Reading Between the Fake Tan Lines of Donald Drumpf
It’s March 2, 2016, the day after Super Tuesday. I woke up and went through my normal early-morning, bedside phone-checking routine: Facebook, Reddit, NYTNow, Instagram. Lather, rinse, repeat. The takeaway(s)?
DONALD TRUMP WINS EVERYTHING!
Hillary Clinton wins lots of stuff!
Sanders wins some stuff, but maybe not enough.
Rubio and Cruz something something.
[Kasich]
[[Carson…?]]
But as I look a little deeper, scroll a little further, I notice two other things:
1. This shit actually. happened. at a Drumpf rally in Kentucky.
2. The Paper of Record had this article profiling Drumpf supporters.
As for Number 1 above: that is the front page news story. And any (national) news outlet who believes otherwise is fooling themselves. It’s straight up racism in action; it’s bigotry, and hatred, and intolerance in action; and at the very. least. it’s assault in action. All taking place at a rally for the leader of the race for the Republican nomination for the Presidential candidacy. How does it get realer than this? And apparently the best we have to say about it is — as a body politic — “He’s winning though!” This is deplorable and abhorrent. Full stop. And he and his campaign should be vilified and condemned accordingly for not actively and unequivocally speaking out and opposing this behavior.
While we wait for that video to go viral and the subsequent outrage to take place, however, I wanted to take the NYT article in Number 2 above line by line…and read between them. I want so badly to believe the NYT is trolling everyone and doing their best impression of The Onion, but no: this is very, very real.
So in case you can’t get it yourselves, I present to you, without further ado:
Donald Trump’s Backers Express Deep and Diverse Support (or listed on NYTNow as Who’s Voting for Trump?)
By Ashley Parker and Maggie Haberman
Translated by: Reed Wilson
Donald J. Trump won the vote of a 59-year-old cabdriver in the Boston suburbs who said he lost his trucking business after immigrants began delivering cargo for less.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, one of the country’s wealthiest, he won the backing of a newly separated mother and a longtime Democrat who spoke of the possibility of another terrorist attack, saying, “I don’t think we feel safe right now.”
And Mark Harris, a 48-year-old owner of an antiques shop in Canton, Ga., said he did not much care for Mr. Trump’s ego and worried that his impolitic speech could derail American diplomacy.
But Mr. Harris voted for Mr. Trump, too.
Hmmm…OK, you’ve hooked me NYT. Do go on…
“He’s not afraid to get in the trenches and fight for you,” Mr. Harris said. “He’s going to be a bully, and he’s going to tell them what he thinks, and he’s going to push to get it done. He don’t care who he makes mad in the process.”
You’ve gotta love the NYT’s commitment to accuracy here, even quoting the colloquial nature of Mr. Harris’s “he don’t care” statement without a [sic]. Beyond that, this is a summation of how I’d imagine Trump supporters feel: “He’s gonna be mean and scary. And we like it. (As long as he’s mean and scary FOR us, not TO us).”
Mr. Trump’s string of victories Tuesday, the biggest day of primary voting, was not unexpected. But interviews with Trump voters from the middle-class suburbs of Minneapolis to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains revealed a surprising depth and diversity of support that could sustain him as a front-runner in the critical weeks to come.
Yes, quite diverse indeed. There are so many different “kinds” of bigotry, hatred, and prejudice out there; a plethora of topics to be misinformed about; a veritable smorgasbord of things to be afraid of. It’s really a melting pot of an electoral base, AMIRITE?!
They delivered him victories in conservative Southern strongholds like Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, as well as Northern states like Massachusetts, where centrist Republicans hold sway. And though he lost to Senator Ted Cruz in Mr. Cruz’s home state, Texas, Mr. Trump prevailed in Virginia, fending off Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
Poor Rubio. [And really Kasich. And super really Carson.]
Early exit polls confirmed his broad support; in Virginia, for example, he was winning not only among lower-income voters, his usual base, but also in other categories including veterans and self-described conservatives and white evangelicals. In Texas, those calling themselves political moderates, the kinds of voters some rivals are counting on, were favoring Mr. Trump as well.
“Donald Trump: His Usual Base is Poor People.” “Donald Trump: The Self-Described Business Man for the Self-Described Conservative.” “Donald Trump: Now with Bibles.”
In interviews, Mr. Trump’s supporters did not appear defined by a common ideology. But they had a unifying motivation — a deep-rooted, pervasive sense of anxiety about the state of the country, and an anger and frustration at those they felt were encroaching on their way of life.
So we’ve arrived at the first (of many) “Da fuck?!” moments in the article. What does this even mean? I mean really. “Anxiety about the state of the country.” How is he not the very thing you’re anxious about? And what’s more: “anger and frustration at those they felt were encroaching on their way of life,” can only mean one of two things: 1) “Those” doing the encroaching on said “way of life” is code for “We have a black president now who is encroaching on my white way of life,” and/or 2) That they don’t understand that, again, Trump himself is also the very one screwing them out of their dream condo in Palm Beach, the one sending their tie-making jobs to Mexico and China, and the one failing to deliver them Sharper Image steaks, gold-plated Vodka bottles, and black-and-gold airplanes!
