pwa wrote:reohn2 wrote:pwa wrote:I believe that the fact that he is still popular with a large section of US society reflects very badly on the country. Why can't they see what the rest of us can see?
There are certain parallels with another subject and the potential PM in this country.
Why can't people in the UK see the folly in the direction this country is heading?
I think we all agree on Trump. Why muddle it with the Tory leadership campaign? Okay, neither of us think BJ is in the "glorious leader" category (understatement) but if BJ were just a journalist I would find him amusing and wouldn't be bothered by him too much. Trump's defects are on an entirely different scale. He is a really nasty piece of work who will verbally attack anyone who disagrees with him, saying the nastiest and most personal things with no restraint. BJ's gaffs do not compare. And yes, I am thinking about the letterbox thing. If he had worded that better I would have agreed with him on the desirability of ethnic minorities integrating to the benefit of social cohesion. Trump does not want ethnic minorities to integrate. He does not want ethnic minorities at all. So let's not try to drag our own political scene into this? Trump is a topic on his own. I have seen some poor or despicable politicians over the years, but nothing like Trump. At least, not in a Western democracy.
Excusing Trump as a mere manifestation of domestic US politics that we don't really understand, as one poster has done, is rather kind to Trump. Trump is an actor on the international political stage, with perhaps the leading role on that stage. His attitudes and behaviours affect us all to a significant degree.
For we British, Trump has an even greater presence, as we have long been a virtual 51st State in terms of the huge impact American mores and behaviours have on how we too come to think and behave. The impact of the Yank cultural imperialism is a large and malign force in Britain and has been for decades. Even now, BoJo, Farage and others of that ilk are aping Trump. His white supremacy narrative is gaining ground in mainstream British politics too, as the far right, neo-nazis, out & out racists, islamophobes, anti-semites and others of that hue are emboldened.
Trump is an international model for the rise of neo-fascism within democratic nation-states. He is normalising racism and misogyny, total intolerance and the notion of The Strong Man who will persecute and eliminate anyone not-us. He advocates and practices intolerance of every kind, with followers and supporters very glad to have him set free their formerly repressed nastiness. He's a metastasizing political cancer in not just the US body-politic but that of the international world.
As the next US Presidential election hoves into media-view, he will amplify his winning ways of intolerance, racism and misogyny. Vast numbers of US voters will respond with glee. Abroad, especially in Britain but also many other European democracies, the Trump-fan gharks and hoos will crawl even further out of their rotten woodwork to choose their own mini-Trump, a number of which are already vying for the approval of the mob.
Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes