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Title: What Trumpism Means for Democracy
Source:
(Via TomDispatch)
URL Source: http://www.theamericanconservative. ... -trumpism-means-for-democracy/
Published: Mar 1, 2016
Author: ANDREW J. BACEVICH
Post Date: 2016-03-01 20:03:29 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 102
Comments: 12
The republic has been decaying for decades, but it will not be saved by an unconstrained demagogue. Whether or not Donald Trump ultimately succeeds in winning the White House, historians are likely to rank him as the most consequential presidential candidate of at least the past half-century. He has already transformed the tone and temper of American political life. If he becomes the Republican nominee, he will demolish its structural underpinnings as well. Should he prevail in November, his election will alter its very fabric in ways likely to prove irreversible. Whether Trump ever delivers on his promise to “Make America Great Again,” he is already transforming American democratic practice. Trump takes obvious delight in thumbing his nose at the political establishment and flouting its norms. Yet to classify him as an anti-establishment figure is to miss his true significance. He is to American politics what Martin Shkreli is to Big Pharma. Each represents in exaggerated form the distilled essence of a much larger and more disturbing reality. Each embodies the smirking cynicism that has become one of the defining characteristics of our age. Each in his own way is a sign of the times. In contrast to the universally reviled Shkreli, however, Trump has cultivated a mass following that appears impervious to his missteps, miscues, and misstatements. What Trump actually believes—whether he believes in anything apart from big, splashy self-display—is largely unknown and probably beside the point. Trumpism is not a program or an ideology. It is an attitude or pose that feeds off, and then reinforces, widespread anger and alienation. The pose works because the anger—always present in certain quarters of the American electorate but especially acute today—is genuine. By acting the part of impish bad boy and consciously trampling on the canons of political correctness, Trump validates that anger. The more outrageous his behavior, the more secure his position at the very center of the political circus. Wondering what he will do next, we can’t take our eyes off him. And to quote Marco Rubio in a different context, Trump “knows exactly what he is doing.”
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#1. To: Ada (#0)
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡ "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." -- Thomas Jefferson
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡ "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." -- Thomas Jefferson
I laughed when the Time Magazine fag-fotographer got taken down and he started kicking like a little bitch!! LoLoLoLoL!!!!
#2. To: Ada (#0)
#3. To: ghostdogtxn (#2)
. I was reading the UK Guardian's coverage of an incident where a photographer stepped inside of the security cordon at a Trump event and a secret security agent tackled him and threw him down. The reporter then goes on at length about how "other violence" has followed the Trump campaign. As if Trump has any control over his secret security detail! It is insulting to the intelligence of the reader, like so much reporting is these days.
-Alex Kurtagic
#4. To: X-15 (#3)
"Secret service agent chokes journalist" -- we've finally found a high, noble calling for these people. Double their pay -- the agents, that is >:-7 He's from Time rag?? Triple it! 
#5. To: ghostdogtxn (#1) (Edited)
Bacevich is no neocon although he is a left winger. He was a voice of sanity during the Iraq War where, incidentally, his son was killed. He seems to have lost it, though, with this anti-Trump piece. He rightly perceives the decay of the republic but is wrong to scapegoat Trump. Wow. Pull out all the stops in the neocon panic machine!!!!
