The Washington Post brought on Jennifer Rubin as its columnist to represent the conservative point of view. She has been a reliable voice from the right. But she cannot stomach Donald Trump’s lies or the party leaders who excuse him.
The last straw for her was Trump’s announcement that Barack Obama was born in the United States. He took credit for “ending” the birther movement that he had done so much to build over the past five years, and he (and his surrogates) immediately blamed Hillary Clinton for starting the birther movement. If that was true, why would President Obama have invited her to become Secretary of State?
If you read the excuses and defenses of his surrogate, you will recognize a familiar pattern of behavior: deflect, blame, deflect, blame.
When Trump doesn’t want to answer a question about a decision he made, an action he took, he attacks Hillary Clinton or Obama.
During the Commander-in-Chief Forum, Trump was asked about his admiration for Putin. Matt Lauer listed some of the egregious things that Putin has done, and Trump interjected, “Obama has done worse.” Lauer was not asking about Obama, he was asking Trump why he admired a man who murders journalists and political opponents and invades a neighbor state. Trump: “Obama has done worse.”
The party of Trump, Rubin argues, can never inherit the mantle of the party of Lincoln. Those who followed him meekly will be disgraced; those who said #neverTrump will rebuild the center-right party. Not liars. Not the alt-right. Not racists. Not misogynists.
She concludes:
As for the fate of the GOP, the evidence mounts that it cannot go merrily on its way after the election. A party that would sanction people who call out a racist deserves to go out of business. A party whose congressional leaders remain supportive of a nominee who incites violence, perpetuates racism, blatantly, and traffics in conspiracy theories loses the moral authority to govern.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s funny that many conservatives are talking about the end of the GOP when it’s a hair’s breadth from acquiring the White House and both houses of Congress.
The GOP has been relying on its own set of facts since at least Reagan and Trump is merely the culmination of that trend. Rubin likely contributed to that descent into madness.
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Scott,
If Trump wins the White House, many things will end, not just the GOP as the party of Lincoln.
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Diane, the party of Lincoln has been dead since 1964. The GOP’s strength has depended on the racism of angry white men ever since and it may, perhaps, become even more so.
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Do you think it would be good for public schools if the DOE ends? Why or why not?
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“it’s a hair’s breadth from acquiring the White House”
Been bamboozled by the lame stream media, eh, Scott?
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Er, no, fivethirtyeight, the premier election prediction organization in the nation. Hillary’s odds have been plummeting for the past few weeks and now stand at slightly over 59%. If you weren’t aware at how close things have become, perhaps you’re the one bamboozled?
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“. . . the premier election prediction organization in the nation. . .”
Yep, just as in ’36 the premier prediction organiaztion in the States, “The Literary Magazine” with a margin of error* less than 1% predicted that Alf Landon would win by 54%. Landon got 37%. In the 48 election both Gallup and Roper had Dewey winning easily. “Dewey defeats Truman” read the Chi Daily Tribune, I’m sure you’ve seen the photo.
To be a “premiere election prediction organization” an organization must know how to bend the arc of truth. According to Seife in his book “Proofiness” “Polls are like a drug. The news media can’t swear off of them for even a few hours. . . “
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Duane,
Surely you know that the poll in 1936 was totally unscientific and consisted of asking the readers of a high-tone magazine who they would vote for. It had zero validity.
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And they are just as “unscientific” today-just like “measuring” a student’s learning. Both also have zero validity.
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Sorry, Duane, you’re acting like the Republicans in the last election, ignoring the polls because you don’t like what they’re telling you. Nate Silver of Fivethirtyeight called the election perfectly. And, seriously, you’re going back to 1948 to comfort yourself?
Truly, I hope you’re right, but let’s not act like Republicans and pretend our wishes are actually facts, OK?
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Yes, I realize that this Silver poll cat is perceived as the current guru just like the others whom I mentioned were in their time. Didn’t Santayana have something to say about disregarding history?
But acting like a Rethug? Come on I have gotten better compliments than that.
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You’re picking and choosing the history you want to pay attention to. That isn’t the behavior of someone who is interested in the truth.
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I know of no history that isn’t a “picking and choosing” of what to pay attention to. Do you?
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You missed the point about picking and choosing “what you want to listen to”. The wise man picks and chooses the history that is most useful to the present situation, even when it doesn’t make him happy. The flawed polling methodology of 1948 isn’t relevant today. Regardless, it would be prudent to use the more disturbing history as the basis for current action, rather than the history that leads to complacency.
