I agree with almost everything in this piece and enjoy your writing as always. Nodding my head in agreement through 95% of this article is kind of sad since I am (likely?) voting Republican in November. My issue here is what a lot of the other commentators have also said - the dare I say sloppy ending to this article, where you basically say that things will go back to "normal" if we can get rid of Trump. I think that ignores how insane the Democrats and the left have been driven and how malignant the new identitarian politics have become over the past several years. As you said, the media and the left have become addicted to the outrage cycle - if Trump is gone they will simply find new people to tar and feather and completely lose their shit on.
I can't support the Dem's insane, racist agenda and I don't believe a vote for them is a vote to go back to the 90s as you seem to hope it is.
I'm thoroughly enjoying watching Trump credibly blast the hypocrisy of the MSM and Democrats. Holding Trump up to media scrutiny should have been as easy as hitting the broad side of a barn but from the very beginning, they couldn't stop their hysterical non-stop 24/7 freakout. All the non-stop gaslighting, vicious, manipulative, abusive, divisive theatrics was all for nothing, everything they've done has backfired spectacularly. It's comical. No, Trump isn't leaving anytime soon. They've thoroughly ruined their own reputations. Trump isn't winning, he's simply incapable of self-destructing as spectacularly as the Democratic party. Trump is a jackass and a serial bullshitter. What does that make his opponents?
The cultural revolution predates Trump by years. It’s a mistake to believe that Trump is somehow responsible for the predations of the identitarian left. They were going to burn us down anyway. He might throw fuel on the fire and I’m glad he does because I’ve been watching the revolution unfold for years and nobody believed me. They do now.
The radicals have gotten a foothold in our major institutions and they aren’t going anywhere. Cultural revolution doesn’t come about in three years because “orange man bad.” It happens because of an organized and deliberate ideological long game campaign that seeks to overthrow the state. Nobody needs to conspire. They only need to learn a few simple strategies and remember that the foal is to seize power for the group, by any means necessary.
So the left would be sane if only there were no Trump? Speakers wouldn't be run off college campuses and threatened with violence for offering a different point of view? College men wouldn't be stripped of due process based on hysteria? Big Tech wouldn't be controlling discourse? Critical race theory wouldn't be jammed down people's throats? Kids wouldn't be indoctrinated in anti-Western propaganda at universities, to the point where they don't even know where their own ideas of individual rights come from?
Only problem is, all of this was in motion well before Trump took his trip down the escalator. It's why he won. He's the symptom, not the disease.
And as crazy as he can be, if he loses, there will be no restraint whatever on leftist insanity, which controls every major institution.
Matt, this posting it pathetic. I can get this TDS drivel anywhere for free. I subscribed here because I thought you were better than that.
Maybe Trump is a blowhard who's never quite locked in.
But if he loses this election, the media & elites & "resistance" members within government will feel vindication for their tactics, and there will be no return. All future opponents will get the Trump treatment or worse -- fake news, "investigations", unwillingness to "normalize" them...that is the long term danger we face.
Putting up with another 4 years of Trump is a bargain, if it can finally force a reckoning within the media & elites, that THIS is how sick we are of their BS. I think a Trump reelection might finally do it -- we need to get them to rock bottom soon though...
Back in 2015, I was the Secretary of the Bexar County Democratic Party., and now I hate the Democratic Party. That's been the Trump Presidency for me. It's crazy how much I've changed and come to hate politics. I used to think the Democratic Party was not 100% bad, but they meant well. All that's changed now. They're frauds, and I can't do it anymore. Buying into even voting for them is lame. The GOP as a party is top to bottom full of frauds and corporate puppets, but that's was to be expected. On a personal level, it was my disillusionment with the Democratic Party and its media institutions that are most striking.
The way the Dems approached the Trump Presidency was pathetic, and a gigantic missed opportunity. Instead of giving people what they wanted (organizing around a Criminal Justice Reform, Health Care, Housing, Better Wages), they invested EVERYTHING to Russia and culture stuff. It's the sanctimony that accompanies their message, which is the most infuriating. We got people broke and sick all around, kicked out their homes, wars raging across the globe for billions, Presidents assassinating US citizens abroad, torture, Wall Street crooks, and if you have a problem with the way Democrats responded to those things, YOU'RE the one with the problem?! It's maddening.
