Trump’s Midnight in America

Ivanka Trump portrayed her father as a can-do executive with a big heart, but then Donald Trump opened his mouth, spewing forth what sounded like a call for a police state, as Bill Moyers and Michael Winship marveled.

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

The GOP’s new big dog blew the whistle Thursday night for nearly an hour and a half and it was loud and shrill enough to reach the ears of every angry, resentful, disaffected white American. The tone was divisive, dark, dystopian and grim.

Here was the alpha dog of the von Trump family, baying at a blood-red moon that the hills are alive with the sounds of menace.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence during Day Three of the Republican National Convention. (Photo credit: Grant Miller/RNC)

Donald Trump and Mike Pence during Day Three of the Republican National Convention. (Photo credit: Grant Miller/RNC)

According to Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, this land is rapidly becoming as bleak and dangerous as one of those twisted, vicious kingdoms in Game of Thrones, a place filled with violent crime and despair, a smoldering ruin overrun with foreigners out to take our jobs and terrorists bent on destroying our villages.

It’s mourning in America. And only he can save us.

This has been his message all year: I alone can fix it. Remember his tweet on Easter morning? “Another radical Islamic attack, this time in Pakistan, targeting Christian women & children. At least 67 dead,400 injured. I alone can solve.”

He alone has the potion. He alone can call out the incantation. He alone can cast out the demons. It’s a little bit Mussolini. A little bit Berlusconi. A little bit George Wallace. And a lot of Napoleon in a trucker’s hat.

“I am not an ordinary man,” Bonaparte once said.” I am an extraordinary man and ordinary rules do not apply to me.”

So he will do it all alone, this Trump. Until he has the U.S. military to carpet-bomb on his orders, and the nuclear codes at the ready beside his bed at 3 a.m., and the 101st Airborne at the southern border, ready to act — as long as Mexico pays for it.

This was a convention pledged to serve and protect the little guy, but as Rachel Maddow pointed out on MSNBC, it was officially addressed by five — count ’em, five — billionaires, including Trump and one, Silicon Valley’s Peter Thiel, who has said that woman’s suffrage was a bad idea and wrote in 2009 that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Boy, was he in the right place.

Thiel was one of the Thursday night speakers leading up to the official coronation of King Donald as the Republican Party’s standard-bearer. Introduced by daughter Ivanka, who without a trace of irony lauded her dad’s “kindness and compassion” (except of course for all those women he has verbally abused and minorities he has slandered and even the fellow candidates he mocked).

No Lies, Only Falsehoods

Trump announced, “Here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth and nothing else… I will tell you the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper.”

But as Washington Post fact checkers Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee noted:

“The dark portrait of America that Donald J. Trump sketched … is a compendium of doomsday stats that fall apart upon close scrutiny. Numbers are taken out of context, data is manipulated, and sometimes the facts are wrong.

Delegates hold signs during Day Two of the Republican National Convention (Photo from convention.gop)

Delegates hold signs during Day Two of the Republican National Convention (Photo credit: RNC)

“When facts are inconveniently positive — such as rising incomes and an unemployment rate under 5 percent — Trump simply declines to mention them. He describes an exceedingly violent nation, flooded with murders, when in reality, the violent-crime rate has been cut in half since the crack cocaine epidemic hit its peak in 1991.”

He said 58 percent of young African-Americans are unemployed — and the dog whistle signals, you know what that means — but the number’s actually about half that. He insists we’re one of the highest taxed nations in the world — we’re nowhere near — and that we have “no way to screen” refugees, which is just not true.

The speech went on and on like that and the crowd inside the convention hall ate it up, their bitterness and frustration spurred on by Trump’s own sputtering, red-faced outrage.

The legacy of Hillary Clinton, he said, is “death, destruction and weakness.” She proposes “mass amnesty, mass immigration, and mass lawlessness.” As for Barack Obama, “The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone.”

By the way, of the 2,472 delegates at the convention, only 18 of them were black, the lowest percentage in over a century, according to History News Network and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. With Trump at the helm, Republicans will soon have purged their party of any memory of its own past. “Lincoln” simply will have been the name of a town car.

As columnist Eugene Robinson said about Thursday’s speech, “Frankly, this was a message, at least to my ears, to white America: Be afraid. I will protect you.” It’s not for nothing that as convention officials projected tweets from Trump supporters on the hall’s video screens during his speech, one of them turned out to be from a notorious white supremacist account.

