"If you listen closely to Trump, you’ll hear a direct repudiation of the system of globalization and identity politics that has defined the world order since the Cold War. There are, in fact, six specific ideas that he has either blurted out or thinly buried in his rhetoric: (1) borders matter; (2) immigration policy matters; (3) national interests, not so-called universal interests, matter; (4) entrepreneurship matters; (5) decentralization matters; (6) PC speech—without which identity politics is inconceivable—must be repudiated."
Joshua Mitchell, Donald Trump Does Have Ideas—and We’d Better Pay Attention to Them
"Trump’s voters sense the system is rigged against them. This does not mean they blame blacks for their problems. Nor do they have any language for describing themselves as victims of racism. They may be deeply hurt or embarrassed by accusations of bigotry. Perhaps that is Hillary’s thinking in calling them a ‘basket of deplorables’. In an aspirational country where much of the middle class is downwardly mobile and taking its signals from television, people are terrified of exhibiting attitudes thought of as low-class. If Trump himself has recently been pitching for black support, starting in a church in Detroit in September, it may be less to win over black voters than to put his own white voters at ease."
Christopher Caldwell, Trump is right about America’s rigged system
“Most blacks don’t see Donald Trump as a Republican; they see him as blunt-talking
successful businessman with a colorful past. Trump is going after the black vote, and exposing how the Democrats have profited by keeping blacks down.”
Mark Patrone, Trump could boost GOP’s black vote to levels not seen in decades
“You can take Trump supporters and put them in two baskets.” First there are “the deplorables, the racists, and the haters, and the people who ... think somehow he’s going to restore an America that no longer exists. So, just eliminate them from your thinking…”
And who might be in the other basket backing Donald Trump?
They are people, said Clinton, “who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them. ... These are people we have to understand and empathize with.”
In short, Trump’s support consists of one-half xenophobes, bigots and racists, and one-half losers we should pity.
And she is running on the slogan “Stronger Together.”
Pat Buchanan, Last Chance for the ‘Deplorables’
"Hillary can’t round up a healthy crowd to listen to her orate because advancing decrepitude is depressing, and people don’t want to be around it. (That’s one reason you want to have family rather than just friends. No matter how popular you were in your prime, nobody will want to be around you while you are dying; but one or two of your blood relatives might at least show up.)
It’s worth keeping in mind, however, that if at the 9/11 memorial there hadn’t been a lone bystander with a videophone who alertly recorded Hillary’s alarming breakdown, we would still be getting lectured by the respectable press about how concerns over the Democratic nominee’s health are “conspiracy theories.”"
Steve Sailer, Sick and Tirade
"I think both Hillary Clinton and Trump would have a less trigger-happy concept of the national interest than George W. Bush did, and a less ambiguous and flakey concept of it than Obama has. When tested, both would be rational and patriotic. Personally, I find Trump a refreshing change from the bipartisan elite of the Bush-Clinton-Obama quarter century that has generally failed. But we are discussing imperfect candidates, not evil or deranged people. We are all sinners, and democracies get the government they deserve. In that sense, the people are always right, and America could do worse, and has for the last 16 or 20 years."
Conrad Black is now out of gaol. These words make me recall Alfred E. Neuman's slogan, “You could do worse…and always have!”
These are very interesting. I'm particularly interested by the Caldwell quote at the top. Though I think one should probably think about the old adage about stopped clocks, plus the fact that opportunistic rhetoric is not, in fact, a signal of intent, especially not from a man with such a history of opportunism, recklessness and outright dishonesty. What I think one *can* hope for is that a few people who've been trundling along in power might wake up to the fact that there is a huge amount of discontent and people feeling that the market has somehow been rigged against them, which would be no bad thing at all. But Trump in power? *shudder*
ReplyDeleteThose malcontents average $72,000 annual average income... so real discontent is obscured by shouting vike things and more - such outrageous things that they are doing their best to destroy
ReplyDeletewhat is good and what makes real change possible - hard work communication and working together rather than childish opposition.