June 13, 2017

"I think about young people who will come to understand what a president is and does under Trump and it makes me dizzy and sick and sad."

Tweets Ana Marie Cox.

Now, let's try to figure out why Ana Marie Cox feels "dizzy and sick and sad" thinking about young people coming to understand "what a president is and does" in the context of a Trump presidency. She's not saying Trump makes her dizzy and sick and sad. She's imagining these other people, those who haven't had the opportunity to have their minds develop during the Obama presidency (or one of the other, earlier presidencies). The minds formed in the Trump era will be impoverished, warped, distorted in this vital area:  understanding what a President is and does.

A young mind that developed during the Obama era might form the basic understanding that when a person is elected President, he is viewed as having won and, because of that, he is given respect and admiration and support as he endeavors to meet the responsibilities of the office.

But if Trump is the first person you observe becoming President, your idea of what it means is quite different. After the long fight to get to the election, a new fight began. The seeming winner somehow didn't count as the winner, and he was given no respect, and, as he attempted to step into the responsibilities of the office, he was continually battered and treated like a horrible clownish imposter.

An older person might think: It's terrible that a man like Trump has come to take the great position of President. A very young person might think: A President is that thing that Trump is.

Another way to look at it is: What's the best frame of mind for citizens to have about their leaders? What's the optimum level of reverence or disdain? I suspect that we were too reverent toward Obama and now we — some of us — are too rebellious toward Trump. There are dangers in excessive reverence and excessive rebellion, and who knows exactly where on that continuum any given American will be during one presidency or another?

You enter the historical timeline when you happen to be born, and you begin to follow politics some time thereafter. I came to understand what a president is and does when a man became President not by election but a shocking assassination. He spoke weirdly of "the great society" and "escalated" a war that young men were forced into the military to fight. My generation grew up hating that man. And then we got Nixon. I could get dizzy and sick and sad thinking about what happened to the minds of young people back then.

But I think the reason that Ana Marie Cox can get so dizzy and sick and sad over what's happening to the minds of young people now is that there was a superficial, irrational good feeling about Obama. And gee, wasn't that nice for the young kids?

98 comments:

donald said...

This is the whore that could be bought for dinner. So, a cheap whore.

lawyerdad said...

Maybe there was in Madison, but there are plenty of places in the U.S. where the exact opposite was/is true. Where Obama was reviled among adults, given little respect (he is a socialist who was born in Kenya, after all), and Trump is now revered. What have kids in those places learned?

RNB said...

Two words: Bill. Clinton.

tim in vermont said...

What have kids in those places learned?

That people who don't give a. shit about them should be considered worthless, and people who at least pretend to care about them deserve respect?

campy said...

I think about young people who will come to understand what a journalist is and does under Ana Marie Cox and it makes me dizzy and sick and sad.

tim in vermont said...

Obama was a guy who worked hard to make incredible BMWs, lawn service, maid services, etc, affordable to the Democrats' main constituencies by screwing over icky working class whites (who would probably just raid your. liquor cabinet if allowed to clean your house), and working class blacks BTW, all the while accusing anybody who opposed him of racism.

The nice thing about Mexicans is that they know their place, don't expect to be members of one's club, keep their nose to the grindstone. Not like these meth-head whites.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Trump is the president, Obama the problem. Go figure.

Sharc 65 said...

She's not saying Trump makes her dizzy and sick and sad.

FIFY.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

"My generation grew up hating that man. And then we got Nixon. I could get dizzy and sick and sad thinking about what happened to the minds of young people back then."

Look no farther than today's extremist Democrats to find out. Donald Trump is a classic Truman / Kennedy type Democrat

tim in vermont said...

Trump is the president, Obama the problem. Go figure.

Did you read the article? No? Go figure.

David Begley said...

What about the children who came of age when Bill Clinton was President? A guy who received sexual favors from a woman who was young enough to be his daughter and then lied about it in a lawsuit alleging sexual discrimination against a female government employee.

clint said...

If we actually look at what President Trump *does* as compared to President Obama, I think President Trump looks quite good.

Of course, if you just look at the portrayal in the MSM, as many young people will, you might get quite a different impression.

I wouldn't said it before reading this headline -- but I suppose I worry a bit about young people who grew up under President Obama and believe that ruling by the power of the pen and the phone is a normal thing. I'm pleased that President Trump, so far, has been dialing that back quite a bit.

urbane legend said...