Can anyone imagine Donald Trump breaking into Amazing Grace at the service for black worshippers in Charleston, South Carolina, gunned down in their church by a white supremacist? There certainly was not a grace note in his speech. And — sorry, Ivanka — not a single note of “kindness and compassion.” No touch of humility.

Watching, we could only think of Augustus, during the First Century B.C., in a time roiled by corruption and the wealth of empire, who terminated the government and installed himself as emperor, careful to preserve all the forms of the republic while dispensing with their meaning.

Or, as the less august, but funnier folks at The Onion tweeted while the smoke from Trump’s cannonade lingered into the night, “Thanks for joining our live coverage of the RNC. This concludes democracy.”

Bill Moyers is the managing editor of Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com. Michael Winship is the Emmy Award-winning senior writer of Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com, and a former senior writing fellow at the policy and advocacy group Demos. Follow him on Twitter at @MichaelWinship.

 

45 comments for “Trump’s Midnight in America

  1. July 26, 2016 at 00:34

    No outsider will come as close to winning as Donald Trump has. This is your best chance to get an outsider in. He has used his own money to beat the bought and paid for establishment politicians hands down. He has a tough job ahead. I remember well my enthusiasm for Obama, especially after his speech in Cairo. But I underestimated just how radical he was and is – which did not become apparent until after the 2014 election, when he could run no more and do any more for the Dermocrats.

    Unlike Obama, Trump has a backbone and the support of grown up, solid, grounded kids. As Mike Pence said, you cannot fake such great kids….

    http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2016/07/24/eric-trumps-full-speech-at-the-2016-republican-national-convention/

    “To whom much is given, much will be required.

    “This is the very belief that made my father make this great sacrifice.
    “To run for the most powerful yet unforgiving office in the world.

    “There is no greater calling….

    “Vote for the candidate who can’t be bought, sold, purchased, coerced, intimidated or steered from the path that is right, and just and true….

    “To the veteran tuning into this speech from his or her hospital, whose been ignored and disrespected by an ungrateful system, my father is running for you….

    “Vote for the one candidate who does not need this job.”

    — Eric Trump, son of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, spoke Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

  2. July 25, 2016 at 23:21

    Hah! Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the status quo, wants a better title ?

    Mike Pence rallies crowd behind Trump, takes on Hillary Clinton:

    http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2016/07/25/mike-pence-rallies-crowd-behind-trump-takes-on-hillary-clinton/

    “Donald Trump Gets it. He is the genuine article.

    “He’s a doer in a game usually reserved for talkers.

    “And when Donald Trump does his talking, he doesn’t tip toe around the thousand new rules of “political correctness.”

    “He’s his own man. Distinctly American.

    “And where else would an independent spirit as his, find a following, than in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

    “The funny thing is, the party in power seems helpless to figure out our nominee. The Media has the same problem….

    “The man just doesn’t quit.

    “He’s tough, he perseveres, he’s gone as far as you can go in business, but he’s never turned his back on the working men and women who make this country grow.

    “And Donald Trump will never turn his back on those who serve and protect us at home and abroad. “

    “You know, Hillary Clinton wants a better title… and I would want one too, if I were Secretary of the status quo.

    “You know, this won’t be America’s first glimpse of the Clinton machine in action. As Bernie Sanders can tell you. And this time around, she’ll have the press doing half her work for her.

    “The good news is, it won’t be nearly enough… Not against a candidate who has captured the attention of the country as Donald Trump has. On issue by issue, he and I will take the case to the people.

    Hillary Clinton’s record on foreign affairs gets even worse…

    It was Hillary Clinton who left Americans in harms way in Benghazi and after four Americans fell, said: “What difference at this point does it make”

    As a proud father, of a United States Marine, let me say from my heart, anyone who said that, anyone who did that, should be disqualified from ever serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of United States of America.

    “HILLARY CLINTON WILL NEVER BECOME PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”

    – MIKE PENCE –

  3. Wm. Boyce
    July 24, 2016 at 00:35

    God, you people are really stupid. Read Jane Mayer’s piece in the New Yorker. WTF are you thinking?

    • Zachary Smith
      July 24, 2016 at 21:55

      You insult people here for not reading a story you know about.

      You didn’t provide a link to the story.

      Yet we’re somehow the stupid ones.

