
We lost our national identity around the 1980's, when the dollar became God and Country. Too many people lost sight of the beauty of both the American landscape and the founder's ideals. The focus of America became US companies that expanded ever more their investments in foreign enterprises, with the dual goal of enriching themselves beyond belief, and bringing in "affordable" materials and products that maintain American's attention not on what really matters but on acquisition of the next new "thing". This twisted foundation is responsible for the wars that we have fought and not won since then.
America needs a true leader: one who can stand up to the corporations that are sucking the country dry, and can inspire the American people to again understand who we are. We are so much more, and so much better than Trump.
Who can show us that fact? Who can inspire us as a whole nation? If we find someone, that will be our next true leader.
519
@Carol I agree, but just want to note that "around the 1980's" was also when Republicans took power that they held for much of that decade and more recently. -- Big pushes for deregulation, getting government off our backs, reducing entitlements (except for the wealthy) -- nothing for the common citizen.
@Carol We had such a leader quite recently, namely Barack Obama. Another leader in waiting is John Kasich. I am pretty sure that your response will be that neither of these leaders have stood up adequately to "the corporations," and I agree. But these are two true leaders.
2
@Carol It is incredibly too bad no one took the opportunity to communicate to HRC that we needed someone to really step up as leader, not den mother. She is really strong, and could -- if told to do so -- could have been a fine, effective national leader.
The Democratic leadership (dozens of elected and unelected people) could have communicated that to her but failed to do so. Sanders was one of the few who did.
1
When a sizable minority of a nation overlooks lapses in decency, morality, truth and decorum, it has started on a downward spiral. Can it be corrected? Yes, but it will take time and the offender(s) must be removed from positions of power and influence by the ballot box and/or legal means.
7
Just look at how the Second Amendment is constantly misinterpreted by those who tout it as a justification for the freedom to possess all the weapons you can get your hands on. They are using a very stretched line of reasoning that "a well-regulated militia" equals the individual's rights to unobstructed gun ownership, because they equate gun rights with personal freedom as opposed to government intrusion.
It's that Wild West mentality that is still held by, apparently, millions in this country. Their love of hunting is threatened by, to use an old term, big brother. The idea that they have to call the police instead of being able to protect their families with their own guns is abhorrent to them, damned be the school shootings, the mass murders, and the highest gun death rate in the civilized world.
Trump represented support of gun ownership and the self-reliance thinking, and his sexual dalliances, which in previous years would have been used as hammer blows against him, were equated with personal freedom. Also, individual choice is related to the "Greed is Good" wing of the Republican party. Throw in a little hatred for the lazy, irresponsible, cruel people who kill babies with abortions, and you get a Trump.
8
American presidency post 2016 has attained a new normal. American presidents are seen as visionaries that can appeal to all citizens at large regardless of their party affiliation and the policies they implement.
To heal and to find a new normal it might take another generation. It will take another president, Republican or Democrat, with the vision to "Make Americans trust each other again".
1
Weaponry alone does not make a militia equal to the national army. This was one of the lessons from the Revolutionary War.
It is not encouraging to realize that many Americans have consciously made a deal with the Devil. And seem happy to give away their souls for whatever their pet issue or grievance is.
Even if his supporters continue their fealty despite his grubbiness and his unfitness for the high office he hold, his grubbiness and unfitness must continue to be exposed.
7
I’m limited on the number and types of drugs I can buy. Why aren’t these gun lovers concerned with that limit on my freedom? Whenever I meet a person who says too much government interference I agree and insist that I will no longer drive on the right side of the road.
6
I can't agree with the premise that his supporters know who he is.
In the last two weeks, I've met two people, who have both told me He's a self- made billionaire. And really smart. Of course, putting aside what his net worth is, he is not a self-made anything.
These people live in a bubble.
11
We live in the world of noble, hardworking and generous people with a single structural fault.
In the critical moments they are sometimes incapable of understanding the full consequences of their actions, deeds and words because they get overwhelmed with the emotions so their ego and conceit take over.
That’s the exclusive objective of the faith – to train us how to handle those moments and take back the control of this globe in everybody’s best interest…
How exactly is all that science and education working for you right now?
They are serving your untamed greed and destroying this planet.
Without the faith there is no future for the humanity.
Now you have to finally learn the true meaning of the critical words. See, the faith is just a set of the eternal principles that has nothing in common with the clergy, the religions, the temples, the churches and the mosques.
You have to be able to make distinction between those two categories in which one corrupts and distorts the other in the same way a corrupt judge makes a mockery out of justice.
Justice and the judges are two different categories. If the humans are making the decisions there is no justice. If the decisions are based on the principles, there is one. If you are ruled by the individuals, there is no justice and no democracy.
The faith is too based on the eternal principles implemented voluntarily the best you can.
If you are looking at any other person for the guidance, you just believe in that person.
Historically speaking, Faith has several centuries more experience serving untamed greed than science does.
1
I’m militantly scientifically rational and am horrified by Trump and the selfish attitudes of his voters. It’s true faith might be a crutch for people who are unwilling or unable to consider long term and second order effects of their decisions. But in the meantime it’s used to justify any number of horrors toward other faiths, women, others. No thanks.
1
The problem is not Trump. It's the 43 million voters who pulled the lever for him and continue to support him. They have lost their moral compass to hatred of the other however they define them.
14
Not only will it not be extirpated overnight, it's in charge and quite possibly growing. Lindsay Graham just said it's ok to fire Sessions because Trump doesn't like him. I drove through Trump country in Missouri yesterday on a business trip and saw numerous billboards along the highway that read as if social norms were attacks on one's freedom. "Government should protect people not force them how to live..." things like that
Extirpation may be some ways down the road, should we be so blessed as to get there...
4
Actually, Roger, 3 million more of us did NOT vote for Donald Trump over those who did. Trump and Bush II owe their presidencies to the anti-democratic construct of the Founders in the Electoral College. So while the American West presents one picture of this nation, Trump's power lies in ancient WASP East Coast patriarchy. It would be a historical mistake to confuse the two.
5
Having lived in the beautiful state of Colorado for several years, I found most residents there as described by Mr. Cohen - independent with a “libertarian streak.” Some were also narrowly hard on individuals, even children, taking responsibility for their own actions except when the individual was the cause of someone else being hurt - an attitude that can be described as there might be some law against running over a person with a car but the person run over should have been watching where they were going, ignoring the horrors or the pain inflicted on the victim lying in the street with more inferred sympathy for the drunk or reckless driver. For Trump supporters, they are driving the car and, I can imagine, take no responsibility; any fault lies with those hurt.
In my view, Trump’s appeal to some is the permission he gives to blame the blameless, which fits right in with those reckless drivers in denial.
5
The problem is, both sides have fallen. The allegation that Trump was elected because of "illegal" contributions, when they probably weren't illegal and voters manifestly didn't care about them anyway, is really no different than the suggestion that Clinton won the popular vote because of illegal immigrants. They're both conspiracy theories that you believe if you want to believe them. I don't see a difference.
I don't know. I think the disenchanted have always been there but there are more of them now because of job loss and breeding, and they have gotten an unprecedented--on this scale--a voice in the form of our current president. "Take Back Vermont" was a movement twenty years ago that was rooted in the hills of Vermont among conservative anti-homosexual anti-government intervention folks. They found a voice in a woman who ran for governor at the time, I believe, so they came out of the woodwork. And those folks were not the first-generation.
2
Lots of waxing poetic about open spaces and American individualism by Mr. Cohen. Congress is as corrupt as Trump and Clinton won the popular vote by 3.7 million, so "the people" didn't elect Trump. The electoral college elected him. And we can't be sure the electoral college wasn't corrupted by Russia.
How far America has fallen? All that's left is to crash on the rocks thanks to the GOP's successful, long-term, bloodless coup.
6
Comparisons with Gotti are now frequent - for all that many people knew that "the mob" ruined lives - snuffed some out, too, of course - inevitably words like "Robin Hood" and "underdog" came up ... and there was - in INTELLIGENT people - an occasional bit of admiration.
Somehow, I don't think he would have done well had he run for mayor.
The likes of Roy Cohn or Berlusconi ... or Trump - ALAS - sometimes reach (less intelligent) people who say, "Well, they may have terrible friends, but they're cut from a different cloth."
Mr. Cohen - not for the first time, either for him or other columnists - has been repeating something (in this case, "they know exactly who he is") for so long that he surely believes it.
Yes, there ARE some dead-enders, people who burned family or friends bridges and will find a way to rationalize every "new" sordid detail.... But there are plenty of others who have turned and will turn.
The old truism - and its million variants - "they will back him 100% ... until they stop backing him" is appropriate, and it's quite a bit more than wishful thinking or "after he's served 2 terms." ... McCarthy had that trajectory.
Arguably, Nixon is a better example. I'll go along with the talking heads that politicians seldom are courageous. But when they realize that they have contracted a venereal disease as a result of their sleeping with ... someone infected, most of them alter their behavior.
Millions regret their 2016 vote already. You can't fool ...
2
So the pastor says, "Some things are worse than death." I urge him to take his pulpit to Parkland, Newtown, Orlando, Virginia Tech, Littleton. and say that to families whose loved ones are no longer here because a deranged man with a high-powered weapon decided to play God one day. They, too, were white, black, and Hispanic and taken before their time, not by a foreign enemy but by a home-grown American. If what the pastor is preaching is the new American value, then let him look those most affected by the easy access to guns in the eye and tell them that despite their loss, they, and the nation, are better off because of their proliferation.
9
Sometimes I feel that we are becoming a nation of Sunni versus Shia. We no longer have mere differences of opinion; We cleave between two utterly incompatible translations of reality. Trumpism, climate change, racism, immigration, guns and countless other issues lay bare a vast chasm in our perspective that leaves no room for shades of grey. I wonder when we start segregating ourselves by neighborhood.
4
Great column. I am an OUT gay progressive who is against the legalization of marijuana. And my state sadly has legalized it! Yes, I’m conservative on this issue. You bet I am! I see this as symptomatic of the Left’s narcissism: I WANT MY WEED. I’ve examined this issue for years and listened to alll sides and I’m still against legalization.
Rugged individualism. The frontier self reliant ideal that embodies at some level Trump supporters is their own self delusion on display. They vigorously support tax cuts to overwhelmingly benefit the very wealthy and corporations BECAUSE they have faith that they will in turn invest in business and employees. Trickledown through and through. But this trust by the little man for the big man to provide contradicts the individualism self image. Since actions not words or posture speak the truth we find that they are simply small, dependent people instead. Which is not something to be ashamed of and not something others should mock. But the self delusion? Yes, you should be ashamed of that.
1
This thoughtful article limns the crisis. As someone who both predicted that DJT would win and who dreaded what this would do to the country, I have to say there have been no surprises. As Cohen notes, even his ardent sycophants knew he had already committed crimes.
The real crisis is not this man. It's the way we've normalized depravity to the point where it has become...well...our new normal. Nothing sticks. Nothing holds. There is still no accountability or consequences for the man who has gamed the system his entire life and been rewarded at every turn for being a dishonest criminal.
That's an indictment of our brand of capitalism. Until we stop worshiping at the altar of money and start asking hard questions of the 1% who have amassed dangerously obscene amounts of it--at the very real cost of the majority of the country's fiscal health--we will continue to suffer the vile and dangerous ministrations of men both unhinged and empowered by money.
It's the mechanisms that brought us DJT that most threaten us. Cultivated ignorance, indifference, and gullibility on a scale never before seen ushered in the most dangerous man ever elected in the US. What most disturbs is that a single person, much less millions, settle for this.
When did we become a nation of sadomasochists? What exactly must he do before he's ousted? By failing to blow the whistle on the hundreds of crises already in play, we continually up the ante. Delay much longer and his final act may be ours.
10
"He [Babcox] said the Second Amendment was designed to create a militia “equal to the government to ensure self-reliance,” and that therefore the ban on the magazines should be overturned."
Shouldn't Mr. Babcox have said "a well-regulated militia"?
5
Each country needs an aristocracy - not of wealth and power, but of intellectual thought. This has been lost all over the world - in Europe and the USA - world culture has descended to the latest 'lies hurled into cyberspace' .
Authoritarian Sparta defeated democratic Athens, remember.
Revolutionary France killed off a lot of its intellectuals,along with its kings, but ended up with Napoleon.
this is the condition of Civilization, Roger.
6
About Pastor Babcox, I don't recognize Christianity in anything this man had to say, " What is it to be an American?"; for me, it's to be ashamed. I ponder, did I enable this mess, was I asleep at the switch? Was I not paying attention? Who are these people at Trump rallies: when did ugliness and indecency tip the scale? Sadly, I have no answers.
The vote is our only. possible escape from the fecklessness of our present government. Clearly, a government, with no checks and balances, is not a democracy.
13
America has not fallen, but many leaders have including that guy who currently is POTUS. Those folks have a weak moral compass, turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering they cause and fostering belief in those that take - like out of control corporations who enjoy weakened regulations - are "winners." And a big problem is a certain vein of American culture, the culture that thinks egregious prison sentences stop crime and still watches TV about bad drug dealers while their personal lives are awash with drugs. That mean, bullying, willing to break the law American culture is not shared by the majority of Americans or by the majority of voters who reject Trump despite the weirdness of the electoral college.
3
Spot on. We have met the enemy and it is - us. But what do we expect after a generation of reality television? We went from entertainment designed to inspire morality, even while showing us the dark side of humanity, to entertainment pitting people against one another where the only valid metric is winning. Enter Trump. We want to win again. Winning is what matters. Winning is America. Morality? Foregoing what’s easy in favor of doing what’s right? That’s for sentimental fools. And Democrats. Besides, who knows what’s right? But we all know what it means to win. Or do we?
5
American exceptionalism and rugged individualism are myths, even in the mystical West. The people who created our great nation worked together creating canals, trails, homes, and community not some lonely mountain man packing heat through the wilderness. Every American family has tales of American cooperation like my family who left Maryland after the Revolution for the Ohio River valley. They new fools marched alone into the wilderness shunning others, so they wintered on the Monongahela River above Pittsburg with other immigrants, built rafts together, and floated down the Ohio River in groups for safety, safety that eluded them when Indians attacked the group and turned them into slaves until they could escape the following year. Californians knew the Donner Party, California immigrants who were marooned in Sierra snows, were lost in the wilderness because we kept good records in Ft. Laramie, WY of "trains", as my great grandmother called groups crossing the prairies and western mountains. The Revolutionaries adopted republicanism that favored virtue and the public good and rejected corruption and luxury, knowing as Ben Franklin said at the depths of our American experiment that "we can either hang together or we'll hang alone". The narcissism and hubris behind the myth of rugged individualism allows charlatans like Trump to become ascendent.
6
"Take away his cell phone?" Trump shows us who he is with his tweets. Isn't the impulse to disapprove of his tweets and yet approve of the rest of it a measure of cognitive dissonance?
2
One of the most important factors in the election of Donald Trump frankly is frustration. Frustration with the way the country is going, frustration with the way many voters lives are going and frustration with leaders of both parties who seem perfectly happy with the way things are.
These frustrations are economic; wage stagnation, loss of jobs to outsourcing, illegal immigration and automation, the fear that if they are not yet ranked among the poor that they could soon easily join their ranks. They are also social: the disconcerting notion that your country is changing beyond recognition: a growing immigrant population, the perception, despite the fact that statistics show the opposite, that crime is out of control abetted by our "If it bleeds it leads" media culture, rising levels of drug abuse among our youth and yes, the worry that white males, at least working and middle class white males, are losing their place in the national pecking order. This does not necessarily mean that they are racists, mind you, but let's just say that they are not going to take kindly to being lectured about white privilege.
Someone, I think it might be Michael Moore, once said that Trump is like a brick thrown through a window by these frustrated formerly middle class voters. Until Democrats realize that there are reasons beyond racism for their frustration and focus on their needs and fears, these people will continue to be lost to them.
7
I wish someone could tell us how we’re going to purge ourselves of the viruses that are causing this Trump fervor — the viruses of racism, sexism, anti-immigrant sentiment, greed, envy. America didn’t realize how strong these things still are when we voted in 2016, despite the work of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King and Barack Obama, among others.
These Trump voters think they represent the real America, when they actually represent an America that hid its sins from view. The America of the 1950s.
Perhaps that’s why his voters love Trump: he hides his sins from Melania and his family and his countrymen. When he’s caught, he denies his own words and his own deeds. (One supporter praised Trump for paying hush money because it was a sign of “valor” — he was sparing his wife the pain of hearing about Stormy and Karen!)
Yes, Trump’s character is baked-in to voters’ assessments of his actions. Trump has deceived them, and now they deceive themselves about the magnitude of the evil Trump represents.
“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
8
Why are we what we are?
A people seemingly incapable of clearly seeing - or seems too blasé about - the bigger picture.
A people that violently devalues lessons from history, accurate predictive models, successful paradigms, sound logic/facts, rigorous critical thinking, and dangers unfolding solely to support their mythical world views and/or their fixed presuppositions/objectives.
A people that points their moral compass only toward their narrow band objectives/theology, their need for revenge/punishment, and/or their need to hold on to what they most likely falsely believe they own physically or conceptually.
A people so caught up in their fears/obsessions that they roll the dice against their own best interests - betting their future and other's in the hope that some dragon that threatens them will finally be slain on the next roll.
Why? well the underlying mechanisms complex - research ongoing. Suffice to say we who we are - shaped by 10s of millions of years of evolution.
But the emergent properties evident.
About 21% of us are hardwired Right Wing Authoritarian - not necessarily evil/unlikable but they WILL invariably vote for fascist like authoritarian rule.
About 21% more are highly susceptible to elegant RWA propaganda (truth not important).
