The R’s elected Trump, an openly racist failed businessman with no public service experience who cannot come up with a policy proposal without contradicting it a day later, as their nominee to run for the office of President of the United States.
I’m not sure what kind of attitude you think is appropriate under those circumstances.
It sounds like Obama thinks the religious aspect is important to address too, just not in the way being demanded. Check out this very speech:
[quote=“Barrack Obama”]And the reason I am careful about how I describe this threat has nothing to do with political correctness and everything to do with actually defeating extremism. Groups like ISIL and Al Qaida want to make this war a war between Islam and America, or between Islam and the West. They want to claim that they are the true leaders of over a billion of Muslims around the world who reject their crazy notions.
They want us to validate them by implying that they speak for those billion-plus people, that they speak for Islam. That’s their propaganda, that’s how they recruit. And if we fall into the trap of painting all Muslims as a broad brush, and imply that we are at war with the entire religion, then we are doing the terrorists’ work for them.[/quote]
When Trump implies that such a distinction means Obama may have something to do with the shooting, while he himself is more than willing to suggest such a conflict as with his talk of registering or banning Muslims, he is being stupid and anyone who stands with him deserves all the disparagement they get.
Please, share some of your thoughts.
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Ignoring political talking points is a strategy, and the right strategy.
I’ve had the fortune of reading r/The_Donald lately (thanks, for the algorithmic cruelty, Reddit), and the people there are rallying against such liberal notions like “nuance” and “perspective”. They actually want a strongman who doesn’t cave to outside opinions from places like government, academia, or the media.
You literally cannot win.
You point out something else that’s disturbing about him–he’s easily manipulated by appeals to his ego. I wonder if he’d catch on before it was too late and the words had left his mouth? My guess is not.
The thing is… he has this core of followers who will follow all the twists and turns of his flapping mouth. He could say an hour later, oh, I didn’t really mean that, the media’s just twisting what I said! And they’d believe him, no questions asked. That loud core of followers he has isn’t going to be convinced of anything, ever.
Is that bleating core a voting majority, though? I’m afraid to find out.
Apropos:
Edit: This was in 2011. Actually, I posted this because of his joke about how people were complimenting Congress on acting adult, and noted that “Adult is only a compliment to a child.” But I’d forgotten Obama’s talk that night singled out Trump:
“I have no idea,” Trump parried blandly. “I’m leading in all the polls, but other than that, I have no idea… Having a good time! Great people!”
Trump’s third wife, Melania Knauss, was equally genial. “We always have fun,” she confided in her lilting Slovenian purr.
“Well,” she answered, “he will make a decision prior to June, so we will see what happens.”
“Donald Trump is here tonight!” the president began amiably. “I know that he’s taken some flak lately. But no one is happier, no one is prouder, to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald.” Trump could be seen smiling. “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter—like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”
Trump’s smile was beginning to stiffen.
“All kidding aside,” Obama went on in a sober deadpan, “obviously we know about your credentials and breadth of experience.” At this, ripples of laughter coursed through the crowd of 3,000. The ripples built into waves, lapping at Trump’s table. “For example—seriously—in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice, at the steak house, the men’s cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks,” the president continued. “And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately you didn’t blame Little John or Meatloaf. You fired Gary Busey. And these are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night.”
The waves of laughter built into a tsunami. And then into a defeaning roar. And then cheers! There was a sickly grin plastered on Trump’s face, as it dawned on even him that the president of the United States had made a fool of him, and the whole world was laughing.
“Well-handled, sir! Well-handled!” Obama added, driving in the blade.
“Say what you will about Mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the White House,” Obama noted. On the four jumbotrons hanging from the ceiling, there flashed a cartoon depicting the executive mansion and its grounds transformed into a hotel/casino/golf course complex with bikinied babes hoisting cocktails on the lawn and a huge garish neon sign advertising “Trump. The White House. Presidential Suite.”
Crayon!? Given the target audience, we’re talking about the “simian screeching while throwing feces” level of communication here.
I’m certainly not a Trump apologist, in fact, I’m #NeverTrump–but your
quick readiness to cast stones, or to point out the splinter in our eye
without taking note of the lumber in yours says more than your comment.
Too much mudslinging and closed-mindedness! Too much broad disparagement
of the “other!” Let’s acknowledge that both parties bring legitimate
issues to the table and discuss that. The red herring of saying that
Republicans think that saying “radical Islam” is magical and
transformative–or a strategy–is disparaging and of course a… red
herring.
Wow, chenille. You don’t even know me. That’s pretty harsh.
C’mon…
“…anyone who stands with him deserves all the disparagement they get.”
Must feel good to be right all the time.
The party picked him, and they stand with him. You can be as much of a special snowflake outlier as you like. The rest of the world is going to talk about the Republican electorate like they picked a bozo for a presidential candidate. Because they did.
Thanks for the courtesy of a reply.
I’m so happy that he finally addressed this in a pretty clear way.
He seems really tired.
It’s apparently quite politically advantageous for “Conservatives” to rail against “Liberals”, and thus the time has come for politicians to start deconstructing the very idea of liberalism, starting with it’s core principles. Much of the foundational work in this analysis has already been laid out by Mr. Hitler and Mr. Mussolini, and Mr Trump is reintroducing them to a new audience.
The Orlando terrorist and the unsuccessful Santa Monica terrorist shared a common ideology - homophobia and hatred. One of them was sort of vaguely Muslim, the other clearly wasn’t. I’m waiting for Trump to condemn homophobia in a speech.
And Chris Christie said we should go attack the terrorists where they’re from. That’s Queens and Indianapolis.
I’d like to see journalists call Trump on homohobia directly. I’d like to see journalists ask Trump directly about the Republican party’s ongoing vilification of LGBT people and just how committed he really is to rolling back the same-sex marriage decision.
I’d like to see it but I’m not sure how likely it is that he’ll be asked.
The day you accidentally drop your baby into a woodchipper is a good time to reflect and admit that on that day, at least, you were an idiot. When called on it you shouldn’t start to argue that there are many legitimate ways to be a parent.
Which of the other Republican candidates would you have preferred?
Marco Rubio was #NeverTrump:
Now he’s changed his mind:
I’m not sure to which splinter in my eye you’re referring. If you think that I think the Democratic Party is perfect, you’re quite wrong. I do think that Trump, as a splinter, is larger than any single problem the D party has.
As for painting all R’s with the same brush: He’s your party’s selected spokesperson. If you feel that he doesn’t represent the party, the time for saying so started a few months ago and ended a few weeks ago. At this point, you’re part of the Party of Trump. Your people have spoken.
If you want to disassociate yourselves with the Trump people, you can take [David Johnson’s route] (Iowa state senator is first elected official to leave Republican party over Trump | Republicans | The Guardian). Him, I respect. Until and unless you do, you’re choosing to remain in the Party of Trump, and I’m going to base any judgements about you that I make upon that choice.
Agreed.
Sure. Which legitimate issues do you wish to discuss?
Again, it’s Trump who’s saying it, and, as a Republican, he’s your spokesman until, one way or another, you disassociate yourself from him. In my mind, a hashtag isn’t enough to do that.
I’m not convinced that this would not backfire. The auditorium would cheer, Trumpo would say he wouldn’t do it (without really saying he wouldn’t do it), time would go on, and the election would happen. Would anyone be dissuaded to vote for him because of that? I hope so, but I wouldn’t count on it.
