Month: August 2015

Joan Walsh on the innate sexism of conservatives.

So many in the media are shocked at the rise of Trump and the piggishness he represents. I can’t understand why. From the dawn of the Obama administration some of us have experienced the surge of racism and misogyny personally. Within days of Obama’s inauguration, I had former House Majority Leader Dick Armey tell me on “Hardball,” after I’d criticized Rush Limbaugh, “I’m so damn glad you can never be my wife, because I surely wouldn’t have to listen to that prattle from you every day.” A lot of folks on the left were outraged; on the right, they laughed and cheered Armey. One of those who laughed was Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, a debate moderator along with Kelly Thursday night. On conservative Mike Gallagher’s radio show, Wallace said he found feminist anger over Armey’s insult “pretty funny.”

Walsh cites other examples, such as personally being the recipient of misogynistic swipes from GOP and conservative stalwarts such as Gordon Liddy and John Kasich. My mother was a diehard Hillary supporter in 2008, while I was a diehard Obama supporter, and she said to me that Hillary's loss proved that sexism was more prevalent than racism in our society. I disagreed with him, at least to the point that it explained while more liberal Democratic voters chose Obama over Clinton. But we can now see that those who are racist against blacks, bigoted against gays, are also sexist against women. And most of those voters make up the GOP base. This reality has always been true, but the media refuse to acknowledge. And now they are being forced to by Donald Trump's unexplained resilience in the polls after his racism and sexism was exposed. Jeb Bush says that Donald Trump is a threat to the GOP Brand. That is not true. Exposing the truth about the GOP voter is a threat to the GOP Brand.

From the Cape Gazette: Lewes-Rehoboth locals and tri-state supporters are invited to take part in a fundraising event to benefit Hillary for America Saturday, Aug. 22 in Rehoboth Beach. Event…

Roger Ailes has called it quits, thereby clearing Trump's path to the nomination. I have to say, I'm shocked. I guess I'm one of those old timers who continues to expect common sense and rationality to eventually prevail. When it comes to the GOP nomination this year, that type of thinking is clearly useless.

Jonathan Chait has a perceptive summation the Trump threat to the GOP's 2016 prospects:

"...The significance of his performance lies in his deadly serious threat to run a third-party campaign, siphoning off the immigrant-haters and amorphously angry blue-collar whites the actual nominee will need for himself. The intense barrage of pointed questions displayed how seriously Roger Ailes takes Trump's threat to hijack the GOP for his own end. It failed to reckon with the other threat: that the Republican plan to drive Trump from their party might instead work all too well."

A new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll taken after the first GOP presidential debate finds Donald Trump still leading the field with 23%, followed by Ted Cruz at 13%, Ben Carson at 11%, Carly Fiorina at 8%, Marco Rubio at 8%, Jeb Bush at 7%, and Scott Walker at 7%. Chuck Todd explained on Meet the Press that it was a “scientific” online survey. I am not sure what that means, since online surveys are by their very nature not random, and thus the poll can't really be scientific, so take this poll for what it is worth. But for those of us who are poll starved and curious to see what affect the debate had on the polls, this is our first clue.

Matt Taibbi notes “there are plenty of Tea Party-type voters out there who hate the Republican Party establishment almost as much as they hate the Democrats. There are also plenty of right-wing voters who think George Will and Charles Krauthammer are smug media weasels only slightly less disgusting than the Rachel Maddows and Keith Olbermanns of the world. A know-it-all is a know-it-all.”

“Trump’s followers are a gang of pissed-off nativists who are tired of being laughed at, belittled, dismissed, and told who to vote for. So it seems incredible that the Republican establishment thinks it’s going to get rid of Trump by laughing at, belittling and dismissing him, and telling his voters who they should be picking.” “These hysterical critics are making one of the world’s most irredeemable bullies look persecuted and like a victim, a difficult feat. The desperation to get rid of him may just feed more and more into the right wing base’s crazy victim complex, and in turn get Trump even more support.”

And yet.... Washington Post: “Republican leaders who have watched Donald Trump’s summer surge with alarm now believe that his presidential candidacy has been contained and may begin to collapse because of his repeated attacks on a Fox News Channel star and his refusal to pledge his loyalty to the eventual GOP nominee.” Politico: “Fallout from a crude attack on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and the departure of a top political adviser roiled Donald Trump’s campaign Saturday, leading Republicans to question whether the laws of political gravity have finally caught up with the real estate mogul.” This is why I am not predicting anything. Last time we predicted Trump was over, when he attacked the honor of all POWs and John McCain, his numbers increased 10%, from 14% to 24%. Remember, nativists and racists are also sexists and misogynists.