anger and fear as a political tool I noticed in the George Bush election. The democrats started their favorite name calling. Republican presidents would always be known as “Hitler”. But the real increase in racial divide was with Obama. anger and fear was stimulated in all the minority groups by Obama.
President Trump is the most positive president our country has had since Ronald R. A Trump rally is full of positive messages for Americans. Liberals should tune in to a Trump rally. A Trump rally is positive while a democrat debate is full of negative thinking about America.
12
We have seen this spectacle before, the 1922 Black Shirts of Italy, the Brown Shirts of Germany and today the MAGA Red Hats.
It is the same formula with different targets.
58
Ah the fantastic irony of the Trump supporters, these folks have been tricked emotionally into supporting a trickster who throws them cheap verbal meat, e.g. 'Make liberals cry.', while working full time behind their backs to dismantle their democratic freedoms and their social safety net! It certainly has happened before, Hitler, Goebbels, and the gang were able to trick a substantial fraction of the German populace in the same way. Can you imagine what is going to happen to all those families at trump rallies when their social security goes away because so much of the wealth has been transferred upward?
49
What I see in that photo is a bunch of aging, overweight scared white men who have nothing better to do but spread ugliness. Sad! Fortunately, they are the minority and will soon fade out to make room for the progressive younger generation.
47
“Make Liberals Cry Again,” should be, “Make Liberals Vote Again.”
26
It’s called fascism.
32
yyyyyyeaaaaahhhhhhh..... I seem to remember being called deplorable. I seem to remember being called a racist with zero evidence other than a policy stance. I seem to remember the demonization of white males at every turn. But I'm sure that is all Trumps fault..... righttttttt....... The Dems need to take ownership of their own burning house, they are the one that lit the fire, they are the one who made false claims, they are the one who ratcheted up this political tension, and they are the ones who lack any clear leadership. If you get to own the successes you have to own the failures.
18
And "Basket of deplorables" isn't hateful and inciting???
17
This article has it backwards, the leftist way. Have you heard Bernie Bro’s or his campaign staffers? You can’t watch an awards show without some celebrity going on a full hate rant with 50 F bombs. Bernie Bro’s have been responsible for 3-4 of the large mass shootings last year. What about Antifa? The guy they drove his van thru a Republican tent registering voters. Democrat candidates verbally abusing & trashing Trump supporters. The rise of Islamic black hate groups killing cops. Antisemitism is rampant on the left. Should I go on? The left fuels itself on hate, and it’s never been more on display for the whole world to see than right now. That’s why you will lose 2020. It’s not Hope & Change.
10
I guess it doesn’t bother you that Trump paid off prostitutes, assaulted women, put children in cages, ran up a trillion dollar debt, had a fraudulent university, had a fraudulent foundation, obstructed justice and extorted Ukraine
34
Thank you Republicans for ruining our country. Thank you for making guys like the one in the 'Make Liberals Cry Again!' shirt show their true colors -- nasty and hate-filled.
21
A white left-wing voter has spoken.
2
Mankind has been hiding behind a make believe god for hundreds of years, and look what these useless beliefs have gotten us; Donald J. Trump and a following of gullible, uneducated, misinformed cretins and greedy, money hungry vultures.
19
“Hate.”
One side has Nazis on it.
Donald Trump’s side.
20
Spineless from the start, sucked into the part
Circus comes to town, you play the lead clown
Please, please
Spreading his disease, living by his story
Knees, knees
Falling to your knees, suffer for his glory
You will
Time for lust, time for lie
Time to kiss your life goodbye
Send me money, send me green
Heaven you will meet
Make a contribution
And you'll get a better seat
Bow to Leper Messiah
Marvel at his tricks, need your Sunday fix
Blind devotion came, rotting your brain
Chain, chain
Join the endless chain, taken by his glamour
Fame, Fame
Infection is the game, sucking drunk with power
We see
Time for lust, time for lie
Time to kiss your life goodbye
Send me money, send me green
Heaven you will meet
Make a contribution
And…
“Leper Messiah”
Metallica
Master of Puppets LP
Released 3 March 1986
5
Where are decent Republicans, and why aren't they defending our nation and Constitution against Trump, our Mussolini (or worse) in political utero? Where are the Bushes? David Eisenhower, Schwarzenegger, others? Why your damning silence?
19
This isn’t the United States that I was taught about in civics class. Trump is following Hitler‘s playbook to a T.
20
Tea Party is Putin party...end of story.
12
The main theme among Republicans boils down to one thing... HATE. Hate and greed is what drives them. Hardly what the teachings of Jesus was about.
8
Trump's true call seems to be "Make America Hate Again."
14
Exactly the same way Trudeau is using anger & fear to promote his agenda of power. Fear of climate change & what he & his compatriots feel is causing it. Therefore turning that anger also into not listening to any other agenda other than his own. We now have the railroad system of Canada basically shut down with our PM talking to the pipeline protesters & also ignoring the population affected by the shut downs & also not listening to the "other side". Thank you for such a striking example of showing us what polarization is & what it does.
1
Has the guy wearing the "Make Liberals Cry Again " ever stopped to wonder why some Americans wept when Trump was "elected"? Why some Canadians shed a tear? Why some people all over the world were upset ?
Because they knew all too well Trump's sleazy reputation as a cheat and a fraud. They saw how he behaved during the so-called debates, how totally unfit and unprepared such a mean,ignorant man was to become president of the United States. They had a taste of the shame that man could bring to a proud nation.
They wept for America.
And they were right to cry, because it has been far worse than anyone expected ,with the Trumpist Party thrusting the knife into the wound up to the hilt.
26
This is why the Democrats (sometimes) drive me to despair.
They are breaking down into EXTREME Democrats--or MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD Democrats. Thrashing out Medicare for all (or not)--abolishing the ICE (or not)--punitively heavy taxes for the super-rich (or not)--this and that--this and that--
--and (as Willy Loman said long ago) "the woods are on fire."
The country is on fire.
Democracy in America is in deep deep trouble.
Listening to the Dem's (sometimes) I am reminded of "A Night To Remember" (about the Titanic disaster) in which some frightened passengers in steerage make their way up the the Second Class tier--
--and are sternly admonished by some officious steward that they will be held "strictly responsible" for any damage they do.
Hey, guy. The ship's going down. Worry about something else.
I devoutly wish the DNC had faced this appalling truth early on--and had called some kind of emergency national convention--and TALKED about all these things--
--and worked out some sort of game plan--
--so we DIDN'T have two dozen candidates all vying for the nomination and calling each other names.
"Cause if THEY don't save us--
--who will?
4
These poor people don’t realize that liberals are not crying. We are laughing. At them.
12
In Trump's ego driven life he falls into the category of, it's better to rule in chaos than to not rule at all. He is the Gozer of our times.
1
Hate of everyday Americans is alive and well in the Sanders' "Bernie Bro" culture. Except instead of attacking the opposing party, it's open season any moderate who dares question M4A.
2
So a bunch of liberal academics blame Trump and Republicans for extremism and hate, what’s new? Besides a few token references to “political polarization” as a general theme, the article largely ignores the left’s intolerance of deplorables or any person who may think or live differently. Because if you don’t buy the elitist moral line, then you are evil and worthy of cancellation. I used to think liberal meant tolerance and open mindedness. Today, there isn’t even a platform to have a debate! Then these readers want to shut down Fox. Yes, liberalism can produce tyranny.
9
People like the jerk in the picture are everything that is wrong right now. That attitude, that willingness, eagerness to cause others pain and discomfort, and to take pleasure (these people do not experience joy) from is is every thing that is wrong with America to day. We do not need these people.
9
There are still children in cages who don't know where their parents are. Just a little reminder...of the hate.
15
Well, who started it?
When conservatives hurl epithets at leftists, they’re usually policy related, like “socialist”. And, as we now see, conservatives were absolutely right; leftists ARE socialists.
Leftists, on the other hand, befitting the mantra, “the personal is the political”, hurl personal insults, like “racist”. These, we know, are objectively false. But that’s not to say that leftists don’t passionately believe them. And therein lies the problem. As RWR sagely noted, it’s not that leftists are ignorant, it’s that so much of what they know for certain simply isn’t so.
It’s hard to love a racist. And when your pseudo-religious faith holds that anyone who disagrees with you is, perforce, a racist, hatred necessarily follows.
Have you EVER heard a Republican openly state that the way to victory is to get white, straight, males to vote? Or that people in that demographic better serve as representatives? The left unabashedly demands the people vote (the RIGHT way) on the basis of race, sex, and sexuality. (Until, of course, a black lesbian runs as a Republican; then, identity takes second place to socialism)
The simple fact is that this all started when “the personal is the political” became dogma on the left. Until they realize that policy is NOT personal – that the personal is not a political statement – the problems will endure. Put simply, anyone who believes that the country is racist from top to bottom is not qualified to govern it.
6
Trump is a fascist and has taken from that handbook all that needs . Like other fascists he exploits the fears, anger, resentment and humiliation that feed the inner rage of a
segment of the electorate. He stirs into this boiling cauldron
the falsehoods that feed his own inner rage. He is full of resentments and seeks an audience to cheer him on as plots his revenge on those who in his mind disrespected him.
In reality these people were attempting to hold him responsible for his actions. Trump's ascendancy to the WH
did not spring out of nowhere. Every nation has its dark underbelly. Presidents usually attempt to at least bring the nation together. At a minimum they try not to divide and pit us against each other. The audacity of hate began with Nixon's white Southern strategy. Then Reagan started his campaign in Philadelphia Miss. He talked of state rights & welfare "queens" all code for underlying policies which were designed to push the poor further into poverty, the middle class into an endless cycle of economic catch-up & enrich the already wealthy. Now we have Trump who is a master of self aggrandizement. He plays his faithful like a master fiddler plays his instrument. He has helped to overturn the rocks under which White Supremacists have hidden. It may not be possible to undue this. He has no shame in spilling out hate, fear & resentment. He is our Putin and is taking the nation to a very dark ugly place.
5
Can say that, in general, I oppose hate. In specific, if you are Trump, a Trump supporter, a Trump excuser, play on a Trump golf course, stay in a Trump property, etc., etc., I hate you.
3
Perhaps ranked choice voting could help reduce hyperpolarization
2
Just looked up the word demagogue, not that I didn't know about it, but just wanted to confirm. Trump and many right leaning politicians are demagogues. The basis of their political views are whipping up their base into a frenzy using certain fairly typical scapegoats like immigrants or terms like patriotism to drive their message and win votes. Immigrants are not the crux of the problem in this country, though Trump et al have people believing they are. Not making that jump, but didn't a 1930s world leader make the same false claims? How Trump is getting away with it, I will never know.
6
Both a lack of transparency and supporting self-defeating policies stand in the way of Democrats winning the Presidency.
Clinton lost a "sure win" election both through her personal flaws (putting an email server in her home as Secretary of State and then destroying 30,000 emails subpoenaed by Congress, accepting $675,000 for 3 talks to Wall Street banker Goldman without media being invited, calling half of Trump supporters "deplorables") but also because of problems with policy which include immigration.
Regarding transparency, it is well known by the media that requests for refugee status were being abused. Anyone seeking refugee status in the US would be released into the general population never to be seen again, thus necessitating a different approach where that refugee status is requested outside the county. The media know this issue, yet never seem to be transparent and bring it up.
The Democrats could have easily won over Trump by simply changing their unpopular policies. No need for impeachment. Simply 1. adopt policies that support the rule of law regarding immigration (illegal immigrants should not be living in the US) and 2. Adopt a platform of women's (and girls) rights to privacy in their restrooms without genetic males and ensuring that genetic males do not compete against girls in sports events.
Why aren't powerful Democratic women leaders willing to support women's rights? Where was Pelosi, Warren, Klobuchar? Silent.
3
Young people are concerned first and foremost about climate change and the environment and about college debt, lack of long term job security and health care. They want to achieve the American Dream too, but wonder how they can, no matter how hard they work. Things they don't care about: what race someone is, whether you are straight or gay or bisexual or transgender, what race or religion your significant other is. They just don't care and wonder why some older people care so much. It makes them crazy. The Right has painted itself into a corner--they don't seem to realize that diversity--of thought, of race, of religion, of sexual orientation, of culture, is here to stay. Realistically, the old white xenophobes are literally going to die off all too soon. Perhaps this is their last gasp politically, a desperate longing to remain relevant, among that sector who had so much power for so long. Desperate people do desperate things, as the saying goes. Nominating and electing, then enabling Trump? The most desperate acts of all. If one is playing the long game though, the GOP ultimately made a foolish choice. What do they stand for now? What, exactly are Conservatives seeking to conserve? Nothing but their own wealth and power. Such desires, do not, as we know, come to a good end.
6
What we are forced to endure now in the age of Trump is the logical projection of the arc of intellectual dishonesty initiated by George W. Bush and his minions: You know, the ones who declared that they could create their own reality. Well, here we are.
4
Everyone vote against the incumbent president and all the Republican senators in November.
Tell everyone and their brothers and sisters to do so.
3
We’ve all been reading variations on this contention for decades. It happens to be true about Trump; unfortunately, people like Romney and McCain were characterized just as viciously by the left/media.
The idea that Republicans are a party of bottom feeders has some merit in it. But what kind of credibility do news organizations and writers who categorically deny the sins of the left expect to have?
Identity politics is in many ways just as ugly, just to a different set of people.
Leveraging vicious charges of racism against anyone who dare sleep to disagree with you on any subject — such as simply enforcing borders — is in fact another form of “hate.”
Trump is dealing from the bottom of the deck. Liberals often deal from the bottom of the deck.
Those who fail to acknowledge both realities are part of the problem.
Trump's very first appearance at his Trump Tower with the orchestrated announcement of his candidacy was a rigged event. The Television cameras were there, right?
From the beginning on that day, it was bathed in race baiting and hatred. He was blowing dog whistles to create the nightmare nation with a reign of terror, so paralyzing, even Congressional Republicans are afraid of him. He is hate and anger personified.
5
No dem candidate in the field is tapping into hate, fear, and anger but Sanders. He could be the death of the democratic party. Like Trump, his memes tap into a purely emotional part of the brain. Like Trump, he yells out everything that's wrong with our country, inferring that he alone can fix it. Like Trump, he's making outlandish promises that he cannot keep. Like Trump, he's opposed to ever compromising. Like Trump, he has a cult following every bit as divisive as Trump's.
As he gains momentum, what most alarms me is that his worshippers never question the veracity of his claims to enact sweeping changes. They don't acknowledge that, to get his ideals accomplished, he needs a congressive which is populated with progressives; enough to bring about 60 votes. Even taking back the senate will not have this result. In 40 years, he's never worked well with any congress, nor has he been willing to compromise. He prides himself on not compromising. Democracy can only function on compromise. No congress; no fulfilled promises. Period. This has become a cult that disallows common sense and rationality. Just like Trump's.
How many 80-year olds do you know who could withstand the highest pressure job in the land?? ALL people who are in their 80s slow down physically and mentally. How many Americans would vote for a socialistic form of governing? One thing that I am certain of: a Sanders nomination will give an evil, corrupt, and mentally unstable four more years.
2
Philip Zimbardo’s “The Lucifer Effect” addresses how evil by ordinary people becomes possible by making tribes believe that other groups of people are evil, dangerous, a threat to the tribe’s continued existence. Thereafter, there is no rational thought - just a series of atrocities.
3
Weapons used by the left and media against Republicans are now used against them. The days when Kennedy was Camelot and Nixon a pathetic criminal are over.
For example, vast majority of important men fell by the me too movement are liberal icons while Kavanaugh sits on SCOTUS. Such scenario was impossible to imagine under Bush.
The professoriate searching for explanations for the current political warfare terrain are drawn to Trump like moths and miss the obvious; politics of personal destruction are now employed by everybody, all the time, and in all situations. They lost the monopoly. Nothing new in history of warfare.
The idea that the purveyors of the Russian collusion hoax can complain about anger politics and political persecution and revenge prosecutions is laughable. Live by a sword- die by a sword.
2
"In 2008, the country, reeling from economic chaos, elected Barack Obama"
Not before the election. The crash came after the election. It was Obama's fate to be left holding the bag of toxic derivatives as Bush tried to slink away from D.C.
2
“The GOP has radicalized into an anti-system party that does not accept the legitimacy of its opposition and enables a slide toward autocracy.”
Substitute “Democratic Party” for “GOP” and the observation still holds.
2
The Devil's calling card is chaos, disorder and confusion. It is not a coincidence that this is the very milieu in which Trump and his ilk thrive. One need not be a biblical scholar or expert in eschatology to recognize the profound irony in the fact that that evangelicals, the so-called Christian Right and conservative Catholics have coalesced behind Trump and see him not as antichrist but rather as savior
1
I’m not very optimistic. Some situations are too grim for words.
Voter suppression.
The electoral college.
Federal courts packed with conservatives.
Religious zealots.
White supremists.
Climate change deniers.
Regressive tax policies.
The chance of 4 more years of Trump.
Our pain will continue—never underestimate the ignorance of the American people.
5
It can be argued that the current political divisions are the same racial divisions that have plagued the USA since the Mayflower.
Is Mr. Edsall kidding? Has he heard Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren speak?
Sanders and Warren are both trying to start a class war, using hatred of billionaires as a rallying cry to kill the rich. (I think Bernie may mean this literally!)
Watch the Democrats eat their own as they grasp for power at their debate tonight!
Not to mention, has he heard the vitriol from the left about Trump and his supporters?
The only difference between Trump and the rest of them is that Trump is good at it.
Stop trying to make it sound like Trump is some special kind of evil. Every single one of these politicians is a narcissist who despises us and wants to control us and tell us how to live our lives.
And, the liberals - who want to "fundamentally change" what America is and what it stands for (most likely to turn it into Venezuela or Cuba) - are worst of all.
2
The elephant is the room is that the root of a lot of this country's ills, a lot of the strife and unhappiness has been cause by white (mostly) male hate. Not aliens from another country. But home grown fear, hate and loathing. It's been the one constant in our nation since the vote essentially equalized the populace. It's sticks in the craw of those who feel that they are the only ones entitled to the blessings of this country.
It's gussied up with a lot of pretty words, like "No need for safety nets"; "America is full ( quota was filled once we got here). No one else need apply especially if you do not look like me and mine"; "They don't deserve prosperity. They shouldn't have more than me or do better than me...I'm white."
So much hate that my fellow Americans would pick a man with no sense of geography, no sense of history and no sense of decency. They excuse his evil because it mirrors their own.
How much further along we would be as a nation, if we didn't have this cancer tearing the country apart.
What will it take to prove once and for all that no one is born superior or inferior? Another civil war?
3
It's too bad the Democratic candidates are not worth talking about and instead the unfounded "hate" attacks against our President and any American who has been intelligent and industrious enough to benefit from the best economy in decades and gladly supports Trump.
Anyone interested in the truth about hate and division in America just has to go back to the election that made Trump President; it was the first time I can remember that anyone talked about a "divided" country that the next President has to fix. That country was divided by none other that Barack Obama after 8 years of breaking the undivided American spirit.
13
Among the nice things about this country is that everyone is entitled to an opinion, however ill-informed or nutty.
It is, however, just an opinion—and we all know the joke about opinions.
14
Ignoring the facts do not change them. A trump rally where it is okay to wear a T-shirt that says "make a liberal cry again" is symptomatic of Trump and his followers lack of decency. To be clear, it not only throws decency out the window it promotes indecent behavior, enables hatred and the erosion of our country.
12
Opinions and assumptions are not the same.
2
The media also amplifies hate, sows fear, magnifies our differences, and creates "other"
certainly this is true of conservative outlets like Fox, but it's also true of liberal media.
Liberal newspapers often attack those with conservative views, attacking their character rather than the policies.
Liberal newspapers often use persuasive writing and adjectives and nouns with negative nuance rather than reporting facts.
Liberal newspapers often leave us feeling angry toward conservatives, stirred up, frustrated. Fear mongering. Sowing division. Polarizing us.
Turning up the anger for political reasons. Bad stuff, on either side.
186
@Open Yer Mind
Enough with the false equivalence. The left does not make Charlottesvilles. The right does.
457
Oh gosh, save me the false equivalency argument. When one party and one media outlet argue that the country is in trouble because of an erosion of inclusionary policies while the other party and media outlet argue the opposite, which argument better serves the goal of United we Stand?
The United States of America is not a football game.
179
@Open Yer Mind
"certainly this is true of conservative outlets like Fox, but it's also true of liberal media."
No, it isn't.
There's no "liberal" equivalent of Faux Newz. You can say that all you want, but it doesn't make it true. And you know you have to say that in order to justify the existence of Faux Newz.
"....persuasive writing and adjectives and nouns with negative nuance"
Criticism is not negativity. If the regressive right were intelligent enough to realize that, they we'd be making some progress. You can scream all you want about hate and negativity, but it's clearly emanating from one side of the political spectrum, and it's not the left.
241
It's very important to underscore the fact that the "Make Liberals Cry Again" logo worn by the man in your lead paragraph could just as well have been worn by the Bernie progressives. There is a deep resentment and jealousy that yields a desire for revenge among many of them that manifests daily in the comments section of this paper. And Sanders, like Trump, continually stokes this. The objects of scorn are different than those of the Trumpists, but the underlying dynamic is the same. Interesting times, indeed.
34
@TMS
When it came out that Sanders supporters were threatening Nevada union workers with violence, and Sanders issued a non-apology just like Trump does, that showed us exactly who Sanders really is.
Typical politician. Says one thing. Does another. I hope so much that he does not win the nomination. If he does, I’ll vote for him. But I really hope I won’t have to.
19
@Austin Ouellette-Bernie Sanders may be a politician, but to say he is typical is way off base. I was at a rally this winter when a chant of "lock him up" (Trump) started in the crowd. He quickly quashed it and went on to his stump speech of positive change. He has been on point with the same messages/ policy ideas for 30 years. I support him for his integrity more than any other reason.
12
@TMS Completely agree! I don't see much difference between Trump supporters and Sanders supporters. Same grievance, "We was robbed!", vicious hate and attacks on anyone who doesn't bend to Sanders' and their will, and the same cultish culture. I so wish we could get away from the whole cult thing around political candidates. Even Obama's supporters had some of it, but not nearly as bad as Trump's and Sanders's. I wish we could return to a time of contemplation, patience, real thinking, rather than everything has to be fast and furious and knee-jerk and such. It's making me sick.
1
Edsel seems right that extreme political polarization is the central problem of our time, and one that looks like it will only get worse. Unfortunately, the article does not underscore that this roadblock results overwhelmingly from the vicious, opportunistic dishonesty of only the Republican side.
It is like rueing that two people cannot come close to having a productive discussion without pointing out that one of them intentionally lives in an evidence-free dream world.
2
America has a structural deficit in an entrenched two party system. Most healthy democracies have multiple parties, which means less us and them mentality, and the need to form coalitions and work together to form a bi-partisan majority. The tea party should have split from the GOP when it formed instead of festering away. But the danger with a two party system is you can now afford to lose any of your support or the other will win. In a multi party system this is also less acute.
1
There is not a symmetry of the parties. Republicans require misinformation to retain power. They must twist elections and the functioning of government because they are out-numbered. This gives them a tremendous advantage. They have also, methodically attempted to re-align the courts to back favorable doctrines such as 'corporate persons' and expansions of 'religious freedom'.
9
In light of the sum total of Trump's actions, it should be remembered that a campaign of hate and fear is a substantial part of past successful authoritarian power grabs as well as contemporary authoritarian power grabs.
11
@David Bible
And the erosion of the middle class.
5
The problem is that the elites play one social group against another.
In our time, it is a double game. Foreign workers now produce, offshore, the manufactured goods once made, especially, in our former industrial heartland, the Midwest.
At the same time, a new industrial realm has opened up, but not for the displaced Midwestern, and similar, workers.
Instead, a new region has developed, overlaid on the traditional coasts. It is composed of new people, immigrants and in-migrants, carried by a dazzling new technology, but with traditional activities drawn into the new heart of the economy.
In an immediate sense, it is the overseas workers who have been set against the traditional, displaced, workers. In this sense, the anger of the latter at "immigrants who took our jobs" is misplaced.
However, the overseas production is paid for by the exports of the new economy centered on the coasts. The workers in that new economy, quite unaware of it, have indeed replaced those of the old industrial heartland.
The intensity of white racism in the Midwest fifty years ago was quite severe.
The elites might have led that bigoted industrial class toward more modern production, education, and attitudes.
Instead, the bipartisan policy was to replace--in new industries--- the traditional industrial class with many non-Anglo workers, and to shift production largely to Asian workers abroad.
The white racism of fifty years ago is now a raging beast.
What did our elites expect?
3
Hoping the “raging beasts” finish OD’ing or otherwise destroying themselves pretty soon ... none of this is particularly helpful.
1
E∂sall focuses only on the American body politic. Let us not forget that Putin, Kim, and the rest of the autocrats have known all this for a long time and picked trump to lead the charge, playing on the same hatreds and feelings of revenge and betrayal as he relied on for his base.
7
You all know, pretty much, what has happened and why, but we're all preaching to the choir. But it is nice to vent, a healthful response compared to going out and buying an assault rifle and a thousand rounds. I wonder how many of our fellow citizens have and are doing the latter.
3
The claim that before Bush 2004 campaigns were looking towards the centre and while using fear-based campaigning weren’t driven by it seems historically questionable to me.
5
Mr. Edsall's columns scrupulously avoid assigning responsibility for the "polarization" of our politics, in part, one assumes, so readers might come away thinking both sides are to blame and that Mr. Edsall is therefore above the partisan mire.
This passage, with all its passive voice, is exemplary:
"American politics were irrevocably transformed, polarization strategies became institutionalized and the stage was set for the explicit racial and anti-immigrant themes dominating Donald Trump’s campaigns for election and re-election."
What he means to say but can't, is that the Republican party is 20 years into a race toward authoritarianism.
Democrats have done nothing comparable. Barrack Obama presented himself as a centrist uniter ("We're not red states and blue states," etc.). Democrats are not purging voter rolls or indulging in illegal gerrymandering. Democrats have not stolen any Supreme Court seats.
This is not to say that Democrats are great and moral. It's just that they've tried to position themselves as a "normal" party, in opposition to the reality-denying antics of Republicans. If the two parties are at polar opposites, that's why.
It's possible to read this article in that light, but Mr. Edsall goes to great lengths to make it seem like all partisan intensity is equal.
The problem is that one "side" lives in a world where policies should be built around facts and the basic logic of problem-solving. The other "side" responds to resentment and fear.
38
@Jeremy
Thank you for this. In nearly every piece on this subject the verbal gymnastics of false equivalence are stunning to behold. The very terms - "divided," "polarized," "hyperpartisan," - suggest a symmetry between liberal and conservative thought, or Democratic and Republican partisanship, that has not existed for decades.
Do pundits like Edsall live in caves, on remote South Sea islands, on the moon, or what? It's maddening!
2
The Trump supporters wanted change.
That's different from Republican Conservatives who simply didn't want to let go of their smug position of power.
The Trump supporter is willing to risk everything. The Republican is heavily attached to the gold standard and believes that policies should be made to protect their interests, not to put their interests at risk by letting others participate in the economy, except as workers.
The Trump supporters are more likely to back Bernie Sanders if they think he stands for change. At this point, Trump has been protected by the very Republicans that the Trump supporters wanted to overthrow. If the Democrats can point that out, the 2020 election will be, from the Republican stand point, nothing shy of a revolution.
7
I disagree. The Trump supporters were attracted to Trump’s combative nature and his willingness to tell them what they want to hear, no matter how ignorant or racist that may be. They could have had change a number of other different ways. Why choose Trump from 17 candidates? Because he sounds like one of their hate radio idols.
2
@Max Shapiro: Nihilists live only for bonfires. Like Trump, they say "Let's see what happens."
2
Reading this as a pessimistic view of the future of our electoral and political processes, I would like to posit a possible solution: national service. Yes, it smacks of a draft, but it could be a system that the vast majority of young people would have a chance to improve the lives of all Americans by providing low cost labor and energy to public projects as well as military service. Public health and social services, national parks, the Peace Corp, environmental projects and, of course, the military would enjoy an injection of youthful energy and enthusiasm.
The real upshot to this idea is that, much like World War II, our younger population would mix together individuals of all geographic, racial, economic and social environments and provide them with a chance to work and live together while engaged in the common task of making this nation and the world a better place. I could imagine this system restoring the seemingly lost concept of "the Common Good" which seemed like such a strong societal drive in the first several decades following World War II.
And as a byproduct, it might curb our war making enthusiasm by broadening society's participation in the armed services and reducing its current purely professional status.
25
@John V. The US switched to an all-volunteer military because some Vietnam draftees were murdering their officers.
None of this matters if we can't trust our election infrastructure to be secure.
In 2017 Dr. J. Alex Halderman testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. A election security expert, Halderman told of his team being hired by DC to hack their voting machines to look for weak spots. DC knew they were in their system, the team changed every vote, and DC could find no trace of their action.
Don't think for a minute that foreign countries are the only problem for our election security. Numerous articles abound about problems with machines. Look at Georgia 2018.
Former FBI legal counsel James Baker pointed out intruders don't need to attack every precinct. Just enough to have the electoral college determine the outcome instead of the popular vote. 77,000 votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania overrode 3 million Americans.
McConnell has blocked every bill that could address this problem from coming to the floor.
A clear and specific public awareness about this problem is necessary. Much more important than almost anything else. If our elections aren't/weren't secure we're done.
20
The press has to take a little of the blame here since they have amplified the positions of extremists. It is a shame when you know what way news operations lean and their conclusions often support which way they lean.
But there is plenty of blame to go around on this issue. I would like to see a video comments section with monitors to eject the most outrageous offenders. If we started talking to one another again we would be surprised to see that maybe we are not that different. Discussion is crucial.
We have many issues to solve and many compromises to make to ensure all our citizens get good health care. We need to come up with a rationale immigration policy. We absolutely need immigrants but people who cross illegally should not cut the line on people who are coming in legally. And why aren't the dreamers citizens already? Education has to be disrupted and made better. But you cannot solve anything by yelling at each other.
Just strange and backs Voltaire's observations the Common Sense is not so Common.
4
President Trump averred, "It bothers me when I come into contact with immigrants who speak little or no English." Has he ever listened to his own voice on video played back to him?
The difference is that the immigrants who "bother" him so much at least have another language of communication as fall-back. The president has none.
28
I have always noticed that the people who hate foreign languages are the people who don’t speak any. They usually can’t even speak English.
2
And where are the "Evangelicals"? Cheering him on.
17
@Jim: They've been convinced they'll be able to cut loose like Trump when they get to Heaven.
1
it would be helpful if Republicans did not wear T-shirts that say "make liberals cry agian. Or that our president didn't call us traitors. We can only hope that Republicans will finally say enough is enough and follow Joseph N. Welch "Have you no decency?"
18
In this current world, the next residential best seller ought to be titled: "The Audacity of Dopes."
9
"Trump began to claim in television interviews that Obama 'doesn’t have a birth certificate, or if he does, there’s something on that certificate that is very bad for him. Now, somebody told me — and I have no idea if this is bad for him or not, but perhaps it would be — that where it says “religion,” it might have “Muslim.” ' "
*Somebody* told Trump that it *might* say Muslim. Even were that not the bald-faced lie we know it to be, Trump's reliance on double hearsay to start his political career is clear. Criticism of double hearsay was one of his impeachment defenses, was it not?
9
Skipping to the end, I want to once again challenge this notion--originating from who knows where--that Trump somehow thrives on chaos. Trump may find chaos--external chaos--gratifying in a schadenfreude-type sense. It would seem like something a mean person would find funny and stimulating. But that was not the way he ran his business. He controlled everything about his business and was otherwise happy as a backbencher lobbing bombs that did not go off too close to him. But when the chaos affected him or his business it was usually disastrous--six bankruptcies and barely moving the needle of net worth conferred on him by his dad. His campaign was and his administration is chaotic, but he appears to have succeeded despite that, not because of it. After all, his campaign and transition led to a special counsel investigation and his administration to impeachment. So, no, I reject the notion that Trump thrives on chaos. He is simply an agent of chaos via his mainly and many mercurial and ill-considered decisions and actions.
4
@Art
If Trump didn’t thrive on chaos, why did he go bankrupt six times?
Once? It happens.
Six times? That’s not a matter of making mistakes, that’s something else altogether.
I was not a fan of President Obama. He increased my taxes, and piled countless new regulations upon my employer, mandates that obsoleted excellent products and drove up costs, many of which had little or no social value. Regulators love to regulate; it's their raison d'etre.
Nevertheless, I didn't hate President Obama, or question his legitimacy as our President. I didn't question his motives, only his policies. I simply respectfully disagreed with many but not all of his actions.
Many Progessives have a much different mindset. Trump Derangement Syndrome is infecting otherwise intelligent and reasonable people. The raw hatred of President Trump frankly is scary. I submit that more hate exists in the hearts and minds of our left wing friends than ever existed in our right wing friends.
13
@Stew R
None of us were born hating Trump.
If we have come to hate the man, it’s because we hate is what he has done to our country.
Remember back to that first televised Cabinet meeting. Do you remember how everyone around the table took turns praising Trump? That wasn’t like any Cabinet meeting in history; no meetings before then were ever held for the explicit reason to to publicly offer praise to the President.
But that was only the beginning.
Has there ever been a President before who never stopped campaigning, holding rallies where he routinely makes fun of others and attacks federal law enforcement agents, judges, State Department Employees, Gold Star Mothers, Purple across recipients, even individuals serving on juries?
Has there ever been a President who has been caught red handed using his office and power and taxpayer funds to coerce the President of another country to do his opposition research via their own country’s legal system?
