Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

i have to project a hologram for the king tonight

Is anyone actually surprised that Eggers would privilege appearance over substance

when the Republicans had a functioning party, they gave us George W. Bush and Ronald Wilson Reagan.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/745299161130635264

lol

One point that Eggers implies that I agree with is the essential glossolalic appeal that Trump has with his supporters, but only wrt some issues. He can endlessly waffle and spout nonsense about many things and still find favor among his hordes but the xenophobia and, more essentially, the hate is a horse that has long left the barn.

ourmecoffee
‏@pourmecoffee

@realDonaldTrump You have stood here before inside the pouring rain with the world turning circles running 'round your brain.

And to think that I hadn't even read that tweet when I was writing a post about Trump speaking in tongues.

trump's on a roll today, eh?

difficult listening hour otm. Dave Eggers is a boob.

Trump's scapegoating of Muslims, Mexicans and immigrants is a crucial factor in his appeal. He's peddling a cocktail of xenophobia and racism that resonates with the deeply held prejudices of his angry and fearful white audience. He couldn't turn his vitriol against fucking "Canadians" and get the same response (I can't believe anyone could be so naive as to think this were true).

Also, while his specific policy proposals might not matter all that much to the mob he's attracted, his manner is a big part of his core message. His manner says, "Fuck you, college boy." His manner says, "I don't care what you tell me I'm supposed to believe or say. I'm gonna do whatever the hell I want." That message, again, appeals to angry bigots who are sick of being told not to fly the Confederate flag or say the n-word in public.

It's 'being told that my desire to be an asshole doesn't Trump the desire of others to get through their day without harassment' gone mad!

there's this kind of tension in describing him, which comes out of moral judgment, and it colors the way we talk about him. because while it's obviously not true that he has no beliefs, his beliefs don't map to the way we typically talk about political beliefs. a guy like bernie, for instance, he believes strongly that the american minimum wage should be $15, and that's the sort of political belief trump doesn't have. what he believes in is, to all appearances, is the cleansing power of violence and the systematic dehumanization of the "other", and because he's running for president that has political implications, but they're not fundamentally political beliefs when placed in the context of the american political system. whereas your typical republican will stir up race hatred as a means to a political end, for trump it appears to be the end in and of itself. and i think it's this that leads people to denounce him as having "no beliefs".

Read through to the updates

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/06/21/3790715/weird-story-behind-trump-campaigns-35000-payment-draper-sterling-advertising/

contenderizer otmfm. eggers is a boob to say trump could switch his xenophobia to Canadians and his followers would still swoon over him.

xxpost I talk about Trump having no core ethos in the same way that, like, a two-year-old has no core ethos. Neither is far enough along in the cognitive development process to allow for that level of complexity, but they certainly both certainly believe that having a tantrum will get them what they want and that they are clearly the center of the universe.

Trump is all about gratifying his own ego. He never saw his campaign getting this far. I think he wants to be president now that it's within reach, but I don't think he really has any 'beliefs' beyond furthering himself and his brands.

That Eggers piece is ridiculous. Trump certainly has beliefs he espouses, repeatedly (whether or not he actually believes them, his followers do.)

Illegal immigration is ruining America.
Muslim terrorists are infiltrating America.
Political correctness is destroying America.
American economy has all been outsourced.
America is not respected in the world.

i worry that infantilizing trump, which is a common thing, absolves him for responsibility for his statements and actions. i think that it is probably more accurate to see his actions in the light of sociopathy than it is to see them in the light of arrested development.

xpost Or, briefly, 'I am angry scared and confused Christian hetero (at least on paper) white America man who not understand why world look think act and speak less like me every day, waaaaaah'.

Infantilizing Trump and believing that he's 100% responsible for every infantile thing he says and does are by no means mutually exclusive.

I don't even think it needs a psychiatric diagnosis. He has a crude nativist message that he is furthering through lies and fear mongering. Right wing radio hosts have used this tactic for decades, it's almost surprising it hasn't found full expression in national politics until now.

xp

He's appealing unapologetically to the baser instincts of the Republican base. He is doing so in a haphazard bizarre way because he is a moron, but the formula isn't rocket science.

okay the Draper Sterling thing is a massive lol

we'll prob find out they were hired for organizing dirty tricks or as liaisons for neo-nazis. maybe they were conduits for some kickbacks. something along those lines.