Authoritarian parties like the GOPlutocracy can easily pocket that 42%. The trick is to make the 58% too confused, cynical, hopeless, or too put out to vote en masse.
GOP - brilliant! but shame on the 58%!
2
The presidency is the one position, as leader of our democracy, where we should not lower the bar on experience and ethical conduct. As a Colorado resident and an independent, I am very alarmed at how trump supporters overlook the lack of moral fiber and his destructive , thug behavior. It is ruining our country. This is not the person I want our future generation to emulate nor should we accept lower standards of civility, respect for the law and integrity. It is time the GOP stand up, protect our democracy, the EXISTING constitution and declare that the emperor is wearing no clothes.
3
Mueller is using criminal statutes to write a political document for grounds to Impeach. It is why he handed off Cohen to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney. It's a Mongolian tag team effort now. The President cannot be compelled to appear in court. He can only be tried by the Legislative Branch, and they don't need rules. The renegades are trying the President in public. By forcing Cohen, Flynn, Papadopoulos to plea to charges they cannot prove in court, and Manafort of unrelated bank fraud and tax evasion convictions, it provides guilt by association. It gives cover to impeach, which does not require a violation of a stature, the breaking of a law. Gotta give the Deep State some credit here. Attempting to subvert the outcome of an election didn't work. All the leaking, the unmaskings, the phony dossiers, the spying failed. The Special Counsel couldn't get a witness to collusion. So it's nonstop slime time in prime time. However the Rule of Law is a casualty.
1
Trump's people are eager to distrust everything except their impulse to distrust. They, like Narcissus, have fallen in love with the surface image of themselves as victim and Trump is their folk hero. Criminal folk heroes are important to America. The American Revolution started with the criminal acts of the Boston Tea Party. Rosa Parks disobeyed the law. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. Oliver North is the new president of the NRA. Each is a criminal folk heroes. Christopher Columbus, Woodrow Wilson, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee... That's why they love Trump. He fuels their need to trust their need to distrust democracy by breaking the rules and by not waiting for the rules to change through the democratic process. Getting people to distrust their distrust or distrusting Trump is tantamount to changing what is American as apple pie. America is first a place that stole land and culture from Native First Nations, then abducted slave labor to build an economic empire, and now, through policy, impoverishes other lands and peoples.
2
Can someone explain to me how trump is able to have all these rallies at the taxpayers expense? What government business is being accomplished at them?
7
The Colorado pastor is a kook if he thinks the founding fathers wanted individual militias to have as much power as the government.
Our guarantee of a militia has to be understood in the context that in England st that time, all militia’s belonged to the king.
Our militias comprised of citizens are today’s national guard troops.
As forAmerican individualism:
I see John McCain ( frequently described over the years as “ maverick”) as a great model of an individual who can stay true to himself no matter where life places him.
6
Indeed, America has long been a place full of myth and split along various lines. People of all walks of life cling to the myth of individualism until they need help. White baby-boomers believe that the US was better in the 1950s, but it certainly was not for minorities. American voters need to see through the myths and vote according to evidence and facts. Unfortunately, that takes effort and some Americans are simply too tired from working hard and barely scraping by to be educated voters. The one percent that has stolen their wealth has also managed to stay in power because they have stolen time from the ninety-nine percent.
2
Between Pastor Babcox and the baked in image proposition advanced by Mr. Cohen, the expression the truth hurts has real resonance. I feel as if our country has become its own version of Dorian Gray's picture with Trump the unveiler. To say that it is dispiriting is an understatement.
3
Thankfully sane people like Mr. Cohen are finally acknowledging that the problem is much deeper, broader than Trump. Yes, some things might have seemed and even have been better under Hillary, at least superficially better. But the entrenched problem of voter apathy, income inequality, the wealth and power elite running our government, these things would not have changed and these are the real impediments to good govenance, to government of, by and for the people.
1
I keep hearing that the electoral college does not work. The electoral college as defined by the founding fathers would have worked. But we did not like it and changed it so now we have states where the popular vote winner takes all the electoral votes of that state and the electorate college must vote according to the popular vote. Basically we killed the spirit of the electoral college. The electors were free to vote their conscience, so if the uninformed people elected someone no good for the country, the electoral college can over-ride the popular vote. Eliminating winner takes all is a good step forward (if the democrats agree to put in play New York, California and Illinois).
4
The suggestion that the entire country adopt proportional allocation of each state’s Electoral College votes has merit but is impractical. Two many “purple” states would see it as a means of taking away their current kingpin status in Presidential elections. Also the comment reveals the author’s bias by suggesting that the largest heavily Democratic states are the barrier to such a reform’s passage.
Instead why not ask two states, one deeply red and one solidly blue, to take the plunge together? If New York and Texas were to jump off the bridge together—Thelma-and-Louise style—that would turn them, overnight, from places currently totally ignored during each quadrennial election into the cynosure of candidate attention.
Such a move could lead, say, Washington State and Tennessee to follow suit, or Rhode Island and North Dakota. The key is to join two states of roughly opposite political leanings and of comparable size. Once this trend was well-established, two purple states such as Colorado and Missouri might join in the swim.
The most likely holdouts would be those very small population states who benefit the most from the current system and are overwhelmingly tilted to one party, such as Wyoming and Vermont. But they wouldn’t matter in the greater scheme of things. The great value of the Electoral College is its tendency to turn narrow victories (or even losses) in the popular vote into seemingly broader consensus elections. Just ask President Trump.
The last paragraph explains a lot. I hope we can recover what we have given up or lost.
1
You had me there, kinda, even through the I said this but guess I meant that stuff, until the part where you let us know (big news) that all Trump supporters are frustrated while Christian males and I'll finish your sentence for you eating sausage and biscuits in rotting trailers with racks of guns, plaid shirt with no sleeves a given.
Would love to see the stats -- which we'll never see -- of the professionals black white and green who voted for Trump, his past be damned (and in some cases his past because) just for the economy and the court and to shove a giant finger in the eye of all who haven't the remotest notion of the fly-over country about which you rail and rhapsodize, and which incidentally acreage-wise and attitude-wise is I reckon about 90 percent of things.
1
Forsaking sound moral principals to reach selfish ends is not a legitimate excuse for supporting Trump.
In essence Trump and his supporters see a time when being white meant that a certain level of standards were guaranteed exclusively for them.
They have foolishly bought into the grift and the real winners are the 1%'s.
Why they view divisive hatred as a good thing is well beyond my understanding. I guess it is safe to imply that these folks are just as morally and ethically compromised as Trump. They are made for each other, a match made in hell.
8
I recommend taking a Western History course at your local community college, specifically about the industrial revolution.
For the millions of white immigrants that were exploited and oppressed, being paid in scrip and working 16 hour days 7 days per week, being white never meant an entitlement to economic success.
Let’s take identity politics out of the conversation, the Republicans are destroying worker protections and eliminating organized labor - the true reason for Trump is the economic stagnation and rise in inequality.
Racism plays a part, but only a bit part.
1
The November midterms will answer the question of "How Far America Has Fallen." Although they are not on the ballot people will actually be voting for the Constitution and its "rule of law" or for what has now become the anti-Constitutional Republican Party and the "rule of Trump." The issue is as stark as it is frightening: Will we continue to have a democracy where the laws are enforced even for a President or will we have an autocracy where authoritarian oligarchs like Donald Trump rule with impunity? That is the true "heart of darkness" that Donald Trump aided and abetted at every turn by a complicit Republican Congress has brought to America. The choice will be ours: freedom under the Constitution or oppression under Donald Trump.
14
In his last speech, RFK said that,"We are a great country, an unselfish country, a compassionate country." He would be so very saddened to see what has transpired. America can do better, and the rest of us are watching because much of the time what happens with your country will affect many places in the world. I know it's happening here in Canada and I'm not too damn happy about it.
11
I could care less about what party rules the roost but I do have concerns about the scum that sits on top of the swamp. What exactly has this administration accomplished - where is the great wall of Trump, the promised changes to our abysmal infrastructure, our healthcare mess, our education and welfare, social justice concerns, real (honest) tax reform, immigration ? So tell me one thing that Trump has done for any of us aside from big business and the well-heeled? He has disgraced us in the eyes of the world, made a mockery of our democracy, and (to the delight of the unfortunate blind who continue to support him) denigrate, mock and attempt to humiliate decent people here and abroad. I could go on and obviously I am no supporter of POTUS, he will be gone at some point, but he has to take most of the credit for the stain and moral depravity he has covered us in."Be Best" (whatever that means)… be gone would be more appropriate.
23
While I can accept that the people who support Trump have always known his true character, or lack thereof, what I have a problem accepting, or at least excusing, is their unwillingness to see that he, and the Republicans, are taking us down a path to a fascist state with unfettered power over our lives and fueled by hatred and fear. I continue to doubt they will succeed, but the willful ignorance under which they operate is frightening none the less. The question this raises is have the current conservatives, from Gingrich, to Bannon to Hannity and much of the Republican Party made a conscious decision that democracy as we know it doesn’t work? Do they think that democratic processes are too vulnerable to shifting demographics, too inefficient and too concerned with people who don’t deserve to participate in policy decisions? Or, is their nationalist calculus based simply on their fear that their sense of superiority, their privileged position and their wealth are at risk if they are required to share a portion with others they deem less worthy or too different. Are they taking us down this path based on some consciously conceived principles of what they think is the most workable form of government, something akin to Russia or China, a form of highly centralized cultish control, or are they doing whatever is necessary to hold on to their power and privilege and to hell with the rest of us? Either way, they need to be careful what they ask for. They just might get it.
26
@jz I believe their positions are based basically in emotional and righteous, but ill-gotten, anger. And that is rarely a good place to make decisions or lead from. DC may be a swamp of but these folks are wallowing in their own swamp and, it could be argued, it's a deeper and murkier one.
While this was written with the West in mind the same attitudes prevail all over, including the NY metro area. I know too many people here who voted for Trump and continue to defend and excuse him.
These supporters criticize anything and everything about Democrats and excuse similar or worse behavior by Trump and his supporters. They complain about “the liberal media”, watch Fox News 24x7 and believe it is a fair voice. I know this for a fact because many are friends of mine with diverse backgrounds, highly educated, male and female. Politics is not common ground for us.
Overheard at a restaurant table nearby, a Republican stronghold- “Trump’s ok, you just have to get used to him. The real problem was Obama”.
7
The social geographer is better placed to see the forces molding the present identity of us Americans. In the absence of a social geographer just the self-serving Trumpian real estate mentality will do. Just say (and insist you believe) your European ancestors came by that stretch of land because of divine providence. When you have that much real estate for free you have a hell of a head start on getting rich. Somewhere in there is the problem Cohen struggles with.
1
Roger that!
Beware the moment when pride becomes contempt!
We celebrate individual rights and decry community rights (screw regulation, less taxes, gun rights yes/health rights no, make ME great again and to hell with everyone else).
Providing for others is a slippery socialist slope to the evils of communism, but let's be friends with Russia and North Korea!
I am a patriot because I fly the flag and shout USA, but I trample on the constitution, demonize the FBI, and call our nation's capitol a swamp.
I am a Christian who believes in religious freedom for Christians but woe to any freedom that isn't in my bible. Oh Constitution, protect me from the Muslims!
The America I love and am proud of is the land of Americans.
Trump is contempt. Trump is the anti-American.
16
Roger laments the loss of the white Christian strong male as the American ideal. When did this happen? Who are we now, as Americans, he asks?
The difference between George HW Bush and his son: one man served his country, came up in the intelligence agencies, ran and lost and served as VP, then was elected to serve a single term. His son... was a laughingstock. The Supreme Court elected him, not Florida state law. The conservatives lost their principles in putting him into office.
America now apes Israel with our love of the pre-emptive war. We forgot our own internal assassinations, and claim that only killing other sovereign leaders can allow our survival. (Americans never believed that the way minority Israelis -- strangers in a strange Middle Eastern land -- do.)
We screw our own working citizens to provide dividends for shareholders from abroad, some of whom see the value of American citizenship and make sure their own offspring qualify, even as they choose to live abroad and sample the riches of the good life in all countries...
True Americans still remain, but our values have been badly bungled by the State these past years. (We don't believe in disfiguring the mentally ill on demand, or in killing off our disabled in the womb either. Pills kill, just like, when needed, they have the power to save life.)
You want to see what happened to America's morality in the new century ongoing-war years? Look into a mirror. This is us, diversity and all. Power!
1
Excellent piece! Yes, people knew who Trump was though some thought that a transformation might take place once he entered the White House. Many voters decided to make a deal with the devil for one or two causes.
What constantly amazes me is that there is a person in the Oval office who in every way, shape, and form symbolizes the exact opposite of the ideals in which our country was founded on. America wasn't founded on the seven deadly sins.
Trump is the result of everything that has deteriorated in our country over the last 40 years.
Along these lines, POLITICO had a terrific August 19 article, "Trump's Strange Tweet About Joseph McCarthy."
6
To the extent the true majority of America voted for Trump I'd say Roger Cohen is right. All that is being witnessed out of his ranks, and the ranks of the conservative "christian" right reveal that the decline in moral leadership in this country, as well as in its apparent character, is mostly complete. It becomes clear that if the Devil works to a plan this has been a good one, hasn't it?
But the saving grace, for me, is that the reality is the real majority of American's did NOT vote for Trump. They went along for the ride, assuaging their angst with the logic that they were honoring the system put in place by the Founders. Hold the nose and give him a chance. And his chance has been given. So now, come mid-November, they get to exercise their opinion of the current administrations job performance by using the tools of that system.
So vote in mid-November. It doesn't matter if you favor the man; it doesn't matter if you hate all that he represents and want to put the Devil back in his box. No, none of that matters. The only thing that matters is that you express yourself in true American fashion. VOTE, and let the cards fall - in either ruinous or redemptive fashion - where they may.
John~
American Net'Zen
3
Can the media please just stop talking and writing about the Trump supporter and why they voted the way they did and will do so again? Please just stop trying to understand them. They've made themselves perfectly clear time and time again. So how about the media, on occasion, talk to the rest of us - actually the majority of voters - and see why we did not and would not vote for such a man?
18
They will do anything to save themselves. Save themselves from what? The notion that the other people that aren't like them, who also need to be saved, have to be pushed aside so these people you talk to can climb to the top again. But in reality, they won't be climbing anywhere. The wealthy and profit seeking corporations will see to that. These people have been convinced that the "enemy" are the other Americans who compete with them for the same amount of chicken feed that has been tossed into the cage for the last 40 years. What they don't understand is while they are busy pecking the other residents of the cage to get them to leave, the "farmers" are throwing less and less feed into the cage. So, in my view of things, these people are throwing out the very people who could be helping them look outside the cage at the "farmers" who are depriving them of enough feed to survive. Leaving them all alone in the cage to be treated like they have been all along. It is the equivalent of African Americans being convinced to attack Hispanic Americans as the culprit in holding them down and that their lives will be so much better if they do. When , in fact, all you end up with is the same amount of feed, isolation, and a lot more enemies. At the very time when what you really need are allies. The real question is : what will make them realize the "farmers" have no intention of giving them any more feed.
4
America has always had an inflated view of itself. Unlike our European forebears, we had an abundance of land. The Europeans had a beautiful continent with a storied history but they were land-locked. They had to reshuffle the same deck to make changes. Americans could just pick up and move on. This begat American exceptionalism and manifest destiny. We lived with the mythology that there was always a frontier to which we could retreat when we didn't like the present. Now we can't do that. We have to live with our neighbors and the changes they bring . It seems unamerican and, therefore, unacceptable..
6
Trump's appeal may well been all his constant contradictions and his acolytes may share this attribute as well. He continues to make racist remarks while claiming he is not a racist. During his campaign he touted Clinton as a friend of Wall St. as if it were a negative attribute, yet he loves to claim the stock market as one of his own successes. He loves vets, insulting McCain and others while allowing his cronies in Maralago dabble in managing the VA. He espouses religious policies he does not believe in because his soul has been bought by the highest bidder.
Perhaps the most overlooked issue is the shell of a human being Trump has become in his relentless pursuit of the almighty dollar. People have value only if they are useful to him in this pursuit. He lacks any true strength of character, he flip-flops on issues because he is indebted to his cash flow from groups like the NRA. His morals are currently owned by the Evangelicals. His foreign policy is based on currency rather than relationships. He has no qualms about using children as hostages and this includes his own. He claims to respect Ivanka, but she has no impact on his policies or actions. It is likely Junior is jeopardy because he acted on his father's behalf. Now they may all be in jeopardy as the sham Trump Foundation is under investigation.
Maybe Trump is the greatest example what can happen when wealthy is the only goal. Wealth does not inherently create solutions for populations.
1
There is a different pace of life in rural towns. It is a few steps slower. Change comes slowly. The clothing store may close in town, but not because of million dollar condos. When factories close the perpetrators are far away: wealthy hedge fund managers, big banks that are easy targets for the right wing. Things seemed as though they used to work just fine until "those folks" became caught up in their daily rural lives with NAFTA and other "liberal" schemes like using tax money to benefit the middle class. The worst just hasn't happened yet in rural America, the optics of "us v. them" works for now. Rural towns in Italy and Germany might not have seen the dangers of their fascist leaders, only their own struggles and the promise of redemption. Rural workers talk about dangers in cities they may never see as proof that we all need redemption from an "outsider". Rising wages, rising employment? How do they know this is true? Duplicitous outlets like Fox News create a fantasy world with far away danger. We must not be adversarial, we city and country folk. We both have a stake in this game with much to loose. No one knows why the Republican Party nominated someone without experience or qualifications and who is behind this administration. That is a question to ask the rural voter.
