Not so long ago, Americans thought that authoritarian leaders only came to power in countries like Turkey, where president Recep Erdogan has been cracking down hard on anyone in the media who criticizes him, while stoking nationalist fervor and traditional (sexist) values.
But now we know that it could happen here. And it didn’t take much to start us down that road.
Trump is definitely not making life easier for Republicans.
As a possible sign of what is to come, incumbent Republican congresswoman Renee Ellmers was the first down-ballot GOP candidate to be endorsed by Donald Trump. Trump even recorded a robocall for her. But she was crushed in the North Carolina primary last weekend, far behind the winner and barely squeaking by the third-place finisher.
This indicates that dislike of Trump will severely damage down-ballot GOP candidates. Dislike of Trump will keep people away from the polls, and not even a strong endorsement from Trump will help.
Can you imagine what it is like to be a Republican running for reelection this year? Would you support Trump? Reject him? Ignore him? Try to have it both ways?
Well, now you don’t have to imagine it. Vox has created a eerily accurate simulation of what it is like to be a Republican politician in the age of Trump.
For example, they start with the situation where Trump says something offensive (not that hard to imagine). You play the role of a Republican running for office. Do you “issue a statement criticizing Trump”, “Do nothing and hope it blows over”, or “call the Trump campaign for guidance”? You pick.
But if you pick the first option, you get attacked by the GOP’s angry base and potentially even by Trump himself, and the press starts asking you if you when you are going to take back your previous endorsement of Trump, or pull a Ryan and continue to support Trump?
Again, you do the right thing and withdraw your endorsement. But 85% of your party’s voters plan to vote for Trump this year. You lose.
No matter what option you chose at each step, you lose. You are between a rock and a hard place. Even if Trump wins the election, he can still destroy the Republican party. And if he loses, he can still do tremendous damage.
[Jokes from May 24, 2016]
“If the 2016 GOP primary season taught us anything, it’s that Republicans can’t tell the difference between a deep bench and the bottom of a barrel.” – Bill Harnsberger
“I saw that today, Donald Trump held a big rally in New Mexico. Which is weird, since he’s spent his whole campaign promising to ban NEW Mexicans.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Yesterday, a North Korean official turned down an offer by Donald Trump to visit the country and meet with Kim Jong Un, saying the offer is ‘propaganda’ and ‘nonsense’. This doesn’t make Trump look good. You know you’re in trouble when the leader of North Korea is like, ‘I can’t associate myself with that guy.'” – James Corden
“Trump got turned down for a meeting with Kim Jong Un. So I guess his search for a vice president isn’t going so well. Seriously, how do you get denied by North Korea?” – James Corden
“Donald Trump is now ahead of Hillary Clinton in the polls. This was reported today in The Washington Post, and 2,000 years ago in the Book of Revelation.” – Conan O’Brien
“Trump criticized Hillary Clinton over the weekend, claiming that her views are ‘just words’ read off a teleprompter. But Hillary denied it, saying, ‘I’ve had these speeches memorized since I was six.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Donald Trump is holding his first-ever campaign fundraiser but says he’s only doing it because the Republican Party asked him to. Yeah. Trump thought he should do this for the Republican Party, since he turned down their first request: Don’t be our candidate.” – Conan O’Brien
“A recent survey found that Donald Trump is polling very badly among Asian-Americans. After hearing this, Trump said, ‘That’s odd, I haven’t even gotten around to insulting them yet. I got great material on them.'” – Conan O’Brien
“Troubling news for Hillary Clinton. The FBI says as part of its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails, it may call her in to speak to them. No word yet on how much Hillary’s planning to charge. Could be as much as three grand, $300,000.” – Conan O’Brien
“Bernie said yesterday that his critics call him ‘Santa Claus’ because of his white hair. Then Santa said, ‘Yeah — even I don’t promise people THAT much free stuff.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Bernie Sanders today campaigned in California just a few miles from Disneyland. Either that, or Grumpy was on a lunch break.” – Seth Meyers
“In an interview last night, Bernie Sanders talked about the chaotic primary season, saying, ‘Democracy is messy. Every day my life is messy.’ Which is exactly the kind of comment you’d expect from a guy who always looks like he just rolled down a hill.” – Seth Meyers
A humorous look at the conflict between Clinton and Sanders supporters:
Now the only question is, can we laugh at ourselves?
Personally, I won’t belong to any political group that doesn’t have a healthy sense of humor.
Sanders supporters are angry at Clinton. Republicans are becoming aware that they have nominated a two-bit con artist. People are looking for an alternative!
Yes, you’ve been rickrolled. But if you really like the shirt, you can click on the photo to find out where to buy it.
