The Maelstrom of Violence

[Bob Butler 54]

(07-03-2017, 11:51 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: I watched the speech at the Kennedy Center on CSPAN. I really really tried to keep an open mind. I really really tried to see what if anything this bozo has in common with Ronald Reagan. After all, many of my Rightist (or supposed Rightist) brethren keep comparing him to Reagan and comparing what he's trying to do to the Reagan Revolution. Try as I might, nothing clicked. This guy is way far away from being another Reagan. And his message is way off key from what Reagan used to give us. His Anglicized "Lugenpresse" repeated ad infinitum made me a bit nauseous. How can so many of my fellow Americans fail to realize this asshole is a wolf in sheep's clothing? How can they fail to realize in spite of all his rhetoric about "freeing" America from big bad Washington, he is actually leading us down the road to perdition?

Some Right talk hosts used to lament low information voters on the Left (and yes, there are many). But people in glass houses should not throw stones.

I do see Trump as riding the unraveling memes which are closely identified with Reagan.  (Borrow and spend, trickle down, spend on the military, cut domestic services, the government is the problem.)  If one is going to go for Republican office these days,  you almost have to ride these ideas.  However, I see these ideas as past their time.  In the aftermath of a long Democratic hold on power, New Deal through Great Society, there were positive things one could do with the unraveling memes.  Today, it's the unraveling memes that have lingered too long and stagnated Washington DC.

In terms of motivations and personality, I find the two men radically different.  I can respect Reagan as a grandfatherly feeling people person with his finger on the pulse of the nation and quite capable of reading a speech with feeling.  I never cared for his politics, but can respect his memory as a person.  Trump just turns me off.  I read Trump as a narcissist who strikes back when criticized, has some sort of hang up with women, and lacks the people skills to center a political coalition.

I find neither party has a lack of low information voters.

'Rightist' is just a label. Those who follow the unraveling memes have hijacked it. I have greater respect for some of the older meanings. How to revitalize the old meanings is problematic.