Friday’s Forum

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FILED UNDER: Open Forum
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. MarkedMan says:

    Late last night in the open thread DrDaveT explained some of the negative things that can lead to a conservative (small c) mind set in away that matches my own observations but expressed better and more succinctly than I ever managed. Because open threads tend to die off as soon as the next one starts up, I’m going to quote it here:

    Conservatives want to know where they fit, what is right, and who to obey. They want hierarchy, because hierarchy makes these things clear. They want stability, because stability eliminates uncertainty. They want there to be a “natural order” that is unchanging. And they are willing to convince themselves not only that these things are true, but that they are good — regardless of the actual evidence. And if they aren’t actually good… well, they’re still better than chaos, which is how conservatives characterize any kind of fluid situation that calls for adaptation and creativity.

    It’s easier to live with oligarchy if you can believe in trickle-down. It’s easier to live with homophobia if you can believe that sexual preference is a choice, like hairstyle. It’s easier to live with bigotry if you can believe that some races are inherently inferior. And so conservatives believe these things — because it would be uncomfortable not to, and conservatism is at root about feeling comfortable.

    I also believe there are positive aspects to a conservative mind set but he’s captured the negative ones perfectly.

    7
  2. Scott says:

    @MarkedMan: I’ve been thinking my way through these issues but through a different lens. I tend to view myself as a conservative but a temperamental conservative rather than a political one. I am risk averse and behave accordingly. I live below my means, am careful with relationships, and value stability. But my behavioral conservatism doesn’t translate to that described above.

    Tangentially, I been trying to understand what is happening and have a sort of half-assed thesis that is based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the idea of risk and risk mitigation. Since the 70s, this country has placed more risk on individuals rather than taking it on as a society. We’ve put the burden of financial risk on individuals and families by taking away pensions and putting it in tax-free, self-managed accounts (e.g. 401ks). Wages scales are steeper and the bottom wages have not kept up at a level that creates stability. Employment is constantly churning rather than staying with one company or running your own business for 30-40 years. There is more competition everywhere whether it is for education, jobs, and so forth. The elite keep pushing libertarian ideas and “freedom” but most people regardless of political views don’t what “freedom”, they want stability and safety.

    8
  3. Scott says:

    Make America Great Again!

    Measles cases reported in Texas as vaccine rate against the disease has fallen

    At least four cases of measles, including two involving school-aged children, have been reported in Texas in less than two weeks, putting state health agencies on alert.

    For some communities, this is the first case of measles in more than 20 years.

    The alert stated that both individuals reside in the same household and were unvaccinated against measles. These were the first confirmed cases of measles reported in Texas since 2023, when two were reported.

    2
  4. charontwo says:

    This, I think, is really good and sort of relates to the posts above:

    Trump’s Secret Weapon Has Always Been Status Anxiety

    In a phone-powered age of diminishing social capital and growing identitarianism, the president knew just which fears to activate to get him back into the White House.

    TIMES ARE HARD FOR AMERICAN WORKERS. They’ve been let down by decades of broadly bipartisan neoliberal consensus in economic policy that has left them in terrible debt, with stagnant wages and few prospects of good-paying work. Anxiety over the horrible state of the economy and their general immiseration drove them into the arms of Donald Trump, whose populist appeal to them in 2016 centered on his ability to turn things around and get America back on a prosperous footing.

    At least that was a popular story about Trump’s political success when he first ascended to the presidency, and it continues to enjoy the support of high-profile pundits. It has a lot to recommend it on an intuitive level, not least the way it pins his appeal to his supporters on something other than his aggressive hostility towards immigrants, women, and people of color. But every Trump-supporting boat parade and each positive jobs report or new Dow record set during the hated Biden administration served as a reminder that the “economic anxiety” thesis leaves too much out of its analytic viewfinder—namely, the real motive roots of Trump’s appeal, especially to those who actually live quite high on the hog.

    The economic anxiety thesis is too easily contradicted by economic reality, which we have fairly reliable and objective ways of mapping and assessing. More useful for understanding what motivates Trump’s base would be a relative measure—one that could conceivably affect people in a variety of economic circumstances. The best starting point, as some observers have been arguing for years, is status anxiety.

    etc., etc. …

    There are a lot of links in the piece.

