This is pretty good, from Matt Taibbi:
If this isn’t the end for the Republican Party, it’ll be a shame. They dominated American political life for 50 years and were never anything but monsters. They bred in their voters the incredible attitude that Republicans were the only people within our borders who raised children, loved their country, died in battle or paid taxes. They even sullied the word “American” by insisting they were the only real ones. They preferred Lubbock to Paris, and their idea of an intellectual was Newt Gingrich. Their leaders, from Ralph Reed to Bill Frist to Tom DeLay to Rick Santorum to Romney and Ryan, were an interminable assembly line of shrieking, witch-hunting celibates, all with the same haircut – the kind of people who thought Iran-Contra was nothing, but would grind the affairs of state to a halt over a blow job or Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.
A century ago, the small-town American was Gary Cooper: tough, silent, upright and confident. The modern Republican Party changed that person into a haranguing neurotic who couldn’t make it through a dinner without quizzing you about your politics. They destroyed the American character. No hell is hot enough for them. And when Trump came along, they rolled over like the weaklings they’ve always been, bowing more or less instantly to his parodic show of strength.
I also liked Taibbi’s observation that the Republican Party’s “Beltway imageers for decades made pretending to sincerely prefer barns and trailers to nightclubs and spokesmodels a central part of their electoral strategy.”
I guess it takes a fraud to expose a fraud.
Or something.
Classic Southern Good-Old-Boys spread North.
I hope Taibbi’s right.
But I think that perhaps he is only half-right.
Yes, Trump is “the end for the Republican Party”…as we know it. But…we may soon find ourselves longing for those old, predictable RatPubs of yore. Gone will be “haranguing neurotic[s] who couldn’t make it through a dinner without quizzing you about your politics’ and gone will be “interminable assembly line of shrieking, witch-hunting celibates, all with the same haircut.”
But what new horror will replace them?
Really.
An interminable line of Joe the Plumbers? White, even more angry, testosterone-loaded working class Joes with a beef? That’s what I see happening if Trump wins.
What then?
When Trump comes along followed by his angry white workers, will the Dems roll over like the weaklings they’ve always been, “bowing more or less instantly to his parodic show of strength” or worse, panicking like a bunch of overbred, overeducated middle class fools? Or will a real revolutionary force…which would almost certainly mainly be comprised of the three largest minorities in this country, the black, hispanic and youth populations…arise in the DemRat’s power vacuum?
May you be born(e) into interesting times.
Later…
AG
“An interminable line of Joe the Plumbers? White, even more angry, testosterone-loaded working class Joes with a beef? That’s what I see happening if Trump wins.”
In some ways, I’m even more concerned about what happens to/with this crowd of loud mouths – whom the media reliably gives nearly ALL of the attention, as if they, and they alone, are more deserving of the attention and really have something of vast import to tell us – if/when Trump loses (I’m still on the side that Trump won’t win, but concede that anything is possible).
That’s my concern. What does the Gee Oh Pee turn into post Trump, win or lose??
Good point.
Thanks.
AG
Add some point, it will become necessary to look at angry white men with compassion instead of contempt. Indeed, they are the victims of a decades long project of manipulation in order to subvert democracy. One of the prices of trickle down economics is millions of hollowed out souls, chiefly accross the south and mid west
With all due respect, over the past 30 years or so, there’s been tons of hand-wringing during the election cycles about the so-called plight of white men. Yes, yes, white males have been given the shaft, too, but so has everyone else.
Digby at her site discussed this recurring “oh let’s hand wring over the plight of poor poor white men” meme especially during the general election.
Yes, white men aren’t quite the Kings of the Hill that they used to be. Why is this grist for everyone’s mill? Asked rhetorically mostly and not in anger.
Just want to put it out there that everyone else who happens to not be a white man has had to put up with a ton of discrimination since, oh I don’t know, since forever. And has faced crummy situations in the job market, even when well educated and having great experience.
My thought: get in line with the rest of us. Or, more practically, how ’bout seeing the world that exists beyond the end your entitled white male nose and work together for a nation that works better for ALL concerned and not just “your kind”?
My discussion is meant in the general sense as food for thought, and I don’t intend it as an attack on the prior commenter. Sorry if it looks that way. Not my intention.
