Apparently, Donald Trump is upset at Time for not naming him Person of the Year, saying the recipient, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is "ruining Germany."
I think Trump is confused. Hitler was named Time's Man of the Year in 1938, who ruined Germany.
Perhaps Trump should wait until he's elected, and he can be chosen as Time's Man of the Year when he ruins America.
Studies have shown this before, but here is an article from the Washington Post that not only provides a psychological profile of Trump supporters, but also reiterates findings of studies that have found conservatives tend to be more fearful, cannot deal with ambiguity, and prefer moral certainties.
I have to say that
Bernie Sanders' appearance on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert made me a bit of a believer.
No, he's probably not electable and I'm not sure at the end of the day whether he'll make a difference in shaping the conversation as we get closer to election day. But in the same way Trump's unfiltered personality has struck a chord, Sanders' unapologetic indignation on how the system has become increasingly stacked against both the poor and middle class is a breath of fresh air.
Better yet, I admire how Sanders doesn't run away from labels like "liberal" or "progressive," let alone "socialist." At the end of the day, Sanders probably sees labels as pointless, other than being an easy signpost for an electorate that really doesn't try to delve too hard into the issues. But at least he owns them and seems to be a good avatar for showing that these words have little meaning and, more importantly, aren't dirty words whose definitions and traditions have been co-opted by the right.
I can't believe that anyone watching Sanders on the Late Show wouldn't have seen good common sense in words, if not becoming a convert.
On the other side of the coin, Sanders' rumpled, angry old man demeanor has also understandably made him attractive fodder for the late night set, the most brilliant being Larry David's channeling of Sanders on the October 18, 2014 cold opening of Saturday Night Live. (When I saw David come out, I said, "He doesn't even have to act!") Whether Sanders' campaign has any legs will help determine whether David's impersonation makes him the breakout star of this coming campaign as Tina Fey's was of Sarah Palin four years ago.
"It was never my intention to ever imply that this committee was political, because we all know it is not." – Congressman Kevin McCarthy on the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi
While I'm not sure I'd go as far as Rolling Stone's Mark Taibbi to say that the GOP effectively got Hilary Clinton elected president by giving her the opportunity to appear presidential and cool under pressure as they grilled her relentlessly for nine or so hours under the media glare, they certainly didn't do themselves any favors. (Taibbi even referencesthe film All the President's Men by suggesting that the Republicans even managed to make people feel sorry for Clinton, effectively humanizing her.)
Although the hearing pretty quickly broke down into petty partisan backbiting and shouting among its members, Clinton shrewdly positioned herself above the fray, making a statement that the truth about the Benghazi incident was above political ideology and weighed on her heavily.
Of course, it didn't help that the GOP also shot itself in the foot prior to the hearings when Congressman Kevin McCarthy let slip out that the Congressional investigation was politically motivated. I doubt anyone following this circus thought otherwise anyway, but it was still bracing to hear someone within the GOP camp gleefully admit it, however inadvised the comment may have been. Regardless, McCarthy's comments put the GOP and the committee chair, Congressman Trey Gowdy, on the defensive both going into and during the hearings. So it came off a bit hypocritical to question Clinton on the political motivations of her own actions following the incident even as they insist their own ongoing hearings aren't.
A buddy of mine supports Clinton because she's now proven and become virtually bulletproof. Over the years (and decades), the GOP has thrown everything it has at both Hilary and Bill Clinton with little to show for it—it's clear they don't feel they can fight Clinton on the issues, so they have to go into the mud. While this impenetrability has been partly the result of expert political spin, there may be also voter fatigue at work. As much negative as the GOP has thrown at Clinton, she remains standing and has managed to even become the anointed frontrunner. These hearings and the continuing e-mail issue to which Bernie Sanders gave voice to most people's exasperation over the issue were additional tests of fire that only seem to strengthen Clinton's legitimacy as a presidential candidate.
Hey, I get why Trump has been so popular—he talks without a filter, willing and able to say what establishment candidates will not, but which many of the electorate are thinking.
But for now, he is a major challenge for the GOP establishment. He’s sucked the air out of the room for the other candidates, monopolizing all the attention and media coverage.