    1
  5. Rick DeMent says:

    Remember when Bill Clinton met with https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2018/06/14/bill-clinton-and-loretta-lynch-meeting-phoenix-airport-details/703771002/ Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in AZ during the Hilly Clinton Witch hunt?

    Remember how outraged they were about the optics? Well, the same people are frothing at the mouth defending Trump’s wholesale takeover of the US AG office.

    Good times.

    11
  6. Jen says:

    Apologies if this has already been shared, but a Democrat winning in Iowa is definitely an interesting thing:

    Democrat Appears to Flip Iowa State Senate Seat in a Boost for the Party

    Republicans still have large legislative majorities in Iowa, but a Democrat’s apparent win in a solidly conservative area buoyed that party at a moment of uncertainty.

    […] The candidate, Mike Zimmer, an educator, appeared to win the seat for Democrats in a heavily Republican part of eastern Iowa that Mr. Trump carried by large margins. Mr. Zimmer ran on a message of support for public schools in his district, which runs along the Mississippi River and includes the city of Clinton.

    5
  7. Scott says:

    One of our family’s tradition at Christmas is to give books (the gift giving mantra is “something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read). One of the books I received was a history book: The Small and the Mighty, by Sharon McMahon. It is an anecdotal history focusing on little known Americans who had a big impact. Example: Julius Rosenwald who funded, along with Booker T. Washington some 5000 one room schoolhouses in black communities around the nation. It is an easy read and I recommend it. But it also reminded me how cyclical American history is and that what is happening today happened several times in the past.

    “All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again.”

    8
  8. Daryl says:

    @Scott:
    5,000 schoolhouses.
    But not one, nor a hospital wing, nor a library, from the worlds richest man.
    But he did buy Twitter and turn it into a cesspool of misinformation and hate.

    7
  9. Grumpy realist says:

    Heads up: I just got another email from OPM, just a snippet, supposedly providing a list of FAQs. None of which answer any of the questions any of us have:
    “Am I expected to work at my government job during the deferred resignation period?”
    “Am I allowed to get a second job during the deferred resignation period?”
    “Will I really get my full pay and benefits during the entire period through September 30, even if I get a second job?”
    “Can I take an extended vacation while on administrative leave?”

    …..looks like these clowns are dimly realizing that not enough federal employees might walk into the “retire” trap, so they’re burbling on about “ dream destinations” and “ relaxing”, hoping that we’ll ignore the fact that NONE OF OUR QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED.

    I’m expecting a continuing barrage of increasingly hysterical emails before Feb. 6th, with language that would make a Nigerian spammer blush. Buy now and get two free! But hurry, this offer is only available for four more days!

    Dear Elon Musk. Yes, I was born at night. I was not, however, born last night. You can take your half-baked attempt at manipulation and piss off. Sincerely, me.

    13
  10. Not the IT Dept. says:

    It’s important to remember that what passes for Christianity in America is not the same Christianity that exists around the world. Try explaining the Prosperity Gospel to people who live in Europe or Australia or New Zealand or Canada. They can’t believe people don’t see it as a scam. “Are they really that gullible?” And the answer, of course, is yes they are.

    I’ve said before that for political Christians (or Chinos – love that term) they think they’re seeing God when the look in the bathroom mirror at night just before brushing their teeth. God looks just like them, thinks like them, feels like them and in fact if God were just a bit smarter, He’d listen to them because they could do the divinity thing a lot better.

    9
  11. Matt Bernius says:

    @Grumpy realist:
    I didn’t realize you were a Govie… thanks for your service!

    5
  12. MarkedMan says:

    @Not the IT Dept.: I heard one disillusioned “Christian” minister talking about blowback from teaching people that if they pray and listen to their heart sincerely, God will show them the way. While it’s important for the flock to believe that works for the preacher (my words, not his), he was finding that whenever one of his parishioners wanted to get divorced, cheat on their spouse, take “what they deserved” from their employer, etc. their fervent prayers always seemed to lead to Jebus telling them to go ahead! You deserve it!

    3
  13. Grumpy realist says:

    @Matt Bernius: thanks for the sentiment. I work in the USPTO as a patent examiner and if Trump gets rid of us (or cuts down on our numbers) there will be a lot of extremely annoyed tech companies. We’re already getting an increased workload with all the AI stuff getting added to applications and it will only get worse. Thought you didn’t like having to wait two years before the first office action on your application? How about five or ten years?

