But what do these chattering classes and establishment bulletin boards think the Donald is going to do if he falls short of 270 electoral votes?Speaking as an adopted son of Baltimore, I like this metaphor.
Lead a Coxey’s Army on Washington and burn it down as British Gen. Robert Ross did in August 1814, while “Little Jemmy” Madison fled on horseback out the Brookville Road?
What explains the hysteria of the establishment?
In a word, fear.
The establishment is horrified at the Donald’s defiance because, deep within its soul, it fears that the people for whom Trump speaks no longer accept its political legitimacy or moral authority.
After burning the White House, General Ross -- then considered Britain's most impressive military leader, greater than Wellington -- moved on to the battle of Baltimore. At the battle of North Point, not far from where I live, Ross was shot down by a couple of young local yokels named Daniel Wells and Henry McComas.
Nothing went right for the Brits after that. The Royal Navy was defeated by the cannons of Fort McHenry (a feat celebrated in a certain song you may know). And what was left of the British army was routed at the Battle of Hampstead Hill -- now Patterson Park, where I like to walk my dog.
Moral of the story: Do not fuck with the people of Baltimore. They don't brag about their prowess, as southerners continually do, but they stopped the British Empire cold. Later in history, they built the ships that won WWII for what Buchanan probably considers the wrong side.
My larger point is this: Without intending to do so, Buchanan has offered up a metaphor which correctly identifies the nature of our true enemy. We are under attack from an outside force. We face not just revolution but subversion.
Vladimir Putin -- funder of far-right nationalist movements throughout the world -- wants the 21st Century to be the Russian century. In order to accomplish that goal, he wants to see his enemies hopelessly disunited.
I didn't see this truth until Trump happened. For that, he deserves our thanks.
Buchanan warns that "the populist-nationalist right that is moving beyond the niceties of liberal democracy." Buchanan's honesty is admirable. There it is, in black and white: An admission from a Trump supporter that the Trump movement is an attack on democracy itself.
Just to prove the point, we learn today that much of the internet came under a (temporarily) crippling DNS attack. See here, here and here. Obviously, this is the work of a state actor. Obviously, that actor is Russia.
And yet the Republican party is led by a man who refuses to acknowledge what Russia has done and is doing, even though he knows the assessment of our intelligence community. Trump has business interests with Russia. There are those who say that the Trump dynasty's financial future is with Russia: The Donald has burned too many investors in the west, banks no longer want to do business with him, and his brand name is increasingly toxic. (Would you want your company to hold a conference in a Trump hotel? Would you buy one of his made-in-China ties?)
Just this morning, Russia -- almost certainly Russia -- attacked your internet on your home soil, probably just to prove that it could be done. And yet Donald Trump, leader of the GOPOT (Grand Old Party Of Treason), makes excuses for Putin and pretends that something else is going on.
You say you want a revolution? Bring it on, Donald. Bring it on, Pat. Bring it on, Vladimir. The sons and daughters of Maryland -- a proud, true-blue state -- have always been able to stop your kind before. We'll do it again.
16 comments:
So glad for today's post. As I was driving home last night, I was remembering the Weatherman and SDS'ers from high school & college days. Especially the Weatherman and their Russkie pals at protests. Their goal was anarchy. As I remembered, I was able to take a step back and view all the ways Trump has crisscrossed the political landscape and the resulting discordant notes felt throughout the land. More than ever, I'm seeing him as a puppet of chaos. I became disenchanted with the far left in the late sixties/early seventies. We marchers were their means to an end, and it wasn't a better government.
Donald Trump compares himself to Jesus and shows the most disgusting manners, delivering an after-dinner speech in which he attacks another guest at length.
Citizen K, the weathermen were indeed assholes, but I never saw evidence of Russian involvement. If I recall correctly, some members of the new left of that time had all sorts of rosy ideas about Maoism.
"They don't brag about their prowess, as southerners continually do"
I think you need to familiarize yourself with the location of the Mason-Dixon line.
"The weathermen were indeed assholes"
And I'm pretty sure at least a few of them (like little Billy Ayers) were really FBI agents prococateurs tasked with discrediting the antiwar movement.
Chants of "Mao-Mao-Mao Tse-tung" AND "I'd rather be red than dead" mingled and abounded back in the day. Often the Russian connection was by way of Cuba. Once the cyber attack is thwarted (I think that's why it's a dead link), take a look at this: http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/weather.htm
I think you may have missed the real point of what Buchannan's saying, and he's right (may god forgive me for agreeing with him on this).
