Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Friday, December 11, 2015

Trump Supporters




Every time we think Trump has hit rock bottom, the tycoon breaks out the jackhammer and keeps going. The only thing more alarming than The Donald? His supporters.





Storm Front, Aryan Nation, Neo-Nazis and other assorted bigots and racists, and let's not forget those Americans who believe neo-fascist Trump would make our country great again.  They're all in for this guy who appeals to the very worst in human nature. So is it surprising to discover who the human beings are who are enthralled with him?


The Post-Star editorial board: 

 Donald Trump has stepped over the line that separates politics and morality, and that doesn’t happen very often. [...] We as citizens need to face up to the enemy. Right now, you can make a good case it is Donald Trump. 

David Ignatius: 

 But the judgment of history should matter to other Republicans. Historians will look harshly on those who, for reasons of cowardice or opportunism, kept silent when Trump’s tirades put our constitutional values and the safety of Americans at risk — not to mention the political future of the GOP. [...] 

 How will history judge other prominent Republicans who have been onlookers and even cheerleaders as the Trump car wreck has ensued? Can Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) really continue to waffle on anti-Muslim statements? Is this former Supreme Court law clerk really so clueless about the Constitution? How about Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.)? Does he have the backbone to take on the demagogue? All we can say is that historical reputations will be made and lost over the next few weeks.









TRUMP SUPPORTERS, THE DREGS OF AMERICAN SOCIETY

8 comments:

Shaw Kenawe said...

From the David Ignatius column:

Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric will live in infamy in U.S. history. He obviously doesn’t mind; his narcissistic personality is so extreme that every high-visibility outrage is for him a kind of validation. (If you’re curious about other examples of such personalities, read the recent book “Narcissism and Politics: Dreams of Glory,” by Jerrold Post, the CIA’s former director of psychological profiling.)

How many times have we read on Tea Party blogs that "Mr. Obama is a narcissist?" Too many to count. Yet here is a bonafide, raging narcissist, and the same people who were so sure Mr. Obama is a narcissist, don't see it in Trump. This is more evidence that the people who support Trump are driven by their rage and feelings of inadequacy, so a demagogue like Trump, who is the very definition of narcissism, is appealing to them. He doesn't reason, he rages. Rage is very satisfying in the short term; in the long term, it's destructive. People who know history understand what Trump is about.

Ronnie's Ray Gun said...

Did you see this one Shaw?



December 11, 2015 8:53 AM
Donald Trump as Angry Adolescent
By Nancy LeTourneau



As a family therapist, I occasionally worked with adolescents who struggled because they were at a point where they were ready to mature past their parent’s level of development. For whatever reason, some people simply fail to grow up.

That is essentially how Mark Bowden describes Donald Trump based on an interview he did with him for Playboy magazine back in 1996. Here are a couple of the pertinent excerpts:

Trump struck me as adolescent, hilariously ostentatious, arbitrary, unkind, profane, dishonest, loudly opinionated, and consistently wrong. He remains the most vain man I have ever met. And he was trying to make a good impression…
He has no coherent political philosophy, so comparisons with Fascist leaders miss the mark. He just reacts. Trump lives in a fantasy of perfection, with himself as its animating force…
Apart from the comical ego, the errors, and the self-serving bluster, what you get from Trump are commonplace ideas pronounced as received wisdom…The ideas that pop into his head are the same ones that occur to any teenager angry about terror attacks. They appeal to anyone who can’t be bothered to think them through—can’t be bothered to ask not just the moral questions but the all-important practical one: Will doing this makes things better or worse? When you believe in your own genius, you don’t question your own flashes of inspiration.

Yep, that pretty well describes a lot of 13 year-olds I’ve met over the years.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Ronnie's Ray Gun,

Very perceptive piece on Trump. There's a certain pornographic blog where adolescents romp and prance and where most of the pro-Trump regulars there haven't matured beyond posting tittie and tushie photos, photos of the Obamas as apes and half apes, and photos of males fellating each other, IOW, the level of maturity and discourse there is around the age of 13.

So it makes sense that they'd love a guy like Trump who most definitely is stuck in undescended male adolescence. Trump's one of them.

Ronnie's Ray Gun said...

"...undescended male adolescence."

good one, shaw great description of the porn queen's fanboys.

Shaw Kenawe said...


Expert: New England police union that endorsed Trump doesn’t represent most officers’ views

Tom Nolan, a former Boston Police Department lieutenant who now teaches criminology at Merrimack College.

“Up until a few months ago, no one had ever heard of them,” Nolan said. “This is some wingnut faction of cops who came together and made up some club, and then try to get on the national stage by doing these grandstanding political things.”

Nolan said he was not aware of the organization, which was founded in 2005, endorsing a presidential candidate in the past. The group’s executive director, Jerry Flynn, a Lowell policeman who’s currently on leave, did not respond to a request for comment from Boston.com.

Nolan, who served in the Boston police force for 27 years, said the association’s views don’t represent those of most police officers in New England—especially of those in Boston.


Ducky's here said...

Well, the RNC is pulling out all stops to get a stooge like Rubio nominated.

Ain't gonna happen. The inmates are thoroughly in control of the ward.

I still say look for Cruz to be the nominee.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness has been replace by Hate, Fear and Greed.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Ducky,

White Nationalists Among Donald Trump's Most Enthusiastic Supporters


The bigots, racists, and white supremacists have all come out of the woodwork, like the borrowing worms that they are and have joined with Trump's other enthusiastic neo-fascist* supporters. At least we now know who they are and how many of them there are.


*I've read scholars' opinions on why Trump isn't a "true" fascist. Well, he may not be a fascist in the way Mussolini and Hitler were, so that's why I am confident in calling him a "neo" fascist. Every country has them in their population -- far rightiest, reactionaries, nativists, but to hear Trump harangue and demonize -- along with his elimination rhetoric on "bombing the shit" out of people and threatening to use the government to do his dirty deeds makes him IMO a NEO-fascist -- America's own special brand of fascism. He may not fit the classic definition of fascism, but that's because he's an American neo-fascist.

Ducky's here said...

Guess who else loves some Trump.

"In a Facebook post this week, XXXXXXX said the “herd mentality” is “running rampant with hypocritical and/or naive pundits trying to crush Donald Trump because he’s committed to clobbering the bad guys, and putting the good guys first. Trump’s temporary ban proposal is in the context of doing all we can to force the Feds to acknowledge their lack of strategy to deal with terrorism.”"

Hint: The dumbest individual to ever be nominated VP.

Popcorn?