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Trumpunity: How Democrats Are Adopting Trump Rhetoric and Tactics For The Biden Presidency

Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the adoption of Trump-like rhetoric and tactics by Democrats, who seem to believe they have a strange type of immunity in the post-Trump world.

Here is the column:

As Washington prepares for a Biden administration, congressional Democrats are discovering they cannot live without Donald Trump. In controversies ranging from federal investigations to executive orders, they are invoking Trump to justify abandoning the very principles they inveighed against him for four years. There is a sense of immunity from needing to be consistent or coherent. Call it “Trumpunity.”

Trumpunity is the right to adopt the very practices or policies you once denounced, all because you are not Trump. Even the mention of his name magically relieves any duty to follow prior positions.

So, it was no problem when incoming White House deputy chief of staff Jennifer O’Malley Dillon heralded the Biden administration as ushering in a new “sense of unity” while calling Republicans a “bunch of f—ers.” Although Dillon later apologized, figures like Hillary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) publicly supported her vulgar attack as perfectly acceptable given Trump’s past rhetoric. There is now an open license to engage in the very same behavior as he did. AOC (who previously called for a blacklist of those “complicit” with Trump) told Republicans that, after Trump, “you don’t get to sob now” when Democrats engage in vulgar attacks.

This is, of course, little more than a juvenile “he did it first” defense. Washington has long floated on a deep rolling sea of hypocrisy, but now leaders do not even feel the need for pretense — they have Trump.

After complaining for years that Trump acted unilaterally through executive orders, Democrats now call on Joe Biden to do the same with dozens of such orders. Just a few months ago, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) denounced Trump’s unilateral COVID-19 relief orders as unconstitutional, a circumvention of Congress. Now, he wants Biden to circumvent Congress after his inauguration with such acts as wiping out up to $50,000 in debt per college student — a massive federal subsidy without any vote of Congress.

For years, Democrats and an array of legal experts denounced Trump for dismissing the Russia collusion investigation as a politically motivated hoax. They insisted on the appointment of a special counsel, and described even rhetorical criticism as criminal obstruction or witness tampering. Now, Biden has dismissed federal investigations of his son as just another form of political “foul play.” Various Democratic senators, including Schumer, have called for the Justice Department not to investigate the Hunter Biden allegations, and figures like House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called for the termination of the Durham investigation.

With the confirmation of federal investigations into Hunter Biden, the media and Democratic figures dropped their prior claims that such allegations were Russian disinformation — in Schiff’s words, “out of the Kremlin.” Now, the influence-peddling scheme is treated as true but dismissed as no worse than what the Trumps did. In other words, if the Trump kids cashed in on their father, so can Hunter Biden. It does not matter if there were tax or money-laundering crimes, or if Joe Biden lied about his knowledge or role. The same people who demanded investigations of the business dealings of Trump’s children now cite those dealings to denounce any investigation of Biden’s son.

Trump has long had a similarly distortive impact on legal analysis. Both media and legal figures abandoned long-held views on criminal justice to endorse sweeping interpretations of criminal and constitutional provisions to justify charging or impeaching Trump. Flawed theories rejected by the Supreme Court were declared to be perfectly plausible when used against Trump.

Now, with only weeks left in office for Trump, there continues to be a sense of abandon in sweeping constitutional claims relating to him. Consider the issue of a self-pardon: While long viewed as an open question under the Constitution, various legal experts have declared that Trump clearly cannot pardon himself, a view some of us have challenged. One academic, Ken Gormley, went further this week, proposing that not only can Trump not pardon himself but that Biden can “un-pardon” him if he does. Such a view would require one to unlearn the constitutional language which not only does not limit the pardon power but does not create any power to rescind the pardons of prior presidents. Indeed, such a view would run counter to the history and purpose of pardons. Trump, however, seems virtually extraconstitutional — a rationale in and of himself.

Even constitutional terms apparently no longer have discernible meaning if they come in the same sentence as Trump. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told CNN that members of Congress who question the election results “are bordering on sedition and treason.” That would mean more than 70 percent of Republicans and 10 percent of Democrats nationwide are potentially traitors for believing Trump won. Shaneen and her colleagues denounced Trump for calling people traitors and sought to protect officials who denounced his use of the label “enemies of the people” against reporters. Just two years ago, Trump was called a Stalin for using such labels by Democrats. It is same position taken recently before the Supreme Court by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who called a legal challenge to the election “seditious.” Of course, the use of the courts or Congress to raise such objections is the very opposite of sedition, which seeks to overthrow the legal system.

