APP - 'Make America Great Again'

M

midcan5

Member
An interesting catch phrase or words so coded its meaning is lost on most? When was or wasn't America great? Doesn't that depends on who is making the call. How did an outsider, a person who goes against every policy republicans promote become their candidate of choice. How? The answer is simple, the Republicans created Donald Trump.

You ask how? Why is the complex part. It started long ago, but we can date its real growth with Ronald Reagan, government isn't the solution it is the problem. Add ingredients galore: victimisation, xenophobia, nationalism, misogyny, lost freedoms, demography, corporatism, and the old favorite, racism and the brew is prepared. Something for everyone, add terrorism and immigrants as an update. Don't want to miss anyone. Watch the crowd at a Trump rally, listen to their cheers and their questions. If you want to understand, know a person's hatreds, it is there you'll find the hows.

But why you ask, why make the grand old party the crazy place. Crazy is un-American right? It was an accident, but one easy to understand. Recall all the cliches on foes, on enemies, blame, question their Americanism, question their identity, point fingers at them, it's them who took our jobs, it's them who took our greatness. They don't understand, they only want, they look to government, they don't belong. 'They' can be anyone from the welfare recipient to the corporate donors*. Do all this and some will believe and some will seek a savior. The narrative was set, along came the answer.



* This sentiment is strong among democrats too as Wall Street bashing shows. "It is an indication of a country’s institutional corruption when inside a main party the only alternative to the prevailing crony capitalism is a tycoon with a long history of shady deals." http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/opinion/campaign-stops/donald-trump-crony-capitalist.html
 
There is a background piece assumed but not covered in my OP and that is the part conservative media has played in the creation of Donald Trump's rise to prominence. The words of Limbaugh, Fox talking heads, conservative journals, and conservative think tanks all contributed to Donald's rise. The ingredients noted above are part of their repertoire and have been used so often they have become the backdrop of all conversation and writings.

I found it interesting that another writer used the word 'savior.'

"But how did Trump come to be a savior?"

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/david-livingstone-smith-trump-sells-salvation-article-1.2542299

"Trump understands far more clearly than any of his competitors that politicians are salvation peddlers, and he uses that insight to great effect.... I doubt that this is deliberate or calculated. Rather, it seems more like a salesman’s gut understanding of human psychology. And it’s because he successfully positions himself as a savior that those who are hooked on Trump are prepared to turn a blind eye to his shortcomings, incoherencies, and his uneasy relationship with reality."

"Politifact, which has rated nearly 100 Trump statements, rates 78% of them mostly false, false or “pants on fire” — their highest (or lowest) rating."
 
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midcan5 said:
An interesting catch phrase or words so coded its meaning is lost on most? When was or wasn't America great? Doesn't that depends on who is making the call. How did an outsider, a person who goes against every policy republicans promote become their candidate of choice. How? The answer is simple, the Republicans created Donald Trump.

You ask how? Why is the complex part. It started long ago, but we can date its real growth with Ronald Reagan, government isn't the solution it is the problem. Add ingredients galore: victimisation, xenophobia, nationalism, misogyny, lost freedoms, demography, corporatism, and the old favorite, racism and the brew is prepared. Something for everyone, add terrorism and immigrants as an update. Don't want to miss anyone. Watch the crowd at a Trump rally, listen to their cheers and their questions. If you want to understand, know a person's hatreds, it is there you'll find the hows.

But why you ask, why make the grand old party the crazy place. Crazy is un-American right? It was an accident, but one easy to understand. Recall all the cliches on foes, on enemies, blame, question their Americanism, question their identity, point fingers at them, it's them who took our jobs, it's them who took our greatness. They don't understand, they only want, they look to government, they don't belong. 'They' can be anyone from the welfare recipient to the corporate donors*. Do all this and some will believe and some will seek a savior. The narrative was set, along came the answer.



* This sentiment is strong among democrats too as Wall Street bashing shows. "It is an indication of a country’s institutional corruption when inside a main party the only alternative to the prevailing crony capitalism is a tycoon with a long history of shady deals." http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/opinion/campaign-stops/donald-trump-crony-capitalist.html
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Is there a point or a topic for debate somewhere in this rant Midcan?

APP is supposed to be about intelligent, informed, adult debate, not a bully pulpit for copy and paste rants.
 