  4. John
    July 23, 2016 at 21:17

    This article was written for people with low IQs….For people who react emotionally without thinking !! The bottom line is which candidate will follow the savage doctrines of Brzezinski and Wolfowitz……Russia,China and Iran must be dismantled at any cost they say. Do you people honestly think these Countries will bend the knee to the neocons in Washington without a massive war…The citizens of the USA live in a media induced stupor. Trump says it may be time to wake up…..no, go back to sleep my American friends .

    • Rikhard Ravindra Tanskanen
      July 24, 2016 at 14:05

      Trump’s foreign policies are good, but his social policies are awful. THAT’s the reason Consortium News is criticizing him.

  5. Dianne Leonard
    July 23, 2016 at 17:26

    I don’t plan to vote for either Trump or Clinton. I think they’re both terrible. And I’m not a young kid. I’m 63. At least since 1980, the Dems have been playing the “Hate and fear Republicans” card. You’d think people would’ve noticed. This article is more of the same. I agree that Trump is a fascist. So were Bush 2 and Bush 1 and Reagan. And Nixon. Not to mention the corporate-state Dems we’ve had since then. And what’s the definition of fascism? Yep, got it in one–corporate-state collusion is the least of it. Clinton may be ok on domestic policy (notice I said “may”) but wait til she’s crossed. She wants to preserve the corporate state at all costs. We saw that during the primaries. Since I could first vote in 1971, I’ve voted for 3rd party candidates for president. I haven’t seen anyone in the 2 major parties I really think is worthy to be pres. Just to mention: Clintonites set up the disastrous primary in California, suppressing the vote all along. And that is going to come back to bite them in the ass come November. They won’t have an ethical leg to stand on when the Reps play vote-suppressing tricks. “You did it too in California” the Reps will say. And they did.

  6. July 23, 2016 at 13:15

    I took you for a skeptic. Yet you must live in very privileged circumstances to believe the official employment figures. The situation is indeed bleak in this country—that is … for 95% of the rest of us, rather than the 5% you represent. The situation is bleak worldwide, as neocons launch bombings, assassinations, invasions and regime changes in sovereign often-democratic countries, an immoral crime Trump intends to correct.

    What weakness fuels your visceral back-reaction to Donald Trump? You criticize him on emotional grounds with little reasonable analysis. I suspect inflamed and frightened commentators such as yourself are wildly envious, insofar as you did not succeed as well as he did, despite believing you possess a more refined style. Trump is human, and bound to make mistakes. But he seeks friendship with Russia and an end to unchecked US foreign intervention, civilized values I would expect you to embrace. We shall see, when he wins by a landslide.

    • J'hon Doe II
      July 23, 2016 at 14:25

      Although I am completely opposed to Hillary’s foreign policy — I am vibrantly encouraged by Kaine’s speech.
      It was the loud and clear voice of optimism — as opposed to the doom & gloom of a week of Mr. Trump’s defeatist pessimism.

    • Rikhard Ravindra Tanskanen
      July 24, 2016 at 14:03

      The idea that 95 percent of the population are unemployed is ridiculous.

  7. J'hon Doe II
    July 23, 2016 at 11:40

    Trump’s declared prognosis for America , given at his acceptance speech, is ominously foreboding. Declaring himself a law and order president portends a great diminishment of civility and actual democracy. His vision of doom and gloom speaks to a supermax warden type of presidency.This is not a recipe for making America Great. It’s a prescription for a regiment of fear and repression.

    Handing foreign and domestic policy to his VP is a harbinger of a despotic ruler– one who’ll sit on a throne commanding obeisance while disparaging or crushing any who contravene his sovereignty. He is the now and ready king for full-of-fear bigots that wish to stomp down hard upon all “outsiders” who fit a despised “profile.”

    The conservative political body is up to it’s neck in fear and loathing of the “other.” The age of republican paternalistic authority has regressed into the rebel yell of the confederacy. In their view Obama is the 20 ton elephant singing America. Never mind the 5679 days of obdurate policy obstruction highlighted by vocal hostility and insolence.

    There is no virtue in mockery and derision. The collective hatred, enmity and distrust of the Black president has obviously contributed sharply to the bleak trajectory of the nation. This decline began in ernest under Reagan, (“The Civil Rights Era Is Over!”) continued thru Clinton, then Bush. Obama was Hope for the millions who voted for him — hope melted like the northern glaciers under the withering heat of hatred cast upon him by bigoted Americans who call themselves conservatives.

    If Trump wins, the right will get the ruler they deserve and “God Bless America” will change from a standard closing remark to an actual plea for mercy.

    • J'hon Doe II
      July 23, 2016 at 11:53

      typo.

