omg what an emotional morning. Trump out. Kamala in. Stacey getting credit she so hugely deserves. We’re likely to end up one short in the Senate, and Trump‘s America isn’t going away, but what a relief. I can’t even think of the right emoji to describe how I’m feeling.
I’m in a hotel room in Utah. There’s a pile of Kleenex on the floor, and it’s still growing.
I left the warehouse yesterday in contact with another driver who is a Trump guy. He was sincerely worried about Biden. I reassured him that Biden is a middle of the road guy, there’s nothing to worry about. We didn’t discuss Kamala, I would not have been quite as encouraging.
[Last night], the Secret Service sent reinforcements to Wilmington, Delaware, to surround Biden in a protective bubble, in anticipation of what many expect to be a victory speech some time [today].
Even Australia is going to Party! It's after 2:00 am here and I don't have a clue how I will ever get to sleep. For the last several months I have been at the end of my string (like everyone else) and now I feel it's going to be a slow come down, normal still seems so far away, And it's going to be hard to undo all the damage that has been done. I just hope people have Patience.
Justice would see the whole Trump family and friends in prison and that's going to be on my mind A LOT. At least we are on the right road. And the best part of this whole mess is I have learned that we can work together and wow won't that be different. My faith in our youth has grown, there are going to be some incredible leaders coming in the future. Joe and Kamala are going to set the bar high I believe.
Totally agree with everything you say, Greg Olear, but I personally want to triple down on Stacey Abrams replacing Tom Perez as DNC chair, can't happen soon enough.
Thank you for all your posts and tireless efforts to help us make sense of all of this. You are truly a one in a million writer. I look forward to reading your posts for a long time to come.
Greg I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE your article. Kamala Harris. Golden age for women. PAX americana. Adios dictators, go kiss our collective butts and take a long walk off a short pier. Four of wands, celebration. Oh my goodness I’m gonna have to drive from Utah back to California very very slowly and carefully, I am emotionally compromised. I’m gonna have to put all this aside while I’m driving.
Other than his supporters, Trump has "lost" his infrastructure, that network of energy that is vital in sustaining the Presidency. That includes the "spiritual" support of the military, the security establishment, the intelligence establishment, key donors, possibly Wall Street and other string pullers we don't even know existed. He's even lost support of a critical core of his party, and the media finally turned on him. (Though I'm cynical enough to believe that their turnabout reflects their new scripts their masters have given them. Trump has worn out his welcome. They will continue to trash Biden and the Democrats and eagerly embrace Fascist Heart Throb V.2 coming to a social media platform near you.) I hope I'm wrong. At this point I could see Supreme Court balking at any intervention in this election.
I say all of this because I think Biden will be able to work with a few Senators who will put pressure on McConnell to get something through because quite a few are up for re-election in 2 years. I could be very wrong but that's what my Spidey sense is telling me. Plus I think McConnell is ill and may not have the energy to just keep blocking if he gets some push back. It goes without saying that I hope the runoffs in Georgia bring us 2 new Democratic Senators! I'm trying to be optimistic about prospects for some positive outcomes legislatively even though we didn't get results we expected.
Thank you, Greg, for providing such insightful and unique "value added" commentary and the community of articulate and thoughtful commenters. I am beyond thrilled about Biden's victory, made all the sweeter because we had so many barriers to overcome. If any good came out of 2016 we as a country finally accepted there was voter suppression of Black people and many forces arrayed against them on so many levels but they chose to meet the challenge and won. We also learned Hillary was right. About. Every. Thing.
As usual, GREAT column Greg! I was SO PISSED OFF on Tuesday night -- not only because we didn't get the blow-out that we should have, but because almost 70 million voters decided that they wanted four more years of Trump. The vote for him in 2016 could almost be forgiven; they didn't know, they thought he was actually what he was portrayed on his stupid non-reality show, they hated Obama and wanted change, whatever. But no forgiveness for this year. After four years of this absolute monster in the White House, they wanted, "yes sir, may I have some more?" Unbelievable to me. I really wish I could wrap my brain around it, even just to be able to say, "oh, OK, I get your point," but I can't. I don't know how to.
