I watched the GOP presidential debate last night and found it very depressing.
The main event was the effort by Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to pierce Trump’s armor and rattle him. The more they poked at him, the more belligerent he became.
Given the wide lead Trump has, he is likely to be the candidate of the Republican party. This is horrifying. To watch him makes me feel frightened for the future of our country. I also listened to him speaking (I think in Maine) i the morning.
He is crude, egotistical, bullying, self-centered, and vulgar. He boasts nonstop about his wealth and power and success. When he spoke to a crowd, he was egomaniacal. His subject is Donald Trump. He is an expert on himself.
In both venues, he made a crude sexual reference. In the morning, he said that Mitt Romney begged for his endorsement in 2012 and would have gone on his knees had Trump asked. The audience roared. During the debate, he made a reference to his male anatomy.
I have been wondering whether Trump is the epitome of the worst of our culture. Is he the product of a culture that worships money, admires avarice, and glories in porn and “the real housewives of…”
I think so. He is the quintessence of a degraded popular culture. Washington, Jefferson, Addams, Lincoln and so many others would be appalled.
I can’t imagine him as president. We would be the laughing stock of the world. I imagine him insulting other nations, isolating us in the world. I can’t imagine him with his touchiness and temperament in charge of the nuclear codes.
His behavior is revolting. His braggadocio is appalling. His egomania is disgusting. The idea of Trump as president is too horrible to imagine.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Grand Obstructionist Party created Trumpenstein, by blocking every attempt to improve the lot of the People for the last 8 years, indeed, the last 40, and now all of a sudden they want to act like he just erupted from the bowels of the earth. Well, it was their bowels, not the earth’s.
It is now literally a reality show. I don’t think they care because they’re so insulated from any downside. None of this affects any of them directly. If they lose the next election they just glide thru the revolving door to their comfy private sector job. There’s no risk. Everyone on that stage is doing just fine, thanks. They’ll not only survive Trump, they’ll all be jockeying for any possible benefit.
“The Trumpenstein Monster”
Of bowels and growls
And Trumps and chumps
The monster prowls
On campaign stumps
Trump is the best thing to happen to the American people in Years as long as he doesn’t get elected in the fall. Everyone on the Republican stage scares me more than Trump . Twenty four years of neo-liberal Democrats has created this situation ,where the working class see’s no difference between effective policy of either party . Devastated by trade agreements that have lowered the American standard of living .placing them in competition with the lowest paid workers in the world.
“While all new income flows to the top 1%” .
Then at both ends of the income scale placed in competition with immigrant labor. At the low end decent jobs even Union jobs that once
supported a (lower)middle class life style being replaced by that immigrant labor and at the high end H1B’s putting our STEM graduates again in competition with labor willing to work for less in the endless race to the bottom.
“While all new income flows to the top 1%”
Economists from Salzman to Stieglitz to Krugman to Baker to now even Larry Summers dispel the notion that education is the cause or solution:
“The wages of other workers would fall since displaced manufacturing workers would be forced to look for jobs in retail and other sectors. The increased supply of workers lowers wages in these other sectors as well. Recent research by some of the country’s top labor economists confirms that trade has been a major factor depressing the wages of large numbers of workers” Dean Baker
“And the modern counterparts of those wool workers might well ask further, what will happen to us if, like so many students, we go deep into debt to acquire the skills we’re told we need, only to learn that the economy no longer wants those skills?
Education, then, is no longer the answer to rising inequality, if it ever was (which I doubt).”Krugman
“I think the [education] policies that Aneesh is talking about are largely whistling past the graveyard. The core problem is that there aren’t enough jobs. If you help some people, you could help them get the jobs, but then someone else won’t get the jobs.” Summers
That was astonishing coming from mister neo-liberal himself. So where are we today. Thanks to endorsements from some major Unions (AFT, SEIU)hoping to court favor with Hillary, which has never worked. Ask PATCO about that, a leopard dose not change its spots.
And the Southern Black vote which only has one logical but unspeakable explanation to reject by 87% ,a candidate who fought in the civil rights movement and has fought for income equality his whole life ;
We may be faced with a choice between Trump and Hillary .if Trump gets in hopefully we will be able to undo his damage .Hopefully his bluster is all show as the party establishment says . If Hillary gets in the next candidate from the right in 4years will look like that little Austrian guy with a mustache .
The GOP did not, our political system, run by the present POTUS did. He is likely popular as a choice simply because he is not a politician and a result of the polarizing influence that the POTUS created these last 8 years. Creating an extreme then causes an extreme result!
Television did this. It began when ‘they’ discovered that our people can be sold anything and the values of our people were replaced by the media . Bernie know this and recently said:
Mander warned against television https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3NBEurnIqY
and also Wrote : “In the absence of the Sacred “…values of society, that is…
http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/mander.htm
The best one was Vance Packard who wrote THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS way back when t v was barely a decade old and it was required reading in my college media course.. I have been an observer ever since, and was a member of The Media Foundation, when I was teaching middle schoolers how to figure out if the ‘message’ implicit in what they were watching did indeed REFLECT the values mommy and daddy and the local cleric recommended as BENEFICIAL.
Marshall McLuhan also explained this in THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE a long time ago. The oligarchs listened.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message
hen there is this by Senator Al Franken…written of r decade ago.
LIES & THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/11/highereducation.news1
TV celebrates the opposite of the values we need, integrity, honesty, self-worth.
We get what the people see all the time…aggression, might makes right, ‘just do it,’
Trump is rude and insulting. Is this really how we want to portray business people? Loud blowhards who bully, insult and rip people off ? People who blather on and on about stuff they know nothing about and can’t be bothered to learn?
He’s up there bragging that he rips people off but it’s “a civil matter” so it shouldn’t matter. That’s the measure now? Unless he’s criminally indicted for fraud it’s all just “business”? This is the private sector model now? Steal from the chumps and as long as you don’t get caught you’ll not just get rich but you’ll get promoted to President?
Forget “President”. He shouldn’t be a good example for anyone, anywhere, doing anything.
I totally agree with everything you have said but we cannot discount the fact that he is appealing to many Americans out there evidenced by the continued votes he has received and probably will continue to receive. He is bringing out the worst of our country and that is really sad and very scary!
Yes, because he represents something different. People are so tired of the same old power brokers – the Bush-Clinton dynasty – that they will vote for anyone, even someone as revolting as Trump, to get something they perceive as better. If the Democrats don’t nominate Bernie to counteract this need for someone new, I fear we’d best get used to saying “President Trump”. Or else look into immigrating to Venezuela.
Incidentally, I think Hillary and Donald both need to change their campaign slogans to better reflect their actual positions:
Hillary: “No we can’t!”
Donald: “Yes we Klan!”
One problem with Trump’s behavior is that is deflects people’s attention from the radical right-wing agendas of his opponents. Including Kasich, who the media thinks is a moderate because he doesn’t yell.
I agree. No one will find out one thing about any of those other candidates because they’ve spent 6 months first kissing up to Trump and then attacking him.
How much of that debate was “about” the public? Maybe 3 minutes? They spent the majority of the first hour (which is all I could stand) talking about their respective poll numbers.
Yes, you say it so well! And, yes, it is horrifying.
He is a genuinely scary guy. If you’ve seen “Idiocracy” (and I know I’m far from the first to recognize the parallels between that film comedy and the Republican presidential race) then you’ve seen this before.
Well put. Thank you Diane.
The GOP brought this upon themselves by catering only to the wealthy. People are angry and want something different. What Trump has to offer is disgusting. What Cruz and Rubio have to offer is degrading to this country. Is this really the best the GOP has to offer?
