UTUSN
UTUSN's JournalUpdated my old Demopedia entry on Tweety to expand on his "juvenile" Catholic school boy misogyny
NEW: paragraphs 4, 5, 6.
Etymology of "Tweety". During Campaign 2000 the media noise machine was swooning over the nicknames Shrub was giving some of them. Media Whores Online ran a contest to nickname Chris MATTHEWS. In the first three or so weeks, there was no clear, catchy front runner, with "The Screamer" sort of leading. Then one of MATTHEWS's own Hardball staff leaked to MWO that they themselves called him "Tweety" because of the Clairol shade of hair coloring he favored. This was immediately declared the winner. But in some quarters, it wasn't entirely satisfactory. For one thing, by the time the name was declared, the shade had changed to platinum, leading to a suggestion he be called "Carole LOMBARD".
Plus, "Tweety" sounded too affectionate.
His Misogyny. Then M-TV held its 20th or 25th or whatever anniversary, and all the cable echo chambers were doing segments of Britney shedding her duds down to almost nothing. Not to be left behind, Tweety followed suit, with a guest "culture" commentator from Time Mag, the young humor columnist, Joel STEIN. The staff kept re-running the Britney clip, and Tweety was clearly DROOLING disgustingly. STEIN said, "You're beginning to creep me out." Tweety responded, "Yeah, well, wait till YOU're 50." This led to the suggestion that "Tweety" be modified to "Tweezer" to retain the hair reference while canceling out the affection factor and also adding the (dirty old) "geezer" angle.
Back when, misogyny was a wink-wink/smirk-smirk thing among the old style flunkies like him, there were many examples of his, with HRC being his prime target for years until she was becoming a real contender, when he yearned to host her, but the bridges had been burned.
But here's a vignette from back in the day, regarding his wife Kathleen. He deigned to host her or let her co-host a segment or so, this time with him and another recycled miscreant Mike BARNICLE. She was standing like at the front of a class and they two were sitting like the smirking, spit-balling, Catholic schoolboy-jerks that they really are. She trudged through her presentation, taking her subject seriously while the two of them smirked, giggled, and mocked all the way. But regarding Kathleen, he exemplifies one signature characteristic of misogynists: Despite the obviously hostile behaviors, they claim to adore, honor, put-on-a-pedestal women. And Tweety frequently does that over-compensating, protests-too-much thing by referring to her as, "MY QUEEN."
*************So flash forward decades to the TWITLER atrocious era, specifically calling Senator WARREN “Pocahontas.” Tweety hosted her soon after a TWITLER episode of it, besides a manic outburst of his sputtering interrupting, almost giggling every time he said that name, catching himself each time then protesting that it was a horrible thing, like Beavis/Butthead giggling at a dirty word. So WARREN kept to the high road and that TWITLER was not going to silence her. So then he struck, like when he lashed out at DONAHUE. He was in bursting giggle mode and said, "So, for you 'Pocahontas' will be like a clarion call for you to come charging out!1" and he busted his gut. WARREN looked sucker punched.
Darrell HAMMOND "Doing" Tweety on SNL. Tweety's ego was massively stroked after the debut of HAMMOND's impersonation of him, either in 2001 or 2002. He said, "I am now an ICON: I have been 'done' on Saturday Night Live'." The funniest line in the debut was HAMMOND as Tweety, cracking himself up with, "For the ... FIFTY ... people who watch this show...” (Hardball, not SNL). In the first few times HAMMOND featured him, the target was Tweety himself -- manically interrupting, spitting, and drooling. However, the characterization evolved, not true to the original, where Tweety became the "rational" character surrounded by oddball, extremist "guests", with HAMMOND-Tweety shaking his head in disbelief at their partisan spin.
"Turning" from Being a Democrat. He (like G.E.RUSSERT and Pat CADDELL) still trades on having been a Democrat in the CARTER/O'NEILL era. In the hothouse of big time political flunkydom, STATUS and POWER come from the SUCCESS of your boss. RAYGUN kicked Tweety's bosses' rears, and Tweety gravitated to admiring that "success". When he started up his media career he was mentored by G.E. RUSSERT, who had himself already started "turning" by "reaching out" to LIMBOsevic and expending his formerly-Lib-bleeding-heart on those poor wingnuts who had been maligned and marginalized by the Liberal Elite, lo those many years. Tweety started doing video valentines to RAYGUN, promenading arm in arm with Nancy. He might have tapped into the frenzy of the FAKE impeachment, but "hatred of the CLINTONs" isn't what made him turn. The last time he was identifiably a Democrat was sometime around 1988 when Hardball (the book) was published. Throughout the year of Campaign 2000 he savaged the Dem candidate daily and went on to years of bromance over Shrub, renouncing any Democratic heritage. He said his parents were “cloth coat" (Rethugs), and that basically what first drew him to the Dem side was Irish-Catholic pride over JFK. Not ideology, not idealism. He said the reason he joined the Peace Corps was specifically to avoid going to Vietnam.
