Stora tråden om Donald Trump [mod]

Whether you think it’s fair or not, the GOP has a reputation for being bigoted, racist or not “inclusive” enough — and the Democratic party doesn’t. I think the GOP’s reputation is mostly unfair and is fueled by incredibly cynical attacks from Democrats and their water-carriers in the press. But you know what makes the Left’s job so much easier? Watching Republicans and their defenders in the media play coy about denouncing the G-d damn Ku Klux Klan!

Aleksandr Dugin, otherwise known as “Putin's Rasputin," has endorsed Donald Trump for president of the United States.

Aleksandr Dugin is a key theorist of the ideological underpinnings of Putinism. His "Eurasianism" seeks to provide a basis for uniting not only Russia, but all the world's anti freedom forces, under Moscow's banner against the West.

What Russia needs, says Dugin, is a "genuine, true, radically revolutionary and consistent, fascist fascism." On the other hand, "Liberalism, is an absolute evil. . . .Only a global crusade against the U.S., the West, globalization, and their political-ideological expression, liberalism, is capable of becoming an adequate response. . . . The American empire should be destroyed."

Now, in an article entitled "Trump is the Real America" published on the website of the Kremlin-backed Katehon think tank, Dugin says "Trump...is a sensation. … The Republicans, as well as the Democrats, are the representatives of the US ruling elites. It is a special part of society, being quite far from the ordinary Americans. …The American elite is not even American. Thus, there is Donald Trump, who is tough, rough, says what he thinks, rude, emotional and, apparently, candid. The fact that he is a billionaire doesn't matter. He is different. He is an extremely successful ordinary American. …

"Maybe, that redhead rude Yankee from the saloon will get back to the problems inside the country and will leave humanity alone, which is tired of American hegemony and its destructive policy of chaos, bloody rivers and color revolutions? Trump is a leader…

"Vote for Trump, and see what will happen."

Frei is always an engaging and entertaining presenter, regardless of whether you agree with his politics or not, and thankfully, there was no spurious attempt at balance or giving both sides of the story.
This was, instead, an occasionally entertaining, if pointedly skewed hit job, which managed to make both the man and his supporters look like ridiculous buffoons.
Of course, it's not that difficult to make anything emerging from America look ridiculous and buffoonish but Frei took to his task with relish - Trump was portrayed variously as a dangerous nutter; a man who may have raped his first wife (until they read a statement from said woman denying the claims); a rich boy done bad; and did I mention dangerous nutter?
The problem with this approach was that it was guilty of the very accusation it was levelling at its subject - being utterly devoid of any nuance or complexity whatsoever.
There was nothing new to be learned here. Everybody knows that he came from wealthy stock. We were already well aware that his behaviour in Scotland was increasingly nasty, and, of course, we all know about his various verbal assaults on the aforementioned Kelly, prisoners of war and, most unpleasantly, his mocking mimicry of a disabled reporter. So, this was basically a potted history of Trump's various outrages against common decency. But this was Comfort TV and much like comfort food, was designed to provide reassurance to the consumer.
In this case, it was made to reassure the viewers that they were right, all along, to think Trump is an idiot and his supporters are thick.
There was no attempt to explain why he has become so popular. There was no effort to talk to his more reasoned supporters - of which there are many, despite what you will see in the Irish media.
There was, instead, lots of emphasis on how his supporters are ludicrously, comically, vein-bulgingly angry.
Why are they so angry?
After all, Frei compares Trump's sturm und drang approach with Obama's more palatable 'hope and change' without conceding that it was 'hope and change' that directly contributed to making America a worse place than it was eight years ago. And it wasn't great then, either.
The Mad World Of Donald Trump was successful in its primary objective - reminding cosy liberal viewers that they are so much smarter than everyone else.
Let's put it this way, yesterday's lead letter in this very paper was illustrative of the smug dismissal of the man and his followers, verbosely sneering that: "In contradistinction, Hilary Clinton's evocation of the 'better angels of our nature' in the service of coalition-building, may have the righteous verisimilitude to be appealing."
You wanna know why so many people are going to vote Trump?
Because of letters like that.