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csziggy

(34,120 posts)
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 03:17 PM Jul 2020

"How I learned to relax and love Donald Trump" - not what you might think

How I learned to relax and love Donald Trump | Opinion
Posted: June 23, 2020 - 10:14 AM
Curtis Milam, For The Inquirer

I am the son of an Air Force brigadier general and served myself to the rank of colonel. Of my 57 years drawing breath, I’ve spent 51 of them directly or indirectly serving this once great nation. So, as you might imagine, I found myself on Nov. 8, 2016, more than a little dismayed at the news we had elevated Donald J. Trump to the nation’s highest office — a man so clearly unfit to lead America.

But over time I’ve come to appreciate Trump in ways I did not expect. Now, I am thankful that we elected Trump. Because Donald Trump is exactly what America needed. Trump is a mirror, a warning, and ultimately a catalyst for change. Reflected in Trump is all that is wrong with the United States: the injustice of our broken social contract, the crassness of our politics, and the cruelty of our economy. Trump is also the shock that a mature democracy needs for action. To use a timely metaphor, Trump and his supporters are a virus, and they have activated our democratic antibodies. What we are seeing in the streets is the body fighting the infection.

<SNIP>

Beginning with Newt Gingrich in 1994, Republicans stopped trying to govern and instead began accumulating power. McKay Coppins writes in his profile of Gingrich in the Atlantic, “… few figures in modern history have done more than Gingrich to lay the groundwork for Trump’s rise.” Effective governance requires compromise, trust, and mutual respect. Gingrich’s new version of Republican had no interest in that. He destroyed the bipartisan structures for governing and even resorted to name-calling and conspiracy theories — over the line at the time, but in hindsight presaging Trumpism.

A straight line can be drawn from Gingrich’s “Contract with America” to the tea party in 2009. Another outsider movement characterized by distrust of government, expertise, and experience, the tea party helped elect a rogues’ gallery of loathsome lawmakers — I’m looking at you, Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ted Cruz (Texas). Trump’s dystopian vision of America is the ultimate flowering of the outsider, populist, anti-government thinking that has metastasized in the Republican Party over the past decades.

More: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/donald-trump-revolution-uprising-election-2020-20200623.html
30 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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"How I learned to relax and love Donald Trump" - not what you might think (Original Post) csziggy Jul 2020 OP
Worth the five minutes to read it all! CrispyQ Jul 2020 #1
I read the whole article. What a great read! So friggin' true. This started with Newt Gingrich. BComplex Jul 2020 #7
Speaker Pelosi said exactly the same thing. OMGWTF Jul 2020 #16
K & R Nevilledog Jul 2020 #2
Thank you. Good read that deserves more time to absorb. Puts the fault on Gingrich tho I think erronis Jul 2020 #3
way before Gingrich agingdem Jul 2020 #4
That's probably more true. BComplex Jul 2020 #8
And back then we didn't have Fox, Sinclair, Hate Radio and the internet to spread and amplify deurbano Jul 2020 #21
It was quite prevalent with Reagan Mr.Bill Jul 2020 #13
I remember.. agingdem Jul 2020 #18
K&R ProfessorGAC Jul 2020 #5
I xan NEVER say I love or even like DT. ut I will concede that if he hadn't taken this office, we, napi21 Jul 2020 #6
I think his title is from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb nt csziggy Jul 2020 #11
Sometimes things have to get really bad before people swear "Never Again!". . . . nt Bernardo de La Paz Jul 2020 #9
Well said. nt Chalco Jul 2020 #10
IOW, it had to get so horrendously bad to pivot to wonderfully sprinkleeninow Jul 2020 #12
Will the Trumpism ultimately kill that which created it? Martin Eden Jul 2020 #14
I think Trump hates everyone. Baked Potato Jul 2020 #15
tRump DOES hate everyone. Too bad HIS DEPLORABLES don't get that. Tools. SammyWinstonJack Jul 2020 #22
K & R mountain grammy Jul 2020 #17
"Broken social contract, crassness of our politics, cruelty of our economy" Check, check and.... EarnestPutz Jul 2020 #19
Trump is the shock therapy America we needed? Martin Eden Jul 2020 #20
Kick, good read! burrowowl Jul 2020 #23
This especially is worth repeating: raccoon Jul 2020 #24
Donald Trump is the logical conclusion of Republican rhetoric for a generation WestCoastYellowDog Jul 2020 #25
I always thought it was a contract on America, not a contract with America MiniMe Jul 2020 #26
Newt. Fucking. Gingrich. Blue Owl Jul 2020 #27
recd.nt CatLady78 Jul 2020 #28
K&R betsuni Jul 2020 #29
Recommended FakeNoose Jul 2020 #30

