"His promise to 'drain the swamp' was treated as some genius coinage, though in fact the platitude had been worn out for decades by both parties. Nancy Pelosi promised to 'drain the swamp' in 2006, just as the Reagan-Bush campaign had vowed to 'Make America Great Again' in 1980.
Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things. But on top of that, he is a uniquely tiresome individual, easily the sorest loser, the most prodigious liar, and the most interminable victim ever to occupy the White House. He is, quite possibly, the biggest crybaby ever to toddle across history’s stage, from his inaugural-crowd hemorrhage on day one right down to his bitter, ketchup-flinging end. Seriously, what public figure in the history of the world comes close? I’m genuinely asking.
Bottom line, Trump is an extremely tedious dude to have had in our face for seven years and running."
ADDED: I'm contemplating the writing: "from his inaugural-crowd hemorrhage on day one right down to his bitter, ketchup-flinging end." That's kind of good, isn't it? Hemorrhage implies blood, and ketchup is used sometimes as fake blood. It's a little unmixed metaphor to discover.
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121 comments:
I appreciate the irony of an entire article about a man the writer never found to be remotely captivating as a stand-alone figure.
I can only assume Leibovich would write an Encyclopaedic tome about someone he did find captivating.
Tedium is reading all the articles about why Trump stubbornly remains in the news.
Breaking news. Reporter who worked for NY Times, Washington Post, NPR and MSNBC doesn't like Trump. (Based on the reporting about Trump by those outlets, it is unlikely he has any meaningful understanding of Trump.)
Rent free.
Yeah, because a drooling old man who doesn't know where he is, and is owned by CHI-NA is the best answer to energy independence and a great economy until they released the COVID in Chi-NA. Makes you wonder WHY they did that. Or it should. Nasty Nancy with her insider trading getting richer, and mocking the Bishop in San Fran, who refused to give her communion because she is for murdering babies, so she flies to the VATICAN and shoves it in that Bishops face by getting communion by the Socialist Dopey Pope. This administration is a joke, and they hate us, but yeahhh...TRUMPPPPPPPPPPPPP.... Sick of it all. Let the damn country fall already. We are almost there thanks to the left.
Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things.
The routine assertion backed with nothing. Amazing how just being President captivated journalist to repeat this line over and over without investigation.
"Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things."
He did? When? show the evidence or quotes. Or you're a hack.
How refreshing it is that the President now is Joe Biden!
"That's kind of good, isn't it"
I dont know. I liked "Mark Leibovich sobs" followed by "The Most Pathetic Men..." personally. Apt. Very apt.
No mention of finding ways to make deals where deals were not possible before.
Isn't this sweet?? And I bet Mark Leibovich has no clue that this is even happening, because he has TRUMP on the brain. Get over yourself Marky mark...YOUR President SHOULD be impeached for this, as TRUMP would have been, but idiots like you don't care that he and his family are selling us to CHI-NA. ASSHOLE
https://therightscoop.com/report-joe-biden-sold-a-million-barrels-of-strategic-oil-reserves-to-chinese-gas-giant-with-ties-to-hunter-biden/
And still, he won. And still, he has many millions of devotees. And still, he survived multiple impeachments/attacks/subterfuge events from all quarters. And Trump shifted political debates farther than Clinton, Bush, and Obama combined. The Democratic Party and Never Trump crowd still dwells on him 18 months after Jan 6 and after putting Puppet Biden on stage as their envisioned savior. That's not going so well, huh?
The authors and angry people need to learn about psychological projection. Crybaby Trump drew out the selfish lust for power in D.C. There's lots of that in D.C. Crybaby Trump was indeed extremely naïve and juvenile...his critics must thereby feel like 2x fools...
Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things.
I'll give that he said some things that might be questionable to Atlantic readers, but please name the things he DID that were obviously dangerous, racist, and cruel.
I scanned the entire article in 3 minutes. Embarrassingly bubbled and pretentious. I'm not going to waste 10 minutes reading every word of that drivel. I guess there is a large enough customer base for crap like that. I'm not part of it.
If you're going to key on hemorrhage and blood don't forget grab them by the pussy, or Megan Kelly's outrage when he out-quipped her at the wrong time of the month.
"he is a uniquely tiresome individual"
Ah...no. the most entertaining and FUN Politian of our lifetimes.
