The news of the day is all about Trump’s self-dealing. He’s been using the military to prop up one of his failing golf resorts in Scotland. The pentagon isn’t talking but the details are leaking anyway. It’s alarming if we can’t trust the military to hold the line against Trump.
Now, most Democrats knew well in advance that Trump was bad news. It wasn’t just because we thought he was a celebrity wannabe, ignorant, attention seeking, buffoon who was poking some voters’ baser instincts to get ahead. It wasn’t just because we are coastal elites who indulge in identity politics.
But if you listen to Anthony Scaramucci’s interview with Virginia Heffernan on Trumpcast’s episode Backstage at the Scaramucci Redemption Tour, that is the impression you get of the impression Republicans have of us.
Time after time, Mooch tries to make us see reason: Democrats have to wake up and stop acting like their principles are meaningful because OMFG, TRUMP IS A CRAZY TYRANT AND HE’S GOT TO BE STOPPED!!! WHY DON’T DEMOCRATS UNDERSTAND THIS?!?!?
The whole interview was a deep dive into the mind of a rabidly free market, soulless Republican operative who finally realizes that maybe, just maybe, there is a Rubicon in his value system that’s buried deep in his mental archives that Trump is in danger of crossing.
Heffernan tries to get Mooch to examine that inner self and moral center but he keeps deflecting away from it. Mooch is like the narrator of Heart of Darkness who finally sees “the horror, the horror”, but doesn’t quite understand his connection to it.
While I’m relieved that someone as hardcore as Mooch is finally seeing the light, I’m disturbed by his misperception that Democrats haven’t seen it yet. Part of this might have to do with Mooch’s assessment of himself as the self-made man, an ambitious guy with a towering intellect that defied the lowly circumstances of his birth. Now that he’s figured out what Trump is up to, it’s his sacred duty to bestow this nollij on the clueless lefties who don’t see the peril.
(One wonders why he’s not delivering his “Trump must be stopped and not reelected” message to the Republican voters. After all, none of US is planning to vote for Trump. But really, this isn’t about the voters, it’s about the candidates that the never Trumpers and new converts object to. Right, Mooch? You just don’t like Elizabeth Warren.)
Jeez, he should have made some friends on the left a few years ago. We could have saved him all the angst. We’ve been running around with our hair on fire ever since the media became obsessed with Hillary’s email server while yawning at Trump’s missing tax returns and his rally speeches dripping with malice.
What does he think the Women’s Marches were all about? Did he think it was all pink pussy hats and intersectional kumbaya? Did he see the protests at the airports during the early days of the Muslim ban? Probably he did. But he misinterprets those protests as having something to do with identity politics.
What he doesn’t see is that we have made the mental connection between the mistreatment of the powerless out groups as one of the stages on the way to authoritarianism.
Mooch is finally realizing that Trump poses an existential threat to people like him while we’ve seen Trump as an existential threat to everything from our citizenship birthright to the economy to the rule of law to elections to the health of the planet.
Trump is reversing EPA policy not because he is against regulation. It’s because there is profit to be had by chaining Americans to big oil. He’s anti-universal healthcare because the healthcare industry expects him to protect their bottom line. He’s imposing tariffs because it helps him and his plutocratic base to atomize our relationship with the rest of the world and each other. If we are all rugged individualists, we will either spend our days trying to negotiate our terms and figure out how badly we’ve been cheated, or we’ll be too exhausted to do anything but go along with it.
I’m not sure what scenario is triggering Mooch the most. He’s so confident of himself and the free market that it’s difficult to tell how he personally feels threatened. Maybe he’s finally found his inner patriot. It’s not the one that plants multiple evenly spaced flags on the lawns in the free market Green Zone in Iraq. It’s the one that probably has its roots in his lower middle class origins. His sense of the country has been perturbed.
It’s his own “rags to riches”, brilliantly ambitious self-made American alpha male identity that is in peril.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
Great, now I can’t edit. 🤦🏼♀️
Oh, I have an excuse to post this again. 😛
I listened yesterday morning and appreciated that VH (love her!) didn’t let him get away with disingenuous answers, enough so that his alpha male bragadocious-ness came blaring through over and over when he became defensive.
However, he also gave me insight into the adjustments to one’s moral center that happen to people when have the “yooman” nature of falling for the allure of power, although I would think most of us here would resist mightily that allure, a RWer like the Mooch was ripe for the picking.
Anyway, thanks for your great assessment about Mooch’s blind spot regarding his own enthusiastic participation at putting the US and the world in grave danger.
I don’t think he had any insight into how or why he fell for Trump. I’d put him in the same category as Michael Cohen. I don’t get it.
RD, I am glad that you are okay, but it’s a shame that your opening posts keep disappearing. It’s hard to write these!
Scaramucci had a great time defending Trump, until he did such a bad job as Press Secretary, that he got replaced. Now his craving for attention has led him to sort of attack Trump. As much as I don’t want people to ignore things, I am trying hard to ignore him. He’s not on our side at all. He would probably jump at the chance to elect Mark Sanford or Chris Christie. And what arrogance, to think that Democrats are supposed to listen to him, that he has any of our best interests at heart. Talk to his friends, convince them to vote for the Democrat, don’t tell us.
