Watching his rise I now know horror.

Tell me about it!

How many of us ever imagined that we would live to see the Nazi salute become a regular feature of the daily news cycle?

Jesus. This just gets more f&*ked up everyday. And of course it's on fox. They should just release this as a promotional poster - murdock could be the goebbels to trump's adolf

I grew up in the South, so it's not really a surprise. I've been watching for the backlash to the Obama administration since 2008.
Welcome to the other shoe. It's comforting, in a way, when people tell you who they really are.
That the shambling, headless GOP monster can't kill the cancer that it's been feeding on isn't really a surprise either.
The REAL question is how effective GOP Gerrymandering has been. Have they created a beast that can't be killed? Will the chickens come home to roost turn out to be vultures?
Vote early and often...

James wrote: "I grew up in the South, so it's not really a surprise. I've been watching for the backlash to the Obama administration since 2008.
Welcome to the other shoe. It's comforting, in a way, when people ..."

James, thanks. You said it well. I'll bet every one of us actually knows (well, or not so well) someone who thinks Trump is the Savior. And we have to be polite to them.

If you do not know anyone who has been (or is still) supporting this monster, then you are very lucky.

Marge wrote: "James wrote: "I grew up in the South, so it's not really a surprise. I've been watching for the backlash to the Obama administration since 2008.
Welcome to the other shoe. It's comforting, in a way..."

I'm watching what's been going on over there, in the country of my birth, from across the ocean with a mixture of shock, disgust, and, ultimately, hope. I just hope my hope doesn't get smothered by a mass movement of ignorance and fear.

Here's what I see: educated people who support Herr Drumpf NOT because they are "authoritarian" in leaning, but exactly the opposite, grown-ass adults who say they are tired of having to watch what they say and do because of modern "political correctness" — in short, adolescents in adult bodies who don't want to deal with the consequences of their own thoughts, words, and deeds. The punchline is that they don't all buy the horrors implicit in Herr Drumpf's diatribes. My mother-in-law says, "Oh, he won't actually do all those things he's talking about."
That's where they're wrong. He doesn't care about Muslims any more than Hitler cared about Jews or gays or Romany folk. It's all a means to an end for the opportunist sociopathic demagogue, his hour come round at last, slouching towards Cleveland to be nominated.

That's it.

Sadly, yes --that's it. :(

The longer I live, the clearer it becomes to me that the essential conflict in this world is not (just) between rich and poor, or right and wrong, or even good and evil. It’s between the rational and the irrational. I’m fascinated by the belief system I’m seeing lately, though it’s taken me a while to work out the various permutations. Admittedly, my version is a work in progress, but I think it goes something like this:

There is no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. It’s all window dressing, meant to dupe the public. Clinton and Trump are actually working together. Trump’s job is to disgust and goad the American public to the point where people vote for Clinton en masse. Empowered, Clinton will then bring about an atomic war … and from the ashes will rise the New World Order. (Obama’s staging of the Orlando massacre is just another excuse to ‘get our guns,’ forestalling any possibility of armed resistance.) People truly believe this. They are not stupid, they are not evil, but they believe. If you keep them talking long enough, some of them may eventually bring up the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Others may introduce the subject of space aliens. (It’s like Scientology: there are circles/levels within circles.) They have embraced the supernatural and conspiracy theories and anti-science. GMOs cause cancer. Vaccinations cause autism. And they cannot be reasoned out of these beliefs. The voice at the back of their minds that should tell them that this all sounds “crazy” has been silenced long since, if it was ever audible.

and here we go --


The Substance of Belief

Dark men, darker thoughts,
the groan of rail and wood,
a train coming, bringing it all back,
the shadows of the past unearthed.

But here in this hospital
is substance; the gathering of kin
while a woman's healthy foot
is bound before amputation.

It is the right foot,
her toenails decorated
with tiny flags
each representing a nation
her people despise.

She does not resist.
Instead, she smiles
as the needle descends
into the flesh of her calf.

Her father bows his head,
her mother stifles a tear.
Her brothers frown,
jealous that she is so honored.

In less than an hour
she is wheeled to a room
where they will do the same thing
to her right arm in a month,
her fingernails decorated
with the same tiny flags,
perfectly reproduced.

Only the family knows
what will be done next.
Only the family knows why.

Marge Simon

How can we compare the mob mentality to this "religious" mentality? Belief, as you say, Rob. Belief.

I'd like to know more about her. Google search mixes her up with a communist resistor who was executed. Shame she doesn't have a wiki entry that's easy to find.

Of course when a quote that may not be accurate is used people tend to dismiss the words, which is unfortunate. Reminds me of the Bush II service record a bit, which WAS accurate. It wasn't on the original paper, or in the original font.

When we ignore what words mean and dismiss them for other reasons we are in danger of tripping into the trap the words warn us about.

I read the wrong date on this - thought it was 2017 - but since I'm here:

Your division, Robert, between the rational and irrational is the same one people used to use for how Hitler stormed Germany. It's true but it amazes me that Trump supporters continue to rationalize their support by the same process of reasoning democrats might use. Anyone trying to make a point will cherry pick the facts. The problem is that Trumpers pick facts that aren't facts at all and don't stand up to scrutiny. Instead, they're relying on "truths" - their truths about political correctness, immigrants, race, and the American dream, to make what they see is a rational case in support of Trump. It is very difficult to counter "truths" with "facts".

I'm Canadian and watched the primaries and election with grave misgivings. It seemed to me I was watching the demise of what our two countries stand for in the world, and yours was first. I think it was Dickens who called the U.S a grand experiment the entire world was watching, and it was already failing. So for me it's not just the US voting in an inept president, it was like watching another nail in the coffin of a grand experiment in democracy. The world is holding its breath to see if this will just be a four year glitch or if the dream we hold of democracy is going to fail.

And I have to admit, when I discovered he won, my first reaction was anger, and that Americans had so lost touch with 'fact' rather than truth, had so undereducated their people, that they deserved this. That passed but I think many non-Americans still feel betrayed not by whatever Trump will do but by the belief system demonstrated by 50% of your population. I'm sure the other 50% of your population feels the same.

Marge, that poem is absolutely famtastic.

That says it. The only encouraging aspect is that it wasn't 50% who supported Trump and never was. With his support numbers declining daily, he is the most unpopular president in modern history.