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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / The Whole Enchilada, Megillah and Nine Yards

The Whole Enchilada, Megillah and Nine Yards

by Betty Cracker|  March 2, 201611:18 am| 202 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Politics, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, Assholes, Our Failed Media Experiment, Rare Sincerity, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

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Via valued commenter Lamh36 in last night’s primary results thread, a CNN clip of Van Jones calling out Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord about Trump’s dishonest and deliberate racist shell game on David Duke and the Klan:

Lord follows the conservative deflection playbook to the letter: The Klan is a liberal Democrat group! We just want to be a color-blind country but you are dividing us by race!

Trump has a little something for everyone, including formerly well-paid manufacturing workers who are now Walmart greeters. His views on building a huge, tremendous, beautiful wall to keep immigrants on the south side of the Mexican border are probably more aligned with rank-and-file Democrats’ opinions than many of us would like to admit.

But racism is a central component of his campaign because it’s a core part of who Trump is today and who he has always has been. Just a few years ago, Trump was a key figure in the explicitly racist birther nonsense, and he shouldn’t be allowed to wave that off because he’s “moved on.” Within the past several months, Trump has retweeted shit from neo-Nazis and publicized fake murder statistics to perpetuate dangerous, deadly lies about black-on-white crime.

In a country with a functional political media, that kind of bullshit would be fatal to a campaign. Hell, then-candidate Obama had to go out and give the speech of his life to calm a raging media firestorm about the exponentially less offensive things his pastor said when Obama wasn’t even present.

But it’s okay to play footsie with David Fucking Duke if you’re Trump; apparently this is the latest iteration of IOKIYAR. Well, it shouldn’t be. Hillary Clinton got some flak last night for countering Trump’s “Make America Great Again” line with this:

“We know we’ve got work to do. But that work is not to make America great again. America never stopped being great. We have to make America whole. We have to fill in what’s been hollowed out.”

Yeah, you can quibble about how great America is if that’s your thing. Arguably, your complaints (and mine!) are covered in the “hollowed out” part. But one thing that actually is kind of great about this country (though not unique to America by any means) is that we sometimes make progress. Haltingly. Often for the wrong reasons. But we move forward.

It’s easy to get discouraged and hopeless and cynical. To cite just one topic that could send a reasonable person down that path, there’s the fact that the frontrunner in one of our two major parties waffled about denouncing the fucking Ku Klux Klan in 2016.

But there’s still time to say no to that bullshit. To stand up and say we cannot, we must not, we will not go backward. That we’re all in this together. That’s what can make us whole, and I’m still naïve enough to believe this message will resonate more strongly than Trump’s.

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Reader Interactions

202Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 2, 2016 at 11:21 am

    There is a clearly a good argument that the US is great today as the SEC owns the college football championship. Not sure what other metrics are considered.

  2. 2.

    Eric U.

    March 2, 2016 at 11:24 am

    yeah, the Nazis were Socialists, thus liberal too. I don’t even want to know how the KKK is liberal

  3. 3.

    Punchy

    March 2, 2016 at 11:25 am

    I just love as all the Repubes claim they wont support Trump if he’s the nommy. So we’re supposed to believe they’d 1) support the Dem, 2) support a 3rd party candidate and thus indirectly help the Dem, or 3) advertise sitting out the election and thus help the Dem?

    They’re all so full of shit it’s funny. “Wont support….” my ass. Come September, Trump will be heralded as the greatest candidate evah….by every one of these lying fuckers.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    March 2, 2016 at 11:27 am

    But Robert Byrd!

  5. 5.

    boatboy_srq

    March 2, 2016 at 11:27 am

    The Klan is a liberal Democrat group!

    Left is Right.

    Also:
    War is Peace.
    Freedom is Slavery.
    Ignorance is Strength.

  6. 6.

    J.D. Rhoades

    March 2, 2016 at 11:28 am

    @Punchy: Of course they will. The Republicans abandoned all principles years ago.

  7. 7.

    Josie

    March 2, 2016 at 11:28 am

    Since I have given up watching MSNBC, I have been seeing Van Jones on CNN election coverage. He is a very impressive young man and made me proud in this exchange. I can see why the Republicans worked so hard to force the administration to cut him loose.

  8. 8.

    J.D. Rhoades

    March 2, 2016 at 11:28 am

    @Baud: I have to keep reminding these people that Byrd is dead.

  9. 9.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    March 2, 2016 at 11:29 am

    Our awful media has abdicated all responsibility to inform and have decided to instead create provocations as substitution. Even now they refuse to acknowledge and name what absolutely everyone else can see – Trump and his followers are racists to the core. That’s all this is about and they refuse to say it. I can’t imagine how they ever will – look at the millions of handwringing words written about Dylann Roof’s unknown motives. No wonder they chose to whitewash MSNBC at this particular moment in time.

  10. 10.

    Ridnik Chrome

    March 2, 2016 at 11:29 am

    @Eric U.: My go-to response for that stupid canard about the Nazis is that they were socialist like the German Democratic Republic was democratic.

  11. 11.

    Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA

    March 2, 2016 at 11:30 am

    I saw this last night and I was pretty disgusted. Really, though, given Jeffrey Lord’s history he shouldn’t have been anywhere near the CNN set last night. His very presence was an insult to… ah, never mind. We have a two-party system in which one party’s entire existence is based on insulting (and worse) anyone who isn’t a rich white male. I give up.

  12. 12.

    boatboy_srq

    March 2, 2016 at 11:30 am

    @Eric U.: Seventy years ago the Klan probably was Democratic: white, landed, gentrified, Southern Democratic. Lord can thank Nixon and Atwater and the rest for moving the Klan over to their side.

  13. 13.

    Mike J

    March 2, 2016 at 11:31 am

    @Eric U.:

    I don’t even want to know how the KKK is liberal

    The argument is that in the 1800s and early 1900s, the Klan were Democrats. To stupid people, this means they must have been liberal.

    It’s silly to use party labels from before the great switch and have them mean anything today.

  14. 14.

    Technocrat

    March 2, 2016 at 11:31 am

    To cite just one topic that could send a reasonable person down that path, there’s the fact that the frontrunner in one of our two major parties waffled about denouncing the fucking Ku Klux Klan in 2016

    On the other hand, I never thought I’d see the day where RedState front-pagers denounce the GOP frontrunner for that KKK waffling. Granted, they don’t like Trump on principle, but it’s still heartening.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    March 2, 2016 at 11:32 am

    @boatboy_srq:

    Turning the Democratic Party from the party of the Jim Crow South to the party of civil rights is one of the great moral victories of the 20th Century. We’re not going back.

  16. 16.

    boatboy_srq

    March 2, 2016 at 11:32 am

    @Ridnik Chrome: That only works on people who know enough history and geography to recognize the German Democratic Republic. DPRK is probably a better contemporary example: at least the volk know what and where North Korea is…

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 2, 2016 at 11:32 am

    Just a few years ago, Trump was a key figure in the explicitly racist birther nonsense, and he shouldn’t be allowed to wave that off because he’s “moved on.”

    Trump can wave it off because the racism of the birther rhetoric was rarely if ever acknowledged by the Gate Keepers– one point you gotta give to Tweety, he always made that point. I’ve said before that one of the media low points in 2012 was a segment on the O’Donnell show when Lord Brokaw (after several minutes of should’ve-been embarrassing star-fucking from O’Donnell, Brokaw received it like a minor god smelling incense burner in his honor. Anyway…) explaining that he saw no “pattern’ of racism in the Romney campaign. Trump’s endorsement was sought, and he was explicitly used to make robocalls to WCW voters. ETA: HE was on a panel with Joy Reid and Jonathan Capehart. I was expecting JR to push back, but it was JC. Brokaw responded with a “tut tut, young man” and an implied “do you know who I am?” Then O’Donnell started his segment-closing fawning and that was the end of it.
    I see Stuart Stevens on MSNBC all the time, deploring Trump’s divisive rhetoric. Other Romney campaign ops also. Nobody mentions the Romney-Trump connection.

    And that doesn’t touch the whole mess with Reagan and Philadelphia MS, welfare queens and young bucks. Most Americans, including Villagers, would be genuinely confused by any suggestion that The Great Waver ever “played the race card”.

  18. 18.

    Calouste

    March 2, 2016 at 11:33 am

    @Ridnik Chrome: And like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a Republic.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    March 2, 2016 at 11:33 am

    The sad part is that, if the GOP does stop Trump, they’ll be patting themselves on the back for not being racist. I hope Trump wins for that reason alone.

  20. 20.

    boatboy_srq

    March 2, 2016 at 11:33 am

    @Baud: What, Baud!! 2016 doesn’t want the bigot vote?

