If anybody hasn’t yet seen the 1957 movie, “A Face in the Crowd,” I recommend it. Watched it last night on my mother’s recommendation.
Nothing is particularly spot-on, but quite a few themes make it germane to this thread, sez me:
Two hours. Three bucks on Amazon Prime (Bezos needs your money. Don’t be callous).
Free option: A Face In The Crowd will be shown on TCM Friday, April 14th at 5:30 PM (17:30), and Saturday, May 13th at 12:30 AM (00:30).
What’s your point here?
He was businessman working in real estate and located in a heavily Democratic city and state. Like most businessmen, especially those in real estate he needed to curry political favor.(he was mob-adjacent for the same reason). He had a serious financial interest in political issues like zoning, fair housing and rent control. And as the type of person convinced of his own invincibility and incapable of admitting he could make mistakes, these Democratic politicians and policies became the scapegoat for his failings.
We all know that the Clinton’s went to his wedding with Melania, I believe at one point in 2016 when this was mentioned, Trump insinuated that Hillary ate the entire wedding cake.
FWIW, I’m not a big fan of the Clintons. I think their dominance in Democratic politics did long term damage to the party, plus she tried to flex her power to protect Harvey Weinstein, but that’s the subject for another post.
If you think that your little “yuck yuck Trump was friends with the Clintons” schtick constitutes some sort of gotcha, you’re wrong.
I, and any thinking person, realize that Trump is not a traditional Republican, despite is self-proclaimed status as King of The Republicans. He has no interest in conservative values or principles. Look at the what’s behind the current charges against him, a sexual liaison with a consenting adult of the opposite sex is a total Democratic politician move. He’s a Republican for two reasons.
The first is his racism, which was inherited from his Nazi sympathizer father and intensified by a lifetime of having to adhere to anti-discrimination and fair housing laws……in other words, in his eyes those people cost him lots of money.
The second is that he’s a con man and Republicans, with their unthinking allegiance to whatever Fox News is pushing today, are ideal marks.
Speaking of movies, the 1950 Born Yesterday with Judy Holliday and William Holden is a must-see. The character “Harry Brock” (Broderick Crawford) is Donald Trump in action. I had seen the movie many times B.T. (Before Trump) and knew Harry was utterly despicable (he’s supposed to be). Then I watched it again a couple of years ago. I was stunned at hearing trump’s lines come out of Harry’s mouth. In 1950 the idea of a Harry Brock as president of the United States was unthinkable.
There was a 1993 remake, but the original is the one you want.
Uncouth, loud-mouth junkyard tycoon Harry Brock descends upon Washington D.C. to buy himself a congressman or two, bringing with him his mistress, ex-showgirl Billie Dawn. Brock hires newspaperman Paul Verrall to see if he can soften her rough edges and make her more presentable in capital society. But Harry gets more than he bargained for as Billie absorbs Verall’s lessons in U.S. history and not only comes to the realization that Harry is nothing but a two-bit, corrupt crook, but in the process also falls in love with her handsome tutor.
As long as we are mentioning fictional tie ins to Trump, I’m surprised no one has brought up this one.
This was pretty spot on, so much so that many refused to believe that it was real.
I have seen it, and it’s worth a watch if you can handle 1950’s production quality.
Yeah, he’s consistently been a completely useless lying sack of shit since the 80s. There aren’t many better reasons to hate someone than that, IMHO.
Back to the main course of the thread, the issues poorly introduced earlier about TFG and former and current Democrats is part of the reason to hate him.
Even then, it was obvious that he had zero actual convictions other than all money should belong to him and that No One was paying enough attention to him.
So he hung out with anyone or anything that could get him the money and attention (especially the latter) he craved. In NY, and during the boom of the Clinton years, well, that’s where the getting was good. Jumping on the birther bandwagon got him infinitely MORE attention, as did attacking Hillary.
So it’s not that he was supported (past self-interest) or endorsed liberal ideas at ANY point, regardless of affiliation. He just went wear the tides of his ego got the most stroking.
EVERYTHING in service of his glory. And now he believes that he’s made it as the biggliest, the bestiestus, and the mostius, he cannot tolerate that anyone could have the audacity or right to judge him. To be even more clear, in his world, only HE matters.
Yes, a great and scary movie. The only issue with it as prediction is that the stuff that sinks Rhodes in the movie Trump has done, with no appreciable impact on the voters.
As for Born Yesterday, that was old news even back in 1950. Tycoons owning politicians was nothing new. I heard Earl Long say “Louisiana has the best legislature that money could buy.” That was after 1950 but I suspect he’d been saying it for a while.
Harry Brock in the White House isn’t old news-- it’s current events.
Harry never even ran for President, as I remember. “It Can’t Happen Here”
from 1935 is a lot closer to what happened. “A Face in the Crowd” is closer in that Rhodes has absolutely no background except his charisma.
I’m not knocking the movie. I loved it. But nothing new politically.
All right, should I close the thread at this point and/or just move the Literary & Movie Quotes out of it?
0 voters
It was unthinkable in 2016, too. The shock waves are still reverberating.
Worth noting that this guy wrote this just a bit over a year after Boris Johnson ended his term as Prime Minister.
A related, and certainly more difficult question than the OP poses.
Outside of POLITICAL virtue (crushing your enemies), does Trump have ANY virtues as generally defined by the Western or Christian ethical system?
I mean, with the Seven Deadly Sins, more or less traditionally pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth you have covered Trump to a T.
But the Seven Virtues? Chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility? Nary a one.
Yes, I fully understand that for Trumpers and Republicans in general (Especially the Christian Apologists) that God works through the UnGodly (my opinions of which would need to be in the Pit), but going back to the actual OP - anyone with his all-but-textbook level of sin and evil would be, in rational times, despised or hated beyond question. He starts at the top of the tree of evil and manages to hit every single branch on the way down.
I sometimes wonder if Trump’s history makes him more attractive to evangelicals. “Behold this sinful man who has found his way to redemption! Hallelujah!” There’s a self-righteous rush from seeing someone saved. Trump, somehow, manages to instill that feeling in his followers, and to prolong it indefinitely. All his lying, cheating, crimes, and infidelity just prove the miracle of his conversion, even as he continues to do them.
An unlikely person said something about Trump that I find very telling.
Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller has spent a fair bit of time with Trump between performing at his venues back in the 90s, and on Celebrity Apprentice. Penn has been careful and precise about what he’s said about Trump. No, he never heard him use the N-word, but does thinks he’s a racist. He’s called him stupid and mocked the fact that Trump had him, a mere Vegas magician, on some kind of “enemies list” along with more important people like Hillary Clinton.
But one thing Penn said really struck me: He feels Trump has no sense of humor. In all the time he was on TV with him, Penn said he never once saw Trump laugh in a way that wasn’t unkind in some way. Meaning, he had laughed at peoples’ misfortunes, he had laughed AT people. But Trump never told a joke, never laughed in a genuine way without some element of malice.
I find that really sad. Despite all the damage he’s done in the world, I actually feel sorry for Donald Trump if that’s really how he is. What an awful way to go through life.
I read that also. If only we’d had president Jillette.
Are you sure ?
That linked article is date Oct '19 - before Johnson started prime ministering.
Trump inspired Johnson and it worked, some british people love 3 word slogans too !
Yeah, I’m sure he is a miserable bastard.