I’ve been on Daily Kos pretty much since the year it got up and running, and I’ve seen some eyebrow-raising things in my time. There’s all the usual silliness — Dean/Clark warz, Obama/Clinton warz, pro-TARP/anti-TARP, I/P — all the things one simply takes for granted as the background noise of deliberative democracy in the age of the ad hominem attack. I’ve seen slighly more wack stuff, too, like the guy who patiently explained to me how great neoliberalism is(!), and then a few months later accused Paul Krugman of being a neoliberal — demonstrating what can only be his shaky interpretive grasp on the term.
But today really, truly takes the cake.
I saw a commenter muse aloud about the possibility that s/he may vote for Trump.
That commenter had received nineteen upratings at last count. Nineteen.
When I dutifully replied with a big WTF?, two additional commenters rallied to Trump’s defense. These were both on economic policy grounds, mind you, but Trump apologists nevertheless. I read one comment to the effect of, “You really ought to read this [insert website]; it outlines thus-and-so policy comparisons….”
But the thing I know is this:
I don’t need to read a damn thing singing Trump’s praises on any front whatsoever.
There is no conceivable reason for anyone at a progressive blog worthy of the name to be advocating on Trump’s behalf, for any reason whatsoever.
For those who perhaps found brooklynbadboy’s excellent diary too cryptic or ambiguous, let me elaborate:
— On a nearly daily basis, people of color are taunted, threatened, physically accosted, and unceremoniously ejected from Trump rallies.
— Donald Trump was reluctant to disavow the support of white supremacist and ex-Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
— The underlying plank of Trump’s policy platform is to build a giant wall across the Mexican border, but not before rounding up some 11 million undocumented migrants, and swiftly deporting them.
— He also wants to invoke an unconstitutional religious test to shut Muslim migrants out of the country.
— His models in these latter two policy planks are such stellar initiatives as Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback,” in which people were killed, families were ripped apart, others forced onto trains transporting them deep into Mexico’s interior, still others drowning as a result of overcrowding on ships of deported workers.
— Another model Trump cites with approval is the fucking WWII Japanese internment camps.
I think that about covers it, right? What more do we need to know about this guy?
I mean, this is some Weimar Republic-level stuff we’re talking about.
The thing I find unfathomable is that people are citing what they see as the positive side of Trump’s protectionist trade policies (however vaguely articulated), along with the likelihood — however fanciful — that Trump will be “less beholden to corporate interests,” to justify favoring him over Hillary Clinton. The gist of all this, I suppose, is that Trump is a kind of obnoxious Bizarro Bernie Sanders in overpriced pinstripes, who would somehow still be favorable in the general to a candidate over whom they’ve spent all election season building up a kind of irrational hatred.
It’s a democracy, and if that’s what people want to do, fine. But they should know that in order to do so, they need to systematically disregard the humanity of millions of Americans, and millions more who are migrants to this country, and who have contributed to its diversity and socioeconomic dynamism.
I say all this as a Bernie supporter, who is deeply invested in the rollback of income inequality, the regulation of Wall Street, and the reining in of corporate interests — none of these goals should come at the cost of the most vulnerable among us.