Enjoying the view from Limbo
(Originally Published in February 2016) One of the most dangerous effects of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is the venomous anger his demagoguery has cultivated among his more engaged supporters, to be spewed at anyone who dares to express concern about any of their idol’s (yes, idol’s) soft spots. Just click on any article, on any website, critical of anything about Trump, and navigate...
2016 US Election / America Descending / What is The Establishment?
by Daren Jonescu · Published September 27, 2016
(Originally published in May 2016) If a presidential candidate were hoping, absent any reasoned case for his candidacy, to lure the weary and despondent into a personality cult that would follow him to the ends of the Earth without reason, he could do no better than invoke “the wall” as his campaign’s defining idea, and to repeat that idea, endlessly, as his cult’s...
(Originally published in March 2016) Four years ago, Donald Trump’s first year-long anti-establishment charade ended when, naturally, he settled his presidential endorsement on the GOP establishment’s candidate. I say “naturally,” because flattering or carrying water for the status quo has been the most natural thing in the world for this megalomaniac, driven as he apparently is by the insecure schoolboy’s ultimate fear, namely...
(Originally published in February 2016) One summer’s evening, a skinny, not-particularly athletic boy, perhaps eleven years old, scored the most glorious touchdown of his life. This was not a real game. My friend and I, along with his older brother Phil, were just tossing a ball around in the park. But it was a memorable triumph because I scored my touchdown by outmaneuvering...
(Originally published in March 2016) As I have previously noted, one of the most common and most absurd defenses of Donald Trump is the claim that he is a so-called “alpha male.” Critics (this one included) have noted that he resembles a junior high school bully more than he does any dominant pack animal. Today, however, we can officially dismiss the alpha male...
(Originally published in February 2016) The Republican primaries are once again a civil war between the so-called grassroots (those who seek genuine representation in a representative republic) and the Party establishment (those who believe representation is their innate privilege, and that the grassroots should just bend over and be “represented”). This time around, however, we are witnessing the full roll-out of the Party...
(Originally published in May 2016) Many critics of Donald Trump’s presidential run have likened it to that of his spiritual predecessor, America’s historic first Fraud in Chief, Barack Obama. The comparison is apt on various levels. One of the defining peculiarities of Trump’s success so far—and I am not one of those who insist he could never win the general election—is that a...
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