The historically incurious Donald Trump, who understands nothing about Abraham Lincoln, tells a crowd in Fredericksburg, Virginia, last night that he represents “the party of Abraham Lincoln.” Reaching for Lincolnesque rhetoric, Trump told black voters in Dimondale, Michigan, Friday that they should vote for him because, “What the hell do you have to lose?”
Trump appears to have nothing to lose with black voters: on top of alienating women, Muslims, Latinos, folks with disabilities, and military voters, Trump is losing the black vote to Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. Yet Trump tells Fredericksburg, “I want a totally inclusive country and I want an inclusive party” and insists to Dimondale that in 2020, “I can get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you.”
Donald Trump is a demonstrably bigger liar than anyone else running for President this year, but dwindling but dangerously large voter base does not care. The Dunning-Kruger effect is running rampant among angry white Americans who their supremacy is more important than truth. David Newquist explains why there’s no reasoning with Trumpists:
It is because he tells the lies that his adherents prefer to believe. The anti-intellectual faction cultivated by the Republican party cherishes and takes pride in its ignorance and its inability and refusal to handle factual information. Social scientists have studied this mentality over the years. When people’s beliefs in false facts are challenged, rather than examine them, they feel threatened, reject any conflicting information, and lock down on their preferred beliefs. Appeals to reason with verifiable facts makes them cling to their false notions more desperately [David Newquist, “Electing Trump President Would Be Like Passing out Loaded Guns as Favors at a Baby Party,” Northern Valley Beacon, 2016.08.18].
Trump is not about inclusion, not of blacks, and not of facts. Trump is about rage, entitlement, and unneighborliness. Trump is not the candidate of Lincoln; Trump is exactly the kind of mob-stirrer who Lincoln said poses the greatest danger to our republic, and whom Lincoln said we can only thwart by being “united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent.”
Related Reading: Abraham Lincoln might take the path of Daniel Akerson, former General Motors chief, Navy veteran, and lifelong supporter of Republican Presidential nominees until now:
The compelling rationale behind this decision: leadership. A good leader must demonstrate such qualities as competence, integrity, empathy, character and temperament. Hillary Clinton has these essential qualities. Donald Trump does not [Daniel Akerman, “I’ve Always Voted Republican. Until Now,” Washington Post, 2016.08.17].
Could it be possible, even in a red state like South Dakota, that Williams is making Thune nervous? Thune is now out saying that the federal name change to Black Elk was an overstep into states rights (what a dummy). To further endear himself to right wing racist fire breathers here in the state, he has come to this. I wonder if Williams may be getting to his internal numbers by hammering at him for his blind support for a madman. Williams may be putting a chink in the teflon.
vacationing in iowa, it is apparent that my hard-core dems, an MD and therapist spouse, too, have deep or lingering doubts about the Clintons. apparently bill hit on her in an elevator and her husband had to intervene in 2004 at a Des Moines New Years eve bash, and then in the elevator later still in Des Moines, the Hillary staffers were lambasting their and her hate for “boring iowa”.
the iowans also seem concerned that trump is actually a democrat and that bill inappropriately met with the US AG. The friendships with trump’s daughter, too and wedding attendance are all a part of the trump/Clinton conspiracy theory.
it all sounds like republican red herrings to me. effectively confusing dems, albeit.
Trump’s “what the hell do you have to lose” strategy may gain him some support among the people of color who have been left behind by the Obama economy. Trump already had the whites in that category. He has already alienated so many people of color that there is a limit to how much support he can pick up, but he may approach the percentage of that vote that Romney got in his losing bid. So standing alone it’s not a winning strategy. We’ll see if Trump’s new campaign manager is a one-trick pony and whether the candidate can stick to the script.
On the Democratic side, Hillary is looking low energy. Maybe that’s just because here in SD we don’t get the benefit of seeing her swing state advertising blitz. Or maybe she needs to get on the offense more. I don’t know.
jerry-http://www.keloland.com/news/article/news/governor-says-state-won-t-fight-renaming-of-harney-peak
and…
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/thune-rein-in-federal-board-after-harney-peak-renaming/article_2b31eee4-5054-5f46-87a5-112570aad428.html
thune and daugaard’s lawyers and staff have taken a last minute look at appeal-type options and have found this ” board of bureaucrats waving a wand” spot -on, and have been confronted with the fact that their thug boot approach has not cowed people of good conscience.