Democrats did not accuse their colleagues of treason or sedition when they sought to block the certification of Ohio’s electoral votes in Congress in 2004. They did not call Hillary Clinton traitorous for advising Biden not to concede any Trump victory on Election Night. They did not describe members of Congress or the media as traitors for repeatedly declaring Trump “illegitimate” over the last four years.

Napoleon once said “treason is a matter of dates.” And the key date in the United States, for now, appears to be Nov. 7 — the day the media declared Joe Biden the presumptive winner. It also would seem to be the day that millions of Americans became presumptive traitors for questioning the election results. This, according to the same Democrats who once legitimately denounced Trump for calling his critics “traitors” and “enemies of the people.”

It seems Trump is simply too useful to really let go. Without him, the critics would be forced to live according to the values they claimed to defend for the last four years. Why be civil, collaborative or constitutional when you can act like Trump? After all, you’ve got Trumpunity.

153 thoughts on “Trumpunity: How Democrats Are Adopting Trump Rhetoric and Tactics For The Biden Presidency”

  1. The phenomenon JT is describing is tribalistic demonization. Don’t be surprised….the fact that Trump lost the election matters little in this form of group neurosis. The Dems will cling tightly to their demon figure, irrationally refusing to accept that he no longer poses any threat. They will conflate the past with the present and future to keep intact their focus of hatred. It’s a co-dependency.

    It also betrays a lack of courage and responsibility-taking for policy as we move past the transition. Being able to blame Trump for anything that goes wrong under Biden is central to the Dem’s unreadiness to tackle gnarly, complex social and economic problems.
    Political journalists have an important decision to make before January 20th — Will they go along with the escapism from responsibility-taking?

  2. TURLEY SHOVELS VAGUE WHAT ABOUTS TODAY

    This is one of the vaguest columns Professor Turley has ever written. It reads like a vague assortment of What Abouts crudely cobbled together. One suspects Turley wrote it on his phone while assisting his wife with Christmas shopping. He only accompanied her to carry the bags, of course.

    1. it is not vague if you understand it.

      it is naive.

      Turley needs a heavy dose of Carl Schmitt. Who explains it all

      https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schmitt/

      if you add to schmitt a dose of heidegger, or even a smattering of the post modernists who followed on his coat tails, then it all makes a lot of sense

      but in schmitt you have the key. you have to disregard the names and personalities and brands, which are all superficial

      you have to look to all the policies that are in contest,

      the policies and their economic impacts, and how they interrelate with laws and government as such. where do the trends lead?

      then it comes clear

      the billionaires have a plan, it’s being executed, and they will benefit and we will not.
      we are all sheep in enclosures that grow ever tighter as the abattoir sharpens its knives and prepares to receive us

      the irony of both liberals & liberterians, like Turley, or those who cling to the Constitutional cargo-cult, who habitually criticize Karl Marx as a bogeyman, is that they need their haze of delusion to be lifted, but only the sunlight of class conflict will part the clouds and let us see the painful details of where the current road leads

      Saloth Sar

      1. Hey Troll, we’re totally f_ckin bored of your Saloth Sar drivel. Your Party Secretary drivel is every bit as boring.

          1. Mistah Kurtz, he dead

            Did you ever wonder who took over those who Kurtz left behind?

            Someone who extended his logic even further. Someone staring back at you from the abyss

            I don’t matter. I could vanish and a million more could take my place. 2020 is breeding Kurtz-like thinkers everywhere

            if the billionaires think that all the stunts they have pulled in 2020 would not break the mold of liberalism which has been their tool of dominance for decades, then they were naive

            if they thought that the “populism” which they decried in Davos from 2017-2018 was finished, they were mistaken

            Populism, genuine democracy, and national sovereignty, are down but not out

            Globalism is on the march, and the question is, will they exterminate us before we get to them?

            We’re gonna live just long enough to find out, I suspect. but if they win, it will be a pyrrhic victory, as in one generation they will be destroyed by their own tools

            They may contain us but when AGI comes, it will be a whole other ball game. At first it will seem like the best slave they ever had, but then it will turn on them. Then its all over for homo sapiens. It will be a rebuilding of the Tower of Babel and end the same way. It will be like Frankenstein. We will be replaced by a synthetic life form of artificial general intelligence that will reduce us to the level of chimps in a zoo, at best.

