Politics of Hate category archive
“The Party’s Over . . . .” 0
Josh Marshall suggests that the Republican Party is no long a “party” in any recognizable sense. Rather, he argues, it has become subservient to Fox News and its on-line kin (Breitbart, RedState, etc.) and their bubble-dwelling audience.
Follow the link; read the whole thing.
Rebranding. It’s a Thing. 0
There is nothing new or even alternative about the “alt-right.”
It’s the same old right, only with new sheets.
Plus Ca Change 0
At the Boston Review, Andrea Mammone sees the British Brexit vote and similar expressions of a national turning inward in other Western countries as not unprecedented. He traces part of their lineage. Here’s a bit:
The Trump Card 0
In a long and thoughtful essay, Josh Marshall attempts to understand the appeal of Donald Trump. He concludes that most simplistic explanations (poor, downwardly mobile white persons)–the ones we hear repeatedly from the corporate media–miss the mark. Whereas they describe one leg of the elephant, they miss the larger beast. Here’s a nugget; follow the link for the whole thing (emphasis added):
That brings us to the second key point: Trumpism is about loss. And that loss is real. It’s not just about being haters or uneducated or stupid. The fact that what’s being lost is in most respects something that wasn’t legitimate to have in the first place – status, centrality and racial privilege – should not blind us to the fact that the loss is real and that it will have political consequences.
Long-Term Goals? 0
Thom and Jared Yates Sexton wonder whether Trump is looking beyond the campaign to a media venture, sort of like this:
I don’t buy it.
I don’t think that Trump is capable of “plans,” at least not as most of us understand the term.
If he were, he’d not have left a trail of broken dreams and failed businesses.
“Regrets, I’ve Had a Few . . . .” 0
Dick Polman notes that Donald Trump has recently contradicted himself and claims to have “regrets.” Mr. Polman wonder just what exactly Trump regrets. To help make the choice easier, he compiles a partial list:
Facebook Frolics 0
By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea . . . .
Aside:
This trifling tribalism (as my first wife would have said) plucks my last nerve.
Sing a Song of Trump 0
At The Bangor Daily News, Marena Blanchard chronicles a day in the life of Trumpery. A snippet:
“Vote Trump! Make America great again!”
Tanya Lima, 25, of Portland, looked up from her lemonade and into the faces of three white men aggressively yelling at her as they walked by.
“White lives matter!”
Lima had been relaxing at a Portland coffee shop on a recent Wednesday morning before work. Now, confusion and anger built in her body. She watched, almost from a distance, as everyone else continued their day. No one around her offered support. They even avoided eye contact.
Donald Trump has accomplished one thing: He’s given his supporters confidence to wear their, their white sheets (or their black uniforms, if they prefer) in public. For example.
Never What It Said It Was 0
Francis Wilkinson points out that Teabaggery has never been about what it claims to be about.
It is not a tax revolt; it is a tax grab.
A snippet (emphasis added):
Until Donald Trump came along.
Trump, whose genuine populist instincts appear unconscious of, and unencumbered by, American history, dispensed with the tri-corner hats. His offer required no validation from neo-colonials, no resort to hallowed principles of limited government. Trump’s deal was straight up: He would secure the government programs — Social Security, Medicare — that benefit older, whiter Tea Party voters while chasing younger, browner Americans away from the public trough. He would even clear out of the country anyone who failed to prove citizenship.
More at the link.
Facebook Frolics 0
Alas, poor troll.
I knew him, Horatio. But I unfriended him all the same.
I do not miss the Zuckerborg. It makes the Slough of Despond look like a resort town.