Today, the Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio complained to reporters that there have been “two standards” in the way we have seen the vandalism at some of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and the January 6 insurrection. “We have a dust-up at the Capitol, nothing burned down, and we’re going to make that a major deal.”
The evidence is overwhelming that Donald Trump wanted to remain president at any cost. Because he was president, he managed to influence a tremendous number of people to join him in this criminal effort.
The intellectual dissection of the effort to keep a Republican in charge, even after he lost the 2020 election, misses the point, imo, if you don’t consider the social forces at work.
We live in a divided country. Using the 2020 election as a benchmark, just over half of US society (Biden voters and the non-voters on his side) wants a society of equality and diversity. Just under half (Trump voters and the non-voters leaning his way) want US society to favor whites, males, heterosexuals, Christians, and rich people.
And notice, again, how Donald Trump was the backlash to having Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House.
The nuanced debate here and in the opinion corridors and forums we frequent have little to do with what most people in America are exposed to. Most people who are like Jack del Rio are watching Fox News, a propaganda voice for the whites-first males-first straights-first society. Most people who voted for Biden are taking in what we call “progressive” voices and arguments, if they follow news at all.
It’s not an intellectual debate for a lot of people. Rational and logical arguments are irrelevant. It’s more subconscious and visceral than that. People lean towards the society of the future, or they lean towards the society of the past, and they make their voting decisions and their social decisions accordingly.
I know I have been beating the same drum over the years, but remember that right here is where I learned how it works. I believe that most people don’t have rational conversations about the policy of society. It’s a schism, a dichotomy, in our country - and beyond. Either you feel fundamentally that whites should have superior rights over non-whites, and that males should have superior rights over females, and that Christians and rich people and heterosexuals should come ahead of non-Christians and LGBTQ+, or you feel that all people in society should have fair and equal treatment. That is the blue / red split. That is the foundation of most of what we call politics, the policy of society. The people who lean Fox and Trump gravitate to that group not because they have brilliant rational arguments, but because they feel fundamentally that whites and men and straights come first in society.
And they don’t give a shit what you and I think. They are belligerent, and ruthless. Think 2000 election, which the red side took by force when Gore and the softies conceded. Think Trump and the Jan. 6 Conspiracy to steal the presidential election of the United States. Think Leonard Leo and the project to turn the Supreme Court into a tool of the red side, with Moscow Mitch McConnell as principal accomplice. Think the links with Putin and Orban. Think every attack on Kamala Harris, and AOC, and Obama and his healthcare legacy, and all the other non-white and non-male people of power out there.
Forget logic, forget rational debate. People choose one side or the other. They gravitate to the side where they feel more welcome and more at home. And the reason that the red side has so many more dummies and people who are not that bright, it’s because they haven’t thought about it. They are acting on impulse, not on logic. That’s how Nazi Germany turned out the way it did, that’s why Putin‘s criminal state is attacking the Ukraine, that explains nearly all of Trump’s behavior as president and the Republicans behavior in Congress. If you feel that your side is superior, that your race and your gender and your gender identity are superior, you will feel an existential threat from anyone who doesn’t feel as you do, be it BLM or women’s rights to abortion or Biden or democracy or what-have-you.
Hey friends, just look at the face of Jared Kushner in today's papers…first time he’s been photographed w an expression of disturbance on his usually totally bland face. He & Ivanka packed up and left immediately after the election to distance themselves from Trump’s craziness…
There’s some other folks who had been key White House insiders who packed immediately as well. The minute Trump called Rudi Juliani into the Oval Office.
We’ve got a big job ahead to engage our neighbors & in some cases our family members to look at the reality…
Democracy is about attempting to talk w each other without a harassing or aggressive or snide tone of voice. It’s about conversing, which requires listening and finding common ground to build open communication and trust.
We can do this! I’m working in it w neighbors and friends. I hope you are too!
No time to respond to this breathtaking letter other than to say Pete Baker’s piece in the New York Times which covers how and why Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump distanced themselves from the Big Lie is worth the read. Link below should bypass the paywall.
Tumultuous times indeed. Thankful for this historian of our times, who sheds light on what Trump RNC & Jim Jordan’s Freedom Caucus would prefer to remain in darkness. Courage.
The country has become so polarized, along with its news sources, that those one who need to read tonight's Letter From an American probably won't, and those who need to watch the Congressional Hearing tomorrow will probably watch Fox News instead.
I remain disheartened and appalled by McConnell and McCarthy - the two Republican leader who could completely shut down this tripe of a stolen election.
Their love of power and lust for more power has corroded and eroded their decency. Those two alone could have shut down the oxygen that keeps this ugly chapter on the American experiment on life support.