4
Yet hedge fund managers and bank tycoons ARE the right wing. Only the gullible vote Republican to improve the plight of workers.
4
@et.al.nyc "Rural towns in Italy and Germany might not have seen the dangers of their fascist leaders, only their own struggles and the promise of redemption."
THIS.
The reason that Trump won in 2016 lies not with his base, but with independent swing voters. His base existed before him and will survive him. The base represents, at best, about 30-35% of the country, which isn't enough to get you elected president. So instead of yet another sermon (they can't really be called columns anymore) about the dreadful people who voted for a dreadful man, you might want to devote some space to talking about why independents swing voters who voted for Obama in 2008 weren't buying what Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party were selling in 2016. Instead of mourning the end of the Republic, you might want to reflect that only 77,000 votes in PA, WI, and MI decided the election. The Democrats still haven't come to terms with why they lost and how to correct going forward.
2
My sister lives in Southwestern Colorado, the red part. She and her husband had dinner one evening with two other couples, all of whom, except for my sister, complained about government handouts and creeping socialism.
Yet every one of them (again, except for my sister) was on some form of government support: disability, medicare, social security, and V.A. benefits.
Talk about hypocrisy and unexamined lives.
12
Mr. Cohen hits the nail on its head. The voters who put Trump in office are the real story. That they would put a man like Trump in office says something about our country and what we have become.
R. Lambert
MIddletown, NJ
12
Obviously Trump and his Administration reflect what the Republicans want, not what most Americans want, despite what the pastor says.
The fact that this pastor hones in on one issue, guns, tells me something about what kind of pastor he is.
Pastor Babcox should be, as any good Christian should be, worried that his flock will not have Health Care, pollution control in those vast skies of Colorado, lack of voting rights unless you are the right kind of person, food stamps for the needy, an affordable place to live or a job that pays enough for you to live.
He is twisting the concept of Christianity and at the same time twisting the meaning of our Constitution regarding guns.
When the Right to Own weapons was written, only rifles, muskets, pistols, bayonets and shot guns were available. So if you actually think about it, these are the only type of weapons that are protected. Not AK's, bump stocks, etc.
Rugged Individualism is a myth. We all need each other and if you are truly a Christian you are your "Brother's Keeper."
13
Trump is The Picture of Dorian Gray, translated into modern American politics.
Actually, few were still fooled by the gulf between the self-image, and reality, of the political class and certain elite collaborators. Voters just decided the time had come to pull back the curtain and let the portrait face the light of day.
1
@DS "Most eligible voters don't vote." .......exactly, and they are but another group who need to take responsibility for their decisions, especially if they are disenchanted with Trump. The situation the country is in is the collective responsibility of the citizens. So far, Trump supporters have demonstrated more conviction for their "man" than Trump's non supporters have for their candidates. It's a social war just now and if "we" would like to see the storyline change, the least the citizens of the Divided States can do is vote in November. Trump has a fixed 35% of the voters in his corner and those fanatics will never budge....they are comfortable with totalitarianism because they don't know what it is, wouldn't know it if they saw it and don't care anyway. It's up to the rest of us who still have some reasonable faculties left to at least vote against republican fascism....or face even worse consequences that will surely come if republicans remain in control of the government.
8
@KB
In all other advanced countries, any election that had less than 75% of eligible voters participating is decried as having had extreme low voter turnout.
If a candidate does not win a majority of 50+ percent, the election has to be repeated, unless working coalitions of two or more parties are being formed.
Those countries have of course a parliamentary system, and don't vote directly for the head of state.
The Electoral College belongs in the dust bin of history, as well as the Second Amendment, which is constantly misinterpreted from its original intent, namely the forming of a "Well regulated Militia" in the absence of a standing army.
1
I think it's inaccurate to say, "Americans elected Trump." A more accurate statement would be, "Some Americans voted for Trump." "Elected," no. He was elected with the aid of the Russians and of the crimes he committed to defraud the American public.
8
@actualintent
Also by gerrymandering and a broken electoral system, and by a media that gave him non-stop coverage, which they are still doing. One thing that heartens me is that he only won by 77,000 votes and more than 3 million voters voted for HRC, and that was before we all saw what a disastrous president he is. The one thing that scares me? Americans don't care about Russian interference and the economy is doing well, largely thanks to Obama. But that could all change in heartbeat.
2
Let’s break this down. No doubt that more people support banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines than do not. Now dare remember, it was Harry Reid that killed the last gun bill that had a chance to pass in the aftermath of Sandy Hook. He would not send it to the floor for a vote and Obama was conspicuously silent. As a Republican that favors gun control I was and remain appalled. So let’s not blame only republicans.
Think about the voices that represent the Democratic Party today. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and the recently elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all of which support socialism which is the furthest representation of what America is. They take Obama’s statement of let’s take some from the rich and sprinkle it around.
The theme of take and distribute must end. We need jobs not handouts. We have more jobs today then ever with the lowest unemployment rate across all categories.
So does it really surprise you that more Republicans were motivated to vote for Trump while democrats stayed home - with the exception of CA. And please spare me the Comment about Hiilary won the popular election because that is not how elections work.
1
@Brian
Oh, that darn socialism represented by Democrats.
The rest of the OECD countries with universal healthcare, free higher education, unions fighting for fair compensation and work place safety, strict environmental laws that save lives, etc., etc., etc., even those governed by center right governments must be heavens of socialism if not even commie.
Some of that darn socialism in Europe was started by none other than Otto von Bismarck, Germany's Iron Chancellor, in the mid 1880s when he put into law health and accident insurance and old-age insurance. aka Social Security on these shores - for all blue collar workers.
4
“cultural confrontations over identity and gender and race, to the effects of stagnant incomes over decades, or to the narcissism of modernity.”
We’ve dealt with social and cultural confrontations before and come out ok.
This narcissism of modernity has us leaning too far over and we’re losing our balance. Can’t we blame celllhones or chemicals, affluenza, or the Russians?
I want to find an explanation, or at least some cause or person to blame. The mirror is a scary sight over by here, in these ununited states, known as America.
1
I admire Roger Cohen, but a serious analysis of what's wrong with this country under Trump requires something more than a dip in the backwaters of the Old West and its illusions. As Francis Fukuyama said in this month's Foreign Affairs, the passions of personal identity and fulfillment spread broadly across both the left and right in this country, and both serve to stimulate the individualistic illusions they share on different measures of personal and social satisfaction and well-being. The Pastor's absurd fantasies about guns are matched by the notion that our problems are traceable solely to "white males." The problems are much deeper than these simplistic slogans, and they include at the top the absurdly outmoded Electoral College and the utterly disfunctional equal allocation of seats in the U.S. Senate to States that differ wildly in population.
4
The reality is that Christopher Lasch was right. We live in an ever-more-narcissistic culture. Trump is just one embodiment of that. Take away Trump. Hollywood, Reality TV, Twitter, Facebook, Identity Tribalism, Free Market Worship, the supremacy of rights-talk over responsibility-talk will all remain.
Trump is but a manifestation of the problem. The problem is we care more about ourselves than other individual human beings in our lives.
Even progressives want to outsource caring and responsibility for others. No expansion of Medicare and Medicaid alone will fix this problem. Each of us must love and care for each fellow creature we deal with.
3
This sounds Christian. Real Christian, not gun rights and prosperity Christian. Possibly Jewish, too, and Muslim. Which leads me to wonder whether our problem is that we have lost the essential religious foundation for the self-interest-confounding unselfishness that no community can exist without.
1
Thank you for stating was has been patently obvious.
The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves.
It is the American public that accepted this man as a leader.
That decision has devalued the worth of our nation.
For the first time in my life, I am ashamed to be an American.
6
Yes basically agree Mr Cohen, re your headline but you and all of us should learn from history, especially somebody like Lincoln who taught us how to deal with situations like this.
Whenever you are in a crisis, ie an issue or issues where polar opposites rule, here is what to do.
1- Identity the main goal, ie with Lincoln the union, with the dems it should have been defeating Trump.
2-Hold off on secondary goals because you cannot get them at the present moment. With Lincoln it was slavery, with Hillary it should have been holding off on her social engineering, identity obsessed goals.
3-Form coalitions with people who are for the same main goal. With Lincoln he accepted slave owning unionists into his administration. With Hillary, it should have been accepting people into her staff that wanted limits on late term abortions, ending some trade agreement, reigning in Wall Street, anti war people etc.
4-After you win, ie in this case defeating Trump, show mercy to the vanquished, with Lincoln bind up the wounds, care for the widow and orphan, with malice towards none, charity for all. Hillary blew it but if the dems win the WH in 2020, don't condemn every Trump voter as the devil incarnate and make them pay reparations for voting for him.
5
So often Democrats who oppose Trump forget that their candidate was deeply flawed too. Many who voted for Trump didn't, and still don't, like him but found Hillary's flaws even worse.
It's easy to dislike Trump. It's easy to complain about him and people who voted for him. But those who complain most often, like in this column, don't consider "compared to whom?"
Critiquing Trump against the ideal is a good way to make him seem incompetent. Critiquing him compared to Hillary makes him seem the more acceptable of the two for many voters.
1
Many quite rational, and generally unselfish friends seem to have found Hilary “more corrupt” than Trump. This is a potential fact, arguable and researchable, but again and again I find the evidence presented by these friends ultimately comes from Fox News. My own research leads me to believe that you have to go back to pre-civil-service-reform 19th-century New York legislators like Roscoe Conkling to find national politicians more corrupt than Trump.
2
His performance should be acceptable to no one.
3
@David - It is this type of simple thinking "whataboutism" that Trumpism has made so popular that is just pointless and thoughtless. The people who are not so far gone as to fully excuse the atrocities of Trump still juvenilely need to turn around and say they think is worse. At the end of the day, people like you are endorsing, accepting, allowing, and approving of atrocities you KNOW to be wrong and damaging to this country. At what point are you people going to grow up and realize that the comparison (even if awful) is not only irrelevant, but couldn't ever even come close to being as bad as in the case of Trump. Why must you persist in this?
2
Consider Watergate. America bounced back from it. I've come to
suspect that we're on the end of a bungee cord. So our "fall"
will be broken. And this time, I think, we're finally going to find out
who's been holding the cord.
1
Yes, it will not be extirpated overnight; and, it will not be extirpated without all of us giving up something.
All of us or none of us.
1
The American people most emphatically did not elect Trump! If it had been up to the American people, Hillary Clinton would be president of the United States. She won decisively. She beat Trump by more votes than Kennedy beat Nixon; or Nixon beat Humphrey; or Carter beat Ford; or “President” Gore beat Governor Bush. And to keep our post-War history straight, by more than Truman beat Dewey. Trump is in the White House for only one reason: the last remaining provision of our original slave holding Constitution, the Electoral Collage. How perfectly appropriate that is.
6
This week there have been several articles similar to this. They lament that Trump supporters are aware of Trump's issues, yet still support Trump.
I don't think so... Unless they have stopped watching Fox News and other similar outlets, they ARE hearing why they should support Trump. We learned just this week that the National Enquirer purposely cleaned up Trump for his political aspirations. Fox News concentrates on a clear agenda.
If they don't support Trump, undocumented workers will kill their wives and daughters.
If they don't support Trump, their guns will be taken away.
If they don't support Trump, wealthy Americans won't share their tax break.
I would argue what America has become is based on fear and scare tactics that are self-serving to those who promote them.
What would America be like if Breitbart and Fox News went away....
4
A clergyman, twisting logic and reason into knots in Colorado, is what trump and his distressing supporters hope for if he is to make it over the impeachment hurdle, let alone re-election. So long as the current "man (I use man here with some hesitation) over country" mantra of so many holds up, we are destined for a sad end.
1
There is nothing new about this. Back in the 60's Richard Hofstadter was describing the paranoid tendency and Southern whites were threatening to secede because of civil rights progress. There are a lot of angry, bigoted and reactionary people in America and they can be easily manipulated by the Republican party and phony news channels like Fox to vote not only against the general good but against their own interests. The vagaries of the US political system enable this minority to impose its will on the majority in a number of areas. The end result is the corrupt, trashy and possibly treasonous presidency of Trump and the even more egregious behavior of the Republican party who have been taken hostage by their own electoral strategy of god, guns and gays and are compelled to collude and assist in the degradation.
12
The election of Donald Trump is the fault of the government establishment itself. The people felt so disconnected from their government, so tired of the same old promises that never come true, that they voted for an outlier. Mr Trump represented outsiders and non-politicians. He represented a disruption to the status quo which is not working for the average American. The mistake here is if the establishment does not learn its lesson. Government needs to be for the people by the people and not the money and lobbyists free for all that it is today.
2
The perspective is from an 'American' point of view where there has always been a wary acceptance or a tacit or explicit admission that internecine struggle fueled by cultural, political and economic fault lines is part of American's DNA. I've been working in Toronto on and off during the past month. The change in perspective from subjective acceptance to objective awareness makes it apparent that America is tearing itself apart. What I'm noticing is how the rest of the world sees us ... as a superpower locked in an MMA style grip of exertion with itself, a knot of empire sized power working against itself. With trepidation do I look toward November with the expectation that falsehood, accusation and dubious victories will abound. Democracy is a blunt instrument, and we seem to be more than willing to use it against ourselves of late.
3
My 2 cents:
Our country's populace has always been of 3 "tribes".
One, For America, for the sedition of a new country unencombered by Old Europe's taxation without representation (the Monarchy, etc.) These people fought for America.
Two, For Leaving Me Alone. These people merely went into the hollars and hinterland, undesiring government and merely wanting to live off the land, on their terms, no one else's. Didn't participate in the political aspects of America--or Old Europe, etc., because they'd had enough. Government, regardless of the form, was a shackle they didn't desire.
Three, the tribe that didn't want to leave Old Europe and the "ways" that it had towards a civilization. This created the idea of each state was it's own country, each 'way-of-life' was to be tolerated. So, the North had it's indentured servants, the South had it's slaves--& neither really has ever compromised on their, "way of life". Those that like this "tribe" have never really been willing to submit to the larger ideal of the America of today.
What the amounts of population is in each of these tribes, I can't say. Thirds, roughly? Perhaps one sees this in the popular voting numbers. The largest "third" is the population that flat doesn't vote. They see government as not living up to the "bargain" offered by government, and they'd rather just not participate. Complain later about government, they do...groundlessly.
Good column, Roger. Well-done, well-said.
3
The country needs a president that can appreciate the differences in a land as big as the USA. That's why I believe that we would be wise to select a President that understands the west, but has the knowledge of liberalism. Gov. Hickenlooper fits the bill.
4
@tom, what is required is tolerance and learning to work with cooperation, give and take. Here in an overwhelmingly democratic state, we have had a series of Republican governors, who shed their conservatism willingly and worked in genuine cooperation with the democratic staff. Both Mitt Romney and now Charlie Baker, show us you don't have to wear a label of liberal or conservative, to make things work. Sometimes tolerance and flexibility are the tools that bring success, in a democracy. What the 2016 election has demonstrated is that liberals too have become intolerant and there is in fighting amongst who is left of center, who is center and who is right of center, within the democratic party. Sheesh.
1
I think, Mr. Cohen, you are channeling De Tocqueville, who saw the power of the USA in the individual, not in the State.
Unfortunately, we are now in the 21st Century, not the 19th, and the power of propaganda, the unresolved issues of personhood, the myths that we still live by, especially the myth of the special place in the universe given by a white god to WASPS, still hold sway.
The Episcopalians among us are horrified by the president, the baptists, who ascend, accept him as one of the chosen.
I hold my breath, but have little hope, for the November elections.
389
@Marc
I agree with your observations here, except regarding Tocqueville. He did regard many aspects of individualism as strengths, but he was perhaps the first, or among the first, to point out that individualism was likely to become the worst enemy of freedom. He spoke of self-interest rightly understood as requiring concern for others and responsibility for making the sacratices that must be made to maintain the free state.
Trump, on the other hand, is only concerned with judging a a moment by moment basis what works for him and for his shoddy goals.
Sir, there are more than a few of us Baptists who regard Trump's professed Christian faith as completely hollow. Speaking only for myself here (which is what Baptists really do), I regard the many "faithful" who are backing Trump as falling for the 3rd Temptation of Christ -- gaining power at the cost of worshiping Satan.
Robert Babcox, a pastor, said the Second Amendment was designed to create a militia “equal to the government to ensure self-reliance,” and that therefore the ban on the magazines should be overturned.
That says it all.
These people are ruled by god and John Ford, and not necessarily in that order.
Their ignorance is deep and willful. Pugnacious and entitled.
They were confined in a box fashioned from their own intransigence until the republicans engineered their release.
Now they occupy a space on the world stage from which they applaud Trumps crazy comments on North Korea, Vladimir Putin, South Africa and many other soap opera simplistic scenarios.
The second amendment will be the test of their lunacy. If common sense gun laws are enacted to abolish the sale of assault weapons we will have an opportunity to witness the rule of law in our country in action.
9
No. God is cited by the scriptures of all three of the abrahamic religions as recommending (for the most part) love over self-interest and self-aggrandizement. He makes no mention of guns at all. Americans who disfavor all “religions” have left religious Americans to the preachers of selfishness.
Yes, we have a “mythologized self image”—in fact, several. Human beings need comfort and we dream up stories that reassure us that we understand what the present is all about and what we ought to be doing to have a positive impact on the future. History is always a hypothetical.
But some of those stories are simply nostalgia and based solely on what we should have done but didn’t do. Proposals are then drawn up to “get us back on track” to that road we should have taken. That’s not a hypothetical, it’s ideology.
