A NEWSLETTER FROM DAVID CORN |
A NEWSLETTER FROM DAVID CORN |
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Donald Trump, Rubber, and Glue |
By David Corn December 16, 2023 |
Signs handed out by the Trump campaign at a rally on December 2, 2023, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Geoff Stellfox/AP |
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Donald Trump’s critics have long derided the failed casino owner as the Prince of Projection, noting his attacks on his political foes often mirror his own flaws and transgressions. He has denigrated Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden as “Crooked Hillary” and “Crooked Joe,” when he has long been dogged by serious allegations of corruption, such as tax fraud, charity fraud, business fraud, campaign finance fraud, and assorted other bamboozlement. In fact, Trumpland has adopted this tactic as a key part of its playbook.
Trump didn’t aid and abet the Russian attack on the 2016 election; the Clintonites conspired with Ukraine! Trump isn’t a serial harasser of women; Biden is the creepy one!
Trump didn’t abuse his power in office by pressuring the Justice Department and issuing shady pardons; the Biden administration is weaponizing government! Trump isn’t out of shape and in cognitive decline; Biden is losing it! On that last point, I’d like to place a bicycle in front of each man and see what happens.
It's something of a tell. If Trump World is worried about a particular line of attack on Dear Leader, its denizens quickly mobilize to lob the same invective at the opposition. Thus, it’s rather noteworthy that in recent days, Trump and his squad have started accusing Biden of being a threat to democracy. This comes as the mainstream media has begun highlighting the possibility—or probability—that Trump will make good on his authoritarian impulses and desires should he be restored to the White House, a warning that some of us have been voicing for years. With Trump the Vengeful Autocrat now a key narrative in the 2024 campaign, Trumpers are fighting back on this theme by insisting Biden is the real peril.
It's the height of rubber-and-glue-ism. Especially when only one of these two men proclaimed he won the 2020 election before all the votes were counted, mounted several covert plots to overturn the election results, incited a violent insurrectionist assault on the US Capitol to thwart the peaceful transfer of power, called for the suspension of the US Constitution so he could be returned to power, vowed to pardon the Brownshirts who rioted for him, suggested a US military official who criticized him be executed, and declared he would use the US government to punish his political foes were he to win the 2024 election. (I am sure I left out some highlights—or lowlights.)
Yet here we are. The Trump cult doing what all cults do: deny and defy reality. At Trump rallies, MAGA zombies hold up signs that shout out, “Biden Attacks Democracy,” as Trump pushes that theme in his long and rambling orations that do little to reassure any non-cult member of his mental acumen. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) posted on social media a meme that exclaimed, “Joe Biden is the Real Dictator.” The proof? He “punishes political opponents, ignores federal law and the judiciary, profits from power, subverts our constitutional republic.” Yes, there is a Bizarro Earth. Of course, Trump himself amplified this post.
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On Newsmax, Lara Trump (wife of Eric) asserted that Biden is only running for president so he and his family can stay out of prison. Now who might that more accurately apply to? Victor Davis Hanson, a hack intellectual favored by conservatives, insisted that Biden has “weaponized the government in dictatorial fashion.” Hanson tried to ju-jitsu criticism of Trump’s authoritarianism by contending that this is projection from Trump’s antagonists:
The Left knows that in dictatorial fashion it has turned a federal republic into a government run wild, lawless, and in service to partisan agendas. It again talks of what Trump will supposedly do only because the Left surely would do exactly what it accuses Trump of planning to do if it were Trump. In other words, the Left projects itself onto Trump, and understandably finds itself all too terrifying.
Allysia Finley, a member of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, pushed similar propaganda (Trumpaganda?) with a column headlined “Trump as Dictator Is a Classic Case of Projection: Biden and his supporters try to excuse and deflect attention from their own authoritarian actions.”
She wrote of Trump’s critics, “Only by convincing themselves that Mr. Trump threatens the existence of the republic can they justify their own weaponization of government to stop him.” And she went deep:
[T]he portrayal of Mr. Trump as a would-be dictator is a textbook case of psychological projection, the process by which people avoid confronting their own unwanted thoughts, feelings or behaviors by subconsciously ascribing them to others. Psychologists refer to this as a defense mechanism. President Biden and his supporters project their own authoritarian impulses onto Mr. Trump because they don’t want to come to terms with their own illiberalism.
Her lead example: Biden used executive orders to try to cancel half a trillion dollars in student debt, ban evictions during the pandemic, and mandate Covid vaccines. Flexing presidential muscle? Indeed. But dictatorial? The Supreme Court said no to these initiatives—and they were curbed. She also didn't like that various regulatory bodies have scrutinized Elon Musk’s endeavors. And, naturally, she considered special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump for attempting to subvert the 2020 election a profound crime against the Constitution.