    /snark

  21. 21.

    boatboy_srq

    March 2, 2016 at 11:34 am

    @Baud: Considering how late – and how paltry – the anti-Trump mobilisation seems to be, your hope is likely to be realised. Now, as for the general election in November….

  22. 22.

    MattF

    March 2, 2016 at 11:35 am

    And there’s another thing– How do you think Republican vote-predictors always manage to underestimate the number of minority voters? Recall, they never had any doubts that Mitt or McCain would beat Obama. The kinder and gentler explanation is that, somehow, they manage to not see minority voters. The actual explanation, of course, is just plain old racism.

  23. 23.

    boatboy_srq

    March 2, 2016 at 11:38 am

    @MattF:

    How do you think Republican vote-predictors always manage to underestimate the number of minority voters?

    Republican vote-predictors multiply minority votes by 0.6. SATSQ.

  24. 24.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 2, 2016 at 11:38 am

    @J.D. Rhoades: so’s Jesse Helms. Alex Castellanos, creator of the infamous “black hand” ad for Helms, is alive and well and counted among the most respectable of Villagers, a regular on Meet The Press (at least he was recently– I only see that show in internet clips these days)

    Double checked Wiki to make sure I wasn’t misattributing that ad. Castellans is now a partner in something called “Purple Strategies” with Steve McMahon, so he’s bipartisan now. And he never intended that ad to seem racist. So.

  25. 25.

    Aleta

    March 2, 2016 at 11:38 am

    “Racists are everywhere” doesn’t answer why Trump will not call them out.

  26. 26.

    JMG

    March 2, 2016 at 11:39 am

    The audience for all three cable networks is 1. Political junkies like people on this board, which could be as much as two percent of the total. 2. Crabby old white people, including many shut-ins. Cable news is always going to cater to its audience, meaning all opinions held by older white people will treated as at least understandable and usually praiseworthy. Look for CNN to support nominee Trump as blatantly as does Fox, with MSNBC not far behind.

  27. 27.

    WarMunchkin

    March 2, 2016 at 11:40 am

    Bring me November. I can’t stand months of this. It will be actively painful.

  28. 28.

    J.D. Rhoades

    March 2, 2016 at 11:40 am

    @Ridnik Chrome:

    I often ask these fuckwits it they’re also dumb enough to believe the DPRK is actually a Democratic Republic.

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    March 2, 2016 at 11:42 am

    Ever notice that people who ride motorcycles are bikers, but people who ride bikes are cyclists?

  30. 30.

    MattF

    March 2, 2016 at 11:44 am

    The R core voters see Trump’s pathological lack of empathy– and they assume it doesn’t apply to them. Take it out on the Moooslims, take it out on the Mexicans, take it out on the losers, blame Obama,…

  31. 31.

    JPL

    March 2, 2016 at 11:47 am

    @WarMunchkin: this

  32. 32.

    Mr. Twister

    March 2, 2016 at 11:48 am

    Van Jones should’ve just clocked this a**hole. The human pilonidal cyst Tom Brokaw can’t figure out Trump’s appeal. “Journalism” in this country is a complete failure. The MSM just will never be able to bring themselves to admit that there are a sh*t ton of racists in this country.

  33. 33.

    singfoom

    March 2, 2016 at 11:48 am

    Yep, Trump’s campaign is straight up racist and needs to be called out for it. That CNN clip is shameful but not surprising.

    Take a look at Bun B going to a Trump Rally and talking to people in SC for Vice:

    Bun B Vice Youtube

    This is who supports Trump. Take our country back (from the others). Make America Great Again (by going back to the fever dream 1950s where “those people” knew their place).

    This shit needs to be slapped down hard but the “liberal” media is too chickenshit to do it.

  34. 34.

    NobodySpecial

    March 2, 2016 at 11:49 am

    The worst part for me, if I remember correctly, is that Van Jones was later nowhere to be found on their screen while Jeffrey Lord continued to pollute the airwaves afterwards. Liberal media my ass.

  35. 35.

    different-church-lady

    March 2, 2016 at 11:49 am

    @MattF:

    The R core voters see Trump’s pathological lack of empathy– and they assume it doesn’t apply to them see themselves.

    FTFY.

  36. 36.

    Eric U.

    March 2, 2016 at 11:49 am

    @Calouste: “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” — both sides do it, amirite?

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    March 2, 2016 at 11:51 am

    @different-church-lady:
    I wish more people noticed that. I’ve seen far too many news stories that call cyclists “bikers”.

  38. 38.

    boatboy_srq

    March 2, 2016 at 11:52 am

    @MattF:

    The R core voters see Trump’s pathological lack of empathy

    … and it’s a mirror for their own attitudes. Full stop.

  39. 39.

    RaflW

    March 2, 2016 at 11:53 am

    OT, but Trump hostage Christie has reached the BJ crazification factor!

    @kelseytam
    Christie’s job approval rating in NJ is currently at 27 percent — an all-time low.

  40. 40.

    Peale

    March 2, 2016 at 11:54 am

    So if Van wasn’t there that evening, would any of the white hosts stood up to Jeffery Lord, or told off their producer for scheduling such “rating gold.” Cause that’s really the case here. The show runner thought it would be good for ratings to have on someone from the KKK and put him next to “that guy we have on. you know, the one who gives the black perspective on things” to see what happens.

  41. 41.

    J.D. Rhoades

    March 2, 2016 at 11:54 am

    My fondest desire at this point is to see a contested GOP convention. I want to see elderly Republicans in funny hats brawling in the aisles of the Quicken Loans Arena. I want to see Republican blood on the streets of Cleveland. I want to see at least two wingnut on wingnut stabbings. Does that make me a bad person?

  42. 42.

    HRA

    March 2, 2016 at 11:55 am

    What I hate most is generally pigeon holing people by their political choice of party. It is not true. Racists exist in all parties.

    I am wondering why we have not seen anything written here about Bill Clinton and Massachusetts. (Note: I may have missed it in another post.) I cannot believe he would walk into a polling place on an election day, be told it was against the election law, walk into 3 other polling places and even make a joke about it. While voters were not allowed to go inside to vote as seen with photos of the police stopping them outside and the lines getting long.

  43. 43.

    Applejinx

    March 2, 2016 at 11:55 am

    America never stopped being great. We have to make America whole. We have to fill in what’s been hollowed out.

    …yeah, in that light, I get it. Sorry for jumping so hard on the ‘great’ thing, it just seemed cheap to say. Obviously it wasn’t said in a vacuum: sorry, Hillary, I wasn’t being fair. :/

  44. 44.

    Chris

    March 2, 2016 at 11:56 am

    @boatboy_srq:

    Seventy years ago the Klan probably was Democratic: white, landed, gentrified, Southern Democratic.

    In the South, yes.

    In the North, a little more variable, since the North was never the one-party-state that the post-Civil War South was. But since in general trends Republicans tended to be the party of rural Protestant whites and the Democrats tended to be the party of urban immigrant Catholics and Jews, I’d actually wager that the white hood community outside of the South has been Republican for a lot longer than Nixon and Atwater.

  45. 45.

    Cacti

    March 2, 2016 at 11:56 am

    Given the chestnut that came out about Fred Trump’s arrest for joining the Klan in 1927 brawl with the NYPD…

    I’d say there’s a good chance that papa Trump wore a pointy hood himself, and that’s why Trump treats the subject of the KKK so gingerly.

  46. 46.

    Amir Khalid

    March 2, 2016 at 11:57 am

    @J.D. Rhoades:
    Yes it does. I’d like to see that too, God help me. Come sit with me here on the bad persons’ bench.

  47. 47.

    JPL

    March 2, 2016 at 11:59 am

    @Cacti: Do you think Trump has that keepsake stashed away somewhere?

  48. 48.

    WarMunchkin

    March 2, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    @Applejinx: When Democrats’ quotes are put back into context, they always end up sounding perfectly reasonable. When Republicans’ quotes are put back into context, they sound even fucking scarier.

  49. 49.

    scav

    March 2, 2016 at 12:01 pm

    Those sneaky sneaky leftist democratic terrorist groups, promulgating their sneaky sneaky leftist democratic agenda by killing and terrorizing democratic voters and pulling the electoral levers for Republican candidates.

    Oh, as as for that “You’re Dividing America!” by noticing the difference between black and white? Well, “You’re Dividing America!” by noticing the difference and insisting on the distinction between Men and Women when handing out marriage licenses and insisting on matched sets. Or by holding up christians as exhibiting extra moral value and thus worthy of dictating national holidays. blah blah blah.

