Your observation “And we are guilty…” made me think of that cynical quote by journalist H.L. Mencken a long time ago. The line “the White House will be adorned by a downright moron” surfaces frequently, but the full quote pertains directly to today’s presumed Republican nominee and convicted felon. “The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Excuse me but WE are not guilty. Many of us have been working ongoing - in local communities, at the state and national level - against this moron. We will continue and hope that others will wake up and also step up.
I meant "we" collectively...But even those of us who saw Trump for what he was from the start helped create the monster--through our political correctness, identity politics and, all too often, our disdain for the common folk.
The media outlets, based as they are in New York and San Francisco, Washington and LA, may have demonstrated disdain for the common man, it the Dems have also sent a stream of pols very much dedicated to the working class - from Moynihan to O’Neill to Mondale to Sherriod Brown - to Washington and have spilled a lot of blood defending the middle class. Joe Biden may listen to his academic staffers more than some would like but in the end he is quite literally walking the walk with the UAW. It is in social media where the contempt for the working class really seems to manifest itself, something I wish I could countermand without quitting my day job.
I'm with you, KMcGuire. The collective first person pronoun bothers me a lot. I don't deserve this, you don't deserve this, and Joe Klein does not deserve this. I understand his meaning but even if you take it as "the American people writ large", even in 2016 more of us voted for other candidates - two million more of us for Hillary - than for the Disgusting One. We got him anyway, thanks to the original compromises to keep small states in the Union when the country was formed (looking at you, Founders!). And we may get him again, lord preserve us. But we are not all responsible!!!
In item 6 you left out one key aspect: greed. So many of our wealthiest citizens will support Trump, no matter what he does, for one reason: taxes. All they care about is their own tax rate and bank balance, and no matter how much they have it is never enough.
Actually I don’t know about this. As satisfying as it feels to say and to read, I don’t think it becomes you to use hyperbole and name-calling as a voice of sanity.
I agree totally that the elites who have run this country for umpty-ump decades—and that includes me, you, and probably most of your readers—must look at ourselves to understand what we have done to create an environment that fosters the Presidency of this creature. That is an urgent, devastating truth that we have to face soberly, with brutal candor and fearlessness.
On the contrary, while I don’t endorse hyperbole and name-calling, I do think that, with regard to the left side of the body politic, many of us have been guilty of tolerating their excesses, not challenging their simplifications, not explaining how alienating some of their rhetoric is. (Note: I was at the Harvard commencement last week - hooo boy). Joe shades a bit to the cranky and irascible, as I may well do in ten years, but the time for quiet acceptance is past.
Joe, You have said eloquently and forcefully that which I have been thinking for a long time—-especially over the past six weeks. As a people we do not deserve our rich civic inheritance. But i hope like hell that we’ll do everything possible to hang onto it. Les
Well, at this point, I agree with Joe on the last two points. Of course, there are those of us who have been horrified by Trump and have worked to try to overcome what is happening politically and culturally in this country. However, to see what is happening now, with polls consistently favoring Trump with everything we have seen and experienced over the last 9 years is frankly appalling and frightening. It's not just the MAGA cult followers now; it's tens of millions of additional people who are supporting him in spite of it. I am truly tired of American citizens getting a pass on all of this: they are uninformed, they are disengaged, they are busy and so on. If Trump is elected, we have no one to blame but ourselves. And once he's in, heaven help us. It will be too late.
Joe: I think I disfavor Trump as much as you do, though perhaps not as vociferously. That said, I diasgree with much of what you have written in this column. Here's why:
Re paragraph 1, why is paying your lawyer to take care of hush money bad, but paying your lawyer to compensate for orchestrating a smear OK? Both stink, but why is one a crime and the other not? As for the Supremes, after Nixon v. Fitzgerald on civil preidential exposure, why is it corrupt for the highest court to ask the lower courts to ponder which actions are official and which are essentially political in a criminal context?
Re paragraph 2, no issue over whether Trump is a sleazeball. But being a sleazeball is not, in and of itself, a crime. This self -perceived centrist has always believed that the easiest route to a sustainable criminal conviction of Trump is obstruction of justice in the documents case. You can't hide relevant evidence from your lawyer trying to respond to a subpoena and suggest that he withhold evidence that has been disclosed to his attorney. I blame delay as much on Jack Smith as on Judge Cannon.
Re paragraph 3, Trump is surely no defender of the judicial system. But are Engoren and Marchan exemplars of that system? Engoran threw the proverbial book at Trump for what was an ostensibly victimless civil offense. Marchan should have recused himself, consistently favored the prosecution on issues that were legally novel, and charged his jury to pick and choose the felony theory of their choice, including one that was never mentioned during the trial. Let's see whether New York's Appellate Division and Court of Appeals agree whether Engoren and Marchan have handled things adequately.
