Damon Linker, have you ever met a MAGA person? Since over 50% of Americans voted for Trump, and all of them might be called MAGA ( you never define the term) - that's a lot of people and they are very diverse. Yet liberals focus on the worst, most extreme MAGA people ( like Fuentes) and ignore the violent vicious left wing voices. Prominent democrats have actually called for Trump to be assassinated! Others celebrated Charlie Kirk's murder. But its not fair to hold these up as indicative of all democrats.
The same goes for MAGA. Most MAGA voters are simply: 1. Fed up with open borders, money for illegals, encouraging law breaking by migrants . 2. fed up. with foreign wars ( and yes! disappointed with Trump and dubious about Venezuala). 3. Fed up with government over reach as we experienced during covid craziness. 4. Fed up with DEI and transgender excesses . 5. Not racist, not homophobic, not transphobic.
You criticize JD Vance for saying Fuentes should eat shit. I agree that such language is vulgar. But didn't your own VP candidate, the awesome Tim Walz, use the F**k world frequently? Why is it okay for a democrat to be vulgar and not for a republican.
True, Ms. Williams, those 77 million who voted DJT back into office are a diverse group and many of them, I'm sure, are not Steven Miller, Nick Fuentes or even JD Vance despicable. However, these voters share one trait that unites them in supporting a man so uniquely unqualified to be president and commander-in-chief. That trait is the practice of unintended or willful ignorance. This practice allows these voters to simply ignore the facts, the grifts, the selling of pardons, the cover-ups, the extrajudicial executions of suspected smugglers, the rounding up of legal and illegal immigrants (whether law abiding and tax paying or not), the destruction of a portion of the "People's House" to create a gaudy nouveau riche ballroom, the illegal extraction of a notably heinous tyrant so that the U.S. can "run his country" to the benefit of DJT and his oil baron cronies, threatening a NATO partner with the annexation of their protectorate, etc. etc. etc. etc. As long as the malinformation industry is allowed to dominate the media and provide its ignorant, media illiterate masses with hate-filled drivel, I fear that selective ignorance will triumph over democracy.
So according to you, everyone who voted for Trump is willfully or unintentionally ignorant, and the solution is censorship of all the media that 51% of the country chooses to read and watch. I disagree and our constitution disagrees. I would think that your part should actually address the policy issues which I listed above, which motivated Trump voters.
No, not "censorship of all media" just the reasonable expectation that propaganda will not be allowed to present itself as equivalent to fact. As a formally trained journalist, one of my early lessons was the challenge of separating news and information from propaganda. The course was called "Media Literacy". And yes, perhaps 51% of American voters should have taken that course. In the meantime, America finds itself in much the same position as Germany in 1929 where Joseph Goebbels had weaponized that country's unrestricted free speech. More than 60 million deaths later worldwide and Germany in ruins did Germany decide that something should and could be done to insure that hate speech be flagged and punished. What else you got?
I'm not sure it matters (unfortunately) how nice voters intend to be when folks like Fuentes are invited to the White House and such. It's not that every Trump voter is bad (because that's insane— a lot of my friends and family voted for Trump and I don't dislike them), it's that Trump is acting bad.
I got the impression that the article was about the direction the Republican party was taking, and not about characterizing voters per se. No party can or should be defined by a subsection of its supporters.
On Vance and Fuentes, I think the criticism of Vance was not because he used the word "shit", but because he was equating Fuentes with a former press secretary from the Dems. Most people would surely be able to see a difference between them.
Inane article from a weak writer and weaker thinker.
I live in a California liberal college town and have a business in a smaller farming community down the road. I have relatives in red states where I grew up as a child. I have a very large population of friends and acquaintance on both sides of the aisle. I know all the Trump supporters in my circle and all the Biden and Harris supporters. I know not one Trump supporter that even knew who Nick Fuentes is until the left media started attempt to pin him as the brand of Republicanism.
However, most of the people I know that are Democrats vote Democrat support and defend all the radical woke bullshit. They do it almost as a reflex supporting their media gaslit Trump Derangement Syndrome sickness. They no longer critical think... they are robots of emotional turmoil that are, frankly, a hazard and a good reason to question the continued benefits of representative democracy... and it has always assumed clear thinking people will dominate the vote.
For every 10 essays about where the Republican Party is, was or will be , there may be as many as one essay about the Democratic Party's present, past and future. Why is all of the oxygen in the room taken by the Republicans? Do the Democrats not have anything to say about themselves? The American voting public needs constant reminding that our constitutional democratic republic has embraced a two party system with each party having its own schisms.