White woman here who is old enough to remember when classified job ads in the newspaper were sorted into “Help Wanted – Men” and “Help Wanted – Women”.
No hand-wringing here.
Just to clarify, I was talking about a very specific type of victimhood: the drying out of reason and compassion that comes from watching too much Fox News.Yeah, other people have been screwed worse in other ways, but the moral degeneration that comes from right wing propaganda is nothing to sneeze at
to this view if they hadn’t been so persistently (though also, granted to some extent, ignorantly so) complicit in their own victimization.
P.S. Taibbi writes:
“A century ago, the small-town American was Gary Cooper: tough, silent, upright and confident.”
I call bullshit.
Gary Cooper was a media creation. The real “small-town America” that he supposedly personified was a bigoted, sexist, genocidal, crooked operation from top to bottom, as was most of the rest of the country.
Shakespeare knew, long ago and far away..
Later…
AG
Yep — tough, silent, upright and confident AND bigoted, sexist, genocidal, crooked operation from top to bottom
Gary Cooper exactly. From Wikipedia:
He did not name any individuals during his testimony. Indeed, it was to contribute to hysteria.
Good Gawd. That piece by Matt Taibbi was referring to the characters played in movies by Gary Cooper, not to the actor himself.
Well, at least Trump breaks new ground in terms of haircuts.
Snort! Made me laugh.
Nah, he’s got nothing on Andrew Jackson.
Matt Taibbi has been on the fraud-of-politics beat at least since Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History
It is not just frustration with jobs and income. Taibbi outlines how the minor and major corruption of both parties is increasing the anger of ordinary citizens. Only politicians in denial could not see both Sanders and Trump coming. And the anger goes to the state and local level, which is what gives the Koch brothers leverage in their state and local campaigns. Sadly, to a great extent both parties are offering up more of the same at the state and local levels.
As an example, we have not seen a movement of registrars of deeds campaign on undoing the mess that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems have done in opening the property recording records to fraud. David Dayen’s new book, Chain of Title gets into the other frauds that allowed banks to steal homes and create mass unemployment. There is no assurance that either Trump, Clinton, or enough of the candidates for the Senate and Congress understand this issue sufficient to provide legislative remedies.
What we have from the two parties is a legal environment that makes kleptocracy possible. It is not a mystery why Donald J. Trump wants to be at the top of that scheme.
One way to start cleaning this mess up is to stop all RW propaganda sources. Laws need to be passed and harshly enforced that no propaganda of any kind will be tolerated or allowed.
Yes I know that some will scream Freedom of speech.
Here is the thing we need laws that say if it is advertised as a news station. Then it has to be reporting of NEWS not slanted opinions pushed as news.
Too many people do not learn from history. The dangers of this type of propaganda are well documented for those that need to learn about it. It helped to change people in Germany it has changed people in America as well today.
But won’t these new laws needlessly restrict Sanders supporters from posting about Clinton on the Internet? Also it would restrict their posting about his chances of winning the nomination.
Seems extreme.
.
This is as wrong and as evil as the rw loudmouths proclaiming after 9/11 that “The Constitution is not a suicide pact”.
UH HUH
UH HUH
After Capitol Hill `chaos,’ Democrats name names
05/20/16 08:40 AM–UPDATED 05/20/16 08:42 AM
By Steve Benen
In recent years, not much gets done in Congress, so there aren’t a lot of opportunities for drama. And yet, yesterday, multiple headlines highlighted the “chaos” that erupted on the floor of the House of Representatives. So, what happened?
It was a chaotic scene on the House floor Thursday morning after an amendment to help protect LGBT people from discrimination failed by just one vote as Republicans succeeded in convincing a few members of their own party to switch their votes to help ensure the measure would not pass.
House Democrats could be heard chanting “shame, shame, shame” on the floor as the measure went from garnering up to 217 votes at one point down to just 212 when the vote was gaveled. Boos erupted from the House floor as the measure failed.
There are a couple of relevant angles to this. The first is the substance: two years ago, President Obama issued an executive order prohibiting government contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees and applicants. Congressional Republicans won’t consider the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, so the White House did what it could under the law.
Two years later, House Republicans want to undo that policy. When putting together this year’s big defense spending bill, the GOP quietly added a provision to restore contractors’ ability to discriminate. Pushing back, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) sponsored an amendment yesterday to nullify the anti-LGBT provision and protect the White House’s anti-discrimination policy.
