Trump As The Golden Calf: How Many Angry, Old, White And Classless Rubes Are There?

UPDATE: Trump's base has now been solidified: the latest endorsement is from ...

The National Enquirer. 

Figures.

“I understand and respect the people who did vote for him. I know many of them. They are not racists or crazies or stupid. While many people call The Donald a fraud or a con-man, there are a lot of voters out there who think they have been conned election after election.” - Carly Fiorina, CPAC - Mar.4)

Ahem, tell that to the rest of the country, Carly. Part of the country that voted George W. Bush into office TWICE, is now making the rest of America dumbfounded with its support of Trump. Trump has now become an obnoxious golden calf: some people's desperate attempt to create a new authority, a new idol because they can't understand America itself and stand stewing in their isolation and (frankly) their stupidity.

It's Follow THE MOUTH, not Follow the Leader. 

Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post ...

"... spoke to a number of psychologists and came up with three key sources of Mr Trump's appeal. "We like people who talk big," he writes. "We like people who tell us that our problems are simple and easy to solve, even when they aren't. And we don't like people who don't look like us."

In other words, they'll take loudmouthed white con man "telling it like it is," but don't particularly know (or care) what "it" is. 

Trump Supporters: 

"I have faith that he will learn and develop the policies that will make America the superpower that we want it to be." 

"You get what he really believes in, even if everything that he says isn't what is the right thing exactly."

Unfortunately, Trump is not registering for a class in U.S. Presidency 101 and believes in nothing but himself. The loud Mouth, with all of its insults, crudities, contradictions and outright lies is LOUD. To his supporters, that's what counts. 
Trump Demographics  

The following poll numbers are culled from MSNBC, Real Clear Politics, YouGov, and (Public Policy Polling which is why some categories do not total 100. 

GENDER Male  - 58%
female - 42 %

AGE

Under - 30 2%
30-44 - 14%
45-64  - 50%
65+ - 34%

RACE 

white - 91%


INCOME

Under 50k - 33%

Under 100k - 72%
Over 100k - 28%
Over 100k - 11 %

EDUCATION 

High school degree or less - 43%
College or Postgraduate Degree - 19%

IDEOLOGY

Conservative - 65%
Liberal or Moderate - 20%
Very Conservative  - 13%
Involved with Tea Party  - 32%
In Favor Trump's Ban on Muslims  - 82%
Believe President Obama is a Muslim - 66%
Think Obama Was Not Born in the US - 61%
In Favor of Bombing Agrabah  - 41%
Poor Agrabah. It's the fictional country of Disneys Aladdin. What's next? Annihilating Neverland?

While the polls don't give a clear "typical" Trump supporter, they do look predominantly like uneducated slobs (Demographics #1), angry old white men (Demographics #2) or just plain white trash (Demographics #3). Oh, then there's the evangelical group (Demographics #4)

The Way Things Are

It isn't that Trump's supporters don't have a grip on reality, it's just that they only have a grip on their own reality. The Mouth gives them what they want to hear in the most simplistic terms, keeps them isolated from what's happening in the rest of the country and that's just fine with them. So what if The Mouth has no diplomatic skills? So what if The Mouth has no experience in lawmaking whatsoever? So what if The Mouth might gild everything in the White House and put slot machines in the East Room? Who cares about all that? He's "telling it like it is." 

The reality is that they don't have a clue as to what "it" is. "It" involves experience - the biggest thing lacking in Trump. What if the board of directors of a company were so distrusting of executives, they would not hire an executive to run the company? Trump himself would never hire someone inexperienced (unless, of course, it was for Trump University). 

Another reality, Trump supporters: he has offended so many Americans, so many lawmakers, has gotten such bad publicity (e.g. Trump University class action law suit), that the delegates won in the primaries might change their minds at the last minute. Remember: after the first vote on the floor of the convention, delegates are free to vote for whomever they choose. The RNC could look like Trump- inspired circus clowns after the first contentious vote, hundreds of people shouting at each other, unfettered by their pledges to back Trump. 

Cowboy Diplomacy

Another point the polls make is that Trump supporters care not for any kind of diplomacy on the part of the President. George W. Bush's Cowboy Diplomacy ("Shoot first, ask questions later') has been embedded in their minds since 9/11. That's certainly a hit with the NRA, but with many other countries.

God Is On His Side

So as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and radio and TV hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Greta Van Susteren, Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, and Sean Hannity ask why evangelicals support Trump – the answer can be found in that poll we did three decades ago. Trump is the “liberator” and “defender” they believe really will “Make America Great Again!”

