Numb to corruption: How Republicans trained their base to ignore Trump's criminality

[homersapien 12,160]

How we got here: Republicans spent decades indoctrinating their supporters to ignore scandal and corruption

With great fanfare, the New York Times published a major feature on Tuesday headlined "Intimidation, Pressure and Humiliation: Inside Trump’s Two-Year War on the Investigations Encircling Him." This investigative report chronicled  a truly breathtaking pattern of Donald Trump acting about as guilty and corrupt as a human being can: Firing anyone he fears might expose him, hiring loyalists and pressuring them to cover up for him, encouraging associates to commit perjury on his behalf, intimidating witnesses, lobbing false accusations, bullying congressmen into covering for him -- the list goes on.

Anyone who dropped into American politics after having been out of it for the past five years would be floored, wondering how on earth Trump and his associates aren't in jail already. But for most people who read the article, the takeaway is quite different: It's useful to have a thorough accounting of the horrors at the halfway point of this current hellish journey, but this journalistic behemoth will change nothing.

Anyone who wasn't already convinced that Trump is a corrupt criminal will be unmoved. We still have to wait to find out whether Trump has lost even the tiny fraction of voters necessary to kick him out of office in 2020. We've got two more years of this: Stories about Trump's corruption and criminality that should shock everyone but won't, Trump voters blithely dismissing the overwhelming evidence against him as "fake news" and people who see the truth standing by, helpless to change things.

The Times reporters grasp this reality, noting in the article that "many Americans have lost track of how unusual" Trump's behavior has been. Since much of his obstruction of justice occurs right out in the open, it may not seem as criminal and conspiratorial as it actually is.

No doubt, as the Times reporters argue, "the president’s brazen public behavior" has numbed the public to the seriousness of the situation, which is no doubt exactly what Trump is hoping for. But Trump's own behavior, and even the behavior of those Republicans who actively cover up for him, is only part of the story. In truth, Republicans have been priming their voters for decades to accept, defend and even adore a shameless criminal in the White House.

he key to Trump's defense with his base, I would argue, is not that he tries to convince them he's innocent, at least not in the traditional sense of "someone who didn't do the crimes he's suspected of." Instead, the strategy is to suggest that all politicians are corrupt, everyone is complicit and therefore all investigations are just bad-faith power grabs conducted for purely partisan reasons.

That strategy is working with Trump's base because that's exactly the message Republicans have been instilling in their voters for decades.

First, Republicans normalized the idea that all politicians are corrupt by electing a series of deeply corrupt politicians themselves. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have all been warm-up acts to Trump. Watergate, the Iran-Contra affair, falsified intelligence to justify the Iraq invasion: Every one of those presidents helped train their voters to defend political corruption if it was conducted for supposedly meritorious ends.

With Watergate -- a bush-league burglary gone wrong -- the training wheels hadn't come off. But by the time Bush administration lies had led us into the disastrous quagmire in Iraq, your average conservative had not only become adept at making excuses for political corruption, but had fully accepted that doing so is a normal and expected aspect of supporting the Republican Party. It's honestly not that big a leap from defending the corrupt Bush administration to defending the corrupt Trump administration.

Second, Republican politicians trained their base to think of investigations as bad-faith political power grabs by themselves using investigations primarily, if not solely, for this purpose. Ever since the Bill Clinton presidency, Republicans have invented a steady stream of Democratic "scandals" to gin up fake umbrage, from Whitewater and Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky to whatever the hell was supposed to be scandalous about "Benghazi."

(A note for the #MeToo era: Whatever you might think about Clinton's affair with Lewinsky, which was clearly inappropriate behavior, it's safe to say that Republican outrage over it was in bad faith.)

All these endless, pointless investigations and scandal-mongering over Democratic behavior that wasn't corrupt, much less criminal, has primarily served to indoctrinate the conservative masses into believing that "investigations" are never truly serious, but just a tool for partisans trying to score political points. They are now throughly primed to interpret the investigations into Trump's very real corruption as nothing more than Democrats seeking revenge for decades of mistreatment by Republican hacks.