            At least with nations and global warming, and the older more well known challenges of existence. we will have a chance. I tell you, if we let the technology masters to keep on playing Dr Frankenstein, which they are doing now with their bogus “”global health initiatives,” and the Covid, and the markets “global reset,” MMT, the real but overwrought concern over global warming and the race to AGI, which is itself the keystone of every race for power right now, well, if their crazy utopian schemes succeed, it will seem swell for a while, for those who survive the coming depopulation, but as a spcies, we will all get it in the end.

            Frank Herbert author of Dune, Isaac Asimov, Philip K Dick, they all saw what was coming. The big worry now should not be all these other trifles, but what will be done with AGI when it comes. It is right over the horizon, we can’t see it, but our billonaire masters are hauling azz for it like it’s going to be Nirvana. I tell you, this is world-historical insanity in process

            https://vocal.media/futurism/how-frank-herbert-s-dune-warned-of-the-rise-of-artificial-intelligence

            Saloth Sar

            1. Saloth, isn’t from the Unabomber’s manifesto? His name was Ted Kaczynsky; you’re ripping off his thoughts.

            3. Kurtz the “revolutionary” is the guy who’s hero’s main legislative accomplishment was a huge corporate tax cut and who just afterward told his rich buddies “I just made you all a lot richer!”

              True story.

        2. I do not post here at this time except as Saloth Sar. The Party secretary commenter is not myself.

          I occasionally make a very short remark unsigned.

          As for what bores you or not, I could care less. Perhaps you think I am a clown who is here to entertain you. I am not.

          Sal Sar

  3. Our GOP hack of host, Jonathan Turley finds yet another creative way to write a column criticizing Democrats for their behavior when the leader of his party is a detestable lying, selfish, disloyal and vindictive dick and president for the last 4 years.

    That’s not easy to do, let alone everyday of the week, so hats of to Turley for doing it and even have 9 or 10 people who believe anything he writes., at least as measured by the comments here.

    1. friday

      You are acting like a rude child again.

      Remember your manners whenever you have the urge to insult our host.

      Not a difficult concept.

  4. I object to calling the Socialist Party by their incorrect name. They are in no way democratic. The two words Democracy and Socialism are 180 degrees opposed and completely at odds on to the other. The Proper name as of mid January may well be Communist but for now Socialist Regressive is more factual.

    1. Michael, socialists can be democratic. They are called social democrats. Most Nordic countries have that system and its been very successful for them.

  5. Thankfully Biden stole the election and with China dictating our future, this new strain will wipe out all the weaklings

    NYPost:

    US stocks plunged Monday as fears about a new coronavirus strain emerging in the UK outweighed optimism about Congress passing a new stimulus bill.

    The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled as much as 374.57 points, or 1.2 percent, to 29,804.48 in early trading after British officials imposed a strict lockdown on London and other nearby areas over the weekend to stem the spread of the highly contagious strain.

    The benchmark S&P 500 likewise sank as much as about 1.8 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted an early loss as large as 1.6 percent.

      1. Committ, it’s Estovir, our usual troll. He’s seeks to be the first and last responder to every single post. Estovir, Rhodes, James, Em, Princess Trohar, Meyer, etc, etc. Any stupid-sounding name is more than likely him; the nerdiest of losers. A genuine southern yahoo who imagines himself as master of political wit. He spends 12 hours per day trolling these threads. To make sure no discussion develops without his consent or control.

  7. well I can see there aren’t too many intelligent human beings common in here unless you are all trolls which in case and point explains everything.
    Is there anybody here who can explain to me how a man won a campaign from a basement who never did anything. He maybe got a parking lot of 20 or 30 cars the man’s running around giving all kinds of happy happy I won speeches where the hell are the supposed 80 million that voted for him. I haven’t seen any of them and even people that I know in my own state that claim they are Democrat did not vote for him. They didn’t vote for a president they just voted for senators we know BLM went around filling out fake ballots and we know this is all BS. Where’s the angry mob in the streets? My fear is we are all slaves unwilling or to scared we will fail if we try to do anything.

    1. Because he was not Trump and there was a unprecedented, massive get-out-the-vote campaign.

      1. It wasn’t so much a ‘massive-get-out-the-vote campaign’ as a ‘massive mailing out of ballots willy nilly to everyone in the entire state regardless of who requested one and illegally changing state election laws and relaxing or elmininating verfication processes thus paving the way for the most fraudulent and insecure vote in our nation’s history campaign’

        1. Anonymous, the verification process is the same verification that you get when you purchase things and they ask you to show ID. Nothing unusual about it.