Today’s dominant self-mythologizing suffers from precisely this nostalgia. Western civilization isn’t dead because of Trump. The problem (ahem! one, that is) is that he’s resurrected nostalgia. But history isn’t nostalgia. It’s not about some “road not taken.” History doesn’t work like that.
We have to pave our own road. We need to get off the nostalgia kick. There is no former golden democratic age that we need to get back to. The history of democracy doesn’t work through nostalgia. (Good Lord, how many times does one have to use the term “nostalgia?).
4
I know who Trump is, Roger. He is our president. He'll be our president until he is re-elected in 2020 and then he will be our president again. MAGA
3
My worry is that he will be our president in 2021 even if he is impeached in 2019 and is NOT elected again in 2020. Dictatorship is coming back into fashion with both sides, but it seems to have started with Trumpers.
2
@AirMarshalofBloviana
And you, my friend, deserve him. Good luck.
3
He takes from the poor to give to the rich, he poisons the air and water, he reduces our standing in the world to a dangerous joke, he alienates our allies while praising brutal dictators and wishing he could be more like them out loud, he undermines the free press and independent judiciary, he claims victory for failures, he surrounds himself with the worst, most corrupt and incompetent people, and you dopes keep supporting him and believing any thing he says despite constant lies.
Why do you hate America?
It will be a great day for America when he goes down in flames.
4
I wish to share an amazing article I just read that deals precisely with the topic of the Op-Ed. The author is Raymond Matison, an Institutional Investor magazine top ten financial analyst of the insurance industry, founded Kidder Peabody’s investment banking activities in the insurance industry, and was a Director, Investment Banking in Merrill Lynch Capital Markets. :
Excerpt:
The vast majority of America’s sincere citizens naively believe that our government exists to protect us and to increase our financial and social wellbeing. It is a sobering realization that government is not in existence to help or protect you. At its best, government simply gets out of the way of citizen’s activities allowing them to forge their own lives and futures without regulatory interference while shielding the public against unfair corporate or foreign policies which reduce individual opportunities. At worst it implements sanctions, overthrows foreign governments which do not support its policies, starts wars, increases taxes for redistribution, implements financial repression against its own citizens, borrows money on behalf of unwilling taxpayers which cannot be repaid, and impoverishes every citizen as it ruins its currency. Unfortunately, all of these unsavory actions have been increasingly taking place in and by America and its leadership over the last several decades."
Link:
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article62968.html
I never understood this philosophy. It seems so elementary that we need government so that one person’s actions don’t harm another. And we need to limit freedom reasonably so we all can peacefully coexist: the social contract.
7
Libertarian tripe from a very wealthy, and very ignorant, man. Show me a single underprivileged Libertarian before claiming it is the truth and the light for America. This philosophy of all-consuming wealth is the embodiment of what is wrong with Americans today.
2
I beg to differ "Americans elected Trump". That is simply untrue. The Electoral College - an an anachronistic, decidedly un-democratic, bizarre determiner - did.
In fact, Trump lost the vote by almost 4 million votes, a not insignificant amount.
The Electoral College is not "an American person", it is a system.
It flies in the face of standard Western Democracies one person-one-vote winner take all, Elections.
Which, if it's the standard recognized Electoral process of every single one of our Local, State, and Congressional Representatives, it DEFINITELY ought to be applied to The Election of the President of The United States.
I frankly am tired of having my vote be counted less than my fellow American citizens who live in "swing states", or for that matter those who choose to live in more "wide-open" rural, often backward, America.
So no, Americans did not vote for Trump. Certainly not all that actually turned out to cast their vote.
36
@merdix
Yes, your disdain for non-city dwellers is apparent.
Perhaps you are afraid of wildlife and nature and prefer the smell of human waste as you ride your dilapidated subway, passing the homeless by without noticing, but you should try and hide it better.
To each his own.
1
The problem is not the people. The problem is that our political pundits refuse to demand repeal of Citizens united.
27
"So the real question is: What does it mean to be an American today? Who are we, goddamit? What have we become?"
Sadly, as a country we seem to be lacking a moral authority who can engage us in these questions. Our political life is so divided, there is such suspicion, that engaging in a dialogue of any depth and breadth to answer these essential questions as a nation seems unlikely. What's even sadder is that most people in our nation don't seem to care to engage in this kind of dialogue. Like adolescents, we are still far more driven by notions of rugged individualism and personal achievement to much care about who "we" are. Will we ever grow up?
2
Who are we? In my opinion, there are two, rapidly-diverging Americas. One is the urban and coastal America, where people of different races and creeds must learn to live together an tolerate each other. As hubs of education, industry and innovation, they are the economic engines that drive this country forward. This America is more amenable to the idea of an expanded role for government in the lives of its citizens and much more accepting of the idea of some kind of social safety net for as many people who need it as possible. The other America is rural or Western, with wide open spaces and a much more sparse, homogeneous populace. They don’t welcome the presence of government in almost any aspect of their lives, considering it overreach. They value the idea of individualism almost to the point of fetishizing it. Their centers of local and state government are distant and far-flung. In a lot of these places, local industry has collapsed or moved to other places. The basic world views of these two Americas are incompatible. The overarching, mythological idea of what it means to be an American is no longer strong enough to overcome these fundamental differences in outlook.
If this is the case, as it is increasingly beginning appear, perhaps it’s time for a friendly divorce. Maybe the two ideas of America should become two actual Americas. What’s the alternative? We can’t go on like this forever and our differences are increasingly insurmountable.
9
There are two Americas. Those who can think, reason, comprehend and empathize, and Republicans.
3
“Goddamit”
I can’t recall ever seeing this word in an essay that wasn’t part of a quoted conversation.
Its use shows the depth of feeling so many of us have about the abomination in the Oval Office.
Thank you for this powerful and perfectly articulated essay.
27
An excellent, interesting summary of current events which began decades ago and begs the question of how much further/faster America will continue to fall. Looking back to Watergate as 'the good old days' forces us to look ahead to the time when the same will be said about Trumpgate. That time can never come too soon. Or is it already too late?
14
Along with our overly romanticized libertarian bent born centuries ago as we conquered 'the new country,' we, as a nation, follow the primitive narrative that one man will make the difference. This is human hegemony, aka The Hero's Journey, aka "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell.
Not only does the Trump narrative satisfy the one, strong-man as change-maker, it also satisfies the romantic notions that 'it was better back then,' and the common falsehood that the mid twentieth century was our greatest moment because it resembled Madmen rather than because of fair and balanced news and taxation.
Vote Blue in every election.
21
So very well expressed. The reference to Joseph Campbell is perfect and probably was the subconscious drive that made me an American lit major in grad school.
3
This is a thoughtful piece. I like the questions raised and think they need to be answered. Perhaps I have a doubt about Roger Cohen's premise which is, I think, that we had a better alternative. Leaving Hillary aside for a moment, let's consider Trump's competitors in the primary. Rubio? Jeb!? Cruz? For me and think for many, Trump had the one essential many were looking for: passion. This is often denied him but I don't see how. He articulated a life-long commitment to improving the nation's financial well-being. He, unlike the rest, had a vision that was not cooked up by paid consultants. He was his own man. People forget how hungry many were for exactly what Obama once promised: hope and change. Many voters had voted for Obama and wanted more of the same: something new.
3
@David
Passion ? I prefer to call it mania. Seriously. And shame on those people that confused one for the other.
3
But his passion is not for the public interest or the public good, but only for the private interest of himself. Surprised you don’t see that, or perhaps you don’t think it’s a bad thing.
2
And we are asked, time and again, to empathize with the Trump supporter. To walk a mile in their shoes, to see the world through their eyes.
No thank you.
These people, like the myopic pastor profiled here, made their choice. They’re adults and they’re responsible for their actions. I have no interest or sympathy for them. None.
And when this nightmare is over and a saner world is restored I hope I never have to read one of these stories about the real America again.
107
If you try to understand the Trump supporter and see the world through their eyes you are in a better position to convince them they’re wrong.
Maybe the reason that I regard someone who truly supports Trump with scorn, equal to the scorn I am held in for voting for Hillary Clinton, is that the people who voted for him, either know fully who and what he is and don't care, or don't care to know who and what he is.
It is terrific that in the west we have a strong sense of American mythology. But to disregard the reality of our growth - that we could strip half a continent of its natural resources, expand ourselves into an entire unused landscape, use immigrant labor to supplant slave labor, and produce cheaply and efficiently - which was based more on opportunity for exploitation than on "American Grit" is to believe in a fairy tale. Sure a lot of people made it on grit; but a lot of people suffered in misery and died, too. Not so much of a fairy tale ending for them.
I understand the fundamental divide in American philosophy. And I admire self reliant people. But I cannot see how self reliance right into the grave for a lack of available health care serves our nation.
And I cannot see how electing a toddler over a woman who was never all that FOX and Limbaugh built her up to be was a better option. Another popular American mythology is that the commoner has common sense. Trump exposed that one, bigly.
94
The most important thing I learned from the election of Donald Trump was that America is not the place I always thought it was. A decent, compassionate, basically good-hearted people would never go for him. Americans are all those things to their own or when it serves their own peculiar interests. As a people, as a society, we are everything that that Trump is. He encapsulates us.
52
Torah (Old Testament) doesn't have the story of the Golden Calf for nothing. Among other things it is an object lesson about what happens when people misplace their adoration and awe. Alas, it appears that Trump supporters are further gone than our ancient Hebrew forefathers, the former at least had the excuse they weren't bowing down to a mere human.
These are teleological times where many folks have lost their fear, and love for God. While they may go religiously to church, mosque or synagogue their homage goes to the man who currently epitomizes the complete opposite of everything their scriptures are trying to tell them. They excuse themselves for a variety of reasons, but in the end those excuses all boil down to the ends justifying the means; a tax cut, stopping immigration, sticking it to the elite. It's really so sad that so many haven't managed to grow up and have cast aside their God to boot, all just for a little glitter.
23
"He said, “If I can limit somebody on what weapons they can buy, why would I not be able to limit what you can say about me under the First Amendment? "
Apparently, Pastor Babcox is unfamiliar with the fact that there are laws on the books regarding libel and defamation, which do limit what I can say or write about him. They are there to help protect him from the harm my words may do. I would point out to him that gun control laws exist for a similar purpose - to help protect me from the harm his firearms may do.
54
@Cwnidog
He would no doubt say that there are laws on the books regarding menacing, assault and murder, which do limit what he can do to you. They are there to help protect you from the harm his firearms may do.
His point is that just as we don’t ban words to prevent their misuse, we should ban commonly owned firearms to prevent their misuse. And for this who note the disparate results of misuse, note the disparate penalties that result.
It is the behavior that is against the law, not the tool.
The good Reverend also appears woefully unaware of modern military weaponry. Very few among the second amendment bunch argue in favor of private ownership of armed drones, smart bombs or IEDs. Yet anyone paying even a bit of attention to modern war making know these and other military baubles not available to the masses would easily overwhelm even the largest mass of AR 15 holders.
2
I’d like to understand why this distinction between tools and behavior in the limitation of rights is important. The distinction seems fussy and complicated, and very convenient for people who like guns or dislike government. The comparison to language is not satisfying, words aren’t really tools. Are there other instances of access to a potentially dangerous tools being a right? I can think of counter examples. Laws can reasonably limit access to poisons and harmful chemicals, especially when they can unknowingly cause harm.
"It will not be extirpated overnight." Indeed - in fact, it will not be extirpated at all until it is recognized and regretted and seen as something that it is possible to turn away from. Kurt Vonnegut, at the end of his long life, thought that the humane, reasonable United States his generation was fighting for in World War II could never come to pass - because of the addiction to oil, and to power, that seemed unbreakable to him. America cannot have a spiritual rebirth until it repents. I see no sign of this on the horizon. For the Creative Forces of the Universe to stand beside us, and guide us, through the Night with the Light from Above, we would have to be willing to recognize we are lost in darkness. I hope and pray for such a turning point, but nevertheless it would surprise me to see it. In the American tragedy, the election of Obama was the moment of hope - before everything comes crashing down, as actions from long ago produce their inevitable consequences.
23
Thanks Mr. Cohen. The deeper question, you mention of the many Americans who voted for and continue to support Trump in full knowledge of his moral bankruptcy has me flummoxed. Any one of a hundred Trump scandals would have precipitated oceans of bile and hate towards a Democrat, particularly a black one. But as it is now it's well, "no biggie". They continue to view politics as a tribal rite even while voting against their own interest. The hypocrisy and mean spiritedness even extended to many in Houston who received government bailouts during the floods who said Puerto Ricans did not deserve disaster funding. Your question: "Who are we, goddamit? What have we become? It's thankfully not universal, but taken as a group we have become more selfish, ego-centric, mean spirited and dumbed down. The overseas stereotype of the anti-intellectual and gullible American is gaining traction thanks to Trump and his nodding ditto-head base. They're the ones who brought us here.. Now what?
34
@Realworld-Trump is abetted by Fox (Entertainment) News 24 X 7. The spin and lies boggle the imagination and are amplified and repeated by alt-right Internet enablers and Russian social media/RT bot nets. What they fundamentally speak to and gin up are people's fears. There are good Americans (like good Germans) swallowing the kool-aid. What's missing is an understanding that we may share concerns in common--but not agree on the explanations or means for addressing them. Somehow that's the gulf that needs to be confronted.
8
@Ann Yes, the propaganda assistance by Fox et al is indeed helpful to ensure the Trump followers have their anger maintained at constant simmer. The gulf you refer to will never be bridged while the Republicans operate on a zero-sum-game, scorched earth approach. The system we have assumed that members of both parties understood and would operate by established norms. That is obviously no longer workable. Imagine, for example, the uncontrollable outrage if Democrats pulled the Gorsuch scam, or withheld documents as is done for Kavanaugh. Our system has been perverted by the extreme right. Look at the shrugs from Republicans concerning Trump - the GOP is now rotten to the core.
Roger Cohen writes, "Americans elected Trump. Nobody else did."
It should not be forgotten that if we elected Presidents by popular vote, Trump would not be in office. He won because of the Electoral College vote breakdown.
Maybe it is time to consider how we select our Chief Executive in the future,
57
There are two narratives here. First that Trump is a creature of American ideals gone wrong, and the other unvoiced, that what came about is the result of some rather sophisticated behavior modification through social media. You have to put both together or you’re story doesn’t make sense. That’s what’s hard because it punctures the myth that Americans are somehow different, that we’re self reliant and that we are the captains of our own democratic ship. It is a hard lesson to discover that we’re really just like all other mortals, capable of being manipulated. Things don’t get better until we accept this and chart a course that preserves what’s best about our independent mind set.
18
"why would I not be able to limit what you can say about me under the First Amendment?"
We are doing that too.
Monopolistic service providers reacting to political pressure are just proxy government censors.
I would not defend any of the ones banned so far, but I see censorship as censorship, and dangerous for where it leads. Always it leads there.
It seems the NYT columnists won't see that danger until their own are censored. It can't happen? Trump can't be President either, and Gorsuch can't be denied a hearing for a Supreme Court seat. Dream on. You start this, and it can happen.
6
@Mark Thomason- Monopolistic? Government censors...? Let's look at Fox. According to the FCC, broadcasters may not intentionally distort the news. The FCC states: "rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest." However, because it broadcasts over cable, Fox isn't held to the rules and regulations as legitimate news organizations broadcasting real news over public airwaves. In addition Fox News claims to be an entertainment medium, perhaps to save itself from civil penalties and government purview and liability.
https://www.quora.com/Is-Fox-News-registered-as-a-news-organization-with...
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/complaints-about-broadcast-journalism
13
On the night of the Cohen guilty plea there was nothing about it on the Fox News site. Who's censoring who?
1
Mr. Cohen's essay goes along with other recent columns discussing that our culture wars have been baked-in for decades: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/opinion/sunday/chicago-protests-1968-... ("America’s Never-Ending Culture War," 24 Aug 2018 by Michael Kazin). I thought the concluding paragraph in that piece was telling:
"As a New Leftist in 1968, I did not worry that Americans were fighting one another on the streets of Chicago and around the nation. I only wanted to figure out how my side could come out on top. Now, as a professor, I teach the virtues of empathizing with one’s adversaries, of understanding why those with whom you vehemently disagree think what they think and do what they do. But as a historian, I also know that civil wars, even cultural ones, seldom end with settlements that please both sides. Until the left or the right wins a lasting victory, America will remain a society rent in two."
4
The west of the frontiersman and his gun is not the whole story. As an Easterner, I note that my forebears built towns with churches and schools, we also built industry that was once the envy of the world. But economies evolve as the times change. I would like better, but I don't kid myself that things will always go my way. Never owned a gun. Don't want to.
12
I always liked John McPhee's book about Alaska where he said people go to Alaska to get away from everyone else - only to find the elements are so severe that you have to get along with everyone else to survive. That's America too. All these rural wide-open folks want to get away from everyone else - but to survive, they'll find they really need to get along (taxes pay for schools, denying global warming creates too much rain, Medicaid, Social Security, federal highways,...)with everyone else.
36
This entire article is about personal traits, beliefs and perceptions. And it posits: "The problem is way deeper than him".
But the author doesn't come even close to talking about the key issue, which, in my opinion, is the enormous growth in inequality in the country. This has resulted in a soul crushing rise in inequality of opportunity (especially in the flyover states).
"Trump will ride out the storm". Maybe this one. And maybe, shamefully, the GOP will survive the midterms. But by 2020, it is likely that his 'base' will realize that their pocket has been picked. Economically, they are worse off .. that plant is still shuttered and the new plant in the next county has only 10 jobs (plus 8 security guards) who are all process engineers. Soybean prices have dropped. The weekly grocery run costs more. Savings and home/farm equity are drained by healthcare costs. Perhaps, by then, George Soros and Hillary Clinton will not matter so much.