So much to say, but hard to articulate it all. Great piece, Matt.
I don’t think you get it Matt. Trump exposes that the news is full of shit and has always been full of shit. Asking for him to go away is wanting to pretend like none of this ever happened. Head in the sand. Sorry dude but unlike you, I gladly appreciate finally seeing the truth and seeing how horrible the media is. It’s not Trump that’s tearing up the country. It’s the left. You can’t blame the messenger.
Someone once said, if you want to know who someone is, turn down the sound. Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do. When you take Trump's mouth out of the equation, he might indeed be the lesser of the two evils.
I've personally voted D almost uniformly. But I noticed they have a organization destroying problem: they refuse to listen. I went to a DNC listening tour in 2017 and begged them to stop with the identity politics and focus on economics. Yet they doubled down on the identity politics.
The DNC sent me a text message last week, ranting at me about USPS and exhorting me to take action. The Trump campaign sent me a text message, asking my opinion about the riots, and asking if I wanted to know more about their plan. Note the difference in tone, and inviting me into the conversation or not. This is about marketing and community organizing talent.
Forget morals, there seems a noticeable lack of talent on the D side and there seems to be this a force working against bringing in new or disruptive talent. To Trump's credit, the new crop of GOP talent seems much stronger and sharper then what the GOP establishment was bringing in.
I hope reform can come to the D party so they can start ushering in a new era liberal thinkers who actually solve problems. I work in the government and many of the solutions the establishment D's offer are good optics to the base, they don't really work in practice. Since I'm not the GOP base maybe someone of Trump's solutions sound fresh simply because I'm less familiar with their weaknesses. But talent would help expose those weaknesses more if they do exist.
The media has already gone kamikaze during the last four years and I don't know if it can come back. I'm not a Trump supporter but it is interesting to see how he has completely exposed the thinly disguised bullshit of journalistic institutions I once respected. It isn't even limited to America either. The BBC has empowered the same critical theory snake oil that has infected the US. These institutions have lost almost all their credibility.
Love the content Matt. Its very insightful. Still voting for Trump though. The democratic platform is just absolutely atrocious. They been fighting Trump for so long that they forgot to do their jobs. They back BLM and Antifa. That alone; may be the reason Trump wins. But Jesus, destroying their cities, just so Trump doesn't get the win. People have died for the democrats little pathetic power play. All to spite DJ Trump. That is much more appalling then Trump will ever be; even if he gets a 3rd term.
This is Steam-Punk Rant, Matt. Steam Heat and No Light. And I know you know it; I've read your work. Please don't try to sell sanity as a pre-Trump Norm. What we had 1992 - 2016 was donor-class Oligarchy, which increasingly cheated the people and legislated incredible financial inequalities. In 2016, some voters finally got the message -- that the health and welfare of the American public had been systematically second-class and lower-priority for over 24 years. Sanders and Trump emerged as at least Recognizing the outrageous scam that had been pulled Now you express an enthusiastic rant in favor of change -- knowing full well the need for change was long past its sell-by date even early 2016. Forget the Psychology lesson -- every candidate is a professional in Sales. In the wake of the Donor-driven Clin. on move to Repeal Glass-Steagall that gave us the 2005-13 Residential Housing Finance Crisis. In the wake of $4 Trillion spent on attacking non-existent weapons of mass destruction and killing over 600,000 Iraqi non-combatants. In the wake of the Obama genuflect first to the Bank Oligarchs on the Crisis, then to the Drug Oligarchs on the misbegotten, un-affordable "Affordable Care Act." These were insane decisions perpetrated by so-called Norm adherents. Trump is much as you describe, except: he's trying to sell free speech and free exercise of religion; he's trying to stay out of military conflict; he's actually willing to reform law enforcement while reducing pointless incarceration; he actually believes the USA needs to HAVE borders. I am not a Trump fan -- his style, his curled upper lip, and his hop-skip-jump way of paying attention, all turn me off. I probably won't vote for him. This will probably be the third time I vote for someone other than a Democrat, out 15 presidential votes, while never voting for a Republican. But you want to talk insanity ? Start with all those "Normals." Think it over, Matt. We need something better. Better than Trump, but not anti-Bill of Rights or pro-Warmaking, or mindless pro-"Globalization." Trump is a Buffer between the insane, phony "Old Normal" Donor Oligarchy and the Something Better we all need and want to build.
