Fighting Trump and the GOP policies will not be easy

3 Columns today highlight the difficulty in opposing King Donald and the necessity of doing so.

The 1st column, written by a former conservative radio talk show host, highlights the success and danger of the successful delegitimization of main stream media by conservative media.  Many Trump supporters believe the truth and facts are fabrications and only alternative facts and King Donald's beliefs are the truth.  The writer regrets participating in this, but it stills highlights the need for a focused Democratic effort on the policy front to convince Trump supporters who still read main stream media that they have a coherent economic message.

Why Trump Supporter's Don't Care That He Lies

The danger of this is the fact that some of these Trump supporters think 9/11 and Sandy Hook were executed by agents of the U.S. Government because that is what Alternative Media like the Drudge Report and Breitbart News are telling them.  Unless those sites change their ways, which they will not because they make their money off the clicks on their website and giving the reader what they want to read is the way to keep them coming back.  They are the media equivalent of the Tobacco and Alcohol Industries.  Not to mention that most of them think President Obama is a muslim born in Kenya and who rode that falsehood to the pinnacle of power.

The 2nd column is written by Ross Douthat and simply highlights the fact that the country is split 50/50 and the rhetoric that the Democrat's both need to use to combat Trump and and keep their base motivated turns off the other 50% and makes it difficult to get them to listen to what else the Democrats have to say.  Crafting something that will make sense to potential swing voters in the Rust Belt and N.H./N.C./Florida is essential but how you communicate that is a challenge that must be meet for the Democrats to have success in 2018/2020.

Douthat "The Counternarrative ...Excludes too much of America"


Meanwhile, there is the issue of the courts and they are the last obstacle to holding King Donald somewhat in check.  And the key issue that Democrats must focus on is not Roe v Wade, other Social issues, or gun control, it is basic civil liberties and the separation of powers.  The courts are last barrier between President Trump and King Donald.  And how Supreme Courts nominee Judge Gorsuch answers questions about those issues should determine how Democrats vote on his nomination.

Link to Linda Greenhouse column

The Problem With Conspiracists

When Turkey's President Erdogan started rounding up thousands of people the day after the attempted coup, my immediate mental reaction was did he organize the coup so he could go after people he doesn't like for political reasons?  How could he know who to arrest if he didn't already have information and why would anyone try to organize a coup when failure means a death sentence?
Meanwhile, Erdogan is saying some Turkish political refugee named Gulen, who lives in the Pocono's, is behind the coup; but how can someone in the Pocono's organize thousands of people in Turkey to risk a death sentence by participating in a coup with an unknown probability of success?

Once you think there is a conspiracy, you can believe anything without there being any basis for that belief other than the conspiracy because whomever is behind the conspiracy is so powerful that they can cover up their tracks.  You cannot have a debate with a person who believes in conspiracies.  I know this personally because I have a sister-in-law who believes in them and I have been completely frustrated in those conversations where I have tried to tell her she is wrong.

This is what Trumpism is all about.  Somehow any number of things in the economy are the result of conspiracies and Trump is going to root out whomever is behind them and provide fixes that tear up trade treaties, disrupt relations with countries that are friendly to us, and make friends with other authoritarian types who do conduct conspiracies, witness the doping scandal in Russia not to mention the forceful taking of Crimea under false pretenses, with Trump praising Putin.  I have no idea what Trump will do with China, because he accuses them of manipulating a rising currency while admiring their political process.  And China does do bad things over the internet in the interest of furthering their economic growth, but Trump likes eminent domain (I am not against the societal use of it, but Trump projects are not in the interest of society), and uses bankruptcy as a personal strategy for enrichment, so Trump has a philosophy in common with the Chinese leadership.  Anything goes when it is for oneself.  There are no rules that apply to oneself is the belief of authoritarian types.

I don't like Trump for many reasons, but you would think, absent belief in conspiracies, that more than 50% of the voting population would find Trump unqualified to be President for just some of the reasons that I have.  Yet, Trump is now the GOP nominee and many Republicans are standing with him, at least until they get into the voting booth.  Except for the fact that I fear for the nation with Donald Trump is charge of the nuclear codes, I would find it interesting in November if Trump's vote totals even add up the total number members of the GOP.  How any independent can support Trump is beyond me, but apparently their dislike of Hillary overwhelms a rational measure of Trump.

Oh Vey!!!!