July 19, 2016

Don’t laugh, folks. Trump is real

Sam Smith – For most of the media the major development of the first night of the GOP convention was the plagiarism of Melania Trump. For me, who covered a convention for his college radio station sixty years ago, it was of the most appalling national events I had ever observed. For all her faults, Mrs. Trump at least mentioned a few conventional political matters like children and education. For the rest of the evening America was redefined as a country under attack with the resolution only to be found in more oppressive military and police action.

I had already been startled that both the Democratic and Republican nominees in waiting were vetting little known high ranking military officials as potential vice presidents, as though the art of invasion, bombing and killing masses of people were the primary skills needed for the White House. Nothing like this had happened before – a bipartisan assumption that war was one of our primary role model.

But now a whole evening was filled with former and present military and police figures spreading paranoia. And all the media could worry about was some plagiarism.

I was reminded of what a German professor had said about the coming of fascism:
To live in the process is absolutely not to notice it -- please try to believe me -- unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted.' … Believe me this is true. Each act, each occasion is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow. … Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven't done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we did nothing) . . . You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair.
Among the media, Politico was a rare exception that caught the tone:
Donald Trump’s supporters painted a dark and dystopian portrait of an America in decline on Monday, as a parade of people spoke about a country slipping from their grasp, cops getting gunned down in the streets, and their family members slain by illegal immigrants…

On stage, there was a red-meat buffet of raw emotion for an angry Republican electorate, with little talk of ideology or policy. Indeed, there were more mentions of fallen American soldiers than of conservatism.

But there were even fewer signs of outreach across the aisle or to independents. For most of the night, the convention lineup felt and sounded more like a tea party rally on the statehouse steps — with little-known speakers delivering hard-line speeches — than a traditional national convention.

The Trump campaign’s stated theme for the evening was to “make America safe again,” and they sold Trump as a rescuer of the nation by focusing almost exclusively on the current, imperiled state of affairs.
It began with a pastor who declared God a conservative supporting Trump:
Father God, in the name of Jesus, Lord we’re so thankful for the life of Donald Trump. We’re thankful that you are guiding him, the you are giving him the words to unite this party, this country, that we together can defeat the liberal Democratic Party, to keep us divided and not united. Because we are the United States of America, and we are the conservative party under God.

To defeat every attack that comes against us, to protect the life of Donald Trump, give him the words, give him the space, give him the power and the authority to be the next President of the United States of America, in Jesus’ name.
The assumption of some speakers was that America was dealing with an invasion, albeit uncertain whether the attackers were Muslims or Democrats. Giuliani, for example, said “our enemies see us as weak and vulnerable” and plan to “come here and kill us.” Most stunningly, he added, “There’s no next election. This is it.”

The same Giuliani in an earlier Manhattan talk had also said, “I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America… He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”

The convention’s theme that the military and the police represented the best of American values happily ignored a few facts offered by ABC News in 2011:
According to his Selective Service records, first obtained by the website The Smoking Gun through a Freedom of Information Act request, Trump received four student deferments between 1964 and 1968 while in college and an additional medical deferment after graduating.

Trump received his first two student deferments while enrolled at Fordham University in New York City in June 1964 and December 1965. He transferred to Wharton as a sophomore that year and received another two 2-S deferments in December 1966 and January 1968 during his last year of college.

He was classified "available for service" (class 1-A) in November 1966, but just three weeks later in December 1966 he was given a new student deferment.

Upon graduation Trump, the son of a wealthy New York City real estate developer, was no longer eligible for student deferments.

In October 1968, he was declared medically unfit to serve except "in time of national emergency," even though he had been declared fit to serve in 1966.

In 1972, Trump was ultimately declared ineligible for service and given a final 4-F deferment.

The documents do not specify the reasons Trump was given a medical deferment.

The discovery of the records come in the same week President Obama released his long form birth certificate proving that he was born in Hawaii in 1964. Trump, 64, a billionaire businessman turned reality star, has tested the waters for a possible presidential run in recent weeks, demanding that Obama release his own records.
Trump has made it clear that those views outside his own – from the public’s to provisions of the Constitution – are subject to his own opinion which, as he has repeatedly indicated, is better than anyone else’s. And as he has demonstrated in hundreds of legal conflicts,, the rule of law is for him just another thing a smart businessman learns how to manipulate.

Because of his megalomania there is no need to discuss ideology. His ideology is whatever Trump thinks on a particular day. Thus, should his coup be successful, the model will not be European fascism but Latin America dictatorships, in which personality triumphed over philosophy. As I was viewing Mrs. Trump speak I even wondered whether I was watching the next Eva Peron.

Bu however it works out, nothing like this has happened in American politics before.