This is a good point. I wish the democrats would look at the policy reasons that people are voting for Trump. Immigration, woke craziness, inflation ( that started during covid ) etc.
In part it's because they are in power and they are fucking crazy. I seem to remember a whole lot more essays about the Democrats during the 2020-2023 era, when Democrats were the party in power and were fucking crazy.
"It needs Fuentes’ rabid fanbase as part of its coalition."
If they actually tacked to towards "we're just sane, calm, competent governors who believe in and are committed to the principles of this country" they'd quickly find they do not need Fuentes and his ilk.
The intro to this article suggests that it is a dark set of predictions. I see it as the opposite because if the Republican party goes down that dark road, a majority of the American people will not vote for them. E.g., a majority were horrified at the open border that the Biden administration permitted. But they also are not pleased with the means that the Trump administration has used to correct the problem. And once the problem is dealt with (as it will be in this Administration), a majority will not be so xenophobic as to retain that as their most important reason for voting one way or the other; and the Democratic Party, if it can be seized from its left wing, can make clear that it rejects the Biden era laxity.
One should not underestimate the brilliance of Mr. Trump in gaining an idolizing following; when he is gone, I doubt that someone will be able to take his mantle. The traditional Republicans are not attractive to the young; the radical Republicans cannot command a majority. Thus, there is an opening for a reasonable Democratic Party built on traditional values of rewarding hard work, providing a safety net to those who cannot make their way despite hard work, and protecting the individuality of every American. I understand that these values are anathema to the left wing of the Democrats. But they are the values that can succeed in gaining a real majority, especially if you are correct about the Republicans.
I disagree somewhat. The Republican Party certainly has an enthusiastic following which will out live Trump but they have no policies, other than to persecute immigrants and eventually other minorities as well. Their supporters will eventually tire of a diet of hate and will start to ask what it is that they actually stand for. A protest movement such as this is must at some point propose an alternative political arrangement. All the Republicans have is an imitation of Vladimir Putin’s Russian dictatorship. The present Republican Party cannot survive a major crisis calling for a response.
Damon Linker, have you ever met a MAGA person? Since over 50% of Americans voted for Trump, and all of them might be called MAGA ( you never define the term) - that's a lot of people and they are very diverse. Yet liberals focus on the worst, most extreme MAGA people ( like Fuentes) and ignore the violent vicious left wing voices. Prominent democrats have actually called for Trump to be assassinated! Others celebrated Charlie Kirk's murder. But its not fair to hold these up as indicative of all democrats.
The same goes for MAGA. Most MAGA voters are simply: 1. Fed up with open borders, money for illegals, encouraging law breaking by migrants . 2. fed up. with foreign wars ( and yes! disappointed with Trump and dubious about Venezuala). 3. Fed up with government over reach as we experienced during covid craziness. 4. Fed up with DEI and transgender excesses . 5. Not racist, not homophobic, not transphobic.
You criticize JD Vance for saying Fuentes should eat shit. I agree that such language is vulgar. But didn't your own VP candidate, the awesome Tim Walz, use the F**k world frequently? Why is it okay for a democrat to be vulgar and not for a republican.
True, Ms. Williams, those 77 million who voted DJT back into office are a diverse group and many of them, I'm sure, are not Steven Miller, Nick Fuentes or even JD Vance despicable. However, these voters share one trait that unites them in supporting a man so uniquely unqualified to be president and commander-in-chief. That trait is the practice of unintended or willful ignorance. This practice allows these voters to simply ignore the facts, the grifts, the selling of pardons, the cover-ups, the extrajudicial executions of suspected smugglers, the rounding up of legal and illegal immigrants (whether law abiding and tax paying or not), the destruction of a portion of the "People's House" to create a gaudy nouveau riche ballroom, the illegal extraction of a notably heinous tyrant so that the U.S. can "run his country" to the benefit of DJT and his oil baron cronies, threatening a NATO partner with the annexation of their protectorate, etc. etc. etc. etc. As long as the malinformation industry is allowed to dominate the media and provide its ignorant, media illiterate masses with hate-filled drivel, I fear that selective ignorance will triumph over democracy.
So according to you, everyone who voted for Trump is willfully or unintentionally ignorant, and the solution is censorship of all the media that 51% of the country chooses to read and watch. I disagree and our constitution disagrees. I would think that your part should actually address the policy issues which I listed above, which motivated Trump voters.
