Ezra Klein says we should be very scared of Donald Trump

[zebonaut]

We need to stop laughing and so does the Media

[Bagsgroove]

1. Yeah

Ezra Klein is one of the brightest guys in journalism today. And he's absolutely right.

[world wide wally]

2. Trump has a 10 billion dollar firewall around everything he ever says or does.

He doesn't care what anybody says or thinks about him because he can just sail off into the sunset on his private yacht if he wants to.
This "independence" makes him attractive to most people because it exactly what we wish we could do. His fans believe this is "courage" so they conflate spite and rudeness with honesty.

[chapdrum]

13. Think you've hit right on it, www.

If he is nominated, and wins the GE, I predict that he will not take office.

He's having the time of his life, spewing his contemporaneous bs.

He CLEARLY has no interest in the nuts and bolts of governance (which of course he shares with
people like him).

Either he will back out at the very last minute, or the GOP "brain" trust will find a way to excise him (even at the risk
of flouting that pesky Constitution).

[tblue37]

23. More like 4 billion, and much of it is not liquid--i.e., not easily accessible as cash.

Nevertheless, I don't doubt that it is enough for him to ignore anyone that would try to rein him in, especially since the media provides him with endless amounts of free advertisng, so he doesn't have to spend his own money for it.

He has damaged his commercial brand, of course, but he has enough of a cushion to not care. Besides, if he becomes president, he will have ways to redeem his brand afterwards and to bring in a lot of money, as the Clintons have shown.

[Neon Gods]

3. I am scared of Donald Trump

I'm scared because Americans in general have become complacent and even ignorant about reality. We've been told what a great country we are for so long that we've assumed we always will be.

We have forgotten that being number one isn't automatic, one must work hard to stay on top, to keep progressing. We've become lazy and silly, preferring hours of cat videos to reading about politics and economics. We listen only to thise people who tell us what we want to hear. (An admission. I have cats and love cat videos)

[tblue37]

24. The starstruck voters in CA showed how easily a GOP celebrity can be elected even in

a state where Dems normally have a huge advantage.

In his book American Fascists Chris Hedges points out that political success is largely a matter of just showing up. The GOP base shows up. They vote, and they work the refs by pressuring the media when instructed to. For the most part, Dem voters don't. They show up only for the GE in presidential election years, and not even reliably for that sometimes. Even when they do show up, many probably vote for the president and VP, but not for downticket races. They don't vote reliably during midterms, and they ignore local and state races.

Furthermore, Dems don't even contest a lot of races, especially at the local asnd state level, and the party "leaders" often don't support Dems who run in races at any level. Nor do our deep pocket Dems fund activists, media outlets, and think tanks the way the GOP moneybags do.

Most Americans are left of center or even significantly leftist, but they don't even know it because they have been so successfuly propagandized by the right wing, and way too many of those who do know they are liberals just don't "show up."

[jeff47]

4. One only needs to remember Governor Schwarzenegger to realize Trump is a threat. (nt)

[chapdrum]

14. Indeed...

it's just another gig to these types.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

20. But way worse.

Schwarzenegger came off as a bored, typecast actor looking for a political hobby. Same could be said about Ventura. Perhaps the same could be said about Reagan, too.

Trump ups the game when it comes to celebrity novelty candidates. He's a raging pathological narcissist.

[NoMoreRepugs]

5. This T-Rump moment may become the defining moment in our history going forward..

if he's electable than anything or anyone is possible - and I mean that in the WORST way possible.

be afraid, be VERY afraid - this is no joke America

[zebonaut]

6. The Media led him here with FREE airtime; and a FREE pass of No Hard Questions

Last edited Thu Feb 25, 2016, 01:27 AM - Edit history (1)

He is just a Brute playing a Billion Dollar games because Billionaires have that Luxury

[pandr32]

18. This!

Exactly!
The "no hard questions" free pass applies to all the Republican candidates. Some serious vetting would have kept most of them out of the running.
We have begun to treat election cycles like entertainment reality shows--not seriously at all.
In Canada the whole election from beginning to end lasts only a couple of months--not endless drama. What is news these days? We do not have serious news that gives us accurate information about anything that is going in the world or here in the U.S.
It is disgraceful.

[tblue37]

25. The fact that the print versions of our once viable "news magazines" put out

newsworthy covers and cover stories for their international editions, but fluff covers and stories for their US editions is evidence of how dumbed down our "news" is here in the US.

[Bad Dog]

7. Everyone thought Hitler was a joke.

Until he became chancellor.