Has there ever been a President who has ordered people to defy legal subpoenas by Congress?
Has any President before systematically appointed heads to government agencies like the Department of Education, the Department of the Interior, Department of Justice, people diametrically opposed to the missions of those agencies?
Can’t you see what is happening to your country? This is the behavior of a Dictator, not a U.S. President.
32
I think you may be missing why so many people dislike Trump. I have not voted for a Republican in years. But they never frightened me like Trump does. All of my fears seem to be coming to pass. He lies about everything on a daily basis. He has spectacularly poor judgment. Even senate Republicans admitted that He engaged in corrupt practices in Ukraine. He does not care about the country only his personal interests. Now he is undermining the Department of Justice. I have policy disagreements with Mitt Romney, but I never thought he was a madman who was going to destroy the country. If you think I have Trump derangement syndrome that is why.
3
To believe your premise, one would have to ignore all that Trump has said and done. Can you honestly say that if a Democrat said or did even an iota of what Trump has done, that there would not be some strong negativity coming from the Republican side? As others have said, there are multitudes of examples of Trump’s statements and actions that have lead those on the Left (and I would guess a sizable amount of the middle) to form their opinion of the President.
The idea of Trump Derangement Syndrome is absurd and yet another piece of propaganda that allows Trump supporters to dismiss the facts, the actions and the statements right in front of them. More difficult would be to explain all that Trump has said and done without recognizing that his moral character is seriously deficient.
2
Historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler came up with the term, ‘negative integration’ which perfectly describes what Trump has been doing since he decided to run for President. Wehler invented the term 'negative integration' to label Otto von Bismarck's strategy where he sought to create a sense of Deutschtum (Germanism) and to consolidate his power by subjecting various minority groups (such as Roman Catholics, Alsatians, Poles, and Social Democrats) to discriminatory laws, hateful rhetoric and incite violence.
In a war of statesmanship over Luxembourg, Bismarck was quoted in the paper saying, "that the French were not the fine people they are usually considered to be," and were in fact "loudmouthed" people give over to "bold, violent behavior." He sounds exactly like Trump, except he lived over 100 years ago.
5
Most of the academics cited ignore the most important point made by Mann and Ornstein:asymmetry. Republicans and Democrats are not the same and are not equally responsible for today's dysfunctional politics. For instance, while Republican partisans rely almost exclusively on Fox, Democrats view a wider range of news sources. While Republicans denied the validity of BLS statistics under Obama--Trump then said real unemployment was over 60%--I never heard a Democrat say the BLS data is invalid under Trump. There simply is not symmetry. Republicans are almost literally a tribe--lower educated whites in primarily rural areas whose political objective is to maintain white primacy (and, of course, the big business donors whose objective is to maintain economic primacy). Democrats are a tribe of "tribes"---blacks, Latinos, youth, single women, union members, LGBTQ, the more highly educated, environmentalist, etc. They are not united by "tribal" connections of blood, race or common geography, they are united in 1) they are all under attack, in one form or another, by the white primacy tribe 2) they see government as a positive means of a creating a more just society. Dysfunctional politics serves the interests of Republicans, not Democrats. Disunity among various demographic groups helps them maintain minority government, casting doubt on government prevents action for economic and social justice. Republican self interest took us down this path. Democrats got lost along the way.
20
Everyone please needs to stop saying that trump recognizes this or plans that. There is no forethought, or any kind of thought, in that horrible man's head. There is only me, me, ME, and what can I do to hurt you and better me (because he believes only in the zero sum game - for him to get more, you must get less). His rise is just an unhappy convergence of the hate the right has been pedaling for decades, and his own bigotry, grudges, and hate.
17
Frankly, there is nothing new about political leaders governing through the use of fear and hate. Such were the chief methods of leaders to get the powerless to fight for them on innumerable battlefields. And such was what the Czars (and others) did when they held up Jews as the scapegoats. Or Stalin holding up Kulaks or anyone not sufficiently "proletarian" enough. Or the Turks and Armenians. Or the Germans.
The difference is that in very heterogeneous USA, we now have leaders who are willing to use these age old techniques. And sadly, they are age old because they work. As we are now seeing.
If it continues, a house divided cannot stand. And we will be at each others' throats.
12
Nobodies crying. I'm just mad our President got elected by the less than respectable path. Happened last republican too. Then there's the list of cheap desperate tricks they had to resort to withy blocking dem voters from accessing the voting booth and gerrymandering at an unequaled level. The consequence is that we have worse than an inexperienced rank amateur occupying the Oval office. His idea of "Smart" is leaving his bankers with his debt. Yea, Trump, erudite.
The dishonesty of Trump will be his legacy. Its republicans who should be crying for their reputation amongst professional, educated, respected people. We have the witnesses by psychiatrists underwriting and declaring Trump mentally unfit and just recently 2,000 former federal prosecutors including some republicans. We're a majority that are tired of Trump's ignorance and dishonesty and that of his goon squad following. Republican Extinction would be nice.
12
While we cannot do much with the Audacity of Hate, we should shut down the instigator of hate, which is Murdoch and minions at Faux news. He is yelling fire in a crowded theater. While his GOP calls it useful information, so to enrage their deplorable voters with fake facts, misinformation to maintain power. In order to save our democracy we need to use the legal system to punish those who enrage people with hateful talk and untruth, or else our democracy will die!
9
The only thing that beats corrupt fascism is a strong social democracy. Fascists rise when people are disenfranchised, scared and insecure. They manipulate that fear and insecurity and fuel rage at fake boogie mans and then lead these poor sheep to slaughter along with everyone else. Our elected officials have failed miserably to address the real concerns of most people and that is why we are where we are. The only answer to that now is strong social democracy that addresses the real needs of those marginalized for so long.
4
That sounds like an apology for fascism. There are plenty of poor people in this world who do not support fascism. They never will.
2
It is easy to hate and revile those you can't see or talk to. Democrats should start showing up in the small towns and rural areas and talk to people....the way they used to. Since the Clinton times, however, the aristocracy of party consultants in Washington has concluded that all those deplorables in the middle of the country aren't even worth a yard sign. The party functionaries in Washington are so wrapped up in their numbers and models (which worked so well for Hillary) that they forget: there are real people out there who see a lot of liberal caricatures, and the party leaders seem to do everything possible to reinforce these.
5
They say we're "cry babies," and "snowflakes," but listen to them whine when we suggest they're ignorant bigots; watch them melt when we use evidence to prove their "president" is corrupt, un-American, and serving the interests of Russia.
They say we're "elitists," but listen to them in their repeated claims that they are the "real Americans". Look at who they despise--the Obamas, the Clintons, Elizabeth Warren, Soros--people who worked their way up through living the American Dream. In contrast, look at the people they elevate--the trumps, G.W. Bush, DeVoss and her mercenary brother Eric Prince--people born into wealth, who have never known anything but privilege.
Some people say we're prone to hate in others what we hate in ourselves. If I didn't know better, I'd think these people really hate themselves. But that's being generous, giving them the benefit of the doubt, which they don't deserve. No, they hate us, and they hate American idealism, because it's easy to hate.
27
Trump is a hatemonger.
And what his minions don't seem to understand is that he's only saying to them what he needs to say to them to get them to grovel at his feet.
If Trump could have gotten what he wanted being the most progressive person on the planet, that's what he would have advocated.
He's as shallow as an empty mud pit and as dangerous and self-serving pit viper.
15
The liberals will not be crying for ourselves if that man should succeed in fooling his followers again. We will cry for the children who will continue to live in cages. We will cry for the poor whose last shirt will be wrung off to give it to the rich. We will cry for the earth, which will suffer even more devastation. We will cry for the bombs that will fall all over the world on women and children. We will cry for those who will be shot down in this country by gun-totting maniacs. We will cry for America, which no one will recognize or respect anymore. I am not a liberal because I am poor, or because I am the 'other.' I am liberal because I feel goose pimples when I pass by the Statue of Liberty because that is what I understood American stood for. . So no. I won't cry for me. I will cry for those who support a corrupt souless authoritarian or who need to see tears in other Americans to feel good about themselves.
20
I like the way Edsall retrieves information from many different sources.
4
This is a great, thought provoking piece. And I think it’s pretty accurate in outlining how the GOP got to the position it’s in today. However, I would just like to point out the blind spot this piece has in recognizing the left’s role in abandoning rationale discourse in today’s politics. So many of the concepts occupying progressive energy today, particularly those surrounding identity politics, are rather adverse to rational thought. In fact, progressives have even invented words (such as whitesplaining) and tactics (such as canceling) that they seek to employ in an effort to silence those who want to reference objective facts when discussing issues in which they’d prefer to focus on the underlining emotions. I believe for many this has created a false choice in which people assumed they had to pick one system of lies over another. In this void, it become possible for someone like Trump, the ultimate foil to truth, to rise to power.
6
Reflect more on the American peoples' positive response to Trump's hate. His popularity grows with as he raises the temperature. The country burns with climate change, Trump's flames and his supporters' rage. Hate grows hate. There are more of us that want to end the fury, the shouting, the gun violence, the horrific economic divide, poor public schools, exorbitant health care cost, white nationalism...you know our troubles. We need to organize both locally and nationality. We need to find modern means to organize locally and network with communities around the country. It is face to face communication that is most important, neighbor to neighbor, college to college, housing advocates, unions... Our voices must be heard along with our power to change the status quo.
12
The Tea Party was as much a reaction to the Republican establishment as it was to Obama and the Democrats. Trump has captured their hearts with his transgressive nature, shock-jock rhetoric, and general nastiness.
But his only legislative accomplishment is straight from the establishment Republican playbook--the tax cuts for corporations and rich people.
13
The photo of a Trump fan at one of his rallies sets the tone for this article. "MAKE LIBERALS CRY AGAIN" It evokes anger at the prime idiom of the Trump Republicans, that the other, that includes N.Y. Times readers are infants who have none of the manly tools to run a country.
This primed readers to be aware of any comment, perhaps from a covert member of the opposition, that could weaken their contempt and rage at Trump. An example was a previous comment that pointed out that the article was defective in not adding that he Tea Party was not an economic position, but a mass movement against any deficits . Yet not a single member defected when Trump adopted the antithesis, Modern Monetary Theory.
Trump is a creature of history, as this author points out. What is missing is that the loss of rational discourse extends to the left, which no longer attempts complex cogent arguments.
Few choose to explore the function of the electoral college, specifically to prevent a demagogue's ascension to the presidency. As long as the vote is unlimited, no minimal understanding of government or policy required, our country will be vulnerable to a demagogue.
This is why the Electoral College was an essential element of the Constitution. Not only did Hamilton know this in 1787 but so did Lisa Simpson, in a show predicting Donald Trump will have destroyed our economy in Episode 65, 1999
1
I think it's important to note trump lost popular vote.
7
Not really. Why should it matter how many illegal aliens voted for Hillary in California?
1
Be careful what you wish for. When Nixon was president he had Pat Buchanan put together a series of speeches appealing to the 'silent majority' and it worked for a while. Jimmy Carter used such talk as insulting to decency and defeated Gerald Ford. President Reagan worked with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and they proclaimed the 'Moral Majority' and it worked for a time, only to give Bill Clinton a way to warn about religious extremism. Barack Obama reflected a backlash against G.W. Bush and Karl Roves Homophobia and cynical race baiting. President Trump can play the autocrat/dictator for a while, but most Americans will turn on him. There is a genuine hatred for 'No Nothing/white trash' politics. The MAGA crowd is a minority and they can be slammed aside by a backlash from a larger electorate that resents extremism be it right or left. Trump might win 2020 only to crash his party and the Republicans being out of power for a generation. It is best to remember that when Democrats went too far in the 1960's they got the boot and the Republicans will suffer the same fate. Bad behavior offends everyone regardless of ideology.
5
Mr. Edsall, thanks for this article! I like it because for one reason, it supports the thoughts I've had about the GOP since Rove/Gingrich. Gingrich was the first guy I remember lying blatantly on TV and just defending the indefensible. I also said when the tea party came around, that no one should embrace the crazy, because you can't control it. I did not envision a terrible person being the president. I would not have imagined we would allow our democratic ship sink with a fascist at the helm. But here we are. I pray there is a way back to a true democracy. I miss it.
7
I guess I just don’t understand the way non-Democrats think. Like the message on the back of the guy’s shirt. Why would he want to make a liberal “cry”? What’s the point? All I feel coming from the other side is unrestrained anger and hatred. But I fall to understand that mindset, which is corrosive and self-defeating. Putting out that kind of negative energy is like drinking poison, but expecting the other guy to die. And what do they get out of all this anger and hatred? Maybe someone can explain that to me.
12
@A Bird In The Hand : can you seriously read the posts in this forum (over 1400 as I type here!) and see the liberals rage and call names, and ask for secession and the dissolution of the US?
Or call the President's dozens of ugly names?
Clearly it is Democrats and liberals who have unrestrained anger and hatred!
1
This goes way beyond an extreme rancor — or hate — between the parties. Trump is a genius at knowing what buttons to push in whipping up rural white anger over imaginary enemies, so that now “elite” and “liberal” and “socialism” have become dirty words.
But our slide toward autocracy and a system that is no longer willing to follow constitutional norms can only end badly.
8
Just as it is thought of as bad to be racist or a bigot, we should somehow make it bad to judge someone solely by their political party. (I know the GOP in power has gone nuts and full out behind Trump, but I don't think all the voters have, or I hope they haven't.) I am also hoping the younger people are smarter, just as nowadays we don't all send our money to email scam artists.
It's the politics of hate, coupled with the assertion that everyone is corrupt (this latter, as several have pointed out, doesn't absolve the president, but makes many ways of calling out injustice impotent).
1
Predictably, an article that deplores conservatives’ biased view of liberals elicits 1000 biased descriptions of conservatives by liberals. Self-propagating paradigm, if you ask me.
8
Yup. Just more liberal propaganda.
1
Half of the present divide is class/cultural/racial and half economic. Republicans created or exploited the first half and exacerbated the second half. That divide will remain as long as Republicans benefit from it. My only hope is an "equal and opposition reaction," from a grassroots movement. Of course, Republicans will continue to try to divide that movement and breed resentment among its diverse groups and that is its greatest challenge.
1
Excellent article that has too much truth in it to satisfy people who want to keep their blinders on.
Think for a second - when was the last time you heard the term "Tea Party" mentioned in the news or other media, despite its key status as the ancestor of the current Trump/MAGA cult? That alone shows how quickly the "new abnormal" has taken over conversations and politics.
We are way past fixing things. The only fix I could see is younger people growing up faster. But of course, time doesn't work that way. Trump/MAGA is the pinnacle of the right-wing effort to remake the country under hate, and it is succeeding far faster than a more diverse and tolerant generation can replace them.
6
There are many valuable perspectives in this article.
One challenge I see, though, is the following language quoted from one of the cited authors:
"non-judgmentally exchanging narratives in interpersonal conversations can facilitate durable reductions in exclusionary attitudes."
Granted, this is from an academic paper.
However, we need more accessible language if we are actually going to be able to have actual conversations among fellow citizens.
7
What amplifies our resentments and polarization is the lack of a better safety net, increasing economic and social inequality.
In other world democracies that had rule by kings and aristos not that long ago, their citizens today have more representation for their taxation by their elected govts. That's what our colonies demanded from King George in the revolution from Britain. We have to fight for that now.
The US turns it's elections over to 1% wealthy corporate conglomerates for financing. The Court said money was 1st Amendment free speech. The ripple effect weakens the citizen voice in our lawmaking and undermines democracy.
See NYT editorial Feb 1-- “More Money, More Problems for Democracy --- Countering private campaign funding with public funding is the most viable way to limit the political influence of the wealthy."
It's the 10th Anniv of Citizens United. Most of the media is ignoring it. We're disunited.
Some say social democracy is easier in countries that are small, all white, not like huge America with many ethnic and racial groups.
But a large diverse country needs social democracy even more than a small, same- race one. And especially in a country with a history of slavery, Civil War, Jim Crow, blocked voting rights, and ongoing economic discrimination.
6
Americans have to realize that it’s not going to be easy to save America at this point.
Trump and Republicans are playing for keeps and thoroughly emboldened.
We are in deep.
17
I take care of patients in a hospital . When I walk into the room if the patient has the TV on sometimes it is on FOX news, sometimes on MSNBC. There is usually no way I can predict ( unless the patient is black , then it is never FOX) which way that person leans . They seem like nice people and very similar on paper. But when they watch FOX they watch fiction. Unfortunately it is not appropriate for me to engage them in a conversation about this but I see how many of our CT neighbors love FOX and I assume love or at least accept Trump. I find this very demoralizing.
I think it comes down to this: there are 3 types of people. The bad ones, like Trump, and those who were even worse in history. There are a few saint like heroes on the other side. But there are 2 other groups— the ones that when push comes to shove when faced with a major problem will do the right thing even if it is dangerous to themselves. Think Oskar Schindler. On the other side is the people who go along with the bad , try to ignore it, even enable it, out of fear. Think millions ofGermans in WW2 era. Think all Republicans in Congress at this moment.
Am I going to be a Schindler type, are you?
13
Looking on the bright side, Trumpkins are largely; getting older, overweight, have appalling diets & take little exercise.
Another decade & a lot of them will be “ex-Trumpkins”.
8
@Robert Baddeley : and liberals never age.
Come on, everyone is aging.
And the millennials will be old someday too.
Along the way, they will acquire debts and mortgages, and children and responsibility and jobs-- and won't be so arrogant or so left wing.
Remember the boomers started out as the hippie Woodstock generation!
1
Hyperpartisanship is nothing new in the USA. 160 years ago the country was so divided that it led to the bloodiest war in our history--more dead than in all our other wars put together.
One can only hope our current state of urban vs. rural, liberal vs. conservative internecine hatred won't lead us down the same path. With a population armed with AK-47s and an absurdly unqualified leader whose only talent is to gleefully stoke division and rouse the rabble, it's not clear we aren't headed for the same fate.
4
Trump and his followers direct their hatred toward poor minorities who are overwhelmingly Democrats. The Democrats direct scorn, if not hatred, toward working class whites, who are overwhelmingly Republicans. And income equality gets more extreme as both parties do their thing. Maybe we'll have two billionaires running in the general election. And maybe then folks will finally get it -- both parties serve the interests of the wealthy above all.
3
@michjas: It's been my observation that the hate is the reverse of your statement.
2
Once I was a moderate who would consider both parties, then came the GOP under McConnell and now Trump. It is clearly a party without principles except one, which is the notion that the possession of power is a value unto itself. I will proudly be partisan until the GOP as it is presently composed is destroyed. All this hand-wringing is silly. The fight is in the future and either we stand up to corrupt autocracy or we will succumb to it. The very soul of the Republic is at stake.
12
When they go down, we go high... and we fight back hard.
Hate in a Maga rally or in Trump country cannot be moderated by reasoning or moderation. It's irrational. Liberals should be way more radical in their answer to it.
15
Thomas, the following subtle changes are necessary to correctly diagnose the effect of Empire as the disease/cancer on Republics and faux democracies:
Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at Brookings and the author, with Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, of the book “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism,” was blunt in his assessment of the broad contemporary political environment.
"Partisan polarization (has NOT passively become hardwired into, but) was propagandized, produced, and programmed into the software of the American political system and is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future. Our constitutional system is not well matched with our current party system. Partisan asymmetry makes it even worse. The GOP has radicalized into an anti-system (and pro-Empire) party that does not accept the legitimacy of its opposition and enables a slide toward autocracy. Very dangerous times for American democracy."
Fortunately, for 'we the American people', the software can be changed with visual programming, in the streets, and in our minds, to a Second American people's peaceful and complete "Political/economic & social Revolution Against Empire" [Justin du Rivage] as the 'Radical Whigs' contribution to our first one.
2
"The economic meltdown of 2007-9 devastated faith in the American economic system and in the nation’s elected leaders — especially the Republican establishment."
Guess what Trumpsters. What you have now is the Republican establishment on steroids. I know you enjoy scapegoating immigrants, people of color, etc., but the plutocrats who control the GOP purse strings are exploiting your irrational prejudices for their own ends, which is to make themselves richer at your expense. Some people have to learn the hard way.
8
While I'm sure that this column is spot on in saying that the Republicans have been stoking fears to win elections by working their base up to a furious lather, not one word in this article offers a prescription.
We've spent the past three years watching the car-crash that is the Trump presidency unfold in all of its hateful fury. We've seen George W work his base up to a lather to invade and occupy Iraq.
And yet just north of the border Justing Trudeau has won two elections in a row and is well-positioned to win a third with his "Sunny ways" approach.
Maybe the way forward for democrats is to stop appealing to people with polite reasoned explanations but with emphatic positivity.
Blue states today subsidize red-states. Why is that? What can we say to red-state voters (especially in swing states) go get a across the message that liberalism works, liberalism brings prosperity and that being a liberal is something to aspire to.
8
Please do not soil a perfectly good Spinal Tap reference with the indecencies of Donald J. Trump.
7
When you allow monopoly power to grow over individual liberty, all sorts of perversions take place. Free markets adapt to the consumer; government monopolies adapt to greater control, greater misinformation, greater division...
2
Humanity has witnessed numerous despots during our brief time on earth, and Trump 'rallies' are designed to hasten the demise of our fragile democracy. Trump could easily summon a mob of supporters to do his bidding. Similarities to Kristallnacht easily come to mind. There are no shortage of 'targets' for the animosity of Trump supporters, be it immigrants, democrats, the press, anything Obama, and most recently, the rule of law. Congress had two chances to save our values, the Mueller Report and of course the impeachment. I am not alone with the fear that the 2020 election may be our last chance to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and the United States of America.
18
The fact that — in the majority of cases — you can determine an American’s ideological inclinations by their biology (race, ethnicity, gender) is terrifying. It is a case of “In the United States, biology is ideology.” People tend to decide their public policy ideas by their skin color and genitalia, rather than by reason and logical analysis. “Demographics is destiny” is a more genteel way of saying “biology is ideology.”
2
That’s absurd. You can’t pick a random white person on the US and tell me which candidates/politicians he/she supports with any degree of certainty.
7
But I thought both sides are to blame
3
Trump has the audacity to claim that he's popular. He's not.
It was Barack Obama who won both the electoral college AND the popular vote - not Trump. In fact, Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes.
So to Trump fans, please stop claiming that "The American People" are all for Hair Trumpin' Furor - especially when
his endorsements not only came from the KKK, but from Russia as well.
Call that the audacity of fact.
19
The division and enmity have been present throughout our history. One thing has changed in recent decades: American political parties have gradually become normal.
Look around the world. In other established democracies, the parties are usually ideologically coherent. There is often a center-right party, a center-left party, and assorted others: right wing, Green, Socialist, Communist, etc. (There are occasional exceptions, parties organized to represent particular regional, ethnic, or linguistic groups, but most parties represent reasonably coherent political outlooks and programs.)
For decades following the Civil War, our two main parties were ideologically incoherent. This was due primarily to the absence of Republicans in the South after the end of Reconstruction (1877). (To a lesser extent Democrats in the North were tarred as the party of “rebellion”.
So it was that on into the 1970s and 80s, there liberal, moderate, and conservative wings in BOTH parties! That began to unravel in 1964, when Democrats nominated Johnson, who had pushed through and signed the Civil Rights Act; Republicans nominated Goldwater, who opposed it.
Since then the parties have sorted out ideologically: Democrats as a center-right coalition, Republicans as increasingly a hard-right party.
The divisions in the country may not be worse than previous eras; what we lack is the ameliorating effect of “big tent” parties - though the Democratic Party still has the ability to fill this void.
4
The true test of Trump's ability to mobilize his anger-and-fear-crazed base will come next January 20th, when he legally must board Marine One and fly off as an ex-president. He's already laid the groundwork to say that any result other than a Trump win will be illegitimate.
My own feeling is that anyone who wants to grab a gun, drive to DC and die for Donald Trump should be allowed to do so.
9
@Vesuviano : well, except it really looks like he is going to win a landslide victory -- in both the Electoral College AND the popular vote.
Then what?
Will you accept defeat graciously?
1
Nothing makes for faster friends than a common enemy.
3
@The last nail in the coffen Pretty much true. Unfortunately, I think this means that the only thing that'll prevent this country from disintegrating is an existential threat from outside. Climate change? WWIII?
Different from years ago, we now have an opinion delivery ecosystem (Fox, Limbaugh, Breitbart, and even MSNBC) that needs to meet payroll, sell advertising, and deliver product to survive. It is too easy for people to cater to their own biases and have them hardened by tuning into these opinion sources.
4
What Trump and his enablers don’t understand is that hate works both ways.
This country is so ideologically divided now that it will take generations to put it back together — if that’s even possible any more.
4
I hope Democrats can learn the lesson of hate, since we are typically on the losing end of that battle. It is time for us to channel the anger and look to destroy and eliminate the Republicans, just as they have been doing to us for years. Sadly, the Dems will just keep muddling along and shooting each other down, rather than targeting the enemy.
13
Reminds me of a line in the 1995 movie, "The American President," directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin.
The President (Michael Douglas as President Shepherd) is criticizing his Republican opponent (Richard Dreyfuss as Senator Rumson), and says:
"Whatever your problem is, I can assure you that Senator Rumson does not care about solving it.
He cares about two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who to blame for it."
8
That message T-shirt at the Trump rally sums up why I wake up every day, wondering how I ended up living in a country so full of hatred and spite that I would never choose to visit it. On the worst of days during my long life, I have never wanted to see another person upset. I grew up in a hardscrabble, hard-luck family, yet I emerged without such a bitter heart as these people.
10
I fear that my 5yr old grandson will see our nation at war with itself during his lifetime. I wouldn’t be shocked if I did as well.
3
One of the best articles written on the rise of the Right in the US.
Connects all the dots, and extraordinarily well-sourced, with links provided for further reference.
Nice job, Mr. Edsall! Grade: A+
8
It's difficult to explain how the groups discussed in Mr. Edsall's fine article, immigrants, non-Whites, and non-Christians all include members that support Trump.
5
Trump brings special qualities to this situation. First, he has no moral or legal compass -- it is all about what he can get away with. Second, he must be the center of attention, that there is no such thing as bad attention.
13
Thank you Thomas for documenting the situation.
I long for a solution that could bring back the vast middle before we sink the ship of state.
4
This was definitely a movement of people who are anxious about racial changes in the country, anxious about immigration, and were, in some cases, also Christian conservatives who felt very passionately about homosexuality and abortion and having laws against those.
Adjustment to the above:
Almost all of this movement being referred to are Christian conservatives with the above passionate beliefs. NOTHING is more important than control of Judiciary so that they can constitutionalize laws against GLBT and abortion. Trump has delivered strongly on that front and so they love and will continue to love him. Should he ever think about moving back to his moderate positions of 10 years ago, a 2nd impeachment, this time with a conviction and President Pence. Why did McCain, Romney and now Trump have to have running mates with whom they had major ideological difference as running mates? Because Christian Conservatives control the "R" party and would topple the nomination will of the people at the convention without a back up.
1
This is an excellent piece, but I think it makes two minor errors. First, it is silent about and therefore abets a false equivalence. The left really hasn't moved radically in its stances in the past 20 years, but the right has transformed almost completely. Wholesale gone off the rails really. As an independent, I used to be in the middle somewhere, but now I'm considered radically left.
Second, it mentions but doesn't give nearly enough credit to the institutional and personal racism that still pervades public life and that the right has tapped into, particularly with Trump. It's a powerful undercurrent and we need to be mindful of its destructiveness.
23
@John
Agree very much with your assessment and critique. There have been too many knowing or just subconsciously overlooked false equivalencies by the well meaning opinion press these last several years equating both parties with essentially the same behavior. Once Fox News got started with their ultra biased full court onslaught the rational main stream press has played too nice on this changed playground. Probably to show all is fair. It ain't.
8
@John
Don’t forget the personal and institutional misogyny. The conservative movement is just as much about keeping women down as it is about keeping people of color down. Maybe more so.
12
@John + other replies
Great points, thank you. It is high time the media stop treating both sides as equal. The Democrats still play by the rules, outmoded as they might be. It is the Republicans who have given in to pure evil, financed by the oligarchs and their message of hate sent far and wide by incredibly potent propaganda machines. The media (NYT, WaPo, main networks) should feel they are acting as counter propaganda distributors by calling Trump a dirty liar in the headlines, by excoriating McConnell for being an utterly useless and power-mad dictator of the Senate. That is merely the truth, and we should be getting that message loud and clear by now. And don't worry that calling Trump a hateful liar will stir the pot and make the Republicans hate us -- they already do!
5
Conservatism has become a cult. There are a number of factors feeding the rage that impels conservatives to vote against their own economic interests. It's unbelievable that these people have not caught on to the con.
12
The Democratic party might want to pay attention to this. They (we) lost by running a candidate that appealed to mainstream of the party but did not motivate the progressive wing. They are in danger of repeating that mistake.
4
@Tundra Green
If tRump didn't "motivate" the progressive wing, then nothing will. Are they going to stay home instead of supporting a Buttigieg or Klobuchar?
Bernie will take the Dems down in flames in November if he's nominated. As a Dem I'll gladly vote for him. I'm not sure he'll carry the Electoral College vote. It doesn't matter what national polls say.
See "McGovern, George" 1972
12
@slim1921
It's not 1972 anymore.
I am just thinking out loud but would there be any value to implementing term limits for Congressional senators or representatives? The most important thing for 99% of those in Congress, it seems, is self-interest. It’s all about getting re-elected, and keeping the power and perks it brings. This, in turn, means playing to the constituency du jour. Even the presidency - for now at least - has term limits. Perhaps Congress would act more out of conscience than self-interest if, at a given point, being beholden to the party line would no longer have a material benefit. Many in Congress have been there for decades. How can that be a good thing, regardless of party. And don’t get me started on lifetime federal judicial appointments. Would more Congressional rotation lessen polarization? I am anxious to hear the responses of other Times readers who are more wise and learned than I. Thank you.
7
The mid-20th century was indeed a time bipartisan politics, with Democrats and Republicans working together to achieve goals both parties believed in. Such as when Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency.
This bipartisan spirit was thanks to World War II. The nation pulled together during the war. People trusted the government, because everyone could see the government was successfully organizing a titanic effort to save the world from tyranny.
In the 1950s and 60s, most of the men serving in Congress had been the army, and they were used to getting along with people from other social classes, and people they disagreed with. It was considered right and proper from JFK to say "ask what you can do for your country." No modern American politician would say that.
Nowadays we are never called up to ask what we can do for our country, except for paying taxes. We need more unity, and more respect for other people. Perhaps some form of national service for young people would help?
6
@Jed Rothwell
I’m Canadian, I don’t believe it has anything to do with military service, the opposite in fact.
My parents taught me to respect other people and be kind and compassionate, perhaps parenting and education have failed?
2
This is a well written and researched column. But what now? Nobody is prepared to start fixing anything.
Without trying to write a column of my own, all I can say is we are beyond dangerous times. With what happened in the impeachment and Mueller investigation, autocracy has arrived with full force.
I expect, (to my horror), that Trump will get re-elected. Sadly, only another demagogue could probably beat Trump and that will lead to further disintegration of the electorate into the big, squabbling tribes we have become, barely resisting warring on each other.
4
Good article and very ominous. It must be noted however, that this new phenomenon of hyper-partisanship, bigotry, and contempt for facts and institutional norms, is coming only from one camp; the Republicans. If we want to solve this problem, we need to identify it.
13
The flip side of this strategy on the right features the politicians on the left who stoke the resentment of their clan against "the 1%" ...
The fate of the nation may depend on whether the center represents a significant portion of the voting populace, although that does not help in the primaries. having open primaries might immunize the parties against radical left or right take-overs.
1
I hope that the Democrats can learn from the strategy below.
Dems: for the good of us all, energize the base rather than worrying about vanishing swing voters.
He and the chief campaign strategist, Matthew Dowd, decided on a “base strategy.” They reallocated the bulk of the campaign’s media budget to focus on social conservatives instead of on moderates — a decision predicated on the fact that the swing, or persuadable, share of the electorate had shrunk from one in five voters to less than one in 10. The most effective use of campaign funds, the thinking ran, was to invest in turning out more of the millions of white right-wing voters who needed to be motivated to show up at the polls.
2
While I find politics interesting, I don’t get angry about them. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that my own life is not impacted much from one Presidential Administration to the next. My personal circumstances are no different under Trump than they were under Obama.
5
@Sue You must not have any major health issues, or are perhaps so rich or so old (Medicare) that the effects of the Republican party, including Trump, to blow up Obamacare [ and bring back all the ugliness of lifetime coverage limits, denial of coverage, exclusions for any kind of pre-existing health issues ] is of no consequence to you.
Also, I think think it's possible, and in fact desirable, to care about the effects on people other than myself.
16
The accompanying photo is quite apt. From personal and anecdotal experience, there are Trump supporters who just like it when liberals are unhappy. And given how often my middle schooler has been called a "libtard," it is a condition passed down by members of the "family values" party.
Reveling in another's misery is no way to go through life.
16
This is an excellent analysis of where the right is today. I am dubious that Trump "understood" the political climate. My opinion is that his beliefs - if he has any - align perfectly with this climate. Racist and homophobic - his presidency's driving force is a negation of everything Obama stood for.
6
Convincing Americans to hate other Americans should be treated as treason and those responsible should be dealt with accordingly.
5
@JR
Tell that to the Republican Senators that absolved Trump. Maybe Sue Collins will learn a lesson now that Trump has been unchained by them.
3
The moral of this story is that Democrats need to get way more aggressive with negative attacks, not only in the Presidential election but all elections they are competing in. The rules of politics have changed and the Democrats are not going to win if they keep playing by the old rules.
