Donald Trump has asked why I did not speak at the Democratic convention. He said he would like to hear from me. Here is my answer to Donald Trump: Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart.
Donald Trump said I had nothing to say. I do. […]
Responding to Trump’s latest statement, Khan said, “This is faked empathy.”
“What he said originally — that defines him . . . people are upset with him. He realizes, and his advisers feel, that [his original statement] was a stupid mistake. That proves that this person is void of empathy. He is unfit for the stewardship of this great country. You think he will empathize with this country, with the suffering of this country’s poor people? He showed his true colors when he disrespected this country’s most honorable mother. . . . The snake oil he is selling, and my patriotic, decent Americans are falling for that. Republicans are falling for that. And I can only appeal to them. Reconsider. Repudiate. It’s a moral obligation. A person void of empathy for the people he wishes to lead cannot be trusted with that leadership. To vote is a trust. And it cannot be placed in the wrong hands.”
In response to Trump’s attack on his wife, Khan said that the Republican nominee’s words were “typical of a person without a soul.”
Khizr also calls out Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Any journalist who gets in front of those two craven jackasses in the next 98 days and doesn’t ask them to repudiate Trump isn’t doing their job. Ditto for all the down-ticket Republicans who haven’t repudiated Trump yet.
Emma
I’m getting worried about them. The rats must be out in force by now.
scav
To go for the obvious, Yes we Khan.
Baud
So all of them, Katie?
Trentrunner
The biggest (and only) break the GOP has caught this week is that Congress is on vacation, so it’s harder for media to confront them.
Not an excuse, though. As of now, not one GOP member of Congress has repudiated Trump’s insulting the Khans.
MikeBoyScout
Somebody who is very close to where are right now is not yet registered to vote in the November election. You can change this.
We can make the change we believe in.
If we all do our little bit we can win the whole kit and caboodle.
Yes.We.Can
updated: or as scav just said, Yes.We.Khan
schrodinger's cat
Its time to tie the Orange albatross around the necks of elected Republicans. All of them.
dmsilev
@Emma: I’m sure we’ll be told any day now that their third cousin twice removed once was sighted less than 500 miles away from someone accused of being a member of ISIS.
BR
Even the Khans should probably stop at this point — Trump’s camp will eventually bait them into responding to something in a way that can be spun to Trump’s advantage.
dmsilev
@Trentrunner: It’s not really a break, because it means that the only person the media can go to for comment is Trump. And, well, you know.
JPL
Trump’s comments about Putin, Ukraine and Crimea are the most damaging part of the interview. The comments about the Khan family, shows that he has “no soul”, but the other comments point to the direction that he would take in foreign policy. The Kremlin newspaper is already posting his support of Crimea.
trollhattan
This is good news for John McCain.
debbie
The political ads are writing themselves.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
And to think that months ago, people were telling us, “Once he’s gotten the nomination, he’ll begin to shift to the middle. He’s only behaving this way to get votes among the right wing primary voters.” No. He was campaigning that way because this is the guy he is and, sad to say, always will be. He can’t change. This is the biggest advantage Democrats have this year. He can’t help himself.
Trentrunner
@BR: I know what you mean, but I’ll take the Khans’ judgment over Trump’s any day. They will know when to stop.
Walker
My Polish wife is up in arms about the Crimea comments. There are way too many Poles in this country for this to be a good idea for trump,
rikyrah
The Khans have NFTG.
N-F-T-G
PigDog
I am nearing the point where I want to completely excise everyone in my life who votes for Trump or Vegan Sarah Palin. I am torn about this because on the one hand, such voters are despicable and/or completely impervious to evidence, but on the other hand I feel hypocritical by isolating myself into an echo chamber.
Anyone else having this dilemma?
rikyrah
Why ‘white trash’ Americans are flocking to Donald Trump
Kyle Smith
…Mapping the politics of Vance’s clannish, resentful neighbors is challenging, even exasperating. Hillbillies pride themselves on distinguishing the deserving poor from the lazy moochers, but Vance points out that it’s a fuzzy line. His grandmother would lash out at the government for doing too much, then for doing too little. She’d ask why society could afford aircraft carriers but not enough drug-rehab centers. She’d complain that the rich weren’t paying their fair share. But she and J.D. would be just as angry at people who paid for T-bone steaks with food stamps and hated the idea of the government using Section 8 housing vouchers so that poor people could move in next door — poor people “like us,” Vance says. She’d say people wouldn’t have so many problems if they were forced to work for their benefit checks.
Baud
@PigDog: Nope. No dilemma here.
Anya
@BR: I agree with you. I also worry about them. But at this point they’ve said all that need to be said and Trump is not worthy of going back and forth with them. Also, this distracts from his latest comments about Putin, Ukraine and Crimea.
dmsilev
We should also note Trump’s latest response. On Twitter, because of course:
Keep digging, Donald, keep digging.
Soylent Green
Well the comments on that WaPo interview are the usual cesspool of hate. “Don’t read the comments” should be a warning label on every story.
JPL
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): This week in Trumpland
You are correct, he can’t change.
MJS
If in very late October Hillary is significantly up in the polls, Ryan et al may get up enough courage to repudiate Trump publicly in an attempt to save the Senate. But that’s the only scenario where I see it happening
singfoom
Have we gone through all these threads mentioning the Khans without a Kirk meme:
So I made one.
Khhaann
Also, Drumpf is a sociopath without empathy. He should be scorned by all. Unfortunately some people seem to admire people without empathy. I have never understood why. Everyone have a great Sunday!
PsiFighter37
@BR: I think this weekend is pretty much that point – but it is up to Democrats to continue hammering away at Ferrethead continuously.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@rikyrah:
The Wrath of Khans. Mr. Khan is a lawyer – my guess is he’s a litigator, and he’s trying his case in the court of public opinion. He’s on a mission.
rikyrah
ABC News PoliticsVerified account
@ABCPolitics
Gen. John Allen calls Trump’s response to Khan family a “shameful thing”: “I simply couldn’t believe it” #ThisWeek
scav
@Trentrunner: [ETA Exactly.] They are independent people, not agents of any political party, and they will say what they need to say. Seem to be doing it very adequately. They may need us at their backs, but they do not need our instructions.
Villago Delenda Est
Khizr Khan is a great American.
JPL
@Walker: Yup.. Normally, those comments would disqualify a nominee, but this year is unusual. Republican leadership is breathing a sign of relief, but I’m sure, the Hillary campaign will speak to that.
Hungry Joe
Trump’s response makes me think of a line from “Alibi Ike,” a Ring Lardner story in which a guy was talking himself into trouble: “His play was to shut up and he didn’t know how to make it.”
rikyrah
Pat Fuller
@bannerite
Trump Busted For Huge Lie About Helping To Build The Vietnam War Memorial
Anoniminous
Trump Crimea’s comments mean immigrants and 1st generationers from Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria … the former Warsaw Pact counties IOW … will be voting for Clinton. Together they make up quite a number of votes, they are located in states Trump needs to flip, e.g., Pennsylvania, and now he won’t.