On some level I agree: He is obviously a big baby, that was obvious in 2016 already, and his behavior for the last few months in office was pathetic enough that I would once again support any Republican candidate instead of him. He tried to fight city hall, but backed down and crawled away when they pushed back.
But they are much more scary and evil, so I would reluctantly vote for him against any of them.
"I never found Donald Trump to be remotely captivating as a stand-alone figure."
Impeached x 2, named 3 Supreme Court Justices, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, droned the head of Iran's Revolutionary Army, massive economic boom, stack market nearly doubled, and all in a single four year term.
This is such over the top garbage thinking and writing. This is nothing but regularly used slams and cuts by the Left in general and the media as a rule. Have something new, something insightful to offer up about Donald Trump at this point, or just shut up already. This was tedious 3 years ago. It's numbingly unimportant at this point. Better yet, if you feel the need to write an article about Donald Trump and want to show his evilness, actually go talk to Donald Trump and find out what you don't know. Be a reporter. Be a researching, curious writer. Just don't be ordinary.
By the way, ""His promise to 'drain the swamp' was treated as some genius coinage,...". By whom? We'd all heard it before. Yet we voted him in because we believed that, unattached from a career in politics, he just might do it. He did a bit of it. Not much, but I don't think he realized how firmly and deeply entrenched are those occupying the swamp. The next person to claim they can do this, will again get some consideration, because The Swamp needs to be drained.
And, stop with the 'he's evil'. He lies more than any single human being in history. He lies like any politician. But what he also does is embellish. He uses superlatives everywhere. He is not shy with hyperbole, he embraces it. And that's part of what makes many of us chuckle when he speaks. There's a lot of showmanship, a bit of tongue in cheek, and a chunk of humor in many of his statements. The problem with the left is, while they like to think of themselves as 'nuanced' thinkers, they are not nuanced at all. They are very linear, very rigid in their thinking. And anything that does not comport with their worldview does not compute. They have no funny bone, so they can see no humor when it's plated up for them. They don't like shows, unless its approved- like Obama's acceptance aside Grecian Columns, bringing tears to their eyes.
Please. I remember when The Atlantic was a source of stunning journalism. This is garbage. This guy's been around long enough to do better than this.
I would be inclined to see Trump win another term just to see the bug-eyed lefties and the NeverTrumpers melt into a puddle of their own diarrhea. The blowout as votes are totaled would explode porcelain fixtures up and down the coasts….and in Madison.
- Krumhorn
This from the same liar press who refuse to touch Hunter and Biden family corruption.
The media is hemorrhaging credibility. How disgusting.
I disagree about the metaphor, or rather about how he uses it. Let's take a look:
He is, quite possibly, the biggest crybaby ever to toddle across history’s stage, from his inaugural-crowd hemorrhage on day one right down to his bitter, ketchup-flinging end.
What do crybabies and stages have to do with one another? What does either have to do with blood? It's incoherent, taken in toto.
I'm trying to figure out what he was actually trying to say, so as to clean up the metaphor. "Trump is a crybaby toddler," which appears to be a theme throughout, smacks of playground name-calling, but hey, at least it's consistent. Pivoting from that theme to blood is what makes the metaphor break down - the "stage" in the middle is just white noise, to throw another metaphor into the mix.
But beyond the metaphorical, there is the question of - as I said - what he's actually trying to say with the blood thing. His inaugural crowd shrank, I gather (I didn't remember that); did he then complain about it like a crybaby toddler? If so, why not stick with the crybaby toddler theme (it's dead easy to work "food thrown at the wall" in with that!) and not try to get cute with unrelated blood?
I remember that after the Iranian election of 2005, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected, many Iranians complained that the election was stolen. These complaints were reported in the USA's mass media.
I remember also that after the Ukrainian election of 2010, when Viktor Yanukovych was elected, many Ukrainians complained the election was stolen. These complaints were reported in the USA's mass media.
What I cannot remember, however, is our American journalists remarking routinely that those complaints were:
* baseless
* debunked
* lies
* a Big Lie
Such words never appeared in any reporting by our American journalists after those two elections.
In comparison, there never is any report about the USA's 2020 election that does NOT contain such words.
Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things
like Leland, i'd appreciate it, if someone could list a few of these?
MarK? Gadfly? Igna? Anyone?