Trump represents the culture that privatizes education instead of seeking the common good. Please join me in endorsing Bernie Sanders. He is the only candidate who speaks to the common good. Sadly, Hillary has been bought.
I’ll vote for Sanders in the Ohio primary. I don’t think he’ll win but he’s the only one of them that seems to have any consistent ethical grounding or good character traits at all. That should count for something. Winning really isn’t everything.
I’m voting for Sanders in the primary, because the only way I get to vote in the presidential primary in Missouri is to choose a Dim or Rethug ballot.
I will vote for Jill Stein in the election itself.
Duane,
Jill Stein is an awesome candidate (whom I voted for last time around, incidentally)
Unfortunately, few know who Stein is. and even many of those who do make the usual idiotic claim that “a vote for her is a vote for Trump”, or, as Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report) calls it, the “more effective evil” argument
There were lots of these “geniuses” about on the web last time warning us not to vote for her because then “Romney will get in.” Oooooh, a truly frightening scenario!
and now we have Trump!
I’m sorry, but it’s really hard for me to take the geniuses seriously (not least of all because they are so dumb. And no, Ralph Nader did not “cost Gore the election”. Gore did that all on his own, not even winning his home state and failing to contest Florida)
In some ways I feel maybe Trumps run may end up a good thing. Trump stands for a strand of thought that has become more and more popular in this country. This is the idea that all success should be measured in economic terms. At that if you have amassed enough wealth you are an expert in all areas. Join this with the idea that public service is always worse then private gain and we end up with Trump. Just maybe this may be the jolt this country needs to look for better alternatives. If not I too join in your fear for this country.
But Trump is standing for public office.
The GOP has entertained a lot of hypocritical fools over the past 30 years, but you have hit the nail on the head here, Diane. He will isolate us and/or get us into WW III.
A Canadian friend already told me that if the U.S. elects Trump, we will get nuked by someone, and that we will deserve it for unleashing Trump on the world. I didn’t really have a response for that.
That should really scare your Canadian friend for numerous reasons.
Trust me, it does. He does not really relish being collateral damage. He’s been worried since W was “elected” with Cheney pulling the puppet strings.
“The Trumps”
(especially dangerous for adults)
Trump is a symptom
Of disease
Bringing our nation
To it’s knees
If Donald Trump was a student in a public school he would be labeled a bully. He would be in counseling. He wouldn’t have friends, unless he could buy them off. Parents would be outraged at his behavior, his language, his entitled sense of self. He would be smart in class, but not the smartest by far-but he would tease the smart kids with no mercy. This is the adult version of that child we are seeing and it isn’t pretty. In fact, it’s shocking and scary…
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
The American people want hard core real, transparent and open. He represents all of these things but he will be divisive, and extremely ego centric. He will do anything to look good and has no tolerance for anyone who challenges him. He has not hidden any of this from the American people and this is what is gaining him respect. It’s so sad that we desperately crave real and are willing to promote Trump to the highest level of leadership. He has a place and would be a good resource to the next president but not as President of The United States. He can not make America great again with his fear of resistance, negativity, and a lack of true love for all Americans who are loyal to America. He is not a servant leader and that’s no surprise, because he has not hidden this fact.
This is just one of the reasons that Trump will win the nomination: http://hotair.com/archives/2016/03/04/college-party-featuring-tiny-sombreros-sends-sjw-over-a-cliff/
Many people thought Kasich looked so good by comparison to the three others, that it is still possible for him to win Ohio and go on a run…..I noticed how he bragged about everything being so perfect in Ohio, and he casually tossed in how Detroit needs to do what Cleveland has done, and he finished with the mantra of choices—more charters and vouchers—Trump tosses out getting rid of common core as a regular talking point…..I doubt he knows what he is thinking. I think Hillary needs to let us know what she thinks about Goldman Sachs getting a couple thousand dollars a child for lying to schools telling them their early childhood education is magically making students not need special education……….we are electing a replacement for Obama with no questions asked of either party about Gates, Charter schools increasing dominance, unexplained budget impacts upon public education as the nation gradually repeals Brown versus the board of education through inherent re segregation by social class……..with occasional cheerleading about the exceptions who unbelievably overcome these hurdles.
There is simply no discussion regarding public education by anyone in either party.
It’s true. Remarkably, ed reformers never talk about the schools 95% of kids attend. That they don’t even notice this HUGE omission is to me an indication of how insular and clubby and lock-step this “movement” is, because I notice it every time.
John Kasich has been terrible for Ohio public schools. He talks exclusively about charters and private schools because if he didn’t he’d have to talk about how Ohio public schools have lost ground every year he’s been in charge. That means 93% of public school children have lost under Kasich.
There’s some straight talk we’ll never hear on a debate stage.
What worries me most is the fact that this group of Americans that are endorsing him can’t look beyond their own noses and actually THINK about what it is they’re endorsing! A slogan? A wobbly promise that’s simply flim-flam and nothing else? What is the state of education that brought us to this disarray? For all those who may or may not be with the teaching of the Common Core, at the very least…we are expected to teach kids to dig deep, reading more and more non-fiction material and looking for the cracks in the argument. Trump is cracked in the head. And hopefully a HUGE majority of us together will vote him down in such a way that both the world and our own citizenry can see what a mistake they’ve made! (I imagine Chris Christie in tears at home saying to his wife, “GOD! What have I done!!”)
Gael,
For which team are you a “major baseball fan”?
I’m sure he is a “charter” boy. I am disgusted with him. I saw an article on Facebook from a mother of a disabled child who was appalled at his making fun of a man with Cerebral Palsy. I am fearful of what he will do to education and to programs that help our children. I have a child, now in college, with high-functioning autism, ADHD, and social anxiety. This man needs to be stopped. We are all going to have to step up and vote for whatever Democratic candidate comes forward.
No we don’t need to “step up and vote for whatever Dimocrapic candidate comes forward”. Vote third party! Vote Jill Stein. Read the Greens platform here: http://www.gp.org/platform See how its education platform compares to the dims or rethugs.
Duane, I already sent my ballot in in AZ for Bernie. However, if he loses, do you really think Jill Stein can win? I don’t want Hillary in either, but I would rather have her than Trump.
Diane,
They all are frightening. Once upon a time, presidential candidates were expected to act presidential during their campaigns. This group of hooligans are a national disgrace.
We all can blame the Tea party and their antics ( led by Cruz, Rubio, and others for creating a schism in their party. This allowed Trump to walk right in and cater to the uneducated, bigoted, and closed minded.
It disturbs me that some of my friends and colleagues say they support this bunch, especially Trump.
Trump is playing to the fears and anger of a portion of our society. The same group that believe in stockpiling weapons and other resources for the upheaval they are sure wil come.
We have entered into frightening times, we need to do what we do best.. EDUCATE, ADVOCATE, and DEFEND.
Ralph
I thought the Bush/Cheney cabal made us a laughingstock, especially W’s attempts at extemporizing. But no, should Trump ascend to the presidency, you’re going to see this country erupt into civil disorder while the rest of the world sighs in relief at our self-immolation due to the aforementioned social, political, cultural, and civic bankruptcy. To quote the late, great comedian George Carlin for the umpteenth time: “This country’s finished.”
Bush and Cheney made us into a despised laughingstock.
I don’t like Donald Trump, but I somehow doubt Trump would be worse than Bush.
In fact, he is the only only Republican that I am aware of who has said this:
“Obviously the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake. George Bush made a mistake. Obviously we can make mistakes, but that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. They lied, they said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none and they knew that there were none.”