Obama was, and is, revered as god-like figure by many. He at least gave the appearance of doing what he did for good. That adoration continued with Hillary, but she obviously is a Greek god, striking out in anger anytime she is thwarted. What young people have learned is that presidents are expected to be gods and act to fulfill dreams. Trump isn't in that mold. He deserves hatred. That's what any kids who pay any attention have learned from the media.

Politicians, especially at the national level, generally deserve disdain. They forget who they are and why they have a job once elected. That's what young people learn from me.

Rusty said...

AReasonableMan said...
"Trump is the president, Obama the problem. Go figure."

Not any more. Trump is fixing that.
He is already great for the country. At least by your metric. The stock market is doing quite well.
If he's ever allowed to be president he'll do great things for this country.

iowan2 said...

All of the President Trump commentary always starts and ends with the conclusion. Never examples of those things that get you to the conclusion. And, Surprise! No media types ever ask the follow up question. "How do you reach that conclussion?" In the end, the establishment hates President Trump's proccess. It's not the 'proper' process. No one ever points out that the way it's been done the last 81 years has got us to this point.
We, the electorated sent President Trump to DC to do things different.
Get out of his way, you are the problem, not President Trump.

Trump may not have the answer either, so in 8 years you get to pick a different process.

Oso Negro said...

"WE" were too reverent towards Obama? Not me. I maintained here and elsewhere that he was elected first and foremost because of the color of his skin. A mellifluous mulatto. I find nothing to celebrate in his presidency. Nothing. The first affirmative action president.

Kevin said...

Forward! The resistance must be fed because xie is hungry.

Trump is impeachable simply because he is objectionable. If cause need be found we will find it, but let no one doubt the real charge has been levied for which our verdict be "guilty as charged".

We must do it for the children, lest they too become objectionable and we as their keepers. Is the MAGA hat not red as the devil? Does it not burn the righteous when placed near their heads? Heresy must be stopped or it spreads, we learned so long ago in Salem.

If our actions teach we are a nation not of laws but of of Puritanism, it only serves to further our cause. Our Constitution lives! And it's purpose is a fig leaf of righteousness to cover the nakedness of those self-selected to control those inferior to themselves.

Forward! Forward, we march 'til the planet contains nothing which might serve to displease us!

We may not live to see that day, but through Trump's glorious removal our children will know how to continue the struggle, forever.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

It makes me sick to think that young people are growing up thinking it's OK to hate if you hate the right people. Ever since the party of slavery, Jim Crow and KKK decided to position themselves as the party of the "underdog" who is "fighting for you" they have had an internal struggle to define just who is the "you" they're fighting for, which has led to a series of efforts to "otherise" some segment of the population in order to rally their voters. As the otherised groups gain sympathy and political power, like illegal aliens, who were once the target of blue collar union ire, they become part of the Borg, er, "coalition" against that evil amorphous "other."

So they rail against corporations, mock average Americans, shun country folk, and denigrate our traditions and our very concept of law and order, going so far as to allege cops are indiscriminately murdering "good" people to somehow support the "bad" ones. Until we reach this modern moment where the former party of slavery is now the anti-white, anti-male, anti-capitalist party and is in control of most media, which happily repeats their two-minute hate speeches all day long as they turn their ire up to eleven and scream every epithet available at Trump. Not just the CEO and CIC, Trump is a vehemently hated figure by the left and the culture of hate they've created. Orange is the new "white man" and he stands for everything they hate: traditional (yet modern) family, uber-capitalist "success," and hopelessly un-PC.

They are insane and so twisted that they think all this turmoil is Trump's fault, not the fault of a colonoscopic press, a two-tiered justice system that says the D party can conspire with Russia and China and Iran openly and blatantly yet any contact with foreigners is grounds for impeachment for the R party, not the fault of Mr. Pen And Phone, not the fault of the "smartest pantsuit to ever house a humanoid." and lastly, not the fault of the modern movement to tear down civil society and replace it with a compliant and obedient electorate.

Dizzy sick and sad should be the way they feel for creating such a hostile life environment for the rest of us.

[fixed two small errors - mjb]

Ann Althouse said...

"Did you read the article? No? Go figure."

LOL. Obviously you didn't read "the article."

There is no article.

J2 said...

dizzy, sick and sad.

And queasy.

And mildly nauseous.

James K said...

There is no article.