SD can easily get behind the change and make lemonade for Indian tourism which could be the next big wave of tourism economy in the state. doofusses!
we would be so much better off with out thune/daugaard/trump-types in office. partisan hacks and capitalistic pigs!!
The New Yorker has an article that details further Trump’s denial of science: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trumps-anti-science-campaign
As one who was raised in a Lincoln Republican household in Illinois (there was a bust of Lincoln in the living room), I chafe at the fraud of the contemporary GOP calling itself the party of Lincoln. It neither espouses or practices anything that reflects the values and the purposes of Lincoln. For Trump to invoke Lincoln is the ultimate desecration of what America is at its best.
Trump’s new strategist plucked from Breitbart, Stephen Bannon, has the look of a hard-drinking man. Those of you who have been involved with statewide campaigns and bigger know his type – some old lech telling war stories over whisky cokes, getting the young female volunteers drunk on Jager or tequilla shots. Bannon will be as difficult to control as Trump.
What the hell do people have to lose by voting for Trump? A Washington Post story tackles this subject and points out that Trump courting black voters maybe really about not looking so racist to white voters:
“As a final note, at first glance it might seem odd for Trump to go to a nearly all-white community to declare how much he cares for African Americans. Well, it is doubtful that he or his advisers think they are going to do much better with African Americans than they are now. But, plainly, his divisiveness and association with racial bigots bother a lot of white voters. They view him as intolerant and hostile to nonwhite Americans. Many are embarrassed to support him for precisely this reason. This is Trump’s way of telling white voters, Look! I’m not so bad! I love African Americans!”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/08/21/heres-what-african-americans-have-to-lose-if-trump-is-elected/?utm_term=.0a25e751a30c
He loves African-Americans, like he demonstrated at one rally when he said “Oh, look at my African American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest? Do you know what I’m talking about?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/us/politics/donald-trump-african-americans.html?_r=0
Shortly before Trump asked “what the hell do you have to lose” he hired a man, Stephen Bannon, as his campaign CEO, that was accused of running meetings that “sounded like a white supremacist rally.” So, ya, maybe hiring a white supremacist as your campaign manager is not great optics in the background of reaching out to African-Americans.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/breitbart-staffer-powerhouse-politics-bannon-ran-meetings-sounded/story?id=41493955
We have seen Trump before but we thought it was just a movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dicfa65I2E
From Jerry’s link to the A Face in the Crowd trailer: “I’m not just an entertainer. I’m an influencer, a wielder of opinion, a force!”
Wow—good connection, Jerry!
…and, “They’re mine! I own ’em! They think like I do! They’re even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for ’em!”
Andy Griffith in 1957 is scary as Trump.
In the film, Griffith’s character Rhodes is ruined by his discoverer and lover Marcia, who leaves a mic open and broadcasts Rhodes calling his audience “idiots, morons, and guinea pigs.” Melania? Ivanka? Help us out, here!
Cal Thomas noted the Trump/Rhodes parallel in September 2015.
T’rump is to Lincoln
As
Saddam Husein is to Peace Prize
What do you have to lose with Trump if you are Black?
How about freedom from housing discrimination based on the fact that you are black?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/donald-trump-blacks-lawsuit_n_855553.html
How about a president who is familiar with the evils of the KKK and David Duke and disavows them in no uncertain terms?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/28/politics/donald-trump-white-supremacists/
Putin is now measuring the curtains at Palin’s camp in Alaska. He figures if his boy Trump gets the nod, Russia can get Alaska back like they are reclaiming the Crimea. Sarah just loves her hunk of a feller Putin, who she can stalk from her window seat. What really makes America grate again, is the grinding of the teeth while listening to Trump and his surrogates blather. Greek meaning: The Greek phrase for “gnashing of teeth,” literally means “grinding one’s teeth together.” When combined with “weeping,” it can be compared to hitting one’s thumb with a hammer, squeezing the eyes closed and grinding the teeth together hard in reaction to the pain. Weeping and gnashing of teeth in Scripture, however, is much more dreadful, partly because it lasts for eternity. Lets hope not, get off your arse’s and vote folks.
Trump and his campaign are a classic study of artifice and stratagem. I’ve never witnessed, either in person or in public,that is so mesmerizingly plastic and artificial.
Newsweek has this article about the connection between Trump and the religious organizations and they are like most of us, how in the hell did they become so enamored with the likes of this fraud? http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-god-christianity-evangelicals-492385?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Trump-s-Problem-With-God&utm_campaign=newsweek_email_newsletter