EconWatcher
I thought the really lingering story from the Dem convention would be the brutal beat down delivered by Bloomberg. But that was really nothing compared to this attempted smearing of a grieving family. As always, Trump finds a way to smear himself in filth far worse than any critic could. Call it a gift, I guess.
singfoom
Messed up that link:
Khaan
rikyrah
I, Hoebot.
@eclecticbrotha
How Barack Obama taught Democrats to tell their American story
Anya
@PigDog: Michael Hirsh of Politico asked on Twitter: It’s time to ask honestly if it’s possible to support Trump and still be a decent, normal, intelligent human being? And my answer is a big NO. You can be an ill-informed, unintelligent but decent person to support Trump because you only hear: Make America great again. But you can’t be decent and intelligent and still support Trump.
wormtown
@rikyrah: exactly!
Feudalism Now!
@rikyrah: They buried their fucks in Arlington. They are now filled with righteous fury and purpose.
Peale
@rikyrah: ok. I’m pretty sure that he did once lend his name to save the Central Park ice skating rink 30 years ago. That’s something…one big donation in 70 years. It’s a trend. If he lives to be 140 we might see him order his maid to donate a dollar to the food pantry at the grocery store.
Anoniminous
@rikyrah:
And they will slice and dice Trump simply by being themselves.
Robin G.
@PigDog: That’s my daily dilemma, too. I’m starting to actively lose Bernie friends. (My fave was the friend who, after I explained that I would literally not survive the repeal of ACA, responsed with “I’m sorry those are your experiences, but my conscience” blah blah blah.
That being said, I seem to be making some progress with soft conservatives — mostly telling them it’s not about the GOP (not true, but when faced with an extinction-level event you don’t point fingers), they can always vote against Clinton in 2020, this is bigger than all of us, etc. The patriotism of the DNC had a big effect. I really think we can peel off a lot of people this time around, and if we’re able to shake a bit of that tribilism out of them, we might have a less binary country in the future.
In other words, there’s a lot of John Coles circa Terry Schiavo right now. We should snap them up while we can. I’d rather engage with them than Vegan Sarah Palin supporters.
Baud
@Robin G.: Agreed. This election, we learn who are friends are.
D58826
I wonder, if when the history of this election year’s is written, the Khans will be the inflection point that changed history. Of all the words written, tweets sent, images posted, their quiet dignity seems to have hit home. (or at least I hope it has).
BR
@Robin G.:
I think there’s a way of engaging with the Stein-leaners. Just talk about how you want to support someone who has really made a difference in peoples lives. Ralph Nader, for all his warts, did that. Hillary Clinton, for all her warts, did that as well. Trump? Stein? Neither has helped anyone, done anything, or made any significant difference in others’ lives. So if the Green party was running Nader or someone with a real track record, it’d make sense.
raven
@rikyrah: I hate the fucker but he was talking abut the NYC Vietnam Vets Memorial.
Anoniminous
Trump’s skills in TV promotion and in Reality TV that got him the GOP nomination are killing him in the general. And we’re barely into the first week of the campaign. I can’t imagine the situation and polling after Obama gets through campaigning in October.
Villago Delenda Est
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): This leopard cannot change his stripes.
Villago Delenda Est
@Feudalism Now!: THIS
EconWatcher
@D58826:
This is indeed horrific. But let’s remember that he also basically called John McCain a coward for being captured and tortured (in a war that Trump evaded), and attacked a federal judge based purely on his race (a judge who had faced death threats as a federal prosecutor going after drug cartels). At this point, it’s a mug’s game to try to gauge what could be so outrageous that it would finally finish him off.
ETA: You know who needs to be relentlessly questioned about this attack on the Khans? John McCain. Reporters should ask him every day until November.
dmsilev
@D58826: I’ve seen some people analogize it to “at long last, have you left no sense of decency?”. A moment and a comment that crystallizes everything that is wrong with the person and sums it all up.
MattF
@PigDog: Take a look at Propane Jane’s Twitter timeline. There’s places that you’re not seeing.
Villago Delenda Est
They’re doing their jobs. Going after ratings. Pushing the horse race narrative. Doing the will of their corporate paymasters.
Pursuing truth and informing the public is not their job. Selling Buicks is.
Our media model needs to be destroyed and replaced. It’s inherently corrupt.
BR
@EconWatcher:
Nothing will. There’s no low that won’t get him 40% of the vote. But if he ends up consistently 10% behind Clinton, he may fake a medical emergency or a golfing emergency or who knows what and drop out (my hope is that we end up with Clinton 50, Trump 40, Johnson 8, Stein 2).
gogol's wife
@PsiFighter37:
As far as I’m concerned they have a right to keep talking as long as they want.
I mentioned this before, but a hard-working server at our favorite restaurant, a Muslim from Srebrenica, went to take an order from a couple and the woman said (seriously), “Don’t blow us up.” It infuriated me. It’s time to fight back publicly.
TriassicSands
While I don’t want to discriminate against the mentally ill, I do think that certain afflictions should prevent some individuals from holding some jobs. For example, every prospective police officer should have to undergo screening and if they exhibit troubling psychological symptoms they should not be allowed to serve as police officers.
What is more important, I think it is time to start screening prospective presidential candidates. Certainly someone who is determined to be a sociopath (or to have strong sociopathic tendencies) should not be eligible to be president.
I’m calling on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to submit to psychiatric and psychological evaluation. I am confident that Clinton will do fine. I fully expect that Trump would fail miserably. If he’s not a sociopath, he’s doing the best impersonation of a sociopath I’ve ever seen. But perhaps Mr. Trump’s affliction is not sociopathy. It may be something even worse or perhaps a combination of ADHD and a poor upbringing has made him I vile, mean-spirited buffoon with the attention span of a gerbil. Whatever his problem, he is clearly not mentally healthy enough to serve as president and he should be eliminated as a candidate.
Wishful thinking. Sigh.
JMG
There’s a moment in every big con where the victims are still defending the con man after he’s either been busted or fled town with the loot. That’s where Trump’s non-complete asshole voters are now. They can’t repudiate him without admitting to the world and worse, to themselves, how badly they’ve been fooled.
Dave L
@Hungry Joe: Oh, God – love that book. Also contains one of the greatest short bits of dialogue in American literature: ” ‘Shut up,’ he explained.”
Citizen_X
That’s because she was busy deploying that absolutely lethal Death Glare. DEATH. GLARE. As she suggests, anyone could see that. Anyone who is not a sociopath, that is, which disqualifies Trump.
MattF
@JMG: ‘Getting out of town’ is always the last act of a con. But Trump is stuck in the here and now– and all the bluster, bellowing, and lying isn’t going to change that.
Villago Delenda Est
@JMG: The residents of Odgenville, Brockway, and North Haverbrook.
Karmus
Is that down-ticket or clown-ticket?
Dave L
@dmsilev: Problem is, this is already moment #47.
I have a feeling that the fever won’t break until after the election; Republicans always turn on their failed candidates.
sigaba
@rikyrah: Vance was interviewed on TAC last week, seems like a nice guy but a lot or “poor whites are the only people it’s okay to be bigoted against” talk. A lot of this seems to boil down to “these people have no coherent worldview and are owned by their resentments and suspicions of everything outside their little town and its up to you liberals to meet them half way.” Oh well.