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And that’s just it, Scott, the polling today suffers the same inherent flaws as they did in the past. As a means of supposedly discerning the truth of a matter polling is about as accurate as measuring the size of someone’s cranial capacity to determine their intelligence. Yes, that is how inaccurate it is, enough that one should reject it as a means of ascertaining election realities.
“The wise man. . . ” I agree and that is why I rightly reject polling as a means of determining “truth” about election reality. I didn’t miss any point.
And yes, indeed, I can interpret underhanded slaps in the face quite well. Tis the method of scoundrels and cowards who are so self confidently unaware.
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No, the polling does not suffer from the same flaws it did over 60 years ago.
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If I may suggest you read Chapter 4 “Poll Cats” of Charles Seife’s 2010 book “Proofiness: How you are being fooled by numbers” to understand those still there flaws.
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Scott
Nate missed the Sanders victory in Wisconsin big time. But Unfortunately I do agree. Not to sound like Trump but this was predictable. Keep a passport handy.
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Keep up the good work, Duane. Love you, man. 😉
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Thanks, Dienne, for the kind words!
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I have to agree with you, Scott, on the “hair’s breadth” point. Hell, I can’t even believe Trump has survived for so long. I have been telling my wife since last year that Trump wouldn’t make it to the next phase. However, I have been so wrong on so many levels. It doesn’t make rational sense to me, so I have come to a new conclusion: I do not understand Trump or those who would vote for him in the slightest, but I definitely fear it and I will do whatever I can to make sure the Duterte of the US doesn’t make it into power in White House.
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Good! We should be running scared. I’m hoping that those who say they’re voting for Trump will lack the enthusiasm to show up on election day. I’m also hoping that Millennials will come to their senses and realize that Clinton is better than a protest vote for Stein or Johnson. Finally, I hope that Clinton puts in a good showing during the upcoming debate.
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I suppose you believe in the tooth fairy as well. Clinton should go to jail for what Trump is going to do to the country. Not for the stupid emails
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“Clinton should go to jail for what Trump is going to do to the country.”
I’m not familiar with that section of the U.S. criminal code.
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Clinton should go to jail…?
You’ve made Trump’s day.
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NYC public school parent
Should go to jail for allowing the revolting _____ of ____to become President of the United States. Hardly a statement to make his day.
Hillary is slipping not because more DESPICABLE’s are voting for Trump. She is losing the millennial vote big time and not to Trump.
Instead of embracing their aspirations talking to those issues that sent them to Sanders in droves she has been too cleaver by far.
If you want a detailed list, I will provide it. But in summary Sanders campaign was not fueled by promises of free college. It was fueled by the notion that the system is rigged and government should work for the people not the .01%. Keep going to those fund raisers Hillary. Although I have to ask what would she say to millennials that they would believe at this point.
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Trump offers nothing to the millennials. Nothing except let’s blow up the system.
Those millennials like Obama. They aren’t saying “Obama is in it for the .01%”. Find me a poll that shows how Obama’s support among the millennials is low.
Those millennials hate Clinton. They have been told over and over again that she is a corrupt sell out. Not a politician as usual. But someone who would happily sell this country down the road. DIFFERENT than Obama. WORSE than Obama.
Blaming Hillary Clinton for that is like blaming Al Gore for his sigh. Like blaming Dukakis for being in a tank.
It’s all about perception. When the media absolves itself of the duty to tell the truth, the right has always been able to paint whatever picture they want for voters that don’t know very much. And the millennials who think Trump is better than Clinton don’t know very much.
The millennials believe Hillary is far worse than Obama. That perception is fueled by people on here who act as if Hillary is far worse than Obama. And if that’s the way you feel, you might as well vote for Trump (“to blow up the system”) than Clinton – the most corrupt politician ever. She isn’t. She has never been. But she has always been portrayed that way by people don’t don’t like her because she is too liberal! Ironic isn’t it. People who forget history are doomed to repeat it as unfortunately it appears our country is about to find out.
You can blame Hitler’s opponent for Hitler. You can blame the Jews for not getting out fast enough or not realizing that their support of other candidates that the “people” of Germany didn’t like justified Hitler’s rise. You can blame EVERYONE except the people who voted for Hitler. That’s what you are doing. Don’t blame all those Hitler Youth, they just were so turned off by the other candidate.
sorry, but I’m not buying it. If you support Trump, if you insist non-stop that his opponent as evil and corrupt and just as dangerous as he is, then you can’t feign innocence if Trump wins and upends this country. Unless you are giving a free pass to the Germans who elected Hitler because they just didn’t like his opponent very much. Blaming the opponent is the biggest cop out I have ever heard.