That's why polls that measure whether Republican voters "believe" Trump is telling the truth are somewhat beside the point. The real problem is that they don't believe it matters whether Trump is a criminal, and even the proverbial "smoking gun" wouldn't shake them from that belief.

The polling data that's more useful is data showing the surge in Republican support for Russia and belief that Russia is an "ally" since Trump's election. Which is to say that the increasing evidence that Russian intelligence interfered with the American election, and attempted to bribe a candidate into ending sanctions levied on Russia for human rights violations, has only made Republicans love the Russians even more. That isn't the result of ignorance. It's evidence of a widespread belief that criminality is no problem if it helps their team win.

Trump's electoral victory was a "black swan" event and likely won't happen again. But the widespread acceptance of his corruption among Republicans is a sign of a much deeper problem, rooted in decades of party officials and propaganda outlets like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh training the conservative base to be indifferent to corruption, and to see investigations as little more than political weapons to be wielded against your opponent.

Remember, the structural advantages Republicans enjoy under our electoral system means they don't really have to win voters outside their base to hold power. And their base simply doesn't care if the party's leaders are criminals. That's a deadly combination, one that suggests that the age of Trump won't really be over even when he's finally out of office.

https://www.salon.com/2019/02/20/numb-to-corruption-how-republicans-trained-their-base-to-ignore-trumps-criminality/

[SaltyTiger 8,522]

22 hours ago, homersapien said:

wondering how on earth Trump and his associates aren't in jail already

For what Brother Homer? He is the most investigated man in political history.......and nothing. You post this Salon garbage.

A bit like attention seeking Jussie. 

[AUFAN78 4,130]

3 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

For what Brother Homer? He is the most investigated man in political history.......and nothing. You post this Salon garbage.

A bit like attention seeking Jussie. 

I do see similarities. Good catch Salty.

[augolf1716 21,931]

45 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

For what Brother Homer? He is the most investigated man in political history.......and nothing. You post this Salon garbage.

A bit like attention seeking Jussie. 

Stayed in a hotel in Middletown, New York for 6 months on a temporary job for my company. I said temporary job............I got audited by them for taxes. Gotta love New York at least the time I stayed in a Marriott Hotel in Saddlebrook, New Jersey for over 8 months I didn't have to pay taxes or get audited. 

[DKW 86 7,855]

First, Republicans normalized the idea that all politicians are corrupt by electing a series of deeply corrupt politicians themselves. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have all been warm-up acts to Trump. Watergate, the Iran-Contra affair, falsified intelligence to justify the Iraq invasion: Every one of those presidents helped train their voters to defend political corruption if it was conducted for supposedly meritorious ends.

Yea, cause Democrats are pure as the driven snow...LMAO!!!!

This brought to you by the party that brought you slavery and the Civil War, Jim Crow, Lynchings, KKK. The party of NBForrest, George Wallace, Bull Connor. Also the party of the Chicago Ward Bosses and the Chicago Daleys, Illinois Governor Mansions where Senatorships go to the highest bidder, the Kennedys, the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation, Menedez, I could go on and on and on and on and on...

IF YOU DONT UNDERSTAND THAT WE ALL HAVE BEEN TRAINED TO IGNORE THE CORRUPTION

IN WASHINGTON DC, AND IN THE STATES, AND IN THE COUNTIES, AND IN THE CITIES..

YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!

[homersapien 12,160]

"This brought to you by the party that brought you slavery and the Civil War, Jim Crow, Lynchings, KKK. The party of NBForrest, George Wallace, Bull Connor."

Seriously?

Those folks are now Republicans.  Thanks to LBJ and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, followed by Nixon's "southern strategy". 

In fact, racism is the main reason Trump is so popular in the south - a former Democratic monolith.

History matters.

