This is reasonably written, although I'm not really sure who the audience is supposed to be, considering it's in The...
This is reasonably written, although I'm not really sure who the audience is supposed to be, considering it's in The Atlantic, but appeals to both high and low and the American people, most of whom don't read these kinds of publications and many of whom are busy admiring their man of action leader who has stated that he doesn't like to read.
I hope he's right. I hope Trumpannon fails. But for somebody with his experience, this reads as awfully naive. And I, a very naive if cynical person, am saying that.
In rebuttal of some of his statement I must first say that this didn't "come upon us unawares." You people set this up. You let it loose, and then you could not control it. Maybe you personally don't think you did, but this is very logically what the obstructionism of Newt Gingrich and Mitch McConnell (and a long list of others) led to.
This is what the Republican tolerance and active participation in racist opposition to Obama's administration logically led to. This is what grass-roots on up Republican energy at gerrymandering and disenfranchising, primarily people of color, logically led to. Had you had the guts to lose a few elections because people did not want to vote for you, you would not have lost ground to first the Tea Party, then the Freedom Caucus, and now the Bannon Trump fascists.
We don't need to wait for the historians; some people saw this as it was happening and it didn't matter.
While I generally applaud your slightly utopian ideas, I would love to see you try to negotiate an adamant, enculturated from childhood anti-abortion voter into voting for a candidate who is not anti-abortion. I want to see you change the mind of a heartland voter who has been convinced by years of propaganda that ravening hordes of islamic extremists are lurking around every corner and therefore believes all muslims must be kicked out, if not attacked on their home ground, just to make sure.
I want to see you and your party not only admit that education and experience are good things, but make them admirable, supportable, and accessible and how people will succeed and achieve legitimacy. That these are appropriate standards for candidates for elected office, not whether or not you can imitate Gomer Pyle and have a beer; which is hipster and elitist now, anyway.
And while I really, really hope that you are right, and he and his will fail, you are naive if you believe he cannot corrupt the courts. Not only will he have the chance to get at least and probably more than one judge appointed to SCOTUS, there is a backlog of judicial appointments to federal and appeals positions because of your party. Yes, it takes two partisans, but the Republicans have set some impressive tones under Obama and they have no reason to behave better now. Far from it.
Furthermore, and most saddening, is your indescribable naivete about the decency of the American people. These are the same people who willingly voted for him because they took him "seriously, not literally." Some of them actively support nationalism, jingoism, nativism, and white supremacy.
For the larger portion who do not, they claim they are not bigoted, not racist, not hating and fearing Muslims, and Jews, and Mexicans, and whoever else they blame for the loss of their jobs and the failure to create new opportunities. And yet, like so much of our society, if you drill down you find we have all been infected with some degree of what all politicians have been peddling. The difference is whether or not we can stop and see that and try to change.
Do you think the National Socialist German Workers Party asked Germans if they wanted to live in a dictatorship that got rid of whomever they labeled as subhuman? They started with anti-communist, anti-big business, anti-middle class elite messages. Even when they started to tie Jews to the banks they officially downplayed that and promised jobs, greatness, and saving them from Communism (which is roughly equivalent as a bogeyman to islamic extremism, now).
Many German citizens were very happy, certainly at the beginning, to live under a government that spent huge amounts of money on infrastructure and military build-ups that created thousands of jobs. I very much doubt too many men complained loudly about a government that "encouraged" women to stay home and have babies by eliminating most other options.
Americans may be decent, but they are just like the rest of the world. They will give up many things for promises of security and only later will some of them regret that. Too late.
Lastly, have you not seen already what is happening? The "most timid senator" or representative will never "say "enough."" As you note, souls have been sold, values have been fatally compromised. There is no vision of a shining city on a hill, only an isolated, walled city.
I would like you to be right. That there will be some great awakening among the vulnerable and the credulous, but there is far more likely to be a lot of claims of following orders and we didn't know and quietly going back to civilization like good little school boys when the ship finally rescues you off the island, as if nothing ever happened. Implausible deniability.
