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And yet, despite posting all of these nice diatribes, no lefty is able to come up with anyway that the Trump presidency has done actual harm to them. In fact, one could credibly argue that Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Samantha Bee in particular have all prospered because of Trump.
OpEdNews, July 30, 2018
"Trump Is in Major Legal and Political Trouble — His Desperate Attempts to Escape Could Lead America to Catastrophe.
We should prepare for any drastic measures from war to martial law that Trump may undertake to escape his crises."
By Thom Hartmann:
Is it now time to imagine how far Trump and his Republican cronies in Congress might be able to push things? And how we, as Americans, might respond?
This isn't the first time such a question has been raised.
A bit more than a week before the election of 2016 -- a week before Trump won the election -- one of the few people on earth who's really and truly studied Donald Trump up close and personal, Tony Schwartz, granted an interview to the British newspaper the Independent.
Schwartz, who wrote Trump's book The Art of the Deal and spent months with Trump to gather information for the book, predicted that Trump would declare martial law. Not as a possibility, but as a near-certainty.
Schwartz predicted that Trump would do three specific things, although not necessarily all at once or in any particular order: He'd attack the free press; he'd compile an enemies list and begin getting revenge on those he thinks slighted him; and he'd declare martial law to solidify his power.
"When I said that," Schwartz told the Independent, "I got a lot of rolling of the eyes from people in the media and other people to whom I was making that case. I think today, people do really begin to understand that this is a volatile man with very low self control."
How would this happen? Andrew Buncombe, who interviewed Schwartz for the Independent, wrote: "Asked how Mr. Trump would go about undertaking such a drastic measure, [Schwartz] said many of Mr. Trump's supporters were police, members of the border guards force and the 'far right wing' of the military."
It's enough to make you think that Charlottesville was just a dress rehearsal for our version of the Brownshirts, and that Trump is counting on the support of these "very fine people" if he ever needs them in a pinch. Our very own version of Kristallnacht could be not far off.
For example, imagine that Trump, his family members, and numerous Republicans are indicted for actual crimes, and, particularly with the Nunes faction of Congress, for conspiring to conceal or obstruct investigations of those crimes. And the indictment comes right after the election in November when Democrats have won control of one or both houses of Congress, but Republicans are still in charge until January.
This combination would present Trump and his GOP with both a problem and an opportunity.
The problem, of course, is that Trump, Jared, Don Jr., and the Republicans who've conspired with Trump like Devin Nunes (for example) might all be heading toward jail, and possibly even impeachment after the first week of the New Year.
The opportunity is to create a constitutional crisis and grab even more power and immunity for themselves, possibly even "temporarily suspending" the 2020 presidential elections.
There are numerous possible scenarios; I'll just outline a few trigger points, and you can fill in the rest.
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Trump-Is-in-Major-Legal-an-by-Thom-Hartmann-America-Freedom-To-Fascism_Iran_Korea_Military-180730-178.html
cont'd...
cont'd...
"Alexander Hamilton Was Obsessed With the Threat a Presidency Like Trump’s Poses for America.
This isn't the first time our democracy has faced the founder’s nightmare—but it is the most dangerous."
Independent Media Institute, September 19, 2018
By Thom Hartmann:
David Koch’s Libertarian vision was definitely not how most Americans thought our government should look.
Just a quarter-century earlier, President Dwight Eisenhower had weighed in on these Libertarians and John Birchers (Fred Koch, David’s father, as a big fan of the John Birch Society) and the Koch brothers’ spiritual forbearers, the oil-rich Texan Hunt brothers, in a letter to his ultra-conservative brother, Edgar. He wrote:
“[I]t is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything—even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon ‘moderation’ in government.
“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.
“There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
But this wasn't an effort of a single generation, as Eisenhower had imagined and as Hamilton figured would always be the case. And it wasn't modestly financed by a few insider bankers and industrialists like Harding’s campaign. It was, rather, a multigenerational program, funded over the decades with billions of dollars, and with a national presence so large that the Kochs’ vast network now is better funded, is better staffed, and has more offices than either the Republican or Democratic parties.
