Leonard Pitts Jr.: Who cares whats wrong with Donald Trump? Whats wrong with us?

[babylonsister]

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article161473023.html

If nothing else, in six months, President Trump “has taught us to live in a state of perpetual chaos and continuous crisis.” Associated Press
July 14, 2017 5:20 PM
Who cares what’s wrong with Donald Trump? What’s wrong with us?

BY LEONARD PITTS, JR.

snip//

Indeed, from the studios of CNN to the bar stools of your neighborhood watering hole, amateur psychoanalysis has become America’s favorite pastime in the last six months. Dozens of theories have been floated, all aimed at answering one question:

What is wrong with him?

But I have come to believe that question misses the point. Sixty-three million people voted for this. And make no mistake, they knew what they were getting. It was always obvious that Trump was a not-ready-for-prime-time candidate, but they chose him anyway. And the rest of us need to finally come to grips with the reason why.

It wasn’t economic anxiety. As a study co-sponsored by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic reported in May, people who were worried for their jobs voted for Hillary Clinton. But people who dislike Mexicans and Muslims, people who oppose same-sex marriage, people mortally offended at a White House occupied by a black guy with a funny name, they voted for Trump.

That’s the reality, and it’s time we quit dancing around it.

This has been said a million times: Donald Trump is a lying, narcissistic, manifestly incompetent child man who is as dumb as a sack of mackerel. But he is the president of the United States because 63 million people preferred that to facing inevitable cultural change. So I am done asking — or caring — what’s wrong with him. Six months in, it’s time we grappled a far more important question.

What in the world is wrong with us?

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Warpy]

2. I've been asking that one since the Nixon years

He was the first one swept in entirely on hate: race bigotry and a desire to force hippies to get haircuts and put on suits.

There's a mean streak in this country, people thinking hate makes them somehow smarter.

It doesn't. Hate is based in fear and nothing makes people weaker than fear does.

[pangaia]

3. Why 'us?' Nothing wrong with US. It's them... REALLY..

[ProudLib72]

4. Unfortunately, he's using the collective "us"

As in everyone in this country. That puts the onus on us DU types to somehow shift the rest of the country's perception.

I think it's a fair enough question. And the very first thing I would do is outlaw misinformation/hate sources such as Brietbart, Infowars, Faux Nooze. It would behoove us to crack down on white supremacist groups and dismantle their websites. But, of course, this all seems very "authoritarian" doesn't it?

[Scarsdale]

32. We could start

with the largest hate group of all - the GOP. They have manuvered us all into gerrymandered districts, to keep their useless politicians in office. Now McConnell is bribing his members to pass a "Healthcare" bill that is absolutely USELESS, much like them. We can start the turn around by voting theses deadwood politicians OUT of office, get people in there who really do want a better country for us all.

[GeorgeGist]

5. Even our stupidity is exceptional.

"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
- Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 1981.

Many Democrats fell for it too.

[ismnotwasm]

6. K&R

[pnwmom]

7. He's right, and that's another reason it's wrong to keep blaming Hillary.

No amount of tweaking of her policies was ever going to make the haters and the fearful vote for the Democrats.

[lunasun]

28. Yes as he stated : Thats the reality, and its time we quit dancing around it.

[Blue_Warrior]

38. If that is true, how did our wonderful President Obama get elected?

[Proud liberal 80]

51. Because a lot of people who voted for him

Didn't vote

[pnwmom]

60. Millions of votes were suppressed due to new voter ID laws, and reduced polling places

and hours, all allowed after the 2013 Scotus decision regarding the Voting Rights Act.

IOW, Obama might not have been re-elected under those conditions.

[pnwmom]

59. Our wonderful President Obama got elected before the 2013 Supreme Court decision

about the Voting Rights act, which allowed for the suppression of millions of votes.

Even so, Hillary won only 70,000 fewer votes than 2012 Obama.

[iluvtennis]

58. Yes, indeedy, correct.

[cwydro]

8. K and r.

He's exactly right.

[orangecrush]

9. Nothing

I didn't vote for the p.o.s..

[mcar]

10. K&R

[Dorn]

11. 100% agree -- how did the USA allow DT to get past the gate surrounding the White House ?