How Tweety "Executed" DONAHUE on MSNBC. Tweety was on his book tour for another one of his "books" (large type, wide spaces between lines, blank half-pages). It was in the jingoistic hysteria in the run-up to the illegal Iraq attack. The book was about supposed "Americanism" -- an American Civ 101 ripoff about books and movies and cultural stuff that are essentially American (think, "The Great Gatsby" ). So Phil welcomed him as a colleague and peer on Phil's MSNBC show for the full hour to plug the book. From the moment he appeared, there was a strange, deadly snake look in Tweety's snake eyes. Phil was walking around the audience, apparently not sensing anything, while Tweety was motionless, following him only with his eyes. Phil brought up something or other questioning blind, kneejerk jingoism, and Tweety STRUCK! He started out with venom dripping, "You see, THIS is EXACTLY what's wrong with YOU Liberals: You are NEGATIVE about this country, you find NOTHING good about it," and on and on. It took awhile before Phil figured out what was happening. Later, Phil, devastated and spent, was sitting at the table with Tweety and, weaker and weaker, did some of his trademark shoulder shrugging and arm waving. Tweety delivered the coup de grace, "What's THIS (mimicking the movements)??!! What's with the --APE-- movements???!" Days or a week or two later, Phil's cancellation was announced and took effect.
How Tweety "Triggered" a Gun Incident (re: Kathleen WILLEY). At the height of the FAKE impeachment, Ms WILLEY claimed that a mystery jogger had threatened her or her cat or somebody, with the insinuation that there was a CLINTON connection. Several months later, there was gossip that the jogger had been identified. Tweety hosted her and it appeared they had discussed the identity off camera. He tried mightily to get her to say the name on the air, which she wouldn't do. Finally, he himself blurted it out, "Was it (Name/Surname)?" She wouldn’t confirm it. Within days there was a bizarre incident, with the mentally disabled brother of Pat and Bay BUCHANAN going with a gun to the house of the supposed jogger named by Tweety, where there were only some foreign exchange students present. Later it was determined that the person Tweety named on the air had NOTHING to do with the supposed jogger incident.
"Heroes" Tweety and Tom DeLAY. In the aftermath of the 07-24-98 shooting of two Capitol police officers when the slain officers were duly eulogized and called heroes, Tweety latched on to this, the way we have seen him attempt to glorify himself in other instances: Like saying he was assigned to Africa in the Peace Corps and "WALKED THE SAME GROUND" THAT CHURCHILL had passed through. Or when he said, "I am an ICON! I have been 'done' by SNL!". So now that the Capitol policemen were being called heroes, Tweety came forward to say that HE had been a Capitol policemen, TOO, JUST LIKE THEM, when he was starting out. It turns out that he had worked a (temporary?) job for three months as that. In all the years before the officers were shot and eulogized, he probably NEVER referred to that job, most likely thinking of it as a rent-a-cop turn, until he could see in retrospect the glory that he had been DESTINED to from the beginning.
But he is not the only glory hog. When that incident was happening, the news of the moment reported that Tom DELAY had hopped a plane out of town and immediately turned around in Houston when the incident was over. This show of courage is why he has been dubbed, "Tom-DePLANE!-DePLANE!-DELAY".
But searches of countless news reports of that time show no mention of the hopping-the-plane. Only this is left:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm /... "...House members, many rushing out of town, did not have to remain behind. DeLay slipped out the main door of the Capitol less than 15 minutes after the shooting. He looked stricken. Asked if he'd seen anything, he said, "Did I ever. I don't want to talk about it." Aides rushed him into his waiting car. ...."
------------
KELLY had me sputtering at the talk radio, then Dana LOESH was orgasming over him
I've posted a few times, when KELLY was lauded YES-HERE for being the adult somehow reining TWITLER in, that when he was at DHS he was a brute on Border policy.