Asked what they liked in Mr. Trump, his voters described attributes that his opponents have tried to paint as failings. His fierce and sometimes offensive comments on Mexican and Muslim immigrants, and on waterboarding and killing family members of Islamic State fighters, demonstrate, his voters said, a refreshing willingness to disregard political correctness.
Oh goody: we’ve reached the “disregard for political correctness” part of the story. I once asked a wise woman (i.e. my mother) what “anti-political correctness” actually was. As much as Trump and his supporters want to call it “truth telling,” my mother actually defined it as “Saying what you feel, not necessarily what you know.” And it’s really important to note that this doesn’t automatically make you virtuous; this is not inherently a good quality. Especially in the case of Trump. Voters who find Trump to have a “refreshing willingness to disregard political correctness” are really saying that they’re glad he’s a bigot. They think: “No other candidate is saying we should deport all immigrants and register/ban all Muslims!” and somehow find it noble, honorable, Presidential, even. But there shouldn’t be any prestige in this sort of “truth-telling.” It’s unadulterated bigotry grounded in the “feelings” of the loudest mouth in the room. It’s “refreshing” because his supporters are also bigoted (consciously or unconsciously) and they’re relieved that Trump is now driving a band wagon they can all get on. Enter: Janet…
“He’s saying how the people really feel,” said Janet Aguilar, 59, clad in a Red Sox jacket, who voted for Mr. Trump in Everett, Mass. “We’re all afraid to say it.”
Yes Janet — you’re afraid to say it because if it came out of any other mouth, any sane, half-way decent person would go “Oh! That’s racist!” But somehow, Trump’s mouth makes it “refreshing.” If this is how people “really feel,” then surprise! You — and a lot of other folks coming out the woodwork — are apparently bigots. What we’re witnessing is the great unwashed collectively looking in the mirror, seeing the massive metaphorical melanoma spreading across their face and body, and them just going “Yup. I’m actually OK with — nay, relieved by! — this cancer. Let’s go!”
Where others see a twice-divorced ladies’ man now married to a much younger model, his fans saw the head of a successful family whose children, as Albert Banda, the cabdriver from Somerville, Mass., put it, are “respectable and decent members of society” who “aren’t running around like Paris Hilton and dragging their bodies through the mud.”
Albert has confirmed for us that Paris Hilton is now the new barometer for decency in America.
Mr. Trump’s huge ego? Not necessarily a problem. “He doesn’t just want to be a president. He wants to be the greatest president,” said Elizabeth Burns, the Virginia mother, who said she campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2008. “That works in our favor because he doesn’t want to fail. He sees himself as too big to fail.”
Elizabeth. ELIZABETH! Clinton in ’08 to Trump in ‘16? I’m not even mad. I’m impressed, really. AMEN SISTER! Too big to fail: 60% of the time, it works every time.
Those supporting him did not always agree with everything he said, or the way he said it, and they were not even convinced that he would be able to follow through on all of his big, brash promises. But they were willing to give him their conditional support, drawn to him by his tough talk and bravado, as well as their own disappointment and even fatalism about the politicians they were used to seeing on the menu.
So. To recap: Trump’s supporters don’t agree with what he says, how he says it, or even if he can or will follow through on what he’s saying. At this point, there is no other explanation for Trump’s support other than that what the NYT refers to as “tough talk and bravado” is actually some sort of hypnosis or mass-distributed mind control serum. Right? I mean they’re quite literally “supporting” him without doing any of the necessary actions required to fulfill that verb (i.e. agreeing with him, believing in him, etc.). Truly the most mind-boggling. Oh wait — not the most mind-boggling because Ken Mango’s about to say something…
“This isn’t about whether he’s going to do a better job or not,” said Ken Magno, 69, leaving his polling place in Everett, Mass., Tuesday morning, wearing a red Donald Trump winter hat. “More or less, it’s the statement: Listen, we’re sick and tired of what you people do. And we’re going to put somebody in there — now that it’s our choice, we’re going to put somebody in there that basically you don’t like.”
HERE IT IS! Ken’s just schooled all of you. Listen up “America.” Take note LAME STREAM media. This election is NOT about choosing someone who will do a better job, OK?! It’s about choosing someone/something that is NOT “this” and, furthermore, someone/something “you” hate. Here, I’ll give you an analogy to help you see Ken’s point better, ya know, in case you can’t quite get there: Imagine that you’ve hired a plumber who is just about done fixing your sink. Sure, she had to order a part or two that ended up costing a bit more than you originally expected, but it cleared up the main issues with the sink. The plumber just called in her partner to finish up the last bits using the necessary tools for the job. You hear a knock at the door. Guess who? IT’S KEN! WITH A BAG OF FLAMING DOG SHIT! He throws it at the plumber and runs away. In short: the bag of shit certainly isn’t going to do a better job than the plumber or her partner, but it’s definitely something that neither you nor the plumber “like.” Thanks, Ken!
Some of the voters supporting Mr. Trump openly expressed skepticism, and even discomfort, with some of his assurances, as well as with his talk. Mr. Harris, for instance, said that broken promises would transform the real estate magnate into an ordinary politician.
