Life in the Trump Era, Part 2

[Ma'ake]

"that’s bad for Russia-enabled nationalist political factions throughout the West- including the GOP. The GOP had a good thing going with Russia, and Trump is on the brink of screwing it all up with his own clumsy relationship with a less-desireable and more criminal face of Russian influence."

Wait, so, the Democrats are the "good guys" and the Republicans are the "bad guys" who Russia supports because they Republicans are bad for America and if the Democrats won that would be really bad for Russia?

Do you honestly beleivie this?

I saw an interesting TV segment about some Senator from the Russian Senate who has taken on the cause of cultivating support in America, so he goes to NRA conventions and interacts with evangelicals, and it has paid some dividends. There are businessmen in Texas who believe we should have much closer relations with Russia, who think Putin would make a good evangelical (but is currently misguided, or whatever).

There are definitely authoritarian tendencies shared by Putin and some Americans. I don't think (hope) it's not widespread, but the views of the Texan entrepreneur interviewed were striking, along the lines of Trump responding to criticism about Putin by saying "our government has killed a lot of people, too!"

[LA Ute]

Food for thought:

The Atlantic’s Caitlin Flanagan made an intriguing argument that even the heavily anti-Trump tenor of late-night comedy shows actually helped Trump: “Though aimed at blue-state sophisticates, these shows are an unintended but powerful form of propaganda for conservatives. When Republicans see these harsh jokes—which echo down through the morning news shows and the chattering day’s worth of viral clips, along with those of Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers—they don’t just see a handful of comics mocking them. They see HBO, Comedy Central, TBS, ABC, CBS, and NBC. In other words, they see exactly what Donald Trump has taught them: that the entire media landscape loathes them, their values, their family, and their religion. It is hardly a reach for them to further imagine that the legitimate news shows on these channels are run by similarly partisan players—nor is it at all illogical. No wonder so many of Trump’s followers are inclined to believe only the things that he or his spokespeople tell them directly—everyone else on the tube thinks they’re a bunch of trailer-park, Oxy-snorting half-wits who divide their time between retweeting Alex Jones fantasies and ironing their Klan hoods.”

https://www.hoover.org/research/revolt-masses