[LiberalLovinLug]

8. He takes advantage of one of America's greatest weaknesses

The love of celebrity. He even had a show with a version of it with the name "celebrity" in it. Through that he became a yuuuuuuuge celebrity himself. Paris Hilton's show, The Simple Life, where she and fellow rich kid Nichole Richie travel the US making fun of the little people was one of the first, followed soon by the Kardashians, Real housewives of whereever, and many other shows glorifying the uber wealthy, where how rich they were, how much leisure time they had to go shopping or holidaying or start their own perfume or clothing lines, made them must-watch celebrities somehow.

I am fascinated with that social phenom while being appalled at the same time. The power of being on TV, together with a great theme song, and flashy graphics, careful production, and manufactured drama. Even the fact that reality contestants, say on past Survivor episodes, become celebrities themselves to new Survivor contestants. whacky. Elizabeth Hasselbeck did quite nicely simply because of exposure on that Tee Vee show.

Ronald Reagan had this same advantage, though not nearly as yuuuuuuge (sorry) as the Don's, but same principle. Americans have somehow been conditioned to believe that the more time they see a person on their TV screens, the more "real" they are. The more respected they should be. In some ways this also applies to Hillary's advantage over Bernie.

[zebonaut]

9. If Trump is Elected; he will without doubt Use Nuclear Weapons

even if its in the Middle East; at some point they will retaliate and destroy one of OUR cities

[left-of-center2012]

10. So many voters will be turned off

Trump may win in November because many voters will just stay home.

[zebonaut]

11. Lets make sure voters DON'T stay at home

Trump is just a Jackass with 500 Billion Dollars

[spooky3]

12. Everyone should watch this; it's well done.

[chapdrum]

15. He's the new ultimate Republican.

Supplanting Cheney.

In my lifetime, the party's mentality has metastasized to the point where not just Trump's party must take him seriously, but so
of course must the rest of us.

What a f*cking imposition, and for what?

A cheap mockery of our country.

[Cosmocat]

19. I was a young adult in the 90s

and remember being absolutely flumoxed how they had such deranged hatred of Clinton.

I have seen three stages of de evolution of their party.

First, I remember being in the gym with them piping in Rush Limbaugh in the early 90s, and thinking, "WTF are all these limousine liberals this idiot is babbling about?" I mean, I never had met anyone who was the evil POS he ranted about.

But, in the 90s, the made SOME pretense to package their bullshit into "principles."

So, while I knew it was completely counterinutitive, the had some psuedo intellectual rationale to justify their gay bashing, etc.

Second, When they got the moron elected and he slept threw 9-11, they got lazy. They moved away from trying to have some kind of mental construct for their bullshit and just bullied everyone by challenging their patriotism or enabling the terrorists if they didn't agree with them, and you CAN'T QUESTION THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF WHILE TROOPS ARE IN THE FIELD!

That all came to a screeching halt, and they third de evolution initiated on the day BHO won the presidency.

From that time until now they ginned themselves into such a white hot rage toward BHO they just scream and should vile things with no care or concern for reality or truth, no concern about consistency or if they are even contradicting what they said a moment earlier.

My entire life they convinced themselves they were right because 1) they speak for our sainted forfathers 2) they speak for god.

Now, they truly believe it while at the same time having absolutely no self awareness or personal honesty.

They are simply angry, childish idiots.

And, Trump is their big tent candidate.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

16. I don't see him as scarier than Cruz or Rubio

[radhika]

17. We should be more afraid of our fellow Americans....

They are the ones making him the front runner, drooling and snickering at his crudity, xenophobia, torture, racist references. These American are heavily armed and have contempt for the very existence of people that don't think or look like them. And they've been enlarging their base and it's political footprint for decades.

Trump offers an 'accepted' conduit for pure grunt-level atavism and tribalism. And they like it.

For the first time in my life, I am seriously thinking I need to have a personal firearm. Anything can happen at this point - and it won't come from outside this nation.

[EdificeWrecks]

21. Res Ipsa Loquitur

[link:|

[chapdrum]

22. That's it!

The Republican frontrunner, reincarnated.

As others have pointed out, Hitler also was not taken seriously.

Am still waiting for corporate media to bring this charming simile to our attention.

Thank you, and welcome to DU.

[lapfog_1]

26. Trump might be the fascist Mussolini

but Cruz is the dictator racist fascist Hitler

[Jefferson23]

28. Totally, he is the one I do not want to see win. Although I think we could beat him easier than

we can Trump should he win the nomination. Not all conservatives like his racist shit
brand of politics.

[99th_Monkey]

27. Trumps bedtime reader is the Collected Speeches of Adolph Hitler

according to one of his ex-wifes.