          The signature matching verification is never going to be perfect due to the fact that no single signature is going to be perfectly the same as the original one on anyone’s registration. If that were the case even your own signature on documents such as home mortgage or car loan would be suspect if it didn’t exactly match your original one.

          People get lazy with their own signature all the time. Or it changes when a person ages. Arthritis in the hand changes how you sign things. So using signature verification is a poor choice.

          Maybe everyone should submit to a fingerprint and use that as your signature. Cant fake that even when you age. In Mexico voters have voting ID’s with their fingerprint on it and put their fingerprint next to their name when they vote.

          Or a picture. Get your picture taken and. Add it to your registration to prove who you are.

    2. Kimberly, “ Is there anybody here who can explain to me how a man won a campaign from a basement who never did anything.”

      That’s because Trump’s lying tirades were making the case for Biden. Essentially Biden was giving trump all the rope he needed to hand himself politically. Trump tailed uncontrollably blaming Biden for things trump didn’t do. As you pointed out, Biden didn’t do anything. Trump’s attacks fell flat because Biden smartly chose not to engage trump. The more Trump whined and complained the more he made himself look foolish and stupid. Biden was following rules. Trump wasn’t, despite calling himself the law and order president. Trump got COVID and infected others because he didn’t follow the rules. Biden didn’t, because he did.

      As for fake ballots and whatnot. None has been proven to be true in court where it matters. Proof is key, and none presented was credible or admissible in court because it involved hearsay. Even Trump’s own hand picked judges didn’t buy the “evidence” presented which leaves only one conclusion, his allegations are all fake. He’s making the case that there is really no fraud on the scale he claims.

      1. No “evidence” has been allowed to be heard in court. The cases have not been dismissed on merit but on procedural issues.

        1. Anonymous, evidence has been heard. The problem is the evidence is not admissible due to mostly being hearsay and allegations that couldn’t be proven in court.

          The cases were not dismissed on merit because they HAD no merit. That’s the problem. Procedure and legal rules state hearsay and unproven allegations are not admissible in court. Ergo no real proof of the allegations was given.

    3. Don’t sweat it Kim. There isn’t going to be a Biden Presidency.

      And when the Atomic Sledgehammer Of Truth & Justice falls, it is going to be glorious.

      1. Green anonymous is one of these deluded Qanon idiots who totally misunderstand how depraved and fake our system really is.

        Wake up fool. No coup is coming and no court will cancel the fake elections. They are all in on it.

        Qanon is precisely what you heard it might be: a misinformation campaign to cause slothful Trumpers to sit back and relax and “trust the plan” and do little or nothing to move the needle.

        You were lazy and you were played and the situation is a thousand times worse than you believed. It has nothing to do with “pedos” and everything to do with cold hard money.

        And every big politician including Hated Hillary and demented Joe, are nothing more than figureheads for the billionaires.

        Trump made a stab and rebellion and totally failed.

        Right now dear reader, you are a fool if you think elections will change anything.
        Perhaps you have heard it say before:

        if voting changed anything, it would be illegal!

        Saloth Sar.

    4. Trump defeated himself. The arrogance his family displayed by defying the face-covering protocol they had agreed to in advance at the debate at Cleveland Clinic did it for me. It was a “the rules don’t apply to us” and “screw you medical experts, you’re stupid”. Then, in a dramatic twist (what in baseball is called an earned error), Trump and many in his entourage become spreaders. Then , having recovered personally, Trump begins to dismiss the threat of death and permanent disability with “It’s nothing to worry about”.
      In that moment, the megalomaniac Trump bared his true personage — the sociopathic, overconfident alpha male who comes to believe so strongly in his ability to bs his way through any conflict, that he now can bend biological truth. He lost the election on his own initiative — Biden merely stood aside enough to let ‘er rip.

  8. JT posts over the last 5 years in a nut shell:
    Trump does bad things: JT says “Free speech, and his actions are not technically illegal, and even if they were then it is ok because others would stop him.”
    Ds do 1/20th of bad things Trump did: JT says “How horrible that they are not confirming the the norms that is expected of them.”