What is stunning—or maybe not—is that both Hanson and Finley felt no obligation to reference Trump’s efforts to destroy the constitutional order after the 2020 campaign and his support for the 1/6 marauders who stormed and ransacked the US Capitol. They also ignored all the other ways Trump has manifested his autocratic yearnings. How Soviet. Or North Korean. They airbrushed all of this out of the picture.
It’s more gaslighting. One guy drove a car loaded with explosives into the US Constitution, the other (if we accept their criticisms) ran a few stoplights. So who’s the greater risk? I find it hard to explain such deep disingenuity.
But we also see that with the GOP impeachment crusade. This week House Republicans voted to formalize an impeachment inquiry without being able to identify a single high crime or misdemeanor. When House Democrats impeach a president, they at least cite an act of wrongdoing. (For Trump Impeachment I, it was his attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into cooking up a phony investigation of Biden. For Trump Impeachment II, it was encouraging a seditious riot.) In defending the GOP impeachment drive, House Speaker Mike Johnson has said this shows the Republicans are the “rule of law party.” More hogwash. Unless it’s Opposite Day.
Even worse, several House Republicans justified their attempt to cast Biden as the real sleazeball by saying that this was merely a vote for an investigation, not to impeach, and that they would remain open-minded until the inquiry’s conclusion. But—awkward!—the guy in charge of this inquiry, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), declared in August on Newsmax, “I would vote to impeach right now.” |
Sure seems like he’s the man to run a fair and transparent investigation.
This impeachment clown-show is the ultimate projection. To protect Trump and deflect attention from all his wrongdoing—and to even the score for him—his henchmen and henchwomen are tarring Biden as so corrupt he deserves a political death sentence.
When Karl Rove was a political strategist, one of his favorite tactics was to go after an opponent’s strength. In 2004, when Democrat John Kerry was running for president and brandishing his valorous Vietnam War record, Republicans and conservatives mounted the so-called Swift Boat campaign that claimed without convincing evidence that Kerry had faked his service history that had earned him medals. They didn’t have to win the debate over his military past; they merely needed to muddy the waters to weaken this selling point for Kerry, who was running against President George W. Bush, who had used political connections to avoid being sent to Vietnam.
What we see now—as Trump jokes about being a dictator for only a day—is the Trumpists trying to undermine the strongest arguments against Trump by shouting, He’s not a dictator. You’re the dictator. What this has in common with the Rove strategy is that the purveyors of this disinformation don’t have to convince the unconvinced voters that they are right. They only must make it tougher for Biden, the Democrats, progressives, Never Trumpers, and others who care about safeguarding democracy to present a clear case that voters should fear a Trump restoration. Creating noise is one way to do that. If both sides are angrily calling the other dictatorial, voters who don’t follow the ins and outs might well throw up their hands and say, who knows?
The good news is that this latest detached-from-reality offensive from Team Trump indicates that it believes a political attack that focuses on Trump’s threat to American democracy could gain traction. All the more reason for Biden, the Democrats, and others to do whatever they can to make this narrative stick like glue.
Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com. |
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Dumbass Comment of the Week |
If this feature were called Ill-Advised Comment of the Week, President Joe Biden would win. On Tuesday, Biden took an unusual step; he publicly criticized Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza. At a Washington, DC, fundraiser, he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the leader of “the most conservative government in Israel’s history,” noting it doesn’t “want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution” to the country’s long-running conflict with Palestinians. He added that Israel risked losing support from the United States, Europe, and much of the world due its “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza that is killing thousands of civilians. This was quite a departure for Biden, who has been a fierce supporter of Israel for decades and who has repeatedly said his strategy is to publicly embrace the Jewish state so he can privately wield influence within its governing circles. (The White House subsequently did walk back his remarks a bit.)
Yet at the same time, Biden said this: “Without Israel as a free-standing state, not a Jew in the world is safe.” That was an odd statement coming from the leader of a democracy whose founding principles include freedom of worship. Was he suggesting that American Jews will not be safe unless they can flee the United States for Israel? (Ditto for Jews in Canada and elsewhere?) Jews in America shouldn’t require Israel to exist to feel secure. And neither should American Muslims rely on Saudi Arabia for their ultimate safety. Antisemitism is certainly a problem and a threat to Jews (just as Islamophobia is for Muslims). But Biden ought not be saying that ultimately American Jews must depend on Israel. He should be doing all he can to protect Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and other members of religious minorities here at home.