Such a good piece. So much of what you say here is true. Many find the Trump show tiresome, but I think the response to it has been worse. What I did not expect to see was the rush to the bottom by media personalities, politicians, celebrities and writers chasing the latest "we gotcha" story. It's funny because they have debased themselves, betrayed their impartiality and in many cases sacrificed their likability chasing Trump. They need those qualities, the trust of their consumers to remain relevant, Trump does not.
You are in my world now, Taibbi. I have published three best-selling books on modern sales. What you are missing here is something we call “sense-making,” explaining the world to our clients and helping them understand the trends and factors that prevent them from the better results they need. Trump is a sense-maker, offering an explanation as to why things are the way they are, who is responsible for the things that negatively impact them, and providing an alternative, or, put another way, the value proposition that is Make America Great Again. You don’t have to agree with this his assessment or his solution to recognize the power it holds—especially in contrast to his competition. In a contest between two salespeople, one who wants to help you straighten out what you believe to be wrong and will fight for you, and another salesperson who finds you deplorable, accuses you of things of which you are not guilty while offering a value proposition that is every bit as enticing as drinking a gallon of potassium cyanide, the choice is rather straightforward.
What one might do to ensure they lose a sale is to parade a bunch of far-left, neo-Marxists through their convention and have them talk about burning down the system, including capitalism, the nuclear family, all while the viewer is exposed to cities being overrun with rioting, looting, and actual fires!!! Instead of sense-making, you might call this “crazy-making.” There is plenty of crazy to go around, Matt.
Appreciate the article Matt and I am glad I am subscribed. I called you wrong during the Bush years when I was younger and should have thought through the issues more deeply. In this case, after thinking through all the angles I can see, I am still voting for Trump for many of the reasons cited in the comments. I don't see how validating the agenda of the democrats helps our country in the long run. Trump, if re-elected, will be gone in 4 years and from a policy standpoint, I am much more aligned with him which is what we SHOULD vote on.
I frankly can't stand the constant gaslighting from the left. I have many friends who firmly believe, based on comments by Biden, Nadler, and others, that the majority of the looting / rioting is being done by right wing militias and the cause of the rioting / looting is Trump and the Police. I have many friends who tell me all the time that the Mueller report, regardless of the major conclusions, still shows that Trump was working with the Russians. I have many friends who believe that there was no abuse of the FISA warrant process and Devin Nunes was just parroting conspiracy theories. I have many friends on the left who passionately believe that all Ivanka and Jared do is fly around on Air Force One and negotiate deals for the Trump business. I have many family members who strongly believe that Trump supports both KKK, white supremacists, and Nazis regardless of the number of Jews in his immediate family and his policies towards Israel. I could go on and on and on. ALL of this is because IMHO, the democrats understand the threat the Trump poses to their electoral chances. He re-framed many of the traditional center left issues in terms the center right was willing to get on board with and made the left choose to either support their issues or be a hypocrite. They chose a third option, complete and total character assassination buttressed by their friends in the corporate media. It will be an all out war by the left up until the election to try any tactic they can (like the current Atlantic article, mass mail in voting) to win this thing. If Trump wins, they now their agenda is setup back a decade. It is an agenda I wholeheartedly disagree with and so I will be voting for Trump. His mouth I hate, his politics I agree with.
Biden is done. Democrats made 2 critical mistakes:
1. They made this a campaign a referendum against Systemic Racism ... with a nominee that's been in politics for 40 years an embodies the system.
2. Picking fights with the Privilege of whites as ridiculous lockdown policies crushed the working class (white and black). That browbeating against privilege is going to get old fast.
