HOW THE RIGHT LOST ITS MIND AND EMBRACED DONALD TRUMP

[elleng]

'**This is a painful story for me to write.

For a quarter of a century, I was a major part of the conservative movement. But like many on the right, in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory I had to ask some uncomfortable questions. The 2016 presidential campaign was a brutal, disillusioning slog, and there came a moment when I realized that conservatives had created an alternate reality bubble—one that I had helped shape.

During the 2016 election, conservatives turned on the principles that had once animated them. Somehow a movement based on real ideas—such as economic freedom and limited government—had devolved into a tribe that valued neither principle nor truth; luminaries such as Edmund Burke and William F. Buckley Jr. had been replaced by media clowns such as Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos. Icons such as Ronald Reagan—with his optimism and geniality—had been supplanted by the dark, erratic narcissism of Donald Trump. Gradualism, expertise and prudence—the values that once were taken for granted among conservatives—were replaced by polls and ratings spikes, as the right allowed liberal overreach in the Obama era to blind them to the crackpots and bigots in their midst.**'>>>

http://www.newsweek.com/2017/09/29/right-lost-mind-embraced-donald-trump-668180.html

[ffr]

1. ...and went full vindictive.

They hate, because that's what they are good at. Plus they love a good auction. Auction off natural resources as if they were infinite and hold no future value beyond what they can be sold for today.

Republiturds are nothing but mean spirited grifters who hold no human principles.

[pangaia]

2. "Somehow a movement based on real ideassuch as economic freedom and limited government.."

Oh, that's just great.. real ideas..bullshit.

luminaries such as............ William F. Buckley Jr.--

yeah, there's a real winner..

Icons such as Ronald Reagan—with his optimism and geniality-

--- fuck reagan

I will admit, I didn't have the interest to even hit the link...

[Initech]

3. The right lost its' mind in the 80s.

Donald Trump is a byproduct of 4 decades of right wing talking points and just pure hatred about liberals and the embrace of hardcore racism by the 2017 Hitler Youth.

[jrthin]

4. Very, very true. nt

[Blue_Tires]

12. +1000

[Homeoutside]

5. A must read imo

One of the most honest efforts of self-reflection i've seen in a long time. He lays out THEIR reality. And owns up to THE reality. I loved it. Makes sense to me.

[nocalflea]

6. "Ronald Reagan with his optimism and geniality"

Yes, that Reagan played the race card with a grandfatherly twinkle in his eyes makes all the difference in the world.

[dalton99a]

7. Great piece

[BigmanPigman]

8. Reagan was the beginning of the end for this country.

My first election that I could participate was 1980 and this is what happened. I should've known then that the rest of my life would be fucked up politically.

I wasn't alone. While I was attending Parsons (art school) in NYC he was shot. My entire floor of art students was cheering because we were hoping that perhaps he would have to leave office early, that is how much we hated him.

[hatrack]

9. Mea culpa, obligatory St. Reagan tongue-bath, sunny optimistic Republicans . . .

Less than impressive in its grasp of reality.

[mulsh]

10. "Sorry Charlie", Reagan and Buckley were highly accomplished media clowns. Buckley's posh accent,

tossing off cliche high school Latin phrases occasionally certainly bamboozled the masses; acta non verba, indeed.

Speaking of bamboozling the masses Reagan and his PR team were masters of the craft. Con men, more nuanced and very effective racists both of them.

As one who lived through those times I see very little difference between today's horror show and the ones their predecessors provided us with. The hoods have mostly come off is the only enhancement.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. "As the right allowed liberal overreach in the Obama era to blind them

to the crackpots and bigots in their midst"

What? What does that even mean? "Liberal overreach in the Obama era"--you mean like trying to get good legislation passed but being strangled at every attempt by extremist, reactionary repuke sabotage?

I'll read the rest when I have a chance later, because I'm curious, but if he embraces fantasies like that and Ronnie the Great, I don't think he's gonna get more reality-based later.

[Beartracks]

13. IKR? Where was the so-called liberal overreach? Oh, there it is...

... in the beleaguered fantasies of the right wing, alongside the myth of the liberal media.

How can they keep chastising themselves for running their party off the tracks while still clinging to the fantasy-based beliefs that laid the tracks in the first place?



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