What’s amazing about all of this is that neither side seems interested in budging, even slightly.
What the media calls the “alt-right” (i.e. the white working classes) has not moved one iota since Trump’s inauguration. Trump has led them nowhere. IDK what Trump is or was expecting to do with all of his nonsense, but it has amounted to naught. His base refuses to move, even an inch, from their original, pre-Trump positions.
And I don’t just mean Breitbart comments, either. I quote here from Pat Buchanan’s old mag, The American Conservative, one of the officially sanctioned standard-bearers of right wing thought in the media:
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Donald Trump’s short tenure as president has been disastrous so far. His short attention span and lack of interest in most things related to actually governing signal an incompetence that is both embarrassing and laughable. There are reports that the National Security Council has to continually mention his names in their memos, otherwise he won’t read them thoroughly. Subsequently, NATO officials are encouraging speakers to limit remarks to two to four minutes at its upcoming meeting. The news surrounding the incidental leak of classified information to the Russian ambassador is becoming more ludicrous with each passing day.
As Trump’s presidency has been a glaring example of incompetence, trust in him as president has suffered. An April poll from Gallup finds that only 36 percent of respondents think he is honest and trustworthy and only 41 percent believe he can manage the government effectively. Forty-five percent believe he keeps his promises. These numbers are all down from February, and with news of his clown-like behavior coming out almost every day, there is no reason to think these numbers will go up anytime soon.
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It’s from this article, here, that concerns the equally-as-dumb-as-electing-Trump idea of foisting that roid-addled pinhead Dwayne Johnson on our poor nation, next.
Anyhow, that quote is brutal. And accurate, and telling. The “alt-right”, meaning the 150 million plus conservative base in this country, will not follow Trump. The crux of the matter isn’t one of style- it’s that Trump is simply not conservative enough for most of them; not by a long shot, IMO. And they have no intention of letting the circus that is the Ivanka-Kushner admin have an impact on their lives or attitudes.
If anything, since Trump’s betrayal of the conservatives on day 1 of his admin, they have become even more hostile to the establishment. I’ve talked about this at length here, but it needs repeating, since so important.
When looked at historically, it’s shocking how much abuse the Trump admin is getting at this point in time from the people who voted for him. Kushner is absolutely hated by the entirety of the conservative base. I mean, he is legitimately hated, no exaggeration. They hate him as much or more as anyone named “Clinton” or “Bush”. So is Ivanka, it seems. It’s not uncommon to see people on formerly pro-Trump website like Breitbart openly wonder if they would have been better off personally if Hillary would have won, and that isn’t an endorsement from them for Hillary by any means.
The Goldman Sachs people in Trump’s admin are also just despised, for obvious reasons. And the Bush-era neocons from the military are tolerated at best, if the base is feeling forgiving. In their case, they benefit from being slightly the best people in an extremely offensive lot. They get a pass because when you stand next to Goldman-Sachs alums, it’s really hard to look like the slimiest and most dishonorable person in the room. And when you take out the nepotists, the Goldman-Sachs monsters, the Jesus nuts, and the warmongers, you are left with precious little else.
It’s offensive and unbelievably tragic. The base will not budge on a good day. Under these circumstances, they’re going nowhere, except further away from the government. And that’s really where they should be.
The “other side” also shows no interest in changing, even slightly. From their perspective, they’ve been winning for a hundred years now, so any thought that they might have to stall or retreat is unfathomable to them. They seem to honestly believe that it’s impossible for the “alt-right” (meaning, non-coastal white people) to get the upper hand in anything, so for them pausing or falling back are never considered as options. Always, their response to everything is to attack, attack, attack. Because at this point, that’s all they know how to do. Because the prophecy of 2040 assures them that victory is inevitable.
It’s nuts.
If anything, Trump’s failure to connect with his base on any level is scaring the left perhaps more than if he actually was able to appeal to them, somehow. Honestly, the left right now looks as though it’s losing it’s mind with worry and confusion.
The left is in a bind. Let’s take one issue and examine it. Say, the wall.
The left can’t let the wall be built, because that would imply that on one huge issue, they’ve failed. It would mean that they’re not unbeatable. It would mean that they can be stopped, and that the Prophecy of 2040- that dream where whites become less than 50% of the population here- might not come to pass. It would mean that the other side could push back, and reverse the so-called inevitable.
But- they can’t get in the way of the wall, either, without destroying the system they need to fulfill their fantasies. If the wall is not built, then this country is not a democracy. The people voted for the wall. It’s the reason that Trump is President. If there is no wall, then American democracy has no legitimacy. The vote, then, has no meaning, and the system can only be seen as the permanent and unchanging enemy of the 60% of the people who want a wall. It means war, and revolution. And the left has no chance in direct conflict. No way.
On that note, the people who voted for Trump have gotten nothing out of doing so. And I mean nothing. It’s not even that one issue; it’s ALL issues. Logically, if voting gets you nothing, why vote?
And if you don’t vote, then what?
Then you FIGHT. That’s what.
The left is caught. For the past 8 years with Obama, they got everything they wanted, to the point that the President redesigned the nation’s bathrooms. If Trump’s voters can’t get even one thing out of their vote, it’s over, I think. And I think it should be, from any point of view.
Are we a democracy, or not? It looks as though we’re not. And in that case, no taxation without representation, again.
So.
Is that it? Is it over?
It could be. As I stated above, the left looks as though it’s losing it’s mind at this point. They’re caught, and I think now they know it, now. In the face of Trump’s abject failure to connect with or satiate his base on any level, they’re fighting as hard as they can, now, against anything that even claims to be conservative. Even the liberals and neocons on Fox News are being targeted.
It’s insane and bizarre as hell to see what’s happening. Remember that landslide victory that the GOP won in November? Both houses, the Presidency, twice the governorships, yadda yadda? Less than 6 months in, and the media is on the offensive right now for the left, purging everyone who happens to even pretend to voice conservative opinions.
Are we a democracy, or not?
Well, we’re obviously not, of course.
I don’t know. Oligarchy, tyranny, NWO, socialism, call it what you will, but this is no Democracy. Not even close.
This is how empires fail.