By Wednesday, as the mail-in ballots started to make a dent in Trump's lead, I remembered just what this election was about: getting rid of Trump. Anything else after that was gravy. No, we don't appear to have the Senate, and we did lose seats in the House, but it's hopefully, just a matter of hours until Trump is defeated and exposed to the entire world as the loser that he's always been. And it's not just Trump. Getting rid of him also gets rid of Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, Wilbur Ross, Ben Carson, Mike Pence, Stephen Miller, Betsy DeVos, Kayleigh McEnany, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Chad Wolf, Mark Meadows, Jason Miller, Mark Esper, and the whole lot of the rest of them whose names I shouldn't be able to call up from memory. It's actually been a VERY successful election, and I'm not so pissed off anymore, but that 70 million -- wow! I mean, wow, just mind-numbing.
I was living in a tiny Tuscan village a few summers ago when Italy won the World Cup. I was awakened at midnight by the ringing of church bells all over the countryside! I long to do something like that here in the North Carolina mountains tonight!
Let’s clarify the distinction between Red and Blue, between Trumpster and Non-Trumpster.
There are two worlds, everyone sees and recognizes that. We are in a civil war of sorts between those two worlds, a metaphorical civil war of competing and co-existing world views.
Trumpsters are living in a bubble of how our society used to be, how it used to be presented to us. The Christian Trumpsters are longing for the perpetual continuation of a white man+woman family model a la Hallmark Channel. The blue collar and white collar Trumpsters are still living in the whites-come-first, men-first, straights-first 1960s-and-before bubble of American society as it once was.
Facts are not at issue, even though the current liberal cliché suggests these adherents to the old US society are out of touch with the facts. They are insulted if you accuse them of being out-of-touch with facts, because (for the most part, given individual differences) they certainly have no trouble understanding current realities in the world.
They’re just clinging to the past. They are clinging to an idealized universe of Ward and June Cleaver that is still alive but is undergoing transformation. In their minds, at times, they think their world is under attack.
Conservative Americans and Americans who vote (and perhaps identify as) Republican, by and large, do not like profanity. They do not like violence. They do not like lawlessness. Again, think of Ward and June Cleaver’s and Andy Griffith’s world, McHale’s Navy, Ronald Reagan and John Wayne movies, and the like. It’s no accident that Ronald Reagan and John Wayne are their heroes. They identify with the white man who is living and breathing a certain worldview, a certain lifestyle and value system.
We can’t risk vilifying and dismissing out-of-hand that value system for a number of reasons, including of course the primary one, which is that those people constitute half of the United States. They are our neighbors and coworkers, they are mayors and council members and the people who operate and staff governments and agencies and fire and police departments.
We would be mistaken to dismiss entirely those people, mischaracterizing them by painting a wide brush stroke by calling them all fools and idiots. Obviously they need support in changing their value system to adapt to new realities, like including non-whites and non-straights in their universe.
Many of us grew up watching the same shows and movies that the Red folk idolize. We are all part of this same American mystique, the American society, the myth of the land of golden dreams that drew Chinese and Dutch and French and many other people from all over the world to the California gold rush and to the shores of the eastern US via Ellis Island and past the Statue of Liberty. The myth of America is alive and well in the minds of people on both sides of this civil war. Whether you are able to see the truths underneath the glitzy mirage of the Donald Trump aura, or whether you are taken in by it, nevertheless we are both in love with this culture and its mystique.
Here’s where facts come in:
Our sisters and brothers of the Red faith don’t see the dirty underside of, for example, Donald Trump. It’s not that they ignore facts, it’s that they are living in a bubble of idealized reality that does not include the dirty stuff. They are unable to accept that he is a sex criminal, a henchman for Putin, a nasty person who vilifies and insults, or any other misdeed.
They are stuck in the illusion of white people being basically good people, pure and innocent. Remember: John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Ward and June Cleaver.