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FWIW, I don’t think Hitler ever won an election.
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FWIW Hitler won enough popular support to be appointed Chancellor and then seize power as a “popular” leader similar to Putin. Where anyone who opposes you and has power ends up in jail or dead.
But if that helps you sleep better at night when Trump becomes President, good for you.
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Hitler ran in only one election. He came in first with 33-34% of the vote. There were no more free elections.
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Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
When you’ve lost Jennifer Rubin, you’ve lost even more of the semi-sane Republicans (and I mean only “semi-sane”).
On the other hand, I’m waiting for Ann Coulter to trash Trump. And I may be waiting a long time.
Also, unfortunately, the “angry white male” (and female, let us not forget) demographic is not reading Jennifer Rubin. They are listening to people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. I’m also waiting for them to renounce Trump.
I mean, Reince Priebus, head of the RNC, has threatened that the Republican Party could penalize any former Republican candidates who refuse to back Trump.
This is the current Republican Party, people.
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One of the relative “good” things about Trump is that he has even split the hate wing radio spewers who dominate talk radio from sea to shining sea. Hannity is attacking Beck over his lack of support for Trump. Whoopee! Have at it boys. However, that fleeting feeling of schadenfreude is soon deflated by the fact that Trump may win. That is a horror.
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Cry me a river of crocodile tears! Rubin and her ilk have been laying the foundation for what the Republican Party has become for decades. Now they (and sadly, we) are reaping what they’ve sown. I fought against David Duke in 1989-90 because I felt his ideas would poison our national fabric. Instead they have become mainstreamed by the GOP. Rubin cheered them on. I don’t remember her outrage when Mitch McConnell and his minions pledged to block anything with Obama’s name or scent on it. Now they can’t even pass bipartisan criminal justice reform or pass clean bills for medical emergencies like Zika or natural disaster relief. This is the party you helped make, Rubin. Own it.
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This is absolutely true. On the other hand, at least she is finally coming to her senses. Maybe it’s too late, but if more Republicans like her would really shout the truth, the media would find it hard to continue their “both sides are equally corrupt with Hillary a little more corrupt than Trump” narrative.
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The rise of the Tea Party and the election of Obama turned the Republicans into complete obstructionists. They wouldn’t even vote on Obama’s moderate Supreme Court nominee. Some of them want the federal government to fall apart because they are such states’ rights zealots.
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States rights zealots who will support an authoritarian demagogue.
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“Lauer was not asking about Obama, he was asking Trump why he admired a man who murders journalists and political opponents and invades a neighbor state. Trump: “Obama has done worse.””
I can’t agree that Obama has done worse. Both he and Putin have been equally evil in the killing of innocents, IN THE KILLING OF THEIR OWN CITIZENS WITHOUT ANY JUDICIAL AUTHORIZATION to further their stated ends. Only blind fools, or in the USA blind supposedly patriotic American Exceptionalists refuse to acknowledge those facts.
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Duane: I can’t agree that Putin and Obama are “equally evil.” How many journalists has Obama murdered? How many political dissidents? Did he order the military to shoot down a civilian airliner filled with vacationing tourists?
Obama is a constitutional lawyer. He knows the limits of his power.
Putin is a KGB agent. He does what he wishes to consolidate his power.
Obama will leave after two terms. Putin will stay as long as he wants.
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Duane,
You disappoint me here. I think you need to read more about Russia. I recommend anything by Masha Gessen or Julia Ioffe. Read about the members of Pussy Riot and what they had to endure in labor camps. Putin has created a climate of terror. Would you have the courage to speak as critically about your leader if you lived in Russia right now? I have incredible respect for Navalny and the handful of people who dare to openly criticize Putin now. They know that they, and the lives of their loved ones, are in mortal danger.
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I am fully aware of what Putin is and represents. I am also fully aware of what Obama is and has done in regards to continuing the “security state” that is the US of A and the continuing, ongoing destruction of many innocents in many different countries by his orders. Tis not I who needs to wake up but the American people who refuse to look beyond their own little insulated “America is #1” beliefs and see the world as it is.
And I stand by my statement that for all practical purposes the evils that Obama has perpetuated are no different in kind than Putins. Putin just has the leg up on Obama in quantity. Our president is a “kindler gentler” version, that is all.