Regarding the above comment, the writer must be oblivious to most threads in APP and just about everywhere online today. But the OP contains enough material for a thoughtful reply.

Back on topic, I have been amazed at the comments similar to my own, some people get it today. Another piece (and book) I'd strongly suggest is 'Dog Whistle Politics' link at bottom. The creation of Donald Trump has to be one of the most fascinating political phenomenon of modern America. The transformation of a charlatan into a presidential aspirant must give pause to any reasonable person. What happened? More answers in link below.

"When the plague descended on Thebes, Oedipus sent his brother-in-law to the Delphic oracle to discover the cause. Little did he realize that the crime for which Thebes was being punished was his own. Today’s Republican Party is our Oedipus. A plague has descended on the party in the form of the most successful demagogue-charlatan in the history of U.S. politics. The party searches desperately for the cause and the remedy without realizing that, like Oedipus, it is the party itself that brought on this plague. The party’s own political crimes are being punished in a bit of cosmic justice fit for a Greek tragedy."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...443f28-dbc1-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/02/first-republican-for-clinton-over-trump-emerges.html


Dog whistle piece: http://www.justplainpolitics.com/showthread.php?62478-Dog-Whistle-Politics
 
midcan5 said:
Regarding the above comment, the writer must be oblivious to most threads in APP and just about everywhere online today. But the OP contains enough material for a thoughtful reply.

Back on topic, I have been amazed at the comments similar to my own, some people get it today. Another piece (and book) I'd strongly suggest is 'Dog Whistle Politics' link at bottom. The creation of Donald Trump has to be one of the most fascinating political phenomenon of modern America. The transformation of a charlatan into a presidential aspirant must give pause to any reasonable person. What happened? More answers in link below.

"When the plague descended on Thebes, Oedipus sent his brother-in-law to the Delphic oracle to discover the cause. Little did he realize that the crime for which Thebes was being punished was his own. Today’s Republican Party is our Oedipus. A plague has descended on the party in the form of the most successful demagogue-charlatan in the history of U.S. politics. The party searches desperately for the cause and the remedy without realizing that, like Oedipus, it is the party itself that brought on this plague. The party’s own political crimes are being punished in a bit of cosmic justice fit for a Greek tragedy."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...443f28-dbc1-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/02/first-republican-for-clinton-over-trump-emerges.html


Dog whistle piece: http://www.justplainpolitics.com/showthread.php?62478-Dog-Whistle-Politics
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Point Midcan....what is your point?

BTW, Trump is no "creation". You sell the man short. I in no way, shape or form desire to see him in a position of power but at least I am aware of how skillfully, from a political standpoint, he has rolled up the GOP establishment and cleverly outmaneuvered his GOP primary opponents. He's only a few steps from locking up the nomination. This is no puppet on a string dancing like a marionette to some puppet master.

The rant on Trump is simply a myopic ad hom. Trump is no charlatan and if you don't see that your either blind or foolish. The quickest way to put him in the White House would be to underestimate him.
 
Much better Mott, you show thought here, wrong but better than a blanket denial of reality. Obviously you live in a bubble of sorts in which ideas materialize from nowhere and have no background in which to grow and develop. History lays the groundwork for the present.

My point is simple, Trump is a product of the republican party's policies for over sixty years now. If you read the piece you recognize the ideas and how we got to here. Do this before coming back with another reply, read Robert Kagan's piece. Here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...443f28-dbc1-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html

PS And recognize too Trump's appeal is not to all. Think only of LBJ's legacy if you question the power of ideas.

======================

I Love, the difference is so wide it would be hard to measure. One looks to a past that never was, the other looks forward. What is that past exactly? I think the editorials answer, but I'll leave it there for now.
 
midcan5 said:
Much better Mott, you show thought here, wrong but better than a blanket denial of reality. Obviously you live in a bubble of sorts in which ideas materialize from nowhere and have no background in which to grow and develop. History lays the groundwork for the present.

My point is simple, Trump is a product of the republican party's policies for over sixty years now. If you read the piece you recognize the ideas and how we got to here. Do this before coming back with another reply, read Robert Kagan's piece. Here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...443f28-dbc1-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html

PS And recognize too Trump's appeal is not to all. Think only of LBJ's legacy if you question the power of ideas.