There are better ones than Mr. Mooch, some of the “never Trumpers,” but some of these are very irritating as well. Democrats must be careful not to nominate this person or that; Democrats must only talk about these issues. Democrats should essentially be about where GW Bush was in his campaigns, or maybe Romney. There are a few, notably Jennifer Rubin, who seem to have actually turned against her former party, and who seems to admire some Democrats. David Frum is good, too; and Bill Kristol, although he basically just wants “Conservatism” to be saved. But these are all intelligent people who can make coherent arguments. I doubt that Scaramucci can.
As to Heffernan, I liked her, until she took some shot at Hillary. It seems to be de rigueur to project all the blame onto Hillary, “If she had only discussed issues!” (That’s all she did). “If she weren’t so disliked by people!” (That’s the media’s fault, largely). “If she were only like Obama!” (She’s far better) “She made a mistake by not turning around during the debate and confronting Trump!” (She crushed him in all three debates, but all you could talk about were the emails. If she had turned around, you would have attacked her for that). “She didn’t evoke passion in Democrats!” (There were tens of millions of people who were passionately in support of her, but you never interviewed any of them at any of her rallies). ‘”Some of the Democratic candidates are now getting much more support from voters!” (They aren’t; and it is far easier to run against a very unpopular Republican President–see Obama’s race against Bush–than in trying to win the “third term” after a Democrat. Truman is the only Democrat who very barely did that. Trump was, like Obama, and Bush, allowed to be a “projective candidate,” because the media did not care to vet him in terms of ideas, or in Trump’s case, human values or ethics. Cover the election like an entertainment show, and you get an entertainer elected. Mooch is another would-be entertainer, and the media loves that, so lets him talk and talk).
Excellent Q&A of the pretexts media used to excuse their own baseless aversion to a very qualified (but female!) candidate.
This article says much the same thing, but with a large dollop of satire:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-dont-hate-women-candidates-i-just-hated-hillary-and-coincidentally-im-starting-to-hate-elizabeth-warren
William,
We have to stop falling for the media hype that Hillary was not liked because that’s just not true. She won the popular vote by 2.8 million votes. If she was so disliked, she would have lost the popular vote as well.
The media continues to mislead the public by constantly saying the reason she lost was because she did not go to Wisconsin and Michigan enough and that’s why trump got 70,000 electoral votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. You have to ask why the media continues to totally ignore that Russia’s meddling in the election was not only through social media but by hacking into voting machine data bases and more and more it appears that the machines are indeed vulnerable to altering the votes (which I am convinced they were). To ignore these facts is overwhelmingly irresponsible of the media and by design in order to avoid being held accountable for aiding and abetting trump throughout the election process and for not vetting him.
IMO bottom line was that Hillary was not liked by the people who pull the strings… one has to wonder why 🙂
jmac,
I believe it was a matter of Hillary being “feared” by the “string pullers” moreso than her being disliked by them. Let’s face it, these guys don’t like any woman who dares encroach on their male preserve — the Oval Office. I think we can agree that Hillary put the fear of God in these guys. Of all the male candidates running in the 2016 primary, she proved to be the most qualified person to be president in the last 50 years. For so long, the American people have had a steady diet of mediocre candidates who don’t do their homework and just talk the talk and don’t come through when it counts. We just assumed this was the best we could hope for, which explains why so little has been done on behalf of hte American people’s best interests in the last 50 years or more. The power elite prefer these kinds of candidates, so that they can easily manipulate and control them for their own selfish purposes.
These guys don’t give up easily and are trying to fool the American public again and put another old white guy in the WH. Note how on a daily basis the media continues to push Biden, despite all of his gaffs, past history in his legislation choices and being on the wrong side of history, not to mention losing when he ran twice before, as the BEST candidate to beat trump. THIS IS THE QUESTION you have to ask why about! We all know that NO WOMAN WOULD BE GIVEN SUCH A LARGE NUMBER OF FREE PASSES. IMO, it may be as simple as Biden is a whie male and easily controllable.
If Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris prove that they can offer the American people more than the other candidates as we get closer to deciding who should be the democrat nominee, it will be interesting to see if we’ve learned anything from the last presidential election. Will the people (primarily women) not be fooled into being told by the media who they should vote for and will rise up in large numbers, organize and fight for the woman this time around and not allow the string pullers to rob us of the best person for the job AGAIN? If it weren’t for name recognition, Warren would be beating Biden and Sanders on a daily basis. Biden is still riding high on his name recognition primarily because he was VP of the first black president. Surely people will see that this distinction doesn’t make Biden the most qualified candidate nor does it make him the best persons to beat trump. We can only hope people will follow Warren’s advice and NOT vote out of fear but instead to vote for the candidate they believe in and are willing to fight for.
Frankly, nothing would be more satisfying and cathartic than a woman beating trump! I think it will take a woman to clean up the HUGE mess made by trump!
