Exactly.
A piece published in the Wall Street Journal this weekend is entitled "Why They Hate Trump."
"They", of course, being, obviously those who hate him.
Curious and ever on the lookout for reasonable, cogent insight and/or perspective, no matter where it originates these days, I gave the article a read.
And, at the moment I finished it, one word came to mind.
Exactly.
It should be noted, at this point, that the author of the article, Michael Gelernter, is not one of the "they" that he describes. He is, actually, a computer science professor at Yale, clearly an educated man and while it's not fair to label him a "passionate" defender of Trump, it's totally fair to use the word advocate.
It's not a long read, and I think it important to not , even inadvertently, muddy the context by editing or excerpting, so, here's the piece, in its entirety.
Every big U.S. election is interesting, but the coming midterms are fascinating for a reason most commentators forget to mention: The Democrats have no issues. The economy is booming and America’s international position is strong. In foreign affairs, the U.S. has remembered in the nick of time what Machiavelli advised princes five centuries ago: Don’t seek to be loved, seek to be feared.
The contrast with the Obama years must be painful for any honest leftist. For future generations, the Kavanaugh fight will stand as a marker of the Democratic Party’s intellectual bankruptcy, the flashing red light on the dashboard that says “Empty.” The left is beaten.
This has happened before, in the 1980s and ’90s and early 2000s, but then the financial crisis arrived to save liberalism from certain destruction. Today leftists pray that Robert Mueller will put on his Superman outfit and save them again.
For now, though, the left’s only issue is “We hate Trump.” This is an instructive hatred, because what the left hates about Donald Trump is precisely what it hates about America. The implications are important, and painful.
Not that every leftist hates America. But the leftists I know do hate Mr. Trump’s vulgarity, his unwillingness to walk away from a fight, his bluntness, his certainty that America is exceptional, his mistrust of intellectuals, his love of simple ideas that work, and his refusal to believe that men and women are interchangeable. Worst of all, he has no ideology except getting the job done. His goals are to do the task before him, not be pushed around, and otherwise to enjoy life. In short, he is a typical American—except exaggerated, because he has no constraints to cramp his style except the ones he himself invents.
Mr. Trump lacks constraints because he is filthy rich and always has been and, unlike other rich men, he revels in wealth and feels no need to apologize—ever. He never learned to keep his real opinions to himself because he never had to. He never learned to be embarrassed that he is male, with ordinary male proclivities. Sometimes he has treated women disgracefully, for which Americans, left and right, are ashamed of him—as they are of JFK and Bill Clinton.
But my job as a voter is to choose the candidate who will do best for America. I am sorry about the coarseness of the unconstrained average American that Mr. Trump conveys. That coarseness is un-presidential and makes us look bad to other nations. On the other hand, many of his opponents worry too much about what other people think. I would love the esteem of France, Germany and Japan. But I don’t find myself losing sleep over it.
The difference between citizens who hate Mr. Trump and those who can live with him—whether they love or merely tolerate him—comes down to their views of the typical American: the farmer, factory hand, auto mechanic, machinist, teamster, shop owner, clerk, software engineer, infantryman, truck driver, housewife. The leftist intellectuals I know say they dislike such people insofar as they tend to be conservative Republicans.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama know their real sins. They know how appalling such people are, with their stupid guns and loathsome churches. They have no money or permanent grievances to make them interesting and no Twitter followers to speak of. They skip Davos every year and watch Fox News. Not even the very best has the dazzling brilliance of a Chuck Schumer, not to mention a Michelle Obama. In truth they are dumb as sheep.
Mr. Trump reminds us who the average American really is. Not the average male American, or the average white American. We know for sure that, come 2020, intellectuals will be dumbfounded at the number of women and blacks who will vote for Mr. Trump. He might be realigning the political map: plain average Americans of every type vs. fancy ones.
Many left-wing intellectuals are counting on technology to do away with the jobs that sustain all those old-fashioned truck-driver-type people, but they are laughably wide of the mark. It is impossible to transport food and clothing, or hug your wife or girl or child, or sit silently with your best friend, over the internet. Perhaps that’s obvious, but to be an intellectual means nothing is obvious. Mr. Trump is no genius, but if you have mastered the obvious and add common sense, you are nine-tenths of the way home. (Scholarship is fine, but the typical modern intellectual cheapens his learning with politics, and is proud to vary his teaching with broken-down left-wing junk.)
This all leads to an important question—one that will be dismissed indignantly today, but not by historians in the long run: Is it possible to hate Donald Trump but not the average American?
True, Mr. Trump is the unconstrained average citizen. Obviously you can hate some of his major characteristics—the infantile lack of self-control in his Twitter babble, his hitting back like a spiteful child bully—without hating the average American, who has no such tendencies. (Mr. Trump is improving in these two categories.) You might dislike the whole package. I wouldn’t choose him as a friend, nor would he choose me. But what I see on the left is often plain, unconditional hatred of which the hater—God forgive him—is proud. It’s discouraging, even disgusting. And it does mean, I believe, that the Trump-hater truly does hate the average American—male or female, black or white. Often he hates America, too.
