Donald Trump the arsonist: The GOP nominee is inching America toward the apocalypse

[workinclasszero]

Donald Trump the arsonist: The GOP nominee is inching America toward the apocalypse
Trump is touting an apocalyptic worldview that mirrors Evangelical dogma
JOHN FEFFER, TOMDISPATCH.COM

The world according to Donald Trump is very dark indeed. The American economy has tanked. Mexico has sent a horde of criminals over the border to steal jobs and rape women. The Islamic State, cofounded by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, is taking over the globe. “Our country’s going to hell,” he declared during the Republican primaries. It’s “like medieval times,” he suggested during the second presidential debate. “We haven’t seen anything like this, the carnage all over the world.”

For Trump, it’s not morning in America, it’s just a few seconds before midnight on the doomsday clock. Although his campaign doggedly continues to promise a new beginning for the country, the candidate and his advisers are sending out a very different message: the end is nigh. These Cassandras all agree that, although Obama’s two terms were no walk in the park, the stakes in 2016 are world-destroyingly higher. If Clinton is elected, the future could be, as conservative political operatives Dick Morris and Eileen McGann titled their recent book, “Armageddon.”

Next month’s election is important. But the core supporters of Donald Trump are not going to move to Canada — or Russia — if their candidate loses. Those who crave the simplistic, authoritarian solutions offered by dangerous populists around the world are not going to retreat into political apathy simply because of the scorn heaped upon them by the mainstream. The apocalyptic rhetoric of Trump and his followers is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The gale-force winds of this populist hurricane have been intensified by decades of polarizing economic and social policies. Whatever happens in November, the forecast is for more stormy weather ahead.

http://www.salon.com/2016/10/16/donald-trump-inches-us-towards-the-apocalypse_partner/

[saltpoint]

1. Quite a well-written piece but

worrisome because its assessment of Trump supporters' mindset is deadly accurate.

This one passage in particular:

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"Those who crave the simplistic, authoritarian solutions offered by dangerous populists around the world are not going to retreat into political apathy..."

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[workinclasszero]

2. Yes the country will not suddenly decide en masse to right itself after Hillary wins the election

It just gives us a better chance to fight the darkness that republicans and their hate propaganda organs spread 24/7.

The fight will not be over.

Some of these deplorables are bound to act out violently. They were already planning to strike the day after the election in redstate Kansas.

[saltpoint]

3. workinclasszero, I am hearing some of the

same thing and am worried.

The GOP blocked Obama at every turn. Trump himself (and others) pimped the idea that Obama was not a legitimate president. I see much of the same response in all this "rigged election" propaganda. A few other Republicans are now joining Trump in this smear of the election -- even though the election hasn't happened yet.

Dark propaganda like that feeds the psychosis of the people who come to Trump rallies and scream ethnic and racial and misogynist slogans.

There's some pretty ugly stuff out there.

[workinclasszero]

5. Very ugly

I saw a chilling video the other day made up of footage shot at various Trump rallies.

I'm not lyin, it was scary.

[saltpoint]

7. Right there with you. Most of us were not

raised to speak or act against others in that manner, or anything close.

None of us is demanding that the United States be like Teletubbie Land where everyone just coos and giggles at each other and the sky is always blue. At the same time, there is a zone of adult cooperation, and nobody I've seen so far at those Trump rallies looks like they meet that criterion.

There are grade school kids who behave better than that. Quite a few, actually.

There are legitimate problems any president will face and that we all face in our respective communities. It's much harder to try to solve them if we have to work around a pack of bigots and hotheads.

[vlyons]

4. Yes we must remain vigilant

and continue the struggle. But our biggest foe is still the Wall street and corporate oligarchs, who keep feeding hate and fear to the dim-wits. The #1 very best antidote to the dim-wits are good paying jobs, family benefits like insurance and child-care, and affordable education. Basically, rebuild the middle class. People with good jobs, who have some spending money in their pockets don't become anarchists.

[workinclasszero]

6. Agree 100%

If Hillary takes the white house and gets the senate we can at least get some good judges on the SCOTUS bench.

Its a dream if we could get control of the House...then we could really do good stuff for working Americans.