[Jokes from May 20 & 23, 2016]
“While at a rally with Chris Christie in New Jersey yesterday, Donald Trump said, ‘If you can make it in New Jersey, you can do just about anything you want in life.’ Then Trump looked at Christie and said, ‘Well, except be President.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“It’s reported that Donald Trump may have actually done business with the mob … even has ties to an ex-convict named Joey No Socks. When asked about his relationship with Trump, Joey No Socks said, ‘That’s between me and Donny Three Wives.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“The NRA on Friday endorsed Donald Trump for president. I guess that reaffirms their commitment to absolutely zero background checks.” – Seth Meyers
“Donald Trump tweeted that a Hillary Clinton presidency would be ‘four more years of stupidity.’ As opposed to a Trump presidency, which would be one year of stupidity followed by three years of war with Mexico.” – Conan O’Brien
“Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are starting to really go at it. This week Hillary criticized Trump’s behavior, saying that when you run for president, the rest of the world is watching. While the rest of the world was like, ‘Yeah, and we’re loving this!'” – Jimmy Fallon
“A new poll shows that almost half of registered voters say they would consider a third-party candidate as an alternative to Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. A third-party candidate is a little bit like a Tinder date. You think to yourself, what have I got to lose? Can’t be worse than my ex.” – Seth Meyers
“Hillary Clinton’s new campaign slogan is ‘Stronger Together’. Which replaces her old slogan, ‘Goddammit, It’s My Turn!'” – Conan O’Brien
“There was a brief security scare yesterday when some party balloons drifted over the White House fence. The White House staff were pretty worried, especially when they saw Obama tying those balloons to a lawn chair.” – Jimmy Fallon
“The White House went into lockdown yesterday after several balloons drifted onto the property. Even worse, Bernie Sanders’ house was attached to them.” –Seth Meyers
Donald Trump is going off the deep end over the whole Trump University scandal and lawsuit.
As if calling the judge in two of the cases against Trump U “a hater” and saying that the judge should be removed from the case because “he’s a Mexican” isn’t bad enough. First of all, the judge is not Mexican. He was born in Indiana, the son of immigrants from Mexico who came to this country in the 1920s. But reality doesn’t matter to Trump. And attacking someone because their parents came from another country makes Trump completely against everything for which this country stands. Indeed, in his view, would any American be qualified to judge Donald Trump?
Even Trump’s strongest supporters, including Republican politicians being considered for the VP slot, denounced Trump. Newt Gingrich called his racist attacks “inexcusable” and said “I don’t know what Trump’s reasoning was, and I don’t care. His description of the judge in terms of his parentage is completely unacceptable.” Top Trump campaigner Ben Carson warned “Every human being is an individual first rather than a member of an identity group. The moment we forget that is the moment we enter into a phase of moral descent.” Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said “I couldn’t disagree [with Trump] more.” Speaker Paul Ryan called it “the textbook definition of a racist comment“. GOP Senator Jeff Flake says “Let’s face it: meet the old Trump, just like the new Trump. We’ve got what we’ve got. That’s not somebody who can win the White House.” Senator Lindsay Graham accused Trump of “playing the race card”. Graham is urging Republicans to rescind their endorsements of Trump, saying “This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy. If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it. There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.”
The only people who have praised Trump for his disgusting comments are prominent white nationalists.
But that is not what this post is about. Unbelievably, Trump has now ordered his campaign surrogates (including former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, former Senator Scott Brown, and current Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who asked for and received $25,000 in campaign contributions from Trump and then refused to investigate complaints into Trump University) to join him in attacking the judge and to impugn reporters as racists. He says, “The people asking the questions—those are the racists. I would go at ’em.”
But when Brewer informed Trump that his own campaign had ordered the surrogates to stop talking about the lawsuit, Trump immediately started attacking his own campaign staff, and told the surrogates to “Take that order and throw it the hell out”. He then asked “Are there any other stupid letters that were sent to you folks? That’s one of the reasons I want to have this call, because you guys are getting sometimes stupid information from people that aren’t so smart.”
So much for hiring the “best people” for his campaign.
Trump wants his supporters and surrogates to attack anyone who asks questions about his fraudulent university and to call them racists. And on the call he boasted “We will overcome. I’ve always won and I’m going to continue to win. And that’s the way it is.”
But in the five weeks since he became the presumptive Republican nominee, Trump has failed several times: he refused to release his tax returns, lying that he couldn’t because he was being audited; he denied that it was him on a recorded phone call pretending to be his own publicist and bragging about himself; he failed to donate to veterans groups as he promised until pressured by the media; and after promising that he would self-fund his campaign so he couldn’t be bought, he is now working with multiple super-PACs and courting billionaire donors; and of course his Trump University scandal and resulting racism.