POOF! Like Cinderella’s coach at the end of the ball. In both cases, the end result is and/or looks a lot like a pumpkin.
And John Rupert, 75, a retired mechanical engineer from Mahtomedi, Minn., said he was torn on Mr. Trump’s promise to deport the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. “Oh man, that’s a hard one,” he said. “We have laws, and somehow you have to enforce them. I don’t know.”
Ah, good on ya John: the ol’ “I don’t really know how he’ll do any of this shit, but fuck it, I’m with this guy” strategy. I like it. YOLO, right?
But Mr. Rupert — a longtime Democrat who supported Jesse Ventura, the former professional wrestler, for governor — added that he had gradually come to accept Mr. Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigrants.
“At first I felt bad about the Muslim thing, but boy, you go ask Angela Merkel how she feels now with all the trouble they had with Muslim refugees from Syria in Berlin, so he’s not far off,” he said, referring to Germany’s chancellor. “It’s not a prejudice. It’s more of a racial profiling, and quite honestly, I’d be in favor of it.”
You guys. This is an important distinction, OK? So don’t miss it. It’s not prejudice. It’s “racial profiling.” It’s not Whiter. It’s “safer.” It’s not torture. It’s “enhanced interrogation.” It’s not delivery. It’s Digiorno. Yuge, yuge difference.
Mr. Trump, he added, “just seems to say things that I feel right about.”
“He’s a bigot, and I’m a bigot. It works!”
One of the least likely Trump voters may have been Fadumo Yusuf, 34, a Muslim woman and Ethiopian immigrant who lives in Minneapolis. When she showed up at a pro-Trump rally on Sunday, she was practically mobbed by supporters who thanked her, and a Trump sticker made its way onto her hijab.
D:
His comments about banning Muslims from entering the country, she said, were “hurtful,” and she also worried about his policies toward immigrants fleeing Central and South America.
No. You don’t say, Fadumo!
But Ms. Yusuf, who earned an accounting degree in 2010 from a community college and has applied for more than 20 accounting jobs without any offers, said she felt “cheated.” She relies on her mother for help with necessities like diapers and car insurance, and thinks Mr. Trump will help small business owners by lowering taxes and allowing them to hire more employees.
Unfortunately, even if that were true, Fadumo, you wouldn’t be in the hiring pool now would you? You’d be put on Trump’s List of Muslims and deported along with the Mexican “Rapists and Killers” Immigrants. But then again, I guess we don’t actually have to believe anything that comes out of Trump’s mouth or expect one iota of any of it to come to fruition, so on second thought, do whatever you want, Fadumo.
“We came here to sacrifice and to a get visa. We are not terrorists,” she said. “I believe he has a heart, so I will overlook that.”
-________-
Another Trump supporter, Pam Fisher, 52, a retired flight attendant from Edina, Minn., said she was flying on Sept. 11, 2001, and was deeply shaken by the attacks that day. She said she felt comforted by Mr. Trump’s hard line on national security and immigration, and sounded much like Mr. Trump as she explained why she liked him.
“You’re letting refugees in, after what we’ve been through with 9/11? Are you kidding me? No! No, no, no,” she said. Using an acronym for the Islamic State, she added: “Now we have a bunch of people being killed, we’ve got ISIS cutting people’s heads off.”
And also our own citizenry shooting up elementary schools, abortion clinics, movie theaters, and even performing hostile, weaponized takeovers of federal land/buildings, but who’s counting, right? Tomato, Tomahto, Pam.
Ms. Fisher said she was taken with Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, even more than the candidate himself. “She’s got it, and it’s putting class back in this country,” Ms. Fisher said. “She walks off the airplane, and it’s like the Kennedys again, only the Republican side. I think they’re a stunning family.”
Yeah! Too bad this isn’t a beauty pageant, right Pam? Because if this were a beauty pageant, let me tell you, Pam, Trump would ju — Oh wait. Not the greatest record with pageants either. Nvm.
Ms. Fisher said she had voted Republican in the past, but had never been involved in campaigning. Yet with Mr. Trump, that’s just what she found herself doing, standing at the entrance of his recent rally in the suburbs of Minneapolis.
Handing out Trump stickers to the crowd, Ms. Fisher found herself tearing up as she talked about being unexpectedly drawn to this “huge movement” for the former reality television star. “It’s so out of my character to do something like this,” she said. “I just needed to rise up, and it’s a great feeling.”
I’m telling you: somebody look into this hypnosis and/or mind control serum stuff. Seriously. It could happen. #McWorld.
And there you have it folks. Hope this cleared things up a little for you. I know the NYT can be hard to follow sometimes. Just doing my part.
In all seriousness: do what you can, when you can, however you can to keep calling this monster out. Sure, we’re all shocked and appalled by how he hasn’t imploded yet. But we can’t get caught on the back foot. Keep exposing this stuff; call it out when you see it; inform as many people as you can. My hope is that the people like this article found need only to see their words and thoughts in writing to realize how off base they are. The reality may be that they fundamentally believe these things, and in that case, we have seriously perverted what it means to not only run for President in this country, but also what it means to support and believe in them too.