A good example of a truly captivating person is Mark Leibovich.
Is there one person in America that is better off now than 3 years ago? Other than the Biden family, of course.
And yet, Adam Schiff is playing games now, and blocking anybody from question the military or Police who were involved in the Capitol selfie day because they DON'T want anybody to EVER find out the truth....that it was a FEDSURRECTION.
But TRUMMMMMPPPP....Go back to sleep now.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/panicked-adam-schiff-moves-disrupt-future-investigations-us-military-involvement-jan-6-protests-riot/
What I cannot remember, however, is our American journalists remarking routinely that those complaints were:
* baseless
* debunked
* lies
* a Big Lie
===========
These words do not appear only when the journalists quote someone else saying them.
Rather, the words appear throughout the texts that the journalists themselves writes as his own report.
We all are supposed to reflexively believe our journalists when they declare unprofessionally and obnoxiously that some deplorable person is lying.
MadisonMan said...
I can only assume Leibovich would write an Encyclopaedic tome about someone he did find captivating.
And it would undoubtedly be titled "The Book of Mark Leibovich".
I'm taking mezzrow for the win.
Three minutes of LBJ merely being alive.
Ten in JFK's pool, having threesomes with starlets.
Jimmy Carter admiring North Korea's system of government.
Despite the disappointments, I'll vote for him again. The lamps in the White House will thank us. Actually, Trump in person is a winsome, intuitively funny guy. Almost good as Bill Clinton, actual rapist, at engaging a crowd.
This is what we have to work with.
I never found Trump to be captivating, either. But the vilification of him from people who used to cozy up to him when Trump was a mere celebrity is... achingly cry-baby, hypocritical and pathetic.
Author pens derivative article where the only original accusation is that Trump is derivative.
The metaphorical line Althouse notes only appears clever in the mythical context the writer works within. Instead of convincing me that Trump is uniquely dishonest, and without some detailed believable analysis that compares the prodigious prevarication of the current WH occupant how can we trust this guy’s math, it reminds me how the media has to continuously misquote Trump in order to support their preferred mythical narrative. I remember Trump saying his inauguration had a bigger audience “in person and around the world watching online.” First the dishonest media altered his statement to elide the online reference then disputed the singular point about in-person attendance. Trump’s statement was indisputable as online streaming of the inauguration grew exponentially between Obama’s term and Trump’s. Yet DNC-Media twisted his words and mocked him (this loser is still mocking him!) just so they could label his words with the L word.
Unique? Like we all are, Trump was one of a kind. But uniquely dishonest? In DC he ain’t even close. Just like the J6 witch hunt, this writer can’t list evidence of Trump “crimes” without faking the evidence. Hint: it’s a tell we have come to recognize.
Trump is an extremely tedious dude to have had in our face for seven years and running
AntiTrumpers and NeverTrumpers are extremely tedious dudes to have had in our face for seven years and running.
And the thing is this: Trump rose in popularity in 2015-16 largely because of the rabid attention that they placed on him and their constant attacks. Starting in 2015, BEFORE Trump had any great support, the media went to all-Trump all the time in an effort to dirty him up and push him out. It only backfired. If the AntiTrumpers and NeverTrumpers had ignored him, there is a good chance he would never have gotten off the ground and never gotten the nomination.
Is Mark Leibovich a lefty writer?
The Left's crack-up. Item #________________
Many years ago I was looking for a magazine with intellectual heft and bought an issue of the Atlantic because it had the reputation of being intelligent. I never bought another issue. Good to see that nothing has changed, old traditions should be preserved.
"...kind of good, isn't it?". Only if the emphasis is upon kinda rather than good. I noticed the connection between hemorrhage and ketchup right away. But c'mon, hemorrhage is a horribly forced metaphor for Trump's crowd size exaggeration.
What's that old country-western song? "How can I miss you, if you won't go away...."
Rent-free is right. To pass the time, shall we make a list of notable lifetime achievements, and compare them? No?
Trump did "downright evil things"? Please provide a short list for us to see.
That should be easy.......we'll be waiting.
Dear Diary......
"Bottom line, Trump is an extremely tedious dude to have had in our face for seven years and running."
Well, it takes one to know one. Leibovich himself throws a lot of ketchup at the wall in this screed.
