Sep 6, 2023·edited Sep 6, 2023Liked by Aaron Rupar
This is one of the most cogent analyses of Trumpism and it’s adherents that I’ve ever seen. Thanks guys. I’ll repost on my newsletter Freedom Over Fascism. Please take a look over there, particularly at the podcast!
Trump is the last grasp of white people (btw, its the WHITE working class he appeals to not the working class. Much like Dems win the women's vote but lose WHITE women) who don't want to share. That's what this whole problem boils down to. However, whatever battles these people win, they've already lost the war. Whites under 18 already became a minority in 2020. By 2027 the majority of 18-29 year olds will be non white etc etc so on and so forth. So, yes, while Trumpism will still be with us and even pick up a few nonwhite faces (mainly dudes) in the coming years its already dead as a political force.
A cheering prognosis Joe, though demographic trends, though often irresistable, work a little slower in my opinion. I recon Trumpism will hang around for a fair while. Thanks for the information that Dems lose white women. I didn't realize that.
I can understand how Trump followers feel excluded and vulnerable. What I still can’t understand is how such a large portion of the population could value an “ends justifies the means,” “make a pact with the devil” sense of being. We try to instill in our children that offending, attacking, and breaking the law are not reasonable responses to being angry or afraid and will lead to worse loss for everyone in the long run. Having learned in these last few years that so many people value these tactics and believe they are an effective source of governance has been quite unsettling.
This is so good. And so depressing. I just finished off an email to my Senator JD Vance telling him what a jerk he is to fight mask mandates. He's elevating selfishness as a virtue. And the cruelty is the point. This essay is sobering. I can't help feeling America is so fucked for a long time to come.
Good piece. I do not concur with the verbiage in this statement:“what needs to be appreciated is the reason he gets away with it.” “Appreciated” is problematic because it’s usual use is in the positive. We and the media need to be more mindful in the choices we make in speech; whether it’s the written or spoken words we use. “What needs to be attended to immediately is the reason he gets away with it,” feels more appropriate because it needs action, not “appreciation.” I can note the import of a bully’s actions and choose my response or I can “appreciate the charisma of that bully and/or be intimidated into an emotional reaction.” I choose the former.
Just a footnote on this excellent essay. The MAGA cover picture equating Democrats with communists betrays a failed public school curriculum that has long helped to deteriorate our national unity. Most MAGAs left high school conflating socialism with communism (a holdover from the 1950s). That belief likely makes it seem logical to view Democrats as communists. MAGAs also were taught to conflate American Democracy with capitalism - another 50's era zeitgeist schools created by promoting capitalism as superior to communism. That erroneous notion has encouraged MAGA support for laws that cut taxes for the rich under the false belief that doing so creates trickle-down jobs and makes us all rich. Trump proved once again that all corporate tax cuts do is increase billionaire wealth and raise the national debt because nobody likes paying taxes.
Viewing communism as "evil" has allowed the ultra-rich to convince the MAGAs to view patents and monopolies as good for America when it is only good for the rich. It also leads them to view all government welfare programs as a wasteful scam. That scam encourages lazy slackers to waste MAGA's hard-earned tax dollars so the socialist commies can loaf while MAGAs work for a living. The sad irony is that the MAGA usually support laws that deteriorate their own welfare without even realizing it.
This is such a sobering piece about the undercurrents in this country. I guess they’re not so underground anymore. I hope it’s a self limiting problem that will die out with my (boomer) generation. It’s like the argument about the Vietnam war never ended.
The first thing I thought as I watched trump blather down that escalator is "he's giving people permission to hate openly." One of the truest thoughts I ever had.
The role the justice department is playing is so critical because showing that Trump cannot keep getting away with everything he does, nor can the people acting with him, might inject some reality into these people's minds. Trump is advocating anarchy and while his followers would be against it coming from a Democrat, somehow with Trump, it is just what they want. Living with so many people and no government is the farthest thing from the good life that I can imagine.
So...what can we do besides wait out the White Racist Religious Right?
And moreover, the too TOO accommodating Clinton NeoLiberals, who I see as even worse than Trump because they're supposed to know better...and especially in Hillary's case, don't bother to! Watching her gloat now after her "Pied Piper" strategy elevating Donald Trump just makes me want to see her get caught for her coverup of her treasonous e-mail server (finally!) and end up sharing a prison cell with Trump, because they deserve each other.
This is why he need President Bernie Sanders...and President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez...and President Ayanna Pressley...AND President Rashida Tlaib....
But what do I know? I don't want a WOMAN President...if that woman is Hillary Rodham Clinton.
:: But if we don’t take that underlying cultural animus seriously, it won't be long before someone else emerges and picks up on the temptation to exploit that deep-seated sense of unease that has been seething just below the surface in America for decades.::
Which DeSantis is certainly trying for—and unlike Trump, he's not a complete moron!
Too bad for him that ALSO unlike Trump, DeSantis has the charisma of a block of wood.