It didn’t go well – the Republican majority defeated Maloney’s amendment. In 2016, the House GOP is still willing to go to the mat to allow businesses to discriminate, even when taxpayers’ money is being used.
Which brings us to the second angle: how House Republicans waged this fight.
The House allotted a couple of minutes to vote on Maloney’s measure, and when time was up, the amendment appeared to have passed. Except, in a fairly unusual move, Republican leaders decided to keep the vote open for a while in order to get some GOP members to switch their vote and endorse discrimination rights. What was a two-minute vote turned into an eight-minute vote – the kind of abuse Republicans used to condemn – so GOP leaders could twist arms and get the outcome they wanted.
And thus, “chaos.”
Democratic leaders, outraged by the ugliness and underhanded tactics, decided to name names, releasing the list of the seven House Republicans who agreed to switch their vote, after time had expired, to advance the anti-LGBT policy (in alphabetical order): Reps. Jeff Denham (R- Calif.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine), David Valadao (R-Calif.), Greg Walden (R-Ore.), Mimi Walters (R- Calif.), and David Young (R-Iowa).
Each of these members initially voted to do the right thing, but each reversed course.
As ever, they are who we thought they were.
Yes.
There is all sorts of wailing and rending of clothes on what a neoliberal sell out to the plutocrats Obama is, and Clinton will be. But here, right here, is reality. They will NEVER give up the hate, the pretend victim hood (I’m talking about Republicans right now) Executive Orders are fine and all, but a law trumps an order every time.
Obama has pushed that damn rock up the slippery hill for 7+ years. Sometimes it comes back down, and he has to push some more.
Man, are we going to miss that fucking guy.
.
a two-minute vote merely to eight minutes to allow arm-twisting to achieve the desired outcome is very small potatoes for these folks.
The naming/shaming by the Dems of the GOPers who reversed from decency is a beautiful thing, though. More like this, please!
Why it matters that Donald Trump never vetted himself
05/20/16 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s Campaign Management 101: It’s not enough to research your rivals; you have to research yourself. Taking a close look at your opponents’ backgrounds will help uncover their strengths and weaknesses, which in turn will help shape your strategy, but digging through your own background will help you anticipate and prepare for upcoming lines of attack.
None of this is controversial. There are professional researchers who, for a handsome fee, do nothing but this and I’ve never heard of a modern national candidate who chose not to take advantage of these services.
That is, until now. Mother Jones’ David Corn reported yesterday on a detail that should make Republicans nervous.
For most major presidential campaigns, it is a routine act: You conduct opposition research on your own candidate. The reason is obvious; campaign officials and candidates want to know what they might have to contend with once the you-know-what starts flying. But not Donald Trump.
At least not at the start of the campaign that would lead to him becoming the presumptive GOP nominee. According to a source with direct knowledge, when Trump was considering entering the presidential race early last year, his political advisers, including Corey Lewandowski, who would become his campaign manager, suggested that he hire a professional to investigate his past. But the celebrity mogul said no and refused to pay for it.
It would be a mistake for any national candidate to skip this part of the process, but for a guy like Trump – who’s record includes a long list of personal and professional controversies – it’s incredibly reckless.
Corn’s report added, “The candidate, who now refuses to release his income taxes, did not want his own campaign scrutinizing his past. He was not willing to be transparent – not even for his own team.”
I don’t think there is much of anything that can come out about Trump that will change the opinion of his supporters. In fact, dirt digging will convince them he’s being unfairly targeted. Just as many Hillary supporters are convinced her only flaws are those dreamed up by the Republican hit squad.
Uh huh
Uh huh
…………..
Trump’s income tax returns once became public. They showed he didn’t pay a cent.
By Drew Harwell
May 20 at 9:45 AM
The last time Donald Trump’s income-tax returns were made public, the bottom line was striking: He had paid the federal government $0 in income taxes.
The disclosure, in a 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators, revealed that the wealthy Manhattan investor had for at least two years in the late 1970s taken advantage of a tax-code provision popular with developers that allowed him to report negative income.
Today, as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump regularly denounces corporate executives for using loopholes and “false deductions to “get away with murder” when it comes to avoiding taxes.