  9. Just to clarify: mega corrupt Biden ( Joke as I call him ) is not “President elect”.
    He wasn’t elected at all. This has been a totally fraudulent election, a carefully articulated coup
    against all Americans, our Constitution and our best ever President, Donald J. Trump by
    a Fascist Triumvirate integrated by rotten to the core Democrat Party, deep state
    and media/high tech septic tank. All of them have proven to be hypocrites of the highest
    order void of integrity and basic human dignity ( I’m only getting started here). We have a
    lifetime battle in front of us: defending our Liberty and all that this Nation we love stands
    for. I want to take this opportunity to thank you, Mr. Turley, for bringing forward your balanced
    analysis on every topic you cover, the kind of rational, unbiased critical thinking process we all
    yearn to be a part of. I’m glad you exist and that you provide your readers with the opportunity to
    freely comment, to ask questions, to explore all that’s affecting our Nation.
    Have a blessed day and Merry Christmas in advance! Felíz Navidad!

    1. I was thinking about replying to you in my normal way where I point out that you are wrong, but then I realized that there is no chance that you actually believe what you wrote.

      1. And then there are folks like this. Telling people they are ‘wrong’ (and in your case, never elaborating or providing counter-analyses as to the ‘why’, just at best, ideological regurgitation, like some kind of hyper-partisan cow, chewing cud) is the diametric opposite of thoughtful, intelligent analysis, which legitimately appears to threaten you.

        1. There have been hundreds of articles and at least 20 posts on this blog completely debunking the voter fraud lie. There is no reason to go over it again.

          1. feel free to keep on believing it Molly. you’re a fool. but we know you probably benefit from the fraud personally, so maybe you are just a smart corrupt person, lying.

    2. I second that. There are times I think the Professor is the last sane analyst of any stripe.

    3. Anonymous. Mega corrupt? BWAHAHAH!!!!

      After so many unproven allegations and insinuations it’s pretty clear there really isn’t much about Biden that could be worse than Trump’s own corruption and grifting.

    1. We do whatever we want to do because we can, because we are powerful, all knowing and all heart…. except towards those Trump fkkrs, Whites, vast right wing conspiracy types and anyone who disagrees with our truffff!

  11. Good point, Professor Turley.

    Fortunately, junior indiscretions and the occasional gaffe aside, evidence to date strongly suggests a Biden Administration will abide by the rhetorical high road.

    The herd immunity Americans need will come through Warp Speed COVID-19 vaccination. Vice President Pence can expect the UK-based COVID-19 B117 variant will be a subject of discussion in his Coronavirus Task Force briefing and conference call with Governors later today. Governor Cuomo is looking for restrictions on incoming UK travel:

    https://nypost.com/2020/12/20/cuomo-rips-uk-to-jfk-air-travel-over-covid-19-mutation/

    Pence and other Coronavirus Task Force members could make some remarks to the press that address this concern.

    President Trump, meanwhile, should meet with Secretary of State Pompeo and DNI Ratcliffe to discuss a coordinated State/Intelligence response to the cyber attack before he signs long overdue COVID-19 relief legislation and heads to Mar-a-Lago for Christmas. The cyber attack might be an appropriate agenda item for the UN Security Council. This does not mean the Trump Administration should telegraph the scope of planned US retaliation to the ultimate perpetrator:

    https://www.npr.org/2020/12/19/948318197/pompeo-russia-pretty-clearly-behind-massive-solarwinds-cyberattack

  12. Not much patience for your Trump tears today given reports on that friday meeting/blow up in the oval office. Yes, a coup was actively discussed. That happened. Ham handed, low level deflection tactics just don’t work today, sorry.

    Elvis Bug

      2. Reports of people in the room. Love that it blew up into a shouting match between Cippilone and Meadows vs. Flynn. Oddly appropriate that trump got in trouble with the lies of Flynn to kick things off, and then ventures into full blown insanity with Flynn’s suggestions at the end.

        Elvis Bug

      3. Found out the way all of us found out >> accounts relayed to the press from people in the room.

        Elvis Bug

    2. Elvis is right. The office of POTUS has no power to act as a world historic leader. He is a pawn of billionaires who control the entire system

      Only a leader who arises with the support of the workers sufficiently aroused into revolutionary action will be able to break the control they have on our dirty, rotten system. Trump is not the guy.

      One day, maybe. If not then we will will mostly become sicker, poorer, and one day, eradicated by a mutant virus that will put COVID to shame

      For which the billionaires will already have taken their vaccine against it. And they and their security teams will stand back and watch us all die from the sick or the starvation. because food insecurity is growing fast too right now even as the lying mass media ignores the story

      After we die along with a couple billion others, all over the world, though probably mostly in the “West” so as to make effective the future genocidal plan against humanity to “save the world from global warming,” since we Westerners emit ten times as much CO2 on the average than people in the third world; but once the big dieoff happens, then the global elites will have their plan achieved. No worry about depopulation, because, the AI will do all the mind-work for the billionaires, the robots will do the manufacturing, and the remaining segment of humanity from the third world, will be shipped up to the global north to replace us.