The Trump Era Sucks and Needs to Be Over
I agree with almost everything in this piece and enjoy your writing as always. Nodding my head in agreement through 95% of this article is kind of sad since I am (likely?) voting Republican in November. My issue here is what a lot of the other commentators have also said - the dare I say sloppy ending to this article, where you basically say that things will go back to "normal" if we can get rid of Trump. I think that ignores how insane the Democrats and the left have been driven and how malignant the new identitarian politics have become over the past several years. As you said, the media and the left have become addicted to the outrage cycle - if Trump is gone they will simply find new people to tar and feather and completely lose their shit on.
I can't support the Dem's insane, racist agenda and I don't believe a vote for them is a vote to go back to the 90s as you seem to hope it is.
I'm thoroughly enjoying watching Trump credibly blast the hypocrisy of the MSM and Democrats. Holding Trump up to media scrutiny should have been as easy as hitting the broad side of a barn but from the very beginning, they couldn't stop their hysterical non-stop 24/7 freakout. All the non-stop gaslighting, vicious, manipulative, abusive, divisive theatrics was all for nothing, everything they've done has backfired spectacularly. It's comical. No, Trump isn't leaving anytime soon. They've thoroughly ruined their own reputations. Trump isn't winning, he's simply incapable of self-destructing as spectacularly as the Democratic party. Trump is a jackass and a serial bullshitter. What does that make his opponents?
The cultural revolution predates Trump by years. It’s a mistake to believe that Trump is somehow responsible for the predations of the identitarian left. They were going to burn us down anyway. He might throw fuel on the fire and I’m glad he does because I’ve been watching the revolution unfold for years and nobody believed me. They do now.
The radicals have gotten a foothold in our major institutions and they aren’t going anywhere. Cultural revolution doesn’t come about in three years because “orange man bad.” It happens because of an organized and deliberate ideological long game campaign that seeks to overthrow the state. Nobody needs to conspire. They only need to learn a few simple strategies and remember that the foal is to seize power for the group, by any means necessary.
So the left would be sane if only there were no Trump? Speakers wouldn't be run off college campuses and threatened with violence for offering a different point of view? College men wouldn't be stripped of due process based on hysteria? Big Tech wouldn't be controlling discourse? Critical race theory wouldn't be jammed down people's throats? Kids wouldn't be indoctrinated in anti-Western propaganda at universities, to the point where they don't even know where their own ideas of individual rights come from?
Only problem is, all of this was in motion well before Trump took his trip down the escalator. It's why he won. He's the symptom, not the disease.
And as crazy as he can be, if he loses, there will be no restraint whatever on leftist insanity, which controls every major institution.
Matt, this posting it pathetic. I can get this TDS drivel anywhere for free. I subscribed here because I thought you were better than that.
Maybe Trump is a blowhard who's never quite locked in.
But if he loses this election, the media & elites & "resistance" members within government will feel vindication for their tactics, and there will be no return. All future opponents will get the Trump treatment or worse -- fake news, "investigations", unwillingness to "normalize" them...that is the long term danger we face.
Putting up with another 4 years of Trump is a bargain, if it can finally force a reckoning within the media & elites, that THIS is how sick we are of their BS. I think a Trump reelection might finally do it -- we need to get them to rock bottom soon though...
Back in 2015, I was the Secretary of the Bexar County Democratic Party., and now I hate the Democratic Party. That's been the Trump Presidency for me. It's crazy how much I've changed and come to hate politics. I used to think the Democratic Party was not 100% bad, but they meant well. All that's changed now. They're frauds, and I can't do it anymore. Buying into even voting for them is lame. The GOP as a party is top to bottom full of frauds and corporate puppets, but that's was to be expected. On a personal level, it was my disillusionment with the Democratic Party and its media institutions that are most striking.
The way the Dems approached the Trump Presidency was pathetic, and a gigantic missed opportunity. Instead of giving people what they wanted (organizing around a Criminal Justice Reform, Health Care, Housing, Better Wages), they invested EVERYTHING to Russia and culture stuff. It's the sanctimony that accompanies their message, which is the most infuriating. We got people broke and sick all around, kicked out their homes, wars raging across the globe for billions, Presidents assassinating US citizens abroad, torture, Wall Street crooks, and if you have a problem with the way Democrats responded to those things, YOU'RE the one with the problem?! It's maddening.
