Political Theatre category archive
Democracy Demagoguery in America (Updated)
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Robert Kagan sees darkness if Donald Trump is elected. He suggests that the Republicans who are now falling in line–in some cases, falling all over themselves–to support him, because in Republican world, winning is the only thing, do not realize the implications of his rise. Here’s a snippet:
“Conservatives have been warning for decades about government suffocating liberty. But here is the other threat to liberty that Alexis de Tocqueville and the ancient philosophers warned about: that the people in a democracy, excited, angry and unconstrained, might run roughshod over even the institutions created to preserve their freedoms. As Alexander Hamilton watched the French Revolution unfold, he feared in America what he saw play out in France — that the unleashing of popular passions would lead not to greater democracy but to the arrival of a tyrant, riding to power on the shoulders of the people.
It has been a long time since I read de Tocqueville, but I recall the passages to which Kagan refers. The author worried that the American dream would collapse under its own weight.
(If you haven’t read de Tocqueville, you should; it captures a moment in early American history, a moment that is often misrepresented, and remains relevant today.)
Addendum, a Few Minutes Later:
Colin Woodward discusses the European view of Trumpery at the Portland Press-Herald. An excerpt:
The downside is that Trump is seeking to protect these “good Americans” in a fashion familiar to Europeans: by threatening to withdraw normal legal and constitutional protections for those seen as “traitorous others.” For European far-right nationalists like those in Hungary’s Jobbik, the British National Party or the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, this class usually includes some combination of Jews, Roma (also known as Gypsies), Muslim immigrants or foreigners from countries they dislike. For Trump, it’s Mexicans, Muslim-Americans, the journalists in the press pen or the black protester at his rally who maybe should be beaten up; he’s promised, in one such instance, to pay the legal bills of someone who tried to do just that.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
Daniel J. Evans, ex-Republican Governor of Washington, tells a story almost as an aside, an anecdote that encapsulates the excrescence that is contemporary coverage of political news.
You can read the rest–it will take only two minutes–but, really, like Clarissa, this explains it all.
Decoding De Code 0
Excerpt:
The problem that the Republican Party has right now isn’t that Trump isn’t a Republican. It’s that he is the perfect Republican.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
In related news of the discourse, John Freivalds, writing at The Roanoke Times, discusses the failure of established media to hold Donald Trump accountable for his lies. Here’s a bit:
Aside:
I believe that excising the qualifier, “until now,” from that sentence would render it more accurate.
Haters Gotta Hate 0
Jack Ohman strugges to understand the Hillary haters. A nugget:
She might even lose to a guy who runs (enables) beauty pageants, which is the human equivalent of a stockyard auction for women. Last poll I saw, 65 percent of GOP women will vote for this sexist clown in November.
Do read the rest.
Frankly, I don’t see “likeability” as a qualification for anything, except perhaps game show host. Con artists are always likeable; being likeable is essential to the con. A significant percentage of voters found President George the Worst likeable, and you know how well that worked out.
Hillary Clinton has been the target of an almost three-decade campaign of conservative calumny. Persons view her through a veil of Republican lies, unable to tell where the lies end and the person begins. In the meantime, they choose to support Donald Trump, who is a veil of lies.
Words fail me.
Rules 0
I was at a political function this past weekend. One of my acquaintances was kvetching about complaints from Sanders supporters about some primaries, specifically, complaints that they “had not been allowed to vote,” when, in fact, the issue was that they had not ensured that they were properly registered to vote.
Virginia is an open primary state, but many states have “closed primaries,” which means that, if you wish to vote in a party primary, you must be a registered to vote as a member of that party. If you wish to vote in the Democratic primary, you must be registered as a Democrat; in the Republican primary, registered as a Republican; in the Green Party primary, registered as a Green, and so on. Delaware, where I used to live, was a “closed primary” state.
This is nothing new.
Sanders supporters who were not registered as Democrats were not allowed to vote in Democratic primaries in closed primary states, and, frankly, that was their own damn fault.
“How simple would it have been,” fumed my acquaintance, “for Bernie to tell his supporters to register to vote.”
For more about rules, see Balloon Juice.
National PTSD 0
(Embed fixed.)
Thom rambles his way to a damn good point.
Listen up, y’hear.
Kristolizing #NeverTrump 0
Shorter Dick Polman: Bill Kristol is always wrong.
Earned or Deserved? 0
At The Charlotte Observer, Eric Frazier looks at Donald Trump’s campaign and wonders whether Americans really are as dumb as their international reputation. A snippet:
When I asked why that’s a bad thing, she said the foreign exchange kids tend to presume Americans are stupid unless proven otherwise. They assume Americans aren’t as well-traveled, or as fluent in foreign languages or as knowledgeable about world cultures.
I said what any Good American would: Why don’t they stay home, then?
Oh, she replied, they don’t think our colleges are stupid. Just the people.