His warlord-like siege mentality is a preview of what a Trump presidency would look like, and it scares the hell out of me. Trump has the potential to destroy America, ruin our economy, incite racial violence, dramatically increase corruption, sink the dollar, bankrupt our government, alienate our allies and trade partners, increase the nuclear threat, and invite terrorist attacks with his hostile rhetoric.
UPDATE: Let’s add that — according to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly — Trump’s attacks on the judge in his trial could destroy our legal system.
[Satire reprinted from The New Yorker. Here’s what Hawking actually said.]
Stephen Hawking Angers Trump Supporters With Baffling Array of Long Words
by Andy Borowitz
LONDON (The Borowitz Report)—The theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking angered supporters of Donald J. Trump on Monday by responding to a question about the billionaire with a baffling array of long words.
Speaking to a television interviewer in London, Hawking called Trump “a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator,” a statement that many Trump supporters believed was intentionally designed to confuse them.
Moments after Hawking made the remark, Google reported a sharp increase in searches for the terms “demagogue,” “denominator,” and “Stephen Hawking.”
“For a so-called genius, this was an epic fail,” Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said. “If Professor Hawking wants to do some damage, maybe he should try talking in English next time.”
Later in the day, Hawking attempted to clarify his remark about the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, telling a reporter, “Trump bad man. Real bad man.”
After the AP called the Democratic nomination for Clinton, the Sanders campaign released a statement:
It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgement, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee’s clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer.
Now, I happen to agree with Sanders on this one, but it still strikes me as hypocritical of his campaign to invoke the DNC, after all the times that Sanders (and his supporters and campaign) have accused the DNC (and especially its chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz) of rigging the election for Clinton.
In addition, Sanders has now said he will win by talking Democratic superdelegates into changing sides, in many cases defying the will of the voters in their home states. His campaign has declared that its “job from now until the convention is to convince superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump.”
What happened to the “Democratic” in “Democratic Socialist”?
Yes, I know that Sanders’ statements are likely political posturing, but it still strikes me as strongly contrary to Bernie’s principles and values, which was his whole appeal. And that’s sad.
It is also pointless. According to FiveThirtyEight.com, there actually “isn’t much sign of forward momentum for Sanders”. He had a “strong run of states in late March and early April, but over the past seven weeks, from the New York primary on April 19 through Puerto Rico on Sunday, Clinton has won 505 pledged delegates compared with 428 for Sanders. Her current lead in our national polling average, 14.4 percentage points, is the widest it has been since mid-February.”
And Clinton is gaining superdelegates, not losing them. How can Bernie talk superdelegates into switching, after he has spent months attacking them?
Finally, by continuing to attack Clinton, Sanders is hurting his chances of influencing the Democratic Party platform. And that’s sad too.
UPDATE: Politico has an inside look at Bernie Sanders’ campaign, and how Sanders himself is making all the big decisions, including the ones that have hurt his campaign and incited anger among his supporters. It is fascinating, and answers some of the questions asked in this post.
If you live in one of the states that has a primary today, please vote. I don’t even care for whom you vote. People complain about the special interests in politics, but the main reason those special interests can get away with it is because most people don’t vote.
Ignore the AP calling the primary for Clinton. Their prediction is based entirely on superdelegates, while the pledged delegates are far more important.
Vote for Clinton or vote for Sanders. Vote for whomever you want. The only wasted vote is one you don’t cast. I don’t even care if you vote for Trump, since all of his opponents have dropped out.
Just vote. If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain.
When Donald Trump created Trump University, he called it a noble endeavor with an emphasis on education over profits. In fact, he promised that if the (fake) university made a profit, he would turn the funds over to charity.
Is anyone surprised to find out that even though Trump University had revenues of $40 million and netted an estimated $5 million in profit, not a penny of that ever went to charity?
And as already noted, Trump somehow got the Texas attorney general (who is now the governor) to mysteriously drop a lawsuit against Trump University, and then donated $35,000 to his gubernatorial campaign.
And for even more examples of Trump fraud, see what John Oliver has to say about Trump University.