This might sound crazy, but my hope is that Trump wins (hopefully Bernie too), and then loses the general. It would be painful – but in the long run that could, for survival reasons, detach the GOP from Nixon’s Southern Strategy that has so powerfully combined monied interests with racism for so many decades. We’ve been living in the wake of that madness for 40 years. Then the Dems could be forced back to labor/middle class/poverty issues just to survive politically.
It’ll never get better as long as the GOP courts the racist segment of the US. Sooner or later someone else will take the shortcut like Trump, ditch the dog-whistle and just say it out loud. Combined with our Gilded-Age income gap, where 99% of the country is being strangled economically, the ugly manifestation of resentment and hatred will always be there under the surface, waiting for the next politician to grab his copy of Mein Kampf and get to work.
Like lancing a boil, it’ll be ugly when it ends but then we can heal.
Well put jeffpeek. A large number of the “have nots” are rising up (a different group than the 1%ers who Bernie represents and who were largely ignored). The Trump “have nots” don’t seem to know why they are still “down” and see Trump as the only chemo to cure the cancer that is killing them. My hope is that Trump is a wake up call to the 1% but I’m worried that the lancing of the boil is the only way to stop the madness of the Republican takeover we are witnessing in our states!
Also, is anyone ever going to ask John Kasich about the charter mess in Ohio, or does doing that make the ed reform “movement” look bad?
It is ludicrous that John Kasich is standing up there promoting more privatization when the privatization we have already done is a disaster. Maybe one of the moderators could pick up a local newspaper on really any day and read the truth about Ohio “reforms”.
The whole state of Ohio is going under the ed reform “movement” bus? Sacrificed as a test case for this national experiment in privatization? They should be ashamed that Kasich is the new face of “reform”, now that former ed reform “rockstar” Chris Christie has been exposed as a fraud. Kasich is probably worse.
http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-education/2016/03/charters-at-home-haunt-kasich-on-the-trail-fcc-grapples-with-student-loan-robocalls-opting-out-of-opt-out-213019
Thank you Diane!
When you say Never Trump,you say it for the right reasons.
When Mitt Romney and the Republican establishment say it, they are really saying Never Sanders, and Never Democracy.
The corporatists in both parties are saying Never Democracy by rigging the primary system.
It is not enough to say Never Trump. We need to be saying Never The Establishment!
All public schools and the teachers in them are “the Establishment”.
I know of so many parents who think every second of life should be entertainment. They completely neglect their children, living, playing, and spending beyond their means. They are too passive to discipline. The iPad is their babysitter. They let other people control their future.
In this context we have the education reform overhaul. In my school district many schools are 100 percent iPad, even in math and LA. The students aren’t expect to read books in full anymore. Math is just continuous bubble testing. The curriculum is so bad it’s wrong about 5 percent of the time. The same neglectful parents sit by and let the state (Colorado) destroy their children’s lives. Not a peep. No questions. No concern. No opting out. No anger.
This attitude is what scares me most about Donald Trump’s candidacy.
It’s a shame no one seems to recall Sinclair Lewis’s great book about the possibility of a fascist takeover in America during the 1930s, “It Can’t Happen here”. I recommend it as a good and instructive read for what is, actually, happening here today, as Trumpism marches onward to victory. Lewis’ model for the American fascist presidential candidate, Sen. Buzz Windrip, is Trump:
“The Senator was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his “ideas” almost idiotic, while his celebrated piety was that of a traveling salesman for church furniture, and his yet more celebrated humor the sly cynicism of a country store.
Certainly there was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches, nor anything convincing in his philosophy. His political platforms were only wings of a windmill.”
“He was in stature but a small man, yet remember that so were Napoleon, Lord Beaverbrook, Stephen A. Douglas, Frederick the Great, and the Dr. Goebbels who is privily known throughout Germany as “Wotan’s Mickey Mouse.”
Trump’s appeal to authoritarianism, bigotry and division, and wanting a strong “leader”, Fuhrer in German, is mirrored in Lewis’ understanding of the popularity of fascism in the 30s:
“Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.”
As one of the character’s in Lewis’ novel suggests, what is there to be afraid of?:
“Why are you so afraid of the word ‘Fascism,’ Doremus? Just a word—just a word! And might not be so bad, with all the lazy bums we got panhandling relief nowadays, and living on my income tax and yours—not so worse to have a real Strong Man, like Hitler or Mussolini—like Napoleon or Bismarck in the good old days—and have ‘em really run the country and make it efficient and prosperous again. ‘Nother words, have a doctor who won’t take any back-chat, but really boss the patient and make him get well whether he likes it or not!”
It Can’t Happen Here would be great summer reading for my students in this sad election year but I’m almost certain it would not be allowed. Too controversial. Maybe I should send Oprah a copy. Come to think of it, Babbit, Kingsblood Royal, and Elmer Gantry wouldn’t be bad for the young people to sink their teeth into, either.
Sorry but I confess to being a Sinclair Lewis fan. He still has some important things to say about our society, imho.
Feel the Bern!
GST…as always, I agree with you.
The prime muckraker of the Great Depression ere, Sinclair Lewis, taught generations of students and readers what government can wrought, and what industry/corporations, in the name of progress and profit, reap from any kind of humanistic society.
I see Trump, and his partners in crime and manipulation, including Cruz and the motley crew of Repub candidates, even Dem in name only Hillary, to be the equivalent of the canary in the coal mine. If any win, it shows the degraded process since Nixon/Reagan of any attempt of the US to be a democratic republic.
It will show the world that the US has been marching to fascism for decades, and lo and behold, here it is. And in IMO, a President Trump, Cruz, Clinton, will in short order privatize not only our public schools, but all our public agencies like Social Security, Medicare, law enforcement, the military, hospitals, postal service, prisons, and of course all public education…they will gobble it all up rapidly, with all the benefits redistributed to themselves and their billionaire masters of the universe.
They trampled the Occupy Movement which was aimed at Wall Street and the crooked banksters, but quickly became a world wide protest. They have crushed the hopes of our youth.
The lies of those we followed and supported like Obama, and the lies and manipulation of both Clintons, are only exceeded by the thugs like Mitch McConnell and his Republican ilk who have total disregard for the good of the country and the People when they act only to stonewall and not to allow legal legislation , and they show us that they are the SS, the Brown shirts and Storm Troopers in America.
Election night could be our own Crystal Nacht.
Sorry for syntax distortion above…meant that Lewis wrote about how the partnership of government with business could wreak havoc on society. Happened then…and it is happening now.
The Supreme Court and Scalia gave the death blow when they re-wrote the CONSTITUTION and made corporations people. period. THAT was the end!
Citizens must unite against the citizen’s united ruling… Bernie may not get to be president BUT THAT MUS BE DONE!
Totally ageless ! Trump is bad for our country . Embarrassment to this GrEat Country !!
The new narrative is that Trump is the product of Obama’s failed policies.
The “expert” articulating this view is better known for tanking the economy of Louisiana while making a failed attempt to become President. That message appeared in the Wall Street Journal today, courtesy of Bobby Jindal.
I think this narrative will be elaborated in the months to come. Republicans will not tolerate being implicated in creating a culture that celebrates Trump. Many are learning that it is pointless to attack him so they will return to the themes that have been used to criticize Obama, while giving heightened attention to Trump’s few and clewrly “popular” talking points–tough border security, restrictions on immigration, and eliminating ISIS by any means necessary.
I have already seen one TV ad from an Ohio candidate for office who says he is a Conservative Republican and proudly offers a tick list of Trump’s talking points.
I also noticed that one commentator said that Trump is a product of media malpractice, not just in staging the exposure of candidates to in non-debates, creating the media circus, but also a failure to insist on attention to issues over personalities. I concur. The scale of the distraction from serious deliberation about vital issues is, I think, without president.
