Donald Trump does have the capacity to get to the nub of a problem occasionally: When Brexit got voted through, amid all the elaborate explicating by pundits, he simply shrugged and said, "People want borders."
When Hillary Clinton described (accurately, I think) his supporters as deplorables, he said he didn't know which was worse calling them deplorables or irredeemable.
And that was the problem, as many saw it for Clinton.
We are taught to hate the sin, not the sinner.
But it is difficult.
Consider two stories from today's New York Times:
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| Animated by Mr. Trump |
1. An Arizona rancher, Tony Fraze, talking about illegal immigrants filtering through his property near the Mexican border said, "We've had too much wishy-washy--people trying to control it, not end it. That's what we should have done years ago with the World Trade Center-flown over there, put it back to nature and have it done. Playin' around just don't get it done."
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| Topher Sanders |
2. Topher Sanders writes about watching his 5 year old son being told by a white girl in a Maplewood, New Jersey playground that he could not hop on the spinning disc because, "Not you, only for white people."
In the case of the white five year old girl, you might say you could tell her it was not acceptable to say to a Black boy he cannot use the playground because he is Black. And Donald Trump would say we are preaching political correctness, and he'd be right, but we all know, getting that said would not change that girl, her attitudes or her parents from which she got them. Saying she is deplorable might have more of an impact, if enough people who mattered to her and her family said that.
As for the rancher--where do you begin with that level of ignorance and stupidity?
Should we ask Mr. Fraze just what he meant by "put it back to nature?" Is that like making the sands glow, as Ted Cruz suggested? Oh, why didn't we think of that before? Just bomb "them" over "there" in the desert and all our troubles will go away.
You see, all you have to do is announce we need all the terrorists, any of you who are radical Islamic terrorists, or jihadists or anything like that to report to the designated stations outside Aleppo and Falujah and some other spots so we can bomb you back to nature. Got that? Now why couldn't President Obama have thought of that? Why, it's just like Vietnam: if only "they" had let our boys win, well, we would have cleaned up those Viet Cong in no time. Lands sake, those boys in Washington are just dumb as sticks.
Really, what this country needs is a good ol' verbal whomping every time one of these moles pops up above ground. Just whack-a-mole them and if we are never done with dealing with them, at least we've had the pleasure of dope slapping them.
What I am really asking is, how do you separate the sin from the sinner in these cases?
Mad Dog,
ReplyDelete"How do you separate the sin from the sinner?"-a question without a consistent answer in my book. One can empathize with the white, high school educated voters who face a society that has left them behind. When they look at Trump some of them see a savior and a solution, others see revenge, but in either case you can understand their plight. These are the people for whom the economy actually is rigged against and has been for awhile..Manufacturing jobs that could have provided a modest, but still adequate, life style are gone and what service jobs are left after globalization have never been sufficient to pay the bills. They are struggling, so thinking about illegal immigrants, minorities, etc. getting a piece of the pie has them seeing red. Maybe their lot in life would be improved if we were not shelling out so much tax dollars to the undeserving. Or so the theory goes..
Then you have the reprobates like Pence, Ryan and McConnell. Cowards, who continue to play possum around the Trump candidacy and refuse to come out and denounce him when they know full well what a danger he is. They repeatedly choose personal advancement and fealty to the party over loyalty to their country. They think they can have it both ways-but not so fast fellas.. Not denouncing Trump is indeed the same thing, in this instance, as supporting and endorsing him..So nope, no separating the sin from the sinner in their cases..
Nor can one do so when it comes to Trump-his positions are unconscionable especially his latest pushing of the "rigged election" line. The one thing we've had throughout our history has been the peaceful transfer of power-a feat that has made us the envy of much of the world. Now Donald seeks to unravel this 240 year legacy by prompting his followers to not accept the election results on November 8th should Donald come up short. Of course should he be the victor we'll all be treated to his pronouncement that the election was the greatest in our history... One can't excuse or explain away Trump-the bloated parasite who's rotten to the core..Well that's my less than charitable take anyway..
Maud
Mad Dog,
ReplyDelete"How do you separate the sin from the sinner?"-a question without a consistent answer in my book. One can empathize with the white, high school educated voters who face a society that has left them behind. When they look at Trump some of them see a savior and a solution, others see revenge, but in either case you can understand their plight. These are the people for whom the economy actually is rigged against and has been for awhile..Manufacturing jobs that could have provided a modest, but still adequate, life style are gone and what service jobs are left after globalization have never been sufficient to pay the bills. They are struggling, so thinking about illegal immigrants, minorities, etc. getting a piece of the pie has them seeing red. Maybe their lot in life would be improved if we were not shelling out so much tax dollars to the undeserving. Or so the theory goes..
Then you have the reprobates like Pence, Ryan and McConnell. Cowards, who continue to play possum around the Trump candidacy and refuse to come out and denounce him when they know full well what a danger he is. They repeatedly choose personal advancement and fealty to the party over loyalty to their country. They think they can have it both ways-but not so fast fellas.. Not denouncing Trump is indeed the same thing, in this instance, as supporting and endorsing him..So nope, no separating the sin from the sinner in their cases..
Nor can one do so when it comes to Trump-his positions are unconscionable especially his latest pushing of the "rigged election" line. The one thing we've had throughout our history has been the peaceful transfer of power-a feat that has made us the envy of much of the world. Now Donald seeks to unravel this 240 year legacy by prompting his followers to not accept the election results on November 8th should Donald come up short. Of course should he be the victor we'll all be treated to his pronouncement that the election was the greatest in our history... One can't excuse or explain away Trump-the bloated parasite who's rotten to the core..Well that's my less than charitable take anyway..
Maud
Was so taken by the astounding brilliance of my remarks that I thought "this bears repeating"...
ReplyDeleteMaud
Ms. Maud,
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw there were 2 comments, I thought I had already replied.
Of course, the big question is why some people who find themselves in the losing end of the economic spectrum gravitate to Donald Trump and Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. The source of the resentment is clear, as you outline it, but the idea that they would listen to Trump telling them, it's not your fault, I'll tell you how this happened to you is still hard to understand. Heard a woman on C span this morning saying the only two news outlets where you can hear the truth are Fox News and C span.
Mad Dog