"What do you do when half of America does not want to be brought together?"

[Nevilledog]

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David Corn
@DavidCornDC
"What do you do when half of America does not want to be brought together?"
Please read the whole thing:
https://motherjones.com/politics/2020/11/the-elections-troubling-message-even-if-trump-loses-americas-political-civil-war-isnt-over/…
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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/11/the-elections-troubling-message-even-if-trump-loses-americas-political-civil-war-isnt-over/

In his last super-spreading rallies of the 2020 campaign, Donald Trump denounced Lady GaGa, derided Jon Bon Jovi, and decried LeBron James. At one outing, he beamed when the crowd chanted, “Fire Fauci!” He told the crowd he just might do that after the election. At another event, he voiced his support for Texas Trump supporters who had threatened a Biden campaign bus. Anger. Violence. Hatred. Ignorance. It was an appropriate synthesis of the core message of the 45th president of the United States. Not an economic agenda. Not a foreign policy plan. And certainly not a program for thwarting the still-raging pandemic and redressing the economic damage it has wrought. With five thousand Americans dying each week from COVID-19—and medical systems in the latest hotspots being overwhelmed—Trump repeatedly mocked the media for fixating on this national emergency. “COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID,” he sneered. In this final stretch, the health and safety of Americans and the well-being of the entire country did not concern him. Instead, the former reality-TV celebrity was focused on the political cultural war he has been inflaming and relying on for over five years, for that was what Trump has always been about: fear and loathing.

And on Election Day, about half the electorate looked at a president who has been fully negligent in handling the pandemic but who gleefully slams a Black NBA star and said, “Yeah, I want more of that.” So even though on the morning after Election Night it appeared that former Vice President Joe Biden might squeak by with a narrow victory in the Electoral College (as Democrats failed to win the Senate), one tragic message stood clear: Trump’s politics of hate, which succeeded in 2016, remain a powerful force. Four years ago, Trump won 63 million votes (trailing Hillary Clinton by 3 million). In 2020, he has so far pocketed 66 million (2.5 million behind Biden). So after a full term of Trump fully displaying immense ineptitude and unabashed malice, he gained support among Americans. That shows the deep hole the nation has fallen into—whoever prevails in the final count and coming legal challenges.

Biden entered the race with a simple message: Hey, I’m not Trump, I’m not a bigoted, divisive, indecent, corrupt, autocrat-loving, Tweet-mad bully. I’m the Joe you know. A good guy from Scranton who gives a hoot about the working man and woman. And I can guide the country back to a degree of normalcy in which Ds and Rs might even be able to work together on our national problems. He talked about repairing the soul of the nation, but zeroed in on a big short-cut: booting Trump. As if the main problem was this one jerk, not deeper currents of inequality, prejudice, and animosity. But with the advent of the horrific pandemic earlier this year, it turned out that Trump’s obvious character flaws and psychological liabilities were more than just an affront to conventional norms and values. They had profound consequences. Trump’s narcissistic, I-know-best approach to the pandemic led to tens of thousands—perhaps more—deaths that could have been prevented and to widespread economic calamity. Trump’s dark and troubled soul was not just an embarrassment. It was killing Americans.

Consequently, Biden’s message assumed a deeper resonance. Trump’s temperament was no longer merely a question of tone. It was determining actions that endangered Americans and their nation. Initially, Biden contended that a man who praised attendees at a white supremacist rally as “very fine people” did not deserve to be president of the United States. But with the coronavirus invasion, his argument shifted to the case that this man, due to all his defects, could not do the basic job of president: protecting the citizenry. With the high death toll—far worse than most other industrialized democracies—Trump’s failure as the nation’s chief executive seemed obvious.

*snip*

[KPN]

1. Great question. nt

[SoCalNative]

2. I say just cut them loose

and let them fend for themselves.

[Blasphemer]

3. +1. nt

[MA Mom]

6. +100

My liberal heart can only bleed so much for these people.

[Me.]

4. I'm Fed Up

first the tea partiers and now the trumpers. it's always something with these people. grievance, grievance, grievance, look at me, look at me, look at me. I say let them be who they are and we move on.

[cilla4progress]

5. I dont get it

I live in a very red area. It doesn't SEEM like these people are oozing hatred from every pore??

What is causing this, and how does it end?