Must-read in Rolling Stone: The Sedition of Donald Trump

[highplainsdem]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-sedition-william-barr-1073455/


Way too much here to even begin to excerpt. This piece goes after Barr as much as Trump.

[Stuart G]

1. I will read the entire post later.. K and R for now..Thank You for Posting..

[FM123]

2. Yes, definitely a must read!

A paragraph about Barr that really stood out to me:

Barr has not become captive to Trump’s agenda; like other longtime Republicans, Barr has an agenda of his own. Trump uses Barr, just as Barr uses Trump. Barr’s agenda is a very distinct agenda, nothing so crass as merely more tax cuts for the rich, or so mundane as “America First.” It is a vision of the United States as a Christian nation — a certain kind of Christian nation with a certain kind of Christianity.

[JI7]

3. I think Barr may be defending himself and/or his father on something Epstein related

[FM123]

6. Yes, I have often wondered about that same thing...

[UCmeNdc]

14. Yes, I agree! Barr came out of nowhere and begged to be in charge

After Epstein was arrested.

[drmeow]

19. Barr is a fanatical zealot who saw an opportunity

"But Barr has ideas as well as a temperament, described recently in The Atlantic by Donald Ayer, a former U.S. attorney under George H.W. Bush. After closely examining the attorney general’s 30-year paper trail, Ayer finds that Barr holds two primary propositions to be at the heart of everything. The first is that the founders established the United States as a religious and more specifically Christian nation, dedicated to, in Barr’s words, “a transcendent moral order with objective standards of right and wrong,” divulged by God through his church. The second is that contrary to what Barr calls the “civics-class version” of the Constitution, the founders, by resolving in favor of a single executive officer, invested the president with extremely broad authority." (emphasis mine)

He is a dangerous man - he, Trump, and McConnell need to be removed from their positions and thrown into jail for the rest of their lives.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

27. Yep. He's a radical who ignores facts he doesn't like.

The founders very clearly did NOT establish a Christian nation. From one of the many article out there which debunk the notion that they did.

Indeed, each of the nation’s three founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution—carefully avoided all mention of Christianity or Christ. Article VI of the Constitution states as dramatically as possible, that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States” –hardly the hallmark of a “Christian” nation.

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/172973

[smirkymonkey]

5. Kicking for later reading

Thank you! This is all just so twisted. I just can't wait for the whole ship to go down.

[keithbvadu2]

21. "a certain kind of Christian nation with a certain kind of Christianity."

"a certain kind of Christian nation with a certain kind of Christianity."

What will they say/do when it is not their version of Christianity in charge?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/?no-ist= ;

Madison also made a point that any believer of any religion should understand: that the government sanction of a religion was, in essence, a threat to religion. "Who does not see," he wrote, "that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" Madison was writing from his memory of Baptist ministers being arrested in his native Virginia.

[Drum]

28. Kicking for this important point!

to keithbvadu2

[SheltieLover]

4. K&R!

Ty!

[alwaysinasnit]

7. k&r for visibility

[Wednesdays]

8. Awesome read

Trump and Barr have made the election into a test of democracy. If the United States is to survive as it has existed since 1787, Trump must not simply be defeated, but repudiated. There can be no forgiveness in the name of some fanciful national unity for all the criminal carnage that Trump has done, before as well as during his presidency. Failure to attack the roots of a far greater seditious threat more than a century and a half ago, in the form of the Confederate States of America, has led directly to our current traumas, allowing a bacillus of racism and authoritarianism to survive, mutate, and reinfect our politics. That bacillus is now virulent as Trumpism.

[BigmanPigman]

16. Yes, this paragraph stands out.

"No forgiveness in the name of unity"!!!!!

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. yep. that just about covers much of the carnage.

[amuse bouche]

10. Saving

[NoRoadUntravelled]

11. Thanks for posting. As you say, the piece goes after Barr, too. His role must not be ignored.

Snip
"Barr has not become captive to Trump’s agenda; like other longtime Republicans, Barr has an agenda of his own. Trump uses Barr, just as Barr uses Trump. Barr’s agenda is a very distinct agenda, nothing so crass as merely more tax cuts for the rich, or so mundane as “America First.” It is a vision of the United States as a Christian nation — a certain kind of Christian nation with a certain kind of Christianity."

[Hekate]

12. KnRnBookmark

[niyad]

13. KNR and bookmarking for later.

[mountain grammy]

15. K&R. Fantastic read.

Pretty much nails it. I hope we can prevail.

