Trumps presidency was inevitable

[Proud liberal 80]

It started in the late 80’s/early 90’s with rush Limbaugh spreading his hate and lies on the radio. Finally, these Deplorables had someone that they could listen to that validated their hateful views. Then came all the Limbaugh copycats that dominated the radio airwaves. Now they were listening to hate and lies for hours.

Then came another outlet for them to validate their beliefs, the Drudge Report, filled with conspiracy theories and lies. He hit the jackpot with the Lewinsky thing.

The outlet that took them to the next level was Fox News because now a “news” channel was being “fair and balanced” unlike the “liberal media”

And the republican and conservative establishment loved it because these Deplorables hated Democrats and were reliable Republican voters. Yep the same establishment that you see on tv nowadays criticizing Trump (George Will, Bill Kristol, Jennifer Rubin, etc.) They weren’t worried that these people were turned into irrational thinkers. They thought they would be able to control them.

The Bush Jr. administration used this irrational thinking to their advantage as they created a nationalistic mindset after Sept 11. “You are either with us or Against Us”, but the first kink it the armor happened when Bush tried to do immigration reform. The crazy base that lived their live through Limbaugh, Limbaugh copycats, Drudge, and FoxNews weren’t having. That is when the Republican Establishment should have known that these Deplorables were not just a small segment of the Republican Party, they were the majority or at least plurality.

Then came the 2008 election and to sure these Deplorables, McCain actually made one of them his VP nominee. Again this was the biggest foretelling of a Pres Trump.

Then Obama was elected and these Deplorables lost their minds. And again the Republican establishment this to their advantage all to win congressional elections, but the people who were getting elected weren’t the reasonable Republicans, but they were people who listened to the right wing media outlets.

In parallel with all that happening Reality TV began to explode with shows like Survivor and American Idol. More and more of these shows came to dominate the airways. This allowed a washed up crazy “billionaire” who had multiple bankruptcies that no one took seriously to resurrect his career with his own show. Now he was back in the limelight. He also happened to be one of these Deplorables who enjoyed those same right wing outlets.
He started spewing the same talking points and the rest is history.

[Freedomofspeech]

1. Well said...

For years I have said 24/7 news is the ruination of this country.

[dalton99a]

2. Donald Trump is a result and part of the natural progression of the modern Republican Party

The GOP in its full glory

[Proud liberal 80]

3. Lol

I guess you summed it up quicker than I did.

[Bob Loblaw]

12. This

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

-- H. L. Mencken

[Cosmocat]

24. Yes - he is the symptom, not the cause

Honestly, the moment he came down the escalator, I told people he was a serious threat to win the nomination because he was the embodiment of what the republican party had become.

[Laurian]

4. Accelerated by Citizens United.

I will never forget that asshole Alito shaking his head at the SOTU address when Obama expressed concern about that ruling.

[IluvPitties]

5. My question is...

How can we counter it?

[Proud liberal 80]

11. We should have a long time ago

Democrats let conservative hate radio get away with things for too long. They didn’t take them seriously.
The MSM should have never treated FoxNews as an equal partner and as legitimate news outlet.

I think that 35% of this country that represents trump’s base is gone forever. They have spent too much time listening to those outlets to ever be reached.

[Glaisne]

29. Even now the alt-right

is buying up local radio, TV stations and newspapers to further spread their lies and hate.

[lunatica]

30. Except that in your excellent summation

You forgot to mention the corporate monopolization and privatization of the media, including newspapers, cable news organizations and the rise of far right internet sites.

It’s a historic given that if you control the media you control everything.

The difference between our country and almost all dictatorships is that this take over didn’t happen with a sudden violent coup. Instead it’s been a slow coup d’estat by the now well established Corporatocrisy. Trump is the personification of them. After all those years they got someone who in one year has handed them exactly what they’ve been working towards for decades. Power and more wealth. Most of the Republican Party members, if not all, are also theirs.

[RDANGELO]

6. I agree that the current state of the Republican Party goes all the way back to Rush Lumbaugh.

It's not really about policy; it's about other people, which is why they are so bad at governing. If Ronald Reagan wasn't losing it, maybe he would have stood up to him, but the rest is history.

[rurallib]

7. I believe the rise of evangelical christianity plays a part in Trump's rise also

the unquestioning allegiance to authority, and the unquestioning belief in things that can't be proven are fertile ground for sowing and growing conspiracy theories and utter bullshit.

[Proud liberal 80]

8. They have always been here

They were called white supremacist back in the day. But they were able to put a moral positive spin on their hate and have high jacked Christianity as their own.

