The utter silence from Republicans has been a little creepy and unusual. Even guys who take any opportunity to score points yelling about Trump (i.e., Rand Paul) have been super quiet. I feel like there’s a whole lot of nervous, sweaty backroom meetings going on in DC right now.
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Progressive bastion (/s) Wall Street Journal went as far as to say ‘racially charged’ which is still pretty remarkable.
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The tweet in question is so vile and insidious… It was clearly calculated to rile the media into a frenzy while he suffers no negative consequences from people that matter most to him. Trump loves to be called racist because to his followers it’s either a positive truth or a lie from the out-of-control, PC leftist media. Here’s hoping we’ve finally reached the bridge-to-far moment and he finally suffers some repercussions…
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Because Trump has established control over the racist block of GOP voters. And GOP candidates can’t win without the vote of racists. 
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You bring up good points. Personally when confronted directly by a bully I know I freeze up. I’m too fucking civilized.
But I feel like he acts just like a spoiled child, if not worse than one. He acts like a spoiled child with means and followers.
The only time he doesn’t play the victim is when he’s playing the bully, or the victor.
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I think this is a definitive truth of a large part of the trouble we are in right now. And probably in the UK and a few other countries as well. As soon as a leader comes along who figures out this is a tactic that works… well it’s really like selling your soul. It’s hard to imagine the Republican Party coming back from this. They are the party of racism now.
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Well, as you noted, some news outlets DID call it for what it is. My guess is the others are trying not to be mirrors of Fox News, and deliberately tone things down sometimes for some kind of bland general appeal.
On a tangent:
The conservative previous landlord where I work once said “We don’t care if you call us racist, we’re over it, you guys [the left] say everything is racist. We just don’t hear it anymore, you used it up.”’
Which I understand to mean: years of calling out dog-whistle racism, while accurate and necessary, dulled the impact of the word to the kinds of conservatives who aren’t proud self-aware racists like David Duke. They go around thinking they aren’t racist, so calling them racist makes them discount whatever else you say. I’m not sure how to remedy that except to better illustrate their racism on a personal level whenever they say something racist. “Oh, you say you’re not racist, but why do you always have to make jokes referring to Keith’s skin color? You never refer to Sean as ‘pale’, you never call Bill ‘the white guy’, how is that not showing a preference?”
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Gutierrez has the right of it; libel lawsuits are notoriously tricky and lengthy. While abhorrent, it is easier to just breadcrumb the way for your news consumers than risk a long legal battle with the president.
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I have real trouble reconciling the person who is calculating enough to make racist tweets in order to be seen as a victim, and a guy who thinks we had airports in 1812. I think you may be giving him too much credit.
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Shit. Given that his statements were unambiguously, overtly racist, I thought for sure that the media would have no choice but to call them racist. Yet they still weaseled out of it.
Also “xenophobic” doesn’t even make fucking sense, given that we’re talking about American-born Americans here. I mean yes, he’s also xenophobic, but the racism is what’s at the fore here. I kind of feel like calling his remarks “xenophobic” (instead of racist) is itself a bit racist because it goes along with his premise that non-white people aren’t really Americans.
Nah, that’s not it. His remarks were overtly racist. It’s the press, as usual, trying to be “neutral,” and avoid “charged” descriptions, even when they’re completely appropriate.
The problem is, that’s been true since the '60s, when the modern Republican party came into being, forming itself around the anti-civil rights position. Yet…
Yeah, he’s always playing the victim, so nothing new there.
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There is a 0.0% chance that calling the President’s words “racist” could ever lead to a libel judgment. It’s a lot of other forms of moral cowardice, but not this one.
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The best defense against a charge of libel is the truth.
That being said, that knuckle-dragging, pig-fucker in the White House is also a public figure, and has no legitimate legal recourse.
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I hate to say it, but the left badly needs a hater - a pompous mouthy asshole who goes after this shit with gusto. We need a no-filter gloves-off New York everyman with a show on every airwave speaking baldly about the whole squirming pile. Bonus points if he/she had ugly dealings with Trump in the past. It’s beyond being polite; polite is why we’ll lose.
I nominate Howard Stern; use the power you’ve amassed. Go LARGER.
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And then there’s this asshole…
And this guy…
I’ll say this, his statement of “it’s the President’s tweet; talk to him about it” is semi ok. I am all for saying “Hey, I didn’t say it…hold his feet to the fire for saying it” BUT then this asshole doesn’t say there’s anything wrong with it and he SHOULD.
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I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that…or thought it.
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You see Howard Stern as an Everyman?
Really?
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Jumping in to point out that since the tweets went out, Epstein and Acosta (and their connections to Trump) have disappeared from the airwaves.
This is another distraction, folks, just like every other news “story” that includes the words “Trump” and “tweet”.
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anytime he tweets or says or does something like this i can’t help but wonder what much worse thing (not saying being a racist asshole is not bad, but given the power he has…) is he trying to divert attention from?
ICE raids? something else?
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It’s because big news outlets are owned by people who are either on Trump’s side or are afraid of making enemies that might hurt their profits, and they staffed by cowards and hacks.
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I could not disagree with this more, and it’s one of the reasons I think Biden would be such a terrible choice to run against him. Trump is preternaturally gifted at what he does,* and trying to beat him on his own field is a lost cause. If you’re facing someone who is better at something than anyone else in the world, you’re aren’t going to have much luck trying to be better at what they’re best at. You don’t challenge Usain Bolt to a foot race, you make him play tennis!
*being a loud-mouthed bully who utterly lacks shame; it’s a form of superpower
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