  50. 50.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 12:01 pm

    In addition to being racist, has anyone noticed how anti-Semitic the trump supporters are (on twitter).

  51. 51.

    MattF

    March 2, 2016 at 12:01 pm

    @J.D. Rhoades: If that leads you now conclude that you should, immediately, put in a bid for running the ER tent and proposing a partnership with a local hospital– then, yeah.

  52. 52.

    Marmot

    March 2, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    We are gonna crush the Repubs this time around. Assuming Dems can really press the advantage, which is admittedly assuming a lot.

  53. 53.

    Cacti

    March 2, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    @JPL:

    Do you think Trump has that keepsake stashed away somewhere?

    Wouldn’t surprise me.

  54. 54.

    singfoom

    March 2, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    @J.D. Rhoades: @Amir Khalid: It doesn’t make you bad people. I want to see dueling hoverrounds jousting in the streets. Given the Drumpfenlotariat penchant for violence I think it’s a high possibility we’ll see something like this in the coming days.

    I’ll feel bad about it when it happens…for like 30 seconds and then I’ll remember they all made their fucking choices.

  55. 55.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    @Cacti: I am all for dumping on the Klan and its supporters — but is it really necessary to hold a son responsible for his fathers “maybe” affiliation.

  56. 56.

    Frank McCormick

    March 2, 2016 at 12:03 pm

    Brava Betty!

  57. 57.

    aimai

    March 2, 2016 at 12:03 pm

    Christ we are never going to see the end of the disappointed, whiny ass titty babies that HRC isn’t Bernie, and that she isn’t willing to spend every minute on the stump attacking America in order to win the right to run it. For fuck’s sake. No wonder we can’t have nice things if the leftier than thou side of our own party wastes five seconds cutting down our presumptive nominee for poor word choice while they spend thirty bemoaning how stupid Trump voters are.

  58. 58.

    Chris

    March 2, 2016 at 12:04 pm

    @Mike J:

    The argument is that in the 1800s and early 1900s, the Klan were Democrats. To stupid people, this means they must have been liberal.

    Although they don’t actually believe that. Or rather they do and don’t believe it, depending on what’s convenient for them at any particular moment – it’s one of the most widespread instances of “doublethink” in the country. These are the same people who argue that the Democratic Party is too solicitous to immigrants and nonwhites and hates white people and white Anglo-Protestant culture. At least a few of them are ex-Democrats who insist that “the Democratic Party left me.” They know damn well that the party’s changed in the last fifty years and that it’s been in a direction away from the KKK’s preferences; in quite a few cases, it’s why they left in the first place.

    “The KKK were Democrats” is half gotcha argument that doesn’t actually mean anything more than “shut up,” half them just latching onto any line of bullshit, no matter how flimsy, to justify to themselves that they’re not the real racists. On at least some level, they all know it’s bullshit.

  59. 59.

    Amir Khalid

    March 2, 2016 at 12:04 pm

    @Cacti:

    Given the chestnut that came out about Fred Trump’s arrest for joining the Klan in 1927 brawl with the NYPD…

    Or the little ditty that Woody Guthrie wrote about Fred Trump the racist landlord ..

  60. 60.

    Cacti

    March 2, 2016 at 12:04 pm

    @LAO:

    I am all for dumping on the Klan and its supporters — but is it really necessary to hold a son responsible for his fathers “maybe” affiliation.

    Considering that Trump’s campaign is explicitly based on white racial resentment, I’d say that him being raised at knee of man who was at best a Klan sympathizer is highly relevant to his fitness for office.

  61. 61.

    MattF

    March 2, 2016 at 12:06 pm

    @LAO: It might offer a clue to the pundits who regard Trump as an impenetrable mystery.

  62. 62.

    aimai

    March 2, 2016 at 12:06 pm

    @HRA: You know what? People routinely go into polling places and poll workers routinely kick them out. Its not illegal to go into a polling place. Heck you can actually stand within 150 feet of them and talk politics really loudly and no one can tell you not to. This is a ridiculous tempest in a tea pot. No one was prevented from voting and no one changed their vote because bill clinton showed up to glad hand. OR, if they did, so what? People are entitled to change their minds about who they vote for for any reason and no reason. Bernie didn’t lose MA by 3 points because bill clinton kissed some babies and shook some hands.

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    March 2, 2016 at 12:07 pm

    But racism is a central component of his campaign because it’s a core part of who Trump is today and who he has always has been.

    Nobody cares. Part of this is because Trump calls out “economic enemies,” Mexican illegal immigrants, the Chinese and Mexican government. Or he calls out “existential enemies,” Muslims. This is obviously simpleminded scapegoating, but we live in simpleminded times.

    When liberals scold Trump and his supporters on this point, the only thing that his defenders hear is that you don’t care about them or their problems, and that you probably hate America as well.

    In a country with a functional political media, that kind of bullshit would be fatal to a campaign.

    This is nonsense and fantasy. The media has reported on this. They even report on the farce of Republican officials crying crocodile tears as they decry Trump’s refusal to disavow the Klan. Again, people, especially Trump supporters, don’t care.

    America sometimes fights its racism, but it is a racist country. It’s not just the South, and it’s not just Republicans, even though it is a plain fact that conservatives have been aggravating the festering boil of American apartheid with special fervor since Obama’s election. And Trump has been especially reckless, with his birtherism, his open pandering to bigotry, his gleeful cheering on as supporters at his rallies insult and assault nonwhite people in the audience.

    The political media has dutifully reported all this. But the media ain’t your momma or daddy, your Father Confessor or Mother Superior. And blaming the media when your friends and neighbors, and some of your family, eat this stuff up, add to it and post it on their Facebook pages, is just blind, just pig ignorant.

    One small hope is in fighting back, and the upcoming election provides one of the fields of battle. And it’s obviously getting nastier, and racists boldly climb up out of their sewers and openly endorse Trump. Their message is obvious. When Trump says he wants to make America great again, they hear “make America white again.”

  64. 64.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 12:07 pm

    @Cacti: Every Republican presidential campaign has been built on appealing to white racial resentment. Its fucking refreshing that he has been so explicit about it. No more hiding behind racial dog whistles.

  65. 65.

    aimai

    March 2, 2016 at 12:07 pm

    @boatboy_srq: The Klan in the midwest was solidly white, bourgeouis, and anti Catholic.

  66. 66.

    singfoom

    March 2, 2016 at 12:08 pm

    @aimai: People get passionate about their preferred candidate. It’s been really disappointing to watch some of my fellow Bernie supporters get nasty about HRC. I have my issues with her and I really don’t believe that she’ll reign in Wall Street / our financial sector, but I’ll go vote for her in November if she’s the nominee.

    It’s really disappointing to see people (elsewhere, haven’t seen it on this blog) say they’ll stay home and not vote if HRC is the nominee. It tends to be the younger people as far as I can tell.

    Passion is good for some things, bad for others.

    Cheers

  67. 67.

    MazeDancer

    March 2, 2016 at 12:09 pm

    Jonathan Capehart brought up a significant data point this AM: The new majority. He cited a new book called Brown is the New White

    The book demonstrates that the new voting majority is Liberal Whites and People of Color coming from:

    …people of color (23 percent of all eligible voters) and progressive whites (28 percent of all eligible voters). These two groups make up 51 percent of all eligible voters in America right now

    Sounded good to me.

    This was on Morning Joe. Some mornings, I check Morning Joe just to see what Republicans are thinking. Usually I last two minutes, up until Mika’s first simpering say nothing, and click it off.

    This morning, disarray in the GOP was fascinating. Not sure how much longer the media will consider GOP meltdown better ratings bait than their usually attack Hillary. But it’s interesting for a moment.

    The continued labelling of Hillary’s run for the White House as “The Clintons” by the Morning Joe crew, and most of the Hillary-hating media, is certainly playing into Trump’s hands. (Gennifer Flowers standing by for her stage appearance.) So the disarray plays better than Hillary bashing isn’t going to last long.

  68. 68.

    kc

    March 2, 2016 at 12:10 pm

    MSNBC had Republican Henry Barbour (Haley’s son, I guess) on earlier. Barbour criticized Trump for waffling on the KKK.

    Then Barbour proceeded to waffle when asked whether he’d support Trump if Trump wins the nomination.

  69. 69.

    elmo

    March 2, 2016 at 12:10 pm

    I just want to hear somebody ask the question: Liberal? What was liberal about them?

  70. 70.

    Citizen Scientist

    March 2, 2016 at 12:10 pm

    Great post BC.

  71. 71.

    MFA

    March 2, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    “…apparently this is the latest iteration of IOKKKIYAR.” FIFY.