Back to dumbasses: While assailing Jews for promoting the occult through the practice of witchcraft and magic and blasting all non-Christians for “suppressing” Christ, white supremacist and Hitler fanboy Nick Fuentes said, “When we take power, they need to be given the death penalty...They must be absolutely annihilated when we take power." |
The judges at DCotW would prefer not to amplify a fascist bigot like Fuentes. But they wish to point out that Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) both spoke at a conference he organized in 2022. Neither paid any political price for that. When Greene was criticized for her appearance, she dismissed the complaints as “identity politics” and an unfair attempt to “cancel” her. She continued merrily along in her role as a leading GOP House member. And a year ago, Donald Trump famously held a dinner with Fuentes and Kanye West, another antisemite. The judges believed this latest hateful idiocy from Fuentes offered an opportunity to remind people of how he has been embraced by leading Republicans.
Given it’s the season (supposedly) of goodwill toward all men and women, the judges ruled that Fox host Jesse Watters was dumber than the leading American Nazi. Assailing homelessness in California, Watters offered this observation:
Homelessness isn’t about lack of affordable housing. It’s about drug addicts that want to wander around and live in tents on the sidewalk. So you can’t coddle antisocial behavior. You can’t subsidize antisocial behavior. You have to stigmatize it. You can’t celebrate people with purple hair, with nose rings, four kids with four different men, who are dressed like trash, and make them out to be some sort of cutting-edge heroes. You have to call them what they are. These are people that have failed in life and they're on their deathbed. And if we’re not honest about it, we’re never going to fix this problem.
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In what book of the New Testament does Jesus say, “Thou shall stigmatize those without shelter”? Moreover, Watters clearly has read nothing about the current homelessness crisis. (For instance, this New York Times account of people—with jobs!—who live in their cars because they cannot afford rent.) For out-Scrooge-ing Scrooge during the time of year when we’re supposed to devote a few more nanoseconds to thinking about the needy, Watters nearly won again.
On to our top dog. The New York Times this week ran a fascinating article on an army of pro-Trump trolls who create memes: those social media posts that feature catchy and easy-to-share images, videos, and slogans. The content they churn out hails Trump and brutally bashes his opponents. As the newspaper reported, “Cheered on by Mr. Trump, the group traffics freely in misinformation, artificial intelligence and digital forgeries known as deepfakes. Its memes are riddled with racist stereotypes, demeaning tropes about L.G.B.T.Q. people and broad scatological humor.” The very best people, eh?
The key organizer of these online miscreants is Brenden Dilley, a 41-year-old podcaster and failed congressional candidate. The story included a revealing remark he made on his show: “It doesn’t have to be true. It just has to go viral.” For summing up the Trumpian worldview in a mere two sentences, Dilley is this week’s champion. |
I’ve been writing a lot about the horrendous Hamas-Israel war, but reader Warren Carlson suggested that we all not lose sight of Russia’s terrible war against Ukraine:
Dead on as “The Tragic Indifference of ‘No Cease Fire’” is, I hope soon you will bring your wisdom and sagacity to the tragic indifference to Ukraine that doesn’t draw crowds or passions in any measure comparable to the devastation, suffering, and deaths being inflicted upon Ukrainians, nor the importance of what goes on there to Europe.
Whatever level of thuggery one assigns Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, by body count alone Putin is 10 or 15 times worse. In addition to which, his clear goal of annexation of a sovereign neighboring European state has far greater “world” consequences than whatever happens in Gaza. Putin’s land grab could be the domino, whereas whatever goes down between the Palestinians and Israelis doesn’t have 5 percent of the long-term geopolitical implications of Ukraine.
I’m not sure I fully agree with Warren’s math on the global consequences of these two conflicts, and I’d rather not judge which is more or less important. But it’s clear Putin benefits from American and world attention shifting to a new war. It is tough to keep tragedy and awfulness fresh. Coverage of the brutal coup in Myanmar was largely pushed aside when Putin invaded Ukraine. Now the Russian-Ukraine war, as tough as it is to say this, may come across to many as a haven’t-we-seen-this rerun—especially when the fighting in Gaza following the Hamas-mounted massacre has stirred so much passion and outrage here and elsewhere. Republicans haven’t helped by threatening to withhold aid for Ukraine and diminishing the importance of the fight against Putin’s fascism.
Many readers wrote in to say amen to my anti-appreciation of Henry Kissinger following his death, which included an examination of his ability to escape accountability for the hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths his actions and decisions caused. David McBurnett shared this remembrance:
I personally called him a war criminal to his face at the Peking Duck House in Manhattan. His breaking the peace deal Johnson had in place before the 1968 election added over 25,000 American soldiers dead in the war, Additionally, double that amount of war vets who committed suicide when they came home and those who exposed to Agent Orange. Also, the death toll the Vietnamese and Cambodians have paid because of this evil man. His actions in South and Central Americas are a major contributor to the turmoil and dysfunction there. Truly a loathsome American.
