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After Trump..
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Kurt Lochner
Aug 29, 2016, 9:11:50 AM8/29/16
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From:
http://robertreich.org/post/149618222795
I recently got a call from a political analyst in Washington. “Trump is
dropping like a stone,” he said, convincingly. “After Election Day, he’s
history.”
I think Trump will lose the election, but I doubt he’ll be “history.”
Defeated presidential candidates typically disappear from public view.
Think Mitt Romney or Michael Dukakis.
But Donald Trump won’t disappear. Trump needs attention the way normal
people need food.
For starters, he’ll dispute the election results. He’s already warned
followers “we better be careful because that election is going to be
rigged and I hope the Republicans are watching closely, or it’s going to
be taken away from us.“
His first campaign ad, released last week, features an image of a
polling site with the word “rigged” flashing onscreen less than two
seconds after the spot begins.
Trump won’t have any legal grounds to stand on – this election won’t be
a nail-biter like 2000 – but his goal won’t be to win in court. It will
be to sow enough doubt about the legitimacy of Hillary Clinton’s
election that he can continue to feed paranoia on the right.
A recent Pew Research Center survey shows even now, 51 percent of Mr.
Trump’s supporters have little or no confidence in the accuracy of the
vote count nationally. That’s a big change from supporters of the
defeated Republican nominees in 2004 and 2008.
Reportedly, Trump is also considering launching his own media network.
He’s already hired two of the nation’s most infamous right-wing fight
promoters – Roger Ailes, the founder and former CEO of Fox News, and
Stephen Bannon, the pugilistic former head of Brietbart News – who’d
take to such an enterprise like alligators to mud.
According to one source, Trump’s rationale is that, “win or lose, we are
onto something here. We’ve triggered a base of the population that
hasn’t had a voice in a long time.”
Triggered indeed. Many of them angry and bigoted before his campaign,
Trump supporters have only become more so under his tutelage.
The poison has even seeped down to America’s children. A Southern
Poverty Law Center survey of 2,000 school teachers recently found
Trump’s campaign producing an “alarming level of fear and anxiety among
children of color” and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the
classroom. “Teachers have noted an increase in bullying, harassment and
intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have
been the verbal targets … on the campaign trail.”
Most likely to remain after Trump are the economic anxieties Trump
exploited. Globalization and technological displacement will continue to
rip away the underpinnings of the bottom half of the population,
creating fodder for another demagogue.
The real problem isn’t globalization or technological change per se.
It’s that America’s moneyed interests won’t finance policies necessary
to reverse their consequences – such as a first-class education for all
the nation’s young, wage subsidies that bring all workers up to a
livable income, a massive “green” jobs program, and a universal basic
income.
--
"Conservatives have no ideas; just irritable mental
gestures which seek to resemble ideas"
-Lionel Trilling
http://robertreich.org/post/149618222795
I recently got a call from a political analyst in Washington. “Trump is
dropping like a stone,” he said, convincingly. “After Election Day, he’s
history.”
I think Trump will lose the election, but I doubt he’ll be “history.”
Defeated presidential candidates typically disappear from public view.
Think Mitt Romney or Michael Dukakis.
But Donald Trump won’t disappear. Trump needs attention the way normal
people need food.
For starters, he’ll dispute the election results. He’s already warned
followers “we better be careful because that election is going to be
rigged and I hope the Republicans are watching closely, or it’s going to
be taken away from us.“
His first campaign ad, released last week, features an image of a
polling site with the word “rigged” flashing onscreen less than two
seconds after the spot begins.
Trump won’t have any legal grounds to stand on – this election won’t be
a nail-biter like 2000 – but his goal won’t be to win in court. It will
be to sow enough doubt about the legitimacy of Hillary Clinton’s
election that he can continue to feed paranoia on the right.
A recent Pew Research Center survey shows even now, 51 percent of Mr.
Trump’s supporters have little or no confidence in the accuracy of the
vote count nationally. That’s a big change from supporters of the
defeated Republican nominees in 2004 and 2008.
Reportedly, Trump is also considering launching his own media network.
He’s already hired two of the nation’s most infamous right-wing fight
promoters – Roger Ailes, the founder and former CEO of Fox News, and
Stephen Bannon, the pugilistic former head of Brietbart News – who’d
take to such an enterprise like alligators to mud.
According to one source, Trump’s rationale is that, “win or lose, we are
onto something here. We’ve triggered a base of the population that
hasn’t had a voice in a long time.”
Triggered indeed. Many of them angry and bigoted before his campaign,
Trump supporters have only become more so under his tutelage.
The poison has even seeped down to America’s children. A Southern
Poverty Law Center survey of 2,000 school teachers recently found
Trump’s campaign producing an “alarming level of fear and anxiety among
children of color” and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the
classroom. “Teachers have noted an increase in bullying, harassment and
intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have
been the verbal targets … on the campaign trail.”