To the extent that they are capable of accepting and acknowledging the underside, the nasty stuff, seeing the dirty truth, they either become a Never Trump Republican or a Democrat or Independent.
We are coexisting versions of reality, often with identical or near-identical fundamental values. The Blues and the Reds are even found inside the same person. In my case I was raised in the Red world and was educated and weaned out into the Blue world, by college and by following my own destiny.
Let’s clarify the distinction between Red and Blue, between Trumpster and Non-Trumpster, between “populist” and “liberal,” and between conservative and progressive.
There are two worlds, everyone sees and recognizes that. Here in the U.S. we are in a civil war of sorts between those two worlds, a metaphorical civil war of competing and co-existing world views.
Trumpsters are living in a bubble of seeing our society in a sanitized, superficial way: how it used to be, how it has been presented to us until now, how they want to see it. The Christian Trumpsters are longing for the perpetual continuation of a white man+woman family model à la Hallmark Channel. Trumpsters in general are still living in the whites-come-first, men-first, straights-first, 1960s-and-before bubble of American society as it once was.
Facts in general are not the problem, even though the current liberal cliché suggests these adherents to the idealized US society do not accept facts. They are insulted if you accuse them of being out-of-touch with facts, because (for the most part, given individual differences) they certainly have no trouble understanding current realities in the world.
The facts they don’t see are the ones at issue.
The honest truth is that the members of the Red faith do not see the full picture. They do not see the complete reality. They see the surface, they see the image, but they don’t see beyond a certain point. Gently speaking, their inability to see beyond what their eyes tell them is a lack of vision. They have the inability to see dirt, to see what they don’t believe can be there. It is a bubble. It is a sheltered and naive, perhaps child-like, way of looking at things.
They’re clinging to illusion. They are clinging to an idealized universe of Ward and June Cleaver that is still alive but is undergoing transformation. In their minds, they think their world is under attack.
Conservative Americans and Americans who vote (and perhaps identify as) Republican, by and large, do not like profanity. They do not like violence. They do not like lawlessness. They like tradition. They like staying within the box of accepted social thought and behavior. They like the security of the norms and conventions of society. Again, think of the world of Ward and June Cleaver, Andy Griffith, McHale’s Navy, Westerns with the white hats and the black hats. It’s no accident that Ronald Reagan and John Wayne are their heroes. Even if they aren’t white, they identify with the white man who is doing his level best to be a good person. Women and non-whites live inside this conventional and circumscribed and limited view of social reality, too, hence the seeming paradox of a woman or non-white who identifies as Republican.
It’s a value system based on, gently again, a naive and immature view of the world.
We can’t risk vilifying and dismissing out-of-hand that value system for a number of reasons, including of course the primary one, which is that these people constitute half of the United States. They are our neighbors and coworkers, they are mayors and council members and the people who operate and staff governments and agencies and fire and police departments.
They are also family members.
We would be mistaken to mischaracterize them by painting a wide brush stroke and calling them all fools and idiots. [full disclosure: guilty as charged] Obviously they need support in adapting to change, like including non-whites and non-straights in their universe, like seeing corruption in their heroes and integrity in their opponents.
Many of us grew up watching the same shows and movies that the Red folk idolize. We are all part of this same American mystique, the American society, the myth of the land of golden dreams that drew Chinese and Dutch and French and many other people from all over the world to the California gold rush and to the shores of the eastern US via Ellis Island and past the Statue of Liberty. The myth of America is alive and well in the minds of people on both sides of this civil war. Whether you are able to see the truths underneath the glitzy mirage of the Donald Trump image, or whether you are taken in by it, nevertheless we are both in love with this culture and its mystique.
Our sisters and brothers of the Red faith don’t see Trump’s self-serving behavior and his crimes. Their idealized bubble does not include corruption and vice. They are in denial that he is a sex criminal, a henchman for Putin, a tax evader and fraud, a blowhard who unabashedly misrepresents his net worth and his skills. They can even dismiss that he is a nasty person who vilifies and insults constantly, although they do acknowledge such inescapable facts. Misdeeds are overlooked because he is “one of us."