  72. 72.

    RaflW

    March 2, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    @scav: “You’re Dividing America!” is just shallowly-disguised code speak for you’re giving up the game that has enabled white privilege for generations.

  73. 73.

    Betty Cracker

    March 2, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    @Brachiator: I was gonna write a long reply pointing out all the ways your post is wrong, condescending and insufferably smug. But fuck it. I’ve got much better things to do. Have a nice day!

  74. 74.

    WarMunchkin

    March 2, 2016 at 12:16 pm

    @elmo: I’ve tried coming up with conversation pathways where that argument would actually win against one of these clowns at a media roundtable, but it inevitably ends with someone saying “both sides do it”.

  75. 75.

    khead

    March 2, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    Cole must have watched “They Live” again yesterday.

  76. 76.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    March 2, 2016 at 12:18 pm

    @LAO:

    Louis Farrakhan is the head explodey one. Wonder what the wingnut thought process is to sort that all out.

  77. 77.

    scav

    March 2, 2016 at 12:18 pm

    They don’t really do disguise anymore now, do they?

    Beyond that, it’s the full convenient ostrich. Ignore all distinctions between people if the outcomes work in your favor, but notice them if you get to call “Thug!” while writing off them lying dead from cop bullets or “Terrorist!” if you don’t want three-year-olds from war zones in your vicinity.

  78. 78.

    muddy

    March 2, 2016 at 12:20 pm

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Simple. “Even the black Louis Farrakhan is a bigot, thus we must be bigots too, and it’s all his fault!”

  79. 79.

    Fellatio Alger

    March 2, 2016 at 12:22 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Ha! Excellent response.

  80. 80.

    aimai

    March 2, 2016 at 12:23 pm

    @kc: Haley “White Citizen’s Council” Barbour’s Son? That’s rich.

  81. 81.

    PPCLI

    March 2, 2016 at 12:24 pm

    @Ridnik Chrome: And more to the point: The People’s Republic of China is Republican!
    (The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics too! Which proves that Republicans are Socialists!)

  82. 82.

    Ready

    March 2, 2016 at 12:25 pm

    The scuttlebutt from inside the campaign is that Our Principals PAC is poised to open up the floodgates on Trumo thanks to generous donations from Peter Singer and the hedge fund boys, as well as the owners of the Chicago White Sox! The Koch a dos may even be getting off the sidelines. By their powers combined they will be totally unstoppable against Trump, the GOP will not nominate a liberal New York conman..
    Outhouse park

  83. 83.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 12:27 pm

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Farrakhan was/is terrible. I actually remember going to here him speak at UPenn during my freshman year. He spent the entire speech blaming black women for underachieving black men (and lots of slutty behavior). He was not well-received.

    But what shocks me here — is the level of vitriol being directed at “Republican” “Elite” “Pundits” (everything is in quotes because I can’t take any of them seriously), for example David Frum. He has tweeted extensively against Trump — and the negative responses have all been based on Frum’s Jewishness. It is nauseating.

  84. 84.

    pamelabrown53

    March 2, 2016 at 12:28 pm

    @Citizen Scientist:
    I, too, really liked Betty’s post. She’s such a colorful, evocative writer.

    An interesting aside: I, like Betty, live in FL. We’ve received 2 glossy anti-Trump mailers in 2 days from conservative super pacs. Also, 2 pro-Rubio robocalls. Hopefully, anybody but Rubio will win the repub. primary on the 15th!

  85. 85.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 2, 2016 at 12:30 pm

    @LAO: I’ve always assumed that people like Farrakhan were slave-owning, ni-CLANG lynching plantation owners in a past life and they swung too far the other way this time in trying to balance their karma. It’s one of many such I tell myself to stay sane.

  86. 86.

    oldster

    March 2, 2016 at 12:31 pm

    Ross Douthat today in the NYT:

    “The Super Tuesday results did nothing to clarify who might win the G.O.P. nomination.”

    None so blind as those who will not see. Except those who are paid not to see.

  87. 87.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 12:32 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Does it/ is it working? Maybe I should try because I am teetering on the edge of batshit crazy.

  88. 88.

    PPCLI

    March 2, 2016 at 12:34 pm

    @LAO: Back when Sarah Palin was talking about “real Americans”, to the great enthusiasm of the Republican hierarchy, a Jewish friend of mine noted that this explains a lot about why Jewish voters still go for the Democratic party. “Whenever speakers start distinguishing the “real” citizens from the fake ones, the Jews have learned that they will end up on the wrong side, if not immediately then eventually.” It’s a shame Frum wasn’t there to hear that conversation, he might have known what to expect.

  89. 89.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 2, 2016 at 12:36 pm

    @khead: We need more kitteh photos!

  90. 90.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    @PPCLI: Agreed. I know what I hear when Ted Cruz says “New York Values.” You know because I am. . . . a New York Jew. But, I’m sure we’re just to sensitive.

  91. 91.

    David Evans

    March 2, 2016 at 12:38 pm

    As a left-of-centre UK resident I thought Clinton’s “America never stopped being great. We have to make America whole.” was pretty good, and an appropriate response to Trump. Yes, there are things wrong in America (as in all countries), but as far as I can see all of Trump’s attitudes (I won’t dignify them with the name of policies) are liable to make those things worse.

  92. 92.

    MattF

    March 2, 2016 at 12:38 pm

    @oldster: There’s a lot of denial going on in that corner of the world. Douthat et. al. haven’t quite gotten to denying the rules of arithmetic, but that’s the next stop on the line.

  93. 93.

    glory b

    March 2, 2016 at 12:39 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was still something of a kid when Reagan announced his bid in Philadelphia MS. I was waiting for the media to denounce this (hey, I was naive), and….crickets.

    The scales fell from eyes then.

    Later, when Obama was running, a lot of southern repubs used the word “uppidy” to describe him and waved away any questions about it. I remember that David Gergen said, “When I was coming up, I never heard the word uppidy without the n word following it.” No one used it (at least on tv) after that.

  94. 94.

    different-church-lady

    March 2, 2016 at 12:39 pm

    @JPL: Why did that make me think of “The Watch” scene from Pulp Fiction?

  95. 95.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    March 2, 2016 at 12:39 pm

    Well said, Betty. Thank you.

  96. 96.

    JMG

    March 2, 2016 at 12:40 pm

    A survey of Democratic and left-leaning sites this morning has led me to conclude GEICO ought to do an ad with the punchline, “When you’re a Democrat, you fret. It’s what you do.” I find it hard to reconcile the following popular frets. OMG, Trump’s going to pivot to the center, allowing him to beat Hillary” and “OMG, Hillary is going to pivot to the center, allowing Trump to beat her.”

  97. 97.

    WereBear

    March 2, 2016 at 12:43 pm

    Trump is what they want. He’s getting credit for saying out loud all the awful things they feel constrained from saying.

    That, my friends, is YOOOOOOGE.

    I see potential for the Republican Party to dwindle away as angry old white people go to meet their maker. There’s obviously two passionate wings in the Democratic Party who could pick up the slack.

    This is how we lost the Whigs and the Know-Nothings and all the other Party ghosts of history. I know some people claim Millenials are just as bigoted as their elders.

    But I don’t see it. We have gay marriage and a woman running for President and currently our President is black and while we will always have fresh idiots, they will have to find another path if they want to win.

    Calmer heads in the R Party have been saying this since at least 2000, and the rest of them are too dumb to listen. Darwin Award, please!

  98. 98.

    El Caganer

    March 2, 2016 at 12:43 pm

    @Ridnik Chrome: I take it that you disagree with that noted historian Doughy Pantload?

  99. 99.

    Linnaeus

    March 2, 2016 at 12:44 pm

    @David Evans:

    As one who occasionally harbors doubts about America’s “greatness”, Clinton’s line that “America has always been great” didn’t bother me. It’s pretty much standard campaign rhetoric. Even Trump’s “make America great again” relies on an implied, almost Platonic, American “greatness”.

  100. 100.

    Cacti

    March 2, 2016 at 12:46 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Nobody cares. Part of this is because Trump calls out “economic enemies,” Mexican illegal immigrants, the Chinese and Mexican government. Or he calls out “existential enemies,” Muslims. This is obviously simpleminded scapegoating, but we live in simpleminded times.

    When liberals scold Trump and his supporters on this point, the only thing that his defenders hear is that you don’t care about them or their problems, and that you probably hate America as well.

    Is there ever a good time, in your estimation, to call out the racism of Republican candidates?

    Or should protecting white feelings always be the alpha concern?

    Your posts on the subject always seem to indicate the latter.

