NYT Charles Blow "Trump's Rage Junkies"

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/opinion/trumps-rage-junkies.html?action=click&contentCollection=opinion&contentPlacement=3&module=package&pgtype=sectionfront®ion=rank&rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&version=highlights

It is truly a confounding time to be alive, to be an American.

We are watching as a president of the United States openly lies, fabricates and exaggerates while two-fifths of the population cheers him for it.

He spurns our allies and embraces our adversaries and people shrug.

He, his congressional allies and his propaganda arm are waging open warfare on the Federal Bureau of Investigation in an effort to tarnish it before its inquiry into connections between the Trump campaign, family and associates and Russia can be made public.

He is a racist who disparages black and brown people, whether they be immigrants, Muslims, people from Haiti and Africa, Barack Obama, the mayor of San Juan or Maxine Waters. People equivocate about it and excuse it.


snip


I guess this is how empires begin to fall. It isn’t necessarily one dramatic moment, but the incessant monotony of assaults on normalcy that slowly shift the ground beneath you, reorienting what is proper and preferable, what is outrageous and what is acceptable.

Every day in the Trump era one could start a sentence with “never before …” and end it in astonishment and exclamation. But that has a cumulative effect of erosion. The constancy of the individual outrages reduces the psychic significance of the collective.



snip

Not to mention the fact that those tactics keep his base riled and ready. Trump is like a drug dealer who has addicted his followers to fear and rage and keeps supplying it in constant doses. His supporters have become rage-junkies for whom he can do no wrong.


snip

But no amount of moralizing from Trump’s opposition will affect the fervor of his supporters. Quite the opposite: Nothing quickens the pulse and induces the delight of conservatives more than the consternation of liberals. They would let the whole country collapse for the pleasure of spite.


snip


Last week, an exasperated Representative Trey Gowdy lashed out at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, saying, “Whatever you got, finish it the hell up, because this country is being torn apart.”

But that’s like blaming the doctor for your illness. The investigators aren’t tearing the country apart. They are trying to protect and save it.

Trump and his defense machine — including members of Congress — are tearing it apart.

Trump-addicted acolytes are tearing it apart.

(All my boldings)

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Yes....THIS!

Charles is dead on with this column!

[olegramps]

23. Don't know about most, but I never really despised anyone until Trump.

I disliked many Republican policies and worked against them in getting Democrats elected. The era of Trump has awakened a loathing in me that I have never experienced except for my absolute hatred of the Nazis. I have feared that the Republican Party had adopted fascist principles and tactics and that they were steadily moving to an increasingly radical embrace of a nationalistic fascist dogma.

I don't think that the situation is any longer serious, but has become dire. It is becoming less extreme each day to not conclude that the radical elements in their party is actual attempting to establish an authoritarian presidency. The cancerous germ of this philosophy was introduced during he Bush administration under the concept of the Unified Executive Theory which claimed exclusive presidential authority over the entirety of the government. It should also be of concern that the concept of absolute un question authority is certainly not alien to the military who are in important cabinet positions in this administration. I am very skeptical of anyone who has been the product of the military academies and doubly wary of them being so prevalent in any administration. Given that the threats are real it can never be assuredly concluded the Trump could not actually win a second term. That could almost assuredly result in a constitutional crisis that could lead to rebellion. If this is the correct analysis of the situation it is imperative that Trump most be discredited and removed from power.

[hibbing]

2. It started from day 1 of his campaign

Maybe, just maybe if the corporate media would have been a tad more upright, something might have changed. Let alone broadcasting every minute of every idiotic campaign stop at an airplane hanger somewhere. So sad to know just how many Americans are so racist.

Peace

[Hekate]

3. How far back have they been rage junkies? There was radio first, with the likes of Limbaugh...

The groundwork was all laid long before the Trojan Horse ran for potus.

Great essay, as always from Chaz Pierce.

[Wounded Bear]

5. This...

From Limbaugh and Savage through Hannity and O'Rielly, Trump became an inevitability as most of America slept through it all, too busy with day to day living to care about 'abstractions.'

This has been normalizing since Reagan, at least, and more likely since Nixon. The Repub party has become more and more monochromatic, more and more ideological, and more and more racist and violent over the years.

Now, they're being run by a bunch of internet trolls who care nothing for anybody but themselves.

[Still In Wisconsin]

8. You and Hekate both have it spot-on.

Trump and Trumpism are the logical results from decades of hate radio and rabid right-wing cable television. Whenever some asks me when I think this all started, my answer is the same: it started when Reagan got rid of the fairness doctrine. Before that you had people like William F. Buckley on the air, but there was always a countering viewpoint. After Reagan, the Limbaughs and Hannitys and Coulters and Malkins and Becks were free to spew their far-right talking points, and outfits like Fox News, Clear Channel and Sinclair were free to give them a constant platform from which to do so.