[samnsara]

9. i think trumps candidacy was inevitable..but the Russians gave him the presidency

[dalton99a]

13. +1

[mountain grammy]

10. In the 80's Reagan ended the "Fairness Doctrine"

Fox news was the icing on the cake for rabid, ignorant American bigots.

[BigmanPigman]

14. Reagun also brought the "moral majority"

into the forefront as a GOP propaganda tool. Reagun started all of this in a lot of ways, like killing unions and tossing many out of mental homes onto the streets when they weren't able to survive.

[mountain grammy]

16. Yep.

[llmart]

20. Exactly.

I have always felt the same way. It started with Reagan. Of course, you have to be of a certain age to be able to look back that far to see when it all started to fall apart. I would like to let the younger people know that yes, it started with Reagan - no doubt about it.

[moose65]

17. Well, not completely

The Fairness Doctrine did not apply to cable news or cable stations - it applied to tv stations that broadcast over the public airwaves. So it never would have affected Fox News. However, it DID apply to radio stations that broadcast over the air, so I'd say its repeal had a lot to do with the rise of right-wing hate radio. The left just does not have anything that compares to that. There are stations that spend 24 hours broadcasting that vile shit.

[mountain grammy]

27. And without the seeds of hate radio

I don't think fox news would have risen to the top on lies, deceit, and sex.

[spike91nz]

15. Lewis Powell

The culmination of Lewis Powell's 1971 strategy presented to the Chamber of Commerce for reclaiming America from liberals.The corporate class has been undermining democracy for a very long time. It is doubtful that capitalism can coexist with democracy unless that democracy is also socialist. Without government restraint, capitalism not only kills the golden goose, it destroys itself in its impulse toward corruption of the market in service of competition toward to a monopolistic hegemony.

[ProfessorPlum]

23. best post in DU in months

this is exactly it.

[lunatica]

31. Welcome to DU

I hope you find a home for your sanity here. I did.

Good post.

[dae]

34. Excellent post and on the money.

[tomp]

18. Very true, but....

...remember: the repubs have been STEALING elections through a wide variety of means. Who gets elected does not represent the will of the majority of people.

Much of the problem could be corrected with fair elections. You'd think the dems would be all over that, but they're not.

[Upthevibe]

28. Excellent assessment.....and great replies as well...

I have held Limbaugh responsible for so much of this. And I agree what has been added about Reagan and the evangelicals....

[workinclasszero]

19. Read up on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire

Shitler is our Nero.

[Persondem]

26. I associate him more with Caligula with his attaction to his family member

(but daughter instead of sister) and the horses (asses) he has appointed to leadership positions.

So yeah, it's not exact but similar. YMMV.

[workinclasszero]

35. Hey I think you got

something there.

[Persondem]

36. Thank you. Hopefully the Caligula comparison continues with Mueller

in the role of captain of the Praetorian Guard, with terminal consequences for tRump's presidency, not his person.

[Initech]

45. Nero played the fiddle, Trump plays the fairway.

[PatSeg]

21. Well said, this didn't happen overnight

Also, I would add the fact that republicans lured historically nonpolitical people to the polls, making them empty promises they would never keep. I think it was Nixon who first went after the fundamentalists or "moral majority", people who previously had shown no interest in public affairs or politics. Conservative politicians have been feeding the beast every since and now they can no longer control it. Right-wing radio, Fox News, and the Internet have contributed to the whole mess.

When I watched footage of some of the Trump rallies, I saw people who 40 or 50 years ago had no interest in politics or government. Politics has become their real life reality TV.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Excellent summation

[Mc Mike]

25. "Yesterday this day's madness did prepare" -- Khayyam. rec, nt

[cilla4progress]

32. And I think the hateful voices are the cyphers

for people's frustration and self-hatred in a time when we each have so little control over our own desity...we live at the whims of forces, poitical, social, economic, so far beyond our control. It breeds hatred and division

[HenryWallace]

33. As long as were looking backwards......

This seems to be, at best, half the story.

Over this same time period there has been a collapse of the then long-term majority party; a party that produced unprecedented amounts of prosperity for an expanding middle-class.

There has never been a "liberal media;" the rich have always tried to buy outcomes.... So what has changed?

The laughable "MAGA," harkens back to a time when we were all young and America was great.... You know, a period when Congresses were consistently blue and even the Republican Presidents were unapologetically progressive.

When we figure this part of the story out..... we'll know the way forward!