@Anoniminous: One wonders if there will be only two kinds of people come November– people who hate Trump, and people who hate themselves.
EconWatcher
@JMG:
I actually think this is a big part of the problem now. Paul Ryan may well wish at this point that he’d dumped Trump earlier. But how does he do it now, without exposing himself as a coward and clown for not doing it before?
Like his buddy Putin, Trump has the soul of a blackmailer. I’m sure he senses that, with a very few exceptions like Ben Sasse, he’s got them all right where he wants them.
Irony Abounds
Late last night in the penthouse suite of Trump Tower a scream was heard from Cheeto Jesus:
KHANNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!
Yellowdog
@PigDog: No. Despicable scum.
Zinsky
When you say that you hope other Republicans “repudiate” Trump, I hope you mean, “give him a rectal probe using an ice auger”. Thank you.
hovercraft
@BR:
This is very personal to them, it’s about their son who died a hero for his country. They feel that Trump is maligning his memory, saying that muslim immigration should be stopped, would mean that he sacrificed himself for nothing. If America is not an open, welcoming nation that does not give preference to race or creed, then what was he fighting for. He was fighting for the principles set forth in the constitution and the bill of rights, and if Trump were to prevail and do what he says he will, then their son Captain H. Khan, gave his life for nothing. There is nothing that Trump or the counter sniffers can say that will make them back down. This is about honoring the fight their son was engaged in, and ultimately gave his life for.
Schlemazel Khan
@Dave L:
I am well prepared to learn on November 9th that Drumpf was not really a Republican and real Republicans never supported him.
The name of that tune is “The I Was Not a Nazi Polka“
BR
@EconWatcher:
I don’t think it’s hard — Paul Ryan can just say “blah blah blah Trump said before was bad, but this new thing is a bridge too far”. He just needs to make a big deal about how the newest thing was the line in the sand that Ryan cares too much about to stay quiet. It’s not hard.
JPL
Things we know, Trump is not a deep thinker, and he is surrounded by folks, who want closer ties with Putin. Did he hire these guys, or did they hire him?
I’m serious.. Why did he choose Manafort? Flynn has been a guest on Russian TV, and Carter Page has called for a closer relationship with Putin.
hovercraft
@EconWatcher:
I would not be surprised if they show up in commercials this fall.
Robin G.
@BR: You must be having more luck than I am :-/
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Avik Roy, former Romney staffer, says he may write in someone like Marco Rubio or Rick Perry.
Haven’t both of them endorsed Trump?
Karmus
@PigDog:
All of us, I think, Katie. I try to remember that if people knew what I (think I) know, then of course to vote for not-Hillary is stupid, inexcusable, insane; and it isn’t as easy as just dumping the info on them, because people become attached to their ideas. Then there is the whole admitting one might have been wrong. Tribalism, also, too. And one can’t forget the racism/misogyny/etc. that often they won’t even admit to themselves. It’s a mess.
I guess it just takes, patience, persistence, and knowing that, sadly, more than a few will never come around. Just keep on believing and fight the good fight. My two cents, FWTW.
different-church-lady
I just realized that the stage is being set for the worst concession speech in US political history.
MattF
@JPL: Trump and Manafort’s crew have agendas that mesh well.
Mike J
OT: main ramp collapses at the Rio sailing venue. Good luck launching those boats.
BR
@Robin G.:
Not too much — I haven’t convinced any to switch their vote, but at least have gotten them to stop going on and on about how evil Hillary is.
I think for younger voters who are being told that it doesn’t matter, the best strategy is focusing on Pence’s homophobia (the GOP’s homophobia generally). He’s the most homophobic governor in the nation. LGBT rights are the most recently won, and still a battle, and also are a big dividing line between young and old. And Pence has been proudly talking about what sorts of supreme court justices he’d put forward.
MattF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Roy’s going to have to do better than that. The RNC policy teat is going to dry up after the election.
schrodinger's cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Avik Roy can go fuck himself. He will always be a second class coolie to the Republicans, whose interests he serves.
hovercraft
@Peale:
No he didn’t, he offered to do it and said he was going to donate his services. He went to a bunch of subcontractors and suppliers and got them to donate their goods and services. And then as is his m.o. he paid himself for his contributions and took the credit. So he got all the publicity and left everyone else pissed off because they did the actual work pro bono, while he got all the credit.
BR
@different-church-lady:
You mean Trump? I don’t think he will concede. He will gripe about a “rigged” election and if it’s even close in a couple of states, he’ll file lawsuits. We could be looking at a constitutional crisis this fall even if he loses.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Dave L:
I don’t know. There’s a whiff of ‘only Nixon could go to China’ in the outrage from normally reliable Republican apologists on twitter that seems to be solidifying against GOP leadership. I think Ryan and McConnell and other Republicans will be feeling enormous pressure to do something about Trump – this Kahn/Putin one two punch thing is really a bridge too far. I think they understand the best thing would be for Trump to be thrown into a smoking crater sooner than later if they ever hope to have a Republican party that survives this election. Trump has fumbled away every positive thing they’ve used to win in the past, in one week, leaving only the hate and bigotry.
Soylent Green
Trump never really wanted the job and surely doesn’t want to lose badly. Suppose to save face he drops out in September, then what? Does the GOP hold another convention and pick someone electable such as Kasich? Or would they have to take Cruz the runner up? Or would the nomination have to pass to Pence because he is already on the ticket? Seriously, I don’t know how this would work.
schrodinger's cat
@BR: So what do you propose? We all hide and cower in fear and let him win instead?
Doug R
@PigDog: Call out the Trump voters and explain he is a racist fascist misogynist asshole. If you do it forcefully enough, they’ll block you. Dilemma solved. Or you can hide post and see less from that person.
different-church-lady
@schrodinger’s cat: You got three minutes to clean that up, by my clock.
JPL
@MattF: Who called who? I just can’t imagine Trump saying, hey that Manafort guy did great in Ukraine, so let’s hire him.
Manafort did work for other candidates, but he’s had so many overseas ties lately, I’m curious. If asked at a press conference, Trump would answer.
BR
@Soylent Green:
Yeah, it’d be a mess. A fun mess. But I don’t think Trump will drop out until the polls look really bad for him, and we’re not there yet (and he hasn’t been tossed overboard by Paul Ryan yet).
Karmus
@PigDog:
ETA to above, sorry, I didn’t really address the central question. Excise them from your life? I don’t know. I really don’t have much to say to the people in my life who reveal themselves as… that. Certain ones I may attempt gentle guidance, others I just don’t go there, still others I shine on completely. It’s a case-by-case thing, it seems. But, yes. I feel you there.
Schlemazel Khan
@BR:
And this scares the living hell out of me. The morans that believe him are heavily from the “ballot box or bullet box” school of stupidity. They will make the Bernie dead-enders look like a preschool outing as they consider their “second amendment remedies”
BR
@schrodinger’s cat:
No, quite the opposite. We need to beat him so resoundingly that there can be no doubt that Trump and his loathsome ideas have been rejected by the American people.