No, not "censorship of all media" just the reasonable expectation that propaganda will not be allowed to present itself as equivalent to fact. As a formally trained journalist, one of my early lessons was the challenge of separating news and information from propaganda. The course was called "Media Literacy". And yes, perhaps 51% of American voters should have taken that course. In the meantime, America finds itself in much the same position as Germany in 1929 where Joseph Goebbels had weaponized that country's unrestricted free speech. More than 60 million deaths later worldwide and Germany in ruins did Germany decide that something should and could be done to insure that hate speech be flagged and punished. What else you got?
I'm not sure it matters (unfortunately) how nice voters intend to be when folks like Fuentes are invited to the White House and such. It's not that every Trump voter is bad (because that's insane— a lot of my friends and family voted for Trump and I don't dislike them), it's that Trump is acting bad.
I got the impression that the article was about the direction the Republican party was taking, and not about characterizing voters per se. No party can or should be defined by a subsection of its supporters.
On Vance and Fuentes, I think the criticism of Vance was not because he used the word "shit", but because he was equating Fuentes with a former press secretary from the Dems. Most people would surely be able to see a difference between them.
Inane article from a weak writer and weaker thinker.
I live in a California liberal college town and have a business in a smaller farming community down the road. I have relatives in red states where I grew up as a child. I have a very large population of friends and acquaintance on both sides of the aisle. I know all the Trump supporters in my circle and all the Biden and Harris supporters. I know not one Trump supporter that even knew who Nick Fuentes is until the left media started attempt to pin him as the brand of Republicanism.
However, most of the people I know that are Democrats vote Democrat support and defend all the radical woke bullshit. They do it almost as a reflex supporting their media gaslit Trump Derangement Syndrome sickness. They no longer critical think... they are robots of emotional turmoil that are, frankly, a hazard and a good reason to question the continued benefits of representative democracy... and it has always assumed clear thinking people will dominate the vote.
Only 8/10 on my Frank bullshit bingo card today.
For every 10 essays about where the Republican Party is, was or will be , there may be as many as one essay about the Democratic Party's present, past and future. Why is all of the oxygen in the room taken by the Republicans? Do the Democrats not have anything to say about themselves? The American voting public needs constant reminding that our constitutional democratic republic has embraced a two party system with each party having its own schisms.
This is a good point. I wish the democrats would look at the policy reasons that people are voting for Trump. Immigration, woke craziness, inflation ( that started during covid ) etc.
In part it's because they are in power and they are fucking crazy. I seem to remember a whole lot more essays about the Democrats during the 2020-2023 era, when Democrats were the party in power and were fucking crazy.
If an abuse-screamer like Levin is one of the "moderates"...
"It needs Fuentes’ rabid fanbase as part of its coalition."
If they actually tacked to towards "we're just sane, calm, competent governors who believe in and are committed to the principles of this country" they'd quickly find they do not need Fuentes and his ilk.
The intro to this article suggests that it is a dark set of predictions. I see it as the opposite because if the Republican party goes down that dark road, a majority of the American people will not vote for them. E.g., a majority were horrified at the open border that the Biden administration permitted. But they also are not pleased with the means that the Trump administration has used to correct the problem. And once the problem is dealt with (as it will be in this Administration), a majority will not be so xenophobic as to retain that as their most important reason for voting one way or the other; and the Democratic Party, if it can be seized from its left wing, can make clear that it rejects the Biden era laxity.
One should not underestimate the brilliance of Mr. Trump in gaining an idolizing following; when he is gone, I doubt that someone will be able to take his mantle. The traditional Republicans are not attractive to the young; the radical Republicans cannot command a majority. Thus, there is an opening for a reasonable Democratic Party built on traditional values of rewarding hard work, providing a safety net to those who cannot make their way despite hard work, and protecting the individuality of every American. I understand that these values are anathema to the left wing of the Democrats. But they are the values that can succeed in gaining a real majority, especially if you are correct about the Republicans.
I disagree somewhat. The Republican Party certainly has an enthusiastic following which will out live Trump but they have no policies, other than to persecute immigrants and eventually other minorities as well. Their supporters will eventually tire of a diet of hate and will start to ask what it is that they actually stand for. A protest movement such as this is must at some point propose an alternative political arrangement. All the Republicans have is an imitation of Vladimir Putin’s Russian dictatorship. The present Republican Party cannot survive a major crisis calling for a response.
I think you have the wrong party described as hateful.
Both seem pretty hateful to me. Or at least...both have pretty significant hateful contingents with significant power.