Wednesday, May 18, 2016

The Invisible Empire of Donald Trump

In Hitler's bunker, he repeatedly said that Army Group Steiner would rescue Berlin. The fact that Army Group Steiner was a ramshackle group of units and unable to save itself was of no concern to Hitler. In his mind, Army Group Steiner was the solution to the desperate straits of the German Army...

--  Steve Gilliard, The News Blog
The brain-rot that has destroyed the American political media really took off when they tried to bend the story they had into the story they desperately wanted.

The story they had is that the GOP has gone mad and is trashing the country.  Simple, fact-based, plain as day and staring them in the face for years.  The story they wanted -- the story that keeps the lights on at Morning Joe, keeps the hot meals coming at POTUS radio and keeps a roof over the heads of frauds like David Brooks and Ron Fourner -- is that somehow Both Sides are always equally to blame for everything and that a mysterious and invisible Third Force is lurking just below the surface of the American polity just waiting the sweep the unrighteous corrupt duopoly (tm Ron Fournier) aside and restore the Mighty and Reasonable Center.  In the Articles of Beltway Faith, the restoration of the Center is the Prince that was Promised -- a Son of Fire and the Warrior of Light who shall unite the warring houses of Simpson and Bowles and balance the budget by 2020 without harming a single gray hair on grandma's head.

But to incarnate the Center, the Beltway has to conjure a Miraculous MacGuffin out of thin air.  A science fiction plot device like the Ninth Ray or the Speed Force on which the Beltway's entire mythology hangs and which they routinely invoke explain why all of the prophesied events foretold in their Articles of Faith will definitely happen despite the fact that no one outside of the Beltway cult can find any evidence anywhere that any of these predictions are based on anything but the denizens of the Acela corridor bell jar re-breathing each other wishful thinking farts for the last 20 years.

This is why Very Serious People continue to get biennial erections over the imminent arrival of Imaginary Independents who will definitely swing the election back to the Reasonable Center this time even though, like the Great Pumpkin, the Imaginary Independents never actually show up.  From David Fucking Brooks, a decade ago...

Party No. 3
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: August 10, 2006

There are two major parties on the ballot, but there are three major parties in America. There is the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the McCain-Lieberman Party...

The McCain-Lieberman Party begins with a rejection of the Sunni-Shiite style of politics itself. It rejects those whose emotional attachment to their party is so all-consuming it becomes a form of tribalism, and who believe the only way to get American voters to respond is through aggression and stridency.

The flamers in the established parties tell themselves that their enemies are so vicious they have to be vicious too. They rationalize their behavior by insisting that circumstances have forced them to shelve their integrity for the good of the country. They imagine that once they have achieved victory through pulverizing rhetoric they will return to the moderate and nuanced sensibilities they think they still possess.

But the experience of DeLay and the net-root DeLays in the Democratic Party amply demonstrates that means determine ends. Hyper-partisans may have started with subtle beliefs, but their beliefs led them to partisanship and their partisanship led to malice and malice made them extremist, and pretty soon they were no longer the same people.

The McCain-Lieberman Party counters with constant reminders that country comes before party, that in politics a little passion energizes but unmarshaled passion corrupts, and that more people want to vote for civility than for venom...

This is why Very Serious People were so fucking giddy over a Republicans rebranding scam called the "Tea Party" even though it was self-evident at the time to anyone who was not a Beltway hack and was (much, much later) confirmed by conservatives that the "Tea Party" was not a spontaneous uprising of just good ol' fashion Ordinary Murricans who had never been involved in politics at all but had finally been moved to action by the Corrupt Duopoly (tm Ron Fournier) but was instead a transparent fraud designed to get the Bush Regime dead-enders off the hook for the eight years they had just spent cheering on the catastrophes they were now angrily blaming on the Kenyan Usurper who had stolen their country.

And this is why Very Serious People have been willing to go along with Donald Trump's okey-doke that he was bringing millions (billions?  trillions?) of Brand New People into the Republican Party. Y'know, just good ol' fashion Ordinary Murricans who had never been involved in politics at all but had finally been moved to action by the Corrupt blah blah blah...

Except, uh, not so much.  From Politico:
Donald Trump Is Not Expanding the GOP
A POLITICO analysis of early-voting data shows little evidence for one of the Republican nominee’s core claims.

By Shane Goldmacher, May 17, 2016

Donald Trump likes to say he has created a political movement that has drawn “millions and millions” of new voters into the Republican Party. “It’s the biggest thing happening in politics,” Trump has said. “All over the world, they’re talking about it,” he's bragged.
But a Politico analysis of the early 2016 voting data show that, so far, it’s just not true.

While Trump’s insurgent candidacy has spurred record-setting Republican primary turnout in state after state, the early statistics show that the vast majority of those voters aren’t actually new to voting or to the Republican Party, but rather they are reliable past voters in general elections. They are only casting ballots in a Republican primary for the first time...
Nothing more to see here than the same bigots and meatheads who were gonna vote for the Party of Jefferson Davis in the fall anyway, prying themselves out of their double-wides a few months early so they could tell their grand-kids that, in the last year of the Reign of the Kenyan Tyrant, they saved Murrica by voting for the fascist of their dreams twice!

