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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Just Had his NOLA Moment
Trump just had his NOLA moment.
An American president can get away with being dumb--most of us are not that brainy. He can get away with infidelity--almost all of us lust in our hearts. He can snort a little coke--most of us like to escape reality from time to time. Greed is not a problem in a country where money has taken the place of spirituality and the rich are revered. Exploit your political connections to build and then sell a Ballpark for a cool million dollar profit? Who would not be tempted if they had the chance? Even criminal activity is not necessarily a disqualification--if laws are being broken to protect others. This is the appeal of the so called Bandit King, a myth popular in rural America, a myth that Trump exploited in his run for president. (See Eric Hobsbawm's Bandits for more on the subject).
But when a president who ran on a platform of "I know your fears and I will fix them even if it means cracking some heads and breaking some laws" turns around and says, in effect, "I do not care about you, I only care about myself" he is political toast. When he obstructs and breaks the law for his own sake, he is no Bandit King. He is just a cheap thug.
Fifty-nine percent of Americans believe that Trump does not care about them. And, I suspect, a fair number of the remaining forty-one percent secretly agree, but they are too stubborn to admit it.
Images of New Orleans survivors clinging to their rooftops, begging for help, while an indifferent W. flew by overhead lead directly to the 2006 Democratic midterm landslide. Up until then. W. at least pretended to care. He was someone "you would want to have a beer with". NOLA revealed that W. lived in a tower made of callous indifference.
Trump is living in that same tower--a tower that will soon become like the tarot card, the Tower of Destruction. And when the smoke clears and he is standing in the rubble of what was once his presidency, he will have no one to blame but himself. Those who do not care about others should not try to lead others.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)This in particular:
Too stubborn to stop and ask for directions.
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)leftieNanner
(15,119 posts)For those of us at DU, The Orange One has been a Tower of Destruction from day one. I am hopeful that others can finally see that the emperor truly has no clothes. (eye bleach.......)
underpants
(182,826 posts)Another comparison I like is the snake oil salesman. It takes several trips and people not getting well or getting worse off before the community admits to itself that its been had. Then things get ugly.
In modern day though people are told all day long how good the medicine is working.
cheezmaka
(737 posts)and even in this situation he still has a percentage of Americans DRINKING THE KOOL-AID...
dhol82
(9,353 posts)McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)is or was. Trump is in this to score all the money and trappings he can. This is a Mob operation in plain site.
Trump is not smart enough to even pull that off.
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Do you think the other mobsters laugh at him?
LiberalLovinLug
(14,174 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)some of his Hanger-on-ers just stab him merciless while picking his pockets at the same time,and he thinks they are his bestest of friends.
There used to be a saying,honor among thieves,well,the thieves won't go near this sucker because he has no honor.
cheezmaka
(737 posts)Just look at the one Korean gentleman "laughing" as well as the EXPRESSION on Kim Jung's face...
AllaN01Bear
(18,247 posts)McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Julian Englis
(2,309 posts)Last edited Sat Jan 26, 2019, 04:16 PM - Edit history (1)
AllaN01Bear
(18,247 posts)rampartc
(5,409 posts)the fool, the tower,
fierywoman
(7,685 posts)reading on US politics on youtube. The Tower and The Fool come up often. What's fascinating is that between most of them, certain cards have come to mean (while reading American politics) certain people. One reader only uses the Thoth deck to read on tRump & associates. Personally I don't think any good reader would want to read a deck of tRump imagery ! -- the decks they are using give them enough to work with. Most of them read with the Rider-Waite version.
Eyeball_Kid
(7,432 posts)In tarot mythology (if I recall from over 40 years ago), The Fool is actually a very powerful card. The Fool is a truth-teller who inevitably gets screwed because s/he ignores politics or political power plays because speaking the truth is more important than self-protection. The typical advice given someone whose reading is heavily influenced by The Fool is to proceed cautiously and be aware of dangerous forces in one's surroundings. When The Fool reveals a hurtful truth, usually in undiplomatic terms, others indeed get hurt, and tend to restrict in many ways The Fool's influence. Sometimes it can get very personal and damaging. If this general interpretation is still valid today, it wouldn't be appropriately attributed to anything connected with Trumpy.
Roy Rolling
(6,917 posts)I prefer to call the defeat "Trump's last stand".
But only because I personally lost friends, a multi-million dollar studio project, and much of my city, state, and surrounding states.
Too painful to even use in comparisons.
But everybody knows W's Katrina moment, but many of us on the ground were busy tearing out sheetrock, burying the dead, and helping neighbors. Thank goodness everybody else cared even when W was clueless. As was the future Florida Secretary of State.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)Trumps at 59%. Tell us again that the Russian manipulation of polls, internet, and by other means didn't help Trump.
EleanorR
(2,393 posts)lillypaddle
(9,580 posts)malaise
(269,049 posts)Rec
onetexan
(13,042 posts)the Idiot's border crisis was, and still is, a manufactured one.
While Dubya's incompetence in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina led to the horrific sufferings (and deaths) of many, the cause was a natural disaster. The Trump shutdown was one he fully inflicted upon the citizens of this country.
This is why i wouldn't call it his NOLA moment.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,107 posts)Ferrets are Cool
(21,107 posts)to they are too ignorant and hateful to admit it.
Doitnow
(1,103 posts)Exactly why I rant on every chance I get about a candidate's RECORD. When trying to choose who to vote for, look at what they've been doing during their lifetime. Not just what they promise for the future. Words are meaningless without a past that indicates some amount of action in favor of helping others including the less fortunate. Everyone has a past. Find out what they've done. If they have no record of service, then they need to go get one before you vote for them.
I would hope more of the media would ask candidates these kind of questions instead of the usual horse race stuff.
The Wizard
(12,545 posts)than convince them they've been fooled"
(Mark Twain)