I love your play on the last word. 🙂
The chickens have come home to roost! Romney encouraged the racism behind the birther theories when he publicly told a birther joke. And then began the downward spiral toward open racism & crudeness as acceptable.
For those who do not get The NY Times, which finally is forced to point to the truth of a charlatan like Trump, here are some links to The Trump Bash! First 2 actual articles
Begin with:
Mitt Romney and John McCain Denounce Donald Trump as a Danger to Democracy
“The last two Republican presidential nominees warned in forceful terms that a Trump presidency would put the country’s political system and national security in peril.”
Mitt Romney Aims at Donald Trump, Hits G.O.P. -http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/opinion/mitt-romney-aims-at-donald-trump-hits-gop.html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article “Holy Mitt, what a meltdown.Add this one to Donald Trump’s lengthening list of firsts: He’s forced a Republican Party reckoning overdue for years, all in a few days. It took the Trump-dominated Super Tuesday contests to awaken Republican leaders to the fact that the darkest elements of the party’s base, which many of them have embraced or exploited, are now threatening their party.”
LOL! YA THINK? Below are the editorial
The Beast Is Us – Timothy Egan
which begins “You heard the word “scary” used a lot this week, that and much more. Not from the usual scolds. Or Democrats. The loudest alarms came from desperate, panicked Republicans, warning of the man who is destroying the Party of Lincoln before our eyes. The man is evil,” said Stuart Stevens, a chief strategist for Mitt Romney in 2012. Romney himself called Donald Trump a fraud on Thursday.
But as much as these “too little, too late” wake-up calls are appreciated, it’s time to place the blame for the elevation of a tyrant as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee where it belongs — with the people. Yes, you. Donald Trump’s supporters know exactly what he stands for: hatred of immigrants, racial superiority, a sneering disregard of the basic civility that binds a society. Educated and poorly educated alike, men and women — they know what they’re getting from him.This idea that people are following Trump only for the celebrity joy ride, that if they just understood the kind of radical, anti-American ideas he advocates they would drop him, is garbage. If the pope couldn’t dent Trump, Romney surely will not.”
and from David Brooks (the GOP advocate who must be wetting himself when he listens to Trump) : Donald Trump, the Great Betrayer – David Brooks
“He seduces people with his confidence and his promises. People invest time, love and money in him. But in the end he cares only about himself. He betrays those who trust him and leaves them high and dry. It’s unpleasant to have to play politics on this personal level. But this is a message that can sway potential Trump supporters, many of whom have only the barest information on what Trump’s life and career have actually been like.
This is a message that can work in a sour and cynical time among voters who already feel betrayed. This is a message that can work because it’s a personality type everyone understands. This is a time when it is not in fact too late, when it may still be possible to prevent his nomination.” Brooks goes on to the scams at Trumps University and other ventures where he sold poop for shinola an d ran with the proceeds.
Clash of Republican Con Artists – Paul Krugman
“Donald Trump is a “con artist,” says Marco Rubio — who has promised to enact giant tax cuts, undertake a huge military buildup and balance the budget without any cuts in benefits to Americans over 55.
“There can be no evasion and no games,” thunders Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House — whose much-hyped budgets are completely reliant on “mystery meat,” that is, it claims trillions of dollars in revenue can be collected by closing unspecified tax loopholes and trillions more saved through unspecified spending cuts.
Mr. Ryan also declares that the “party of Lincoln” must “reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry.” Has he ever heard of Nixon’s “Southern strategy”; of Ronald Reagan’s invocations of welfare queens and “strapping young bucks” using food stamps; of Willie Horton?
Put it this way: There’s a reason whites in the Deep South vote something like 90 percent Republican, and it’s not their philosophical attachment to libertarian principles.
Then there’s foreign policy, where Mr. Trump is, if anything, more reasonable — or more accurately, less unreasonable — than his rivals. He’s fine with torture, but who on that side of the aisle isn’t? He’s belligerent, but unlike Mr. Rubio, he isn’t the favorite of the neoconservatives, a.k.a. the people responsible for the Iraq debacle. He’s even said what everyone knows but nobody on the right is supposed to admit, that the Bush administration deliberately misled America into that disastrous war.
Oh, and it’s Ted Cruz, not Mr. Trump, who seems eager to “carpet bomb” people, without appearing to know what that means.
In fact, you have to wonder why, exactly, the Republican establishment is really so horrified by Mr. Trump. Yes, he’s a con man, but they all are. So why is this con job different from any other?
The answer, I’d suggest, is that the establishment’s problem with Mr. Trump isn’t the con he brings; it’s the cons he disrupts.
First, there’s the con Republicans usually manage to pull off in national elections — the one where they pose as a serious, grown-up party honestly trying to grapple with America’s problems. The truth is that that party died a long time ago, that these days it’s voodoo economics and neocon fantasies all the way down. But the establishment wants to preserve the facade, which will be hard if the nominee is someone who refuses to play his part.
By the way, I predict that even if Mr. Trump is the nominee, pundits and others who claim to be thoughtful conservatives will stroke their chins and declare, after a great show of careful deliberation, that he’s the better choice given Hillary’s character flaws, or something. And self-proclaimed centrists will still find a way to claim that the sides are equally bad. But both acts will look especially strained.
Equally important, the Trump phenomenon threatens the con the G.O.P. establishment has been playing on its own base. I’m talking about the bait and switch in which white voters are induced to hate big government by dog whistles about Those People, but actual policies are all about rewarding the donor class.
What Donald Trump has done is tell the base that it doesn’t have to accept the whole package. He promises to make America white again — surely everyone knows that’s the real slogan, right? — while simultaneously promising to protect Social Security and Medicare, and hinting at (though not actually proposing) higher taxes on the rich. Outraged establishment Republicans splutter that he’s not a real conservative, but neither, it turns out, are many of their own voters.
Just to be clear, I find the prospect of a Trump administration terrifying, and so should you. But you should also be terrified by the prospect of a President Rubio, sitting in the White House with his circle of warmongers, or a President Cruz, whom one suspects would love to bring back the Spanish Inquisition.
As I see it, then, we should actually welcome Mr. Trump’s ascent. Yes, he’s a con man, but he is also effectively acting as a whistle-blower on other people’s cons. That is, believe it or not, a step forward in these weird, troubled times.”
YEAH, WE ARE ALL TERRIFIED that there are so many ignorant people who can be conned, thanks to television, who cannot distinguish between honest leaders and charlatans .
As Mike Judge said about his movie Idiocracy: Feb 24, 2016 – “I never expected #idiocracy to become a documentary,”
Just watch the movie and you’ll know who Trump is, but more importantly you’ll know who we’ve become as a country.
Welcome to Costco, I love you.
Diane,
This is exactly what I am seeing too; and I find it terrifying! Trump cares about one thing: Trump.
Kas Winters
Diane, I have much respect for you and all you do to expose corruption in Education. Specifically CC and Charters. I do not agree with you politically though, but I have to say…You are spot on and hit the nail on the head when it comes to Donald Trump. I am what I would call myself a conservative libertarian who loves this country and the constitution! Donald Trump scares me too! For all the reasons you mentioned. This is one time politically speaking you and I completely agree! Thanks for your very articulate and accurate post on this scary situation we have before us! I will not vote for Hillary or Bernie, but I definitely am not voting for trump either!!
What is even more scary is the religious ideologue Ted Cruz who, like Trump, sees himself as the Savior and the Dictator.
What is the most frightening IMO is how much of the voting populace in the US loves them both and supports them for President. Our fellow Americans who rally for these two men seem to be too ignorant to understand the potential consequences of electing either of them, or are complete bigots and Right Wing religious fanatics.
What scares the hell out of me is Hillary!