Re paragraph 4, not sure we ultimately disagree, but does it make me a racist to note that three of Trump's four prosecutors are black, and each of those three sought office vowing to get him, designated offense to follow? More persuasive was his slur years ago on a judge's ruling adverse to him based on the judge's Mexican-American parentage. My take: he's ready to cozy up to minorities when he thiinks he's done something that benefits them and equally ready to levy a slur when somebody does something he doesn't like.
Paragraphs 5 and 6, I agree he is better as a carnival barker -- and a crude one at that -- than as a businessman (in a peculiar niche of the business community) but give him an ounce of credit for raising issues that nobody else in either party was raising and that strike at least somewhat of a chord with many voters in both parties.
What the MAGA movement and the illiberal left have taught me is that even in a nation of astounding resources and matchless opportunity, people are going to strive to find reasons for their sense of underachievement and disappointment. And if enough TV shows and magazines and websites harp endlessly on the idea that none of these problems are their fault but rather are foisted upon them by some insidious other, those resentments will blossom like my Azaleas. I, too, had my doubts about the point of the financial reporting laws being brought, but twelve citizens clearly agreed that the laws were broken , and God knows the Orange Menace elided thousands of transgressions in his repulsive past. It will be amusing to watch the Republican leadership explain how honesty, morality and a shred of decency matter not, but the question remains : how did we get here exactly?
I don't think this will survive appeal... Should've waited for meatier charges rather than prosecute for torturously inflated misdemeanors that many Americans don't see as criminal.
Face it, Trump is a Wrestling villain that (some) people love to hate, and they'll do anything to boo him to oblivion.
My concern is whether we've done damage here to our legal system and how things will appear 30 years hence. I think we'll be ashamed of our behavior.
Moral incompetence and stupidity have become commonplace at our highest levels of leadership. Hopefully the consequences of this behavior as witnessed today will have some impact on our society.
" our need for bread and circuses", you should not be surprised, human nature has not changed, alas.
This is just the end of the first act, in a multi-act play. Until the final curtain, the last appeal, and its outcome, have come to pass, this conviction, is little more than a road marker. It is sort of like your team, getting the first touchdown or run-batted-in, but there are more innings to go, and miles before
I sleep soundly, with a final accounting for all the hoopla that is going on around this point.
Your observation “And we are guilty…” made me think of that cynical quote by journalist H.L. Mencken a long time ago. The line “the White House will be adorned by a downright moron” surfaces frequently, but the full quote pertains directly to today’s presumed Republican nominee and convicted felon. “The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Or, it could be said easier, we get the government we deserve.
Excuse me but WE are not guilty. Many of us have been working ongoing - in local communities, at the state and national level - against this moron. We will continue and hope that others will wake up and also step up.
I meant "we" collectively...But even those of us who saw Trump for what he was from the start helped create the monster--through our political correctness, identity politics and, all too often, our disdain for the common folk.
The media outlets, based as they are in New York and San Francisco, Washington and LA, may have demonstrated disdain for the common man, it the Dems have also sent a stream of pols very much dedicated to the working class - from Moynihan to O’Neill to Mondale to Sherriod Brown - to Washington and have spilled a lot of blood defending the middle class. Joe Biden may listen to his academic staffers more than some would like but in the end he is quite literally walking the walk with the UAW. It is in social media where the contempt for the working class really seems to manifest itself, something I wish I could countermand without quitting my day job.
I'm with you, KMcGuire. The collective first person pronoun bothers me a lot. I don't deserve this, you don't deserve this, and Joe Klein does not deserve this. I understand his meaning but even if you take it as "the American people writ large", even in 2016 more of us voted for other candidates - two million more of us for Hillary - than for the Disgusting One. We got him anyway, thanks to the original compromises to keep small states in the Union when the country was formed (looking at you, Founders!). And we may get him again, lord preserve us. But we are not all responsible!!!
In item 6 you left out one key aspect: greed. So many of our wealthiest citizens will support Trump, no matter what he does, for one reason: taxes. All they care about is their own tax rate and bank balance, and no matter how much they have it is never enough.
Don’t hold back, Joe.
Actually I don’t know about this. As satisfying as it feels to say and to read, I don’t think it becomes you to use hyperbole and name-calling as a voice of sanity.
I agree totally that the elites who have run this country for umpty-ump decades—and that includes me, you, and probably most of your readers—must look at ourselves to understand what we have done to create an environment that fosters the Presidency of this creature. That is an urgent, devastating truth that we have to face soberly, with brutal candor and fearlessness.
If we have it in us.
Steve C
On the contrary, while I don’t endorse hyperbole and name-calling, I do think that, with regard to the left side of the body politic, many of us have been guilty of tolerating their excesses, not challenging their simplifications, not explaining how alienating some of their rhetoric is. (Note: I was at the Harvard commencement last week - hooo boy). Joe shades a bit to the cranky and irascible, as I may well do in ten years, but the time for quiet acceptance is past.