Another unreasonable position for Trump supporters comes from the evangelicals: he is not the golden calf, but the Messiah, come to rescue them from the enemies of religious freedom. 

That's just what America needs: a crude, egotistical, loud-mouthed Messiah.

Editing Saint Sarah: Give The Guy A Gun To Shoot Himself

Yes, she's gone and written another pseudo-book, in pseudo-literary style. She had to, you see, because she is, after all, the gift that keeps on giving to late night talk show hosts and snarky writers like me. 

And yes, it's a "devotional." 

Joining the ranks of St. Theresa of Avila (The Way Of Perfection), The Book of Common Prayer, The Oxford Book of Prayer, and  Coffee With Jesus, Sarah Palin is penning one of the most noteworthy (if not collectable) inspirational books of modern times.  

That's how a fevered, overworked publicist might promote Sarah Palin's new book, Sweet Freedom: a Devotional, but a publicist less prone to use such overheated hyperbole just came up with this: 

Palin's book will include 260 meditations that use "biblical principles" to tackle contemporary issues, including economics, debt, social justice, marriage, parenting, human trafficking and more. 

The future publicist, however, may not have as much of a problem as Mrs. Palin's editor (or fleet of editors). Dealing with her, her commandment that absolutely nothing be edited in the first place because everyone wants to hear her unvarnished wisdom, her innovations ("Will the book light up? I read something about illuminated manuscripts.") and her insistence that God told her to write whatever she wanted. 

We can only guess what the editor has to struggle with. For example, the "list of meditations" might include:

I Can See God From My House

Meditating On The Divinity  Of A Mooseberger

The Bridge To Nowhere Was Really A Bridge To Somewhere In My Mind

Immaculate Conception Be Thou My Goal

Abstinence Is Not Only A Virtue, But A 

Divine Propaganda

and ...

The God-Given Brawl

And interspersed between these deep thoughts are Mrs. Palin's insights are absolutely de riguer on the matters of:

Economics: "Good economics starts at home - that's why every woman should take home economics courses in school." 

Marriage: "Children are the product of marriage. but marriage is not the product of children, unless there's a shotgun involved." 

Social Justice: "Whatever Glenn Beck hates"

Human trafficking: "It needs stoplights". 

Parenting: "Good parenting can't happen without good cash - and lots of it."

Before we take up a collection for the poor editor's psychiatry and hospital bills, we 

need to remind him/her that their profession was chosen - they were not born that way and they can choose to opt out of the project any time they want. 

I think I heard a door slam at Regnery.

Stupidity Has Its Loyalty: Cavuto Goes Rogue And Pays The Price

"Now some of you say you will never, ever watch me again for the way I treated a congresswoman who I otherwise very much respect. Well, then I respectfully bid you adieu because if you prefer only hearing the interviews that suit you than let me say good-bye to you now because the time's going to come again when I will probably offend you."  - Neil Cavuto of FOX News 

Michele Bachmann was, in part, created by FOX News and its supportive pundits. What FOX News anchor Neil Cavuto did last week was to remove his support for a creation he "respected" but still termed silly. What he found out almost instantly was that no one at FOX can question - let alone deride - someone like Bachmann, no matter how insipid a political stance she has.

TPM:

The negative feedback was swift and harsh. At the end of that day's broadcast, Cavuto said a "record number of emails" had arrived.
"They go pretty much like this," he said. "'Cavuto, you're a rude ass. If I were Michele Bachmann, I'd have a law against you.' Someone else said, 'Who do you think you are? [Bill] O'Reilly? You're an idiot. Quit blabbering, start thinking.'"

Bachmann Cavuto Overdrive

Even for FOX News, the exchange was testy, with Bachmann (as is always her want), repeating points endlessly, thinking that emphasis would pass for reason. But Cavuto hammered away at his original premise, that the "lawsuit" against Obama spurred on by the Republican party was totally frivolous and a needless waste of time, energy and taxpayer money. Cavuto was anchored in the here and now, while Bachmann was off in Anti-Obama Neverland. The Young Turks (see below) saw Bachmann as a robotic Frankenstein monster unleashed, with Cavuto trying desperately to restrain it, but in the end just saying "you're silly."

Now, calling a monster "silly" may seem silly in itself, especially when FOX viewers have a fondness for Bachmann's brand of "silly." It seemed to many that Cavuto was cutting off his FOX-paid nose to spite his face. But what Cavuto may have done was bring a breath of reality to FOX that was very, very unwelcome: FOX's coverage and support of Republicans on this issue was "silly." FOX's support of Republican agendas was not always right. OMG! FOX News, the ratings king, might be IN ERROR! Cavuto was being blasphemous and apostate!