10
Angry white men have been with us since Colonial Times. If we were a 100% white country with mandatory church attendance they'd still find something to grouse about. Now they have the internet and Fox News to amplify their whining. The trouble is there a lot more good caring people in America who don't think like they do and they can't stand it. Demographics aren't going to change. They'll keep getting less and less white and the angry white men will have to die out before attitudes change. Trump is the pendulum that was swinging left when Obama was elected and smashed into the clock case when it swung right when he got in. If the angry white men don't, won't or can't accept reality maybe it's time for them to move elsewhere.
9
I second your opinion. We are experiencing the last desperate grab for power in the setting of the slow erosion of white male privilege.
It may be a bit of a generalization, but from my experience, if you are a liberal you are probably better off, more happy and content, and in an overall better position, mind and body, than the people who wish pain on liberals. More reason for envy and hate.
16
If tens of millions of people vote for someone who shares and/or claims to share their anger and fear, how is such a derived political power something wrong, bad, manipulative and/or immoral?
To claim Trump’s political power wrong, bad, manipulative and/or immoral denies those voters a say in our society who believe they have good reason to be angry and fearful. To claim as much makes the angry and fearful look like their thoughts were never their own but merely a figment of their weak will and imagination; drawn out with a crayon, a Sharpie and a few textual-tweets fired off by Trump.
Trump is where he is and has his political power only because tens of millions of angry and fearful voters voted for him.
Rather than portraying the angry and fearful as victims of Trump’s political power, legitimize their concerns- as every voter’s concerns should be taken seriously.
1
Trump didn’t win the popular vote. He won because of the Electoral College. The fear and anger these people have should not be how we run this country. When I am afraid and angry I am less able to make good decisions. I want democracy to run this country, not fear and anger.
9
You recall he ranted about non-existent voter fraud when he won? Just wait to see what happens if he loses (with some very tragic Trumpublicans doing some very tragic things.)
13
I continue to believe that we need to detach from them, begin divorce proceedings with Calexit, Oregon and Wash and Hawaii. Once we all see the diving lines along physical borders, we all will feel safer. We can keep the Trumpers out and they can keep us liberals away from them. We cannot get along. We never will agree. We are not the united states,, we cannot go on using that term.
4
Righteous anger has become America's favorite drug. While I disagree with those who blame "both sides" for partisanship--as Mr Edsall shows, it is the right wing that has boiled it's platform down to hating the other side and the other in general--it is true that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have built their platforms on blanket resentment of the rich. In this atmosphere, it is hard to cooly analyze complex problems. So, while the GOP has become an echo chamber for Trump's lies and hatreds, pragmatism and the idea that someone should not be seen solely through the lens of his or her errors have come to seem almost unpatriotic to both the Trumpists, the Bernie bros & woke left-leaning columnists. Meanwhile the complex problems that only cool heads can solve are getting more complex and more intractable.
7
Just imagine being completely outclassed in literature, painting, film, music, architecture, philosophy, every branch of science and every creative pursuit for 100 years. Just imagine EVERY sign of high culture and achievement being DOMINATED by liberals.
The Republicans can't take it any longer. They look in the mirror with revulsion, knowing they are nothing--lower life forms incapable of actually making anything or contributing to society in any way. There is no path in life available to them other than destruction.
Liberals live to create and Republicans live to destroy.
It's as simple as that.
25
@VoiceofAmerica Wow. I thought I was pretty far left, but this is really out to lunch. You seem to be telling me I should consider my Trump-supporting brother this way, after he's spent the last 15 years fostering shelter dogs, driving across the country on several occasions to rescue and rehabilitate dogs from high-kill shelters.
2
And why does he support Trump?
4
Two political science “non-judgmentally exchanging narratives in interpersonal conversations can facilitate durable reductions in exclusionary attitudes.” Translation: talking things over can help sort things out.
It's this type of contorted verbiage that turns off many people about "the establishment".
4
No Obama's weaponizing of social media for politics created this "audacity of hate." There is no limits once Obama unleashed politics using social media upon us. Kushner and Parscale just used data scientists using psychometrics to leverage the power of fear which is not hate. Hate doesn't go away, fear is short lived and in the moment. You don't get it which is unfortunate. We want a more civilized and respectful government and its official? Ban them from social media would be the first step. Wait until Bloomberg get's elected and uses the MSM through Bloomberg News, then you will truly have the audacity/platform of hate you believe is here now.
2
Where does one begin with this.
5
Exactly.
2
I disagree. Obama didn’t “weaponize” social media. His was a message for hope and change. This was a very positive message we all needed during the economic crisis. Unfortunately the Republicans decided they were unwilling to work with Obama to help this country change and move forward.
We’re still dealing with that economic crisis because many of those who lost good-paying jobs during that crisis were never able to find another one that paid as well. No wonder they are angry and hurt. They no longer see a future for themselves and their children. It’s easier to lash out against the “others”, i.e., those who seem to have been able to shift and move on. Not everyone has the same opportunities. Others prefer to stay where they are and be angry and afraid.
3
"Trump thrives when the climate is chaotic and disruptive and he is the prime example of lost legitimacy in American politics." Mr. Trump is transparently corrupt, and his GOP sycophants are driven solely by cynical careerism. They happily accept Mr. Trump's view that our government is his personal sandbox.
8
If Bloomberg is the Dem nominee, I promise to quit being partisan. It will be disgusting vs. revolting & I won't vote for either or care which one wins or loses.
4
I’m sure Donald Trump will send you a nice thank-you card, even if those dratted birds and dolphins and poor kids will not.
10
Please, please vote for Bloomberg if he is the nominee. He may be “disgusting” to you. He’s still much better than “revolting”.
Trump is ever the victim, ever the whining spoiled brat, "Poor me ... boo hoo! My rivals are so UNFAIR! Sniff!"
It is unbecoming of a commander-in-chief.
But then, it could be argued Trump is our first ever PINO (President In Name Only).
In other words, he is the COOTWH (Current Occupant Of The White House) but lacks the attributes of a president (knowledge, decency, rationality, public service).
10
Character, ethics, decorum, wisdom, insight, . . .
2
Why did the swing vote shrink in the early 2000s?
Mr Edsall's begins his analysis with a 2004 shift in political calculus towards the right when Bush advisors realized that the swing vote - their margin of electoral play - had shrunken to around 10%.
I can only guess that it shrank because of entrenched opinions about the wisdom of the decision to go to war in Iraq, a decision based on neutralizing a WMD threat that ultimately did not exist.
But what if Bush's Iraq war had been vindicated by the discovery of a WMD cache? Would it have altered the rightward shift of Republican strategy that still today reaches for the low-hanging emotive fruit so abundant in red states across America?
I propose that it would have merely delayed this dangerous shift. It is easy to forget that in the early 2000s, the US was still grappling with its awkward and solitary position as the world's only superpower. Russia was reeling from rampant corruption and hyperinflation and the reorganization of cold war alliances was still stabilizing. In many ways, the terror attacks on US soil were a distraction from the tectonic shifts experienced during the previous decade. They were a boon to hard-liners and neocons who, until then, only lacked an excuse to go for the spoils of cold-war victory: American hegemony in the middle east.
Without a common enemy and moral clarity of purpose, our America became lost in pointless wars and betrayed by the political rhetoric that tends to inflame, not unify.
3
Between the author and the comments, where to starts? The author says "In the midst of stock market losses of $2 trillion — a 40 percent plunge in the value of the Dow Jones — the country was hit by a catastrophic mortgage crisis." Ugh, the gov't regulations on banks, both forcing them to make bad loans, and allowing them to leverage them at 10:1, is how Mortgage crisis caused the plunge in the stock market.
Obama started the "born in Kenya" conspiracy by having it on his book cover. Just because his publisher messed it up by putting it there, that doesn't make the reader racist for believing his own book cover might be true.
Democrats are continually intolerant to others by wanting to take away civil rights, such as firearms, compel taxpayers to pay for abortions, stop people from buying big sodas, and stealing their private insurance in exchange for a redistribution of wealth scheme to pay for others while not being able to now afford it for themselves...such as myself. Coupled with then calling them rubes, deplorable and lumping half of Americans together as undeserving of the goodness of Democrats, but Trump is polarizing?
Democrats clearly hate me. They hate my way of life. They hate that I insist upon retaining the individual liberty that I believe everyone should have. Articles such as this remind me of time behind the Berlin Wall, when the East German Stasi insisted on what's good for you. And now you're nominating a Socialist....Bloomberg (since he's flipped)
3
@Constance Underfoot , what is the solution? How do you propose, we as a people, come to grips with half the country being godless, intolerant, wealth redistributors who will take away your civil rights and hate you.
I think I know the answer, unfortunately. It always ends badly. Don't believe your puppet masters my fellow American.
4
@Constance Underfoot
Your comment helps underscore for me just how differently liberals and conservatives view the world. The lens you are looking through gives you a totally different take on things than the lens I am looking through.
I wish you could comfortably live in a society that supports your values. And I wish I could comfortably live in a society that supports mine.
I don’t think you are wrong for wanting the right to own a gun, not have taxpayer money go toward clinics that provide abortions, keep your private health care, etc.
I also don’t think I am wrong for wanting the for ordinary citizens’ right to own a gun to be severely regulated or even ended, for women to retain the right to get an abortion, for universal healthcare, etc.
Neither of us is wrong. We are just different in what we value and think makes a “good society.”
I find myself ever more wishful that the US could truly divide itself into a more liberal sector, and a more conservative sector, with separate governments that nevertheless would co-exist peacefully. It’s probably an unrealistic, perhaps even dangerous fantasy, but to imagine the joy of living in a country where you feel your values are reflected everywhere would be incredible.
One thing you and I have in common, I think, is that we are both uncomfortable with how things are, and are scared for the future. I wish us both a better future.
6
@Linus Curiously, the founding fathers understood that while "all men are created equal," no two men are the same. Keep the Federal gov't out of most everyone's lives, on everything and allow states to better reflect the individual values of those that inhabit them so that people have a choice in their life. Instead, the polarization of Every issue at the Federal level just makes Everyone unhappy.
I fled CT for Texas, and every day is a vacation since. If all the world is that which you hate without the option of making your own life, war, the last resort of political conflict, is inevitable.
1
In '12 and '16 the GOP establishment leadership missed or ignored the discontent of many in their party. In '16 and now in '20 the Democratic establishment leadership is doing the same, with the dissatisfied in their party.
It's going to be a bumpy 2020.
7
Polarization is not the least of it. The electoral system in this country is steadily moving in one direction: a smaller share of the total electorate being able to elect the President. With the right wing increasingly clustered in low population rural areas and economically prosperous and left leaning cities growing, we are heading towards a legitimation crisis. What, one may ask, makes if fair that the votes of 70+ thousand for Trump in three states count more that the close to 3 million more who voted for Clinton? Why do we have a Senate that increases the power of small (and backward) states to frustrate the desires of the majority for, say universal health care and sane gun regulation? In the past 20 years we've had one election decided by one vote (on the Supreme Court) and others where the will of the popular majority was thwarted by our (anti-democratic) electoral system. The right wing is fighting a rear guard action based on fear, anxiety and racism; but if their tactics of gerrymandering and voter suppression continue to succeed the result may be conflict over the entire constitutional order.
14
I'm good with calling it a day and having the two separate countries that are now captured under "the United States" go their separate ways. It's not worth staying together for the sake of the kids. They can totally tell we resent the heck out of each other anyway.
12
Every action of the current occupant of the WH is geared to please Russia's Putin. Chaos, hatred of immigrants, misinformation /disinformation campaigns are tactics used in Russian propaganda. I hope and pray ,Americans of all stripes began to wise up! Our future's depend on an informed electorate.
Social media isn't helping in this effort.
6
About a month ago I could take the spewing of hatred that passes of political discussion no more. Sadly, the readers of this comment will wait for an single word, one that shows my hatred against Trump is less than absolute, before continuing.
It could very well be true that "Trump Started It" yet it was the public that let him define the nature of discourse. Frontline had two two-hour documentaries. The first was on the Obama and the second on the Trump administration.
It featured Obama's extensive castigation of Trump after he released his birth certificate -- more than riding, or a quip, but five minutes of ridicule. And the beginning of the Trump segment showed the first weeks when he sincerely interacted with his predecessor with deference and respect. And then something happened, the apocryphal report of his enjoying passive urination was delivered by officials, which triggered his rage at the "deep state."
There has not been a single serious review of this masterful documentary that showed the lead up to where we are now. Tragically, America is divided to the point that hatred and ridicule is all we can feel to the "other."
And the Correspondents Dinner is going to have a comedic M.C. It's as though we are not on the brink of an internecine catastrophe.
1
@Call Me Al Let me get this right. Trump spent how many years trying to convince people that Obama isn't even a citizen, he finally lashes out at Trump, and somehow Obama is to blame?
Disclaimer: I've been bashing Trump for over 30 years, roughly when I first started hearing about him and the sleaze that oozes from every pore of his body.
3
I hate Trump and GOP voters. I detest GOP politics, most of their policies and the deep rooted, pervasive meanness. Compassion, tolerance, balanced understanding, perspective and reasonableness do not need to be practiced with these horrible creatures. They must be overpowered and crushed.
11
@whateverme
And there you have it.
1
And I disagree with every word you said. I don’t hate anyone - and I’ve come close to that before. I need us to find some compromises. We probably cannot be one country if there are enough of those who hate the “other side”. I don’t want that to happen. I’m a native of the United States and I want the country to stay united. Why are we allowing voices that spew hate define who we are and will be?!?!??????
Very sad that so many Americans have bought into the myth of American exceptionalism. This self deception has proven to prevent us from looking at, and dealing with the very real problems in our society: income inequality, racial enmity, a failing health system, climate change, etc.. Trump has encouraged this delusional thinking, whether out of ignorance or for political gain, or for both. His distorted world view has found fertile ground in our society that has a fundamental belief that it's a dog eat dog world and unrestricted capitalism is the best economic system possible. This basic misconception has prevented us from evolving into a more benevolent and inclusive society.
8
I do not think hostility in politics will end anytime soon. But I do think the public response may shift.
I do think that churning out the base will not work as well this time. Trumps manner is loud and crude and his pugnacious approach to opposition is troubling to say the least! There are people in the country that love the meanness. They have always been around. But, I think we will have new and different voters on the scene. In the ‘18 midterms, we had a turnout unmatched since the depression era. In ‘19, suburban areas once reliably Republican, turned blue. Thats a tell. I believe many people in the comfortable suburban areas that normally turn away from politics just because it has become so nasty, cannot help but notice what’s happening in the Trump era. Any reasonable person can see he is a threat to the stability of law and order. His economic claims are spurious. The more people watch his simple, reactive style of policy making, it becomes apparent that a good economy is likely a coincidence, not a product of Trumps policy.
I think the mud slinging and crude campaigns that would keep many home in the past may motivate those that do not normally want to engage in politics to do so, or at least get out and vote.
I think the no-holds-barred politics which Trump and his base find delightful will backfire and motivate droves of voters to oppose him. Especially if he keeps up his episodes of vengeance and childish reactions when a restraint is put on.
5
Hope you’re right.
What I find insufficiently addressed in Edsall's array of sources and the readers' comments is the echo effects of right-wing fear and hatred on the left wing, and even on moderates within the Democratic Party. We are all, more or less, walking wounded. Bernie Sanders is an authentic, strong candidate and a prophetic voice, but much of the fervor surrounding him strikes me as simple-minded, more reactionary than revolutionary. Taking the country back is going to be a long slog and it will require coalition-building and policy development that requires unlikely allies, not fire-brands.
4
@Jon
It has to start somewhere, with someone.
A strong leader that is respected and trusted, who's known for fighting for We the People against anyone, D. or R. that is in the wrong. Who has a long history of doing just that.
A leader that begins negotiations from the Left, rather than beginning from the center.
You may see his supporters as reactionary, but conservatives understand that. It is the resistance, the struggle for what is right. We may not agree on what "that " is, but they (and many we) see that there is a large motivated, active movement on the Left that is willing to take to the streets for it's beliefs and doesn't roll-over and appease from the weak center.
Sanders has his hand out. He's been to Liberty Uni. He's done Fox Town Hall and for years went on their "news" shows. His net ranges from Joe Rogan to the Sunrise Movement. He's knocked because he doesn't see identity as much as class, yet he chained himself to a black woman, standing up for her rights. He was for body autonomy for women before Roe v. Wade. As a 4 consecutive elected mayor he turned Burlington into a safe zone for LBGTQ citizens, before that was done. Yet he appeals to blue collar and no collar. He fights for the Unions and those at min. wage.
I truly believe he could be the "fire-brand" America needs to advance and change...or not.
Big Money, Corp. and the Connected and Wealthy, the establishment and the status quo et al don't want change. There is profit in chaos.
1
Just last night, I was ruminating on how we got here. Was it McCain's choice of Sarah Palin, who proudly dumbed down who could run for office? Was it George Bush's evangelicalism, which legitimized the marriage of religion and the White House, albeit in a more subtle way than what we're seeing today? It was definitely Citizens United - no question there. Was it the backlash to having a two term black president who was very popular, very well-educated, and self-made? Was it the addition of words like "libtard" into our lexicon, which provided the common conservative with an easily understandable and "hilarious" word to vilify the other side? So many options here. I'm tempted to say it was a little bit of all of them.
9
@WK Don't forget Gingrich and Reagan.
7
It's important to remember that this was intentionally inflicted on us by the likes of Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, and Rupert Murdoch.
Murdoch, of course, is not American, but Atwater and Rove need to be recognized as the traitors that they are (were). They would destroy our nation for their own political power.
This applies equally, of course, to the presidents that took advantage of their fascist tactics: Reagan, Bush, Bush II and, now, Trump.
9
no mention of Occupy Wall Street
1
@Paul
Forgot to mention BENGHAZI, too.
What more powerful juvenile fantasy could there be than an authority figure that condones bad behavior? That's what Trump is to his base. The worst acting out by kids comes, however, when they start to feel insecure about the person who turned them loose.
9
I have to say that even though my candidate lost in November 2016 I've never been able to muster the kind of hatred that energizes Trump and his followers. I can't stand to look at or listen to Trump, but I find it impossible to sustain high-intensity hatred. Trump is probably the luckiest person on the planet, yet he's vindictive, sour, enraged, and absolutely miserable. How is that possible? And his followers behavior similarly. If/when he wins a second term, he and his followers will not be satiated. The country that he's destroying will still affect his followers as adversely as it will the rest of us. But they're just too besotted to face up to it.
11
So, the politics of "anger and fear" and "hate" was manufactured for political ends? Many Americans dont have to be duped into anger and fear. Many of us are angry because of the disparity in income, the paucity of police, the cost of housing, education, medical care and the endless Middle East wars to name just a few. Feelings of anger and (yes) fear are very justified. And Mr Edsall, if you are really concerned about the root causes of the financial crisis (which was not caused by poor minority neighborhoods) and the racist suppression of minorities (just "Xerox" the profile of blacks and latinos and hand copies out to the cops) , then I KNOW that you condemn the candidacy of "Mike" Bloomberg. You do condemn him don't you Mr. Edsall?
2
Edsall’s take is chilling.
A Very very sad place we’ve become. If Trump Republicans could stop vilifying migrants & their children, gay people, transgenders & blacks for a moment & looked in the mirror, they’d be shocked to see the face of their hatred looking back.
It may take a natural or human caused cataclysmic event that requires us
all to work together for survival, to re-establish sanity & common good between Americans. Or maybe we just need enough of these backward thinking, science denying types that are currently in power to be gone forever- through natural attrition. After all, a person can’t live forever.
4
I can't understand why the academics and pundits refuse to call what's going on culturally and politically for what it is: Fascism.
The pattern is very obvious and fits the classic historic research.
The Senate's capitulation consolidated the movement.
24
When Trump’s “Putin-love” became evident days after the inauguration, I thought, “There it is. Trump, a ‘Putin lap dog-groomed agent’ (unwittingly? over decades) is bent on serving up on a silver platter the U.S. to Russia. Trump’s allegiance to Russia will be clear when Deutsche Bank is ordered by the Supreme Court to turn over Trump’s financials.
And I imagine Putin gleefully back-channeling Trump weekly with directions like - top priority - destroy your Justice Department. Make it your tool to reek vengeance on your enemies and to free your friends because trust in the rule of law, justice and fairness is at the foundation of Democracy.
3
Painfully depressing.
9
While most of our political history has involved hate and division to some extent, Mr. Trump magnifies its effects because the only mental filter he applies to inputs or outputs is whether anything benefits him. Hate is something he can sell.
Mr. Trump has carried this from politics to governance, along with something even more dangerous: he alone among our presidents has questioned the legitimacy of the entire US electoral system, the judiciary, and parts of his own executive branch, as well as the roles of Congress.
It's worth remembering that one of the most cost-effective and powerful weapons of WWII was about 10 pounds of powdered carborundum (the grit on sandpaper), mixed with grease. When applied to wheel and axle bearings in the weeks before D-Day, most of the German freight cars in southern France became incapacitated in the process of bringing tanks to Normandy.
Simple, cheap and unpredictable.
Donald Trump has blown abrasive powder into the workings of US government and governance.
6
Take heart. It's all a phase since the younger generation simply rejects all these divisions. They grew up more educated, more responsible, and more culturally aware than their parents or grandparents.
Getting people out to vote is the only and best strategy for the Democratic party to win this time. That means, listening more to the younger generation across the political spectrum and less to the aging torchbearers.
7
America is in a polarized death-spiral of lawlessness. Thank you, GOP.
Trump is a shameless tyrant who will do anything to retain power.
He has weaponized every executive branch instrument that is at his disposal.
As long as Trump remains in office—and as long as the likes of Barr, Pompeo, McConnell, Graham and virtually all other GOP legislators and appointees enable Trump to follow his autocratic instincts—our constitutional system will remain unbalanced and its institutions severely threatened.
Today’s autocratic regimes do not come to power by sending thugs into the streets. Brute force too readily signals the objectives of would-be tyrants.
Today’s autocrats appoint lackeys and toadies to positions of authority within the investigative, security and justice systems. They then utilize these perverted systems to stymie opposition, to threaten “enemies”, to punish adversaries and to reward allies.
It is obvious that Graham, McConnell, Barr, Pompeo and the vast majority of elected Republican officials and appointees are complicit in Trump’s consolidation of autocratic power. They value self-interest and their political party’s hold on power above all else. They very effectively reward their major donors, and less effectively promote the narrow and sectarian interests of their base voters.
Trump loyalists demean the rule of law. political polarization serves their interests.
Vote the scoundrels out! Or be swept into a death-spiral of ever increasing lawlessness.
15
This article contributes to the failure of Democrats to understand why they lost. I was born in the Midwest, have relatives there and travel there and Mountain states and Southwest states for business, so I have many friends who support Trump. Here are the reasons Trump won:
1. failure of both parties to enforce the borders and upgrade our immigration law and regs to deal with unprecedented economic migration;
2. failure of both parties to address the hollowing-out of our manufacturing capacity, with consequent loss of union jobs (and thus Dem support) and economic deprivation in much of the Midwest;
3. anger at Obama's lawless and flawed Iran deal that transferred $Billions to the Mullahs without restrictions on their support of Hezbollah and Hamas terror against our ally Israel and our Sunni Arab allies;
4. anger at Obama's foolish Paris Climate Deal that committed US$Trillions to undeveloped countries to pay for expensive but intermittent/unreliable renewable energy while handicapping our own economic growth and giving China and India a ten-year pass;
5. anger at Obama's threats that caused Universities to deprive our sons and grandsons of basic rights while expelling them and affixing a "scarlett letter" on them to satisfy SJWs;
6. anger at Obama's failure to protect our daughters and granddauthers from having to compete with trans-women (i.e. men) in athletic contests, depriving them of Title IX rights; and
7. overreach of Federal government generally.
8
@SonomaEastSide
That's all well and good though it ain't true. This very column told us what the credible studies had to say about the motivations of Trump voters. The average Trump voter was motivated most strongly by racial resentment. And most of the stuff you list here is transparently part of that same program. Oh and all of that stuff about economics was a myth, too. The average Trump voter earned a per capita annual income that was $10,000 higher than the average Clinton voter.
15
@SonomaEastSide
That's all well and good though it ain't true. This very column told us what the credible studies had to say about the motivations of Trump voters. The average Trump voter was motivated most strongly by racial resentment. And most of the stuff you list here is transparently part of that same program. Oh and all of that stuff about economics was a myth, too. The average Trump voter earned a per capita annual income that was $10,000 higher than the average Clinton voter.
4
Appreciate your sharing. I wonder what role a good education (university) & opportunities for travel outside of ‘where we know’ would be enough to modify the opinions & the views your friends& acquaintances have the 6 of the 7 items you’ve listed. Many of these ‘feelings’ are from fear & distrust of the ‘other’.
7
What we keep forgetting is the evolution of the economy based on ever changing requirements for a person to adapt. In order to make it in this new order, you need to keep reinventing oneself all the time. The skills that were required for quite a few years back are derided by the market place. Moreover, the economic structure of a certain country could give you a life time job. Not any more! Americans are exposed to a relentless competition. Fitting into this structure requires education which is expensive. Those able to make it are hungry international students, foreigners, who come to America and are able to play the game and win. The jobs they get require advanced skills and that they do get from academic institutions. The indigenous people, a majority of Americans lack the means to pay for education. When they do, it is made at conditions of high interest rates that many fear could bog them down financially never able to repay the debt, that they opt not to take loans to study. The result is this lagging behind which evidently leads to unemployment due to lack of modern skills. It is these Americans who view the system catering for foreigners and other nations than the indigenous population, that have revolted and hate everything foreign! This is where Trump comes in having discovered the outrage. He has exploited it by saying America must cater for its own needs and not the needs of other countries. That’s where we are today and many rural Americans are buying into this.
298
@Edward sevume America is built on what's good for business and not what helps its citizens and this is why we don't have the social safety net that European countries have. The extreme irony is that most people voted against their own interests when they voted for an extreme Republican (Trump), but they were not voting for him to establish that safety net (they can't imagine such a world because it's too "socialist" for them), they voted for him because he would make others feel more pain than they did (and still do).
159
@Edward sevume
If you think about it the issue is that the bosses have come up with a new coat of paint to hide the same old practices.
There is no new paradigm, only a new prism placed in front of the minds eye to make what you are looking at seem to be something else called "new".
23
@Edward sevume
Audacity of Hate? What about the "Audacity of Hope"? (Obama)
Yes, Trump, and the Right offer us an audacity of hate.
Why, can't Democrats offer us an audacity of hope, now?
I fear Trump and the Republicans will destroy democracy.
I also fear the confusion and lack of hope, of Democrats.
Why can't Democrats focus on a new democracy wave?
"Democracy is coming to the USA" (Leonard Cohen)
Why can't the Times focus on a democracy of hope, now?
"Democracy is coming to the USA"
21
"The GOP has radicalized into an anti-system party that does not accept the legitimacy of its opposition and enables a slide toward autocracy."
Democrats have spent the last 3 years claiming that Trump is an agent of Putin and that he stole the election with Russia's help, and activating "insurance policies" to drive him from office, up to and including impeachment. Speaking of autocracy, the FBI and CIA were employed in these efforts, resulting in dawn raids by armed agents and the prosecution of a number of Trump associates (while Democrats went unprosecuted for the same crimes). Meanwhile, Antifa--the paramilitary wing of the Resistance--beats and pepper-sprays people in the streets with impunity.
9
@Tom ... "(while Democrats went unprosecuted for the same crimes)."....You need to support your claim by providing evidence. I don't think you can do that. Go ahead, provided facts; prove me wrong.
4
@W.A. Spitzer General Flynn was prosecuted for lying to the FBI. The IG found that Andrew McCabe lied to the FBI under oath on three separate occasions, but no charges have been filed against him.
2
@Tom ...."A key witness testified that Mr. McCabe had no motive to lie because he was authorized as the F.B.I.’s deputy director to speak to the news media, so he would not have had to hide any discussions with reporters. Another important witness testified he could not immediately remember how the leak unfolded. Both would have been crucial to any prosecution.
Additionally, people who are charged with lying to the F.B.I. are typically accused of committing the offense in the course of a criminal investigation, not an administrative inquiry."....In other words it was dropped because there was no case. Still looking for a single example.
3
the so-called tea party providing the psycho/emotional core to all the awfulness that surrounds trump and, points directly to its roots--not in colonial Boston, but in the Colonial, slave owning, south. This is, at heart, who these people are and what they represent. The south seceded in a traitorous rebellion against the real America. So when they (today's tea party people/trump's loyal tribe), talk about "liberty", they are talking about their liberty, not yours; and when they talk about "America" they are referencing the country they tried to split off from the real America.
7
One of the Zen Buddhist vows
"Greed, hatred and ignorance-I vow to abandom them"
And how sadly and desperately the world needs exactly this- to abandon these horrific negative thought patterns. We are drowning in human foibles.
And these are the very negative qualities that Trump glorifies.
Sad and terrifying times in the USA- A failed state.
4
Trump's attempt to bribe the American people into supporting him goes beyond economic factors. Why did Trump pardon Blagojevich, a failed criminal Democrat and politician, a black woman in jail for life and a bevy o influential con men? To Democrats he is saying if you just vote and support me you too can be pardoned despite your not supporting me in the past. To blacks who have often been mistreated in our legal system he says the same thing, just give me you support and you too can be pardoned. And a similar thing can be said for criminal con men in general. Trump's ultimate message is that I have ultimate power and I can pardon you or put you in jail depending upon what you do for me. It is the same temptation the devil or this world offers us and only the best of us have had the power to resist this Faustian bargain with the devil.
4
I don’t think liberals hate conservatives. However, “conservative” has become a label used by bigots who are not conservative in the true meaning of conservatism— and yes, I will admit that I hate racists, misogynists, homophobes, anti-Semites, etc.
6
George Washington warned us against political parties. He said,
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”
The assertion that “our constitutional system is not well matched with our current party system” is a gross understatement. The Constitution gives political parties no role in government. But political parties have seized power by undermining the Constitution. First, they persuaded state legislatures to place the names of presidential candidates on the November ballots. They then persuaded most of the legislatures to enact laws the require electors to cast their ballots in accordance with the popular vote. Once in power, they devised parliamentary rules that enable party hacks to control the flow of legislation. Today, political parties—not Congress, the Executive Branch or the Judiciary—are the de facto government.
Americans should stop acquiescing to party rule. A good first step would be to take the names of presidential candidates of the ballot and allow the Electoral College to function as the founders intended. Presidential candidates wouldn’t have to conduct multi-billion-dollar national campaigns. They would only need to schedule campaign stop at state capitol buildings to to ask state electors for their vote.
4
Appealing to the people’s worst instincts is what demagogues do, even the dementia touched reality TV variety. What’s unfortunate is that there is a large enough population— even accounting for the gerrymandering and the electoral college— that fall for this. That DJT can be any kind of political force considering what the nation went through during World II with all of its messages and warnings which have been preached for generations is the truly upsetting revelation of this era. The greatest generation told us.
5
One piece missing in these discussions is that the majority of voters voted against Trump. He lost the popular vote, albeit by a small margin, but he lost. In any other election he would have lost. If one tallies the total number of votes for congress members, Democrats are also in the majority. I suspect if we go back and tally all the Democrat versus Republican votes for senators in the last 6 years (so all seats will have had an election), in absolute terms, Democrats would be in the majority. Our electoral college is a rigged system in the purest sense of the word, where a minority of voters can impose their will on the majority. Clearly, not all votes are treated the same. We should have a one person one vote system, at least for president.
5
Just a few days ago I would have given a half-hearted nod to Mr. Edsall's column. I would have thought that, sure, there is an element of "hate" in the base but I could find that in the fringes of either end of the political spectrum. A conversation with a dear friend who is also a Trump voter served to alter my position and bring me closer to what I read today.
I try and avoid any of the day-to-day stuff with my friend in order to avoid any unnecessary strain. But when I saw the pardons yesterday I had to see where he was at. So I sent a simple text: "Blagojevich. Really?" My expectation was at least a slight head shake.
Instead I got back a rant that touched on how liberals have made him feel bad for the past 40 years and called him names. Stunned that this was his answer, I went back and asked, "Don't you have a problem with this?" and received back more of the same.
It seems that the Trump base just gets off on watching him destroy. It is the payback they have been waiting for. It's not about an ideology or a policy. It's just a "Hulk, smash" kind of attitude.
How do you debate that?
5
Political polarization at the federal level is facilitated strongly by a rigid two-party system, essentially ruled by two parties, that effectively excludes other voices from elected positions in the House and Senate. The flawed electoral system should be seen as a prototype model from 1776, an anachronism in today's world, rather than a structure for today's more complex US cultures. The country has grown from 2.5 million in 13 east-coast colonies to 330 million stretching across a continent, reflecting diverse geographies and economies. The current electoral system, instead of representing those diversities, homogenizes them into two categories, creating the tribalism Mr. Edsall (and others noted in his piece) have identified. A massive restructuring is in order to fix this problem.
1
The political scene has become very nasty and both parties are guilty. If I recall, President Reagan and Tip O’Neill would go out for dinner and drinks occasionally. In this political climate, this seldom occurs. We find many arch enemies in the party leadership. They throw insults and negatives at each other which continues to fuels the flames. Why can’t they just all get along despite their differences in the political realm.
2
But a lot of it is just a card trick. Trump = minority rule. But that minority runs the right-wing media and does a great job of scaling up his power. Having the 50+ GOP Senators leave the Senate in his grip seems like a lot - but is it, really? Why are people so afraid? It seems like a lot of bluffing to me.
1
Edsall is one of the best editorialists in this paper. A collection of his editorials over the past two years would make an amazing novel or film that would be more chilling than The Fog of War with a Krzysztof Penderecki soundtrack.
