George Bernard Shaw is the author of the quote on "hate" that entitles this diary. It came to mind when I was reading, in some awe, of Donald Trump's curious rise to the top of the GOP's popular candidate list. I was baffled by Bush, shocked by Sarah, and horrified by Huckabee.
But - Trump? He of the relentless self-promotion, the ridiculous combover, the dumb t.v. show? I didn't see that one coming.
Anyone who's read Trump's dreadful books or been unable to escape his ubiquitous presence in the popular media for the past two decades knows a couple of things about "The Donald".
1. He's not too bright
2. He was born rich, and spent most of his life pretending he earned his wealth.
3. He has no core values outside of hedonism and the care and feeding of a massive ego.
While that might describe a lot of politicians, the embrace of Trump by the uber-nutty wing of the GOP, the Tea Party brigade- (another curious casserole of Ayn Rand neighbor-haters, traditional racists, Christian dominionists and right wing populists), well, there's something really weird about Trump's triumphant trek into politics.
It's all based on his one trick pony stand on Obama's alleged "mysterious" origins. And there, I think, it gets kind of interesting.
Othering is a way of defining and securing one’s own positive identity through the stigmatization of an "other." Whatever the markers of social differentiation that shape the meaning of "us" and "them," whether they are racial, geographic, ethnic, economic or ideological, there is always the danger that they will become the basis for a self-affirmation that depends upon the denigration of the other group. When a group claims to be "chosen by God," the danger multiplies, not only for the "unchosen" other who may be subjected to violence, but for the chosen group itself that is at risk of being undermined. [In other words, convenient though othering is as a way of propping up one’s ego, it has an inherent fragility because it must constantly led be fed by the illusory inferiority by the Other – and is thus constantly at risk of being discredited – MU
]
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/...
Free Republic, my blog of choice when it comes to knowing what the swamp dwelling right is thinking, initially embraced Trump. Frustrated with all the Republican potentials and their reluctance to embrace birtherism, even Sarah, a perennial favorite amongst Freepers, they rejoiced to hear the truth being spoken loud and clear.
But then troubling facts seemed to mount up. Trump, it seems, once praised Hillary, His other political views were suspect. And eventually, the dark truth dawned....
Another RINO! Currently, only Herman Cain (the pizza guy) and Sarah seem to be poised to satisfy the Tea Party wing of the Republican party. Sarah regained some lost luster with her screeching speech in support of Wisconsin Governor Walker's anti-democratic platform for turning Wisconsin into a kind of cheddar-republic. But the jettisoning of Trump was tinged with real regret on Free Republic. His embrace of conspiracy theories involving myriad Hawaiians, Kenyans, and kindergarten teachers struck a deep chord. It's no surprise that birtherism is born of racism, but I think it goes deeper. The right needs to reject the peculiarly named president and those who supported him, those fellow-citizens who want to impose evils such as universal health care and a living wage on the rightful inheritors of this nation. They tried to claim the election was stolen by ACORN, they tried to point to the liberal media as the culprits of Obama's win, attacking, as they did, Sarah Palin for "daring to tell the truth".
But neither of those explanations really satisfied. So they reached deep down, grabbed an impulse that surely must date back to the dawn of civilization, the demonization of "the Other". William Styron pointed out that Americans have never embraced anti-semitism quite as vigorously as Europeans, largely because they have a "darker sacrificial lamb" that has always served the purpose. Obama's presence in the White House so horrified the inner-racist that lurks within so many on the right that they often drop all pretense, and embrace cartoons showing watermelon patches growing on the White House lawn and apes populating a "photo" of Obama's family tree. But it's 2011 and our modern day racists recognize that "Segregation now, segregation forever!" is going to be a tough sell, nationally. So they tweaked it, and created a modern political version of that classic Twilight Zone episode, "The Monsters are Due On Maple Street."
In "Monsters", an ordinary (white) suburban neighborhood descends into a McCarthy-inspired pitchfork wielding mob by the suspicion that some odd goings on were caused, not by ordinary electrical grid problems, but the presence - right in their midst - of an Alien. An "Other". The fear of the Other turned otherwise nice folks into haters, who justified their murderous impulses by the need to drive the "Other" from their midst and protect what was rightfully theirs.
And whether it's been a mob burning the witch, Kristallnacht, Joseph McCarthy's destruction of decent Americans for political gain or the newest version, "Birtherism", it's all just tentacles of the same hate-squid.
Leon Uris, in writing about the Nazi death camps, described a conversation between a camp guard and his former torture victim. "How," the victim asked, "how could you do such things?" The guard had a ready answer. "Because to us, you see - you were not quite human...."
Don't let the media get away with humoring the Birthers. The Trump goofiness will pass, but I would be shocked if any legitimate GOP candidate can win primaries without embracing the driving force behind his gimmicky rise. Having embarked on a raft built on disproved economic theories and the hard-to-defend principle of raw greed and what Roger Ebert called the "pull up the ladder, I'm on the lifeboat!" self-interest, hate is the only thing keeping that boat afloat. Call it hatred, call it racism, and call it so every time you hear it.