And if you listen very carefully you can hear the prophets and high priests of the Mighty and Reasonable Center begging Army Group Steiner to please, please, please finally show up and save them.

8 comments:

Davis said...

A couple of academics analyzed the American National Election Studies 2016 pilot study. They concluded - surprise!- that Trump supporters are not feeling much economic anxiety, but a lot of white identity anxiety as the country become more diverse. Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, you name it, are a source of fear and loathing, aggravated by our black Muslim president. (64% of Trump supporters think he's Muslim.) When will the Very Serious People acknowledge this? (Rhetorical question)

Neo Tuxedo said...

der Führer (Bruno Ganz): Mit dem Angriff Steiners wird das alles in Ordnung kommen. [With Steiner's offensive it will all come together.]
Hans Krebs (Rolf Kanies): Mein Führer... Steiner...
Alfred Jodl (Christian Redl): Steiner konnte nicht genügend Kräfte für einen Angriff massieren. Der Angriff Steiner ist nicht erfolgt. [Steiner could not gather enough strength for an attack. The Steiner Offensive has not taken place.
der Führer: Es bleiben im Raum: [Everyone leave the room except] Keitel, Jodl, Krebs und Burgdorf.

Robt said...

This seems to be along the lines of this chap I heard somewhere.
He was hopping mad for at least a half an hour...............

To be sure,
There is no fear of heavy rains and flooding in hell.

Rodnchance said...

"People everywhere going out of their minds, looking for answers in symbols and signs.
There ain't no answers up in the sky, ya gotta give the earth a try.
Get down a little closer to the ground."

Joy of Cooking: Closer to the Ground 1971


See, the hippies were right then and still are dammit. The powers that be just do not give a damn about anything beyond their own often excessive needs. I watched "The Big Short" last night and am freshly pissed off at the stupidity and evil nature of "our betters" and the Obama administration that failed to curb the evil nature of excessive greed.
Obama may not have had enough background in Econ and allowed himself to be bamboozled by Wall Street gurus IE. Geither & Paulson et al or maybe I am making excuses for him.
I am going out to do some gardening and allow nature to take my cares away for a while. Best wishes for a great day for you and your family.

trgahan said...

"...but rather they are reliable past voters in general elections..."

If that is accurate, then we already know that Republican's don't have enough reliable voters to carry a national election outright. The moral/silence/whatever majority hasn't been a majority going on 20 years now.

Once again, Republican electoral victory hinges entirely on Democratic voter turn out. Wonder when progressives are going to catch on to that....

Kevin Holsinger said...

Good morning, Mr. Glass.

So Trump-supporters are actually...Republicans?

As far as twist endings go, it ain't exactly Rod Serling, is it?

Imagine if the Kanamits were just a bunch of well-intentioned aliens, and Darth Vader was really just some guy named "Darth Vader."

Be seeing you.

Lit3Bolt said...

@ trgahan:

Thank you! Except, Hitlery is Just As Bad, therefore, I Must Not Vote Or Participate in American Politics Lest I Be Sullied By Association.

Say fucking children, who have not, or will not, grow up.
Wait, you wanna vote 3rd party? To "send a message?" That message you're sending is that you've completely abdicated any and all responsibility for this country, and are content to chase quixotic political flights of fancy.

Because in some fantasy movie ideological dream-world, you learned that NEVER compromising on your ideals leads to Aslan or Falcor or Kermit the Fucking Frog leading you to victory over the Big Bad.

In the real world, you have to make common cause with people you dislike. People you may hate. People who are actively plotting your demise. Because sometimes, just sometimes, half a loaf is better than the fucking granary being burnt down before your eyes, and all the fields being sown with salt.

Because the ideologue has to think, after you make your beau geste on the barricade, what happens next? What happens to the people you supposedly care about?

This is why trust fund babies like Emmett Rensin can call themselves "American Communists" who want to "burn it all down." A vote for Hillary or Trump really doesn't matter for them, because they'll still be obscenely privileged and wealthy anyway, and merely have to change their dialogue a bit depending on which party is in power. And also be whitey white white white, so somehow any racist or misogynist state policy bothers them not at all, and no war does either. Talk about bubbles...

Unknown said...

Lit3bolt, you have the wrong meme. Allow me, you are a peasant in the Thirty Years War. It makes no difference to you who wins. Your farm is ruined! One side conscripted you into their forces. When the battle starts you went and hid. After you return to rob the dead and dying. It is the only compensation you will get for your trampled crops! It doesn't matter who won.. whether it is Lady Hillary, Lord Bernie, or The Usurper King Donald. Oh look here comes Prince Cruz to scatter you from the field and burn your still standing granary!