A resounding theme occurs in his excellent writing: authoritarianism and its dangers such as a coup d'etat, and the possibility of an American civil war in our lifetime.
I was convinced before reading Edsall that this nation will see a significant upitck in violence if the election does not go according to the Fuhrer's plans.
It may require another crisis for us to snap out of the demonic spell we have been cast under that predates the rise of Drumpf.
6
Next question for political scientists to ascertain who is behind this decades-long polarization effort. The answer might lead to a possible remedy: monopoly capitalists.
1
Polarization is the new normal. Until it isn't.
From the Hemingway novel, The Sun Also Rises:
How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
As I watch what Trump is doing, and the GOP reaction, especially to miserable performances like the National Prayer Breakfast and later in the East room, I feel more and more like Mike, regarding our national soul. People who should have stood up and walked out, especially evangelicals, instead clapped and cheered. I’m starting to feel like I walk among a nation filled with moral zombies. Trump is a master of us-vs-them hate, with all the juvenile names to go with it. “Mini Mike” and his “box” is the latest, something you’d expect from an 8 year old bully. Right from its founding, America has had a sad history of hypocrisy, but the juxtaposition of Trump against Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, etc. is so glaringly obscene it boggles the mind. I hope the division Trump fuels can be healed, but I’m not optimistic.
6
With greatest respect for your erudition, political knowledge, hard work, and vast network of contacts in academia, this column betrays confusion.
Most of it seems to imply false equivalency, as though the "left" and the "right" are equally at fault for the polarization.
But you know better, and in fact you say so yourself..."The GOP has radicalized into an anti-system party that does not accept the legitimacy of its opposition and enables a slide toward autocracy."
Let's be clear about who became nihilistic, cynical, and reactionary--and who remained reasonable, and stayed in touch with reality.
3
You're actually funny to read, Mr. Author. But there is no hatred involved when Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler, etc., have, since November 2016, been non-stop in trying to fry Trump. Dossier, Mueller, Russia, The Ukraine and just a total refusal to accept the results of the election. Nope. No hate there.
5
They are the minority in America who has gotten a louder voice than they should have because of gerrymandering districts, misinformation by politicians, and paid lobbyists that own FOX entertainment channel, podcasts, and the internet. They are immature, intolerant, and uneducated which makes it so much easier for them to manipulated by Republican politicians.
1
I think you give Trump too much credit. He is the embodiment of so many people that I have known. He is the guy who talks about politics loudly and takes other people's silence as agreement. He is the guy that thinks he knows everything and if he doesn't know it then it is unimportant. He is the blowhard that resorts to name calling when someone disagrees with him. He is the guy that relishes the chance to humiliate others. He is the bully that shrinks when a bigger bully enters the room. He covers his weakness and ignorance with a heavy coat of belligerence. He is such a common man, a small man.
4
So who among the opposition to Trump and his cult can best stop the bleeding? The Republic is in the ER. There’s no time to debate options, explore nuanced differences, or demand explanations of what the on-call surgeons said five years ago.
Right now, the savviest Trump opposition campaign is Bloomberg’s media blitz. He keeps it simple, stands up for progressive policies he has long embraced, and attacks Trump accurately and effectively. He has his eye on the only target that matters: saving the Republic before Trump and his allies destroy it.
Under Bloomberg, regardless of his past errors, the Republic will survive - if only because he’ll appoint 2-3 Supreme Court justices who won’t enable a further decline into kleptocracy and dictatorship.
More progressive policies can come later, when younger Americans finally take over.
5
@JB
"Younger Americans" grow up and become conservative.
1
@JB or other JB, should I say, that's why I'll vote for him, if he gets the nomination. However, if someone else does, everyone else needs to form up behind them. Whether it's Bernie with his unrealistic expectations of what he can achieve alone, Biden with his baggage and centracism, or Warren and her inexcusable femaleness, we all need to back whoever the nominee is, if only to stop the bleeding.
2
@JB (other JB) - I agree completely. The issue for me is not just the presidential race, but the down ballot races as well. In CA, where I worked to “flip” red Congressional districts to blue, it was clear the center-progressive candidates with appeal to centrist independents won tight races more progressive candidates likely could not have won. That story played out in many districts in the country. I fear that’s also the case in key electoral college regions Democrats must win to keep the House, take or improve the numbers in the Senate and win the presidency. I’m not looking for “safe” “moderate” just strategic.
Mr. Edsall, as one of the small, select group of opinion makers also needs to take responsibility for Trump. Writers for the New York Times have been given a very precious stage. But they did not speak out strongly against Trump until it was too late and have essentially lost the public opinion debate to FOX, Sinclair and Infinity.
So, Mr. Edsall, are you ready to accept your share of responsibility for Trump?
5
Watching a segment with Ohio voters this morning on a majorTV channel, I was totally saddened by the blatant ignorance of the various random voters interviewed. It reinforced the information in numerous articles that 40% of American voters read at a third or fourth grade level--and another 40% cannot read above a grade 6 or grade 7 level. So these individuals, being ignorant of the finer points of disperate policies, have no idea of what they will vote for in 2020--but they are confident that they will make the right choice!
9
It’s certainly a conundrum. Education & life experiences enjoyed outside of our ‘own sandbox’ can change the way people think & vote. Today’s Republican politician sees the low information constituent as a renewable resource come election time. Only through natural attrition will these types get cycled out. Hopefully the younger, better educated citizens will fix this mess.
2
I'm going to try and be objective here while not sounding hateful. The enlightened society that Liberals have created is so far removed from the reality of the world we live in. Even just 20 years ago Liberals would not support such ideas as AOC or Bernie Sanders and especially Ilhan Omar. Most republicans don't hate liberals but they do hate liberalism and that is a distinction that needs to be recognized. When we don't recognize distinctions it fills people with resentment. A few examples of this are: When liberal media talks about immigration they don't discern between legal and illegal most of the time they just lump them all together. When the media talks about assault rifles they immediately show images of scary looking military style guns, most reporting on this issue have never even fired a weapon and most think the AR in AR-15 stands for assault rifle (guess what it does not). The hoards of people not living in liberal cities are offended by so called experts that don't know the difference between legal and illegal and know the difference between a tactical shot gun and rifle. Stop treating the other side as dumber then you because is drives hate and division and most of all please remember that there is a large portion of the United States that is not like New York or LA.
6
@RS ...You give yourself away. Ilhan Omar is one of over 400 members of the House of Representatives. The House is half of the Legislative body, which represents one third of the government. That means the she represents 0.004% of government. I'll bet you can't name half of the Representatives from Missouri.The fact you know her name, that you know she is liberal, is proof that you have brought into propaganda. I'll Fear, fear, fear, be very afraid. You are being led around by the nose and you don't even know it.
7
@RS
As of 2018 about 46 million Americans live in the nation’s rural counties and are likely conservative/libertarian, 273 million in its urban & suburban counties and likely moderate/liberal .
These numbers are certainly not lost on broadcasters.
You may feel that large news organizations are speaking to the 273M - well sure that's a big audience....while others feel conservative media is speaking only to the 46M.
4
@RS
Let us know when the Republicans kick the neo-Nazis and white supremacists, the David Dukes and Sebastian Gorkas and Richard Spencers and Nicholas Fuentes and Donald Trump Jrs. out of your party.
Just kidding. We all know--and so do you--they never will.
6
America is becoming the Bedford Falls that Mr. Potter would make it into in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life". Where is our Jimmy Stewart to wrest it back?
1
I like the message on the shirt. No hate, nothing of the sort, just hope that the hate-mongering, crying-wolf 'liberals' lose again.
Reading NYT for one day is enough to see who paddles hate, feverishly and incessantly - it is not Trump.
Finally, the Trump supporters do not really seem to hate the other side nearly as much as that other side hates them, which is amply demonstrated on the pages of their media vehicle, NYT. Even if they do, they do not have the media to express that anger, as opposed to the 'liberals' who mightily rule the media and still lose. And by one Trump ! Quite an achievement!
4
@ss
If you like the message on the shirt and don't see the hatred in it, you've got a problem.
13
Let's call it what it is — racism, bigotry, hatred — instead of circling the subject using softened terms “racially apprehensive” and “racial antagonism,” as well as pointing out that it's the Republican's “exclusionary attitudes” accelerating the divide. Trump uses hate as a tool to inflame his base, inciting vitriol and violence, like the authoritarians past/present he so admires. There is no equivalence between the current parties for such un-American, flagrantly fascist behavior.
6
I have hope! I must have hope! I refuse to give this president credit for anything.....even for destroying our country! I have hope that my fellow Americans will fight the dismembering of our democracy. We are not perfect....and many former presidents were not perfect, but we and they upheld the law! Our country with all its warts and wounds was Our Country!
1
There is a sociological aspect to this as well. Trump is a bully and a subset of his base are simply the followers. We used to see this pack mentality in grade and high school. Think Lord of the Flies. They are emboldened by a view of liberals and progressives as weak and inept etc and indeed the approach has been to go high, appease etc. Which does no work with bullies.
I tend to be and support a more in your face approach. Direct, forthright and calm backed by a willingness to engage if needed. As a rule these folks back down as like most bullies they are cowards. Online if they devolve to snark simply have some fun. I can tell you that with folks like Trump and parts of his base you need to push back. They are pack predators and will go for the throat if emboldened.
5
I believe Mr. Edsall is describing reality. Now, why is it just Republicans who are able to exploit it? Democrats are going to continue to lose unless they unleash hatred on their opponents. I suggest declaring Trump's election illegitimate based on Russian interference, calling Republicans unpatriotic and disloyal based on their enabling of Trump's contempt for the law and constitution, and overt eat the rich class warfare. That would be good for starters. Of course, I'm not expecting any of that because Democrats are incompetent losers.
1
If you're really a liberal, you've been pretty much crying since the 1980 election--at least if you're old enough to remember.
What a terrible mess conservative policies and propaganda have made of this country!
Angry people who keep falling for their message have to understand two main points: the country is not going to ever become any less diverse, and unrestrained capitalism is not going to ever make their lives any more secure.
Oh yeah, and one additional point. Trump can't really do anything to prevent my first point, and is completely unwilling to do anything about my second one.
Its time to accept this! Actually way past time!
519
@Bryan: If Reagan hadn't won in 1980, some Republicans would have been in deep trouble for double-dealing with Iranian revolutionaries.
38
Every single bullet point "George Orwell" posts is easily debunkable. But the most obvious is the wall claim; Trump said over 200 times publicly Mexico would pay for it. Instead he's pilfering money budgeted to the military, i.e. taxpayer money to pay for it. Another lie, among the 16,000-plus he's told publicly since assuming the office of the presidency against the will of the majority of the American people.
Additionally all of the economic trends "George Orwell" cites, Donald Trump inherited from Obama (kinda like Trump inherited his "fortune"). And nearly all of those numbers were better under Obama's presidency.
Trump's only real accomplishment, if you can call it that, is exacerbating racial division and enabling/empowering white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups, which our own law enforcement agencies all confirm. His actions have spurred a surge in hate crimes including the worst anti-Semitic massacre in modern US history, committed by a person of the right who used Donald Trump's own rhetoric verbatim as his rationale.
So, "George," got anything other than dishonest propaganda?
138
@George Orwell I'll say it again. We Black people had jobs when we were all maids and porters. It doesn't mean life was good then.
66
Democracy only works with an educated electorate. Republicans of course never want that as they like to rely on conspiracy theories and other fabrications to influence. Uneducated, those who do not think critically, are most subject to influence and reliance on social media for information. Shame on Democrats that they have not placed education (e.g. free college) at the forefront during past administrations. We are now at least a generation behind.
1
@ Larry Klein...Yes, education should be the priority, but what good is free college if a large portion of the US population reads and comprehends below an 8th grade level? Investing (more wisely) in K -12 schools might be a better option.
Excellent article Mr. Edsall. One of the foremost authorities on the subject, Dr. Hibbing from the University of Nebraska wrote in the Times right after the election that Trump supporters are those that are sensitive to threat, which is a remnant of evolution, thus unconscious, automatic "thinking". He is correct of course, you can see it in the faces of Trump supporters and Trump himself. But this is a minority of the electorate and targeting those few had negative consequences not the least of which is the health of our Democracy. They still lost the popular vote by 3 million. Trump has already tapped into that portion of voters, has done absolutely nothing to try and expand on that, and is doubling down with the same strategy next time around. If Democrats were half as sensitive to threat as the far right, they would turn out in droves by what they have seen in Trump thus far. But they aren't and won't. It is a fundamental advantage that Republicans have.
4
Some or all of the Democratic candidates for president call for inclusion, especially the "moderates" or "centrists" or what ever one chooses to call them in the party. This article points out that he Rove Republicans do not play by this rule. Do we really want to be so inclusive that we invite these hateful people to the table? We are at war with them and must treat them as the enemy.
5
I wrote the following about a 2009 Town hall meeting in Middletown NJ sponsored by Congressman Rush Holt - the site of Tea party protest:
"From the manufacturers of the 1950’s communist witch hunts, the 1960’s Nixon “Southern Strategy”, and more recently “intelligent design”, global warming deniers, Swiftboat Vets, Teabaggers, Birthers, Town Hellers, and know nothing parents opposed to President Obama’s “socialist indoctrination” of their children, comes a new McCarthyite and racist witch hunt against “green commie ecoterrorists“.
From the classic “The Paranoid Style in America Politics“ (1964), “The Power of Nightmares” (2004), to “In America, Crazy is a Preexisting Condition” (2009) – we’ve come a long way baby!
Check out the photos:
http://www.wolfenotes.com/2009/09/corporate-republican-manipulation-of-moran-nation-green-is-the-new-red/
2
False Equivalence Alert
The tee-short picture says it all. Libs aren't generally looking to hurt conservatives, we don't want to Lock Them Up!. We actually want government to work. We generally look for compromise, not to stomp our opponents. Get your facts straight!
5
We are already in a new Civil War, and have been for some time.
It's just been the cold war version.
But as the heat gets turned up, it's not impossible that this could turn into a modern-day repeat of the 1860s.
Because things are getting hotter, and it isn't just due to climate change.
7
@Dr J Hence as a progressive I do not support bans etc on firearms. Too many in circulation already and many owned by the other side. Better to arm up and train and be prepared than to be left defenseless.
Mr. Edsall mentions hatred between Democrats and Republicans, Trump's base and "the elite". It has always felt to me that the hatred is asymmetrical, that is, the hatred of Republicans toward Democrats and the hatred of Trump's base toward the coastal "elites" is far stronger than the opposite direction.
Republicans and Trump supporters consider themselves "real Americans" and show nothing but disgust for those of us not in their tribe. One simply has to look at a Trump rally to see a group of people who resent everything and everyone not in agreement with their views.
Since the 2016 election, we "coastal elites" have been told we must try to understand and reach out to those who supported Trump. How do you reach out to someone who hates you for simply being you?
14
@ Quinn
How do you reach out to them? You can’t, really. You can only keep in mind that they are out there, and outnumber them. The calendar helps some, since although it moves very slowly, it moves in only one direction. The real issue is whether the polity can exist in a recognizable form long enough to change.
1
@Quinn I simply hand it back to them if offered. Always with a smile and correct distance.
I post contrary information in right wing sites like Rant Nation, in the hope that some readers will be exposed to factual perspectives they don’t hear on Fox News. If we give up trying to have a dialogue, they’ll be forever trapped in their rabid echo chamber. It’s not a pleasant exercise because of the vitriol directed my way, but if I only create new awareness and doubt in a few, it’s worth the time and effort.
1
The most intense hate I’ve seen in recent years is coming from liberals and it’s aimed squarely at Trump supporters. We saw it at the Lincoln Memorial last year when an American Indian man pounded a drum in the face of a teenager with a MAGA hat on. We saw it when Jussie Smollett faked a hate crime against himself, saying that it was guys with MAGA hats on that beat him up. I just don’t understand why the liberal media keeps saying that it’s rural America that is full of hate. I don’t see hate. I see anger for good reasons.
9
@Mark Nah. I have seen this propaganda line since before Trump got elected. The ohh poor me conservatives are so put on by the evil liberals.
2
@Mark...."The most intense hate I’ve seen in recent years is coming from liberals and it’s aimed squarely at Trump supporters." ... And who has rallies where people chant "Lock Her Up"; "Build the Wall"; "Send Them Back"? Tell us, what to they chant at liberal rallies?
2
@Mark
In Aug 2019 The Guardian posted a list of 52 individuals who:
Explicitly declared support for Donald Trump, or used his slogans, during or in connection with acts or threats of violence.
Cited Trump or his rhetoric in subsequently explaining acts or threats of violence.
Committed or threatened violence against opponents of Trump at political events, or while wearing Trump-branded attire signifying their support for the president.
Publicly declared an allegiance to Trump before committing or threatening violence against members of political or racial groups that Trump has denounced
yes...."we saw it"....and it is certainly not as one-sided as you believe and it is not "anger for good reasons"
The article is still up at The Guardian.
1
History teaches us that both right and left exploit hate and fear for political gain. Stalin’s genocide of the “enemies of the people” or Pol Pot’s murder of the educated elites who were seen as agents of American imperialism are only two most extreme examples of class hatred turned deadly. Sanders’ class-baiting is not of the same power or magnitude but it is of the same kind, just as Trump’s xenophobia is of the same kind as authoritarian rhetoric in Latin America and Russia. However, I am optimistic in the long run. The last century showed that regimes based on hatred don’t survive. The USSR collapsed; Nazi Germany was defeated. Of course, this was a small consolation for the millions of victims. Let’s hope that it won’t come to this and that the robust middle class of the US will defeat both socialism and fascism before they can irrevocably damage this country.
2
@Mor No actually Sanders statements and position call out real inequality and economic problems in this country and are more akin to FDR than anyone else.
1
@Robert when every social and economic problem is blamed on "billionaires", when the answer to every issue is to tax "the wealthy" (who, of course, are never defined), when "the rich" are persistently dehumanized, and when an army of trolls go after everybody who criticizes their leader, the similarity is to FDR's contemporaries in the USSR is greater than to FDR himself. And did FDR ever call himself a socialist? Isn't it funny that your candidate tells you exactly who he is and keep denying it?
@Robert ....Sanders waves his arms, gets red in the face, and rails and rants that rich people are the problem. Over and over and over. You gotta have a boogie man.
2
Edsall is on the money here. Trump’s manipulation IQ is genius level. He’s been able to ambush Republicans and run circles around Democrats. Nobody knows what’s hit them, exactly. Except maybe two people: Nancy Pelosi who had to hold her own with five older brothers and a powerful dad, and Michael Bloomberg who has been observing Trump’s orbit for years..
It’s clear he is afraid of them!
Trump senses weakness wherever it exists and exploits it. Increasing fear and anger levels is an extremely effective tactic. Autocrats like him have known this throughout history. Trump knows how to foment racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia to his ends. He does virtually nothing with future generations in mind, certainly that of our kids and grandkids. Or even his own. His actions serve one person and one person only. Donald Trump. Even his kids don’t see this. (I think his wives do.)
But what is not noticed enough is that he manipulates BOTH sides of the political aisle. He orchestrates deep anger at liberals and liberal ideas. But here is the problem: Dems take the bait. We Democrats need to tone down the rhetoric, and put energy toward fostering the candidates who will do the work in that is really really needed. To take one instance among many, we need to stop putting LGBT rhetoric in people’s faces, because it increases Trump’s support. Is that going to save this country? We better figure all this out before the 2020 election.
At least Germany in the '20s & '30s had real economic problems and fears to channel toward group hate by a demagogue.
1
My goodness. Mr. Edsall's columns are simply wonderful.
1
Fox News, 2Nd. Amendment, Dems cutting loose Unions/Blue Collars last election. It all comes back to haunt.
Roger Ailes. Rove et al are smiling.
I think I have hit the point where even if Bernie were to be the Dem nominee I would vote for him. I am still concerned about the long term impacts of some of his platform proposals but Trump's recent attempts to completely control the Justice department has pushed me over. Still would prefer a more moderate choice but we need Trump out and will trust Congress to act as a governor on the proposals from getting too insane.
2
The Democrats should emulate the Rove tactics of taking advantage of anger and fear, but not by polarizing our constituency through racial, religious or xenophobic rage and anxiety, but rather through raising awareness of issues that threaten all of us. We should be dreadfully afraid of global warming and quite angry that our government is failing in addressing this issue as well as Trump's rape of our environment. We should be dismayed about our healthcare prospects and dismayed that many of us will not be able to afford it. We should be outraged about gun violence and dread the status quo of a Trump reelection. We should be enraged that many workers don't earn a living wage and disturbed that it will not be changed by a republican controlled congress. We should be furious that most children cannot afford a rewarding education and be apprehensive of our future ability to compete economically with the rest of the world. All of these deficiencies, and others as well, should be worthy news stories and be part of our daily conversations. Instead, our news outlets and social media concentrate more on presidential tweets, political shenanigans, celebrity capers, scandals and gossip, all of which mask the existential issues facing us. Bezo's new $ 10 Billion climate change initiative is fantastic, but there is no provision to use part of it that I am aware of for raising the public awareness. The same for the other issues. It's time we come out of our cocoons and spread the words.
6
Polarization is nothing new in America. I can make a case that it existed dating back to religious feuds in the 1600's. It existed during the revolutionary war between loyalists and patriots. Then there was the Missouri Compromise in 1820, followed by the Kansas-Nebraska Compromise in 1854, each of which attempted to keep the number of southern slave states equal to the number of northern slave-free states. Soon after slaves were freed by President Lincoln, he was assassinated and terrorists in the south kept slaves anything but free. Last, when liberal Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president, he soon became the target of conservative Republicans for printing billions of dollars to fund his New Deal, which eventually ended the Great Depression. Today's polarization is dangerous, to say the least, because of racism, proposed cuts in programs for the poor, and a president who is above the law.
4
Thank you for such a cogent and important piece. Stoking hatred & building political power using this approach, whether from those on the left or those on the right is very dangerous for democracy. It is a hallmark of autocratic regimes, fascist and of extremist movements on the left.
3
Can we Democrats get a grip here?
Simply put, no matter how outrageous are the actions of Donald Trump, so long as the Democrats propose to nominate candidates such as Sanders or Buttiigieg we're looking at a re-election scenario here.
Yes, Trump is a hate and fear-mongering demagogue. A wholly despicable human being. But he will win; and win in a landslide if the Democrats continue the current path they're on.
We've rejected Biden. We're about to reject Bloomberg. We're close to putting all our money on a self-proclaimed Socialist. And we think we're going to win?
OMG!
4
@George S. We thought we'd win with someone earning half a million to give speeches to Wall Street. OMG!
5
To dismiss those who disagree with the progressive agenda as hopelessly backward deplorables, racists, xenophobes, and throwbacks to medieval religious zealotry is to completely misunderstand what goes on in the lives of the people who produce the food, fiber, timber, skilled trades, and manufactured goods cities rely upon. I suggest an occasional foray out of the faculty lounges and editorial break rooms to engage and discuss ideas with actual people in flyover country. You might be surprised to find many of them less-easily dismissed than in your fevered partisan imagination.
7
@OldEngineer Another false narrative. As silly as the time some fellow could not believe I was a progressive since I served in the Army, have an MBA and am familiar with firearms.
3
The Audacity of Hate reads like literature of the 1930's Germany. One blogger wrote: "What happened in Germany could happen here". One word explains it all - hate.
3
The Tea Party was nominally founded on fiscal responsibility...obviously a giant lie and a cheap cover for the racial resentment that really drove them
11
Make Liberals Cry Again = I’m Not Successful And I’m Mad
12
I think the modern republican base just has a simplistic ideology. The modern republican base will gladly accept lower wages, higher health care costs (or no coverage at all), risk a 1 in 10 chance of medical bankruptcy regardless of insurance coverage, cuts to SS/Medicare/Medicaid, a lack of education/training opportunity, a government that caters to the wealthy, etc... as long as, in their view, minorities and (other) poor people don't get any "handouts" from the government.
10
@JA
The cruelty and chance to inflict pain on others is a big selling point for trumpkins.
3
The fact is that every government action, including those to “benefit” us, involves the loss of freedom. Freedom is a two way street. The free market that made Jeff Bezos the world’s richest paid me less than $16,000 last year and makes hundreds of thousands homeless. I and many like me reject the nanny state and will take our chances. We know that no one owes us anything and in return we are indebted to no one. My parents couldn’t afford college so I didn’t belong there. My Army MOD led to a sub-minimum wage career. That’s how life works. Some win and some lose. But government should be no where in that equation.
1
@From Where I Sit Better to die on the street than to receive government assistance?
I think it boils down to what kind of country we think this should be.
There's a bigger picture here -- we are at the midpoint of a 500 year old reorganization of the role of traditional Christianity in society. As scientific discoveries have displaced domains previously given unto God -- at quantum, cellular and astronomical scales, there has been massive confusion about what, or "Who" is actually running things on this planet.
Long ago people were taught that God made the wind and rain to blow, caused conception and twirled the stars in a heavenly dome overhead. Now we have scanning electron microscopes that can see stuff to the molecular level and radio telescopes than can see back in time billions of years.
God is apparently no longer in charge of things, but having flawed humans beings running the show, unencumbered by any divine directives or traditions, is turning out to be quite problematic. Backwards into montheistic fundamentalism is a horror show, but how to move forward?
Nietzsche went into some detail on what would happen with the "death of God," by which meant not the actual death of God, but the removal of any authority people invested in God. He said that people, unencumbered by any sense of religious devotion, would live according to whatever morality they themselves made up. And so we have Trump, and the Republican Senate, all apostates to democracy for the sake of their glutinous appetite for power.
That's where we are. Autocratic, atheist leadership -- fueled by religious fervor. An oxymoronic cataclysm.
3
@Kip Leitner - what's happening here is older than Christianity, it's idol worship.
3
What Nietszche actually said was that Christianity had always been a myth, but that in modern times the myth was getting more and more clearly empty for the masses. Now, people don’t Believe: they believe in their belief.
These arguments that we all got to get back to the Old Time Religion are not only oppressive, they’re apparently ignorant of the support for Trump among evangelicals.
You’d get a much smarter view of the problem if you were to go back and read Sykes’ op-ed on Trump, nihilism, and nietszche.
1
@Kip Leitner The Death of God is most evident in the Left's Post-modernist movement, which seeks to tear down our basic institutions (e.g. 1619 Project) and natural laws (e.g. arguing that gender is artificial and trans-women, i.e. "men," should be able to complete with our daughrers and granddaughters in athletic contests) so that these nihilistic arrogant know-nothings can write the future on a blank canvas.
For sure the main target of the NYT and its 1619 Project is to de-legitimize our revolution and thus our Constitution so they can get rid of the Electoral College.
We are not fools and we will defeat the godless nihilism of the Left. I believe that Left will be quite surprised when the Right is free of God and Biblical moral strictures and can fight the Left with more potent weapons than are available in today's society.
1
Mr. Edsall's columns are always fascinating, and I look forward to reading them more than any others.
'Who Stole the American Dream' remains, to me, the best book on what has happened in the country over the last 40 years. Yes, 'divide and conquer', etc. It worked so well for the American right-wing. Even an FDR democrat like Bernie Sanders is considered by the corporate media as 'left', as the political scale's 'centre' position has moved far to the right, thanks to propaganda.
While I dislike Republican hatred directed towards me at various and startling times, it does educate me on how powerful the reach of propaganda has been. I do have hope that, as POTUS, Senator Sanders can right the ship and put the country on the road to civilised status, with a robust social safety net, progressive taxation and a termination of the military industrial complex profit wars. I am very hopeful about November.
3
This is the game folks. Either Americans find a way to depolarize and detribalise and come back to centre or the country is headed towards fracture, civil strife and the collapse of American power. With the number of guns floating around the country, the consequences of a worsening of conditions don't bear thinking about.
Who though could bring the country back to centre? A hero is needed before it is too late...
7
America clearly needs a truly viable third political party. As long as we continue to have a two party system, this epic polarization will continue. If we get a significant third party, that may spawn several more parties. As a voter, to more or less have a choice between two options does not make any sense. However, this is exactly the way that the D's and R's want it to be. These two parties are more in cahoots than we want to believe.
3
The article, cogent and comprehensive as it is, misses the most salient profound example. Mr. Edsel describes the growth of the tea party, but doesn't point out that the essence of its cause was that every year's deficit must be eliminated, reaching a point where the national debt is zero.
In contrast the Trump-Repblican party has not moderated that principle but negated it, adopting MMP, or Modern Monetary Policy meaning national debt or deficit doesn't matter. This had been so much of a fringe extension of the New Dea, that no serious economic journal would even discuss it.
This is a benchmark on the degree of analysis that exists in our body politic today. I wish I could put this only on Trump, but this absurd fiscal policy is taken seriously by the Green New Deal
Trump treats long term monetary policy the same way he does Global Warming, if it's not an immediate problem, he will brand it a hoax, and marshal the anti-intellectualism of his base to ridicule such "theoretical" problems.
@Call Me Al
You only need to continue this discussion of MMP to its logical conclusion. The current Millennial (or its immediate successive) generation will ultimately pay a horrible price for the enormous deficits being run up by Trump during an economic boom period.
This boom will end. And when it does; the Fed will be unable to lower interest rates to stem the decline. We will likely enter a period of extreme "stagflation" and a collapse of the dollar.
It's going to be very ugly....
2
Around where I live there are many of these types who want immigrants to speak English. Along with all the service people down here. They may have spent twenty winters living in Mexico, but don’t speak a lick of Spanish.
8
@Chuck Burton : Oh yes, for a while I was on a mailing list that advertised retirement overseas. Many of the countries being promoted are in Latin America, but the ads always assured the reader that it was not necessary to learn Spanish.
2
The audacity of hate: https://youtu.be/GR5Z6bKRp9A
The audacity of hate: https://youtu.be/NVBqXvMouJg
The audacity of hate: https://youtu.be/tJCDe7vdFfw
3
@WorkingGuy
Don’t disrupt the narrative.
1
Interesting. Given the extreme dislike of the President expressed daily in this newspaper from it's several columnists it's humorous to see the pot calling the kettle black.
7
johnlo. dislike is not akin to a personal system of on-purpose belligerent hate. dislike for a visible in our face threat to democracy is a worthwhile pursuit. trying to "own" others, as those on the Right like to claim to "owning the Libs", is not a worthwhile pursuit. while these Trumplodites get their kicks, their leader is tearing the nation apart, which they don't seem to care about at all. Just as long as they get their kicks. Its a sick personal belief system.
4
@johnlo
Do you feel that pointing out unfavorable facts about Mr. Trump -- such as the 16,000+ lies in office --amounts to hating him or serving the public?
7
I am curious about the neurology of anger and tribalism sparked by social and other media. It feels like more and more of us are becoming literally addicted to outrage, revenge, and fury, needing more and more of it every day in order to feel "right" or "alive," and seeking it out compulsively. I'm wondering what's happening in the limbic processes of the brain, because clearly something is.
5
@Jenny Keith
Studies have shown the amygdala of conservatives is larger (on the average) than in liberals. This is a brain structure that perceives threats. So, yes, conservatives are neurologically hard wired to be more prone to react based upon fear compared to liberals.
Little wonder, then, that conservatives are perfect patsies for Trump's blatant falsehoods (e.g. "Mexicans are all rapists") which appeal to their fear of anyone who is different from them.
2
The "Swift Boat" attacks on John Kerry in 2004 are usually credited with his defeat.
The real reason for W's reelection was a change in the vote totals on election night in the critical Ohio race.
Republicans are not to be trusted or elected. Pay close attention to exit polls. They frequently don't align in close races, and Republicans are always the beneficiaries.
8
@LM
You know, unlike the ballot harvesting and boxes of ballots in trunks of cars Dems employ...
1
The Trumpy Republican anti-immigration theme is largely just a subset of the racial theme. The tax-cut-for-the-rich, for the Trumpy Republican voters who aren't rich, was a subset of the racial theme. Attacking public education under the euphemism of school choice with the real aim of reinstituting segregation is a subset of the racial theme. The Tea Party subset of Trumpy Republicans is the belligerent proponent of the worst of America, including the racial theme. The so-called Christian themes of abortion, etc. are playing second fiddle even for Trumpy Christians to the racial theme. The racial theme is supported by baseless Trumpy Republican claims, disproven by study after study, that immigrants, undocumented or legal, depress wages, take our taxes, our housing and our health care, and bring crime, laziness, disloyalty. (As for this last point about immigrants, it is more than disheartening that even one Democratic candidate has made some of these baseless claims. For instance, he told this newspaper in his endorsement interview that immigrants depress the wages of citizens.)
3
@Robert Did you read the article in the Times yesterday about the construction worker who was killed. He was an immigrant here illegally, with a wife, kids, and a grandchild.
Most of the construction workers killed in NYC are the same demographic.
They are not paid the same as union labor, and they don't have the same protections. Builders use them because they're cheaper and don't complain. Over a third of construction workers in NYC are now in this group.
2
@Talbot
You are correct. We have many such workers here as well. If anything, the proportion of such workers here in some sectors, e.g., home building, is probably greater than one third. As in New York, they are paid less and are not given the same protections. It was the other side of the equation that I was commenting on. The Congressional Budget Office itself has determined that these immigrants, taken in aggregate, pay more in local, state and federal taxes, than they ever receive in government benefits including education and health care. Likewise, studies show that these immigrants do not cause the wages and benefits of American citizens to go down. Saying these immigrants cost us money or depress our wages does of course make for a compelling story, which, sadly, feeds this racial resentment. But that story is not true.
2
There is a difference between understanding the hatred and tapping into it, and being a part of it. trump has shown that he is bigotry and hatred, and lawlessness. He doesn't pretend so that he can get the votes, that is who he is.