Both Hillary and Trump scare me, but the Trump level is beyond comprehension!
I think Hillary will just be more of the same that we saw from Bill, GW Bush and Obama. Trump is from a different world, a dangerous insane world.
In democracy all too often no real change occurs unless there is a very real, palpable disaster. A Trump presidency may provide that and force the public to listen more carefully to what candidates say and do if elected. I can think of no better example than Obama. President Obama seems to have very little in common with candidate Obama (2008) especially in his attitude to public education/teachers.
Hillary isn’t scary to me, just disappointing. She’s a Margret Thatcher in the making. I expect a further privatizationt. I also expect forever wars in the Middle East (you know, gotta save face.) It would be a miracle if SS came out unscathed.
I already voted for Bernie, so I’m anxiously waiting for everyone else to get their act together and vote Bernie.
Is Donnie – as a fellow New Yorker, I like the more familiar term, plus it brings him down a peg – so much worse than George W. Bush?
Yes, he is gross and vulgar, but Bush is a literal moron who, like Reagan, was scripted to fool a gullible public. Bush involved us in two wars that have effectively bankrupted the country, engulfed the Middle East in chaos and misery, left thousands of veterans physically and emotionally disabled, and turned the nation over to an aggressive and avaricious National Security State.
While I don’t believe a word that comes out of Trump’s mouth, he nevertheless deserves some credit for breaking the taboo against challenging the meme that Dubya “kept us safe.” In fact, on foreign policy, Trump can credibly be thought of as being to the left of Hillary, since she is a big believer in overseas misadventures and imperialism. It was Hillary who, according to news reports, convinced a skeptical and reluctant President Obama to start bombing Libya, which has predictably led to another failed state in the Middle East, and another base of operations for ISIS.
Trump is the raging Id of the Republican Party, which is now in panic mode because it cannot control the monster that it created. Almost all of Donnie’s mannerisms and almost every aspect of his worldview – the nastiness, the racism, the class arrogance, etc. – is a burlesque and cartoonish representation of Republican motivations and policies since Nixon embarked on his Southern Strategy almost half a century ago.
The chickens are fast coming home to roost, their droppings are everywhere, and the blades are being sharpened.
Michael … I adore you and most frequently agree with you… but are you saying “the trains ran on time” in Mussolini’s or whoever’s regime???? One item where a person does well doesn’t excuse the person for me… I also make my own biases because I believe that E. Warren has integrity and experience; she has not compromised her integrity (even though many are angry at her today for not supporting a candidate)…. Given what I just accused you of, do I have this bias built in (myself/attitudes)… I support E. Warren even when she is wrong because (a) she is so frequently correct and (b) she has the integrity that , when she learns she is wrong, she will correct her policy. (you know I like to Tease duane and others… but I am serious in my question)
thanks Michael…. Bill Keough was a superintendent in MA (I considered him a colleague based on his project on declining enrollment which he did for his doctoral work)… This is one of the quotes he used the last time he spoke to us before he died. (He was a Shakespeare scholar as well)… thanks for bringing it back from my memory of Bill and adding the “edge”
….the chickens are fast coming home to roost, their droppings are everywhere, and the blades are being sharpened.
“Trump is the raging Id of the Republican Party, which is now in panic mode because it cannot control the monster that it created.”
What an image: “the raging Id.” I don’t think it can be said better.
jeanhaverhill,
No, I am absolutely not making an “At least he made the trains run on time” (because Mussolini didn’t; that’s a myth) argument. I’m just saying that George W. Bush was a stupid, petty and destructive President whose two terms were catastrophic, probably more so than anything Donnie could ever accomplish, and precisely because we allowed him. We made snarky jokes about Bush’s stupidity, while the country was looted, and we did nothing, further proven by Obama’s allowing each and every looter to go away scot free, with not a single banker indictment.
And it’s the same with Trump: in his coarseness, vulgarity, ignorance, racism and greed, he’s an eruption from the Collective Unconscious of the “To-get-mine-I’ll-take-yours” mentality of the Overclass, it’s ideologies and entertainments, and the passive, deluded populace that consumes the garbage it’s served.
That said, isn’t Clinton’s enabling of mass incarceration – Hillary of the “Young-Black-males-as-super predators” meme – just the legislative distillation of Donnie’s racism? Trump, the raging Id, doesn’t dissemble, whereas Hillary has made a career of dissembling, and people know it. That’s why many people who should know better are cleaving to him, because they know or sense the falseness of everything they’re told, and the frauds their served, so that foaming-at-the-mouth is seen as “telling it like it is.”
I’m not trying to excuse the man, and certainly don’t want to be seen as supporting him, but no one should think he’s come out of nowhere, or that he’s an isolated crank. The painful reality is that, in his gleeful, heedless ignorance, he’s more representative than we care to think. Half a century of Republican racism and class warfare, and thirty years of Democratic captivity to Wall Street (exemplified by the Clintons) have led directly to this. In that sense, Donnie is less of an aberration that we’d like to think, unusual only because he senses that many people are rightfully sick of the false veneer maintained by the two legacy political parties.
As for Elizabeth Warren, I too wish she was running, but she isn’t, and I’m not going to let Trump drive me into the toxic, duplicitous arms of Hillary.
Should Trump make us fear for the Republic? Yes, but we should have had an energizing, motivating fear for a long time now. The demons have been doing their evil work for decades; it’s just that their masters have now lost control of them.
I understand; agreed….. I had a friend who would be over 100 today if she were alive and she would grill me (as a teenager) we don’t need an Executive branch; a building to entertain visiting diplomats was what she preached…. I agree with you Michael but I don’t know what to do about it and what to envision….. As my other comments here indicate the “neo-liberals” worry me as much as the “neo-conservatives”….. Elizabeth is a first term senator; I think people were trying to rush her too much, too quickly. I am reminded of President Johnson who could get things to happen in congressional offices “What do you mean you want to take the milk away from the children”… and then his efforts (when I was a mcGovern anti-war voter)… I just don’t know how to “fix ” it…. Some of my friends took out republican ballots this primary to “stop trump” I don’t know how to gauge their efforts. Other people say they are “Green Party” yet Jill Stein has never even been on a school committee in her own town…. We expect a lot from the “Presidential” role and , except in the history books , I find I get disappointed easily. In an effort to finish my thoughts I just believe we have had too much Eng/LA /Math testing and science and civics education have been tossed out the window. MA Council for the Social Studies had programs on the table and they were shelved by Commissioner for lack of funds yet they found money to sent to Corporate Pearson.
The demons have been doing their evil work for decades; it’s just that their masters have now lost control of them.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Jean, I don’t know what to do either, and I don’t think anyone else does. In fact, at this point I’m skeptical of anyone who claims to know.
Like you, I respond to the decency that Elizabeth Warren exudes, but the timing has not been right for her to move to center stage.
I think we all feel as if we’re on the edge of tremendous change and impending disasters (economic, political, social). Actually, the changes and disasters are not impending, they’re happening in real time all around us: ecological crisis, huge forced migrations of humanity, a pathological ruling class that can only see profit in human suffering and misery, a media that peddles ignorance and spectacle…
At the dawn of the atomic age, Lewis Mumford said that unconditional cooperation was the only thing that could save humanity. His observation still holds, but seems less likely every day. When he spoke those words, the US had a viable social contract (at least for white males), but that is no longer the case. At the moment, we really seem to be on the edge of an abyss, and we’re locked into our electronic devices, egoism and habits, watching a toxic “reality” show as actual reality threatens to swallow us up.