[cwydro]

17. Rec. Will check it out, thx.

[Ponietz]

18. Lee and Davis at the gallows could have prevented this.

“Failure to attack the roots of a far greater seditious threat more than a century and a half ago, in the form of the Confederate States of America, has led directly to our current traumas, allowing a bacillus of racism and authoritarianism to survive, mutate, and reinfect our politics. That bacillus is now virulent as Trumpism.”

[DBoon]

30. 40 acres and a mule were required too

The plantation system had to be destroyed at its root. If former slaves had been provided the means for self sufficiency, the caste-based racial system of the south would dissolve.

[Ponietz]

33. +1

thanks for finishing the thought

[H2O Man]

20. Recommended.

Sean is an outstanding historian. I have a lot of respect for him.

[BarbD]

22. Excellent article. Thanks for posting.

VOTE! VOTE!! VOTE!!!

[usaf-vet]

23. I think the final two paragraphs summarize need for Trump and Barr to be HELD accountable

Trump and Barr have made the election into a test of democracy. If the United States is to survive as it has existed since 1787, Trump must not simply be defeated but repudiated. There can be no forgiveness in the name of some fanciful national unity for all the criminal carnage that Trump has done, before as well as during his presidency. Failure to attack the roots of a far greater seditious threat more than a century and a half ago, in the form of the Confederate States of America, has led directly to our current traumas, allowing a bacillus of racism and authoritarianism to survive, mutate, and reinfect our politics. That bacillus is now virulent as Trumpism.

Trump and his accomplices have not merely betrayed American principles. Some of our previous presidents and political leaders have done that. But Trump, with his threats and his rhetoric, his self-dealing and his contempt for the rule of law, has crossed a very dangerous line. Should the American majority prevail, and should he survive, Trump must be held to full account at the bar of history as well as the bar of justice. Should the majority fail, the American experiment in free government will be so badly damaged as to be unrecognizable.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-sedition-william-barr-1073455/

[canetoad]

24. Thank you

Excellent article, well worth reading.

[ancianita]

25. THIS. The on fire Rolling Stone of the 70's -- so on fire, I understand why you can't excerpt it.

Thank you, highplainsdem.

We need Sean Wilentz to get out in front of Republican foundations and publish the first definitive history of this time in U.S. History.

[MustLoveBeagles]

26. Thanks highplainsdem

Bookmarking

[sagesnow]

29. Brilliant summation of ReThuglican Trumpism.

From the Urban Dictionary definition of ReThuglican:
A Republican who gets into an elected seat and then proceeds to change the laws so each illegal act he or she makes is now legal.

[UTUSN]

31. Yip, too richly long to excerpt here, here's my 1/3 of what I'm emailing:

**********QUOTE*****

.... ...(BARR's) agenda is a very distinct agenda, nothing so crass as merely more tax cuts for the rich, or so mundane as “America First.” It is a vision of the United States as a Christian nation — a certain kind of Christian nation with a certain kind of Christianity. ….

…Barr’s youth in Manhattan as a boyhood tormentor, described by one schoolmate as a “classic bully,” “power abuser,” and “sadistic kid,” with a special hatred for liberal causes and a “vicious fixation on my little Jewish ‘commie’ ass.” … ….

After closely examining the attorney general’s 30-year paper trail, Ayer finds that Barr holds two primary propositions to be at the heart of everything. The first is that the founders established the United States as a religious and more specifically Christian nation, dedicated to, in Barr’s words, “a transcendent moral order with objective standards of right and wrong,” divulged by God through his church. The second is that contrary to what Barr calls the “civics-class version” of the Constitution, the founders, by resolving in favor of a single executive officer, invested the president with extremely broad authority.

… a theocracy, overseen by a president who more closely resembles an elected monarch. Trump, for his part, would prefer a kind of Putin-like kleptocracy. Barr’s vision, if you can call it that, is an Americanized version of something more akin to Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s Spain. ….

Trump and his accomplices have not merely betrayed American principles. Some of our previous presidents and political leaders have done that. But Trump, with his threats and his rhetoric, his self-dealing and his contempt for the rule of law, has crossed a very dangerous line. … ….

***********UNQUOTE**********

[surada]

34. What sick old men they are..

How sad they are such losers that they no longer even pretend to uphold the values of the founding fathers.

[BComplex]

32. I'm donating $$ to Rolling Stone. They do an awesome job.

They do the best in-depth reporting of any paper ever, IMHO.

[Boomerproud]

35. Bookmarking. Will enough people read this piece?