Trump is an Ignorant Blowhard
But He's Not Hitler
Trump is an ignorant blowhard, but he is not Hitler. To think that he is betrays a real lack of understanding of who Hitler was and how Der Führer got to be the supreme dictator. Trump is an ignorant blowhard in a long line of ignorant blowhards who have trampled on basic human rights for a long, long time. To brand him for singular villainy is to fail to understand the root causes of how we got to this dismal place.
Among them are the bone deep anti-intellectualism of the American people, our contempt for non-Westerners which has been necessary to get our hands on their lands and their resources, the withering of journalism and journalists and their replacement by entertainers, disrespect for freedom of speech and freedom of thought, disrespect for diversity of opinion and ideas, and finally but not conclusively the capture of those who were once known as "liberals" by the far right.
It is as though, having captured the liberals, they devised a trap so cunning that liberals gleefully walked right into it. No more talk of working class solidarity or the wisdom of free speech or respect for expertise or focus on anti-imperialism and hunger for the end of endless wars. In its place were put ideas so obviously objectionable they were bound to cause negative responses.
Among them were the politics of identity, i.e. that white men are the enemy of humankind, that racism is as rampant and powerful today as it ever was, that white people, especially white women are racists even though they don't know it, that children can make rational, informed decisions about whether to get a penectomy, and that anyone who objects to near pornographic books in lower school grades, objectively dangerous books like This Book is Gay, is necessarily a homophobe.
The objective problems with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the Clinton and Obamas paled in comparison to a make-believe trans-phobia hidden in the hearts of Republicans: the construction of the carceral state, free trade agreements designed to displace people from their ancestral lands, regime changes, economic sanctions, an abandonment of the working class so glaringly obvious in East Palestine, an inability to understand that NATO is a military alliance formed against the USSR/Russia, that Ukraine is not the last bastion of freedom, and most importantly, genocide in Gaza. Not even genocide was a red line for far too many "liberals."
Not even genocide was a red line for liberals.
Racism and misogyny did not put Trump back into the Oval Office: liberals did.
As a reminder, I was a card carrying Democrat until 2012. I loathe Trump but no more than I loathe the Clintons, the Bushes, the Obamas, and the Bidens.
I agree with your assessment of the Donald, the Bushes, the Clintons the Obamas, and the Bidens.
I recently saw you for the first time on the podcast Due Diligence and found your comments about illegal immigration the most articulate and informed that I've heard in months.
This is the first time that I've had the opportunity to thank you for sharing them with the podcasters' audience. The podcasters also mentioned that you were on Substack so I took the opportunity to look you up and subscribe.
I would add to your "Trump Is a Blowhard...." article that he has all of the characteristics of a fascist as defined by Professor Britt per the below website.
https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html
It remains to be seen if he has the political longevity, the wherewithal and can sustain the help of some in the billionaire class, cartels, the GOP, the Christian and Far Right and the obsequious cultish followers to successfully implement an American version of fascism.
Trump II has already alienated some of his followers from Trump I and it is most likely only a matter of time before him and Musk Rat have a breakup over DOGE, attention grabbing headlines, power, and/or derivates thereof. Both billionaires to be sure have had difficulty sharing the spotlight with anyone else that is in the room much less sharing the stage without one becoming the headliner.
Yes, we have to acknowledge that both parties are complicit in the reality in which we currently find ourselves. Both parties answer to their rich donors, while the gap between rich and poor increases and quality of life for everyone else decreases. People often have a simple-minded view of the situation, taking comfort in tribal squabbles. It is why gossip is their uppermost level of intellectual conversation and conspiracy theoreis their foremost mode of theorizing. This leads to support of practices which are mean and societally tumultuous. Political elites, both Republican and Democrat, know this and take advantage of these shortcomings as an opportunity for exploitation, irrespective of the adverse consequences of society's long-term functioning. Reversing this trend in order to keep the society alive and thriving would probably entail missionary-like work among the masses, something which nobody hungering for power wants to do.