“The Republican Id-iot”
Trump is a raging Id-iot
A “ME” without the TEAM
A random firing nitty wit
A pure, unconscious stream
I read an article that claimed that Trump appeals to authoritarian type personality. This may be true since I live in a military community and have seen numerous signs supporting Trump in the area. His appeal is his bold, brash direct approach. Minus the vulgarity and boasting, he has some of the same appeal as GW! People need to consider what a disaster the Bush ll era was for us and thoughtfully vote lest we saddle the country with another leader that lacks judgment and impulse control.
I think the reference was in David Brook’s (New York Times 2/26/16) op-ed “The Governing Cancer of Our Time”
“Trump’s supporters aren’t looking for a political process to address their needs. They are looking for a superhero. As the political scientist Matthew MacWilliams found, the one trait that best predicts whether you’re a Trump supporter is how high you score on tests that measure authoritarianism.”
But hey:
“We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated!”
and now if you add in a high score on tests (and now we’re back to testing) that measure authoritarinism . . .
Seems like a dangerous/toxic/lethal – the list goes on – combination.
Just so you know, the Mayor of Denver says 1. there’s no divide in the Democratic Party on privatization, and 2. Hillary Clinton will continue the ed reform agenda of the last 15 years unchanged.
All of these decisions have been made, so much so that they’ve announced there will be no further debate.
It’s full speed ahead on privatization for both political Parties:
https://www.the74million.org/article/the-74-interview-denvers-mayor-on-testing-hillary-clinton-and-americas-fastest-growing-urban-school-district
Obviously we all have to vote for someone or not vote, but we should know we’re being lied to again on support for public schools. This will be the third US President in a row who seeks to privatize public schools but does not run on that.
Testing and charters and vouchers. That’s what we’re getting out of DC. Since public schools are not charter schools or private schools, that leaves “testing for public school kids” as the singular focus of “ed reform”. Other than that our schools will continue their role as the unfashionable and neglected “default” for the “choice” system(s) these people prefer.
“Just so you know, the Mayor of Denver says 1. there’s no divide in the Democratic Party on privatization, and 2. Hillary Clinton will continue the ed reform agenda of the last 15 years unchanged.
All of these decisions have been made, so much so that they’ve announced there will be no further debate.” This is a worry of one; the only word I have is “neo-liberal” and they are so enamored with the computer hyper/marketing of technology to beat china or race to Mars or whatever (goal usually involves some warlike competitions).. Given that, I was incensed this week to read an article by Fisman in my Boston University alumni magazine. If any one has any comments on the article I would dearly love to know because it , to me, represents what happened in Flint MI and what is happening in our schools. It will take me two comments to get the article by Fisman in here so please bear with me…
this is the article that incensed me… “http://www.bu.edu/today/2016/income-inequality-ray-fisman/ this is what happened in Fisman and I call it “neo-liberal” if someone has a better word please let me know.
My professors in 1980s said “you cannot have excellence and equity both” you must make tradeoffs on the values…. The ed finance gurus tried to work out decision models to address the competition of these values. This Fisman fellow has taken us backwards with his “gaming” model and it is war is happening with the hyper-algorithms in the evaluation of public schools/teachers/vam.etc
this is where I thought we were in educational finance….http://www.schoolfunding.info/resource_center/research/professional_rigor.pdf but today’s algorithms and hyper marketing and gambling metaphors and sports metaphors have taken ed finance backwards…… that is why I resent the Fisman article so much….
I am missing something, Jean. Fisman’s theory makes perfect sense and doesn’t excuse those at the top of selfishness. I’m not sure why the political manipulation of resources to benefit those with political clout is better or for that matter different than what he is saying. Can you explain what you see as the dichotomy. I am missing your point.
Ah, how very, very sad. The non-dominant-culture “liberal” mayor of Denver, so cluelessly willing to push the very agenda which has led his own school district into having one of worst records for a test-score achievement segregation in the nation.
The Trump candidacy is the result of the brew that the 1% have concocted and forced down the throats of the American people. This malfeasance became more “inline policy” with the election of 1992.
Clinton, Bush, and Obama have quickly and efficiently shifted government from the people to corporate America. Deregulation policies, wars for profit, the attacking and blaming of the public sector for “financial motivation and disingenuous shifting of guilt”, and the cultivation of wrongly placing of America’s problems squarely on the laps of the American people have led us down this path.
The amazing thing is that the 1% continues to back its policies, doubling down against the 99%, and in itself demonstrates severe irresponsibility for the safety and well being of our nation.
Trump may or may not scare those who have climbed to the top on the backs of the American people, but the people of this nation have lost hope in those who claim to be leaders slowly tighten the screws around he necks of the middle class.
The savvy to make millions from biased legislation may make profits in unethical ways, but where we have been taken to over he past quarter century demonstrates the evils that those in positions of leadership should have had the intellectual capacity to avoid.
Matt Taibbi wrote the best article I’ve seen regarding the Trump phenomenon.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-america-made-donald-trump-unstoppable-20160224
“It turns out we let our electoral process devolve into something so fake and dysfunctional that any half-bright con man with the stones to try it could walk right through the front door and tear it to shreds on the first go.”
You are right, John. Taibbi did a fantastic job of analyzing the Trump appeal.
Thanks for this
See, we can agree on some things :-).
I think this may say it all: http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/so_a_reporter_dug_up_the_new_york_times_first_article_on_hitler/
Trump is lesser of four evils. Trump vs. Hillary, Hillary is lesser of two evils. Basic elimination, all that four bubble testing really pays off and saves time!
He is a product of the Republican party of the last 30 years or so. Recall the Republican campaign photo of a menacing black man? How about Bush II using Democrat support of gay rights as a weapon in his 2004 for his reelection, or how about playing the southwest against the northeast, or the anti immigrant stance/bashing taken by the Republican party that Trump is exploiting. Trump is using blunt language for policies the Republican party espoused through innuendo. Trump and the Republican party have long exploited voter’s fears and biases no matter the damage to the country.
Reminds me of Vladimir Putin 😦
Recently I have been thinking that Trump’s supporters are so disgusted and angry with what Citizen’s United created—the GOP taken over by far right extremists backed by the Koch brothers (Walton’s, etc.) and the Democratic Party being a fiefdom of Bill Gates and his cabal of billionaires—that they are willing to back a candidate who would destroy the United States if he is elected president and turn America into a third world dictatorship full of misery and suffering.
I’m surprised their slogan isn’t “Love Live Emperor Trump, world dominatior and dictator for life.”
What is the difference between Forest Gump and Donald Trump? One is helpful and friendly. Guess who. The answer does not start with a T.
from an article by Henry Giroux today : “Ominously, Trump’s campaign of violence has attracted a commanding number of followers, including the anti-Semitic and former Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke, and other white supremacists. But a death-dealing state can operate in less spectacular but in no less lethal ways. Cost-cutting negligence, malfeasance, omissions, and the withholding of social protections and civil rights can also inflict untold suffering.”
this commen is a combination from NYTimes and Daily Kos (yesterday MARCH3)”
“Trump’s candidacy is simply tapping in to the same age-old resentments that have riven this country for over 150 years… the emotions he deliberately stokes—envy, resentment and hate, are among the ugliest and most toxic that Americans have ever demonstrated.”
“What Republican Party leaders need to understand is this: Racial hatred is a threat to the country and their party’s leading candidate is doing everything he can to profit from it. ” New York Times cited in Daily Kos article http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/3/1495315/-The-New-York-Times-Calls-Out-Trump-For-What-He-Is-And-Who-He-Represents?detail=facebook
I think he is used to being an entertainer (i.e., the Apprentice) who knows how to go for ratings, but he’s short on substance. He can’t engage in a substantive debate on issues. Just outrageous responses to provoke attention.
