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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNoam Chomsky on Trump: "We Should Recognize the Other Candidates Are Not That Different"
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/32555-noam-chomsky-on-trump-qwe-should-recognize-the-other-candidates-are-not-that-differentqAMY GOODMAN: After his talk, Professor Chomsky read and answered questions from the audience. This is one of those questions.
NOAM CHOMSKY: "What do you think about the antics of Donald Trump, in tangent to your earlier idea about American exceptionalism?"
Well, actually, I think we should recognize that the other candidates are not that different. I mean, if you take a look atjust take a look at their views. You know, they tell you their views, and theyre astonishing. So just to keep to Iran, a couple of weeks ago, the two front-runnerstheyre not the front-runners any longerwere Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. And they differed on Iran. Walker said we have to bomb Iran; when he gets elected, theyre going to bomb Iran immediately, the day hes elected. Bush was a littleyou know, hes more serious: He said hes going to wait 'til the first Cabinet meeting, and then they'll bomb Iran. I mean, this is just off the spectrum of not only international opinion, but even relative sanity.
This isI think Ornstein and Mann are correct: Its a radical insurgency; its not a political party. You can tell that even by the votes. I mean, any issue of any complexity is going to have some diversity of opinion. But when you get a unanimous vote to kill the Iranian deal or the Affordable Care Act or whatever the next thing may be, you know youre not dealing with a political party.
Its an interesting question why thats true. I think whats actually happened is that during the whole so-called neoliberal period, last generation, both political parties have drifted to the right. Todays Democrats are what used to be called moderate Republicans. The Republicans have just drifted off the spectrum. Theyre so committed to extreme wealth and power that they cannot get votes, cant get votes by presenting those positions. So what has happened is that theyve mobilized sectors of the population that have been around for a long time. It is a pretty exceptional country in many ways. One is its extremely religious. Its one of the most extreme fundamentalist countries in the world. And by now, I suspect the majority of the base of the Republican Party is evangelical Christians, extremists, nottheyre a mixture, but these are the extremist ones, nativists who are afraid that, you know, "they are taking our white Anglo-Saxon country away from us," people who have to have guns when they go into Starbucks because, who knows, they might get killed by an Islamic terrorist and so on. I mean, all of that is part of the country, and it goes back to colonial days. There are real roots to it. But these have not been an organized political force in the past. They are now. Thats the base of the Republican Party. And you see it in the primaries. So, yeah, Trump is maybe comic relief, but its just aits not that different from the mainstream, which I think is more important.
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