FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2023
We're afraid he could be right: Newsweek isn't what it used to be, not by a very long shot.
Still, Newsweek isn't nothing yet, and Tom Rogers is its current editor-at-large. Putting it mildly, he isn't real high on Donald J. Trump. His new column starts like this:
ROGERS (8/11/23): Let me state at the outset my belief that electing Donald Trump as our next president would be a complete disaster and national tragedy. Let me further state that with the continual flow of indictment news, I am cheering for Trump to be convicted and sentenced to jail time for an array of actions that certainly appear criminal.
Rogers isn't pro-Trump, as you can plainly discern.
For ourselves, we agree with Rogers about Trump's possible election. We assume, as Rogers does, that the results would be very dire.
That said, we aren't necessarily cheering for Trump to be convicted and jailed. As a general matter, we think our tribe fails to see the way the criminal pursuit of Donald J. Trump plays among very large numbers of voters.
We'd like to see Donald J. Trump badly defeated, not necessarily jailed. Rogers wants to see the man locked up—but here's the fuller way his column begins, headline now included:
It's Time to Freak: Donald Trump Is Very Likely Our Next President |
Let me state at the outset my belief that electing Donald Trump as our next president would be a complete disaster and national tragedy. Let me further state that with the continual flow of indictment news, I am cheering for Trump to be convicted and sentenced to jail time for an array of actions that certainly appear criminal. Finally, I want to admit this is an agonizing column for me to write.
However, despite my personal views on Trump, an objective and rational analysis leads me to conclude that as of now it is more likely than not that Donald Trump is our next president. Below are the reasons behind this analysis, which explain what has led me to this extraordinarily disheartening view. You will also read why I believe it is unlikely anything will change this extremely pessimistic conclusion.
[...]
Oof! Rogers has concluded that Trump will likely get elected next year. We can't say we hugely disagree with that assessment.
You can read Rogers' column for yourself to see why he's reached that conclusion. For ourselves, we'd make no firm prediction about an election at an early date such as this.
President Biden could win a blowout next year. But in our view, he also could lose, or not make it onto the ballot.
Tens of millions of friends and neighbors are waiting to vote for Trump. We strongly disagree with their position on this, but they disagree with us!
From our perspective, our blue tribe's arrogance concerning those tens of millions of voters has us very afraid. To our eye and ear, it's our tribe's very desire to throw Trump in jail which makes us very, very afraid about next year's possible outcome.
We blues! We don't want to know what the Others think. We make our disdain for them quite clear.
With that in mind, we'll quote again from the very end of David Brooks' column last week:
BROOKS (8/4/23): Are Trump supporters right that the indictments are just a political witch hunt? Of course not. As a card-carrying member of my class, I still basically trust the legal system and the neutral arbiters of justice. Trump is a monster in the way we’ve all been saying for years and deserves to go to prison.
But there’s a larger context here. As the sociologist E. Digby Baltzell wrote decades ago, “History is a graveyard of classes which have preferred caste privileges to leadership.” That is the destiny our class is now flirting with. We can condemn the Trumpian populists until the cows come home, but the real question is: When will we stop behaving in ways that make Trumpism inevitable?
Trump is a monster, David Brooks says. We'd assume that the more "scientific" term would likely be something like sociopath.
That said:
“History is a graveyard of classes which have preferred caste privileges to leadership!”
Our blue tribe leadership class, or perhaps our caste, is extremely sure of itself. It seems to us, again and again, that we're also a bit unwise.
Damn Somerby to Hell! There he goes supporting Trump again!
ReplyDeleteHis headline is "We hope Tom Rogers is wrong!" but the discerning reader, who can deconstruct Somerby's deceitful prose, knows that the real headline should be , "We hope Tom Rogers is right!"
Yes it doesn't matter how many times you clearly state you don't like Trump, and that his presidency would be a disaster, if you go on to go off script and brazenly attempt to criticize any aspect of pro-Dem party MSM coverage, you are off script and a MAGAt !!!