Correct wdf. I lived in NYC from mid-’70’s-mid-’90’s, got to hear lots from the younger Trump. You have his number.
I lived in Brooklyn since 1941 thru the sixties and I knew his father and I remember his first venture Trump Village near Coney island, build with his father’s money.
The pendulum will swing until it finally fails.
Trump is the answer to Obama.
Interesting article about what is happening in our countryhttp://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism
Think Ted Cruz and Trump will improve upon you. Horrendous, that people like this can be considered for the presidency.
Chris Hedges on the Donald Trump phenomenon: “The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism” http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_revenge_of_the_lower_classes_and_the_rise_of_american_fascism_20160302
I read this at Oped, where ehe writes. Thanks! He got it right
Of all of the analyses of this phenomenon, this one nails it. And explains a lot about what’s playing out currently in education, too: The Rise of American Authoritarianism: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism
Thank YOU. good one.
For me, it is these books
Jerry mander: Absence of the Sacred
http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/mander.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
and “Four Arguments For theElimination of Television” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3NBEurnIqY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_ManderFour_Arguments_for_the_Elimination_of_Television
A long read but very interesting and scary.
This is all VERY interesting
Like in the Chinese curse:
may you live in interesting times.
Many believe Trump to be Fascist.
I believe so also, looking at what he is saying.
I LOVE the things that Bernie is saying
but
the media has never given him a real chance to promote his message
The corporate media pushes corporate agenda and then
reports on the “horse race mentality” , who is ahead in the polls
instead of
focusing on the agendas of the people involved.
Trump represents what the Replutocrat party has become, a bunch of corrupt, pandering shills who use fear and hate to motivate their voters. Trump just does it without restraint, holding up a mirror to the carefully manicured divide and conquer and BTW vote against your own best interests while you’re at it reactionaries. In many ways, he’s the best thing to happen to the rethugs in decades. I mean, for Romney and SPeaker Ryan to excoriate Trump for his racism and misogynist speech after presiding over the exact same rhetoric with deafening silence till now. I can’t recall any example of such blatant, desperately clueless hypocrisy as that. Trump is the monster made real by the hate of the right.
Typical liberal argument, no substance and all rhetoric, with selective disclosure. Sounds to me to me like Trump is no different than your selfie stick,narcissistic hero, who under his watch has aided and abetted terrorism, poverty, and genocide. If you are so afraid of strong national security maybe you should protect yourself. Let the people decide and focus on the issues not personal attacks. You should know better.
Bobby,
I don’t admire a person who mocks others. Trump reminds me of a schoolyard bully, taunting and teasing others to show what a big man he is.
He calls Senator Rubio “Little Marco.” He calls Senator Cruz “Lying Ted.”
He has no dignity. None.
I have higher expectations for an American president than you do. You have none except for a guy who boasts and swaggers.
Bobby,
With Trump, it’s all personal. He spends way more time attacking people who disagree with him than he does talking about the differences.
Besides, I don’t think he really has positions that are moored to anything beyond the most recent polls and what the crowd wants to hear.
“Focus on the issues, not personal attacks.”
Bobby, were you offering advice to The a Donald?
I have been actively involved in presidential elections since 1956, and I have never seen anyone as crude and malicious and vulgar as Trump. What an embarrassment to our country. Don’t let the children watch him. We don’t want them to see that adults talk the way he does.
Bobby, you are also in the camp of people who are existentially afraid and seek leadership that is strong, simple, and punitive. Please read: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism
Speaking of which, Trump is NO conservative, either. He is an authoritarian. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a person like you joining in with their white ‘hack-housing,’ ‘KKK-cheerleading,’ ‘Nazi-idolizing’ supporters to trash down people who don’t agree with him.
Diane,
You remain silent on your blog (which is your right!) as to who you would like to vote for and endorse, but you are not silent about who you would NOT vote for.
While I am uncomfortable with this, I still support you, and you are not accountable to me as to why you think the way you do. You are an ally. I don’t agree with you about NPE not coming out with an endorsement for Bernie. But you and I are who we are, and I remain uncomfortable with this selectivity.
Still, I will NOT vote for Trump or ANY GOP candidate.
But do you really think he is worse than all the others?
Trump is just as rotten as the others; he’s just more open and honest about it. He does not use polish and etiquette (which certainly have their indispensable place!) to ruin people’s lives.
Rubio, Cruz, et al, do have that polish and etiquette.
But ruination is ruination, no? They are ALL bad! Trump is course and vulgar evil; the others are banal evil. Evil is evil . . . .
Niceties in D.C. have been used up.
WOW! Bravo for your honesty. I, too wish Diane would endorse Bernie, and I try to grasp her reasons for remaining ‘neutral’. Sigh!
Diane is not silent. She did say, either dem front runner is fine with her.
Yeah, So, your point. ?
Susan: “Yeah, So, your point. ?”
I just reacted to Robert’s claim that Diane was silent on whom she’d vote for.
Oh, you mean that she won’t vote GOP.
We know that. She is very intelligent.
Bernie is the one who will support our middle class and our teachers. He needs the teacher vote. I understand Diane’s desire not to offend Hillary or Randi.
I just wish she would support this real, honest ,good man who is for us.
“I just wish she would support this real, honest ,good man who is for us.”
Indeed, what’s promising about Hillary’s presidency?
Mate Weirdl,
I stand corrected. What you say is true. And for the record, it is not Diane who can endorse anyone for NPE, but it is the Board At NPE that can. I am not privvy to the dynamics between Board members, nor should I be.
But given human nature, I am intrigued by people who say that they can truly go either way between two candidates when there are sucj qualitative differences, all based upon fact.
http://www.theonion.com/article/nadir-of-western-civilization-to-be-reached-this-f-2812
Just today my 20-something son & I discussed which was scarier: the prospect of a Trump nominee (my son) or a Cruz nominee (me).
Perhaps familiarity breeds contempt– I lived in NYC during the decades where the younger Trump evolved from playboy to top-of-the-heap builder to rich & adulterous gasbag. He is hardly a fascist, Nor a neo. His misogynous & racist remarks are casual, reflecting a willingness to cater to working-class cliché rather than borne of conviction (of which I suspect he has few, tho his family-issues compass swings at heart to liberal, I’ll wager). In his favor, I count a career steeped in negotiation (he is capable of compromise), & a personality which forces him to seek broad popularity (might cause him to stick closer to platform after election). And maybe a stretch, but also count positively the fierce reaction against him by party regulars: that could mean he’s gauged to lose against Hillary.
I am far more worried at the prospect of a Cruz nomination, which I fear could garner both party-regular & TP support, possibly making him a stronger contender against Hillary. This man is a rigid, uncompromising evangelical ideologue. His experience in for-pol is as slim as Trump’s– but at least Trump’s view of for-pol is slanted toward trade & economy, whereas Cruz’ is clearly all about the fight for hearts & minds [= war-monger]. This mindset is far closer to fascism.
My son & I ended up agreeing that it was like deciding whether you’d prefer to die by fire or ice… Sure I will vote for Bernie in the primary, in hopes of pulling Hillary’s mandate further leftward. But he could not win against either of these scary potential nominees. So don’t sit home, & don’t throw a possibly-Dem vote away on Jill Stein.
