I believe I may have posted here, but in any event I concluded a while ago, that the Great Pumpkin's mental deterioration was happening fast enough that he would not be presentable in public well before election day. On the one hand, that turned out to be true. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to matter. All he does is spout gibberish and insanity, but his cultists actually cheer for it, and they still tell pollsters they will vote for him.
Here are just a few examples. Digby calls out the people who claim to like his "policies." So, he is asked a specific policy question: What actions will you take to ensure that our jobs stay in America? Here is his response, verbatim:
One of the central narratives of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is that America is awash in violent crime, much of it from migrants deliberately invited across the border by the Biden-Harris administration in order to harvest their illegal votes, and that a Trump restoration will put an abrupt end to all this carnage. It’s quite a false narrative, to be sure, since (1) crime rates are actually dropping steadily; (2) so too are border crossings by migrants; (3) there’s is virtually no evidence of noncitizen voting in any recent national election; and (4) Trump has no real plan to address this phantom menace other than bringing peace and order via his awe-inspiring “strength.” But he keeps saying these things and a lot of people believe them.
And, to add some additional fact checking:
Mr. Trump claimed that shoplifters in California are allowed to steal up to $950 from stores without consequence. It’s a reference to a criminal justice measure that state lawmakers passed overwhelmingly in 2014, while Ms. Harris was the attorney general. She was not responsible for the law, which changed how prosecutors treated certain lower-level offenses — shoplifting remains illegal, but is treated as a misdemeanor below the $950 threshold.
California’s $950 felony threshold for shoplifting is the 10th strictest in the nation. States such as Republican-led Texas, Alabama and Mississippi allow even higher levels of theft before a felony is triggered.
So here's what he said. (I tried to find a transcript but haven't been able to so far.)
Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania, the ex-president said the key to preventing crimes like shoplifting is state-sanctioned police beatings, which he lamented the “left” does not allow. “You see these guys walking out with air conditioners, with refrigerators on their back. The craziest thing,” Trump said. “And the police aren’t allowed to do their job. They’re told, if you do anything, you’re gonna lose your pension…. They’re not allowed to do it because the liberal left won’t let ’em do it. The liberal left wants to destroy them, and they want to destroy our country.” Then he unveiled his big idea: “If you had one really violent day…one rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately.”
During his remarks, Trump also falsely claimed one can steal up to $950 worth of goods with no consequences in California, which appeared to be both a reference to Proposition 47—which downgraded some theft offenses to misdemeanors from felonies—and an attempt to tie the law to then California attorney general Kamala Harris. But as Politico notes, while Harris was in office when the ballot initiative was approved, “she remained neutral on the matter.” Meanwhile, “the dollar threshold Trump referenced actually became law four years earlier, signed by then governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.”
This is just insane. This man is delusional and demented. But it doesn't matter. I just don't get it.
4 comments:
From Merriam-Webster:
Cult:
2 a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (such as a film or book)
//criticizing how the media promotes the cult of celebrity
especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad
b : the object of such devotion
c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion
But the group is no longer small, because it has been magnified by Fux, Newsmuck, etc., and by the powerful moneyed interests that are at the bidding of whoever is directing all this insanity, whether it be Putin or someone else. Crazy über-evangelicals are aligned with racists, bigots, misogynists, Archie Bunkers and the equally insane followers of Alisa Zinoyevna Rosenbaum, creating a toxic frisson of a mob that has no brain of its own, and continues to boil and fester. They are zombies.
PS: Now, how did all of the abovementioned zombies get the way they are?
Trauma.
Bessel van der Kolk's "The Body Keeps the Score" should be required reading for everyone in America. We are a nation founded on genocide and violence. A reckoning is essential, both in our national history, and in our personal lives. Harris, Walz, speak directly to the American public. Tell them, "I know so many of you are hurting. Many of you were physically, emotionally and sexually abused as children. You have reason to be angry, and it's essential to look at the trauma of your lives, and get help. But I can tell you that it is not the answer to take the anger and hurt, and what happened to you, and to let it be mobilized by hateful and miserable men whose only true goal in life is to make you as hateful and miserable as they are. There is hope, and we can transform our individual lives and the life of our nation. But it will take courage and true faith -- not blind faith -- in the process of becoming our authentic selves. Don't buy into poison from haters who don't care about you, or even themselves."
I think such authenticity and sincerity could truly move millions of people who cannot help to receive even a microgram of it from toxic hucksters.
Since his base seems be mainly blue collar and/or non college educated. I wonder if they aren't reflecting their culture and experiences:
- People in authority making decisions that are not to be questioned;
- A distrust of nuance or somewhat ambivalent answers (hence a distrust of science , and politics);
- Living in circumstances where making snap decision works better than carefully thought out decisions (working in areas where there is often a danger of something breaking or falling on you, for example).
This is the language and attitude that Trump exhibits, and it sounds familiar to them - like many conversations heard in daily life. These attitudes are the opposite of most of your readers', but I'm sure we have occasionally come into contact with people who think like this.
I don't know how to communicate with this world view, but logic and reason certainly won't work. Maybe stories and analogies. 50 years ago I could have argued that taking suspect names off of voter rolls would also deny many more legit voters the chance to exercise their right to vote: It would be like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. But I doubt that'd make sense to many of that group today.
George Orwell nailed Trump's statements 75 years ago - Duckspeak.
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