Granted, Mr. Trump is a parody of the average American, not the thing itself. To turn away is fair. But to hate him from your heart is revealing. Many Americans were ashamed when Ronald Reagan was elected. A movie actor? But the new direction he chose for America was a big success on balance, and Reagan turned into a great president. Evidently this country was intended to be run by amateurs after all—by plain citizens, not only lawyers and bureaucrats.
Those who voted for Mr. Trump, and will vote for his candidates this November, worry about the nation, not its image. The president deserves our respect because Americans deserve it—not such fancy-pants extras as network commentators, socialist high-school teachers and eminent professors, but the basic human stuff that has made America great, and is making us greater all the time.
I said at the outset that the first word that came to mind when I finished reading the piece was "exactly"
In the interest of full disclosure, and in the spirit of the once hallowed, now pretty much disregarded tradition of telling the truth when and wherever possible, here's the truth.
The first thing, frankly, that came to my mind was "it's been quite a while since I heard such an articulate, well constructed, calm, measured, even reasonably presented batch of bullshit."
"Exactly" came next. As will the explanation of it right after I deal with a few of the author's points.
"...the economy is booming..."
I'm not an economist and neither is Gelernter. So, neither he nor I can testify to the true state of the American economy. What I can offer is that I got absolutely no benefit whatsoever out of the first of what I am sure will be several tax cuts, promised to benefit the "middle class" and not a day goes by that I don't read reputable reporting that the deficit has multiplied so dramatically that we may actually be in danger of a depression at some point....my stock portfolio, modest though it may be, has taken several major hits in the past several months due to the volatility of the stock market, most of the knee jerk drops directly connected to one Trump tantrum or one of those "tell it like it is" blunt tool comments that Gelernter and the Trumpers seem to find so appealing.....I am now a senior citizen, qualified for, deserving of and receiving Social Security and Medicare, both programs that I put money into over the course of a forty five year working career, only to be forewarned that the GOP plans to do what they can to gut those programs to deal with a deficit that wouldn't exist had there been no "tax cut" that, so far, hasn't done dick for me...or any one I personally know....so, hearing again, as I've heard much and many times in recent weeks, that "the economy is booming", especially when the term is used as a defense of Trump's crude, rude, obnoxious demeaning and denigrating of races, creeds, religions and any thing that doesn't tickle his toes, I sincerely, and admittedly, have a hard time not coming back at people like Professor Gelernter with a Trump-esque response, something along the lines of "you don't know what the fuck you're talking about..."
"....But the leftists I know do hate Mr. Trump’s vulgarity, his unwillingness to walk away from a fight, his bluntness, his certainty that America is exceptional, his mistrust of intellectuals, his love of simple ideas that work, and his refusal to believe that men and women are interchangeable...."
Well, run on sentence or not, that's a run-on stream of consciousness, there, Professor. I could write some of it off to "agree to disagree", for example, this men and women are or are not interchangeable business. Chauvinism, even misogyny, is as old as the garden and I'm not naive enough to think they're going away any time soon.
Simple ideas? Sure. I'm down with simple ideas when simple means uncomplicated, basic, practical and, most of all, successful. But I'm not at all on board when "simple" turns out to mean impractical, even harmful and, most of all, disruptive and/or destructive. The "simple" way to rid the barn of rats is to burn it down. You're going to find me not in the cheering crowd as the gas gets poured and the match gets lit.
Mistrust of intellectuals? Due respect, Professor, shame on you. You're an intellectual and you know better. In Trump's world, the word used is "mistrust" but the word demonstrated is "jealous", "envious", even "fearful", but certainly, "intimidated", because we all tend to be afraid of and/or intimidated by things we don't understand. And highly educated people, many of whom simply resulting from that education, being fairly described as intellectual, are feared by people who don't know as much or read as much or simply, think about it, as much.
But the phrase that pays in that paragraph is the first phrase. "...the leftists I know do hate Trump's vulgarity..." Here's a thing. What reasonable, civilized, mature human being, regardless of any political leaning or preference, doesn't hate vulgarity? And what same reasonable, civilized, mature human being wouldn't find their patience sorely tested and in danger of wearing out after three plus years, and no end in sight, of daily, even hourly, vulgarity, most especially vulgarity that has somehow been "trumped" up and assigned the status of being some kind of noble badge of honor? And then, said badge of honor for vulgarity awarded to an individual who, in theory, is supposed to represent, or give his or her very best shot at representing, the very best of who we are, the very best of who and what we can be, but, in fact, symbolizes, no, make that personally demonstrates daily, even hourly, the very worst...the very worst flaws in our characters, the very worst of out weaknesses, bigotries, prejudices and flaws....not the best of who we can be....but the very worst, lowest depth(s) to which we flawed beings are capable of sinking?
"......True, ", Gelernter goes on, "Mr. Trump is the unconstrained average citizen. Obviously you can hate some of his major characteristics—the infantile lack of self-control in his Twitter babble, his hitting back like a spiteful child bully—without hating the average American, who has no such tendencies. (Mr. Trump is improving in these two categories.)