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And I never voted for Obama because by his prior actions and words I knew what side of the divide he would be on in regards to those civil liberty issues and using the death and destruction machine that is the US military the way he has. I didn’t buy it then and I certainly can’t buy that Hillary will do any different now, when, unfortunately, she is elected. The wars and carnage will continue unabated.
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In the US, we can still argue publicly about the pros and cons about a US President without believing we will be thrown in jail.
Duane, if you were in Russia, you would not be able to say that.
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The good ol what ifs come out, eh!
Well the fact is we are not in Russia, we are here in the US of A and it is my right and DUTY to voice my concerns, and they are many, especially in regard to the national security state and our foreign entanglements. Leave the what ifs for ???, they really aren’t much good in honest discussions other than to deflect not so subtle “not socially acceptable” questions.
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I welcome your criticism of the candidates. You make valid points about Obama that need to be talked about.
But I do not welcome your hyperbole. Or maybe you believe it. Obama and Putin — no difference. None at all. And Hillary is equally evil. Might as well vote for Trump.
“the evils that Obama has perpetuated are no different in kind than Putins.”
Since Obama and Putin are equally evil, and Hillary is no different, might as well elect Donald Trump and blow up this country, right?
If you truly see absolutely no difference between Putin and Obama then you obviously live in an entirely different universe than I do.
And if you just like to throw out hyperboles because you think they are funny and as a white man you feel protected from the nastiness directed to people who don’t happen to be white, then have a bit of empathy for people who aren’t quite as privileged.
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NYC public School PArent, when someone says there is no difference between Obama and Putin, between a democratically elected president in a country governed by law and a KGB-style dictator, who rules by murder and intimidation, then I realize rational discussion is impossible.
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No, NYCpsp, those supposedly logical connections Obama = Putin = Clinton = a vote for Trump are, well not logical. Those connections don’t necessarily follow.
“If you truly see absolutely no difference between Putin and Obama then you obviously live in an entirely different universe than I do.”
I never said that there was “absolutely no difference” nor implied that, You are putting words into my mouth that were never there. Re-read what I have said. Now, waxing philosophically, one might contend that each human lives in their own different universe, but that is not the point in this discussion-ha ha!
“And if you just like to throw out hyperboles because you think they are funny and as a white man you feel protected from the nastiness directed to people who don’t happen to be white, then have a bit of empathy for people who aren’t quite as privileged.”
#1 they are not hyperboles. The evil, the death and destruction caused by Obama and Putin are of the same kind. You’ve brought up the “white male privilege” nonsense, yes I’m being kind by calling it nonsense before, and I’ve addressed it here: https://dianeravitch.net/2016/09/17/charles-blow-trumps-birther-lies-are-unforgivable-and-deplorable/comment-page-1/#comment-2596402 but let me restate my final thought on that one: “Yes, I am a white male and I have no clue what that has to do with the price of tea in China.”
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Diane wrote:
“. . . between a democratically elected president in a country governed by law and a KGB-style dictator, who rules by murder and intimidation, then I realize rational discussion is impossible.”
Rational discussion isn’t possible when one throws out mis-statements like that one. Putin was democratically elected in 2012 for a six year term.
P.S. Wasn’t Georgie the First the former head of the CIA? So does that make him a CIA-style dictator?
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Duane,
Putin is a KGB-style dictator. Stalin was elected too.
George HW Bush was elected in a free and open election. No critics or journalists were murdered.
I don’t want to continue this discussion. If you can’t see any difference between the US and Russia, so be it. It’s a free country.
You remind me of a joke. An American and a Soviet citizen meet in Vienna about 1987. They debate the differences between their countries, each claiming their own country is freer than the other. The American says, “I can stand up in public and say at the top of my voice, ‘Reagan is an idiot, and nothing will happen to me.” The Soviet citizen harrumphes and says, “So can I. I too can shout in the middle of Moscow ‘Reagan is an idiot at the top of my voice,’ and nothing will happen to me.”
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Indeed we will have to agree to disagree on this one Diane.
But when you state that “If you can’t see any difference. . . ” you are doing what NYSpsp has been doing and are putting words into my mouth that I never said. I have been equating/assessing the evil of their actions, if that is possible, considering both Putin and Obama and the presidents before him have ordered the killings of thousands and thousands. I thoroughly object to your mis-characterization of my argument.
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Duane Swacker says:
“#1 they are not hyperboles. The evil, the death and destruction caused by Obama and Putin are of the same kind.”
