DONALD TRUMP IS AMERICA
Jun. 3rd, 2016 04:18 pmThere is much a-dithering over the rise of Donald Trump as America’s new emperor. Much of it is reasonable. Some of it is overblown. And at least some of it seems to assume that Trump has basically already won the election.
Which he hasn’t. Yet. He might. It seems unlikely, but then so did his chances at getting anywhere near the nomination.
Anyway, the social media dithering over his success has inspired a few observations from here in the Team Def Citadel.
1.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bedsitter23 has made a similar point elsewhere, but the great irony of Trump is that he’s more uniter than divider. For the first time in my lifetime, my conservative and liberal friends actually strongly agree on something: if our choices are Trump or Hillary, America is screwed. Their reasons may differ to the point of unintentional hilarity. But whoever wins a Trump/HRC, they will be united in their hatred for the sitting POTUS.
2. On the other hand, Gary Johnson is now suddenly polling 10% vs Trump and Hillary. So hey, if enough Cruz/Bernie fans coordinate their ragequitting, Johnson could win this.
(Okay, maybe not, but in this election, nothing is impossible at this stage.)
3. I hear over and over again that Trump doesn’t represent the REAL America or even the REAL Republican Party. And yet he is winning a lot of votes. He may not represent the “real” GOP, but he has a real constituency that is big enough to push him on top. As Trump might say, “Who’s doing the voting? Someone’s doing the voting, Don.”
4. Many people also say Trump isn’t qualified to be POTUS because he insults people, gives credence to conspiracy theories, demonizes groups of people as “the enemy” and expresses a lot of opinions and policy ideas that are based on false information that he may think is true but only because they’re reinforced inside the particular personal/political echo chamber he inhabits.
Fair comment. On the other hand, I see this on social media every day.
I’m not kidding. My FaceTwit feed is packed with memes and clickbait headlines full of conspiracies or stories designed to provoke righteous partisan outrage, most of which later turn out to be misleading or outright false, but people keep believing them because they don't trust any “objective” media telling them otherwise. If it doesn’t fit their worldview, it’s dismissed. No one remembers that Snopes link you posted debunking that story. (Some of them are convinced Snopes is financed by the opposition anyway.)
I get this from both sides. Liberals, conservatives – almost all of them post stuff like this to some level. And both sides are drowning in tsunamis of misinformation, cynicism and snark that you can only get from a media landscape whose default mode is reality TV, celebrity gossip, infomercials, football and insult comedy.
In that kind of environment, who else is qualified to represent the American People™ of 2016?
So in that sense, maybe Trump is the POTUS we deserve.
6. And why not? George W Bush lowered the bar dramatically. It’s not like we didn't know he was a boob when he was running. And he served two terms.
Future history books (assuming history books still exist in the future) may peg Trump’s success as the point where the perceived qualifications for being POTUS dramatically shifted. People don't want intelligence, vision and statesmanship in a POTUS. They want a vaudeville entertainer. Trump may be a xenophobic, sexist racist fascist nincompoop, but hey, so was Archie Bunker and All In The Family was a great show, right?
I could be wrong. But dig this excerpt from a recent NYT article about Bernie fans who would rather take Trump over Hillary:
In other words, for many people the POTUS race has become just another reality television show. In which case, it’s no wonder Trump is doing so well.
The unreal world,
This is dF
Which he hasn’t. Yet. He might. It seems unlikely, but then so did his chances at getting anywhere near the nomination.
Anyway, the social media dithering over his success has inspired a few observations from here in the Team Def Citadel.
1.
bedsitter23 has made a similar point elsewhere, but the great irony of Trump is that he’s more uniter than divider. For the first time in my lifetime, my conservative and liberal friends actually strongly agree on something: if our choices are Trump or Hillary, America is screwed. Their reasons may differ to the point of unintentional hilarity. But whoever wins a Trump/HRC, they will be united in their hatred for the sitting POTUS. 2. On the other hand, Gary Johnson is now suddenly polling 10% vs Trump and Hillary. So hey, if enough Cruz/Bernie fans coordinate their ragequitting, Johnson could win this.
(Okay, maybe not, but in this election, nothing is impossible at this stage.)
3. I hear over and over again that Trump doesn’t represent the REAL America or even the REAL Republican Party. And yet he is winning a lot of votes. He may not represent the “real” GOP, but he has a real constituency that is big enough to push him on top. As Trump might say, “Who’s doing the voting? Someone’s doing the voting, Don.”
4. Many people also say Trump isn’t qualified to be POTUS because he insults people, gives credence to conspiracy theories, demonizes groups of people as “the enemy” and expresses a lot of opinions and policy ideas that are based on false information that he may think is true but only because they’re reinforced inside the particular personal/political echo chamber he inhabits.
Fair comment. On the other hand, I see this on social media every day.
I’m not kidding. My FaceTwit feed is packed with memes and clickbait headlines full of conspiracies or stories designed to provoke righteous partisan outrage, most of which later turn out to be misleading or outright false, but people keep believing them because they don't trust any “objective” media telling them otherwise. If it doesn’t fit their worldview, it’s dismissed. No one remembers that Snopes link you posted debunking that story. (Some of them are convinced Snopes is financed by the opposition anyway.)
I get this from both sides. Liberals, conservatives – almost all of them post stuff like this to some level. And both sides are drowning in tsunamis of misinformation, cynicism and snark that you can only get from a media landscape whose default mode is reality TV, celebrity gossip, infomercials, football and insult comedy.
In that kind of environment, who else is qualified to represent the American People™ of 2016?
So in that sense, maybe Trump is the POTUS we deserve.
6. And why not? George W Bush lowered the bar dramatically. It’s not like we didn't know he was a boob when he was running. And he served two terms.
Future history books (assuming history books still exist in the future) may peg Trump’s success as the point where the perceived qualifications for being POTUS dramatically shifted. People don't want intelligence, vision and statesmanship in a POTUS. They want a vaudeville entertainer. Trump may be a xenophobic, sexist racist fascist nincompoop, but hey, so was Archie Bunker and All In The Family was a great show, right?
I could be wrong. But dig this excerpt from a recent NYT article about Bernie fans who would rather take Trump over Hillary:
Victor Vizcarra, 48, of Los Angeles, said he would much prefer Mr. Trump to Mrs. Clinton. Though he said he disagreed with some of Mr. Trump’s policies, he added that he had watched “The Apprentice” and expected that a Trump presidency would be more exciting than a “boring” Clinton administration.
“A dark side of me wants to see what happens if Trump is in,” said Mr. Vizcarra, who works in information technology. “There is going to be some kind of change, and even if it’s like a Nazi-type change, people are so drama-filled. They want to see stuff like that happen. It’s like reality TV. You don’t want to just see everybody be happy with each other. You want to see someone fighting somebody.”
“A dark side of me wants to see what happens if Trump is in,” said Mr. Vizcarra, who works in information technology. “There is going to be some kind of change, and even if it’s like a Nazi-type change, people are so drama-filled. They want to see stuff like that happen. It’s like reality TV. You don’t want to just see everybody be happy with each other. You want to see someone fighting somebody.”
In other words, for many people the POTUS race has become just another reality television show. In which case, it’s no wonder Trump is doing so well.
The unreal world,
This is dF