DeleteThey want to hand the victory to Trump and how dare you challenge their carefully chosen strategies!
2:39 you seem triggered that we aren’t falling for Somerby’s con, and that you either have been suckered or are pretending to be.
DeleteIt is a Republican talking point that Trump will win. People who want the Dems to win don’t attack the Dems as Somerby does.
Deleteanons :3:07 and 5:08, it's entilrely possible that someone can hope that Trump doesn't win, but to fear it might happen. It doesn't mean that the person wants Trump to win to express that view. We don't like it when Trump and the MAGAs "lie" or make absurd, unsupported claims - but there you two go and do the same thing all the time. glib, stupid slander - how liberal of you.
DeleteNo one cares who Somerby may vote for -- that is between him and his voting booth. I care what he writes here about the election. Denigrating Biden and Harris, arguing against every effort to hold Trump accountable, arguing that liberals should be nicer to The Other (presumably including not just never-Trumpers or Brooks but also the 1/6 insurrectionists and every person in Hillary's basket of deplorables, the people making death threats, and the ones banning books (which Somerby says isn't happening, quibbling over the word "ban"), and every miscreant with a gun stalking people at Walmart (whether he shoots it or just waves it around). Somerby says we should be nicer to the Q-Anon followers too, the ones who think Jesus was a libtard and the ones who are telling us we're all going to burn in hell and that Hillary is a pedo. Those are the folks he wants us to coddle too, or else we'll get another dose of Trump, Somerby says.
DeleteI have friends and neighbors too. If they behaved like the rabid right, they wouldn't be my friends any more and I must seriously consider moving. I don't want to be friends or neighbors with people who don't believe in the common good and find narcissism charming. No thank you. These are not good decent people.
Somerby doesn't seem to believe in the rule of law, according to his own statements here. I believe the rule of law exists to protect us from Trump and people who behave like Trump, including those with guns and weird ideas about their own importance.
Civil War 2.0 is a blatant threat being issued by the right. If it actually happens, I expect right wingers to find out quickly that they are in the minority demographically speaking. And they will be very unhappy when they are rounded up and arrested, much like the idiots who participated in 1/6, another fantasy revolution that turned out badly for them.
6:28 every Dem wants Trump to lose but fears he might win, duh. Talk about glib and stupid.
DeleteObviously you’re not conned by Somerby because you’re not his mark, you agree with Somerby and his strategy of “supporting” Dems by attempting to attack them while defending Repubs.
You are both right wing clowns.
I don't think Trump will win, but IMO one reason he might is that the media have blown their credibility. Their bias has become so strong and so long-standing that fewer and fewer people believe them. They can say that Trump is a monster, but people aren't listening to them.
ReplyDeleteBoy that cried wolf syndrome. Remember, Trump is going to go to jail soon... next two weeks! And also we'll have that stolen election evidence for you any day... just wait two weeks!
DeleteBoth sides are rubes.
Thus spake the rube.
DeleteWow, that makes so much sense. Akin to "I know you are but what am I?"
Delete"Na na na I can't hear you!!!"
Have fun with your shilling. I won't be reading any of it any further.
David in Cal,
DeleteCorporations are unbelievable. Didn't Karl Marx tell us all that over a century ago?
#slowontheuptake
David,
DeleteI, too, won't forgive the media for calling bigotry "economic anxiety".
Sure is nice before the shills descend on the comment section. Enjoy while it lasts...
ReplyDeleteThis is rich: Somerby endorsing an opinion piece by a Wall Street neoliberal that was a major contributing force behind creating and shaping MSNBC.
ReplyDeleteWorse, Somerby, willfully or not, misrepresents the essay, which in reality argues that Biden will best Trump in a one on one contest, but that third party candidates would steal votes from Biden and permit Trump to win.
To back his claim, Tom Rogers cites evidence that Somerby himself has debunked in endless posts on this very blog.