David did something I did not. When I was a young undergraduate pup, I spent a semester taking courses at Columbia University. One was a seminar on Latin American history, and it was taught in the early evening. After one class, I got into the elevator to leave. No one else was present. On the ride down, the elevator stopped at the next floor, and Henry Kissinger entered. Damn, I thought, here’s my chance. But what should I say? Something about Chile? Or the secret bombing of Cambodia? Shout, “war criminal”? Would that be a cliché or too easy for him to dismiss? I needed something that would stick. That would hit deep.
My mind raced, as I searched for the perfect response. This was Henry Kissinger! It had to be right...Ding! The elevator reached the ground floor. The doors open. I...had nothing. He walked out. He didn’t say goodnight or anything. I blew my chance. In retrospect, I don’t judge myself harshly, for everything I’ve learned about him in the decades since that encounter tells me that whatever I might have uttered, he would have been untouched by it. He would brush it off—or he might not have even needed to do that—and stroll out into this lovely Manhattan evening and enjoy his life free from guilt or repercussions.
Sandy Zevon emailed:
Kudos for your report on Kissinger. After witnessing the carnage in Cambodia when I traveled there several years ago, I realized what a monster Kissinger was. Along the roadside, men without extremities, victims of illegal secret bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. It was horrific. Bernie Sanders' comments about Kissinger deserve a standing ovation. Instead, Kissinger got the Noble Prize!
Richard Middleton wanted to highlight a particular Kissinger misdeed:
You rightly draw attention to Kissinger's deep involvement in the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile. What always seems to get overlooked is the blatant 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC, (by means of a car bomb), in which Kissinger was probably complicit. See this article for example. (I learned about this because one of my colleagues at the World Bank was Letelier's aunt.)
I did glancingly refer to that horrible episode in the newsletter, but I described it more fully in another article I wrote on the occasion of Kissinger’s demise. Here’s that section:
In 1976, Kissinger was briefed on Operation Condor, a secret program created by the intelligence services of the military dictatorships of South America to assassinate their political foes inside and outside their countries. He then blocked a State Department effort to warn these military juntas not to proceed with international assassinations. As the National Security Archive points out in a dossier it released on various Kissinger controversies, “Five days later, Condor’s boldest and most infamous terrorist attack took place in downtown Washington D.C. when a car-bomb, planted by Pinochet’s agents, killed former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his young colleague, Ronni Moffitt.
Betsy Karasik emailed:
Your book recommendations are always appreciated; just put Less Than Zero on my list. Aren't the Little Free Libraries the best? In case you aren't aware, there is an organization in DC that provides free books to prison inmates all over the country called DC Books to Prisons. I've been volunteering with them for about five years and as non-profits go it is remarkably together and on-task. In case you ever feel like giving us a boost, here's a link to our book wish list.
If anyone is looking for a charity this giving season, check it out. |
“Some people say petting a dog brings good luck.” “If so, given all the time I spend on it, Moxie, I’d be the most fortunate guy in the world.” “How do you know you’re not?” |
Read Recent Issues of Our Land |
December 12, 2023: Who controls AI?; Nyad is a Rocky for the olds; Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Dave Alvin explore the borderland; and more.
December 9, 2023: Norman Lear: “I love liberty”; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Nikki Haley); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
December 5, 2023: Is a two-state solution still possible?: Less Than Zero is far from nothing; RIP, Shane MacGowan; and more.
December 2, 2023: It’s not too late for a Kissinger reckoning; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Linda Yaccarino); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
November 28, 2023: Nikki Haley’s idiotic proposal; Mike Johnson’s spiritual warfare; Dumb Money is a smart pick; a Laura Cantrell duet with Steve Earle; and more.
November 21, 2023: The tragic indifference of “no ceasefire”; a Thanksgiving time-out; David Fincher’s silent Killer; Claire Lynch rides an “Empty Train”; and more.
November 18, 2023: Is it anti-Christian to criticize Speaker Mike Johnson?; the congressional ethics report on George Santos; a bizarre Albania-Russia-GOP caper; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Elon Musk); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
November 14, 2023: The Money Kings and Zionism, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories; the GOP’s minority rule; Oisin Leech’s “October Sun”; and more.
November 11, 2023: Donald Trump and revenge: a love story; the GOP and minority rule on abortion; Dumbass Comment of the Week; the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more. |
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Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com. |
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