Most of the original funders of Powell’s plan to turn America into an oligarchy are dead, but their multigenerational plan continues to roll along. And now many of the goals that Powell and the 1980 Libertarians first articulated—and Hamilton had nightmares about—are near completion.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court, in a series of 5-4 decisions, has handed the power to alter elections to a few hundred billionaires and well-funded organizations (including foreign governments), and billionaire oligarch Trump has taken the White House with the help of billionaire oligarch Murdoch, Hamilton’s nightmare is nearly realized.
The question now is whether enough Americans have awakened to this reality to show up in November to defy the wealthy purveyors of fear and discontent who want complete and final control over our nation.
Tag, you’re it.
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/alexander-hamilton-threat-america
This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute.
Imigh leat, óinseach!
You had ample opportunity to come clean as a Trump troll, to do your homework, and to speak to the big issues of our time on Thom's Blog; instead, as a dumbed-down Republican and fascist follower, you've chosen to display abject ignorance, proving yourself over and over to be hopelessly scatterbrained, deliberately deflecting, intellectually dishonest, and a habitual purveyor of despicable right-wing lies -- in other words, a willfully ignorant Trump troll. What you clueless eejits call "opposing opinions" are nothing but flat-out lies easily proven as such. And I don't suffer fools or liars gladly.
Téigh trasna ort féin.
Obama lies to your face and you close your eyes & look for lies.
pic.twitter.com/PI3aW1Zh5Q pic.twitter.com/PI3aW1Zh5Q
pic.twitter.com/PI3aW1Zh5Q
Horses are awesome but they do come with a lot of horse shite!
Thom Hartmann speaks truth to power.
Samantha Bee speaks truth to power.
Seth Meyers speaks truth to power.
Stephen Colbert speaks truth to power.
Trump is a fecking liar!
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/23/migrant-caravan-facts-trump-border-881006
https://theintercept.com/2018/10/23/border-patrol-union-killing-free-speech-video/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/world/americas/migrant-caravan-video-trump.html?partner=msft_msn
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/factcheck/ap-fact-check-trump-on-migrants-saudis-hispanic-vote/ar-BBOHTIz
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/donald-trump-brazen-lies-migrant-caravan
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/white-house-staff-can-barely-keep-up-with-trump-lies
Hey DianeR,
This should make DS happy.....
I agree with President Obama 100%! pic.twitter.com/PI3aW1Zh5Q
I saw CM on a blip Hannity had on. Maybe they don't pay him enough for a dentist! Most of the Dems seem to be wearing funeral black today...how fitting since the blue wave seems to be turning into a muddy puddle! Have to go get some apples & pears from the trees before the deer and bears eat them all! be back tomorrow.........:)
HotCoffee,
See if you can catch a minute or two of Chris tingle up your leg Matthews show. Tell me what is going on with his mouth. It looks like he has ground down his teeth and eats a pound of licorice because when he talks, there is just a black hole with words coming out. Spooky to say the least. Fits right in with Halloween though.
cont'd...
"Alexander Hamilton Was Obsessed With the Threat a Presidency Like Trump’s Poses for America.
This isn't the first time our democracy has faced the founder’s nightmare—but it is the most dangerous."
Independent Media Institute, September 19, 2018
By Thom Hartmann:
It was a long slog for the oligarchy. In 1980, when billionaire David Koch ran for vice president of the United States on the Libertarian ticket, most Americans looked at his platform and laughed. It said, in part:
“We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.
“We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.
“We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.
“We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.
“We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.
“We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.
“We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.
“We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.
“As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.
“We support repeal of all laws which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.
“We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.
“We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.
“We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.
“We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We support abolition of the Department of Energy.
“We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation.
“We demand the return of America’s railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system.
“We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called ‘self-protection’ equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.
“We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration.
“We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.
“We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.
“We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households.
“We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
“We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
“We support the repeal of all state usury laws.” *
* Notice what’s lacking from Koch’s list: abortion, prayer in schools, the Ten Commandments, Israel, or bans on gay marriage. All of these issues were added, in part at the suggestion of multimillionaire Jerry Falwell and billionaire Pat Robertson, to bring the rubes from the White Evangelical movement into the fold. Adding in guns brought in big money from the NRA. Combining these two factions with the Koch’s billionaire buddies produced the modern Republican coalition.
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/alexander-hamilton-threat-america
cont'd...
HotCoffee, back at ya! No bloody marys until the weekend but one os soon upon us so I can get the celery and olives ready.