[homersapien 12,160]

11 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

For what Brother Homer? He is the most investigated man in political history.......and nothing. You post this Salon garbage.

 

And why is that do you suppose?

And his administration has racked up the most indictments of any POTUS in history, and it's not even over.

https://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Here-s-who-has-been-charged-so-far-in-Mueller-s-12398626.php

[homersapien 12,160]

GOP Sold Its Soul To A Man With No Principles, Republican Strategist Ana Navarro Says

GOP loyalist Ana Navarro lamented during a “Late Show” appearance Thursday that the party has surrendered to “a president who’s pretending to be a Republican.” 

“It feels like we’re in a little island of Republicans in exile ― Republicans who actually remember what Republican principles and Republican convictions used to be like,” Navarro, a CNN commentator known for her fiery on-air opposition to President Donald Trump, told host Stephen Colbert.

“There’s a lot of people who have compromised those principles and convictions in order to accommodate a man, a president, who’s pretending to be Republican and has no principles or convictions.”

Navarro said she has been a Republican since she was 8 years old, and  “there’s no way in hell” Trump can make her reject the party. Trump, now the GOP’s de facto head, registered as a Republican only a few years before the 2016 election.

“He has staged not a hostile takeover, because there are willing fools and people willing to sell out their souls in order to go to a White House Christmas party,” Navarro said.

She added: “It’s going to take a while for the Republicans to ever go back to what they were.” 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ana-navarro-trump-colbert_n_5c6fe1d7e4b00eed083315da

[SaltyTiger 8,522]

6 hours ago, homersapien said:

And why is that do you suppose?

Because "never Trumpers" can not accept the idea of the man being president. We could be a little more understanding of that had he beaten someone worth a sh*t.

[AuCivilEng1 11,797]

6 hours ago, homersapien said:

"This brought to you by the party that brought you slavery and the Civil War, Jim Crow, Lynchings, KKK. The party of NBForrest, George Wallace, Bull Connor."

Seriously?

Those folks are now Republicans.  Thanks to LBJ and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, followed by Nixon's "southern strategy". 

In fact, racism is the main reason Trump is so popular in the south - a former Democratic monolith.

History matters.

That’s their big thing, Homer. You know this. They like to pretend that the old racists and KKK folks are still Democracts, knowing damn well they’re die hard Republicans. In fact I don’t see any klansman or skinheads supporting Obama, Clinton, Warren, or any Democrat. I wonder why that is since the Dems are the kkk party, according to these historical scholars? Don’t acknowledge this ridiculousness. They know who all the klansman vote for. They just don’t live in reality, with the rest of us.

 

[AuCivilEng1 11,797]

3 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Because "never Trumpers" can not accept the idea of the man being president. We could be a little more understanding of that had he beaten someone worth a sh*t.

Or perhaps its because his whole f****** campaign team is facing jail time for illegal activities ranging from tax fraud to conspiracy against the U.S.

[kd4au 1,145]

27 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

They know who all the klansman vote for.

Just how many klansmen do you think are out there? I would say there aren't nearly enough to sway an election.  

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

53 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

That’s their big thing, Homer. You know this. They like to pretend that the old racists and KKK folks are still Democracts, knowing damn well they’re die hard Republicans. In fact I don’t see any klansman or skinheads supporting Obama, Clinton, Warren, or any Democrat. I wonder why that is since the Dems are the kkk party, according to these historical scholars? Don’t acknowledge this ridiculousness. They know who all the klansman vote for. They just don’t live in reality, with the rest of us.

 

How silly. 

And people like Farrakhan vote for Democrats. What does that mean about the party?

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

6 hours ago, homersapien said:

In fact, racism is the main reason Trump is so popular in the south - a former Democratic monolith.

 

If you want to be persuasive, try abstaining from elementary one-liners like the one above. It’s completely senseless.

[AuCivilEng1 11,797]

19 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said:

How silly. 

And people like Farrakhan vote for Democrats. What does that mean about the party?

