President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

BTW, the "disrespecting our Flag & Country" nonsense is part and parcel of the populism playbook. And this has been a pattern with Trump. America was dumb as hell to elect the bullshit artist. Hopefully now, though, with each bout of douchy behavior, people are becoming more and more inured to him.

I think that is where he fails. A likable populist can be incredibly dangerous and entrench himself by stifling all dissent. Trump, is a giant douchebag, though, which is going to be our ultimate protection from him destroying our basic institutions.

With regard to his populism, it has been pretty typical:

1) During the campaign, his message was, "The country is failing. But I, and only I alone, can fix everything." Populists set themselves up as that kind of magician. And gullible people fall for it. He had an answer for everything -- without details, of course. How? Don't worry about it. I am a winner. I will have an administration filled wit hthe "best" people., etc.
2) When people started to see through his bullshit (fairly quickly after he took office), he did the shift that populists do when people start to see through their bullshit. Immediately, they create enemies to try to divert attention from themselves and their BS. Anyone who disagrees with him. ... is now the problem. After all, Trump alone, represents the will of the people (look at how many electoral votes he got!). Therefore, if you challenge him, you are against the people. An example: The "fake news," "dishonest media" tact (but there have been how many others, too?). This is what populists do -- in banana republics, they often consolidate their power into dictatorships. Anyone dissenting publicly is an enemy. Therefore, we need to shut down the dissent and get rid of the enemies.
4) Now comes the flag thing. ... It's so typical. i.e. -- patriotism. How many horrible things have been done in the name of patriotism -- shouting down people who object as anti-country? It's a flag. Blindly worshipping anything, particularly a piece of cloth, isn't what defines our country's values. It's just a symbol. The fact that someone who doesn't value anything (and is a bullshit artist who will contradict himself within the same sentence), should clue people into why that kind of faux patriotism in the name of shouting down dissent is a bad thing. The real patriot isn't the person doing symbolic things and then trampling all over American values. It's the person actually walking the walk.

That kind of populism can be a really dangerous thing. Luckily (I think), this guy has such a huge douche factor, that any damage he can actually do the country is going to be limited. We'll bide our time and move on, hopefully.

 

This may be the emptiest kind of human there is: Someone who opportunistically worships things, but values absolutely nothing.