I was watching a televised Trump rally and noticed there are no Antifa, no riot police, no teargas, no millennial snowflakes, no violence, no toppling of war memorials, no rioting and looting on the streets, no pooping on the sidewalks, and no burning flags.
Just people going in or calmly tailgating together and watching on the big screens outside. When the event is over, the area is cleaner than when they arrived. Really nice to see.
coalage3 raised some questions about the bomber that does not know how to make a bomb but whoever he/she/alphabet are they are full on batshit crazy and deserve the punishment they will receive, assuming they get in front of one of Trumps judge picks. This is a federal crime so we need not worry about some local leftie judge cutting them loose because they were picked on as a kid.
Until tomorrow.
cont'd...
"Alexander Hamilton Was Obsessed With the Threat a Presidency Like Trump’s Poses for America.
This isn't the first time our democracy has faced the founder’s nightmare—but it is the most dangerous."
Independent Media Institute, September 19, 2018
By Thom Hartmann:
The Catilines and Caesars of our era are the morbidly rich billionaires who have set out to seize control of every aspect of the political life of America, just as they tried so disastrously in 1920.
While we’ve always had wealthy people influencing politics to their own benefit, what’s happening today is something altogether new, as documented by Jane Mayer in Dark Money and Nancy MacLean in Democracy in Chains.
It mostly started back in 1971, when Lewis Powell wrote a call to arms to his friend and neighbor, Eugene Sydnor Jr., who was at the time a director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The “Powell memo” called for wealthy industrialists and companies themselves to fund a giant machine that could capture the U.S. government and turn it away from the protections for citizens and the environment that were being championed by Rachel Carson and Ralph Nader (named in the document) and toward a system that was, essentially, an oligarchy.
A small but incredibly wealthy number of what we’d today call billionaires or oligarchs were energized by Powell’s call to arms; they quickly stepped up and funded an entire right-wing infrastructure to bring this about.
Some started think tanks to influence public discussion and reframe issues of power and wealth along oligarchic Libertarian lines. Others funded a society for lawyers that could be a feeder system for getting reliably oligarch-friendly judges into state and federal courts. Another started a network of billionaires to pool their money to flip elections. And one even kicked off a 24/7 right-wing “news” channel to influence American public opinion in a way that would show up at the ballot box.
Richard Nixon put Powell on the Supreme Court in 1972, and Powell then championed the “right” of oligarchs to own politicians in the 1976 Buckley v Valeo Supreme Court decision, blowing up campaign finance limits by ruling that when billionaires want to spend their own money to elect or destroy politicians, that spending of money was protected under the First Amendment as “free speech.” (Citizens United vastly expanded this power in 2010.)
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/alexander-hamilton-threat-america
cont'd...
...Meanwhile, back in Trumpistan, the egomaniac's drooling fools line up for their daily dollop of steaming manure.
But November's coming and the truth marches on...
DianeR,
My turkeys want you to know they are 1/1024 % Bald Eagles!
Tommorow it is! See ya then.
cont'd...
"Alexander Hamilton Was Obsessed With the Threat a Presidency Like Trump’s Poses for America.
This isn't the first time our democracy has faced the founder’s nightmare—but it is the most dangerous."
Independent Media Institute, September 19, 2018
By Thom Hartmann:
Because that office of president includes “Commander in Chief,” the man would have to heavily flog his support for the military while, in secret, scoffing at the very idea of the liberty that would otherwise be insured by a truly democratic government.
This wealthy hustler’s main method to seize power would be to bring the government of the United States “under suspicion” while building a base of the “zealots of the day.”
“When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate [hugely wealthy] in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanor—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’”
Hamilton knew that the uber-wealthy Roman senator Catiline tried twice to overthrow the Roman republic by a broad conspiracy of the rich combined with populist rhetoric, and the wealthiest men of Roman society put together his second conspiracy. Similarly, the later Caesars held power through similar means, splitting the populace against itself in a way that eventually led to the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Thus, Hamilton’s next paragraph was a simple and stunning warning to those who were entrusted with the “popular Government” of the United States:
“No popular Government was ever without its Catilines & its Caesars. These are its true enemies.”
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/alexander-hamilton-threat-america
cont'd...
Trump lies, lies, lies about the caravan ...and then lies even more and more.
The United States' Faustian bargain with Saudi Arabia is historically the responsibility of both major parties; however, it is now up to the Trump Party to respond to the Saudi's latest murderous outrage by claiming the moral high ground.