A man visiting from Mars would find a lot of strange things happening in our public bawlings over the past several years--particularly the disappearance down the memory hole of nation-wide rioting in the wake of the martyrdom of St. George Floyd, the great Russia Hoax, the post inaugural riots in DC in 2017, the enlistment of the FBI in the Demmies' operations, the CIA's coming onshore to play a role in the disruption of our politics, the elevation of the Jan. 6 riots to THE WORST THING EVER TO HAPPEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY, and the failure of state and local officials to protect Supreme Court justices' homes from mobs for political reasons. There is certainly a lot to complain about, including Trump tedium.
Mark who? Another Democrat with a byline.
I agree with Krumhorn that there's a part of me that would love Trump getting reelected simply to watch the cascade of exploding heads from Sacramento to Wellington, NZ.
Just what we’re these horrible, racist actions Trump is alleged to have taken? These assholes never say…
Overwrought, hyperbolic and histrionic. But I've repeated myself thrice. Hey, it's The Atlantic.
Yes, I don't see much nuance in Leibovich's writing. There is a "tiresome" Trump, there's also one who's engaging, and entertaining, and once upon a time, fresh and new in the political world. Leibovich thinks politicians are actually more original and imaginative people than they really are. Every speech a politician delivers is written and worked over by speechwriters. Every memorable quote they make comes from somebody in the past, either the words or the idea behind them. Trump's strength was in ad libbing, something other politicians have had real trouble with. Biden? Harris? Bush? The Clintons? Even Obama. All aren't that engaging or inspiring when they go off-script.
Trump was crass and vulgar and something of a horn dog. Granted. It's quite a stretch to go from there to being racist, cruel, dumb, evil. How was it possible that such a stupid, evil son of a bitch had a more successful Presidency than Joe Biden? Trump expresses himself in hyperbole, but look at the hyperbole that's directed against him.....I think Trump was somewhat less of a horn dog than Clinton or Kennedy and far less of a hypocrite....I hope he doesn't run, but I would pick him over Biden.
Why did you bother blogging this? It says nothing new or interesting. It's just the same anti-Trump crap we've put up with ever since he first declared he was running.
Sad sack Mark Leibovich should be given something to sob about.
Perhaps an Atomic Wedgie.
Not only do people like Mark Leibovich hate, and lie about Trump...they hate and lie about the half of America that dumped the establishment to support an outsider. These people will risk nuclear war with Russia, just to virtue signal the Ukrainian flag in their twitter profile. They are true psychopaths.
They hate us because they lie...and we know they lie... and we don't believe their lying bs anymore. And we don't tune into watch it.
But...they love the violent declining cities, and college campuses where people still read and believe the bullshit. They like Ukrainian Flags too.
"Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" - John Prine
#1 Slander Art. Great smear job. But could it be that Trump fights for us instead of lying to us while looting us?
Why does so much of the Anti-Rhetoric sound like a jealous junior high school girl. "Oh that Trump, he's so mean and icky". Its all so childish.
But the author uses a technique I see all the time. Trump as the ex-POTUS should be considered the natural leader of the Party, and since he might run again all the R's should be supporting him. Its the natural thing to do. Instead, McConnell, Graham, etc. are badmouthing and sabotoging Trump and his agenda. Historically, its almost unheard of. And any only done with UNPOPULAR ex-Presidents.
So does the MSM report that? NO. They attack Graham, McConnell etc. for not being anti-Trump enough! The MSM also does that with Romney and the other RINOs. If they cross the aisle and help the D's, the MSM attacks them for not helping the D's on OTHER issues. IOW, nothing they do is ever enough. Supporting the ENTIRE MSM/DNC agenda is required.
Red wave is coming in just about 4 months... and it's gonna be a freaking Pompeii volcano.
Reap what you sow.
Biden and Hunter did downright evil things. International insider deals thru Chinese + Ukraine corruption - where they pocketed OUR washed tax dollars in secret.
media = corruption excusing hacks.
THe other technique used is the "Constant lie" - perfected by the Stalinists. You just keep repeating that TRump is a "authoritarian" or a "Bigot" or "a russian asset" over and over again, everytime the man's name is mentioned and in every article written. The MSM does this to people they consider the greatest threat. And it works on the dumb normies, who see it so often they think the lie is true.