27
Out here, we look down our noses at the effetery of the ruling class. We can't stand them. We could care less about Trump's behaviors because we witnessed so much worse with the Clinton's. Let me say that again: We could care less about Trump's behaviors because we witnessed so much worse with the Clinton's.
You're absolutely horrified that Trump can be crass and it's all you see. We have the sophistication to see more. We can see that Trump is many things and not all of them are bad. You can't see one thing that is good and I almost feel sorry for you.
You and your ilk have ramped up Trump's every action to an unhinged level of hate and I think you're destroying a great deal of humanity between ourselves. I absolutely despise what you're doing on a daily basis and I don't believe for a second that the majority of Americans find you at all heroic.
4
@Arthur Taylor
Who are "the ruling class" that you despise? In America (and in nearly every other society on earth) it's the people with lots of money. Only they have the connections and influence to really shape events which affect our daily lives. Only a government elected by the average folk who compose all of the population but the crust at the very top has the ability to check our oligarchy.
There is no evidence whatsoever that trump has any inclination to check our native oligarchy. He is interested in his position only to gratify himself. He could as willingly be the most lefty of socialists if he believed that would get him elected and then keep him there.
trump is not our deliverer from the elites. He's just an opportunist doing whatever it takes to advance himself. He is the most cynical of men, and, like any true cynic, he's as steadfast as the breeze.
1
@Arthur Taylor:
"Out here"?? What? This does not reflect values of the West.
The feeble excuses offered for Donald Trump's behavior is limp indeed. "Effetery??" Trump is responsible for his OWN behavior and everything he has done is on his own head.
Right now he has a policy that is a human rights violation separating families. That did not used to be a "Utah value".
1
Trump will not even attempt to "ride out the storm". Trump will continue to to plumb the depths. Every day is a new storm of increasing hopelessness.
Wake up, USA!
7
Walt Whitman would have written very different Leaves of Grass had he been trying to understand America today.
6
I think the character assassination fear mongering tactics employed by the right wing propaganda machine are what has gotten us here. The billionaire conservative plutocrats, whose actual objective is to get the government out of the way so they can rule with their money, have been paying people to slander Hillary Clinton, George Soros and Nancy Pelosi for so long, traditionalists have come to hate them without even knowing why. Gun advocates are terrified that democrats will confiscate their weapons, despite 8 years of evidence to the contrary under Obama. The debate now boils down to objective thought versus blind faith.
14
@WeHadAllBetterPayAttentionNow It's not so much blind faith, but blind hate. I will never forgive the people who brought us this.
2
When I first moved to a Republican stronghold 20 years ago, the first political commentary I read in the local paper told it's readers to not vote for So Gore, because Democrats were going to take your guns away. The fact that after eight years of a Democratic administration they still had more guns than they knew what to do with meant nothing to the fear mongering GOP lackeys. Truth and facts still mean nothing to them. Controlling the low-information masses by whatever racist fear and lies they can drum up is all that matters. Vote out ALL Republicans in 2018.
2
All the talk about guns... The 2nd Amendment is but one sentence long and it begins: "A well regulated militia..." There is nothing well regulated about guns in the U.S.A. today. The NRA originally focused on firearm education and safety, but for over 50 years the group has found it far more profitable to pervert the 2A and eliminate as much regulation as possible.
18
I remember that earlier NRA. I suspect it changed with the addition of big big money.
@Me not to mention get funding from Russia.
For the Trumpster, something that would heal all wounds, save nature, promise a golden future, feed the masses, unite us in brotherhood and generally make everybody happy ‘til the cows come home...if it was government mandated, they’d reject it.
4
You keep referring to the vast, empty, “awe inspiring” landscapes of the West. The serious little men you’ve talked to there are living out their petty, narrow identities on stolen land. Everything else follows naturally from that basal reality.
On Thursday Trump tweeted in support of white landowners of South Africa, another country of grand vistas and emptied spaces. Recently, a lobbyist representing Afrikaner planters in Washington noted that they had a special bond with white Americans. He was right. Trump has not ruined America so much as clarified what exactly the U.S.A. is and has been.
So please, let us talk openly about settler colonialism, racism and imperialism instead of just scrutinizing the psychology of some men who benefit from these things.
36
Guns kills tens of thousands a year. Abortions affect 750000 a year. The second amendment sells 27 million weapons each year. 10 million people identify as lgbt. These are important issues. 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Yet, If liberals compromised on these, 300 million will escape climate change, get clean water and eat safe food. 60million women will get equal pay. 45 million will get a living wage. 40 million will get healthcare. Be smart. Dump the party of Pelosi and create the party of Bernie.
That said, trumps election was a fluke. The media boosted him and depressed turnout by wishfully predicting a landslide win. Don’t forget how the media incessantly promotes Facebook and Twitter with share links on each page so they could steal the election. A majority of whites voted for the republican every election since bush. Obama won twice from black turnout. Bernie and Cory booker would have won in a landslide.
1
Reading what that man Babbox Mr. Cohen spoke with in Colorado had to say brings home another sad realization: in our shiny USA anybody can call themselves a Christian or a pastor, no mater what the real Jesus Christ stood for. Now that IS sad.
13
Sure, while millions of Americans voted for Trump - millions more didn't.
It was mega-dollars, feral media, a cowed legislature, a spineless GOP, gerrymandering and an antiquated Electoral College process which have handed us Donald Trump and his hyper-dysfunctional Executive branch of US Government.
When you hand the reins of government to a thug it should be no surprise that loss of integrity will be the first casualty, followed by an attack on the judiciary and the laws of the land - with nepotism, self-enrichment, forgiveness of criminal transgressions and persecution of critics not far behind.
Come November, we'll know just how far America has succumbed to this political aberration and whether or not a remedy is at hand. Hobbling Trump through the mid-term elections is the first step in starting him on his road to Samarra - and the beginning of the journey on America's road to recovery.
17
It wasn't only Trump supporters that understood who Trump was; so did the rest of the world. That is why most of the "United States" was shocked when Trump "won the election": it was the most painful, slap in the face with the sad, pathetic truth. Look in the mirror "America", THIS is what you have become!
12
@Rich Ramirez Walt Kelly comes to mind
Americans have done grave harm to the country by believing its fake mythology for far too long. From the nonsense about "manifest destiny" and "Superior race" and the Hollywood produced idiocy romanticising the "wild West" and its "heroic cowboys" who saved "innocent whites" from "evil, war-mongering Indians" to the "greatest generation" and "America saving the world" (all the while creating and fighting wars non stop in poor and weaker countries), declaring its peacefulness (while being the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons on civilians), not to mention the utter nonsense about the statue of liberty ....... Time to get real folks. Let's not be duped by our own propaganda, better to be humble and skeptical and realize that people all over the world are equal and alike more than we are different. Nothing, absolutely nothing, about us makes us different or better or worse. Above all, let's not be fooled by the greedy chest-thumping megachurches but instead take any lessons from the Bible or whichever religion to heart with humility and respect for all.
40
@Max duPont
Too right Max. Don’t forget the American Dream and the Greatest Country on Earth nonsense.
Try living in a few other countries ...or maybe just visiting some with beautiful architecture and modern transportation options.
Shouldn’t we be trying to enhance the common good?
The more I slice and dice why Trump happened to America, other than his defrauding the United States through Russian collusion during the last election, I have come to the conclusion that poorly educated, racist white people are to blame. I am white.
I have lived a great deal of my life in the west, in many rural, overwhelmingly Republican areas. I remember voting in a small town in South Dakota where I lived. In this district, when you walk in the door, they hand you a ballot and you have to go to the side of the room based upon your political party to vote. Being a rare Democrat in the area I lived, the lady handing me my ballot first gave me the dirtiest of looks and then I moved to the Democratic side to vote where there were probably two other people, with dozens voting on the Republican side. If you are blue leaning living in a red area in America it can be a miserable existence. I have lived it.
I think the whites who voted for Trump, if not wealthy and greedy and just wanting a tax cut, are just really angry that minorities are succeeding and getting ahead in this country and they are not enjoying the privileged status they once held.
Some of the most entitled people I have met are fairly well to do white Republicans who are farmers and ranchers, all of them with illegal immigrant laborers working their land and, without the massive subsidies of the federal government, they would be poor. Yet these people voted for Trump. Sad. . . . .and dumb.
65
I'm in the West - the far Northwest - Alaska, and I can tell you that here, too, live those who believe in the myth of what is to be an American, an armed American, who enjoys boundless freedom and individualism, a love of legal marijuana, and libertarianism a mile wide. We don't want no stinking regulations, no taxes for us, and we just want to be left alone. Which is why my state voted for Trump. You can't swing a dead cat in this country without hitting a Trump voter, and they're all pretty happy so far with his performance. Oh, some folks are wondering when all the drama will die down, but unless he does something they REALLY object to (like take away their guns or infringe upon their rights in any way) most Trump people are perfectly fine with the idea that their president is, in many uncomfortable ways, no more than a NY gangster, who strong-armed his way into the White House with the curious help of Russia, of all places. They not only accept the fact that he cheated on his wives with porn stars and Playboy bunnies, they seem to admire his infidelity. And so what if he cheated on his taxes? Doesn't everybody?
Sometimes I wonder what will become of us...
43
@Chris Wildman- Then I feel very sorry for you, for America and for the future. Because if that is all you believe, if that is the sum total of your convictions, then there really is no hope.
@Chris Wildman it won’t have a happy ending.
I think that Trump represents the reality TV- loving America - that dog- eat-dog culture where someone wins a contest by any means possible. The week after week “Your Fired” scenarios - this fantasy invaded the White House. Trump revived Twitter with his rants - people love his crudeness, The affairs are the stuff of soap operas. The scale of the Manafort and Gates dishonesty is mind boggling - and someone did not do their job by weeding out the blind loyalty of a Trump supporter who hung the jury. Indeed - how far we have fallen.
9
Make no mistake, Trump is not only symptomatic of "The new American Id", he is the commander in chief of entrenched narcissism.
Much as I dont care to reference anything Kanye West produces, but West's "Famous", (on You Tube), IS the zeitgeist !
It has Donald Trump in it, it has all of us in it.
This obsession with self may pass, but not for a while. The virtues of self sacrifice and altruism are far away on the horizon, almost a mirage.
The quaint Kennedy homily of “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
is even further out from the horizon, beyond the sheltering sky.
4
I am glad you said it.
Trump is a lowlife.
Every day I focus on trying to do good. And, even though I fail at times, I believe the trying and the successes I do achieve are what make me a decent human being.
I see none of that in Trump. I get the sense that he really does not care about the good one does. His mind is adapted completely to that reptilian part of the brain that is all about appetite.
Every single Trump voter, without exception, I have met has the belief that it is the black man or Mexican who is taking from him. It is race that draws them to Trump.
Our economy is the richest it’s ever been, thanks in large part to Obama providing measures that stabilised it. Yet, these Trump voters deliberately overlook that fact and, instead of looking at how a just distribution of wealth can be achieved, go directly to race as an issue.
I know a Trump voter who had voted for Obama on the first go. But, after Obama was elected, he quickly found himself isolated by his fellow Fox-viewing, Limbaugh-listening, Republican-leaning peers. And this brings us back to the notion of goodness. A lot of these Trump-voters do not question their racism or, if they do, find it easier to skip the part of being courageous, and simply melt away into the white heat of the angry, racist flames surrounding them.
15
Heard this one political campaign video where one progressive complained the other progressive wasn't progressive enough. Why? because the one progressive stated he/she personally preferred a heterosexual relationship. How far has America fallen? it's sickening where now it seems we have to prefer homosexual behavior.
@LarryY
I heard this too! In that Pizza/Pool place in DC.
1
There indeed was a time that non-Americans looked up to the US as a sort of a place to be in. Why, it has taken only a Donald Trump to show that the emperor in the White House goes around wearing nothing but a smirk? That the czar in the Kremlin simply had, and still does, to imbed some algorithms to sow discord? That this present administration will be leaving behind a legacy of tired phrases "no collusion," "alternative facts", etc.?
5
We didn't really elect Donald Trump... The Russians did. They hacked a few simple vulnerable, backwards, rural counties in Wisc., Mich., Ohio, Penns. etc. and engineered his Electoral College win. That's the only way to explain Hillary's nearly THREE million winning popular vote. I'm sure the Intel Community knows Trump is an illegitimate president, but acknowledging that may well be worse than keeping quiet about it. We would be in unchartered waters.
9
Illegal immigration is a great problem facing this country; take a good look at Europe as it is finished. New people do not wish to immigrate. The democrats are now socialists. We cannot afford social security and medicare much less universal health care get real. This episode of america started with angry democrats who did and do not not the election results. Their fake FISA warrant enabled an investigation because they imagined Russian collusion (their delusion). Barak Obama had a campaign finance violation; he paid $375,000. The democrats want social and gov't control and we are having a silent coo; it is very obvious. And I see it all as an independent voter.
2
@Jan.
You see it even more clearly through the lens of
Fox News. This doesn’t sound like an I dependent’s point of view. For one thing we can afford Medicare and Social Security and, new roads and bridges, even a Spaceforce, but we have to be willing to pay for them. We have to be willing to include people of different colors and religions, even people who own guns in our efforts.
1
''I've never met a Trump supporter who does not know who he is.'' Really ? Most of them know about him from a reality TV show passing a multipley bankrupt and proven fraud to be a ''titan of busines''. Others know little more than what Fox News presents, and are served up a hodgepodge of half truths and conspiracy theories with zero journalistic integrity. The rest couldn't care less about any of it so long as the stockmarket is high and taxes are low. I would argue the contrary, that they have no idea who the man really is.
9
Trump is a symptom- not the illness.
13
It's no mystery. It's just sad.
6
I really take umbrage with your statement that “we” elected Mr. Trump and that he somehow dictates what it is to be an American. Miliions more Americans voted for Hilary than Trump - by about 5 million votes. I think you mean to say what does it mean to be an American supporter of Donald Trump. It’s really quite simple - someone who believes that Hilary/a Democrat would have been worse, that believes their rights (notably 2nd amendment) would be curtailed under Democratic leadership, who is afraid that someone else will catch a break that they didn’t have, and who is impervious to the deeply offensive comments and puerile tweets of our President. It is predominantly an individual who has not felt the impact of an unjust society, that undervalues women and minorities, who work their collective butts off but who still struggle to afford that health care and education for our kids because they don’t get hired, paid, or promoted at the rate of their mostly white male peers despite their ability to excel academically and in the workplace. It’s simple - Trump supporters they buy in to the specious argument that their lives will change for the worse if a Democrat is in office.
19
Excellent piece. But I wonder whether the 'old US' was truly any different. Putting aside the mythology and exceptionalism and the 'city on the hill' imagery/delusion didn't all of this exist under the surface waiting to be tapped? Trump has merely sharpened the imagery and given the lie to the self-serving propaganda of the US as a 'model' of anything.
5
As so frequently, you nailed it exactly.
Really sad.
And scary.
6
Any 'Baby-Boomer' who can add knows that they personally are taking way more out of Social Security than they contributed. Compared to that self loathing, Trump is a non-entity.
1
Your “baby boomers” have only been eligible since around 2011. They were the generation that supported social security for the generations who came before them. Now it is the time for succeeding generations to do the same. It’s an insurance policy ... based on investment if contributed funds. I hope my employer sponsored plan will do the same if I live long enough.... pay out more than I contributed. That would me I invested my money wisely.
4
@Richard Mclaughlin especially those with high income given the contribution cap.
I ran the numbers and I am not receiving more than I should based on my contributions, my employers contributions and a modest rate of return over the 35 years. Do the math. SS is a great success and is keeping tens of millions out of poverty. It can continue with reasonable adjustments..... from a functioning government.... vote smart.
1
Thanks, you just hit the hammer right on the nail. Don't think you are alone over there. Blind faith, desperation and stupidity drives a lot of people to look away. If European history has learned us anything this usually leads to something really ugly.
5
No. Americans did not elect Trump. Americans were manipulated toward Trump by the non-stop barrage of invective and lies against Hillary Clinton by such paragons of journalism as The National Enquirer, Fox News and Facebook. Americans were manipulated by Russian expertise at hacking and infiltrating our data banks. And unfortunately, Americans were manipulated by a last minute FBI investigation which turned out to be (like everything else misstated about Hillary), false and inconsequential. Personally, I don't like to be manipulated. I detest eyewash and counterfeit promotion. I trust facts over opinion. It's an utter shame that so many Americans aren't able to tell the difference.
13
"Americans elected Trump. Nobody else did". WRONG. The Electoral College elected Trump and we need to get rid of it! Americans elected Hillary Clinton, by quite a large margin - nearly 3,000,000 votes.
7
Trump "won" with about 30% of the US electorate, with Hillary receiving 2.8 million more votes than Trump. He received all of Putin's votes as well, very likely far in excess of the 80,000 in 3 states that provided Trump's electoral margin.
If not for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Gore would have been president, Iran and Iraq would be fighting each other and the US deficit would be $3 trillion less (and that's before Trump's tax theft).
Justice John Paul Stephens in his dissent, also signed by Breyer and Ginsburg, added: ''It is confidence in the men and women who administer the judicial system that is the true backbone of the rule of law. Time will one day heal the wound to that confidence that will be inflicted by today's decision [to end the Florida recount with Bush ahead by a few votes]. One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.''
He was too polite to say Republican Supreme Court Judges who were brazenly partisan and in defying their sworn oath of office and impartiality to elect Bush laid the groundwork for GOP's sabotage of democracy that has as its apotheosis Trump's assault on America.
Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and O'Connor are Trump's political birth parents. His followers are just sheep, albeit rabid.
