What surprises me most is not the abandonment of ethical judgment to accommodate Trump as long as he serves one's political purposes; it's the refusal by well-educated people to acknowledge how idiotic and absurd he typically sounds.
What surprises me most is not the abandonment of ethical judgment to accommodate Trump as long as he serves one's political purposes; it's the refusal by well-educated people to acknowledge how idiotic and absurd he typically sounds.
As Mitt Romney's book reveals, many members of the Senate (and probably of the House) are fully aware of how lunatic Trump is -- but they are afraid of his supporters. His connection to his supporters is visceral. He is clearly someone who was humiliated as a kid, and has spent the rest of his life doling out abuse to everyone else. For people who themselves feel humiliated or anticipate being humiliated, having a bully of their own is deeply satisfying. This isn't a comment on anyone's level of education; it's a feature of human cognition and emotion.
The rules of the game of elections that have evolved over 250 years have ended up amplifying the power of small, dedicated minorities in low-population states. The founders were reasonably good software architects who couldn't anticipate that the error correction features of the US Operating system would be so thoroughly hacked. Many of the bugs in their system were terrible compromises to accommodate slavery. Eventually the system crashed in the Civil War. And now we find, that despite the system patches of the post-war Amendments, the system is still fragile -- and now on the verge of a second system crash.
(IMHO, Mitch McConnell is arguably the greatest hacker of all time, with his elegant exploitation of the rules).
Like Hamilton warned...Trump simply tells them what they want to hear...and they don't care if it's entirely true...because it makes them feel good.
I agree with the post above that the support of Trump isn't simply by the gullible...there are very unscrupulous people taking total advantage of it. They'll glom right on to the next populist leader without a hint of remorse for getting rid of "loser" Trump.
And equally distressing is when people such as Cheney, Kinsinger, Buck, The Bulwark, and high level former administration members do speak out their words just fall on deaf ears and make Trump supporters dig their heels in even deeper.
What's left of The Republican Party should consider rebranding themselves as the Anti-Democratic Party. Those, like the founders of The Bulwark, should join the Democratic Party to form its "Conservative Wing," perhaps we'll one day see something like this.
What surprises me most is not the abandonment of ethical judgment to accommodate Trump as long as he serves one's political purposes; it's the refusal by well-educated people to acknowledge how idiotic and absurd he typically sounds.
As Mitt Romney's book reveals, many members of the Senate (and probably of the House) are fully aware of how lunatic Trump is -- but they are afraid of his supporters. His connection to his supporters is visceral. He is clearly someone who was humiliated as a kid, and has spent the rest of his life doling out abuse to everyone else. For people who themselves feel humiliated or anticipate being humiliated, having a bully of their own is deeply satisfying. This isn't a comment on anyone's level of education; it's a feature of human cognition and emotion.
The rules of the game of elections that have evolved over 250 years have ended up amplifying the power of small, dedicated minorities in low-population states. The founders were reasonably good software architects who couldn't anticipate that the error correction features of the US Operating system would be so thoroughly hacked. Many of the bugs in their system were terrible compromises to accommodate slavery. Eventually the system crashed in the Civil War. And now we find, that despite the system patches of the post-war Amendments, the system is still fragile -- and now on the verge of a second system crash.
(IMHO, Mitch McConnell is arguably the greatest hacker of all time, with his elegant exploitation of the rules).
Like Hamilton warned...Trump simply tells them what they want to hear...and they don't care if it's entirely true...because it makes them feel good.
I agree with the post above that the support of Trump isn't simply by the gullible...there are very unscrupulous people taking total advantage of it. They'll glom right on to the next populist leader without a hint of remorse for getting rid of "loser" Trump.
And equally distressing is when people such as Cheney, Kinsinger, Buck, The Bulwark, and high level former administration members do speak out their words just fall on deaf ears and make Trump supporters dig their heels in even deeper.
Republicans being honest these days...leads to the instantaneous changing of them into RINOs....in the minds of the MAGAs.
What's left of The Republican Party should consider rebranding themselves as the Anti-Democratic Party. Those, like the founders of The Bulwark, should join the Democratic Party to form its "Conservative Wing," perhaps we'll one day see something like this.
Democratic Party
Social Democrats
New Deal Democrats
Democratic Republicans
Anti-Democratic Party