Donald Trump Poses an Unprecedented Threat to American Democracy

[UCmeNdc]

My previous view of Trump was as a kind of vaccine. The Republican Party relies on the covert mobilization of racial resentment and nationalism. Trump, as I saw it, was bringing into the open that which had been intentionally submerged. It seemed like a containable dose of disease, too small to take over its host, but large enough to set off a counter-reaction of healthy blood cells. But the outbreak of violence this weekend suggests the disease may be spreading far wider than I believed, and infecting healthy elements of the body politic.

I remain convinced that Trump cannot win the presidency. But what I failed to account for was the possibility that his authoritarian style could degrade American politics even in defeat. There is a whiff in the air of the notion that the election will be settled in the streets — a poisonous idea that is unsafe in even the smallest doses.

Here is another factor I failed to predict. Trump, as I’ve noted, lies substantively within the modern Republican racial political tradition that seamlessly incorporates such things as the Willie Horton ads and the uncontroversial service of Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who once called himself “David Duke without the baggage,” as House Majority Whip. But Trump’s amplification of white racial resentment matters. His campaign has dominated the national discourse. Millions of Americans who have never heard of Steve Scalise are seized with mortal terror of Trump, whose ubiquity in campaign coverage makes him seem larger and more unstoppable than he is. And terror is corrosive.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/trump-poses-unprecedented-threat-to-democracy.html

[UCmeNdc]

1. Florida man goes undercover at Donald Trump rally:

I’d come close to actually expressing myself, to sticking up for the intelligence and humanity of my non-white friends, and had gotten an unkind touch in response. I despaired that I had gotten myself into this and that I still had hours of this to go.

I got back to the stands to the deafening boos of the crowd, now filling out the entire stadium. On stage were a handful of people holding up pictures of kids killed by immigrants and the crowd was going insane. Their violence could only be stopped by our violence and finally someone had the guts to say it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027681424

https://medium.com/@bindingwave/florida-man-goes-undercover-at-a-trump-rally-51ec77e08eed#.3gi9zavpi

[Hortensis]

2. Racial issues threaten the GOP, not the U.S., with breakup.

All the discussion about this extreme right/"religious right" and social conservative bigoted agitation is obscuring the fact that most Americans prefer or are comfortable, or comfortable enough, with a diverse society. Including conservatives. Many would fight to protect it.

Very importantly, most conservatives are not seriously bigoted social conservatives. Oh, they may have more comfort with people like them, and older ones may think wistfully of an Ozzie-and-Harriet world, but their conservatism is about resistance to change and/or economic issues by nature and these days they normally have little problem with racial and ethic differences. Some of these people voted for Barack Obama for president.

My guess is the GOP will mend itself after this national-scale acting out and tantruming. But if it doesn't, a likely result would be that either hard-core right-wingers formed their own party or were left with the remnant GOP while a new dominating party was formed by those who reject them, including many right-leaning "indies."

[pampango]

5. The "national-scale acting out and tantruming" in the GOP is similar to what is happening in Europe.

My guess is the GOP will mend itself after this national-scale acting out and tantruming. But if it doesn't, a likely result would be that either hard-core right-wingers formed their own party or were left with the remnant GOP while a new dominating party was formed by those who reject them, including many right-leaning "indies."

In many European countries their conservative movements (though more liberal than their American counterpart) have fractured into a 'mainstream, moderate' (kind of pre-Reagan republican) party and a 'right wing populist' (kind of our tea party) faction. Of course, most European countries have multi-party, parliamentary democracies while ours is entrenched in a two-party presidential system. It will be interesting to see how the fracture among American conservatives plays out during and after the election.

[Hortensis]

6. Yes. So agree it is and will be fascinating. I just hope

not disappointing. This has been playing out for way too long. I'm afraid the unprecedented money behind all this will somehow manage to hold the right together, including its most reactionary elements. It's hard to see how two right-wing parties would benefit plutocratic purposes.

[Trust Buster]

3. I think the OP's original inclination is still the right one.

It's high time that this nation and the world see a Republican candidate that reveals what exist when you scratch just under the surface of the Republican Party. Would you prefer that they choose a Republican nominee who goes back to their dog whistle tactics ? Take Ted Cruz, that lying snake would soften his positions to fool the electorate into thinking he was a non-discriminating leader. He'd make the electorate forget that he's endorsed by a guy who thinks all gays should be executed. Enough of the phoniness, I want this nation and this world to see the "real McCoy". Let's slay this dragon once and for all.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

4. I agree more with earlier you.

The Republican Party relies on the covert mobilization of racial resentment and nationalism. Trump, as I saw it, was bringing into the open that which had been intentionally submerged.

As such, he is not an 'unprecedented' threat. He is merely the open embodiment of the Republican base as they've always been, and the "Democrats" who pretend that they aren't really Republicans at heart. He's thrown off his white hood and is openly preaching the hate speech they've kept behind closed doors and curtains.

[Hortensis]

7. Most Democrats who are "really Republicans at heart"

aren't pretending a thing. They are conservatives who register Democrat just like previous generations of their people did. They are the remnants of the mostly southern faction of the party.

These days they vote almost entirely Republican and righteously so - proudly and right up front. Of course, this election many of them are voting for Bernie as a sort of internal party "crossover" vote in hopes of knocking out Hillary. I know a number of people back in Georgia who reportedly have done just that.

[Kip Humphrey]

8. Sorry but IMHO, Crude is by far the more dangerous republicon candidate. Crude is a

rapturist theocrat with the nefarious agenda of an ideologue extremist. He is dead set on America becoming a Christian theocracy so that he may accelerate the way to the second coming by instigating Armageddon. This is far more dangerous than a self-aggrandizing carnival barker who want everyone to like him. Neither would be good for this country but Crude would be far the worst.

[Hortensis]

9. IF he could succeed. In more mundane terms,

IMO, Kaisich could be considered the most dangerous. He's theoretically a lot more electable and satisfactory to ultraconservative billionaires and pretends to be more moderate, but he has authoritarian leanings judging by his history and would continue the transfer of power and wealth to the few; and, judging by the reelection of W he would probably have a full 8 years to stack SCOTUS with justices who would continue the nation's march backwards and to the right for another 30 years or more.

So IMO, theoretically most dangerous but unelectible and hamstrung by the Constitution anyway, Cruz, then Trump.

Most realistically dangerous, Kaisich, followed by Rubio for the same reason.