Uh, okay. By "improving in these two categories", just exactly what 's your definition, there, Professor? That he's only a blunt, profane, cheap shot, fourth rate, violence inciting asshole once a day instead of on the hour?
The main thread of this stunningly moronic fabric that Gelernter weaves in his essay is the notion that, at the rock bottom core of it all, Donald Trump appeals to those to whom he appeals because he is "one of them". He gets them. They get him.
I'll grant you two things, Mike. Can I call you Mike?
First, in large measure, you're absolutely correct. Second, in even larger measure, that's the fucking problem.
America, most especially the America that exists in the year 2018, needs more, so much more and different, so very different, than a president that is "one of us."
More on that in a minute.
".....But what I see on the left", the Professor continues," is often plain, unconditional hatred of which the hater—God forgive him—is proud. It’s discouraging, even disgusting. And it does mean, I believe, that the Trump-hater truly does hate the average American—male or female, black or white. Often he hates America, too...."
At the risk of being rightly accused of putting words in other people's mouths, here, Mike, indulge me for a few moments while I step up and speak on behalf of these "Trump-haters" whom you, at the very least, intellectually, assume also hate America. And, for the sake of those in the Trump supporter line who share their hero's "mistrust of intellectuals", I'll ratchet back the vocabulary a little and dumb it down.
The idea that those who hate Donald Trump hate America is as fuck all stupid as it is insulting.
Let's skip the psychobabble back and forth having to do with "projection", the defense of inexcusable attitudes and/or behaviors by accusing others of those attitudes and behaviors (a methodology that your boy king there, by the way, is a universally recognized and acknowledged Jedi master ably aided and abetted by his estrogen saturated Himmler/Goebbels comedy team of Kellyanne and Huckabee Sanders).... and do what we in the oldies radio biz call a "Shirley Ellis".
"get right down / to the real nitty gritty"
The root problem with your entire argument, actually, your entire premise, is your conflating Trump and "the average American".
And you're invalidating your own premise not by what you're including, but by what you're leaving out.
Every time you use the three words, "the average American".
When, in truth, and in fact, each use of that term requires a fourth word.
Any one of a number of fourth words.
"the average uneducated American".
"the average uninformed American".
"the average racist American".
"the average misogynist American".
You get the idea.
".....Granted, Mr. Trump is a parody of the average American, not the thing itself. To turn away is fair. But to hate him from your heart is revealing...."
Taking extremists and rubber room residents out of the equation (and, hey, Mikey, who doesn't have a chunk of those in their tree house no matter how savvy and sensible the rest of us are?), the recurring chorus in your wanna be hit song there, that those who "hate Trump" hate him personally and "from the heart" is annoyingly trite, off key...and a Top 100's worth of off base.
We don't hate Trump personally.
We hate lack of education. And the dangers of being uninformed. And racism. And misogyny. And sexual bigotry. And hypocrisy. Oh, land a goshen, we is awash wit da tidal wave of hypocrisy.
And the profane, obscene, horrific witnessing of a president of the United States repeatedly, consistently, predictably standing in front of a large group of people, any large group of people and pandering to their primal hatred and prejudice and bigotry. Purposely and egregiously choosing to incite when the opportunity is right there to inspire. Stirring up mockery and ridicule and denigration when the opportunity is right there to stir up passion for unification....
Leading a nation up the slope to the peak of the highest mountain of what the human being is, when called to tap into their inner strength, capable of achieving.
Not leading the lynch mob down the street, torches lighting the night and bringing out the hatred in their eyes and the bold red in their caps.
Gelenter wraps it up...."Those who voted for Mr. Trump, and will vote for his candidates this November, worry about the nation, not its image. The president deserves our respect because Americans deserve it—not such fancy-pants extras as network commentators, socialist high-school teachers and eminent professors, but the basic human stuff that has made America great, and is making us greater all the time.
Wow. Just wow.
I guess ethics classes aren't a mandatory part of the curriculum needed to graduate with degrees in computer science, then, huh, Professor?
Yeah. Didn't think so.
"...Donald Trump is the unconstrained, average citizen...."
Except for the other aforementioned adjectives I mentioned, there, Mike, I hear ya.
Here's a last thing, though.
That whole "average citizen", he's "one of us" business?
Put yourself in the middle of any row of any Trump rally. Or, for that matter, in the middle of any crowd of "average citizens" in the America of 2018.
Now, pick one of those people and bestow upon them the authority to determine the future of your children...or grandchildren or, in the larger sense, the future of mankind.
You'd have to be a fool...or an idiot......to not , at the very least, think twice about handing that kind of license over to someone you consider "average".
Let alone blunt, profane, obscene, racist, misogynist and not even, in the slightest, interested, for a nano second, in anything....ANYTHING.....that doesn't come wrapped in a package of praise, worship and adoration for him.
See what I mean?
Exactly.
No comments:
Post a Comment