He's been turned into the aw-shucks Gary COOPER/John "Draft Dodger" WAYNE type of testosterone hero.
Listening to several minutes of his press conference one question led to another:
* Since when do chiefs of staff hold press conferences?
I don't recall any by Rahm EMANUEL, PANETTA, or any of the other ones, full list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_White_House_Chiefs_of_Staff
* Why does TWITLER have to use others as crutches for defending and explaining his fuck-ups - not to mention never facing real and extended questions himself, always having a hapless visiting head of state standing next to him, and yukking it all off without the semblance of actual thought?!1
* When did the CIVILIAN CONTROL of American government get superceded by military prototypes?
Viz., reporters getting "qualified" to ask questions according to being or knowing Gold Star families.
* Who has degraded the principles of American government, not to mention Gold Star families, more than TWITLER?
* Why does an unelected flunky (you, KELLY) have more First Amendment privilege than a congresscritter who was elected to represent the constituents, besides having a personal relationship with the deceased veteran and his wife?
* Why do wingnuts exemplified by LOESH believe that KELLY personifies American values by dint of his gender and the stereotypical physical characteristics of it and of degrading his dead son's memory?
***********I'm hoping for DUers to add on to this list better than I can sputter.
Brit HUME & HANNITY act out hypocrisy for wingnuts re WEINSTEIN vis a vis TWITLER/AILES/OREILLY
Among the many words wingnuts don’t “get”, hypocrisy and irony are prime, so the aforesaid boys do performance art (quoted below) as demonstration.
My theorem: When malefactors (bribery, chicanery, turpitude, et al.) who had been calling themselves “Democrats” before are revealed as malefactors, they forfeit even the semblance of any Democratic identity, since right action is a major component of being Democratic.
So, back when the Philadelphia “doctor” was murdering pregnant women and fetuses under the guise of abortions, the wingnuts gloried in calling him an “abortion doctor.” No. He was a serial killer who used medical techniques and an “abortion clinic” as his m.o., having nothing to do with Pro Choice. Same thing when a previously labeled “Democratic” congresscritter was found to have bundles of cash in his freezer, or whatever other criminals: They FORFEIT the *using* the Democratic party label.
So, WEINSTEIN trafficked in fashionable cash donations, but his nefarious personal perversions have nothing to do with actually being a Democrat.
This is to burst that balloon of glee the wingnuts have been riding over WEINSTEIN while they continue to be totally silent over AILES, O’LOOFAH, and above all TWITLER.
********QUOTE*******
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/brit-hume-seems-to-believe-weinsteins-sexual-assault-allegations-but-not-trump-or-ailes/
.... It’s almost shocking to see someone so skeptical suddenly seem this receptive — and this is where Hume’s intentions seem to shine through. The truth, as I see it, is that Hume doesn’t seem to give a damn about sexual assault victims and their allegations unless believing them is positive for his career, his media allies, or his political views.
As others have noted, it’s difficult to find moral distinctions between the accusations made against Weinstein or Clinton and Trump or Ailes, other than the fact that Weinstein and Clinton are Democrats and Trump and Ailes are Republicans. And this ultimately explains exactly why Hume chose now — and with Clinton — to suddenly believe victims of sexual assault.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/hannity-slams-left-for-hypocrisy-on-weinstein-forgets-he-just-had-bill-oreilly-on-as-guest/
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/msnbcs-chris-hayes-shows-damning-montage-of-trumps-sexual-misconduct-allegations/
.... “The President of the United States, almost exactly one year ago the famous (sic) Access Hollywood was released, which we don’t need to play because everyone remembers that tape, but what is not always remembered is what happened right after that tape was released. Woman after woman came forward, nearly a dozen in all, accusing Donald Trump of inappropriate behavior and sexual assault.” ....
********UNQUOTE********
'nother o'my e-mails to local radio wingnut talkshow host, this time over MANAFORT alert:
C'mon, (wingnut), news for tonight, MANAFORT has been warned by MUELLER that he should prepare to be indicted.
Here’s the thing, (wingnut) : I am a little nobody. I have *NO* inside sources, *NO* special connections for guvmint happenings, *NO* high—powered $3,000/bottle wine lunches.
And yet: Over these 30 years that I have been lambasting you for your dastardly wingnut views, I have been correct and you have NOT been COUNTLESS times. You have all these connections and yet your INSTINCTS and your RESOURCES and your PRINCIPLES and your CONVICTIONS are always WRONG! Could it be because your world view is miserably WRONG, and, really you don't have those principles/convictions?!