That’s why I have been telling folks here in California that we need every vote, even though we’re not a swing state. We need to run up the score in the popular vote as well.
rikyrah
David Frum ✔ @davidfrum
“Let’s see if we can goad Donald into attacking a war hero’s mother.”
“No way, not even Donald Trump would …”
“Let’s just see.”
10:28 AM – 31 Jul 2016
JPL
@schrodinger’s cat: They asked what his opposition to Hillary was and he said the Supreme Court. but then admitted that you can’t trust Trump to appoint a conservative.
Doug R
@dmsilev: The Howard Stern interview where Trump supports the Iraq invasion
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MattF: I suspect the Kochs and people like them will always fund a place for people like Roy.
@schrodinger’s cat: Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann haven’t written (yet another) piece about ‘asymmetric polarization” and the rise of Trump. They don’t mention, as no one (that I’ve see) has ever pointed out on TV, that the Romney campaign brought Donald Trump in as a surrogate precisely because of birtherism. They don’t mention that Paul Ryan turned immigration reform over to Steve King. They do link the Garland obstruction, “new nullification”, to the rise of Trumpism caused by Republicans.
Schlemazel Khan
@Soylent Green:
The party centeral committee would meet & decide. They might just elevate Pence as it is the easiest with a built in excuse that keeps opposing forces (Cruz, Rubio, Kasich) from having a good excuse to be upset. They could go with the 2nd place finisher, Cruz, but as noted above that will piss off a lot of people. Or they could go with the Kochwhore Rubio but I thnk he is smart enough to say no.
Doug R
@Anoniminous: Don’t forget Ukraine, where my Dad was born.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
p.a.
Peaceful Republicans please ‘refudiate’. *crickets*
Brachiator
@EconWatcher:
The Republicans can’t dump Trump. They decided to go all in, and there is no turning back. Who would be their replacement candidate? Ted Cruz?
Dave L
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They have. And Avik Roy has moved on:
A Republican intellectual explains why the Republican Party is going to die
Tokyokie
@Villago Delenda Est: Especially after Uday and Qusay kilt it!
http://static.ilykecdn.com/uploads/2015/12/18/sub/72830-large-267219.jpg
SiubhanDuinne
@Karmus:
I always love that ambiguity with lower-case d and lower-case cl in sans-serif. Another good one is (with reference to a provocative headline at a website) “They’re just trying to get clicks.”
hovercraft
Fucking media, Alex Witt is having a segment about why Clinton is not leading by more, Trump is bad and scary so why isn’t she leading by more? No one on the panel points out that the country is 50 / 50, and that the media is bound and determined to keep the race close. During the DNC it was he got this great bounce, he’s pulled ahead, now it’s will she get a bounce, and if she does, why is it not bigger. Last week, if she tries to re-invent herself will anyone believe her, she should show her human side, now, she was still the same old Hillary who no one likes, she filled in some detail but was essentially the same person, she still shrieks. (I know I’m not supposed to say this but she shrieks, yes it’s a double standard- Jonathan Alter), and people don’t like it. So when the story should be about this jackass being a jackass, it’s turned into he’s terrible, but so is he because she’s not beating the jackass by more.
schrodinger's cat
@different-church-lady: In British India, you could not ride in the First Class compartment in a train even if you could afford it if you were an Indian. No matter how educated or wealthy you were, you were a coolie fit to ride in the second class at best.
Anoniminous
@Soylent Green:
Different states have different filing deadlines for a candidate to be on the ballot. For down ticket races it’s generally a case of “Tough” if a candidate withdraws or cannot accept the office for whatever reason, like death. There’s never been a case of a Presidential candidate withdrawing after their name has been submitted. IANAL so I don’t know how it would play out.
Schlemazel Khan
@Brachiator:
They may decide to cut their losses & try to save the House and Senate. Losing Drumpf woul give them a fig leaf to try and hide behind. They can build for 2020.
Ifr I had to bet I’d say they would go with Pence simply because that would offend the fewest number of people inside the GOP. “He was there, best suited to carry on. What else could we do?” If they pick Cruz than Rubio & Kasich people would be whiny about not getting picked plus Cruz does not have an operation going. But I don’t expect Drumpf to quit unless he gets a giant golden parachute.
ruemara
@PigDog: No. The harm Trump would do to so many people, that’s obvious. If they’re serious about voting Trump, they’re bigots. It doesn’t matter how nice they are to me, they are bigots. If they find Hillary too distasteful and are voting Stein, they are also voting Trump. It means they don’t care about the reality of who’s affected, they want to stamp their feet and waste their vote on a stupid, anti-vaxxer who literally crawls out of the woodwork every 4 years to play spoiler. No. I ditched one “friend” who’s Bernie fervor led him to harass me for nearly 9 straight hours, while tossing out every black surrogate like this was PokeNegro. I got 3 more that can’t contain their deep emotional pain over Bernie’s loss and being forced to vote Clinton, so they have to whine about it every day. All it says to me is, “I can’t see past my own face”. I don’t need people like that in my life. And the gay one who can’t stand Hilz so he wants Stein, while being an Islamaphobe, yeah, definitely don’t need that shit.
Karmus
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ah yes, clown clicks. Love it.
Brachiator
@Walker:
on her most recent program, Rachel Maddow claimed that the only item that Trump demanded be removed from the Republican platform was opposition to Russian aggression in the Ukraine.
Here we go. From a Washington Post story.
People should post this on their FB pages to their Trump loving friends. This does not sound like America First.
Dave L
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Lord know, I hope you’re right. But that outrage you’re describing belongs to a fairly narrow piece of the Republican Party – the writer/pundit class and people who care more about foreign policy than taxes or immigration. They were powerless to stop Trump’s nomination in the first place, and I can’t see Ryan/McConnell responding to them now.
The really interesting question is, what happens after the election? Trump will slink off to his next marketing opportunity, but Trumpism will still be around. Will the conservatives giving vent to their outrage now be able to take the party back after November? – Possibly, especially if Trump loses by more than McCain and Romney did. But I’d bet that the GOP has become a purely white nationalist party for the foreseeable future.
MattF
@Dave L: There’s a serious question how Roy managed to miss the Republican party’s racism, how he persuaded himself that racism wasn’t sitting at the core of Republican politics. You have to avert your gaze from so many things…
rikyrah
Phuck.outta.here.
Trump: Romney lost in 2012 because of tax returns
Source: The Hill
Donald Trump said on Sunday that Mitt Romney lost the presidential race in 2012 because of his tax returns.
“He waited ’til September to give ’em, just before the election. They made him look so bad. It was so unfair,” Trump said of the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee on ABC’s This Week. “I actually think he didn’t lose because of the 47 percent . I think he lost because of a couple of really minor items in a tax return, where he did nothing wrong. … It is unfair.”
Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, reiterated that he will release his tax returns after the Internal Revenue Service completes an audit, even though the agency has said he can make them public while an audit is underway.
Host George Stephanopoulos pushed back, saying past returns that aren’t being audited could be released.”Yeah, but they’re all linked,” Trump said. “It’s called the link. If my audit’s finished, that’s great.”
