Thursday, March 16, 2017

The Carlson/Trump Interview (Condensed)


This is Trump's basic relationship with his base.  Screwing them over, then lying about it, then dropping them in the mud when (inevitably) they fall for it.

This is what the estimable Charles Blow gets wrong about a day of reckoning: the same thing that many otherwise insightful Liberals always get wrong about the Right.
Disciples of a False Prophet

...
The greatest of all ironies is that, as Nate Cohn of The Upshot of The New York Times pointed out: “The people who stand to lose the most in tax credits under the House Republican health plan tended to support Donald J. Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.”

Some of these Trump voters who are literally being kept alive because they gained care under the Affordable Care Act voted for a man and a party who promised to take it away. Indeed, a Fox News Poll released Wednesday found that only 35 percent of American voters approve of Trump’s handling of health care.

Trump’s lies, his brand and his presidency are like a house of cards and the truth is a box of matches. It’s becoming ever more likely that the consuming flames — destined to reduce the entire edifice to ashes — are imminent, as Trump slowly converts former acolytes into disappointed adversaries.
Of course the Failed Trump Administration will fall apart and of course it will leave ruin and agony in its wake, just as the Failed Bush Administration did.  But the unholy engine that power the GOP Pretty Hate Machine -- the base of the party -- will never come around.  They'd sooner rub themselves in pig shit and stand naked in the public square singing show tunes than ever admit that they, personally, have ever been wrong about anything.

This is because they operate as a cult and not as a political party.

The miserable shitbags who reveled in every fake Clinton Administration scandal that Hate Media served up in the 1990s, are the same miserable shitbags who pooh-poohed every actual, lethal, catastrophic Bush Administration catastrophe...are the same miserable shitbags who gobbled up every fake Obama Administration scandal that Hate Media served up for the last eight years...are the same miserable shitbags who shrug off every lie, every fraud, every treasonable utterance and impeachable offense committed on a daily basis by Trump Administration and sing merry little songs about the deliciousness of Libtard Tears.

This is very hard for some Liberals to wrap their heads around because we tend to be guided by reason, facts and compassion.  We want to help people.  We believe government should be in the business of helping people.  We want to find some way to reach a common understanding with those we disagree with so that can help people.  And it is difficult for many us to face the ugly reality that tens of millions of our fellow citizens have sworn eternal fealty to a cult that is ruled by lies, fear and sadism.

That the sick dogma of their mad cult has been pouring out of televisions and radios, magazines and books, think tanks and and pulpits right in front of everyone for decades.  It has made some of the worst people in America immensely wealthy and powerful and has polluted every corner of our national life.

That to save our country we must finally come to terms with the fact that these people are now hopelessly addicted to Fox News/Hate Radio sewage.  That they would rather burn  the country down or turn it over bound hand and foot to Vladimir Putin than let anyone else govern it.

That they cannot be saved or reached or reasoned with.  They can only be defeated and contained.  



8 comments:

Dave McCarthy said...

Again (and again and again) right on the money.

While clever right wing assholes have long accused dirty hippies of "drinking the Kool-Aid", Driftglass' ID of the Republican base as a cult is exactly correct. And president* trump is Jim Jones...

Mole said...

This would be a good time for the Dems to try to win more people over and message out that what is going to happen is pure hypocrisy when you compare it to the Obama years.

I believe the trump supporters and voters are different, and with today political environment it's reasonable to be a republican.. due to the fact liberals are ignored by the democratic party as outsiders

Every current issue has a liberal answers, but dems want to stay quiet and see hwo things play out before they rehash republicans ideas and push them on America.. even though America LOVE liberal ideas when you remove the labels.

June Butler said...

Yes, I think you are very likely more right than the estimable Charles Blow, alas.

Neo Tuxedo said...

Actually, you can condense an anyone/Trump interview down to one line from that very movie:

"Elwood: It wasn't a lie, it was just bullshit."

Robt said...

" I love the uneducated"
D. Trump

"Learn from the mistakes of others, you will never live long enough to make them all yourself."
Groucho Marx ( note to conservatives, no relation to Karl)

"Those who don't study history is doomed to repeat it.

Yet, those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while

everyone else repeats it".
Author Unknown..

Unknown said...

Absolutely spot on. This isn't rocket science. The dumbing down of America is complete. As you say, the brainwashing by fox and AM hate radio have been highly effective.

And aside from defeating and containing the fascist, uneducated rubes we will probably have to endure the slow slog of waiting for them to die out.

bluicebank said...

And another amen.

"This is because they operate as a cult and not as a political party."

That, and whatever critical thinking skills they possess are atrophied into jello. That's why people waking up from a coma just don't start hopping around.

It takes fucking years to develop even a rudimentary set of mental muscles. We start with pegs and a board with round & square holes. But first you got to get the little tykes to the damn school. Like that's ever going to happen.

vedwin said...

Let's say that the authoritarian dolts are defeated and contained, electorally at least. Then what? Chuck and Nancy are going to lead the country into a future where corporations and the ultra wealthy are no longer the primary beneficiaries of government policy?

Pointing out how awful conservatives are is easy (maybe not as entertainingly as our writer in residence), at this point they are cartoonishly evil. It's literally not possible to espouse mainstream conservative views and be a decent person at the same time.

Until the ostensibly Liberal party in the US grows something resembling a spine and finds a way to articulate a message that consists of more than "look how awful those other guys are", the current electoral losing streak isn't going to end anytime soon.