Somerby also proudly endorses a quote used by Brooks:
“History is a graveyard of classes which have preferred caste privileges to leadership”
Which comes from the guy that invented the term WASP and was pro aristocracy. To be frank, this quote is a non sequitur that is devoid of conveying anything meaningful. It’s just part of Brooks’ silly humble bragging and Somerby’s spiteful attempt at manufacturing ignorance.
"which in reality argues that Biden will best Trump in a one on one contest".
DeleteIt's not a one-on-one contest.
Does the writer think Trump will finally win the popular vote, or has a good chance of pulling of another EC win? Is there a sense the writer really thinks he can predict what happens in next year? Why would he think he could?
ReplyDeleteOr is this just a commercial space filler with a provocative hook that plays to Bob’s twisted rationalizations on Trump? That is, if Bob doesn’t actually want to help Trump, not that he really likes Trump, but is guided by his hatred of MSNBC, etc….
anon 4:10, if you mean by the writer, the Newsweek guy, he does seem to think Trump will win. If you mean TDH, he says he fears that Trump could win - which isn't the same as saying he thinks he will win. Any one of you should fear Trump might win. It's possible. It's dumb though to argue about ho will win. Someone will win and we'll find out then, and hopefully chaos won't be unleashed more than it already has been.
DeleteSomerby hasn't been right with any of his predictions about election outcomes (2016, 2020, 2022). Why should we give his views any special consideration?
DeletePredictions don't mean anything, unless you are betting on it, maybe
DeleteWithout predictions, as an isolated concept, we’d have little to no progress, it’s fundamental to science, for example.
DeleteHaving said that, in this context, you have a point: Somerby’s ramblings “don’t mean anything”.
Bob says he fears Trump could win so we should leave him alone, that way his supporters won’t get mad and keep supporting him. AC, he wants to scare us into leaving Trump alone so we won’t embarrass his supporters. I submit this is pretty obvious, also silly. His supporters are going to do what they are going to do. He once argued Trump’s critics were seeking “a legal solution to a political problem” as if it could not be shown Trump had broken the law. Pathetic.
DeleteYou don’t predict who will win a national election based on your friends and neighbors preferences. Trumpies are way outnumbered.
ReplyDeleteIn an election with only two viable candidates, one of them will win, and it may not be the one you want. This is the profundity that we expect from the mainstream media.
ReplyDelete"To our eye and ear, it's our tribe's very desire to throw Trump in jail which makes us very, very afraid about next year's possible outcome."
ReplyDeleteFirst, there are quite a few Republicans who believe Trump should be held accountable, not just the never-Trumpers but also former supporters and elected politicians who are dismayed by his actions and want to see law applied equally to all.
Second, this isn't a politically motivated desire to see justice done. Those on the left who want to see Trump prosecuted are not eager for that eventuality because of politics, to affect the election (which we don't believe he would win in any case), but because prosecuting his crimes is the right thing to do. It is a matter of defending the constitution and our democracy, to prevent others from attempting anything similar in the future, because our form of government is worth protecting.
Somerby seems to have no grasp of the ideals held by the left and no understanding of the motives we hold. This isn't revenge (as it would be if we were all like Trump). It is about doing the right thing. Pence understood it. Why cannot Somerby?
I'm very upset with President Biden because he lied about not having knowledge of his son's business affairs.
DeleteMaybe he really believed he had no knowledge.
DeleteDeep into his Presidency, Bob was still making ridiculous excuses for Trump. There would seem to be no crime Bob believes any Republican should be held accountable for. His judgement on these matters is shoddy, his opinions meaningless.
DeleteTo be fair, Biden accurately claimed to have no direct influence on his son’s business dealings.
Delete"Our blue tribe leadership class, or perhaps our caste, is extremely sure of itself. "
ReplyDeleteThis use of the word "tribe" is like the the use of the word "cult" with T's fans.
Both are false clichés. preventing thinking. Bob should know better.