What can I possibly add to your own statement to make my point?
I get that you make extremely subtle distinctions between Obama and Putin elsewhere, but your loud and clear statement above is EXACTLY the message that the right wing has successfully made to the American public about Trump and Clinton. No difference. So blow up the system. Or vote for a 3rd party candidate. You could work for Karl Rove with this kind of “but I made a subtle distinction so don’t call me a liar, it’s not my fault people got that mis-impression, it’s their own fault” attitude.
Just as you keep insisting there are tiny little subtle distinctions that you hope the reader can find among what stands out loud and clear with every paragraph you write. There is no difference between the two (well there is a tiny little difference I will acknowledge and you should have realized that and not notice where I keep talking about how evil and terrible they both are, so don’t blame me when Trump wins .)
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The GOP died again this weekend?
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Sometimes, Flerp, you do make me laugh…yes, it died again. Lots of zombies left over however.
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No, they just stopped yelling at the TV and kids on their lawns. Silence was mistaken for demise.
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This of it this way:
My life closed twice before its close—
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
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deflect, blame, deflect, blame
Yes, and the interviewers in the media just love to put out the bait for the Trumpeters who have been well-trained to deploy that tactic for EVERY question.
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If Trump wins, I can’t imagine telling a student to speak about our president respectfully .
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http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/296460-jane-goodall-compares-trump-debate-style-to-chimpanzees
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http://billmoyers.com/story/theres-no-debate/
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Excellent article, Joel.
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The hard left anger at President Obama and Hillary Clinton plays into
Trumps hands…Bernie is correct…our obligation is to defeat Trump who is
Hitlerian in his use of the big lie and who was also written off until it was too late.
I don’t see how any reasonable person can not be alarmed at the latest polling done by Nate Silver who has a proven track record…this is not a laughing matter.
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No worries, they are both equally bad. And I’m white and not one of the groups who will be scapegoated when it all comes crashing down, so don’t blame me for telling the American people how evil and corrupt Hillary Clinton is! Didn’t you read the subtle distinctions I made among my constant trumpeting over and over again that Obama and Hillary were so much like Hitler/Trump? Somewhere in there I mentioned that they weren’t EXACTLY alike, how could you have missed it? So if Trump wins, it’s all Hillary’s fault.
Not only is it not funny, it is truly terrifying that right thinking people do not even realize how they are playing right into a Trump victory. Or maybe they feel privileged enough not to care.
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Again, being white has what to do with the price of tea in China, NYCpsp?
“Or maybe they (obviously the they refers to a certain white male here but let’s not name names) feel privileged enough not to care.”
This whole concept of privilege leaves so much to be desired as a rhetorical device, ay ay ay (hey, you, white guy, you can’t use that it’s Spanish-what are you privileged?).
Look NYCpsp, I’m not the one bringing one’s skin tone into this conversation and which does nothing but hinder communication, you’re the one that keeps speaking of this “white privilege”.
Why??
What purpose does it serve??
Is it not as much prejudiced as other bad distinctions based on race??
I’d like to think we’re in this-to discuss providing “a better education for all”-together. Not so subtle and not so disguised jabs at others doesn’t help.
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Duane Swacker,
Are you really unable to imagine what it must feel like as a Muslim American watching the rise of Trump and hearing supposedly good people tell you “he’s bad but so is his opponent”? Or “the system is so corrupt we might as well blow it up”.
I apologize for using white. I should have said white Christian, or possibly white Jew (although I have little faith that if push comes to shove and all the other scapegoats have been exhausted, that Jewish bankers and then all Jews will replace them as scapegoats.)
The racism, xenophobia, and truly appalling rhetoric aimed at minorities that is coming from Trump and his minions is frightening.
I find it hard to believe if you were a Muslim of middle eastern descent you could possibly be so determined to convince us all that there is almost no difference between the candidates. And that is privilege.
Your characterization of the notion of privilege as a Latino telling a white person they can’t use Spanish is disgusting when we have a Presidential candidate spouting hatred the likes of which we have never seen. And no doubt if the President of the US was spouting such hatred directed at a minority group that your children were part of, you would not think it to be quite the joke when your best pal — whose kids happened to be in the privileged position of being the “correct” race or religion — told you that it was no big deal.
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NYCpsp,
No, I’m not quite that thick skulled (Neanderthal?) to not be able to imagine what it can be like to be part of the minority group to which you refer. It’s just that I don’t view the situation in the same fashion as you do. Since you are a Muslim American of Middle Eastern descent (I’m assuming by what you wrote that that is an accurate description, correct me if not), I can understand your fear, as, unfortunately there are far too many Amurikans who have no clue about all the variations of humanity that exist-just ask a Sikh about that cluelessness.
