General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Person of the Year write up from Time definitely reads as damning by faint praise.
http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump-choice/The revolution he stirred feels fully American, with its echoes of populists past, of Andrew Jackson and Huey Long and, at its most sinister, Joe McCarthy and Charles Coughlin. Trumps assault on truth and logic, far from hurting him, made him stronger. His appealpart hope, part snarldissolved party lines and dispatched the two reigning dynasties of U.S. politics. Yet his victory mirrors the ascent of nationalists across the world, from Britain to the Philippines, and taps forces far more powerful than one mans message.
We can scarcely grasp what our generation has wrought by putting a supercomputer into all of our hands, all of the time. If you are reading this, whether on a page or a screen, there is a very good chance that you are caught up in a revolution that may have started with enticing gadgets but has now reshaped everything about how we live, love, work, play, shop, sharehow our very hearts and minds encounter the world around us. Why would we have imagined that our national conversation would simply go on as before, same people, same promises, same patterns? Perhaps the President-elect will stop tweetingbut only because he will have found some other means to tell the story he wants to tell directly to the audience that wants to hear it.
It turned out to be a failing strategy when Hillary Clinton, who loves policy solutions and believes in them, tried to make this race a character test, a referendum on Trump. But it was certainly understandable. He presented so many challenges, so many choices about what America values. Her popular-vote victory, while legally irrelevant, affirmed the prospect of a female Commander in Chief. In fact, she crushed Trump among voters who cared most about experience and judgment and temperament, qualities that have typically mattered when choosing the leader of the free world. Even at his moment of victory, 6 in 10 voters had an unfavorable view of Trump and didnt think he was qualified to be President.
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For reminding America that demagoguery feeds on despair and that truth is only as powerful as the trust in those who speak it, for empowering a hidden electorate by mainstreaming its furies and live-streaming its fears, and for framing tomorrows political culture by demolishing yesterdays, Donald Trump is TIMEs 2016 Person of the Year.
Maeve
(42,305 posts)But the excerpt you posted helps with the concept. The Orange One will frame the cover and probably never read the whole thing.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,226 posts)Which has him turning his back on us and with deviled horns.
Maeve
(42,305 posts)The one of Hitler looked so much friendlier!
This whole mess has made me lose so much faith in my fellow Americans...
TwilightZone
(25,512 posts)It helps to remember that Time's Person of the Year often has more to do with impact and results than it does positive achievements.
He's Person of the Year largely because he somehow won the presidency in spite of running as an unstable demagogue. I think that's the point they're making.
Blanks
(4,835 posts)MFM008
(19,827 posts)Does not get bought by me.
jimlup
(7,968 posts)rec'd but now I have to throw up...
JTFrog
(14,274 posts)Pretty sure they didn't give it to him because he is a humanitarian and all around swell guy.