So much to say, but hard to articulate it all. Great piece, Matt.
I don’t think you get it Matt. Trump exposes that the news is full of shit and has always been full of shit. Asking for him to go away is wanting to pretend like none of this ever happened. Head in the sand. Sorry dude but unlike you, I gladly appreciate finally seeing the truth and seeing how horrible the media is. It’s not Trump that’s tearing up the country. It’s the left. You can’t blame the messenger.
Someone once said, if you want to know who someone is, turn down the sound. Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do. When you take Trump's mouth out of the equation, he might indeed be the lesser of the two evils.
I've personally voted D almost uniformly. But I noticed they have a organization destroying problem: they refuse to listen. I went to a DNC listening tour in 2017 and begged them to stop with the identity politics and focus on economics. Yet they doubled down on the identity politics.
The DNC sent me a text message last week, ranting at me about USPS and exhorting me to take action. The Trump campaign sent me a text message, asking my opinion about the riots, and asking if I wanted to know more about their plan. Note the difference in tone, and inviting me into the conversation or not. This is about marketing and community organizing talent.
Forget morals, there seems a noticeable lack of talent on the D side and there seems to be this a force working against bringing in new or disruptive talent. To Trump's credit, the new crop of GOP talent seems much stronger and sharper then what the GOP establishment was bringing in.
I hope reform can come to the D party so they can start ushering in a new era liberal thinkers who actually solve problems. I work in the government and many of the solutions the establishment D's offer are good optics to the base, they don't really work in practice. Since I'm not the GOP base maybe someone of Trump's solutions sound fresh simply because I'm less familiar with their weaknesses. But talent would help expose those weaknesses more if they do exist.
The media has already gone kamikaze during the last four years and I don't know if it can come back. I'm not a Trump supporter but it is interesting to see how he has completely exposed the thinly disguised bullshit of journalistic institutions I once respected. It isn't even limited to America either. The BBC has empowered the same critical theory snake oil that has infected the US. These institutions have lost almost all their credibility.
Love the content Matt. Its very insightful. Still voting for Trump though. The democratic platform is just absolutely atrocious. They been fighting Trump for so long that they forgot to do their jobs. They back BLM and Antifa. That alone; may be the reason Trump wins. But Jesus, destroying their cities, just so Trump doesn't get the win. People have died for the democrats little pathetic power play. All to spite DJ Trump. That is much more appalling then Trump will ever be; even if he gets a 3rd term.
This is Steam-Punk Rant, Matt. Steam Heat and No Light. And I know you know it; I've read your work. Please don't try to sell sanity as a pre-Trump Norm. What we had 1992 - 2016 was donor-class Oligarchy, which increasingly cheated the people and legislated incredible financial inequalities. In 2016, some voters finally got the message -- that the health and welfare of the American public had been systematically second-class and lower-priority for over 24 years. Sanders and Trump emerged as at least Recognizing the outrageous scam that had been pulled Now you express an enthusiastic rant in favor of change -- knowing full well the need for change was long past its sell-by date even early 2016. Forget the Psychology lesson -- every candidate is a professional in Sales. In the wake of the Donor-driven Clin. on move to Repeal Glass-Steagall that gave us the 2005-13 Residential Housing Finance Crisis. In the wake of $4 Trillion spent on attacking non-existent weapons of mass destruction and killing over 600,000 Iraqi non-combatants. In the wake of the Obama genuflect first to the Bank Oligarchs on the Crisis, then to the Drug Oligarchs on the misbegotten, un-affordable "Affordable Care Act." These were insane decisions perpetrated by so-called Norm adherents. Trump is much as you describe, except: he's trying to sell free speech and free exercise of religion; he's trying to stay out of military conflict; he's actually willing to reform law enforcement while reducing pointless incarceration; he actually believes the USA needs to HAVE borders. I am not a Trump fan -- his style, his curled upper lip, and his hop-skip-jump way of paying attention, all turn me off. I probably won't vote for him. This will probably be the third time I vote for someone other than a Democrat, out 15 presidential votes, while never voting for a Republican. But you want to talk insanity ? Start with all those "Normals." Think it over, Matt. We need something better. Better than Trump, but not anti-Bill of Rights or pro-Warmaking, or mindless pro-"Globalization." Trump is a Buffer between the insane, phony "Old Normal" Donor Oligarchy and the Something Better we all need and want to build.
