Unofficial Apolyton Predicts

[Elok]

Limbaugh was right wing fringe. Republicans adopted his platform. That gave it mainstream credibility, it was no longer fringe. While you can say they did so to get the support of a movement, and it did actually help Republicans get control of congress ... it legitimised the fringe and make it mainstream. So it got much more exposure and more traction. The Republican establishment thought they could co-opt it like they did (successfully) the religious right, pay lip service to it, get elected, largely ignore it. Perhaps they could have without the internet and globalization, but they lost control over this anti-intellectual, anti-liberal, anti-establishment movement. Now that movement looks at the Republican establishment as much the same "elites".

All of this is true. That does not change the fact that Limbaugh spoke to an anger that was already there. It's something you notice more readily if you happen to be (in my case, for example) a traditional Christian, as opposed to a Unitarian or Mainline Protestant or purely conventional C and E Catholic. After a while, you notice that characters in TV shows and movies are basically never religious, unless they're villains. Every once in a while you'll find a lackluster character who belongs to a liberal denomination, but mostly they'll be peripheral. The only time somebody will share your values will be if he's a two-dimensional dupe or a horrible monster manipulating said 2d dupes. You can easily whiff the same attitude coming off of your textbooks and your teachers. The voices who dominate the culture hold traditional Christianity in contempt, and have for some time. It wasn't until recently that they got bold enough to publish stuff like Dawkins or Hitchens, but it's been like that for a while.

And as for how they depict "country folk" in general, well, they don't if they can help it, but if they do, it's likely for comic relief. Lots of gap teeth and incest. Very few well-rounded small-town characters (with a few rare exceptions like King of the Hill or Roseanne).

[Elok]

(yeah, I know I've complained about the Sister Miriam phenomenon before)

[Giancarlo]

There are too much of us and too few of them. If they want a confrontation they will get one.

[Elok]

Put your phone away in the theater.

[giblets]

I'm all for sending Giancarlo to Mars.

[Elok]

But California is the future!

[C0ckney]

meanwhile, it seems that there may be rather more than 3 emails to look through...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/laptop-may-include-thousands-of-emails-linked-to-hillary-clintons-private-server-1477854957

The surprise disclosure that agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation are taking a new look at Hillary Clinton’s email use lays bare, just days before the election, tensions inside the bureau and the Justice Department over how to investigate the Democratic presidential nominee.

Investigators found 650,000 emails on a laptop used by former Rep. Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife Huma Abedin, a close Clinton aide, and underlying metadata suggests thousands of those messages could have been sent to or from the private server that Mrs. Clinton used while she was secretary of state, according to people familiar with the matter.

[Elok]

They'd have to sift through those 650K to find one heckuva bombshell, and in a very short time, for it to make a difference in the election. As it is, Hillary has a 3.5 lead nationwide in a four-way race. We're in the turning-down stage of a crest, so it could get interesting, but the EC will probably save the crook anyway.

[C0ckney]

oh yes, i agree, she's still the favourite. but being under investigation by the FBI isn't going to convince people, who aren't exactly overburdened with enthusiasm for her in any case, to turn out. and who's to say what will happen next.

[Kidlicious]

While some really tentative links could be drawn back further, they weren't important (systemically) as recently as the 80's. Politics were cordial most of the time, and there weren't mainstream movements of vitriol and personal attacks. Trump (as he is) couldn't have possibly gotten any traction in the 80's. By dropping the level of discourse into the mud in the 90's, Trump can now "flourish". (Even though he at best has about 30% of the electorate that doesn't detest him personally.)

Trump's popularity is a reaction to the left. It's the left who started calling moderate conservatives racist, woman-hating extremists. Obama said we "cling to our religion and guns." It's statements like that which created the environment for Trump to get nominated. That and Obama being elected twice. No one who attended Rev Wright's church for 20 years should ever be president. Hillary should never be president. If people like that keep getting nominated Romneys and Jebs will never get nominated.

[-Jrabbit]

Your relationship with logic - especially cause and effect - remains as uniquely clueless as ever, Kid.

[Kidlicious]

Your relationship with logic - especially cause and effect - remains as uniquely clueless as ever, Kid.

This is just a stupid comment.

[Aeson]

All of this is true. That does not change the fact that Limbaugh spoke to an anger that was already there. It's something you notice more readily if you happen to be (in my case, for example) a traditional Christian, as opposed to a Unitarian or Mainline Protestant or purely conventional C and E Catholic. After a while, you notice that characters in TV shows and movies are basically never religious, unless they're villains. Every once in a while you'll find a lackluster character who belongs to a liberal denomination, but mostly they'll be peripheral. The only time somebody will share your values will be if he's a two-dimensional dupe or a horrible monster manipulating said 2d dupes. You can easily whiff the same attitude coming off of your textbooks and your teachers. The voices who dominate the culture hold traditional Christianity in contempt, and have for some time. It wasn't until recently that they got bold enough to publish stuff like Dawkins or Hitchens, but it's been like that for a while.

And as for how they depict "country folk" in general, well, they don't if they can help it, but if they do, it's likely for comic relief. Lots of gap teeth and incest. Very few well-rounded small-town characters (with a few rare exceptions like King of the Hill or Roseanne).

The anger was there, but it was fringe. It's still less than a majority even just in the Republican party, but because the Republicans have adopted much of it as their platform, it gave it a vehicle to Trump. Trump running on his own as a 3rd party might get 15% of the vote. But as an R he gets 40% by default, just as Hillary gets by default as a D.

While religion doesn't get much play in culture, I don't think that has much to do with Trumpism. The religious right so far have toed the party line. They'll hold their nose and vote for Trump, but they aren't part of Trump's movement for the most part. Trumpism is more about global economics and white males feeling that they're losing the dominance they once had.

[Aeson]

Trump's popularity is a reaction to the left. It's the left who started calling moderate conservatives racist, woman-hating extremists. Obama said we "cling to our religion and guns." It's statements like that which created the environment for Trump to get nominated. That and Obama being elected twice. No one who attended Rev Wright's church for 20 years should ever be president. Hillary should never be president. If people like that keep getting nominated Romneys and Jebs will never get nominated.

Most moderate conservatives are only voting for Trump because he's the R candidate. Romney was nominated 4 years ago, so "never" is rather absurd ...

[Kidlicious]

Most moderate conservatives are only voting for Trump because he's the R candidate. Romney was nominated 4 years ago, so "never" is rather absurd ...

I'm saying people like Romney will be easily beaten by any anti-establishment candidate in the future.

There are still conservatives who don't like Trump, but most are anti-establishment. Guys like Romney aren't trusted.