[Jokes from May 19, 2016]
“One of the ways that Trump is treating the convention like a reality show is holding off announcing his running mate. As one Trumpling said, ‘Announcing the vice-presidential nominee before the convention is like announcing the winner of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ before the final show is on the air.’ It’s an apt metaphor, because this year’s Republican convention will be the series finale of America.” – Stephen Colbert
“The New York Times just did a big profile on Donald Trump, and revealed that he has life-sized portraits of Ronald Reagan and John Wayne at his campaign headquarters. And if you don’t see them right away, it’s because they’re right behind a 25-foot tall portrait of Donald Trump.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Ed Rendell tried to help Hillary Clinton by attacking her opponent, saying, ‘Trump’s comments, like ‘you can’t be a 10 if you’re flat-chested,’ will come back to haunt him.’ And then Rendell helpfully added, ‘There are probably more ugly women in America than attractive women. People take that stuff personally.’ Yep, I have a feeling a lot of women are about to take that really personally.” – Stephen Colbert
“Despite her promises to be tough on Wall Street, a new report has found that groups supporting Hillary Clinton have received $25 million from the financial industry using so-called shadow banks. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders has received a new waffle iron for opening a savings account.” – Seth Meyers
“Vice President Joe Biden today urged Americans to have an uncomfortable conversation about race relations. And he would know, because he’s had lots of them.” – Seth Meyers
“The National Parks Service is so desperate for cash that they just announced that, for the first time, they are going to solicit corporate sponsorship. Pretty soon, those sequoias could be brought to you by Viagra. Remember, if your redwood lasts more than 2,000 years, call your lumberjack!” – Stephen Colbert
There are many theories of why people support Donald Trump. One theory is that the voters are angry and hate the political establishment. Middle class workers have been hurt by the economy and are desperate to find someone who can shake things up. Or at least stand up to the special interests who are sucking our country dry for their own benefit. For example, an article in The New Yorker summed up Trump’s appeal this way:
The base of the [Republican] Party, the middle-aged white working class, has suffered at least as much as any demographic group because of globalization, low-wage immigrant labor, and free trade. Trump sensed the rage that flared from this pain and made it the fuel of his campaign.
But a detailed analysis of the 2016 American National Election Study has a simpler explanation. First, the analysis found that there is little correlation between how people feel about the state of the economy and whether they support Trump.
What the analysis found was surprising, but ultimately already right in front of our eyes. If people answer yes to the following two questions, there is a (stunning) 94% probability that they are a Trump voter:
The next best predictors are the person’s level of resentment toward blacks, and whether they feel that Muslims are “violent”.
That’s right. You can predict (with 94% accuracy) whether someone is a Donald Trump supporter by determining if they agree with racist statements and (slightly delusional) racist theories about the president.
The analysis also found a strong correlation between racial resentment and how much they disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president. This in turn leads to a strong correlation between a person’s job approval rating for Obama, and whether they support Hillary Clinton. These correlations hold true regardless of how people feel about the economy.
Indeed, because racist statements and actions can be socially unacceptable, it appears that people use statements about the economy as a (more acceptable) proxy for expressing their racist feelings.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I’ve been having conversations recently with Bernie Sanders supporters and have felt a kind of desperation coming from them. Like if Sanders doesn’t win (and most of them are still holding out hope for that unlikely outcome) they will be very depressed or angry. Some are saying that they plan to vote for Trump if Sanders doesn’t get the nomination, and many of them are saying that they just won’t vote.
It isn’t like I don’t understand. I feel depressed and angry when I think about Donald Trump becoming president. Ironically, the Sanders supporters I’ve talked to all admit that Trump is much worse than Clinton, but that doesn’t seem to matter.
Is the prospect of Hillary Clinton becoming president really that horrible? Up until two years ago, Bill Clinton was the favorite president of most Democrats. But recently his popularity has been slipping. What’s going on?
But today I read an interesting article by Barrett Holmes Pitner titled “The White Entitlement of Some Sanders Supporters“. Now, Pitner is a Sanders supporter and even interned for Sanders. But he is noticing the same things I have — Sanders supporters trash talking Clinton, talking about how “Killary Clinton” has stolen the nomination, that she is cheating, and that she can’t be trusted. But Pitner has a theory:
The main source of their frustration was merely the fact that they had lost. The fact that she is ahead in the popular vote, has won more primaries and caucuses, and has earned more delegates was to them a minor nuisance. They had their absurd talking points and were unwilling to deviate into reality.
The more I reflected on them, the more I realized the key point: They felt entitled to win, and a defeat meant that someone must have cheated or that their opinions did not matter, which of course couldn’t be true. They preferred to suspend reality and fabricate injustices rather than concede that Sanders has lost fair and square.
Essentially, we disagreed on what America supposedly promised or owed us. They felt success was promised to them. The entitlement to believe that you should always win allowed them to overlook how the system in many ways has always been unjustly rigged in their favor because they’re white.
This could explain why Sanders supporters are predominantly white, while most minority voters favor Clinton. Could it be that Sanders (if even unintentionally) is benefiting from the same white tribalism that appears to be the driving force behind Trump’s appeal?
Well, I expect some of my readers to strongly disagree with this idea. I’m not even totally convinced of it, but so far it is the only explanation I’ve heard that makes any sense.
Steven Rosenthal and Peggy O’Brien took 142 audio clips from 37 different Trump interviews and edited them together to solve the mystery of what would happen if Donald Trump attacked Donald Trump (like he has attacked anyone he doesn’t like or who threatens his ascension to the presidency). Because ultimately, Trump himself may be the only person who can stop Trump.
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