Matt Taibbi has a way with words. And if he tends to say stuff in ways that'll piss off those most in need of reading it (not unlike me), he's wise and right. This article deserves full and wide attention, and not just because I've said the same thing about the deliberate dumbification of the electorate. The cynicism of pushing an uninquisitive, manipulable idiot like Bush into the White House so those pulling the strings could get away with murder, among other things, is now coming back to haunt those same people. As a wiser man than me once said, "Stupid is as stupid does." (I still don't know what that means, but it sounds applicable):
...But Washington is freaking out about Trump in a way they never did about Bush. Why? Because Bush was their moron, while Trump is his own moron. That's really what it comes down to.
And all of the Beltway's hooting and hollering about how "embarrassing" and "dangerous" Trump is will fall on deaf ears, because as gullible as Americans can be, they're smart enough to remember being told that it was OK to vote for George Bush, a man capable of losing at tic-tac-toe...Like Taibbi, I'm not particularly sanguine about the predictions, by frightened GOP leaders, of disaster to Trump's party if he were to be nominated, much less elected. As dishonest, damaging, and despicable as the Foxification of news has been, it's also been undeniably effective. Who knows how many of the R electorate have been permanently propagandized into believing that lies are truth, that information is evil, that "the media" who don't parrot R talking points are, by definition, not to be trusted? From where I sit, being exposed to right wing media for decades causes permanent preference to be uninformed and misinformed. It's so much easier, after all.
And it's more than ironic that after being told that government is pretty much always bad, those same people have reduced their electoral choice to two would-be despots whose announced plans amount to nothing less than totalitarian disregard for our form of government. The same people who accuse, without merit, Obama of "trashing the Constitution" and of acting like a dictator, are wetting themselves with warm pleasure at the idea of installing a president who's, literally, pledged to do exactly that.
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That article was fun to read, but I don't think it's a realistic analysis. The Republican approach dates back at least 45 years to Nixon's Southern Strategy of veiled racism and attacks on liberals bent on destroying the country. Their tactics include their own media outlet (Fox) filled with angry voices yelling about this or that, convincing their viewers that the gov't is at best incompetent and more often (to quote one of the current Republican candidates) deliberately trying to harm the country.
ReplyDeleteTrump is just another to take advantage of the seething electorate they have fostered. His appeal is that he gives it straight, without the baggage of the other candidates. While they appeal to the same base emotions they also plan to cut Social Security, favor unlimited immigration to bring in cheap workers, and compete to see which can deliver bigger tax cuts to their wealthy patrons. The truth is the base isn't conservative (meaning favoring the rich, in practice). Trump pledges to slash immigration, deport the illegals blamed for taking jobs, protect Social Security, at at least talks about taxing those on Wall Street. In short his brand hits all the same themes as the rest without the drawback of being so clearly subservient to the interests of the wealthy.
(by MikeT)