EJ Dionne: "The dam of denial has broken"

[kpete]

By E.J. Dionne Jr. Opinion writer January 7 at 7:07 PM
The most astonishing aspect of the response to Michael Wolff’s book is that anyone is surprised. President Trump’s unfitness for office was obvious long before he was elected. Once he moved into the White House, the destructive chaos of his administration was there for all to see. Future historians will scratch their heads to figure out why it took this particular book to break the dam of denial.

None of this takes anything away from Wolff’s achievement in “Fire and Fury.” On the contrary, he deserves our thanks for creating Trump’s “emperor has no clothes” moment, even if this point should have been reached before, say, Nov. 8, 2016. Trump’s tweets on Saturday pronouncing himself “a very stable genius” only underscored the damage Wolff has done and Trump’s dumbfounding insecurity.

But Wolff alone cannot bring this presidency crashing down, given how many Republicans still seem determined to protect Trump. Even as the news was dominated by Wolff’s revelations, Republican Sens. Charles E. Grassley and Lindsey O. Graham made a criminal referral to the Justice Department on Friday — and not against anyone who might have colluded with Russia. Instead, they urged investigation of Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored an explosive dossier including information that Trump may have been compromised by Moscow.

.................


The first key is his phony populism, with an emphasis on both words.

Trump will continue to try to rally what base he has left with tweets about kneeling NFL players, immigrants, law and order and “political correctness.” He will keep attacking Hillary Clinton, the surest sign of his weakness, since his own record has done little to draw Americans his way. He needs targets to make his enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend approach work.


................


What might be called the Wolff Effect will thus be paradoxical. It could strengthen the bonds between Republican politicians and Trump at the very moment when everyone else is coming to terms with how dangerous it is to have a president who is so uninformed and unstable. In the meantime, more traditional journalists will carry on their painstaking work, piling up evidence that Trump did all he could to block a legal accounting for the methods that helped get him to the White House in the first place.

We should have gotten here sooner. But far better late than never.


the rest:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-dam-of-denial-has-broken/2018/01/07/1e29d85a-f330-11e7-b390-a36dc3fa2842_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-e%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.11b79f7fc7fa

[Old Vet]

1. Currently reading a book by E.J. Dionne called One Nation Under Trump.........

Good read hands down.............

[Nitram]

2. This takeaway: "The most astonishing aspect of the response to Michael Wolffs book is that

anyone is surprised." On Friday when EJ and David Brooks discussed the book on NPR, Brooks cast aspersions on Wolff's accuracy, and EJ reminded him that we knew all this stuff already (just not all details).

[DeminPennswoods]

35. Why does anyone think David Brooks is some kind of moderate?

He's a rightwinger, but because he speaks and writes pleasantly, this somehow goes unnoticed?

[Nitram]

37. Not only is David Brooks a right winger, he is a very dull right winger.

I think he fancies himself an intellectual. What a laugh!

[Javaman]

3. even hitler had his supporters in the bunker as bombs rained down.nt

[barbtries]

7. hitler has supporters to this very day.

sadly.

[Javaman]

8. true :( nt

[uponit7771]

29. +1, a couple of em still in the White House

[lunatica]

32. They are fine people too

[kentuck]

4. The denial was thick and heavy from the beginning.

That is true.

[L. Coyote]

5. K & R. Historians will say unanimously, "You can't make this shit up."

Link to tweet

Ahhhh, but yes you can!

Link to tweet

[VaBchTgerLily]

6. The dam hasn't broken with GOP_those idiot republicans are continuing with the denial!

[lunatica]

33. It is way past denial

It is cover up now. At least as long as they keep getting what they want.

[onlyadream]

9. Im still worried

that the short sighted will see an extra twenty in their paychecks and support this trainwreck.

[Cosmocat]

16. There will be some of that

but, as long as this jackass can stumble around unfettered on Twitter, he reek enough havok and ill will that chew up the sugar high that will come with a little more take home pay.

Their 1/3 zombies will babble about it, but mostly likely come summer the "middle 1/3" will mostly forget about the pay bump in the sea of his jackassery and just want him to go away, and HOPEFULLY will be willing to give a go to anyone in congress who are saying they are going to deal with him.

[KPN]

17. Me too. I'm also worried that this whole book thing is just providing

another Trump defense ultimately that the "left has been out to get me" since day 1 as one of many ploys to deligitimize the Russia thing. Wolf's book could well backfire on those who oppose Trump.

[PatrickforO]

30. Well, this is the problem, isn't it, with the short sightedness of most Americans.

The benefit of having that extra twenty in the paycheck is far overshadowed by what will be lost when Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs we depend on must be cut to fund these billionaire cuts.

[heaven05]

10. all this 'fire and fury'

Shit is good, yet my question is, where's his goddamn FULL-COMPLETE tax returns?????

[bdamomma]

11. oh he will never show those

plus remember when he said, the American people don't care about seeing those, what an ignorant fuck he is! that is what he thinks about policy/procedures and the rules. And the American people.

[Eyeball_Kid]

21. Its in Bobby Muellers file cabinet.

[Scarsdale]

12. The gop is not

protecting tRump, they are protecting themselves. They were up to their necks in Russian money. They knew the "fix" was in, and went along. Traitors, the entire group. Suing Steele is a mistake. Graham must not know that his good friend McCain was the first one to send an aide to the UK, to get a copy of the dossier. He read it and turned it over to the intelligence agencies. He must not have shared it with Lindsey.

