The NYer 12/21/17: *The Most Frightening Aspect of Trumps Tax Triumph*
Fascism has arrived in America. I wish that was hyperbole. Never give them a goddamned inch!
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-most-frightening-aspect-of-trumps-tax-triumph?mbid=nl_Daily%20122117%20Subs&CNDID=20628789&spMailingID=12613419&spUserID=MTMzMTc5NzQzMzY2S0&spJobID=1301984846&spReportId=MTMwMTk4NDg0NgS2
The Most Frightening Aspect of Trump’s Tax Triumph
The New Yorker, 12/21/17
By Masha Gessen
<snip>
The bill’s passage occasioned an orgy of false public ritual. It began when the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, led the Cabinet in prayer, which included offering thanks “for a President and for Cabinet members who are courageous” and “for the unity in Congress that has presented an opportunity for our economy to expand.” (Not a single Democrat, in either chamber of Congress, voted in favor of the bill.) Following the prayer, Trump called on his Vice-President the way a teacher might cold-call on a pupil. For a full two minutes, Pence dutifully offered thanks for the President’s “middle-class miracle”; he said that he was “deeply humbled, as your Vice-President, to be able to be here.” Trump looked stern as he listened, nodding slightly, his arms crossed below his chest.
Later in the day, the Republican leaders of both houses of Congress, the Vice-President, and other Republican politicians gathered at the White House to offer praise to their leader. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and others hailed Trump for setting records in judicial appointments and, now, for passing the tax bill. Representative Diane Black, of Tennessee, thanked Trump “for allowing us to have you as our President.” Orrin Hatch, of Utah, who has been in the Senate for forty years, predicted that the Trump Presidency will be “the greatest Presidency we have seen not only in generations but maybe ever.” Pence performed, too, again, addressing Trump: “You will make America great again.”
Political speeches are rarely occasions for truth-telling. But the good ones combine a description of shared reality with the expression of a vision, or with words of celebration. The mediocre ones consist of platitudes—well-intentioned but lacking the force of inspiration or recognition. And then is the genre of the thoroughly insincere pronouncement that is all empty ritual. This is not normally observed in countries with functioning democratic institutions, because hollow words are the very opposite of accountability. These kinds of speeches are usually given in dictatorships: their intended audience is not the public but the tyrant. This is what we observed in Washington on Wednesday, and it’s the scariest part of Trump’s big tax triumph.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Most recently, that tax bill is our Enabling Act
Pure and simple
Yesterday’s shameful display by the senate enablers was all the evidence one needs
Too bad dems are too wishywashy to come out and play the game like their truly FASCIST opponents
they're just playing this fool for all he's worth. Even as despicable, slimy, and totally worthless as people like Pence, Ryan, and Diane Black are, I seriously doubt they mean a single word of this. It is perfectly obvious that Trump's needy ego thrives on this kind of sycophantic display.
I would guess that even these morons think Trump is an idiot, in the spirit of Rex Tillerson.
As long as he's their tool, they'll be happy to play the adoring worshiper.
It doesn't scare me--it makes me laugh.
This is such a YUUUUGE con job it requires a massive snow job that won't let up ever.
