"He is like a sports team or a rock band that helps define who they are as much as the families and communities to which they belong.... Uninhibited by concerns about decorum and tradition, Trump has aggressively figured out ways to market himself like a cultural product, not a standard politician, knowing that this would forge much deeper ties....To be sure, Trump is not the first president to command strong cultural currency with voters that goes beyond traditional political attachments. Stuffed toy bears identified with President Theodore Roosevelt became a phenomenon in the early 20th century. During the 1930s, saloon owners famously hung portraits of President Franklin Roosevelt over their bars.... There were President Ronald Reagan dolls in the 1980s while Shepard Fairey’s 'Hope' poster from President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign remained iconic throughout his two terms.... Rational appeals about the inconsistencies of his rhetoric, the dangers of his positions and the practical reasons for choosing someone such as DeSantis... don’t mean much to the fans whose homes are stuffed with MAGA hats, shirts and coffee mugs...."
There's always a lot of irrationality in politics, but it's very disturbing when the candidate you fear and hate is working the emotional backchannels of the human mind much better than the guy you're stuck with. Yes, of course, that fear and hate is also irrational. But it's negative, and isn't it a bitch that that positivity is stronger? Love beats hate.
Hey, remember "Love trumps hate"?
There was once a belief, on the Democratic side, that love was stronger than hate and they were the ones with the love.
"Former President Donald Trump is a cultural phenomenon.... For his legion of passionate supporters, he is more than a politician." "He is like a sports team or a rock band that helps define who they are as much as the families and communities to which they belong.... "
Speaking for myself, this is just flat out wrong. It's about Trump's policies.
And I think there's dishonesty in Zelizer's claim. 'It can't possibly be that the policies I support, like open borders, racial discrimination, etc, are wrong. It must be that my opponents are hoodwinked by some rock star personality.'
Color me skeptical that there are any “homes stuffed with MAGA gear.” Maybe one. There’s always a nut somewhere who goes all out. And perhaps a few people with multiple hats and shirts and bumper stickers. But stuffed full? I’ve seen a lot of collections and packrattery and I can’t imagine any one politician being the collectible this breathless writer suggests. Not even saint Obama.
Trump fights back. After decades (since Reagan) of the GOP delivering NOTHING they promised, horseshit Supreme Court picks by the Bush's (except Thomas of course) and wasted wars...Trump is what a large portion of the GOP base has been waiting for.
But to claim Trump has just figured out "how to market himself" is off base. He says now what he said 30 years ago about Americans getting screwed on trade deals.
It used to be ok to protect the border under Clinton (he even addressed it in his SOTU), but now you're not supposed to push back as Dems import non-citizen voters.
Trump supporters don't want to live like Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, NYC, Philly...and every other looney toon liberal metropolitan area.
We don't like the courts and intelligence agencies weaponized. The IRS too. And we know full well the MSM is nothing more than state run propaganda. We've known it a long time.
We also don't give a rat's ass what actors and musicians think.
It's amazing to me how many words they'll write, how many articles they'll publish, how far they'll speculate, all to avoid considering that many of Trump's supporters only actually care about what he did in office-- that his unpleasant personality is just what we'll put up with to have a roaring economy, security at home, fascist dictators at bay abroad, etc.
It's like they can't admit even to themselves that it's the issues, not the man, that have the support. If they did, they'd have to face the reality of how abysmal their own policies have been in practice.
I have no passion for Trump. But when it comes to Trump vs the Democrat, I have to take facts into account. The Obama Administration spied on Trump’s 2016 campaign with wiretaps. The FBI used a document they could never verify to obtain the warrants for the spy operation and then later leaked the existence of the document to suggest Trump was being blackmailed and then employed by Russia. This went on for over three years into Trump’s presidency. Today, we discovered the FBI had evidence of criminal activity, including foreign bribery, in the form of Hunter Biden’s laptop as far back as 2019. Not only did the FBI lie about this evidence, that it existed and they had validated it as authentic, but they then worked with the Biden campaign to create a false story. We were told by high ranking US intelligence officials with the quiet support of an FBI that knew the truth that the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop was false Russian propaganda. At the same time, the FBI is trying to prosecute Trump for retaining classified Presidential records while hand waving away classified documents retained by then Vice President Biden that were simply stored in insecure closets in Chinese rented office space and Biden’s garage.
What’s the alternative to Trump? The Democrats that are using our judicial system to prosecute political rivals? Republican officials who will not hold the FBI accountable and have mostly ignored this abuse of power for 6 years now. Are we really supposed to be like Sam Harris and pretend this all fine because it is being used to stop Trump?
The Left is still struggling to understand what has happened. Refusal to return to the social policies of the Middle Ages does not compute in their world. The credentialed demand their status be enforced.
Trump's got his marketing down, but his brand is even better. That, he no longer has to work at. In TMR Podcast #2: Kanye, Katt, Clinton And Carrey I mention how refreshing, I think it is, to have a celebrity who's 'brand' is defying their branding. I was talking about Kanye, obviously, but Trump fits as well.
The "system" gives us ONLY two choices. The two worthless parties have ensured at the state and local level that NO real competition can end up on the ballot, and the media also conspire to make sure that NO discussions outside of the limited "Overton Window" and the two-party oligarchy will EVER be heard or discussed. As such, even those who would far rather see NO GOVERNMENT WHATSOEVER, have no choice but to pretend to support one of the two tyrannical parties that have conspired to destroy this nation since at least 1860. Trump represents possibly the ONLY chance anyone has of seeing "justice" for the rampant and widespread CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY that have been perpetrated over the past 3-4 years - from the PLANNEDEMIC to the lockdowns to the economic destruction to the genocidal death jabs. We know that the TREASON committed by virtually every member of the Biden Administration is NEVER going to be prosecuted by the beholden Department of "Justice" so long as he is in power, so Trump presents a possible path to accountability. But were there real FREEDOM still remaining in this country, a vast majority of those in support of this guy would likely find a home elsewhere behind a candidate that supported REAL dismantling of the federal apparatus and dissolution of this pretend "Union." Count on it.
The primary problem with the entire love/hate motif used by the left is that when they say hate, they usually mean disagreement or criticism, which they cannot tolerate and refuse to confront. As such, they've developed this style of argumentation wherein they are on the side of love and the rest of us are simply guided by our hatreds (particularly of blacks, gays, women, etc.) It really just implies bad faith in their opponents as if they are acting in good faith (aka "it's not about politics. it's about people.") It's why criticism of Obama was frequently labeled racism. It's a mindset. This really went off the rails during the Obama years, but it predates that. There's some of this on the right with the patriotism angle, but it's not as pervasive.
Limbaugh used to say that the left simply believes it is correct as an underlying premise and thus all disagreement was irrational (bigotry) because why else would people choose to be wrong? For example, if you criticize welfare it's only because you were racist, not that you had reasonable arguments about the incentives it creates or the cost, etc. Nothing is ever a tradeoff. There's only correct and the other side.
Bread and circuses have never appealed to this Apollonian personality.
These people try to camouflage their contempt and yet and yet they simply can’t. They don the mask of a public figure and lose touch with the fact that everyone is a buffoon at least once in a while. Those that are not are cardboard cutouts of human beings. Trump is simply too real for them.
He is like a sports team or a rock band that helps define who they are as much as the families and communities to which they belong..
As Original Mike noted, this is yet another dishonest, backhanded compliment from those who loath red America. A key point in the left-right conflict is over what should be the center of society, The State or The Family? Trump voters are more likely to value family over politics.
Who would have thought a Princeton history and public affairs professor paid by CNN has no idea what half the nation thinks?
No mystery to Trump voter appeal. He is just better at Commander in Chiefing. Maybe that’s because he wants to serve Americans first.
And the poor guy just can’t weave the sweet loving lies that the Woke Socialist authoritarians demand from their Dictator.. His mind is too valuable an asset to screw it up. And that is exactly what exposes Biden for the master liar and mega criminal that his mind clings to being.
