Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves that we are underlings.
I hope everyone reads this intelligent and eloquent essay. The whole article isn’t long, so don’t just read these brief excerpts:
I’m sorry but this is just another self-indulgent journalist trying to gain attention by contriving a cheap “insightful” bromide where none is needed. (I thought they had finally stopped doing that. . . .) Trump’s cronies are getting away with their looting because it’s a winner-take all executive system and a Republican congress. More importantly, Trump didn’t win because of the “Donald Trump in all us.” He won because he was able to dupe just enough of the right people in the right states.
It’s rather insulting to the majority that he couldn’t dupe—that didn’t vote for him–to put forward this kind of trite notion.
I agree that “it’s the Donald Trump in all of us” is insulting to some of us — but that was the title of the essay OP links to.
I find myself partly agreeing with you … but mostly not. Yes, the essay repeats many of the same lessons, self-indulgent or not, that we see a lot of lately, but these are lessons we need to learn.
The moral bankruptcy of the United States is brought home to me reading threads at this “liberal” message board. In discussing the Great Tax Ripoff of 2017, for every post that laments this gigantic theft from the poor to the rich, there are multiple posts by upper middle-class Dopers (most of whom I’m sure voted for Hillary) that focus solely on how the tax cut will affect their own $150,000+ income.
Can anyone honestly compare today’s America to the America of JFK, LBJ, and Martin Luther King?
The Occupy Wall Street movement was a final gasping effort by the public before this plunge into total kleptocracy — yet it was met at SDMB with almost nothing but ridicule.
To see examples of true “self-indulgence,” compare the high volume of posts about gun rights, Confederate statues and divisive social issues with the minimal acknowledgement, even here at “liberal” SDMB, that the country is being raped on a scale that would even stun a more ordinary banana republic.
I agree that Trump is probably a symptom but not how the article states. Trump is likely a symptom of a failed political experiment - a political system no other country would touch, and with a Congress so corrupt enough of the population either sit on the their hands, or actively elect, a non-politician to me President.
That the president is a high profile tv game show host should be the ultimate embarrassment to the elected *representatives" or the system they created but somehow it isn’t.
It looks like a classic “bothsides” argument to me. It’s unacceptable to admit the Republicans are worse than the general population, but it’s impossible to ignore just how bad they’ve gotten; so instead their defenders insist everyone is just as bad as the Republicans are.
Most people didn’t vote for Trump after all, and he’s anything but popular outside the Republican party. The article is basically describing the Republicans, but trying to pretend everyone is like that.
Trump isn’t a Republican politician.
"Trump functions as the impudent id of this culture of mass contempt."
Trump is, of course, just the buffoonish mascot. Not one single Republican Senator voted against the Trillion Dollar Heist. The only Republican Representatives to vote against it cane from New York or New Jersey and weren’t concerned for the country or the working poor — they just wanted to protect the tax deductions of their upper middle-class constituents.
Are the Republicans far more to blame than the Democrats? Obviously, as James Traub understands very well. Are some Democratic leaders, like Elizabeth Warren, trying to point the country in a saner direction? Yes, bless them. But the message isn’t getting through, in part because the “chattering class” is dominated by the attitudes James Traub calls attention to.
What James Traub also understands, but “liberals” at SDMB do not, is that the way to educate alienated Trump voters is NOT to alienate them further, but to embrace them as fellow Americans and try to work together. We’re in a sinking ship. Now is not the time to sit on our hands petulantly, while complaining that others are not bailing the proper way.
While I agree in principle that we should embrace them, it is hard to embrace racist misogynists who consistently vote against their own best interests (okay, that’s from my point of view) because they worry that “those others” will do even better. Take medicare for all, for example. How can anyone actually oppose it, leaving aside the insurance companies, private hospitals, and overpaid doctors of course.
The idea that we are all in this boat together and we’d better make sure it floats seems to have disappeared. Instead it is “sauve qui peut”. Me too. Two years ago, I was seriously preparing to move back. Then I said to myself, “wait till after the election.” So I am still here in Montreal.
Bailing? They’re drilling holes in the boat and blaming others that it is sinking.
All while supporting the 'Captain and his first mates that have life jackets ($$$).
