Anthony Bourdain on Trump: "Theres so many reasons to find the guy troubling."

[True Dough]

Great feature-length interview with Anthony Bourdain, who is more than just a chef and food critic. He's well traveled, of course, and he seems rather politically astute.

"No fan of the Clintons am I, by a long shot. But I’m a New Yorker, Donald Trump is a New Yorker. And the New Yorkers I know, we’ve lived with this guy for 30 years. I’ve seen Donald Trump say things one day, and then I saw what he did the next. I’ve seen up close how he does business. Just like if you lived in a small town, you’d get to know the sheriff, the guy who runs the hardware store, the guy who runs the filling station — Trump comes from that era of guys you followed, guys you knew about every day: Trump, Giuliani, Al Sharpton, Curtis Sliwa. I’d see him at Studio 54, for fuck’s sake. I’m not saying I know the guy personally, not like I’d hug him, but I’m saying that as a New Yorker, we pretty much are neighbors. And my many years of living in his orbit have not left me with a favorable impression, let’s put it that way. There’s so many reasons to find the guy troubling. When Scott Baio’s the only guy you can find to show up at your convention, you’re in trouble."

"I think it’s going to be hard times. Is he gonna do anything near what he promised? Of course not. But he will be forced to do something, by the people around him. He will have to do something, and it will be extraordinarily ugly..."

"We are a violent nation, from the beginning. I’m not arguing for current gun policy, but I think it’s worth acknowledging that this is a country founded in violence, a country that has always worshipped outlaws, loners, cowboys, and people who got the things they got by the gun. We glorify it, we created an entertainment industry that does little but glorify solving complex problems with simple violence."

"But I think to mock constantly, as so much of the left has done — to demonize, to ridicule, to treat with abject contempt people who live in a very different America than they live in — is both ugly and counterproductive. There are a lot of people who are pissed off, they’re tired of being talked to like that. There are a lot of people in this world who, when an Applebee’s moves to their town, it’s a big deal — and I don’t mean that in a dismissive way. Where somebody coming to take your guns away is a big concern. Look, I don’t think racism can ever be forgiven. It’s a conversation-ender for me, for sure. But if you grew up isolated, no interaction or little interaction, the only interaction you’ve had has been negative, and you’re fearful of the Other, and somehow everything you read in the paper makes it seem like they’re getting all the breaks, especially when, in the news environment we live in now, it’s perfectly permissible to lie."

http://www.eater.com/2016/12/21/14038332/anthony-bourdain-election-trump-interview

[Aristus]

1. I like Anthony Bourdain.

But this sounds like more 'we need to sympathize with the poor, oppressed, down-trodden Trump-supporter' BS.

I don't sympathize with anyone or any group that is the author of their own misery. Tell 'em to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, get up off their lazy white asses, and do something with their worthless lives.

I don't think that's too harsh, either. If one supports Trump because it validates one's existence, then his life is worthless...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. I didn't quite see it that way - I interpreted his comments as

more like, we need to show them why Trump and the GOP won't really do anything for them and the Democrats can, or at least will try. Farmers and people in small towns were once a major constituency of the Democratic party, at least in the upper Midwest, and they aren't any more. The Democratic party here in Minnesota is actually called the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, and it is the result of the merger some years ago of the "establishment" Democratic party and a couple of very populist, semi-socialist groups representing farmers and mine workers. I don't think it's pandering to what we sometimes like to think of as dumb racist rubes to analyze why we have totally lost rural voters. Racism was certainly part of it but it's not that simple; there are people who voted for Obama in 2008 and/or 2012 but voted for Trump this time. How the hell did that happen?

I like Bourdain - I love his show; that guy will eat anything - and I think he made some very interesting and useful points.

[True Dough]

7. That's right, VO

You seem to "get it" almost every time. I appreciate your perspective (and Bourdain's).

[HughBeaumont]

2. I was with him until the Tone Trolling last paragraph.

The choice between Hillary Clinton and Orange Lincoln Rockwell shouldn't have been a bigger fucking DURRRRRRRRRRRRR. There was no bigger DURRRRR in voting history. It's a bigger DURRRRRRRRR than Barack Obama if he were running against Newt Gingrich. Holy Fuckeroo Banzai.

I don't want to HEAR that we should sympathize with and appease the Bumpkin McWhiteshits of the world. What a bunch of mangled and smeared horse SHIT that is. I am so FUCKING sick of this. If you're voting based on some perceived name-calling by anyone, it's YOU who needs the "safe space". Fucking CHRIST am I tired of being told to constantly abide by some unspoken set of rules and way of speaking and reaching out to people who threw out rules long ago and can be just as large of an asshole as they please.

Like it was said before - you could give the "Gawd Gunz n Geighs" crowd a million bucks apiece and they'd STILL never vote for a Democrat.

[mountain grammy]

8. Agree

I grew up poor and fatherless and female, but it could have been harder, I'm white. When a white male whines to me about losing rights, I'm sure he's talking about the ones I've gained in my 69 years as a female citizen of the USA, and the ones gained by other non white citizens over the years through blood,sweat and tears.

[kjones]

12. Personally, I think it's that damn Country music...

It's a bad influence. I mean, you listen to music about losing this and that,
"wife gone, dog gone, truck broke, outta beer"...
clearly, it's country music culture...ingraining an attitude of perpetual
victimhood into them.

(Lol, in case people didn't get the joke. "OMG, rap music!&quot

Seriousness though, there's people that have a legitimate bum deal...
and then there's all these people who need to shut the hell up.

...guess which group predominates Trump's voters...

[Maru Kitteh]

10. x ∞

That should be an op, Hugh.

[HAB911]

3. its why they always kill the comedians and the poets first

You know, it’s why they always kill the comedians and the poets first. People can’t stand ridicule. It clearly gets under Trump’s skin — he can’t bear it, it’s really a problem for him. So if you’re looking to do something, I think, you should ridicule him. Not his voters. His cabinet, for sure, and his appointees, but not all at once. Stick with him. Successful agitprop — I mean, look at Gerald Ford. He will always be remembered as this bumbling Chevy Chase, a head injury waiting to happen.




After the election I removed CNN from my dvr, may have to put him back on

[get the red out]

5. I agree

You've got to go after the people calling the shots.

[pbmus]

6. Sometimes Tony is tooooo nice...this is not the time or place...

[UTUSN]

9. BOURDAIN should be our president. n/t

[True Dough]

11. He'd be head and shoulders above the doorknob that's about to take office

But that's also true of the majority of the U.S. population.

[sarcasmo]

13. "Trumps gonna make the whole world look like the back of Rick James van"

LMFAO

[LittleBlue]

14. Why does he sound like such a better communicator than most in our party?

This is the kind of thing I'd hope to read from someone in the party. Instead of this kind of analysis and introspection, we get deflection and inevitable march toward electoral defeat in 2018.