dagblog - Comments for "What Trump Showed Us About America"

Trump came at the same time

Orion — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 10:01:28 +0000

Trump came at the same time as the rise of "cancel culture." A toxic person who has maybe never listened to other people took off during a toxic climate when people were no longer listening to one another. It wasn't the first time we had a social environment like that - if you watch Forrest Gump or Almost Famous, there was apparently quite a bit of cutting people off and no longer speaking during the 1970s. Similarly, that was the era of Nixon.

If you know anyone at

Orion — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 09:48:05 +0000

In reply to Interesting thouguhts,

If you know anyone at Politico who would like to run an essay, I will write it.

There is a bit of George H.W. Bush going on, mixed with the sort of Democratic politics that existed before the 1960s. I just hope he stays in there longer than the first Bush did.

Afterthought, you might find

artappraiser — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 06:49:14 +0000

In reply to Most major countries have a

Afterthought, you might find this that I just watched at Artforum inspiring; the artist has long worked on project inspired by Malevich's avant-garde "Black Square" painting of 1915 which he called an "icon". She recently added an image of Biden (this was before he won.) Video is only 3:35 minutes, so not onerous:

Interesting thouguhts,

artappraiser — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 06:18:47 +0000

In reply to Most major countries have a

Interesting thoughts, Politico should have invited you to do an essay! I really like your last sentence. He is doing that, for sure, almost to a treacly point for many like me that are more cynical. But that kind of treacle, it still seems to sell quite well? I can't tell you how many social media posts I've seen that admire the videos of him with the stuttering boy or hugging the Down's syndrome kid...I know my mother would have liked it, hook line and sinker. The touchy feely thing that some #MeToo were on him about before the primaries, that's a feature for a lot of women, not a bug.

Edit to add: now I am reminded of Geo. Bush Sr.'s "kindler gentler" meme in his first campaign; it was almost like he was running against the Reagan administration in which he served.

Most major countries have a

Orion — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 06:01:30 +0000

In reply to What Trump Showed Us About America

Most major countries have a reactionary element, and America largely avoided that due to a conservative movement that kept the lid on such nonsense. (Think of William F. buckley shutting out the John Bitch Society.) Conservatism declined greatly after George W. bush's second term and our first black president triggered something in some people to which reaction was the only response. Nevertheless reactionary movements often venerate something sacred in their own culture that has to be defended - Putin with the Orthodox Church, Mussolini with the legacy of Rome, etc. Trump did no such thing and came with all the stylings of a used car salesman. There was something cheap and disposable about it. It was Joe Biden s campaign that went for the sacred.

This is really a great

artappraiser — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 04:41:02 +0000

In reply to What Trump Showed Us About America

This is really a great compilation of short essays by some of the best thinkers around. Here's the first 5 for an idea:

‘The cultural elite are inexcusably unaware of the challenges and perspectives of many others in this country.’

BY KATHERINE J. CRAMER

Katherine J. Cramer is professor of political science and chair of Letters & Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is author of The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.

‘Internalized constitutional norms matter more than any external checks.’

BY TIM WU

Tim Wu is a law professor at Columbia University and the author, recently, of The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age.

Unfortunately, lies can trump truth.

BY NICHOLAS CARR

Nicholas Carr is a writer covering technology, economics and culture. His book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

America can be both backward-looking and radically progressive at the same time.

BY LESLIE M. HARRIS

Leslie M. Harris is professor of history and African American studies at Northwestern University and the Beatrice Shepherd Blane fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Trump exposed how overrated the elites really are.

BY MARK BAUERLEIN

Mark Bauerlein is a contributing editor at First Things and professor emeritus of English at Emory University.