Trump is close to the abyss

[bemildred]

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. -- Nietzsche

It is often said that a crisis doesn’t create character; it reveals it. Well, the crisis of the radical Islamic terrorist attack in Orlando has revealed certain things about both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Today, Post opinion writer Dana Milbank does us a service by highlighting some of what Trump has said since the attacks early Sunday morning. The verbatim quotes in Milbank’s piece are alarming, from Trump’s assertion that, “You have many, many, many people, right now living in the United States who are worse than him, who are more hateful than [the shooter]” to his call to suppress immigration because, “the only reason the killer was in America in the first place was because we allowed his family to come here.”

Let’s face it: Generally speaking, we should hope to have presidents who comport themselves more like Dwight Eisenhower and less like Jim Jones of Jonestown fame. So, quickly, who is the most Jim Jones-like, Trump or Clinton? There is no contest. Trump sounds like Jim Jones. Just add sunglasses and a little more slurred speech, and the similarities would be vivid.

Trumpism is devolving into something other than a political platform or a discernible governing approach. It is becoming impossible to compare and contrast Clinton’s approach and positions with those of Trump. Too much of what he says makes no sense. It is getting harder to believe Trump represents a new approach. Whatever coherent campaign message there might be is cluttered with stunted thought fragments and ruminations that defy explanation or justification. I marvel at the earnest GOP surrogates such as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), former House speaker Newt Gingrich, Larry Kudlow, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others who can explain Trump better than Trump can. They are artful enough to give some context and rational meaning to what Trump says. But the problem is they can’t keep it up forever. At some point, the surrogates can’t continue explaining what Trump said and what he means without Trump actually saying the sensible things they try to attribute to him. I feel as though Trump is close to the abyss. Perhaps he feels it too and he is cracking under the strain. He can’t filter what he says, he blurts out lies, and conspiracies fester in his mind. Will this get better? Is it reversible, or is the Trump campaign on a trajectory that can’t be altered?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/06/14/trump-is-close-to-the-abyss/

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Trump *owns* the fucking abyss. He lives there.

He's just trying to drag the whole country into it.

[liberal N proud]

2. Trump is dragging the GOP and racist into the abyss with him

We must keep him from dragging the country there as well.

[yurbud]

10. Trump is what other Republican candidates just pretended to be

[niyad]

3. excellent post, except for the "radical islamic terrorist" bit. looks more and more like

one very confused and angry person who didn't know squat about radical islamic groups.

[bemildred]

4. It is hard to argue with the perps chosen cover when so many find it convenient.

Politically a lot of people find the "radical islamic terrorist" idea very handy, so I expect they will stick with that.

I don't want to attempt to psychoanalyze him, and I doubt trying to make sense of his rationalizations is a useful activity.

But Trump jumped right on it, bang!, quicker than the establishment, and that tells you a lot.

[bemildred]

5. Watch Charles Blow teach Donald Trump a life lesson on spreading hatred in 30 seconds

CNN commentator Charles Blow asserted on Tuesday that Republicans were allowing hate to spread by downplaying the idea that homophobia contributed to the terrorist attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

On Monday, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that President Barack Obama was complicit in the attack on Pulse nightclub in Orlando, saying, “Look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,”

Speaking on CNN’s New Day, Blow pointed out that Donald Trump had always questioned President Barack Obama’s “identity, his religion, his kind of fealty to this country.”

---

We cannot downplay the idea of homophobia being linked to other phobias and other hatreds and other isms, that all of these things are connected, that once you allow yourself to hate one person, once you allow that into your spirit, once you allow that to become part of your and normalized in you, it allows you to hate anyone, to hate everyone, to be able to hurt anyone.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/watch-charles-blow-teach-donald-trump-a-life-lesson-on-spreading-hatred-in-30-seconds/

[bemildred]

6. A Chill Wind Blows

Donald Trump, a man who tosses the truth around with the callous disdain of a spoiled child with a toy he has outgrown, has spent much of his campaign calling the media dishonest, even though his manipulation of the media is the only reason he’s the last Republican standing.

He seems to view any unflattering, or otherwise critical, coverage as an attack. His rhetoric suggests that in his mind, adulation is the only honesty.

Such is his wont. And no Republican in a party that continues to veer dangerously toward fact-hostile absolutism has ever lost points with his base by calling the media biased against him.

But there is a strand of these comments and behavior that heralds something more dangerous than an ideological animosity toward the press. Trump keeps signaling that if he had his druthers, he would silence dissent altogether.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/opinion/campaign-stops/a-chill-wind-blows.html?_r=0

[2naSalit]

7. K&R

[Judi Lynn]

8. Thank you. n/t

[bemildred]

9. +1. nt

[KoKo]

12. The time has come with Trump....

The Abyss is "looking back at him"....and not liking what it sees. He is close to his fall into it.

I've thought that for awhile now. Maybe he can pull himself away. But, I've always felt he didn't really want to be President. It is too confining for his lifestyle. No way he and Melania and little Baron are going to live in the President's Confining Quarters in the White House and deal with the rest of the President and First Lady's Duties...which to "The Donald" would be Beyond Boring for a man of his lifestyle and past and present activities and interests.

He was great at making Hillary/Bill look good with his craziness. And, his ego has been stroked enough. Time for "The Donald" to get back to his REALITY. And, it isn't us.

[bemildred]

13. I dunno.

I've been watching these guys all of my life, and they are never done when I think they should be done. I mean he shouldn't be there at all, like most of the Congress. "Crazy" isn't enough, everybody gets called crazy, it's like the vanilla insult these days, because nobody really wants to argue their case on the merits, and nobody would understand them if they tried.

And if you read in US history a bit, you will find that a number of US Presidents have served while incompetent, some quite recently. I would prefer some guy or gal who was truly nuts to some of these venal immoral rudderless assholes. That has much to do with why Obama stands out among the recent crop, he actually is the President, not just playing the role.