I'm pretty sure the reference was to your post.

Gahrie said...

Isn't this the woman who became famous while writing about anal sex in Washington D.C.?

rhhardin said...

There's nothing funny about the resistance, she thinks.

Comanche Voter said...

Well Ms. Cox has her acolytes. If you click on the link to her tweet, you'll see a whole bunch of "sheeple" falling line behind her. Most of them sound like they might be reporters for the Los Angeles Times--which produces the best bird cage liners in the United States.

Xmas said...

Gahrie, sort of, her friend wrote the accounts, Cox just posted them on her web site.

David Begley said...

Comment of the day by Mike.

Kevin said...

"her friend wrote the accounts, Cox just posted them on her web site."

Kids should read about anal sex but not the plight of out of work coal miners.

Sounds about right.

Jeff Brokaw said...

A fun game that I like to play, with quotes like this, is to replace "Trump" with "Obama".

It's shockingly accurate, in that it *actually* does apply to Obama, nearly 100% of the time, and only sometimes with Trump.

Cognitive dissonance is running rampant. Any time now would be a good time to wake up, America.

Robert Cook said...

It's actually good that young people come of age and see what a President is and does while Trump is in office. This will disabuse them, swiftly and unequivocally, of the notion that the President is anything other than just another self-serving politician, and is as likely as not to be a damaged pathological personality--power-seeking, manipulative, a reflexive liar, a killer, a betrayer. I don't use these terms to refer to Trump specifically, though they certainly all apply, but to describe all or nearly all of the presidents we've endured for most of my life. Some are less bad than others, others more so, but none of them should be trusted or assumed ever to be telling us the truth, and none of them deserve any respect from us other than what they've earned through their actions as president...which is pitifully little for most of them.

Trump just illustrates this truth more immediately than most. (Many of Obama's ardent supporters have never figured out what was glaringly obvious: he was an opportunist, a liar, and completely hollow. Trump's followers are either equally blind to these qualities so glaringly apparent in their man, or, they see them in Trump and either don't care or they find these qualities admirable.)

Gahrie said...

And then we got Nixon.

Given the actions of both Clintons and Obama.......what exactly did Nixon do that is so wrong?

Besides the fact that Nixon had an "R" after his name, what did he do that was so evil?

If you ignore his days in Congress, he governed as a leftwinger. (Ironically, today, JFK would be much too conservative to be a Democratic president, and Nixon would be much too liberal to be a Republican one.)

He got us out of Vietnam and ended the draft.

He opened up relations with Communist China.

He began detente with the USSR and signed SALT I and an ABM treaty with the USSR.

He created the E.P.A.

He implemented wage and price controls, and took the dollar off of the gold standard.

He supported a health care plan that looks an awful lot like Obamacare.

He pushed the desegregation of schools.

He supported the ERA.

The "crime" he was accused of, and later caused his resignation, was SOP for the Clintons and Obama.

Amadeus 48 said...

I get dizzy, sad, and sick thinking that anyone pays attention to the vaporings of Ana Marie Cox.

William said...

Trump doesn't even try to be above the fray. He gives the impression of someone who enjoys pig wrestling even more than golf. When I say pig wrestling, I'm not making any unkind allusions to the press. The press are not pigs. They're the sty, or, more accurately, the excrement in the sty.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

What's the optimum level of reverence...

Zero.

...or disdain

That depends on the President, his policies, and his actions.

William said...

It's not unusual for the media to disapprove of Republican Presidents. They considered Eisenhower an amiable doofus and Reagan a hapless dunce with senility issues.. The first Bush was a wimp, and the younger Bush a war mongerer who didn't love his daddy. But Nixon and Trump are in a separate category. For inspiring froth mouthed, bug eyed hatred they're non-pareil........I enjoy seeing it, and who among us didn't rub one out watching the various newscasters suppress tears on election night, but I'm not so sure that this is a good thing. The Nixon presidency didn't end well. LBJ--the only Democratic President who inspired comparable hate--also had truncated term of office. The cumulative effect of everyone in the news and entertainment worlds savaging the President is bound to make governing difficult.

rehajm said...

Dizzy and sick. More stay home from school ailments.

rehajm said...

Just once can't someone get a verifiable medical ailment from Trump? One ulcer. Anyone?

dreams said...

"But I think the reason that Ana Marie Cox can get so dizzy and sick and sad over what's happening to the minds of young people now is that there was a superficial, irrational good feeling about Obama. And gee, wasn't that nice for the young kids?"