Anoniminous
@Doug R:
*kicks self*
I even know some Ukrainians who have been burning up my FB feed with Trump loathing.
JPL
@Brachiator: Both Manafort and Trump said no they didn’t. Of course, Trump also said he received a letter from the NFL, so there is that.
hovercraft
@Brachiator:
You sir are lying, the Trump campaign has now said they did not have anything to do with the platform, the liberal biased media lying about him. Trump has absolutely no investments in Russia.
Someone needs to ask if Russia is invested in him.
rikyrah
Rylo Ken
@Kennymack1971 Rylo Ken Retweeted Brian Stelter
Shorter Commission on Presidential Debates: GTFOH Donald Trump. If ya scared say ya scared just leave us out of it.
Soylent Green
“the Republican Party is going to die.”
I don’t believe this for a second. This year we will keep the White House and retake the Senate, then give it back two years later. The Repubs will obstruct every move that Hillary makes and nothing in her Bernie-approved agenda will go forward. They will manufacture scandals and the media will play along for ratings. They will regroup as they always do, and if they put up a halfway decent candidate in 2020, could limit her to one term. It’s very hard to hold the White House indefinitely, and HRC is no BHO.
D58826
@EconWatcher: Oh I’m convinced for the hardcore Trumpsters there is no bridge that is to far for him to cross. Trump could make a porno flick with Ivanka and they would still vote for him and Ryan/McConnell/GOP would find an excuse to look the other way. But for any of the Bernie doubters, those looking seriously at Jill Stein , or those non-political junkie voters who believe both side do it, then this might just be the wake up call.
Brachiator
@Schlemazel Khan:
None of this is going to happen. I don’t know why people even entertain such fantasies. Slow news day?
Dumping Trump and going with anyone who was never in the primaries would be an insanely anti-democratic move. No one is going to sign off on that.
And Trump is venal, but his ego is too huge to go away for “hush money.” And the Republicans have got to be thinking that win or lose, their other candidates down ticket are safe.
The sad thing is that even if the GOP loses they will add disaffected whites and more outright bigots to their ranks.
hovercraft
@JPL:
The NFL has said no they didn’t, when asked about this lie, his spokesperson said that he heard it from a source in the NFL, asked again why he lied, spokesperson said he wasn’t lying it was just semantics.
Suzanne
@sigaba: I was in Fayetteville, AR, last week for a family funeral (Mr. Suzanne’s grandfather), and though Fayetteville is a fairly enlightened place and, along with Bentonville and Rogers, is somewhat urbanized, there are still signs of that white, rural resentment. Spawn the Elder asked why people would actually put Confederate flag stickers on their cars, we took my MIL to an antiques fair to lighten the mood and found multiple pieces of Nazi memorabilia.
I told Spawn what I really believe to be true, which is that those people used to culturally be considered “cool”. They used to drive the bus in terms of culture and see their lifestyles reflected in a positive way on TV and books and the radio. Their way of life was widely viewed as virtuous. Advertisers sought their dollars and politicians sought their votes. That status is gone. It is clear that urban and educated people of their own race DGAF about their cultural contributions and don’t think that the rural life is aspirational. In fact, we think it sucks. White tastemakers and the teenagers that follow them listen to rap but think modern country is shit. Fashion, TV, design, you name it….the rural life is now seen as uncool and gross and is associated with poverty and a lack of cultural capital. I think of the semiotic shift in the act of smoking. Used to be so sophisticated. Now looks soooooo trashy. The rural white working class is not adjusting well to the lack of cultural capital, and they resent the fuck out of it.
JPL
@D58826: Anne Applebaum, mentioned the porn star in her tweet today.. link
nsfw
MattF
@Soylent Green: He means the ‘Republican Party’ in his head. For the rest of us, that particular ‘Republican Party’ never existed IRL.
BR
Someone should pressure Stein on twitter to respond to Trump and Khans.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: double checked because I thought Romney had never released his returns, just a summary, but google says they released one year, 2011. The ones I wanted to see were the ones where they laundered enough to give the Mittlets a $100 million, tax-sheltered trust fund.
BR
@Brachiator:
Trump could quit if he sees the polls are really bad for him. But he’d need to be down by 10% or something like that.
hovercraft
@D58826:
Of course they will never give him up. There is always a way to justify his bullshit. Today’s NY Post nude cover of Melania just shows how awesome he is and that he’s a super stud who gets to bang a supermodel every night.
amk
@Soylent Green: oh boy.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Soylent Green: There are state election laws about the ballots, and they vary. I’m sure it would be very, very difficult for the Teabaggers to get someone else on the ballot if Trump drops out.
Remember the 2000 Missouri Senate race. The Democrat died in a plane crash 2 weeks before the election. He won. The Lt. Gov. took over the dead Governor’s office and said he would appoint the candidate’s wife if he won, and he did.
If, somehow, a dead or quitter Trump/Pence ticket won, then I’m sure there would be lawsuits for months. But since it would be (almost) impossible for a quitter ticket to win, and hard to imagine that a dead Trump would win, it’s more of a thought experiment than the 2000 Senate race case.
Cheers,
Scott.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
rikyrah
Uh uh uh
These so-called Christians
………………………………..
Pastor unveils yet another claim about Trump’s Christian faith
…In a statement published on his website, Dobson said that “only the Lord knows the condition of a person’s heart,” and that he believes that Trump is “tender to the things of the spirit.” He also clarified that, not having definitive knowledge about Trump’s personal faith, he was speaking in his earlier interview with Anthony based on what he had heard from others.
“I also hear that Paula White has known Trump for years and that she personally led him to Christ. Do I know that for sure? No,” he said, referencing the well-known televangelist. “Do I know the details of that alleged conversion? I can’t say that I do.”
As previously reported, these clarifications came after much speculation and with some critics dismissing the notion that Trump became an evangelical Christian, as Dobson initially described.
Brachiator
@hovercraft:
Yeah, that GOP platform obviously wrote itself. The Cyrillic script is a giveaway.
Someone needs to ask Trump when he became a paid agent of Russia, and does he declare that income on his tax returns?
Trump and the GOP should be questioned hard about this change in platform. Maybe Melania plagiarized the changes from somewhere else.
Uncle Cosmo
@hovercraft: NY Post? You mean the Herrenvölkischer Beobachter, nicht wahr?
Tokyokie
@hovercraft: Trump thinks getting everything he wants immediately when he wants it is a part of his inalienable birthright. And for two grieving, patriotic Americans to call Trump’s boundless sense of entitlement into question makes them the enemy. That the Khans are non-white, non-native-born, non-rich, non-Christians is all the more infuriating for the bracket-fungus-hued overgrown fly larva. His weak mind and fragile ego compel him to have the last word, even when his best response is none at all. But Trump is a lazy, not especially bright, amoral trust-fund brat whose values are strictly those defined by net worth, thus he lacks the capacity to either appreciate the depth of the Khans’ morality or the depth of their resolve. The Khans are the very embodiment of the American dream (whereas Trump is the embodiment of the rationale for confiscatory inheritance tax rates), who have earned every last thing they have through hard work and perseverance, despite the impediments thrown up by Trump and his ilk. That they have achieved that dream shows that la raison d’être de Trump is nothing but a vicious con. And now Trump’s whining that the grieving, middle-aged couple are being mean to him? Yeah, that’s the tough guy who’s going to take down ISIS.