4
‘veterans of the Tea Party movement “are the core of the most adamant of Trump’s supporters.”’
Yet not a whisper of outrage over the deficit.
16
@Mark W No worries. If/when a D eventually ends up in the White House, the deficit will be the only thing that matters. Cut Medicaid -- the poor are all slackers! Cut Medicare -- those people should've planned decades ago! Cut Social Security -- social means socialism which means communism!
2
Contrary to popular belief, the peak of the postwar baby boom actually occurred in the early sixties. Which means that in 1969 there were a lot more kids in elementary school than there were protesting the war and dropping acid. And there was a battle going on the playground that was far more fierce and consequential than there was going out on the streets of the big cities and college campuses.
This was the war between the bullies and the smart kids. It was probably a proxy war on behalf of their politically and culturally divided parents, but the kids were not aware of that. They were only aware that school was a terrifying place and the adults were no help.
Cut to twenty years later, when the bullied kids created perhaps the last true boom of American innovation, productivity, creativity and wealth creation. Revenge of the nerds indeed.
Meanwhile the bullies were left behind. The eighties were a bleak time as factories their parents worked in shut down and unions were busted. Those without a college education found themselves on the outside of society, looking in at all the kids they bullied being successful.
But they’re still bullies at heart, and they’re not that smart, so they’re not going to look inward. They want revenge.
Trump is their revenge.
Their wrath is bottomless. They will not rest until all the kids who were smarter than them in school, more successful than them as an adult, and their children, are destroyed along with their legacy.
Be very afraid.
6
I was bullied. I am smart. I find your entire argument condescending and weirdly self congratulatory.
Which is not so smart.
3
@James Jacobs You're as scary as Trump.
3
@James Jacobs No train and take advantage of your 2nd rights. The only way to deal with bullies is to be willing to smack back. Socially, economically and with force although the latter is a last choice and I suggest learning self defense tactics and laws. I practice what I preach and they all back down. Or I am positioned so that they have little room to act even though they are not aware of that fact.
As a Trump supporter I can attest to the obvious fact that hatred, having been the target of such, is spewed by both sides.
4
Only one side has a moral superiority, however.
2
I have yet to see any instance of liberals and progressives threatening the lives and physical wellbeing of conservatives. Perhaps you’re mistaking hatred for disgust, disappointment, and impatience which is certainly abundant among the liberals and progressives I know.
7
@BD I am always amused when the person who supports someone who's been a bully all his life complain about how they are the victim.
5
as Trump divides the country and turns Americans, he and his rich cronies are laughing all the way to the bank.
Mission accomplished.
11
It would seem the bigger problem is the Democratic Party is run by neoliberals who cloak their exploitation in petty moralisms. The 2007/2008 financial crisis should have been a call to arms to end neoliberal capitalist ideology.
Instead, it is stronger than ever - simply look at the hate Bernie Sanders receives (who I admit I begrudgingly support). Buttegieg is gay. Yay. But he is more conservative than Reagan. Bloomberg? This is the New York Times. Surely someone on the editorial board must realize whatever success he had was due to the economic boom that lead to the 2007/2008 financial crisis.
Trump succeeds because the Democrats have become moderate Republicans, and no one wants that anymore.
5
My political views were galvanized while growing up in a Klan-controlled NC town during Jim Crow. Likewise my religious beliefs: how can one be both Christian and racist? And how could one see any way to compromise on that issue? Anti-racist liberals then as now are threatened in such places, even more so now that immigrants have demonstrated that opportunities still exist for those willing to work hard and take risks. Gerrymandering and voter suppression are working for the haters so far, but I fear the upcoming election will be our last chance to save the Union. Please vote.
13
It's not just trumpy's strategy, it's the media obsession with anything outrageous that he says. The media amplifies the hate and in doing so makes it main stream. Trumpy and trumpiness is a media creation. It helps with their bottom line.
4
The school yard behavior is nothing new. It just was "scaled up" to the 60+ age demographics, from the middle school crowd. The scaling was facilitated by people like Zuckerberg and Dorsey, who have made billions by making it possible for a 7th-grade student to bully classmates 24/7 in the process driving suicide rates higher than they've been in decades. Zuckerberg scaled this up to Myanmar, where it caused not just suicides, but many murders and hate crimes. Now they've scaled it up to the White House, Congress, and everywhere else.
So it's simple. Many of Trump's supporters are just like the bullies you new in middle school. If they grew up to be adults like that in the past, it was jail for them. Now newly enfranchised, their buddy is in the White House and will pardon them.
Commenters here blathering about "traditional Republican values" like "individual initiative" and "small government" are just like the gaslighters in 7th grade, too. They actually expect us to listen to them. And many of us do, which is why this nation is doomed as a democracy. The only winners will be those billionaires, who did it without any complaints from all of us suckers out here.
It's a good time to take a course in Medieval history and reacquaint ourselves with feudalism.
3
The "new normal" is the old normal. Except for the halcyon days of the 20th Century, our politics have always been polarized. Consider the election of 1800. Or more significantly, remember the years leading to and culminating in the civil war. As the authors of How Democracies Die noted, our politics was "civil" during part of the 20th Century, but at the expense of African Americans. Since 1964, when Blacks were finally given civil rights, our politics have slipped back to historical patterns. In the end, this country remains locked in the consequences of its original sin--African slavery and white racism.
4
The irony of this article is remarkable.
Antifa anyone?
It cannot be possible that Edsall does not know that the impeachment/coup d'état was announced within hours of President Trump's election.
Perhaps he should review some opinion pieces that were published the day after the election.
Projection, while a common human crutch, is particularly sad when a grown adult uses it.
5
@Robert Cicero ohh the bugaboo antifa...which had its growth in the punk movement and is more anarchist than anything else. However, the right needs to find some bone to hang onto to seem moral.
1
@Robert Cicero
Then tell the foremost practitioner of projection to stop. I'll give you a hint. His initials are DJT.
1
If hate didn’t sell there would be no Fox, no Rush, no talk radio. No Trump. Hate is alive and well in America.
4
This is a well-researched article. But it conflates fear of immigration with racism.
The future is not like the past. Global warming puts us in new unfamiliar territory. It also exposes mistakes of the past.
It is said that Laocoon tried to warn the Trojans not to accept the Trojan horse, so the gods causes snakes to destroy him and his sons.
We have had our own Laocoons. Paul Ehrlich published "the Population Bomb" in 1968. Then Meadows et al. published "Limits to Growth" in 1972. These books argued that population growth would cause humans to exceed carrying capacity on planet earth, causing a die-off in the future.
Ehrlich appeared on Johnny Carson's show and was labeled a fool. The biologist Garrett Hardin was declared a purveyor of "hate speech" by the Southern Poverty Law Center because he advocated a coercive approach to limiting births.
Meanwhile, China had seen 10 to 40 million deaths in the Great Chinese Famine and Deng Xiaoping decided to institute a one-child policy in China in 1979,
Twenty years later, the one-child policy seems to have catapulted China into the front ranks of world economies.
What happened in the US? Global warming came to the attention of liberals. But they still seem to miss the connection with population growth.
Liberals decry "children in cages." But it is too many children which are the problem. Guatemala's population has quadrupled since 1960 because of too many children.
We need to discuss population growth.
3
I could not finish this piece. (Edsall does tend to be redundant and long-winded.) It is not "partisan polarization," it is anti-American polarization. The non-Trump crowd is the majority and is made up of (many former) Republicans as well as independents and Democrats – all fighting for what America stands for, against a thuggish collection of authoritarians. Stop the false equivalence!
4
“The Audacity of Hate“
A great headline! Who knows if between Rove, the internet, our cell phones and the Russians, where to point a finger. Even the loss of traditional religious values could be a factor.
Whatever the cause, the results are in, and are as bad as the title of this op-Ed implies.
I sometimes think of all hate as self hate.
It’s an oversimplification and yet, suggests an underlying weakness. in our society, ourselves, our technologies, or our stars.
2
Part of the problem is that we act as if our political opponents' views come from nowhere. That's insulting.
For instance, to call someone--or a whole group--"racist" because they object to immigration ignores the real problems that immigration causes.
In California, we have about 147,000 homeless people, and about 8.5 million residents born outside the US. In liberal circles, this cannot be discussed. There is no demand aspect to housing, only supply. Bring up immigration and you're a traitor to the liberal state. (I say this as a lifelong Democrat.)
Maybe there is some substance to Trumpist pushback. To label Trump supporters racists, xenophobes, sexists, and so forth insults them by ignoring the substance of their argument.
5
@GP Correlating housing shortages with immigration is an absolute no no.
3
@Talbot
My point. You can only admit there's a supply problem. Economics tells us otherwise.
No, I don't hate immigrants. I've always gotten along better with immigrants from Europe and Central American than with Americans. They have more drive and are generally more interesting.
But each one takes up a space to live.
Only liberals refuse to admit the impact of this. To say nothing of the impact on our education, health, and penal systems.
But that isn't my point. My point is that instead of realizing conservative arguments have some substance, liberals reject them, as you did. Common sense tells you that my immigration argument has some substance, but you respond simply that it's an "absolute no no."
Next will I be a racist for bringing this up?
Evidence of the polarization of society is on full display in congress. Debate? In the give and take of an argument, the opportunity to glean new facts that might change or alter one’s stance on an issue. “You raise a good point...I never considered that”. So, what drives 21st century congressional “debate”? “I will present the talking points that I have been given to read. Then you can present your side of the argument while I’m back in my office”. There is no give and take...only give!
2
Our privacy hysteria is responsible for Trump.
Once, birth certificates were public records available to anyone for a small fee. If anyone could have obtained a copy of Obama's by sending a few dollars to the appropriate government agency in Hawaii, there would have been no "birther" fantasy and no one would have heard of Trump.
Stamp them "For information only" to avoid the problem of people using others' birth certificates to establish false identity. Why should the names of one's parents be secret?
1
Wait, you are blaming birtherism on Obama?
Here is an example of gaslighting folks
1
Even though many will take this as partisan, I can honestly say that I truly believe that all this partisan rancor was the product of a multi decade Republican attack approach.
After all, most Dems, if not all, and many moderate Republicans got their expanded and world encompassing news from NPR and C-Span in the early to mid 80's.
Then people like Rush Limbaugh started showing up as the Reagan decline started to happen. And others similar and then Fox News. Those all worked to radicalize the Right.
In the meantime, a moderate Democrats was elected to two terms and although he, Bill Clinton, acted more like a moderate Republican he was continuously attacked in purely partisan politics and was unfairly Impeached for having an affair. That's all they could get him on; the lie about it.
Then as you report, the era of Rove and Bush 2 and wars. Purely Right Wing tactics and policies were the rule of the day and attempts to gain parity were in almost all circumstances done by Democrats moving to the Right.
Bush 2 was obviously a disaster for all peoples.
Then a moderate Democrat was again elected but made one fatal error in the eyes of ALL Republicans; he tried to get more people healthcare in the worlds's most unfairly priced healthcare nation.
Then the counter balance shifted even further Right to flat out Right Wing; Trump.
I can honestly say that it has been and is the Republicans that have achieved this monumental corrosion in our Constitutional values. Full stop.
6
It's interesting to read this as an analysis of the history of hate and division in American Politics. I believe it is wrong to continue to divide ourselves as we seem to be doing. I believe it is wrong to hate someone for what they believe. We are supposed to be using persuasion, not hatred and force to shape our world. I'm not sure there is one side or that other that is to blame although I am sure that taking a position like that is sure to encourage lots of reaction from both the left and the right.
Each side is struggling to survive and will do whatever it takes to promote their positions. Each side has its own list of reasons for saying and doing what it does and depending on what color glasses you wear you'll decide who is right.
Why can't we imagine a world where no one believes they have the right to tell another how to live?
Polarization has been the GOP playbook all along. Go back to Nixon and his enemies list. Remember Reagan's thinly veiled racism.
But the biggest turning point on the road to polarization was the advent of FOX. Roger Ailes' lifelong mission was demonization of the opposition. Fox gave him a megaphone. Serving as the unofficial mouthpiece of conservatives and Republicans, it serves up a nonstop supply of inflammatory smears; this political red meat confirms the biases of the low information voters who are the most loyal members of the GOP coalition.
Trump is the logical extension of the GOP's campaign to consolidate power by appealing to the worst instincts of voters. Transparency and honesty are our best weapons in resisting their misguided efforts.
5
"American politics were irrevocably transformed, polarization strategies became institutionalized and the stage was set"
Every four years, the winner has an idea or approach that is somewhat different if not entirely new. That becomes the new truth of the one and only way to do politics, until in four years the next win show another new way.
A win in 2020 will be done by Bernie's way or by Bloomberg's way, which are very different, or by Trump's way (which is dialing fear and hate up to 11 on the 1 to 10 scale). Whoever wins will be "the truth" for the next four years, but then wrong for 2024.
"Partisan polarization has become hard-wired in the American political system and is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future."
Bloomberg is the only Democrat candidate who has shown the gumption and media purchasing power to fight fire with fire and call out the "barking clown" in the White House for what he is.
Additionally, a Bloomberg take of the likely and intentional outcome of the current Trump budget would go along way to moving Independents and some older voters to vote for whomever is Blue.
@Nik Cecere Kind of Ironic that Bloomberg is increasingly being revealed to be the misogynist, racist, and homophobe that the left accuses Trump of being. Bloomberg is no savior.
@james Not in the least ironic. Voters knew exactly what we were getting with Trump, yet he was elected anyway. New York voters knew what they were getting with Bloomberg (and know everyone does) yet they voted for him anyway.
The difference is that Trump is more destructive than voters thought, and Blooming is more progressive than he appears.
Bloomberg is everything you say he is, to some degree, some important, some not so much. There is no irony here.
There is a clear and present danger to stay at home instead of voting if Bloomberg is the nominee.
Bloomberg may not be a savior, but he is certainly not the Devil in the White House today--or perhaps he's on the golf course today, on the tax payers' hundreds of thousand dimes.
"What a revolting development this is." The GOP promises to benefit for the foreseeable future, thanks to their own media, judges, vote-rigging and Senate. I don't think they ever thought this would be other than a temporary swing of the pendulum, so they have been working hard to install the "locks and bolts" that worked so well in Chile, as described by Nancy Maclean in her book, Democracy in Chains. McConnell is absolutely giddy with it all, and it seems like their party may now think this could be a long-term thing! But if the situation does swing back, we Democrats will find ourselves blocked at every turning, I'm afraid. Locks and bolts. If they don't? Wrapped in the flag, wearing red caps, and watching our every move, a minority will then control us.
7
Would someone consider the possibility that just changing the voting method might eliminate the rewards for polarization? The problem is that in first-choice-or-bust campaigning, convincing a voter that you are sorta ok does nothing to help you get elected relative to that voter think you belong in an asylum. The result is that convincing two voters that you belong in an asylum for every one you convince you are the Greatest of All Time, whatever contribution it makes in pushing the country to civil war, improves your electoral prospects.
Eliminating the incentive for polarization requires conferring a benefit on candidates who are at least sorta ok to the vast majority of the public, even if hardly anyone sees them as the GOAT. Pairwise-rated voting, in which all candidates run a pairwise contest against all other candidates based on the ratings that all voters assign to all candidates, would do so. Doing so would make it relevant that large numbers of voters prefer a sorta ok candidate over one who belongs in an asylum and not consider everyone who is not GOAT equal. That would increase the penalty for alienating a substantial part of the electorate, even if those alienated cannot agree on one alternative of if a portion of that alienated could be convinced that some specific alternative was worse. Donald Trump got elected by fragmenting his opposition and convincing a fraction that Hillary was worse. Pairwise-ranked voting would end that route to election.
1
I absolutely agree. Ranked choice voting is probably the most effective change we could implement.
I have long thought that better terminology for election results in lieu of who "wins" or "loses", akin to a wresting match or similar, would be who "prevails".
Semantics, but the connotation is less aggressive, perhaps expressive of "our better angels".
1
Yesterday I was in a grocery store parking lot. A man nearby put his groceries in the trunk, then proceeded to shove the shopping cart away from himself, with no regard for where it would end up. It stopped right in the roadway, where it would block cars from getting by, despite the fact that the “cart corral” was just a few steps away. As he was getting into his car, he looked up and noticed me watching. As he drove by he rolled down his window and said “don’t worry, some Democrat will take care of it.” He laughed and drove away. That’s when I noticed the Trump sticker on his bumper.
I know Trump and his foot soldiers in Congress are to blame for fanning the flames of incivility in our country, but as I retrieved the cart and put it away, I wondered....when do we stop trying to “understand” these Trump supporters and start holding them accountable?
40
@Jim I was wondering the same thing when I saw a 14 year old school boy being beaten by a group of kids on a school bus because he was wearing a Trump hat. I mean, when are we going to hold democrats accountable for all the hatred and violence in the coountry?
3
@Jim ...When I have traveled in Mexico I have noticed how much trash there is along the roadways. Why is that? I have often thought that people who felt others controlled their lives obtained a feeling of empowerment by throwing their trash on the ground. I think that is why we see more trash in poor neighborhoods - "I don't own this so why should I care". The man and the shopping cart, the people who support Trump, are saying, "Watch me. I can stick it to you. I can trash your parking lot. I can trash your country. I have power too.
3
@james
Sure you did. Just happened to be there, did you? What amazing timing.
Cool story, bro.
4
I think the slogan on the shirt says it all. There are far to many Trump supporters that vote for Trump mainly because it bothers Democrats. They cannot see what damage he's doing to the country that affects both Republicans and Democrats alike. Sad, very sad.
10
@VMG
Trumpkins would set their own homes ablaze if they thought the smoke might annoy a librul neighbor.
2
@Kevin C.
I believe the preferred term on the east coast that Trumpers use is Libtards, but your assessment is true here also.
Mr. Edsall,
The evolution of hate and distrust is well-documented. What is the solution? I see movements on many fronts, marches, protests, blogs, social media - to what end? The degradation of past social and ethical norms continues like a missile and I see no real deflection. If our elections aren't secure, how do we rid ourselves of the lies and corruption eating the soul of our country?
1
Persily is wrong. There are hardly any voices on the left that have claimed that Trump's election victory was a "fraud". We have noted that the highest levels of the US government have concluded that there were efforts by the Russians to influence the election. We have noted that Trump lost the popular vote by a significant margin, but won the EC anyway. Nobody has been saying "his win was fraudulent", merely that his win highlighted particular features of our electoral system that for most of recent history have tended to work against Democrats.
By contrast, immediately after winning the presidency, it was Trump who appointed Kris Kobach to head a commission on "voter fraud". It is the Republican party that talks about "voter fraud". It is Trump's supporters (and to a limited extent, Trump himself) who have raised the issue of his losing in 2020 being treated as fraud.
This both-sides nonsense needs to stop. Conservative republicans (and republicans more broadly) are the ones that have cried fraud in response to electoral outcomes that they do not like. Democrats have not.
8
As a follow up; I would suggest a new column. Change the headline subhead to read:
"Fox has a knack for turning anger and fear into revenue and profit. And for shaping presidential policy."
4
Last time I checked, hatred was not a Christian virtue.
1
@edward.scarbrough
I think it’s a virtue for the Adversary.
What is so surprising? An ignorant, racist. resentful and violent population is receptive to the message of hate put forth by Trump and his cohort. We have met the enemy and he is us, saith Pogo. Trump is an effect, not the cause.
6
What's the difference between the presidency of Trump and a dictatorship? With Trump trampling over the Constitution, unchained from his impeachment acquittal and having the full support and aid from McConnell and Barr, the answer to that question is approaching the point that there is no difference between the Trump presidency and a dictatorship.
4
So many Trump supporters are more interested in "owning the libs" than in honoring the Constitution. If a Democratic president had done 1/10th of the outrageous things that Trump has, they would have all died of apoplexy by now, but when Trump does them, they think it's wonderful.
6
Republicans, starting with Reagan, undermined the vestiges of the New Deal, then continued shifting the political centre rightward, eviscerating the social safety net. Under the Bushes, and with the help of the feckless Clinton, they removed all remaining regulations and financial control.
Globalization, and automation then kicked in and stripped the socioeconomic foundations of life for Americans who lacked the education and luck to flourish in the new century.
Then, when the excesses engendered by decades of Republican deregulation produced the depression of ‘08, social and political unrest of the “flyover people” was foreordained (it was NOT a recession if you lost your job and house folks.... a recession means tightening ones belt; a depression means you don’t have a belt to tighten).
We elected Obama, wanting an FDR who would frogmarch the Jamie Dymon’s of the world into prison, but got a moderate Republican technocrat who gave comfort to Wall Street.
This, in turn, enabled Trump.
Why is anyone surprised?
4
....and rascism
1
There is a common misconception that American industry is powered by a small percentage of extremely exceptional individuals who deserve a lion share of the rewards while the rest of society should be thankful to simply survive. Like a cancer, the country is being drained of life with this view and the systems that support it; pitting us against each other when improvement should instead come from a more true and wider distribution of the rewards from our shared industrious activity.
3
Obama deserves a lot of blame for utterly failing to bring the Bush criminals to justice after the Iraq genocide. Today, Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and the rest would be languishing in prison and the Republican Party would be null and void in this country. Instead, this disease infestation was allowed to run wild—hence Donald Trump.
1
Alas, we have this strange thing in this country: you have to actually break an actual law to be actually tried for an actual crime and actually convicted by an actual jury to be sent to jail.
1
@VoiceofAmerica ....Obama? I think one of the better decisions by an American President was when Ford pardoned Nixon. The best revenge is to move forward and live a good life.
1
Thanks for a great piece outlining what is so deeply disturbing to so many of us. I would pose another way to look at things: for many decades there was quiet on surface as the deepening fissures underground grew. When they finally erupted, for all of the reasons you suggest, we see the result. But as someone who has facilitated thousands of conversations among many hotly conflicted parties I don't think we should minimize the capacity for real conversations to build bridges of commonality. Our system is structured on an adversarial process, thus the reason you cannot imagine Chuck and Nancy sitting down with Mitch and Trump. But Joshua Kalla and David Broockman, political scientists at Yale and Berkeley, are correct that “non-judgmentally exchanging narratives in interpersonal conversations can facilitate durable reductions in exclusionary attitudes.'" I have seen deep adversaries become friends and understanding come from time spent finding what is underneath reactive hatred. Ask any mediator, marriage counselor or effective negotiator if they haven't been delighted when the hearts and minds of adversaries opens up to understanding. What we need to do to save our democracy is to build the structures that bring people together. We can do this America. And we must!
1
The left should reflect a bit--actually a lot--on its contribution to polarization. This has been going on for 50 years. The GOP did not start it in 2004. How about looking back to 1968 or 1972? With the left's radical critique of US society. The academics should do a little self-reflection in their research.
99.9% of this polarization occurs at the federal level. The evidence is nearly always take from voting for the president or, sometimes, Congress. The states and local governments are nowhere near as polarized. And there are many other institutions in the country besides government. They are not polarized.
2
@Gordon Wiggerhauso what exactly happened in 1968 or 1972 that caused the "left's radical critique"? Things like the Civil Rights Act? Protesting a terrible war in Vietnam? Making a corrupt President leave office? If that's "radical", then sign me up.
2
I would disagree that the polarization is not as strong at the state level. I grew up in Kansas in the 1970-80s and saw Republican and Democratic Governors and a relatively balanced statehouse, even as it leaned more conservative...but that has changed, in Kansas and elsewhere. The only states that are in flux are those with sizable demographic shifts changing the makeup of the electorate. Red-leaning states like Kansas have become hardened. One only need look at the actions in North Carolina in 2016 and Wisconsin and Michigan in 2018 - the people elected Democratic Governors and the outgoing Republican Governors used their majorities in the state houses to pass legislation severely limiting their powers, ensuring their ineffectiveness and inability to deliver results to the voters who elected them. I have lived in California for the last 23 years and here, the Democratic supermajority results in a Republican electorate that resents every dime in taxes they have to pay and are quite vocal about their disdain for immigrants. The issue of polarization has permeated all levels of government in our country.
Oh, and you should see the venom on social media around the local issues on our ballot right now! Reasoned debate is not to be found.
What a feast of profound ideas, anyone of which could fill a book. However, I wonder suggest the proximal cause of our divisions was our economic inequality rather than the use of white resentment in the GWB reelection campaign, which really wasn't a new invention but just a version of the well worn southern strategy.
Democracy requires a solid middle class. In "The Triumph of Injustice," Saez and Zucman argue that tax policies are methods of wealth redistribution. So the Tax Reform Act of 1976 reduced the tax rates for the rich from as much as 60%-90% down to 28% and so began our trickle up economy and the precarious economics of the middle class.
Saez and Zucman are the economic advisers for Warren's wealth tax and, more recently, also consultants for Sanders' wealth tax. We should counter all efforts to divide us on political or racial grounds, but why not also work at economic equality, beginning with Warren's two cent tax on every dollar of wealth over $50 million. I would argue that the basic division in our society is between the haves and the have nots and, as we are learning, that is a problem that was caused by tax policies favoring the rich and a problem that can be solved by reversing those tax policies.
1
I am curious about how age factors into this discussion. How much of what we’re seeing is related in some way to age? Do we just have to wait for the 60 year olds and older to die or is this a deeply structural issue?
@SPH Excellent question. My hypothesis is that polarization is driven by anxiety. I suspect that older people are more anxious about being displaced by "others" not like them.
1
Though I am not a Trump supporter I remain a resistant admirer of his capacity to leverage and accelerate this polarizing trend in American politics to his advantage. It still amazes me he got elected and stands a better than average chance at reelection despite every effort to the contrary.
The country must break this destructive cycle, fast.
We need a down the middle President of integrity, capabilities and high moral values that a majority of Americans where all sides can find some common ground.
There is only one person now with the abilities and resources to both win and pull our democracy back to the center.
Micheal Bloomberg.
1
@Steven
You mean the guy who thought term limits did not apply to him?
@Alan
I think he means the guy who's going to mop the floor with tRump.
The new norm's history that you have carefully outlined in this essay is not good for the greater society. There has been an acceleration of societal meanness. And while we cannot see the future and the outcome of this new norm the potential for catastrophic outcomes from climate change and increasing income inequality due to the power achieved by the political power of the far right, I hope that liberal and moderate people can sense that this coming election may be their final chance to end the political harmful outcomes that we have seen in the new Trumpism. Turn out. Vote Blue.
All this blather is irrelevant as ongoing climate change will put us all, irrespective of political stripe, in the same hot basket. And guess who forgot to mention climate change in their 2020 budget?
4
Immigration reform is the elephant in the room. A united Democrat Party must come out with a comprehensive plan that cannot be confused with "open borders".
2
only in a very weak, fragile liberal mind can speaking truth be construed as "hate"...the inability to tolerate another opinion other than one's narrowminded opinion is the sure sign of a collapsing idealism, in this instance the progressive ideals...face it, the majority of decent Americans are weary of leftist political correctness and thought policing...
2
Republican party seems to be the one who is intolerable of others (see racism and homophobia at least), no matter what their opinions are. being hated on for spewing racist and homophobic rhetoric is completely fair game... we cannot allow that kind of discourse if we want to be what America has always striven to be (the greatest; whatever that means... tolerable maybe?)
@cabbagegrower
Many conservatives willingly believe and spread conspiracy theories that are easily disproven, and when faced with proof that the conspiracy theory is not true, they refuse to believe it. Adherence to and promulgation of conspiracy theories t is not "speaking the truth"; it's engaging in willful ignorance.
1
I tend to agree with this pessimism of polarization. My question: so OK what do we do about it? Civil war? Some sort of geographical if imperfect realignments of the Republic? Far fetched but Scotland may soon succeed from Britain. Catalonia from Spain. But what is the alternative? More gridlock while nature’s stopwatch plunges us closer to climate Armageddon and we continue to allow our young people and other innocent victims to be slaughtered by guns?
1
Mr. Edsall is dragging out the old "Republican anger and hate" chestnut, hoping to comfort Dems who are increasingly dismayed at what the Progressives have wrought. But the truth, at this point in time, is just the opposite. The Republicans are the happy warriors, confident in a revived economy and an ability to counter political correctness. And it is the Democrats who are filled with anger and hate -- you just need to turn on CNN or MSNBC, or listen to the Democrat primary debates to see the meanness and alienation that possesses them.
5
@Ulysses
You just need to look at the photo that accompanies Mr. Edsall's op-ed, listen to pretty much every time Trump opens his mouth or tweets his falsehoods and vitriol and the cheers of Trump's followers to see the anger and hate the Republicans have allowed to infest their party. And they're perfectly fine with it; they have been for going on 50 years. The success of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's totally unhinged a lot of people in the South and the Republican Party succumbed to venality, bigotry and anger and used it as a fear mechanism to gain control of the country. This is the truth, dear. Sorry if it hurts.
1
@Ulysses ....Really. So who chants "Lock Her Up; "Build the Wall"; "Send Them Back"? Who?
1
@W.A. Spitzer That was four years ago. And it is the Dems who are now angrily chanting. But of course, you can cling to your beliefs from years ago. Just don’t be surprised in November when the Keep America Great message overwhelms the Stop Trump message.
Immigrants today are a burden on our country---Not Illegal immigrants, Immigrants. The fear of the "other". Why can't we get over that after all, we are all immigrants.
3
"We are all immigrants"
That qualifies as the big lie.
I'm not an immigrant. I was born here.
But keep repeating it. You're contributing your fair share to the polarization.
2
@Jp
Unless you're Native American, you come from immigrant ancestry. Sorry.
1
@Jp ....Everyone was born somewhere, and it happened without their permission through no fault of their own. How do you know, how can you be absolutely sure where you were born? You can't, because you have no memory of anything before the age of 2. When you say you were born here, what you mean is that someone told you that you were born here. What if tomorrow you found out it wasn't true? Would that knowledge somehow make you a different person. Think.
Somehow, I got on the mailing list of a group called "Tea Party Patriots Action." Yesterday I got a fund raising letter from them, which included a quote from a woman named Jenny Beth Martin "..we have never seen the radical Left and their evil ideology have this much control over one of our two major parties. This is no longer a contest between light red and light blue - it is a war between the American Way and a Socialist Revolution". I get many fund raising letters from Democrats and left-leaning groups, none with language anything like that.
11
Thomas, I cannot believe you could write an article about the 'Audacity of Hate' in politics and not mention Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz and their devastating impact on our politics. In the early 1990's they sent out 'training tapes' to teach Republican Candidates how to speak about their Democratic Candidates in demeaning and derogatory words and statements. The resulting damage still resonates today. Why did you not include it?
7
What seems to be described here is a shift from liberal democracy to fascism. Whatever hate George W. Biish stirred up it was within the context of democracy. While Bush like many politicians did not always tell the truth and his behavior in this regard about Iraq was a disaster that is still playing out, Trump wants to abolish the concept of truth and replace it with whatever he says goes. That is a characteristic of fascism. Also, the majority group claiming it is superior (MAGA) and blaming minorities for what is wrong is a characteristic of fascism. Trump probably cannot win the popular vote for president but the electoral college opens the doors for a fascist takeover of the country. It allows a minority of the population to elect the president. In this case the minority supports white supremacy and the breaking down of the wall between church and state.
4
@Bob
The electoral college has existed for the entirety of this country's history, and the presidential election has never been determined by popular vote. Your histrionic cries of fascism are an illustrative example of the polarization this article talks about. Elections not going your way are not fascism. A president being elected using the same system that has been more or less unchanged for about a hundred years is not a sign that democracy is crumbling.
1
Boiled down to its essence, you are saying that Republicans are betting that they can win elections almost solely from Christian white voters, for that's the only group they're trying to appeal to. Perhaps, but that's in the very short term only. Unless they can succeed in permanently suppressing the vote of everyone else, which is both illegal and unconstitutional, they are bound to eventually lose due to being absolutely outnumbered by everyone who is not a white Christian. The changing demographics of the country makes any such "strategy" effective for a limited term only. Although effective in 2010 and 2016, it is bound to lose in the long term, as long as we have a functioning democracy.
It is my fervent hope that the losing starts, oh, about November 3, 2020. An optimist, I think there are more of "us" non-haters than "them".
6
Trump has a knack for provoking people like Edsall (and the rest of the NYT editorial and opinion writers). He does it deliberately. He might not do it if they didn't respond.
It's like dealing with a (verbal) bully on the playground: if you react, you encourage him. If you ignore him, eventually he will get bored and go away and bother someone else.
3
You've just got to laugh. The guy in the photo is the epitome of the Trump voter. 'Make Liberals Cry Again !'. Got zip to do with making America great again. These people just want to even the playing field by pulling the country down to their level. I mean, I get it. Rural America has been marginalized. Manufacturing ? Gone. The days of working for the town company for 30 years and retiring with your pension are over. And they're not coming back. The economy of this country has shifted. The well paying jobs are primarily in urban areas. and they require education. The Republicans under Trump have managed to paint urban America as 'elitists' and turn this whole thing into a 'class' war. All the while giving tax breaks to the real 'elite'. His friends and sponsors. 'Promises Made'. The sign in the background. Notice that it doesn't say 'Promises Kept'. Trump is playing these people. Sad.
19
In the photo: An amalgam of manly men produced from a toxic mold that forms the foundational story of too many in the population who are ignorant of maintaining a caring society that's inclusive to all...
3
I wonder where we would be if there was no Fox News to indulge those with a desire for "alternative facts"?
12
There is no mystery to this. Americans need to finally let go the myth of exceptionalism, that 'American' is inherently good. As Trump has made abundantly clear, this country is chock full of truly deplorable, hateful people, and there's y nothing wrong with admitting it. Indeed it must be the first step toward dealing and healing.