I’m intelligent enough to know that neither Donald Trump nor myself are qualified to be the President of the United States and I voted accordingly.
I therefore refuse to accept any blame for the Trump presidency. The fault for that lies on Donald Trump and the people who voted for Donald Trump.
IIRC, there used to be plenty of What’s The Matter With Kansas posts hereabouts lamenting that folks weren’t voting based on naked self-interest.
Am I remembering that wrong?
Not totally amazing, but pretty good.
I’m a teacher, so I am biased. I think one of the foundational problems in America is a lack of education, but even more worrying…a lack of valuing being educated. I don’t mean schooling, either. Just being intelligent and understanding why it is important to develop critical thinking, valuing facts over beliefs, etc.
I think Trump is a symptom of that. He both is like that personally and was able to recognize that trait in others and use it to become a demagogue. It’s kind of fascinating and historians in 100 years will enjoy looking back on this time with some pretty harsh criticism(and a lot of wonder/confusion).
I believe his point was that those who could counter that trend both in opposition and within the Reps get tangled up in arguments about how to do so the right way and who should, and blaming each other for failing to (it’s your fault, Bernie - no, it’s yours, Hillary - “look, we just have to bear with him until we get this passed” - “dammit you’re raising the debt!” - etc) while the lunatics continue to drill the holes.
All of us? No. Too many of us? Yes. The Trump enablers have their backs covered by the apathetic.
The Occupy movement was almost as selfish as the Tea Party. And I’m talking of the ideas behind them, not how both movements were executed. The problem with both, again conceptually, was a failure to recognize and introspect the nature of the “average” American. The Tea Party lionized the hardworking taxpayer who wanted to have input and be represented. The Occupy movement rightly identified the effects and corporate greed, and then there was this 1%, 99% narrative. I just heard 1% of the population is wealthier now than any time in the last 50 years. So what is my problem? I could use another 99%, 1% illustration. For over 90% of working age adults, the average one has a large power disparity over the “1%”, including but not necessarily limited to those certain vulnerable minorities i.e. too disabled or mentally ill to function. Sure, if whatever goals of Occupy had been realized it may have benefited all, and I did see some lip service to this in the movement. Mostly I saw cluelessness of these hovering near the righteousness epicenter of their nation; I am also jaded from personal experience of seeing little discussed power disparities many seem desensitized to in action. There ought to have been more thought, who exactly are the 1% whose machinations are so problematic, and how many of the 99% suffer similar maladies.
The whole reason I lasted on this message board more than a few posts is Donald Trump. 15 years of being an adult and I’ve known almost the entire time in many ways he isn’t so different from the average person.
I agree. I voted against the hairball too. I would sooner eat a black hole for lunch agree with anything he believes in.
I think the big surprise (at least for me) was how many racist, white supremacist assholes we discovered in this country. Perhaps Trump new. That’s probably the people he knows best.
Yes.
I know what you and Nemo mean, and I feel the same way. And while we are not to blame, we all still must own the fact that the democracy we all benefit from carries the taint of this portion of our culture which has gained prominence. Therein lies part of the problem, the lack of concern of so many about what this says about us and our democracy. As pessimistic as I am about the future of our society I do see a glimmer of realization among people that we may be killing the goose that lays our golden eggs. Yet I still fear the lure of gold will dull such senses until it is too late. I sit here watching my retirement funds that I intend to depend on before too long growing, yet knowing that my gain is unearned and more deserved by others.
The other day on TV noted talking head Stephen Moore, speaking about the GOP tax reform admitted to all the inequities in it but stated that Americans didn’t care if their neighbors got a tax break as long as they received their own. As much as so many of us would say that does not reflect what we believe I think that may turn out to be the reality in practice.
The Democrats have been trying that for decades, and it’s only led to their near-destruction as a political party.
They are not “fellow Americans”, and they don’t look at us as fellow Americans either. They are enemies; fascists, not the “loyal opposition”. They want to hurt us and burn the country down.
They want to persecute and oppress everyone else, for the crime of not being an identical copy of them. And I’m not willing to turn into a neo-Nazi just to try to make them happy (or for any other reason).