In fact, the effectiveness of the tactic is proved by the actions of Conservatives, who NEVER repeat even TRUE criminal/unethcial behavior of RINOs or liberals. Nope, they bring it up for a while, and then drop it down the memory hole. When's the last time someone mentioned that McConnell and Graham both wanted Trump to Drop out in October 2016 and cede the election to Hillary?
It's "The Atlantic," what did you expect? It is owned by Steve Jobs' widow, a leftist woman who has unearned money to spend on this crap. A lot of the worst things coming from the left are paid for by women who inherited huge sums they never earned. The Walton heiress and Penny Pritzger who gave us Obama. The Waltons are funding BLM. The idle rich turned Aspen into a fascist place where a local newspaper is threatened for printing the truth.
Back in the Eighties and Nineties, James Fallows used to write in the Atlantic Monthly on the difficulties facing American manufacturing and the economy in general. In 1975 Fallows even wrote there about his early love for Ayn Rand's philosophy. He carefully works out just why he was attracted and why he rejected it later
The same economic problems still exist, grown difficult through neglect and through the unexpected rise of China. And Trump with his Republican party is taking on those problems. But in our day one cannot speak of the problems any more. Fallows (who is still around at the Atlantic) could never write about the difficulties of American manufacturing or the dangers of a continuing growth of entitlements. Nor could Fallows try to explain why he was once interested in Ayn Rand. Fallows now writes for an Atlantic Monthly that publishes indignation frappes, frothy mixtures of lefty sentimentality like the one quoted above. Trump the puppy kicker rages through their little girl imaginations and Trump the man who argued for energy independence and who has been vindicated by Russia's behavior is just too hard for them to think about. Once the Atlantic Monthly had real writers but the baristas writing there now will never do more than write slogans suitable for the side of throwaway coffee cups. (And, sad to say, the Fallows of today fits right in. But if you want to read excellent articles on our economic discontents and understand better what our true challenges are, go back to Fallows of the Eighties and Nineties.)
America's Changing Economic Landscape
https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/politics/ecbig/landscap.htm
What Is an Economy For? Atlantic 1994
Entitlements: If all Americans are "entitled" to help, who will pay for it? November 1982
https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/jfnpr/jf1975.htm (Ayn Rand article)
When listening to people complain about Trump, I often think how "Trumpian" they sound.
No, I get he can be vulgar and a braggart. I am not stupid; you simply failed to give me a better choice.
With the economy in the tank - or about to be; global famine apparently a real possibility; with a long war going in Ukraine; with Biden's increasing dementia and with, possibly, the worst Cabinet in the history of the Republic it's a lot easier to look at Trump's administration with longing and, unlike the writer, think that maybe Graham and Meadows were smarter than given credit for.
(That said Graham seems to blow around like a weathervane and I have no idea what qualifies Meadows to be House speaker. Of course I think the majority of politicians are bloviating idiots.)
"downright evil things"
Like what?
"an extremely tedious dude"
Who can do improv for 90 minutes in front of thousands. If Trump is tedious, what are we gonna call all other politicians?
It's easy to resent the targeted voter fraud, the fake Russian collusion, the impeachment over Trump asking about American political corruption in Ukraine. It's really too bad for the Americans who did support Trump. He won in 2020. We're all just disposable Canadian truckers now...Dutch farmers.
Let them obsess about Trump. Let them kick the horse until its dead.
They're helping Ron DeSantis who might be able to buy this country a little time.
Rent free.
Mm-hmm. It's a good thing Trump is a billionaire, considering how much he owes in rent to people like Mark Leibovich.
Leibovich would rather be seen to be right than to actually be right.
“Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things”. This litany is now a given, unquestioned, accepted as fact. But are any of these horrible things ever named? What did he do that was dangerous? And obvious? Racist? Can one racist utterance be quoted or are we looked upon as dense for asking. But as the lies are repeated and unquestioned they become facts.
Yet so many here still think he has the qualities they wish he had. He still gives them all those good feels. It’s been proven that breaking away from a cult is very very difficult.
He sums up Trump's character well and succinctly.
It seems to me that Graham, McCarthy, and many others in power for the Rs, did everything possible to hinder Trump.
They stayed friendly enough to get things they wanted, but were nowhere to be found when Trump needed to get things done...
Too many sternly-worded letters and not enough investigations, trials, and convictions.
