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There are a lot of bad tweets making the rounds on this, the day of Donald Trump’s more-or-less-official defeat. But the most infuriating one I’ve run across so far comes from political scientist Ian Bremmer:
Can’t we all just get along, he asks. No, we can’t.
It’s not just that Trump supporters have steadfastly refused to treat their opponents — us — with empathy or respect; indeed, many of them spent the past four years gloating about Trump’s victory in 2016 with a sadistic glee. I can’t count the number of times a MAGA-head has responded to my criticisms of Trump with some variant of “cry more.”
But the problem goes well beyond the fact that the typical Trump supporter can be a bit of a jerk sometimes. The problem is that they’ve devoted themselves to supporting a incompetent, inhumane, and deeply racist tinpot autocrat with a distinctly fascist sheen. They supported him when he tried to ban all Muslim’s from traveling to this country; they supported him when ICE began kidnapping babies en masse; they supported his attempts to destroy the affordable care act and rip insurance coverage from millions of the most vulnerable. They made excuses when Trump expressed sympathy for alt-right Nazis. They’ve defended his assault on democracy itself.
Make no mistake, had Trump won the election it would probably have been the last even somewhat democratic election in the United States for years if not decades to come.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that his fans cheered his absolute non-response to COVID, which has led to countless unnecessary deaths, perhaps as many as several hundred thousand before the pandemic runs its course. He’s encouraged his supporters to not wear masks, making it impossible to control the pandemic and putting each and every one of us at heightened risk of catching and possibly dying of the disease.
And did I mention that a significant portion of Trump’s supporters have their heads full of QAnon and other nonsense conspiracy theories and literally want to see everyone from Hillary Clinton to Chrissy Teigen executed for their imaginary crimes against humanity?
I could go on, and on, and on. But let me just move directly to my final point: We can’t offer our sympathies to Trump voters yet because, to put it bluntly, they’re still out there, and still our enemies. They will be doing everything they can to tear down the Biden administration; some will almost certainly do so with violence — and become MAGA heroes like the multiple murderer Kyle Rittenhouse. This is the reality we face right now. There’s nothing warm and fuzzy about it.
Trump supporters don’t deserve our sympathy, and they’re not going to get it, at least not from me .
Bremmer wasn’t the only one posting nonsense today:
Really? Really? One of my very first political memories is of Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon. I was just a kid, but even then I knew there was something deeply wrong about Ford pardoning the guy who had just elevated him to president. And now some people want Biden to pardon the worst grifter to ever inhabit the White House? Please. If Trump wants a pardon, make him do it himself by working out some deal with Mike Pence. If Trump gets pardoned by Pence, it will leave a stain on the office of the presidency. But at least it won’t leave a stain on Biden as well.
What makes the talk of sympathy especially dangerous is that Biden has been talking the same way. We elected him to end Trump and Trumpism, and already he’s talking as if the deep political animosities we face today can be handwaved away. There are good reasons why we see these opponents as enemies. Winning the election feels good, but let’s not let that deceive us as to the nature of our foes or the enormity of the struggle ahead.
@Ohlmann
The screenshot is doctored or the article has been taken down. I searched CNN’s website and Twitter and there is nothing of the sort. I also couldn’t find anything suggesting this in an internet search. I’d imagine this is a fake screenshot (they’re easy to do) by conservatives to make Joe Biden and Democrats look bad and to play the victim.
ETA: Just checked the beginning of the link and am now 99% sure this is a fake. It’s probably conservatives trying to pretend to be victims, seeing as after the 2016 election a lot of conservative trolls devoted much time to telling Clinton supporters to kill themselves.
@Ohlmann
It’s fake.
CNN Breaking NEVER uses full URLs. Always shorteners.
(They also really wouldn’t direct to google for one of their own stories, but … that bit’s obvious 😛 )
Thanks for the confirmation. I could easily have believed that there is a bunch of suicide attempt, so I guess it’s a good thing the byline felt off …
Even if it were real, I couldn’t feel too bad for them, considering their habit of telling us trans people that they hope we kill ourselves.
@Mabret : I would not feel bad for them, but I would feel bad for their families. And I don’t feel like cheering on their deaths. Re-read the story of the grandmother of Dormousing for why.
