The Dangerous Acceptance of Donald Trump

[applegrove]

The Dangerous Acceptance of Donald Trump

By Adam Gopnik at the New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-dangerous-acceptance-of-donald-trump

"SNIP..............


He’s not Hitler, as his wife recently said? Well, of course he isn’t. But then Hitler wasn’t Hitler—until he was. At each step of the way, the shock was tempered by acceptance. It depended on conservatives pretending he wasn’t so bad, compared with the Communists, while at the same time the militant left decided that their real enemies were the moderate leftists, who were really indistinguishable from the Nazis. The radical progressives decided that there was no difference between the democratic left and the totalitarian right and that an explosion of institutions was exactly the most thrilling thing imaginable.

The American Republic stands threatened by the first overtly anti-democratic leader of a large party in its modern history—an authoritarian with no grasp of history, no impulse control, and no apparent barriers on his will to power. The right thing to do, for everyone who believes in liberal democracy, is to gather around and work to defeat him on Election Day. Instead, we seem to be either engaged in parochial feuding or caught by habits of tribal hatred so ingrained that they have become impossible to escape even at moments of maximum danger. Bernie Sanders wouldn’t mind bringing down the Democratic Party to prevent it from surrendering to corporate forces—and yet he may be increasing the possibility of rule-by-billionaire.

There is a difference between major and minor issues, and between primary and secondary values. Many of us think that it would be terrible if the radical-revisionist reading of the Second Amendment created by the Heller decision eight years ago was kept in place in a constitutional court; many on the other side think it would be terrible if that other radical decision, Roe v. Wade, continued to be found to be compatible with the constitutional order. What we all should agree on is that the one thing worse would be to have no constitutional order left to argue about.

If Trump came to power, there is a decent chance that the American experiment would be over. This is not a hyperbolic prediction; it is not a hysterical prediction; it is simply a candid reading of what history tells us happens in countries with leaders like Trump. Countries don’t really recover from being taken over by unstable authoritarian nationalists of any political bent, left or right—not by Peróns or Castros or Putins or Francos or Lenins or fill in the blanks. The nation may survive, but the wound to hope and order will never fully heal. Ask Argentinians or Chileans or Venezuelans or Russians or Italians—or Germans. The national psyche never gets over learning that its institutions are that fragile and their ability to resist a dictator that weak. If he can rout the Republican Party in a week by having effectively secured the nomination, ask yourself what Trump could do with the American government if he had a mandate. Before those famous schoolroom lines, Pope made another observation, which was that even as you recognize that the world is a mixed-up place, you still can’t fool yourself about the difference between the acceptable and the unacceptable: “Fools! who from hence into the notion fall / That vice or virtue there is none at all,” he wrote. “Is there no black or white? / Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; / ’Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain.” The pain of not seeing that black is black soon enough will be ours, and the time to recognize this is now.



...............SNIP"

[virtualobserver]

1. "I like him. And I love playing golf with him." - Bill Clinton

http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-clinton-donald-trump-phone-call-report-2015-8

In a 2012 interview with CNN, Clinton said he liked Trump, despite the real-estate mogul's controversial campaign to get President Barack Obama to release his birth certificate.

"Donald Trump has been uncommonly nice to Hillary and me. We're all New Yorkers,"

[shrike]

2. "(Hitler's rise) depended on conservatives pretending he wasn’t so bad, compared with the Communists

"while at the same time the militant left decided that their real enemies were the moderate leftists, who were really indistinguishable from the Nazis. The radical progressives decided that there was no difference between the democratic left and the totalitarian right and that an explosion of institutions was exactly the most thrilling thing imaginable." (Gee, where have I seen the last sentiment expressed before . . .)

[applegrove]

3. +100 I thought the same thing.

[bemildred]

4. +1. nt

[On the Road]

5. This Attitude, Expressed Publicly and Often,

IMO makes it much more likely that Trump will win.

An undecided voter hearing that Trump is a fascist has the same impact as your hearing Obama called a Communist -- immediate discrediting of the source. News sources that propagate this view of Trump are by this definition no longer evenhanded objective journalists but partisan sources on the level of Fox.

Trump is easy enough to campaign against without literally Godwinning the whole campaign effort. Trump confounded GOP leadership and made them look like fools by ignoring the rules and concealing his message. Now the same thing may be happening to the Democrats.

Relying on Trump=Fascist ignores the real reasons people are supporting him and allows Trump to continue to sell his message unopposed. He is a consummate salesman making a very strong pitch to the best interests of working-class people and small businessmen. The silly hair and bluster have the effect of getting people to lower their guard emotionally, which makes them more open to the message.

I believe most Democrats are being smug and not seeing either candidate as the swing voters see them. But we will see how things play out the next few months.