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Saturday 3 October 2020

Yes we should - and no "but"

 


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A while back I read a comment to the effect that if Donald Trump were to be assassinated, a large percentage of Democrats would raise a perfectly genuine cheer. Possibly this is an exaggeration, but probably not a gross exaggeration when it comes to visceral reactions. We really have fallen that low.

Unfortunately visceral hatred defines Trump's enemies more accurately than any amount of political analysis. Yet these same people pretend to despise anyone who allows group hatred into their psyche. They even promote laws against it. Selective laws of course. Yes - we really have fallen that low.

5 comments:

Graeme said...

The irony is that Trump and Obama have both shown that POTUS really has very little power except in the field of foreign policy. Obama's only real domestic policy was his disastrous Obamacare programme. Trump wanted to dismantle it but the Republicans were too stupid to create a more viable alternative. When it comes to foreign policy, it is clear that Trump has been the best POTUS in a long long while. That must be why the Trumo-harrumphers just won't shut up. He literally enrages them with his unconventional success compared with the ineffectual establishment-smoothie Obama

Sam Vega said...

I read a comment to the effect of "What kind of Americans wish their President and the First Lady would die of a horrible disease, yet protest vociferously against the deaths of career criminals, thugs, and rapists?"

I suppose a lot of politics is creative, in the sense that it involves building trust, formulating strategies, writing up manifestos and ensuring that everything in them coheres. But for most people, it seems to be an excuse to express hatred. I wonder how much of that Guardian article was an elucidation of how and why we should wish Trump well, and how much was the usual hatred and name-calling dressed up as political science and moral philosophy. I'm not bothering to check, because I can guess the answer, and the more clicks they get, the more they appeal to advertisers.

Scrobs. said...

A commenter on another site mentioned that every BBC newsreader had a sneaky smile on his/her face when they read the 'news' about President Trump's nasty illness.

Like Sam, I try not to click on anything written in the guardian, it's a dreadful little rag, probably destined for a weekly sub, then out for good.

James Higham said...

"Unfortunately visceral hatred defines Trump's enemies more accurately than any amount of political analysis."

In one.

A K Haart said...

Graeme - I agree, in foreign policy Trump has been the best POTUS for quite some time. I find US domestic trends more difficult to judge from this side of the Atlantic, but he has highlighted the deep political and social divide which put him where he is and that should survive him. Under Obama it was swept under the carpet.

Sam - I'm sure class hatred still lies at the core of modern politics but unfortunately we don't classify political parties in that way. I only visit the Guardian as a source of blog posts and even then I try to minimise the number of clicks.

Scrobs - I'd like to see the Guardian go under, along with the BBC if possible, but I don't see it happening soon.

James - thanks :)