The common term for Trump is "statesman". He knows how to make money, cull the herd of useless employees, and cut through the ridiculous red tape. He's not just a politician. Congress is full of politicians and too many are as dumb as a box of hammers.
all to avoid considering that many of Trump's supporters only actually care about what he did in office-- that his unpleasant personality is just what we'll put up with to have a roaring economy, security at home, fascist dictators at bay abroad, etc.
I agree, with some clarification.
I fail to see Trump's unpleasant personality. In the category of breaking norms, Trump does his own wet work. Obama has an absolutely mean streak. He uses the same or worse words. Or, like all other politicians he has a 100 proxies go after a person. Pay attention to Trumps attacks. He never starts a spitting match. He only responds to those attacking him. If your big mouth steps into the arena with Trump, You will get smacked in the mouth more then once.
But I do not love Trump. (right now I'm getting my warm fuzzy feelings from the Lady Hawkeyes They make me smile for two hours.) My support for him originally was because I had nothing to loose. A vote for Cruze, or etal, would have been just a replay of the last Republican President. Promises ignored. At least with Trump he might of lied too, but what if he actually worked for me as lowly middle class nobody? I voted to shake up the Republican Party. I keep voting for Trump, because the likes of Nikky Haley is just more of the same.
All of these puff pieces are only showing the political class MUST invent the reason for Trump, because admitting we dont trust the elected Republicans or Dems, is too much digest.
For almost eight years I have found it utterly bizarre that no one in the whole commentary / analysis industry has recognized why Trump won in 2016 and why, absent massive cheating or locking him up, he will almost certainly win in 2024 is HIS OPPONENT.
Why it is impossible for media people to recognize that a very large portion of the American electorate, probably a plurality, loathed Hilary Clinton and the corrupt manipulation she and her husband performed (possibly using blackmail on other Democrats from those FBI files)* to foist her upon the party as their 2008 nominee. "Oh no! People loved Hilary!" No, Obama, who was running for VP, recognized that Hilary was so disliked EVEN AMONG DEMOCRATS, that he could win the nomination despite the corruption of the party leadership. Fast forward 8 years and BERNIE FREAKING SANDERS, an old, ugly, scratch-voiced, dim-witted communist, looked like he might beat Hilary! until corrupt party leaders pull the rug out from under him.
Why is not possible for anyone to say that Trump won in 2016 BECAUSE HILARY CLINTON SUCKS?
And why is it also not possible for anyone to say that Trump will likely win in 2024 BECAUSE BIDEN SUCKS? On this best day Joe Biden was stupid, and now he's a dementia patient who can't string coherent sentences together, falls up stairs, and wanders around aimlessly on stage. I'm just waiting for him to shake hands with a houseplant or a flag.
I do agree that Trumps policies were shocking good for the country, that he represents people the self-satisfied elites ignore, that he's brilliant at branding, that he gives away hats, etc., etc., but the SUPREME SUCKAGE of his opponents should at least be MENTIONED in the analysis.
* Even if Hilary Clinton hadn't been a corrupt, dishonest, self-righteous Delores Umbridge who thinks she is far smarter and more moral than she actually is, I would have refused to vote for her because she was the President's wife, just as I refused to vote for George W. Bush because he was the President's son, just as I refused to vote for Al Gore because he was a Senator's son, and if I was 70 years older I would have refused to vote for Franklin Roosevelt because he was the president's cousin, and if I'd lived in the 18th century I would have refused to vote for John Quincy Adams. This is America, for God's sake. We don't need hereditary or familial dynasties: go the fuck away and do something useful, you revolting nepots.
Rich said... "Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Trump supporters thought they were attacking him?
There’s a reason for that…."
Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Delaration of Independance and you thought that Trump supporters mthought they we attacking him? Fixed that for you. In this case context is everything.
"He is like a sports team or a rock band that helps define who they are as much as the families and communities to which they belong...."
Go ahead- tell me you don't understand Trump or his supporters without saying you don't understand Trump or his supporters. Just because you get giddy as a teenage girl at a Beatles concert when you think about Obama, that doesn't mean others respond to politicians similarly, you know.
they've developed this style of argumentation wherein they are on the side of love and the rest of us are simply guided by our hatreds
I think I posted something about this somewhere here today, unless I changed my mind about hitting Publish: the idea that everything they believe is just self-evident, so any disagreement must result from either stupidity, bigotry, or the impulse to fascism (which is a combination of the two, I suppose).
As the line from the country song goes, "Faster Horses, Younger Women, Older Whiskey, More Money".
The voting public looks at what old Slow Joe brought to the table, and what he's done for the country. The old pony and Cornpop thumper is slow and stumbling, Dr. Jill--well she's no Melania Trump. I dunno about the whiskey, but Joe Sixpack looks in his pocket and realizes that he has less money under Biden, and had more money under Trump.
A Princeton professor may not be able to figure it out--but a country songwriter sure can.
Trump is a deeply flawed man, but at his core he wants the United States to be successful and he wants to be successful making the United States successful. That is going to resonate very well for those outside of the "America sucks" crowd and those that make their money catering to the "America sucks" crowd.
I do tire of being lectured to by corrupt liars, morons living in bubbles that cannot understand the most basic of things, the mentally ill that have been declared our betters, and billionaires that could be transplanted into a superhero comic books as supervillains without requiring any changes to the characters.
These writers need to dissect Jamie Dimon's comments located on this blog earlier.
Also I take into account what Trumps detractors are saying. kameltoe wailing about the end of the United States, says nothing about Trump, but identifies her as a not too likable, idiot.
But I took note of the Head of the European Union's, sky is falling words directed towards Trump. The the EU is terrified that Trump has dared ask exactly why the United States is still funding the Marshall Plan, 75 years after WWII? Trump asked hard questions about NATO funding (why aren't the nations meeting their treaty obligations) Hes asking why Marshall Plan favoritism is still in place?
The questions are only interesting, in that, nobody has an answer.
If, me agreeing with those questions, is proof of Love. I guess I must be truly smitten ;)
There was once a belief, on the Democratic side, that love was stronger than hate and they were the ones with the love.
@Althouse, I suspect that most Democrats still think of themselves as the people with love and compassion in their hearts, even as they drool and slobber their TDS and their hatred for the Deplorables. It’s not a “once was” sort of thing. The human capacity for self-deceit is pretty amazing. Thus you have people who believe that they’re “for science” when real scientists were arguing against the junk science pushed by Collins, Fauci, Birx, and Walensky during the COVID-19 pandemic, and who continue to believe global warming despite not a single “scientific” prediction coming true in the real world since they started making predictions in 1987. Or feminists who are “for women” but did not care about the plight of Afghan women back when the US had leverage to do something about it, nor do they care about Israeli women raped and murdered on October 7th, nor about Iranian women being flogged, or, closer to home, young women being forced to share showers and locker rooms with biological males, erections and all.
I wish the self-delusion was exclusively a left wing phenomenon, but it isn’t.
I for one can't wait to pick up more NFTs. Non-fungible Trumps are a great way to support the best Presidential candidate as well as a great collectible and investment.
Interesting, isn't it? Trump defeats a vile harridan to become president. He does a good job despite seditious opposition from Democrats and the GOPe, betrayal by his confidantes and a lying, hostile media. Regardless, he is then allegedly defeated by an incompetent, senescent grifter who has predictably become the worst president of this and the last century and who racks up the most votes in history. Yet it is Trump, not QuidProJoe who is the cultural phenomenon.
Of course that is because Trump is supported by a gaggle of idolators, rather than conscientious people who see the country unraveling under Democrat corruption supported by the likes of the SPLC, Antifa, ACLU, BLM, cultural Marxists, baby-killing women and Jew-hating progressives.
It couldn't be that we see Trump as John Podhoretz observed: "Trump is an unworthy vessel chosen by God to save us from the evil on the left." If it were that, the focus would be on the left. We can't have that.
