I imagine you've seen the photo from later yesterday that shows the entire East Wing facade stripped off. Much more shocking than the photo in your post, for future reference.
This, along with the Trump Dump AI video, is a gift that should keep on giving since they're so emblematic of his tenure and his increasingly unhinged conduct. Thanks for your excellent and informative blog. We're all doing what we can.
It’s hardly surprising that former Republicans, Dixiecrats, and never-tRumpers want to ignore that the Frankenstein they’ve helped create was built on hate, privilege, and entitlement.
I agree. I'm 72 and was raised in Winston-Salem, but my parents were from Washington state, so I was treated as a 'yankee' because I didn't have a southern accent. I got the 'you ain't fum around heah' attitude from most of the other kids and eventually realized just how deeply the confederacy was ingrained in most everyone who had multigenerational roots in the south. It doesn't surprise me to see Trump or the GOP align with the culture of the confederacy. They all seem compatible with a fascist hierarchical mobster state where loyalty is rewarded with privilege and religion functions as a means to those ends. Remember the Nazis actually adopted policy from the Jim Crow era south.
If you read Jay Nordlinger, you might know the answer to this question: Is he stupid, or does he think the rest of us are? Because the racist tendencies of the GOP have been visible since no later than 1964, particularly in hindsight. Did he really think liberals were just calling the GOP racist simply to be obnoxious?
The original leaders of the conservative movement, especially Barry Goldwater were believers in racial equality and supporters of civil rights. They argued that free enterprise and moral persuasion could end prejudice and promote freedom for all citizens. Now whether Goldie was right to use this to vote against the Civil Rights Act is debatable, but there's no question those ideals remain powerful and true.
Under Trump, excess is the aesthetic. The Oval Office has been re imagined into what some critics have likened to a bordello—a gaudy spectacle of cheap gold trim and ornamental lace. Reports suggest backdoor crypto dealings, prize fights staged on the White House lawn, and even car sales pitched from the executive grounds. Beyond his shortcomings as a statesman, his design sensibilities evoke more kitsch than class.
On target Thomas. Oh, do I remember Jesse Jeremiah Jubilation Day Helms and Cousin Chub. "And now Viewpoint, the daily editorial expression of WRAL" Isn't it interesting how the political parties in the War Between the States have switched sides
You and I grew up in NC at the same time. I, too, left after college. I hope this beautiful state, with its good people, will find its way and break out of the fog of racism and evangelical extremes. Hope springs eternal.
Thanks, Tom. I'm a bit older than you, probably by a decade, and I grew up in a weird part of the South, a resort area that had a lot of snowbirds and Yankees. But I remember those days much as you have described. I wasn't paying much attention to politics back then but my family did get a daily paper and a few magazines of the day (Life, Time, etc.) We ate supper every night with the evening news. My school was integrated in 1964, the year before I graduated. Like magic, a segregation academy sprang up out of seemingly nowhere.
I imagine you've seen the photo from later yesterday that shows the entire East Wing facade stripped off. Much more shocking than the photo in your post, for future reference.
This, along with the Trump Dump AI video, is a gift that should keep on giving since they're so emblematic of his tenure and his increasingly unhinged conduct. Thanks for your excellent and informative blog. We're all doing what we can.
Best column yet.
It’s hardly surprising that former Republicans, Dixiecrats, and never-tRumpers want to ignore that the Frankenstein they’ve helped create was built on hate, privilege, and entitlement.
I agree. I'm 72 and was raised in Winston-Salem, but my parents were from Washington state, so I was treated as a 'yankee' because I didn't have a southern accent. I got the 'you ain't fum around heah' attitude from most of the other kids and eventually realized just how deeply the confederacy was ingrained in most everyone who had multigenerational roots in the south. It doesn't surprise me to see Trump or the GOP align with the culture of the confederacy. They all seem compatible with a fascist hierarchical mobster state where loyalty is rewarded with privilege and religion functions as a means to those ends. Remember the Nazis actually adopted policy from the Jim Crow era south.
If you read Jay Nordlinger, you might know the answer to this question: Is he stupid, or does he think the rest of us are? Because the racist tendencies of the GOP have been visible since no later than 1964, particularly in hindsight. Did he really think liberals were just calling the GOP racist simply to be obnoxious?
The original leaders of the conservative movement, especially Barry Goldwater were believers in racial equality and supporters of civil rights. They argued that free enterprise and moral persuasion could end prejudice and promote freedom for all citizens. Now whether Goldie was right to use this to vote against the Civil Rights Act is debatable, but there's no question those ideals remain powerful and true.
Under Trump, excess is the aesthetic. The Oval Office has been re imagined into what some critics have likened to a bordello—a gaudy spectacle of cheap gold trim and ornamental lace. Reports suggest backdoor crypto dealings, prize fights staged on the White House lawn, and even car sales pitched from the executive grounds. Beyond his shortcomings as a statesman, his design sensibilities evoke more kitsch than class.
Spot on, sir!
Soul? No soul.
On target Thomas. Oh, do I remember Jesse Jeremiah Jubilation Day Helms and Cousin Chub. "And now Viewpoint, the daily editorial expression of WRAL" Isn't it interesting how the political parties in the War Between the States have switched sides
You and I grew up in NC at the same time. I, too, left after college. I hope this beautiful state, with its good people, will find its way and break out of the fog of racism and evangelical extremes. Hope springs eternal.
Thanks, Tom. I'm a bit older than you, probably by a decade, and I grew up in a weird part of the South, a resort area that had a lot of snowbirds and Yankees. But I remember those days much as you have described. I wasn't paying much attention to politics back then but my family did get a daily paper and a few magazines of the day (Life, Time, etc.) We ate supper every night with the evening news. My school was integrated in 1964, the year before I graduated. Like magic, a segregation academy sprang up out of seemingly nowhere.