They are stuck in the illusion of white people being basically good people, pure and innocent. Remember: Samantha and Darrin Stevens (Bewitched), Barney and Betty Rubble (Flintstones), the safe and secure world where you don’t even have to lock your car because everyone is honest and trustworthy. Perhaps they see Trump as Fred Flintstone: a loud-mouthed blowhard, but basically harmless.
To the extent that they are capable of accepting and acknowledging any ugly truths, they either become a Never Trump Republican or a Democrat or Independent. Escaping any worldview is tough. Social conditioning is very hard to break. It’s like being deprogrammed from being in a cult. Exhibit A: Stuart Stevens and his book “It Was All A Lie."
We are in coexisting versions of reality, often with identical or near-identical fundamental values. The Blues and the Reds are even found inside the same person. In our family we were raised in a dominant Red world view. We grew up in California and in post-war Germany. Our father is a lifelong conservative born and raised during the Nazi era in a rural village outside Munich, where Hitler came to power. He watched nearly that entire show from a front-row seat. Our mother was also born and raised in Depression-era and war-torn Germany, and she experienced nearly every trauma you can expect from that period.
Unlike Trump, Hitler delivered on his promises.
Bear with me here, if you can. It’s my heritage.
In his day, Hitler was the German FDR. He brought the decimated German economy and society out of despair. He built the autobahn. He conceived and executed, with Ferdinand Porsche’s expertise, the design for the car of the Everyperson, a car for everyone, the Folks Car, the Folks Wagon, the Volkswagen Beetle. He provided heated homes, food, and jobs to a nation. Hence all the devotion. Keiner muß hungern. Keiner muß frieren. No one has to starve (literally "no one must hunger"). No one has to freeze. Not just empty slogans, these sayings became the ideals of a nation.
Hitler was adored and idolized. (Sound familiar?) He led the nation out of deprivation and depression. The level of devotion and adoration was off the charts.
For some reason, probably because Americans are allergic to anything Nazi Germany, it is not common knowledge that during his first marriage in the 1980s, Trump studied one of Hitler’s books. The man who has “an undiagnosed learning disability” per Mary Trump, his niece, nevertheless managed to overcome his dyslexia, or whatever the handicap, and study the efficacy of Hitler’s speeches and rhetorical devices.
Trump is a fraudulent Hitler imitator. He is a charlatan. Forgive me, my insufficient knowledge of history fails me here, perhaps a Mussolini. Hitler and Trump both have massive inferiority complexes. Hitler and Trump both had overly indulgent, perhaps vapid, mothers who were seemingly incapable of imposing discipline. There are probably other fundamental similarities, but those are the ones that spring to mind.
For reasons that many of us find difficult to comprehend, the casino-style glitzy image Trump has manufactured, his (to me) garish and hideous brand, convinces the members of the Red faith. Misleads them, of course, but they are unaware of the deception.
They still have no idea what they are idolizing and adoring.
Do not think for even a second that invoking Hitler is overblown, exaggerated, ridiculous, or wildly inappropriate. I assure you that it is a very reasonable, substantive, and logical comparison.
We dodged a bullet, people. This is the closest the USA has ever come to fascism.
The distinction between Red and Blue is also the distinction between Nazi party member and dissident / opponent incarcerated at Dachau. Dachau is outside Munich, uncomfortably close to my father’s childhood home. The first concentration camp, it was dedicated to locking up the opposition intelligentsia. In a nightmare scenario where Trump exerts influence like Biff Tannen in the horrible dystopia from Back To The Future 2, that would be you and me.
Let us give thanks and gratitude to the institutions of democracy, like our election system, which can withstand the damage just inflicted on them in this past administration.
[End. Fin. Finito. Ende.]
Back To The Future 2: How Biff Tannen Ruined Hill Valley
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🥰🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 OMG what a relief.
omg what an emotional morning. Trump out. Kamala in. Stacey getting credit she so hugely deserves. We’re likely to end up one short in the Senate, and Trump‘s America isn’t going away, but what a relief. I can’t even think of the right emoji to describe how I’m feeling.
