by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
By immensely helpful coincidence, Donald Trump’s 11-year-old sexist rant tape surfaced on the same day that Wikileaks revealed Hillary Clinton’s support for hemispheric “free trade” and cuts in Social Security. But Trump’s campaign may be doomed, while Clinton rides high in the polls. The Donald is “a better foil for the Democratic party than any other Republican could possibly be.” Both sides of the duopoly connive to fill Hillary’s big tent.
Freedom Rider: Anti-Trump Hypocrisy
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
“The only way to pull the awful Hillary over the finish line is to raise the level of disgust directed at Donald.”
There are so many reasons to dislike Donald Trump. When he isn’t calling Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, he is standing by the prosecution and imprisonment of the innocent Central Park Five, whom he helped to convict. His family made its fortune building housing which excluded black people. He stole money from the gullible masses through scams like Trump University. The same man who owned the Miss Universe title and fat-shamed the winner now wants to be president of the United States.
His opponent Hillary Clinton takes credit for destroying the nation of Libya. She pressured the Haitian government to keep the minimum wage from rising to a mere 60 cents per hour. She aided the overthrow of the elected government of Honduras. As secretary of state she used her office to work for the Clinton Foundation and tried to hide by using a non-secure server system and lied to Congress about deleting incriminating emails.
Which one is the sole target of media and elite denunciation? The bigot with a big mouth and bad manners, not the insider with a history of catastrophe and corruption left in her wake. Even Republicans deserted him when a recording of Trump making sexist comments was recently made public. The New York Times and their cohorts in corporate media claimed falsely that he might drop out of the race. Of course the tape was revealed the same day that Wikileaks executed another document dump showing the corruption of the Clintons, the Democratic Party and all their cronies. What a helpful coincidence for team Hillary.
Trump didn’t need an off the record conversation to prove his piggishness. He is quite proud of it and reveals it himself on a regular basis. The level of piling on was the only significant part of the story.
“The tape was revealed the same day that Wikileaks executed another document dump showing the corruption of the Clintons, the Democratic party and all their cronies.”
Trump has proven himself to be a better foil for the Democratic Party than any other Republican could possibly be. They purposely made themselves the white peoples party but depend on their voters to implicitly understand that fact. Trump makes the racism explicit. In doing so he helps the Democrats make the phony case that only they can be trusted to bring fairness to the political system. The result will be disaster if Hillary Clinton emerges victorious.
Democrats love to give their presidents a pass even though they can be counted on to make Republican dreams come true. Republicans fantasized about ending the legal entitlement to welfare but Bill Clinton carried out the policy. George W. Bush claimed a right to imprison anyone indefinitely if he said they were terrorists. Barack Obama went further and claimed and acted on a previously unknown presidential right to kill whomever he chose.
These Democratic outrages are met with silence and Trump is paving the way for worse treachery to come. There was no reason for anyone to change their mind about Donald Trump because his boorishness was again made public. This degree of ruling class acclamation for one candidate is unprecedented. Republicans jumped ship and unendorsed him despite the fact that millions of their voters chose Trump as their nominee.
Gross comments are not the reason for their flexibility. Heavy hitter fund raisers like Sheldon Adelson weren’t giving Trump the time of day. They certainly weren’t giving him any money. The fund raising haul is a Hillary Clinton specialty and was well under way before the world heard Donald brag about groping women.
“When the unpredictable Trump made noises about the trade deals beloved by both parties he wrote his political obituary.”
The proof of duopoly connivance has never been clearer. Of course the press had to work up outrage over the Trump tape. Wikileaks revealed the contents of Hillary’s speeches before corporate audiences. She and her husband have gotten rich by doing the business of the 1% and simultaneously got their buy in for her campaign. Of course, Republicans also bow down to the ruling classes. When the unpredictable Trump made noises about the trade deals beloved by both parties he wrote his political obituary.
Trump supporters like their guy, warts and all. They are very unhappy with the Republican leadership who are pushing him under the bus. This ginned up frenzy is meant to keep Democrats from staying home on election day or voting for the Green Party instead of for corrupt Hillary. The only way to pull the awful Hillary over the finish line is to raise the level of disgust directed at Donald.
No stone is being left unturned. In their herculean the effort to make the unlikeable Hillary likeable, the Democrats also resurrected the canard of Russian involvement in the damning email leaks. In the next four weeks we can expect to hear more filthy talk and claims of Putinite conspiracy. The nonsense is all in the service of keeping both wings of the duopoly happy with the result.
The Democratic rank and file will have to struggle and protest no matter who is elected. In fact they will have to force themselves to protest more if Hillary wins. If the past is any indication of future behavior, Democrats will say nothing when she privatizes Social Security or starts World War III. They will just shrug their shoulders and be grateful that Trump isn’t the one bringing on disaster.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
In this week’s segment, we hear about an upcoming conference dedicated to Black, radical organizers in the U.S. But first, we have an update on the Congo and the principles of agreement between Congo…
The Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Rwanda recently signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington. Is Rwanda ending its M23 group’s incursion into the DRC?
The second National Black Radical Organizing Conference will convene in Indianapolis, Indiana, from May 30 through June 1. The conference theme is “Base-Building for Collective Power.” We are joined…
Liberals continue to condemn anyone who didn’t support Kamala Harris and the latest iteration of neo-liberal treachery. Black people are told to stand down when there is a fight worth waging.
The Israeli state’s starvation campaign in Gaza—backed by the U.S. and Europe—is a livestreamed genocide. As malnutrition ravages children and the West vetoes ceasefires, the 'rules-based order'…