Worse for the GOP, at the end of the day, Trump in reality is a Republican In Name Only. Truth be told, he’s a populist who’s tapped into the anger that the GOP has successfully exploited among a segment of the public for years for votes and money, but really only paid lip service to. And now the GOP is paying the piper.
Trump’s views on issues like executive pay and corporate conduct are anathema to the GOP platform. Trump will likely fade well before the nomination convention as people begin to focus on the election and issues like electability and competency, but it will be interesting how far Trump can get since he doesn’t have the support of the party establishment/power brokers, nor is he beholden to them financially or otherwise. As the GOP's losses in the last few presidential elections have shown, they no longer can win with the same shrinking ageing, white voting demographic they’ve depended on previously, but Trump certainly hasn’t helped them any in that regard.
Click here for a nice overview of the psychological profile of Trump's followers, as well as of liberals and conservatives.
Carly Fiorina's stunning decision to double down on her allegations about Planned Parenthood—which have now been pretty much been debunked, even as the GOP Talibanists attempt to hide the footage—makes me wonder that if she's willing to lie so brazenly about this and die on this hill, what kind of lies would she be willing to tell as president?
Not that this failed CEO would even have a chance.
It's on! It's been a long time coming, but the GOP's war for the soul of the party appears to have spilled out into the open with the decision of California Congressman Kevin McCarthy opting to bow out of the race for the Speaker of the House position that John Boehner recently resigned.
Though McCarthy was expected to win the vote, the decision of the extreme Talibanist wing of the GOP's House delegation to not support McCarthy apparently played a role in the decision. Even prior to the announcement, I wondered whether McCarthy could effectively lead given the unrest of the Talibanists. As the decision shows, he apparently realized not. Though he clearly had ambitions for the job, I give McCarthy credit for being smart enough to not take a job that he would have entered from a position of weakness. The irony of all this is that McCarthy has played a major role in increasing the rightward tilt of the GOP in Congress.
However, what we have is a case of the tail wagging the dog--is the GOP going to allow its extreme nutcase right wing (numbering about 40) take the party hostage?
Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, who was backing McCarthy, said he
warned Republicans that “those who wanted to take down John Boehner will
frag the next guy and that's what we saw just happened .... I'm not
going to support anyone running for speaker who is going to appease the
rejectionist wing of this party.”
Of course, the chickens are simply coming home to roost. Having cynically exploited the crazed right wing of its party for political gain, the GOP is now having to fulfill promises it never intended on keeping.
Thank God -- among all the presidential candidates, I considered Walker the most dangerous because of his unabashed commitment to strip away basic worker rights and undermine the unions who fought for those rights.
Illustration by Barry Blitt from Vanity Fair article
Michael Kinsley in Vanity Fair recently addressed an issue I have often wondered about myself — why does the GOP deify Ronald Reagan's presidency so much when the record shows he actually did little to advance or improve issues of importance to the right during his presidency.
See the article here. As noted in the piece, the Federal government actually expanded during his presidency:
Under President Reagan (1981–89), the size of the federal government
increased by any measure. Executive-branch civilian employment, which
covers almost everything except the uniformed military and the Postal
Service, was 2.109 million in 1981 and 2.129 million in 1989. Total
federal-government employment rose during this period from 4.9 million
to 5.3 million.
...Reagan inherited a federal budget of $599 billion in revenue, $678
billion in spending, and a deficit of $79 billion. He left office with a
federal budget of $909 billion in revenue, a little less than $1.1 trillion in spending, and a deficit of $155 billion.
...If
you’re looking for a good bureaucracy slasher, try Bill Clinton. In his
eight years, the size of the executive-branch workforce dropped more
than 10 percent, from 2.9 million to 2.6 million.
For myself personally, I always noticed that this hero of the Christian right didn't seem to put much emphasis on the issue of abortion. Indeed, as Governor of California, he expanded abortion procedures, and while he courted pro-lifers by paying lip service in support of a Constitutional amendment that would have restricted abortions, he certainly didn't put much energy behind it (see here for source).
I recognize that Reagan's sunny optimism and positive outlook restored the confidence of many Americans and made him a hero to those who believed in American exceptionalism. But talk about a Telfon president! To many on the right, Reagan remains one of the last truly "pure" heroes, which makes it all rather pathetic when one sees much of it is nothing more than self-delusion and wishful thinking.