The establishment claims that they're worried for American democracy's sake. To some extent maybe they should be. But that's not what they're really afraid of. The establshment are scared shitless for their own sakes. Trump now controls that precious "base" they've used and abused for so many years to keep their cushy jobs and power and grift, and they can't control Trump.
The jig is up.
The same thing has also happened on the Democratic side, though not as spectacularly and colorfully. The progressive "base" can't stand Hillary because she's so much a part of the establishment that has used and abused them and lied to them for years in order to keep their jobs and power and grift. That's why an avowed socialist named Bernie was so amazingly sucessful. Who could have predicted?
It's the same revolution. The main difference is that the liberals are reality-based and actually care about the policy details, but the conservatives just don't give a shit any more - they just want the bastards thrown out on their asses.
Another thing: I'm still not believing this Russian involvement. I read that the emails were obtained through social engineering - a fake Google page warning the user of problems with their account. I got one myself the other day, and the Russians don't know me from Adam. Anyway, it doesn't take the recources of a "state actor" to pull this hack off. I suspect the DNI Clapper is just blowing smoke.
Prop, I know where the line is. But I also know that Maryland remained loyal.
Mind you, Lincoln felt that he had to station troops on Federal Hill just to keep an eye on Baltimore...
Most of my SDS friends were pretty devout Trotskyites and therefore had very little love for the Kremlin.
I don't know if it's gonna be Trump who leads the charge. He destroys everything he touches.
Maybe he'll unleash his chaos on Russia.
I've heard of anarcho-Maoism (Rudi Dutschke) and Mao Dada (Italy, Brazil), but Trotsky-Maoism would be a new one.
It doesn't surprise me that no one attributes Trump's unwillingness to say he'll support the electoral outcome to his political ignorance and to his own pathetic sense of his business skills and talent. That is to say, he didn't comprehend the political nature of the question but instead he imagined it to be a negotiable issue, like it's a business deal, so he wouldn't show his hole cards. He imagines himself to be a character, a Great Dealmaker, and he wouldn't break character. You know, like Vito dressing down Sonny: Never tell anyone outside the family what you think.
Unlike 2007-2008, this time it was certain that Clinton would be the candidate. It appears that the Republican VIP's didn't want to waste an electable candidate in a campaign they could lose, while also assuming that Clinton would be a one-term president. Their treasure chest will finance the 2018 and 2020 campaigns beginning the morning after this election. It won't surprise me if Clinton suggests in her inaugural address that she won't seek another term. It would be most helpful if a few Republican senators quit the party, like Jim Jeffords and Arlen Spector had done.
Nostalgia for the halcyon days of my misspent youth aside, I think you're missing the point. I think Trump is going to lose because, no matter how dissatisfied one might be with the status quo pretty much nobody really wants to hand over the country to a petulant five year-old (which is what Trump is, deep underneath it all). His schtick has gotten really old, and his chronic inability to either control his temper or keep his story straight has done him in. He's a spoiled rich bully-boy who has gotten his way all his life and collapses like a house of cards when somebody calls his bluff.
But what does it mean in the long run when a large minority (maybe a majority if you count the ones who just don't vote) of the electorate has so little invested in the system that they don't really care if it goes down in flames? Large parts of this country are starting to look like post-Yeltsin Russia: falling life expectancies, unemployment, rising suicide and drug addiction, and despair blanket most of it (aside from parts of the coastal corridors. How legitimate is a "democracy" that produces conditions like this, and how long can we expect it to last?
Look around you at Baltimore for God's sake. Parts of that town look like Aleppo, only with a raging drug problem. And both political parties are too busy catering to billionaires to be bothered with it. Maybe Clinton will do something to help - but it's hard to tell because she won't talk policy to anyone who hasn't shelled out $50k/plate or forked over six figures worth of speaking fees.
We know where stories like this end if we're not careful, and it's not with a buffoon like Donald Trump.
Well, b I didn't know any Maoists. Most of the SDS people I knew were affiliated with the YSA, the youth arm of the Socialist Workers Party, which was pure Trotskyite. Your experience may have been different.
Can anyone here point me to one, solid, on the record source that has said anything less obscure than 'possible', probably', 'consistent with', or other weasel worded statement claiming actual proof that Russian government is the hacker? Because I haven't seen one. But it is the official policy of the US and every main stream media source in it to bash Russia and Putin. DC should look across town at the black out windowed No Such Agency, or to Tel Aviv. Much more likely IMHO.
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