I have to admit I have an obsession. It gnaws at me. I am frequently preoccupied with it, searching for a solution to this puzzle only to be disappointed and frustrated.
How did this country get to the fractured, broken place that we currently find ourselves in?
I know part of the answer to that question involves Trump, but it’s far more than just that. It’s much deeper and has been in the works for much longer than the political prominence of Donald J. It goes back decades. It’s the legacy of toxic nativism, hateful racism, know-nothingism and general selfish assholishness. There is a strain of person in this country that are frankly dumber than a stump and arrogant about it. Removing Trump either by a vote in the Senate or during the election won’t remove these people, they’re with us to stay.
And that’s a problem, a big problem.
First, you can see how Vice President Biden keeps beating the drum of unity, suggesting that he might take a Republican on as his running mate and arguing that all he has to do is reach out his hand and Mitch McConnell will gladly shake it.
Biden says he can “restore the soul of the nation” but can he? Can he really? We know that the Merritt Garland debacle took place on Obama’s watch. We saw how Congress repeatedly ignored his initiatives, starting with the American Jobs Act and his request for an authorization to use military force in Syria to the Sequester and multiple government shutdowns.
They blew him off.
Biden argues that if Trump gets four more years his brand of politics while gaining an impenetrable foothold in our national political fabric. Regardless of Biden’s other qualities and limitations about this, he is wrong. That foothold has already been achieved.
Then you have similar ads coming from contenders such as Tom Steyer.
Steyer makes the argument that our politics, due to the influence of big money, has failed to serve the needs of the people. To some extent he has a point, yes there are lobbyists and moneyed interests that tend to push our politics down the same rat holes, but again like Biden that’s only half the picture.
This is not intended to be an analysis of either of these candidates and their campaigns. I’m not yet ready to have that discussion, but they are indicative of what I think is an unrealistic attitude.
66 million people, more than have ever voted for a single candidate in any American election [except for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012] , voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But there were still 63 million who voted the other way. Those people didn’t represent corporations. Those people will not be easily appeased and will not simply dry up and blow away. They are a part of the American fabric, they are a part of us. And they, quite frankly, are basically a pack of lunatics from our point of view.
You can see the much of the same frustration I have in my twitter feed particularly when it comes to the people who continue to enable, excuse, rationalize and justify the behavior Trump.
What I don’t usually get in my twitter feed, is opinions or views from Trump supporters. It’s radio silence on that front. It would be something to be able to have a rational, reasonable conversation about public policy with someone who has a different point of view, someone who doesn’t resort to trolling, ad hom, gaslighting and self-serving arguments, but it seems that people such as that have been completely filtered out of my feed.
When I first started posting on the internet, 20 years ago, this was my primary task. Discussing the issues of the day with all comers, debating policy with everyone and anyone.
Those days are apparently long gone.
I suspect I’m not alone in this phenomenon. We don’t talk to each other anymore. We can’t. The walls have grown too thick and too high. Anything we have to say about any subject is met with nothing but distrust and dismissal. It comes from the “Lame Stream Media”. It comes from the “Deep State.” It’s all based in “blind hated for Trump.”
On our side, and I know this because I’ve written repeated diaries about it, our view of them is that they are a Death Cult. That everything they believe are lies and bullshit. Like Hillary Clinton who argued that half of Trump’s supporters are a “basket full of deplorables” I do believe what I’ve said about these people is true. But, also like Hillary, I don’t believe this represents everyone who may be on the other side of the political divide. She said “Half” of Trump supporters were deplorable, that leaves the other half which was actually the subject that she was addressing as noted by NPR.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? [Laughter/applause]. The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.
"But the other basket, the other basket, and I know because I see friends from all over America here. I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas, as well as you know New York and California. But that other basket of people who are people who feel that government has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they are just desperate for change. It doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin[e], feel like they're in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well."
Three years later, I’m not sure I know where these non-deplorables are. I’m not sure I know who they are. The media continually chases after the elusive swing-Trump voter, but they mostly come up empty. Who the heck are these people?
They swallow his blatant lies, hook, line and sinker. They eat it up. They love being lied to. They want it. He simply tells them exactly what they want to hear.