      … the 20 ton elephant sinking America.

  8. george mcglynn
    July 23, 2016 at 11:20

    Trump’s message is clear, be afraid.
    The use of fear is so old that it’s described exactly in Plato’s Republic, written in Ancient Greece around 380 B.C.
    Tyranny, says Socrates in The Republic, is actually “an outgrowth of democracy.” And would-be tyrants always in every instance claim to be shielding regular people from terrible danger: “This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears above ground he is a protector.

    • Joe Wallace
      July 24, 2016 at 21:08

      george mcglynn:

      Couldn’t agree more about tyrants’ use of fear to maintain power. Civil rights are never more at risk than when the powers that be threaten to keep us safe.

  9. Brad Owen
    July 23, 2016 at 06:33

    Pretty hard to sell lesser evilism THIS time. The establishment effed up THIS time, by giving us two completely unacceptable choices…good news for Greens and Libertarians (but they’ll never know how well they did; the establishment still controls the poll-taking, the MSM, and the voting machines)…there’s even a poll out that shows how popular a military coup would be (Turkey has no monopoly on this coup thing).

  10. exiled off mainstreet
    July 23, 2016 at 05:36

    Moyers, et al have been totally in the tank for the harpy. After all, it is this website which has done as much as any other to reveal the salient point of this election: that a vote for Hillary is a vote for a war criminal. It is also here more than any place else which reveals the threat of war with Russia if Hillary’s plan for a no-fly zone on behalf of el qaeda elements in Syria are implemented. Anyway, the release of the redacted pages of the 9/11 report reveal that any sympathy for jihadi elements in Libya, Syria or elsewhere constitute treason, especially since insiders such as the Clintons knew the reality of the 9/11 conspiracy inside and out and were complicit in hiding the facts just leaked from the public. Meanwhile, the new info released on emails from the Democratic National Committee over the last year reveal that the fix was in. Anybody still backing this fascist, corrupt war criminal after all of this is out is either a fool, a knave, or both, and the article is an absurd goebbels style slanging of Trump’s speech which, though it had faults, certainly reveals a less dangerous, less corrupt candidate than Clinton.

    • Brad Benson
      July 25, 2016 at 04:47

      Amen brother. Thanks for saving me from having to make that argument.

  11. Paul Grenier
    July 23, 2016 at 04:50

    This analysis is all well and good, but sort of misses the point: there is a large part of the public that truly is forgotten, that truly does have few or declining prospects. There are many entire cities and districts — in New England, in the Rust Belt, in many places outside the coastal hi-tech zones — that look like a post-apocalyptic wasteland; and the Democratic/Republican mainstream consensus of the past 30 years is what brought this wreckage about.

    The overall tenor of this analysis by Moyers and Winship (both of whom incidentally I usually respect) reminds me of the old East European joke:

    Person A: I feel awful. My head is splitting; I’m nauseous; my head is boiling; I don’t know what to do, I’m at my wits end!
    Person B: Oh, nonsense! I feel just fine!

    If you want to get the trust of the whole U.S. public, and not just those with fat 401K plans, you need to acknowledge the reality. For starters.

    • Brad Owen
      July 23, 2016 at 08:34

      I think the establishment has discovered that it doesn’t need the trust, nor even the consent, of the U.S. public, only its’ passivity in the face of crimes and predations committed against us. As stated in the Declaration of Independence, the public will put up with quite a lot of sh!t before it moves to remedy the situation…and then there’s that “Society of the Cincinnati” idea hanging there in the wings, just waiting for a “Gen. MacArthur” to act upon it.

  12. July 23, 2016 at 03:00

    I agree with this whole article. Trump is Wasp version of Mussolini or Berlusconi. Reality is that Hillary is Hitler in Drag. Why is the GOP elites going out of their way to discredit him. Why the fascist in Democrats clothing trying to discredit Trump. Cui Bono . He will rearrange the deck of cards with his own mobsters and CIA cronies. Either way the vast majority of people of the US will pay the price. One thing is 4 sure Hillary is no better if anything she is far worse. Hillary has form and history and thermal nuclear war is more likely to happen if Clinton becomes POTUS they will both follow the anglo-zionist agenda but Clinton presidency will be anglo-zionist agenda on steroids where a Trump POTUS will go thru some reconfiguration before it mounts its assault on IRAN, China and Russia. Clinton will definitely keep the pedal to the metal against the Russians. Yes Trump has threatened that he will can the JCPOA deal with IRAN . My take its all political theatre for the Adelson and co zionist bakers. Remember he’s a New Yorker hence in order for him to have survived as a developer he would have had to suk up to the Italo-american mobsters and the Khazarian mobsters

    • exiled off mainstreet
      July 23, 2016 at 05:41

      I agree. Mussolini wasn’t nearly as bad as Hitler and survival trumps political correctness every time.