IMO, it further proves that calling the Democratics the party of the KKK makes no sense. I however never called the Republicans the party of the KKK, because I realize that the KKK doesn’t represent the majority of the party. You don’t have to be someone with KKK values to vote Republican. But most people with those values do vote republican.

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

1 minute ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

IMO, it further proves that calling the Democratics the party of the KKK makes no sense. I however never called the Republicans the party of the KKK, because I realize that the KKK doesn’t represent the majority of the party. You don’t have to be someone with KKK values to vote Republican. But most people with those values do vote republican.

Thanks. Understood. 

[AuCivilEng1 11,797]

1 hour ago, kd4au said:

Just how many klansmen do you think are out there? I would say there aren't nearly enough to sway an election.  

Not many. I’m not claiming that they won the election or anything. I just think it’s ridiculous to call the Democratic Party that brought you the kkk and slavery. It’s the opposite. And also, when I say Klansmen, I’m mostly referencing Klansman types, not necessarily active robe wearing KKK members. 

[DKW 86 7,855]

Look anyone stoopid enough to support EITHER party is a moron. I had 25 years in the Republican Party, 1980 to 2005. YES I ADMIT I ACTED LIKE A MORON FOR 25 YEARS.

The parties really dont believe a word they say anymore. Neither party does. Partys are 100% just a means-to-an-end, getting rich and powerful. 

They say s*** all the time that they no more mean than the oaths they ignore every day.

Are today's Democrats KKK, members? No. But if you are a Democrat, you must freely admit that lynchings were done to facilitate your party's power. You folks dont get that you ALSO ASSUME a false part of the equation. Those Republicans that fought and beat the Wallaces, Connors, and etc of the old Democrat Party are still part of the Republican Party. The Republican Party that Voted with LBJ and for the Great Society and against the Dixiecrats was the Republican Party and they are still Republican. They did not become Democrats. You hurl false crap and refuse to acknowledge that the people that came to Alabama and registered Blacks to vote WERE AND STILL ARE REPUBLICANS. The bad guys may indeed have slowly left one party, but the good NE, Country Club, Educated Republicans did not move over to the Democrats. 

It is not so black and white and simple: Hate All Republicans! Why?
Your parents hated them because they Freed the Slaves and Registered them to Vote. And you hate them now because of Trump?

Trump was a self-identified Democrat until about 2011. Did you hate the Democrats then? Why not? He was just as big an a**hole then as he is now.
I know the simpletons here will just hurl more invective. I just absolutely refuse to believe the party posing here.

The Democrats had control of the HOR, The Senate, the WH, and the DOJ. How many Wall Street bankers went to jail after 2008? <crickets>

See, there really is ZERO difference in the parties. If there was a real difference, there would be hundreds in jail by now. The Democrats didnt even investigate the bankers. They took the $$$ and went back to running elections so they could stay in office and become filthy rich. Holder and Booker are running for President because they know how the system works. SSDD. 

[homersapien 12,160]

4 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

Because "never Trumpers" can not accept the idea of the man being president. We could be a little more understanding of that had he beaten someone worth a sh*t.

That's it? 

All these indictments - and in some cases, convictions - are really just a round-about way of damaging Trump? 

[homersapien 12,160]

4 hours ago, kd4au said:

Just how many klansmen do you think are out there? I would say there aren't nearly enough to sway an election.  

Like that's the point.  

There aren't enough hard core Trump supporters to sway and election either, but he's got all of their votes  - right along with all of the neo-Nazis, White supremacist, nationalists and the KKK.

[homersapien 12,160]

4 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

If you want to be persuasive, try abstaining from elementary one-liners like the one above. It’s completely senseless.

It's absolutely true, just before your time.  And it's not my job to "persuade" you, much less educate you. 

Educate yourself and read up on it.  Heck, start with Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_South

(And don't forget the references list.)

[homersapien 12,160]

4 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

How silly. 

