America is Fucked
Out of context: Reply #291
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- Bennn3
another translation from an opinion article over here :
''How the Americans came to be led by this businessman as they face their most serious crisis since World War II''
Understanding the reasons for the election of Donald Trump in 2016 is essential if we are to assess his chances of obtaining a second term.
Trump narrowly won, and his victory surprised many - he the first. He lost the popular vote by about three million votes, but he won the electoral college by snatching Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by a total of 80,000 votes.
To win, Donald Trump had to choose the right time, win the Republican nomination, keep the votes received by Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, and "convert" just enough voters in certain key states to tip the electoral college. .
When he came down the escalator of Trump Tower to announce his candidacy in front of a dozen paid extras, he was given little chance of success.
In addition to a favorable cultural context, the businessman had four determining advantages: a receptive partisan base, his celebrity, polarization and resentment.
Trump has been ousting presidential politics for a long time. He talked about it in 1988. It almost launched in 2000. In 2008, the economy was playing against the Republicans.
He thought of diving in 2012, but his time had not come. However, he had established a connection with the far right by peddling preposterous rumors about the president at the time, Barack Obama.
The republican base has not drifted to extremes, white nationalism, xenophobic paleoconservatism, the religious right and systematic opposition to any redistributive intervention by the state, not for yesterday. This transition had been underway for decades, but the party remained controlled by an elite devoted to economic conservatism and an internationalist foreign policy.
Trump joined the party base by playing on all of these elements - except internationalism - and relegating fiscal conservatism to oblivion. His message was in line with the Republican base. It was enough to mobilize it.
- Celebrity and media flair -
In June 2015, the majority of Republicans rejected the billionaire, but with 17 candidates for the primaries, his notoriety propelled him into the front runner. Its xenophobic and protectionist message appealed to the base. His fame and wealth supported his behavioral deviations.
Subsequently, his fame, his showmanship and the complicity of the media gave him the momentum he needed to take the lead and his electoral successes "normalized" him in the eyes of the Republicans. His ability to monopolize media attention has never wavered.
Concerned with balance, the mainstream media felt compelled to moderate Trump's negative coverage and make a mountain with the emails of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. The circus atmosphere of Trump's partisan rallies guaranteed him incessant and inexpensive coverage.
From the moment Trump got the nomination, partisan polarization ensured him the support of a large majority of his party. In addition, the Democrats gave her the gift of an ideal opponent.
To keep the Republican vote of 2012, he could bet on the visceral aversion of the Republicans for a woman they had hated for a quarter of a century.
During the campaign, Donald Trump was met with resistance by part of the Republican electorate, especially among the more educated women. This is what the polls showed until the last days of the campaign. But a combination of events, including the reopening of the Clinton email investigation, brought the lost sheep home.
- Harnessing resentment -
In addition to the states won in 2012, Trump had to tip others. He targeted a few northern states where industrial decline has fueled the resentment of poorly educated whites: resentment against globalization and free trade, blamed for the loss of paid jobs; against immigrants, perceived as job thieves; against metropolises, big winners of the globalized economy and poles of immigration; against public employees, perceived as parasites, and against certain redistributive policies, even if they benefit from them themselves, because they believe that they unduly benefit visible minorities.
By capitalizing on this resentment, the New Yorker managed to convert just enough voters into the few key states he had to earn to prevail in the electoral college.
- What's left? -
In 2020, are these conditions still favorable for Donald Trump? As far as the party is concerned, it's obvious: the Republican Party has literally become a cult of Trump's personality. Voters identified with the party are not enough to win an election, but their enthusiasm and aversion to opposition are major assets.
In addition, demographic and economic developments condemn the long-term republican base of poorly educated whites in peripheral regions to shrink, but these changes are slow and, after four years, the base is still very present.
During his presidency, the 73-year-old politician never sought to extend his support beyond this base. This is why his approval rate never exceeded his percentage of the vote in 2016. His supporters remained loyal to him because he responded to their requests.
