Party elites who stick closely to safe-sounding, poll tested soundbites and chunks of meaningless pablum.

Trump taps into the zetigeist of people who are tired of this. He says something and the beltway gatekeepers go "but but butbutbut you cant say that!" ....And instead of going on a 3 week apology tour, he turns around and goes "heyyyyy... fuck you" and says something even more egregious.

It's extremely entertaining to people tired of business as usual, and until he says something that actually does alienate a large portion of his base, or otherwise implodes (both very real possibilities, mind you) a good chunk of the voting public will eat it up.

He just doesn't get called out on them

I actually like this one:

[link:

of a sense of common decency and justice, but just like Americabn Idol, they will simply become fatigued with his constant coverage and spiteful intensity. I can't imagine how people could tolerate this windbag every day for four plus years, and soon they will realize that.

to worry about his actually getting into the real meat of the campaign. He'll probably quit when it gets real.

but of course a huge number loved everything he had to say.

All in the Family made it OK to feel "that way." Then came Reagan and it was OK to be out in the open about it.



Until Obama, it felt like "official policy," killing in the name of freedem and demockrussee.

HUMANS have a predilection for Fascism. It provides simple answers to complex questions, and absolves people of collective guilt.

Remember, Berlusconi was elected more than once. We're dumb as fuck, but we're not alone.

Although fascism can take so-called left- or right-wing governing forms, social scientists say fascism is a conservative phenomenon. A hard-right conservative phenomenon.

Looking at it in action, Mussolini dissolved Italy's representative government and replaced it with a board of business executives. He also suppressed groups that Italy's social conservatives who supported him wanted didn't like. Persecution of selected minority groups is a characteristic of every fascist government studied.

As for liberals, Benito Mussolini once explained that they were incompatible with fascism because liberalism is the individual, fascism is the state. (Probably paraphrased slightly).

Although our right wingers do try to project fascism as liberal (it is seen as a bad word, even if most don't know what it means), one guess whose leaders are jailed and executed as necessary during the establishment of fascist governments.

Why is Scott Walker popping into my head as I write...?

when I said fascism was a human phenomenon, did I say EVERY human?

you're quibbling.

subtype that has now been IDENTIFIED and studied for the first time in history. This is HUGE! And continually fascinating for those who have studied it in college or read about it and observe this election with open eyes.

These people are not sociopaths. They're normal, but just of a type that is capable of doing terrible things to their fellow man under the wrong leadership. They are the people who chose Hitler in Germany and then unquestioningly followed all orders from their chosen leader.

BUT they are a minority (mercifully!) and could never have elected him if millions of their fellow citizens who mistakenly also voted for him knew then what we know now.

http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf

BTW, because they are not sociopaths, authoritarians are capable of learning and reining in their behavior, just like anyone else, and of recognizing attempts by would-be leaders to inflame and harness their tendency to hostility and aggression toward others.

I don't know what the person you were talking to originally will do, but I, for one, will read it.

...is that they're not so much born as they are made. People who are raised to be scared of things tend to become more authoritarian. When those same people are put in contact with people they've been told to despise, their authoritarian personalities tend to fade along with their fear.

I think we all fall somewhere on that authoritarian spectrum, and our position on it isn't fixed at all.

are authoritarian to some degree. A majority can move more that way somewhat under the wrong circumstances, but even in the worst situations there will always be large blocks who are shocked and horrified at what they see happening.

One key feature of authoritarians is that -- once they have chosen a leader for themselves whom they want to follow -- they not only turn their decision-making responsibilities over to that leader, but they effectively also turn their consciences over to that leader. Good followers are very loyal and steadfast. They've decided they and their leader are on the side of right, and they don't make trouble for the cause by questioning orders.

There really are tremendous differences between the kind who dutifully reported Jews to authorities in Germany -- because obeying authorities is what good citizens do -- and the kind who, at very least, did not.

likes to identify and call out "losers."

Trump does this for us, and those operating in that jr. high brain respond.

Trump has the ability to get the entire stupid / racist / homophobic / sexist / xenophobic / reality-TV loving vote and that is a LOT of people

it is NOT good for Democrats