Political Theatre category archive
The Bright Side 0
Dick Polman:
He goes on to point out that he’s writing in the morning, and no one knows what today might bring.
Meanwhile, in The Charlotte Observer, Keith Larson marvels at this coarse discourse (emphasis added–more at the link):
Coda 0
Donald Trump has done one positive thing.
He has verified that the Republican Party and the religious right are what those of us to the left of the late Senator Everett Dirksen have been saying they are for three decades or more.
Afterthought:
Oh, my. The wheels are coming off the Trump train.
Whatever will tomorrow bring? And whatever will “Republican Family Values” voters have to say?
(I can answer the latter question: Nothing. Because “Family Values” is nothing more than a marketing slogan for “Republican.” On that statement I shall take a strong and wide stance.)
Get Out the Vote, Don’t Throw Out the Vote 0
Dick Polman explains that history matters as he remembers the theft of the 2000 election through what he refers to as “the Florida Farce.” A snippet:
Follow the link.
Trump Fine Whine, the Finest Whine 0
The Bangor Daily News’s Robert Lenna did not watch all of Monday’s Presidential debate, but he watched enough to reach one conclusion.
More on the Trump whine tasting at the link.
As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap* (Updated) 0
The Rude One points out that the Republican Party brought Trump on themselves. (He’s so upset he doesn’t even cuss.) Here’s a bit; follow the link for the rest:
Today’s Republican base is a vile and loathsome thing, and the Republican Party did it to itself.
The Republican Party created its base when Richard Nixon decided to woo racist, segregationist bigots with his odious Southern Strategy. The bright minds–at least they called themselves the “bright minds,” as the old man back home would have said–of Nixon’s Republican Party believed that they could control and manipulate the rubes and hayseeds, as no doubt they conceived of them, to short-term political advantage.
Their plan succeeded so well that the rubes and hayseeds now control and manipulate them, to the peril of the polity.
________________________
*That’s not just scripture. It’s also sociology.
Addendum, Late That Same Night:
The peril to the polity manifests itself: This is the reaping of what the Republican Party’s hate-full, apocalyptic war on the Clintons over the past two and a half decades has sown.
Where is HUAC when you need them?
Trumpling the Debate 0
At Above the Law, Elie Mystal suggests that Sunday’s Presidential debate had the wrong “moderators.” Here’s the essence of the post:
In the wild, a successful challenger will kill or cast out the old leader. Some animals will eat the children of their rivals, to ensure the purity of their line. Donald Trump threatened to do that to Hillary Clinton, last night. He asserted that, should he be engorged with power, he would have Hillary Clinton hounded and likely destroyed. The “jail” threat seems like a normal if classless attack to people who think this is all some kind of game. It’s actually despotic degradation of civil society.
Folks, preventing this sort of preening display is what “political correctness” is all about. Those who complain about “political correctness” seek license to offend without penalty.
Raleigh News and Observer Trumples Trump 0
The Raleigh, North Carolina, News and Observer has endorsed Hillary Clinton.
This is not a surprise. I suspect that, by the end of the month, almost no major newspaper will have endorsed Trump.
Consequently, I don’t mention this because it’s news, though the editorial is worth a read, as it attempts to explore what in our culture made Trumpery possible.
I mention it because of this one delicious phrase (emphasis added):
Afterthought:
The News and Observer’s letters to the editor should be a hoot for the next week or so. I shall make a point of not missing them. You should too.
Aside:
If you wonder why I pay attention to North Carolina papers, it’s not just that North Carolina is right next door or that the current North Carolina governor and legislature are nucking futs. It’s that my mother was from South Carolina just outside of Charlotte, N. C., and the two major North Carolina papers were very much part of my youth.
Dis Coarse Discourse, Both Sides Not Dept. 0
Ben Cohen is fed up with corporate media’s bothsiderism:
Let’s be clear about this: Hillary Clinton demolished Donald Trump by any objective measure in tonight’s debate. Whatever the mainstream media has to say about it, Clinton took him apart at every step of the way. She stepped back to allow him to incinerate himself over and over and over again, and Trump’s performance was so bad that even he knew it was bad. Trump fumbled answers, lied, rambled, shouted and interrupted his way through the night, and Clinton kept her composure throughout.
It’s late here, and we’ve been tweeting about the debate all night, and there is too much to go through when it comes to the details of what was said. But the debate wasn’t close — the two candidates were not in the same . . . universe.
Trumpling the Social Contract 0
Professor Wayne Reilly is dismayed. A snippet:
The current presidential campaign presents some disturbing examples of a rejection of this essential element of democracy. When Donald Trump suggests that those who worry about their Second Amendment rights in the event of his loss of the election might resort to violence or when he suggests that the only way he could lose in Pennsylvania would be if the voting process were “rigged,” he is not only indulging in conspiracy theory, he is undermining the whole democratic process.
Read it.