20
Sorry but I reject your premise that “we” actually elected Trump. Who knows? Given the mounting evidence of Russian meddling, coupled with the implausibility of Trump actually winning the election, I actually can’t accept the outcome to the point where I’m looking for valid explanations as to why my fellow citizens would have done so!
4
Civics needs to be reintroduced into the american classroom and homeschooling needs to be limited to special situations.
Maybe then americans get get on to something resembling the same page.
8
Trump supporters already clearly know and understand his flaws. Their support will not waver no matter the expected repulsive revelation or indictment. Their support of Trump is not grounded in a love, or even respect, for the man; it is, rather, based on a deep and visceral loathing of everything the modern Left is, appears to be and stands for. Removing Trump, will not solve your problem
4
This article is just loaded with cliches. I get really tired of hearing about the "idea of America" whatever that is. No, what keeps us a democracy is a set of rules and those rules are in the rule book that we all know and love, the Constitution. If you start breaking the rules, you simply no longer have the country you thought you did. It's not a democracy, it's something else. It's still "America" sure and the West still looks big and open and people can still pretend about how independent they are. But it's not a democracy anymore. I live in California and Manzanar, one of the camps where the Japanese-Americans were interred during WWII is not that far from me. It's run by the Park Service now and when you visit, what is forcibly brought home especially in the recorded interviews of those interred, is that when you start ignoring the rules, like due process, you no longer are what you thought you were and no longer have what you thought you did. It's something different. It's still "America". But it's not a democracy. So all this stuff about the "American ideal" or the "idea of being America" are just idle words. What counts is, "do you follow the rules?" And if you don't, then the rest of the feel-good talk just that. And doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
17
Trump is the distorted graphic-book outcome of a process that started under Reagan and Thatcher. In the nineties this “Washington consensus” was widely shared, also by progressive parties like the Democrats in the US and social-democrats over here in Europe. Especially by outsourcing economical production to Asia, substantially lowering taxes for corporations plus the already well-to-do and and irresponsible open-border immigration policy, many ordinary people started feeling left alone more and more by their ruling “elites”. Now this apparently much hated group of older white working class males (not mules..) is picked out for blaming. Seems like a gotspe to me.
3
Sorry -- You can't figure out people by looking at consensus. If people buy some sick consensus, such as Trump's lowlife narcissism, it's because they are already vacuous and impressionable or are otherwise psychologically troubled. Sick is individual. Yes, I may catch a cold from someone -- it's "in the relationship" -- but after a while, it's all mine.
2
The kicker is - he'll get re-elected.
7
Mr. Cohen,
Really incisive piece. We're all caught in the Trump vortex and heading rapidly downward.
phil mueller
3
National identity is thriving in wealthy and prosperous enclaves such as Westport and Palo Alto. professional work, top notch schools and healthcare, and a layer of nsulation from the delusion boneheaded trump supporters. To us, America is about living in a bubble and fully dismissing thosecwavkadoos as insignificant in our lives.
@Told you so it doesn’t work that way...
What I learned, by being a US American ex-pat is that the US republic is an idea, embraced by the notions in the Declaration of Independence.
However, when I returned to the US at the beginning of the 21st century, I was confused how my neighbors in northern Virginia equated the Twin Towers attack with an assault on their personal property or liberty.
The USA isn't "owned" by anyone. No one can usurp an idea unless you let them infect your brain.
Most importantly, the USA is not the inheritance of citizens of white European ancestry. It is a universal model for the world, for good or evil.
4
Americans did not elect Trump, any more than Zimbabweans elected Mugabe. The Electoral College elected Trump.
11
Strip away all the rhetoric and you have this at the core: Trump and his supporters hate. It's really that simple.
5
Are we tired of they are going to take away our Gun Rights as a lie to get votes. They are taking away our Amendment 1 Away right in front of our faces by saying kneeling before our flag is Unamerican from a 5x time Draft Dodger that was too scared to serve in this nation’s Armed Forces. The pastor from Colorado is just like Trump believes in worldly things versus God’s word. Talks about government more than the Bible. There is no second amendment in the Bible there only the Ten Commandments. He is just another false prophecies .
5
President Trump is also the direct consequence of the election of President Obama. When Obama won, it seemed that a new progressive post-racist era had dawned. Unfortunately, it was just a fluke in American history. Obama’s election was eventually the result of his ability to touch across many sections of society — liberals, progressive whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, educated elites, ethnic minorities — and create a unique one-off coalition.
Large swathes of the fly-over-country were never part of the ‘rainbow coalition’. The election of a black man was shocker of a lifetime for them. They never forgave him or the fellow citizens who voted for him. Trump simply leveraged this silent anger to win 2016. America will pay a big price for this historical mishap.
President Obama, one of the best in recent history, simply missed out on or ignored or was aware but couldn’t do anything about the sheer angst among this disaffected lot. A definite black mark against his legacy.
Yes, Trump is only the symptom of his catharsis. The problem is much deeper.
6
What strikes me about this article is how divergent these self- mythologizing attitudes of independence and self reliance in the West are regarding the historical record. Having traveled to Colorado this summer, I marveled at the vastness of the landscape and found myself wondering how Manifest Destiny was enacted in such a massive expanse of wild country. Then I read ‘Empire Of the Summer Moon: Quannah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Commanches’. It was truly one of the best books in I’ve ever read, and a fantastic and timely book on American history. Do yourself a favor and pick it up!
One thing it does make clear is that time and time again, settlers were unable to defend the “bleeding edge” of the frontiers they claimed and called in the government, with its more advanced firepower, to protect them!
3
Trump supporters know the myth that is Trump. More importantly, Trump knows who is America, at least enough to stay in power. It isn’t necessary to go to the wilds of Colorado or Montana to see true America. Drive the roads in Minneapolis and you will see it. The prickly individualism expresses itself in ignoring all rules of the road and ideas of decency. The laws are made to keep the other guy in line. I can do what I want behind the wheel. Then there is the notion of narcissism which born from inadequacy. The size of the cars and trucks and their massive power. The powerful, expensive vehicle as the modern day “great equalizer”. And the large, always larger houses they drive to is a sign to world of power, wealth and success they want to feel. Then there is the anger at the world around them. In the anonymity and protection of their car, Americans can express the anger they feel that they can’t show at work, at home or face to face. Unless, they are at a Trump rally. This is the “sable genius” of Trump, knowing what America wants in a leader and giving it to them in large, daily doses.
4
"I've never met a Trump supporter who did not know exactly who he is." I, too, have had those same experiences. What I can not understand about his supporters is that they, knowing exactly who he is, do not care. That they aren't embarrassed. That they accept his lying, self-serving nature yet believe that he is their champion.
An analogy with big time wrestling is spot on - they know it's entertainment and contrived, yet they flock to it and view it as competitive sport. They love the spectacle.
9
Trump is a champion con-man - always has been. That he conned all those millions and was inserted into the White House can be considered a one-time only fluke.
However, his continued support after all the irrefutable evidence out there for anyone who is paying the least bit of attention is the truly scary part of this awful phenomenon.
6
Hillary had tremendous baggage, too. The voters had to choose between Trump and his baggage and Hillary and hers. They of course had different baggage but baggage nonetheless. Since candidates are human and all humans are flawed, most people vote on the issues and policy positions. That is all. Trump's positions aligned and resonated with the majority of Electoral College electors than Hillary's. In a nutshell, he related to his base and pledged to focus on American and Americans. Hillary was far less charismatic with her base and pledged to focus on globallism.
And I am very sure regardless of what the NYT Op-Ed pages want people to believe, come Nov, most Americans will remember the terrible murder of a lovely young American college student with a boyfriend and her life ahead of her, which was committed by an illegal immigrant, vs the tax evasions and other financial wrongdoings of Cohen and Manafort. But make as much hay about it as you wish, emphasize the wrongdoings of Cohen and Manafort and minimize the tragedy that befell Kate Steinle , Mollie Tibbetts and many others, at the hand of illegals who had no right to be in this country.
4
@Philly
What about NIA WILSON? Do you know her name? She was killed by a man in an act of terrorism. After stabbing her and her sister, he went and changed his clothes. Sounds premeditated and an act of terrorism. They are trying to say (like Dylan Roof) that he is mentally ill.
The Tibbitts family is asking that Mollie Tibbetts' death not be politicized just the opposite of what is happening in the public arena and what you have bought into in your comments.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Ms. Wilson was African American, her attacker was white and a US citizen, while Ms. Tibbitts was white and her attacker was brown and a legal resident (so it has been reported later). Meanwhile in other parts a man slaughtered his wife and 2 children but that doesn't count because he was a citizen and white? Two of the three attackers are white, male, US citizens, should they be deported? If so to where?
1
@ Philly....and while we’re at it, let’s all remember the 17 Parkland students who were mowed down, as well as all the young children before and after! They all had their futures interrupted, too.
1
‘How Far America Has Fallen’.
As far as it has willed itself to fall.
3
Got guns? Pastor Babcox seems to think that his firepower can hold back government agents that might force universal healthcare down his throat. What does he or anyone need with healthcare if he's got God? Trump must fit nicely into his old testament theology which has little room left for the ideas of Jesus but still uses his name.
Does he realize that Trump would strip him of his guns in a Colorado minute if it suited him? Does he think that Hillary is the only one Trump might want to lock up? How would he feel about trial by a couple of Trumps bodyguards? Would he mind getting paid half his wages because that's all Trump thinks he should have? How would he react to having his voting rights taken away until he learns who he should vote for? Is he OK with being labeled an enemy of the people? These are the questions Trump voters must be asked.
6
A lot of bluster over nothing in particular. Trump said he was for certain policies & then he enforced them. The democrats are for a lot of words, Trump is for a lot of actions
3
It boggles my mind how many of his “actions” you are ignoring.
2
Roger, our congress is the exact problem. They are bought and paid for by special interests and big money. What’s considered graft and bribery in other democracies is considered legit lobbying in Capitol corridors, it is business as usual in the capitalist world. You have money, oh you can buy a politician. Democrats are as guilty as republicans so please don’t disillusion yourself into thinking that democrats taking over majority will solve any problems. Today S&P is roaring, guess who is making money, the very rich people who benefit from this system that enables them to grow wealthier. Do you think ordinary folks are the ones making money with the Dow, Nasdaq upticks? Think again Roger. The system is rotten, doesn’t matter democrat or republican. Why do you think the rich do not want us to have Medicare for all? They don’t want their money distributed. Especially to people who are not the right skin color or ethnicity.
6
Americans elected Trump? I think not. Neither does Mr. Mueller. And the popular vote says otherwise. No, a confluence of foreign influence and a failure of the check and balance afforded to the Electoral College saddled the US with this family of grifters, and a failure of the check and balance afforded to the current Congress is what keeps them in the White House.
I count the days until November and fervently hope that our long national nightmare will end soon thereafter.
6
@Gentlewomanfarmer sadly it won’t
Thanks, Mr. Cohen, for your insightful column. However, the "idea" of America is what has taken a major tumble - a slide that began decades ago, with the criminal activities of the "plumbers" operating out of Nixon's White House. (Roger Stone still has his face tattooed on his back!)
Then our ill-fated one-term president, Jimmy Carter, was elected to resurrect those lost American ideals, but overcome by events beyond presidential control.
Next, Reagan was elected twice by a majority who were convinced that "government was the problem." The ideas and ideals of Kennedy/Johnson era were extinguished, and the beginning of the great divide in income inequality began as the power of working people was significantly diminished (PATCO's demise was Exhibit A).
Then began the Bush dynasty, in large part thanks to the racism that Willie Horton's story engendered. Yet as much as GW may have been detested for valid reasons, he did not generate the kind of hatred and divisiveness that is rampant today.
Their reign was punctuated by Clinton, whose right/center policies destroyed the progress that had once characterized the Democratic Party. Obama's election may have been a shining point in our history, yet it exposed the potent underbelly of racism that led to where we are now.
Today the GOP relies on greed, xenophobia, hatred, and lies. They defend the rantings of an obviously delusional individual. Not a "fall" at all but an historical slide into incompetence on the world stage.
8
If participation in voting were to be compulsory, we might avoid ugly messes like the one we are currently embroiled in.
3
Mr Cohen
I appreciated this grimly realistic assessment of the American Scene today.
So many 'reasonable' Europeans take it for granted that Trump is a transient anomaly who 'accidently' won the US presidency.
Au contraire ! as you point out, he is the voice box for the masses of disenfranchised and bigoted white males who have lost their high place on the social pecking order. They cannot deal with the complexity of an increasingly globalised society in constant flux.
I hope that Emmanuel Macron grows a backbone and cancels his invite to Trump for this November's end of WW II festivities in Paris. The belligerent tone adopted by the Trump regime towards the EU should send a short sharp shock to European leaders to get set for more EU autonomy and distance from what is obviously now an unrealiable and soon-to-be former ally.....
8
I have to disagree with the statement that Trump supporters see Trump for who and what he really is "narcissistic, lowlife, etc.. " I am sorry, but they do not see him that way at all. They see him as a near God and they deny who he really is and they deny what he really says and does (as Trump himself does - think mocking of disabled journalist for an oldie but goodie) If we were just trying to solve the question of how far we have fallen by looking at Trump and those who support him yet see him as he really is, this would be a difficult enough issue to tackle in and of itself, but the reality is that Trump and his sycophants HAVE no reality and that leaves us in a very tender spot. One cannot communicate with another when the other ignores, denies and/or changes facts he or she dislikes or deems unfavorable. Welcome to Trumpism (and the new Republicanism for that matter)
7
As Americans we are not better or worse than people in other countries . We are just humans . As humans we are not immune to the siren songs of demagogues . This has happened lots of times before in other lands . Those of us who came from places where tyranny took hold , in my case Castro`s Cuba , may see it more clearly . You have the blind followers , the so called base , and you have the enablers , that know better but are afraid of the base . These are about a 1/3 of the population . What is good is that 2/3 of the population are aware of what is happening and that we have a free press , a free judiciary and a tradition of following the rule of law . Democracy is self correcting . Soon Trump will be out of power in one way or another . Of course among us there were " deplorables " , like in any other country on Earth .
7
"The economy, stupid." Trump's critics simply cannot compete with lower taxes, less regulation and record high small business optimism. This is the strongest economy Americans have seen in a long while.
2
Republicans always come in on a strong economy that the Dems have constructed in saving the country from the debacle left by the previous Republican admin’s atrocious policies. Then Republicans pass atrocious laws again, inevitably bringing down the economy once again. Voters never learn. You seem to have a gory memory.
2
@AACNY and it comes at an unacceptable price.
1
@AACNY
Well if there was ever an over-boiled argument this is it. Lol.
This whole column is about the loss of American values not structuring our country to get every last buck out of the middle class or add a trillion and a half to the debt to make the stock market soar.
2
Why does the gun-worshipping pastor think freedom of speech is unrestricted?
I'm sure others have noted that in fact some speech is criminal.
Threats, for instance. Of course, there are standards to meet: does the threatened person have reason to believe the threat-maker has the means to, can and will carry it out unless the threatened person complies, for example.
Deliberately leading people into dangerous/deadly situations with lies is a crime, showing depraved indifference to the probable consequences of the words.
Probably more. Incitement to violence..
I don't believe the person does not know that. It is a kind of lie to pretend otherwise to justify his cause.
He should think of true arguments, if he has any, and stop lying. Lies can be deadly.
A perfect editorial. Thank you.
From the distance of the EU, the U.S. looks shameful, and there is no hiding it. However, it is also clear from this vantage point why the American myth has gone sour. The real scoundrel: consumer-capitalism-materialism. Unfortunately, no politician of the highest virtues can dig the U.S. out of that “freedom.” Trump perfectly symbolizes it. That’s why he doesn’t surprise so many Americans. They’ve already bought an economic system that ascribes valuelessness, and therefore meaninglessness, to human life. They just haven’t thought as far as that last part. Maybe never will.
Honestly, I don’t know where the U.S. goes from here. It isn’t a nadir, it’s its actual condition revealed. Americans need to stop demonizing socialism, but how likely is that? The U.S. is a very young country. But where is the parental supervision?
6
@joymars the US will likely die in its youth.
Your statement ‘Americans elected Trump’ and the conclusion you draw ‘they came down to his level’ disregards the fact that the majority of Americans did not vote for him.
8
In a rapidly urbanizing world, the "rugged individualism" Americans most desperately need to rediscover is critical thinking ability. Our ability to reason, to recognize fact from pure fiction, has been severely damaged by decades of propaganda. The cowboy's "wild west" is a long-gone myth, so get over it. This is an overpopulated, resource-constrained, rapidly warming planet, and if we can't relearn how to share, how to live together, and soon, our goose is cooked. It really is as simple as that.
18
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: for me, the biggest casualty of the 2016 election is my trust in my fellow citizens.
72
This usefully highlights the reality that there are (at least) two Americas, each with very different values on fundamental questions (democracy, justice, humanity). How to fashion a consensus in that environment is the grand challenge, assuming that a consensus is even what enough people want. That's made especially difficult by deeply rooted national myths, including the one about individualism and self-reliance in those wide-open spaces that, in fact, the reviled coastal urban "elites" are compelled to subsidize.
10
Hit the nail on the head. Your last sentence sums up the issue precisely and it is this subsidization by us urban “elites” that needs to be broadcast loudly and clearly. Thank you for your comment.
3
What you describe is an American culture that is unable to seriously and soberly reason about moral issues from both the individual and collective point of view. Ad hominem criticisms, attacking process issues, arguing relative impact, advocating a position without serious inquiry about the legitimate issues and concerns of the opposition, and looking the other way in the name of winning rule the day. The effect is that Principles are lost in the name of tactics and wise decision-making abandoned. Meaningful and considered compromise founded upon humble evaluation is impossible. This is an affliction of both the left and the right.
