In 2004, when George W. Bush won re-election, I wrote a post called "Hope In A Hopeless World." The election of Donald Trump seems so much worse. Is there any hope now?
My 2004 post sounds positively hopeful, especially in comparison to how I feel now. But reading it over, some of my ideas still seem sound, if I may so. The main points, adapted for today, are:
1. Trump is not popular. Clinton is favored to win the popular vote. That means Trump is vulnerable, especially in the court of public opinion. That leaves a door open to mount an effective opposition to his probably-even-more-unpopular policies.
2. We still have the court of public opinion available to us. Republicans have been very savvy about using messaging when they lost. Why can't we?
3. I wrote then that rather than condemn the Swift Boat Vets (who went after John Kerry with a bogus, irrelevant issue), we could take a page from their playbook: Fasten on a single issue and hammer it home again, again and again. Wouldn't social media facilitate that? And isn't it what Trump did very successfully?
6. We have a lot of material to work with. Trump has so many shortcomings that sooner or later his chickens will probably come home to roost. Why not rush them along so that we don't go down the tubes along with him?
We know that Trump will not be able to implement all the things he has promised. We know that he will disappoint many of his followers. We know that there are lots of Republicans who do not like him. Our only hope seems to be a robust opposition. I'm not so sure there's a chance but... well, what do you guys think?
I don't know that I'll be able to watch Fox today. I feel like I need to take a breath and think about where to go from here.
Let's all take a time out and take stock.
Meanwhile, here's the song I thought of in 2004 and again this morning when I could not sleep.
I still can’t believe the results. I guess the majority of Americans are past racism but not sexism.
Ellen I don’t see Congress doing anything to Trump. Not in 2018 either cuz democrats won’t get off their goddamned asses to vote in an off year.
Then there’s the alt-right. If Fox News is the first floor open to sunlight mainstreaming propaganda from basement dwellers like Rush. Trump, Bannon and company are the sub-basement just 1 level up from the publishers of “The Crusader”.
I’m totally alienated from America and Americans. I don’t want to sound like a spoiled Hollywood star but if I could emigrate elsewhere as a practical matter I would. No kidding. No drama. I’m done with America as long as white hoodies are in fashion in the Rose Garden.
When their jobs don’t come back from China because Orange Donald and his business cronies love cheap foreign labor.
When their sons and grandsons are sent off to a bloody, costly war against Iran.
In two years, the teabillies will be yelling “Lock HIM up.”
(paraphrasing) The main difference between the way Drumpf’s opponents and supporters took him was this:
his opponents took him literally, but not seriously;
his supporters took him seriously, but not literally.
As for Donny “acting presidential”, I figure that’ll last about as long as it takes for him to sign enough EO’s to erase Obama’s legacy (ACA, etc.) — about one or two days — then, he’ll just turn over everything to Pence, since he’s demonstrated, through word and action, that the whole “governing” part of being POTUS isn’t all that appealing to him . . .
.
True, that, but I wouldn’t justify taking the law into one’s own hands. Mussolini was subjected to mob justice because he’d already risen from the ashes, the war had not yet ended and the Partigiani didn’t have the means to keep prisoners of his calibre. In any case, the USA already has quite enough of a reputation for killing its leaders: highest rate in the so-called developed world.
PS: Although Italians do have a somewhat justified reputation for being good people at heart, the Mussolini experience tells us that every society has exceptions and the goon squads, also Italians, did some pretty awful stuff. That’s typical when the ignorant and frustrated get a chance to do whatever they want. That’s when we get lynch mobs, torturers, serial killers, whatever. I’m scared at what will happen in the USA should The Donald actually decide to act presidential.
Good God!! We suffered Reagan. We suffered the idiot, W. I don’t think America has the luxury of a third stupid President.
You can bet your warmest pair of socks that Putin was chuckling in his vodka as he witnessed the beacon of democracy elect a person who does not seem to have ever read the Constitution, let along share the values laid down, therein. I deem myself to have been lucky to have had a history teacher in high school who believed in studying that document. A former Marine, he’d won a full slate of medals for having fought against the likes of Mussolini, Hitler and Hirohito. He spent a lot of time explaining the sort of things that we saw in a lot of movies made during the Fifties: e.g. The Nurimberg Trials with Spencer Tracy, a movie against anti-semitism with Cary Grant as an investigative journalist, a movie about racism. He sort of became my idea of a true American, whereas Trump fits my idea of an ugly American quite nicely. More’s the pity.
I, too, need time to digest this event. And to see how Trump behaves. I’d much rather see him at the helm than Pence. Can’t say why. Gut feeling.
I, too, believe that the USA will need a lot more soldiers and that’s always been a neat way to keep unemployment rates down. Send the men off to get themselves killed and conscript the women to take up the slack at home. That’s one of the reasons Mussolini decided to invade Ethiopia (??!!), along with a desire to “make Italy great again”. Didn’t end well for him because the rest of the world ganged up on him (and Hitler, who had his own agenda).
May I suggest that you try scrolling through Politifact’s archive of debunked statements before passing judgement on who’s the liar? An occasional error is not a serious matter, but Trump has a 10 to one advantage over Clinton when it comes to totally off-the-wall declarations. I don’t think he even realises that what he’s saying is flat wrong, so long as it gets . laughs or a roar of gleeItaly had someone like that almost a century ago, and his name was Mussolini. It is my deep fear that history may be repeating itself.
Anyway, I’m perplexed by the attempts to equate Clinton’s misguided use of an unfamiliar, new technology that had not yet been legislated, to Trump’s more traditional “profiteering” practices which include: 1) not paying small-scale contractors (the big ones are paid, of course), 2) molesting inferiors (especially women, except for his daughters: he’s cheated on two wives so far), 3) leaving fellow investors in the lurch by withdrawing his own money before declaring bankruptcy (four times!!! That’s actually a record in the USA), 4) hiring illegals because they’re cheaper and easier to control, 5) having his branded goods made in other countries at a fraction of the cost. The first four practices are actually illegal, are they not? And the fifth one is something that Trump says he will legislate against. Why are these practices not considered to be “crimes” since they are illegal?
Although I really hope that Trump will shape up and “become presidential”, I fear that Trump voters shall rue the day they voted for the guy who made them laugh instead of the lady who treated them like rational beings. His own wife pleaded for a world where people treated each other with respect. I share her dismay and do so earnestly hope that she can start by convincing her husband.
Is Putin laughing in his jammies??
So, is there hope? Trump and his administration of assholes and fools cannot be stopped. They will be capable of horrors that we cannot yet imagine because they have no empathy or concern for anyone or anything but power.
Morons like Daniel Celmer will cheer brainlessly and follow Trump to hell…and ultimately take the rest of us with them.
THE DRAFT WILL BE REINSTATED — I GUARANTEE IT!
And so it will go. tRump will squander his support on so many levels because he cannot deliver.