I have to say the Trump Maladministration is every bit as awful as I thought it would be. Keep this in mind, however:
We hear people constantly saying ‘Nothing will change his supporters’ minds. They’re with him no matter what.’ First of all this is enervating defeatism which is demoralizing and loserish. But it also misses the point. It is factually wrong. For the supporters those people have in mind, they’re right. They’re true believers, authoritarians who are energized by Trump’s destructive behavior. But there are not that many of those people. A big chunk of Trump’s voters voted for him in spite of their dislike. Those people can be carved away.
This cannot be emphasized enough. Not everyone who voted for Trump is a neonazi Klan sympathizer. Some of them were just foolish. Frankly, some of them probably would have voted for the Democrat had the nominee not been Hillary Clinton.
Gallup’s Daily Tracking Approval poll has Trump at 43 percent. How low can he go?
It’s hard not to get discouraged and lose hope. What hurts me the most is the fact that the whole world saw what Donald Trump is well before the election and yet so many chose to vote for him in spite of all the evidence that he’s a sick sick individual. It boggles my mind that a pathological liar who clearly demonstrated that there wasn’t an iota trustworthiness, truthfulness, or honor in his entire being could be found acceptable for a position of such esteem as the Presidency of the United States.
How can we believe a single word that comes from of our government when the person who sits at the top of it isn’t capable of telling the truth?.. Read the story about the failed raid in Yemen.. and compare that knowledge with Trump’s claim that it was a 100% success.. Maybe Spicer’s claim that we got an “unbelieveable” amount of valuable information from the raid is true..but unbelievable doesn’t necessarily attribute to the positive. That’s where trust comes in.. I don’t, and nobody should trust Trump because he’s a proven liar. His first foray into the world as the big badass Commander in Chief and he blows it, then lies to make it sound like he’s the incarnation of military greatness.
He’s a big narcissistic bag of shit and he’ll never rise above that status.
A lot of desperate roll-the-dice, tear-down-the-establishmant types. The protests are already getting more a lot support than the tea party did. And so fast already.
If Trump supporters paid any attention at all to Washington (I know, I am asking a lot), they would see they have already been thrown under the bus. Puzder for labor? Mister “no minimum wage increases”? Trump will do absolutely nothing to help the poor or middle class.
If he is at 43% today, that is a big gain over the 36% he had just before the travel ban went in. I had feared as much. His base has forgiven for not prosecuting Hillary, so up go his numbers.
It is important to send disaffected Trump supporters a message other than “We told you to for Hillary!” Maybe the message needs to be along the lines of “You voted for Trump to bring back jobs, not for Steve Bannon to start a war with China. You voted for one thing and got another. You ordered one thing and got something you never ordered. That has happened to all of us.” That message may need to wait a while until it becomes clearer that there will be no pony.
“If he is at 43% today, that is a big gain over the 36% he had just before the travel ban went in.” Wrong. There are a lot of poll numbers being floated around by a lot of polling organizations, but Gallup is the only one taking daily polls, so you need to look at just Gallup’s numbers. And they show Trump approval numbers sinking lower after the travel ban went into effect. No other polling organization I can find has before and after numbers.
When arguing online with one who argues in bad faith, don’t try to convert the other; instead remember that there are others listening in on both of you; therefore be the cogent one, the one worthy of respect. When bad-faith idiotically insults you (inevitably) then feel free to insult back, but do so with ten times the wit and wisdom. This will not be difficult.
Even bad-faith can be dented a bit, if instead of reason, you appeal to bad-faith’s true loyalties and self-interest. “Trump will betray you” is not an alternative fact.
It’s my opinion that Trump’s popularity will increase, not decrease. Hitler was likewise very popular early in his regime, he made needed practical changes to the ossified German system, so much so, that by the mid 1930s people were speaking of “the German Miracle”. Mussolini likewise was wildly popular. This is exactly why strongmen get elected, and Trump is trying to do the same to America.
Recall that Trump was a TV star, for eight seasons IIRC. He has considerable charm, even though many despise him. His numbers will improve – this is from the guy (me) who was saying all along that Trump stood a good chance of beating Hillary Clinton when everyone was getting ready for her inevitable coronation, like her or not.
