Trump Supporters

In Sunday’s New York Times, within their Weekly Opinion Section (used to be Weekly Review) is a set of articles by their editorial (opinion) writers, concerning things they got wrong, despite the care with which they prepare their articles.  One of the writers, Bret Stephens, wrote one of particular interest—getting it wrong about Trump supporters. It is useful to note that he did not say he was wrong about Trump, especially now, after the January 6^th hearings. We now know conclusively that Trump planned and inexpertly tried to overthrow our legal system of governance in an attempt to remain in power.  But Stephens thinks he was wrong in how he harassed Trump supporters. He opens his piece thusly:

“By Bret Stephens -- NY Times Opinion Columnist

The worst line I ever wrote as a pundit — yes, I know, it’s a crowded field — was the first line I ever wrote about the man who would become the 45th president: “If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling.”

This opening salvo, from August 2015, was the first in what would become dozens of columns denouncing Trump as a unique threat to American life, democratic ideals and the world itself. I regret almost nothing of what I said about the man and his close minions. But the broad swipe at his voters caricatured them and blinkered me.

It also probably did more to help than hinder Trump’s candidacy. Telling voters they are moral ignoramuses is a bad way of getting them to change their minds.”

 

In other words, he does not think the Trump supporters were/are good folks who were just misled, and thus should be spared any criticism. No, rather, he thinks that calling them nasty names is counterproductive. And he is probably right. Calling someone a racist pig is unlikely to get them to join your side.

 

And I began wondering myself, what can one say about the people who continue to support Trump?  Frankly, I am baffled.  So, then I wondered, well, why does anyone, knowing what we all now know, continue to support Trump?

 First, I guess we should understand that all of the people who now support Trump do so because they believe that he is on their side.  So, what are these “sides” taken by Trump, to which his supporters are devoutly attached? Because Trump has so few positive attributes, it is difficult to attribute voter support to things positive.  But it may also be the case that voters are all a mix of personalities, and professional characteristics. Perhaps unlike their chosen leader, they reflect both positive and negative qualities. But I see them drawn to Trump because he appeals to some of their strongly held negative views.  So, what are some of these views?

 

1.       Racism: Trump seems strongly racist. Now this characteristic is an interesting one. First, he denies being racist, despite his track record. Probably 60% of this country thinks that Trump made racism worse in this country. Now, how many people in America are racist? I don’t know.  I could find no statistics revealing how many Americans are racist, mainly I assume because, who would reveal in writing that they are racist?  We know that we have systemic racism in America. People of color experience more instances of violence against them by law enforcement. People of color experience relatively greater difficulty in obtaining jobs in the upper sectors of our economy.  So, if you are White, and are feeling economic pressures, you may be drawn to a man who seems to understand your plight and who promises to protect White, Christian America. Also, a curious issue exists among Trump supporters. Our country is a country of immigrants, yet many Trump supporters want our borders closed. They seem to hate especially immigrants of color arriving from South of our Border, while ignoring the ones arriving from Europe.  So, Trump supporters find his racism appealing, and they might well vote for him on that basis alone.

2.       Misogyny: This one is baffling. On the one hand, Trump seems to treat all women as his actual or potential mistresses. On the other hand, he numbers many women within his group of active supporters.  Why would women be drawn to a seemingly active misogynist?  Maybe it is the case that those women in particular view all men as misogynists, and select men based on other characteristics, like racism.  He seems to have experienced three unsuccessful marriages (his last to Melania continues but it seems less than successful), as well numerous sexual affairs, some more public than others. So, perhaps some of his male supporters like his maltreatment of women, while his women supporters prefer him for other odd reasons.

3.       Mental Incapacity: whether he is as idiotic as he often sounds, or acts remains a question I guess, but his fundamental incompetence is likely associated with a lack of intelligence. He has experienced six bankruptcies in business, and his performance as President can only be described as near-catastrophic.  Many believe that he simply is not very bright, and his operational incapacities (e.g., six bankruptcies) follow. It is possible that people who have had less than stellar educational experiences, feel angered at the folks who succeeded intellectually and used it to their advantage in business.  They might be drawn to Trump who seems more like them.