But to assume as you have, that white and/or white xtians who consider the Hillary as bad as the Trumpster are somehow in the Trumpster’s camp is ludicrous.
Your definition of “privileged” is also ludicrous and risible. I am supposedly “privileged” because I see hardly any difference between the two chuckleheads of the duopoly?? Privilege doesn’t work that way. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, which is where privilege usually starts.
And you totally missed my point about using Spanish. Reread it.
What I see is that you NYCpsp are allowing the fear of the future to guide your current paranoia in regards to these elections. Not the way I choose to live my life.
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As I say, you are privileged to be able to say “a pox on both their houses” when one of their houses has been preaching hatred and xenophobia toward a minority group that you aren’t part of.
I know you aren’t a Trump supporter. I also know that you have made it perfectly clear that you aren’t particularly concerned about the future if he wins.
And I will say again, if your grandchildren were Muslims of Middle Eastern descent, I doubt very much you would be so sanguine about whether the candidate who has been fomenting hatred toward them, or the candidate that hasn’t, wins.
One doesn’t have to be a Muslim to understand how privileged such a position is. Being privileged isn’t about your race. It is about refusing to acknowledge that your race allows you to feel safe when a candidate is fomenting hatred toward people who aren’t in the same position of privilege that you are.
Just like it’s easy to bash the BLM movement if you are white and it isn’t your teen son or brother minding his own business who suddenly is shot dead by police for looking “scary”. That’s privilege money can’t buy. You have to be born with it. And you can either deny that you have it, or recognize it and try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and imagine what it feels like every single day to listen to that kind of hatred directed toward your children.
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“I don’t see how any reasonable person can not be alarmed at the latest polling done by Nate Silver who has a proven track record…”
Because that supposed track record is not as proven as you like to believe:
““Even when all of Silver’s models for a given race turn up wrong, it never seems to be FiveThirtyEight’s fault,” wrote Virgil. “… Their mea culpa after Michigan’s Democratic primary, which Sanders won by 1.5 percentage points even though Silver’s model gave Clinton a greater than 99 percent chance of winning, was titled ’Why the Polls Missed Bernie Sanders’s Michigan Upset.’ … what’s the point of a prediction if you can’t stand by it, and if it doesn’t, well, predict? This ridiculous backpedaling has a glib, Brechtian tone to it: ‘The models are right. It’s the voters who are wrong.’” From: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/07/the-sudden-shocking-fall-of-nate-silver.html
For a more complete rational discussion on “poll cats” (do you know what the common name for a polecat is?) read Charles Seirce’s Chapter 4 “Poll Cats” in his 2010 book “Proofiness: How You are being Fooled with Numbers”.
A “reasonable person” shouldn’t be alarmed by the polling done by Silver. It’s as bogus as all polling numbers have been since that concept was developed. There are far too many fundamental variables in an election that cannot be ascertained which leaves the polling process very much less than accurate, i.e., invalid.
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From the above mentioned article about Silver’s fall:
MEASURING
We, however, must not give up. To paraphrase an English author, quantitative politics has not been tried and found wanting; it has been tried and found difficult.
If I have one theme I return to, it is to argue for philosophy and politics in the business of society. Philosophy does not disagree with numbers. There are always numbers. Philosophy tells us if the arguments we make from those numbers is good. There is nothing wrong with making models of life. Models are enticing, because they sacrifice the possible for the certain. But the art of politics can show us how those models will work in a normal world, where not everything proceeds rationally. Abandoning politics means abandoning the competing dialogue of persons and interests—which is the reality of politics—for facsimiles which have nothing to do with the world. Silver’s failure does not mean that numbers are wrong, that counting is wrong, or that a great unified theory of politics is impossible. Rather, it argues that the models and theories we have now are childish, and we need to do better.
Our culture worships measurement, but we have no idea what to measure. We designed perfect scales, but can’t figure out what to weigh. Some things cannot be measured easily, or at all. We know the cost, but the value eludes us. This leads to the worship of the map, not the terrain. We ought to be better than Alexander, who when he approached India, wept, thinking there were no more worlds to conquer; he imagined he had reached the end of the world but had only approached the end of his narrow understanding. We should not weep that there are no more worlds to count. We have not even begun to count this one properly.
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