I’m in a hotel room in Utah. There’s a pile of Kleenex on the floor, and it’s still growing.
I left the warehouse yesterday in contact with another driver who is a Trump guy. He was sincerely worried about Biden. I reassured him that Biden is a middle of the road guy, there’s nothing to worry about. We didn’t discuss Kamala, I would not have been quite as encouraging.
From Heather Cox Richardson:
[Last night], the Secret Service sent reinforcements to Wilmington, Delaware, to surround Biden in a protective bubble, in anticipation of what many expect to be a victory speech some time [today].
Even Australia is going to Party! It's after 2:00 am here and I don't have a clue how I will ever get to sleep. For the last several months I have been at the end of my string (like everyone else) and now I feel it's going to be a slow come down, normal still seems so far away, And it's going to be hard to undo all the damage that has been done. I just hope people have Patience.
Justice would see the whole Trump family and friends in prison and that's going to be on my mind A LOT. At least we are on the right road. And the best part of this whole mess is I have learned that we can work together and wow won't that be different. My faith in our youth has grown, there are going to be some incredible leaders coming in the future. Joe and Kamala are going to set the bar high I believe.
Totally agree with everything you say, Greg Olear, but I personally want to triple down on Stacey Abrams replacing Tom Perez as DNC chair, can't happen soon enough.
Thank you for all your posts and tireless efforts to help us make sense of all of this. You are truly a one in a million writer. I look forward to reading your posts for a long time to come.
Greg I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE your article. Kamala Harris. Golden age for women. PAX americana. Adios dictators, go kiss our collective butts and take a long walk off a short pier. Four of wands, celebration. Oh my goodness I’m gonna have to drive from Utah back to California very very slowly and carefully, I am emotionally compromised. I’m gonna have to put all this aside while I’m driving.
Functioning federal government 1.2 Post Office
Other than his supporters, Trump has "lost" his infrastructure, that network of energy that is vital in sustaining the Presidency. That includes the "spiritual" support of the military, the security establishment, the intelligence establishment, key donors, possibly Wall Street and other string pullers we don't even know existed. He's even lost support of a critical core of his party, and the media finally turned on him. (Though I'm cynical enough to believe that their turnabout reflects their new scripts their masters have given them. Trump has worn out his welcome. They will continue to trash Biden and the Democrats and eagerly embrace Fascist Heart Throb V.2 coming to a social media platform near you.) I hope I'm wrong. At this point I could see Supreme Court balking at any intervention in this election.
I say all of this because I think Biden will be able to work with a few Senators who will put pressure on McConnell to get something through because quite a few are up for re-election in 2 years. I could be very wrong but that's what my Spidey sense is telling me. Plus I think McConnell is ill and may not have the energy to just keep blocking if he gets some push back. It goes without saying that I hope the runoffs in Georgia bring us 2 new Democratic Senators! I'm trying to be optimistic about prospects for some positive outcomes legislatively even though we didn't get results we expected.
Thank you, Greg, for providing such insightful and unique "value added" commentary and the community of articulate and thoughtful commenters. I am beyond thrilled about Biden's victory, made all the sweeter because we had so many barriers to overcome. If any good came out of 2016 we as a country finally accepted there was voter suppression of Black people and many forces arrayed against them on so many levels but they chose to meet the challenge and won. We also learned Hillary was right. About. Every. Thing.
thanks. we all need glorious news that we managed to save democracy. and the fight for her is only beginning.
special prosecutor seems like a reasonable strategy. Truth should prevail. prosecute with extreme prejudice.
As usual, GREAT column Greg! I was SO PISSED OFF on Tuesday night -- not only because we didn't get the blow-out that we should have, but because almost 70 million voters decided that they wanted four more years of Trump. The vote for him in 2016 could almost be forgiven; they didn't know, they thought he was actually what he was portrayed on his stupid non-reality show, they hated Obama and wanted change, whatever. But no forgiveness for this year. After four years of this absolute monster in the White House, they wanted, "yes sir, may I have some more?" Unbelievable to me. I really wish I could wrap my brain around it, even just to be able to say, "oh, OK, I get your point," but I can't. I don't know how to.