    • July 25, 2016 at 23:44

      Black Trump Supporter Smacks Down CNN Reporter for Race Baiting

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxcAN0t6GrI&feature=youtu.be

      I love African Americans like the one in this video.

      He’s got it right. Black & White Trump 2016! Wake up Americans of all colors!

      Trump has said he will eliminate “Nation Building” and “Regime Change”, that is a good thing. We’ll see. If he uses surgical strikes to take out dictators, that is fine with me.

      I hope he improves things domestically and internationally for America.

      He is definitely not going to give Israel anything without getting something back in return for his own country, unlike his predecessors or Hillary who lives and thrives in the Ziocon pocket.

  13. Zachary Smith
    July 23, 2016 at 00:48

    This was a convention pledged to serve and protect the little guy, but as Rachel Maddow pointed out on MSNBC, it was officially addressed by five — count ’em, five — billionaires, including Trump and one, Silicon Valley’s Peter Thiel, who has said that woman’s suffrage was a bad idea and wrote in 2009 that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Boy, was he in the right place.

    This was an effective and damning condemnation, though Rachel Maddow is the one who made it.

    No Lies, Only Falsehoods

    My opinion now, but at this point the essay just fell apart. I’d call it “slander by proxy” from there on.

    Were the two authors too busy to compose their own remarks about the specifics of Trump’s speech? Or was it a case of being too lazy?

    I wonder if the authors will take the same approach with Hillary’s speech – make a few remarks of their own and then outsource the rest of their piece to rightwingut sources and sites?

    • July 25, 2016 at 23:31

      “Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place. They are throwing money at her because they have total control over every single thing she does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings. That is why Hillary Clinton’s message is that things will never change: never ever. My message is that things have to change – and they have to change right now.”

      “In fact, her [Clinton’s] single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it, especially when others have paid so dearly. When that same secretary of state rakes in millions and millions of dollars trading access and favours to special interests and foreign powers I know the time for action has come.”

      — Donald Trump —

  14. Annie
    July 22, 2016 at 20:23

    I agree. I’m so sick of these dramatic tirades on Trump. There is no legitimate evaluation of him, just an opportunity for many to go on pointless, worthless rants. I’m not a Trump supporter, but I listened to his speech and I just didn’t here what Moyer’s and his pal heard which sounds more like a tongue lashing then real journalism.

    • Bill Bodden
      July 22, 2016 at 23:14

      Annie: You surely weren’t paying attention when Trump encouraged supporters to (illegally) rough up non-supporters at his rallies, or when he said he would make waterboarding and other forms of torture more harsh. I was so much anti-Hillary for a time I contemplated voting for Trump as the lesser evil, but the more I listened to him the more convinced I became there is no lesser evil when we compare Clinton and The Donald.

      • Franklin Benjamin
        July 24, 2016 at 10:47

        Protesters were paid to disrupt the Trump Rallies by agent George Soros and others who funded the Democratic Party Alliance. Just google Soros and Protesters. It is the Clinton Campaign who is anti free speech. Not Trump.

        As a Democrat I am unhappy with the rule of the Corporatists who by the way have been acting as Fascists since before the Kennedy/King killings, Viet Nam, Iran Contra, 911, and the current Orwellian Surveillance State the EU and USA live in today. It is already here!

        Moyers has no excuse. He was there and knows better.

        • Rikhard Ravindra Tanskanen
          July 24, 2016 at 13:56

          The protesters were there to protest Trump’s racism, even is Soros was helping them. Your stupidity is incredible.

    • M B T
      July 23, 2016 at 17:39

      There are those who listen but do not hear.

