Iowa............a place where reactions & responses are a measure of the depth of “lunacy” that surfaces when gently spanked where their sensitivities are spawned.
Turning herself into an utterly vile human being and making policies like Don't Say Gay and ending birthright citizenship into her own only amounted to a third place finish. Losing to someone who wears high heeled clownshoes because of his napoleon complex. First choice for the party of family values, of course, was the rapist.
Trump will be the GOP nominee for POTUS and go up against Biden in November — a rematch of 2020. Since that last election Trump led an insurrection on the US Capitol to stop Biden’s certification and has been indicted on 91 criminal counts. THIS IS ALL WE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT. Haley and Desantis won’t even be FOOTNOTES when the dust settles after the 2024 GOP presidential primary. The current Republican Party is an insurrectionist, fascist, delusional, authoritarian political-religious cult not dissimilar to the National Socialist movement that arose in 1930s Germany.
MF, I agree with your comparison of Trumpism today with Nazism in 1930s Germany.
It's the same program playing out, with the same participants; the demagogic leader, his sycophantic enablers and apologists, and most disturbing, the same psychology among his followers, those people with an "authoritarian personality" who willingly surrender their own thinking to let the Great Leader think and speak for them ("I am your voice") and also they get the security and sense of power by submerging themselves in the "movement".
You might be interested in the latest posting (on exactly this question: how and why are so many Americans surrendering to Trumpism?) on my (always free) newsletter.
Our local 10:00 news (same time zone as Iowa) actually came on the air with "BREAKING NEWS!!!!111!!!11!1!!! We ALREADY have a winner in the Iowa Caucus!!!" As if. They could have called this race last Thursday.
In other news, I have FINALLY started watching "The Man in the High Castle," which I haven't seen but have heard so much about. Now that it's over and rumor has it that the series had a proper ending, I'm diving in. Episode 1 looks like it's taking place in Trump's future America. Nazis all over the place! Just prepping, just in case... (not really, WHEN we ALL vote, we'll wipe the floor with him and his ilk.)
Watched it on MSNBC where a lot of the later discussion was on the religious white right bringing in the sheaves. They called it at 1% of the vote counted. Why all the faux competitive race discussions? Those of us who follow the news were expecting this. But, still... It makes me so sad.
It’s just a waking nightmare! One part of me understands what is happening, but I still don’t “get it” and never will. And did anyone else see this article from Vox on “How Death Threats Get Republicans to fall in line behind Trump”? It’s horrifying! Is this really what we’ve come to? The descendants of those who fought the British for our freedom are now this weak that we’re ( and by we’re I mean Rs) are going to roll over for this shit? I think that particular problem should be met head on in this manner by the Biden campaign. I wish I knew how to get their attention!
I just can’t go that route. I still have hope that there are enough of us that will get out there to make sure Trump never gets in the White House again. But we have fight the MAGA messaging. Fatalism is not the way to do that.
I happened to catch The Master giving his Iowa, I guess, "Victory (?)" speech, and all the media could talk about was how magnanimous he sounded, how this is a FAR different Trump than what we're used to seeing, how he's calling for EVERYONE to come together, Republicans, Democrats, liberals and conservatives. They couldn't stop themselves. I'm sure Van Jones was somewhere saying, "Trump has TRULY become presidential tonight!"
They STILL, STILL, STILL don't get it. This bullshit performance is all part of his ongoing game. And it worked again! Now they're talking about him like he's NORMAL. It's pretty easy to be magnanimous when you're the only real candidate and this win was in the bag six months ago. Our media fails so hard, it's pathetic to watch.
Maybe if they hadn’t shut down Dr. Bandy Lee, more people would be able to understand Trump. She’s still trying to educate about him, but the APA denied her the platforms she and her colleagues could have had, which would have reached a far wider audience!
speaking of ads, I saw a bizarre black&white tv ad run by Trump's campaign called "God Made Trump" - at first i thought it was a parody, but it was a serious appeal to Iowa's evangelicals to support God's chosen one. It also reminds me of a last minute Iowa ad by Trump (the time Ted Cruz beat him) where Trump held up his "mother's old Bible" and called it his "most precious possession." I mean, you can't make this stuff up. And they fall for it!
agreed - both "my mother's precious Bible" and "God made Trump" were truly disgusting (image in our day and age presenting Trump as "God's Choice") - and yet look at tonight's results. They fell for it.
And part of the explanation, I think, lies in Fromm's notion of the "authoritarian personality" of people who surrender their hearts and minds to a Great Leader, rather than think for themselves.
