Why the Trump campaign is pushing the idea that Hillary is America's Merkel (put on your respirator)

[Native]

Inside the Fetid Trump Campaign White Nationalist/Russian Propaganda Hate Bubble. (put on yr respirator) - http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/mapping-the-trump-hate-bubble … via @TPM

A few days ago the Trump camp started pushing the idea that Hillary Clinton was "America's Merkel", a reference to longserving German Chancellor Angela Merkel, by many measures one of the more successful European politicians of the post-war era. Trump even personally started pushing the Twitter hashtag "#AmericasMerkel. When I started seeing this my first thought was, "How many Americans do they think have even heard of Angela Merkel, let alone see her as some awful figure in a way that tying her to Clinton would send chills down people's spines?" For better or worse, Putin is super high profile. Netanyahu is high profile. For your average American? Merkel is not high profile.

The answer's obvious. But it didn't occur to me until I read this very smart piece by ThinkProgress's Alice Ollstein. Merkel is now a big, big deal (in a bad way) on alt-right and white supremacist websites where she's become the poster-girl for feckless politician's who are betraying the white race. Merkel led the way on pushing an generous refugee policy vis a vis the refugee crisis emerging from Syria. It's certainly not that no one in the US knows about this. But presidential campaigns are mass audience affairs. And this is where it's big. This is where it's dynamite to make Hillary Clinton into "America's Merkel."

It's not surprising. We've seen numerous instances and evidence and examples of how the Trump campaign is awash in the world of alt-right and white nationalist Internet culture, memes and ideas.

And then there's this.

....

[bench scientist]

1. interesting take.

[Native]

2. When I first saw #AmericasMerkel on Trump's twitter page, I was like "whaaat????"

My first thought was, "Why would they be complementing Hillary?" My next thought was, "That doesn't make sense." My third thought was, "Do his supporters even know who Merkel is?" And then I remembered that in Trump's foreign policy speech, he actually mispronounced her name, so it's likely that he didn't even know who she is. Bottom line, my brain was starting to melt.

Thanks to Marshall, it all makes sense now!

[bench scientist]

4. lol, very little of this election makes sense.

But I agree that Trump's ties to the far Right Neo Nazi movement makes the most sense. I only hope for a landslide rebuke so harsh he slinks away for good. And more importantly , his unhinged followers do not hurt anyone.

[Gothmog]

3. Who cares?

[Native]

5. 'cause taken in tandem with his "I am who I am"/new hires/Russia, & this doubling-down on appealing

to white supremacists, it is like totally coming out of the closet. His campaign can't be denying nothin' no more because we're beyond the "think versus know" point. The article also goes into Manafort's erroneous comment about a NATO base in Turkey being under terrorist attack - how &quot the) 'story', albeit fake, got a huge amount of push from Russia Today and the Russian alt-propaganda network Sputnik News that (Marshall) wrote about yesterday."

Puzzle pieces. That's what this is.

[bench scientist]

6. precisely this.

Trump and his"advisors" are spouting pro Russian/ anti-american and Neo-Nazi hate group talking points.