And never mind that he weakened our country by stirring up race relations by constantly playing the race card, made a mess of the justice dept. with the appointments of political racist hacks in Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch and not to forget insured that Iran would eventually get a nuclear weapon. Plus, even more harm, just too much...

Big Mike said...

@ARM, Donald Trump is the President of the United States. Did you not notice? Barack Obama is and has been a problem. That is something you probably did not notice, but a lot of voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio certainly did. So, yeah, go figure. You'll know when you've finally figured it out -- it's the point when you realize that without Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton there really is no Donald Trump.

tim in vermont said...

LOL. Obviously you didn't read "the article."

Yeah, I meant to say post. But I didn't, thought of that on my walk. But the ridicule is deserved ma'am, because I probably didn't say it to make it sound stronger.

tim in vermont said...

What would it have taught children were Hillary president? That having a vajay jay trumps the law?

sunsong said...

But I think the reason that Ana Marie Cox can get so dizzy and sick and sad over what's happening to the minds of young people now is that there was a superficial, irrational good feeling about Obama. And gee, wasn't that nice for the young kids?

Oh come on! Obama was obstructed for most of his Presidency because of racism in the GOP! Good grief, you are ignoring a big deal that continues even now in the comments on your own blog!

Wince said...

Talk about a "cock holster."

holdfast said...

Sick and dizzy?

So Anal-Marie Cox is on the rag?

How does this qualify as news? But remember, women are just as capable as men, especially when they clearly aren't.

http://nypost.com/2017/06/12/university-lets-female-students-take-home-exam-to-try-and-close-gender-gap/

Jeff said...

who among us didn't rub one out watching the various newscasters suppress tears on election night

Dude, you need help.

Sebastian said...

"there was a superficial, irrational good feeling about Obama." It wasn't "superficial"--first black prez! oceans won't rise! we are the ones we have been waiting for! And it wasn't irrational: O was a crafty tool of prog politics--sure, he disappointed some lefties, but he served the cause with some nice big pieces of legislation, lefty SCOTUS appointments, screwing the US, boosting Iran, and generally advancing the culture war, with timely changes of mind on SSM etc.

holdfast said...

Anal-Marie explained

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/031805.php

http://theothermccain.com/2013/02/28/shorter-wonkette-butt-sex-jokes-are-only-funny-when-liberals-tell-them/

dreams said...

Check this out.

"Ex-FBI Director James Comey has privately told members of Congress that he had a frosty exchange with Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch last year when he confronted her about possible political interference in the Hillary Clinton email investigation after showing Lynch a sensitive document she was unaware the FBI possessed, according to sources who were directly briefed on the matter. (Snip) Comey said “the attorney general looked at the document then looked up with a steely silence that lasted for some time, then asked him if he had any other business with her and if not that he should leave"

http://circa.com/politics/comey-privately-told-congress-about-second-confrontation-with-the-former-attorney-general

stlcdr said...

Me Cox and her ilk making the presidency a full tilt reality reality show.

I don't see anything this president has done to negatively affect any American in either the short term or long term. On the contrary. It just seems that things are bad because the talking head says it's bad; while queuing up to buy a Starbucks.

Bob Boyd said...

Oh the drama!

This made me think of what the church ladies do when when a church hires a new pastor and it isn't the one they wanted.

dreams said...

And this.

"As liberal McCarthyism continues searching for Russian monsters under Trump administration beds, it might serve us well to remember the Obama administration scandals, for which there were no special prosecutors appointed, no grand juries convened, not even a leaked memo to the New York Times via a friendly professor at Columbia University. A few years ago, President Obama called the scandals swirling around his administration “phony scandals”. As The Hill reported in 2013: “With an endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball,” Obama said in an economic address at Knox"

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/06/obama_and_holder_lied__brian_terry_died.html

stlcdr said...

"It makes me sick to think that young people are growing up thinking it's OK to hate if you hate the right people."

Exactly. There's a righteousness that has become a zealotry, and children are being indoctrinated to this. The fact that they are being taught to lie, cheat, steal, met out violence, as long as the cause is just.

Once written, twice... said...

Ann, the racism that is spewed by your Althouse Hillbillies throughout these comments now the norm for your blog. You must be so proud that you have cultivated this ugly crowd to be your fan base.

Birkel said...