(I intended to include many of these thoughts in another post that I apparently managed to atomize. If it still exists somewhere on one of these threads, then I apologize for the repetition.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hugh Hewitt…. I used to complain because Michael Steele got so much airtime on EvenTheLiberalMSNBC…
at
ETA: Hugh Hewitt conflating Comey’s statement about the email server with Benghazi, getting no pushback whatsoever
Brachiator
@BR:
Polls are not oracles. No one should quit because of a poll, or prematurely declare victory because of one. I don’t think that even Trump is that stupid.
Shana
@gogol’s wife: What do you do when that happens? If you’re the owner/manager of the restaurant you can go up to the woman, ask her to either apologize or leave. If you’re just another patron you can go tell the manager what happened since the server probably wouldn’t. You’re right though, we all need to start calling people out for this shit.
hovercraft
@Uncle Cosmo:
Exactly, they must think that his fans are going to love seeing their future first lady nude, and as a validation of their heros masculinity. They wouldn’t front page her if they thought it would hurt him. Maybe they’ll pin her up on the wall alongside their pictures of St. Reagan and Jesus.
D58826
@hovercraft: Yes but but but Hillary didn’t have a flag pin in lapel and Malia went to Lollipoloza last week. (sigh).
gogol's wife
@Shana:
The entire restaurant is owned and operated by Muslims from the former Yugoslavia.
I wasn’t there when it happened — he told us about it. He seemed very depressed by it. So we bought a thank-you card and wrote a note. He really appreciated it.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, they have. Both should be badgered relentlessly to repudiate Trump’s smear against the Khans.
Fair Economist
@Schlemazel Khan:
The Republican leadership continues to back Trump because they figure condemning him – and causing a significant fraction of Republican voters who support him to vote against them – will hurt them more than losing the remaining decent Republicans. They’re probably right. Not many decent people left in the Republican party.
Given that a significant portion of Trump’s support is die-hard racists who will never abandon him, chances are the Republican leadership won’t Dump Trump no matter how toxic he gets. They’ll go down with his ship rather than go deeper by jumping off (with an anchor? Not sure how to extend the metaphor.)
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Steele has moments of lucidity, Hewitt has a Halpern like mantra where everything is good news for Trump and he always pivots back to Benghazi and the e-mails, with a little everyone hates Obama sprinkled in.
Shana
@Mike J: Good God. Wasn’t there a fire at one of the hotels or athlete dorms or something just a day or two ago? If the world gets through this olympics without a major loss of life I’ll be surprised.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wish I had noted the time this Hewitt segment starter, I’m guessing it’s twice as long as the one Howard Dean– not a great surrogate, but that’s another story– had to share with a former Ron Paul staffer– which Paulite did push back against Alex Witt’s attempts to concern troll Clinton’s convention speech.
Now, conservative Larry Sabato
Fair Economist
@Brachiator:
Actually, it does. America First was a movement of Nazi apologists in the early stages of WWII (before we joined). Were they still alive, they’d probably be pushing to let Putin, a modern fascist, stomp all over countries too.
The choice of name is another dogwhistle to white supremacists.
Brachiator
@Soylent Green:
Two fantasies that refuse to die.
Trump doesn’t really want to be president.
The Democrats are going to dump Hillary and at last turn to Bernie to save them.
But indulging your hypothetical, if I were the GOP and found a way to get Trump to bow out, I would select Paul Ryan as presidential candidate and try to get Ted Cruz to accept the VP slot. It would still be a no-win proposition.
D58826
@Fair Economist: Charles Lindbergh was one of their leading spokesmen
hovercraft
@Betty Cracker:
I think he’s referring to Hewitt on Alex Witt, everything is Benghazi and the e-mails, she is wholly compromised and nothing Trump says matters since he is the only one who can be CiC. She was a disaster on Fox this morning, she lied about what Comey said about the server. Alex responds that that will be the final world today, and moves onto Larry Sabato.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne:
That’s an awfully wide brush you’re painting with there. Do you need a tractor to pull it? Oh wait…tractors are too déclassé…
Ruckus
@TriassicSands:
The pre election medical judgement. Someone else gets to play out a persons medical defects on an open stage. How about if they did that for you? Or any of us?
It is our job to determine if someone is unfit for the job. Not one to whatever number of medical people. And a person could be completely free of mental illness and still be a horrible candidate. But they would have been approved. So NO. We decide, we convince and we win. Or we don’t. The results you deserve and all that crap.
But take heart, many of the people who have endorsed the worse of the gop up till now have come out against drumpf, people who never say anything bad about the gop are doing so now. Papers are endorsing Clinton, papers which haven’t endorsed a dem in forever and who always wait till just before the election, the Huston, TX and Concord, NH papers for example. Yes the polling isn’t as good as we’d like, but most people aren’t paying that much attention. They will and they will see that the gop has put up someone who is unfit to call themselves a human being.
Brachiator
@Fair Economist: I meant that it does not sound like America First the way that Trump is trying to sell it. The rubes believe that Trump is selling them some form of pure neo-isolationalism free of all foreign entanglement.
The historical baggage is a bonus extra.
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Willie Brown 1.20 pm start, 1.25 end, Hugh Hewitt 1.32 start, 1.41 end.
Frankensteinbeck
@Dave L:
I’m going to give Roy the benefit of the doubt, and take him at his word. He is not motivated even a little by racial animus. He dreams of an America where rich minorities are catered to the same as rich white men. He doesn’t care that his policies hurt poor minorities more than poor white men.l, as long as the poor suffer for their inferiority to people like himself. His conservatism is pure, race-blind IGMFY and he is sad that racists only went with it as a way to hurt blacks. There must be two or three dozen people like Roy in America!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hovercraft: wow, thanks.
and a tip to Willie Brown and other Dems: When you’re asked about HRC’s honesty/trustworthiness, point out that all the accusations– about Benghazi, the emails, the “Speeches”– all those issues are based on the idea that she can’t prove her innocence.
Cain
@Anoniminous:
You missed the most important one of all Ukraine, the very country that had Crimea taken away from them.
LAC
@schrodinger’s cat: seems to be BR’s theme today. Run and hide and be nice…
Cain
@Feudalism Now!:
I’ve seen that.. Muslims are good at that.. for well or for ill. I have a friend, a devout muslim.. Japan had that huge earthquake/nuclear crises. He told me he woke up one day suddenly, couldn’t sleep. “I have to do something, to help those people.”, he told me. What started from there was a fundraising campaign that culminated into several million dollars of which our employer helped. The man is a brilliant engineer and technologist. I was so proud of him, and I knew that a lot that instilled not only from his muslim heritage but the values he saw in America. He is in my opinion a Mahatma.
Doug R
@ruemara: Dan Savage explains that a vote for Jill Stein is a bankshot vote for Turmp
Brachiator
@TriassicSands:
I can’t imagine anything more pointless than judging anyone by the lame pop cultural misunderstanding of being a sociopath.