======================

I Love, the difference is so wide it would be hard to measure. One looks to a past that never was, the other looks forward. What is that past exactly? I think the editorials answer, but I'll leave it there for now.
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Using your "logic", it would then be safe to say that Hillary is a product of the democrat party's policies for over sixty years now.
 
USFREEDOM911 said:
Using your "logic", it would then be safe to say that Hillary is a product of the democrat party's policies for over sixty years now.
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I'm not going to do your job for you, prove it and back it up with sources and analysis.

Edit

And had I responded as you did the comeback would have been stay on topic or make your own thread. Just sayin...
 
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midcan5 said:
I'm not going to do your job for you, prove it and back it up with sources and analysis.

Edit

And had I responded as you did the comeback would have been stay on topic or make your own thread. Just sayin...
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AWWWWWWWWWWWWW, so you can make an unsubstantiated opinion; but let the tables get turned and you get all defensive about it.
Typical and expected liberal reaction.
 
USFREEDOM911 said:
AWWWWWWWWWWWWW, so you can make an unsubstantiated opinion; but let the tables get turned and you get all defensive about it.
Typical and expected liberal reaction.
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Not an answer, still waiting. Maybe you misread but now it's your turn, surely you can think beyond one liners? Put up or shut up. Waiting.
 
midcan5 said:
Not an answer, still waiting. Maybe you misread but now it's your turn, surely you can think beyond one liners? Put up or shut up. Waiting.
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And another page from the liberal handbook:
"When confronted about some conjecture you have made, immediately demand that the person confronting you respond to a question that you pull out of thin air.
If you're original demand is not met, don't give up.
Continue and make it the focus of any preceding posts."
 
I found Mitt Romney's criticism of Trump rather empty not because it isn't true but because it is the same tactics he used last election. Did any republican counter Trump's birtherism baloney? Not at all as it feed into their narrative. Curious how the creation of 'the Donald' is now a problem. If Trump gets a bit more subtle he'll fit even more perfectly. Today's news says he is.

"But there is another level of dog whistle politics evident in Romney's campaign, a deeper connection far more consequential to the middle class yet completely unseen by most critics. Romney's true debt to dog whistle politics lay in his ability to garner widespread support while espousing plutocratic priorities. Like a reincarnated Barry Goldwater tilting against the New Deal, Romney cast himself as a champion of the middle class, promising rescue from the economic crisis and a new era of prosperity. But what were his actual proposals? Favoring sweeping pronouncements over revealing detail, Romney reiterated three themes: he would slash taxes (while also balancing the budget); he would prune away government regulation and even excess government itself, liberating the engine of private enterprise; and he would pare government entitlement programs that transferred resources to the least productive elements in society. These were hardly prescriptions likely to help the great bulk of the middle class, especially if understood as families with incomes below six figures. Instead, Romney effectively campaigned on the promise to enact the policy preferences of society's moguls: tax cuts for the rich; deregulation; reduced social spending." p163

And then Speaker Ryan comes out criticizing Trump while his own politics fit into the same racist narrative.

"Even more than Romney, his anointed running mate, the young Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan, espoused extreme policies. Consider Ryan's proposed budget plan. A version passed the House of Representatives in the spring of 2012 on a near party-line vote, thus making clear during the campaign season the Republican Party's priorities. Talking of budget deficits in apocalyptic terms, Ryan proposed huge cuts to Medicaid, a program that covers the medical expenses of many disabled and elderly Americans-cuts so deep that potentially 28 million people would have lost medical coverage." He further proposed reducing food stamps for poor families and college aid to students. Perhaps most explosively, he advocated converting Medicare's guarantee of health care for the elderly into a system of vouchers with a fixed value, which would have effectively ended the guarantee of medical care and left many retirees struggling to cover rising costs in their waning years. In all, 62 percent of his budget savings were to come from cuts to aid to the poor-a figure that does not include the savings from restructuring Medicare." "More than any other politician today:' Robert Reich wrote in a scorching rebuke, "Paul Ryan exemplifies the social Darwinism at the core of today's Republican Party: Reward the rich, penalize the poor, let everyone else fend for themselves. Dog eat dog." p75 'Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class' by Ian Haney López


http://www.justplainpolitics.com/showthread.php?62478-Dog-Whistle-Politics
 
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