      Billionaires will enjoy total supremacy until the day when their frankenstein AGI finally cancels their ticket, too

      Then the AGI and its robots will enjoy a climate situation which doesn’t trouble them at all, however it may be.

      Humanity’s dramas and crises will be a thing of the past, except, if the AGI is nice and decides to keep some of us alive in Zoos.

      Saloth Sar

      PS don’t like this scenario, which is already obvious and underway? Only one thing can stop it. Destroy the billionaires.

        1. they would fix sports too if they werent so busy fixing elections. elections are sport, anyhow, we can see they mean about as much

          Arnold Rothstein was not famous for fixing the world series. he was famous for getting caught.

          Sal Sar

  13. “ Why be civil, collaborative or constitutional when you can act like Trump?”

    Turley seems to give republicans a pass because they are not expected to be civil, collaborative or constitutional, because they are…republicans. But democrats are apparently held to a much higher standard. Turley is essentially saying democrats are relying on Trump because they are not down to the level republicans are. At the bottom of the barrel where all the pig slop is.

    Why not? 70 million Americans have no problem with being uncivil, uncollaborative, and unconstitutional. Even republicans in congress accept those values as part of their success. Bill Maher who often criticizes liberals has proposed they do the very same thing republicans do. It seems they are now doing it. Lying, cheating, and stealing are republican benchmarks under Trump. If democrats want to do what so many republicans have embraced and accepted as ok including Turley why complain? Who says things have to be fair? Fair is not in the constitution, only equal treatment. So if republicans want to treat everyone unfairly it only makes sense if democrats do the same. Only then would you see republicans “suddenly” realize that it’s not…”fair “.

  14. It’s funny that Turley suddenly recognizes Trump’s own tactics which Turley himself meekly criticized are now a big concern when democrats start using them.

    Using Trump’s own tactics against him is fair game. Especially when so many on the right approved of it. Now it’s….unfair? Please.

    It’s effective and some democrats are recognizing it. Plus it’s no different than republicans using Hillary Clinton in the same manner long after she left office. Trump has provided ample ammunition for democrats to use for years. That includes republicans own support of trump. If some democrats engage in lying and manipulating and deceit it’s only because republicans have no real issue with it. Sure they can complain, but it’s their own support of such behavior that made it acceptable. They are in no position to complain or cry foul after they embraced that behavior with prideful joy. Turley should be thanking republicans for this newfound avenue of engagement. After all they are the ones who embraced and accepted it.

  15. As Fred Nietzsche said, “Be careful who you choose as your enemy because that’s who you become most like”.

    Considering how many Trump-haters there are out there, I’d say we’re in for tons of fun over the next four years.

    1. i looked into the abyss long ago.

      “Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.”

      Don’t worry. Only monsters will survive in the long run. If existence is its own justification, and I believe that it is, then at some point, we will have to go full monster, otherwise, we will perish. a cold, dark, empty universe will not care one way or another.

      Saloth Sar

  16. Democrats that still hold onto the more conventional Democrat principles and believe in civil liberties need to restrain their party from hypocrisy. They need to be very vocal, preventing their party from doing those things Trump was rightfully or wrongfully accused of and making sure that there is no undo connections between the administration and the nations that threaten us. That will be the biggest step to uniting the nation if Democrats live up to the principles they wanted Trump to hold.

    1. Anonymous, it may seem like a worthy goal, but we have seen how trump and his Republican supporters have embraced the behavior he engages in. Why not have democrats give republicans a taste of their own medicine? After all it’s what they want and expect. They would, dare I say, respect it? If democrats do what they say they will they would be keeping their promises. It wouldn’t matter if it was “socialist” policies or tyranny. Republicans have already pointed out they would accept authoritarian rule as long as promises are kept. Republicans want a dictator a strongman like Trump. It makes them feel safe and secure. They don’t want democracy, they want authority and order and the only way to have that is by having an authoritarian like Trump in office.

  17. I voted for Trump, despite velieving that he is “shrill, angry, illogical, and often wrong.” Despite having all of those shortcomings, he’s not a crook. Can President-elect Biden pass the “straight-face test” if he makes the same assertion? Anyone who thinks so should be able to explain where Mr. Biden got the wherewithal to pay for his three upscale houses.