[yuiyoshida]

12. K&R and Tweeted

n/t

[world wide wally]

13. Because Americans are vindictive, bigoted, and not real bright?

[BannonsLiver]

23. Don't forget impulsive and violent

[certainot]

14. whats wrong is we ignore talk radio

at a cheap $1000/hr x 15hrs/day x 5 = $75,000/wk x 1200 stations rw talk radio is worth $18MIL/day or 390MIL$ /month or 4.68 BIL$/ year FREE for coordinated global warming denial, pro republican free market deregulation and wall st think tank propaganda, swiftboating, and the hate and fear used to get people to vote republican.

as long as that is ignored all the other 'reasons' and 'causes' are actually SYMPTOMS.

we don’t have a functioning democracy for one reason alone. republican talk radio is the only major medium with no political counterpart on the other side of the spectrum — thinking americans ignore it and unless we stop ignoring it can and will be used to interfere with and distort any national discussion about any major issue. that includes money and elections — they are symptoms NOT causes. until democrats figure that out we’re fucked.

we’re talking about a democracy and talk radio is the only major factor that has no counterpart on the political spectrum.

until americans stop ignoring it it effects all the other factors in ways that make the analysis not only useless, but damaging in many ways because we spend our time and resources chasing symptoms of a cause that is invisible.

yeah there are racists and always will be but there is a huge spectrum in between KKK and non-racist that 1500 radio stations dominating 40 states have been playing in for 30 unchallenged years - with pros like limbaugh making excuses for racism, finding daily ways to attack brown people and their friends, and making excuses for cops who shoot unarmed black men, for instance. limbaugh still mocks michael brown as "the gentle giant" while 257 of his stations would probably have to play music instead if they couldn't attract advertisers by broadcasting the sports from 88 universities - whose teams are majority african american. talk about sick irony.

when the left complains about dems not being left enough, or money in politics, or media deregulation, or voter suppression or tweaking GOTV or messaging or their reps being spineless, the karl roves are laughing because we’re wasting time with symptoms and they’re just sitting back in their think tanks designing diversions and distortions to pump through 1500 radio stations at will.

until that is fixed americans can not have a fact-based national discussion about any major issue without the talk radio alternate reality playing a major part. if the left hasn’t figured that out by now, and i see no evidence, we are further fucked.

hopefully investigators will find limbaugh has a cyprus bank account because it seems the left will continue to ignore talk radio

[bdjhawk]

31. This is so true

The hate spewed by Limpballs and others has gone on for YEARS. Hillary was right many years ago as it is a well defined strategy of a right wing conspiracy. In many rural areas, it is about the only free radio available and it regurgitates its hate talk non-stop and played in retail, restaurants, etc. all over the country. Now that cable news has the propaganda stations easily available, those are on TV's at McDonald's, sports bars, doctors offices, etc, etc. And the broadcast channels are increasingly owned by right wingers obsessed with taking over the sheeples minds. A friend in Iowa City (a very progressive city) posted on FB that two local Cedar Rapids stations are part of the Sinclair networks and now ordered to broadcast more pro-Trump content. As the story says, this is being forced on Sinclair stations across the country.

The control of media is what makes me discouraged about the good guys ever being able to take charge again.

http://littlevillagemag.com/trump-kgan-kxfa/

[certainot]

52. americans need to boycott all advertisers for those radio stations

the prog orgs need to get serious about it but individuals can listen a few minutes here and there and email the owners/managers and thank them for trump, loss of family health care, russian traitors, global warming etc.

at some point some of the stations will have to go back to music.

[LiberalLovinLug]

56. This is one weapon, we have so few

More educated people have more liberal beliefs. This is a fact. So a lot of successful people lean Democratic. Of course there is a lot of old money in the GOP, including families that built fortunes from off of the backs of black slaves. And other mega rich assholes like the Koch brothers. But in general, liberals are more successful if you take out that mega rich segment. Look how its the Blue States that always are propping up the Red States who have the highest food stamp use, single mothers etc.. And their boycotts do work. ie. Bill O'Reilly.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

43. Yep-that is the only stuff they hear. Similar to the censorship in dictatorships. We have 4 stations

that spew out right- wing talking points. Then the newspaper is careful not to piss off all the Repugs around here (around 60%+).

[Stryst]

47. I grew up in a small logging town

and I remember the day that our local radio station, KTOsomething "The Block" suddenly turned into "The Eagle" and every single talk segment got replaced over the next few months with syndicated crap from Limbaugh and the like. That's when my stepdad got a cassette player for the car (if any of you kids need me to explain what a "cassette" is, just poke old man stryst). But I saw his friends; the one's that used to get uncomfortable when they saw something they didn't like gradually got angrier and angrier. It's like they decided that they had a right not to ever suffer offense, and so all those jews and queers and darkies? Well shit, they don't have a right to make me uncomfortable, and since their presence makes me uncomfortable, they gotta go.

And all of this poison, all of this hate comes from 1987 and the actions by the FCC to stop enforcing the fairness doctrine.

[SergeStorms]

15. Many people are afraid of change.

Not dimes, nickels and pennies, but change in their world. They love to come home from a hard day's work and have everything exactly as it was the day before, and the day before that, and the month before that, and the year before that, and the decade before that. change upsets them. It's disquieting and upsetting. A Black man as President. Women working, and wanting equal rights. Blacks wanting equal rights. EVERYONE WANTING TO BE EQUAL!