    9
  14. Kevin says:

    I posted this in a different thread, but the OPM server that’s being used to send out the attempts to convince people to quit is apparently misconfigured, so entire government entities (like all of NOAA) are receiving email from, well, everyone on the internet who has the mailing list address. These people are clowns; in a just world, they’d be in prison by now.

    5
  15. Jen says:

    @Kevin: I’m sure no one will accidentally click an unsafe link./s

    Good lord. I never ever ever ever want to hear another f*&^ing word about Hillary’s email server.

    4
  16. DrDaveT says:

    @Scott:

    I tend to view myself as a conservative but a temperamental conservative rather than a political one.

    Scott, I would argue that “temperamental conservatism” is the only kind. The academic studies on conservatism I’ve seen back this up — there are no doctrines that are consistent across conservatives, only a psychological aversion to change and uncertainty.

    As @MarkedMan noted, this isn’t entirely bad. Revolution is almost always awful; for every George Washington, there are dozens of Pol Pots. We should be extremely wary of radical change. But not to the point of immobility.

    8
  17. gVOR10 says:

    Apropos of nothing in particular, some years ago I found myself unable to keep up with who’s who in out OTB commentariat. I started listing handles with brief characterizations, many of which are no more than “reasonable”. A week or so ago I realized my list was way out of date and started adding new handles as I came across them and highlighting still active commenters. I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of people, and maybe Matt has an accurate list in the system, but I list 141 handles that have commented, 53 of which are still active. I expect a few people have changed handles, as I did because of log in issues a few years ago. I see some names I miss, like Paul Hooson and Rafer Janders. And some I don’t miss, like Pinky and superdestroyer. Although I’m frequently reminded of Pinky by other’s, here and elsewhere, exhibiting the same attitude – you must respect my conservative opinion just because it’s conservative.

    A smallish community, but one I look forward to reading every morning. An island of sanity to cling to in the next few years. Hopefully few.

    7
  18. Not the IT Dept. says:

    @MarkedMan:

    Yup. I have a cousin who does the same thing. He’s always amazed at how Jesus comes through for him.

    Americans are a very self-centered people and we have lost any humility we ever had – not that I think we ever had very much.

    It’s what foreigners mean when they say “Americans are so arrogant.” Covid was the first time in decades when we couldn’t control what was going on easily. It really unsettled us, I think. That’s why the conspiracy theories – we’re too strong to have this happen to us, someone must have done it to us. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

    7
  19. Daryl says:

    Diaper Donnie blamed the helicopter/plane collision on DEI.
    So far the only helicopter crew member I’ve found is a lily-white Georgia man, Ryan O’Hara.
    Sad the doughboy President chose to tarnish this man’s memory, while he is busy assembling a Cabinet of Dunces that is proof of the need for DEI.

    4
  20. Michael Reynolds says:

    @charontwo:

    The best starting point, as some observers have been arguing for years, is status anxiety.

    Status anxiety made more acute by us (broadly speaking) informing men that they are not men, but cis het males, and Whites should apologize for being White, and you must not refer to people with gendered pronouns, nope not even in a language with gendered nouns, and you must substitute this word for that synonymous word, and a man in the woods is more dangerous than a bear in the woods because cis het males are toxic. And being sneered at for believing in god (mea culpa there) and being told that they are ignorant, poorly-educated, sexist, misogynist and racist. (Also mea culpa).

    It’s funny how status anxiety can be triggered by elites telling people who they know nothing about, that they are responsible for the sins of their fathers, that their beliefs are bullshit, and they are motivated by nothing but blind hatred.

    I’ve said before that I regret the fact that so many people are turning into arrogant, mocking, superior pricks like me. Civilization is not held together by people like me, people like me are solvents not adhesives. The curse of social media has given everyone a chance to broadcast their unfiltered thoughts, and it rewards and empowers extremes on all sides. It has defined progressive politics just as it has right-wing politics. And it has produced nothing that even begins to balance off the harm.

    The ratio of nice, normal, average, restrained, modest, child-rearing, hard-working, patriotic, god-fearing, apolitical Americans, to eternally outraged, condescending, sneering, belittling, trapped-in-the-irony-zone, bomb-throwing assholes (like me, and quite a few others here) is way out of balance. Optimum is maybe 1 out of 100. It’s twenty or thirty times that. It’s the difference between non-alcoholic beer and 100 proof whiskey.