On other news, there’s litteral calls for a coup : https://www.thedailybeast.com/newt-gingrich-calls-on-attorney-general-bill-barr-to-arrest-poll-workers?ref=home
The site’s been well behaved for the past couple of months but it seems something is eating some of my comments again. And the new photo upload feature doesn’t seem to be working properly for me, either.
We have some clever maths people here; so could I pray a favour. Can anyone interpret this to see if we can get a figure for how much more likely a Republican voter is to get COVID vs a Democrat?
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00977-7
I’d then like to apply that to Corona deaths in the areas where the vote was close and compare that to Biden’s winning margin.
I’m curious as to whether Trump’s reckless handling of the pandemic contributed to his downfall in literal terms. I’ll probably have to adjust for inevitable deaths; but I’ve seen estimates as to how many deaths could have been prevented had a more coherent strategy been adopted; so I can apply that.
Gonna be a long one…
I think individuals can act towards Trump supporters any way they want. That’s their right. Putting that aside…
Yesterday I went to Brietbart and looked at the comment section on the article about Biden being called the winner. Most of the comments are people being salty and claiming it doesn’t mean anything, which they’re right. Until the electoral college meets to certify the results and do their bit he’s not legally President-elect. Of course, if it were Trump in the same position (shudder) they would have no issue calling him the winner. There are also a lot of people convinced that the Democrats cheated and stole the election and throwing around debunked conspiracies like “Sharpiegate” and “we weren’t allowed to observe.” There are also some who believe faithless electors in the EC are going to hand it to Trump or the Supreme Court is going to ride to his rescue because of whatever legal mumbo jumbo he’s supposedly going to pull out of his ass next week. A few are threatening violence, because of course they are. These people are never going to accept that Trump lost, they don’t want compromise or middle ground and even if they don’t go full on terrorist they’re going to be putting pressure on the Republicans in Congress.
Mitch and his buddies are going to try their hardest to stymie everything, choke the recovery and make Biden look as bad as possible so they can win in 2022.
If the Republicans retain control of the Senate, that means we’re going to have to get the cooperation of at least a few of them to pass anything there. That means we much as we don’t like the few of them that aren’t total spineless Trump bootlickers, it’s probably better not to go full scorched earth there unless…
Everything hinges on winning those two open Georgia seats and defeating the Republican incumbents. If the Democrats can win them they effectively have control of the Senate and all bets are off. The right wing propaganda machine is going to go full out there.
Clever4agirl said
This.
I, too was a kid when Ford pardoned Nixon (not likely for Pence to do for his master since the Carrion King will never resign*). Between that and Obama’s “Look forward, not backward” treatment of Bush’s torture scandal, I think the let-bygones-be-bygones thing can be deemed a dismal failure and that we need to have some good old fashioned consequences that might serve as a deterrent to anyone looking to repeat bad behavior at the national level.
*or maybe even leave! But, if he’s serious about having to be dragged kicking and screaming from the White House, great! Go right on ahead and make it extra entertaining and schadenfreude-y! Watch parties will abound.
@Ohlmann
Which would be why I specified racist propaganda. People who aren’t already really fucking racist don’t fall for Fox News-type bullshit. It’s just that straightforward.
I’ll bite. Why?
I’m happy for USian Mammotheers that the tango tyrant has been defeated, but as I understand it, Biden is still the equivalent of a Tory by UK standards. So I am still very concerned for the safety of everyone, as I am here in the UK under Tory (SCUM) rule. My base state is treat everyone with empathy and respect. You really have to push me for that to change. I can’t cause harm because I can feel the harm. The sort of people who are in power are the sort who enjoy it and don’t really care how much they harm others so long as it doesn’t harm their bank accounts. Those who voted for Fart need to reap the social consequences of the harm they sowed by voting for Fart in the first place. They have no empathy for the vulnerable and socially marginalised, they shouldn’t expect empathy in return. Bollocks to them, they can swim in their tears.
There is a good legal argument to be made that 45 can pardon himself. Fortunately, that can’t include state crimes.
https://openargs.com/oa90-pardon-yes-donald-trump-can-pardon/
@Hambeast
If he barricades himself in the Oval Office for the next couple months, they should put cameras in there and put the whole thing on live TV. For the season finale, drag him out before the inauguration. Maybe then he’ll finally get an Emmy.