Trump may be tedious, exhausting, and graceless but did not do racist things.
He is not dumb but his compulsion and narcissism lead him to do inexplicably stupid things.
If he had the capacity to exit the White House in a graceful way there would be no discussion about Ron DeSantis but he just didn’t have it in him.
"How refreshing it is that the President now is Joe Biden!"
Not at all! It's dispiriting and appalling that we are blighted with one wretched executive after another for decades, with neither major party willing to put forth candidates who would serve the people. It's obviously a feature and not a bug in our post-WWII America.
What other people think about Donald Trump is always a favorite topic of discussion.
"Seriously, what public figure in the history of the world comes close?"
Some, not many, but almost all (the government types) are far beyond the pale so what does it matter? Their self importance and self regard are orders of magnitude greater than ordinary citizens (almost by definition). Take away their power and they would be pitiable creatures that could only survive by the charity of those they wish to command. The fact that we allow them to continue is an act of charity in itself. That terrifies them, just like Trump does.
The good news is, these lefty lunatic writers will be thinking about Trump on their deathbed.
As they draw their last breath on earth, they will think of him.
Trump broke a lot of people...
I haven't had Donald Trump in my face for 7 years. Maybe, Mr. Liebovich, if you didn't allow yourself to fixate on him, you'd be happier. Though it might make you feel empty to lose a favorite hate object.
Remember when thugs, err I mean protestors were in DC during the inauguration intimidating supporters who wished to attend the inauguration? It happened. I don't really care if you you believe it or not, it happened. Go back and read newspaper accounts at the time.
Remember the destructive protests, including fires set? Remember how everybody arrested was out of jail within 24 hours?
The Canadian Truckers first, and now the Dutch Farmers and German, Italian, and Polish farmers to boot are showing that this is not something that can just be shut down. "The people, united, cannot be defeated," was the chant. We will see how long the tools of the billionaire class, who want a government that can be bought -- everybody knows Joe Biden can be bought -- can hold out.
What we have now is the ersatz left complaining loudly when the workers of the world unite.
"Trump is an extremely tedious dude to have had in our face for seven years and running."
It's your beloved Democrats and their media allies who won't stop talking about him, for all his uninterestingness.
Amazing how many times I see media people say things like "Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things" without ever identifying any of them.
very banal article
"Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things."
If you poll Democrats, I'd bet most would agree with the above.
If you ask those who agree with the above claim to name one of each: "obviously awful and dangerous thing" and one "racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil thing"
You will wait while they say there are tons of examples, of which they can name zero.
Mitt Romney is now writing for THE ATLANTIC telling how "dark and evil" America is, and how "Joe Biden is a good man" doing what's best for the USA. Not really surpising since Romney was A-0K with Hillary and Biden getting elected. And joined with the D's to:
01) convict Trump in both impeachments,
02) Stop the border wall
03) vote for garland and leftist head of DHS
04) March with BLM
05) Refuse to denounce Antifa
06) Demand get rid of tarrifs on Chinese Goods
07) vote to Confirm leftist SCOTUS judge J.Brown
08) call investigations of Hunter Biden a distraction
09) Vote for the latest Gun control legislation.
Mittens wasn't a Republican till 1993, and voted for a Democrat in 1992.
It was never really about Trump. It was about the (at least) 60+ years of failure of the ruling class and their inability to acknowledge (let alone fix) that failure. Trump was the public's way of giving the ruling class a big fat "fuck you". Instead of understanding that message, the ruling class decided to destroy whatever democratic institutions it had to in the cause of showing the American people they voted the wrong way.
So now we have a senile old man who is being controlled by people who are even more unaccountable than the usual ruling class twits as president. The abject failure of the administration combined with the fact that no one has lost their job over it proves the "adults" aren't in charge and were never intended to be. These folks have no standing in criticizing Orange the Clown.
Lefty is wee wee'd up. Nothing to see here. Move along.
“breaking away from a cult is very very difficult”
Says the lady from Team Blue that demands 100% fealty to the unicorn fart-powered Green New Deal and obsesses endlessly about the one media channel not under their complete control. Yes please tell us how hard it is to resist the cult you are in. God is my only master; who’s Commandments are you obeying?