Clinton bashed Trump's businesses practices, noting that he has filed for bankruptcy several times.

"He's written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11," she said.

Nothing but net.

They all seem to end at Chapter 11

ooo burn

Though really, the thing about Chapter 11 is similar to his use of temporary worker visas, H1B, and donations to Democrats: he works the system because it's there; you can't blame him because he's a businessman, he may agree that it's bad but he still does it because it's how the game is played and he's the best player ever, truly the best, believe me, etc.

my favourite detail in the many hilarious details on draper sterling / xeno theraputics is from the slate piece upthread:

XenoTherapeutics lists Curt Cetrulo as its chief medical officer.* Cetrulo, as the company reminds us on its “Xeno in the News” page, was one of the physicians responsible for the first U.S. penis transplant.

So I guess it's just natural that he'd want to be involved in transplanting another penis into the White House.

bankruptcy still has a lot social stigma attached to it among older people. older people are notorious for voting.

slowly

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-black-caucus-superdelegates-224502

The CBC has every reason to think that open primaries in all states could dilute minority influence over presidential campaigns. I see their point and it is a valid one.

i rly feel everyone reminding me trump is a fascist w distinct, carved-out principles & policies - i totally agree w this! - but i think the piece is abt something else, his appeal for the people beyond the usually quarter-of-the-pie-chart-sized chunk of the electorate who have previously identified with rando rightist candidates. a couple days ago i heard a p mellow kid on the bus talking through his identification w his preferred candidate, bernie; his democratic affiliation; his problems w obama's refusal to use the term radical islam; & so his appreciation for trump's ideas abt how to protect america from everyone coming over & killing us. the eggers piece is this long description on the non-rabid, non-frothing, weirdly diverse rally he attended in sacramento, & i think the absolutes in the extract are limited to that demographic - not his policies full stop don't matter, but that to this bloc his policies are not one of the key determinants of his appeal. i know that is true, not obscure, true of palin & so on but it's so pronounced, here, & there seems to be so much of a concurrent attempt to rly pierce the ideological draw of trump, what it means as a reorientation of voters, that restating it so plainly/i-m-o-elegantly #itsmy2cents is valuable

i am not dying to press this pt as i have seen first hand the damage done by sensible european critiques of american politics but idk the piece unscrambled my bemusion @ poll data, &c.

also lol @ alfred's reply to this

long description on the non-rabid, non-frothing

piece opens w a description of a chemtrails believer iirc

what the fuck is bernie still doing in this campaign, why hasnt he dropped out yet

i rly feel everyone reminding me

i don't really mean to remind you of this! i've actually just sent dave eggers (cc to his assistant) a long letter.

yes i will pass it on to dave as soon as he gets in

does Bernie think Hillary may go to jail or something, and therefore the nom would automatically go to him? idgi either

he's like one of those tiny little holdout houses highways are built around

"because members of the CBC might want to participate in the Democratic convention as delegates but if we would have to run for the delegate slot at the county level or state level or district level, we would be running against our constituents and we're not going to do that,”

Hi, despite everything I'm still completely ignorant of delegate / superdelegate rulebook arcana. What do they mean running against their own constits?

Xp: a nailhouse!

yeah, nader was one of those too

bemusion

bemused revulsion = bemulsion

Russell Moore just went off on the whole evangelical summit thing for Trump today. Start here.

https://twitter.com/drmoore/status/745331665556299777

How's life, the way I understand it, pledged delegate slots are basically up for grabs to the general public, while superdelegate slots are held by politicians and political operators. If the CBC has to give up their super delegate slots, it would put mean they'd have to use up delegate slots meant for regular citizens to be a part of the convention.

re Sanders, *sigh* neophytes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm#1972_presidential_campaign

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown#1992_presidential_election

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/poll-majority-democrats-want-sanders-stay-until-convention-n566146

you're back!

just a two-post return BCZ SOMETHING WAS RONG ON THE INTERNET

*slam*

(over the transom)

staying in til the convention is how losing candidates with an ideological point to make use leverage