As regards his voters, I’m going to save my broad-brush characterisation for the hot new Pantone colour called “Deluded Sucker” (which, admittedly, contains a lot of white).
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“…definitely not because of racism!” can be said of everything if you define racism narrowly enough.
There are still people who claim that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery.
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The GOP plays hardball. They are ready to impeach at the drop of a hat, and anything that can be considered a “controversy” is immediately promoted and investigated: Solyndra, Fast & Furious, the IRS, Benghazi, Hillary’s emails. They also publicize made-up bogeymen like the Affordable Care Act’s “Death Panels” and Obama’s birth certificate. Perhaps if the Democrats became more progressive AND more combative they could be more successful, but they still need funds to stay on even footing with the GOP. Unless every liberal in America is immediately and constantly donating generously to the cause the DEMs will continue to accept corporate sponsors. It sucks, but that’s how it is.
Maybe we are ruled by oligarchs now, but there can always be worse oligarchs.
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Indeed, and just about no one who’s white is racist anymore, not even people who applaud a description of Michelle Obama as an “ape in heels.” The real racists are those people who point out racism, or use their cries of racism to get unearned goodies. /bitter s
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How’s about this- the media stop pushing conservative non stories, start covering actual evils and push them, and give us a voice?
Maybe counteract the billions and billions of free airtime that subsidized Trump’s campaign?
Because without representing the non-Neoliberal dem we will continue getting fucked. That needs to change but it will not change.
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OK. How do we make that happen?
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Or even (GASP!) openly consider the possibility that maybe not every unarmed black person gunned down by police had it coming. (I swear if I have to hear Obama referred to as a “race-baiter” one more goddamn time…)
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“We” can’t. I see no way to detach myself from them any more than I already am.
I am just sadly observing that we are operating from a disadvantageous position and that it will need to change to improve the Dems and distance them from the third way-ers.
They are Just Asking Questions about you waiting for all the evidence, you see. No, not the evidence that exists. ALL the evidence, the evidence that didn’t exist and won’t be published and by gum, they’ve already forgot what you were taking about. But the exculpating evidence certainly exists and will come out in time.
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Patriotism can certainly equal racism when one’s country was founded upon a campaign of genocide. That’s really not much of a stretch.
That’s a different matter which gets mixed in here. As I mentioned here in an earlier post, Islam is not (as I am sure you are aware) a race, it is a religion.
Patriotism and nationalism may overlap in areas, but they are not the same thing. I do not think that the person carrying this sign cares about the distinction. The people desecrating flags on Veteran’s day certainly don’t understand or care about the distinction.
You are more concerned about symbolic gestures than you are the fate of our nation, clutch your pearls and gasp while “patriots” run us into the ground.
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As practiced it is a stand-in for the heritage of the believer, what nations they came from no matter what generation American.
I understand the distinction and there’s plenty of “we just are concerned about Mexican TRADE” racists as well, but the practice is the same.
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I think in some ways the tack the DEMs take is understandable even if we don’t like it, they are trying to be “the reasonable party” to counter the GOP’s “paranoia party”, and appeal to as many non-crazies as they can.
That said, if Trump crashes and burns they have to be ready to take advantage. We’ve all seen what kind of person Trump is by now, it’s not impossible (indeed, it seems likely) that he will do something even the GOP will admit is impeachable: using his office to line his pockets, tweeting out national security secrets at 4am, using the Justice Dept. to get revenge on enemies. It’s unlikely the guy is going to change now that he’s President, I’ll bet he feels vindicated, he won the election his way, so why change anything?
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Trump will be sacrificed (maybe, possibly not even) and 99% Trump-lites will be proffered in his stead.
Pence is already running things, he will continue if Trump fucks up or if the GOP establishment sets him up to fall. I wouldn’t be surprised if they allow him to take just enough risks to leak to the media when he proves himself useless.
The media will swarm because they are told to by the GOP, the left and the right will pull him from power, and we will still be left with Pence.
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Leave it to the states and States Rights are in no way middle of the road. The point of people who believe Roe v Wade needs to be over turned is not that states are stripped of their right to make this decision – it is that abortion is in their eyes murder.
Is someone who says “Leave it to the States” saying its OK to murder so long as its across an arbitrary state line? States right is a “death by a thousand paper cuts” strategy.
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To a very real extant, when the vote is this close you can come up with dozens of reasons, all equally true because they exceed the very small margin of votes. I am reminded of 2000 when people were talking about Nader being the man who lost the election for Al Gore. But the vote tally was so narrow then that any number of other candidates exceeded the margin between Gore and Bush, including the actual Communist Party USA candidate. But we didn’t see lots of stories bemoaning how the Communists gave Bush the presidency.
Most of the overt racists were there in 2008 and 2012 when Obama was elected. So what changed? I would argue that despite some economically progressive/populist talk, Obama has not succeeded in getting much actual economically populist policies through congress, and those that he has haven’t been very effective at helping the working class (of any race) Certainly a large degree of incohate racism made for a fertile ground for “it’s all Obama’s fault,” as an explanation for economic woes. But absent the persistent economic woes of the working class, I don’t think that they would have swayed the election.
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True. “Nationalism” better describes the aspect of the metastasising right-wing populist scourge that she’s likely protesting, just as “bigotry” describes nationalism’s core feature better than “racism.” But thus as ever with most adults who carry homemade protest signs – I don’t hold high expectations but I get the gist of the thing.
Flag-burning is a separate issue. It’s a simple-minded and trite protest in form that can be easily villified, but it can also be both a patriotic statement and simultaneously an anti-nationalist one.
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The telling factor for me was this: Bannon as one of the first announced positions. And golly, I don’t think he’s there to dream up newer, greater ways to help the economically disadvantaged.
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