calimary
calimary's JournalWelcome to DU, JDC!
Agreed! I read that and came away in a better mood. Sometimes when one feels strongly about something, at least I myself feel hesitant about going with that too vehemently. And I do feel awfully strongly about this. I find I hold that contingent responsible for a lot of the badness that's metastasizing throughout our country.
It's these low-information voters, these willfully ignorant voters - who've been encouraged, conditioned, and reinforced in refusing to believe facts, science, reality, and truth. Some 30+ years of indoctrination starting during the reagan era, when the broadcasting industry started being deregulated, and ownership was allowed to expand, so corporations greedily gobbled up every radio and TV property they could somehow leverage to purchase, to assemble astounding media empires. Then they found the perfect mouthpiece who was trying something different to make a name for himself after a lackluster DJ career, by blathering CON crap at a little station in Sacramento. And they made rush limbaugh a star. And as he gained more success, he was cloned by others wanting in on that action.
He gave A VOICE to the miscreants and Bronze-Age thinkers and racists and others who had been forced to keep their shit locked up in the closet away from polite company, because you really couldn't say stuff like that out in the open, much less be proud of it. He brought all that shit out of the closet and put it on the air from coast-to-coast, so you finally COULD be out and proud about it, and you didn't have to mumble it to yourself in the shadows or keep it to yourself at family get-togethers. Now, it was okay. Now it was respectable. Now it had acceptability. Now it COULD be stated out loud, in public. And you didn't have to hide it or make excuses for it or pretend you didn't believe that stuff. Now you could. And it was okay. And you could share it with others who were emerging from the underbelly because THEY could be out an proud of it, too. And you found that you had many champions - who were not only on the radio and on this terrific cable network called Fox "News" that repeated and further reinforced YOUR views. but also running for office. You had your own world, for Pete's sake!
I think that's how it all started. The OBGYN was Lewis Powell (who would eventually wind up on the Supreme Court - thank you Richard Nixon) who wrote a blueprint for the US Chamber of Commerce for combating what they saw as a serious social, cultural, economic, and policy threat from the Left.
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/
The midwife was Ronald Reagan - the actor-turned-corporate-spokesman-turned-politician who rose to the highest height of all and could start implementing the plans - because of his unique ability AS a spokesman, how he could turn a phrase and deliver lines and make it all sound SOOOOOOOOOOO appealing and all-American and apple pie and all that.
And if you can get rid of all the regulations and government restrictions - you can build an infrastructure that delivers and reinforces the message, with impunity, a free open road to drive the rest of us through the unfettered free market greed-jungle straight to Hell.
I'm angry about that. I'm angry about how many patsies they found and exploited. How many of the low-info voters out there are just patsies - used to advance the "greater objective" because by now they're conditioned by this house of mirrors that the far right was able to build, that tells them this shit they've embraced in the closet, but polite society has always discouraged and regarded as something bad, is actually good. And okay. And within YOUR RIGHTS! That's how we got the teabaggers. That's how we got a guy like Donald Trump who says out loud that political correctness is bad and wrong and it's okay to be out 'n' proud against THAT, too. It's OKAY for you to say those nasty racist misogynist jingoistic things because it's okay to think and believe those things. Because those things are actually RIGHT.
That's where we are now. And the voters on the far right and the alt right now have their champion who tells them their anger - and resentment and racism and sexism and hatred and resentment of everybody who doesn't look like them, and their fear that those "Others" are multiplying and taking over "their" America - is okay and understandable and good and right. And justified. And he says he alone can fix all that.
This is where it's led. And this is where these assholes have ALLOWED THEMSELVES to be led. They WANT to believe the lies, because those lies reinforce the bullshit and lies and cockeyed world-view they've believed all along. And I have no respect or sympathy for these assholes. When you WANT to be ill-informed. When you WANT to reject truth because it defies the bubble-world lies you've lived with so comfortably and from which you've been able to remain so well-insulated.
Yeah, no kidding.
That one-liner keeps running through my head, seeing these "Deplorables" - "you must be SOOOO proud..."
Here's how bad that was:
Andrea Mitchell, of ALL people, singled that out as a negative on his scoreboard. She got right to that point last night, the first time they went to her out in the field. She of course began by carrying on a little about the first 30 minutes or so when he did - well - shall we say not so bad, before he "ran outta gas," as GOP analyst Steve Schmidt repeatedly noted. That was his characterization of how Trump did, over the course of the debate. And he added "babbling," and "incoherent," too, and more than once for each of those descriptions. But after a couple of sentences on that, she went full-on about how badly he did, how many times he interrupted, and how Hillary held up well.
Even Andrea Mitchell. He stunk up the joint too bad even for Andrea Mitchell. She COULD NOT HELP comparing Hillary favorably to Trump. Just couldn't help it. It was PROFOUNDLY unavoidable. Even for her.
Well, of course! Look how they behave at his rallies!
You DO NOT see flying fists and Wrestlemania behavior and displays of anger, bullying, belligerence, aggression, and sometimes outright violence at ANY Hillary rallies. You never saw that at Bernie rallies, either, OR rallies for ANYBODY else on our side of the aisle. You never see or hear ANYBODY on our side of the aisle insinuate that the way to beat the opponent is to put him/her at risk of being shot & killed. Not EVER. Not at ANY time as far back as I can remember, watching presidential politics and election seasons. That's just not who or what we are, on our side of the aisle.
