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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCHARLES P. PIERCE: The Truth About This Alleged 'Basket of Deplorables'
The Truth About This Alleged 'Basket of Deplorables'
And the truth about the 2016 election: It's being graded on a curve.
........
Are we grading El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago, who doesn't know enough about any issue to throw to a cat, on a curve? The answer can be seen plainly enough in how everybody now is pretending that what HRC said isn't god's own truth, or how everybody is arguing that you can't say that stuff out loud because to do so is unkind to white people who are so concerned about unfair trade deals that they go to freaking Stormfront to argue about it. Talk about grading on a curve. There is an accomplished woman saying something everybody knows is true and there is a vulgar talking yam who apparently could set his own dick on fire and not pay much of a price for it on television. That is grading on the curve, but it's nothing new.
THERE IS A VULGAR TALKING YAM WHO APPARENTLY COULD SET HIS OWN DICK ON FIRE AND NOT PAY MUCH OF A PRICE FOR IT ON TELEVISION.
Hell, we've been grading Republicans on a curve for decades. We graded Reagan on a curve when he burbled about trees and air pollution. We graded him on a curve during Iran Contra on the grounds that he was too dim to know what was going on around him. We graded W on a curve for the whole 2000 campaign when he didn't know Utah from Uzbekistan, but Al Gore knew too much stuff and what fun was he, anyway? We graded Republicans on a curve when they attached themselves to the remnants of American apartheid, when they played footsie with the militias out west and with the heirs to the White Citizens Councils in the South. We graded them on a curve every time they won a campaign behind Karl Rove or Lee Atwater or the late Terry Dolan back in the 1970s. We talked about how they were "reaching out" to disillusioned white voters who'd suffered in the changing economy, as though African-American workers didn't get slugged harder than anyone else by deindustrialization. We pretended not to notice how racial animus was the accelerant for the fire of discontent in the "Reagan Democrats." That was, and is, grading on a moral curve.
We graded Republicans on a intellectual curve when they embraced a fundamentalist splinter of American Protestantism and brought themselves to a pass in which they are the 21st Century Know Nothings. They have followed movement conservatism to the point where they can ignore science and promote creationism and supply side economic foolishness simply because they can sell it to the same audiences that gobble up the red meat that's been marinating since George Wallace ran for president. Because they are graded on a curve, they can still claim to be shocked when the purist product of all of that work hijacks the nomination and gives the entire game away. Of course, Trump has been graded on a curve. If the electorate hadn't graded modern conservatism on an intellectual curve, it would've flunked out of Human College decades ago.
It is timidity now that grades this ridiculous man running this ridiculous campaign on the biggest curve of allthe timidity of a people who have declined the responsibilities of serious citizenship and the abdication of its duty under the Constitution of a putatively free press too timid to call them on it. That is the political correctness that truly is hurting the country and may yet hurt it beyond all repair. There's only one candidate now running however gingerly against that.
MORE:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a48506/basket-of-deplorables/
BumRushDaShow
(129,096 posts)Only ones calling this out is the print media and a tiny handful in television media (like Joy) who have so far been permitted to speak out just a bit (although generally relegated to offbeat time slots).
Sanity Claws
(21,849 posts)Last edited Mon Sep 12, 2016, 11:35 AM - Edit history (1)
Modern conservatism is devoid of any intellectual underpinnings and has been so for decades. Even when empirical evidence shows that supply side economics does not work, they still spout it. Why aren't the media hammering away at this? Probably because they are also intellectually deficient.
Edit - damn autocorrect. I did this posting by iPhone. I apparently misspelled empirical and autocorrect incorrectly changed it for me.
Hayduke Bomgarte
(1,965 posts)I believe they are paid/ordered not to.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Bravo to Charles Pierce!
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Bravo to Charles Pierce!
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Among the top ten most highly paid CEO's in America (or the world, maybe?), all are either pharma, holding companies (what the hell is that, even?) or telecommunications.
All the mainstream media the US are owned by a very few people.
They've got a monopoly and they like it that way.
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Yeah, I bet he fantasizes aas a kid about having mafia friends and shaking down smaller kids.... & businesses.
TonyPDX
(962 posts)Paladin
(28,264 posts)PatSeg
(47,501 posts)Excellent article.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)its not half,,, its more like 68%
I keep saying her biggest "fault" with the statement was being too generous.
whopis01
(3,514 posts)There are a huge amount of Trump's supporters that are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and Islamaphobic.
Why is anyone worried about offending this group of people? A good chunk of them wear those labels with pride. And the reality is that they are going to be vehemently against Clinton regardless of whether she calls them this or suggests they should be nominated for Nobel prizes.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)she didn't back down just correct the statement to it is not 50%,,,, yes us r right, she should call them out on this,,,, time for them to face teh music
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)I mean, not just votes, but enough people who will make their opinions known.
GODZ! What an opportunity to change some seriously dysfunctional cultural norms.
The different vantage point that most women have has been silenced for centuries, around the world.
This moment in history, Hilary, is a biiiiig fucking deal!
Geez.....the more I mean to put down my thoughts, the more they branch off to other corollary impacts sexism has always had, but been deeply tabooed to talk about.
Now that talk is coming out from behind classroom doors, kitchen doors, women's restroom doors right into the public square.
Wow! Think about that!!! !!!
bulloney
(4,113 posts)Wednesdays
(17,380 posts)"... free press too timid to call them on it."
The Press isn't too timid. Something else is afoot, and it has everything to do with money.
Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)We don't get 'news' any more. We get 'infotainment'. Look around, aside from perhaps Rachael and Joy, what 'news' people do we have? No Cronkites, no Huntley and Brinkley, no Edward R Murrow. We have a bunch of pretty people whose job is to lob softball questions and then listen to whatever shit comes back. No analysis, no push-back. Just provide 'equivalence'.
Bobble head: "Mr. Yam, what about sunrise?"
Mr. Yam: "Well, many people think that it a guy in a chariot pulled by horses, across the sky, and this guy is really, really bright. What I am hearing, and believe me I hear a lot, is that he is so bright that he lights up the whole world."
Bobble head: "Um-hum. And you, Mr. smarty-pants, what do you think?"
Mr. Smarty-Pants (who happens to be a world renowned astronomer) Say WHAT?"
Bobble head: "And there you have it folks. We report, you decide. Next up Kim Kardashian discusses plans for her upcoming news-making event."
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Painful, though.
Oy vey iss mir.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)They would love him more, especially if it was a minority.
Yallow
(1,926 posts)Cosmocat
(14,566 posts)nm
rivegauche
(601 posts)Fritz Walter
(4,291 posts)Dean George Reedy is beaming with pride at his protégé Charlie Pierce.
George Reedy, former press secretary to President Johnson. was dean at the College of Journalism when Charlie (and I) attended Marquette University.
I recall numerous occasions when I walked past Dean Reedy's office to catch a glimpse of him holding court, surrounded by budding journalists hanging on his every word. Me? I had classes to attend, bars to open/close/maintain in the meantime.
Well done, sir! Yours was time well-spent!
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Thanks for that. Looks interesting!
Pakid
(478 posts)He would have to have one first.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)he does that a lot
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Not bad looking, either!
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)Keith Olberman will be joining Charlie Pierce at Esquire. I look forward to some great articles from them.
niyad
(113,344 posts)WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)niyad
(113,344 posts)WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)Good but not the same.
niyad
(113,344 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Really????
WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)niyad
(113,344 posts)Denis 11
(280 posts)Coyotl
(15,262 posts)niyad
(113,344 posts)oh, I see the building is for sale, and they are having trouble offloading it. hmmmm.