Political Theatre category archive
The Saturation Point 0
The only Constitutional amendment we need is one limiting the length of political campaigns, as they are limited in the UK.
Trumpling Truth 0
Bill Leuders marvels at the Republican Fantasy Land. A snippet; do read the rest:
The Trump backer, Allan Thiel, complains “people aren’t being taught history anymore” and “they’ve dumbed everybody down.” As if to prove the point, he elaborates, “Our country has never had any problems for the last 200 years. We’ve never had a problem with guns or racism until the last eight years.”
The article continues, “To simply grade the accuracy of Thiel’s statements misses the point, because Thiel’s beliefs do matter. They show up in double digits in national polls and belong to a reality shared by many Trump supporters.”
(snip)
No, what we as a nation must do is insist that truth matters.
In related news, a while ago, Chauncey Devega released a podcast–I’m just getting around to it–in which he interviews Nicholas Stargardt, an Australian historian who teaches at Oxford. Devega starts the interview asking how the American politics appear from across the Big Pond. “Crazy,” is the answer.
Stargardt goes on to state that even the craziest European politician would not try to swim in the fact-free, falsehood infested pond in which the Republican Party and its followers splash. Follow the link and listen; the interview starts at approximately the 15-minute mark.
The Curiouser and Curiouser Campaign 0
Dick Polman notes another first in this increasingly bizarre election season:
But Bill Weld actually did it.
Follow the link for details.
The ABCs of Trump: “Always Be Closing” 0
Josh Marshall suggests that Donald Trump is approaching the campaign as if it were a business deal–no, not the “both sides benefit” sort of deal, but, rather, the “but wait! there’s more” TV huckster sort of deal. A snippet (emphasis in the original):
That style of selling is all about creating intense desire and need but also an acute fear of loss, collapsing the time in which a decision can be made. When he’s trying to close, that kind of salesperson will throw everything into the mix, make the wildest, often nonsensical claims, to up the pressure and get the mark to ‘yes’. You hear this again and again with Trump, especially in recent weeks. This is the last election. This is your last chance. The country won’t exist anymore if we lose. . . . The ‘last chance’ is almost always part of the close
Much more at the link.
Signs of the Times 0
A suburban mom–she probably would have been called a “soccer mom” 20 years ago–explains how she ended up in the dock for stealing Trump signs.