You may have understood the dangers of Trump and his ilk, but I'm not sure you understand exactly where we are, now, and what it might really take to fix it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/a-clarifying-moment-in-american-history/514868/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/a-clarifying-moment-in-american-history/514868/
I hope he's right. I hope Trumpannon fails. But for somebody with his experience, this reads as awfully naive. And I, a very naive if cynical person, am saying that.
In rebuttal of some of his statement I must first say that this didn't "come upon us unawares." You people set this up. You let it loose, and then you could not control it. Maybe you personally don't think you did, but this is very logically what the obstructionism of Newt Gingrich and Mitch McConnell (and a long list of others) led to.
This is what the Republican tolerance and active participation in racist opposition to Obama's administration logically led to. This is what grass-roots on up Republican energy at gerrymandering and disenfranchising, primarily people of color, logically led to. Had you had the guts to lose a few elections because people did not want to vote for you, you would not have lost ground to first the Tea Party, then the Freedom Caucus, and now the Bannon Trump fascists.
We don't need to wait for the historians; some people saw this as it was happening and it didn't matter.
While I generally applaud your slightly utopian ideas, I would love to see you try to negotiate an adamant, enculturated from childhood anti-abortion voter into voting for a candidate who is not anti-abortion. I want to see you change the mind of a heartland voter who has been convinced by years of propaganda that ravening hordes of islamic extremists are lurking around every corner and therefore believes all muslims must be kicked out, if not attacked on their home ground, just to make sure.
I want to see you and your party not only admit that education and experience are good things, but make them admirable, supportable, and accessible and how people will succeed and achieve legitimacy. That these are appropriate standards for candidates for elected office, not whether or not you can imitate Gomer Pyle and have a beer; which is hipster and elitist now, anyway.
And while I really, really hope that you are right, and he and his will fail, you are naive if you believe he cannot corrupt the courts. Not only will he have the chance to get at least and probably more than one judge appointed to SCOTUS, there is a backlog of judicial appointments to federal and appeals positions because of your party. Yes, it takes two partisans, but the Republicans have set some impressive tones under Obama and they have no reason to behave better now. Far from it.
Furthermore, and most saddening, is your indescribable naivete about the decency of the American people. These are the same people who willingly voted for him because they took him "seriously, not literally." Some of them actively support nationalism, jingoism, nativism, and white supremacy.
For the larger portion who do not, they claim they are not bigoted, not racist, not hating and fearing Muslims, and Jews, and Mexicans, and whoever else they blame for the loss of their jobs and the failure to create new opportunities. And yet, like so much of our society, if you drill down you find we have all been infected with some degree of what all politicians have been peddling. The difference is whether or not we can stop and see that and try to change.
Do you think the National Socialist German Workers Party asked Germans if they wanted to live in a dictatorship that got rid of whomever they labeled as subhuman? They started with anti-communist, anti-big business, anti-middle class elite messages. Even when they started to tie Jews to the banks they officially downplayed that and promised jobs, greatness, and saving them from Communism (which is roughly equivalent as a bogeyman to islamic extremism, now).
Many German citizens were very happy, certainly at the beginning, to live under a government that spent huge amounts of money on infrastructure and military build-ups that created thousands of jobs. I very much doubt too many men complained loudly about a government that "encouraged" women to stay home and have babies by eliminating most other options.
Americans may be decent, but they are just like the rest of the world. They will give up many things for promises of security and only later will some of them regret that. Too late.
Lastly, have you not seen already what is happening? The "most timid senator" or representative will never "say "enough."" As you note, souls have been sold, values have been fatally compromised. There is no vision of a shining city on a hill, only an isolated, walled city.
I would like you to be right. That there will be some great awakening among the vulnerable and the credulous, but there is far more likely to be a lot of claims of following orders and we didn't know and quietly going back to civilization like good little school boys when the ship finally rescues you off the island, as if nothing ever happened. Implausible deniability.
You may have understood the dangers of Trump and his ilk, but I'm not sure you understand exactly where we are, now, and what it might really take to fix it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/a-clarifying-moment-in-american-history/514868/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/a-clarifying-moment-in-american-history/514868/
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