[Sophia4]

24. And there is, in many parts of the country, no liberal response at all.

That's our fault. Money would be better spent on liberal radio than on Democratic campaigns. Liberal radio is better than that conservative trash, and we should be heard everywhere.

[certainot]

27. liberals have two great opportunities to destroy the rw radio monopoly

artificial intelligence just made it cheaper easier and faster by an order of magnitude to transcribe talk radio

sonix.ai does it for $5/hr and is fast and accurate
limbaugh and sons can be recorded with quicktime/mac for instance, transcribed, and advertisers listed easily and quickly by website and without listening.

advertisers and ad agencies will flee when they find out the left is doing that - that can happen quickly

also, if any of these 88 universities were pushed to start looking for alts for broadcasting sports many others would follow and advertisers would also

[dalton99a]

11. +1

[7wo7rees]

15. The author was not Chaz Pierce

Charles Blow from the New York Times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Blow

[calimary]

25. It all started with Ronald Reagan.

[zipplewrath]

28. Goldwater

Strangely, the true "roots" are in Goldwater and the "southern strategy". It was a strategy focused on appealing to the worst instincts of people. Cycle after cycle they just built upon that which has narrowed their demographics to "old white people".

[Honeycombe8]

4. YES! I love it when a writer puts into words my thoughts. They're just so good at it.

He hit nail on head.

[gademocrat7]

6. So very true.

[C Moon]

12. I live in So. Cal. In a working class blue area. Yet four of 8 my neighbors are Trump supporters.

Maybe it's because Trumpsters are more vocal than the level-headed U.S. people, but sadly, I think there are a lot more than I feel comfortable with.

[Duppers]

13. 😖

I'm surrounded with retired military, all Republicans. Was hoping other parts of the country were not supporting this HitlerWannabe. He didn't get the most votes and I can't think of anything he's done to gain the support of those folks.
But, yes, polls are giving him 40%. Sick folks.

[C Moon]

16. I know a shipload of people who HATE the MFr, though.

Blows Bush II out of the water.
What helped Bush II was 911 (IMO).
That's why I believe something like that will be attempted just before November (planned by Putin...sorry, sounding paranoid, but what the hell).
911 worked SCARINGLY well for Bush II. His popularity jumped to something like 80% (if I recall), and the world was even sympathetic. But that didn't last long.

[Duppers]

18. Let's hope he's feeling overly confident.

We know his handlers are lying to him. Just hope they keep it up. I do not want him scared for the very reason you gave.

[scarletwoman]

9. Awesome column.

Pretty much says it all. Thank you for posting it.

[nolabear]

10. Absolutely. They need Trump Anonymous.

The only talent that monster has is stoking rage. And rage hides fear. Create fear, stoke the rage they hide it behind, control that and create a dependency.

[Scurrilous]

14. K&R

[renate]

17. This is BRILLIANT

I’m so glad the smart ones are on our side.

[Cha]

19. I'm betting this "is how empires begin to

fail".. especially when the fucking "media" isn't doing their due diligence.

[zipplewrath]

29. I'm dubious we are the road to "failure"

I was watching a series of episodes about the whole Jefferson - Jackson - Polk period in our history. It isn't a pretty one. But we grew out of our mistakes. We probably can again about the time the whole "white/Christian" minority finally loses their hold on our political infrastructure. But it could take a long time. And one has to acknowledge that we took California in 1846, and by 1860, we were in a civil war. The last gasp of the white minority may not be pretty.

[chesterslick]

20. We have been mislead for decades!

Trump is just not good at anything!

[geardaddy]

21. K&R!

[saidsimplesimon]

22. Thanks for the boldings

The humpty dumpty sitting on the WH wall needs a shove.

[saidsimplesimon]

26. aside

We are aware that the masturbater is playing to his audience?

[Oneironaut]

30. Trump's election was and is a slow-moving riot by scared white racists.

They have no cause other than to stop minorities from gaining power. The Christian stuff is just from Evangelicals who hitched themselves to the movement.

They don’t care about Trump’s character, or the future of the country. They can only see 10 minutes into the future, and love that Trump is triggering the Libtards, Mexicans, blacks, LGBT community, etc.

They feel perpetually slighted by their waning privilege over others, and formed into a political lynch mob. They want revenge.

[KT2000]

31. it's adrenalin addiction

[smirkymonkey]

32. K&R

[Uncle Joe]

33. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread NRaleighLiberal

[ThoughtCriminal]

34. It's time to start saying "Never again"

and make it stick. If we are to regain any credibility in the world, really matter and build a decent future, we can't keep following up the years of peace and recovery that Clinton and Obama gave us with pathetic and destructive sociopaths like Bush and Trump.

Never. Again.