I finally watched the Russell Brand clip about MSNBC coverage of the Iowa Caucus. It is indeed funny. It is also a great example of why MSNBC is ignored by Trump supporters, because they can't even handle Trump being gracious without first suggesting it is fake news. Brand does a great job of illustrating what true disinformation is with Rachel Maddow claiming in absolute terms that Covid Vaccine prevents a person that received it from getting Covid, despite the fact that Biden and Fauci both got Covid after vaccination. If there was a cost to giving out disinformation, then Maddow has not paid it. Brand then shows us the speech that so frightens Maddow, and Trump simply thanks to people of Iowa, compliments both Haley and DeSantis on a strong showing, and recognizes the accomplishment of Vivek. MSNBC: OH THE HORROR, THIS MAN CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO BE NAMED OR SEEN.
I just cannot accept this opposition to Trump. It you want to beat Trump, then give me a reason that isn't absurd. Oh and also in the news today, the FBI asked banks to flag transaction that mentioned "MAGA" or "Trump" for further investigation by the FBI. The sad fact is no one will be held to account for this gross violation of our rights.
“Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Trump supporters thought they were attacking him?”
"Actually I don’t. Apparently Duck Duck Go doesn’t either."
Except that DuckDuckGo does remember it. Search for "NPR Declaration of Independence 2017". You'll find a lot of stories about what he's talking about.
NPR used to read the Declaration every July 4. In 2017, they also tweeted it, which led to the reaction. I'm not defending NPR. They stopped reading the Declaration on July 4, 2022 because they deemed it "racist."
Clueless bullshit from a sheltered, out-of-touch academic in a lotus-eating left-wing echo chamber.
I don't own a single thing with Trump's name on it except for one yard sign I saved as a memento for posterity. I've never worn a MAGA hat in my life. I voted for Gary Johnson in 2016 and considered Trump a buffoon.
Yet even more so than in 2020, I'd crawl on broken glass to vote for the man. There are hypothetical but foreseeable circumstances under which I would pick up a rifle and be prepared to kill or die in response to his summons.
By far the main reason for this is how thoroughly corrupt and wicked and tyrannical the Left has become, and how cowardly all other Republicans than Trump are about facing this reality. The Democratic Party has become ontologically evil, on a scale that differs from the Nazis and Communists of the 20th century only by its reach, not its ambition. They've already shown us that they are happy with Stalinist show-trials, rigged Potemkin elections, collective punishment for disfavored groups, and a Party-controlled secret-police force directed at oppressing domestic dissidents rather than opposing external threats. They are now building a military full of surly foreigners that is plainly meant for our enslavement, not our defense.
I do not have the smallest doubt that the Democrats will bring in concentration camps to house all the dissidents they intend to imprison, just as soon as they are able, and abolish posse comitatus so internal passports can be enforced at military checkpoints. They will do away with the First and Second Amendments entirely. They will debase our money and require us to use digital currency that a political commissar can erase at the push of a button. They will imprison surgeons who refuse to mutilate mentally-ill children, and prosecute anyone who speaks or writes against fanatic climate catastrophism, and kill or jail anyone who professes a non-State-approved religious creed. They will reduce white people to second-class citizens and impose extra taxes on them for redistribution to those of other races. They will confiscate our homes to house alien invaders who hate us. Some of them openly state that they wish to see white people exterminated quite as thoroughly as Hitler meant to exterminate the Jews.
There's no negotiation with such people. They are our enemies, not our countrymen. Cast your vote for total war on the Left.
Static Ping said... "Trump is a deeply flawed man..." 1/18/24, 12:49 PM
Awwwwwwww, Fuck off! Donald Trump has a long history and a roomful of awards and citations for his work advancing civil rights and providing opportunities for the underprivileged. Who the fuck are you?
Donald Trump took a million dollar local business and made it a billion dollar global empire employing tens of thousands of people and providing services for millions. Who the fuck are you?
Donald Trump has reached the pinnacle of success in three different fields, real estate, television broadcasting, and American politics, becoming president despite a government conspiracy to deprive him of that achievement. Who the fuck are you?
Which one of you dares to declare right here that they could withstand the betrayals, the slanders, the insults and offenses, the unprecedented attacks from all-powerful forces controlling government, media, and entertainment that Trump has spent the last 8 years fighting virtually by himself?
Motherfuck all you worthless nobodies who have to declare to everyone that they think they're better people than Trump. You're not! Emphatically, without exception, you are not. Especially not you smug shits who have to write it out for all to see.
There isn't one of you who would dare to defy the evil forces attacking him, even if you were capable of displaying the guts, courage, grit, fortitude, humor and unbreakable spirit that Donald Trump has shown the world. You fucking worms need to check yourselves.
Recognize what Trump truly means to his voters. He is The Giant Middle Finger to the elite. What bonds MAGA together is pure hatred for university professors, media talking heads, Wall Street manipulators, big banks, uncaring bureaucrats. They even hate the leadership of the Republican party.
"Donald Trump’s lawyer appeared to imply E. Jean Carroll got the idea for her rape allegations against the former president from an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” — but she denied seeing it, calling the coincidence “astonishing” during testimony Monday.
Carroll — who was back on the stand in Manhattan federal court for her civil rape trial against Trump — was asked by his attorney Joe Tacopina if she knew her account of the alleged 1996 attack was very similar to a brief plot line in a 2012 episode of the popular NBC show.
The 79-year-old former journalist testified she was “aware” of the episode but, “I haven’t seen it.”
A brief moment of the episode — titled “Theatre and Tricks” — involves a character talking about role-playing a rape fantasy in Bergdorf Goodman.
“Role-play took place in the dressing room of Bergdorf’s. While she was trying on lingerie I would burst in,” the character says.
Carroll, in her lawsuit, claims that the former commander-in-chief raped her in a fitting room in the lingerie section of the Fifth Avenue department store most likely in 1996."
What bonds MAGA together is pure hatred for university professors, media talking heads, Wall Street manipulators, big banks, uncaring bureaucrats.
I'm not a card-carrying MAGA person, but I will vote for Trump because those who oppose him are so dangerously toxic.
Not only are his opponents themselves liars, they frequently express their desire to - and in some cases are able to - enforce penalties on those who question even their most blatant lies. They speak approvingly of plans to outlaw sale of IC engines even while electric car owners are stranded in the bitter cold because their batteries won't charge, and while EV owners are urged not to charge their cars at home during a cold snap because it might put too much burden on the grid. They lecture and scold and threaten those who won't fall in line with their environmental agenda while enslaved children toil in cobalt mines with essentially zero environmental oversight - to say nothing of human rights oversight - so that more and more batteries can be manufactured. They blanket the airwaves and the intertubes with stories about how today's Republicans are Tipper Gore, nasty old prudish book-banners - you should have seen my poor innocent USA Today-reading in-laws' faces when I described what I had seen and read in Pool Boy and Genderqueer - while they rewrite Roald Dahl and Mark Effing Twain to comport with their weird and delicate sensibilities. They oppress and condescend to black Americans; they use and discard Latino Americans; they discriminate against Asian Americans because of their determined success; they raise mandated minimum wage to business-destroying levels so that they can feel virtuous when they are served by that college student barista who is now making $20 an hour (no need to check on a restaurant's dishwashers, is there? Just front of house people, thank you)- all while pretending that their support of unlimited and undocumented immigration is about "give us your tired, your poor" instead of "charge me far below minimum wage for the services I don't know how to or want to be bothered to do."
If Trump's opponents were the reasonable, sane, thoughtful people that they say they are, I might have been convinced to sit this election out (no way I'd vote for Biden). But with every extreme, repressive thing they say or do, my resolve to cast my one vote for a guy I had hoped never to have to consider again grows.
A lot of people don't remember how well known Donald Trump was going back to the 80s. He didn't become famous because of The Apprentice*. He became the apprentice because he was already famous. The Apprentice did make him more famous, of course.
His politics were public as far back as the 80s. Not a lot, that was not what he wanted to be known for but they weren't hidden and the broad strokes, mainly American First, were the same then as now. In 1988 he even discussed t he vice presidency with the Bush team in 1988 according to meacham's bio of Bush.
He's been around forever, we know who he is, we know what he believes. As opposed to most politicians where we only know what they say they believe. And even that changes from day to day.
Donald Trump makes me feel safe and comfortable in a way that few politicians do.
I trust him and he has never given me any reason not to. Not on anything important.
*A couple days ago one of our dimmer commenters was explaining how nobody at all ever watched The Apprentice.