White men have the biggest problem with this, and they voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. Some women have the same problem. Usually these women are subservient to their men, old fashioned, and not wanting the things from their childhood to change as well. Then there's a certain set of the young who are convinced they're being discriminated against by foreigners, or just people "who don't look like them". They have no idea what privilege they enjoy by being born white in America.

All the these people ABHOR CHANGE, and these are Donald Trump's people. He said everything they THOUGHT on the campaign trail, and emboldened them enough to SPEAK the things they merely THOUGHT ABOUT before.

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR TRUMP. They've been forced to change since the end of World War II. The world HAS GREATLY changed since then, and they're scared, and they've had enough! THIS IS WHY DONALD TRUMP IS OUR CURRENT PRESIDENT. Somehow they thought the clock would be turned back 80 years to another time, a period they view as the halcyon days of the United States. They can't change OR accept reality. And it shows.

[cilla4progress]

46. Exactly...

They see and feel everything they knew slipping away. What is it, by 2050 over half of Americans will be POC? Obama represented that to them. I'm sure that stat scared the bejeezus of them.

[DarleenMB]

16. We've been asleep at the wheel.

THAT is what is wrong with "us." The silent majority, that great behemoth of a boogeyman, has finally been roused from slumber. All of us have sat silently by while Congress devolved into a paid-for mouthpiece of the corporatocracy. We bitched and kvetched among ourselves and did ... nothing.

Some of us, like myself, were roused when Dubya took the WH. I spent years writing letters to the Editor, letters to my congress critters, letters to whoever I could think of.

With Obama I finally was able to relax.

And then this.

Well I'm damned tired. It's high time the rest of the sane Citizenry got up off their backsides and did their (too little too late) due diligence. I expect everyone to keep it up or we are finished as a country.

Once the dust settles, there can be no more slacking off. It is going to take constant reminders to our "representatives" that they are in DC to REPRESENT us not RULE us.

/rant

[dalton99a]

17. Mackerel are useful

and tasty

[littlemissmartypants]

30. Agreed. eom

[PatSeg]

18. I've known people like Trump

We all have, but without the money, fame, and celebrity, they end up being the annoying guy at the end of the bar that most people, particularly women, try to avoid. Give any one of those losers the public platform and money that Trump has, they might run for public office too.

So yes, the question is "what is wrong with us" or at least the 63 million people who saw what he was and thought he should be president. He never pretended to anything other than the crude, vulgar, dishonest, misogynistic creep that he is. We have some really serious problems in this country, Trump is only a symptom.

[cilla4progress]

48. Goes to show

You have enough money you are teflon.

Maybe that is the genius of trump's comment that he could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot someone and no one would do anything about it.

[PatSeg]

55. Then threaten to sue anyone

who opposes you or tries to get in your way. A nasty bully with money and shyster lawyers. Even if he doesn't have the money he claims he has, he pretends convincingly to his base and they buy it.

[cilla4progress]

57. What kills me

Is this is an old story. We should have seen it coming.

Hans Christian Anderson wrote The Emporer's New Clothes in 1837 FFS!

[rocktivity]

19. The majority of "us" didn't vote him in, the electoral college did.

So you don't have to like him.


rockivity

[yellowdogintexas]

61. he had to carry enough individual states in order to win enough EC votes

however the existence of the EC and its position in an election is what won the election for him.

[jmbar2]

20. Absolutely brilliant!

Nailed it perfectly.

[BainsBane]

21. That is really the question

[malaise]

22. The problem with blaming the American people is that history will prove

they stole it

[tomp]

33. we can see right now that somewhere around 30% of the country....

...continues to support this travesty of a president/administration.

A considerably larger percentage continue to support the travesty that is the republican party and its agenda.

That is a fact that cannot be ignored, even if Hillary were to have won. The final electoral tally is not the real point here. The real point is that the forces of sanity and progress are locked in mortal combat with people who are either racist/misogynist/outright fascist or just plain ignorant and highly susceptible to propaganda.

[malaise]

34. +1,000

and don't forget their leaders and financiers

[gordianot]

24. I suspect I know what is wrong.

You make a good case.

[ladym55]

25. We need to address the elephant in the room and Pitts takes it head on

As Charlie Pierce says, "It's never about race." Yes, well.

I read somewhere that not all people who voted for Trump were racist, BUT every racist voted for Trump.

