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Newquist: Clinton Seeks Understanding and Solutions, Trump Seeks More Rage

David Newquist agrees with Hillary Clinton and with me that the reasons many people support Donald Trump are deplorable.

Masses of people stood up and cheered Trump’s denunciations of people. More than that,  a major political party elected him candidate for the U.S. presidency. When a candidate for president openly and brazenly promises discrimination and oppression against large groups of people, sucks up to an ex-KGB agent who invades neighboring countries and employs totalitarianism as a demonstration of strength, and vows to blow other nations to smithereens, he reverses the quest for freedom, equality, and justice that has defined American progress. Donald Trump is a declared enemy of the traits that have defined American character. And half of America, give or take a few points, supports him [David Newquist, “A Lovely Bunch of Deplorables: A Nation in the Process of Falling,” Northern Valley Beacon, 2016.09.14].

Dr. Newquist recognizes that Clinton is trying to understand and solve our national problems, which include the rage harbored by many Americans (so many, Trump would rattle on if he were making this statement, really so many, it’s true, believe me), while Trump only stokes the screaming:

Hillary Clinton’s remarks contained something that the media, in its rage to foment conflict, has largely ignored. She tried to get at some reasons that Trump has gained support. She tried to deal with why. Trump is only interested in agitating the disaffections of people into further rage, not in solving the problems and circumstances that cause their rage [Newquist, 2016.09.14].

We need to elect a President genuinely interested in solving problems. America cannot settle for anything less.

10 Comments

  1. Darin Larson 2016-09-15 09:25

    mfi, that is a good read from GQ. There are so many examples of his un-American views and behavior that you can lose track of it all. It is information overload and the public just becomes numb to it. As an example of this, the latest poll shows independents favoring Trump by 3 points over Clinton.

    The news media is focused on a few emails that should not have been on HRC’s private server while giving faint coverage to the latest outrageous statement from Trump. Interestingly to me, State Department emails were hacked and Colin Powell’s private emails were hacked. The only email that has not been proven to have been hacked is HRC’s. Maybe it was hacked, but having the information on the State Department servers does not appear to have been more secure.

    The 176 reasons in the GQ article are by no means a comprehensive list of reasons why Trump should not be president. Trump has also stated that he would fire all of the generals and replace them. I’m all for accountability, but a wholesale firing of the generals is what happens in a 3rd world country when the new strongman comes in and consolidates power. Trump has also talked about restricting the freedom of the press, banning Muslims, and denied knowing who David Duke was and failed to disavow the KKK’s support.

  2. bearcreekbat 2016-09-15 11:19

    I was surprised to see the AP recognize and report on the Trump campaign strategy of “projection” in today’s RC Journal. It seems the campaign has decided to listen to Trump and then falsely assert that whatever stupid or asinine positions Trump espouses are really Hillary’s positions. We seem to have come almost full circle with what we used call the truth or actual facts. Today much of our political reporting seems to be enthralled with the Trump campaign’s “I know you are but what an I” tactics.

  3. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-09-15 12:11

    Bear, is that this article?

    http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/trump-tries-to-repurpose-clinton-s-attacks-against-her/article_8b1f66a6-ed66-52a8-aaa3-abd31f8936e8.html

    We’ve seen that projection from Trump and other Republicans. We need the press to write more passages like this from AP’s Jill Colvin:

    In the last few days, Trump and his campaign have repeatedly criticized Clinton for failing to provide specific policy proposals. That’s despite the fact that, by any measure, Trump has offered less detail on far fewer issues over the course of his campaign than Clinton, who has released so many policy proposals, her campaign published a book of them [Jill Colvin, “Trump Tries to Repurpose Clinton’s Attacks Against Her,” AP via Rapid City Journal, 2016.09.15].

    By any measure… that’s a useful phrase.

    In other news on RCJ’s site, Trump says he “didn’t like” the lack of diverstiy at the Republican National Convention. Memo to CEO Trump: when you are CEO and you don’t like something, you get to say “Change it,” and it gets changed.

  4. bearcreekbat 2016-09-15 13:08

    That’s the article Cory, although in my hard copy paper edition the Journal did not credit Colvin as the author.

  5. bearcreekbat 2016-09-15 16:17

    Cory, James Bouie of Slate makes the same “projection” observation.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/09/trump_s_campaign_against_clinton_is_an_exercise_in_projection.html

    In one example, Bouie quotes Trump:

    Our vision of hope stands in stark contrast to my opponent’s campaign of hate. Hillary Clinton has been running a hate-filled and negative campaign, with no policy, no solutions and no new ideas.
    By contrast, I’ve been going around the country offering very detailed plans for reform and change. All of these reform plans are available on our website, and they’re extensive, but we have no choice.

    Then Bouies points out:

    This is almost unbelievable. In his acceptance address to the Republican National Convention and in his recent speech to supporters in Phoenix, Trump painted a dark, dystopian picture of an America rendered prostrate by crime, violence, and disorder. In Trump’s America, “illegal immigrants” roam streets, killing innocents and destroying families. His is a country where all leaders are corrupt, all institutions are rigged, and he is the only savior.

    “Hate-filled and negative” is a straightforward description of Trump’s campaign, and it was especially apt in Asheville, where a Trump supporter attacked a protester.

    Likewise, the Trump campaign is notable for its indifference to public policy. Trump has little grasp of basic details and is unable to articulate—in any detail—his plans for anything on his agenda. Clinton, by contrast, has released a 300-page book dedicated to her policy agenda. Overall, according to the Associated Press, Trump’s campaign has released around 9,000 words in policy papers, compared with more than 112,000 from Clinton’s campaign.

    This is a compelling example of Trump projecting his pernicious attitudes.

  6. bearcreekbat 2016-09-15 17:18

    mfi – exactly!

  7. Darin Larson 2016-09-15 20:52

    Trump refused to answer today if he thought that President Obama was born in the US. He played coy again like back when he was asked about David Duke and the KKK. His poor campaign manager had just denied that Trump was a Birther within the last 24 hours. Don’t authoritarians often delegitimize the prior leader of a country?

  8. Adam 2016-09-16 01:34

    Donald Trump allows the conservative voting base to let their imagination run wild with their aimless ideology. In a lot of ways, he is actually is the perfect Republican candidate. That’s why he aggressively and totally destroyed every single Republican opponent he had to – in order to get where he is today.

    In a great many ways, Trump is who they are. And now they get to see what it looks like when their fantasy candidate gets stomped off the map because they’re in denial that the crap their political party has been peddling is putrid stinky turd, after turd, after turd, after turd… and so on. How many more turds will it take for the voter to learn that the GOP has been peddling crap and is perhaps beyond repair? I think it’s just a matter of time.

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