Does anybody else remember all those people back in the 1980s who were worried about Ronald Reagan causing nuclear winter because he aggressively named the enemy: expansionist Soviet communism. I can remember the movies, the TV miniseries, the television show A.L.F., among others, music videos and all the rest that depicted him as an evil warmonger. Somehow today he is an affable grandpa with some great one line zingers and roughly harmless.

I wonder how bad the Republican president elected in 2032 will be in order to rehabilitate President Trump's reputation.

Mrs Whatsit said...

"I suspect that we were too reverent toward Obama and now we — some of us — are too rebellious toward Trump."

Ann, I'm curious as to why you qualified the "we" as to Trump after letting it stand, unqualified, for Obama. You're not really suggesting, are you, that everybody in America was too reverent toward Obama? Or is your "we" qualified to mean only the members of a certain socio-political set? In that case, I'd agree with you.

stlcdr said...

"What would it have taught children were Hillary president? That having a vajay jay trumps the law?"

The French must be the most sexist racist mysogonist islamaphogic white hating bunch in not voting unanimously for Marine Le Pen.

Ann Althouse said...

"I'm pretty sure the reference was to your post."

The article?

That's pretty confusing.

Big Mike said...

Ann, the racism that is spewed by your Althouse Hillbillies throughout these comments ...

Yeah, we got that a long time ago -- the Great Barack is above criticism because he's black so everything, right down to his farts, is simply perfect and any criticism can only because he's black. Sort of like Morgan Freeman saying that the only reason people were upset over paying higher prices for worse health insurance was because they were racists, damn them.

Ann Althouse said...

"It's actually good that young people come of age and see what a President is and does while Trump is in office. This will disabuse them, swiftly and unequivocally, of the notion that the President is anything other than just another self-serving politician, and is as likely as not to be a damaged pathological personality--power-seeking, manipulative, a reflexive liar, a killer, a betrayer. I don't use these terms to refer to Trump specifically, though they certainly all apply, but to describe all or nearly all of the presidents we've endured for most of my life. Some are less bad than others, others more so, but none of them should be trusted or assumed ever to be telling us the truth, and none of them deserve any respect from us other than what they've earned through their actions as president...which is pitifully little for most of them."

Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking when I wrote what I did. Growing up during the Obama adulation may have felt good, but that's what good propaganda does.

Ann Althouse said...

"Yeah, I meant to say post. But I didn't, thought of that on my walk. But the ridicule is deserved ma'am, because I probably didn't say it to make it sound stronger."

Sorry if I sounded mean.

Ann Althouse said...

"Ann, the racism that is spewed by your Althouse Hillbillies throughout these comments ..."

I'm sorry, but "hillbillies" is a racist word. Clean up your own act first.

tim in vermont said...

So this time it's the WaPo telling the white working class to eat shit and die:

“These are communities that are on the paths to death. And the question is: How can we make that as comfortable as possible?”

Where could a moron like myself get any idea that Democrats felt this way? I can't bring myself to read the article, but I am betting that there is no mention that unbridled immigration is a big part of what is killing these communities, and there is no plan to stop that, since the white left wing of the Democratics depends on it.

Remember when Steinbeck was a hero for writing "The Grapes of Wrath?" I bet he couldn't get it published today.


That's pretty confusing.

Mea culpa! Mea culpa! Mea culpa! It was a dashed off blog comment!

tim in vermont said...

That's how you get more Trump! [TM]

Birkel said...

Sounded mean. Was mean.
Potato. Spud.

tim in vermont said...

Sorry if I sounded mean.

Mean is what I serve for breakfast ma'am. I can take it. Now I am going to rig up a device which gives me an electric shock if I go to comment here again today.

Tommy Duncan said...

sunsong said: "Oh come on! Obama was obstructed for most of his Presidency because of racism in the GOP!"

sunsong, could you provide some examples of the racist obstruction Obama encountered? I'm certain there was ideological opposition by conservatives, but I don't remember anyone saying "I won't vote for legislation that favors a black President".

Once written, twice... said...

Ann, Hillbilly is not a racist word. People choose to be Hillbillies. Also, the fact that you find equivalency between the racism spewed on your blog and my use of Hillbilly is quite telling about your moral worldview.

Birkel said...

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
All bigotry is equal, but my bigotry is more equal than yours.

Once written, twice... said...

