I saw this when I was at the gym Wednesday morning. All the other morning news shows are talking about the elections the night before and the Democratic gains; Fox had a bunch of Trump voters on to talk about the anniversary of his “historic” victory.
What exactly was “historic” about it? We’ve had Presidents elected while losing the popular vote before, that’s not it. While Trump replaced a black man in the White House, the other 43 Presidents were all white men, so nothing historic about that. Hmm … perhaps the first white-supremacist Nazi-sympathizer President? That’s pretty damn “historic,” although I don’t think that’s what Fox News meant.
Fox News has gone even further down the Trump-cheerleader/GOP-apologist rabbit hole than I ever thought possible. And there’s still a significant number of Americans who get their news there and don’t trust anyone else. To have a good number of voters actually using Fox News propaganda to tell them who to hate, who to be afraid of, and who to vote against … that’s pretty damn scary.
Trump’s fans in Congress are here for the tax cuts, mostly, and packing the courts with conservative judges. But his voters out in coal mine country mostly don’t know or care if Trump is doing any of the things he promised - although they’ll tell you with a straight face that he always keeps his promises.
But the one thing these voters are very clear on is that Trump is Right about the uppity black millionaires who play their favorite sport. They all agree that those ungrateful blacks are ruining their game.
It’s equal parts racism & stupidity that put Trump in office, and naked greed that keeps him there.
I’m not talking about those assholes, I’m talking about everyone else. Romney took a hit over one comment about taxpayers and a cold dog, all that was news. Now? Nothing. It baffles me.
Romney was never as openly bigoted as Trump is. Back then, the Republicans thought they had to protect their Family Values public personas.
But Donald Trump is the Bigot’s Choice. Like I said - it’s the bigotry and stupidity that motivates Trump’s voter base. Since the stupid bigots put Donald in office, the Republicans in congress have realized that the only Family Value that matters is bigotry. So they’ve stopped talking about moral rectitude, which they never really believed in (for white males, anyway) and just went straight for the power & money grab.
I’m watching that with interest, too. He’s a clever lad, Kimmel; he’s playing this absolutely straight.
At the very least he’ll end up with some jaw-dropping reactions (from people who finally catch on), immortalized on video and Twitter feeds. I’m expecting the stats on ACA sign-ups to be noticeably affected by the campaign (which has been going on all week, I think).
From an outsider’s perspective it does seem rather odd, doesn’t it.
I recall in past seeing American politicians publicly apologizing and/or retiring when the skeletons in their closet were revealed, and yet here we have someone perched on a throne of bones that George R R Martin might have designed, atop an extensive ossuary dating back decades.
It appears that the standard this president is being held to is: hasn’t caused WWIII, yet.
More to the point, I think it’s fear and hate. And to refer to another thread, anytime I glance over at Fox News, it’s as if they focus only on stories that promote fear and hate.
Signed us up for Trumpcare today! We got an amazing plan (better than last year’s!) for less than $100/month with a $500 family deductible! This self-employed family says, “Thanks Trump!” You’re making small businesses great again!!
I keep telling people that his incompetence and stupidity are his only redeeming qualities. If he were smarter or possessed an ounce of competence, his self-serving narcissism, malicious intent, greed, and lack of ethics would be a much bigger problem for the world than it has been.
That’s what it seems to come down to: the Republicans successfully ran a campaign on misogyny and bigotry. In 2012, they were trying to keep their base while not alienating others. In 2016, they believe - and who knows, they could be right - that their strength comes from encouraging more whites to become white nationalists. So they’re going to keep having moral malleability until they pay a hefty price at the polls.
There are going to be consequences for his stupidity; they’re just not obvious yet. But one of those serious consequences is the ever-increasing possibility of a major war. Trump’s Department of State has already lost something like 60% of its senior career-level officers - people who reassure foreign diplomats that there are people they can talk to relay their messages to us and the people who can interpret our foreign policy and relay it to the other side. We’ve lost decades of talent in less than a year. Relying on the military for foreign policy is a very, very dangerous idea. What the military does, it does well, but these are NOT the people we should be relying on to resolve disputes with other hostile actors.