I’ m not a party regular and I am certainly not “establishment” but i sure have a fierce reaction against him… … there is no need to count the ways that I find him revolting….
the fierce reaction against him by party regulars: that could mean he’s gauged to lose against Hillary.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
do you call his rage to kill all the families and children — do you call that “foreign policy”….. Did you see 95 well known individuals signed off against his “foreign policy”? (It included Michael Chertoff and Niall Fergusson — I don’t care much for Niall Fergusson’s politics but he has provided extensive research on world wars and domination. I can see you are trying to say “neither one” Cruz/Trump and it’s good you talked it through with your son…. but I cannot make any kind of excuses for either one because I consider both men to be mentally ill and diagnosable in DSM. …. Cruz as an extreme reaction to communism that came out of Cuba… it is similar to Ayn Rand and her extreme reaction coming out of Russia. These extremes are not what represents the American community or the founding of the U.S. …. We have never been perfect in this country but neither Cruz nor Trump represents the best of what we have stood for … indeed they represent the worst….
as Trump’s– but at least Trump’s view of for-pol is slanted toward trade & economy,
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
The claim that Sanders “could not win against either of these scary potential nominees” (Cruz or Trump) in general election is not grounded in fact. It’s a myth — and, unfortunately, a rather persistent one.
See, for example, the latest CNN/ORC poll results
“Sanders — who enjoys the most positive favorable rating of any presidential candidate in the field, according to the poll — tops all three Republicans by wide margins: 57% to 40% against Cruz, 55% to 43% against Trump, and 53% to 45% against Rubio. Sanders fares better than Clinton in each match-up among men, younger voters and independents.”
“Clinton tops Trump 52% to 44% among registered voters. That result has tilted in Clinton’s favor since the last CNN/ORC Poll on the match-up in January.
But when the former secretary of state faces off with either of the other two top Republicans, things are much tighter and roughly the same as they were in January. Clinton trails against Rubio, with 50% choosing the Florida senator compared to 47% for Clinton, identical to the results in January. Against Cruz, Clinton holds 48% to his 49%, a slight tightening from a 3-point race in January to a 1-point match-up now.”
As noted above, Sanders holds the most positive favorability rating of any of the top candidates for president: 60% of registered voters view him positively, 33% negatively. He is the only candidate seen favorably by a majority of voters, and one of four who are seen more positively than negatively.
The two front-runners, Clinton and Trump, are seen unfavorably by majorities of voters. Almost 6-in-10 have a negative view of Trump, 59% with 38% favorable, and 53% have a negative view of Clinton, 44% see her positively.
///end quotes
The margin of error is +- 3 %, meaning that while Sanders actually beats all three Republicans in a head to head match up, Clinton only beats Trump. Against the other two, she is in a virtual tie – a coin toss.
So, are ya feeling lucky? Are ya?
Because a rational Democrat or Independent simply trying to keep a Republican from winning would actually favor Sanders as the nominee.
AH, someone who knows what the press is trying to tell us LONB BEFORE the nominees is chosen. Bernie can win, and may win, but one thing is for sure…Bernie will beat Drumpf, because when it comes down to just the candidates, and the press can concentrate on them, the identity of the men will be under the spotlight.
I feel sorry for Drumpf when his character is put up against Bernie Sanders, and the corrupt fascist that he is cannot be denied.
Ah, someDAMpoet, your stats are heartening! Thank you.
Jean Haverhill, Trump is an insincere windbag with no impulse control & unerring instinct for what people want to hear. I don’t believe he believes most of the passing fancies that blurb out as they pass thro his mind & out again.
bethtree
No problem and i don’t fault you for making the claim that sanders would lose against a Republican, since you said you were voting for bernie.
but unfortunately, I can not say the same for some of the folks repeating this myth.
I have no doubt that there is a quite conscious effort on the part of some of those supporting Clinton to push the myth that Bernie is unelectable in the general election.
And nothing could be further from the truth. The thing that is most telling for me is actually not that the polls have him beating the front runner Republicans by a wide margin but that people on both sides respect and like him, as is shown by his overwhelming favorability rating.
60%
And the fact that Hillary actually has a negative favorability rating is also very telling, not least of all because there are both Democrats and Independents who view her negatively. many of the latter will either vote third party or not vote at all if she is their only choice.
People really need to quit listening to the media (including NPR) who are basically trying to tell us who can and can not win — and who to vote for.
sorry, “bethree”
Trump and Bernie are both blowback. The right and the left, not a dimes difference between they way they govern. They tell a good story during the campaign, then once they get in office , no difference. Obama didn’t do anything he said he would. His foreign policy, same as everyone before him, regime change in the middle east, which would be Hillary’s or Cruz or Rubios policy.
The left is no better. I can’t count the number of liberal friends I have who will vote Trump over Hillary. Hillary is the Goldman Sachs candidate. She’s no leftist.
Ya think…actually that you believe this is sad. The difference between these 2 men is so immense that such a statement shows me how the press has made our citizens cynical and deaf to truth!
NoReform, what you say is quite true of mainstream Repubs & Dems. However, neither Sanders nor Trump nor Cruz are in that camp. Trump is unpredictable; Cruz is an extremist.
“Trump and Bernie are both blowback. The right and the left, not a dimes difference between they way they govern”
You’ve been listening to NPR (aka Nationalist Propaganda Radio) too much.
Don’t do it. It will rot your brain.
Ah, I now see that you were not really equating Sanders and Trump (as NPR actually has tried to do).
If you are essentially saying that support for both Sanders and Trump is a reaction to the lies that have been told by candidates of both major political parties, i agree.
But i think that is where the similarity between Sanders and Trump ends.
“We would be the laughing stock of the world.”
No, we are the laughing stock of the world. England wanted to ban Trump from ever stepping on their island. Putin is rolling on the floor laughing.
He scares me, too. At school, we are finishing up our unit on Ancient China. What China noted for? The invention of gunpowder and building a wall to keep out their enemies. 4000 years ago! We are supposed to learn from history but what do people like Trump want? Freedom to use guns and to build a wall ……So, school doesn’t really matter if we just do what we want anyways. So sad….
But two other things scare me more: our over reliance on everything computer making just send me an email preferred over come and talk to me and how we have truly forgotten that childhood is a journey not a race. Our children are losing the joy of being young…….
This man is the monster called Donald ‘dumb’ Trump dump truck (say it 10 times for tongue-twister). Drumpf in harrumph!
I agree with everything you say about Donald Trump, but, truthfully, Ted Cruz frightens me even more. I find him to be simply evil. All three want to give even more to the super rich, pulling more rug out from under the rest of us.
“We would be the laughing stock of the world.”
It has been difficult to take the US presidential office seriously in the last few decades. This years’ elections?
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/cartoons/2015/01/30/cartoons-on-the-2016-presidential-elections
This is with English subtitles. The US, ahem, Rome will be great again!!
You’d think this style wouldn’t fly in modern times, but, in fact, this is timeless. We just love to pound our chests like gorillas. The difference is that gorillas do not try to destroy the world.
the Matt Taibbi article is excellent and so is the Onion recommended by Bob Shepherd… one of my favorites from this Onion article : “According to the panel, the final event will occur at 3:32 p.m., when a tourist, believing the impressive structure to be a giant mall, will enter Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and, not finding what he is looking for, ask where “the damn Radio Shack is supposed to be.”
Interfaith Alliance has a radio interview with E. J. Dionne on his latest book Why The Right Went Wrong …http://stateofbelief.com/showarchive/2016/march-5th-2016-e-j-dionne-on-why-the-right-went-wrong/
NY Times, March 8, 2016: Donald Trump Doesn’t Understand Common Core (and Neither Do His Rivals)
Just an old fashioned defense of CC, which has been taken apart many times on this blog and elsewhere: the problem is not exactly with idea of the standards but the accompanying teacher and student evaluation system. Etc.
There are so many people who are honestly scared about the prospects of this election. My 17 year old son sneaked out of the house earlier this week at one in the morning, drove down the road, and recorded this song. Given what many 17 year olds would be doing sneaking out of their houses at 1:00 A.M… I am a blessed man! I hope his song encourages you.