Apparently it was just a huge trump Ian con job. He pretended he had lots of viewers and managed to string NBC along for 14 years before they figured it out.
Then they canceled him and he conned America into selecting him.
Sometimes for president you want a kindly grandpa. Every once in a while, you want a character, the guy back when who fired him or double-crossed him in a business deal and gave him a good story to tell the rest of his life.
Some complain that Trump insults De Santis and Haley but Obama was the expert. Remember when he said that Hillary was "Likeable enough?" Meyow! Damning with faint praise I guess. Or "Never under estimate Beiden's ability to F things up." Then Beiden and the DNC peed on the Bernie Bros. But Trump! He says bad things about his repub competitors!
You don't salute the man, you salute the rank. Presidents can be venal and have good policy. we grew up over the past 250 years. We don't need Gods. We need effectiveness, not ice cream cone posturing. Vote Trump, Goddamnit I will.
Here's a rational appeal: because many of those allegedly irrational people who you sneer at, as well as virtually all Democrats and leaners in that direction, will not vote for DiSantis, DiSantis would lose if he were the nominee. Many of those allegedly irrational people who are not opposed to DiSantis in principle also understand this, and therefore support Trump.
I hear NPR only on their hourly updates on WKNO 91.1FM, our mostly classical station. I used to catch parts of their morning and evening shows on my commute, but I no longer work so don't commute.
Not that I'd listen, any more. They lost me long before Trump.
Of course, trolling people with the DoI or the Ten Amendments has been a thing for decades, and signifies nothing but general ignorance and too much time on some people's hands.
Lots of astute commentary here today, and 'revolting nepots' would be a good name for a band.
At the Wednesday Night Cafe late last night I mentioned reading a bunch of articles/blogs/etc of know nothing’s explaining why Trump supporters support Trump. TBH, this pick of yours looks like you took that as a challenge to find the ultimate example. And you may very well have succeeded. Going to be tough to top this one for ignorance.
Going down the line, Original Mike at 1107 has one good reason:”It’s about Trump’s policies.” Which, of course, is unthinkable to all right thinking people like Julian Zelizer.
Gusty Winds at 1119 “Trump fights back.” That’s a biggie right there. How dare he violate norms like t!
traditionalguy at 1208 “He’s just better at Commander in Chiefing.” Tough to argue with that one. Especially when you see him mixing in with any military crowd. The current CinC gets exactly the respect regulations require. Trump got- and gets- enthusiastic welcomes.
Jess at 1213 sort of gets it. He’s right about how he describes Trump, but his actions are those of a businessman, not a statesman. A statesman makes everyone feel good about his actions. A businessman doesn’t care.
Iowan2 at 1215 “I fail to see Trump’s unpleasant personality.” Me too, among many others.
Prof. M. Drout at 1220 “…loathed Hillary Clinton..” What I said yesterday: “…he was Not Hillary!”
And all the other comments, except for the inexplicable ones from Trump haters, sums it up. Thoughts that no respectable liberal could ever conceive of. Yet they try to figure out why us Trump voters will vote for him again.
“Color me skeptical that there are any “homes stuffed with MAGA gear.” Maybe one. There’s always a nut somewhere who goes all out. And perhaps a few people with multiple hats and shirts and bumper stickers.”
Well you kinda found one here. We live in a Trump property, and there is a Trump store downstairs (as well as the DJT Restaurant), filled with Trump logo gear. We walk by it a half dozen times a day, and that’s where we go for late night Tylenol, Cokes, etc. Most days, I wear a Trump hat around town, and rarely don’t get a compliment (surprisingly even by a number of Blacks). I have a selection of colors, so that I can color coordinate my outfits. Light blue today, and pink yesterday. Plus 3 actual MAGA hats (which have the plastic adjustment in the back that don’t work very well for me). The regular Trump hats have Velcro, which works better. Also have a half dozen golf shirts, and several jackets. My partner has fewer Trump shirts (and stole at least one, a foam green one that she was wearing yesterday), but more jackets. Got her a nice white one last month. Oh, and a dog collar for our dog, who thinks that she owns the place.
The Twitter exercise this year was a way to include additional people in that tradition, NPR spokeswoman Isabel Lara told The Washington Post in an email statement.
The Twitter exercise this year was a way to include additional people in that tradition, NPR spokeswoman Isabel Lara told The Washington Post in an email statement.
It's like they can't admit even to themselves that it's the issues, not the man, that have the support. If they did, they'd have to face the reality of how abysmal their own policies have been in practice. ========= could it be that it is inconceivble to them? since they vote for D-anyone and not policies?
All of these links came up for me in DuckDuckGo, using my search term. It's just one of those lazy "several-people-were-mad-on-twitter" stories, but it did happen.
“ practical reasons for choosing someone such as DeSantis... don’t mean much to the fans whose homes are stuffed with MAGA hats”
Right, it couldn’t possibly be that we don’t trust the designated Vichy Candidate who is running on the hope that the left will remove Trump from the ballot
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Posts
87 comments:
"the dangers of his positions ... don’t mean much to the fans whose homes are stuffed with MAGA hats, shirts and coffee mugs...."
Yeah, baby... We jes be deplorin' doze deplorables....
It’s like “rock/paper/scissors”!
Hate < Love < Felony convictions
Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Trump supporters thought they were attacking him?
There’s a reason for that….
People are not taking a knee, they are not braying (sic) to Trump. That's a secular oddity and character flaw.
"Former President Donald Trump is a cultural phenomenon.... For his legion of passionate supporters, he is more than a politician."
"He is like a sports team or a rock band that helps define who they are as much as the families and communities to which they belong.... "
Speaking for myself, this is just flat out wrong. It's about Trump's policies.
And I think there's dishonesty in Zelizer's claim. 'It can't possibly be that the policies I support, like open borders, racial discrimination, etc, are wrong. It must be that my opponents are hoodwinked by some rock star personality.'
Color me skeptical that there are any “homes stuffed with MAGA gear.” Maybe one. There’s always a nut somewhere who goes all out. And perhaps a few people with multiple hats and shirts and bumper stickers. But stuffed full? I’ve seen a lot of collections and packrattery and I can’t imagine any one politician being the collectible this breathless writer suggests. Not even saint Obama.
'He is like a sports team or a rock band that helps define who they are as much as the families and communities to which they belong...'
People always give Trump a hard time about putting his name on everything.
The same people who know nothing about branding...
Hillary's brilliant staffers put her opponents name on a T-Shirt and lost.
Trump fights back. After decades (since Reagan) of the GOP delivering NOTHING they promised, horseshit Supreme Court picks by the Bush's (except Thomas of course) and wasted wars...Trump is what a large portion of the GOP base has been waiting for.
But to claim Trump has just figured out "how to market himself" is off base. He says now what he said 30 years ago about Americans getting screwed on trade deals.
It used to be ok to protect the border under Clinton (he even addressed it in his SOTU), but now you're not supposed to push back as Dems import non-citizen voters.
Trump supporters don't want to live like Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, NYC, Philly...and every other looney toon liberal metropolitan area.
We don't like the courts and intelligence agencies weaponized. The IRS too. And we know full well the MSM is nothing more than state run propaganda. We've known it a long time.
We also don't give a rat's ass what actors and musicians think.
It's amazing to me how many words they'll write, how many articles they'll publish, how far they'll speculate, all to avoid considering that many of Trump's supporters only actually care about what he did in office-- that his unpleasant personality is just what we'll put up with to have a roaring economy, security at home, fascist dictators at bay abroad, etc.
It's like they can't admit even to themselves that it's the issues, not the man, that have the support. If they did, they'd have to face the reality of how abysmal their own policies have been in practice.
This is the most pro-Trump article CNN has ever produced.
Well, I mean . . . he IS the Lightbringer.
Oh, wait.
MAGA = Make America Great Again. On no! eeeek so scary.
The left are so enraged... by American Greatness.
Be filled with fear.... says the creepy old nazi, the Mobster Husk-puppet.
Progressive policies = MAASH. (approved by the pedo-Lincoln-project)
MAASH - Make America A SHIT HOLE.