#6. To: NeoconsNailed (#4)
Trump's real security works inside the Secret Service cordon. "Secret service agent chokes journalist"
#7. To: Ada (#6)
I guess it would be considered insensitive to call for SS-men to get paid a $500 bonus for each "mainstream" journalist they rough up >:-) 
#8. To: NeoconsNailed (#7)
What's one more scandal for the Secret Service? Secret Service Roiled in Scandal, "In Crisis" and Still a Disaster Katie Pavlich | Dec 04, 2015 ,P. Over the past few years of President Obama's time in the Oval Office, we've seen serious and alarming problems at the Secret Service. There have been a number of instances when agents have been found passed out drunk in a hotel hallway or partying with hookers during foreign trips. In 2014, a man named Omar Gonzales was able to not only jump the White House fence, but made it all the way into the East Room of the White House through an unlocked door before being subdued by agents. Now, a new bipartisan report issued by the House Oversight Committee shows that the agency, which is roiled in scandal, is in crisis and still a disaster despite a change of directors last year. The report comes after a year long investigation of the agency. Here is the summary of the nearly 500 page long report: The United States Secret Service (USSS) is tasked with a zero-failure mission: to protect the President and other protectees at all costs. For most of its existence, USSS has strived to complete that mission while simultaneously garnering the respect and admiration of the American people. Secret Service agents and officers earned a reputation as stoic and impervious guardians of our government’s most important leaders. The American public’s respect for the agency diminished following the April 2012 prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, which attracted significant media attention and exposed systemic problems within the agency. Since then, several incidents have made it abundantly clear that USSS is in crisis. The agency’s weaknesses have been exposed by a series of security failures at the White House, during presidential visits, and at the residences of other officials, including Vice President Biden and former presidents of the United States. The Committee’s investigation found that problems that undermine USSS’s protective mission predate and postdate the misconduct in Cartagena. The Committee also found that at times agency leaders have provided incomplete and inaccurate information to Congress. The Committee investigated four incidents in detail to identify findings and recommendations for this report. -November 11, 2011, an individual fired several shots at the White House from a semiautomatic rifle. (p. 22) -April 2012 misconduct in Cartagena, Colombia. (p. 27) -September 16, 2014, an armed contract security guard with a violent arrest history rode in an elevator with -President Obama and later breached the President’s security formation at the Centers for Disease Control and -Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. (p. 39) -March 4, 2015, two likely intoxicated senior USSS officials—including a top official on the President’s protective detail—interfered with a crime scene involving a bomb threat just outside the White House grounds. (p. 54) “This report reveals that the Secret Service is in crisis. Morale is down, attrition is up, misconduct continues, and security breaches persist. Yet its mission inexplicably continues to expand beyond the zero-fail mission to protect the President," Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz said about the report. "We are now three directors in from the shocking misconduct in Cartagena and the agency is still broken. Strong leadership from the top is required to fix the systemic mismanagement within the agency and to restore it to its former prestige. I thank Ranking Member Cummings for working in a bipartisan fashion during this investigation. We will continue to work together to encourage significant reform throughout the agency.” There is much work and reform left to do.,/I. I guess it would be considered insensitive to call for SS-men to get paid a $500 bonus for each "mainstream" journalist they rough up >:-)
#9. To: Ada (#8)
HAH -- rich!! What corner of the fedgov IS doing its real job, or any aspect thereof? You can't say they're maintaining the roads and bridges OR defending our borders -- the two things that come to the average Babbitt's mind first as to govt's purpose. 
#10. To: Ada (#6)
Trump knows the secret service is not trustworthy. There primary job is not to protect the president but to serve their masters. Their pulling away from president Kennedy proved that. Trump's real security works inside the Secret Service cordon.
#11. To: NeoconsNailed (#9)
Secret Service used to be one of the cleanest government agencies. About 20 years ago they wanted to merge the very dirty ATF into the SS but the then head refused, saying, "If you mix dirty water with clean water, you get dirty water."
#12. To: Ada (#11)
Think of that. In fine, however, they're no more doing their real job than anything inside the Beltway. As long as amerika's going to hell and treating truth-lovers as freaks only worth shooting, they're all massively derelict. The SS exists to whack financial crimes and ensure "the safety of current and former national leaders and their families, such as the President, past Presidents, Vice Presidents, presidential candidates, visiting heads of state, and foreign embassies" (wikid). But if those people are the biggest criminals alive, including financial? We recently saw a much simpler, cheaper means of protecting the stuff those individuals are made of ........so keeping "the President, past Presidents, Vice Presidents, presidential candidates" in cans would be a real time and money saver. Wouldn't it? 
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