4.       Anger at the World: Trump seems angry at much of the world. He explodes easily and frequently, and often simply lies to explain his anger—he is angry because so and so (Hillary, Barack, Joe) did such and such, even though they did no such thing. His supporters don’t care if he lies, because they likely spend much of their lives angry at somebody or something beyond their control.  Which brings me to a last characteristic.

5.       Lying: Lying is one of the more baffling characteristics, drawing support.  According to The Washington Post:

“When The Washington Post Fact Checker team first started cataloguing President Donald Trump’s false or misleading claims, we recorded 492 suspect claims in the first 100 days of his presidency. On Nov. 2 alone, the day before the 2020 vote, Trump made 503 false or misleading claims as he barnstormed across the country in a desperate effort to win reelection.

This astonishing jump in falsehoods is the story of Trump’s tumultuous reign. By the end of his term, Trump had accumulated 30,573 untruths during his presidency, averaging about 21 erroneous claims a day.”

Now why would folks want to support a human who lies that much?  My only conclusion here is that they like the fact that he lies his way out of trouble (remember, he is not yet in prison, despite the facts against him, many of which seem to require imprisonment). So, I think his supporters like his chutzpah. He routinely, daily really, sticks his finger into the air, or into someone’s eye, and they love that, because it is how many of them feel daily. He is just like them, rather than those other politicos.

 

So, we may have a permanent support troupe who will continue to show at his rallies, and would certainly vote for him, or for any candidate he endorses.  And depending on how many folks fall into that pool, we may have a permanent “Sword of Damocles” hanging over the American System of Government. Note please that the only solution to this potential cataclysmic event is for folks who are intelligent enough to understand the risks posed by Trump, to get out and vote for any and all forces opposing him and his minions. If you wish to see America continue as a democratic nation, You Must Get Out and Support ethical candidates.  You Must.

 

The Switch Is On

Is it just me, or does it feel as though someone just threw a switch and suddenly the world changed? I know we have been talking about global climate change for a while now, well arguing about whether it exists, and if it does, what it means for humankind.  But suddenly, on comes 2022, and the entire world seems on fire.  First the West Coast of America began getting our attention by essentially literally burning down. One gigantic fire after another.  And these fires weren’t just forest fires. I mean, we have always had forest fires in our West. No, these fires are always way beyond human control. We send out crews and we bombard the fires with things intended to douse them, but they just keep on burning.

But then, all of a sudden, our own little region of North Carolina seems converted into a frying pan. Every day the thermometer hits 90 and then climbs a bit more, sometimes breaking through that magic mark of 100.  Then some clouds roar overhead and deliver some rain. Ahhh, yes, the blessed rain, right?  Well, not quite. Yes, it is true that the rain soaks our landscape, making our plant life happy. But it doesn’t just rain, like it used to. No, now when the heavens deliver, they practically drown us. The other day we had two little rainstorms over a few hours, and they dropped 5 ½ inches of rain. That is a lot of rain.

And now I am reading about Europe. All over Europe the heat is on, full blast. It’s over 100 degrees all over, climbing in some regions to 115 or more. Great Britain is experiencing over 100 degrees (or 40 degrees Celsius, which they seem to prefer).  Places that almost never see 40 degrees C. are seeing it now almost every day.  Railroad transit has been interrupted because tracks are failing. Roadways are failing, and so they are encouraging folks to just stay home (replacing the pandemic as a closing device).

In places that used to have ice, the ice is departing. Now, when ice melts, sea levels will begin rising.  Florida beware, you will soon be under water, and you won’t even be able to blame that Idiot-Malenfant Ron DeSantis.

And I keep wondering what happens when that thing called “Winter” begins to appear. Will winter be reduced to 75-80 degrees, or should we expect some sudden reversal, and the heat gets shut off? Who knows? And are we doing anything about all this? Well, no, because WE (the collective WE) haven’t really decided that global climate change is here. No, we are still pissing on each other about what is going on. Ask Joe Manchin, whose state produces, apparently, ONLY COAL. And Joe will tell you that there is no global warming, or even if there is, his state has nothing to do with any of that. No, Joe doesn’t believe in collective good, only his own good.