[Eyeball_Kid]

22. Graham is being blackmailed.

You can take that to the bank.

[Grammy23]

31. Bingo. It is the only explanation for their devotion to tRump that makes a lick of sense.

They hated his guts before he got the nomination. Couldn’t stand him. Then when his nomination seemed inevitable, they suddenly got star struck. He could do no wrong. Oh, a few stragglers said truthful things about him. People like Corker and even McCain. But then they got mired up to their necks in the money flow and suddenly, tRUmp was the Fair Haired Child. They were HONORED to have him as their President. Watching them sing his praises of late almost made me toss my cookies. You know they almost strangled on the words but they still sang anyway.

The story is as old as man. They got some of the money, even though they knew it was tainted and would cause them problems if they got caught. So their strategy is to hang tough, deny everything and above all, protect tRump. I just hope Mueller has the goods on every last one of those SOBs. McConnell and Ryan oughta look good in orange or prison stripes. It sure will make my heart light to see them humiliated and frog marched off to prison for a nice, long stay.

[lunatica]

34. I am beginning to think that saying the Republicans are in denial

Is denial in itself.

His base is trying hard to stay in denial but the few I’ve seen reacting to recent news about him Have a wiff of desperation in their support for him.

The Republicans have always known exactly what Trump is. They're as bad as he is. They’ve just been better at fooling us.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

13. Uh, not really - just listen to 5 mins of rw cult radio and get back to us -

how does this sort of article help - talk about a "dam of denial," there sure seems to be one re: just how entrenched and ever more delusional the cult thinking has become. Do yall not have RW sibs and relatives you talked to over Xmas - Lucky you, if you dont!

[Kimchijeon]

25. Yeah no kidding. Tons who get all "news " from propaganda

Like the RW radio or Fox News only... They want to believe it and that's that, no logic can get through to them.

[DeminPennswoods]

36. Think of it this way,

there's still a dam, but water is cascading over the spillway.

[yallerdawg]

14. Wolff said...

everything the jackass focuses on is "himself" and "himself right now."

Just confirming what we already knew.

[zentrum]

15. Trump also

…talks a lot about the "working people" and "jobs" and help for the neglected America, in his faux insincere way.

To my ear, he does it more often and more effectively than our Democrats.

It's outrageous, since no one could care less about workers, but he has the rhetoric down pat.

I think mixed in with his dog whistles, his base hears him "caring" about them. Both reasons are why they stand by him.

At the same time, and due to Obama policies finally coming into fruition—Trump is getting credit for the low unemployment rate.

Democrats need to up their public discussion of economic themes. For instance they really need to explain how so many "illegal" immigrants pay into Social Security and yet get nothing back at retirement. They need to stop calling SS and Medicare "entitlements". They are earned benefits. Democrats should own the economic discussion and I don't think they do yet, except for some individuals here and there.

[olegramps]

18. Forty years of chilling brainwashing will not magically disappear.

The 35% of Republicans who continue to support Trump will not desert him regardless of what he is guilty of. The wealthy are reaping the huge rewards as the stock market as it continues to make phenomenal gains. The less discerning lesser educated will continue to swallow his demagoguery as he mines their prejudices. The so-called income tax improvements will throw enough crumbs to the working class that it will avert any exodus from his cadre of ill informed, misinformed, racists, homophobic bible beating evangelicals. His base is solid and the Republicans know it. It is going to take a major effort to regain control of congress. We can only hope that our leadership is up to the task. Their past record is less than impressive in some cases. While many Democratic representatives have pursued this goal, all must be firmly engaged in a dedicated effort to virtually destroy the cancer that has invaded our political system.

[gratuitous]

24. I agree

This notion that some sort of dam has broken or a Rubicon has been crossed, while welcome, is hardly going to undo decades of brainwashing. Our responsibility is to get citizens energized and motivated again, make sure their votes are counted, and then govern in their interests. It's also important for Democratic activists to have our elected officials' backs, covering them from unfair attacks, and bringing them back in line when they stray.

[Scurrilous]

19. K&R

[usaf-vet]

20. Why are the likes of Grassley and Graham, among others openly...

.... defending Trump. How many of those defenders took Russian money? How many of this defender have something to hide? How many of them have secrets that the Russians have dug up that is being use as blackmail?

We have heard for years about the seedy side of Washington. We know in the past congress members have been 'to friendly' with young congressional aides. It has been rumored for years that there is a sex ring in and around DC and maybe congress.

Why won't they call Trump out? They have Pence in the wings and Paul Ryan warming up in the dugout. Is it that if the truth were told they know Pence and Ryan are dirty as well. An Orrin Hatch (4th in line) has bailed.

The truth is, IMO, very few GOP members are totally clean and they want one maybe two more election cycles (2018 & 2020) to secure their political dominance.

As a young family member we used to play the card game "Hearts". Shooting the moon was a make or break attack to win the game. It was beautiful to see and pull off if you had all the cards. BUT if you didn't you would lose with flare. I think the GOP is "shooting the moon". Going for the brass ring. Do they have all the cards?

[Eyeball_Kid]

23. Graham took 800k. McConnell took 2.5 mill.

[Still In Wisconsin]

26. My guess: Kompromat. n/t

[Skittles]

27. my guess is: blackmail

[Firebrand Gary]

28. Thank you, usaf-vet!

Bravo and right on the money, imho.