Oso Negro wrote

"WE" were too reverent towards Obama? Not me. I maintained here and elsewhere that he was elected first and foremost because of the color of his skin. A mellifluous mulatto. I find nothing to celebrate in his presidency. Nothing. The first affirmative action president."

Yes, no racism there...

Michael K said...

Like Once Written, few young people today don't even know who won the Civil War or which side we were on in World War II.

Maybe they should concentrate on History before worrying about politics and who is president.

Unknown said...

There has been zero racism from people opposed to Obama in this thread.

What has been pointed out is the essential racism of the left, however. You people voted for Obama because he was black. Racist, isn't it? If Obama was white, he would not have won; because his policies were and are abhorrent, anti-American, and treasonous.

It's not racist to point out that people like sunsong and Once view any and all things to do with Barack Obama through the prism of race.

You and your side are the complete racists, Once. Sunsong is literally arguing in this thread that no one can oppose Barack Obama's policies without being racist.

Man, if Hitler had only been black--you people would be screaming that it's racist to not kill Jews, because you oppose black Hitler and that's racist!

I don't care what color Obama was on the outside. His inside is the problem. He bled red, as in commie red. He was anti-American, a jerk, foul, and in general quite likely the worst president America has ever had. Only Carter and Buchanan might be in the running.

Why can't you leftists get it through your heads that opposition to leftist policies is not racist, no matter if they are promoted by Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or the orange wonder Charlie Crist.

Leftist socialist policies are evil, and it doesn't matter what color they come in. But you leftists sure do judge people by the color of their skins, don't you? Whites are bad, blacks are good, and you claim to be tolerant. You are the racists you have been looking for.

--Vance

khesanh0802 said...

Once ,written argues like a 16 year old. Is his icon a lie?

Just checked he is a resident of that monument to democracy and clean politics: Argentina. Who'd a thunk he'd know what an American hillbilly is? Always good to consider the source.

Fernandinande said...

"...it makes me dizzy and sick and sad."

"Tee many martoonis".

campy said...

I'm sorry, but "hillbillies" is a racist word. Clean up your own act first.

It's different when OW,T... does it!

Kevin said...

Ann, Hillbilly is not a racist word. People choose to be Hillbillies.

By the logic of Once, nigger is not a racist word. By the logic of Once, racist words don't exist.

There is a part of society that would be very happy to agree to those terms. I don't think Once is one of them.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Robert Cook said...It's actually good that young people come of age and see what a President is and does while Trump is in office. This will disabuse them, swiftly and unequivocally, of the notion that the President is anything other than just another self-serving politician, and is as likely as not to be a damaged pathological personality--power-seeking, manipulative, a reflexive liar, a killer, a betrayer. I don't use these terms to refer to Trump specifically, though they certainly all apply, but to describe all or nearly all of the presidents we've endured for most of my life. Some are less bad than others, others more so, but none of them should be trusted or assumed ever to be telling us the truth, and none of them deserve any respect from us other than what they've earned through their actions as president...which is pitifully little for most of them.

Ok, good, good, super-skepticism about the alleged virtue of people who mean to rule, good...but then what?
This is where I run into actual frustration with my inability to reach the Left. Trump should be a great example to them--here's a guy who their Media affirms embodies all the terrible things they fear about people in power, with the machinery of the State at his disposal and supposedly just ITCHING to use and abuse that power against them...and I still can't convince them that the best course of action to prevent disaster is to reduce the power and influence of the State. Perversely, in fact, they still clamor for MORE government power--just so long as the right people run the thing! Nevermind that Trump should demonstrate clearly that one can't count on the "right people" every time; the "stolen election" dodge entirely prevents any reflection of that sort.

Politicians can't be trusted. People who want to rule over us are, axiomatically, not hte sort of people we should want to have power in our lives. Fat cat 1%ers game the system and write the rules to their benefit and buy their champagne with money that should have gone into the pockets of working people. Yes, yes, yes--I'm right there with you my Bernie Bros! So let's get government out of our lives, let's reduce the size and scope of the State, let's devolve power to the lowest-practical levels and ensure that our life decisions are affected by some State policy or law as little as possible. *Crickets*

MayBee said...

It's actually good that young people come of age and see what a President is and does while Trump is in office. This will disabuse them, swiftly and unequivocally, of the notion that the President is anything other than just another self-serving politician

Completely agree.

MayBee said...