I'm sorry, but that IS who THEY are. That's why I didn't have any problem with Hillary's "deplorables" comment. She was right on that score, too.
Welcome to DU, Osakagreg!
Wishful thinking, I'm afraid. But I still do believe that souls can be saved. Well, sometimes.
Interesting, too - Andrea Mitchell is on, from the campaign bus, commenting on last night, and he stunk up the joint too badly EVEN FOR HER!!! Madame "Accentuate the Negative about Hillary" had very little in terms of negative to accentuate, regarding how Hillary did last night.
It's not just Trump. It's HIS VOTERS!
Our own niyad asked me to make this an OP. This GQ commentary just said it all for me. Said it ALL! This is several days old and may have been posted here already, but it's worth revisiting! Might even make you feel justified. At least it certainly will remind you that you're not alone if you find yourself looking askance at people who say they side with Trump.
http://www.gq.com/story/a-word-for-donald-trump-voters
I got in trouble with a friend for venting about the voters who have shoved Donald Trump down our throats and elevated him to a place where none of us with any horse sense at all would NEVER find him fit to be. Said I was too nice and too kindhearted a person to say such things, to diss voters like that. Well, my apologies but dammit, I can't help it! The only way jerks like Trump get anywhere is because of the lemmings who fall in love with him - who somehow, inexplicably, resonate with him and cheer lustily for him and get into fist-fights over him. It's THEM I really fault. He wouldn't be the GOP nominee now if it hadn't been for them and all their votes and all their contributions and cheers and fists in the air and nasty t-shirts and negative portrayals of Hillary. DEPLORABLES. For SURE. Sorry, but that's what they are. Would YOU raise YOUR kids to be like them, to behave like they do, to parade around in those tshirts with those hateful slogans on them, to post all that nasty icky sexist, racist, xenophobic, reactionary, conspiracy-theory shit online, to swallow the lies they've swallowed and now swear by, and to cling so obstinantly to the misguided, misbegotten beliefs they hold - in defiance of ALL truth, reason, and reality?
From the thread...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512444222
Yeah! The column is six days old, but it sure sings!
I love it so much I've left it open in a tab on my laptop - for several days now.
It just spoke for me like little else - and also underscored what my own complaints were to a good friend, recently. How I, too, fault THE VOTERS for shoving this asshole in our faces. THE VOTERS! They who somehow, inexplicably, find this FREAK to be presidential material. How they can possibly see him as fit to be President of the United States - is just completely beyond me. Does Not Compute! Are they BLIND???? Or blind, deaf, and mute? Are they SO ensconced in their bubble world - do they cling to their bubble world - so desperately that they find an individual like Donald Trump acceptable for PRESIDENT?????????? I am forced at that point to ask - what the fuck - to, and about, THEM.
He's not the biggest problem here. THEY are. He wouldn't be where he is, a Presidential nominee, if not for THEM. So THEY are the ones who have to be looked at, closely, and questioned, and held accountable, too.
Btw - my friend faulted me for this. Told me I was too good and kind a person to go there. Well, my friend is in error on this one. I find Trump supporters DEPLORABLE. I just do. What the hell they see in him that they think makes him presidential material just completely escapes me. What they somehow see as presidential material would be CATASTROPHIC for this country, and the rest of the world, also.
And did you notice, afterwards, the "he ran outta gas" meme?
Steve Schmidt started it last night on MSNBC. He's a GOPer. And that's a metaphor he used several times throughout the evening. I noticed it was picked up again this morning - on CNN, too. It really fit, though.
I kept flashing back on Tony Schwartz. Something he said months ago during one of his many interviews about The Donald, with whom he hung out and tagged along with for months while researching to write "The Art of the Deal" for Trump. He was Trump's ghostwriter. He spoke numerous times about Trump's lack of focus and an abysmally low attention span. "Three seconds." "A minute or so." But the one that REALLY struck me: "he has the attention span of a nine-year-old boy with ADHD." DAMN that nailed it. Just freakin' NAILED it! I personally know that one painfully well. That was my kid, too, when he was nine years old (and younger). He eventually grew out of it, but as a child, he dealt with ADHD. When he was nine years old, SHEESH!!!!!!! Let's just say I never took him with me if I ever had to go shopping in a china shop or glassware department! YIKES!!!!!!!! My husband even created a screen saver for me - with the message "NO FLAPPING!" in big multicolor letters floating around the screen. Because I found myself saying that to him all the time. Sometimes it seemed like that's all our boy did. Flap! Arms, legs, mouth, hands, fingers. At home. At school. In karate class. At the grocery store. Just about anywhere. AY-yi-yi... There were times when I seriously thought we'd never get through that.
Welcome to DU, BBri!
That's a good point. Indeed, she IS a boss. She IS an executive. And she dresses that way. She's a player and might well wind up with the most powerful job on earth. And she's no newcomer. Dammit - at THIS level, you HAVE TO take things seriously. You HAVE TO be prepared, or get yourself there by hell or high water. This isn't something where you can just "wing it." This isn't something where you can rely exclusively on "your gut" and the strength of your personality. That won't cut it in a game like this. HE won't cut it in a game like this, particularly since it's not what he's used to. He's used to playing on a playing field he owns, or runs, and he can just phone it in. Where he calls the shots because he's the star of the show or he owns the building or he's the alpha and he can just coast on that.
Nope! Not here.
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