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 2, 2016 at 12:48 pm

    Nine Republican congressmen voted Tuesday against naming a North Carolina post office branch after Maya Angelou, with one lawmaker calling the award-winning poet “a communist sympathizer.”
    Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) said in a statement to NBC News that he believes the civil rights activist was “a communist sympathizer.”

    but they’re cool with Robert E Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, half of W Va being named after Robert Byrd…. I’ve never seen anything named after Lindbergh, but I’d be surprised if there aren’t a few things out there. Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond and Sam Ervin?

    The other lawmakers who voted nay were Mo Brooks (R-AL), Ken Buck (R-CO), Michael Burgess (R-TX), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Glen Grothman (R-WI), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Alex Mooney (R-WV) and Steven Palazzo (R-MS), according to the Huffington Post.

  102. 102.

    Elizabelle

    March 2, 2016 at 12:49 pm

    Incidentally, the NY Times just corrected this massive headline a few moments ago. Was in process of typing it up as today’s example of Our Liberal Media.

    It now reads

    Trump Overwhelms G.O.P. Rivals on Super Tuesday
    Minority Voters Fuel Clinton Victories Across South

    The original headline was shorter for Trump, but “overwhelming” was definitely in it. Check out what they said about Clinton, though.

    Trump Overwhelms Rivals
    Minority Voters Push Clinton Victories Across South

    Got that? Trump is overwhelming, just amazing, overwhelming.

    Hillary needed pushing, and it was those pesky minority types that done it.

    Oh, and the margins we are discussing: overwhelming vs. push:

    Texas: Trump 27%
    Clinton 65%

    Massachusetts: Trump 49%
    Clinton 50%

    Virginia: Trump 35%
    Clinton: 64%

    Facepalm.

    On a more serious note: thank you, minorities.

    Although the NYTimes screams nothing about Trump voter profile in its headlines. Just “overwhelming.”

  103. 103.

    glory b

    March 2, 2016 at 12:50 pm

    @JMG: Which explains why white, blue collar, middle class etc., etc. voters are always the holy grail on the networks.

    Yesterday, Charlie Rose asked John Dickerson about Trump’s potential appeai to Reagan Democrats and would they cross over again to vote for him. Dickerson had to gently explain that they are all now Republicans. Nora O’Donnell (I think) said that they were now talikng about the Reagan Dems’ grandkids.

    Someone should kindly lead charlie off the set.

  104. 104.

    goblue72

    March 2, 2016 at 12:50 pm

    @Josie: Van Jones is not a “young man”. He’s a grown-ass man, aged 47, graduate of Yale Law School, former special advisor to the President (before the rightwing nut wurlitzer forced his resignation) and founder of the Bay Area PoliceWatch and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

  105. 105.

    singfoom

    March 2, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, that’s some sad shit right there. I mean, I hate the whole “Let’s name Post Offices” bullshit which seems to be roughly 20% of what Congress does, but that right there?

    That’s some racist bullshit. Angelou was a national treasure….

  106. 106.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 2, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    @Punchy: And they’ll all turn into two-time Obama voters who switched to Trump because the party left THEM.

  107. 107.

    different-church-lady

    March 2, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    @aimai: Well, look, there’s a major difference between the hyper liberals and conservatives. Conservatives believe America sucks because of Democrats, and hyper-liberals believe America sucks because of Democrats.

    So, the answer to your question is no, we’re never going to see the end of it.

  108. 108.

    raven

    March 2, 2016 at 12:52 pm

    @Elizabelle: Push is still the headline if you click on the text.

  109. 109.

    Immanentize

    March 2, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    If you have a racist friend,
    Now is the time now is the time,
    For your friendship to end.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHWCXyKKUIw

  110. 110.

    bupalos

    March 2, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    “If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry.

    Why can I not read this without Woodie Allen flashing through my head?

  111. 111.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 2, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    @PPCLI: The Jews I know tend to have a really strong negative reaction to Donald Trump’s scapegoating of Muslims. They’re familiar with the song.

  112. 112.

    rk

    March 2, 2016 at 12:55 pm

    One thing I noticed during my infrequent visits to my doctor’s office is that at first Fox News used to be on constantly. Then they switched it to food network. Another office switched to CNN. Today the TV was off. I was pleased that finally progress has been made. Baby steps I know, but I’ll take what I can get.

  113. 113.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 12:55 pm

    @different-church-lady: Don’t make me laugh so hard during lunch — soda through the nose hurts.

    Well, look, there’s a major difference between the hyper liberals and conservatives. Conservatives believe America sucks because of Democrats, and hyper-liberals believe America sucks because of Democrats

  114. 114.

    different-church-lady

    March 2, 2016 at 12:56 pm

    @singfoom:

    It tends to be the younger people as far as I can tell.

    Eh, no harm: they were going to stay home anyway.

    [ducks]

  115. 115.

    beltane

    March 2, 2016 at 12:56 pm

    It is a mistake to think that racism is a trait that only exists in trailer parks when it is just as, if not more, endemic among the elites of this country Too many people assume that “civility” equals “civilized” and are then shocked at the mainstream media’s tolerance of overtly racist appeals to the public. It’s not that our media grandees are dumb or blind to these messages, it’s that they agree with these messages and assume everyone else does as well.

    If there wasn’t so much evil at the top, there would not be so much evil at the bottom. Let us dispense with the idea that the media is lazy and not doing its job.

  116. 116.

    Linnaeus

    March 2, 2016 at 12:58 pm

    @beltane:

    It is a mistake to think that racism is a trait that only exists in trailer parks when it is just as, if not more, endemic among the elites of this country

    This bears repeating, and even expansion. It’s not just the trailer park set, it’s not just the elites, it’s also folks like the nice white yoga mom next door who also votes for racist Republicans.

  117. 117.

    Egilsson

    March 2, 2016 at 1:00 pm

    Remember – not only were the Klan democrats 70 years ago, they were democrats because Lincoln was a republican – and he freed the slaves.

    So they were democrats because of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery – and they stopped being democrats when democrats rejected that racism and embraced civil rights. Then Nixon and the republicans gleefully swooped with the Southern Strategy to win some elections while embracing poison.

    They now own that poison and it is making their party sick.

  118. 118.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    March 2, 2016 at 1:00 pm

    In a country with a functional political media, that kind of bullshit would be fatal to a campaign.

    You assume media organizations aren’t just as racist as the Republicans they fluff.

    @Eric U.:

    I don’t even want to know how the KKK is liberal

    The KKK were Democrats until Johnson signed the CRA and VRA. That’s where the bullshit meme is coming from. Never mind that Southern Democrats in the late 19th and early 20th century were about as “liberal” as Attila the Hun.

  119. 119.

    glory b

    March 2, 2016 at 1:01 pm

    @Cacti: And consider that Trump (papa) in the 70’s I believe paid the biggest housing discrimination settlement in US history up to that time.

    Papa Trump wanted to settle early and quietly, donald didn’t and fought with him about it.

  120. 120.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    March 2, 2016 at 1:02 pm

    @Immanentize:

    The media is just doing what we whites have been doing all along – silent complicity – because we all enjoy the benefits of …what’s that word… privilege. Unearned privilege. We need to start calling out friends and family on their racist bullshit, but be prepared to get the human face equivalent of an HTTP 404 error message.

  121. 121.

    Cacti

    March 2, 2016 at 1:04 pm

    @glory b:

    And consider that Trump (papa) in the 70’s I believe paid the biggest housing discrimination settlement in US history up to that time.

    Papa Trump wanted to settle early and quietly, donald didn’t and fought with him about it.

    And yet, some here argue for giving Donald Trump the benefit on the doubt on his racial views, and whether they were influenced by his father.

    No way.

  122. 122.

    Chris

    March 2, 2016 at 1:05 pm

    @glory b:

    Yesterday, Charlie Rose asked John Dickerson about Trump’s potential appeai to Reagan Democrats and would they cross over again to vote for him. Dickerson had to gently explain that they are all now Republicans. Nora O’Donnell (I think) said that they were now talikng about the Reagan Dems’ grandkids.

    If I had to guess, the “Reagan Democrats” ARE the Trump voters.

    They were all in the tank for the Democrats when the New Deal was benefiting poor, working and middle class white voters without endangering the white power structure. They switched over when the benefits started going to nonwhites and the Nixon/Reagan coalition offered to be the voice for their resentments at that. But that was the only reason they were ever Republican, and if someone like Trump offers a message that blames the nonwhites but also blames the elites and talks about how they’ve ravaged the economy, they see no reason to stick with the “establishment.” They’re not in it for the convoluted Ayn Rand economics and they never were.

  123. 123.

