Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

The Ugliness of Contemporary Politics

Steven L. Taylor
28

A friend just sent me this from the University of Alabama student newspaper, the Crimson White: Black students receive racist text messages after Trump’s win, part of apparent nationwide trend. He reports that his daughter’s friend who is still in high school also got this message.

A quick Google search shows it is national.

The best-case scenario is that this is a foreign actor trying to help create an atmosphere of fear and hatred within the US. The worst case is that this is a domestic actor doing the same.

This is all indicative of the era of Trump, which looks far too much like Putin’s Russia for my comfort.

And regardless of the source, it all sounds way too much like the MSG “jokes” to not give credit to Trump for this kind of ugliness growing.

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28 responses to “The Ugliness of Contemporary Politics”

  1. Jack Avatar
    Jack

    “This is all indicative of the era of Trump,….”

    No its not. That’s idiotic. There are the crude and whackjobs of all stripes and have been forever. The only thing relatively new are the foreign actors. Have you already forgotten the antisemitic, largely left, pro Hamas, agitators? Have you forgotten the 50’s and 60’s? Is Trump responsible for HRC or JB or Maxine Waters calling Trump supporters deplorables or garbage or Nazis? Do you remember Joe McCarthy? Do you remember Reagan or Bush being called fascists? Do you remember Arkancide? Do you remember Ted Kennedy accusing Republicans of eliminating SS, or throwing grandma in a wheelchair over the cliff? This crap has been going on forever.

    For you to selectively cite these instances and attribute it to Trump shows you are just a rank partisan not to be taken seriously.

    2
  2. Mister Bluster Avatar
    Mister Bluster

    “We’re going to help our country heal.”
    President elect Donald J. Trump

    I am pleased to see that his supporters are committed to facilitating this sentiment so quickly.

    5
  3. becca Avatar
    becca

    Jumping in to kick off the race wars. Hoping to enrage enough to go punch a maga and then the regime declares martial law.
    So it begins.

    1
  4. ~Chris Avatar
    ~Chris

    This is the type of stunt Lee Atwater would have pulled (albeit on steroids). The difference is he went to his death bed repenting his foul work. The folks doing this kind of stuff are looking to send “the others” to their deathbeds or subject them to a lifetime of misery. God save the United States of America.

    4
  5. Jay L Gischer Avatar
    Jay L Gischer

    @Jack: I’m curious about something. Have you ever got a text message to your phone of that nature? I haven’t. I’ve had public figures smear me in the abstract, but it has never targeted me. It has never been people in my vicinity who don’t know me yelling offensive things at me. Can you imagine how that might be different?

    Do you want less of this? I do.

    Here’s a question for you to ponder. If we want less of this, how do we get that?

    8
  6. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    Do you remember Joe McCarthy?

    Ironic to include this, with all of the threats Trump has made to go after his rivals, his vows for revenge, etc.

    8
  7. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Jack: You are either not paying attention or are in denial.

    15
  8. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    I recall much the same happened in 2016 and 2017, including random attacks on people of color in public transportation and other places. The violent bigots feel empowered and with official sanction.

    5
  9. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Jack:

    Have you forgotten the 50’s and 60’s?

    First, if you actually read things I write, clearly I do not.

    Second, Trump’s whole theory of MAGA is going back to the 1950s.

    Do you remember Joe McCarthy?

    You mean the Joe McCarthy who employed Roy Cohn who was later a mentor to Trump?

    Do you even hear yourself?

    you are just a rank partisan not to be taken seriously.

    And yet, you clearly crave my attention.

    13
  10. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Jay L Gischer:

    Here’s a question for you to ponder. If we want less of this, how do we get that?

    I guess you hire people like Tony Hinchcliffe for your events and talk about “the enemy from within” and “blood poisoning” and things like that?

    /s

    10
  11. al Ameda Avatar
    al Ameda

    I’m pretty sure that Democrats will provide Trump with the same level of support that Mitch McConnell did for Democrats during the Obama and Biden presidencies.

    Kumbaya.

    7
  12. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    What’s most emblematic to me of the ugliness is all those women who showed up at Trump rallies wearing t-shirts with “Trump can grab my pussy any time,” or “Trump boner garage” with an arrow pointing down to the crotch, or the elderly woman who yanked off her Trump t-shirt to vote who yelled, “Suck my cunt.”

    I mean, WTF? This is political discourse?????

    6
  13. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    Isn’t it great that comedy is legal again?

    And by comedy, I mean open racism. And by legal, I mean encouraged by the President-Elect.

    4
  14. wr Avatar
    wr

    @Jack: “For you to selectively cite these instances and attribute it to Trump shows you are just a rank partisan not to be taken seriously.”

    This is something like the 19th time you’ve called the hosts here unworthy of being taken seriously. So why the hell are you still hanging around? Is your time so completely without value that you can throw it away on people you can’t take seriously?

    Or are you just desperate for attention because your life is completely empty?

    15
  15. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    @wr: I take some solace in knowing that the MAGAts aren’t enjoying their victory.

    I’m not-enjoying it more than they’re not-enjoying it, mind you, and I’m positive there are people not-enjoying it way more than me, but I’m basically a glass-half-full kind of guy so I focus on them not-enjoying their victory.

    Warms my heart to see how angry and miserable they are.

    4
  16. Kurtz Avatar
    Kurtz

    @Jack:

    Is Trump responsible for HRC or JB or Maxine Waters calling Trump supporters deplorables or garbage or Nazis?