But as another poster noted, one could be free of any mental illness and still be unfit to be president.
hovercraft
@Frankensteinbeck:
I’m not sorry for him, democrats have been saying for years that the southern strategy never ended, and it was from the beginning a strategy to attract whites who were angry about the CRA and the VRA. As Lee Atwater said they started out overtly racist and gradually went to dog whistles. Their policies have been racist since Nixon and they deliberately refused to believe what was right in front of them. So many republican POC are being forced to see it now, but they are dividing into two categories, those for whom the scales have fallen off completely and they are horrified that the democrats were right, and those who have convinced themselves that the problem is confined to Trump.
They chose to deceive themselves. now they have to lie in the bed they’ve made.
Ruckus
@ruemara:
This.
As I see people’s true personalities/proclivities and they are opposite mine, I have to ask, How good of friends are they? Would I want them at my back? If the answer is no, I’m done.
Once that knife is in my back the damage is done.
No friends is better than bad friends. I can make new friends.
dogwood
@Suzanne:
Give it a rest. There are plenty of sophisticated people living in rural America, and plenty of frightened unsophisticated people living in urban America.
Suzanne
@dogwood: Sure, but those are not the dominant cultural trends in those areas. The book is about why “hillbillies” are voting for Trump. Doesn’t mean every “hillbilly” is voting for Trump, or that there aren’t urban people voting for Trump. They’ve lost cultural capital, feel themselves to be the object of derision, so they have aligned themselves with the tribe that flatters them more.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@EconWatcher:
If McCain is serious about what he’s done as senator for the he should speak out about this. It’s high time some of these conservatives live by their own damn values.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: Sure it’s a broad brush. There’s a million think pieces doing the same thing, including the one linked previously about “hillbillies” voting for Trump, as did BHO. Something about “clinging to guns and religion”. I mean, duh, #notallruralwhitepeople, but if you look at cultural trends, there is no doubt that the avant-garde of American culture is based in the cities and the cultural products that are most valued come from there. That used to not be the case.
Lizzy L
Thinking about Trump’s tweet today: “I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!”
1) He thinks that an attack which hits home (as Mr. Khan’s did) is “vicious.”
2) He appears to believe that absence of support for his response to the Khans equals an attempt to silence him.
3) He got the facts wrong. Humayan Khan died in Afghanistan, not Iraq. I am sure this seems trivial to him.
Lizzy L
Oops! I got it WRONG in my comment (#171). Humayun Khan died in Iraq. Bad Lizzy.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne:
I think that’s a load of crap. The “avant garde” scene has always been centered in cities (that’s where the money is — duh), but quite often it revolves around a movement started by some bumpkin. Same as it ever was.
philadelphialawyer
@MattF: Actually, it did. A long time ago. Most Republicans in Congress DID support the Civil Rights Act, and that is a fact even though the story of them driving the bus (and not LBJ and Northern Democrats) is false. Richard Nixon supported it too. Even the cautious Eisenhower was hardly universally bad on civil rights, and got 36 per cent of the Black vote in 1956. Nixon got over thirty per cent of the African American vote in 1960. Growing up in New Jersey a decade later, Millicent Fenwick, a strong supporter of civil rights and a Republican, was my Congresswoman. And there was a whole “Rockefeller wing” of the GOP, which, even though Rockefeller lost to Goldwater at the national level, in ’64, was still important regionally in the Northeast, the Upper Midwest, and elsewhere, for a long time after that, and which was not racist. But all of that went by the boards starting with the Southern Strategy and then the Reagan Democrats, the Willie Horton and White Hands commercials, and so on.
I think that was kinda the point of the article…that the Republican party was not previously, but BECAME the party of white nationalism starting in 1964. That year, the Deep South went for CRA opponent Goldwater, for the first time deserting the national Democrats. And LBJ got close to 95% of the Black vote. After various transitions, and false starts, like Wallace, the white racists in the South, and then the North too, became a Republican staple. By now, a generation or more of GOP politicians have depended on this voting bloc to win elections.
But, as the article also points out, there used to be the “Dog Whistle” approach: the bow to “States Rights” at the County Fair near Philadelphia, PA, the above mentioned Willie Horton ad (all about crime, not race, doncha know) and so on, which allowed folks who purport to be intellectual conservatives to fool themselves into believing that white nationalism was NOT the glue, the motive force and the decisive voting bloc viz a viz the GOP. That small government, federalism, strong “defense” positions, free trade, and so on were the important things. That facade is gone now, as Trump is either inconsistent on those issues, indifferent, or actually opposed. And is all in and obvious on white nationalism.
philadelphialawyer
Mississippi, not PA, duh
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: What are some recent cultural products featuring rural white people? I can think of two that had enough cultural spread to be indicative of trend: Friday Night Lights and Honey Boo Boo. But there used to be many more, and they used to be much more flattering. And the aspirational trends and brands and media are almost all urban or European and are more plural. Having a Confederate flag sticker on one’s bumper didn’t used to brand someone as a specific type of person, and now it does—and now the association is not flattering. In short, it’s just culture war. It’s a loss of status and it stings, so the party that tells you how great your culture is is the one you align with.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: Just off the top of my head, Fargo and Parks and Rec? But I don’t really see TV shows as the most significant cultural signifier. My point is that cities aren’t the sole or even necessarily dominant wellspring of writers, artists, musicians, etc., which seemed to be what you were saying in your original comment. I think the zero sum view of cultural virtue is a crock of bullshit, no matter which side is asserting it.
Brachiator
@philadelphialawyer:
This is the key thing. It is just wrong and lazy to keep trying to pin GOP racism on Nixon and Atwater.
Also, it would be more fair to say that both parties were racist, but that the Democrats began seriously dealing with their racist factions in the 60s, while the GOP more fully embraced theirs.
As an aside, the recent Jackie Robinson documentary noted that Republican Robinson could not get his friend Richard Nixon to support Martin Luther King. Robinson had previously rejected the Kennedys because they seemed too timid on civil rights.
And it may have been a series of phone calls in 1960 that helped pave the road that blacks used to move to the Democratic Party.
Even though Kennedy downplayed the importance of the calls, word got around.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Bumpkins with brains high tail it for the city as soon as they can. Same as it ever was.
And it is not just that cities have money. Artists and intellectuals find places to congregate, and that has always tended to be cities. London, Paris, New York (Boston in earlier eras).
And you have stuff like Prairie Home Companion, a gentle parody of hicks by people who are not themselves hicks.
But obviously there is no monopoly on creativity in urban centers. But there has been a shift in, what, respect and a growing resentment of the loss of prestige of anything rural. And there is a racist and sexist tinge to this. So you have articles in pop music magazines and web sites whining about the dominance of hip hop over traditional rock and roll and resentment that someone like Beyonce must be viewed as culturally significant. But along with this comes a faux elitist tendency to deride or dismiss anything that can be associated with a rural base.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator:
Christ, listen to yourself.
