"A significant minority of Americans wanted someone like Trump—an authoritarian who would restore traditional hierarchies and torture the marginalized people they see as their enemies."
That to me is the saddest result of trumpism - it showed us a really scuzzy underbelly of moronic hatred and gave all the lizard brains the idea that they should say the horrible parts out loud.
To some extent I've always seen trump as a tool of the oligarchy--now combined with the forces of theocracy-- which is very much alive and well in this nominal democracy just as it was in the Gilded Age. He's a useful "savior" who articulates and flogs the hatred and fear very well--to that extent, charismatic--while catering to financial interests themselves threatened by actual democracy. But I've never felt trump "controls" the party--trump-ISM controls the party, because he's the savior at hand. I agree that should he shuffle of the political coil for any reason, the danger remains.
Trump's flogging of hatred has resulted in a complete perversion of the hippie idea of "let it all hang out." What the cult and its enablers have led loose is all the prejudices that for a while after the 60's it was uncivil to express. The "rise of antisemitism" really has little to do with a position on Gaza or the West Bank--it is home grown and has always been there. Gaza has put it in focus, just as the BLM movement put racial prejudice in focus.
The Civil Rights movement made great progress because culturally it became unacceptable to express deep prejudice and made many who didn't actually feel hatred much more conscious of damping down inadvertent expressions left over in the culture, the stereotypes they had grown up with. Trump's skill with the dog whistle upended that.
Remember that voter suppression is not aimed at getting votes for trump. It is aimed at the down-ticket power that makes states red.
"A significant minority of Americans wanted someone like Trump—an authoritarian who would restore traditional hierarchies and torture the marginalized people they see as their enemies."
That to me is the saddest result of trumpism - it showed us a really scuzzy underbelly of moronic hatred and gave all the lizard brains the idea that they should say the horrible parts out loud.
Bravo for this excellent comparison complete with history lesson which I had never heard before.
Blue ribbon!
I choose all three of the ways that dump can leave the scene!!😊
To some extent I've always seen trump as a tool of the oligarchy--now combined with the forces of theocracy-- which is very much alive and well in this nominal democracy just as it was in the Gilded Age. He's a useful "savior" who articulates and flogs the hatred and fear very well--to that extent, charismatic--while catering to financial interests themselves threatened by actual democracy. But I've never felt trump "controls" the party--trump-ISM controls the party, because he's the savior at hand. I agree that should he shuffle of the political coil for any reason, the danger remains.
Trump's flogging of hatred has resulted in a complete perversion of the hippie idea of "let it all hang out." What the cult and its enablers have led loose is all the prejudices that for a while after the 60's it was uncivil to express. The "rise of antisemitism" really has little to do with a position on Gaza or the West Bank--it is home grown and has always been there. Gaza has put it in focus, just as the BLM movement put racial prejudice in focus.
The Civil Rights movement made great progress because culturally it became unacceptable to express deep prejudice and made many who didn't actually feel hatred much more conscious of damping down inadvertent expressions left over in the culture, the stereotypes they had grown up with. Trump's skill with the dog whistle upended that.
Remember that voter suppression is not aimed at getting votes for trump. It is aimed at the down-ticket power that makes states red.
😢😢😢. As Justice Sotomayor stated, I fear for our country.