Donald Trump has poisoned American culture -- but the toxin was here all along

[bronxiteforever]

Salon
By DAVID MASCIOTRA
FEBRUARY 22, 2020 5:00PM (UTC)

Donald Trump's cruelty and vulgarity have done enormous damage — but let's stop pretending he's "un-American"

... For almost all of American history, even the most cutthroat politicians acted as participants in a national masquerade, disguising their corporate servility with a cloak of sentimental rhetoric. Ronald Reagan likened America to a "shining city on a hill.”...It is only Donald Trump who has instructed Americans that civic virtue, concern for the public interest and personal ethics are, at best, delusions of the weak. One of Trump's more frightening political triumphs is that first as a candidate and then with the authority and influence of the presidency, he has exposed the idea of "American values" as a thin, easily penetrable veneer. What lies beneath that is exactly what Trump represents and advances with his every utterance and executive order – fidelity to the ancient maxim, "might makes right."

... In only five years, Trump has enabled Republicans in Congress, in the media and in attendance at his pro wrestling-meets-Mussolini rallies to overcome what the late David Foster Wallace called, "the shame hobble." They not only accept Trump's behavior, no matter how vulgar or mean-spirited, they act as if morality does not even exist.

... Cable news pundits, most especially the few sane Republicans who oppose Trump, often talk about how the president's policies and beliefs are "un-American." There is a major contradiction within that conclusion: Donald Trump is president of the United States of America. He also has a higher approval rating among Republicans than either of the Bushes or Ronald Reagan enjoyed at this stage of their respective presidencies. Before entering politics, Trump was an American icon — a fixture of tabloid television who, despite his repeated business failures, was seen as a marketing genius — a perception he would milk as host of the NBC program, "The Apprentice."

... those among us who still pledge some allegiance to the alternative America can watch in horror as we inch closer to the realization that Donald Trump, the personification of kitsch, ignorance and barbarism, is not un-American at all. He is as American as fireworks on the Fourth of July.


Great article worth the whole read

https://www.salon.com/2020/02/22/donald-trump-has-poisoned-american-culture--but-the-toxin-was-here-all-along/

[czarjak]

1. Raw racism is baked into the American pie. It's alive all around where I live.

[Skittles]

2. racism is everywhere

it's just to what degree it is open and tolerated that is different

[appalachiablue]

3. More from the article, $$$

Here is a good, truth-in-advertising political slogan: "How much money will it bring in?" That is also the question that Alexis de Tocqueville argued Americans use to ascertain the "value of everything in this world."

The almighty profit motive reins so steadfastly supreme in the world's wealthiest nation that children suffer brain damage from drinking water contaminated with high levels of lead, prison has become the leading institution for the mentally ill, and hundreds of thousands of Americans declare bankruptcy every year because they can't afford to pay their medical bills.

Caring for the sick and nurturing children cannot compete with the twin gods of enrichment and consumption in what historian Walter McDougall called "a nation of hustlers." In the words of President Calvin Coolidge, "The business of America is business."