Joe, You have said eloquently and forcefully that which I have been thinking for a long time—-especially over the past six weeks. As a people we do not deserve our rich civic inheritance. But i hope like hell that we’ll do everything possible to hang onto it. Les
Well, at this point, I agree with Joe on the last two points. Of course, there are those of us who have been horrified by Trump and have worked to try to overcome what is happening politically and culturally in this country. However, to see what is happening now, with polls consistently favoring Trump with everything we have seen and experienced over the last 9 years is frankly appalling and frightening. It's not just the MAGA cult followers now; it's tens of millions of additional people who are supporting him in spite of it. I am truly tired of American citizens getting a pass on all of this: they are uninformed, they are disengaged, they are busy and so on. If Trump is elected, we have no one to blame but ourselves. And once he's in, heaven help us. It will be too late.
Joe: I think I disfavor Trump as much as you do, though perhaps not as vociferously. That said, I diasgree with much of what you have written in this column. Here's why:
Re paragraph 1, why is paying your lawyer to take care of hush money bad, but paying your lawyer to compensate for orchestrating a smear OK? Both stink, but why is one a crime and the other not? As for the Supremes, after Nixon v. Fitzgerald on civil preidential exposure, why is it corrupt for the highest court to ask the lower courts to ponder which actions are official and which are essentially political in a criminal context?
Re paragraph 2, no issue over whether Trump is a sleazeball. But being a sleazeball is not, in and of itself, a crime. This self -perceived centrist has always believed that the easiest route to a sustainable criminal conviction of Trump is obstruction of justice in the documents case. You can't hide relevant evidence from your lawyer trying to respond to a subpoena and suggest that he withhold evidence that has been disclosed to his attorney. I blame delay as much on Jack Smith as on Judge Cannon.
Re paragraph 3, Trump is surely no defender of the judicial system. But are Engoren and Marchan exemplars of that system? Engoran threw the proverbial book at Trump for what was an ostensibly victimless civil offense. Marchan should have recused himself, consistently favored the prosecution on issues that were legally novel, and charged his jury to pick and choose the felony theory of their choice, including one that was never mentioned during the trial. Let's see whether New York's Appellate Division and Court of Appeals agree whether Engoren and Marchan have handled things adequately.
Re paragraph 4, not sure we ultimately disagree, but does it make me a racist to note that three of Trump's four prosecutors are black, and each of those three sought office vowing to get him, designated offense to follow? More persuasive was his slur years ago on a judge's ruling adverse to him based on the judge's Mexican-American parentage. My take: he's ready to cozy up to minorities when he thiinks he's done something that benefits them and equally ready to levy a slur when somebody does something he doesn't like.
Paragraphs 5 and 6, I agree he is better as a carnival barker -- and a crude one at that -- than as a businessman (in a peculiar niche of the business community) but give him an ounce of credit for raising issues that nobody else in either party was raising and that strike at least somewhat of a chord with many voters in both parties.
A Rubicon has been crossed… I am really concerned about what will happen next.
What the MAGA movement and the illiberal left have taught me is that even in a nation of astounding resources and matchless opportunity, people are going to strive to find reasons for their sense of underachievement and disappointment. And if enough TV shows and magazines and websites harp endlessly on the idea that none of these problems are their fault but rather are foisted upon them by some insidious other, those resentments will blossom like my Azaleas. I, too, had my doubts about the point of the financial reporting laws being brought, but twelve citizens clearly agreed that the laws were broken , and God knows the Orange Menace elided thousands of transgressions in his repulsive past. It will be amusing to watch the Republican leadership explain how honesty, morality and a shred of decency matter not, but the question remains : how did we get here exactly?
I don't think this will survive appeal... Should've waited for meatier charges rather than prosecute for torturously inflated misdemeanors that many Americans don't see as criminal.
Face it, Trump is a Wrestling villain that (some) people love to hate, and they'll do anything to boo him to oblivion.
My concern is whether we've done damage here to our legal system and how things will appear 30 years hence. I think we'll be ashamed of our behavior.
Thanks for your venting. I wouldn't want to read or hear it often, but today is your day.
Moral incompetence and stupidity have become commonplace at our highest levels of leadership. Hopefully the consequences of this behavior as witnessed today will have some impact on our society.
Am also waiting on Trump to utter the line: "Where do I go to get my good name back?".
" our need for bread and circuses", you should not be surprised, human nature has not changed, alas.
This is just the end of the first act, in a multi-act play. Until the final curtain, the last appeal, and its outcome, have come to pass, this conviction, is little more than a road marker. It is sort of like your team, getting the first touchdown or run-batted-in, but there are more innings to go, and miles before
I sleep soundly, with a final accounting for all the hoopla that is going on around this point.