It's one of the most sacred duties of our elected representatives -- deserving the exalted status of being the First Amendment -- in protecting the intrepid reporters of our nation as well as honoring those who have fallen in the war for truth in authoritarian regimes worldwide, whom Trump, a wannabe king, so loves.
Antithetically, our fascist "leaders" will keep selling out the American people to greedy "defense" contractor billionaires, who donate to their campaigns, as they have done from time immemorial -- or at least since right-wing, corporatized Supreme Courts ruled that money is speech and corporations are people.
So how will this fake "administration" react?
Isn't it obvious?
Jared Kushner's buddy, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a ruthless murderer, and his evolving big lie, will eventually come up with the correct-sounding words to please the other immoral, irreligious boy king, Trump the Liar, so that the United Corporations of America can still rake in Saudi oil/blood money.
DianeR,
A beautiful fall morning to ya.
Ahhh hot coffee...hope you got in your bloody mary.
Turkeys are well fed...it looks like the people in the caravan are well fed too. Mattis is sending troops.
Amazing that no one on the left cares about amount of sick people in the caravan complaining about being ill to the reporters, the medical costs or the spread of TB et al.
The bombs could be anyone on any side, false flag left... or fed up repub. Who knows?
let's see what today brings....geez!
Have a good one!
cont'd...
"Alexander Hamilton Was Obsessed With the Threat a Presidency Like Trump’s Poses for America.
This isn't the first time our democracy has faced the founder’s nightmare—but it is the most dangerous."
Independent Media Institute, September 19, 2018
By Thom Hartmann:
So, Hamilton reasoned, it wasn't the politicians who may step into the fray with an oligarchic message who were the “true artificers of monarchy”—it was the uber-rich who promoted the destruction of a state devoted to the “general welfare” of “We, the People”:
“Those then, who resist a confirmation of public order, are the true Artificers of monarchy…”
These usurpers of the democratic order in America, then, would prepare the way for a true despot to rise to power, even in America. Hamilton may have had some concerns about men from his generation attempting such a thing; his next sentence was, “Yet it would not be difficult to lay the finger upon some of their party who may justly be suspected.”
But it was unlikely anybody in 1789 had that kind of wealth or power; John Hancock, the wealthiest of the founders, had a net worth of only about $700,000 in today’s dollars. The first millionaire in America—in today’s dollars—was a shipping magnate who hit that level in the 1790s.
If such a thing were to actually happen, Hamilton wrote, it would be through somebody like the uber-wealthy, ultra-conservative Cato, who was a “harsh ruler” of his wife and slaves, and deplored the liberal Greek literature and sexuality that was all the rage.
“It has aptly been observed that Cato was the Tory-Cæsar, the whig of his day,” Hamilton wrote.
So, if a Cato-like man or group of people with massive riches were to succeed in taking over most of the levers of power in American government, Hamilton believed, our nation then would, actually, be vulnerable to a despot rising to the presidency.
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/alexander-hamilton-threat-america
cont'd...
Morning HotCoffee, A couple of years ago I was constantly telling a leftie/socialist hartmann supporter here that the only reason I was voting for Trump is because of his ability to reform the judicial system. As a far leftie I am sure he never understood my logic. I could explain it to him, I just could not comprehend it for him.
Here is a day brightener.
As of right, now one of every six appellate court judges has been appointed by President Trump. Within the next two years President Trump will have appointed one half of all of them to the bench.
This stuff is great for those of us that believe in the constitution and rule of law.
The birds are well fed.
cont'd...
"Alexander Hamilton Was Obsessed With the Threat a Presidency Like Trump’s Poses for America.
This isn't the first time our democracy has faced the founder’s nightmare—but it is the most dangerous."
Independent Media Institute, September 19, 2018
By Thom Hartmann:
But as corrupt as Harding was, both personally and politically, he wouldn't have been bad enough to frighten the people who founded our republic. That distinction has to go to Donald Trump alone.
Alexander Hamilton—himself an advocate for a soft oligarchy in America, and one of the founders who helped write the Constitution—had a nightmare about a group of hyper-wealthy people launching a multigenerational assault on the Enlightenment ideals of America, leading to the election of a wealthy con man as president. And it sure looks like his nightmare is all about Trump and his Fox News followers.