    PsiFighter37

    March 2, 2016 at 1:06 pm

    Mittens is apparently due to make a ‘major’ speech tomorrow. This is a dumb idea; anything reeking of establishment ‘get in line’ crap will firm up Trump’s support.

    Tomorrow’s debate is going to be an even more epic dumpster bonfire than the past.

  124. 124.

    beltane

    March 2, 2016 at 1:06 pm

    @Linnaeus: Even liberals are not immune to this though their attitudes are more couched in the language of meritocracy. Last year the NYT ran an interesting article about how the NYC public schools are far more segregated today than they were 30 years ago when I was a student, with the student body at the city’s elite high schools consisting entirely of white and Asian students.

  125. 125.

    different-church-lady

    March 2, 2016 at 1:07 pm

    @JMG:

    “OMG, Hillary is going to pivot to the center, allowing Trump to beat her.”

    You sure it wasn’t, ““OMG, Hillary is going to pivot to the right of Hitler!!!!.”

  126. 126.

    tybee

    March 2, 2016 at 1:07 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    the group W bench

  127. 127.

    singfoom

    March 2, 2016 at 1:07 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    It tends to be the younger people as far as I can tell.
    Eh, no harm: they were going to stay home anyway.

    [ducks]

    You know, I want it not to be true, but you’re probably right. It’s not something I think anyone should be happy about though. If HRC does win the nomination, I really hope that Bernie and his campaign work REALLY REALLY hard to get their voters out in the general, especially to support downticket races.

  128. 128.

    different-church-lady

    March 2, 2016 at 1:11 pm

    @Linnaeus:

    This bears repeating, and even expansion.

    Seconded. There’s overt racism, and there’s soft, background racism. In some ways the second is more enabling to continued systemic racism than the first.

  129. 129.

    Chris

    March 2, 2016 at 1:11 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The Jews I know tend to have a really strong negative reaction to Donald Trump’s scapegoating of Muslims. They’re familiar with the song.

    Hilariously, Republicans don’t understand that this is hurting and not helping them with the Jewish vote. Their idea of outreach towards Jews is to rage that the Jews just don’t understand that Democrats are the Muslim-loving traitors and Republicans are the ones with the strength and courage to stand up and bomb and kill and jail and torture those dangerous Muslim animals. And the solution is to ramp up the latter rhetoric until enough Jews understand that they should be on their side.

    (Because after all, hating each other is what Jews and Muslims do, right?)

  130. 130.

    beltane

    March 2, 2016 at 1:11 pm

    @Chris: The Republicans’ strategy was diabolically brilliant. They worked to make life more miserable for working and lower middle class whites and then they told them it was the liberals and blacks who did it to them. The con is up now and these people seem to be lashing out at everyone and everything.

    There is a realignment coming, but the transition is going to be ugly in the extreme.

  131. 131.

    MattF

    March 2, 2016 at 1:13 pm

    @Chris: And, of course, racial hatred is good for the Jews. Not.

  132. 132.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 1:13 pm

    @Chris: What they also don’t get is, that the evangelical obsession with Israel, is a big turn off.

  133. 133.

    Linnaeus

    March 2, 2016 at 1:15 pm

    @beltane:

    Totally agreed.

    @different-church-lady:

    Also agreed.

  134. 134.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 2, 2016 at 1:16 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) said in a statement to NBC News that he believes the civil rights activist was “a communist sympathizer.”

    Anyone who is worried about the Red Menace in 2016 is immediately noted as a “moron” in my files

  135. 135.

    MattF

    March 2, 2016 at 1:17 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: He probably has an aide in his office who crossed out ‘Soviet’ and replaced it with ‘communist’.

  136. 136.

    WereBear

    March 2, 2016 at 1:18 pm

    @beltane: Let us dispense with the idea that the media is lazy and not doing its job.

    While I agree that “the media” is not to blame for racism, they are indeed very lazy and not doing the job of journalism, at the very least.

    Does anyone watch television news or read a paper and get any actual information out of it? It’s all clickbait and speculation and zero explaining about anything.

    It makes my head hurt.

  137. 137.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 2, 2016 at 1:19 pm

    @beltane:
    I would only add that the media are the kind of racist that hates and fears being identified as racists more than anything else. They don’t see race. Their best friend is black! That large swathe of racists are very troubled by Trump right now.

    @Chris:
    I would say the Reagan Democrats are the punditry. Note how they worship Reagan Democrats, and seem to think they’re liberal. Reagan won over – and it was a dramatic political realignment – the white racists who wanted to look down on blacks without any of that ‘nigger’ rhetoric. They see themselves as responsible and compassionate. They just understand that the way to help blacks out of the ghetto is to take away their welfare so they’ll stop being so dependent. Brokaw is the perfect example of this.

    @different-church-lady:

    In some ways the second is more enabling to continued systemic racism than the first.

    I agree. It’s why I make a point now to not give polite racism the benefit of the doubt. That ‘benefit of the doubt’ has been the cover for Republicans to destroy our nation for more than thirty years.

  138. 138.

    Amir Khalid

    March 2, 2016 at 1:21 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Well, the post-office renaming did pass with 371 votes in favour, so it was just those nine doodyheads.

  139. 139.

    Elizabelle

    March 2, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    Not to be outdone in the obtuse headline department; CNN takes the lead:

    Big photo of Trump waving.

    Banner headline: GOP Choice: Embrace or Rebel?

    Um, CNN, a lot of Trump voters probably REALLY like that last word, although maybe they’re not seeing it as a verb, as you intended.

  140. 140.

    kc

    March 2, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    @aimai:

    I was wrong, Google tells me Henry is Haley’s nephew, not his son, but . . . yeah.

    He’s a lobbyist, supports Rubio. At least until Trump gets the nomination.

  141. 141.

    superpredators4hillary

    March 2, 2016 at 1:25 pm

    In the GE, when Clinton sells out libs and Trump sells out whitey, we can chalk up this current mass hysteria to a contrast in credibility.

  142. 142.

    cckids

    March 2, 2016 at 1:26 pm

    I’m watching CNN, which has Peter King on, denouncing Trump & his statements as “totally against” everything Republicans stand for. Once, JUST ONCE, I’d love for a talking head (looking at you, Blitzer), to ask one of these Repubs WHY, if that is true, Trump is so loved by a majority of their R voters.

    I mean, if his whole campaign is so antithetical to the holy Republican “values”, he shouldn’t be so popular, right?

    Jackasses.

  143. 143.

    Just One More Canuck

    March 2, 2016 at 1:29 pm

    @WarMunchkin: Or ” that’s all we have time for, we’ll just have to leave it there”

  144. 144.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    March 2, 2016 at 1:29 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    They see themselves as responsible and compassionate. They just understand that the way to help blacks out of the ghetto is to take away their welfare so they’ll stop being so dependent.

    If you substitute the words “take away their welfare”, for “break up the big banks”, you get the paternalistic Berniebros, which basically explains the not statistically insignificant Trump/Bernie overlap.

  145. 145.

    beltane

    March 2, 2016 at 1:29 pm

    @cckids: Trump will win Peter King’s district quite handily in the primary.

  146. 146.

    pamelabrown53

    March 2, 2016 at 1:31 pm

    @superpredators4hillary:
    “…when Clinton sells out libs and Trump sells out whitey…” : one of the more disgusting troll comments I’ve read in awhile.

    You and your nym are appalling. Is Lee Atwater in your family tree?

  147. 147.

    Betty Cracker

    March 2, 2016 at 1:32 pm

    @beltane: I’m not nearly that pessimistic about media elites or American society in general. Sure, racists are everywhere, at all levels, and should be called out when encountered, not that it will do much good. But I think the oblivious privileged are far more numerous and influential, and there really is a chance they can be turned around.

  148. 148.

    Gerald

    March 2, 2016 at 1:33 pm

    The absolute, disastrous, utter failure of GOP/Republican/Bush/Cheney governance 2000 to 2008 has become THE collective amnesia of not just the Republican Party but much of America!

    With 24/7 obstructionist activities in the US Congress both Senate and House, RW-media relentless race/political based assault on any and every issue. AND MSM unwillingness to dispute these assaults and/or report factual information in context. It is not surprising that a large swath of Americans are openingly embracing a white supremacist ideology and the American brand of racism it produced.

    It is inconceivable in the minds of these Americans that “The One” America’s 1st AFRICAN-American POTUS Barrack H Obama not only successfully solved many of the problems caused by the GOP/Republican governance 2000-2008 but “made America great again!” despite the massive efforts to derail BOTH his Presidencies.

    The factual accomplishments of the Obama era will be written in glowing terms and remembered for centuries to come!

