Trump (Drumpf), the Irrational Man for Irrational Times...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth


Those among us who get the threat Trump (Drumpf) represents to our democratic republic and our civil liberties simply get it. As for those who don't, well, it is likely they likely never will. Until it's too late.

BETHPAGE, N.Y. - As I walked into a soundstage Wednesday night at Grumman Studios, which was filled with thousands upon thousands of Donald Trump supporters penned into metal barricades and donning all manner of Trump paraphernalia, I immediately thought of the words Richard Strout of The New Republic used more than four decades ago to describe the scene at a George Wallace rally during the 1968 presidential campaign.

“There is menace in the blood shout of the crowd,” wrote Strout. “You feel you have known this all somewhere. Never again will you read about Berlin in the ’30s without remembering this wild confrontation here of two irrational forces. The American sickness has finally localized; Wallace is the ablest demagogue of our time.”

The analogy to Germany in the 1930s is, to be sure, inexact. But the atmosphere in Bethpage was unlike anything I’ve seen at a political rally. There was an electricity and energy in the room that felt venomous, violent, terrifying — like the political equivalent of parched kindling before a conflagration. If Trump had told the throngs there to go rampage in the streets, I half think most of them would have complied.

The crowd was almost all white, overwhelmingly male, and disproportionately young. There were constant chants of “USA! USA! USA!,” “Hillary for prison!,” and “Build the wall!” When protesters raised their voices they were drowned out by a particular chant, more regularly heard at football games, that resounded across the hall. “I’d like to tell them they’re going to be on the southern side of the wall,” said one woman about the protesters. Trump’s omnipresent security guards, many of whom looked like they’d overdosed on muscle mass supplements, soon escorted them out. Thankfully, most of the hecklers who are usually a mainstay at Trump events stayed home or perhaps thought better of riling up the crowd.

A smiling old man proudly displayed to me a T-shirt that read “Trump: Get On Board or Get Run Over.” Another read: “Up Yours Hillary.” When I asked the man to pose for a picture, his wife pulled me over and told me “everything in America is terrible” — the economy, health care, the military. “Don’t you worry about your kids future?” she asked me as she demanded to know if I was voting for Trump.

At other Trump events, there is occasionally concern expressed over some of his more inflammatory statements. Not here. “Trump speaks the truth,” ‘Trump is going to fix things,” they told me. “He’s the only person who can beat Hillary,” said another. One man I talked to so frequently parroted Trump’s catchphrases about getting rid of all the “bad deals” signed by stupid politicians and the foreign countries “ripping us off” that he joked“maybe I should be working for the campaign.” If there was doubt about Trump or fear that perhaps he’s pushing the envelope too far it wasn’t evident in Long Island.

Indeed, the more aggressive that Trump was in his comments, the more the crowd responded. When he said “We’re gonna kick the hell out of ISIS,” the ovation was deafening. When he made his obligatory attack on the media for being “terrible people” the crowd reacted on cue, turning toward the press risers and screaming at us or pointing fingers. And when he asked who is going to pay for the wall he wants to build, the crowd yelled back, “Mexico” and then soon began another chant of “Build the wall!”

Trump’s stump speech was the same he’s now delivered countless times — a litany of complaints about stupid politicians who “don’t know what the hell they’re doing,” journalists who don’t tell the truth about the size of Trump’s rallies, heartless corporations who ship jobs overseas (which won’t happen anymore when Trump takes office), and America’s inability to win anymore. “We don’t fight like people from Long Island,” he said when talking about the war against ISIS.

There were the obligatory attacks on Obama, Clinton, and Lyin’ Ted Cruz. And of course, there was the usual Trump bombast about how he’s “gonna turn this country around so fast” and how voters love him. “The Christians like Trump,” he said bragging about his support with evangelicals.

There was even Trump’s now regular reading of “The Snake,” an Oscar Brown song (Trump still incorrectly says it was written by Al Green) that tells the story of a “tender-hearted woman” who saves a snake’s life only to have it bite and kill her. This is Trump’s explanation for why the United States can’t allow Muslim refugees into America. CONTINUE READING BELOW THE FOLD.


BTW, Ted Cruz represents an equal, if not greater threat to our American way of life. Xenophobia, bigotry, misogyny, and uncontrolled irrational nationalism all present grave danger to America. As well as the world at large. Think about it, seriously and unemotionally.

Via: Memeorandum

Comments

  1. The Trump-Cruz crowd is a far greater threat to the United States than ISIS or any other foreign terrorist group.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Politics have always been a nasty game played by those seeking personal gain in influence and power. Which is why government is, and to some degree, has always been distrusted by some segment of society.

    Today, the result of years of deceit and mismanagement of our government, the republican/conservative party is the least trusted. The lack of trust is deserved and he party/ideology will pay the price at the polls. As it well should.

    Republicans (Drumpf and Cruz especial) are now theGREATER OF TWO EVILS.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is just the latest uprising of the angry white guy class. Historians could call it the post-civil rights counter-movement, I suppose, but it would be lending too much dignity. The impetus for the anger is, of course, nothing they actually want addressed. They will be sated by scapegoating and demagoguery. If they lose really big this year, and it looks quite possible, it will only be a minor set-back. Stupidity and sleaze march on.

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
  4. What is it with "angry white men"? I mean, we have had it better than any other color man for decades. We should be thankful, not angry. At least, the anger should not be directed at people of other colors. They are not the problem. They have not caused the problems. The problems come from other white men. Let's clear up our own mess. It is our shit, not someone else's.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No, I understand why their angry. The death of the labor movement, deindustrialization, sky-high education and healthcare inflation, the reduction of upward mobility, these things have been very hard on everyone, and perhaps most felt by the average white guy. The problem is cultural. They have defined themselves culturally as "conservative" or "republican," by the particular associated macho, individualistic, nationalistic, religious rhetoric. "Liberals" are dirty, whiny little faggots, "progressives" are godless totalitarian communists, minorities are changing the country into something they don't like, Democrats are all crooks, their rhetoric all empty, and anything Democrats suggest must therefore be wrong. It is a cultural phenomenon, with pretty much nothing rational whatsoever about it (excepting demagoguery, of course). Changing it requires changing the culture. People with the power taking the bully pulpit and speaking the undeniable truth - that is the only way to fix that sort of cultural confusion. FDR did it. Maybe Sanders could too.

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
  6. In a nutshell it is the death of the live and let live mentality combined with the understanding that everyone is deserving of respect and the right to live their own life as they chose. As long as it is peaceful and harms no one else.

    I will add this caveat, government has a social obligation to fulfil the social contract that is implied in a democratic republic. For further clarification Thomas Paine is an excelent choice.

    ReplyDelete
  7. TOM, please note. Regardless of your delusional belief that I read your comments rest assured when I see the comment is IMMEDIALTELY deleted.

    In other words, you are wasting your time leaving conments at tis weblog. They are not read nor will they ever be read.

    ReplyDelete

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