Tuesday, June 05, 2018

EJ Dionne Is Hittin' That "Can't We All Just Get Along?" Pipe Mighty Hard These Days


On the one hand, E.J. Dionne clearly knows what he is about to propose is ridiculous:
A “reach out to your adversaries” approach also seems soft and squishy in a clash with a president who violates every rule, tells every lie and stoops as low as necessary to maintain his hold on power. And Trump’s weaponization of veiled and overt racism and nativism can raise understandable suspicions, especially among African Americans and Latinos, that outreach to Trump voters risks compromising with bigotry.
On the other hand, there is no place left for America's Beltway Pundits to go.  In a very real sense, their collective livelihood has always depended on a collective agreement to never tell the straight "Who, What, When, Where, Why and How" dope about the modern history of American politics and how the Republican Party got so irredeemably fucked-in-the-head and how they are destroying the country.

Of course the utterly predictable result of their reflexive denialism about how the Republican Party got so irredeemably fucked-in-the-head and how they are destroying the country was that the more  they compulsively refused to speak the plain truth about the grotesque monstrosity the Republican party was becoming -- the more they flinched and deflected and Both Sidered that terrible truth -- the more it created a permission structure that allowed the sickness to grow exponentially worse.

But of course, none of what Il Douche does actually affects America's Beltway Pundits in any meaningful way.  Yet.  They can still afford to be as revelers at Prince Prospero's never-ending party:  concerned, perhaps, in an abstract sense about the peasants outside of their walled city dying from the Red Death that is sweeping the land, but by virtue of their privilege and position, are personally unaffected by the plague, don't consort with anyone who is personally afflicted by the plague, and therefor not terribly interested in figuring out its cause or its cure.

Better to refill their glasses and muse that perhaps of the peasants were just a lot more polite to the Red Death things would get better:
Or maybe the Red Death and the peasants are really just two halves of a troubled marriage!  And if only Both Sides would go to counselling (about which I have already written quite enough today)...
Which brings us back to Mr. E.J. Dionne, who should damn well know better by this time ("Why dialogue matters — even in the Trump era"):
But even taking all of these objections into account...
Sigh.

There follows a short summary of policy polling numbers and electoral statistics from which one might draw more sustenance if one is still capable of deluding oneself that Republican base voters can be persuaded grow opposable thumbs and climb down out of the stupid tree.  However, as Mr. Dionne draws his column to a close, even he just sorta runs out of juice and admits that maybe he's just drunk on David Brooks' cork.
On the basis of the evidence, I find it extremely difficult to assume anything except the worst about Trump and his enablers. But we are fighting the president precisely because we believe in a government that answers to the aspirations of the vast majority. Creating that majority requires winning new allies by respecting those whose minds we seek to change.
And you know what, E.J.?

Screw that.

We have already tested this stupid theory.


Most recently we tested it with an eight year experiment in trying to "win new allies by respecting those whose minds we seek to change" called the Obama Administration.

And what were the results?

The election Barack Obama -- a man of calm, reasonable, respectful restraint and sterling character -- drove the Republican party's already-unhinged, racist base completely out of their fucking minds.

Locked them into a state of such irreversible derangement that they chose Donald Fucking Trump as their standard-bearer.

Such irreversible derangement that, 500 day into his lying, racist, treasonous catastrophe of an administration, the Republican base overwhelmingly love the guy.

Love him like a drunk loves his bottle.

Love him like a glutton loves his lunch (from Vanity Fair):
As Republican lawmakers are well aware, Trump, despite the swirl of scandal surrounding his office, is actually extraordinarily popular with their voters. Five hundred days into his term, 87 percent of the party approves of Trump’s performance, according to Gallup, giving Trump the highest same-party favorability rating of any Republican president at the 500-day mark in the past six decades, with the exception of George W. Bush after 9/11. 
These people are all out of second chances, E.J.

They're all out of third and fourth and fifth and 100th chances too.


Behold, a Tip Jar!

8 comments:

Abu Scooter said...

I'd love to be sympathetic to all these "let's reach out to the trumpenproletariat" pleas, but first, I need to see evidence that standard-issue Republicans care to reach out to us while still unarmed.

Robt said...