    Thank you for reminding me about that decision I made to choose my skin color. I had forgotten.

    There is a huge difference between choosing a worldview and the happenstance of heritage. No equivalence on that.

    Well, you call Taylor of all people, “a rank partisan”. How you approach arguments with such glaring holes determines whether his assessment is on point.

    4
  17. Kurtz Avatar
    Kurtz

    @TheRyGuy:

    This is ridiculous. I doubt many would term it as “no longer.” Maybe some do. But I imagine the majority of us would say that it has never lived up to its stated ideals and promise. EDIT: Meaning that if we do not acknowledge the mistakes made in its history and continue to find practical ways to move closer to those ideals, then we cannot call it innately good.

    Of course, you do not provide a cite. So how do I know you are not twisting the text or basing your post off a simple misunderstanding?

    If you want to call it cynicism, fine. I would call it a rational assessment.

    5
  18. DK Avatar
    DK

    @Gustopher:

    Warms my heart to see how angry and miserable they are.

    You miscreant you!

    Exactly the kind of smug liberalism that prompted two Republicans to try to shoot Trump.

    5
  19. Jay L Gischer Avatar
    Jay L Gischer

    You know, I’m just saying: If someone’s life were to be so completely empty that they hang out on a website craving attention, I feel a lot of empathy for that person. I mean, yeah, they may have made some bad choices to get to where they are, but still, there were probably also factors they didn’t control.

    I had a stepmother, she’s passed away now, who definitely would have been a MAGA, and an obnoxious person. Once we (my sister and I, we were both adults when she met my dad) dug into it though, we discovered that she had had a terrible “Harry Potter” childhood where she was taken in by relatives and had a tiny room in an attic, and was seen as a burden, not a joy.

    That stuff leaves a mark. I can see, in my own age cohort, men who, while they may have done ok moneywise, otherwise got the shit kicked out of them. Mostly the blue-collar types. They are kind of a mess. We may have commenters here who fit this profile, and are acting out.

    My aim is to help them undertake a passage, an experience that will change how they think about certain things in the world. They don’t need to worry about “reprogramming”, just maybe seeing a bit more of the world, and maybe experiencing someone who says “that sucks”, when they hear about what has actually happened.

    However, so many of these men do not ever talk about what has happened to them. Because it violates a code that they were raised with to never show weakness. This holds them back. This prevents them from healing long-standing wounds. They need to take a passage.

    One more note: Making other people suffer is something that some people in this situation try to make themselves feel better. They probably feel powerful, which is the opposite of helpless. And that’s good, because they aren’t supposed to ever be helpless.

    And yet, all that suffering that’s handed out doesn’t heal anything or change anything. It’s a treadmill, that one must go back to, day after day.

    5
  20. wr Avatar
    wr

    @TheRyGuy: “The side who’s been calling Trump and his supporters fascists and Nazis and lamenting that America and Americans are no longer innately good because the majority voted for Trump are now complaining about “The Ugliness of Contemporary Politics.””

    I guess math really isn’t your strong suit. Last time I looked, Dr. Taylor was approximately one person. The “side” you identify totals several tens of millions. Unless you’re now claiming that Dr. T has half the country writing his posts for him, you are disingenuously pretending that one (albeit very smart and interesting) retired academic is officially speaking for the Democratic party.

    4
  21. drj Avatar
    drj

    Sometimes “fascist” is a slur, sometimes a proper and accurate label.

    In the case of Trump, it is clearly the latter.

    Those who complain about being labelled correctly are whiny cowards who are too weak to accept the consequences of their choices.

    9
  22. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    @Jay L Gischer: Well said. It’s sad really, I’m perplexed by the frequent visits if we’re all so dreadfully biased–what’s the point? There has to be some perverse pleasure they are achieving in the perception that they are…what? Needling us? Setting us straight, maybe? Berating us into changing our opinions?

    I’ve never come across such sore and grumpy members of the winning side.

    3
  23. Kurtz Avatar
    Kurtz

    @Jay L Gischer:

    Excellent post.

    1
  24. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    @Jack:
    Well, Drew, the one thing we can be sure of is that when we’re shown to be right, you’ll disappear back under your rock, refuse to admit, and refuse even to engage.

    4
  25. Kurtz Avatar
    Kurtz

    @Michael Reynolds:

    There was a bit of time between the appearances of Drew then Guarneri then Jack.

    Maybe the rock ran out of rope and trespassed him.

    2
  26. Modulo Myself Avatar
    Modulo Myself

    What’s so odd is that OTB is filled with people who mostly are genuinely decent and thoughtful.

    I can see trolling twitter, but here? It’s just very strange, and makes me wonder about what’s going on with the people who are doing it.

    5
  27. DK Avatar
    DK

    @Jen:

    I’ve never come across such sore and grumpy members of the winning side.

    So strange. They won, but I’m the one feeling schaudenfreude lol

    Let them eat Affordable Care Act repeal!

    2
  28. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    @DK:

    So strange. They won, but I’m the one feeling schaudenfreude

    I can tell you why:

    Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. HL Mencken.

    Also, I’m seeing some possibilities here. When my corporation pays me, I’m going to include the ability to tip, and the president of my corporation (coincidentally, me) will probably want to tip me a tax-free 20%. And I’m going hourly, and boy, with all the time I think about writing, my tax-free overtime is really going to add up.

    I expunged a MAGA relative today, and it felt very satisfying. Don’t tell me you love me when you vote to make my daughter’s life harder, sadder and more dangerous.

    7

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