I am amazed that when an unbalanced Lefty writes an article obsessing on Trump that somehow proves to Lefty Inga that our side can’t quit the Orange Man Bad. Sweet logic of pretzels be damned! We have options. I don’t care if Desantis or Noem or Haley or Trump is nominated next so long as they vow to fight like hell against the Woke.
Trump was a New York Baby Boomer. Guys razzed on each other's ethnic backgrounds. It wasn't seriously meant. Interpretations of Trump's comment on illegals and his Muslim ban proposal gave the Democrats fodder for their accusations, but Trump got along with people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. I'm not aware of any racial slurs from Trump, and in contrast to some much more "respectable" politicians, his policies don't seem to have disadvantaged any ethnic group. He didn't seem to have a problem with gays either.
Ha ha. This guy writes he finds Trump to not be interesting but he is obsessed with him and can't get away from writing about him even when Trump is not in the news. Do libs like this realize how stupid they sound?
Trump is a disgusting person who nonetheless was a better than average president in terms of policy. If he hadn’t tried to overturn the election with his campaign of lies about election fraud, I’d be willing to vote for him again. But he did and I won’t.
Jealousy is such an unlovely emotion, Mark.
" Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things."
So obvious that there is no need for examples.
Perhaps Biden's statement on what Trump (never) said about Charlottesville?
Inga loves her some Pee Dough Joe. A very telling signal.
Hey Inga, btw, I live near Chicago, we teeter on death threats every god damn day thanks to you and your kind.
In those kind anti-toxic words of Lori Lightfoot
Fuck Inga
Yes, "drain the swamp" was often promised, but with Trump many Americans felt they'd finally found a contractor who could, and would, really do the job. The earlier ones promised out the wazoo but then nothing happened, no one showed up, suddenly there were "issues". Trump showed up with a sledgehammer on day one. His tweets and speeches, maybe naturally, or by cunning, jackhammering up the opposition.
Just the other day, I came across this Stephanie Miller (Left political podcaster) with Jen Kirkman (comedian, extreme Lefty). It's from October 2020, Trump's Covid period. Kirkman makes an interesting observation that even when Trump was not tweeting, they were all on pins and needles. And that Trump knew that. In hindsight a lot of this is very funny. All they "feared" from Trump has become IRL with Biden
https://youtu.be/1RsPLvjyHYc?t=51
"The good news is, these lefty lunatic writers will be thinking about Trump on their deathbed."
His Secret Service name was Rosebud...
Good writing isn't always honest writing. Make sure you know which you're seeing.
I think even a lot of Trump supporters could highlight some achingly dumb things he did (even if they'd disagree with Trump haters on what those would be), so there is that.
"Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things."
Uh-huh. Show us on the doll.
To the degree that Trump has succeeded on the political stage, it has been in spite of his obvious flaws and foibles. I can't help but see some truth in Leibovich's portrait of DT. But Leibovich never pursues the obvious corollary: how odious, how irresponsible, how vacuous, dishonest, and hateful must his side be to force half the US population to prefer Trump to his side? Only a tiny percentage of the population is under the illusion that he is a personal exemplar.
Imagine if there was a likable, honest Republican candidate who had the courage to pursue Trump's policies, despite (inevitably) being characterized as stupid, greedy, racist, xenophobic, incompetent, corrupt, mean spirited and stingy? All successful Republican politicians are going to be treated as reincarnations of Hitler. The voting public has started to see through it, as the value of the "racist" canard has plummeted through overuse. That is the real inflation the Dems should worry about. If everybody is racist, then the accusation has lost its force.
@Mark Leibovich: Now do Biden for bit of balance to your partisan hackery.
with neither major party willing to put forth candidates who would serve the people.
We Republicans did. His name was Donald Trump. Let me know when working people and small businesses are doing as well as they were in 2018 - 2019.
No, Cookie, you’re not a working person. All you know how to do is bitch. Change oil in a car? Fix a leaky faucet? Way past your job skills.
"ketchup flinging end"
How do we know Trump threw ketchup? That abysmally incredulous intern? I'm willing to believe Trump threw something out of anger but will *not* believe based on that garbage testimony before the January 6 political theater hearing.
Life is easier when all your opponents are stupid and evil and you are a righteous genius.
Top level intellectual discussion right there.
BTW I was at his inauguration and there was no “hemorrhaging of the crowd. The press went into full gaslight mode on that topic. What I did witness first hand were rioters who decided to torch a private car next to the Capitol Hilton. Not reported the next day. Another mostly peaceful protest.