Jack Del Rio‘s racist view, which he undoubtedly picked up on the Rupert Murdoch Racism Channel, just goes to show how much support there is for white supremacists taking over the government. But I doubt that he has ever seriously considered that he is a white supremacist. Most of these white supremacists and sexists are like robots, automatons. They don’t see themselves as they are.
People I love are caught up in the Trump cult. They can only hear the Trump message. They can’t hear that Donald Trump never served, that veterans of service to the Republic are suckers. On the other hand about half of the registered voters exercise that responsibility. What cult is this? Keep writing, Heather. I hear you.
Del Rio made a blundering statement and then tried to cover his tracks. But hey, he’s one of the boys! Those hearings will be watched by the Fox news junkies. Maybe not the majority of them will, but plenty won’t be burying their heads in the sand. The Repubs have a very hard time admitting they’re wrong. They just go after any member of their party who happens to want to slide away from the rest. Repubs go after them “mafioso style” by rejecting their decisions and guaranteeing they will never govern again. I am actually quite surprised they haven’t “offed” anyone yet.
Why is American football filled with idiots and morons and right wing fools? Oh, right! It's "America's game," beloved by right wing fools, idiots and morons. The game proves that the only thing "exceptional" about this country is the exceptional moron stupidity.
Just as, or more important than what's disclosed tonight and in the other hearings, will be the treatment it gets from the press.
If journalists treat the hearings about J6 as a Democrat vs Republican horse race and not an attempted overthrow of a safe and secure election and establishment of America's first dictator, the house will be officially divided.
The most telling evidence, for me, is the fact--which even ardent Trumpers can't deny--is that the former president watched WATCHED the Capitol and Capitol police being attacked and said and did nothing whatsoever to stop it.
I believe the American Tragedy will be low views because too many Americans just don't get it and don't want to be part of the fight for American democracy which has slipped in the ratings of true democracy.
Del Rio might know defensive football but his knowledge of the real world is seriously deficient. He is typical of the low-information/no-information voter these hearings have to reach to show them even a glimmer of reality.
The evidence is overwhelming that Donald Trump wanted to remain president at any cost. Because he was president, he managed to influence a tremendous number of people to join him in this criminal effort.
The intellectual dissection of the effort to keep a Republican in charge, even after he lost the 2020 election, misses the point, imo, if you don’t consider the social forces at work.
We live in a divided country. Using the 2020 election as a benchmark, just over half of US society (Biden voters and the non-voters on his side) wants a society of equality and diversity. Just under half (Trump voters and the non-voters leaning his way) want US society to favor whites, males, heterosexuals, Christians, and rich people.
And notice, again, how Donald Trump was the backlash to having Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House.
The nuanced debate here and in the opinion corridors and forums we frequent have little to do with what most people in America are exposed to. Most people who are like Jack del Rio are watching Fox News, a propaganda voice for the whites-first males-first straights-first society. Most people who voted for Biden are taking in what we call “progressive” voices and arguments, if they follow news at all.
It’s not an intellectual debate for a lot of people. Rational and logical arguments are irrelevant. It’s more subconscious and visceral than that. People lean towards the society of the future, or they lean towards the society of the past, and they make their voting decisions and their social decisions accordingly.
I know I have been beating the same drum over the years, but remember that right here is where I learned how it works. I believe that most people don’t have rational conversations about the policy of society. It’s a schism, a dichotomy, in our country - and beyond. Either you feel fundamentally that whites should have superior rights over non-whites, and that males should have superior rights over females, and that Christians and rich people and heterosexuals should come ahead of non-Christians and LGBTQ+, or you feel that all people in society should have fair and equal treatment. That is the blue / red split. That is the foundation of most of what we call politics, the policy of society. The people who lean Fox and Trump gravitate to that group not because they have brilliant rational arguments, but because they feel fundamentally that whites and men and straights come first in society.
And they don’t give a shit what you and I think. They are belligerent, and ruthless. Think 2000 election, which the red side took by force when Gore and the softies conceded. Think Trump and the Jan. 6 Conspiracy to steal the presidential election of the United States. Think Leonard Leo and the project to turn the Supreme Court into a tool of the red side, with Moscow Mitch McConnell as principal accomplice. Think the links with Putin and Orban. Think every attack on Kamala Harris, and AOC, and Obama and his healthcare legacy, and all the other non-white and non-male people of power out there.
Forget logic, forget rational debate. People choose one side or the other. They gravitate to the side where they feel more welcome and more at home. And the reason that the red side has so many more dummies and people who are not that bright, it’s because they haven’t thought about it. They are acting on impulse, not on logic. That’s how Nazi Germany turned out the way it did, that’s why Putin‘s criminal state is attacking the Ukraine, that explains nearly all of Trump’s behavior as president and the Republicans behavior in Congress. If you feel that your side is superior, that your race and your gender and your gender identity are superior, you will feel an existential threat from anyone who doesn’t feel as you do, be it BLM or women’s rights to abortion or Biden or democracy or what-have-you.