Voters less identified with the party stayed with him because of economic growth.
With the huge unknown that represents the health and economic impact of the pandemic today, in addition to the assessment that the electorate will make of Trump's response, the forecast of November's results is risky. Will Donald Trump succeed in rebuilding the coalition that allowed him to sneak narrowly into the White House in 2016? I will come back to it soon.
- Tiger King , a metaphor for the Trump era -
In the United States, as at home, confinement leads to overconsumption of television series.
One of the talkies is Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness , the surreal story of a swarm of incredible characters, starring Joe Exotic, a flamboyant, tattooed, polygamous homosexual, avid gun user, Libertarian and addict.
Endowed with an undeniable charisma, he even dabbled in politics. The series focuses on the chaotic functioning of a few private zoos and the conflict between Joe and an ex-hippie activist for animal rights.
How is this story a metaphor for the Trump era? Rest assured, it's not (yet) because of the allusion to murder in the title.
Minimally, we could conclude that in a country where Joe Exotic can prosper and look good in an election, it should not be surprising to see a character like Donald Trump become president. It doesn't stop there.
Fantasy and spectacle
One of the particular cultural features of our neighbors to the south is their propensity to get caught up in all kinds of fanciful visions which they end up confusing with reality.
As Kurt Andersen sums up in his Fantasyland essay , being an American "is to claim the right to believe what you want."
It was this propensity that led to phenomena like Mormonism, PT Barnum and the televangelists. It has also spawned a huge imaginary industry, including Hollywood, Las Vegas and Disneyland.
In the age of the internet, reality TV and continuous entertainment, characters like Joe Exotic find their audience always more shocking, more " outrageous ".
Like a pileup, you can't help but watch. As we are in the United States, many are willing to pay to be part of the show.
It is in this cultural context that Donald Trump developed his character of "decision maker" in reality TV The Apprentice , by multiplying the escapades who made it an unavoidable media phenomenon.
Personality cult
His supporters, convinced of their right to believe what they want, trust this compulsive liar. They'll believe one thing in the morning and its opposite in the evening, if Trump says it.
The other worrying phenomenon that we observe in Tiger King is the cult of personality that the main characters inspire in those around them. This is as true for Joe Exotic as it is for the animal rights champion who keeps him from sleeping.
Can we consider Trumpism as a cult of personality? It's not difficult. You just have to place a microphone in front of a participant in “MAGA” partisan rallies to see it.
The unconditional Trumpists do not see the inconsistency of his crazy words. If he says bleach is a cure for coronavirus, his "reasonable" supporters will give up, but poison centers will see an upsurge in calls.
Not all Republicans have drunk "Kool-Aid", to use Jonestown's analogy, but Trump's grip on the Republican "base" allows him to intimidate all Republican politicians who might dare to hold him head.
King cynicism
Of course, the worst features of American culture illustrated in Tiger King are the work of only a minority.
However, in a country of 330 million inhabitants, a small minority can represent a considerable audience. What makes you end up normalizing certain aberrations is another omnipresent attitude in this series and in American society: cynicism.
In varying degrees, almost all of the characters in Tiger King are corrupt, including the ex-hippie who makes a bonanza on the backs of volunteers and donors for his beneficent work, but the prevailing cynicism makes it all trivial or, worse, normal.
In this context, is it any wonder that the corruption and patronage that Donald Trump exhibits in the open are considered as "normal" practices by his supporters, who do not hesitate to point the grains of dust in the eye of their opponents to proclaim that everything is completely normal with a president who has a beam in his.
In the land of the Tiger King , is it any wonder that Donald Trump passes for a "normal" politician?
- This ain't about the orange guy man, this is about half the country being braindead zombies********
- they don't read QBN or Times or CNN, they just have guns********
- they vote too********
- This ain't about the orange guy man, this is about half the country being braindead zombies