And now, just when we became totally fed up with COVID and masks and all that crap, there appears a new variant—yeah, the variant of the month. And this one seems to spread more easily and even evades the vaccination.  So, we are back to heavy duty mask wearing, except that we’re not. Just when we should all be routinely donning our masks again, most of us are ignoring all that in the pretense that nothing is going on.  And, it turns out, the various public health authorities are cooperating with that laissez faire attitude. Yeah, I guess they are now fed up with the public yelling at them all the time.  So, what the hell, let’s all pretend that we’re not going to get sick, none of us, right??

And then, as though the above isn’t bad enough, the American political system now seems totally broken.  Our system has always been annoying, mainly because the American people are often annoying.  But something happened that has changed us and/or the system.  Maybe it was the Barack Obama elections. You know, electing a decent, intelligent, thoughtful and ethical man of color was apparently too much for many Americans.  And so, they came out of their closets and decided to become openly hostile, you know, thoroughly republican. And so, their first act was to enable the election of perhaps the most despicable human being in the country to the US Presidency. Yeah, that Donald Trump thing. And he gave them all permission to be awful, as was their wont.  And so America turned towards racism big time, and misogyny, and we began turning away from the rest of the world, making believe we were the only creatures on the planet.

Now, to be fair, the awful people—Donald’s Tribe—failed to prevail in that next election, and so the country elected Joe Biden, an old guy who is also decent.  But The Tribe refused to concede. Yeah, The Donald told them it was ok to riot, so long as it was in the best interest of keeping him in power. So, first he encouraged the Insurrection, in which armed white dudes invaded the Capitol and started killing people, and actively looking for more people to kill—like Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi.  And, though they failed at that, they went back home and decided to focus on creating chaos. Partly, they began by electing idiot-malenfants, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bohbert, Josh Hawley (one of the active cheerleaders at the Insurrection) and others like them. And those folks gave Mitch McConnell an open ticket to create chaos.  And Mitch is so experienced and so competent at creating chaos that he became America’s Dream Chaotic-Maker.  Mitch simply refuses to help along anything sensible in the way of legislation that might help America. Nope, if it’s good and created under a democratic President, it ain’t gonna happen.

And so, the failure of America has begun. I keep thinking of that famous book, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  And America is on track as we speak. We are a Nation headed into a state of total failure. And, worse yet, we still have all those nuclear weapons and that really big heavily armed military. Can you imagine what that Military might do in the hands of people like Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Greene/Bohbert & Co,? The mind boggles.

And here I sit, at the really ripe old age of 87, waiting for someone to flip the sanity switch back on and turn off this damnable switch to Infinite Chaos. We really have had enough, and our grandkids and Great Grandkids have more than had enough.  They want sanity to return.  They want the insane folks to go back into their closets where they used to sit and drink booze and suck their thumbs. That’s where they belong.  It’s time folks. Go home, and let the adults recover our Nation.

SCOTUS v. America

 Well, that was certainly a week of SCOTUSIANA. Let’s see, they crushed abortion rights, removed the ability of EPA to regulate the environment, and trashed New York gun regulations.  So, what’s next? I assume someone will go after the FDA’s ability to regulate food and drugs. Can’t have the government messing with our food supply. And why would we ever want the government to oversee our drugs? I’m sure the money managers at all the large drug and food chains are our best guide to safety, right??

And guns . . . I mean why would anyone want to mess with the public’s ability to buy, sell, and use guns? We have such a good record, right? So, of course SCOTUS would intervene. They of course know so much about the quality of food and drugs. And who else but SCOTUS could possibly understand the social and physiological complexities of pregnancy? I’m sure that Brett and Amy will be our best guides.