“In those kind anti-toxic words of Lori Lightfoot
Fuck Inga”
Now why did you have to ruin a perfectly good Friday with those last two words? Not even with that Betelgeuse waiting room looking Lightfoot’s award-winning deep dish dick.
Swetnick Inga the Crook Biden loyalist, spews lectures on cults.
Politicians crave the approval of the media and the Washington Establishment. It takes an uncouth outsider to make changes the permanent government doesn't want. I wouldn't count on a more dignified politician being able to buck the Establishment.
You've enjoyed the article now read the book.
Geez, Inga. Quit picking on the Aunt Pitty Pat Trumpsters. It not fair because you know how easily they get the vapors requiring smelling salts.
"He sums up Trump's character well and succinctly."
A seamless blend of arrogance and ignorance... Pretty darned succinct, eh? Just seven words. Succinct? Hell, it's positively laconic. Leonidas would be jealous.
How'd I do summing up yours, Cookie?
You know, if Trump is so tedious ... you could ignore him and simply stop writing about him.
So, why don't you?
He was actually writing a book about Trump lackeys like McCarthy and Graham.
"Not at all! It's dispiriting and appalling that we are blighted with one wretched executive after another for decades, with neither major party willing to put forth candidates who would serve the people. It's obviously a feature and not a bug in our post-WWII America."
Just because they don't push for policies YOU want, that doesn't mean they aren't serving the people as they see it. They may just disagree with you on how that might be done. That being said, your comment on the post-WWII ruling class rings uncomfortably true.
Blogger Howard said...
Geez, Inga. Quit picking on the Aunt Pitty Pat Trumpsters. It not fair because you know how easily they get the vapors requiring smelling salts.
I guess Inga and Howard are a team now. Intellectual equals and all that.
Blogger Robert Cook said...
"How refreshing it is that the President now is Joe Biden!"
Not at all! It's dispiriting and appalling that we are blighted with one wretched executive after another for decades, with neither major party willing to put forth candidates who would serve the people. It's obviously a feature and not a bug in our post-WWII America.
Comrade Stalin is dead, Cook.
Mark Leibovich et all is why I stopped subscribing to the Atlantic twenty years. As for Trump's inauguration, I was there. The crowd was sizable which was pretty amazing considering DC and the surrounding environs are nearly 100% Democrat. A bunch of silly hags with their pussy hats and the usual robot protester crowd. No biggie.
If he hadn’t tried to overturn the election with his campaign of lies about election fraud
LOL. And they really didn't "tap" his phone lines so that was a lie too I guess. Define fraud. Be sure to paint well within the lines. Illegally changing state voter laws doesn't count right?
But let's make sure we "play nice". If we're just a little more reasonable the Ingas of the world will come around. What a hoot.
Mark should get himself elected President and then come back to talk to us.
I remember Trump saying his inauguration had a bigger audience “in person and around the world watching online.”
I was excoriated by Ann for putting quote marks around a statement and not providing a link. I bet you can't provide a link to this statement. Trump and Spicer claimed that the in person crowd was much larger than it actually was (in other words, they lied). Spicer additionally claimed that Metro passenger numbers backed up his lies. It didn't.
By the standard the previous president was held to, Biden's trashing of the Supreme Court today should get him impeached.
I don't think Robert Cook harbors illusions about the benign nature of the established parties. He's too smart and principled not to notice how vacuous and venal they are, how deep into the pockets of the .1% . . .
Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things
still waiting? if someone could list a few of these?
"Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things
still waiting? if someone could list a few of these?"
Don't hold your breath. The narrative is that he did these things - therefore no proof at all is necessary.
My understanding of the words "racism" and "recist" are probably old-fashioned; but I think they're supposed to denote a belief in the intrinsic superiority of one race, and the concomitant inferiority of other races. I don't recall Trump making statements reflecting that definition. Can someone supply me with an example?
Now, of course leaving standard English behind and venturing into Hivespeak (the jargon of the "liberal" [i.e., statist] Hive), I guess we could find some examples, but ten we'd be dealing with "liberals"--i.e., the stupidest and least honest people on the planet. (See Howard, Inga, et al,) So any definition coming from that gang would be automatically suspect.)
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