  15. Realist
    July 22, 2016 at 19:38

    I tend to agree with Michael Moore, this stuff is music to the ears of the true-believing right wingers who reflexively make up at least 40 percent of the voting population. All Trump needed to do was scare enough of the roughly 20 percent of those “moderates” sitting on the fence and he can actually win the election. He is greatly helped by the extent to which Hillary is hated by the general public and how even the left wing of her own party cannot stand her, are afraid of her warmongering tendencies, and resent how the Sanders campaign was railroaded by the DNC under Hillary’s crony, Wassermann-Schultz. All the eight long years of Republican obstructionism of any Obama or Democratic attempt to get the economy back on track is about to pay off for them. Most of the public is angry and truly believes that the economy sucks, and that it sucks because of Democratic incompetency. The incompetency was in not more stridently bucking the GOP in an all out propaganda war. Democrats and Obama were loathe to take off the gloves and fight down in the dirt with the Republicans. Much of the public also believes that Obamacare is a boon-doggle that mandates they cough up big bucks to private insurers and still get little in return, largely because of the still outrageous deductibles, co-pays and subterfuges with refusal to pay “out of network” costs which the patient has absolutely no control over. (Try having an operation in which you don’t get stuck with thousands of dollars in unexpected costs because half the operating personnel were not “in network”–especially the anaesthetists who NEVER are and always demand several thousands in payment which your insurance policy will NOT honor.) That and the “Cadillac tax” on half-way decent policies definitely need to be fixed, but Obama had no interest in doing so whatsoever, further alienating the Democratic base. And, what Democrat is not completely frustrated by Obama’s and Hillary’s never-ending love for pursuing war? Hot, shooting wars that devastate entire countries in the Middle East and run up the national debt like there is no tomorrow. But also new Cold Wars against a hapless Russia caught flat-footed minding its own business, and now demonized by the entirety of the American propaganda machine run by the corporate media. These absurd adventures have also greatly diminished our constitutional freedoms and our national treasury to the point where this asinine country can no longer even afford the essentials of keeping up its infrastructure or educational institutions. Instead, police are given license to run roughshod over the population and teachers are blamed for all of societies ills. Do I sound a lot like Trump? You bet, and you know you believe all these things are true. It will come as no shock or surprise when his polls shoot up after that speech and, three months from now, he actually wins the elections, assuming it is not rigged at the ballot boxes by the elites who definitely prefer Hillary because she’s a member of the “Club” and Trump is not. Trump is a true graceless maverick, such as McCain tried to portray himself and Sarah Mooseshooter. The nomination was not supposed to be reserved for Trump, but for one of the other idiots in the campaign (most likely Jeb, Little Marco or Ted Cruz), all just as crass and ignorant, but with the imprimaturs of various and sundry oligarchs like the Kochs and Adelsons. That’s the only reason for the dissension in GOP ranks–resentment that a non-political interloper stole the prize, not because he is a “racist, a misogynist, or an elitist”–they ALL are! Well, most of the voters are not in the GOP inner party ranks and will vote for the impudent 70-year old upstart if he can make them angry enough to conduct the experiment of employing a president who was not first a politician, and to reject Hillary in large part because being a scheming politician has always been her most important identity. As Scott Adams (author of Dilbert) repeatedly says, fear (or anger) trumps (being accused of) racism, giving Donald an edge in a political election, NONE of which are ever decided on the basis of logic, arguments or empirical evidence. They are ALL decided strictly on the basis of gut emotions and who can most effectively manipulate them in the public arena. Not just Michael Moore, but Scott Adams says “advantage Trump,” and I am inclined to agree with them. “Midnight in America?” Might be the winning ticket by a guy who is definitely playing to win–going back years to his (incessant) baiting of Obama. People did not realise then that he was playing the long con, which may well work.

    • Bill Bodden
      July 22, 2016 at 23:21

      Much of the public also believes that Obamacare is a boon-doggle that mandates they cough up big bucks to private insurers and still get little in return,…

      That is because Obamacare was written by and for the insurance companies. The main scribes for Obamacare came from the insurance companies and returned to their old jobs when Obamacare was approved. On that day, insurance corporation stocks rose dramatically.

    • Joe Tedesky
      July 22, 2016 at 23:50

      Realist, it would be impossible to add much to what you all ready mentioned, but I would advise Mr Moyers and Mr Winship to be careful to how they criticize the Donald. Making fun of Trump’s buffoonery could be fatal. Fatal because comparing Trump’s performance with his made up statistics, and silly promises, is pretty narrow fun making since this is very much the type of politicking that all politicians do. What people in the beltway bubble don’t get, is there are Americans of all races, religions, creeds, and sexual orientations, who have had it with this gentry system of government that we now have. So much so, that another candidate with real honest statistics and level headed promises, just may get the lowest voter turnout ever. America at this moment is so stupefying confused with the lessor of the two evil platform they have to vote with, that any crazy thing that sounds like a good promise is going to win this darn election for one of these undeserving dimwits. Sorry, Hillary and Donald aren’t dimwits, no they are smarter than that. The only problem is they aren’t using their smarts for what is good for the citizens, as much as their decisions are driven by what is good for them.