Maybe one of y’all will get around to showing your work on this eventually. I’m sure there were articles in whatever passed for pop music websites back in the day whining about the dominance of rock and roll over swing or whatever the fuck preceded it, and yes, with a sexist and racist tinge to much of it. Same as it ever was, indeed.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: The point isn’t that there isn’t creativity or talent or knowledge in rural areas. It’s that the products and culture of those areas are no longer viewed through such a positive lens, and those people who produce that stuff see that it is no longer considered as culturally valuable. Parks and Rec is essentially poking gentle fun at the people in small towns, and the arc of the series is that the smartest person there gets the fuck out. I haven’t seen Fargo the TV show, but Fargo the movie did not paint a rosy view of middle America.
It’s the converse to Ted Cruz’s “New York values”. He was trying to paint New York as a den of godless hedonism and snooty intellectualism and therefore appeal to a group of rural white people who have felt looked down on by cultural producers. You might think that cultural status is bullshit, and it probably is, but nonetheless there are lots of bullshit ideas floating around that influence people’s behavior. I don’t think that white working-class Americans outside of cities are mistaken in their perception that they used to have more respect and cultural influence.
philadelphialawyer
@Brachiator: Agree mostly. I do think that 1964 was the turning point, though, not 1960. As mentioned, Nixon still got a respectable share of the Black vote against Kennedy. But LBJ/Goldwater ’64 is where we first get the Black vote almost all Dem/White racist vote GOP situation that has persisted to this day. Goldwater actually supported some CR laws in the Fifties, and might not have personally been a racist (or, as you say, his racism was more at what was “normal” for the time), but his opposition to the CR Act of ’64 (even if it was based on sincerely held libertarian positions–the CR Act of 1964 differed from the laws passed in the Fifties, and the Brown v Bd of ED line of cases, in that it involved Federal “coercion” of “private” actors ((ie businesses) and not merely State actors), and Johnson’s successful championing of that law, are what switched the white racists from “The Party of the Fathers” to the GOP and what signaled, now, we can say, seemingly forever, the end of whatever lingering attraction “The Party of Lincoln” had for Black folks.
As an aside, to me, the breakdown of the vote in the Deep South 1964 is what gives the lie to the notion that something else besides race “drove” the Southern Whites away from the Democrats. 1964 was BEFORE Vietnam went sideways for the USA. It was BEFORE there were any serious riots in African American areas. It was before there were hippies, and widespread marijuana usage and any kind of counterculture. It was before the so called “crime wave.” It was before any big expansion of the Welfare State. It was before all of the things, besides white resentment at the first big success of the CRM, that are the usual excuses for why the Southern white vote flipped parties.
A glance at the electoral college maps is striking. With the Deep South (with its all white voting population) solidly for Stevenson in 52 and 56. Indeed, it was pretty much the only region he carried, at all, against Ike. In 60, despite JFK’s phone call, the Deep South (in which almost African Americans remained disenfranchised) still solidly in the Democratic camp. In 64, we get a complete switch from 52 and 56, with the LBJ landslide carrying everything BUT the Deep South (and Goldwaters’s home State of AZ). After that, Wallace carried the region in 68, Nixon swept it 72, and every Republican since then has more or less done the same except for favorite son Carter in 76. Carter lost it all but his home State of Georgia in 80, and Bill Clinton managed to carry Georgia in 96. Otherwise, the GOP has dominated “the Black Belt” (so called because these were the most heavily African American States back in slavery days, and thus the States with the most virulently racist white populations) ever since.
Bullshit that white racism is not the reason why.
It is a little harder to pin down in the North, but I remember all the crap about “forced busing” from the Seventies. And the then and still ongoing ongoing resentment to the mild remedy of centuries of discrimination that is affirmative action. The clearly racist carping about welfare, particularly Reagan’s beloved “welfare queens.” The hysteria over crime. All of it. It is all about race. It is like oxygen to the GOP. And has been for decades.
TriassicSands
@Ruckus:
@Brachiator:
Sorry, the two words — “Wishful thinking” — were supposed to signal that it wasn’t a
serious proposal. I guess I should have stated that more explicitly.
Can you imagine the response of Trump if he were called upon to undergo such screening?
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: I reject your premise that rural sensibilities were once respected and now aren’t. They’ve always been sneered at on the one hand and hailed as the “real America” on the other. Both positions are bullshit, IMO. The answer isn’t to be “Opposite Day” Ted Cruz and privilege urban sensibilities over rural ones. It’s to recognize what is beautiful and valuable in each.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Exactly. I never said that there was no rural creativity. And hicks have often been derided by the slick set. But it has rarely been as total as it is now.
Also, rock had long been king, and condescended to recognize other genres (e.g, during the age of disco). They key difference with, say, Beyonce, is that rock and rollers must concede that rock is no longer the creative cutting edge of pop music.
Brachiator
@philadelphialawyer: Very well said. Thanks. And I think we agree more than we disagree. I think that 1960 set the stage. The Kennedy phone call, before the presidential election, sent a message as to what side the Kennedy administration would be on. There was the implication that the old accommodation to Southern racists could not be taken for granted. And that phone call helped save from four months of hard labor, which he might not have survived. As I said, the word got around within the black community, and helped make the 1964 revolution, and Southern racist counter reaction, possible.
Ironically, I think that Jackie Robinson was left behind. He became a Rockefeller Republican while the vast majority of black folk became committed Democrats.
But you are absolutely correct when you note that racism caused Southern whites to abandon the Democratic Party.
Miss Bianca
@PigDog: Yup. I’m there with you. I’ve got both sets in my cohort (family members for Trump, friends and acquaintances for VSP. Even a potential Johnson supporter, altho’ he’s one of those Libertarians who can’t actually be bothered to vote, so I dunno). I’m finding both groups of voters pretty much beyond the reach of reason right now.
White people. I’m so fucking sick of them.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: Of course it is. I’m describing what I see and perceive, not what I think should happen. I just think that rural life used to be considered more aspirational and noble, and now cultural tastemakers portray it as something from which to escape. Depictions of things like the Marlboro Man and Little House on the Prairie and Gone With the Wind portrayed those cultures in a positive way (charming and genteel and individualist and focused on God), even when there is for sure a lot of problems with those portrayals. Now, when rural southern and western life is depicted, it’s not flattering, it’s much more critical. Mr. Suzanne is a speech-language pathologist, and there is a lot of debate in that field about the appropriateness of accent reduction therapy. There is a not-small contingent of people with southern accents who seek to shed their accents because the cultural association with the Deep South is seen as a detriment in certain arenas of life, especially in business. New Yorkers and New Englanders are not seeking to do that.
Again, I’m not saying that any of this is a good thing. But I do think that for some people who live in that world, there is a sense of a loss of status and that motivates a lot of behavior, including voting behavior. The GOP has told people with Confederate flag stickers on their bumpers that OF COURSE that’s okay, the only people that object are snooty intellectuals on the coasts and black people and gays. And they’ve told them that discrimination against gay people is sooooo much less of a problem than having to bake a cake. And that freaky transgender people are going to corrupt and assault their pure women. It’s all fucking bullshit. But they’re telling that to people who used to get to make the rules of their society, who used to see their way of life on the national stage as the ideal. I firmly detect a real sense of loss in the rhetoric coming from those people. Sparrows and curtain rods, of course.