Oh come on! Obama was obstructed for most of his Presidency because of racism in the GOP! Good grief, you are ignoring a big deal that continues even now in the comments on your own blog!

And just like that, the woman who calls Trump a piece of shit is back to saying its racist to oppose a president.

Kevin said...

I maintained here and elsewhere that he was elected first and foremost because of the color of his skin.

Anyone who voted FOR or AGAINST Obama based on the color of his skin was a racist. As even the Supreme Court has acknowledged, affirmative action is racism.

Now, can we quit believing all the racists are on one side of any argument and get back to Anna Marie Cox's spreading of anal sex stories?

Someone needs to put up the Laslo signal to summon the caped crusader.

Kevin said...

and I still can't convince them that the best course of action to prevent disaster is to reduce the power and influence of the State.

They don't think that's the problem. As someone said to me a few years ago, "I don't care if Obama violates the Constitution or breaks the law, as long as he enacts his agenda".

Cox's Tweet sums up the framing perfectly. Trump is the problem. The awesome moral power of the presidency needs to be in the right hands.

It's only when these people find themselves on the wrong side of the power, when the police come after them, when the courts rule against them, when their livelihoods are threatened for their beliefs - ONLY THEN will they come to understand what you and I already know.

And we are a long, long way from the bureaucracy of the deep state being turned against them.

They don't fear Trump's power. They fear his moral ickiness which they must immediately explain away when meeting people from other countries. That's the problem for them at their level today.

Michael K said...

Even the Guardian gets it. the ruling class is incompetent. and those are the people attacking Trump !

When the models go awry, it’s always reality that cops it. During the credit crisis, economic analysts blamed the poor for taking out sub-prime loans. This time, the political analysts bash the young … for exercising a democratic preference. The heathens in the Labour party who put forward a winning platform are written off as Trots, even though some of them were barely alive when the Berlin Wall was up.

And:

And as an economics journalist, I look across at politics and see the same process at work. Brexit, Donald Trump, Jeremy Corbyn: time after time, the political class has completely failed to understand the world they were governing, policing and analysing. Allow me to be blunt: our political crisis is also a crisis for our political class. And it is one from which I doubt they can recover.

At each major fork in the road, they have sped off down the wrong turning, while decrying the other as unimaginable. Each time, they have crashed.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

MayBee said...And just like that, the woman who calls Trump a piece of shit is back to saying its racist to oppose a president.

Intentions, my dear MayBee, the answer to that seeming contradiction is "the intentions." The Left, being so very much smarter, understands this and rarely deigns to explain to we backward non-Left rubes, but it's all about intentions.
See, when Republicans opposed Obama's agenda they did so using the valid powers of their positions, ok, but their intention was to express their racist rage by stifling the progress of a successful black man. By not allowing Obama's greatness to shine through--by helping to ensure he has no lasting official positive legacy of any kind (what is done w/a pen can be undone w/a pen) they intended to further their racist plans. Even legal, normal actions taken by the Republicans must be interpreted as evil, since the intention behind those actions is promotion of racism.

The Left, by contrast, intends only good, noble, progressive things. Anything they do in service thereof, then, must be understood to be good. Foul language, acceptance or promotion of political violence--you name it: all valid and good, since the intention behind all those actions is to combat racism and/or bring about world peace. Che personally murdered dozens and was said to have a fondness for executing homosexuals, but his intention was the promotion of Leftist political ideals (which after all are what's best for everyone, a few eggs broken when making the omelette aside) so it's perfectly valid for young Leftists to wear shirts with Che's image. And so on. If you intend to do good then your actions, however bad, must be seen as good, just so long as you're on the Left. Intentions, MayBee--that's the answer.

How are those on the Left able to peer into the minds of men and know with certainty what motivates the actions and beliefs of others? I'm afraid that's where you'll have to ask an actual Leftist--I'm not nearly smart enough to grasp how such a thing is possible, but it must be; it simply must.

Kevin said...

Nice article, Michael K.

Even as their world came apart, the bankers clung to denial. By August 2007, the flagship hedge fund of Wall Street’s most prestigious firm was tanking fast – and what explanation came from the man at Goldman Sachs? “We were seeing things that were 25-standard deviation moves, several days in a row.” The bank was getting hit by events that were only meant to happen once every 100,000 years – and they were happening every day of the week. Given a choice between blaming their models or reality, Goldman’s bosses held the world at fault.