    Turns out that the free exchange of views afforded by social media is a really bad thing. 90% of the people with political opinions they express on social media should really just STFU and go back to doing something meaningful, something they’re good at.

    3
  21. EddieInDR says:
  22. Kathy says:

    @MarkedMan:
    @Not the IT Dept.:

    So, they could replace Jesús with a Magic 8 Ball?

    1
  23. Scott says:

    @Grumpy realist: I’m sure you’re doing this since you are an attorney but save every email, document every phone call, and keep a daily work diary.

    4
  24. Jay L Gischer says:

    I would like some feedback from y’all about something.

    I’ve been looking at a bit of video and still photos of Kristi Noem. Her bio isn’t outstanding, but neither is it as terrible as some other folks. However, the photos of her bother me.

    The way she dresses and presents herself seems to carry a message of “don’t take me seriously”. I mean, double hoop earrings, worn by a cabinet member? Have we ever seen that before? Would Libby Dole dress that way? And the long, loose hair. It’s not a bad look, but to me, it just doesn’t say, “take me seriously”.

    But I’m an old fart, and a guy. Maybe I’ve got this wrong. What say you?

    Here is her wikipedia page for the photo I’m referencing.

    1
  25. CSK says:

    @Jay L Gischer:

    She has the look of all the women in Trump’s inner circle.

    6
  26. Jay L Gischer says:

    @Scott: I like to call myself a “left conservative” as I’m not all that eager to burn everything down, but I’m more focused on preserving and improving things like Social Security and Medicare – things that are not at all new on the scene.

    I’m also focused on treating all citizens with equal dignity, and giving them a fair shake.

    4
  27. reid says:

    @Jay L Gischer: That look is apparently what you have to do to get ahead as a woman in the GOP these days. Will she dye her hair blonde?

    I’m sure it’s a complex topic, but it feels like this really got going with Sarah Palin and the starbursts, etc.

    4
  28. CSK says:

    On Fox News, Lara Trump says hiring should be entirely merit-based. Of course that’s how she got her job as chair of the RNC, right?

    The lack of self-awareness is staggering, but not surprising.

    6
  29. MarkedMan says:

    @Jay L Gischer: I may be somewhat conservative by nature, but I feel it is more useful to talk about conservative vs. liberal policies. In general a conservative policy is one that gives respect to what has worked in the past and demands strong evidence before changing it. A liberal policy is one that feels the ways of the past are no longer effective and we should scrap them and start anew.

    I find that sometimes I’m in favor of conservative policies (we should regulate cybercurrency very rigorously to make sure that if it blows up it can’t send us into a recession or worse), and sometimes liberal ones (drastic action is needed immediately with respect to climate change).

    3
  30. Gustopher says:

    @CSK: Take one part merit, one part White supremacy and one part prosperity gospel, shake gently and look what you have.

    Wealthy white people have the most merit.

    3
  31. Liberal Capitalist says:

    I’ve subscribed to Paul Krugman’s Substack, and his article today is fire.

    https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/oppose-oppose-oppose-and-do-it-loudly

  32. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Liberal Capitalist:

    It would be political malpractice for Democrats not to make an issue of Trump’s raging incompetence.

    Indeed. Trump running is rhetoric, and most people either don’t hear, don’t understand or simply dismiss the rhetoric. Trump in power is real world results, and that sticks harder for more people. Trump is a pig, a vile person, and we should not hesitate to point that out. But more importantly he’s incompetent, and we should hammer that.

    We combine this in a narrative that says bluntly that Trump only cares about billionaires, and billionaires are greedaholic sickos. People already hate Elon and Zuckerberg and Bezos, and that is across just about all demos. If people see that Trump is one of them, by the transitive power of hate, it will stick to Trump.

    Trump and the billionaires don’t care about the price of eggs, Trump has gone native, he’s fleecing his faithful while filling his own pockets with billionaire’s money. That’s a narrative with clear villains, it taps into the self-pity and paranoia of the MAGA voter, and it allows in 99% of Americans potential supporters, across all sorts of political lines. A union guy in Ohio can link arms with a college kid from Brown and a rancher in Wyoming, and a trans social justice advocate in Berkeley. It’s the Fucked against the Fuckers.