[Skittles]

37. the misogynistic non-stop campaign to trash Hilary took its toll

I saw long-time DUer trashing Hillary today......it never fucking ends

[relayerbob]

38. I would mostly agree

I recall right around the 2014 elections, having a discussion with my brother and his wife, I said that the next president would be a far right populist and extremely dangerous. I had zero doubt. Early in the 2016 campaign, when Trump was still in low single digits and near the back of the pack, someone who supported Sanders said Sanders would most likely win, and I said, no it will be Trump. They were shocked. Sadly, this is the inevitable consequence of cycles of history in confluence with the GOP destruction of our education system, starting with Reagan, coupled with Reagan's shutdown of "The Fairness Doctrine" and a general allowance that utter falsehoods, rumors, and op-eds constituted news ... not coincidentally attached to a 24 hour news cycle, where ratings held supreme power. The need to be first allowed a situation where constant crisis and conflict was the order of the day and far too many bought into it, left and right. Reality TV however is a symptom of the decline, not the cause, IMO, and is a function of lack of education, and a concerted effort at the destruction of trust in normal institutions. Permitting hate speech on radio, under the guise of "free speech" contributed greatly to the problem. Couple that to social media, which heightens division and insulates everyone in bubbles of their own chosen opinions - right or wrong, and you have a recipe for disaster.

So, 20/20 hindsight is great, how do we get the genie back in the bottle?

[Le Gaucher]

39. Now that you have figured it out - the question is what comes next

who will get the next Puke nomination .

Not exactly who, but what kind?

I think a lot depends on Bob Mueller and 2018 elections.

My worst case scenario-

If Russian bots and Voter suppression is able to stem the resistance tide - Bob Mueller will be fired in January. Democrats will cry bloody murder - but nothing ever will happen. Trump will coast to re-election and we will have Trump 2.0 in 2024


Happy Path:

We sweep both houses - Trump will probably be indicted and impeached ( Senate will save his ass) .. He will be have a primary - which will be the last hurrah for the racists. Trump and Republicans are buried in landslide in 2020

[Juliusseizure]

40. I disagree it was inevitable

I agree your post accurately states the reasons for the dramatic increase in bitter partisanship, increased manipulation of masses with propaganda/misinformation, and other factors that would help a Trump.

But I disagree Trump was inevitable for those reasons.IMHO I think the election of a black president made it inevitable.

Trump's popularity leaped when he led the birthers. The only time his base was ready to abandon him was when he met with Schuman and Pelosi and agreed to DACA amnesty and went back on his wall promise. That signaled compromise on white hierarchy.

The one consistent theme I see in Trump supporters is preserve the white male Christian hierarchy at any cost, emphasis on white.

Obama's election was the wake up call that democrats not only didn't share that priority, but were willing to change America's power structure and very identity, as they perceived it. Subsequent actions - same sex marriage, Clinton's nomination as first female president right after first black president, her calling out Trump supporters as "deplorables" while courting miniorities and women, confirmed it in their minds.

[Proud liberal 80]

43. I agree with everything you said

And would have expanded upon that in my OP, but I didn’t want my post to be too long, lol

[Shampanerd]

41. I am smarter than I give myself credit for because I also knew the monster would win.

My birthday is Nov 7th and I knew it was not a day to feel like celebrating because I knew the next day would bring dread and horror into my life. I felt the doom in the air due to too many idiots I heard speak. My own family included and it disgusts me. Not because they’re republicans but rather because they could fathom this deplorable prick be good for this country. I don’t think I’ve felt well since. Thanks for the post

[PatrickforO]

42. Great post. The historical antecedent to this proliferation of right-wing

propaganda, of course, is Lewis Powell's 1971 memo to the US Chamber of Commerce detailing a strategy big business could fund and follow that has led us to where we are. Here's a link to the actual text of Powell's memo, also called the Powell Manifesto: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/

Then, of course, we have the disgusting snake Ronald Reagan, who allowed the Fairness Doctrine to die in 1987. Here's a link to some analysis of this despicable act: http://sensiblereason.com/fairness-doctrine/ (Warning, long article, but well worth reading.)

Most recently, we have the Arjit Pai '3 person vote' reversing Obama's position and taking away net neutrality. Believe me, the implications from this are every bit as extensive as Reagan's veto of the Fairness Doctrine. You can see the brilliant Burger King U Tube video explaining this by going here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210140202

Absolutely brilliant video - thanks for posting, Brooklynite!

This is the reason our democracy has deteriorated to the extent it has - democratic safeguards imposed by people who actually cared about the American people have been overturned in favor of pay-to-play corporate propaganda.

It is despicable and un-American.

[citizen blues]

44. Fairness doctrine was revoked in 1987

After Reagan’s deregulation frenzy all through the 80’s. It opened the door for creeps like Limbaughand BS peddlers like Fox News.

[Sarg]

46. Don't Forget the White Evangelicals

They were fully on board and hugely influential in national politics from the 1960s onward. They greased the skids for Limbaugh, Fox and Trump.