[cwydro]

26. Kick. nt

[skylucy]

27. Yep.

[misanthrope]

29. Bingo

This election unsettled my belief in our capacity for self-governance more than any I've ever experienced. I just can't fathom that enough Americans were utterly fooled by such a transparent grotesquerie of a candidate. The only answer is that they didn't care which means they have betrayed the trust given to them in our framework.

[tomp]

35. agreed. nt

though we cannot ignore the effectiveness of propaganda. it actually works on many democrats as well.

the 24/7 promotion of "the system" is hard to resist.

[cilla4progress]

49. Awesome

Between that and the discrediting / underfunding of education, the goose was cooked!

[mdbl]

36. The question is legitimate

Why are we putting people in office that just want to serve themselves, not the public. It's a question all Americans should ask themselves. Unfortunately, half this country lacks introspect.

[jehop61]

37. No

I will not accept this negative view of me! I didn't vote for this not did 65 million more of those like me. Don't lump us with the ignorant and racist and misogynist people who support tRump. Mr Pitts, talk to us, the intelligent and progressive voters. We will prevail eventually.

[Juliusseizure]

39. Prejudging a large group - Need more info.

The question "what's wrong with us" assumes that everyone who voted for Trump was in that "basket of deplorables."

That's a judgement that 63 million are racist, anti-immigrant, bigoted white lemmings, which then translates into calling them all immoral "deplorable".

I'll assume there's a healthy percentage that qualify as just that, but are we ignoring issues of national and party identity? I can't think of another country that would vote in a member of a minority that represents only 13.2% of the population.

Is that pure racism, or could there be some overlap with an uneasy feeling of loss of identity, i.e., " I don't feel American anymore because the president is from a different minority." Isn't that a different issue?

Then there's party identity which also aligns with self identity. Joe Scarborough just renounced his party affiliation. He's obviously educated, well-informed, not overtly racist, moral, seems rational. So that's great, but he stayed Republican through Bush/Cheney supply side deregulation catastrophes and 8 years of Republican/libertarian treachery? McCain is still a Republican.

[ananda]

40. Well ..

I've thought for a long time that Americans either
overtly or tacitly hold fascism as part of our psychic
makeup.

Otherwise, why are we tolerating 45 and the Reeps,
along with all their election shenanigans?

And don't give me that rule of law, play nice, bullshit.

Some rules are better broken than observed.

[The Wielding Truth]

41. We are caught in a Russian wormhole. Led in by a life long greedy gangster conman.

It's time to get out and the truth will set us free. Crack down on all lies.

[Nitram]

42. some people voted for Trump for economic reasons, some voted for him because they are

racist, other because they are xenophobic, and some voted for him for all those reasons.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

44. We need radio stations that have "real news." It would be worth every penny. It doesn't need to be

"Left" because the people we might possibly reach in the middle will never swallow that. My brother, who is a life-long Repub. (but didn't vote for Trump) believes the more main-stream news outlets but not MSNBC. I think there is a sizable number of people who would believe a main-stream news outlet on the radio. I would be willing to invest in that - the small amount that I could afford. A "little people-powered" radio station -much like how Obama and Dean raised money for their campaigns. Then, have some billionaire investors throw in.

[cilla4progress]

45. No statistics at hand to back this up

But I believe also those who wanted an outsider did, too - an extreme outsider. These would be those offended by the political correctness of inclusivity and diversity. Many felt dispossessed in one way or another. Last gasp of the neanderthals? We just have to outlast them.

[Hekate]

50. KnR

[floWteiuQ]

53. Fair point

He makes an important point about who "We the people" actually are. This includes those that didn't vote!

[IronLionZion]

54. What's the solution?

There is a vast right wing conspiracy that controls hate radio, fake news, opinions pretending to be news, and even a foreign government hacking our country's computers to influence our election. This country has gotten very divided between urban and rural, liberal and conservative.

And while rural conservatives will suffer under Trump's policies and failed promises to bring back coal mining and factory jobs, they will continue to blame immigrants and poor people.

How do we fix this? This country used to be more liberal and it was a value to care about each other. The other side has spent decades pushing national thought towards the right.

[yellowdogintexas]

62. This: the past 25 years of negativity about Hillary which was everywhere

and pretty much constant especially when she was seeking office. Once she was in, she was quite popular.

Also: the culpability of the media in general during the entire campaign from primaries/caucuses up to Nov 8. Billions of $$ in free advertising for Trump because he was such a clown show that he upped their ratings. Only mention of Hillary was generally negative and brief.

After the conventions, no panel discussions or anything regarding the platforms, goals, opinions, proposals for both sides. I believe that if there had been pro/con newspanels contrasting and comparing the candidates, more folks who would normally have voted for her would not have stayed home, which would have made a huge difference in WI, MI and PA.

Where was the media we are seeing now (exception: Rachel and Lawrence and Joy) during the entire year of 2016???