And people like Farrakhan vote for Democrats. What does that mean about the party?

You got any evidence that Farrakhan has ever voted for Democrats?  From my research, he seems to be a pretty even-handed when it comes to dishing out contempt and hate.

However, I did find an article of him praising Trump: 

 

Yes, You Read It Right: The Right Welcomed Louis Farrakhan’s Support of Donald Trump

The right used Louis Farrakhan, who once called Hitler a “great man,” to browbeat the left for years. But now that he’s all-but-endorsing Trump? Hey, no problem!

......Speaking of anti-Muslim activists, they are all in for Trump. After all, their allies John Bolton and Mike Pompeo are part of the Trump administration. Plus we can’t forget the right-wing, white evangelical leaders like Robert Jeffress who love Trump while spewing anti-LGBT and anti-Mormon hate.  It’s like Trump is bringing together an “Avengers” of hate-filled bigots who all fight on his side.

And now we can expand that tent of hate to include Louis Farrakhan. Yep, the despicably anti-Semitic spewing leader of the Nation of Islam is now praising Trump. And the reason he’s touting Trump should be concerning for anyone actually who actually supports law enforcement, a robust media and, frankly, democracy.

In an interview published Friday, Farrakhan exalted Trump for destroying their common enemies. As Farrakhan explained, “The nature of this administration is good for us,” adding as a compliment, “There’s never been a president quite like Mr. Trump.”  

Then Farrakhan spelled it out in detail: “Trump is destroying every enemy that was an enemy of our rise.” The 86-year-old Nation leader then asked rhetorically: “Who is the enemy of our rise?”

Want to guess who Farrakhan views as his enemies?  Interestingly, the very same enemies Trump sees as preventing his own “rise.”  We are talking the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the media.

On the FBI, Farrakhan gleefully praised Trump’s efforts to destroy the legitimacy of this law enforcement agency saying: “Now, the FBI, go at it, baby. They’ve been beating the hell out of us ever since J. Edgar Hoover… So go ahead, Mr. Trump.”

Farrakhan then slammed the Department of Justice, another Trump target, noting: “Is it the Department of Justice where we get none?”

And on Trump’s favorite target, the media, Farrakhan again thanked Trump for undermining its credibility, noting: “Is it the media that has destroyed every Black leader that stood up for us calling us out of our name?” He then invoked Trump’s favorite phrase to delegitimize the media saying: “I know very well that we have been the victims of some ‘fake news.’”

There you have it. Trump and his new BFF Farrakhan share common enemies of the media, FBI and DOJ. Why do these two both attack these guardrails of our democracy? In Trump’s case, his barbs are clearly designed to flatten these speed bumps on his way to authoritarianism. In Farrakhan’s case, it’s likely more about personal gain......

Read the full article at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/yes-you-read-it-right-the-right-welcomed-louis-farrakhans-support-of-donald-trump

[homersapien 12,160]

3 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

Look anyone stoopid enough to support EITHER party is a moron. I had 25 years in the Republican Party, 1980 to 2005. YES I ADMIT I ACTED LIKE A MORON FOR 25 YEARS.

The parties really dont believe a word they say anymore. Neither party does. Partys are 100% just a means-to-an-end, getting rich and powerful. 

They say s*** all the time that they no more mean than the oaths they ignore every day.

Are today's Democrats KKK, members? No. But if you are a Democrat, you must freely admit that lynchings were done to facilitate your party's power. You folks dont get that you ALSO ASSUME a false part of the equation. 

That's some irony.

"You folks" don't get it? 

History.  It's important.  Things change and it's worthwhile to know why.

[AuCivilEng1 11,797]

4 minutes ago, homersapien said:

That's some irony.

"You folks" don't get it? 

History.  It's important.

The Democrat party is just a name. The people are the ones that matter, and THEY turned Republican. 

[SaltyTiger 8,522]

31 minutes ago, homersapien said:

That's it? 

That's it