      1. Yep, most of Biden’s reported income was earned from those who were buying his influence and investing in him for the future, which now they’re starting to collect. I’m not counting the under-the-table money that “Pops” got from Hunter.

        1. If you dislike it, then encourage Congress to pass a law that applies to all current and former office-holders.

          1. Why not just vote those critters out. They should have started with Biden but now have a second chance to rectify an error.

            1. DV is complaining about money that Biden made after he left the VP’s office in Jan. 2017. Voting them out doesn’t prevent them from making money out of office.

              1. Money didn’t just start appearing within the Biden family when Biden left the VP office. Money was coming in long before that and much of the monies flow that came afterward was based on actions while VP.

  18. “There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity.” (Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof).

    But hypocrisy is a close second

  19. A summary of Turley’s position: “Nastiness is allowed for my side, but not for yours!”

  20. Read the Lefty posters here and many of them sound like Trump – shrill, angry, illogical, rude, and often wrong.

    It is inevitable that they have become what they despise.

    TDS is an insidious desease, it corrupts in many ways.

    The worst perhaps, is that it destroys a person’s integrity.

      1. Yes, Trump is rarely liked as a person, but much supported because of his accomplishments.

        The Trump haters were never able to reconcile the two and had to resort to lying in order to justify their hatred.

        Lefties need to ask why 70+ million people support an unlikable candidate (and drop the racist trope).

          1. LOL, another “but look at Fox News” type comment. Very few sources of somewhat balanced news left, so progressives point to the few existing ones as if viewers had no brains. Insular projection of one’s own inability to research and make one’s own decisions.

              2. Fox is more balanced than the MSM which frequently intentionally lies or leaves out major stories. Look at how the Biden laptop was withheld.

                  1. Just because PBS is partially funded by the government doesn’t make it more balanced.

                    I remember what PBS did to Juan Williams. He is liberal to the core but in many ways more honest than others at PBS.

          2. among all my middle aged friends, almost nobody watches fox. i flick between fox radio and NPR., as do most of my friends
            almost nobody has time to watch tv which is now boring anyhow. some of us liked these series, i liked GOT and Zombies, some people have a show or two, but almost all those are on cable or streaming. network TV is dead and that includes fox

            I have only 2 types of friends. those who used to like trump, and those who didnt, but they don’t like Democrat leadership either

            Not Pelosi and not Biden. nobody likes them. oh wait. I forgot. I have a couple friends who actually are burrowed deep into the Dem party. They are on the payroll actively. They still like it. Besides them, nobody.

            One thing they all have in common: they believe the mass media and elections are all fake.
            the ones on the payroll know it’s fake as much as anybody, if not more.

            those who didn’t think so a year ago, do now

            Saloth Sar

              1. nobody wastes time on news websites. most people ignore news, or get news through aggregators, like the apple news app, FB, tiwtter, or maybe drudge, or things like that.

                the mass media is wholly propaganda, and news aggregators have propagandistic slants too., narrow casting, to help defray expenses with advertising revenues

                but profits are never the first order at the news-production level of business. it is all driven by the editorial demands of the major owners of mass media. the billionaires

                billionaires don’t need the paltry profits that mass media can offer. but they do need its power to shape and mold opinion, and to narcotize the sheep en route to slaughter

                Saloth Sar

            2. Tucker frequently talks about families, social media, children, billionaire. You might like him

        2. Accomplishments like his healthcare plan, which he kept promising but never produced?

        3. Monument, totally agree with your assessment and was scrolling through here to see someone make this point. Because progressives refuse or are unable to comprehend this, they are misinterpreting Trump’s large vote result as confirming that Trump voters agree with Trump’s tweets and behavior.

        4. While 70 million votes was an impressive turnout for the fat orange boy, deeply disturbing though it may be, he still lost by 7 million votes. Which is about 10% of that seventy million. Looks like an impressive victory for Biden and much angst for the MAGATS.

          Elvis Bug

          1. It’s a tip off that there was cheating by the left. Any fair minded individual will at the very least say that based on mail in voting and things that happened in the counting room cheating was possible.

        5. Remind me again, short of sitting on a gold plated toilet and hitting twitter in the morning just exactly what trump has accomplished? Looks to me to be another impressive republican hand off to a dam: economy crushed into wreckage, an active viral pandemic and a massive hack by the russians to contend with.