Beatlemania was before my time.
But those images of teenage girls screaming are mesmerizing.
There is enough humor in Magamania not to concern me.
Trump’s fans enjoy the show
Indifference is the opposite of love.
I have no passion for Trump. But when it comes to Trump vs the Democrat, I have to take facts into account. The Obama Administration spied on Trump’s 2016 campaign with wiretaps. The FBI used a document they could never verify to obtain the warrants for the spy operation and then later leaked the existence of the document to suggest Trump was being blackmailed and then employed by Russia. This went on for over three years into Trump’s presidency. Today, we discovered the FBI had evidence of criminal activity, including foreign bribery, in the form of Hunter Biden’s laptop as far back as 2019. Not only did the FBI lie about this evidence, that it existed and they had validated it as authentic, but they then worked with the Biden campaign to create a false story. We were told by high ranking US intelligence officials with the quiet support of an FBI that knew the truth that the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop was false Russian propaganda. At the same time, the FBI is trying to prosecute Trump for retaining classified Presidential records while hand waving away classified documents retained by then Vice President Biden that were simply stored in insecure closets in Chinese rented office space and Biden’s garage.
What’s the alternative to Trump? The Democrats that are using our judicial system to prosecute political rivals? Republican officials who will not hold the FBI accountable and have mostly ignored this abuse of power for 6 years now. Are we really supposed to be like Sam Harris and pretend this all fine because it is being used to stop Trump?
I can’t do it.
The Left is still struggling to understand what has happened. Refusal to return to the social policies of the Middle Ages does not compute in their world. The credentialed demand their status be enforced.
Trump's got his marketing down, but his brand is even better. That, he no longer has to work at. In TMR Podcast #2: Kanye, Katt, Clinton And Carrey I mention how refreshing, I think it is, to have a celebrity who's 'brand' is defying their branding. I was talking about Kanye, obviously, but Trump fits as well.
The "system" gives us ONLY two choices. The two worthless parties have ensured at the state and local level that NO real competition can end up on the ballot, and the media also conspire to make sure that NO discussions outside of the limited "Overton Window" and the two-party oligarchy will EVER be heard or discussed. As such, even those who would far rather see NO GOVERNMENT WHATSOEVER, have no choice but to pretend to support one of the two tyrannical parties that have conspired to destroy this nation since at least 1860. Trump represents possibly the ONLY chance anyone has of seeing "justice" for the rampant and widespread CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY that have been perpetrated over the past 3-4 years - from the PLANNEDEMIC to the lockdowns to the economic destruction to the genocidal death jabs. We know that the TREASON committed by virtually every member of the Biden Administration is NEVER going to be prosecuted by the beholden Department of "Justice" so long as he is in power, so Trump presents a possible path to accountability. But were there real FREEDOM still remaining in this country, a vast majority of those in support of this guy would likely find a home elsewhere behind a candidate that supported REAL dismantling of the federal apparatus and dissolution of this pretend "Union." Count on it.
Yes, the politically congruent, the twilight fringe, the diversity in color and class, the #MeToo now, the ethnic Springs and CAIR.
#HateLovesAbortion
The primary problem with the entire love/hate motif used by the left is that when they say hate, they usually mean disagreement or criticism, which they cannot tolerate and refuse to confront. As such, they've developed this style of argumentation wherein they are on the side of love and the rest of us are simply guided by our hatreds (particularly of blacks, gays, women, etc.) It really just implies bad faith in their opponents as if they are acting in good faith (aka "it's not about politics. it's about people.") It's why criticism of Obama was frequently labeled racism. It's a mindset. This really went off the rails during the Obama years, but it predates that. There's some of this on the right with the patriotism angle, but it's not as pervasive.
Limbaugh used to say that the left simply believes it is correct as an underlying premise and thus all disagreement was irrational (bigotry) because why else would people choose to be wrong? For example, if you criticize welfare it's only because you were racist, not that you had reasonable arguments about the incentives it creates or the cost, etc. Nothing is ever a tradeoff. There's only correct and the other side.
Bread and circuses have never appealed to this Apollonian personality.
These people try to camouflage their contempt and yet and yet they simply can’t. They don the mask of a public figure and lose touch with the fact that everyone is a buffoon at least once in a while. Those that are not are cardboard cutouts of human beings. Trump is simply too real for them.
He's been to a house stuffed with mugs and hats?
These people are hopeless.
He is like a sports team or a rock band that helps define who they are as much as the families and communities to which they belong..
As Original Mike noted, this is yet another dishonest, backhanded compliment from those who loath red America. A key point in the left-right conflict is over what should be the center of society, The State or The Family? Trump voters are more likely to value family over politics.
Who would have thought a Princeton history and public affairs professor paid by CNN has no idea what half the nation thinks?
Joe Smith said...
"People always give Trump a hard time about putting his name on everything.
The same people who know nothing about branding..."
I rest my case. The one I made in my second podcast - and the previous comment, here, that got stuck in the spam filter, again.
No mystery to Trump voter appeal. He is just better at Commander in Chiefing. Maybe that’s because he wants to serve Americans first.
And the poor guy just can’t weave the sweet loving lies that the Woke Socialist authoritarians demand from their Dictator.. His mind is too valuable an asset to screw it up. And that is exactly what exposes Biden for the master liar and mega criminal that his mind clings to being.
The common term for Trump is "statesman". He knows how to make money, cull the herd of useless employees, and cut through the ridiculous red tape. He's not just a politician. Congress is full of politicians and too many are as dumb as a box of hammers.
all to avoid considering that many of Trump's supporters only actually care about what he did in office-- that his unpleasant personality is just what we'll put up with to have a roaring economy, security at home, fascist dictators at bay abroad, etc.
I agree, with some clarification.
I fail to see Trump's unpleasant personality. In the category of breaking norms, Trump does his own wet work. Obama has an absolutely mean streak. He uses the same or worse words. Or, like all other politicians he has a 100 proxies go after a person. Pay attention to Trumps attacks. He never starts a spitting match. He only responds to those attacking him. If your big mouth steps into the arena with Trump, You will get smacked in the mouth more then once.
But I do not love Trump. (right now I'm getting my warm fuzzy feelings from the Lady Hawkeyes They make me smile for two hours.)
My support for him originally was because I had nothing to loose. A vote for Cruze, or etal, would have been just a replay of the last Republican President. Promises ignored. At least with Trump he might of lied too, but what if he actually worked for me as lowly middle class nobody? I voted to shake up the Republican Party. I keep voting for Trump, because the likes of Nikky Haley is just more of the same.
All of these puff pieces are only showing the political class MUST invent the reason for Trump, because admitting we dont trust the elected Republicans or Dems, is too much digest.
Rich said...
Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Trump supporters thought they were attacking him?
No.
How many Trump supporters listen to NPR? At any one time, you could probably count them on both hands.
I do remember when our Leftist friends would go ballistic when someone uttered the full name of Barack Hussein Obama.
For almost eight years I have found it utterly bizarre that no one in the whole commentary / analysis industry has recognized why Trump won in 2016 and why, absent massive cheating or locking him up, he will almost certainly win in 2024 is HIS OPPONENT.
Why it is impossible for media people to recognize that a very large portion of the American electorate, probably a plurality, loathed Hilary Clinton and the corrupt manipulation she and her husband performed (possibly using blackmail on other Democrats from those FBI files)* to foist her upon the party as their 2008 nominee. "Oh no! People loved Hilary!" No, Obama, who was running for VP, recognized that Hilary was so disliked EVEN AMONG DEMOCRATS, that he could win the nomination despite the corruption of the party leadership. Fast forward 8 years and BERNIE FREAKING SANDERS, an old, ugly, scratch-voiced, dim-witted communist, looked like he might beat Hilary! until corrupt party leaders pull the rug out from under him.
Why is not possible for anyone to say that Trump won in 2016 BECAUSE HILARY CLINTON SUCKS?
And why is it also not possible for anyone to say that Trump will likely win in 2024 BECAUSE BIDEN SUCKS? On this best day Joe Biden was stupid, and now he's a dementia patient who can't string coherent sentences together, falls up stairs, and wanders around aimlessly on stage. I'm just waiting for him to shake hands with a houseplant or a flag.