      • D5-5
        July 23, 2016 at 13:17

        “had it with this gentry system we now have”

        This nails the essential boiling point that HRC has either deliberately or ignorantly tossed aside with her selection of VP. The core fuel of what’s boiling in both right and left is “had it with this gentry system we now have” as delineated in posts in this thread. Seems to me we need a coherent, detailed JUST WHO IS THE LESSER OF THE TWO EVILS discussion, if we can come up with analysis versus rant. Is it possible that King Donald in his ignorance, presumption, and incredible me-ism (there is no HOW there just narcissistic BS—to paraphrase Shakespeare’s Jack Cade “and my mouth will rule the US!”). Is Trump actually the lesser evil due to his shallowness and incompetence?

        • Joe Tedesky
          July 23, 2016 at 17:17

          I’m not sure if I understand your comment, but I’m voting for Jill Stein. I cannot bring myself to vote for either the Republican or Democrat candidates. If I were ranting then so be it, but I’m willing to analyze the situation we have with this years presidential election.

          It’s hard to say what kind of leader Donald Trump would be like, since he never held public office. Donald’s ideas on foreign policy sound level headed enough, but action speaks louder than words. Trump on the other hand, scares me with his rhetoric on immigration, and I’d worry his words could bring people into the streets to riot.

          Hillary is a warmonger through and through. This tired old world really doesn’t need what Hillary is sure to bring, and that’s an understatement. Hillary lacks the diplomatic skills I would like to see in an American president.

          • D5-5
            July 26, 2016 at 13:51

            I too support Jill Stein. My point is I continually hear we must vote for Hillary Clinton because she cannot be equated with the evil of Donald Trump. I want to see the case that Trump is indeed the worst instead of all the hysteria. I want to see the case. Worse than Hillary how? This does not mean I’m a Donald Trump supporter.

        • Brad Benson
          July 25, 2016 at 04:57

          This is an easier question than you make it out to be. One is a WAR CRIMINAL who promises more of the same. The other has killed no one and promises to talk to Vladimir Putin, who is getting increasingly anxious about the NATO threat to his borders. If Trump does nothing else but stop this New Cold War that has been ginned up by Hillary and her Neo-con Cohorts, then he will have a successful Presidency.

          • D5-5
            July 26, 2016 at 13:53

            I don’t buy all this surmise about Putin and Trump in some kind of deal. What’s the evidence for this? Additionally we have Trump saying he would declare war on ISIS. What does this mean? How could this lead the US into more war? That’s a point I think needed to look at in arguing he is the lesser evil. This does not mean I support Hillary Clinton. I do not. I want to see more analysis and less emotionalism and hysteria. I’m not saying you’re offering hysteria either. That’s what I’m seeing in the media generally.

      • July 25, 2016 at 23:29

        Adding to the drama at the Democratic convention, Bernie Sanders delegates are warning of the possibility of a revolt. At a press conference this morning, Norman Solomon of the Bernie Delegates Network, identified as a network that “includes 1,250 Sanders delegates” explained how unhappy delegates might protest at the convention.

        According to Solomon, “the exact configurations of the protests are unclear, but it’s evident that a substantial majority of the polled survey delegates support participating, say they want to participate in protests on the floor.” He added: “in part in connection with Hillary Clinton’s appearance, even more so than in the scheduled acceptance speech of Tim Kaine, although there’s a majority in that realm as well.” Solomon added that there is “strong” and “overwhelming support for a challenge to Tim Kaine’s nomination.”

        Karen Bernal, a representative of the California Sanders delegation, indicated that delegates may protest Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the convention as well. “I don’t consider booing and chanting and being noisy and rude to be harmful. It’s just a part of democracy,” she said. When asked if she expects delegates to boo Wasserman Schultz, Bernal replied: “I would be very surprised if you could have a conversation in normal tones.”

        Will all this talk jeopardize Democratic unity? “The Bernie Sanders delegates understand full well the necessity of defeating Donald Trump,” Solomon said, explaining that “one of the reasons we are so upset by the selection of Tim Kaine [as Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential pick] is that we believe, contrary to the assertions of the punditocracy … this is not a move that will solidify support from progressives. It’s not a move we believe will strengthen our hand in defeating Trump.”