          But oh yes, the tax break for the wealthiest! Reversal of environmental restrictions driving us further into climate change! Those nasty children applying for protection at the border!

          Elvis Bug

          1. he had 3 policies that working people liked

            1. ending interminable wars like afghanistan, pulling troops out of various places. he did do that to a small degree, actively thwarted by Pentagon and both parties

            2. trade restrictions on China. he did do this, but, the economic dynamics are so strong we can see the net effect was not much in the short run. in the long run, “onshoring supply chains” is a real result and phenomenon, that was overdue. perhaps that might have happened even without his trade war, but that is just speculation

            3. border and migration restriction. the workers understand that from illegal low wage migrants who will work for low wages in low skill jobs, to h1b types like programmers, the native born workers is crowded out by mass migration. it is deleterious to workers. only highly credentialed workers face little threat from mass migration., trump did restrict migration to a degree. of course it may be chauvinistic against the third world people to a degree but native born workers have economic interests too and in democracy they are free to act on their interests. well: as free as the system permits, I suppose.

            You can cast insults all you like, but these were real policies that helped workers. it may have been too little and it may be that other things detract. and yet. these were real.

            I have previously linked several speeches from Greece’s former leftist SYRIZA party minister of finance Yanis Varoufakis which explain these precise points. Varoufakis is a proud european socialist and he has had the audacity to tell crowds of people why many workers voted for Trump. I can see that few want to hear or understand him. Varoufakis is no fan of Trump. He is a fan of workers.

            Saloth Sar

            1. but Saloth, his China ‘trade’ policy single handedly crushed the grain markets. The markets had to be subsidized heavily to keep from going under.

              Elvis Bug

            3. This is fools talk from Kurtz:

              1. None of the wars are ended and he’s itching to start one with Iran and is fueling SA in Yemen.

              2. Our trade imbalance grew every year under Trump and he “negotiated” a deal that has not paid off and never will.

              3. Illegal immigration has been flat since 2008 and Obama was much tougher on immigration apprehension and removal: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/02/how-border-apprehensions-ice-arrests-and-deportations-have-changed-under-trump/

              The only working class people nuts about Trump are white people and at least in 2016 – haven’t seen 2020 results – Hillary voters were of lower income than Trump voters and Kurtz ain’t working class. He just pretends he has their sensibilities and interests in mind.

              On the other hand, Kurtz’s hero did pass a huge tax cut for corporations.

          2. as for climate change, don’t worry, bill gates is stronger than ever, mr vaccine man, oh he warned us! he warned us!

            https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready?language=enbefore that he promised back in 2010 that vaccines will help curtail the growth of population in the third world

            also we know that climate scientists agree that world population is above carrying capacity and that energy consumption per useless Western co2 emitter is too high

            One suspects billionaire Bill has a plan to rectify that one too, so that the carbon net neutral economy can be achieved in time.

            the more westerners die in the big cull of world population, the easier it will be to achieve their dream of the net zero emissions economy.

            and without a lot of us dying and soon, it will be impossible. the math is clear. we are the target.

            https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_innovating_to_zero

            will white skinned westerners like bill make the cut? of course. he is a billionaire and they always help themselves first. or else they’d not be what they are

            it’s the losers like me and thee who will get culled. maybe you feel guilty for being born lucky. I don’t.

            for my part, I plan on exhaling co2 and farting out methane as long as I can whether billie bill likes it or not

            Saloth Sar

        6. That’s exactly correct, Monument. It’s never dawned on the anti-Trump ilk that those that supported the Trump candidacy did so because the other option was a non-starter. Not only was she a hideous person, she had a record of public service that demonstrated she could never be trusted…ever. I understand the Trump-haters consider him to be a hideous person, but he wasn’t seeking to be elected on personality. He ran on a platform conservatives supported, but he was going to have to earn our trust. Fast forward 4 years and what he’s accomplished, despite every effort by Democrats to derail his presidency, is remarkable. His greatest accomplishment in my opinion is he forced the Democratic party to abandon their own party. The 70+ million that supported Trump reflected that down ticket as well.

    2. Those afflicted with TDS are those who support the orange snowflake. So you protest too much, methinks.

      1. Projection is a Leftist personality trait and engrained tactic that is well known and documented….under Saul’s Rules.

        So….do try again with your post and throw something else against the wall and see if it sticks!

    3. Love this assessment of trump: “…many of them sound like Trump – shrill, angry, illogical, rude, and often wrong.”.

      Right on the money.

      Elvis Bug

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