This is one of the most cogent analyses of Trumpism and it’s adherents that I’ve ever seen. Thanks guys. I’ll repost on my newsletter Freedom Over Fascism. Please take a look over there, particularly at the podcast!
Thanks!
Trump is the last grasp of white people (btw, its the WHITE working class he appeals to not the working class. Much like Dems win the women's vote but lose WHITE women) who don't want to share. That's what this whole problem boils down to. However, whatever battles these people win, they've already lost the war. Whites under 18 already became a minority in 2020. By 2027 the majority of 18-29 year olds will be non white etc etc so on and so forth. So, yes, while Trumpism will still be with us and even pick up a few nonwhite faces (mainly dudes) in the coming years its already dead as a political force.
A cheering prognosis Joe, though demographic trends, though often irresistable, work a little slower in my opinion. I recon Trumpism will hang around for a fair while. Thanks for the information that Dems lose white women. I didn't realize that.
I can understand how Trump followers feel excluded and vulnerable. What I still can’t understand is how such a large portion of the population could value an “ends justifies the means,” “make a pact with the devil” sense of being. We try to instill in our children that offending, attacking, and breaking the law are not reasonable responses to being angry or afraid and will lead to worse loss for everyone in the long run. Having learned in these last few years that so many people value these tactics and believe they are an effective source of governance has been quite unsettling.
This is so good. And so depressing. I just finished off an email to my Senator JD Vance telling him what a jerk he is to fight mask mandates. He's elevating selfishness as a virtue. And the cruelty is the point. This essay is sobering. I can't help feeling America is so fucked for a long time to come.
Good piece. I do not concur with the verbiage in this statement:“what needs to be appreciated is the reason he gets away with it.” “Appreciated” is problematic because it’s usual use is in the positive. We and the media need to be more mindful in the choices we make in speech; whether it’s the written or spoken words we use. “What needs to be attended to immediately is the reason he gets away with it,” feels more appropriate because it needs action, not “appreciation.” I can note the import of a bully’s actions and choose my response or I can “appreciate the charisma of that bully and/or be intimidated into an emotional reaction.” I choose the former.
Just a footnote on this excellent essay. The MAGA cover picture equating Democrats with communists betrays a failed public school curriculum that has long helped to deteriorate our national unity. Most MAGAs left high school conflating socialism with communism (a holdover from the 1950s). That belief likely makes it seem logical to view Democrats as communists. MAGAs also were taught to conflate American Democracy with capitalism - another 50's era zeitgeist schools created by promoting capitalism as superior to communism. That erroneous notion has encouraged MAGA support for laws that cut taxes for the rich under the false belief that doing so creates trickle-down jobs and makes us all rich. Trump proved once again that all corporate tax cuts do is increase billionaire wealth and raise the national debt because nobody likes paying taxes.
Viewing communism as "evil" has allowed the ultra-rich to convince the MAGAs to view patents and monopolies as good for America when it is only good for the rich. It also leads them to view all government welfare programs as a wasteful scam. That scam encourages lazy slackers to waste MAGA's hard-earned tax dollars so the socialist commies can loaf while MAGAs work for a living. The sad irony is that the MAGA usually support laws that deteriorate their own welfare without even realizing it.
This is such a sobering piece about the undercurrents in this country. I guess they’re not so underground anymore. I hope it’s a self limiting problem that will die out with my (boomer) generation. It’s like the argument about the Vietnam war never ended.
The first thing I thought as I watched trump blather down that escalator is "he's giving people permission to hate openly." One of the truest thoughts I ever had.
The role the justice department is playing is so critical because showing that Trump cannot keep getting away with everything he does, nor can the people acting with him, might inject some reality into these people's minds. Trump is advocating anarchy and while his followers would be against it coming from a Democrat, somehow with Trump, it is just what they want. Living with so many people and no government is the farthest thing from the good life that I can imagine.
So...what can we do besides wait out the White Racist Religious Right?
And moreover, the too TOO accommodating Clinton NeoLiberals, who I see as even worse than Trump because they're supposed to know better...and especially in Hillary's case, don't bother to! Watching her gloat now after her "Pied Piper" strategy elevating Donald Trump just makes me want to see her get caught for her coverup of her treasonous e-mail server (finally!) and end up sharing a prison cell with Trump, because they deserve each other.
This is why he need President Bernie Sanders...and President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez...and President Ayanna Pressley...AND President Rashida Tlaib....
But what do I know? I don't want a WOMAN President...if that woman is Hillary Rodham Clinton.
:: But if we don’t take that underlying cultural animus seriously, it won't be long before someone else emerges and picks up on the temptation to exploit that deep-seated sense of unease that has been seething just below the surface in America for decades.::
Which DeSantis is certainly trying for—and unlike Trump, he's not a complete moron!
Too bad for him that ALSO unlike Trump, DeSantis has the charisma of a block of wood.