Some Super Tuesday food for thought . . .
Stop saying Donald Trump can't win. The Republicans will choose 652 delgates today, and 428 of them come from Southern states where may win big. Hence the Republican panic. If Trump does well enough, it may be mathematically impossible keep him from winning the nomination.
Stop thinking this isn't happening. It is. Stop thinking Trump is a joke that will only hurt Republicans. Trump fascism hurts all of us and it’s certainly no joke. Consider what Trump's nasty divorce from Ivana revealed about him:
Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.
We know that the Klan and white supremacists are supporting Trump and that Trump has refused to condemn them.
We know from polling that 16% of Trump's South Carolina voters believe whites are the superior race and another 14% think they might be, but aren't sure. 38% of Trump supporters wish the South had won the Civil War.
The Washington Post showed that Trump's father, Fred Trump, was a Klansman.
And Trump has no problem quoting Mussolini.
"@ilduce2016: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain"
His disregard for democracy and the press, his contempt for women, his assaults on Mexicans and Muslims are almost beyond counting. This is the most dangerous politician I've seen in my lifetime – and I grew up in Mississippi during the 1960s when political language routinely led to violence and the murder of the innocent.
Most of all, please stop saying that Trump is not a politician. He's among the best. He was mentored by Roy Cohn, infamous for serving as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the communist witch hunt of the 50s.
Donald Trump had Roy Cohn, the Picasso of the inside fix. “Cohn taught Donald which fork to use,” a friend told me. “I’ll bring my lawyer Roy Cohn with me,” Trump often told city officials a decade ago, before he learned better. “Donald calls me fifteen to twenty times a day,” Cohn once told me. “He has a maddening attention to detail. He is always asking, ‘What is the status of this? What is the status of that?’ ”
And he was taught the art of politics over a twenty year span by Roger Stone, who cut his teeth on dirty tricks for Richard Nixon before becoming a business partner with Lee Atwater, master of open and coded racism in political campaigns.
This from Politico about Trump's first debate:
Trump’s longtime adviser and a former aide to Richard Nixon, Stone has been helping the mogul prep for the debate by drafting policy memos on specific issues and engaging in general conversations about the art of the televised political debate: “Debates are about themes, they’re not about statistics,” is the philosophy Stone and Trump share, according to a person with knowledge of the mogul’s preparation.
The New Yorker said this about Stone in 2008.
Stone’s rules: “Attack, attack, attack—never defend” and “Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack.”
Sound familiar? Another Stone quote that defines the Trump campaign:
“Remember,” Stone said. “Politics is not about uniting people. It’s about dividing people. And getting your fifty-one per cent.”
Trump can be beaten. Perhaps even beaten badly. But not if we take him for granted.
Trump has been on my mind since last August when I realized he could win, given the crowded field of Republicans. My earlier blogs on him are here and here.