By Wednesday, as the mail-in ballots started to make a dent in Trump's lead, I remembered just what this election was about: getting rid of Trump. Anything else after that was gravy. No, we don't appear to have the Senate, and we did lose seats in the House, but it's hopefully, just a matter of hours until Trump is defeated and exposed to the entire world as the loser that he's always been. And it's not just Trump. Getting rid of him also gets rid of Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, Wilbur Ross, Ben Carson, Mike Pence, Stephen Miller, Betsy DeVos, Kayleigh McEnany, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Chad Wolf, Mark Meadows, Jason Miller, Mark Esper, and the whole lot of the rest of them whose names I shouldn't be able to call up from memory. It's actually been a VERY successful election, and I'm not so pissed off anymore, but that 70 million -- wow! I mean, wow, just mind-numbing.
I was living in a tiny Tuscan village a few summers ago when Italy won the World Cup. I was awakened at midnight by the ringing of church bells all over the countryside! I long to do something like that here in the North Carolina mountains tonight!
Let’s clarify the distinction between Red and Blue, between Trumpster and Non-Trumpster.
There are two worlds, everyone sees and recognizes that. We are in a civil war of sorts between those two worlds, a metaphorical civil war of competing and co-existing world views.
Trumpsters are living in a bubble of how our society used to be, how it used to be presented to us. The Christian Trumpsters are longing for the perpetual continuation of a white man+woman family model a la Hallmark Channel. The blue collar and white collar Trumpsters are still living in the whites-come-first, men-first, straights-first 1960s-and-before bubble of American society as it once was.
Facts are not at issue, even though the current liberal cliché suggests these adherents to the old US society are out of touch with the facts. They are insulted if you accuse them of being out-of-touch with facts, because (for the most part, given individual differences) they certainly have no trouble understanding current realities in the world.
They’re just clinging to the past. They are clinging to an idealized universe of Ward and June Cleaver that is still alive but is undergoing transformation. In their minds, at times, they think their world is under attack.
Conservative Americans and Americans who vote (and perhaps identify as) Republican, by and large, do not like profanity. They do not like violence. They do not like lawlessness. Again, think of Ward and June Cleaver’s and Andy Griffith’s world, McHale’s Navy, Ronald Reagan and John Wayne movies, and the like. It’s no accident that Ronald Reagan and John Wayne are their heroes. They identify with the white man who is living and breathing a certain worldview, a certain lifestyle and value system.
We can’t risk vilifying and dismissing out-of-hand that value system for a number of reasons, including of course the primary one, which is that those people constitute half of the United States. They are our neighbors and coworkers, they are mayors and council members and the people who operate and staff governments and agencies and fire and police departments.
We would be mistaken to dismiss entirely those people, mischaracterizing them by painting a wide brush stroke by calling them all fools and idiots. Obviously they need support in changing their value system to adapt to new realities, like including non-whites and non-straights in their universe.
Many of us grew up watching the same shows and movies that the Red folk idolize. We are all part of this same American mystique, the American society, the myth of the land of golden dreams that drew Chinese and Dutch and French and many other people from all over the world to the California gold rush and to the shores of the eastern US via Ellis Island and past the Statue of Liberty. The myth of America is alive and well in the minds of people on both sides of this civil war. Whether you are able to see the truths underneath the glitzy mirage of the Donald Trump aura, or whether you are taken in by it, nevertheless we are both in love with this culture and its mystique.
Here’s where facts come in:
Our sisters and brothers of the Red faith don’t see the dirty underside of, for example, Donald Trump. It’s not that they ignore facts, it’s that they are living in a bubble of idealized reality that does not include the dirty stuff. They are unable to accept that he is a sex criminal, a henchman for Putin, a nasty person who vilifies and insults, or any other misdeed.
They are stuck in the illusion of white people being basically good people, pure and innocent. Remember: John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Ward and June Cleaver.