It is no mystery why the media, including the Allegedly Liberal Media, favor the Rethugs and their Russian masters.
The owners and higher-ranking employees of the major media, reactionary and “moderate” alike, are rich.
The Rethugs consistently give big, fat, humongous, horse-choking, budget-busting tax cuts to the rich.
OTOH, if the media told the full truth about the many and varied Rethuglican depravities, an angry populace might vote the Dems into office across the board–whereas the Dems might, just might, fell bold enough to raise taxes on the rich folks, including on the rich folks of the media, to levels befitting a civilized, socially-democratic nation.
Need I say more? 😡
Actually she was disliked…by the media. And they’re the only ones that count apparently.
Propertius,
I don’t see “dislike” by the media, I see a desire to destroy a woman who dared challenge the patriarcy’s last vestage of exclusive power – the Oval Office.
How could the media hate Hillary but still like trump after what unfolded during the 2016 campaign which showcased his egregously flawed behavior, mental disorders, criminal business practices, coupled with a constant and open disrespect for women, minorities and anyone who wasn’t a white male? They gave trump pass after pass after pass on all of these huge red flags simply because he is a white male. trump’s candidacy proved one thing for certain — being president has nothing to do with being qualified (which women were told since the inception of this country they did not have and therefore, could never be president). No, it’s always been about “who rules”.
The problem wasn’t Hillary, the problem has always been the patriarchy’s willingness to destroy this country in order to keep their power, so much so, that they were willing to put a mentally unstable traitor in the WH, who has been systematically destroying everything we stand for ever since. All because they feared this scary smart, bold woman could do the job as president better than they have.
Okay, i am officially done with Nicolle Wallace: “Trey Gowdy was like a dog with a bone on Benghazi. He investigated Hillary Clinton until he found her private email server. Why can’t the Democrats be more like the Republicans?” (Going from memory here but that was the gist of it.) I am not waiting around for her to praise Ken Starr. How much did the Republicans’ “doggedness,” my apology to the canines we know and love, cost the taxpayers and what exactly did we get for our money with either Gowdy or Starr? Oh, wait, they both “hounded” Clintons and took CDS to a new low for completely political reasons. I want my money back, dissatisfied taxpayer and disgusted citizen here.
I have given up on Joy, too, only Rachel is left standing.
Oh, loving the post and all the comments, too.
The course I took on personal power dynamics when I was in pharma explained that optimal interactions between adversaries was at level 4-7 on a 1-10 scale.
But if you start at 5 and your opponent goes up to 8, you also have to go up to 8 until your opponent backs down.
I completely agree that Democrats need to eat more raw meat. The Republicans are going to walk all over them and then justifiably declare that Democrats are spineless and don’t get anything done.
They should pay attention to this before it’s too late.
How are the Dems supposed to do that, RD, “ eat more raw meat”? How do you stop the lawless? If they fail to impeach in the House, where does that leave them with uninformed voters? We know the Senate will never convict. We are powerless in the courts all the way up to SC, the Justice Dept is behind trump, the military may also be in the tank for him as CIC, House bills cannot get a vote in the Senate, subpoenas are not honored, voter suppression is still alive and well and outright cheating is their stock in trade. I keep hearing OMG trump did this or that, unprecedented, despicable, appalling, but it is not illegal or against the regs. Who decides constitutionality? The ultra conservative SC? How do you raise/lower your game when the other side has no scruples or loyalty to the country or the Constitution, never plays fair, behaves like a mindless cult AND they have all the cards (and ammo)?
Don’t overestimate their “ammo”. In an actual physical confrontation, the vast majority of the “cr@wd@ds” 😉 would soil their pants and run, just like their orange Dear Leader chickened out of the Vietnam War.
Besides, they are disproportionately old, and it’s hard to aim straight when your eyes are glazed over with cataracts, or to make a Hoverround do the goose-step. 😆
The danger from this bunch is not hordes of storm-troopers, but handfuls of Timothy McVeighs.
Two schools, one with many wealthy donors, and the other with committed but much less rich donors, compete in a very important basketball game. The more powerful school wins at the very last second by one point. Their supporters are thrilled. But after much investigation, in which the team which supposedly won, denies any improprieties, it is found that one of its boosters had bribed the referee.
So, much discussion is had, and at the end of it, the commissioner does not award the victory to the school which got cheated. He says that there should be another game played between them. The only thing which happens is that the winning coach, who may or may not have known about and participated in the bribing, decides to quit, and so another coach is allowed to come in to replace him. Their wealthy donors pour in money to help their school in practices and game preparation, and to induce their fan base to come out more strongly in support than before. The smaller school, whose donors are depleted, and cannot raise nearly as much money for preparation or fan support, does the best it can, but their school ends up losing the rematch by four points. The donors of the wealthy school, which has not lost this game for fifty years, congratulate each other once again.
Just in case anyone likes my little allegory, the “name” on it was just a password I use on a site where I occasionally comment about college sports. I somehow inadvertently typed it here, probably because I was using college basketball as a metaphor for politics.