Trump: Telling It Like It Is, The GOP and the NY Times

Pogo

When he was in his 80's my father no longer went to the gym. He sat home in his leather chair and spread out the New York Times and the Washington Post before him and he read the papers.  "This," he said, "Is a fine life."  

I thought there was more to life, but he was never into hiking or fishing or baseball. And this morning, reading my on line copy of the New York Times, I could appreciate what he was talking about.  Some days reading someone who speaks the truth, who distills it is just such a pleasure, a high really. There's some connection there. It's lovely.

Today Paul Krugman and Timothy Egan each commented on last night's Republican brawl with great clarity.

If she were in Flint drinking water, we'd remember lead fondly

Krugman:
"The truth is that that party died a long time ago, that these days it's voodoo economics and neocon fantasies all the way down...[Trump] promises to make America white again--surely everyone knows that's the real slogan, right?--while simultaneously promising to protect Social Security and Medicare, and hinting at (though not actually promising) higher taxes on the rich...As I see it, then, we should actually welcome Mr. Trump's ascent. Yes, he's a con man, but he is also effectively acting as a whistle-blower on other people's cons. That is, believe it or not, a step forward in these weird, troubled times."

Making America Great Again

I knew, somehow, on some level, I wanted Trump to be the nominee; now I can understand why.  He's just so much better than Cruz, whose fondest fantasy seems to be inaugurating a new Inquisition and Rubio, who promises a huge military build up while balancing the budget, lowering taxes without cutting benefits all while standing on his head.

As for Timothy Egan, in a wonderfully titled piece called, "The Beast is Us," he reminds us:

Republican voters remember happier times

"He is saying how the people really feel...They're saying it now. So more than a third of Trump supporters in South Carolina wish the South had won the Civil War, and 70 percent think the Confederate flag should be flying over the state capital. And 32 percent  believe internment of Japanese-American citizens was a good thing--something that the sainted Ronald Reagan apologized for...'Voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage,' said David Duke, the former Klansman...With media complicity, Trump has unleashed the beast that has long resided not far from the American hearth, from those who started a Civil War to preserve the right to enslave a fellow human to the Know-Nothing mobs who burned Irish-Catholic churches out of fear of immigrants. When high school kids waved a picture of Trump while shouting, 'Build a wall' at students from a heavily Hispanic school during a basketball game in Indiana last week, they were exhaling Trump's sulfurous vapors. They know exactly what he stands for."

Build A Wall! White kids chant in Indiana 2016

White girl in Alabama circa 1962. Spiritual forbear for Indiana

Oh, we got trouble in River City and that's spelled with "T"...

Actually, while I agree this is the meaning of Trump in the eyes of his supporters, I am not so sure Trump actually believes all this. I suspect he just says stuff to see what gets a rise out of his customers, and tries, like the huckster he is, to play to the response he gets, but he would drop it all tomorrow and advocate for admitting a million refugees from Syria and Afghanistan and opening the border with Mexico if he thought that would make the sale. He has the moral center of a hungry salesman--anything to close the deal.