First I'm awestruck by their gullibility, then I want to understand it.
That's why i spend so much time studying and writing about this question: how and why do so many Americans surrender themselves to this narcissistic fraudulent psychopath? And I'm starting to understand it.
Yes, I think we've gone WAY beyond "owning the libs." It's moving into dangerous territory for the nation, and they don't seem to care. But there was something else in the book review I saw that stayed with me because I believe it too. As you said, without Hitler, there would be no Nazism, and without Trump, there would be no MAGA. When he dies, and he WILL die someday, I think MAGA will take a while to go through all of their conspiracy theories and denial, then eventually come around to the idea that MAGA died with him. There is NO ONE out there now that can replace him. He does have a few master skills, and that's one of them. He alone can fix it? No. He alone is MAGA. There will be no pretenders to that throne for a good many years.
Trump tonite in a speech to some caucus goers touting how he gave the farmers of Iowa 85 billion dollars. What he didn't tell them that it was American taxpayer money which he had to do since he put tariffs on China which caused them to drastically cut their soy bean purchases. And he didn't tell them that Americans payed all the tariffs, not China. Great policy.
His niece Mary Trump once called it "lying and cheating as a way of life" and it seems to have worked well for the narcissistic psychopath: took him all the way to the White House, and just might get him there again.
What amazes me is how half of America can fall his BS.
I'm turning off the cable news tonight. I (mostly) turned it off over the weekend, as they kept trying to flog the dead horse in Iowa into "relevance," and themselves from the death sentence they're under these days.
This article is a great example of why I read @theRickWilson
The “Test”
Iowa............a place where reactions & responses are a measure of the depth of “lunacy” that surfaces when gently spanked where their sensitivities are spawned.
All this excitement and they chose the only guy disqualified from office for insurrection.
This is nuts.
I would love to bet that Trump will be dead before the election. Anyone like a bet? $1000?
Haley came in third.
Turning herself into an utterly vile human being and making policies like Don't Say Gay and ending birthright citizenship into her own only amounted to a third place finish. Losing to someone who wears high heeled clownshoes because of his napoleon complex. First choice for the party of family values, of course, was the rapist.
Trump will be the GOP nominee for POTUS and go up against Biden in November — a rematch of 2020. Since that last election Trump led an insurrection on the US Capitol to stop Biden’s certification and has been indicted on 91 criminal counts. THIS IS ALL WE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT. Haley and Desantis won’t even be FOOTNOTES when the dust settles after the 2024 GOP presidential primary. The current Republican Party is an insurrectionist, fascist, delusional, authoritarian political-religious cult not dissimilar to the National Socialist movement that arose in 1930s Germany.
MF, I agree with your comparison of Trumpism today with Nazism in 1930s Germany.
It's the same program playing out, with the same participants; the demagogic leader, his sycophantic enablers and apologists, and most disturbing, the same psychology among his followers, those people with an "authoritarian personality" who willingly surrender their own thinking to let the Great Leader think and speak for them ("I am your voice") and also they get the security and sense of power by submerging themselves in the "movement".
You might be interested in the latest posting (on exactly this question: how and why are so many Americans surrendering to Trumpism?) on my (always free) newsletter.
Our local 10:00 news (same time zone as Iowa) actually came on the air with "BREAKING NEWS!!!!111!!!11!1!!! We ALREADY have a winner in the Iowa Caucus!!!" As if. They could have called this race last Thursday.
In other news, I have FINALLY started watching "The Man in the High Castle," which I haven't seen but have heard so much about. Now that it's over and rumor has it that the series had a proper ending, I'm diving in. Episode 1 looks like it's taking place in Trump's future America. Nazis all over the place! Just prepping, just in case... (not really, WHEN we ALL vote, we'll wipe the floor with him and his ilk.)
PS Turned off the tv and donated to the Biden/Harris campaign. Feeling better.
Watched it on MSNBC where a lot of the later discussion was on the religious white right bringing in the sheaves. They called it at 1% of the vote counted. Why all the faux competitive race discussions? Those of us who follow the news were expecting this. But, still... It makes me so sad.
It’s just a waking nightmare! One part of me understands what is happening, but I still don’t “get it” and never will. And did anyone else see this article from Vox on “How Death Threats Get Republicans to fall in line behind Trump”? It’s horrifying! Is this really what we’ve come to? The descendants of those who fought the British for our freedom are now this weak that we’re ( and by we’re I mean Rs) are going to roll over for this shit? I think that particular problem should be met head on in this manner by the Biden campaign. I wish I knew how to get their attention!