I have a republican senator who amoung positions like, Obama is over reaching his authority. The The SCOTUS might have agree with him on DOCA but Obama is acting like a dictator.
And, I am not even going to sit down and meet with SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland (27 yr vet of the Bench with a distinguished record. Not even sit down and talk, no vote. It is Scalia's seat and the Koch Brothers have a justice they want on the SCOTUS bench.
God didn't realize when he called Scalia home to heaven to fill a judicial seat there that Obama would be a choosing to replace him.

But now,
My GOP senators keep asking why the Dems won't do everything they (the GOP majority) want to do? Why are the Dems blocking "everything".
To which they cannot block anything especially when majority changes rules to subvert any minority say.

Like filibuster for a SCOTUS justice. removal of the blue chip rule for senators to have say in judges regarding their states. (bye State rights).


So the GOP goes over the cliff (again) and they want others on board to take responsibility. Campaign patsy to be exact.
I have already heard that "a Dem voted for our right wing bill so that means they all must agree with the GOP and therefore any disagreement or harm it causes (to you) should be directed at those Dems.

For Obama, over reaching authority (dictator and must be reined in).
Those republican tears are now blunt lead pipes being used to ignore the
GOP Lord of the plantation of any breaching of the constitutional levee.

The theme; Ideological goal posts have been moved again.
Further to the right. So those on the left need to be reasonable and come together with moderate extreme GOPers to elect a perceived moderate republican who can win. To over come the "Trump republican party"?

So bring the left more to the right and the rights extreme's should appear more moderate.
\There is this mumbling about the fears of harm to the country if the left goes to Left because the right went to it's extreme and further. We have to bring the country together by the left being moderate enough to move center (or more) to the right. For the country, mind you.

Political Aesop once said;
There is not enough air to breath 30 feet under water as there is any more air to breath 3 feet uder water.

RUKidding said...

There's nothing, nada, zilch, zip, zero that any Libtard can do - whether in a positive, reasonable, pleasant, kind way or by being a nasty shitty effed up asshole - that will ever ever ever make a dent in Republicans.

The Republican Party (note: NOT the "Trump Party") has for decades brainwashed their dupes and marks to loath, detest, despise, hate and fear all others out there who are not them - those of different hued skin tones, those of different ethnic backgrounds, those who follow different religious practices, and for feck's sake those who dare to vote Democratic.

Ergo, "making nice" or whatever is going to do EFF ALL to make any difference to Republicans. Like any schoolyard bully (which they have been brainwashed to be one), they just laugh and spit at us. How else would they behave?

The only reason for liberals/progressives/independents/whatever to behave in sane, rational, polite ways is because YOU want to behave that way. Because that is who YOU are. Because YOU are not a fucking shitholed asshole.

And that's it.

There's NO "reaching out" to Republicans. They are NOT interested, and they will not "play ball" with anyone other than their own tribe of hateful, nasty, spitful, deplorable, bigoted, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic jerks.

e.a.f. said...

Hitler's ratings were good in Germany until they weren't. Its about the same with all dictatorships. People feel the need for change, but frequently it isn't until its too late that they realize change for change's sake just isn't a good thing. On the other hand some of dump's supporters may not realize anything until they don't have a vehicle and big screen t.v.

ziply said...

I hope you've sent this to EJ.

JDM said...

" We have already tested this stupid theory.

Repeatedly."

Remember when Bullwinkle would try to pull a rabbit from a hat, with "This time for sure!" being his answer to Rocky's objection that "That trick never works."? Well, even Bullwinkle finally figured out "I think it's other than the hat". And Bullwinkle, in the Kerwood Derby episodes, was established as the dumbest beast on the planet.

Move over, Bullwinkle, there's a lot of contenders for the crown nowadays, and you don't even make the top (bottom) ten.

jim said...

Cognitive dissonance needs an oxymoron like a trout needs a lake.
Spontaneous Respect Mulligan is an oxymoron.

If you respect people who cheer & high-five as bombs turn little kids into pink mist, you're well on the way to becoming indistinguishable from them.

If you then do so anyway in the name of comity or expediency, they're not the pathetic dupes in this situation any more - you are.

Dr.BDH said...

Just spent day on the beaches of Normandy. It give me an idea of why Hitler's popularity ratings finally fell. Didn't make me hopeful we can turn Republicans around.