[gopiscrap]

53. welcome to DU

[YOHABLO]

47. After Trump's embarrassment at the 2011 White House Correspondence Dinner Roasting ..by Obama.

That's when Trump became a candidate.

[appalachiablue]

48. K & R You got the course right. - Roger Ailes approached Nixon about 'GOP TV'

way back, but the chief said they didn't have the money.

The development of far right news as you state, has been steady- Reagan ignoring the Fairness Doctrine; the rise of Rush and hate radio; and the 1996 Telecom Act which lifted restrictions on media ownership of newspapers, TV & radio stations and publications, to enable mass consolidation of media into 4-5 major conglomerates we now have which control 90% of all we read, hear and see.

The proliferation of FOX, everywhere and also free for millions of devotees, and even broadcast on many US colleges via sports contracts has been tremendous. Add in the spread of hate sites to the internet and social media, bam!

Factors like the 1971 POWELL MEMO/Call to Arms, and the theft of elections since before Gore are very significant but the influence of mass media RW Hate 'News' in spreading ultra conservative views can't be understated.
It's a huge contributor to the mess we're in, born in the 80s and 90s, really stepped up C. 2000 and beyond, as you say.

'Ailes, Nixon and the Plan for Putting the GOP on TV News', Rolling Stone, 2011
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ailes-nixon-and-the-plan-for-putting-the-gop-on-tv-news-20110701
--------
> 'How Fox News and the Right Wing Media Made My Dad Crazy', by JEN SENKO, the Daily Beast, 2016.

In her new film, 'THE BRAINWASHING OF MY DAD' (2016) Jen Senko provides an excellent look into the profound effects of extreme conservative news outlets on her once tolerant father who discovered RW Hate Radio in the 1980s. The change he underwent over the years caused Dad to become a menace to the family. Eventually they guided him away from Hate Media to many other sane, factual and progressive news sources. A very positive story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-fox-news-and-the-right-wing-media-machine-made-my-dad-crazy

[BlancheSplanchnik]

49. Very good analysis.

Propaganda, every deplorable’s favorite kool-ade flavor.

[The Wizard]

50. It's a radical toxic death cult

Much like Hitler's Nazi Party, the Republicans play to the worst fears and lowest instincts, spouting nationalism and hatred toward all but white Christian Republicans.
Pox News moniker "fair and balanced" indicates all but Pox are liars or presenting a skewed view of the world. This is the language of a cult.
Recently Trump, in one of his "fake news" screeds said if you want the truth the only place to get it was from @realrealDonaldTrump, again spouting the language of a cult.
Were it not for a gamed Electoral College, Trump's jihad against American values and the working class would still be in the hands of a cheesy reality TV actor instead of the presidency where it is doing real damage.
It started with the Republican attack on education, starting with George Wallace and his assault on "pointy headed liberals" (code for Jews and / or college educated). It was followed by Spiro Agnew's reference to "effete snobs in their ivory towers," a slam at the educated. The vilification of the educated and education has caused this nation to unwittingly slip into a fascist inspired vortex that pits friends, neighbors and relatives against each other for political gain, a Machiavellian inspired debasing of our political system to destroy us from within.
A trial lawyer once told me that everything changes once the lying starts. With Trump, Pox News, hate radio and a social media propaganda operation we either get rid of Trump and his hate squad, including the propaganda operation or suffer the consequences. Let's hope it doesn't come down to pitchforks, torches and rope.

[no_hypocrisy]

51. And the normalizing of Ronald Reagan.

A lot of people forget that RR lost the republican primary in 1976 to Gerald Ford because the former was too radical. In four years, RR was nominated by the same party and elected president. And he got his legislation passed despite both houses of Congress being in control of the Democrats.

[wasupaloopa]

52. If we all voted for Hillary he would not have been elected. The anti Hillary left is to blame

for trump. Not right wing media.

He won the electoral college in some states by very narrow margins.

As much as the right wing media evolved we fought against ourselves and some of us just dropped out.

There are enough of us to overwhelm anything the right does if ever we would all unite and vote in elections.

Because all of the shit the right does is aimed at voters and voting, and because there are more of us who do not buy what the right is selling then those that do, it was never inevitable that trump would be elected.

Look in the mirror Dems and stop blaming the right wing media for our current situation.

We have another chance this year to block the right by taking over Congress. It looks like women are leading the way to an election victory in November, but still there are those Dems who for one reason or the other will throw their vote away or will not vote at all out of a sense of righteousness and purity.

Just look at all the posts in this thread that believe we are helpless in the face of right wing actions. We are not!

I am from CA and we have literally kicked the right out of power. We can do it nationally too if we stop blaming the right and believed in ourselves and our ability to win this fight.

So stop blaming the right and accepting this inevitability meme and get out the vote!