Summations Only

After reading what you sourced, I poked around and found This Article On the history of the tea party movement. The Authoritarians which we have discussed a few years ago here at EvC. The author of my sources is Bob Altemeyer.Some key points :

quote:

---

Like the student radicals and hippies who joined forces to demonstrate against the war in Vietnam, the Tea Party is composed of disparate groups united more by what they are against (President Obama and Democrats) then what they are for. The public sees them as ordinary people, and Tea Party organizations insist their members are a cross-section of American adults, a nonpartisan mix of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. But the Quinnipiac poll found that 74 percent of the Tea Partiers were Republicans or Republican-leaning Independents.

---

The Authoritarians was written many years ago in the Bush era, but it seems more appropriate for the times that we are now in. The phenomenon of fake news comes to mind.

quote:

---

The Winston survey dug into what matters to Tea Party members. The most common theme was a conservative economic philosophy. Their top priority, like the rest of the sample, was job creation. But they thought the way to create jobs was mainly to cut taxes on small businesses and increase development of energy resources.

---

Now that I am putting two and two together, I see that Donald Trump is essentially a tea party president.

Yesterday I was thinking about the symbolism of "the wall" and I thought of how America was isolationist in the years before WW II. The lightbulb went on, and I realized that this whole idea of a wall is a symbolic form of modern day isolationism.The issue is tied in with nationalism and is not about illegals so much as about protecting our national fantasy over what will protect America from the reality of a growingly competitive world.

Politicians, in general, have always been good at playing the game ...Donald has just tweeted his way into Generation X,Y, and Z. A whole new generation of nationalist conservatives...many of them young...are being played by an old reality TV star.Edited by Phat, : spell

This was in todays media: With His Back Against The Wall, Trump Again Turns To Grievance Politics This was a recent rally August 3rd, 2017.
On Russia, Two Trumps: In D.C., Constrained; For The Nation, DefiantTrump is turning to his base supporters for support since he has little accomplishment elsewhere.Edited by Phat, : add pic

quote:

---

Actually, Trump gets out of town quite often. So far, he has spent 13 of 28 weekends in office away from the White House, mostly at his properties in Palm Beach, Florida, or in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to an Associated Press count. The figures include a weekend during official travel overseas and Father’s Day weekend at Camp David, the government-owned presidential retreat in Maryland.

​

Contrast Trump’s frequent getaways with his criticism, before and during last year’s presidential campaign, of Barack Obama’s vacations and frequent golf outings.

​

@BarackObama played golf yesterday. Now he heads to a 10 day vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. Nice work ethic, Trump tweeted in August 2011.

​

Trump said last year that he wouldn’t have time for golf if he became president.

---

Trump really despises Obama. Personally, I think its because Obama will always be more popular among the people-at-large globally than Trump ever will.

Read this article, Marc. (no, its not "fake news"...) The Policies of White ResentmentNotable quotes from the article:

quote:

---

If there is one consistent thread through Mr. Trump’s political career, it is his overt connection to white resentment and white nationalism. Mr. Trump’s fixation on Barack Obama’s birth certificate gave him the white nationalist street cred that no other Republican candidate could match, and that credibility has sustained him in office no amount of scandal or evidence of incompetence will undermine his followers’ belief that he, and he alone, could Make America White Again.

---

quote:

---

Like on Christmas morning, every day brings his supporters presents: travel bans against Muslims, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Hispanic communities and brutal, family-gutting deportations, a crackdown on sanctuary cities, an Election Integrity Commission stacked with notorious vote suppressors, announcements of a ban on transgender personnel in the military, approval of police brutality against thugs, a denial of citizenship to immigrants who serve in the armed forces and a renewed war on drugs that, if it is anything like the last one, will single out African-Americans and Latinos although they are not the primary drug users in this country. Last week, Mr. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions put the latest package under the tree: a staffing call for a case on reverse discrimination in college admissions, likely the first step in a federal assault on affirmative action and a determination to hunt for colleges and universities that discriminate against white applicants.

