The Nation's Good Luck
The United States is currently in the midst of a plague, the economy is in a depression, the President is on a rampage in which he is trying to bully his way into total control of the government, and as long as he is in charge, there is no possibility except that things will get worse and worse.
Donald Trump- he may be the best thing the Republican party ever did for us.
Let me explain. Trump is the latest manifestation of a phenomenon that began sometime between the Nixon disaster and the rule of Reagan. Let me be clear- this is hardly when the Republicans first sold their soul to the rich; the pandering to the short term desires of the hyper wealthy by three successive Republican administrations was the major cause of the Great Depression. But sometime after Nixon, the Republican party had an epiphany. That is when they realized that if they just tipped the economic playing field strongly enough in favor of the rich, the country would rapidly reach a point were a couple thousand families could provide the financing necessary to completely control the political process in the United States. And this is when men like Lee Atwater and Richard Viguere hatched their plan to eliminate any vestige of democracy in the United States; when the Republican party ceased being a political party and became nothing but a criminal conspiracy.
These people, and those that followed in their footsteps, like Newt Gingrich and Mitch McConnell, knew that their goal would not be quickly accomplished, because it involved the creation of a vast propaganda network to mesmerize a large section of the population into abandoning any faith in truth, reason and human decency, and instead give themselves over to their most base instincts- hatred, racism and greed- through which these people could be manipulated at will. Only when this succeeded could they hope to see these people join in the campaign to destroy representative government. It also involved the seeding of the Federal court system with judges who were not conservative, but simply corrupt; judges like Scalia, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Roberts, who were willing to wait as sleeper agents, ready to place an unelected Republican in the White House, to provide cover for Republican criminality, or to unleash limitless interference by the rich in the electoral process.
Well, the work went on, to the tremendous detriment of our country- ruinous wars of aggression, a near depression only averted by a Democratic President, the unleashing of mass hatreds that we had thought we had long since left behind. Bit by bit, they worked away, to bring about that glorious future day when democracy would be a derided feature of the past, like slavery or torture. And it was all beautifully going according to plan.
But then came Trump, the sick, narcissistic bully who in his delusion actually thought himself the most superior human being on earth, who was entitled to do anything he saw fit. Trump was not prepared to be just a soldier in the battle to destroy popular rule in the United States, like Romney or Cruz or Rubio, or indeed Scalia or Gingrich were willing to be. No, Trump had to have it all. Trump had to be that all powerful dictator that ruled over everything. And so he grabbed the cake out of the oven before it was baked. He tried to become that despot who was the inevitable conclusion of the fifty year Republican campaign to destroy American democracy.
And he tipped over the whole apple cart. Just a few too many Americans saw what should have been obvious for decades, so it now appears that the whole Great Republican Project, the only thing they have really cared about for decades, may collapse, as long as Trump can't cheat enough to stay in power, which of course remains to be seen. However, right now, there appears to be no way he can win the election fairly. So, just as he has destroyed all of his businesses, destroyed the economy, destroyed the standing of the nation in the world, and destroyed the health of the American people, with a little bit of luck in getting people to turn out to vote, we can make sure that he will also have destroyed the fifty year Republican campaign to turn the United States into a dictatorship.
Comments
Reagan was the one who taught them that the things that they say don't have to match what they do, not at all. You could spin a folksy tale about the little people, gut their union and bag their healthcare and a whole lot of people will just remember the folksy tale.
And then you can tell another story about how all their troubles are because of the other guys, who are evil, even though the other guys tried to save their jobs and healthcare.
As Dick Cheney memorably said: "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter". But that's not it - Reagan proved is that you could blow up the deficit at the same time that you told tall tales about how the deficit must be reduced and lots of people will not be bothered at all by this, if you tell the tale right and use the right visual background.
Rove said that they create their own reality now, they have not been shy about discussing this. Trump is the highest expression of it. Governance as a pure emotional performance, completely separate from science, facts and observable reality whenever necessary.
There's no way to deal with people like this.
As of now the GOP loses in November (things can change)even a big loss for the GOP does not spell the end of Trumpism it could get worse if Tom Cotton becomes the New Don who is smarter shrewder than the current Don and yes Cotton can win, the 2016 election is proof that it can happen
I have posted a couple of comments over the last few years stating my belief that, of all the criminal, treacherous, corrupt things the Republican party has done, none of them matches for pure evil the breeding of a base of sixty million people who have been induced to abandon all concern for reason, truth and right versus wrong, trading all of that in on an orgy of hatred and greed. Republican leaders knew that this was the only way they could maintain power, and they adopted that plan without reservation.
The 2010 midterms proved to Republican voters at the local level that they could get their micro-Trump wet dreams granted and the Republicans got to solidify several states into oligarchies in exchange to stop using the ‘inside voice’ regarding race relations.
They were ALWAYS like this, even when life was drinking and screwing your way through high school and your dad walking your post-graduation drunk ass down to the Union hall to get you signed up for a $25 per hour apprenticeship that will turn into a $40 per hour full member in two years.
By and large, the majority didn’t even ‘lose’ from deindustrialization, like most places that have economic collapses, the ‘losers’ moved away 30+ years ago.
No. The Right is this area are actually the people who ‘won’ the post-industrial economy. Now they have the money and time to try and bring back what they really want: a myth of the pre-deindustrialisation social order that supposed actually made us great.