I look to this scene from Doctor Zhivago. The Russian people are rallying to the cry to enlist for the Great War. Our protagonist, played by Alec Guiness, is a communist, and is ordered by the party to enlist, to join in, and to be ready for the time when the war euphoria turns to gloom, when the new boots issued to the peasant conscripts wear out. The communists have to bide their time, to wait for the mood of the public to be right.
Less than a decade ago, we got a guy who gave us some ‘hope.’
Then, last year, along came a narcissistic and psychotic dope, who said “NOPE!” to any ‘hope’ given by that last guy.
And now, to merely ‘mope,’ will take more optimism and energy than I can muster.
But don’t worry, I’m not at the end of my ‘rope.’
I need to get myself well enough so that I can, if not march, then at least help be there in the planning stages.
the president* yelled at the Prime Minister of Australia, an ally, and he threatened to send America’s military to invade Mexico. And, worst of all the fiasco in Yemen, which was poorly planned, it was not staffed properly, and children were murdered. He is a very dangerous man. . . . and what Swami said, too.
Wow, moonbat, Alec Guiness sure looks young.
I keep expecting a bump in the economy and Trump’s popularity in the way Hitler, Mussolini and Franco started off. This is among my current nightmares because first impressions die hard. So, the success would be Trump’s and when it falls apart, it would be back to blaming Obama. But, a lot of the establishment is decidedly nervous, maybe nervous enough to stem the “irrational exuberance.”
In preparation for the trials and tribulations to come, we’ve started another dreaded “month of health.” That means no alcoholic beverages and a focus on exercise and study. I know, it sounds awful, but, we have to gather our strength and stay engaged. Anything we can do to stay strong, anything positive that we can wring out of this mess, we have to go for it.
“Je me lance vers la gloire!”
Moonbat, the problem is that Hitler’s Germany had some obvious, clear problems that could be worked on quickly. The US is not in the same situation.
The biggest problem in the US is we’re bumping up against new situations that economics never had to consider. I used to talk about the “Star Trek limit” – Star Trek occasionally references that once you have stuff like matter replicators normal economic concepts fly out the window.
It’s not too far from where we are now. Individual productivity can be extremely high. One person can oversee multiple robots working far faster than a human can. Even farming isn’t anywhere near as labor intensive as it once was; and if we didn’t have immigrants picking vegetables, a lot more picking would be done with machinery too.
In the past, increases in production in one area (farming used to occupy at least part of the labor of some 30% of the population; now it occupies a far smaller percentage – 5%? 2%? It’s in the single digits!) meant more people to work in other areas, which meant an improvement in the overall economy (with growing pains – like, those now unemployed farmers who are far away from whatever jobs emerged as a result of fewer farmers needed).
That’s no longer the case.
I feel we’ve reached the limits of capitalism to create a better society. Because capital has become so powerful, and labor is now so easily obtainable.
The best option right now would be a huge expansion of the social safety net – bumping up Obamacare, increasing eligibility for SNAP, bumping up Social Security, or, hell, a make-work jobs program. These things would make people’s lives better and therefore make them happier.
Thankfully, that can’t happen with the GOP in charge. And besides, Trump isn’t competent enough to make this connection.
One of the notable things about this quote is the author – “ELIOT A. COHEN is the director of the Strategic Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. From 2007 to 2009, he was a counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“This is one of those clarifying moments in American history, and like most such, it came upon us unawares, although historians in later years will be able to trace the deep and the contingent causes that brought us to this day. There is nothing to fear in this fact; rather, patriots should embrace it. The story of the United States is, as Lincoln put it, a perpetual story of “a rebirth of freedom†and not just its inheritance from the founding generation.”
The whole thing is worth reading, and scathing about how republicans will either stand up for conservative values or suck up to Trump and go down with the ship.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/a-clarifying-moment-in-american-history/514868/?utm_source=twb
BTW, yes I know it’s an old post but it was/is an important issue (not giving up hope) and the message should encourage you, especially considering the source. After defeating Nixon, the movement fell apart – when we defeat Trump, we need to see things through to make institutional change to empower voters over the corporate state.