You have waited and waited for Whoever a Great White Hope will come down the pike. You have chased after Minutemen, the Second Amendment Terrorists, the SwiftBoaters, NAVARRETTE, CHEENEE-Shrub - ANYBODY you think will vanquish us dastardly Libs.
By the bye, Hillary has seemed to be your biggest bug-a-boo, even more than OBAMA. What’s *that* all about?!
ANYWAY, what has prompted this outburst of mine is tonight’s news that MANAFORT has been informed he should prepare to be indicted.
Now here’s the thing: As I’ve said many times, all I know is what’s available on public venues. So when this fellow (and ALL of TWITLER’s team) first surfaced, all his nefariousness was out there in public about his known history. And just his FACE broadcasts what a slimeball he is. Uh, SAME with TWITLER and ALL of his crew. But you wanted to "win".
Anyway. I doubt you’ve even sampled a $3K bottle of wine like the TWITLER flying monkeys. What is it about them that gets you to sell your non-convictions and non-principles for them?????????? HAH!!!!!!!!!
Another futile e-mail to the local radio wingnut talkshow host:
So today you were “righteously” outraged about how us dastardly Libs are questioning/accusing DRUMPF of being mentally ill. LOTS of people who have spent scores of years serving the public good (CLAPPER, etc.) carry NO WEIGHT with you, just your defending DRUMPF.
The only question *YOU* should be navel-gazing about is the same one somebody slapped Bill O’REILLY about:
The context is O’REILLY’s tag lines of “being on the LITTLE guys’ side” and “I’m looking out for *YOU*!”
No, “WHY ARE *YOU* ALWAYS ON THE SIDE OF THE *BIG* GUYS?!”
No, you don’t care about minorities being mistreated, don’t care about social injustice or justice, don’t care about anything or anybody on the downside of human society, don't care about the planet.
So, with DRUMPF, here we are. There are no ISSUES about him. He cares about NOTHING/NOBODY except himself, not (do I need to spell it out: ) the COUNTRY. His “so-called” AGENDA and PROMISES are nothing anybody wants. It’s all about HIM and down to SAVING HIS ass. So, why oh why is HIS ASS so worthy a cause?!1
So we’re going to spend part of the next 3 1/2 years with the DISTRACTION of HIM, without absolutely anything about the real things that matter, and then spend the remainder of the 4 years on the disaster of President PENCE being “successful” at implementing the atrocious/horrible/a-hole agenda/promises.
Answer the only question you should soul-search about.
At this late date, still not admitting the real answer is: SOMEBODY *ELSE*
All through the execrable Campaign ‘16, we were under an onslaught of “advice” and wishful thinking for DRUMPF – that he might have a capacity to CHANGE, that he might PIVOT, that he looks credible when STICKING TO THE SCRIPT, and on and on, all of it adding up to: SOMEBODY DIFFERENT.
It was all totally clear who and what he was from Day One, with tons of documented history: A self-serving, amoral, mobster – that is all. The best thing the yakkers could come up with was that he was NOT AN IDEOLOGIST, was a pragmatist – translated as “unscrupulous opportunist.”
So it would seem that the past seven months’ worth of day-after-day of his sickening demands to be kicked out would be enough to stop the media yakkers from their wishful advising for him, but no, this very morning there they continue to be, wringing their hands about how he needs to make alliances with politicians and needs to stop tweeting and he NEEDS SOME WINS for his AGENDA.
Uh, note to yakkers: HIS AGENDA IS HORRIBLE, for starters. Only his dwindling base ever cared about his agenda. It might very well be just a totally fraudulent marketing gimmick aimed at voting SUCKERS. They really only cared about his releasing them to vent their hitherto strait-jacketed hatred. Wait until they are personally touched by his agenda. Even if his enablers manage to pass every item of his agenda, he will still end up as the most CURSED-AT jerk in this country’s history, leaving aside the wreckage the country will be left in. It’s not beyond him to SELL the country, having already sold OUT the country.
At this late date, the yakkers continue to pose “solutions” to what he wreaks every day, all pretending to ignore that the only real solution is: SOMEBODY ELSE.