I do agree that Trumps policies were shocking good for the country, that he represents people the self-satisfied elites ignore, that he's brilliant at branding, that he gives away hats, etc., etc., but the SUPREME SUCKAGE of his opponents should at least be MENTIONED in the analysis.
* Even if Hilary Clinton hadn't been a corrupt, dishonest, self-righteous Delores Umbridge who thinks she is far smarter and more moral than she actually is, I would have refused to vote for her because she was the President's wife, just as I refused to vote for George W. Bush because he was the President's son, just as I refused to vote for Al Gore because he was a Senator's son, and if I was 70 years older I would have refused to vote for Franklin Roosevelt because he was the president's cousin, and if I'd lived in the 18th century I would have refused to vote for John Quincy Adams. This is America, for God's sake. We don't need hereditary or familial dynasties: go the fuck away and do something useful, you revolting nepots.
Hate does breed more of it.
I believe hatred of Trump supporters makes it harder for trans to make inroads, for example.
There's a Trump shirt? Why wasn't I told? I thought all the stuffed shirts were on the other side.
Rich said...
"Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Trump supporters thought they were attacking him?
There’s a reason for that…."
Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Delaration of Independance and you thought that Trump supporters mthought they we attacking him?
Fixed that for you. In this case context is everything.
"He is like a sports team or a rock band that helps define who they are as much as the families and communities to which they belong...."
Go ahead- tell me you don't understand Trump or his supporters without saying you don't understand Trump or his supporters. Just because you get giddy as a teenage girl at a Beatles concert when you think about Obama, that doesn't mean others respond to politicians similarly, you know.
One more thing...
"the dangers of his [Trump's] positions..."
Please explain the danger of keeping millions of illegal aliens out of the country.
I'll wait...
they've developed this style of argumentation wherein they are on the side of love and the rest of us are simply guided by our hatreds
I think I posted something about this somewhere here today, unless I changed my mind about hitting Publish: the idea that everything they believe is just self-evident, so any disagreement must result from either stupidity, bigotry, or the impulse to fascism (which is a combination of the two, I suppose).
I'm so surprised no one has yet posted the usual, "They were strangely beautiful, these conservatives in the mist."
As the line from the country song goes, "Faster Horses, Younger Women, Older Whiskey, More Money".
The voting public looks at what old Slow Joe brought to the table, and what he's done for the country. The old pony and Cornpop thumper is slow and stumbling, Dr. Jill--well she's no Melania Trump. I dunno about the whiskey, but Joe Sixpack looks in his pocket and realizes that he has less money under Biden, and had more money under Trump.
A Princeton professor may not be able to figure it out--but a country songwriter sure can.
"Writes Julian Zelizer, a Princeton history and public affairs professor ..."
We need this academic parasite why, exactly?
Trump is a deeply flawed man, but at his core he wants the United States to be successful and he wants to be successful making the United States successful. That is going to resonate very well for those outside of the "America sucks" crowd and those that make their money catering to the "America sucks" crowd.
I do tire of being lectured to by corrupt liars, morons living in bubbles that cannot understand the most basic of things, the mentally ill that have been declared our betters, and billionaires that could be transplanted into a superhero comic books as supervillains without requiring any changes to the characters.
These writers need to dissect Jamie Dimon's comments located on this blog earlier.
Also I take into account what Trumps detractors are saying. kameltoe wailing about the end of the United States, says nothing about Trump, but identifies her as a not too likable, idiot.
But I took note of the Head of the European Union's, sky is falling words directed towards Trump.
The the EU is terrified that Trump has dared ask exactly why the United States is still funding the Marshall Plan, 75 years after WWII?
Trump asked hard questions about NATO funding (why aren't the nations meeting their treaty obligations) Hes asking why Marshall Plan favoritism is still in place?
The questions are only interesting, in that, nobody has an answer.
If, me agreeing with those questions, is proof of Love. I guess I must be truly smitten ;)
“Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Trump supporters thought they were attacking him?”
Actually I don’t. Apparently Duck Duck Go doesn’t either.
Should be
LOVE TRUMP'S HATE!
either as a declarative sentence [I] love Trump's hate or imperative sentence [you should] love Trump's hate
Be like Joe Kennedy: hate your enemies and do your best to hasten their downfall
John Henry
Should be
LOVE TRUMP'S HATE!
either as a declarative sentence [I] love Trump's hate or imperative sentence [you should] love Trump's hate
Be like Joe Kennedy: hate your enemies and do your best to hasten their downfall
John Henry
"* Even if Hilary Clinton hadn't been a corrupt, dishonest, self-righteous Delores Umbridge…"
That's who the Delores Umbridge character reminds me of! It's been bugging me. I knew it was somebody.
"What’s really working for Trump"
Now do Biden.
...not to mention all the local parties raising funds selling unlicensed Trump swag.. I s a thing
There was once a belief, on the Democratic side, that love was stronger than hate and they were the ones with the love.
@Althouse, I suspect that most Democrats still think of themselves as the people with love and compassion in their hearts, even as they drool and slobber their TDS and their hatred for the Deplorables. It’s not a “once was” sort of thing. The human capacity for self-deceit is pretty amazing. Thus you have people who believe that they’re “for science” when real scientists were arguing against the junk science pushed by Collins, Fauci, Birx, and Walensky during the COVID-19 pandemic, and who continue to believe global warming despite not a single “scientific” prediction coming true in the real world since they started making predictions in 1987. Or feminists who are “for women” but did not care about the plight of Afghan women back when the US had leverage to do something about it, nor do they care about Israeli women raped and murdered on October 7th, nor about Iranian women being flogged, or, closer to home, young women being forced to share showers and locker rooms with biological males, erections and all.
I wish the self-delusion was exclusively a left wing phenomenon, but it isn’t.
Trump was turned into a cultural phenomenon by his enemies. Thanks NYT and all you TDS prosecutors.
I for one can't wait to pick up more NFTs. Non-fungible Trumps are a great way to support the best Presidential candidate as well as a great collectible and investment.
Interesting, isn't it? Trump defeats a vile harridan to become president. He does a good job despite seditious opposition from Democrats and the GOPe, betrayal by his confidantes and a lying, hostile media. Regardless, he is then allegedly defeated by an incompetent, senescent grifter who has predictably become the worst president of this and the last century and who racks up the most votes in history. Yet it is Trump, not QuidProJoe who is the cultural phenomenon.
Of course that is because Trump is supported by a gaggle of idolators, rather than conscientious people who see the country unraveling under Democrat corruption supported by the likes of the SPLC, Antifa, ACLU, BLM, cultural Marxists, baby-killing women and Jew-hating progressives.
It couldn't be that we see Trump as John Podhoretz observed: "Trump is an unworthy vessel chosen by God to save us from the evil on the left." If it were that, the focus would be on the left. We can't have that.
If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
I finally watched the Russell Brand clip about MSNBC coverage of the Iowa Caucus. It is indeed funny. It is also a great example of why MSNBC is ignored by Trump supporters, because they can't even handle Trump being gracious without first suggesting it is fake news. Brand does a great job of illustrating what true disinformation is with Rachel Maddow claiming in absolute terms that Covid Vaccine prevents a person that received it from getting Covid, despite the fact that Biden and Fauci both got Covid after vaccination. If there was a cost to giving out disinformation, then Maddow has not paid it. Brand then shows us the speech that so frightens Maddow, and Trump simply thanks to people of Iowa, compliments both Haley and DeSantis on a strong showing, and recognizes the accomplishment of Vivek. MSNBC: OH THE HORROR, THIS MAN CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO BE NAMED OR SEEN.
I just cannot accept this opposition to Trump. It you want to beat Trump, then give me a reason that isn't absurd. Oh and also in the news today, the FBI asked banks to flag transaction that mentioned "MAGA" or "Trump" for further investigation by the FBI. The sad fact is no one will be held to account for this gross violation of our rights.
“Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Trump supporters thought they were attacking him?”
"Actually I don’t. Apparently Duck Duck Go doesn’t either."