7
Economics from Trump and the GOP. Build a wall, misusing funds meant from the DOD n your usual way of the oligarchic rule; initiate tax cuts in a new act that enriches the wealthy and adds to the trillion-dollar-budget level, once decried by GOP, now enriched by it; add a ridiculous Space Force to the Air Force for the whim that all billionaires like Bezos and wanna-b millionaires like Trump favor from the nostalgia from childhood; and watch the electorate go after each other. The "You're Fired" guy is incredibly and dangerously the president and proves quite the guy to ramp up hatred and divisiveness while tearing away all the protections from the Constitution placed there to counteract such a person as Trump. He is a know-nothing president who is proving there are more know-nothings that prove to be wiling and able to swallow "The Audacity of Hate." And like the taste.
7
There is actually no such thing as liberal media bias. For starters, most newspapers are owned by wealthy conservatives who often get free reign of the op-ed page. If you think NYT is liberal, you haven't been paying attention to their coverage of Warren's proposed wealth tax.
10
There's never any mention here of repeated, daily, violent attacks on those who support our President.
Yes, hide those reports, hide those links to news and online videos: evidently you approve of recent leftist crimes of children being slapped, voters punched, maniacs driving vans into voter tables at polling locations while you tried to spin a positive note on the primaries.
There are hundreds of reports - all easily verified - over the past three years of mayhem committed by deranged, hate-filled zealots against supporters of our President.
5
@JBC nonsense. Verifiable? By who? Where?
7
@JBC
Show me them then. You do not mean the violent Trump supporters in Charlottesville do you?
2
Cite your sources please.
2
No mention about greed? Isn't greed the very motivator for amassing power and more power and to... grabbing as much loot and hoard treasure as possible? Wasn't the greed for power and riches the ones responsible for establishment of states and temples/churches throughout history?
Greed has taken a new face with Rupert Murdoch and Fox. Trafficking in hatred and lies is Fox modus operandi. Republicans and GOP hunger for power and loot - at all costs! Fox is cashing in. It's old business, only nowadays more base, more vile. There is no concept of sin and perdition any longer, just pure hatred being spewed day in day out. And the armies of followers are imbued with it - are howling and killing not just democracy but humanity (forget about spirituality and religion the latter having become a bad joke..)!!
Greed is consuming our soul, is devouring our minds while our home, our planet is being destroyed, by us - by Greed!
This article is right on. My Republican relatives don't like Trump. But they view him as the lesser evil. In their Fox and Limbaugh-fueled world, Democrats/Liberals are criminals who hate American and are out to destroy it. For them, sticking it to the Democrats trumps Trump's awfulness. Their entire worldview is now shaped by hate. It's all they talk about - the evil Democrats. Of course since I am a Democrat, their attacks hurt me personally, but that fact is completely lost on them. It's heartbreaking that this so divides my family.
8
Here's some hope - if the audacity of hate side simply slowly loses voting power, things fix themselves:
https://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/
"Millennial voters (born 1981 to 1996) have had a Democratic tilt since they first entered adulthood; this advantage has only grown as they have aged.
Democrats enjoy a 27-percentage-point advantage among Millennial voters (59% are Democrats or lean Democratic, 32% are Republican or lean Republican). In 2014, 53% of Millennial voters were Democrats or leaned Democratic, 37% tilted toward the GOP."
If they want to make me cry they will have to lose some weight, because if they threaten me I will simply walk briskly away, leaving them breathless and fatigued. The followers of Trump are not achieving in the economy because they are lazy. They are lazy physically, as is obvious from the picture, but they are lazy intellectually as well as is made obvious from their support of Trump. They don't want a better job, they want more money, except, they don't want to do anything to earn it.
Anyone who thinks these people will start something more serious are delusional. They are cowards and extremely weak. That is why they pray to imaginary beings and worship Trump at the same time.
Four more years of Trump will likely kill most of his ardent followers. If we were hunter gatherers as in days of old we would have abandoned these people in the wilds because they are non-contributors. It is only because of technology that we can afford not to eject them from society, but, they remain a dead weight around our necks.
It also seems to me that they are the ones who are crying. Trump is the biggest whiner we have ever had as president and his followers are just like him, whiny, weak, and definitely not very smart. It sounds like wah, wah wah. Here comes the waaaaahmbulance.
5
The author might do well to go back further than 2004, to 2000, to trace the roots of distrust in the institutions that surround and uphold our elections. "That is, losers will cry ‘fraud’ and consider the president illegitimate, even if the election is well-run." The "well-run" election of 2000 ended in a tossup in Florida, which was memorably resolved when the Supreme Court ended the recount and declared George W. Bush the winner by a fraction of a percent -- fewer than 1000 votes. He had lost the popular vote by .5%. That event soured a good many people on the electoral process for years to come. The emergence of Barack Obama managed to re-enchant the electorate into believing that the majority's vote could make a difference, but the debacle that was 2016 took care of that.
1
John Kerry was painted as a traitor for his service during the Vietnam war after Citizens United allowed gazillions of unaccounted-for dollars into the political process. Money changes everything; propaganda and paid-for-paranoia. Our nation is being destroyed by the far-right uber-rich. They wanted a libertarian state and they're getting what they paid for.
1244
@SusieQue Isn't it more like, willy-nilly, "We're getting what they paid for?"
41
@SusieQue
Citizens United was decided in 2010. John Kerry ran in in 2004.
50
@SusieQue
Fascism pays off, it seems, for the ultra regressives. They don't want any "libertarian" state. They want a Fascist autocracy where they own EVERYTHING and everyone else is mired in Post-Modern Feudalism. This is where the "no government regulations" philosophy directly leads.
90
There is only one power struggle in this country and that is between the wealthy that use division to subvert democracy and everyone else that either becomes their tools or their victims. It is due to the increasing concentration of wealth brought on by technology that grants the wealthy such power. But what's really amazing is that people that are not in the upper class so easily fall victim to these tactics of division and polarization. You can see the most gullible and easily radicalized people just by looking at the mobs that attend trump gatherings. These are not the brightest bulbs in the pack. My belief is that a sizable minority of citizens are easily confused and unaware that it is the rich that are dividing them and turning them against others they don't understand. It could be that we also lack an honest media because they're all owned by the rich that benefit from this undemocratic polarization. Or, maybe the honest ones we have are unable to even reach these people in their far off and isolated places despite the global reach of the internet. It certainly doesn't take much critical thinking to realize who pays for the ads, commentary and political campaigns that turn us against each other and who benefits from such division.
2
@NowCHare ...I disagree. What I see is a division based on seeing or categorizing people as other. They, They They. I believe you have fallen into that trap. They - illegal immigrants. They - people who live off welfare. They - coastal liberal elites. They - who have a different religion. They - who are the wealthy upper class. How easy it is to blame our ills on some faceless group of other that we don't know.
@W.A. Spitzer Those that benefit from our division, and the ones seeding those divisions, are rich and they're trying to stay that way. This includes non-citizens such as Putin and the Saudis as well. Democracy is a gift for the masses and these people want to control it, naturally. It isn't the non-wealthy that benefit from our division and polarization and if we fight, they won't be the ones that get bruised and die (unless they choose to). I'm not advocating hatred and I believe the actions of the rich are entirely expected. But it would be nice to see the masses recognize who is fueling their divisions and put them aside for everyone's benefit. That's all I'm saying.
It is one thing to run a mostly centrist campaign in 2000 and follow it up with a turn out a myopic base campaign four years later. Once re-elected, the promises of the second campaign have little meaning in the short term even if they create a bad precedent.
When one's first campaign openly courts racists and organized crime, one has to actually follow through on those promises to get re-elected. Having poisoned any hope with most centrists, the only way to "double down" for the reelection campaign is to push hard towards authoritarianism and hope the vote is at least close enough that one can cheat to win.
2
I do acknowledge and take note of how the various disciplines comment on the current political zeitigeist.
Our history is rich with disputes over native americans, immigrants, slavery, suffrage, foreign trade, worker compensation, labor disputes and unions, cultural issues from prohibition to abortion and it is a ripe field to observe and comment on.
I don't see the offerings as solutions but rather as description and explanation of contributions to understanding of the raw and primal forces merely gussied up in the lexicons of historians, political scientists, sociologists, religious factions, and economists.
The deployment of misinformation/disinformation campaigns aided and abetted by social media, for hire media and bots fogs the issues and inhibits if not exhausts critical thinking.
Mr. Orenstein and Mann aptly sum it up as it's worse than you think. I submit at least one contributing factor is the naked grab for power causes disregard of norms and practices that contribute to a more perfect union.
At present, the perfect union aspiration and its supporters must rise and confront the forces of polarization and division.
3
Wow, what a great article: well-researched, informative, up-to-the-minute, reserved, yet ultimately depressing, if not scary. It's like an academic paper, but interesting; in fact, I saved it, fantasizing that someday I'll have enough chutzpah to show to my Tea Party relatives, if I ever want to sever ties with them permanently. In a nutshell it explains so much.
One point I want to expound upon: Karl Rove has done as much damage to American politics as Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. Statesmen, in the laudatory sense of that much-bandied-about word, they are not.
(I wonder if we look as evil to them as they to us. They seem to be merely playing a game: How To Succeed in Politics Without Really Caring.)
3
Your quote from "It's Even Worse Than You Think" by Mann and Ornstein is on target.
"The GOP has radicalized into an anti-system party that does not accept the legitimacy of its opposition and enables a slide toward autocracy. Very dangerous times for American democracy."
Yesterday, President Trump declared himself the nation's "chief law enforcement officer." The slide toward autocracy is now on a steeper slope. In fact, we may well be there.
5
Edsall says: "Campaigns in the past had relied on activating resentment and hostility, of course, but the re-election drive for Bush in 2004 was the first to make this the centerpiece of a mainstream presidential effort."
He apparently forgot about the despicable, thoroughly racist 1988 campaign of George H.W. Bush, who went from racial dog whistles to police whistles. Lee Atwater, on his deathbed, apologized to Mike Dukakis, but Bush never did. Why not? Because he wasn't sorry, just as Trump isn't sorry.
What was different about 2004 is that the Republican Party, for the first time, decided it was a good idea to attack a decorated war veteran in favor of draft-dodgers like George W. Bush and Cheney. And now? Trump attacks decorated war veterans all the time, even from his own party (e.g., John McCain).
3
Dukakis vetoed a law that would have prevented Willie Horton from being furloughed. That would have given us one less victim. Dukakis came out against the furlough program after that. Sorry, Dukakis earned the heat he took.
And there's no dog whistle to it.
Audacity of Hate? What about the "Audacity of Hope"? (Obama)
Yes, Trump, and the Right offer us an audacity of hate.
Why, can't the Democrats offer us an audacity of hope, now?
I fear Trump and the Republicans will destroy democracy.
But I also fear the confusion and lack of hope, from Democrats.
Why can't Democrats focus on a new democracy wave, now?
"Democracy is coming to the USA" (Leonard Cohen)
Why can't the NY Times focus on a democracy of hope, now?
"Democracy is coming to the USA"
1
@H Pearle
“Why, can't the Democrats offer us an audacity of hope, now?”
Too full of hatred themselves.
But can you suggest some solutions?
2
Who really benefits from this extreme division, gridlock, distrust of American institutions and hatred?
Vladimir Putin, who is laughing at us and celebrating with toasts of Russia's finest vodka.
3
So, essentially all white conservatives are racists? That's you're entire argument? As if you keep saying it over and over it will become true. Then, you wonder why the political landscape is so polarized. Just blame the other people. It's sad but I don't think most liberals are truly aware that they are in fact guilty of the rage, hatred, and bigotry that they assign to conservatives.
7
@james
This “race libel” against conservatives is why I have decided to support Trump in 2020. Existential self-defense.
4
This is all aided and abetted by Facebook.
1
The author omitted the 1996 founding of Fox News as an explicitly partisan propaganda outlet masquerading as journalism.
5
Let's hope a deep deep hatred of the dishonest, amoral, unpatriotic Trump can be harnessed for good.
Trump may have harnesses hate but he is creating a deeply divided country. There is no greatness in division only weakness.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand,"
The words of a famous Republican. One the ex-Dixiecrat who now run the GOP loathed.
1
Fear. Fear of being displaced. Fear of being marginalized. Fear of the unknown. Fear of being treated as one may treat others. Fear generates anger and paranoia. Fear may cause one to act against her own interests. To wit, Tea Party supporters acting against their own interests. Large numbers of Trump supporters have been hurt by Trumps' actions or inability to execute. Doesn't matter; fear overrides.
Karl Rove used fear of homosexuals in 2004 to get Bush reelected. GOP engineered inclusion of referenda gay reduction of rights, personal and financial, in over 30 states coincident to the presidential ballot. It worked. (Of course, today, fear of homosexuals is dramatically down. Enlightenment works.)
Education, enlightenment and acknowledgement of the fears may help bridge the gap. A continuation of hostilities, confrontations, recriminations and intransigence resolves nothing. Us versus them politics only hurts everyone and diminishes America. Let's truly make America great again, an inclusive America.
1
Excellent points in this article and I single this one:
"More than anything, Trump intuitively understood how polarization, and with it, the intense hatred among legions of Republican voters of liberal elites and of the so-called meritocracy could be a powerful tool to win elections."
I disagree with the writer and many others, however, in ascribing to Trump the success he's been having with his base.
By focusing on Trump observers lose sight of the fact that America has changed in some fundamental ways so that at basic level, the distinction amongst Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians is irrelevant. It's what's uniting them in this amorphous bloc called the "Trump base" that seems critical to understanding these "crazy times". The Trumps of this world will always come and go. They are not the agents but the conduits of the social and economic undercurrents.
The academics and serious writers like Mr. Edal should look into the causes. Not an easy task but the first and necessary step to dealing with the maladies and the incongruities this article highlights.
1
@Terence Yhip
That would require an un-cloudy mirror and a suspension of his own ideology. His type is the cause.
Interesting analysis Mr. Edsall - but there is one element in the rise of partisanship and division that you have not included in this discussion: the rise of right wing media and the calculated disinformation campaigns that poison the well of public discourse.
When you cite the improbability of Schumer-McConnell or Pelosi-Trump engaging in non-judgmental conversation, that is a huge part of the reason. They live in different worlds with less and less common ground - and only one of them is based on reality.
If you remember the infamous quote about creating realities faster than Democrats/the press can keep up with them, you can see what is happening. Let's not forget Newt Gingrich and his use of language as a key mechanism of control.
None of this would have advanced as far as it has without the failure of traditional journalism to recognize what is happening and respond effectively to it.
The Times report on Trump embracing the trillion tree initiative takes his statements at face value - despite 3 years of his record of lying about everything. Normalizing bad behavior, false equivalence - the traditional media has failed us and continues to fail us.
The credibility of the press isn't helped when it visibly puts its thumb on the scales. Why did a WSJ-NBC poll omit Warren from a match up of Democrats against Trump, when she is still polling in double digits and is 3rd in delegates?
Look to your own house Mr. Edsall to see where chaos thrives.
4
Almost all discussions concerning American politics today presumes that democracy is a given. It's not. Democracy is the fragile, aberrant experiment of a mere 250 years within the 5,000-year history of written history. Consequently, these discussions avoid seriously considering the acceleration of Trump's vector toward absolutism, dictatorship, and (most important to him) eventual elevation to king or emperor. That's what he wants. Republican politicians have "gone along" with him in order to avoid evisceration in any primary contest. However, they are now bought and cannot change their fealty. Republican money has been moving toward the abolition of democracy for decades, if not centuries. This is their end game, and they know full well that the Republican party cannot withstand the demographic changes that even one more election will bring. I certainly can't imagine that any "fairness" will occur in a 2020 election for many battleground states. But more likely, I doubt Trump will even allow an election to take place.
The horror of all this is that it is becoming more and more likely that most of humanity (anyone not in the global 1%) has maybe 20 years left of drinkable water and breathable air.
5
This narrative is nauseatingly familiar and contradictory. While decrying polarization and partisanship, it actually promotes them by perpetuating familiar themes of the rebellion of white male electorate disaffected by failures to adjust to modern conditions and global changes, the rise of racism and xenophobia as a result of changing demographics, and others. The op-ed refuses to see the elephant in the room: the discontent witht the establishment and elite rule. This discontent is a result of the new and empowering developments of the last few decades: changes in the character of labor with the new emphasis on creativity and innovation and the technological advances that enormously expanded the range of possibilities in acquiring information and communication for an average citizen. These changes are not unique to the U.S. and neither are their effects. They inspired upheavals of the Arab Spring, the Maidan movement in Ukraine, the Occupy movement, the on-going protests in Hong Kong, and much else. In light of these events, the political upheaval in America is not an exception driven by factors specific to the US. The upheaval in the U.S. stands in line with these and many other developments around the world. Edsall and those elite scholars he has consulted refuse to see these connections because they contradict their familiar and convenient partisan narrative. The narrative presented in this op-ed is based on wrong premises and leads to wrong-headed conclusions.
A big contributor to what is described as polarization might be media and media commentators.
Most policies are very complicated, but when presented through ideological coloring, we get from one side, a firm wrong and from the other, a firm right on the same issue.
Tribal consumers of media will hear only one side, and thus when members of opposing tribes get together, both cannot settle on some basic facts, and worse, both sides claim the other is knowingly making false claims.
What is the solution? Those in command of audiences should refrain from speaking with so much certitude. After, all, it is much easier to be wrong than to be right, but some operate as if the opposite prevails.
4
The country has left millions of people massively undereducated and unprepared to compete in the 21st century. They want someone to blame. Liberals seem to be doing well, they must be the problem. They represent a new century and new ideas that hold little for people who have been left behind. This is why Trump promises to bring back the 1950s, because these people have no chance of thriving in 2020. Put up the walls, end trade, cut off the media and block the world out. Let’s just go back to what we had. Go back to a time when high school education was decent and it was enough to live a comfortable life. Never mind that it won’t ever work. Never mind that the manufacturing sector is currently in a clear recession despite Trump acting as though it’s the most important part of the economy. It would be too painful to admit that you’ve been left on the side of the road and that the very same people you voted into office ensured that it happened. It would be too painful to recognize that treating the teaching profession as a fiscal burden rather than a crucial investment has finally produced a massive number of people unable to adapt to the world. So make the liberals cry. Go ahead. Hate everything that makes you feel scared and threatened. See if it helps. See how your kids fare. Notice that Trump has bathed his kids in all the liberal elite institutions you hate - maybe he knows that a high school education and a manufacturing job isn’t the way of the future too?
18
The adults I grew up with who were quick to insist that everything was rigged (against them),other races were ruining everything or stealing opportunities my neighbors and their children deserved but usually didn't aspire to or even try out for turned out to be making excuses- self-soothing their egos and insecurities with swagger and abusive talk. "Uncouraging" as my Dad's cousin once told me- with myriad reasons to insist, not unlike Carrie White's mom "they're all going to laugh at you" if you don't stay close, in the same jobs, on the stoop, the corner, with your own kind. It's a lie that they were just left behind by automation or that people who they knew and were often also made the target of abuse and rejected for some difference from their insisted ways purposely sought success and future elsewhere to hurt them. My neighborhood was dominated by the idea that curiosity made someone a snob, difference should be doubted and the humility required to be in new circumstances was humiliating and best avoided. Trump aimed his casinos, MLMs, "success seminars," fake college, at the same people, who want a a shortcut+often lack the confidence to, as many people of color do, argue that they deserve a position anywhere they wish to learn+try. And the white working-class ends up at a loss, with their money in his pocket, eager to blame someone else instead of seeing the often self-inflicted cultural trap they are in or Trump as first in line to exploit them.
5
I was forced from my homeland (California) by forces over which I had no control.
Too many poor immigrants whose children swamped the schools and jails and too many rich whose money made things unaffordable.
Am I wrong to be angry at the American elites who failed to look out for my interests? I don't think so.
6
World War II brought this country (pretty much) together. So has every other major challenge in its history from the Revolution onward. Events such as the Viet Nam war, Korea, Iraq/Afghanistan and Trump have not - they have only served as political triggers and opportunistic perversions to divide us in the hands of people like Rove and the new hate/fear mongers of the once legitimate Republican Party. The advent of Fox/Hannity/Limbaugh/Carlson/Ingraham and other lying propagandists who stir the pot of hatred have also played to narrow-minded self-absorbed one issue fake conservative voters.
Hatred is powerful. It's so easy to blame others for your plight in life instead of pulling yourself up and doing something positive about it. The Trumpian haters are looking for a messiah to do their work for them. That will never happen. They have ceded power to the worst of humanity who feeds them what they think they want to hear - fear of "the other", blame of "the other", hatred of "the other". How interesting that THEY HAVE BECOME "THE OTHER" themselves and, instead of seeing unanimity, they seek division, hiding behind a fake leader who is out for himself, all the while telling them lies that they choose to believe.
It's really pretty simple: disenfranchised people who are too lazy to seek a peaceful and equitable solution to social issues try to mindlessly bully their way into power, not knowing what it is that they want or what this country really needs. Hence TRUMP!
4
It should be fairly obvious that Putin selected Trump precisely because Putin saw the fault lines of American society and knew that Trump was the perfect candidate to exploit them.
4
You have to be kidding me. I know several people, including close family members, who have been harassed or assaulted for wearing Trump hats or shirts. What about the dude that shot the republicans at the soft ball game? How about Madame Einstein, aka, Maxine Waters, inciting people to violence? Open up your eyes.
6
They deserve every bit of hate that comes their way. They brought it on themselves.
Well, then, let's realign the parties, shall we?
2
Like that guy in the picture who spent good money to buy that shirt, Trump supporters aren’t voting for the future, or even the past. They’re voting out of spite. The goal isn’t to move anything. It’s to hurt someone.
We’ve all heard about the angry old white guy who lost a bunch of money in 2008, feels humiliated by how he’s depicted in movies and on TV, and is fed a steady stream of paranoia from Fox News. Where is that guy’s place in America? He’s making money, but he’s got a boss and a mortgage for a house that’s not that great, and he has to give 25% of what he makes to people whom he’s been told don’t work and, he’s been told, are laughing at him because he’s a sucker.
And here’s Trump, with his own plane, nice houses, a hot wife, and brags about how little he pays in taxes. Every thing Trump does makes the fat cats - the ones who distort “real Americans” in movies and TV, who hold the mortgages in NY, who make us pay taxes - go bananas. It’s fun to watch them get a taste of their own medicine.
Even MAGA has been turned into slur against “the libs.” It’s not about making America great. It’s about making some Americans hurt. For the Trump supporter there is no future, just the continuous glory of making liberals cry.
7
@M
Your post should be an NYT pick. Bravo!
One aspect of how this works is in how systems have been altered in our government and society to make it harder for the right result to come from them while propaganda has been spread to make what is right opaque.
2
Very good observation. There are three necessary ingredients causing disparity, polarization, or we vs them mentality: affluence, control of government by the wealthy, and religion. They make God their patron so how can they be wrong.
3
Highlighting all these studies about what divides democracies and what possibly could dissolve these divisions makes for sobering reflection. In the period of the Revolutionary War, some Colonists fought the British, some did not participate, and others fled to Canada. After the War, the Colonies tried to form a Federal Government. It took two tries and courage to overcome animosities long held about people from that nether State. The first half of the 19th century proved that placating both sides does not eliminate fixed prejudices; nor did war and Reconstruction policies prove any better. The response to Reconstruction came in many forms: statues commemorating Confederate Icons, Jim Crow Laws, and the KKK March on Washington. Technology did bridge the divisions either. From the beginning, radio gave voice to both Jazz in the city and Fundamental preaching in rural America. Social media today has not done any better. This is a history of our divisions. This is not our whole history. There is a history of Americans coming together and working for the good of all; e.g. disaster relief beyond FEMA. Joshua Kalla and David Brockman challenge us to get beyond our "exclusionary attitudes" and begin talking with one another without prejudice and candidly sharing our story.
1
people pointing at Trump for all wrong doing, when in fact,
Trump is doing what GOP wants, or he's gone a long time already.
just look at his approval rate.
GOP is trying to make the country white again, dictatorship or not.
2
Democrats can philosophize all day long about how Trump won and it changes nothing.
Take action.
Contribute to Senate races in Kentucky, Maine, Arizona and Georgia.
One million Dems sending 20 bucks is a game changer.
Do it today.
7
What? The country was not polarized to this extent in the middle of the last century? Students were shot at Kent State, there were riots in several cities during the 60s, there was rioting at the 68 convention in Chicago. My brother (just to make a personal case), a middle class white boy, was picked up hitchhiking and threatened by police (in a Massachusetts town) because he was a "long-haired freak". These were the days of "America, love it or leave it". Sorry, it has happened before.
6
"This extends to the legitimacy of elections, Persily continued, adding that
trust in the electoral process is now contingent on who wins. That is, losers will cry ‘fraud’ and consider the president illegitimate, even if the election is well-run. This is the kind of dynamic we see in the developing world and unstable democracies. It is a recipe for disaster."
In this case, the winner was preemptively crying fraud and "rigged" and, given his talent for projection, this could be taken as proof that the election was indeed rigged for him with foreign tampering that he continues to pay back. Trump could not even handle the truth that he lost the popular vote, which, let's face, is the only vote that should matter. Konstantin Kilimnik needs to be questioned as to what he did with the polling data provided to him by Gates and Manafort and an assessment of how fragile our electoral process is factored into decisions about how to move forward. NEVER underestimate the power of messaging. Voters in Milwaukee who stayed home, Obama-Sanders voters who went for Trump, these are likely casualties of a frog in the pot messaging campaign that destroyed the chances of a free and fair election. Until steps are taken to remedy this, no election will go unchallenged.
1
True enough. But I wonder what will become of Rupert Murdoch's media empire and the Rush Limbaughs of talk radio when Trump is gone? And what will become of NATO and Europe if Trump wins a second term? China's Xi and Russia's Putin -- who at 5-foot-7 is the same height as Bloomberg though Trump would never dare to deride him -- will rule the world while we will be walled off in our banana republic.
4
Thomas Edsall: "The audacity of hate. Trump has a knack for turning anger and fear into political power".
If that is indeed the case, then the flip side is also true: The tendency of the modern left wing in the U.S. is to perceive opposition to itself largely along lines of merely emotion, that the right wing has no legitimate arguments, there is nothing of the intellect, rationality there, just the emotional states of anger, fear, hatred which must be policed and suppressed for the sake of the "country" (left wing designs) and it's not farfetched to suppose that in the future a public sphere will be constructed in which only "proper emotions and thoughts" are permitted, and beyond that we can anticipate drugs/vaccinations applied to humanity to cultivate the proper emotional state among very different groups of people and individuals tossed like salad and in great numbers all in one place.
It's fascinating to observe that the antidote to the right wing in America by the left is apparently taken for granted as far as intellectually constructed, meaning the left takes itself intellectually as "knowing what to do", and that the problem, opposition to its designs, amounts to merely the need to "eradicate hateful ideas and negative emotions", as if America will be set on correct course by merely a process of subtraction, that we subtract hateful ideas and somehow work on, calm down, make more loving the human animal and all will be fine. The future a tranquilized beast.
2
The "vast right wing conspiracy" is real, and it is destroying the United States. Those hundred million Americans who don't care or want to vote had better make an exception this November, or this Government By The People may perish from the Earth.
5
@WeHadAllBetterPayAttentionNow
Don't you mean "left-wing conspiracy"?
But I agree anout the hundred million citizens ... and they had better vote for Trump and all other Republicans.
1
@Doug McDonald
Nope, it is a “Deep State” conspiracy. You know, all those people who really run things from behind the big curtain. Trust me, I heard it from a good source.
I remember the day during the housing crisis when a man reported from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange that poor people were the cause of financial collapse.
I understand that holding the rich and powerful responsible for manipulating our economy is a fool's errand. During the crisis, however, the angry people who had just lost their financial futures needed someone to blame.
Consider that the traditional villains of the Democratic Party have been plutocrats who have employed children, locked women in sweatshops, polluted much of Montana, and in general been just fine with destroying the lives of the inconsequential if by doing so they might get a little richer. Whether meat packers or railroad tycoons or these days surveillance capitalists, those who have escaped from the financial gravity that binds the rest of us to the economy have also learned that funding propaganda casting blame elsewhere can pay massive dividends.
Thus sprang Astroturf campaigns that riled up the under-informed. Indeed, one can go back to Reagan to see that adopting the tactics once used by Southern Democrats to appeal to racial animus is, for now, a winning strategy. Trump can weaken the economy by "winning" his trade wars, he can break every commandment supposedly held dear by our Christian friends, and he will still be popular because he blames the right people.
Mencken said that democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. Not much has changed.
2
"I remember the day during the housing crisis when a man reported from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange that poor people were the cause of financial collapse."
But that was TRUE. The poor had taken out home loans that anybody of any sense could (and most emphatically DID) see would eventually fail. It was also the fault of Democrats of course that lenders were not only allowed by required to make bad loans.
Even one of the Democrat candidates at the next debate explicitly said exactly that! Imagine .... a Democrat specifically telling the obvious truth! Of course, at that time he was not running for president as a Democrat, so was not forced by expediency to lie as is normal for Democrats.
So the "poor people" gave themselves mortgages? No good republicans in subprime banking had anything to do with it?
2
Of course the Republicans in banking (all banking, not just the specific companies targeting subprime) had lots to do with it.
The new regulations said that they had to sell to people who were bad risks or lived in bad areas (i.e. anti-redlining). So their bankers and investment gurus thought of a way to make money ... "derivatives". Those
were almost a Ponzi scheme. It was completely obvious that eventually the house of cards would collapse. It was so obvious that even the NYTimes was worried before it happened.
Also, of course, had the Bush admin actually tried to generate regulations to protect against a collapse, it would have resulted in dramatically reduced numbers of loans. The Left would have started screaming that Bush was racist. No matter what a non-far-left politician or group does, the Left will attack them ... they've proven this over and over.
For example, follow the columns of Paul Krugman over his tenure at the NYT.
There seems to be far more hatred of Trump by democrats and in the mainstream media than vice-versa. If "hate" is a toxic emission in to our body politic, like CO2 is to our atmosphere, Trump Derangement Syndrome, exemplified by "sky is falling" fears of USA fascism among allegedly responsible leftists like professors at major institutions, is the biggest contributor to that toxicity.
I support Trump, but if he loses to a Sanders or Biden or whoever, I will grin and bear it like I did 8 years of Obama and before that Clinton in the 1990s. But i don't know how millions of democrats will make it through next year if Trump is reelected. So many seem like their heads are about to explode over him.
3
@StephenJ... All our heads aren’t about to explode, but a lot of us are clearly perplexed that so many of our fellow citizens are so willing to accept such a low level of basic ethics and morality in the President of the United States.
Please, please don’t try to insist he isn’t really as low as we have ever been in our Chief Executive.
8
Republicans tapped into the dark underside of America, luring those with severe character deficits to surface and insist on having their terrible ways.
Perhaps we denied to ourselves such nasty folk were a large part of us, but now we must face up to the task of improving, growing American Character to be the Decent Folk once again.
3
Never mind the false equivalence from commenters. Edsall's entire piece is one long exercise in false equivalence.
For example, when talking about what happened to Justin Amash, Edsall writes "penalties for intraparty dissent are quick and brutal" which implies that both parties do this.
Later, he equates Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, and also Nancy Pelosi and Trump, as if they are equally at fault for political gridlock.
6
The people who respond to grotesqueries like Trump or the Tea Party are the same people who have always existed in this country: mostly egotistical people who hate everyone who isn't them. Their sense of their own superiority is rooted in their infantile need to be looked at and heard. They're all about me, me, me, me. That people like Limbaugh or Trump make them feel "legitimate" and "righteous" is an old political trick.
So what? Put 'em all in the same space for long enough and they'll fall to fighting amongst themselves over who is the best hater. When your goal in life is to be unhappy and miserable, when you selectively hear only that which validates your smallness of character, then you live an unhappy miserable life.
When hasn't this been in the case universally amongst humans? The thing is, they are not the greatest part among us--they are just some of us.
Ignore them. Stop making them them more than they are. We have bigger problems on this planet. Problems don't get settled by handwringing over those whose life choices are an impediment to a happy and healthy life. Trump is clearly the unhappiest of men. As Emerson pointed out long ago, these folks often turn to politics to cover for their inadequacies as humans.
2
I've long been struck by how white Republican crowds are. Nowadays, it seems to me that the crowds are at least 2/3 male as well.
Yes, I know, I know - white men are not all Trumpists. But it sure seems like white men are the ones drawn to Trump's message of hate, fear, rage and victim-hood.
3
To understand these voters -- and haters -- go back to their primes. They were white, usually male -- that put them above more than half the population right off the bat. Add a decent living with union benefits, without the benefit of an education -- a car, a home, vacations, all affordable on that single salary. Now add a changing world. Women rise, blacks and Hispanics rise, a college degree becomes necessary, income inequality soars. These voters/haters are mad about their displacement. They want 1950 back and Trump, with his sexism and racism and vulgarity, promises to give it to them. They should be more worried about Medicare and pre-existing conditions but they're not. Such is the paradox of being human -- they think they'll regain their prime. And if not, Trump feeds their rage and that at least feels powerful.
3
In the immortal words of a little green guy:
“fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the Dark Side!”
Only Love can conquer hate. Can we try that? What do we have to lose?
1
The America we know has always been based upon love of country and hatred of party-the other party. The party we do not believe in or we believe they are out to ruin America. Trump epitomizes this more than any individual who has ever been elected to this office. He plays on fear not unity. He tries to unite one part of the electorate while spreading lies and falsehoods about the other. As Bob Woodward wrote a few years ago, about trump, is that what stands out more than anything is the continuous lies and falsehoods. When trump loses, which he should easily, he will claim that the election was rigged and he was robbed. More lies, more hate speeches. The democrats will lose with out Mike Bloomberg as their candidate. Mr Bloomberg and his centrist policy’s are the only thing that can save this country. Sanders will be defeated by trump and we will have four more years of the dismantling of the United States. All in the time of accelerating climate destruction. China and Russia will then rule what’s left of the world. America will be as second rate as Britain became after losing its empire. It’s the democrats election to win or lose. Trump will campaign on hate masquerading as strength. This election is TOO IMPORTANT to lose to trump.