R#14 & K for, I wish this could be *pinned* forever. Saying it again:
O'LOOFAH is the stereotypical 1950s White male - repressed and oppressive, at the minimum verbally and emotionally abusive, at the maximum physically abusive, bursting with DENIAL above all and hypocrisy and resentment, starved for approval and attention, vicious bully, adolescent/immature sexual pervert (at his age).
He and the Faux Propaganda Network are in a devil's pact over cash, with only two solutions: Either he tanks in profits for them or he becomes a sexual cipher.
It is gobsmacking that he casts himself as a moral arbiter over everybody else (except his sick peers). He should be in isolation, doing nothing else but facing his own large problems.
This is *so* exciting: Germinating hard shell seeds (royal poinciana) via scarification!
These are beauteous beasts. The one I have harks back to my childhood home and this one has frozen 2 or 3 times in the past 8 or so years, has been cut down to the ground but apparently the roots rule so it has come back every time and is currently at full height taller than the eaves. I planted it the Spring before a big water bearing storm, was waist high, and these things are water GUZZLERS, so the storm made it ZOOM the first year.
In the first five years it never bloomed. Then a couple of years ago it put one ONE puny bloom, and last year it popped out about ten, but this year it was COVERED, plus for the first time it put out SEED PODS, 30 or more! But I have never GROWN anything. Silly me, I thought seeds just were buried and watered.
Well, YouTube has several videos on getting these things to germinate. This is a HARD SHELL seed, like ebony seeds. You can’t just soak them. There’s something called SCARIFICATION, meaning clipping the business end of the seed, exposing what is the REAL seed inside (without clipping that white part), then soaking them for 24 hours or more, whereupon the inside REAL seed drinks up the water and swells up. Then you put it in potting soil or seed starter soil and lightly water them and wait for eleven days, whereupon the little plant supposedly pokes out. Who knows, will see in eleven days. Anyway, I have 30 pods and hundreds of seeds to try again if needed.
In the bottom right pic, the first seed is intact with its piggly wiggly thing; the middle one is after clipping that end without damaging the inner (real) seed; the 3rd is after soaking.
TOOLS are needed! Some of the seed pods might crack open on their own dropping the seeds on the ground. Mine and all the ones in YouTube were zipped up tight. They used a large knife to separate the woody package. What worked for me was a box cutter. The first info from YouTube said to use toenail clippers to snip the seed. This didn’t work because the blades don’t open wide enough to fit on the seed, which also is sort of slippery so doesn’t allow for gripping it. Another thing they recommended were wire cutters. I had some pressure locking pliers that had a small wire cutter function, with a flat area with the cutting edge coming right where wanted.
Another thing was figuring out which end of the seed was the one to snip. There was only one video that addressed this, and the answer is: The one with the little hair. The other end (if the hair is missing) is shaped like the front end of a jet.
Caveat: I am now into the second day of the absolute worst allergy attack I've ever had. It started the morning BEFORE I was sawing into the woody pods so I can't blame the woody dust. Co-inky-dink?!1
Lounge *ALERT*!1 - a musical blockbuster, PROUST thing-THING-*THING*!1 - Supertramp
Will not TEASE. It's about a song,
So in this place, this couple go there and are high rollers, spenders, and she's 6' and he's 5'9" and they're self-employed - whatEVER!1
The point is they are like the stars of the bar floozy hierarchy. Anyway, she plays like 50 juke box songs, 70s/80s/90s whatever, who knows because *I* certainly don't!1
I never paid attention, but about a month ago this SONG penetrated my skull like a crossbow. As I've said, I like MELODY not LYRICS, and TUNEFUL things, like POP, and TCHAIKOVSKY. *SO* this song was an immediate whaddaya callit a buzz thing you can't get rid of. And when that happens I usually run to the jukebox to see what it is, and I did, and thought I had noted it into the phone list, but I didn't, and for the next two days it was buzzing (what is the word?) but then it disappeared.
So then for the past three weeks I've been nuts trying to find that song, by playing '70s/'80s music and NOTHING.