And, what happens should one or both of the other two branches decides that the crew at SCOTUS has overstepped?  Is there actually a fix for having someone like Brett Kavanaugh overseeing our American system of Democracy for the rest of his natural life?  Our founding fathers decided that SCOTUS should be different from the other two branches.  Mainly, it would seem that SCOTUS is intended to serve as a check on the other two branches.  The Executive and the Legislative branches are both fairly explicitly political.  Over time, those two branches are elected by the people, based at least partly on what each branch promises to do for the people who elect them.  And those promises tend to follow political party dogma. Republicans today seem to favor relatively minimalist government prescriptive and oversight policies. They seem to want private capitalists to run our country via money channels. Democrats are perhaps a bit more mixed in what they favor, but generally want more public investment in things like health care and public assets (like roads, parks, public waterways), plus relatively greater oversight of private sector business practices. They also favor paying for government services through public taxation, whereas republicans seem to disfavor taxes, at least of their ruling classes.  Ronny Reagan, for example, seemed to believe in the theory of the Laffer Curve:

The Laffer Curve is a theory formalized by supply-side economist Arthur Laffer to show the relationship between tax rates and the amount of tax revenue collected by governments. The curve is used to illustrate the argument that sometimes cutting tax rates can result in increased total tax revenue.

Reagan was mocked greatly, since he managed to produce some impressive national deficits. The federal deficit went from about $78.9 billion at the beginning of Reagan’s presidency to $152.6 billion at the end of it. At points between 1983 and 1986, the deficit was actually more than $175 billion. Now, to be fair, the two Bush’s managed to produce even larger deficits than Reagan.

Now, the Court has relatively little to do with any of that, except to the extent that individual justices might favor one party’s policies over the other.  But at least in theory, SCOTUS is intended to rise above the mud of electoral politics and decide cases based on law, the Constitution, and our system of democracy.

But if we assume that individual justices are appointed by the political creatures who lead our government, we can see that those justices will be viewed by the folks appointing them as either friendly or not to the policies of the appointing crowd.  Largely we have been relatively fortunate in that regard.  But like many things, SCOTUS appointees have been increasingly politically biased towards one party or the other, but mainly republican. Trump, managed to get three appointees approved, whereas McConnell refused to even review Obama’s choice, Merrick Garland. So, because Trump is Trump, we now have three justices who seem highly questionable. And with Clarence Thomas reliably ultra-right wing, the Court has suddenly swung to hard core right wing republican. With the latest three decisions –killing Roe v. Wade, opposing New York gun regulation, and opposing the workings of EPA, we now seem to have a Court that is borderline out of control.  It is now to the point where opposing folks are at least examining alternative strategies.

And what are some of these strategies?  Well, one is to kill the legislative tactic of filibuster.   With filibustering, passing a law requires 60 Senate votes, which neither party has.  So, it would seem natural to at least turn to this practice in an attempt to return to a system in which the majority (i.e., 50+%) can in fact pass laws.

But the other approaches being examined now are looking to modify the Supreme Court itself.  Several approaches include:

1.       Add more seats to the Court. Under one proposal known as the “balanced court solution,” the court would be expanded from 9 justices to 15. 10 justices would be selected through the existing process, but would be split evenly between Democratic and Republican appointees. Those 10 justices would then select 5 judges from lower courts for the Supreme Court to serve with them for a year. This solution would make the confirmation process less partisan and insulate the Court from politics. 

2.       Alternatively, the Supreme Court could be comprised of a rotating panel of appeals court judges, who would cycle through the Supreme Court on a scheduled basis. Federal judges already serve on rotating panels on lower courts. Doing the same for the Supreme Court would eliminate the current high-stakes nomination process, and make the Supreme Court less partisan. 

And some are looking to methods whereby justices who have some vested interest in an outcome could be forced to recuse themselves. For example, Clarence Thomas’ wife was an active participant in Trump’s attempt to overthrow our government on January 6^th. Thomas should not be anywhere near any proceeding that involves the insurrection.

Now revising the Supreme Court at all is one of the most difficult challenges facing any government legislators. So, it will be at the least fascinating to see whether any government we elect is capable.

However, it begins to look like we face a crisis in the actual continuation of our system of government. For reasons I cannot fathom, our republican party seems to have moved far in the direction of neo-fascism. With Democrats blocked at one level by the filibuster, and at the other by a “bent”, if not fully corrupted SCOTUS, it will be interesting I am sure to historians to see how all this turns out. WE may be witnessing the beginning of:

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire.

I am sure some historian has already begun his first chapter. Stay in tune and watch your neighborhood book stores.