  16. IAL
    July 22, 2016 at 19:10

    Bill and Michael – you really need to get out of DC or what ever utopia you are currently walled-up in and talk to actual people on the streets and those that are not brainswashed by group-think so you can learn what is actually going on in this country.

    Let me give you some info for the record:
    1. The US unemployment rate is not around 5% – it is much higher – so much higher that the business community no longer believes the “numbers” (that are always modifed lower during the correction the following month) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics – when the worker participation rate is at all time lows and when these seasonally “adjusted” numbers show strange trends for age groups e.g. – like most of the 200,000+ jobs from last month going to those 55 years and older?
    2. Stock market highs do not correspond to actual increases in economic growth (that is currently less than 2%) – e.g. stock prices rise even when company quarter revenue is decreasing – even when no stock buybacks occur – odd don’t you think? and when banks such as Deutche Bank have derivatives exposure at around $50 trillion – which is much much higher than the entire GDP of the entire EU.
    3. Islamic terrorists around the world are killing people due to poorly controlled borders and the policies of nation building perpetrated by this governemnt – in Libya, in Syria, in Iraq, etc. that have destabilized nations and caused millions of refugees to flee these war-torn hell holes – only to enter Europe and the US to commit terrorist acts and rape – over and over again.
    4. Multinational companies are killing US jobs through the use of H1-B and other visas to lower wages and are shipping jobs offshore – e.g. Disney, Carrier AC, etc. – while saying that they cannot find enough “skilled” labor in this country – all the while invading the rights of US citizens and using credit checks to discriminate against people because they now have bad “character” because they have no jobs and no money because they lost their jobs and their credit due to criminal fraud during and following the 2008 financial crisis and acquisition blitz in an economy that only appears to be “recovered” if you do not peel back the curtain on all of those fake numbers put out by the US government and the Federal Reserve – that is proping up this market with fake fiat money and low interest rates that are destroying pension funds and other investments.
    5. Many US citizens cannot find full-time employment due to Obamacare – when healthcare should not be tied to employment and when wages have been stagnant for the middle-class for decades – and when Obamacare is costing the average family of 4 around $25 K and destroying the upward mobility of American families.
    6. The highest suicide and drug use rate in decades becasue when your state will not give you food stamps or help when you have no job and when you can’t find a job becaus you have bad credit and “poor” character – you lose all hope and decide that leaving this hell hole of non-freedom or just getting high because you have no hope for the future seems like a good idea – when these actions of goverment are legally sanctioned murder!

    The truth of the matter is that people like you need to wake up to what is going on in this country. And here is the truth – this government and many state governments have sold their souls to criminal bankers and globalist that have destroyed freedom for Americans and DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THEIR FAMILIES!

    Its either one or two things: 1) these people are not intelligent enough to solve problems and thus have no business beings in top levels of our government or 2) they know exactly what they are doing and have sold their souls in Faustian deals, and are totally unaware that if things ever go really bad that there is no hope for their survival – because rules in a jungle are not the same as those in a stable society.

    There are many of us that know that things are not as they appear. Instead of fixing these problems, people in our government are pretending that they are not real – which is making people angrier and angrier as the days go by.

    The wise act when they see problems and attempt to solve problems – the dumb put their heads in the sand – and these establishment politicans and bureaucrats in government that are not listening and that are bought and paid for by large multinational corporations and foreign governemnts and global organizations are the problem. They have sold off the freedoms of Americans to the highest bidder and the American people destest them for their lies.

    IAL Ph.D., MBA

    • exiled off mainstreet
      July 23, 2016 at 05:37

      The Kaine pick confirms this accurate take on reality.

    • scarido
      July 23, 2016 at 19:45

      Ph.D , MBA and that makes your statements FACT ? , LOL

      • IAL
        July 24, 2016 at 17:35

        That makes my statements researched and based on fact.

        Perhaps you have not read as much as I have and I cannot educate you in an online forum – learning requires that you open your mind.

        IAL Ph.D., MBA

    • Rikhard Ravindra Tanskanen
      July 24, 2016 at 13:58

      Most refugees are not rapists – and the rapists were not terrorists. The unemployment conspiracy is just a conspiracy.

    • ThisOldMan
      July 25, 2016 at 07:26

      Much of what you say is of course true, but why on earth do you believe Trump when he says “trust me”? Be careful what you wish for or you just might get it.

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