Yes it’s really what we’ve come to and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. THIS is who America is now. And it’s going to get a whole lot worse.
I just can’t go that route. I still have hope that there are enough of us that will get out there to make sure Trump never gets in the White House again. But we have fight the MAGA messaging. Fatalism is not the way to do that.
it's the fascist playbook: rule by fear and intimidation. Fascism is about stirring people up and giving them someone to hate.
Trump's a master at it; I don't want Biden to follow his lead. But Dems do need some anti-Trump kryptonite.
I happened to catch The Master giving his Iowa, I guess, "Victory (?)" speech, and all the media could talk about was how magnanimous he sounded, how this is a FAR different Trump than what we're used to seeing, how he's calling for EVERYONE to come together, Republicans, Democrats, liberals and conservatives. They couldn't stop themselves. I'm sure Van Jones was somewhere saying, "Trump has TRULY become presidential tonight!"
They STILL, STILL, STILL don't get it. This bullshit performance is all part of his ongoing game. And it worked again! Now they're talking about him like he's NORMAL. It's pretty easy to be magnanimous when you're the only real candidate and this win was in the bag six months ago. Our media fails so hard, it's pathetic to watch.
Maybe if they hadn’t shut down Dr. Bandy Lee, more people would be able to understand Trump. She’s still trying to educate about him, but the APA denied her the platforms she and her colleagues could have had, which would have reached a far wider audience!
you nailed it Steve; we're living in an Age of Delusion.
maybe the good news out of Iowa is that the execrable Vivek Ramaswamy got blown out. Now he can go and lobby for a gig of FOX.
Excellent ad, LP: God Made a Dictator.
speaking of ads, I saw a bizarre black&white tv ad run by Trump's campaign called "God Made Trump" - at first i thought it was a parody, but it was a serious appeal to Iowa's evangelicals to support God's chosen one. It also reminds me of a last minute Iowa ad by Trump (the time Ted Cruz beat him) where Trump held up his "mother's old Bible" and called it his "most precious possession." I mean, you can't make this stuff up. And they fall for it!
That was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen related to politics, and I'm old enough to remember the Willie Horton ads.
agreed - both "my mother's precious Bible" and "God made Trump" were truly disgusting (image in our day and age presenting Trump as "God's Choice") - and yet look at tonight's results. They fell for it.
And part of the explanation, I think, lies in Fromm's notion of the "authoritarian personality" of people who surrender their hearts and minds to a Great Leader, rather than think for themselves.
First I'm awestruck by their gullibility, then I want to understand it.
That's why i spend so much time studying and writing about this question: how and why do so many Americans surrender themselves to this narcissistic fraudulent psychopath? And I'm starting to understand it.
Yes, I think we've gone WAY beyond "owning the libs." It's moving into dangerous territory for the nation, and they don't seem to care. But there was something else in the book review I saw that stayed with me because I believe it too. As you said, without Hitler, there would be no Nazism, and without Trump, there would be no MAGA. When he dies, and he WILL die someday, I think MAGA will take a while to go through all of their conspiracy theories and denial, then eventually come around to the idea that MAGA died with him. There is NO ONE out there now that can replace him. He does have a few master skills, and that's one of them. He alone can fix it? No. He alone is MAGA. There will be no pretenders to that throne for a good many years.
Idaho. Dumb White People Heaven
Trump tonite in a speech to some caucus goers touting how he gave the farmers of Iowa 85 billion dollars. What he didn't tell them that it was American taxpayer money which he had to do since he put tariffs on China which caused them to drastically cut their soy bean purchases. And he didn't tell them that Americans payed all the tariffs, not China. Great policy.
His niece Mary Trump once called it "lying and cheating as a way of life" and it seems to have worked well for the narcissistic psychopath: took him all the way to the White House, and just might get him there again.
What amazes me is how half of America can fall his BS.
I'm turning off the cable news tonight. I (mostly) turned it off over the weekend, as they kept trying to flog the dead horse in Iowa into "relevance," and themselves from the death sentence they're under these days.
All that time and airtime and money and in 2 days it'll be ancient history. Iowa who?
It's already ancient history- I can't believe Rachel Maddow was seriously discussing what DeSantis and Haley will now do.
45 point blowout.
It's a cult.
ONLY 45? Maybe the cold DID affect people crawling over broken glass and rusty nails to caucus for that pig.