As with climate change, deviations from the models are always the fault of the oceans, or clouds, or deniers. Never the models, and certainly never the people who built and promoted them.

Anonymous said...

I think about older people who might finally come to understand that sometimes what a president is and does is what someone else wants, not what you want.

And then I think, nah.

Kirk Parker said...

Sunsong,

Let me give you two lists of people who were involved in politics, as elected officials, high level appointees, or prospective candidates:


1. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry


2. Sarah Palin, Colin Powell, Donald Trump


Can you find me a single soul in all of the US who would place these people into the two categories of View Favorably vs View Unfavorably, strictly on the basis of race or gender???

Known Unknown said...

"I'm sorry, but "hillbillies" is a racist word."

Nah. It's a classist term. I've seen multi-ethnic "hillbillies."

And it's not offensive, at least not to the hill folk themselves.

Language is overrated.

Kevin said...

And it's not offensive, at least not to the hill folk themselves.

If someone wants to refer to themselves as something, that's their prerogative.

Use of the term in this forum is not to refer to known "hill folk" who comment, nor to people who would use that term to describe themselves.

Rosalyn C. said...

A friend on Facebook, who had been a high school English teacher, was also worried about the example Trump would give to young people. But what I found in subsequent Facebook conversations and debates with some of her former students, who had grown up under Obama, was that they were hideously rude and irrational.

And what we see over and over in the "antifa" demonstrations are young people who grew up in the Obama years and acting with violence and intimidation towards anyone with whom they disagree. Somehow there is a disconnect between the image Obama projected as President, measured and sophisticated, and the people who he inspires.

Darrell said...

Billhillies is a good term for Once and Inga the Pretender, though.

holdfast said...

I'm sorry, but "hillbillies" is a racist word. Clean up your own act first.

More classist or regionalist, really. I've met black folks from Appalachia who were pretty much hillbillies. It's use here is also oikophobic, of course.

Bad Lieutenant said...

I wonder how bad the Republican president elected in 2032 will be in order to rehabilitate President Trump's reputation.

6/13/17, 8:25 AM

You spelled 2024 wrong.

Seeing Red said...

"We were too reverent"?

Who is this "We" Kimosabe?



Seeing Red said...

Nixon hated communists. That's what the problem was with Nixon.

Compared to Obama, Nixon was an amateur.

Gahrie said...

Nixon hated communists. That's what the problem was with Nixon.

Not while he was president he didn't. That was only while he was in Congress. I will concede that Democratic hate is strong and lasting though......

Fen said...

Hillbilly is an ethnic slur directed at rural whites.

Ritmo would argue that "wetback" isn't racist towards Latinos because non-Latinos also swim across the river.

He's a troll. Worse, he's become boring and predictable. I just scroll past his nonsense now, waste of time to engage.

hstad said...

"Ana Marie Cox" is a blogger for "Wonkette" a dumb Leftist gibberish site who brings nothing to the town square dialogue - except their own radical view of culture. I especially was amused reading the typical "tweet" by like-minded leftists following "Ana Marie Cox". LOL - one states we talk politics to our 3 year old, another states, my daughter is going into politics - she's age 4. Really, the Liberals/Leftists in this country are in serious trouble if this quote is viewed as a rational quote. I hated LBJ and Nixon but that did not diminish my view of the office of President. Anyone who believes in "Ana Marie Cox's" tweet needs to go visit their psychiatrist because Cox's tweet is like a teenager's ramblings. The adults in the USA are worst then their children. Cox is truly a despicable person - surprised that AA actually points to anything this idiot tweets. A WTF, we are in an age where the more outrageous you communicate the higher the clicks or eyeballs. The MSM and their minions are a "Clear and Present Danger" to the Democracy of the USA. Propaganda is none stop!

tcrosse said...

BTW the British have some choice epithets for the Argentines, especially after having handed them their collective ass in the Falklands war.

hstad said...

Seeing Red said...
Nixon hated communists. That's what the problem was with Nixon.

Compared to Obama, Nixon was an amateur.

6/13/17, 1:16 PM

What a beautiful example and moniker "...Seeing Red..." blinding your common sense. BTW, you must've forgotten that Nixon went to China and opened a dialogue. Wow, that was some hate for communists - ignorant comment on your part. Perfect example of adults being worst then their children when it comes to the political/culture narratives. All propoganda 24/7!

damikesc said...

If only he had anal with her. Then she's be cool with it.