1
Democrats lack imagination. This is so because they believe they're in the majority, and are on the side of good, and that Trump is an aberration that will correct itself. They think they can do nothing, or else vote, and everything will return to normal.
They continue to assume that we are living in a democracy because they have no imagination.
But things have changed at the most basic level because Republicans control every lever of power in this country. Why would they give it up?
If they did they’d lose everything, and never get it back.
There is no institution or organized resistance or plan to force them to give up power. Just the assumption that everything will return to normal. There is no enforcement mechanism. If Republicans cannot be forced to give up power, why would they?
Why would the Republicans turn over their country to immigrants and non-Americans?
“The GOP has radicalized into an anti-system party that does not accept the legitimacy of its opposition and enables a slide toward autocracy.”
“Trust in the electoral process is now contingent on who wins. That is, losers will cry ‘fraud’ and consider the president illegitimate.”
Democrats continue to believe there's only a reasonably small possibility, maybe 5%, that the Republicans will not give up power.
5% is huge. Yet Pelosi and her oldsters have no plan to make the Republicans step down, even if they win.
This is critical, because the actual probability is 100%.
1
This both-sidesism is flat out wrong. One side has decided to abandon decorum and reason in favor of, well, even they don’t seem to know what they are in favor of, but they know what they’re against: liberals! Conservatives have one objective only, and that is to disrupt and frustrate the humane (liberal) impulse to use government resources to help all citizens, ie Democracy.
The so-called “partisan divide” is more like a sibling scrap, where the older brother is trying to concentrate on doing his chores while his jealous younger brother keeps poking at him trying to disrupt his concentration and provoke a fight, because he can’t think of anything better to do.
Liberals don’t hate conservatives, they don’t want to make them cry (what a mean-spirited and cynical theme!) Liberals want to make the world a better place for all people. It’s a rather noble, perhaps foolhardy, ideal, but one that is rooted in our founding principles of democracy.
The difference between liberals and conservatives is the difference between love and hate. While conservatives revel in their bloodlust and hatred, they fail to notice or care how they are diminishing our democracy. Democracy fails under the polity of hate.
2
What Trump supporters have in common is their ignorance. Mostly uneducated obese white people who have a sense of entitlement that somewhere in their lives they were wronged. But this feeling is because of their ignorance and they see Trump as a being who supports them because Republicans don’t want an educated society. What Republicans want is to keep the little guy for getting ahead all the while they will espouse that they’re for keeping a social support system when they really don’t.
Why would you continue to give the one percent mire tax cuts and cut health and education budgets. The US will never ever be as advanced as Nordic countries, Canada and Japan as long as America has an ignorant society!
1
No a question of moving the country forward. Instead the red hat brigade’s purpose is to make everybody as miserable as they obviously are.
4
Really...of all the great articles this one is placed twice on the front page. Why not a climate change article or something really useful.
1
The father of the lie and of hate is the devil. I hate no one, but hate what they do, there is a big difference. People can change if they so desire.
In my conversations with my mostly white neighbors it has become increasing clear that many are racists, bigots and xenophobes despite what they think they are which are christians and open-minded. They are neither. Too many white Trump supporters hide behind patriotism and religion to justify their racism and bigotry. They live in a post WWII era that has not existed in decades and they seem to have missed or dismissed the social and political revolution that occurred in the 60's and 70's as they cocooned themselves off in the suburbs away from people of color, the poor and newly arrived immigrants. As Samuel Clemens stated "Patriotism is the refuge of scoundrels". I couldn't agree more.
3
republicans started playing chicken with democracy with Reagan..... the crash is coming in November..... and we have no idea if anyone will walk away.
2
Those trafficking in fear and hatred tend to reach the end of their lives and realize what they have wrought too late. Some express regret and attempt to atone. I wonder if Limbaugh will experience some sort of deathbed realization and conversion or whether he expires struggling to draw his last labored breaths to spew out acid toward liberals, people of color, women, and various non-majority hetero sexual identities. As a doctor I often observe how what people do affects their health. Spreading hatred with one’s blowhard amplified voice can’t be promoting good respiratory or cardiovascular health.
1
With all due respect to the writer, and to liberals in general, 'hate' cuts both ways. In real terms, it was actually the Left that picked this fight; conservatives have been mostly in a defensive posture lo these past fifty or so years, rallying against the growing hate and intolerance of the Left.
History will show that the tipping point between liberal and conservative came during the early years of the 21st Century. History will also likely show that the resulting social divide could have been avoided had liberals not moved the dial so far left?
And will history also show that liberals failed to understand the difference between 'hate' and the legitimate grievances of fully half their fellow American citizens? Did they recognize the difference, say, in time to recover their political balance and win the 2020 presidential election?
6
I applaud Tom Edsall for listing the experts, but I think a closer reading of Mann and Orstein's work (which he cites) might expose the obvious: in our "winner-take-all" Constitution, radicalism has been rewarded and empowered. If the US had a parliamentary system, that promotes, i.e. demands cooperation and coalition-building, and tends to discourage fringe movements on both the Right and the Left, the MAGA hats would appear to be exactly what they are, extremists undeserving of participation in a rational government. The People want be represented, not polarized.
3
I encountered examples of extreme polarization just yesterday in North Bend, Washington, shown by just one man walking his dog:
First, he was wearing a "Trump 2020" hat, a reminder that Trump never stopped campaigning after the 2016 election.
Second, after a brief but amicable conversation, he commented that he could get shot for wearing such a hat in the area (not far from Seattle). Of course that's not true, but Trump has often led his followers to believe such lies about how irrational, hateful, and violent his non-supporters could be.
3
How about if the media had a huge campaign to promote whenweallvote.org or the impact of Obamacare on those with preexisting conditions or how corporations benefited from the Republican tax cuts? The more attention you give to Trump's hate, the more hate there will be. And many Americans are tired of it.
2
I think we need to stop pretending the polarization is symmetrical. Chuck Schumer could not shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it. Democrats outed Al Franken over mildly inappropriate sex jokes. There is absolutely no equivalence between the two parties on polarization as a political weapon.
Republicans like to create the appearance of equivalence because it excuses their own behavior and drives out more "missing whites." The equivalence doesn't exist. It's fiction.
Consider this: The presumed Democratic front runner for the nomination isn't even a Democrat. The number two candidate in polls is a former Republican. There's obviously something wrong with your definition of tribalism if you consider this tribal behavior.
Mann and Ornstein make the point clearly.
"The GOP has radicalized into an anti-system party that does not accept the legitimacy of its opposition and enables a slide toward autocracy."
Democrats aren't polarized. They are shocked and terrified. One side of the political spectrum unilaterally seized control of government and refuses to govern for anyone but political loyalists. How can anyone view Republicans as legitimate when they are willfully denying legitimacy to the political process? The entire political apparatus save, Justin Amash and Mitt Romney, just went on record defending election interference so long as it benefits their power.
How can you not have a crisis of legitimacy?
3
I now live in a predominantly well off lake town in NH. There were lawns signs for everyone here. Two thirds are in winter homes somewhere until May. People rarely share their leanings in social situations, at the coffee shop, or in church.
The votes were calculated and published the next day as follows:
Pete : 472
Amy: 401
Bern: 275
Biden: 183
Trump: 936
I think a Democrat will take the White House.
2
Trump’s people should practice what they preach. No Food. We know who and where that food comes from. By and large it’s supplied by those they shun and vilify as less than. A threat to their very security. A No Food Patriotic Fast should do them good.
"Mutual hatred", interesting to think that anything could appear mutual when only one party involved has shown the willingness to win at any cost. Sounds like a false equivalency.
1
This knife cuts both ways. While you’ve pointed out problems with the right and there are what about the left? Assaults just because you wear a MAGA hat? Really? College campuses that literally boo speakers off the stage even before they speak! You can’t eat out with your family because of political beliefs. The problem is at one time people could have different political beliefs but still discuss them and possibly even change a mind. That doesn’t happen anymore the fringes paint you as either a racist or a communist. Not good when we can’t even speak of our differences with being attacked both verbally or even physically! I know Trump advances this kind of talk and surly isn’t presidential when he does. But I’ve heard it plenty of times from other elected officials her in NYC too. What immediately comes to mind was a quote from a pretty influential elected official here of “every time I see a white person I want to slap them.” So it’s all around us. How do we stop it? How do we again make our thoughts and arguments for change or not civilized again, not personal so we see the common ground we each and all have? It seems to me nobody seeks public office to serve the public. They seek it for an agenda, power, an ideology that many times doesn’t serve those that elect them nor the nation as a whole. I still waiting for the Presidential candidate that can unite the overwhelming majority by representing our commonality.
Great piece but it understated the effect of hyper-biased media.
The Tea Party may well have not grown from a few people to a movement without Fox News that gave life to the nascent group.
It's time for Trumpers themselves to take a hard look in the mirror. This man is opening breaking the law and they're ok with that because of their contempt for "the other side"?
2
Nothing cooks my goose more than people who claim to be Christians advocating for hate and evil.
They should remember that Jesus would be considered a liberal today for his stance on helping the poor through distribution of wealth and women's rights.
Yes, I'm saying it.
Jesus was a feminist and a democratic socialist.
4
A fine line between a political party and an insurgency.
Republicans started crossing it long before Trump.
“Immigrants today are a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing and health care” and “It bothers me when I come into contact with immigrants who speak little or no English.”
What a misguided quote from our President, who hired many people without permanent resident status to build and maintain his golf courses, clean his home, and refurbish his condos. The man will literally say anything to stay in power.
1
Historical note: the author writes "In the midst of stock market losses of $2 trillion — a 40 percent plunge in the value of the Dow Jones — the country was hit by a catastrophic mortgage crisis ..." In fact, it was the other way around, Markets crashed Because the mortgage derivatives bubble was bursting, from Iceland to the collapse/bailout of Bear Stearns in March 2008, and Lehman Brothers that September. The markets were shaky through much of 2008, but crashed only after Lehman.
So it was the public shock that banks and lenders (the financial establishment) got it so wrong that undermined the political establishments of both parties and we didn't get Jeb v Hillary as all of the pundits had predicted.
1
@SpeakinForMyself Remember, large advertisers are automatically shielded from culpability. They seem to be responsible only for missteps, misunderstandings or being overly optimistic even though they are The Masters of the Universe. Nice work you can get it.
And Obama could not find one person to prosecute for any wrong doing.
3
I've dealt with Trump voters, some are in my family and being hurt by Trump policies while they support him. These people are easily swayed, they are scared they will lose a way of life that will change with or without Trump. I remember on 9/11 while I rushed to fill up my gas tank (ok I'm not perfect), grown men were walking around outside looking up at the sky, they looked nervous and scared. Sure a lot of these people are racists and are scared of an "invasion", but they are still Americans and need to be listened to, their hateful slogans are just a symbol of being scared. I've been around the world and welcome diversity, America at it's best is a diverse melting pot with all kinds of ideas, not to mention great food. We need a uniter as a president that speaks to all as one America.
1
At the time, I wondered why the press was covering t’s questioning of Obama’s citizenship.
The press covered this talk before t said he was running for president.
Who cared what he thought?
Does the press select the news based on ratings?
During the 2016 elections, I wondered why the press didn’t talk about fascism, its history and how it occurs.
The press helped get us in this mess.
2
Hate pushes people apart, so that the disdain for each other replaces any dialogue they may have with those who disagree with them to understand issues. This is the goal of the Russian disinformation strategy.
It’s also the easiest sell to a poorly informed and generally disinterested public. The secret to Trump’s success is that he has weaponized the low information voter. He learned early on that the 'hate' lines got the biggest cheers at his rallies. Then he just kept feeding the beast.
2
No. Both-sides-ism does not work in an environment where one group speaks of "owning" the other. I have never seen any liberal verbiage which speaks of "owning" conservatives. If I'm wrong on this, please feel free to comment and correct my perception. Otherwise, please stop with the "both sides do this" line of thinking. Just like so many other conservative tropes, the facts do not support this. It has as much basis in reality as the thinking that the coronavirus is a Chinese biological weapon gone awry (Thank you for that contribution to our national conversation, Senator Cotton).
1
Trump’s 90% support among Republicans no matter what he does tells us that Making America White Again is more important to them than any other consideration.
We’ve only got 10-12 million undocumented immigrants in a country of 325 million, so if this is a top 10 issue to someone, they need to take a look in the mirror and question their bigotry. Legal immigrants are a win for the country economically, and nearly all of us descend from immigrants.
The Obama Boom continues despite Trump’s interference, with huge debt increases, millions more uninsured, rising healthcare costs, and pointless trade wars somehow not an issue to his followers.
2
I realize that most historical comparisons involving Trump are dismissed as over wrought, but there is an unmistakable parallel here with the North-South polarization over slavery that led to the Civil War. The level of animosity between the opposing sides removed any possibility of a "non-judgemental exchange of narratives in interpersonal conversations."
As is the case today, both sides were firmly entrenched in both the righteousness of their position and the utter corruption of their opponents'. Neither side would admit to motives that were less than legitimate, nor give in an inch in defending their position as existential. The only thing that is not coincidental between then and now is the stoking of fear based on racial resentment. This remains a staple of American politics.
My fear is that we will not resolve this until it reaches a similar nadir, in this case the refusal of a defeated sitting president to leave office, and the unwavering defense of this refusal by his supporters. Already we're setting the scene for disavowing the legitimacy of the next election. Mr Edsall's pessimism in this column matches mine, in that there seems to be little we can do to change the collision course we are on, save study our history as we prepare.
7
Ignored in all of this is the end of the cold war. That content with the USSR ended the unity imposed on the US population. The export of manufacturing jobs to China made deep fractures in the US society. These exist up to this day. Trump is clever at selling himself. In 2016 Hillary told voters that nothing will change, but Trump told them that he would turn the US institutions of government upside down and help the working class voters. The second part of Trump's rhetoric was a lie. Trump will help Trump but no one else. Any working class person who gets a W2 form is misguided if they vote for Trump. Bigly.
4
Can someone please organize a huge multi-day demonstration in DC? It's time for the people to make clear we've had more than enough of this. Our democracy is in serious peril.
3
Thomas Edsall: "The audacity of hate. Trump has a knack for turning anger and fear into political power".
If that is indeed the case, then the flip side is also true: The tendency of the modern left wing in the U.S. is to perceive opposition to itself largely along lines of merely emotion, that the right wing has no legitimate arguments, there is nothing of the intellect, rationality there, just the emotional states of anger, fear, hatred which must be policed and suppressed for the sake of the "country" (left wing designs) and it's not farfetched to suppose that in the future a public sphere will be constructed in which only "proper emotions and thoughts" are permitted, and beyond that we can anticipate drugs/vaccinations applied to humanity to cultivate the proper emotional state among very different groups of people and individuals tossed like salad and in great numbers all in one place.
It's fascinating to observe that the antidote to the right wing in America by the left is apparently taken for granted as far as intellectually constructed, meaning the left takes itself intellectually as "knowing what to do", and that the problem, opposition to its designs, amounts to merely the need to "eradicate hateful ideas and negative emotions", as if America will be set on correct course by merely a process of subtraction, that we subtract hateful ideas and somehow work on, calm down, make more loving the human animal and all will be fine. The future a tranquilized animal...
1
Karl Rove strategy is now used in many countries around the world, even in those sham democracies ruled by dictators (e.g. Russia and Turkey). And it's so far very successful even in countries like the U.S. It's equally adopted by far-left leaning people, leaders, and parties.
Hopefully, the huge negative consequences of this approach in terms of policy failure and, more importantly, economic downturn would force a course correction as being happening in few countries in Europe were once popular right wing juggernauts are losing popularity even among its core devotees.
1
We are witnessing the sum of all our founders’ fears coming to pass. The kind of no-holds-barred political system we choose to call a democracy is the cumulative result of a creeping insurgence of unadulterated self-interest. Corporate interests have finally robbed the vast majority of us of “government of the people, for the people, and by the people.” As Lincoln feared, it is “perishing.”
The greatest cruelty is the manipulation of public opinion by these interests, through the mouths of faithless demagogues, to lead our people into further affixing these interests into the halls of power. Our people continue to be deceived by these interests into thinking that by granting them free rides on the backs on the rest of us, their tax-payer financed bonanzas will trickle down. Sure, and the world is flat! Meanwhile, our infrastructure rots, our environment degrades, and our leaders play their fiddles.
Unlimited corporate influence on elections; undemocratic gerrymandering; exclusion of common people from the courthouse to seek and attain justice (corporations are people, for God sake! Really?); and many other insults to democracy bring us to this critical juncture in our history. Will “we the people” take back what is rightfully ours, or will we continue to let the powerful dominate us? If we truly value democracy, we must vote, vote, vote for those most capable to defend us.
2
Quality Viewpoint. Everything Edsall has written is correct. But as a person who grew up (and was educated) in New England, he possibly overlooks the entire trend. There is also the same evolution occurring on the Left. Anger and fear are also trademarks. For every example of the Tea Party, there is also a simultaneous actionary (or reactionary) event-e.g. Black Lives Matter. The Democratic Party is most likely moving rapidly to the extreme Left. (Socialism, Reparations, Sanctuary cities, Open Borders, etc.) And at the same time, as indicated by the quality reporting, the Right is politically moving to the extreme with equal speed.
2
Mr. Edsall,
Your theory of Karl Rove first championing the idea of focusing on the base and leaving moderates alone, is very interesting. One can clearly draw a straight line from the 2004 Bush campaign through the Tea Party rise to Donald Trump.
If this theory is true, then the solution is clearly for Democrats is to capture the erstwhile Republican establishment voters who are currently homeless. That means, nominating a moderate.
However it seems increasingly likely that Democrats are going to end up mirroring Rove's 2004 strategy of nominating someone who will energize the base. How this will turn out in the general election is anybody's guess.
3
@Andy I think Richard Nixon and the Republican Southern Strategy was likely the earliest manifestation of focusing on the base, although there I guess they were trying to build a base.
2
@Andy: One needs an address to register to vote in federal elections.
There is a certain portion of our citizenry that evokes 1920's-1930's Germany.
12
Regardless of Trump's deplorable campaign tactics, the fact remains that if Blacks had voted for Hillary Clinton in the same numbers that they voted for Obama, everything Mr. Edsall writes here would be irrelevant.
8
Sadly, I do think the numbers bear this out. Something like 70,000 votes in just three or four states, or rather the absence of 70,000 votes in just three or four states, put us where we are today. I had a T-shirt back in the early 90s that said “Bad people are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote.” I was wearing that T-shirt when I shook Hillary Clinton’s hand in a rope line ( I think it was the 92 campaign) and she pointed it out and said “That’s a great T-shirt.” The irony in the rear view mirror is staggering.
1
@joe, I reject your assertion and blame-fixing on Black voters.
The fact is that Clinton won three million more votes than Clinton, but 53% of white women voted for Trump. If 2% of those white women and the Bernie Bros had turned out for Clinton, perhaps Clinton would have squeaked by with a six million vote advantage.
All Clinton had to do to seal a victory was to put Bernie on the ticket.
Headlines like this are unhelpful, as they cast Trump's methods as some kind of gift or talent. In reality, the methods of hate-mongering and propaganda are well-known, well-studied, and a well-worn track, having been used by dictators for centuries. Trump is simply a sociopath willing to do what others dictators were, and we haven't seen that on such a large scale in America for some time - and we thought we were immune. We thought that we were the land of Enlightenment and a Constitution and equal rights, and that mobs formed in places like Germany and Rwanda.
Turns out the methodology works everywhere, which Putin and his KGB know, having perfected psy ops and propaganda when they didn't have the monetary means to beat the West on technology. Now they've wedded psychological warfare to the West's best technologies, enlisted the greedy (Zuckerberg) and the amoral/greedy (the Trump family). There is nothing new here, only the naive belief that it couldn't happen in America.
10
Hillary Clinton lost white voters to Trump that voted for Obama in 2012. Her elite status and pro immigration platform were a dog whistle to disgruntled whites who succumbed to Trump's social media hate speech. Hillary Clinton didn't attract the black and youth voters in the numbers Obama did because she lacked Obama's charisma. But there was a huge anti-Trump vote that gave her a popular vote win. Trump had an anti environment message up his sleeve saying the auto industry was being harmed by new mileage standards Obama put in. This moved enough whites who voted with Obama to carry MI. The same directed message of anti elite sellout of whites in PA and WI. The narrow victories in those states allowed Trump to win the rural vote weighted electoral college. All this loud cry of Russian interference by Clinton and the Democrats follows the pattern Eliot shows. Trump used the new form of "authenticity" that impressed his 2016 voters. Authenticity measured in the over the top nasty pandering to voters worst instincts.
1
Make Conservatives human again.
3
“[Voter skepticism] extends to the legitimacy of elections....”
We were taught, in elementary school, that America is a democracy, where “the majority rules.” “One person, one vote.” For better or worse (as shown by the results of two presidential contests since the turn of the century), that is obviously not so. America is a “democratic republic”—we, as voters, don’t have the right... a right enjoyed even in newly emerged third world democracies... to vote for our President and Vice President; they are elected by the Electoral College. The Founding Fathers didn’t trust this nation’s electorate enough to give them the power of a direct vote, which would elect our leaders through a majority vote. Voters in Wyoming have exponentially more “say” in electing our president than those living in California. It’s (past) time to trust America’s voters; the Electoral College was meant to be an élitist “Failsafe” means of eliminating the possibility that voters would elect office holders who are unacceptable for any reason. Because it has clearly failed even to fulfill its mission in THAT regard, it should—and, if the American Experiment is to survive, it MUST—be eliminated.
2
Trump is a master @ appealing to base fears and dumbing down the American electorate. The latter of course was hardly needed but to paraphrase Nigel's classic lines from the docu-comedy 'Spinal Tap': Donald gives it that extra push over the cliff. He does amp the Stupid up to eleven.
Does anyone know where I can order more face palms, I'm out of them.
5
His cult now opening embraces fascism. It's time to form South Canada
4
Ugh. Conservatives these days are conserving nothing but their own entitled white privilege.
Let's see...we hate immigrants because good white Americans need the jobs. But we also need to punish lazy black Americans who won't take the jobs. Farmers insist we need the seasonal immigrant labor to pick everyone's oranges. trumpies want respect for our 'salt of the earth' farmers, but no immigrant farm labor! NO! When the cost of oranges goes up, trumpies blame lefties because oranges grow in California, so it's Dems' fault. They claim trump's gonna clean up the government, while he pardons mobsters and offers them high positions of power. They forgot how a popular president in a good economy could be impeached in 1998, by the SAME team that now can't find that same constitution. Ridiculous, pathetic, obvious and desperate.
There is zero context for the right at this point. They are reduced to 'trump2020' and 'haha stoopid libs', and that's it. They wait for trump's outrage(s) of the day and run with that play, forgetting that there's a better playbook available for their use. America.
He offers them the entire American pie just for themselves, and they don't have to share it with any of us 'nasty women', 'rat infested' black communities or 'criminal' immigrants. In trumpspeak, they'd be 'losers' to pass that up, amirite?
8
This being The NY Times, Republicans and conservatives have to be the bad guys.
But campaigns of fear certainly predate the examples cited. The Dems portrayed Barry Goldwater as a war monger and associated him with nuclear holocaust (it worked). They then tried the same spin with Ronald Reagan (it didn’t). Back then Southern Democrats were the racists, overtly opposing Republican backed civil rights.
Fast forward, did Trump cause the vile identity politics of Al Sharpton (instigator of anti Semitic riots)? The Dems not only tolerated him but gave him a platform. Now they kiss the ring. Did Trump cause “Wokeness” and screams of the white privilege? How about Antifa, hiding their faces behind masks, intimidating or attacking anyone who looked liked they might be on the “other side”?
And how about the MSM? It has become as partisan as any participant. No leftist is too outrageous to be given air time as a truth teller (Michael Avenatti?). And no conservative is too innocent to be portrayed as a villain, truth notwithstanding (Covington boys).
No, Trump didn’t cause any of this. He was a reaction to it. That doesn’t excuse his worst behavior, but as for his supporters, if you spit in their face enough, eventually they spit back.
4
What many on the far right and far left fail to understand is that in order to get anything done in government and life in general is that you do need to compromise.
Opportunistic politicians love polarization because they get to rake in taxpayer salaries and dirty money from corporations for doing nothing.
Mitchell McConnell is a prime example. While basic infrastructure and services suffer these lazy politicians just keep up with a divide and conquer strategy and rake in cash.
It’s time for the majority of Americans who have a decent work ethic regardless of race to stand up to lazy politicians and uneducated unemployed whites on the dole who clearly have an interest in maintaining the status quo.
I’m tired of being stuck in the middle with no representation. Why am I bothering to pay taxes for these morons?
2
Reading biographies of the two Roosevelt you see that prior to the cold war polarization was the norm. I agree that the last 60+ years have likely been an anomaly.
That said, the future is not bright. Even during the heights of polarization in the past there wasn't a religious zeal or a reach for authoritarianism. That is the difference.
This ends badly. When Trump is reelected (likely by abusing power and rigging the election) he will use the Dept of Justice and IRS to go after his political opposition, journalists, and others who question him. Many will be beaten outside their homes until they learn to be quite. Others will have accidental falls off balconies. The wealthy like Bezos who believed their wealth would protect them will have their fortunes stolen and be imprisoned for trumped up tax fraud. This is all in the Russian playbook.
This will be followed by an attempt to change the constitution to allow three terms. Failing that he will run as VP with Pence as POTUS and remain in control another eight years (like Putin) OR Don Junior will run and take over as POTUS. We will all be hoping Ivanka can save us again but she will let you down like always.
That is how this ends.
2
Yes, some politicians have the ability to turn anger and fear into political power.
1
Mr. Edsall decries the refocusing of Republican political campaigning from the political and societal center to the political and societal margins. However, he misses a fundamental point. This refocusing was not driven by hate, but by an ever-widening gap between the beliefs of the Trump demographic and the beliefs of business, government, media, religious and societal elites.
Fifty years ago, the Trump demographic and the majority of elites believed the same things: religion had a place in the public square; abortion should be illegal; homosexuality was an act, not an identity; Western ideals and beliefs were superior to non-Western ideals and beliefs; and the United States was an exceptional country. The Trump demographic were part of this political and societal center, and all politicians could reach the Trump demographic by targeting this center.
During the past few decades, elites in the U.S. have moved what are acceptable beliefs for the political and societal center to the left leaving the Trump demographic marginalized. This demographic comprises approximately 40% of the electorate so it only makes sense that Republicans would target it using a message focused on the abandonment of this demographic by the elites. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan: the U.S.' political and societal center did not leave the Trump demographic, what are acceptable beliefs for the U.S.' political and societal center left the Trump demographic. Hate has nothing to do with it.
Yes, because the ‘elites’, as you call them, became more educated, mingled with LGBT folks ( and saw they are just like us), realized abortion was needed,
saw ‘Christian’ religion was not the only way to lead a good life (religious hatred had started enough wars) & realized there was a lot to learn from other cultures.
2
@Mary Sampson So what is the path forward to unify the country? You cannot ask, or force the Trump demographic to give up their God, wanting to live out their Christian religious beliefs in their day-to-day lives, their guns, or their belief that United States was founded by Providence and is the most exceptional country on the planet.
These formerly mainstream beliefs and desires on which this country was founded are incompatible with the current beliefs and desires of the 'elites.' Since we will always have freedom of religion and speech, the Chinese reeducation camp approach to their Islamic religion problem will never happen in the United States.
We may permanently be two different countries from now on...
I'm not sure to what part of the "middle part of the last century" Professor Theodoridis is referring. With the exception of national unity behind World War II, there were strident signs of polarization throughout the 20th Century. Perhaps they were "less pronounced" at times, but always there.
Consider the survival of old wealth throughout the Great Depression when tens of millions lost jobs and the holders of newer wealth lost their assets. Consider the Red Scares of the twenties and thirties, and McCarthyism of the forties and fifties. Consider the Civil Rights Movement, the schism of the Democratic Party and the re-emergence of the Klan. Consider the effects of the Vietnam War and Watergate. And on and on.
I will concede to Professor Theodoridis that, it might not seem as vociferous as today, but when you go back and actually read what was said by the Joe McCarthys and the Lester Maddoxes and, to some extent, the Robert Tafts, it was pretty easily defined as "political polarization."
I think the apparent lack of effort by President Obama and the Democrats to help all the struggling average Americans through the financial meltdown and Great Recession also played a big part in generating voter resentment. They saw the perpetrators of the crisis lavished with billions of dollars, which even permitted the big shots to continue paying themselves million dollar bonuses with our money (the "sanctity" of contract, of course), while nothing much was done to help the victims of the financial recklessness and abuse which caused the problem. Now that the most immediate effects have receded somewhat into history, it's obvious that we've learned very little. The forces of Organized Money have been back at it, almost immediately, chipping away at the anemic reforms which were passed, mostly as face saving measures to begin with. If Bernie Sanders is elected President, I hope he and the Democrats start taking steps to reimpose true oversight and regulation of the financial industry, including a revival of aggressive use of our anti-trust laws. We have to put that genie back in the bottle as a start to rebuilding our country to enjoy shared prosperity. The hot shots can still make their millions, maybe not quite as much as previously, but we have to make sure everyone shares the bounty of our economic growth.
3
@EJS That sounds like a gas-lighting of history, nice try.
3
@Missy What is this popularity of the term "gas-lighting?" Instead of just flinging insults how about telling me where I'm wrong? I think I'm exactly right until convinced otherwise.
@EJS Obama and the Democrats were doing everything they could to help the working people. They kept General Motors alive, saving many jobs in the process. They subsidized COBRA benefits for the unemployed. They would have done a lot more, but the Republicans were filibustering everything.
2
I hope you fully comprehend what the mantra on the back of the man's shirt is as portrayed in the photo. I know about the evils of Republican crowd control. That phrase has an alternate meaning that should shock everyone. And yes they mean it. That is how Republicans employ psychological operations to stay in and gain power. Like the Mafia, they know how to break the law without being judged by it. That slogan should be a wake up call to liberals, Democrats, and Independents to prepare to defend themselves, or find a new life in other peaceful nations.
4
It never ceases to amaze me that President Obama won election twice without sowing hatred. He stood for decency and was not a vulgar divisive man. He worked to right the economy and provide health insurance for all. Trump and his fellow Republicans are still trying to destroy ACA. The office of the presidency morphed from him to Donald Trump in short order. President Obama was gracious in turning over the presidency to Trump despite all the hatred Trump spewed at him. Think if Trump looses he will be so gracious? Another puzzle I can't solve is why religious Christians support him? Is he not everything Jesus preached against? Was Jesus full of love for mankind or full of hate? We must have read a different Bible. Pence won't dine alone with a woman not his wife. This represents a devotion to Christianity? I think not. My optimism lies with the young. I have worked with adolescent kids for decades and they are fair minded and comfortable with diversity. I doubt they will buy into this hatred. A new day will dawn and soon old white guys will exit the scene. My peers are a disgrace.
8
I love that shirt...
1
Professor Thomas Edsall has a curious recollection of political events and anger orchestrated politics. Perusing placard carrying protesters from the Vietnam era forward has etched the angry hate infused rhetoric as coming from the Left over several decades and generations. The Left now owns the vitriol, having trumped their own Democrat Party inspired racial segregation of the past into new programs of bigotry and contempt for anyone not following their lead regardless of the cause or message.
Bernie Sanders has crystallized this and celebrates its excess by encouraging his cadre of followers with a steady high-volume diatribe of destructive contempt for anything outside his Marxist ideology, his doctrine of class warfare, division, and destruction. Tea Party indeed Thomas Edsall. Check history for justification regarding the original and for its second act.
1
Get out and vote! Vote these haters out! We must reclaim our country & democracy!
5
If Citizen's United equates corporations the same as people, why weren't the board members of Wells Fargo (to name one corporation) arrested for committing credit card fraud 2.3 MILLION times? Fair is fair, right?
I'm talking a real arrest: handcuffed, walk of shame, finger printed, striped searched, held 24 hours in a holding cell until their bond hearing (one toilet for 40 people, no toilet paper), and treated as a real criminal.
Oh, this is America with justice for all.
3
In short; the kind children of the same uneducated losers who spat on school children, bombed churches, hung people from trees, stood in front of restaurants, formed a political movement and were embraced by a tv clown. Now as he turns representative democracy into a oligarchy they wimps in charge ring their hands and look to a population of really ignorant fools to save themselves, the same dummies that elected him in the first place.
Good luck America, I'm moving to Brazil.
2
@Fe heard of Bolsonaro?
Thanks GOP for ruining our country.
4
"Make liberals cry again!" -- As if democracy is a baseball game and the Chicago White Sox want a 1919 repeat.
Who are these so called Americans and just how ready are they to learn the Cyrillic alphabet?
2
Obama was the “President” of the Harvard Law Review, not the Editor, not even a contributor, as far a I can tell. He also taught Con. Law for a couple of weeks, he was not a Professor. He was a “Flim Flam man”!
1
Shortly after the election, many commenters (including many here) claimed that we should "reach out" to Trump voters. That they felt "left behind". That they just wanted their jobs back. That they were basically good people who were duped.
I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now. But now we have three years of solid evidence proving what Trump voters are really motivated by - hate.
And this is precisely the reason why Trump will win a second term. Of course he hasn't provided his voters any economic relief. No "beautiful health care program". And they haven't gotten their jobs back. And in some other democracy, or in some other time, this might hurt Trump's re-election bid.