To the extent that they are capable of accepting and acknowledging the underside, the nasty stuff, seeing the dirty truth, they either become a Never Trump Republican or a Democrat or Independent.
We are coexisting versions of reality, often with identical or near-identical fundamental values. The Blues and the Reds are even found inside the same person. In my case I was raised in the Red world and was educated and weaned out into the Blue world, by college and by following my own destiny.
That is the closest we have ever come to fascism. And the silly deluded souls of the Red faith had no idea what they were walking us into.
the Red world and the Blue world
(draft #2 with major revisions)
Let’s clarify the distinction between Red and Blue, between Trumpster and Non-Trumpster, between “populist” and “liberal,” and between conservative and progressive.
There are two worlds, everyone sees and recognizes that. Here in the U.S. we are in a civil war of sorts between those two worlds, a metaphorical civil war of competing and co-existing world views.
Trumpsters are living in a bubble of seeing our society in a sanitized, superficial way: how it used to be, how it has been presented to us until now, how they want to see it. The Christian Trumpsters are longing for the perpetual continuation of a white man+woman family model à la Hallmark Channel. Trumpsters in general are still living in the whites-come-first, men-first, straights-first, 1960s-and-before bubble of American society as it once was.
Facts in general are not the problem, even though the current liberal cliché suggests these adherents to the idealized US society do not accept facts. They are insulted if you accuse them of being out-of-touch with facts, because (for the most part, given individual differences) they certainly have no trouble understanding current realities in the world.
The facts they don’t see are the ones at issue.
The honest truth is that the members of the Red faith do not see the full picture. They do not see the complete reality. They see the surface, they see the image, but they don’t see beyond a certain point. Gently speaking, their inability to see beyond what their eyes tell them is a lack of vision. They have the inability to see dirt, to see what they don’t believe can be there. It is a bubble. It is a sheltered and naive, perhaps child-like, way of looking at things.
They’re clinging to illusion. They are clinging to an idealized universe of Ward and June Cleaver that is still alive but is undergoing transformation. In their minds, they think their world is under attack.
Conservative Americans and Americans who vote (and perhaps identify as) Republican, by and large, do not like profanity. They do not like violence. They do not like lawlessness. They like tradition. They like staying within the box of accepted social thought and behavior. They like the security of the norms and conventions of society. Again, think of the world of Ward and June Cleaver, Andy Griffith, McHale’s Navy, Westerns with the white hats and the black hats. It’s no accident that Ronald Reagan and John Wayne are their heroes. Even if they aren’t white, they identify with the white man who is doing his level best to be a good person. Women and non-whites live inside this conventional and circumscribed and limited view of social reality, too, hence the seeming paradox of a woman or non-white who identifies as Republican.
It’s a value system based on, gently again, a naive and immature view of the world.
We can’t risk vilifying and dismissing out-of-hand that value system for a number of reasons, including of course the primary one, which is that these people constitute half of the United States. They are our neighbors and coworkers, they are mayors and council members and the people who operate and staff governments and agencies and fire and police departments.
They are also family members.
We would be mistaken to mischaracterize them by painting a wide brush stroke and calling them all fools and idiots. [full disclosure: guilty as charged] Obviously they need support in adapting to change, like including non-whites and non-straights in their universe, like seeing corruption in their heroes and integrity in their opponents.
Many of us grew up watching the same shows and movies that the Red folk idolize. We are all part of this same American mystique, the American society, the myth of the land of golden dreams that drew Chinese and Dutch and French and many other people from all over the world to the California gold rush and to the shores of the eastern US via Ellis Island and past the Statue of Liberty. The myth of America is alive and well in the minds of people on both sides of this civil war. Whether you are able to see the truths underneath the glitzy mirage of the Donald Trump image, or whether you are taken in by it, nevertheless we are both in love with this culture and its mystique.