Most likely to remain after Trump are the economic anxieties Trump
exploited. Globalization and technological displacement will continue to
rip away the underpinnings of the bottom half of the population,
creating fodder for another demagogue.
The real problem isn’t globalization or technological change per se.
It’s that America’s moneyed interests won’t finance policies necessary
to reverse their consequences – such as a first-class education for all
the nation’s young, wage subsidies that bring all workers up to a
livable income, a massive “green” jobs program, and a universal basic
income.
--
"Conservatives have no ideas; just irritable mental
gestures which seek to resemble ideas"
-Lionel Trilling
Dänk 42Ø
Aug 30, 2016, 2:23:39 AM8/30/16
to
On 08/29/2016 01:11 PM, Kurt Lochner wrote:
> From:
>
> http://robertreich.org/post/149618222795
>
>
> I recently got a call from a political analyst in Washington. “Trump is
> dropping like a stone,” he said, convincingly. “After Election Day, he’s
> history.”
>
> I think Trump will lose the election, but I doubt he’ll be “history.”
>
> Defeated presidential candidates typically disappear from public view.
> Think Mitt Romney or Michael Dukakis.
>
> But Donald Trump won’t disappear. Trump needs attention the way normal
> people need food.
>
> For starters, he’ll dispute the election results. He’s already warned
> followers “we better be careful because that election is going to be
> rigged and I hope the Republicans are watching closely, or it’s going to
> be taken away from us.“
As a fierce Trump opponent, I have to say how what he just said is any
> From:
>
> http://robertreich.org/post/149618222795
>
>
> I recently got a call from a political analyst in Washington. “Trump is
> dropping like a stone,” he said, convincingly. “After Election Day, he’s
> history.”
>
> I think Trump will lose the election, but I doubt he’ll be “history.”
>
> Defeated presidential candidates typically disappear from public view.
> Think Mitt Romney or Michael Dukakis.
>
> But Donald Trump won’t disappear. Trump needs attention the way normal
> people need food.
>
> For starters, he’ll dispute the election results. He’s already warned
> followers “we better be careful because that election is going to be
> rigged and I hope the Republicans are watching closely, or it’s going to
> be taken away from us.“
different from what Democrats say when they lose an election?
The people were fooled. They didn't understand the ballot design (Trump
vs. Hillary vs. the several third parties). The votes need to be
recounted again and again and again, until Hillary finally finds enough
uncounted absentee ballots to reverse the results.
My own state, which I refuse to vote in, requires photo ID to vote. They
use those convenient electronic Diebold election-rigging machines. I
can handle the ID requirement, but the last time I voted in California I
slipped my ballot into an opaque metal box that looked liked a paper-
shredder.
Mexico, famous for election fraud, solved its problem by issuing
tamper-proof voter ID cards, containing photograph, fingerprint,
home address, address of polling station, and a hologram. Ballot boxes
are made of clear plastic, with holographic seals, so voters can see
that they are empty when polls open (eliminating the problem of
"pregnant" ballot boxes which arrived at polls pre-stuffed with
ballots cast for the ruling PRI party). The address of the polling
station was probably the most important, as voters in opposition areas
tended to "disappear" from the list -- told that their actual polling
station was on the opposite side of town ("crazy mice" they called it).
Many countries also use indelible ink on a thumb or finger, to prevent
people from voting twice. American liberals even oppose this, though
it seems to violate no civil rights. So your thumb is purple for a day
or two. Most people in such countries display their inked thumbs in
pride. Only lily-white American liberals have a problem with this
idea.
W.T.S., gr1The Lamp of Golden Truth!*
Aug 30, 2016, 3:36:15 AM8/30/16
to
=?UTF-8?B?RMOkbmsgNDLDmA==?= <da...@freetown.christiania.org> wrote in
news:HpudnZyvJLD4u1jK...@earthlink.com:
Other countries have a lot of good ideas. Perhaps maditory voting like
they have in Australia would keep the Government more responsive to the
public will. A few countries are considering "none of the above" options
on their ballots to make sure parties put forward the best candidates
they can muster instead of just hacks.
Reform is always in order. Getting it through is another matter, and
it usually only happens after a "Train Wreck", like a major economic
meltdown. The the pressure to reverse the reforms starts, many of the
economic reforms were undone or watered down.
news:HpudnZyvJLD4u1jK...@earthlink.com:
they have in Australia would keep the Government more responsive to the
public will. A few countries are considering "none of the above" options
on their ballots to make sure parties put forward the best candidates
they can muster instead of just hacks.
Reform is always in order. Getting it through is another matter, and
it usually only happens after a "Train Wreck", like a major economic
meltdown. The the pressure to reverse the reforms starts, many of the
economic reforms were undone or watered down.
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