It is entirely possible that a Trump win will crash the American republic or even engaged it in a disastrous nuclear war. Or perhaps it will just make a nasty mess of most of our lives. But in any case, to deny the danger is, as the Geman professor put it, is to compromised beyond repair.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

When a republic starts to fail (usually it is political/economic failure for some long time) during the time of decline most often the framework of a police state is formed up. Then at some point in time the controlling political forces go farther to the left and further to the right. They battle it out, if the Republic fails either the far right or far left makes a single political party ran republic. No matter which radicalized side wins the nation and people loses.. examples of this are all over the world today, even do not need to mention real history. I don't think we at the critical point in time yet but getting closer. By the way I think the radical left has a greater chance to win this battle than the right as of now, the radical right is just helping to build the police state the radical left will use against THEM! . No matter what it is impertinent to keep democracy somehow and avoid a police state. The spooks/elites know well enough more can be done, choices, many bad choices being made. This election cycle is a show of a third world type of specticitcal and sadly only a warm up.

Anonymous said...

And Hillary & Co. are no better, the duopoly's two sides of one coin. The only rational alternative is to deny the duopoly our sanction. To not vote is to give tacit, or silent, consent. Somewhere between 40% to 60% of registered voters will likely stay home in November believing they have no viable election options. It is possible for the Green Party, and Dr Jill Stein, to convince them otherwise, and in so doing the election can be won. It has to start with folks like you, Sam, helping to spread the word. Your silence with regards to the Greens this cycle is tantamount to your giving consent and implied endorsement to the duopoly.
This writer will NEVER vote for any Clinton, she is, despite all of your protestations to the contrary, the potential greater and more effective evil.

Tom Puckett said...

I've been giving serious consideration to the points in Sam's article, Getting Ready For America's Worst Presidential Election:

     https://samsmitharchives.wordpress.com/2016/04/28/getting-ready-for-americas-worst-presidential-election/

... especially to the point about voting for the lesser of two evils.

However, that's a choice I'll make when in the voting booth on election day, when all the facts are in and all the choices are clear.

In the meantime, DR. JILL STEIN and the GREEN PARTY are getting all my financial and mental support. Their sincere policies are even more progressive than Bernie's and Jill even volunteered to step aside to allow Bernie to lead the ticket.

Pollster Luntz said on Bill Maher's Real Time, 7/15 episode, that Bernie should have been the Democratic nominee and should have run as an independent. Both possibilities still have time to happen, but the former looks unlikely.

In the Overtime segment, Luntz gave Bill a tshirt that read "I Already Hate Our Next President." This is just another way of subtly asserting that there are only two choices in our elections (and further slaps your face by adding that both are unacceptable!).

This doesn't have to be true! What if we all decided to choose something we all really want, in spite of what the entrenched election structure dictates?

On July 12, a Bernie supporter wrote to Dr. Stein's campaign to say she had switched her party affiliation to Green *and* donated $27 to Jill. She said, "We brought Bernie out of nowhere, let's do it for Jill when we *all* get to vote in November."

If everyone could scrape up $250 before the August 6th matching deadline, Jill would get some money to spend to let the Country know there is another choice.

Its so sad watching the Republicans go through the motions of pretending that Trump is what we all need, just so their party can "win" when such would actually be a huge loss for all.

If not now, when? Let's at least try to put another choice on the table, in the three-plus months we have left!

Support for Bernie wasn't wasted - he's getting to speak in Philadelphia, and after that - hope upon hope - maybe he can lend his support and supporters to the Green Party, to take advantage of their ballot access.

Cheers, Tom

Anonymous said...

Eisenhower's warning was actually a veiled announcement of a fait accompli. In 1963 the era of violent regime change commenced until 1981 with the era of pacification. There is nothing Trump could do that wasn't already exceeded by Wilson.

Dan Lynch said...

Sam said "It is entirely possible that a Trump win will crash the American republic or even engaged it in a disastrous nuclear war."

Sam, it is entirely possibly, that Hillary will crash the American republic or even engage it in a disastrous nuclear war. Obama has restarted the Cold War yet you have had little to say about that.

You partisanship is showing. Please change the name of your blog to "The Democratic Party Review."

Anonymous said...

The country IS under attack by forces seeking to create a race war. This has been a long standing goal to break the social order and lead us right into a police state.

These attacks are being funded and promulgated by George Soros and his network, which has used these same tactics in other countries such as the Ukraine. BLM while having some valid points about policing in minority areas is one of the Soros groups and their influence thru the media has directly led to these police shootings.

Funny Sam, you seem to be right about the threat of the coming police state. Problem is, you don't seem to know who the culprits are. Maybe because they claim to share your worldview?