Such a good piece. So much of what you say here is true. Many find the Trump show tiresome, but I think the response to it has been worse. What I did not expect to see was the rush to the bottom by media personalities, politicians, celebrities and writers chasing the latest "we gotcha" story. It's funny because they have debased themselves, betrayed their impartiality and in many cases sacrificed their likability chasing Trump. They need those qualities, the trust of their consumers to remain relevant, Trump does not.
You are in my world now, Taibbi. I have published three best-selling books on modern sales. What you are missing here is something we call “sense-making,” explaining the world to our clients and helping them understand the trends and factors that prevent them from the better results they need. Trump is a sense-maker, offering an explanation as to why things are the way they are, who is responsible for the things that negatively impact them, and providing an alternative, or, put another way, the value proposition that is Make America Great Again. You don’t have to agree with this his assessment or his solution to recognize the power it holds—especially in contrast to his competition. In a contest between two salespeople, one who wants to help you straighten out what you believe to be wrong and will fight for you, and another salesperson who finds you deplorable, accuses you of things of which you are not guilty while offering a value proposition that is every bit as enticing as drinking a gallon of potassium cyanide, the choice is rather straightforward.
What one might do to ensure they lose a sale is to parade a bunch of far-left, neo-Marxists through their convention and have them talk about burning down the system, including capitalism, the nuclear family, all while the viewer is exposed to cities being overrun with rioting, looting, and actual fires!!! Instead of sense-making, you might call this “crazy-making.” There is plenty of crazy to go around, Matt.
I have believed since he got elected that, as bad as Trump is, the reaction to him by the media and those that oppose him has been 100x worse.
Appreciate the article Matt and I am glad I am subscribed. I called you wrong during the Bush years when I was younger and should have thought through the issues more deeply. In this case, after thinking through all the angles I can see, I am still voting for Trump for many of the reasons cited in the comments. I don't see how validating the agenda of the democrats helps our country in the long run. Trump, if re-elected, will be gone in 4 years and from a policy standpoint, I am much more aligned with him which is what we SHOULD vote on.
I frankly can't stand the constant gaslighting from the left. I have many friends who firmly believe, based on comments by Biden, Nadler, and others, that the majority of the looting / rioting is being done by right wing militias and the cause of the rioting / looting is Trump and the Police. I have many friends who tell me all the time that the Mueller report, regardless of the major conclusions, still shows that Trump was working with the Russians. I have many friends who believe that there was no abuse of the FISA warrant process and Devin Nunes was just parroting conspiracy theories. I have many friends on the left who passionately believe that all Ivanka and Jared do is fly around on Air Force One and negotiate deals for the Trump business. I have many family members who strongly believe that Trump supports both KKK, white supremacists, and Nazis regardless of the number of Jews in his immediate family and his policies towards Israel. I could go on and on and on. ALL of this is because IMHO, the democrats understand the threat the Trump poses to their electoral chances. He re-framed many of the traditional center left issues in terms the center right was willing to get on board with and made the left choose to either support their issues or be a hypocrite. They chose a third option, complete and total character assassination buttressed by their friends in the corporate media. It will be an all out war by the left up until the election to try any tactic they can (like the current Atlantic article, mass mail in voting) to win this thing. If Trump wins, they now their agenda is setup back a decade. It is an agenda I wholeheartedly disagree with and so I will be voting for Trump. His mouth I hate, his politics I agree with.
Biden is done. Democrats made 2 critical mistakes:
1. They made this a campaign a referendum against Systemic Racism ... with a nominee that's been in politics for 40 years an embodies the system.
2. Picking fights with the Privilege of whites as ridiculous lockdown policies crushed the working class (white and black). That browbeating against privilege is going to get old fast.
This election won't even be close.