  149. 149.

    superpredators4hillary

    March 2, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    @pamelabrown53: Which of that quote is the disgusting part?

  150. 150.

    Peale

    March 2, 2016 at 1:38 pm

    @PsiFighter37: Sad. Just sad. I already watched him be humiliated once. Now he wants to make a sequel? Same characters, new adventures, same result. They didn’t learn a damn thing.

  151. 151.

    Chris

    March 2, 2016 at 1:39 pm

    @Gerald:

    The factual accomplishments of the Obama era will be written in glowing terms and remembered for centuries to come!

    Depends who’s writing the history books.

  152. 152.

    Brachiator

    March 2, 2016 at 1:39 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I was gonna write a long reply pointing out all the ways your post is wrong, condescending and insufferably smug.

    Condescending? Smug? Hardly.

    We don’t agree, that’s fine. But wrong? Don’t think so.

  153. 153.

    chopper

    March 2, 2016 at 1:42 pm

    Yeah, you can quibble about how great America is if that’s your thing.

    totally. what i don’t understand is the eye rolling going on over clinton’s statement, as if she should have said the opposite. why anybody trying to get the obama coalition to come out and vote for them would shit on the last 7 years is beyond me.

  154. 154.

    Chris

    March 2, 2016 at 1:43 pm

    @beltane:

    There is a realignment coming, but the transition is going to be ugly in the extreme.

    Yeah, I honestly don’t know what the political scene will be like ten or twenty years from now, and without wanting to indulge in paranoia, I’m not sure it’ll look better. But I can hope that a broken Republican Party (not broken in the sense that it’ll go away, but broken like the Democrats became in the sixties with different factions in the party irreconcilably at each other’s throats) would be an improvement for the nation.

  155. 155.

    Cermet

    March 2, 2016 at 1:44 pm

    @Gerald: AS a strong supporter of President Obama and believer that he has accomplished much with little, I think you have gone rather “over-the-to” in your praise. To say the least – yes, remembered for a long time (but not necessarily centuries) for being the U.S. of Amerika’s first African-amerikan President he will be fondly remembered for much of what he did achieve.

  156. 156.

    singfoom

    March 2, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mitt-romney-speech-2016-gop-race

    Oh please please, FSM, let Mittens jump into the race. Trump vs. Mittens would be a glorious battle royale.

  157. 157.

    gex

    March 2, 2016 at 1:46 pm

    @Elizabelle: I’m not convinced that is a coincidental choice of words.

  158. 158.

    Chris

    March 2, 2016 at 1:46 pm

    @MattF:
    @LAO:

    In re both of these, I always wonder if any of them understand what their insistence that America’s a “Christian nation founded on Christian values” sounds like to people who’ve spent two thousand years enduring life in various nations that identified that way.

  159. 159.

    Chyron HR

    March 2, 2016 at 1:47 pm

    @chopper:

    why anybody trying to get the obama coalition to come out and vote for them would shit on the last 7 years is beyond me.

    Because he has too much integrity to compromise his principles by cozying up to Obama to pander to black voters.

    I mean, you know, the hypothetical candidate we’re talking about does. Hypothetically.

  160. 160.

    Betty Cracker

    March 2, 2016 at 1:47 pm

    @PsiFighter37: There ain’t enough popcorn in the world!

  161. 161.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    March 2, 2016 at 1:48 pm

    @chopper:

    I know – every time she mentioned Obama, cheers went up and USA USA chants! It was great! Jeebus, the left has as many dumbfucks as the right, just about different things. The true revolutionary act now, in this racist as fuck country, is for the future old white woman president to embrace the current younger black man president and all of his accomplishments. I don’t know of a more symbolic, revolutionary act than that as a giant fuck you to the party of old white racist sexist men.

  162. 162.

    beltane

    March 2, 2016 at 1:50 pm

    @Chris: We are watching the death throes of the post-Nixon incarnation of the Republican party. However, in a two-party system, the transformation of one party will always involve massive changes to the other party. I have no idea what the political landscape will look like in 20 years time.

  163. 163.

    Chris

    March 2, 2016 at 1:50 pm

    @singfoom:

    Romney would have the life span of a duck in a paper shredder.

    Which is why it should totally happen.

  164. 164.

    chopper

    March 2, 2016 at 1:50 pm

    @Ready:

    “american soldiers are committing suicide by the thousands outside the gates of baghdad”.

  165. 165.

    different-church-lady

    March 2, 2016 at 1:50 pm

    @pamelabrown53: I know: what the hell makes him think Trump would sell out whitey?

  166. 166.

    Elizabelle

    March 2, 2016 at 1:52 pm

    Way cool: President and Mrs. Obama will headline SXSW in Austin, first visit by a sitting CIC and FLOTUS.

    South by Southwest (SXSW), the annual tech and music festival in Austin, Texas, has announced two of its main speakers this year: Barack and Michelle Obama.

    They will be the first sitting president and first lady to participate in the 30-year old festival, which drew more than 80,000 attendees last year.

    The president will take part in a keynote conversation at SXSW Interactive on 11 March, during which he will sit down with Evan Smith, editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune.

    According to a statement, they will discuss “civic engagement in the 21st century before an audience of creators, early adopters and entrepreneurs who are defining the future of our connected lives”.

    Mrs. Obama will keynote on Let Girls Learn on March 16.

    SXSW runs March 11-20. Their website.

    Excellent way to motivate and interact with young voters and other people who care about the future.

  167. 167.

    beltane

    March 2, 2016 at 1:53 pm

    @singfoom: Yes, Mittbot, unlike Rubiobot, is a true believer in his own awesomeness. He may fail but he will not choke.

  168. 168.

    Mike Dukakis

    March 2, 2016 at 1:53 pm

    @boatboy_srq: Have you even bothered to look it up? Who is the anti-science party now? Facts are scary.

  169. 169.

    Linnaeus

    March 2, 2016 at 1:54 pm

    @beltane:

    I just hope we don’t see the 1850s over again. Well, we probably won’t for a lot of reasons, but I can’t say whether that bodes for ill or for good.

  170. 170.

    Barbara

    March 2, 2016 at 1:55 pm

    I think the response to Trump’s vaunted wall is as follows: A wall won’t keep people like you from abusing the law to bring in foreign workers instead of hiring Americans. Trump isn’t subtle and the only way to deal with it is to redirect it back at him.

    Also, I got pointed to this link at Vox regarding the rise of an authoritarian interest group in the GOP. It’s too complicated to summarize, but it gives you a good idea of how the Republican Party has well and truly fucked itself by appealing so strongly to law and order and traditional values. http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism

    But how do you stop it or at least keep it from metastasizing?

  171. 171.

    Chyron HR

    March 2, 2016 at 1:58 pm

    @Mike Dukakis:

    If the KKK is a liberal organization, why are they endorsing the Republican candidate?

  172. 172.

    sm*t cl*de

    March 2, 2016 at 1:58 pm

    If it is divisive of Van Jones to exclude terrorist-defending gobshites like Jeffrey Lord from the ranks of decent people, then bring on the divisiveness.

  173. 173.

    Immanentize

    March 2, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: so well put

  174. 174.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 2, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Way cool: President and Mrs. Obama will headline SXSW in Austin, first visit by a sitting CIC and FLOTUS.

    Whatever. Bernie would go to Burning Man.

  175. 175.

    TallPete

    March 2, 2016 at 2:07 pm

    As much as I am horrified by Trump – that poop-flinging, racist buffoon – I am glad for his candidacy. For decades the (R)s have managed this oddly stitched together alliance of Fiscal conservative who are business-friendly establishment, the shrinking deranged religious right, and all the low-information Paleo-conservatives not in the first two groups. It could be my misreading but it seems to me the groups that make up the (D)s voting bloc have always had more in common on the issues than the (R)s.

    It remains to be seen whether the Republican party permanently splits into factions or if the Fiscal conservative-establishment types will give in and embrace the worst aspects of a Trump presidency in order to keep their hands on the levers of power. I know the answer is the latter – it’s already happening despite the panic, but I still hold out hope for the former.

  176. 176.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 2, 2016 at 2:09 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I would pay to watch Larry David’s Bernie Sanders go to Burning Man.

    LD needs to do a short season of Bern Your Enthusiasm.

  177. 177.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 2, 2016 at 2:16 pm

    @MattF: They’re thinking in terms of the Reagan coalition. Reagan was running in a world which was already very demographically different from today.

  178. 178.

    gogol's wife

    March 2, 2016 at 2:32 pm

    I lived through the year the Goldwater ran. I’m hoping it will be something similar. But I’m not TOO hopeful.