Trump Supporter #1: Finally, we have a president who is there who works for the people. It’s not about him, it’s about the people.
Trump Supporter #2: This is the hunger of the American people. That’s all our president is. Our president is a man of the people.
Trump Supporter #3: What he says he’ll do, he does it. He’s not a career politician. He can’t be bought off.
Trump Supporter #4: I personally feel that if we don’t stand, and we don’t re-elect Trump we’re gonna be a socialist country and that’s not a country I want my grand-children in.
Interviewer: Have you ever felt this way about a politician?
Trump Supporter #5: No, never. If somebody had told me five years ago that I would want to go to a campaign rally? That I would be this excited to go to a campaign rally? I would have told them they were crazy. I didn’t pay attention to politics, I had nothing to do with politics, it just bored me to tears. But this man, president Trump, we love him. I mean, it is honest, heart-felt. Because he’s told us, he loves us.
They love him because he loves them. It could be that simple. It could be that basic. Obama talked about “clinging to your guns and your religion”, and as I’ve already said Hillary played the elitist card with the “deplorables.” So the Republican play is that Democrats hate the heartland, we hate the rust-belt and therefore they hate us back. He demonizes us, and that what pleases them the most. It’s love, but also hate.
Trump Supporter #6: We beg you in Jesus name, don’t vote for the Democrats.
Interviewer: You drove 12 hours to be hear?
Trump Support #7: Yes.
Interviewer: Why?
Supporter #7: Because we love Trump.
Trump Supporter #8: Landslide. I guarantee you it’s gong to be a blowout. Mr. President we love you, Sir. We’re going to continue to have your back. We will walk side-by-side with you. And we’re never gonna stop.
Interviewer: What do you think the message is that this rally sends to the rest of the country in regards to the 2020 election?
Trump Supporter #9: Cause we are ready. We’re ready to vote, we’re ready to stand by our president.
To be fair I don’t hate these people, I don’t despise them. I pity them. They depress and disappoint me. They’re an embarrassment.
It’s more than just a difference of opinion. It’s a different matter of perceiving reality. It’s a different way of understanding facts. These supporters argue that Trump is a “man of the people” and chant that he’s done such a “great job” with the economy, but the facts tell a different story.
Axios reports that Trump’s economic boasts pale compared to Obama’s, the stock market has increased 42% under Trump, but it increased 45% under GHW Bush and increased 56% under Obama. Forbes documents that Trump has created 1.5 Million fewer jobs than in Obama's last 3 years. Business Insider documents that unemployment improved by 5.5% under Obama, and 0.7% under Trump and the federal deficit decreased by $900 Billion under Obama and has increased by $600 Billion under Trump. This is not the greatest economy we’ve ever had, not even close.
In every area, Trump’s economy is not as strong as was Obama’s, or frankly Clinton’s when we balanced the budget and massively grew the job base, but simply because he hasn’t had a massive crash he gets credit for being some type of “economic genius” when in fact, he’s just been lucky so far.
In every other area, he’s a total failure.
His tariffs are being paid for 100 percent by U.S. citizens as noted by Mother Jones.
There’s been no change at all. American firms and consumers are still paying nearly 100 percent of the cost of the tariffs. The only exception, it turns out, is steel, where foreign manufacturers have lowered their prices in the face of increased competition.
So that’s that. Previous estimates that American households are paying nearly $1,000 per year in hidden tariff costs are still in effect.
He’s established concentration camps on our border where over 5,400 children have been separated from their parents as noted by NBC news.
Of those separated during the 12-month period, 207 were younger than 5, said attorney Lee Gelernt of the ACLU, which sued to stop family separation. Five were younger than a year old, 26 were a year 40 were 2 years old, 76 were 3, and 60 were 4.
"It is shocking that 1,556 more families, including babies and toddlers, join the thousands of others already torn apart by this inhumane and illegal policy," said Gelernt. "Families have suffered tremendously, and some may never recover."
North Korea has stated that they will again begin Nuclear and rocket tests, and obviously Iran has decided to again begin Nuclear enrichment after the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani as noted by the Guardian.