---

quote:

---

white identity is often defined by its sense of being ever under attack, with the system stacked against it. That’s why Mr. Trump’s policies are not aimed at ameliorating white resentment, but deepening it. His agenda is not, fundamentally, about creating jobs or protecting programs that benefit everyone, including whites; it’s about creating purported enemies and then attacking them.

---

The evidence shows that many of Trumps so-called accomplishments are only playing to his base. They also are stoking class hatred and rivalry in our country.

This was in the NY Times just today:
Scientists Fear Trump Will Dismiss Blunt Climate ReportThe article states:

quote:

---

The draft report by scientists from 13 federal agencies, which has not yet been made public, concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now. It directly contradicts claims by President Trump and members of his cabinet who say that the human contribution to climate change is uncertain and that the ability to predict the effects is limited.

​

Evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans, a draft of the report states. A copy of it was obtained by The New York Times.

---

It seems the article was released before it could be edited..perhaps...by the current administration.

Amen! You cant very well be a victim when you choose to go down a dark alley.

. People may have a freedom to assemble, but common sense can tell us why they were assembling.Throwing gasoline on a fire may seem like a necessary signal flare for some, and a public nuisance for others.

I believe that in situations like the video describes, a common spirit descends on the people present. In this case, it was a spirit of pride, hate, and quite frankly evil. If anyone wanted to be at such a rally, no matter what you chanted you would be part of that same spirit.

I propose that we move on to the next big event in the Trump Presidency.What does everyone think of the Afghanistan recommitment?

I fear that it will be the final nail in the coffin of my retirement.

Perhaps it is (Reuters)The victor, the spoils? Trump eyes Afghanistan's elusive mineral riches also found at Newsweek: HOW WILL TRUMP PAY FOR AFGHANISTAN? PRESIDENT WANTS TO TAP MINERALS IN WAR-TORN COUNTRYAccording to the experts, the problem is lack of transportation and infrastructure to extract these minerals. We will have to spend a trillion to extract these minerals.

The public reaction is swift.

quote:

---

In response to Donald Trump’s address on the way forward in Afghanistan, Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, released the following statement:

​

Donald Trump’s plan to double down on a military deployment in Afghanistan would be a military, economic, and humanitarian disaster. After decades of conflict, tens of thousands dead or wounded, and trillions in projected U.S. taxpayer dollars spent, putting more lives on the line to continue the fighting will do nothing to put an end to this bloody war.

​

There is no military solution to Afghanistan’s challenges.

​

Congress must reassert its authority over war-making, repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), and debate and vote on whether or not to authorize ongoing military operations in Afghanistan.

​

The timing of tonight’s speech is telling: With his approval ratings at an all-time low, Trump is beating the war drums in an attempt to divert the American people’s attention from his abhorrent failure to condemn the white supremacist terror in Charlottesville.

---

I read a lot of information on the internet and these days it is becoming more and more challenging to honestly separate propaganda from fact. In the final analysis, the facts are based largely on the perceptions, beliefs, and opinions of the people. Thus, in a sense, deciding what is and is not fake news is a bit like voting. One simply chooses which source to trust and which adequately conforms to their beliefs.Do you have any pointers or suggestions on how you would equip the public to sift through the mass glut and deluge of information, opinion, and written news that we see every day?Edited by Phat, : added quote bracket

That's horrible, though! It sounds like an awfully expensive way to divert attention. America cannot afford more wars abroad. We simply need to rebuild our own infrastructure!I have a question for all of you at large:What is it that is so important about what we do overseas? Are we afraid that the world will pass us by and deal without us? Is that why we are hunting terrorists and controlling foreign resources?I fear that Trump is going to bring this country to its knees and that he really doesn't care. He is only concerned about the monied class. Is there any reason to believe that I am overreacting?