So tonight the couple were in there and she played her usual HUNDRED songs, and after an hour THIS SONG played, and it was *IT*!1
It's got MELODY, REPETITIVE hook - and *COUNTERPOINT*!1 I love COUNTERPOINT!1 - this is FANTASTIC!1:
Supertramp Mark II. L-R: Roger Hodgson, Frank Farrell, Rick Davies, Kevin Currie, and Dave Winthrop
Rick DAVIES
[font size=5]Goodbye Stranger (1979)[/font]
by Rick DAVIES/Supertramp
It was an early morning yesterday
I was up before the dawn
And I really have enjoyed my stay
But I must be moving on
->Like a king without a castle
->Like a queen without a throne
->I'm an early morning lover
->And I must be moving on
Now I believe in what you say
Is the undisputed truth
But I have to have things my own way
To keep me in my youth
->Like a ship without an anchor
->Like a slave without a chain
->Just the thought of those sweet ladies
->Sends a shiver through my veins
->And I will go on shining
->Shining like brand new
->I'll never look behind me
->My troubles will be few
CHORUS: (1/once; 2/two & one half times)
1 Goodbye stranger it's been nice
Hope you find your paradise
Tried to see your point of view
Hope your dreams will all come true
2 Goodbye Mary, goodbye Jane
Will we ever meet again
feel no sorrow, feel no shame
Come tomorrow, feel no pain
Now some they do and some they don't
And some you just can't tell
And some they will and some they won't
With some it's just as well
->You can laugh at my behavior
->That'll never bother me
->Say the devil is my savior
->But I don't pay no heed
->And I will go on shining
->Shining like brand new
->I'll never look behind me
->My troubles will be few
CHORUS: (1/once; 2/three & one half times)
Goodbye stranger it's been nice etc...
DRUMPF exposed "a pre-existing rot" - brilliant essay by Rob GOODMAN (long read)
********QUOTE*******
ROB GOODMAN has worked as the speechwriter for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Senator Chris Dodd. His work has appeared on the floors of both houses of Congress, national television and radio, and the op-ed pages of The New York Times, Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Rome's Last Citizen.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/what-trump-taught-us-about-american-democracy-214596
[font size=5]What the King of Hawaii Can Teach Us About Trump[/font]
A political fable from 1819.
By Rob Goodman
.... I can’t be the only one who has lost count of the democratic [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]norms—the unwritten, informal, but hugely important rules that help us govern ourselves—that now seem to be gone with as little consequence[/FONT] as the taboos in the story. If you’re running for president, you don’t even raise the possibility that the election won’t count if you don’t win. You don’t threaten to throw your opponent in jail if you do win. If you change your mind about throwing your opponent in jail, you don’t explain it as an act of mercy, because that’s not how the rule of law works. If you’re running for president, and especially if you get elected, you release your tax returns, so voters can know that you’re not financially compromised by foreign governments, or by corporations seeking to do business with the United States. You put your assets in a blind trust, so you never confuse your self-interest with the public interest. You don’t accuse millions of Americans of voter fraud without evidence. You don’t compromise civilian control of the armed forces. You don’t let your team threaten to lock up journalists who investigate you.
[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]You don’t do those things, until, one day, you do.[/FONT] The only thing holding you back in most cases is the force of custom, and there are times and places—Hawaii in 1819, or America in 2016—[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]when custom is so weak that it’s no force at all.[/FONT]
Of course, Donald Trump didn’t need to be a political genius to realize that norms like these were historically weak. He only needed to watch the news. In just the last eight years, [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]we’ve watched the unthinkable become the debatable and then the unexceptionable.[/FONT] We’ve seen President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee denied even a hearing for nearly a year, and we’ve seen his other nominees blockaded at an historic rate. We’ve seen real, live U.S. senators promise that no justice nominated by a Democratic president would ever be confirmed. We’ve seen credible threats to default on the national debt. We’ve seen the president’s budget director denied even the right to propose a budget to Congress. We’ve seen the president expand executive power in response to all of this, in a way that’s troubling even to some liberals. We’ve seen the Senate filibuster go from rare to routine—and watched Senate Democrats retaliate by partially nuking the filibuster. It was laughable when a member of Congress interrupted the State of the Union to call the president a liar—until a movement calling the president a liar about his birthplace launched his successor to power. ....
Instead, we have to come to terms with living in a time of [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]post-norm politics[/FONT]—by which I don’t mean that all of our political norms are suddenly defunct, but rather that [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]the continued rolling back of norms we’ve taken for granted has to stop surprising us[/FONT]. Rather than thinking [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]reactively[/FONT], and [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]feeding the Trump outrage cycle[/FONT], we ought to understand him as exposing a [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]pre-existing rot[/FONT]. We need to think about why norms fail in general, and how to act when we can’t rely on them. Only then will we stop underestimating the sheer difficulty of one day rebuilding them. ....
********UNQUOTE*********
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