"The House is On Fire, Accepting the Truth of the Trump Revolution"..Josh Marshal

[Stuart G]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-house-is-on-fire-accepting-the-truth-of-the-trump-revolution
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For those who’ve recognized what should really be obvious, this is quite a paragraph in the Times’ account of today’s Trump press conference …

No word in the Trump lexicon is as tread-worn as “unprecedented.” But members of the president’s staff, stunned and disheartened, said they never expected to hear such a voluble articulation of opinions that the president had long expressed in private. National Economic Council Chairman Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, who are Jewish, stood by uncomfortably as the president exacerbated a controversy that has once again engulfed a White House in disarray.

There you have it. This is Trump, a man whose deepest political impulses are tied to racial grievance and a desire for revenge, a desire to place the deserving and white back at the top of the racial hierarchy. People get caught up on whether or not people are willing to call Trump a ‘racist’. Of course, he’s a racist. But that doesn’t tell us enough. Lots of people dislike blacks or Jews, don’t want to live near them, etc. But many, likely most with racist attitudes, do not embrace a politics driven by racial grievance. Trump’s politics are about racial grievance. It’s not latent or peripheral but rather central. That’s different and it’s worse. It is one of the few consistent themes in his politics going back many, many years.

It is worth noting this other passage in the piece: “Mr. Trump prides himself on an unapologetic style he learned from his father, Fred Trump, a New York City housing developer, and Roy Cohn, a combative lawyer who served as an aide to Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.” Quite true. One might also add though that both men, from profoundly different backgrounds and life experiences, were dyed-in-the-wool racists.

(rest of the article at link, strongly recommend all to read entire piece..It is outstanding and quite insightful)

[GusBob]

1. Woah! Mr Marshall drops the f-bomb!

I have been reading him for years, I cannot recall him swearing once.

[eShirl]

2. the shock many folks are feeling

Trump's racism is so plain now, they can no longer remain in denial about it

[Stuart G]

3. I agree, that is what makes this particular article important.

This article recognizes that, but also makes these facts clear: .
.....Trump is a racist, was a racist and will always be a racist............

[procon]

4. I learned a new word today: "revanchist"

With Trump, he has a revanchist racist politics because he is a revanchist racist. Once you accept that, a lot falls into place. All the heroic and increasingly nonsensical perambulations of misunderstandings, inexperience, missed opportunities, stubbornness and all the rest are not needed. It all falls into place.

revanche
1. the policy of a state intent on regaining areas of its original territory that have been lost to other states as a result of war, a treaty signed under duress, etc.


revanchist
1. an advocate or supporter of a political policy of revanche, especially in order to seek vengeance for a previous military defeat.


Used in a sentence, I write thusly: In America, the authoritarian Trump has let the world see his inner demons, the sneaking anti-Semitism with an undisguised taste for neo-Confederate revanchism.

[Stuart G]

5. Thank You procon for the definition of ..."revanchist"

When I saw that, I skipped over it. I didn't know it, but I wanted to finish the article..
Thanks again....Stuart G