But we are no longer a democracy. We are in the throes of our first dictatorship. Trump has the solid majority of whites, most of whom love that he's said the KKK and neo-Nazis are some very fine people. Understand that a dictator does not need the support of a majority to hold power. A large, rabid minority will do just fine. And as long as Trump reflects their racism, his base will never leave him.
Trump voters would see their children go sick with illnesses they can't afford to treat. They would gladly lose their homes, as long as he tells them that as whites, they're the only "real" Americans.
Trump voters love the ignorant, racist backwater our nation has turned into, and they will do whatever they can to keep Trump in power. Bet the rent on it.
8
Conflict sells better than anything. That is why the USA seems polarized in the corporate media, it drives clicks and eyeballs in a crowded content landscape. I'd suggest everyone get used to it.
1
Honestly, some of the conservative Democrats seem to be as snowflakish as the Republicans.
Would you really refuse to vote for a candidate because of what a few of his supporters did? If they're even real supporters and not trolls of unknown origin?
Peter Daou, who worked on Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016, admitted to having created the "Bernie Bro" meme in that year. In fact, Sanders' supporters are made up of a wide range of people of all genders, colors, ages, and philosophies. What we share is that we're tired of the Democrats appealing to the voters solely on the basis of "we're not as bad as the other guys" and then saying, "Thanks for voting for us. We'll fix things next time."
Just yesterday, a Bloomberg staffer tweeted some of the "nasty" remarks she had received from supporters of Sanders. None of them were personally abusive; they were just pointing out some of Bloomberg's flaws.
By the way, nastiness is not limited to supporters of Bernie Sanders. You should see some of the memes that supporters of other candidates have posted on the Facebook pages that support Sanders.
4
I worked for 35 years as a public school administrator and am sad to report that the practice of homogeneously grouping students based on "academic ability" and segregating "gifted and talented" students is an overlooked cause of polarization. The so-called "meritocracy" has its roots in first grade when children are segregated into reading groups and then reinforced throughout schooling when they are grouped based on their academic skills. The ultimate sorting happens in college acceptances where the "elite" colleges cull out all but the most meritorious. And when schools segregated "gifted and talented" students, they created a large classification of "UN-gifted and UN-talented" students... a group that candidate Trump praised in a speech he gave four years ago when he proclaimed his love for the "poorly educated". When the Democrats run candidates who tout their education credentials and convey a smugness for being successful in school (i.e. Gore, Kerry, and HRC) they remind the "un-gifted and un-talented" of their days spent in HS where they were perceived as second class citizens... and they lose. Here's hoping whoever is nominated by the Democrats appreciates the fact that those lacking a college degree are not lacking in dignity or opportunity.
The biological fact is that predators thrive on division—from wolves to lions to opportunistic politicians and their enablers. The defense corporations, the for-profit prison operators, mainstream news media, Wall Street, the Big Banks, fundamentalist religions, and Faux News all love this churning disequilibrium because they profit wildly from it. Meanwhile, the common citizen of America is bleeding, disoriented, and increasingly insecure. Right now, the rule of law, the Constitution, and a “government of, by, and for the people” is a sad joke. And the Trumpy Republicans are thriving on it, because it is profitable for them and their masters.
3
Can the partition of America be far behind?
4
Let’s put a final end to the Trump-McConnell White Regressive Party once and forever, this November. Vote straight Democratic for every candidate for office appearing on your ballots, whether on the local, state or federal level. The stakes could not be higher. The stark choice presented is between condoning an accelerating divisive fascism or rallying for the patriotic return to a functioning constitutional governance where “no one is above the law”. Enough already, enough!
2
Trump is an enormous factor but hate is springing up again all over the world, but he is not alone. The face of leadership is changing as well. Boris Johnson is very like Trump in the way he operates. And the dictators are on the rise. I never thought I would see the spread of Anti Semitism again in the world. We should all take note. More and more young people have no idea what the Holocaust was.
1
I think the “libs” referred to are the obsequious and reliable leftists in the media who all but wept during Nov. 2016 election. Watching a repeat of that in 2020 is more anxiously anticipated than any Super Bowl or World Series.
2
@Patrick
Because nothing says patriotism quite like voting solely to upset the "other side."
1
There are counties in eastern Oregon that want to secede from their state and join Idaho as well as counties in western Virginia that want to join West Virginia.
This can't end well.
2
What the man with the potential punishing remark on his shirt doesn't understand is that he's pretty liberal himself. No conservative would display utter nonsense like that on the back of their t-shirt. These people are NOT "conservative," they only think they are. And they ARE Fascists.
This is about who will run the country and how they will run it. "Punishing" the "others" is a pipe dream of every regressive Fascist out there. Conform or be punished. The Fascist creed. Trump has adapted Mussolini's playbook and continues to tread ever dangerously close to unleashing pure, unchecked Fascism on all of us.
I wonder what the collective intelligence is among that crowd? Grade school? High School? What I'm trying to say is that New Hampshire might as well be Alabama or Georgia only in the North. It's deep in the woods, and the only thing it has going for it are the jobs in Massachusetts. So don't use NH as any benchmark for the rest of the nation.
3
While white spite has happily fueled the Grand Old Pigmentation party since 1968, Edsall leaves out important things about the 2004 election.
Dubya started a fake 'wag the dog' war in Iraq to ratchet up the phony 'patriotism' bell.
And Rove and his right-wing radical Republicans rolled out their John Kerry Swiftboating character disinformation and assassination campaign, accusing a decorated Vietnam veteran hero of not being a patriot while simultaneously cheerleading the chickenhawk Texas Air National Guard Vietnam AWOL duty of George W. Bush.
In short, the morally, intellectually and economically bankrupt GOP rolled out two Big Lies in 2004 to dupe Americans over another disastrous election cliff......and this happened after the 2000 Presidential election theft.
The 2008 election and 2012 re-election of Barack Obama happened because even the Machiavellian Republicans couldn't repair the unbelievable voter damage caused by the catastrophic Bush-Cheney-GOP reign of error.
By 2016, of course, with Obama having saved the country from GOP malpractice, malfeasance and malevolence, the GOP and Roger Stone were back to their election rigging dirty tricks with a full-blown Hillary Hatred disinformation campaign, a back-door campaign channel to Wikileaks, Russian hackers and FBI agit-proppers ensuring that Big Lies and Grand Old Propaganda decide elections, not decent public policy or the common good.
The Republican Party is one of the greatest wrecking balls in modern history.
14
As if the right has a lock on hate. Yeah right.
2
The ultimate irony:
Intolerant right-wing groups resenting the liberal's lack of tolerance for their intolerant views.
2
In The US we have an over armed populace with more and more easy access to powerful crowd killing semi automatic weapons. Then add an over abundance of hate and vilification inflamed by dedicated one sided media and internet bots and trolls.
It's analogous to having your kitchen filled waste deep in gasoline and then lighting the oven.
What could go wrong???
1
Liberals are “snowflakes”. Conservatives are “right wing nut jobs”. Non-Trump supporters are “unpatriotic”.
Obama was a failure and H. Clinton a crook.
Media promotes lies and is fake.
I remember the polarization of racial issues and the Vietnam war. I remember well the attacks on JFK for his religion and attacks on Obama for his skin color.
Through the years we did some self-healing after contentious campaigns and we continued to support and love our country.
But, over the years, some say beginning with Gingrich and his moronic “Contract with America”, the toxicity began in earnest. Perhaps.
But, I believe we have become pawns of hate, toadies of the politicians, in ways I have never seen in my 70 years. And that hate of others political views, lack of views and not pledging loyalty to the politicians is fracturing this country to a point it may never recover from.
Trump supporters revel in his tirades, his dog whistling and race baiting. He is different they claim. Yes, he is. And that “difference” is damaging my country.
Perhaps in time we will put the extremist political stands, and labels, in the trash bin of history and become one nation again.
And persons such as Trump will not make this nation great or one nation-they only foster hate, not greatness.
I grieve for my country.
3
It’s not only conservatives. I see and hear liberals seething with hate and anger. And it’s promoted by the media because it gets clicks.
2
Trump and Republican hatred? Please...
Self-awareness does not appear to be a part of the sneering, contempt-filled ‘progressive’ makeup.
2
All that academic research supports my contention that the vast majority of Americans are intellectually lazy, uncaring for their own future, and happy to wallow in their misery was long as they can blame it on and look down on some "other" category of people. A rich, armed country full of stupid people is a dangerous thing.
7
The ascendance of the first president of color unleashed a torrent of hatred and white racial grievance crudely articulated by DJT.
The Republican party with help from the DOJ and the Supreme Court is breaking the democratic system that allowed a Barack Hussein Obama with the goal to ensure that never happens again.
The next election, even if won by a Democrat, will not be readily conceded.
3
Yikes! I would choose boring, low-wattage anyway over bombast from the orange, lamprey eel pie hole.
3
Conservatism is about maintaining the dominance of the ruling class against the rise of lower classes— women and racial minorities. They aren’t into democracy. They want to win and preserve their wealth and power. Trump is just one tool in the toolbox. Immense wealth has the ability to engineer what it needs. Attention and steadfastness will be required to defeat it.
3
Given the increased polarization and the existence of heavily armed individuals on both sides of the divide I fear that it won’t be long before some individuals will forget about debate and resort to guns to settle their differences. It has happened already with attacks on members of both parties and the media and unless the rhetoric gets turned down it will get much worse, think bombs or shooters at political rallies. You reap what you sow.
2
Only one side fetishizes guns and exalts gun ownership. Stop trying to "bothsides" this.
6
You can go through the history of hate in the last 1-2 decades in as much detail as you want, but that still will not prove that Trump is a master at it or at anything. Trump just speaks out of ignorance and insecurity. The first he acquired by birth, the second he got in his childhood, and none were cured although he had access to education and power in his adult life. There is nothing remarkable about his expressing hate and any of his equally intelligent supporters could do it equally well or better. Stop giving Trump credit for what comes to him so naturally. That is like praising a gorilla for peeling a banana.
3
Someone, whose name escapes me, argued in this very paper that politics is driven not by truth, but desires. He used the old anecdote of a citizen being told that when the revolution comes, everyone would have strawberries and cream, to which the citizen complained that he didn’t like strawberries and cream. He was summarily told that he will like strawberries and cream. Combine this with the fact that most people, long before the 2008 economic meltdown, the Tea Party or Trump, have been motivated, say, to write letters to the editor or online commentaries, by anger and complaints than by celebrations of joy, happiness and positivity, and you already had the human-nature kindling for the brushfires of hate and vitriol we are now witnessing. FDR and JFK said we had nothing to fear but fear itself and asked us to ask ourselves what we could do for our country, thereby appealing to and inspiring “our better angels”. Trump and his ilk are merely accentuating the negative, appealing to our lesser selves and, unfortunately, there are already enough sad, unhappy, depressed people who don’t read, much less write, who are more than willing to bite. We have gone from inspirational leaders to “desperational” tweeters. Imagine voting for a candidate for president whose most noteworthy catchphrase consisted of the two words nobody in his or her right mind ever wants to hear: “You’re fired!” Sad.
4
The reporters who cover elections have to cover, day to day, how representatives actually vote, day to day.
Then elections can begin to be about which laws voters support, rather than the distraction of hateful rhetoric
If a struggling voter is told by his hate-manipulating Republican Congressman that the cause of his economic distress is that brown-colored guy (who actually is picking vegetables while being sprayed with pesticides in 100-degree heat) rather than the fact that this very same Republican Congressman voted to block fair overtime pay or to raise the minimum wage, or to lower the Obama-care co-pay, or to take away protection for his pre-existing condition.........
6
The gentleman in the photo gets cancer. The healthcare industry doesn't ask. They treat.
No fake news in that business.
Feeling any smaller yet?
2
@daniel lathwell The gentleman in the photo is diagnosed with cancer but has inadequate health insurance and can't pay the out-of-pocket expenses, either. The healthcare industry won't treat him; they'll send him home to die. As he lies on his couch, dying from a treatable condition, he will smugly rejoice that his Republican representatives voted to deny his fellow residents affordable health care because he doesn't believe in taxes.
2
As does Bernie Sanders. Bernie hates the rich, Bernie hates capitalism, Bernie hates the Democratic Party. Brutal reality.
The minority party full of hate? They are nothing but cult members. Us liberals are on the right side of history, and will continue to write history books. trump* has not gained one vote since his "election". Get ready for a thumping friends come November.
2
Racial fragility has always existed in America especially in White America. In the post industrial era of America it has become a major factor in White America and not just the usual suspects on the right but has always been an under current on the left as well.
America has always ben contaminated by its racial current in fact our most profound document the US Constitution sanctioned Slavery and only defined Black people as fractional human beings
The hate, anger, fear expressed by the majority in America has roots and the fruits of these roots are in full bloom and being harvested by Trump and others
Nothing new here
BLM
1
That was a depressing read.
3
"In practice, however, the rise of newspaper fact-checking would appear to at least partially achieve the goal of correcting misinformation"
This sounds like a bad joke after our elected President was subjected for three years to accusations of conspiring with Russia, a capital offense, not only baselessly, but even mindlessly.
Anything Trump does to them is more than well deserved.
2
You left out the whole "obstruction" charge, oddly enough. And you misinterpret what Mueller wrote.
4
@Steven
He supports this President, which means, by definition, that he's incapable of acknowledging reality.
2
@novoad Some of the conspiracy was right out in the open, for everyone to see.
"Russia, if you're listening, can you find Hillary's emails?"
The hacking started within hours.
"Chaos is a ladder."
This is so true I cannot tolerate reading it.
1
The irony here being we on the right think Progressives are the most hateful bunch who have no regard for individual civil liberties because they preach about the collective. Sorry, but all government's that trample on individual civil liberties are hateful. He's just doing his duty of protecting us from them, like Washington did. Best president since Washington.
2
One of the saddest outcomes of the Tea Party, Trump and Trumpism is how they have badly eroded the credibility of Christianity. Republican so-called "evangelical" Christianity is an abject fraud, and everyone with eyes and ears knows it.
5
You cannot turn anger into hate without the willingness of the people. Trump is hateful and full of anger but he uses that hate and anger to fuel his base. They are already full of anger. Trump is just the vehicle of anger building in many US citizens and they back him. If Trump loses in 2020, we may see much of this anger and hatred released by his sycophants. We need to be ready for this.
1
The enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend. E pluribus unum.
These conservatives have devolved into these sniveling characters who have convinced themselves that a lifelong conman from NYC who has handed, then squandered everything he has in life, somehow "cares about them," and that "owning the libs" is "presidential behavior."
It's hard to make someone cry when you already have diabetes.
1
Simply put, the "base strategy" that Rove created is what in Germany and in the 1930s, was called the "Lumpenproletariat strategy".
And a decade later Rove proudly, and even publicly said, as Ron Suskind reported in "The One Percent Doctrine" the NY "Times", what this led to and what Karl Rove bragged about this new "Lumpenproletariat strategy":
“We’re an Empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” (Ron Suskind, NYTimes Magazine, Oct. 17, 2004).
And Grover Norquest could also brag in public that the "Lumpenproletariat strategy" and allowed them to publicly flaunt that "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
Which Rove, Norquest, and now EMPEROR Trump can not only brag about in public but 'weaponize' that "Lumpenproletariat strategy" to, in their own insane minds, turn Americans against Americans for the benefit of this Disguised Global Crony Capitalist EMPIRE of the UHNWI, "Ruling-Elite", < 0.01%ers, and the self-appointed and selfish "Masters of the Universe" --- but which "Our Revolution" against Empire can overturn with a people's peaceful and complete "Political/economic & social Revolution Against Empire".
5
FDR told us that all we had to fear was fear itself. What Trump and the GOP only offer is fear itself.
I do not hate Trump supporters. I know they have been propagandized by decades of right-wing shock radio and now TV. I do, however, resent the politicians, lawyers, and leaders that should know better.
3
What Trump understood intuitively is that human nature is driven by emotion (Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow), not reason, and that is primarily how he makes decisions. So the words he uses easily captures the thoughts and loyalty of people (generally less educated or educated who want power). And because they think he is empathetic to their needs they join him. What they don't see, because of their emotional attachment, is that Trump is a con man who has no empathy for anyone. And of course, because of the hero-worshiping people demonstrate Trump's narcissism is reinforced. A co-dependency which is proving bad for our democracy.
4
Lots of worthy insights and well backed up but I think your piece is attempting to accomplish too much for an opinion page. The main takeaway for me is that just as the Republican Party voters stopped trying to appeal to all their various constituent groups this is what Democrats have to do if they want to win. Republicans teamed up with the folks into birther theories, down on immigration and racial minotity programs, etc., and used all of this as a 'righteous' base for anti sexual understanding other than missionary style between one man and one woman. Democrats in trying to be so loving and understanding look for one candidate to carry many torches successfully which is impossible. For example, currently, no black pundits push for blue no matter who nor is any single candidate good enough for them, apparently, or endorsements would abound. So what I get from your lesson about how to be successful with your candidate, a party must delete the concerns of groups of people from their inclusion, who refuse to go along with the mainstream voters. Donald was elected and may well be again, just because his party is smart enough to stand behind and get out and vote for their candidate. Thus relying on a majority of voters rather than the sit at home drones who were too disenfranchised to go about vote Clinton and avoid calamity.
2
What kind of example are the politically active adults of today setting for young people? The fingers-in-the-ears approach toward each other. Even worse, the red-faced name calling and put downs.
Reaching a hand across the aisle seems like a dusty relic now. For shame.
2
Superb analysis of how we got where we are. But meanwhile the now-unfettered megalomaniac in the White House is effectively destroying the rule of law on which our republic is based and our planet is burning to a crisp. Where is the superb analysis of a way out, a way off what looks like a fast-moving train to apocalypse?
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There is a flaw in Edsall’s work that the Times keeps reinforcing.
You cannot propose a hypothesis and use another similar hypothesis to prove the original one.
Edsall’s column states a “fact” (i.e.: that trump turns anger and fear into political power.” That may be true but quoting other writers who believe the same thing is not proof.
I despise Trump and everything about him and I’m not defending him but I will defend the inaccuracies and/or beliefs which amplify my own feelings but in no way proves that what I believe is the ultimate reality.
What Edsall is demonstrating is the reality and power of tribalism.
Nativism, fear of the other, racial discrimination and hate are woven into the American fabric. It began when the first colonists caused a virtual genocide of Native Americans. It continued with the arrival of the first African slaves. It intensified after that "peculiar institution" was abolished and then transformed into the era of Jim Crow. It was evidenced in the signage of the 19th century, "no Irish need apply" and codified in the Chinese Exclusion and immigration quota Acts. In the 1920's, instead of the night riding terrorists of Reconstruction, the new Klan marched on the streets of Washington DC and claimed more than a million members. Added to their list of people to hate were Jews, Catholics and anyone else who was not a WASP. What is different today is we live in a time when Americans are are more racially integrated, but the hate never went away, it was simply stored away in some deep dark closet. All Trump and his enablers have done is to open the closet door and allow our national sins to be normalized and public.
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This article exposes the liberal fallacy of attempted appeasement. Obama's efforts to reach across the aisle without requiring any concessions from the GOP only emboldened them. Nancy's discipline in the impeachment process and determined focus on provable attacks was good prosecutorial ethics doomed to lose. Why not go big in htis day and age? Why not talk about gut-wrenching issues too like separating children form parents at the border? Why attack the squad for their heart-felt proposals in public when it merely opened the door for Trump's racist attacks on them and divided her party? Why go high when they go low when going "high" can't help? This article raises those questions. But where are the answers for liberals now?
3
There's no closing this partisan gap, just as there was no closing the partisan gap at the time of the Civil War. The racial hatred that is the cleaving force of the gap is, for Trumpists, visceral and generational. Never forget Trump's core support is the Old South of Jim Crow and racial separation and its diaspora in the midwest and great plains states.
Unlike 160 years ago, however, we'll split peacefully this time. Blue states go their way. Red states theirs. People can vote by state where they want to align. Geography is irrelevant in the technological 21st century...so the few Blue states in the center of the country will be welcome additions to the coastal liberal centers. Virginia to New England along with the Pacific coast and Hawaii will align, along with perhaps Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois and, maybe Minnesota.
This is not wishful thinking. This is reality. It's not only where we are heading, but, for the good of all involved, where we must head.
2
And you thought Richard Nixon was a danger to our Country now look at us ! Too many remain silent about the disaster that Trump & Company is with the exception of our late night TV comedians.
Two thoughts.
The polarization is NOT symmetrical. While you can find an example of most any misconduct in either party (or any race, nationality or religion) it is the right that has run amok; indulging in “alternative facts” and using hate, fear, and lies as a path to power.
What has really changed, why things are different now, is FOX News and the whole right wing media. It has become a propaganda machine with a conspiratorial goal of supporting one party, and it is poisoning our nation. How to counter this influence while honoring our commitment to free speech is the quandary of our time.
“A republic if you can keep it”... but we aren’t doing a very good job.
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But Trump is expressing the rage the voters are feeling (but are silent). BTW, have you seen Bernie's supporters? There's the hate, there's the violence. Don't attempt to make hate the sole domain of the right, when actually the right expresses "disgust" and "ENOUGH". Additionally, the Democrats turned hate and fear into an art form over the past 50 years. Edsall's political myopia is disappointing, but not unexpected.
1
What violence? Has sanders ever encouraged police to "rough them up"? Has he ever promised to pay legal fees for anyone attacking protestors at his rallies? Has anyone ever been HURT at his rallies?
Trump has done all those things and more.
If you want to accuse the left of violence, bring facts. As Reagan said, "facts are stubborn things".
2
Trump (and his supporters that I know personally) thrive on division and fear. They promote it with misinformation, false information and innuendo. When a Trump supporter tells me that Obama started the divide in this country and they are questioned further, it most often is a function of the fake beliefs that they are under attack by "others" and often overt racism they do not recognize in themselves. They see Trump not as a divider but as someone standing up for them when the real problem is Trump is feeding them what they want to hear, no matter how outlandish, erroneous or divisive.
3
If trump wins again the republic will be irreparably broken. I could see and would support blue states seceding and forming their own union. I would be all in since our country is becoming and will be unlivable due to unchecked climate change and intense political divide.
1
Mahatma Gandhi once defined leadership as the ability to see where the people are going and running out in front of them.
Trump didn't run a covert stealthy subtle campaign. Every American knew who Trump was and was not and voted accordingly.
Among the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump was 58% of the white European American voting majority including 62% of white men and 54% of white women.
Among the 66 million Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton was 92% of the black African American voting minority including 88% of black men and 95% of black women.
Obama/Biden won 43% and 41% of the white vote in 2008 and 2012. Clinton/Kaine won 42% of the white vote in 2016
The opposite of love is not hate.
It is callous calculating clever cruel cynical indifference.
1
As Newton said for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If this election is about kitchen table issues: jobs & education there's no way the Democrats lose. If it's about reparations, illegal immigration,& wedding cakes there's no way we win. These are the only issues that would compel independent swing voters to hold their nose & vote for Trump again. What progressives & their co-dependents will never understand is that Anti-left” will always beat “Anti-Trump” in most places in the U.S. but especially in swing states like Ohio & Florida. Our best chance is to run from the center. Trump wouldn't have capitalized on the salience of race & ethnicity if the Democrats hadn't exploited it. Exploited they have to the max from offering free health care to illegals to crowing about the new minority-majority which is itself a lie to ignoring working-class concerns. Mind you the working class has always been one of the cornerstones of the Democratic party. Why one would want to alienate them has to be the most idiotic political decisions of all time. This strategy has handcuffed the party. They're unable to react in real-time to issues that concern all voters for fear of alienating their now identitarian base. The biggest question implied but not answered in this article is can Democratic Moderates & progressives co-exist in the same party. I would say absolutely not. The voters we need to win back the country have different values. There's no way to bridge the gap.
1
For more than 12 years, I went to all-girls schools, and was educated by nuns. One of the lasting phrases that a particularly wonderful teaching nun used regularly was this: "Use your head. Think for yourself". At this time in our country's anguish, I think of her.
We're not thinking of history in our recent rear view mirror, but we should be. Friends say, "Well, that can never happen here". I used to say , "Never say never". Now I say, "It can and it is". The wannabe dictator is on his way with no objection from the Party
members, all of them wimps.
1
Trump is not the cause but the very visible symptom of the Republican party's descent into moral and intellectual bankruptcy, all with an undertone of racism, misogyny, immigrant-bashing, and homophobia.
The GOP was sinking into the swamp before Trump came on the scene, he merely amplified it, and said the quiet parts out loud.
What a sad ending for the Party of Lincoln.
3
So is it still possible for a presidential candidate to run a campaign that calls on Americans to come together in a common effort to save the planet, reduce economic inequality at home, and foster international contact and cooperation?
No, guess not, that just sounds like liberal drivel. So it's back to the trenches of the culture war, where hate and fear are the only motivations. We've become our own worst enemies.
1
Insightful, thoughtful, yet worrisome essay...thank you, Mr. Edsall. There is not much more to add to this piece other than more Americans need to awaken before heinous polarization becomes irreversible, if not already. Trump has taken the Karl Rove successful and fearful ideology to new depths, indeed a nadir. Along with him, he has taken Cabinet members, to wit AG Barr, and an entire body of GOP senators, save one. Then there are too many Americans who have allowed their darker sides to overtake their better angels. The final political paradigm is both a blessing and a curse upon our society. That is the media. For me, without the superb reporting of news papers like The NY Times I would be lost in a sea of ignorance. The uninformed and misinformed followers of FOX and/or internet conspiracy theories perpetuate the hate spewed from an unstable and egomaniacal Donald Trump. God, if you are there, let this insanity wane and somehow end. Let us remember in November.
2
Democrats believe the key to victory is appealing to the centrist swing voters, hence the exciting Joe Biden, and now Mike Bloomberg’s rise. Those on the radical left - what do they want? Healthcare, environmental policy that will leave our grandchildren a liveable planet, affordable education, a government not afraid to regulate corporations for the benefit of all. No point in trying to get those people to turn out at the polls. Bloomberg: old, white, rich, full of himself, indistinguishable from a moderate Republican. Centrist voters find his not-quite dog whistle racism and sexism reassuring, and radicals on left need to stop with their purist tantrums and vote for him - it’s the only way we can win!
The crazy radical left also talks about ranked choice voting, getting rid of Citizen’s United, and modernizing the electoral college, and they should just shut up about it, because that isn’t what retirees in Wisconsin and Michigan want to hear.
I live in Lovelandia where you can see yard signs that say in our home love is love, science is real, etcetera, and the thing is, I always thought those signs are the epitome of arrogance and division, they kind of say, well if you don’t believe this and have this yard sign your home must be the opposite, . . .the left has to take responsibility for its holier than thou, my way or the highway self righteousness or we will never break through this polarization.
Trump and by extension his supporters do thrive on chaos 'usually manufactured ' ,or by a world event such as the Coronavirus.
He/They also thrive on self pity always playing the victim. this of course is not entirely of their own making they are enabled by an ever willing media too ready to pump up the volume when it comes to their whining 'Pity Patty' behavior.
Using terms like 'witch hunt' is a perfect example of this Trump has been complaining about a witch hunt since he took office, neglecting to acknowledge the seemingly never ending line of witches in his camp who find themselves before a judge.
So how to address this one suggestion might be for the press to take their gloves off when dealing with Trump, his brood, and staff. We are not dealing with a 'Normal' President in Trump, so loose the respect and decorum usually employed when dealing with a President
When Trump yells 'Quiet' at a journalist, speak louder and keep pressing him for answers. It is beyond my comprehension why the networks give him any air time. To their credit I have noticed lately they occasionally are opting not to air his circus act stating it was nothing more than his usual lies so we are not carrying it .
This is a good start and one that needs to be expanded upon, in fact until the White House reverts back to a traditional press conference the media might collectively refuse to broadcast anything Trump .
In doing so they would make millions of their viewers very happy.
3
Some thoughts on possible solutions:
1. Since 1968, we have been in the grip of political leaders who have had no interest in public service; rather, they have been obsessed with gaining and wielding power for its own sake and to wage their version of the culture war. From Nixon to Reagan to Clinton to Trump we've been reminded constantly that there's a social and religious battleground that runs through our bedrooms, our classrooms, our arts programs and our public bathrooms.
Enough. We need to take politics out of those public spaces that developed the middle class after World War II: personal choices and care, public schools, public support of the arts and individuals' gender choices.
Politicians are stoking anger and fear in these areas for their own personal benefit. The way to stop this is simple: term limits. Six years in public service at any level, and then go home, you're done, good-bye forever.
We don't need you in pubic life. You need you there. So we need to cap your ability to make our lives miserable for decades.
2. The two party system was never designed to have all liberals in one party and all conservatives in another. It was designed to hold in each party liberals, moderates and conservatives, such as it was before Reagan.
We need to go back to that. We need to make the Democratic party welcoming to conservatives and the Republican party welcoming to liberals.
Until that's done, the echo chamber in each will rumble on.
3
It all distills down for me into, who would you rather cast your lot with? The angry, fear driven, thumb-in-your-eye attitude exemplified by the photo accompanying this article, or inclusiveness, a recognition that we are more than our differences and stronger together? I'm past trying to understand the base. All I know for certain is that I don't identify with them one iota.
2
Actually the truth is the Media does this, not Trump. Trump knows better than past candidates how to play the media because he knows how it works and understands it's all dollar driven. Even though Fox viewership is far outpacing any other media outlet right now they all have benefited from Donald Trump. Go to CNN.com right now and I bet you see the name "Trump" on the front digital page at least 20 times. Sadly the greed of the Dollar will come crashing down once we elect a boring candidate again. Some networks may even fold due to lack of advertising dollars. There has been so much fake outrage over the past few years we are inoculated to much of it now.
2
The antagonistic, negatively partisan, perpetual politics of mutual, systems-level rejection sounds a lot like my parents' divorce. There is one way all this ends, however. It's the only way it ever ends -- badly.
3
America is now so polarized that I doubt it will ever heal. (For example, true Trump supporters ARE stockpiling guns and ammo in case he loses. Or look at the problems Virginia just had trying to put reasonable restrictions on assault weapons.)
Perhaps it's time we talked about other solutions, such as a constitutional convention with a more representative form of government, or of dividing the country up into two states as India did with Pakistan.
2
Sounds very similar to Germany in the 1930s. Not a good sign, I would say.
In the next 8 months we might look very similar to the Germany of that period.
Let’s hope not!
2
This quote from Alex Theodoridis is exemplary:
“The mutual dislike and distrust between Democrats and Republicans is likely to persist without a dramatic party realignment.”
I bristle at the notion that “both sides do it.” No; that’s a false equivalency. Like many (most?) liberal-leaning Americans, I dislike and distrust Republican *leaders* right now, but as far as average Republicans go, I’d be happy to engage in constructive dialogue, starting with a fact-based reality. The basic problem is it’s not possible to have a constructive conversation with someone who can’t or won’t agree on the facts.
Thank you, Rupert Murdoch, for the systematic destruction of democracy!
P.S. And if you do see me crying, it’s not because I’m liberal, it’s because I’m despondent over what these people are doing to our country.
14
@David Walker
I wish I could 'recommend' this multiple times!!
1
Will all due respect to Dr. Skocpol, the Tea Party was not a 'movement' in the sense that we usually think about grass roots movements. It was astroturf, founded and funded by right wing political and corporate interests.
14
This is a fascinating analysis, but it leaves out the effects of so many important trends. The country is rapidly changing demographically in age, education and racial composition, former moderate Republicans are not joining the base but becoming independents, and liberals do not uniformly return the hatred of the republican base.
Moreover, it fails to even mention the elephant in the room - climate change. Whether the majority is aware or not, & they have no excuse for being unaware, climate change is going to upend everything my 65 years on earth has been built on. This will not be the same benign planet, & the consequences will be worldwide, catastrophic & inexorable.
For better or worse, climate change will have far more far reaching effects on our politics than anyone seems to be considering & I would love to read a Thomas Edsall column on that.
5
So much of this follows the transformation of the Republican Party from conservative to reactionary. Conservatives can debate policy and occasionally compromise. Reactionaries can’t. Instead, they have to pull away from liberals and pull back from the mainstream. Demonizing liberals is just part of it.
6
Great editorial. It argues in my mind for a multi-party system, to which our now-defective two-party version could conceivably evolve. If Trump goes down, especially, the Mitts and Mitt-equivalents will emerge. Either they wrest GOP control back or they add to it, depending on how strongly the won't-go-away Trumpist wing manages to adhere. In any case, right now the democrats are the only normal or conventional party out there. Pretty lonely. In multi-party systems there's a lot more flex for dealing and opportunity for alliances.
6
@Cetona Many things have come together to finally break our system of government. The 2 party system has virtually divided our country evenly. Voters have to decide one side or the other even though they don't fit in on either side. The fringes of both parties are in control and making the rest of us choose between worst case scenarios.
Does the study “Reducing the Exclusionary Attitudes Through Interpersonal Conversation” detail the type of narrative? I’m assuming the personal narrative — useful in the classroom.
Either a feature or a result is the nihilism of the Republican Party base. The tea party types see the future and don’t see a place in it for them; white identity in a majority minority country, conservative Christian in a secular country, rural in a country where all the money and opportunities are in the urban areas, and struggling while the other prosper....they’ve given up on America.
So Trump offers them no solutions and doesn’t better their lives, but they don’t expect any better. Trump offers them hate and a feeling of grievance and it’s all they want. Democrats offering to actually provide relief...they don’t believe it and don’t hear it.
“Making libs cry” has to be the most pathetic and degraded goal for any American to have for his democracy, but it’s where they are.
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