Our sisters and brothers of the Red faith don’t see Trump’s self-serving behavior and his crimes. Their idealized bubble does not include corruption and vice. They are in denial that he is a sex criminal, a henchman for Putin, a tax evader and fraud, a blowhard who unabashedly misrepresents his net worth and his skills. They can even dismiss that he is a nasty person who vilifies and insults constantly, although they do acknowledge such inescapable facts. Misdeeds are overlooked because he is “one of us."
They are stuck in the illusion of white people being basically good people, pure and innocent. Remember: Samantha and Darrin Stevens (Bewitched), Barney and Betty Rubble (Flintstones), the safe and secure world where you don’t even have to lock your car because everyone is honest and trustworthy. Perhaps they see Trump as Fred Flintstone: a loud-mouthed blowhard, but basically harmless.
To the extent that they are capable of accepting and acknowledging any ugly truths, they either become a Never Trump Republican or a Democrat or Independent. Escaping any worldview is tough. Social conditioning is very hard to break. It’s like being deprogrammed from being in a cult. Exhibit A: Stuart Stevens and his book “It Was All A Lie."
We are in coexisting versions of reality, often with identical or near-identical fundamental values. The Blues and the Reds are even found inside the same person. In our family we were raised in a dominant Red world view. We grew up in California and in post-war Germany. Our father is a lifelong conservative born and raised during the Nazi era in a rural village outside Munich, where Hitler came to power. He watched nearly that entire show from a front-row seat. Our mother was also born and raised in Depression-era and war-torn Germany, and she experienced nearly every trauma you can expect from that period.
Unlike Trump, Hitler delivered on his promises.
Bear with me here, if you can. It’s my heritage.
In his day, Hitler was the German FDR. He brought the decimated German economy and society out of despair. He built the autobahn. He conceived and executed, with Ferdinand Porsche’s expertise, the design for the car of the Everyperson, a car for everyone, the Folks Car, the Folks Wagon, the Volkswagen Beetle. He provided heated homes, food, and jobs to a nation. Hence all the devotion. Keiner muß hungern. Keiner muß frieren. No one has to starve (literally "no one must hunger"). No one has to freeze. Not just empty slogans, these sayings became the ideals of a nation.
Hitler was adored and idolized. (Sound familiar?) He led the nation out of deprivation and depression. The level of devotion and adoration was off the charts.
For some reason, probably because Americans are allergic to anything Nazi Germany, it is not common knowledge that during his first marriage in the 1980s, Trump studied one of Hitler’s books. The man who has “an undiagnosed learning disability” per Mary Trump, his niece, nevertheless managed to overcome his dyslexia, or whatever the handicap, and study the efficacy of Hitler’s speeches and rhetorical devices.
Trump is a fraudulent Hitler imitator. He is a charlatan. Forgive me, my insufficient knowledge of history fails me here, perhaps a Mussolini. Hitler and Trump both have massive inferiority complexes. Hitler and Trump both had overly indulgent, perhaps vapid, mothers who were seemingly incapable of imposing discipline. There are probably other fundamental similarities, but those are the ones that spring to mind.
For reasons that many of us find difficult to comprehend, the casino-style glitzy image Trump has manufactured, his (to me) garish and hideous brand, convinces the members of the Red faith. Misleads them, of course, but they are unaware of the deception.
They still have no idea what they are idolizing and adoring.
Do not think for even a second that invoking Hitler is overblown, exaggerated, ridiculous, or wildly inappropriate. I assure you that it is a very reasonable, substantive, and logical comparison.
We dodged a bullet, people. This is the closest the USA has ever come to fascism.
The distinction between Red and Blue is also the distinction between Nazi party member and dissident / opponent incarcerated at Dachau. Dachau is outside Munich, uncomfortably close to my father’s childhood home. The first concentration camp, it was dedicated to locking up the opposition intelligentsia. In a nightmare scenario where Trump exerts influence like Biff Tannen in the horrible dystopia from Back To The Future 2, that would be you and me.
Let us give thanks and gratitude to the institutions of democracy, like our election system, which can withstand the damage just inflicted on them in this past administration.
[End. Fin. Finito. Ende.]
Back To The Future 2: How Biff Tannen Ruined Hill Valley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPVNVy9pq28