5
The last paragraph nailed it. Trump is a symptom of a rot that runs much deeper in our culture than this particular presidency.
21
Right on the nose
Some people choose the independence of a condo as co-op boards are infected with favoritism. Some people are motivated internally rather than externally and vice versa. These are not inherent flaws or the differences between cats and dogs.
I remember when the internet was first described to me. That person is no longer with us, but at that time of first hearing its workings my response was you will have to practically know the answer to question to find information you seek online.
This president is the first in a long line of crazy products America will produce by way of a path set out upon in the virtual. A world is being constructed outside the realm of reason built on something other than rational common sense and knowledge of history. This president is recognizable and tangible to those who live miles apart from each other and don't get far from one common stream of consciousness brought to you in a thick cable surrounded by plastic. We don't live in that Yellow Submarine, we live in a big insulated cable of the calico stuff that makes up this president.
2
I can't help but feel that "knowing" the character of Trump amounts to a more comfortable association with government than the suspicion and constant Othering of Obama during his years in office; birth certificate, misunderstanding his nuance (ie., "didn't built that") and education, the actual effort required in following detailed policies esp. ACA, &c.
If that's what the American public voting for Trump so desired they certainly whitelashed. They've been too willing to go back to a far more comfortable father-figure-president that they fully understand, despite every flaw, and the figure that stands for the father and his comfort is what is so dangerous.
4
Mr Babcock is an example of many Trump supporters I know. Their belief in Trump seems to overrule fact every time. For example, his comments about "who praised the president for sticking to his campaign promises and, “for all the bravado,” getting the economy revved up." are based on belief, not facts. What campaign promises has he actually completed? You still have the ACA, you have no wall, and a dozen other campaign promises that still are not complete. Exactly what data points to Trump revving up the economy? If you look at the actual data over time, none of the trends in unemployment rate, stock market, or any other economic measure is anything but a continuation of a trend for the past 9 years. It is all about belief with trump supporters and they refuse to face facts.
809
And the media allowing those talking points to go unchallenged.
7
@tom babcock’s a pastor - by definition he has faith in faith, not facts.
3
@tom
For the life of me I can't figure out how thoughtful people can wholeheartedly support the Republican agenda of voodoo economics and inhumane cruelty on so many levels. It's as if there is a whole other reality they live in that has very little to do with the one I live in.
The only thing I can think of is that the dichotomy is based on this belief business. They don't "believe" in anthropogenic climate change. This particular issue has nothing to do with belief, religion or politics. It has to do with numbers that are not influenced by whether or not a person happens to believe they are real or not. The issue is one of facts not faith. I just use tthis issue as an example.
Another is the belief that if you pump enough money into the upper 1% of those who hold the worlds wealth that everyone will eventually benefit from reinvestment of these funds. In reality the only real benefit is in the 1%ers offshore bank accounts. Called Voodoo economics and it is an article of faith in the conservative catechism. However reality keeps the rest of us living paycheck to paycheck. Realtiy, while sometimes harsh, is our friend.
7
"He [Pastor Babcox] said the Second Amendment was designed to create a militia “equal to the government to ensure self-reliance"..." That is not my understanding of the Second Amendment. When the Constitution was written, the United States did not have a standing army; all soldiers, including officers, were drawn from the civilian population. It was therefore necessary that civilian soldiers were armed in order to prevent military takeover by an authoritarian government.
As to Mr. Cohen's question, our morality fiber went the way of the "Greed is good" mantra of Gordon Gecko in "Wall Street."
Finally, our so-called individualism equated to exploiting a vast continent of natural resources for personal gain. Is it any wonder we are in living in a moral vacuum?
15
The failure to learn from the 2016 election is scary. Mr. Cohen is out in left field. Dismissing Trump voters as uneducated, Southern or Western simpletons is not productive. Not when small businesspeople played such a huge role. Those who run auto repair shops, beauty salons, dry cleaners, home repair business and small internet businesses voted for Trump in large numbers and must be reckoned with.
There are about 60 million small businesses in the US, and they employ huge numbers. 60% of small business owners voted for Trump. Hillary mostly talked about women and minority owners; she talked about small business loans, cutting red tape, cutting taxes, health care benefits, and active support from the federal government. That may be the worst small business platform ever. Sole proprietors tend to favor Republican tax policy, de-regulation, cheaper employee health care, and reduced government intervention. That's the Chamber of Commerce line. And the Chamber is the biggest lobbyist of all, spending virtually all of its huge treasure chest on Republicans.
Dismissal of Trump's small business suport is a bad mistake. About 60% of small business owners voted for Trump -- a higher percentage than whites, females, the working class, millennials, high school dropouts, union members, suburbanites, and voters living in the former Confederacy.
Take small businesses seriously or risk two in a row.
4
But why on earth would small business owners rationally support Trump? What policy helps them??
2
@michjas then small business has a strong case for epitomizing what is wrong with America.
2
I’m a liberal living in a Trump county, and I never feel like articles attempting to analyze the Trump voter really hit the mark. Maybe this is because most of those here really don’t analyze much. They aren’t necessarily "white power" types, they are just simple. The pastor with his one-line idea of why the bullets need to be legal is a simple thought, there is not much analysis beyond that, no "and" or "but" to it. When you come back with a rebuttal, they just go defensive, not more thoughtful.
Both presidential candidates in 2016 were viewed here as entitled, narcissistic rich types. One came and visited, and talked to working folks. The other didn’t. One talked better on television. Taxes are always bad. Social Security/Medicare are assumed untouchable because politically they have been since the 1970s. Medicaid harkens back to the old welfare, they literally see generations in the same local families living off the safety net, not as a stop-gap for bad times, doing the 3-job applications-per-week on the library computer to stay on the checks.
We can come back at all this with more "and’s" and "but’s," citing the privileges given to some and not others. Yet there is no more thought behind any of the above, except defending until out-argued, after which they decide you are the "elitist" because they can’t keep up with you. It’s really what you get a face value and nothing deeper or more sinister in most cases.
8
It wasn't Trump that debased America by getting elected. It was Americans debasing America by voting for Trump.
The last positive sea change in America was my generations anti Vietnam War movement in 1968 and the country's desperate struggle to right itself.
That stretch for decency was followed by the steady American degradation of the Bush war in Iraq as a cynical economic ploy to buoy up the economy.
Now we are experiencing another destructive sea change where the soul of the country has been traded in for hard currency and Trump criminality.
The country may still be affluent but Americans are living in a moral sewer!
14
The never-Trumpers remind me of a preschool soccer team. while there is the appearance of a game going on to the casual observer, the players are either picking daisies or chasing butterflies. Somehow in the collective hubris of a minority that insisted the Democrats had the best ever presidential candidate in 2016, Donald Trump won the election, even though he was likely the worst ever. Too many underwhelmed voters stayed home. Going forward, I personally don't care if Trump appeals to a large bloc of people who believe that he is falsely representative of some macho, take-no prisoners reincarnation of Teddy Roosevelt, what I care about is the majority who know him to be a fraud and likely the worst thing that has ever happened to this country. Meanwhile the pre-schoolers gather and insist that he could not possibly be re-elected, so now would be a great time to work on that social engineering project that will make America better than it's ever been. Meanwhile, underwhelmed voters will likely stay home again. Let's focus and defeat this one-man scourge and let it be clear that defeating him is the primary, secondary and tertiary among goals. We can't repair the damage from the sidelines.
14
Plot the last Republican Presidents since Nixon -cover ups are improving with denial strengthened. Yes, this is not a singular, linear Trump Problem. It's the unraveling, hastening, unrepentant pace of corruption eating American Democracy Alive. This is a President who claims his fitness relies on money and the market. Preposterous.
15
Roger, the American narcissism has always been there, from the glory of the frontier and manifest destiny through the present day. It took on a particular grandiosity after WWII, when the "Greatest Generation" got way out over its skis with "Victory!" ego-inflation and entered the Cold War. The fear and paranoia of the Cold War stance (some of it manufactured for domestic politics and popular repression), coupled with economic might and increasing material wealth after the deprivations of the Great Depression, aggravated the grandiosity, exemplified so well by a recent televised CNN focus group where a woman rejected any notion of Trump's personal rudeness at the NATO summit, declaring, "No! We're dominant!"
As a whole, we are all Ugly Americans now.
2
@Rocky not ugly but hideous.
“Trump was a symptom, not a cause. The problem is way deeper than him....American individualism has morphed into narcissism, perfectibility into entitlement, and exceptionalism into hubris.”
Yep. Thats what i have been harping on as well - on these pages. Problems of american society is way deeper and the notion of exceptionalism is making it worse. And there is no solution in sight. In fact - we have not yet stopped digging - forget a out even thinking about how to find the way out of the hole we have found ourselves in.
Never in million years i thought this would happen in america.
5
"...individualism has morphed into narcissism, perfectibility into entitlement, and exceptionalism into hubris."
individualism is a particularly destructive expression of freedom. In adopting "Individualism" as the ultimate goal and ideal, we have chosen an illusion over the reality of the internal process of what Jung called "individuation", the creation of an identity based on self-knowledge rather than the creation of a "self-image". "Entitlement" and "hubris" are inevitable where self-image is all there is. Trump lays bare the fiction that underlies that national self-image and with it he has loosed the fear, the greed, the resentment and inchoate rage that festers within those who project "Americanism" on to its national symbols - flags, pledges, anthems, etc.- rather than seeking authentic freedom WITHIN, the only place where genuine freedom exists. Trump is the ersatz version of American "freedom": he acts with impunity personally, politically, even sexually, playing a perpetual game of "catch me if you can". "If I don't get punished, it wasn't real" so I'm "free" to do as I please. His game goes on as long as we let it. In their personal impotence, his followers derive an atavistic pleasure from the spectacle of ignorance triumphing over knowledge, absurdity over wisdom. Trump is the ersatz "Individualist", the comic book model Con Man. They knew who they voting for and didn't care. That is Pathological Indidivualism writ large.
1
Trump happened upon an accidental ideology: incoherence. His inability to express himself at a more sophisticated level than "goodfella" sounds a lot like what a lot of Americans have come to feel; that in the era of the internet, globalization, and dizzingly-paced change, their thinking has become just as incoherent as his. Trump's faux authenticity feels real to them.
Above all he promised to make being born American, English-speaking, white, straight, Christian and male feel like accomplishments again instead of mere accidents of birth. That Trump's id gone mad does not bother them should bother the rest of us very much, because it says the state of red America is weak and diseased, like a cancerous spine. What they recognized in Trump is the sickness they feel inside. We had our Oprah and Obama - they wanted their five-letter validator (in addition to Jesus). Most of them will discover the chemo he offered is counterfeit only when they end up in wheelchair. The rest of America has to decide how to remain standing while absolutely refusing to argue with people who think that owning a gun is the basic equivalent of getting a college degree.
The marriage may not be salvageable -- We may yet have to divide into two countries. So be it - the chasm separating us is truly wider than the Grand Canyon. I only wish we were so neatly divided geographically.
17
The Democratic strategy of pointing out Trump's "faults" was absurd from the beginning. It was simply repeating what everyone knew. The only strategy that would have worked was pointing out how utterly stupid and uninformed the man is, and how this would affect the voter, and the nation at large. Trump would have had no real answers that involve real thought or a knowledge of how government or trade actually work. Many of Trump's voters, wanting real change, would have voted for Bernie Sanders. But beyond that lead-headed strategy of pointing out his faults, we can thank Hillary Clinton and Wasserman Schultz for Trump's victory in the general election.
3
America has become a kind of current Sparta furiously diverting major portions of its genius and wealth and economy into the military and grossly neglecting its infrastructure and its educational system and its health facilities and the immense wonder of its natural inheritance and those in its population who must be cared for by the many who are lucky and competent and gifted with intellect and skills and a deep sense of community and love for all living things. Although the elements of ignorance and smug self righteousness and open greed have always played a part in American culture they have rarely had the powers they display today. The neoliberal drives towards destructive world dominance was and still is a basic feature of the Democratic party pushing towards WWIII. A hand grenade is not intelligent and is something of a last resort in a difficult situation that does great damage but may be a saving instrument against something much worse. Trump is a hand grenade.
2
A very perceptive column, Mr. Cohen. I think you're spot on. Down here in the South, I have a few evangelical acquaintances (female, no less) who have been clinging to the belief that God, personally, put Trump in office, despite his sins. It's beyond bizarre.
17
One of our nation’s biggest problems is that Pastor Babcox and his ilk spread the evil of Trump from the pulpit even as they and their institutions avoid paying the taxes that could make much life better in America. Organized religion robs the federal treasury of $80 billion a year. For that privilege, they’re supposed to steer clear of politics.
They want the freedom to support the immoral ways of this president and also actually call themselves Christians and also avoid the financial responsibilities of being a good citizen. In some cases, they even want the freedom to molest children without consequences.
The evils of organized religion and its growing penetration of government have made a mockery of our constitution and contributed mightily to our downfall.
14
What a rationalization of what's happened. I don't believe Congress, even the Republicans, will allow a man implicated in some criminal behavior, and about to be implicated in more, to remain in office. Watergate also looked like it would never end until it did. Once Mueller's report comes out it will all be over.
5
@Pluribus it won’t be over. You’re too optimistic.
1
Whatever your politics, presidents like Kennedy, Reagan and Obama tried to appeal to American’s better angels. They had their policy successes and failures, but generally held an optimistic view of America and Americans. And most of us, like Mr. Cohen, thought that optimism reflected what America was about.
Trump, more than any other president of modern times, if not ever, views America as a failing kingdom and Americans as a bunch of dopes who’ve been taken advantage of. The saddest thing is that 35% of the country have bought into this.
When did the spirit of America become about failure and blaming others for one’s own shortcomings? When did we become about looking backward instead of forward? When did immigrants, the very backbone of America and what makes it unique among the nations of the world, become seen as the cause of our problems rather than the source of our revitalization and growth? When did our long-time international allies become our enemies?
When did America become a patethic, insecure, bullying narcissist who demands loyalty and tribute and returns none?
For those of us who have watched him for decades, Trump is what he has always been. The question is when the rest of America came to resemble him.
12
America got off track when the Supreme Court- without standing - appointed George W Bush President.
Our Constitution allows the states to determine their electors and the judgement of the Florida Supreme Court should have been allowed to stand and Al Gore would have been elected. Even Sandra Day O’Connor has said it was a mistake.
Think of all that transpired as a result of that decision.
We were in budget surplus and were paying down the national debt- until the ill advised Tax Cuts.
We were at peace and the outgoing Clinton Administration advised the Bush people of the dangers of OBL- something the Republicans ignored until September 11.
We were not disappearing people into black site prisons and torturing and holding kangaroo courts in Cuba.
17
@David Gregory the US is rapidly becoming a failed state.
1
For everyone living outside of the US, when we think of what to means to be American, we now think first and foremost about Trump. This is who America has elected and this is how we assume Americans must be ie. narcissist, entitled and full of hubris, with no honesty and no honour.
Some of us are struggling to reconcile this idea of what it means to be American with the few Americans know but it's been an important step-change in how the US is viewed around the world.
Maybe Americans just don't care what the rest of the world thinks of them, but sooner or later in this globalised world, America will want support from the rest of the world, whether in a trade or real war.
Why would anyone go to war for Trump?
25
You've overlooked the fact that trump would not have been "elected" without republican malfeasance and a lot of help from the corporate media.
Gerrymandering, voter ID, voter roll purges, closed polling stations, interstate crosscheck, billions in free advertising from network and cable news. Lies accepted and even promoted. I could go on. trump is an illegitimate president. The American people, no matter their faults, did not elect him.
39
You forgot to add all the help by the Russians.
The mystery which will confront historians, as it now confronts us, centers on the capacity of an electorate to choose in succession two such radically different men for president. Compounding the enigma is the fact that many of the same people undoubtedly voted for both candidates.
Part of the solution to the mystery surely lies in the Jeckyl and Hyde character of the American nation. Historically, optimism and self-confidence, combined with a certain generosity of spirit, have marked our attitude toward the world. Proud of our democratic heritage, even if the reality never quite measured up to our pretensions, we felt confident other countries would eventually copy our example. In this spirit, we twice elected Barack Obama president.
In times of crisis, however, an uglier side of the American character asserted itself. The racism and anti-immigrant bias that never lay far beneath the surface of public attitudes would explode in riots or nasty displays of prejudice against people who didn't fit the WASP mold that older immigrant groups considered the norm. Fear of the 'other' overwhelmed our recognition that at some point in the past all of our ancestors had qualified as newcomers and thus outsiders. In this spirit of fear and loathing, we elevated Trump to the presidency.
While both of these attitudes qualify as authentically American, the widespread hostile reaction to the Trump presidency arouses hope that the better angels of our nature will prevail.
5
The arrow of human civilization goes in only one direction. Over any significant block of time, any stable, democratic society is always a little more tolerant, a little more open and a little more inclusive at the end than at the beginning. I refer to this as the "prevailing left-erlies". There are enormous storms involving the ultraconservative and ultraliberal. Back and forth pendulum swings, some very dramatic, but over time compassion holds out and we drift forward.
Within the bell curve of mankind there is always a tiny majority of people who want to do more for others than less. Progress is slow but steady. It is who we are.
1
America isn’t as good as you thought it was because it elected Obama or as bad as you think it is because it elected Trump (though he lost the popular vote by a few million to another unpopular candidate).
Most Americans, even in these contentious times, simply aren’t as fixated on and interested in politics as the intellectual elite and political activists are. It’s a daily obsession for some but of only passing interest for the majority.