    4
  33. just nutha says:

    @Jay L Gischer: @MarkedMan: Split hairs whatever way you want. The term “conservative” has been co-opted by people who, as Fortune explained to Beth this morning at the end of yesterday’s Forum, believe that “life begins at conception” as objectively factual and that “women have agency over their bodies” as objectively false. Think whatever you want to about what “real” conservatism is. It counts for nothing.

    2
  34. MarkedMan says:

    @just nutha:

    The term “conservative” has been co-opted by people

    Sure. Just as “Christian” has been adopted by CHINOs, “Liberty” has been coopted by kooky Libertarians, and “The Party of Fiscal Responsibilty” has been coopted by the party that, in my entire 65 years, has blown up the deficit every single time they’ve held power. But “Christian”, “Liberty” and “Fiscal Responsibility” still have real meaning, just as “liberal” and “conservative” do.

    4
  35. DK says:

    @Liberal Capitalist: This is Krugman’s echo of the argument Jason Linkins made a few weeks ago in Shove the Presidency Down Trump’s Throat (TNR), riffing off a Jonathan V Last piece from The Bulwark:

    I think that Last is on to something when he suggests that Trump’s opposition should force him to “own every bad outcome that happens, anywhere in the world.”

    …Rather than exert so much energy trying to thrust Trump out of the presidency, liberals would be well served to spend their time thrusting the presidency upon Donald Trump.

    …He has powerful friends (oligarchs, Supreme Court justices), deep pockets, and a well-tempered ability to joust in the media…he seems to thrive if you put him at the center of something he can deem to be a witch hunt…

    But Trump has historically faltered when he’s been forced to contend with the actual pressure of the presidency and its myriad responsibilities (see also: the Covid-19 pandemic) because his ideas are bad and he doesn’t have a deep and abiding interest in public service to really make a sustained effort to confront, let alone solve, the biggest problems we face…

    …liberals need to get into the business of identifying the problems that real Americans face (which honestly, is something they could stand to relearn how to do) and more forcefully blame Trump for those problems’ continued existence. They need to raise a hue and cry over everything under the sun that’s broken, dysfunctional, or trending in the wrong direction…

    I see the online liberal-left commentariat already doing this, with its “Let Trumpers get what they voted for” and “Why aren’t these egg prices down?” and “Trump is destroying aviation safety, he needs to fix this” posture. We shall see if more Dem electeds and liberal influencers arrive at pointing out problems and demanding Republicans solve those problems, right now.

    And of course, if the Trump regime does make life better, awesome. But Musk and the Project 2025 true believes are wedded to the notion that the little people must accept widespread economic pain, first. Not sure ‘it needs to get worse before it gets better’ will play well with American voters; self-sacrifice for greater good is not our forte’ anymore.

    4
  36. just nutha says:

    @MarkedMan:

    But “Christian”, “Liberty” and “Fiscal Responsibility” still have real meaning, just as “liberal” and “conservative” do.

    I hope I’m wrong, but here on Bizarro World, the fact they have real meanings is immaterial. Alas.

    1
  37. Jax says:

    @gVOR10: I was driving back from Idaho today thinking about OTB and how we’ve all changed since we all first came here…..lost a bunch, gained a bunch, our hosts have perspectives that have changed considerably, and I never, EVER would’ve imagined that we would morph into The Resistance to a potentially authoritarian regime.

    2
  38. Kathy says:

    How’s this for climate change:

    Right now it’s warm, almost like early spring in effing January.

    It still does kind of cool off at night, but largely because the nights are still long. This morning it was about 14C in the car on the way to work. This is normal for Spring and Summer, not Winter.

    1
  39. DrDaveT says:

    @Kathy: In the 1990s, world average sea surface temperatures never reached as high as 20.5 degrees C. It has been three years since the last time the world average sea surface temperature dipped (briefly) below 20.5. Whoever is faking climate change is doing a pretty damn convincing job of it. (I wonder how Fortune categorizes the GOP official position that climate change is a Chinese hoax. Fact? Oversimplification? Bald-faced lie? Or, more likely, “But whatabout when Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet!?”)

    3
  40. Jax says:

    I think I found this place (my “Cheers” bar, online) somewhere around 2008. I was a lurker for a long time, it was probably years before I dared to comment.

