Invisible Man wrote:(Only tangentially related, but I kinda think he'll be awesome. Not because there's any evidence to suggest that, but because we're clearly in fucking bizarro world. My compass is obviously broken, and nothing makes a fucking lick of sense. So by that logic, Trump could be Christ on Earth. Waiting with baited breath.)
I've been trying to convince myself of this all day, and he did say he would repeal the Common Core.
A request for an explanation is certainly not an attack.
A lot of it is just brainwashing, to be honest. The end of the Cold War coincided with the rise of talk radio conservatism in this country, with its vile propaganda that everyone on the Left was "...out to DESTROY AMERICA". So Democrats, progressives, and liberals have been labeled as The Enemy Within by conservatives for almost a quarter of a century now, and must be stopped at all costs so that 'murica can return to some mythological Golden Age of conservatism when everything was grand and wonderful, even though that Golden Age never really existed.
But closer to reality, people do remember the age before NAFTA led to the de-industrialization of America. Back then, working people (mostly white) could actually earn a good living and support their families. NAFTA put an end to that, and before anyone blames Bill Clinton exclusively, the original negotiations were begun by Bush Sr., and it received bipartisan ratification by Congress. So the working class jobs went bye-bye, and the people who lost their jobs have never recovered. Trump's supporters are desperately dreaming of getting their old jobs at the steel mills and factories back so they can earn a living again. Ironically, most of these people were Democrats and belonged to unions back then.
Also, Obama never prosecuted or really even investigated anyone following the housing crisis. He said we would take over any banks we had to bail out, but when Republicans started yelling "Socialist! Socialist! Socialist!" he chickened out. So there is lingering resentment over that, and there is resentment over Obamacare forcing people into private contracts with insurance companies, which some see as having been a corporate giveaway to the insurance industry.
The economic recovery has been anemic, and many people (myself included) feel left behind. The divide between the 1% and the 99% has grown wider. I guess it was just time for all of this simmering resentment to boil over. I could get into populism, but I would much prefer a sane, intelligent leader for the cause. It's also wrapped up in national identity, obviously, and our schizophrenic conviction that we are the chosen people, the shining city on the hill, etc., so why should the rest of the world prosper at out expense etc.
Bernie couldn't beat Hilary because she is a rock star in the Democratic Party, and he was a relative newcomer on the national scene. So she was a household name and had the Democratic Party's machinery on her side, including lots of big-money donors. Older Democrats loved her because they remembered Bill's presidency with nostalgic fondness. But many other people see her more cynically as corrupt and just another scheming politician who will say anything to get elected. Then there is her email scandal, which was a self-inflicted sucking chest wound.
So yeah, I think I started meandering, but it really does seem like the New Left is the Old Right. The Democrats have become the party of the college educated, and the Republicans have become the part of the working class as much as the country club types. Also, the Democrats let themselves be defined by the Republicans for decades as being soft on national defense and soft on crime, so now they are hawkish and harder on crime just to show us that they aren't really what the Republicans claim.
Long story short, people are sick of being ignored by both parties, want their jobs back, want their cherished national identity back, and yeah, they decided
Fluffy wrote: Nihilism is the best -ism
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Edit: so yeah, all that babbling and I guess I didn't actually answer the question 'Why Trump?', but I guess he just had the combination of celebrity charisma, financial success, and tough talking demagogue to pour gasoline all over the simmering fires of resentment. BOOM!
Also you have to take in to account the influence that big business has ALLWAYS had on our country, we never had a chance to start a real culture that did not envelop extreme capitalism which has always had a uge part to play on how people conceive this country and themselves and the all ever present get rich quick idea which is what always fuels ideas that keeping taxes low for the rich will help the poor… or at least trickling down upon them like a fine piss raining down from heaven. This also feeds into the me/mine first mindset.
we got legal weed here atleast!
