Profile in Courage 2 – Feb. 28, 2017

Last year, Dems underestimated the sincerity and passion of the Trumpistas.  Their own supporters, while more numerous, were hardly as committed.  And that’s because HRC was never inspiring on the stump.  Who can forget her appearance at a New Hampshire rally late in the campaign? After Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced her, the audience was standing up, whooping and stomping their feet.  Once HRC started speaking, though, it was like all the air went out of the balloon. People just looked around and sat down.

Now the passion is back, crowds are showing up at town hall meetings to vent their anger, and wimps like Louie Gohmert (R-TX) react by cancelling the event, hiding behind the skirts of “security concerns.”  Angry voters, oh my!  Another profile in courage.

How to Protest at State of Union – Feb. 27, 2017

The Congressional Dems should avoid protesting Trump’s State of the Union by behaving like spoiled children.  If they want to do something demonstrative, they could show some quiet dignity by sitting there with duct tape over their mouths.  Or stand up and face away from him, like the jurors did in “12 Angry Men” when Lee J. Cobb was giving his rant.  When NY City cops did this to Mayor de Blasio, Reps cheered.

Profile in Courage 1 – Feb. 26, 2017

Trump’s real problem with White House press conferences – the lack of applause.  It’s harder to judge the crowd when there’s no reaction except a follow-up question, and he’s not used to going so long without receiving any adulation. He rightly suspects these reporters are not going to be impressed by his bluster.  He expects so much hostility that he discovers it even where there is none (the question from the Orthodox Jewish reporter).

Since the press corps is an audience he can’t win over, he compensates by excluding many of the skeptics and changing the venue.  “The cool kids and I are going to have our own little party, and you guys are not invited!”  Must have been tough for him to walk away from all those cameras – a real profile in courage. (Tomorrow another profile – any nominations?)

Thought of the Day – Feb. 25, 2017

It looks like in France, at least, the establishment is serious about holding on to power.  The damaging stories about Francois Fillon’s wife and children being paid for fake jobs were timed nicely to come out too late for his party to drop him.  And the investigation into Marine Le Pen for claiming her personal bodyguard is part of her EU staff is getting serious; declaring she won’t answer any questions about it until after the election is over does not fit well with her crusading image.  The Socialist Party candidate has dropped out early and thrown his support to Emmanuel Macron, who could beat Le Pen in the second round.

Meanwhile in Germany, the SPD candidate, Martin Schulz, is doing surprisingly well in the polls.  While Angela Merkel now looks beatable, German Euroskeptics are not attracting much interest.  Maybe the European Union can be saved after all.

Quotation of the Day – Feb. 20, 2017

“Of course, ‘reality’ in Trump’s reality TV wasn’t real. In every episode he acted out dramas of control over submissive contestants seeking his favor, wilting at his denial of it and fawning at his approval. … In a constant state of alert and hurt, he victimizes others because he burns with the feeling that he is the true victim.”– Sidney Blumenthal, “A Short History of the Trump Family” in the London Review of Books, Feb. 2017.  The whole thing is worth reading. www.lrb.co.uk

Quotation of the Day – Feb. 18, 2017

“Most Americans are exceptionalists, we think we live outside of history. ….  I got an early hint of that when I was touring the United States for my book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. This was in 2011 and I realized that Americans had really forgotten about the crimes of Stalin – which is strange because we were educated during the Cold War about Stalinist terror.  I thought that Americans would be surprised because I was saying that the number of Soviet citizens killed (although still horrifyingly large) was much smaller than we had been taught.  Instead I realized that Americans had simply forgotten that there was Stalinism and terror. That struck me: What else could we forget?” – Timothy Snyder, interviewed in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Feb. 7, 2016; my review of Bloodlands is elsewhere on this site.

Thought of the Day – Feb. 17, 2017

The president declared his White House is “a fine-tuned machine.”  That’s true, as long as you assume the purpose is to create chaos.  In that sense, “there has never been a presidency that has done so much in such a short period of time.”  Indeed.  The travel ban was “perfect” – “a very smooth rollout” – but he got “a bad court,” one that gets overturned “80% of the time.”  So it’s only logical that instead of asking for the decision to be overturned, they’re going back to the drawing board and starting again from scratch.

Word of the Day – Feb. 15, 2017

Last week, Iranian Prime Minister Rouhani called the current US leadership “amateurs.” While I hate to agree with him, the man is right – and not just when it comes to foreign relations.

Quotation of the Day – Feb. 12, 2017

“A would-be kleptocrat is actually better served by spreading cynicism than by deceiving followers with false beliefs: Believers can be disillusioned; people who expect to hear only lies can hardly complain when a lie is exposed. The inculcation of cynicism breaks down the distinction between those forms of media that try their imperfect best to report the truth, and those that purvey falsehoods for reasons of profit or ideology.” – David Frum, “How to Build an Autocracy” in The Atlantic, March 2017 issue.

Francis Fukuyama on Gerrymandering

“If you’ve tilted the playing field in the electoral system that it doesn’t allow you to boot parties out of power, then you’ve got a real problem.  The Republicans have been at this for quite a while already and it’s going to accelerate in these four years.”

“When democracies start turning on themselves and undermining their own legitimacy, then you’re in much more serious trouble.” – Quoted in the Washington Post, Feb. 9, 2017