On August 18, 1792, when Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury for George Washington, he wrote a rebuttal to those who were skeptical that an American democratic republic could survive over time, when buffeted by the winds and forces of accumulated wealth and the love of some people for aristocracy.
Titled, “Objections and Answers respecting the Administration of the Government,” Hamilton started out by suggesting that as long as we continued to have regular elections, the oligarchs wouldn't be able to gain a toehold in government:
“The idea of introducing a monarchy or aristocracy into this Country, by employing the influence and force of a Government continually changing hands, towards it, is one of those visionary things, that none but madmen could meditate and that no wise men will believe.
“If it could be done at all, which is utterly incredible, it would require a long series of time, certainly beyond the life of any individual to effect it.”
He then pointed out that in 1792 we had a broad, diverse, and local press all across the nation and the highest literacy rate in the developed world; such well-informed people wouldn't be vulnerable to despotism, unless there was some sort of serious chaos—what he called “convulsions and disorders” that would be caused or exploited by “popular demagogues.”
“To hope that the people may be cajoled into giving their sanctions to such institutions is still more chimerical,” Hamilton wrote. “A people so enlightened and so diversified as the people of this Country can surely never be brought to it, but from convulsions and disorders, in consequence of the acts of popular demagogues.”
But if a group could take over the government and turn it against itself, deprive it of its protective function for the people and instead leave citizens to their own devices, Hamilton was somewhat concerned that a despot could take advantage of the ensuing chaos:
“The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion. Tired at length of anarchy, or want of government, they may take shelter in the arms of monarchy for repose and security.”
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/alexander-hamilton-threat-america
cont'd...
And Republican lies continue...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-doubles-down-on-blaming-media-as-suspicious-packages-continue-to-surface/2018/10/25/507aeec2-d848-11e8-a10f-b51546b10756_story.html?utm_term=.a86d40e0d806
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/nyregion/bomb-explosive-device.html?partner=msft_msn
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/prominent-conservatives-think-bomb-scares-are-a-liberal-hoax.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/clinton-obama-cnn-bombs-democrats-conservatives-rush-limbaugh-2018-10
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/10/24/instant-inevitable-cries-false-flag-after-bomb-threats-targeting-clintons-obamas-cnn/?utm_term=.ea9bb93a96fe
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/there-is-no-vast-left-wing-conspiracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/opinion/george-soros-mailbox-bomb.html
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Progressive-Talk/The-Thom-Hartmann-Program-p34417/?topicId=126319589
cont'd...
"Alexander Hamilton Was Obsessed With the Threat a Presidency Like Trump’s Poses for America.
This isn't the first time our democracy has faced the founder’s nightmare—but it is the most dangerous."
Independent Media Institute, September 19, 2018
By Thom Hartmann:
Of President Harding’s rhetoric, as if foreshadowing Trump, Mencken wrote in 1921:
“It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean-soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm (I was about to write abscess!) of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.”
And were Harding’s followers similarly like Trump’s, and were his speeches like Trump’s rallies? Mencken wrote:
“When Dr. Harding prepares a speech he does not think of it in terms of an educated reader locked up in jail, but in terms of a great horde of stoneheads gathered around a stand. That is to say, the thing is always a stump speech; it is conceived as a stump speech and written as a stump speech. More, it is a stump speech addressed to the sort of audience that the speaker has been used to all of his life, to wit, an audience of small town yokels, of low political serfs, or morons scarcely able to understand a word of more than two syllables, and wholly able to pursue a logical idea for more than two centimeters.
“Such imbeciles do not want ideas—that is, new ideas, ideas that are unfamiliar, ideas that challenge their attention. What they want is simply a gaudy series of platitudes, of sonorous nonsense driven home with gestures. ... The roll of incomprehensible polysyllables enchants them.”
Mencken and the educated of his day saw great danger in Harding’s simplistic sales pitch that if we only let the very, very wealthy have free reign, they’d make everything right in America.
And Mencken was right. Harding’s election ushered in 12 moronic years of Republican rule, and along with it came massive deficit spending, widespread corruption and cronyism, a declining standard of living for working people, and a stock market fueled by deregulated speculation that was so on fire the era was called “the Roaring 20s.” And then, of course, came the inevitable crash that always follows “conservative” overreach on behalf of the rich.
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/alexander-hamilton-threat-america
cont'd...