Except that DuckDuckGo does remember it. Search for "NPR Declaration of Independence 2017". You'll find a lot of stories about what he's talking about.
NPR used to read the Declaration every July 4. In 2017, they also tweeted it, which led to the reaction. I'm not defending NPR. They stopped reading the Declaration on July 4, 2022 because they deemed it "racist."
Clueless bullshit from a sheltered, out-of-touch academic in a lotus-eating left-wing echo chamber.
I don't own a single thing with Trump's name on it except for one yard sign I saved as a memento for posterity. I've never worn a MAGA hat in my life. I voted for Gary Johnson in 2016 and considered Trump a buffoon.
Yet even more so than in 2020, I'd crawl on broken glass to vote for the man. There are hypothetical but foreseeable circumstances under which I would pick up a rifle and be prepared to kill or die in response to his summons.
By far the main reason for this is how thoroughly corrupt and wicked and tyrannical the Left has become, and how cowardly all other Republicans than Trump are about facing this reality. The Democratic Party has become ontologically evil, on a scale that differs from the Nazis and Communists of the 20th century only by its reach, not its ambition. They've already shown us that they are happy with Stalinist show-trials, rigged Potemkin elections, collective punishment for disfavored groups, and a Party-controlled secret-police force directed at oppressing domestic dissidents rather than opposing external threats. They are now building a military full of surly foreigners that is plainly meant for our enslavement, not our defense.
I do not have the smallest doubt that the Democrats will bring in concentration camps to house all the dissidents they intend to imprison, just as soon as they are able, and abolish posse comitatus so internal passports can be enforced at military checkpoints. They will do away with the First and Second Amendments entirely. They will debase our money and require us to use digital currency that a political commissar can erase at the push of a button. They will imprison surgeons who refuse to mutilate mentally-ill children, and prosecute anyone who speaks or writes against fanatic climate catastrophism, and kill or jail anyone who professes a non-State-approved religious creed. They will reduce white people to second-class citizens and impose extra taxes on them for redistribution to those of other races. They will confiscate our homes to house alien invaders who hate us. Some of them openly state that they wish to see white people exterminated quite as thoroughly as Hitler meant to exterminate the Jews.
There's no negotiation with such people. They are our enemies, not our countrymen. Cast your vote for total war on the Left.
Static Ping said...
"Trump is a deeply flawed man..."
1/18/24, 12:49 PM
Awwwwwwww, Fuck off! Donald Trump has a long history and a roomful of awards and citations for his work advancing civil rights and providing opportunities for the underprivileged. Who the fuck are you?
Donald Trump took a million dollar local business and made it a billion dollar global empire employing tens of thousands of people and providing services for millions. Who the fuck are you?
Donald Trump has reached the pinnacle of success in three different fields, real estate, television broadcasting, and American politics, becoming president despite a government conspiracy to deprive him of that achievement. Who the fuck are you?
Which one of you dares to declare right here that they could withstand the betrayals, the slanders, the insults and offenses, the unprecedented attacks from all-powerful forces controlling government, media, and entertainment that Trump has spent the last 8 years fighting virtually by himself?
Motherfuck all you worthless nobodies who have to declare to everyone that they think they're better people than Trump. You're not! Emphatically, without exception, you are not. Especially not you smug shits who have to write it out for all to see.
There isn't one of you who would dare to defy the evil forces attacking him, even if you were capable of displaying the guts, courage, grit, fortitude, humor and unbreakable spirit that Donald Trump has shown the world. You fucking worms need to check yourselves.
Jersey Fled said...
“Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Trump supporters thought they were attacking him?”
Actually I don’t. Apparently Duck Duck Go doesn’t either."
*******************
Oh really?
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=NPR+staged+a+reading+of+the+Declaration+of+Independence+and+Trump+supporters+thought+they+were+attacking+him%3F%E2%80%9D&atb=v346-1&ia=web
(but I agree that the subset of "Trump supporters who listen to NPR" is very very small.)
Recognize what Trump truly means to his voters. He is The Giant Middle Finger to the elite. What bonds MAGA together is pure hatred for university professors, media talking heads, Wall Street manipulators, big banks, uncaring bureaucrats. They even hate the leadership of the Republican party.
Can't say I disagree with their fury.
I agree that the subset of "Trump supporters who listen to NPR" is very very small.
I used to listen to it on my commute, before it became what it is today. Now I want it defunded of every nickel of taxpayer subsidy.
How anyone can believe her is beyond me
"Donald Trump’s lawyer appeared to imply E. Jean Carroll got the idea for her rape allegations against the former president from an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” — but she denied seeing it, calling the coincidence “astonishing” during testimony Monday.
Carroll — who was back on the stand in Manhattan federal court for her civil rape trial against Trump — was asked by his attorney Joe Tacopina if she knew her account of the alleged 1996 attack was very similar to a brief plot line in a 2012 episode of the popular NBC show.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/01/trump-lawyer-asks-e-jean-carroll-about-svu-episode-at-trial/
The 79-year-old former journalist testified she was “aware” of the episode but, “I haven’t seen it.”
A brief moment of the episode — titled “Theatre and Tricks” — involves a character talking about role-playing a rape fantasy in Bergdorf Goodman.
“Role-play took place in the dressing room of Bergdorf’s. While she was trying on lingerie I would burst in,” the character says.
Carroll, in her lawsuit, claims that the former commander-in-chief raped her in a fitting room in the lingerie section of the Fifth Avenue department store most likely in 1996."
Huffington post has something on the "reading". Duck Duck Go's link, as posted, is FUBAR.
No Score. Thanks for playing.
Regarding the video and stealing the guy's verbal tic: He's kind-of a soy-boy and by "kind-of" I mean the poster-child of soy-boys.
I'm sure some may exist, though I've yet to meet any masculine man, who supported Hillary.
What bonds MAGA together is pure hatred for university professors, media talking heads, Wall Street manipulators, big banks, uncaring bureaucrats.
I'm not a card-carrying MAGA person, but I will vote for Trump because those who oppose him are so dangerously toxic.
Not only are his opponents themselves liars, they frequently express their desire to - and in some cases are able to - enforce penalties on those who question even their most blatant lies. They speak approvingly of plans to outlaw sale of IC engines even while electric car owners are stranded in the bitter cold because their batteries won't charge, and while EV owners are urged not to charge their cars at home during a cold snap because it might put too much burden on the grid. They lecture and scold and threaten those who won't fall in line with their environmental agenda while enslaved children toil in cobalt mines with essentially zero environmental oversight - to say nothing of human rights oversight - so that more and more batteries can be manufactured. They blanket the airwaves and the intertubes with stories about how today's Republicans are Tipper Gore, nasty old prudish book-banners - you should have seen my poor innocent USA Today-reading in-laws' faces when I described what I had seen and read in Pool Boy and Genderqueer - while they rewrite Roald Dahl and Mark Effing Twain to comport with their weird and delicate sensibilities. They oppress and condescend to black Americans; they use and discard Latino Americans; they discriminate against Asian Americans because of their determined success; they raise mandated minimum wage to business-destroying levels so that they can feel virtuous when they are served by that college student barista who is now making $20 an hour (no need to check on a restaurant's dishwashers, is there? Just front of house people, thank you)- all while pretending that their support of unlimited and undocumented immigration is about "give us your tired, your poor" instead of "charge me far below minimum wage for the services I don't know how to or want to be bothered to do."
If Trump's opponents were the reasonable, sane, thoughtful people that they say they are, I might have been convinced to sit this election out (no way I'd vote for Biden). But with every extreme, repressive thing they say or do, my resolve to cast my one vote for a guy I had hoped never to have to consider again grows.
"His Majesty the Emperor has entered Paris..
A lot of people don't remember how well known Donald Trump was going back to the 80s. He didn't become famous because of The Apprentice*. He became the apprentice because he was already famous. The Apprentice did make him more famous, of course.
His politics were public as far back as the 80s. Not a lot, that was not what he wanted to be known for but they weren't hidden and the broad strokes, mainly American First, were the same then as now. In 1988 he even discussed t he vice presidency with the Bush team in 1988 according to meacham's bio of Bush.