4
I agree, they know who *he* is. They just don’t yet realise that that’s who they are, too.
41
Sorry, Mr Cohen, your Western perspectives rely heavily on cliches and assumptions.
Both Canada and Australia are Anglo-origin countries of striving immigrants, with even bigger, grander and emptier Western spaces than America’s. How to explain their robust safety nets, socialized medicine and deep allergy to guns, yet self reliance, freedom and independence are just as important to life and politics in these nations as in the US?
No, the answer lies elsewhere, in history. Think harder.
40
How far has America fallen?
If global warming, nuclear proliferation and wars, medical care disasters, poverty and revolutions worldwide have only gotten worse, then what do Americans really care about-
might it be the economy and the astronomical markets ?
During the campaign Mr Trump repeated it several times that the National Dept was NOT 19 or 21 Trillion but rather 220 Trillion - watching out for investments and possible scenarios is facing us all .
That is the real nightmare - no matter who might be in what office of power anywhere in the world.
It's Hotel California where you can check out anytime but you can never leave -
5
I agree with Mr. Cohen that Trump is a symptom and not the disease but I disagree with Mr. Cohen that this is an American disease. I am sorry to say that the underlying problem is more severe and global. Trump is no different from other established dictators like Putin and Kim and budding ones like Erdogan, el Sisi, Xi, and many others. Liberal democracies are in decline and authoritarian regimes are rising. While America has fallen, its institutions are still resilient. We are not like China where democracy has never taken hold and there is effectively no resistance at all when Xi effectively declared himself emperor for life. We must have faith that America will heal itself in the ballot box.
Unfortunately, the danger would remain dire until the world would move again on the right track. Even if America can escape authoritarianism itself, it cannot long survive in peace when inevitable wars would engulf a nativist world. I don't think that the root causes for the decline of democracies all over the world are well understood. The conflict between modernity and traditional cultures is clearly a part of the equation. The passing of a generation with memories of global wars probably also has a role. Until we can identify and counter these trends, we are living on borrowed time.
28
I don't expect Congress to impeach Trump. What he did was not different from what many other politicians do. His real fault was that his lawyers didn't package it the right way: he should have asked the Koch brothers for advice...
5
@Wim Roffel the chapter on Trump is not yet finished. Conspiracy with Russia to win the election would be quite different.
@Wim Roffel
What he did—and is doing—is far worse than the usual politician, and certainly US President.
How far American has fallen today (supposing it was "risen" in the first place)?
I don't think Americans have much of any idea of what they are doing. I especially don't think Americans are aware how much they do is sheer improvisation, action and thought not by any book, meaning how little Constitution or Bible or any other guide has influence in American life.
America at inception appeared to be a new nation with certain words as guide to thought and action, of course Constitution; of predominantly Christian religious background; and with people of European descent dominating. But eventually it has come to pass that Americans do not view society as something to be dominated by this or that religion or this or that racial/ethnic group but interestingly still society is to be held together by guiding documents, obviously and most prominently the Constitution.
But is the Constitution, law in general in America, such that it can hold people together through loss of dominant religion, through changes in racial/ethnic composition? I would say at best, hardly, and probably not. Which means we are largely improvising today. No one thinks much of religion really, let alone a particular one dominating American life. No one really expects a particular racial or ethnic group to dominate in American life.
And why anyone would think anything of guiding words, the Constitution, in American life when humanities/literary life is all but scorned is beyond me. So what holds us together?
13
It started with the first nail in the coffin of participatory democracy in the U.S.: the ending of the military draft and the creation of a mercenary army. That happened after the political fiasco of the Vietnam war, when conservatives and the military recognized they could wage more wars if war dead were detached from realtime public commitment.
Then the second shoe to drop was Reagan’s further detachment ideology. The result: too many Americans almost immediately felt that the government was no longer “ours.”
Ending the draft also made the 2nd Amendment the problem it has become — untethered from its core meaning.
33
@joymars or any cumpulsory public service out of high school, could be almost anything..
For 2 years now I have been trying to calibrate my idea about America with what I could see happening. For 2 years now I feel that I constantly fail. This opinion by R. Cohen has given me a glimpse of why things are the way they are. It is slowly dawning on me that a true change - and some degree of healing - will only be able, once politicians and other speech makers face reality and stop saying "This is not us! We are better than this!" While this may be true for the individual that is making the claim, it is important to realize:"Yes, this is us, this is our society in the 21st century. It is our country that has all this greatness, but it is also our country and our Congress that has given up on Gun laws despite Sandy Hook. It is our political system that fails to abolish gerrymandering, corruption, unequal education chances and that denies Health Care to many. Now, what do we do about it?" - Only then, I believe, some real change can happen. But it will only be a first step - and then the tough and long work only starts.
After WWII my fellow Germans were in denial about how all that could have happened. This was not us! But how come, we enabled the brown pest and made the dictatorship possible? Only after many years of licking wounds the real soul searching began and more years were needed to draw conclusions and act on them. I am certainly not comparing Germany then with the US now, but denial clearly prevents change. Good luck, US, please learn fast and change!
218
@Wolfgang I mostly agree, but America will not heal at all, not ever, if we continue to give politicians a free pass. They must be held accountable, consequences decided and carried through.
10
Thank you, Wolfgang, that needed to be said. If more Americans spent time abroad and around the world, they could begin to see themselves in a more realistic light. Instead, many of us believe in our exceptionalism to the point of absolute denial that we are ever anything but ‘great’ and the problem is that we aren’t ‘patriotic’ enough if we question our greatness. This is an immature toddler’s self-serving view of the world, but at least a toddler can grow into an educated, well informed adult who uses exploration to inform his or her worldview. Many Americans prefer not to go further than the corner to learn about anything that doesn’t jibe with their personal myopic view of themselves and their country. We have lessons to learn from the world, we are just 250 years old, a true toddler in terms of civilization— time to grow up!
2
Sitting here reading through the comments I have started wondering if what the real problem with our politics today is not the wealth inequality itself, but the social separation that it engenders. 90% of the people live their lives daily pursuing the basic requirements of modern life, transportation to and from a job that provides the currency that buys food, clothing, and shelter, most of them living from one weeks pay to another, many never having enough to stay solvent. 10% of the people have no worries of how they will cover those expenses, and no conception of how the other 90% have to live. Many of the 90% drive through neighborhoods that the 10% live in, and watch TV that is almost exclusively about those 10% lives, but have no conception of how much money it really takes to live like that. The real two Americas, separated by the day to day realities of their lives. It is the loss of a common daily life for the majority of its people that America has suffered. Wealth inequality is the cause, maybe not the problem. There has always been the extreme wealth of a few, but now there are many more who live different lives from the rest of us. In our past the poor were always mostly racial minorities and not considered "one of us" so their plight was not part of the American community. Now the 10% see the 90% as "not one of us", and they control the governments, local, state, and federal. Those elected to office all feel entitled to be one of the 10% if they are not already.
75
Try talking to patients in a hospital who wonder how they will pay the bill while living on $900.00/mo. We as a nation have lost our compassion for our fellow man; supporting someone like DJT brings it to light as much as we try to deny it.
18
Babcox "said the Second Amendment was designed to create a militia 'equal to the government to ensure self-reliance,' and that therefore the ban on the magazines should be overturned. He said, 'If I can limit somebody on what weapons they can buy, why would I not be able to limit what you can say about me under the First Amendment?'"
We often hear from "Second Amendment people" like Sharron Angle that gun rights are intended to protect the people from our government. Yet the Second Amendment itself says a "well regulated Militia" is "necessary to the security of a free State[.]" The words seem to say that the militia is there to protect the state, not to subvert it. Is there any constitutional convention or legislative history supporting the Angle/Babcox interpretation? Is that how Justice Scalia interpreted it in D.C. v. Heller? (Seriously--I don't know that he didn't, but I'd appreciate a citation or quote.)
As to Babcox's second point, the First Amendment is not absolute. We can't slander each other--not even government officials (recall the "actual malice" test)--with impunity, and we can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater, or incite others to imminent violence. The Second Amendment isn't absolute either, and we know Scalia said this in Heller.
As to the thrust of Cohen's column, it sounds right to me. Maybe Trump's supporters prefer the devil they [think] they know to the devil they don't.
50
@quentin c. It had zero to do with standing up to the government. Tgat was a concocted idea starting in the late 1950 as an advertising campaign to sell more guns..
1
Roger Cohen gets part of his thesis right. I have lived in Colorado and Alaska, as well as Minnesota, California, Texas, and, for a brief period, New York. I know whereof he speaks.
Cohen is correct in stating that Americans elected such a bizarre aberration as Donald Trump, but he does not go the rest of the way. A convincing majority of Americans voted against Trump. His victory is nothing more than an artifact of an antiquated flaw in our democratic system, the Electoral College, which has its roots in the early attempt to dilute the voice of one segment of our citizens, the Black population of our earliest years which, by default, has been allowed to propagate itself to the present day. It now affects our presidential elections in a wholly disproportionate way.
By what rationale do people who proclaim themselves to be Christian also claim to be American, when the foundations of America are built upon principles of equal opportunity, equal rights, equal justice, and equal consideration of all, regardless of race, creed, color, gender, orientation, or origin? These fundamental truisms apply whether we live in the East, the West, or the vast continent in between; whether we live in the 18th or the 21st centuries, or at any time between them.
What has changed has been society, science, technology, economics, and the standards by which we live and expect to live. Until Americans reach agreement on accommodating these changes, decent standards of governing cannot be derived.
31
@Peter G Brabeck
Very good historical perspective. Congratulations.
@Peter G Brabeck
Because those Christians care fundamentally about their religion.
As most (not all) religions do.
“My way (to heaven), or the Highway (to hell)
Trump is enabled by a GOP that specializes in amassing power and subverting the will of the majority of voters. Past time to fight states that gerrymander and decertify legal voters by putting them on "nonactive voter lists” (OH, GA, etc.); Force Congress to hold public hearings about dark/foreign money from the Saudis, UAE, Russians—used to break our laws (NRA/Trump Campaign/2016 election); Fight voter ID rules that target poor, elderly, minority voters; Adequately fund districts to ensure enough polling sites, ballots, open hours, and working equipment to meet voters; Ensure by federal law that when people register or renew their drivers license there are automatically registered to vote; Reverse laws that make it illegal to mail in sealed ballots in remote areas (AZ); Enable recount petitions to be filed and entered in court if vote tampering evidence is presented (MI, FL); Ensure every vote cast is counted as cast and there's a paper trail; Take Russian hacking validated by 17 U.S. intel agencies seriously and demand that Congress adequately protect the nation's voting systems; Prevent partisan Sec. of States running for office to count votes (Kris Kobach, KS, Karen Handel, GA). Retire electronic voting systems and vote counting software made and controlled by private manufacturers, and use a nationwide paper ballot system---counted in public as other advanced countries do. We need a voting rights and integrity commission to oversee uniform administration of the law.
81
@Ann
Every eligible person(not as determined by the onerous rules of many states) should have a vote whether they live in a shelter or a private home. Voting should be on a Sunday when most people are available and have long hours for those who do work.
Everything else you say is spot on.
Thanks
18
@Ann
Sunday voting will never happen.
The Christians will be fundamentally against it, as it would eat into their two favorite pastimes.
Church & the NFL
We were aware that there were competing narratives about America -who we are as a nation and what we believed in. But the narrative that the author describes - which sounds like something out of a 1930's Western - we thought that one was subordinate to the story about America that we -most of us, I thought anyway- were taught in grammar school, the story that had the dream of justice and equality in it. The one described in that poem on the plaque on the base of the Statue of Liberty. We thought that one was predominant. We were wrong.
16
Cohen, you are absolutely spot on saying Trump was a symptom, not a cause. The problem is way deeper than him.
Trump is the symptom of the “The Exhausted West,” chastised the arrogance and smugness of Western materialist culture and exposed the adverse effects of some of those achievements that Western democracies had long prided themselves upon, as truly well said by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. “The defense of individual rights has reached such extremes as to make society as a whole defenseless against certain individuals,” . “It is time, in the West, to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.” Solzhenitsyn's fine speech ranks among the most thoughtful, articulate, and challenging addresses ever delivered at a Harvard Commencement.
American society based on the letter of the law and never reaching any higher fails to take advantage of the full range of human possibilities. ..The letter of the law creates an atmosphere of spiritual mediocrity that paralyzes man's noblest impulses observed Solzhenitsyn at Commencement Address Delivered At Harvard University 1978.
Trump symbolizes society that's morally degraded with spiritual mediocrity. Solzhenitsyn’s brilliant, iconoclastic speech nearly four decades back was prophetical.
36
What we ignore at our greatest peril to the Republic since our American Revolution and the Civil War is just how just how very far this Republican Party has fallen. Sure. Republicans are scared of their base. But Republican's spineless stance towards Donald Trump has as much, or more, to do with the millions of dollars in contributions Republicans have taken in from the Russians. (Reference: The Dallas Morning News.) America hasn't fallen far yet. But if Citizens and the Media don't hold the leaders of the Republican party compromised by Russian money to account NOW, this Republic will FALL.
34
As a Colorado native, I must puncture the "who needs government?" hubris of Trump supporters like the minister quoted here whose libertarian babble perpetuates the myth of the West as a place where self-reliant individuals create empires without help from Uncle Sam.
From its early days of gold, silver, and mineral exploitation, Colorado has relied on federal assistance to generate private wealth. Historically, the state's riches lay mostly underground, in the mining industry that the Interior Department nurtured, subsidizing millionaires now revered as independent pioneers of laissez-faire capitalism. Since the mid-20th century, the Front Range (a megalopolis extending north from Denver to Fort Collins and south to Pueblo where most of Colorado's wealth is concentrated), has been a model of government/private enterprise collaboration, from tourism ("Ski Country USA" is nothing if not subsidy dependent) to health care and education (representing 25% the economy, most of it reliant on Medicare and the U.S. Department of Education).
Now that its future rests on service industries, Colorado still relies on federal subsidies. The promise that an Amazon headquarters will wean Colorado from the government's vast investments in land management and military infrastructure ignores the state's dependence on federal funds to maintain its highways, airports, and transportation networks.
This so-called "purple state" has always been blue, with Washington, D.C., its lifeline.
95
@John Sullivan These self-reliant Westerners didn’t just depend on the Federal Government to develop economically. Nothing would have happened without the US army dispossessing the original inhabitants. That’s an uncontroversial and pretty much incontrovertible reading of history.
1
As on Native American once supposedly mused, “The American individual? We could have knocked off each of them coming over the mountain. But the iron horse got us. Without The U.S. Army we would have gotten the iron horse too.”
So much for the stupid myth of the self-reliant individual.
What vast wealth is in Pueblo?? They have a good chili festival.
Only two events in the early 1970s were needed to set the decline of America in motion apace -
(1) Going off the Gold Standard
(2) Pardoning Richard Nixon
The former led to an "economy" ever more based on the financial sector and, in concert, commensurately dependent on asset inflation, especially in real estate and stocks. The inevitable result was asset bubbles and bursts requiring monetary intervention of constantly increasing and ultimately unprecedented size and scope.
The latter sent a message in sixty foot block letters that if you are powerful, rich, or famous enough then excuses will be found (usually framed as "good for the country" - healing in Nixon's case - and often and most perniciously "in the interest of national security') for not punishing you for your crimes.
Donald Trump's presidency is one of the clearest consequences of the two events and the processes they promoted ... via the growing bifurcation of wealth and the ongoing development of multiple thriving industries devoted to the production of useful lies.
Many other hypotheses are possible, but unneeded, after even a small amount of reflection.
Hint: It doesn't get better until after it gets much worse. Only a shift from the widespread perception "there is a war than can and must be won" to "there is a peace that must be found" will improvement be a sensible forecast.
25
The nail in the coffin of participatory democracy happened right after Nixon: the end of the draft and the beginning of essentially a mercenary military. Wars were no longer the immediate political liability they once were, and voting lost its immediate significance. The core meaning of the 2nd Amendment was forever set adrift to be the loose canon it is today.
14
Yes, they are out there, but the majority of us did not vote for this man. I take some comfort in that.
61
If Trump is the symptom and not the cause of what has gone wrong with the idea of America that forced a wrong choice of making a bargain with the devil, it would be better to focus attention on searching for the cause of malaise the American society finds itself afflicted with, rather exhausting all the energy and effort to get rid of the symptom only.
14
@Prof. Jai Prakash Sharma, America has all the ingredients needed to bring itself out of its afflictions. What we are witnessing is the insecurity whites feel, because somehow non whites have gotten better than them. Our high schools and universities are increasingly being powered intellectually and academically by non whites (used to be Jewish folks once upon a time), while the whites are too busy with sports and partying. In this lilly white neighborhood, I notice kids who play all day long, they seem to be gluttons for play...then in middle school they wonder why the Asian kids do better than them. Science math computers, whites are being outnumbered, and they find lame excuses of white nationalism or opioids to hide behind, instead of facing their challenges head on.
''Trump was a symptom, not a cause. The problem is way deeper than him''.
Yes - but the NYT never ever will tell the American people that they are ''the problem''.
16
@pieceofcake
I've been saying that for a long long time.
can't blame trump for losing the popular vote and still winning the presidency.
nor for the stupidity of millions of people who ignored the obvious and voted against their own self interest.
2
@pieceofcake... They just did...
1
''They just did...''
Not really - as they avoided again to tell IT Americans - who are for Trump - in a way Americans who are for Trump understand.
Like - what Robert De Niro said!
And I always wonder what would have happened if the NYT -(and all US Newspapers) would have headlined - what De Niro said - right after the Birther Von Clownstick announced his candidacy?