BComplex

(7,984 posts)
7. I read the whole article. What a great read! So friggin' true. This started with Newt Gingrich.
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 04:08 PM
Jul 2020

May he get covid.

erronis

(14,955 posts)
3. Thank you. Good read that deserves more time to absorb. Puts the fault on Gingrich tho I think
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 03:32 PM
Jul 2020

the groundwork was laid well before, after the New Deal started to give most people hope.

agingdem

(7,759 posts)
4. way before Gingrich
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 03:45 PM
Jul 2020

Father Coughlin, Henry Ford, Joseph McCarthy....this fomenting hate for "the other" started a very long time ago...Gingrich brought hate out of the shadows and Trump legitimized it and moved it into the White House...

BComplex

(7,984 posts)
8. That's probably more true.
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 04:10 PM
Jul 2020

But back then it really was a minority of the republican party....or the nazi party, which was always part of the conservative movement.

deurbano

(2,891 posts)
21. And back then we didn't have Fox, Sinclair, Hate Radio and the internet to spread and amplify
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 05:49 PM
Jul 2020

the extremism 24/7.

Mr.Bill

(24,104 posts)
13. It was quite prevalent with Reagan
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 04:59 PM
Jul 2020

when he was Governor of California. Some of his speeches bordered on horrific. He was an absolute monster. As President he was way toned down.

agingdem

(7,759 posts)
18. I remember..
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 05:15 PM
Jul 2020

Last edited Sun Jul 5, 2020, 09:01 PM - Edit history (1)

I also agree Gingrich was the "author" of Republican non-governance and he put it in a written manifesto The Contract with America... overt racism, ethnic hate, tax cuts, control the courts, isolationism, limit women's reproductive rights, stymie dissent...it's all about control and never-ending power ..Mitch and his minions in the house and senate are the living embodiment of that...

napi21

(45,806 posts)
6. I xan NEVER say I love or even like DT. ut I will concede that if he hadn't taken this office, we,
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 03:54 PM
Jul 2020

as a Country, wouldn't have recognized all the things that have been wrong with America are recognized by most people & steps are being taken to remedy those wrongs. I'd have been elected, we'd still be hearing about her damn emails & all the Pubs would be blaming HER for Coved19 & we'd likely get another Pub President in 2021!

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
11. I think his title is from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb nt
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 04:33 PM
Jul 2020

Martin Eden

(12,805 posts)
14. Will the Trumpism ultimately kill that which created it?
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 05:01 PM
Jul 2020

Only if we help to make that happen, then work hard to build an America which fulfills its promise to all its inhabitants.

Baked Potato

(7,733 posts)
15. I think Trump hates everyone.
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 05:02 PM
Jul 2020

He is destructive to both parties, but I think he is doing way more damage politically to Republicans than Democrats.

EarnestPutz

(2,087 posts)
19. "Broken social contract, crassness of our politics, cruelty of our economy" Check, check and....
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 05:19 PM
Jul 2020

....check. The black lives matter movement talks about a tide change in America. I hope the man is right and Trump is the catalyst for much needed change.

raccoon

(31,092 posts)
24. This especially is worth repeating:
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 06:25 PM
Jul 2020
Everything wrong with America is manifested in Trump. The hunger for power, the vile derision of people who don’t look like you, the cruelty, the privilege, the gleeful ignorance, and mendacious narcissism.
 
25. Donald Trump is the logical conclusion of Republican rhetoric for a generation
Sun Jul 5, 2020, 07:56 PM
Jul 2020

We are seeing firsthand what every man for him or her self is getting us.

FakeNoose

(32,356 posts)
30. Recommended
Mon Jul 6, 2020, 06:46 AM
Jul 2020

Well done

What is happening in our streets is how open, progressive societies improve — fitfully, imperfectly, frustratingly, sometimes tragically. But we do improve. So, thank you, President Trump. Thank you for showing us what we were becoming and helping us find the courage to confront it. We are going to be OK.


Still all in all, I'd rather have had Hillary Clinton as our President. We would have been way better off at this point. Even the Repukes, because she would have been the leader for everyone, not just her own "base."

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