He's been around forever, we know who he is, we know what he believes. As opposed to most politicians where we only know what they say they believe. And even that changes from day to day.
Donald Trump makes me feel safe and comfortable in a way that few politicians do.
I trust him and he has never given me any reason not to. Not on anything important.
He's got my back. That's why I have his.
John Henry
*A couple days ago one of our dimmer commenters was explaining how nobody at all ever watched The Apprentice.
Apparently it was just a huge trump Ian con job. He pretended he had lots of viewers and managed to string NBC along for 14 years before they figured it out.
Then they canceled him and he conned America into selecting him.
Sure beats working.
John Henry
Trump was a cultural icon way before he was a politician.
Lilly, a dog said...
“Remember when NPR staged a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Trump supporters thought they were attacking him?”
"Actually I don’t. Apparently Duck Duck Go doesn’t either."
Except that DuckDuckGo does remember it. Search for "NPR Declaration of Independence 2017". You'll find a lot of stories about what he's talking about
Bullshit. Give us a link to one of these stories.
I copy pasted your search term into ddg (my default search) and got no results.
I even held my nose and pasted it in Google (ugh) and they couldn't find anything either.
John Henry
Michael Fitzgerald @3:17
Amen
I really really wish I'd said that.
Damn well told
John Henry
effinayright said
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=NPR+staged+a+reading+of+the+Declaration+of+Independence+and+Trump+supporters+thought+they+were+attacking+him%3F%E2%80%9D&atb=v346-1&ia=web
None of those stories are about the trump supporters or even about 2017
It should not be hard to link a story.
Unless it is just that, "a story" that doesn't exist.
Oh, wait. Maybe this is what you have in mind
Www.goatse.com
(just kidding. Please do not click that link. Definitely NSFW)
John Henry
RE: Michael Fitzgerald @ 3:19. Ay-yup.
Sometimes for president you want a kindly grandpa. Every once in a while, you want a character, the guy back when who fired him or double-crossed him in a business deal and gave him a good story to tell the rest of his life.
Some complain that Trump insults De Santis and Haley but Obama was the expert. Remember when he said that Hillary was "Likeable enough?" Meyow! Damning with faint praise I guess. Or "Never under estimate Beiden's ability to F things up." Then Beiden and the DNC peed on the Bernie Bros. But Trump! He says bad things about his repub competitors!
You don't salute the man, you salute the rank. Presidents can be venal and have good policy. we grew up over the past 250 years. We don't need Gods. We need effectiveness, not ice cream cone posturing. Vote Trump, Goddamnit I will.
Here's a rational appeal: because many of those allegedly irrational people who you sneer at, as well as virtually all Democrats and leaners in that direction, will not vote for DiSantis, DiSantis would lose if he were the nominee. Many of those allegedly irrational people who are not opposed to DiSantis in principle also understand this, and therefore support Trump.
I hear NPR only on their hourly updates on WKNO 91.1FM, our mostly classical station. I used to catch parts of their morning and evening shows on my commute, but I no longer work so don't commute.
Not that I'd listen, any more. They lost me long before Trump.
Of course, trolling people with the DoI or the Ten Amendments has been a thing for decades, and signifies nothing but general ignorance and too much time on some people's hands.
Lots of astute commentary here today, and 'revolting nepots' would be a good name for a band.
At the Wednesday Night Cafe late last night I mentioned reading a bunch of articles/blogs/etc of know nothing’s explaining why Trump supporters support Trump. TBH, this pick of yours looks like you took that as a challenge to find the ultimate example. And you may very well have succeeded. Going to be tough to top this one for ignorance.
Going down the line, Original Mike at 1107 has one good reason:”It’s about Trump’s policies.” Which, of course, is unthinkable to all right thinking people like Julian Zelizer.
Gusty Winds at 1119 “Trump fights back.” That’s a biggie right there. How dare he violate norms like t!
traditionalguy at 1208 “He’s just better at Commander in Chiefing.” Tough to argue with that one. Especially when you see him mixing in with any military crowd. The current CinC gets exactly the respect regulations require. Trump got- and gets- enthusiastic welcomes.
Jess at 1213 sort of gets it. He’s right about how he describes Trump, but his actions are those of a businessman, not a statesman. A statesman makes everyone feel good about his actions. A businessman doesn’t care.
Iowan2 at 1215 “I fail to see Trump’s unpleasant personality.” Me too, among many others.
Prof. M. Drout at 1220 “…loathed Hillary Clinton..” What I said yesterday: “…he was Not Hillary!”
And all the other comments, except for the inexplicable ones from Trump haters, sums it up. Thoughts that no respectable liberal could ever conceive of. Yet they try to figure out why us Trump voters will vote for him again.
“Color me skeptical that there are any “homes stuffed with MAGA gear.” Maybe one. There’s always a nut somewhere who goes all out. And perhaps a few people with multiple hats and shirts and bumper stickers.”
Well you kinda found one here. We live in a Trump property, and there is a Trump store downstairs (as well as the DJT Restaurant), filled with Trump logo gear. We walk by it a half dozen times a day, and that’s where we go for late night Tylenol, Cokes, etc. Most days, I wear a Trump hat around town, and rarely don’t get a compliment (surprisingly even by a number of Blacks). I have a selection of colors, so that I can color coordinate my outfits. Light blue today, and pink yesterday. Plus 3 actual MAGA hats (which have the plastic adjustment in the back that don’t work very well for me). The regular Trump hats have Velcro, which works better. Also have a half dozen golf shirts, and several jackets. My partner has fewer Trump shirts (and stole at least one, a foam green one that she was wearing yesterday), but more jackets. Got her a nice white one last month. Oh, and a dog collar for our dog, who thinks that she owns the place.
The eBay price of a new mint condition Trumpy Bear is rising.
Trite but true, Trump's charm and appeal derives from his very presence on the stage making ALL the right heads explode, and then some.
Trite but true, Trump's charm and appeal derives from his very presence on the stage making ALL the right heads explode, and then some.
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on July 5, 2017 at 11:56 a.m. EDT [report in WaPo]
For about 20 minutes Tuesday, NPR traveled back to 1776.
To echo its 29-year on-air tradition, the public radio network’s main Twitter account tweeted out the Declaration of Independence, line by line.
it is TRADITION
on July 5, 2017 at 11:56 a.m. EDT [report in WaPo]
For about 20 minutes Tuesday, NPR traveled back to 1776.
To echo its 29-year on-air tradition, the public radio network’s main Twitter account tweeted out the Declaration of Independence, line by line.
it is TRADITION at NPR
The Twitter exercise this year was a way to include additional people in that tradition, NPR spokeswoman Isabel Lara told The Washington Post in an email statement.
on July 5, 2017 at 11:56 a.m. EDT [report in WaPo]
For about 20 minutes Tuesday, NPR traveled back to 1776.
To echo its 29-year on-air tradition, the public radio network’s main Twitter account tweeted out the Declaration of Independence, line by line.
it is TRADITION at NPR
The Twitter exercise this year was a way to include additional people in that tradition, NPR spokeswoman Isabel Lara told The Washington Post in an email statement.
It's like they can't admit even to themselves that it's the issues, not the man, that have the support. If they did, they'd have to face the reality of how abysmal their own policies have been in practice.
=========
could it be that it is inconceivble to them? since they vote for D-anyone and not policies?
@John Henry
All of these links came up for me in DuckDuckGo, using my search term. It's just one of those lazy "several-people-were-mad-on-twitter" stories, but it did happen.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/07/05/some-trump-supporters-thought-npr-tweeted-propaganda-it-was-the-declaration-of-independence/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/07/05/npr-tweeted-declaration-independence-some-people-got-angry/451112001/
https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/05/us/npr-twitter-declaration-trnd/index.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-supporters-react-to-npr-declaration-of-independence-tweets-2017-7?op=1
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/npr-declaration-of-independence/
“ practical reasons for choosing someone such as DeSantis... don’t mean much to the fans whose homes are stuffed with MAGA hats”
Right, it couldn’t possibly be that we don’t trust the designated Vichy Candidate who is running on the hope that the left will remove Trump from the ballot
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