In retrospect, it's amazing that the emails did not contain death threats.

Tipping Over The Tower Of Misinformation

It has long been understood that ideological news and straight news are two different species, and with FOX News the ideology of the Right is so paramount as to give its sub-banner "Fair and Balanced" a tongue-in-cheek aspect. Hosts like Glenn Beck (formerly at FOX), Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee who depend upon the "opinions" of Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter veer so much to the right, that even treatment of the national and international political scenes is non-existent: at times it just seems like an Obama bash-fest. But the ideological news of FOX also serves another purpose: it keeps the misinformed public misinformed. In a real sense, Neil Cavuto was also challenging FOX the Misinformer, telling viewers to get past the irrelevance of the Republican (FOX News) Party's actions and "move on" to fix things.

The Price Of Going Rogue

As The Young Turks put it after viewing the heated exchange: "Is this FOX News?" FOX has certainly flirted with conflict involving the Republican Party,* but Cavuto's handling of Tea Party icon Michele Bachmann as a near nitwit was certainly far from it's usual right-wing course. Will Cavuto pay the ultimate price? No. Irate emails must be constant and consistant to have any effect on viewership. Cavuto will only be sacked if it's proven that he's slipped in ratings. Or if he spars again, say, with FOX's other darling nitwit:






*Megyn Kelly once remarked to Karl Rove that his projection over the 2012 elections might just be "something you made up to make yourselves feel good."

Death By Stoning ... In Oklahoma: Facebook Post Makes A Candidate's Position Clear(ly) Stupid

"I have no plans to reinstitute that in Oklahoma law."

Not right now, maybe, but at sometime in a later date when he's elected village idiot?

Scott Esk is running for Oklahoma State Congressional District 91. He is running as a Libertarian and a moralizing moron. He thinks "ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss.” And He doesn't think much of Pope Francis, either.

You see, it was all Francis' fault that this gay-stoning issue came about in the first place. With his (now famous) "who am I to judge", Francis ignited a firestorm of righteousness in Esk's mind, so when someone asked him on the MooreDaily.com (a local online newspaper) facebook page if he seriously condoned stoning for gays, Esk answered in the affirmative: "I think we would be totally in the right to do it." He did, however, qualify his remarks by saying that as a Libertarian he would leave it up to local municipalities to decide whether or not to adhere to Biblical law.

“And within a state, cities and communities may well have different policies, and I cheer that. That way, people can decide for themselves whether they want to live in a particular community based in part on how things like this are dealt with.”

Add a bit of homophobia, some thinly veiled racism, segregation, and maybe some misogyny to the worldview of Scott Esk and, well, you get the picture.

What Esk didn't realize, was by having opined his views on homosexuality and his views that Biblically-oriented laws should be enforced at a local level, he buried any chances of a political career, or of anyone thinking he was sane.

Enter Rob Morris

The whole thing might have been buried in Facebook, however, if it hadn't been for the investigation of MooreDaily's published and editor, Rob Morris.

“Even people that don’t agree with things like gay marriage, they — nobody wants the death penalty for gays,” Morris said. “I mean, that’s the most asinine thing.”

The "asinine thing" again ignited Esk's righteousness and he started calling Moore and his colleagues "liars", "miscreants", and "non-Biblical-morality-believing-liberals". Moore's response couldn't be embedded, but you can view it HERE. It's not only classic, but it reveals more about Esk than he could ever have imagined: the copy of a protective order against him by his former wife and pastor, the police report from the time Esk reported a group of Hispanics as illegal immigrants - but they were celebrating a fiesta at a mall near Esk's home.

"I never told any policemen to take them all away or shoot and ask questions later, but if it gets loud, I could see it happening and I wouldn't blame them."

Oh, now add Hispanophobia and condoning of police violence.

Wither Scott Esk?

Oklahoma doesn't need an idiot politician - it gets plenty of ambient idiocy from the state of Texas.* But Esk will undoubtedly play the persecution card. A totally dumb move from a wife-beating misogynist, homophobe and Hispanophobe.





*Rick Perry is under fire for comparing homosexuality to alcoholism at - of all places - San Francisco's Commonwealth Club. He has also hinted that after his stint as governor, he might move to California, the state he bashes the most next to gays. Dumb.

The Culture War Rages On: The Revisionaries

The Texas Board Of Education: def - collection of religious nitwits.

The Revisionaries is worth churning your stomach over only in the fact that it highlights the lengths to which some people will promote stupidity.

More later.