Hey friends, just look at the face of Jared Kushner in today's papers…first time he’s been photographed w an expression of disturbance on his usually totally bland face. He & Ivanka packed up and left immediately after the election to distance themselves from Trump’s craziness…
There’s some other folks who had been key White House insiders who packed immediately as well. The minute Trump called Rudi Juliani into the Oval Office.
We’ve got a big job ahead to engage our neighbors & in some cases our family members to look at the reality…
Democracy is about attempting to talk w each other without a harassing or aggressive or snide tone of voice. It’s about conversing, which requires listening and finding common ground to build open communication and trust.
We can do this! I’m working in it w neighbors and friends. I hope you are too!
No time to respond to this breathtaking letter other than to say Pete Baker’s piece in the New York Times which covers how and why Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump distanced themselves from the Big Lie is worth the read. Link below should bypass the paywall.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/08/us/politics/jared-kushner-trump-jan-6.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhkTlUbCybIRp8_qRmHmfnE2_s-j2XzIG2WVC1CyekPRpSa5kLVIKhqYZ5tmTSHQdsLeJkeeMtP9M4NdUp8V1vv5ZKehJUOJyhy89m6BzI_g8mIBuw0rHq3NzC0bbZzmrH64kuIbja5D6Ha1nIrNx8l9cU-DSyi0HIMxqrOF-5niJIpjbp6WMcMFXpXbzKKvvLoFxx6JNyNCxjZ4QQzUOtZMirByZ_es_lTNVUPVi-VCS938m0-69hDOdwIP6yZLhAofcT2g755GXWabI1vgmkufqzxGijKODOH&referringSource=articleShare
Tumultuous times indeed. Thankful for this historian of our times, who sheds light on what Trump RNC & Jim Jordan’s Freedom Caucus would prefer to remain in darkness. Courage.
The country has become so polarized, along with its news sources, that those one who need to read tonight's Letter From an American probably won't, and those who need to watch the Congressional Hearing tomorrow will probably watch Fox News instead.
I remain disheartened and appalled by McConnell and McCarthy - the two Republican leader who could completely shut down this tripe of a stolen election.
Their love of power and lust for more power has corroded and eroded their decency. Those two alone could have shut down the oxygen that keeps this ugly chapter on the American experiment on life support.
Jack Del Rio‘s racist view, which he undoubtedly picked up on the Rupert Murdoch Racism Channel, just goes to show how much support there is for white supremacists taking over the government. But I doubt that he has ever seriously considered that he is a white supremacist. Most of these white supremacists and sexists are like robots, automatons. They don’t see themselves as they are.
People I love are caught up in the Trump cult. They can only hear the Trump message. They can’t hear that Donald Trump never served, that veterans of service to the Republic are suckers. On the other hand about half of the registered voters exercise that responsibility. What cult is this? Keep writing, Heather. I hear you.
Del Rio made a blundering statement and then tried to cover his tracks. But hey, he’s one of the boys! Those hearings will be watched by the Fox news junkies. Maybe not the majority of them will, but plenty won’t be burying their heads in the sand. The Repubs have a very hard time admitting they’re wrong. They just go after any member of their party who happens to want to slide away from the rest. Repubs go after them “mafioso style” by rejecting their decisions and guaranteeing they will never govern again. I am actually quite surprised they haven’t “offed” anyone yet.
Why is American football filled with idiots and morons and right wing fools? Oh, right! It's "America's game," beloved by right wing fools, idiots and morons. The game proves that the only thing "exceptional" about this country is the exceptional moron stupidity.
Just as, or more important than what's disclosed tonight and in the other hearings, will be the treatment it gets from the press.
If journalists treat the hearings about J6 as a Democrat vs Republican horse race and not an attempted overthrow of a safe and secure election and establishment of America's first dictator, the house will be officially divided.
Is the 4th Estate up for the job?
The Watergate hearings of 1973 pale in comparison to what's coming up this week.
The most telling evidence, for me, is the fact--which even ardent Trumpers can't deny--is that the former president watched WATCHED the Capitol and Capitol police being attacked and said and did nothing whatsoever to stop it.
I believe the American Tragedy will be low views because too many Americans just don't get it and don't want to be part of the fight for American democracy which has slipped in the ratings of true democracy.
Thank you, Heather, for this Letter. It is my fervent hope that we will not let the parade of democracy pass us by.
Del Rio might know defensive football but his knowledge of the real world is seriously deficient. He is typical of the low-information/no-information voter these hearings have to reach to show them even a glimmer of reality.