    I don’t miss superdestroyer. What a dick. Or Pinky. I often wondered where James Pearce ended up at.

    That said….where’s Jack/Drew/Guarneri? I mean, for a troll, that’s a long fucking time for so many usernames. Savoring liberal tears, I’d guess, but maybe he’s had a change of heart after realizing chaos reigns on his investments.

    We gotta recognize the trolls, too, guys, it’s DEI.

    I took too much joy in typing that. 😉

    2
  41. Grumpy realist says:

    @Jax: DEI == Drunk, Entitled, and Incompetent

    2
  42. JohnSF says:

    @Michael Reynolds:
    I recall my ironic comment some 20 years ago:
    “I want to create an anti-social media site! It shall be called arsebook!”
    And here’s Musk being a billionaire, and me, um, not.
    Buggerit.

    1
  43. JohnSF says:

    @DrDaveT:
    Somebody was obviously manipulating the AlGoreRithm. 🙂
    Sorry. (Not sorry.)

    4
  44. just nutha says:

    @Kathy: And in Portland, Oregon, the overnight low has occurred the hour after sunrise for 5 consecutive days. No, I don’t know either.

    2
  45. Scott O says:

    @Jax:
    Drew can be found at http://theglitteringeye.com/ . He likes to inform the few visitors to that website that OTB hosts and commenters are all a bunch of idiots. Does it every week or so. A couple other OTB regulars post comments there in a vain attempt to combat the falsehoods that often pop up.

    2
  46. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    @Not the IT Dept.:

    … they think they’re seeing God when the look in the bathroom mirror at night just before brushing their teeth…

    Personally, when I look in the mirror at night, I’m more likely to see an acolyte of a far darker god, or perhaps Dorian Gray. In my darker moments, I’m more fearful that the Deity is a dark and vengeful one, and my comeuppance is nigh. Overall, I never want what I KNOW I deserve.

    OTOH, in the morning, my usual comment is, “aw, f###, that ain’t right!”

  47. Jax says:

    @Scott O: Mmmm. And I mean that in the most sarcastic, mom voice I know. Duly noted, I shall not look for Drew. 😉

    I posted about my most hated aunt a few months ago, she was going on hospice. It took her forever to die. I will confess that I’ll do it a little faster, when it’s my time.

  48. Jax says:

    We should get to decide when we die. Death with dignity. Nobody taking care of us, nobody getting bankrupted taking care of us. I’m only 50, and that’s what I think.

  49. Gustopher says:

    @Jax:

    I don’t miss superdestroyer.

    Superdestroyer was a white supremacist, but he was our white supremacist, and it was like he had just gotten a set of “baby’s first calipers” and was disappointed that he couldn’t measure everyone’s skull over the internet.

    Here’s our little Superdestroyer

    https://outsidethebeltway.com/america-not-a-center-right-nation-anymore/#comment-1641505

    What our post does not consider is what happens in a country when the Republican Party is no longer relevant. If one is a middle class white, private sector employed voters and looking at the models that the Democrats want to follow, one would ask if there is any place left in the U.S. for oneself.

    You get a little of the “what’s the value of a man” spiel that Mr. Reynolds is fond of writing, a heaping helping of racism, and a scared little boy who saw waves of brown people that would take over America and make Republicans irrelevant.

    Perhaps I just had a warm spot in my heart for him because he believed Republicans would be irrelevant. He presented an optimistic (to me) future where people like him would be sidelined and powerless.

    That conviction that the US would become a one party state dominated by Democrats was probably his core belief and fear — stronger even than the racism. He understood that it was about a loss of status and cultural dominance and that this would affect him more than inferior blood. And never any anger that I can remember.

    As white supremacists go, he was probably one of the best. Top 2% of white supremacists.

    There is a clip from some show that pops up on the internet from time to time.

    Person 1: “I can excuse racism, but animal cruelty is where I draw the line.”

    Person 2 (startled and offended): “You can excuse racism?”

    Every time I see or hear it, I think of Superdestroyer. And I think of him a little bit more fondly than he probably deserves.

    1
  50. Jax says:

    @Gustopher: Fuck. Yeah. May he rest in…pieces.

    I had honestly forgotten how awful he was.

    If Covid got him, it’s all what he deserved.