Stewie Generis

Trump and echoes of 1933

So many parallels. The cult of personality, requiring loyalty to the man not the state or party, the paranoia, the “crimes” of his opponents and the threats against them, the fear of the sycophants surrounding him, the personal isolation and lack of friends, the ignorance and misreading of world affairs, the impulsiveness and readiness to deploy arms, the xenophobia, the encouragement of minions to act against enemies to stifle dissent at rallies or polling places, the intemperate language, the legitimization of saying and doing things that the social contract has previously forbidden, the unending personal vendettas.

The damage Trump has done to this country’s prestige abroad is already huge. Win or lose, he’ll be making trouble at home for a long time.

“Bill Clinton did it, too, but worse”.

A. Bill Clinton is not on the ballot.

B. We already paid a high price for Clinton’s antics. Gore couldn’t run on the accomplishments of Clinton’s eight years because of the indiscretions, so we wound up with Bush instead.

C. “Why are you upset with me when you gave Bill Clinton a pass?” A pass? WTF are you talking about? They fucking IMPEACHED the guy!

D. Actually, “they” didn’t impeach him, Republicans impeached him, i.e. the same people now defending Trump. Democrats didn’t much care about personal things then and they don’t much now. It’s the Republican hypocrisy that’s at issue.

E. “My transgressions were words, Bill’s were actions.” Again, we agree we won’t vote for Bill Clinton in this election. But, to be clear, your words were bragging about your actions.

F. Clinton’s transgressions might have been a sin, but yours were a crime. Clinton’s “victims” were all in love with him – the sex was consensual. In your case, we’re talking about assault. None of your accusers consented. You, sir, are a pig.

G. “It’s just locker room talk”. Yeah, no. Not really. I’ve been in a few locker rooms over the years and I’ve never heard any one say. “I wish I had a lot of money so I could grab strangers by the pussy and they’d just let me.” Maybe that’s what they’re saying in Brunei or Riyadh or some such. I don’t know. But I’ve never heard it here.

H. And if I ever DID hear that said in a locker room, the last thing I would think is “By Jove, that fellow should run for President!”. The first thing I would think would be, “Christ, what an asshole.”.

Visited the U.K. once – not going back.

I have always hated the class system. It is my conviction that the U.K. will never let go of it. It’s not just the worship of and gawking at “The Royals”. It permeates every thing they all say and do, from the school you go to to the accent you speak with. It’s the reason any ambitious Brit comes to America to further his career and no ambitious American goes to Britain.

And the class system, the idea of “breeding”, is also at the heart of the very deep and persistent current of antisemitism that I believe runs through daily life there. I was in London all of thirty minutes before a stranger made an antisemitic remark to me. Even in Munich, that never happened.

Roger Cohen, a Brit, is the NY Times’ most dedicated critic of Israel and most consistent apologist for Iran. He is one of the many who usually insist that strong criticism of the Israeli government is in no way indicative of any antisemitic sentiment. This of course, is nonsense, and in today’s column he finally refers to the “safe place” that Corbyn and Corbynism creates for the antisemites.

“That which the demonological Jew once was, demonological Israel now is.”

When the left turns against the Jews, all is lost.

You might ask, “Why single out the U.K. – you’ve been elsewhere in Europe many times and surely things are even worse in many other countries?” True. But it’s one thing to visit with your historic enemies, knowing exactly what they think of you, and another to visit to your closest cousin and ally who hugs you and smiles in your face, but actually hates you and talks shit about you when you leave.

Welcome to Dumbfuckistan

When you ask anyone in a Muslim country why they wouldn’t prefer a western-style government (aka “democracy”), they will say one of two things.

The first is that it puts the law of man above the law of God. These are the people that want Sharia law. They believe the brutal, arbitrary rule of mullahs is a better alternative than the brutal, arbitrary rule of dictators or kings. These people have no history or tradition of liberal democracy to refer to. Their model has always been, Big Strong Man seizes power, uses the wealth of the country as his own, stays for life.

The second is that elections are the equivalent of two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. This glib aphorism betrays a complete lack of understanding of what western government is all about.

Elections are only a small part of how we govern ourselves, not nearly the most important thing that defines the brilliance of the founding documents. Some of the other elements we take for granted include:

Rule of law – not even the president is above the law.

No tyranny of the majority – minority rights are assured, particularly political and religious minorities. The wolves are not allowed to eat the lamb for lunch.

Independent judiciary – free from political control

Free press – you can say or print any opinion or dissent

Loyal opposition – all sides are part of the legislative process

Local and state administrations all living under a unified federal system. You can make your own local laws, but you can’t go crazy.

No armed factions – this is the one that plagues ALL third-world countries.

And then there is the most important of all – the peaceful transfer of power.

Whoever is elected is expected to be the president of all of us, even those who voted against him, and work for our common interest. We accused Saddam Hussein of gassing “his own people”, i.e. Iraqis. But he understood that “his people” were Tikriti Sunnis. He figured, to hell with the the Kurds or the Marsh Arabs.

In this country, when you lose an election, you smile, make a speech congratulating your opponent, and go away. This is the main thing that accounts for our political stability, our domestic tranquility, and the confidence of our international treaty partners. In “Palestine”, it makes no difference whether Abbas signs a peace treaty or not – you can bet Hamas will keep shooting.

Last night Donald Trump refused to accept that the election wouldn’t be rigged against him. For the first time, the peaceful transfer of power is not a given.

Welcome to Dumbfuckistan.