To feel empathy for someone requires that they have it first.
I don’t want to put myself in their shoes. Their viewpoints make my physically sick.
Oh, and my hardcore Trumpist FIL apparently called me a ‘wacko’ on FB, but that’s just about par for the course. To say Mr. Dakry is not amused by this is understating wildly.
Seeing all the media attention on Biden and what he’s going to do during his term and what his plans are and world leaders and some of the Republican old guard (not that they’re good people) congratulating him and so on and so on it must be like a knife twisting in Trump’s gut. That’s probably why he’s been in hiding for days. He just can’t stand it that he’s not in the spotlight and the center of attention anymore. And when his lawsuits fail everyone but his supporters are just going to laugh at him and the wheels of government are just going to keep on turning toward Inauguration Day.
He and his synchophants deserve every second of pain and humiliation coming his way and I’m going to enjoy every nanosecond.
@Kobun37
To someone with an ego like Trump, this must be a fate worse than death.
That said, I am still highly cynical towards the Republicans just turning against him now. As entertaining as watching his party turn on him is, they’re not doing it because they’ve changed. They’re doing it because they don’t want him to drag them down with him.
Very much this.
@Dalillama : that’s complete, utter bullshit. Anyone can fall to racist propaganda. People aren’t binarily racist, and some became it, or go along a racist fantasy more for the other effect than just to be racist. The fact you believe being not racist protect you is a real problem BTW, one you will not admit under any circumstance of course.
If harm come to the grandmother of Dormousing_it, Dormousing *will* be affected, because even if that shit affect their relations they are still family. I have no reason to do something that, essentially, will only affect decent people among the one I know.
This seems apropos:
https://twitter.com/TheRaDR/status/1325233411204767744
@Ohlmann
Most people are racist because that’s what society literally infuses into you, making a distinction between the in-group and the “others”. Even POC can be coded into hating darker skinned groups.
However, there is a glaring difference between the subtle racism and the over-the-top, blatant-as-fuck racism displayed in Fox News, and there is absolutely no way of hiding the incredible displays of racism from MAGA culture.
Anyone who fell for it is a racist POS and cannot excuse themselves under any circumstance. I personally cut off any friend or family member who supported that Nazi. They deserve no sympathy, and have no excuse. You have a habit of trying to exonerate these people whilst blaming and tone policing victims, which has become recurrent in every thread.
I get there are nuances, but there’s nuance and there’s playing devil’s advocate every time the topic of racism comes up. You have some serious self-reflection to do.
@Threp (formerly Shadowplay):
Also, “How to respond to what could quickly become a national health emergency will effect Biden’s first hundred days” is a really awkwardly-constructed sentence, and they mixed up “effect” and “affect.” This might not be a clincher – I’ve seen many genuine headlines that were badly-written — but it’s another point towards this being a fake.
Naglfar, Dump doesn’t have to go anywhere until the day after Inauguration Day. But a limited edition type reality show would be great until then.
I’m also not fooled by the Republican rats fleeing the flaming dumpster on the sinking ship. My tenant keeps texting me Repub tweets and saying “look what this Republican said!” as if it means something. I stopped responding. Tenant thinks I’m much too cynical and I think they’re a sweet summer child.
@Hambeast
That’s sort of what I was envisioning. We could watch him fall apart in real time.
I’m getting a lot of that from older relatives who aren’t Republicans but are more establishment Democrat types. These are the kinds of people who think that The Lincoln Project was a good thing after it failed to make Republicans not vote for Trump (a greater percentage voted for him this year compared to 2016) and took $67,000,000 to set up another conservative media outlet.
Trust people when they show you who they really are.
It’s up to us to never forget who the Trumpstains have shown themselves to be.
@Ohlmann
Your unexamined racism isn’t my problem, son. Neither is your gullibility, or your ignorance, nor yet the feelings of fascist sympathizers (which category includes everyone who continues to voluntarily associate with such filth, regardless of their previous relationship).
Those of us who aren’t crypto-fascists can perfectly well see fascist propaganda for what it is, and the people who choose to buy into it for what they are.