  179. 179.

    boatboy_srq

    March 2, 2016 at 2:35 pm

    @Elizabelle: How about Embrace The Rebel. Far more honest.

  180. 180.

    El Caganer

    March 2, 2016 at 2:35 pm

    @Peale: He’s repaired, rebooted, and has passed his Turing test. All the trees are just the right height!

  181. 181.

    Emma

    March 2, 2016 at 2:50 pm

    @LAO: They’ve been holding Robert Byrd against us for decades and we’re not even related, so, hell, yeah.

  182. 182.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 2:57 pm

    @Chris:

    I always wonder if any of them understand what their insistence that America’s a “Christian nation founded on Christian values” sounds like to people who’ve spent two thousand years enduring life in various nations that identified that way.
    It feels very welcoming and I never roll my eyes or shake my head or die a little bit on the inside.

    Seriously though — I appreciate it because I know I will never become a Republican.

  183. 183.

    Brachiator

    March 2, 2016 at 2:58 pm

    @Cacti:

    Is there ever a good time, in your estimation, to call out the racism of Republican candidates?

    Or should protecting white feelings always be the alpha concern?

    Your posts on the subject always seem to indicate the latter.

    You have misread my posts.

    You can call out racists all you like. The liberal fantasy is that they will skulk away in shame and embarrassment. The reality is that they don’t fade away, and rarely feel any shame.

    Trump stood and watched while people at his rallies insulted and assaulted nonwhites in attendance. This is reported in the media. The clips are shown all over the place, plugged into social media, and applauded by Trump true believers.

    I suppose you could have news anchors bleat, “Mr Trump, shame on you!” Do you really think it would make a dime’s worth of difference? Based on what?

    Many Trump supporters are racist and have been kicked to the curb economically. The two situations are not mutually exclusive. What makes them especially dangerous is that they have been exploited by mainstream Republicans and now by Trump, led to believe that they are the only ones whose problems are legitimate, and everyone else is an undeserving moocher or a terrorist.

    You can call them out or dismiss them, but that is not going to make them go away or make them less dangerous.

  184. 184.

    superpredators4hillary

    March 2, 2016 at 3:01 pm

    @different-church-lady: Methinks you and I could make dreadful music together. <3

  185. 185.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 3:02 pm

    @Emma: Hey, you want to imitate and emulate Republicans go right ahead.

  186. 186.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    March 2, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    @Chyron HR: Because Trump isn’t a True Conservative™ in the Red State mold.

  187. 187.

    Emma

    March 2, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    @LAO: at this point, in this election I will do what it takes to win. The stakes are a little too high to ignore possible advantages. And now I’ll go sit in the bad persons’ bench with the others.

  188. 188.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 3:21 pm

    @Emma: My point wasn’t to disavow dirty tricks — I’m a god damn criminal defense attorney — I own that “bad person’s bench” you’re sitting on. But on this. the voters don’t care that he didn’t disavow David Dukes or the KKK — they are not going to care that maybe his father was member of the Klan in 1927. We need something better to beat him over the head with.

  189. 189.

    LAO

    March 2, 2016 at 3:32 pm

    @Emma: Didn’t mean to sound so strident in comment 187. Going to dial back the crazy.

  190. 190.

    O. Felix Culpa

    March 2, 2016 at 3:46 pm

    @gogol’s wife: I remember the Goldwater campaign too. Although still a (relatively) wee tyke at the time, the Republican slogan and Democratic rejoinder made a big impression. For Goldwater: “In his heart he knows he’s right.” From us Democratic street urchins: “But in his guts he knows he’s nuts.”

    P.S. Thanks for the nym compliment downthread. (Blushes demurely.)

  191. 191.

    Brachiator

    March 2, 2016 at 3:55 pm

    @Cacti:

    Is there ever a good time, in your estimation, to call out the racism of Republican candidates? Or should protecting white feelings always be the alpha concern?

    You misread my post.

    You can call out racists all you like. The fantasy is that they will skulk away in shame and embarrassment. The reality is that they don’t fade away, and rarely feel any shame.

    Many Trump supporters are racist and have been kicked to the curb economically. The two situations are not mutually exclusive. What makes them especially dangerous is that they have been exploited by mainstream Republicans and now by Trump, led to believe that they are the only ones whose problems are legitimate, and everyone else is an undeserving moocher or a terrorist.

    You can call them out or dismiss them, but that is not going to make them go away or make them less dangerous.

  192. 192.

    Elizabelle

    March 2, 2016 at 4:12 pm

    @boatboy_srq: I think CNN was counting on many readers’ minds to make that connection, or even see it first.

    Even finding a Missing! Plane! is not going to get them off their Trump tit.

  193. 193.

    gogol's wife

    March 2, 2016 at 4:13 pm

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I remember it as “In your heart you know he’s right [or nuts, if a Democrat].” But Kansas City may have had different slogans.

  194. 194.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    March 2, 2016 at 4:43 pm

    @Gerald: I was thinking just the same things when I heard a BBC interview with a couple of voters from Texas. One voted for Trump because “we need to get someone in there to run the government like a business”. The obvious question was, “You know, Republican George W. Bush was proud to be the first President with an MBA. His VP, Dick Cheney, also was a high-powered businessman. That didn’t work out too well. Why do you think it would be better to have a businessman running things now?”

    Of course, the question wasn’t asked… You’re right – it’s like W never happened.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  195. 195.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    March 2, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    @gogol’s wife:

    “In your heart, you know he’s right” – for Republicans
    “In your guts, you know he’s nuts” – for Democrats

  196. 196.

    The Lodger

    March 2, 2016 at 5:02 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Or perhaps Berning Man.

  197. 197.

    Plantsmantx

    March 2, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    @singfoom: I know this Bun B guy hasn’t endorsed anyone, but I still can’t help comparing him to Sanders’ Negro Whisperer, “Killer Mike”. He completely outclasses “Killer Mike”.

  198. 198.

    J R in WV

    March 2, 2016 at 6:01 pm

    @LAO:

    No, not when the descendants show no signs of the elders’ infection by hatred, not when the younger generation is open to the equality of all peoples. When one KKK member is followed by a child who foments racial hatred, we are all allowed to call out his hatred, and how it follows from the father’s hatred.

    So, your point is mistaken.

  199. 199.

    PurpleGirl

    March 2, 2016 at 7:08 pm

    Reagan Democrats is a catchy name but I don’t believe they exist anymore. These voters don’t vote for Democrats at all anymore. They are solidly Republican, more than 30 years after Reagan. They vote for Republicans at the local and state level, so in what sense could they be Democrats?

  200. 200.

    JosieJ (not Josie)

    March 2, 2016 at 8:14 pm

    @singfoom: I honestly don’t see what Rmoney could say that would influence the race in any positive way. If he actually jumped into the race, what voters would he get? Certainly not the ones going for Drumpf–they hate the idea of an “establishment” candidate and he’s the very definition of the word.

    If he’s not jumping in, but merely commenting, I can’t see what he’d have to say that would sway anybody, least of all Drumpf–all Drumpf would have to do would be to (correctly) call him a “loser” and it would be game over. And Rmoney never struck me as being all that quick to come up with a witty comeback, or avoid painting himself into a corner. “Please proceed, Governor,” indeed!

  201. 201.

    mclaren

    March 3, 2016 at 1:44 am

    This offers yet another reason why Trump will lose the general election.

    Democrats are going to have a field day with attack ads based on Trump’s racist eruptions. It might not hurt him with his supporters, but they only amount of 40% of the Republican party. The rest of the electorate won’t vote for that kind of shite.

  202. 202.

    mclaren

    March 3, 2016 at 1:48 am

    @PurpleGirl:

    Reagan Democrats is a catchy name but I don’t believe they exist anymore.

    You are correct, ma’am.

    George W. Bush destroyed the Reagan Democrats. His failed garbage fire of a presidency showed that the blue-dog wing of the Democratic party got it catastrophically fatally lethally wrong, and that the consequences of Reagan-Democrat policies are so horrific that the entire Reagan Democrat wing of the party got wiped out.

    It was crushed. The War in Iraq, the global financial meltdown in 2009, the endless lying and corruption in the Bush maladminstration, the Terry Schiavo debacle, the Hurricane Katrina horror… They all showed that Democrats can no longer shrug and say “Well, we disagree, but let’s give a Republican president his due.”

    After the Dubya presidency, Democrats now realize they must die on the hill of opposing any Republican presidency. If we all fall face-down in the mud and pile up into a mountain of corpses, that’s the way it has to be. No compromise. Splitting the difference with a Republican president is no longer an option.

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