It's hard to write something other than just a screaming rage at the Gods both Old and New about the ongoing revelations into trump's malignant racism, corruption, incompetence, and greed.
It's a little easier to link to articles like Conor Friederdorf's shaming of Republicans who applaud or ignore the train wreck that is trump:
This betrayal of the American public warrants more attention. Trump voters who wanted to rid Washington of sellouts should be most upset, but no one wants to admit that the person they voted for was misrepresenting his intentions. And those who rely on commentators like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, and Tucker Carlson for information lack many relevant facts.
Here’s what Trump voters should know. Michael Cohen was the president’s personal attorney. He stepped up when someone was needed to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the election, even using a shell corporation created under a pseudonym to hide the matter.
But that corporation wasn’t just for paying off the pornography actress. He also used it to receive huge sums of money from folks with powerful interests in influencing the U.S. government...
Remember when Trump told you that he would release his tax returns and then never did? Remember when he said that if he won the election he would put his business interests aside? “Ever since Trump and his family arrived in Washington they have essentially hung a for-sale sign on the White House by refusing to meaningfully separate themselves from their own business interests,” Bloomberg’s Tim O’Brien notes. “That’s certainly not lost on the companies that do business in or with Washington. They know that in Trump’s swamp, you pay to play.”
Much of this will surprise folks who get all of their news from Fox commentators and talk-radio hosts, with whom they are in a dysfunctional relationship.
The GOP base is drawn to media figures who support their president and quickly turn on those who criticize him as if they are guilty of a betrayal; for that reason, many populist-right pundits are reluctant to criticize the president or to delve deeply into the behavior of the swamp creatures he has enabled. Instead, they pander to the GOP base, keep them in the dark about important corruption—and so fail to keep the president and his associates accountable...
And yet you tune in to listen to the rallies trump still holds to keep his enraged base hooked, and yes they are still obsessed with the fantasy that Hillary and Obama are the "real" crooks. The trump crowd boos Obama and cheers Kim Jong Un. They hoot and holler as they mock John McCain for daring to speak against the Cheney torture regime that's staging a comeback.
The goddamn wingnut voter base doesn't care for the facts. They only care to kick libruls early and often as though that solves all ills.
The horrifying truth is that even if Mueller is able to complete his investigations, and even if he proves on a legal level that trump sold the nation out to Putin by teaming up with Russians to hack and subvert our elections, and even if the New York District's investigations into Cohen prove massive money laundering and bribery, all of that will never convince the Far Right. They'll buy the fantasy narrative from the conspiracy blowhards like Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh that this is all a "Deep State" revenge coup against a "noble and honest" trump who's defending them from godless baby-killing Fascist Liberal un-American Muslim Hill-bots.
Never mind trump using his political office to pull off financial scandals on a scope not seen since Teapot Dome. trump's voters knew he was a viper when they voted for him. That's WHY they voted for him, because he was the giant middle finger to the rest of the world for them.
Even if we can get trump out of the White House before he can cause more damage than he already has, this nation is already lost to a civil war between the Reality Based Community and the Far Right Narrative. We can't deal with a segment of the population that refuses to deal, ever.
We are so very royally goddamned fucked.
4 comments:
The right, having been wrong about every major political position they've taken their entire adult lives, have become addicted to the lies that keep their worldview afloat, and no longer really care whether the lies are plausible any more as long as they are timely.
As Driftglass says, we can't long exist as a country half Fox and half free. Luckily, the Fox contingent isn't anything like half, and skew old enough to not be around too much longer.
"The median age of a primetime Fox News viewer is 68, according to Nielsen."
I'm 57, so given a little good luck, that should add up to eleven Fox-free years at some point, right?
-Doug in Oakland
the sad problem with hoping for the older, more wingnut generation to die out is that they spawned their own progeny, enough of them willing and able to continue their dark work of insane tax cuts, bloody wars, and double-parking in handicapped zones.
There's a guy on my Facebook page from my high school graduating class. He's not an idiot, but he regularly posts on his feed conspiracy-minded trash that shits on liberals as though that's all that mateters. I've begged him repeatedly to not refer to those sites - to try to link to more reputable news sources like Reuters and Politifact - but he keeps linking to them and argues their merit. Worse, his Comments are quickly filled by the Deplorable crowd who post things like "Lock Her Up" "Killery" and "Obamuslim is at fault". He's caught in that toxic bubble. A lot of my generation - the ones who grew up to Reagan - are caught in that toxic bubble.
This is not going to end once the Boomers die out. Half of Generation-X is going to be worse.
On the other hand, I only know one Republican, and he's a meth addict who can't vote because he's a felon who never successfully completes the terms of his probation.
One.
Also, there's an enormous wave of younger, mostly female, Democratic candidates running now, and most of the young people I meet are far to the left of me, a goddamn flaming liberal.
Adding to the aging out of the Republican demographic is the continued migration to the cities from the more rural areas, and even in the deep south, the cities are "blue". They would like representation to be based on area, but it is based on population, so as long as that continues, our numbers improve.
Even my cousins, born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and now residents of Texas, have had enough of this bullshit and are becoming active in Democratic politics in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Things do suck right now, but we're not dead yet, and there's a lot of work to do after we finally win, so I refuse to give in. It's just too important to give up on, and really, with our superior numbers, they are counting on a lot of us doing just that. They may be loud and noticeable, but there aren't as many of them as they make it seem.
-Doug in Oakland
I am thinking of doing research on the voter turnout (lack of) by age groups. I have a feeling the Gen X bracket is weaker than the Boomers or the Millennials.
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