Whose Country?

Howard Lisnoff is dismayed by a "government ... run by war profiteers, racists, misogynists, warmongers, child abusers and worse".

While perusing the Internet after organizing a rally opposing the horrific treatment of immigrant children and their families, it finally dawned on me that I no longer recognize the country in which I live. A Facebook photo of a protester holding a sign brought it all home in a way that words alone often cannot: The sign was written in plain, bold black letters and read: “What Country Is This?”

Simmering fear and rage have found a voice and he's feeding the fire. Chauncey DeVega explores "white anxiety" noting that

Unfortunately, too many white Americans would rather live under an authoritarian regime that supposedly empowers white people like them than a real democracy which provides equal opportunities for all people.

DeVega quotes presidential adviser Michael Anton from before the election.

The ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty means that the electorate grows more left, more Democratic, less Republican, less republican, and less traditionally American with every cycle.

Of course, you can't imply becoming "more democratic" is a bad thing!

I'm not sure ironic is exactly the right word, but these whites also no longer recognize their country. Who wouldn't be fearful if you thought a backlash was coming for everything Western imperialism has done to the rest of the world? Quoting Pat Buchanan:

We are truly dealing here with an ideology of Western suicide. [Von Clownstick] may be on the wrong side politically and emotionally of this issue of separating migrant kids from their parents. But on the mega-issue — the Third World invasion of the West — he is riding the great wave of the future, if the West is to have a future.

The "character of the country" is being lost. DeVega disputes that the fear is justified.

It is not just white anxiety about changing demographics which drives ... white identity politics. It is actually a fear that black people specifically, and nonwhites more generally, will seek revenge against white people once the former are the numerically larger group. This conclusion is based on a very narrow and distorted understanding of power as a type of zero sum game where it is considered "human nature" for one group to dominate another by any means necessary. 

But the fear and anger are there and it builds on both sides. I was once so furious with a friend it felt as if I had blinders on and couldn't recognize where I was.

[T]here are millions of white Americans in [Dear Leader's] camp, and also outside of it, who are terrified that with increasing racial and ethnic diversity they will be victims of racially-motivated revenge and violence. This makes these millions of white voters easily manipulated by racist demagogues who use political sadism to stab at the worst parts of human nature. In response, it will require a united front of black and brown and white folks to save the United States from [Fuckface] and the Republican Party's fascist and authoritarian campaign against democracy.

Yet the divide only seems to get more intense.

Update (June 28):  Motive isn't clear, but this is just days after Fuckface once again referred to the press as "the enemy of the people".

Five people died and two were injured in a “targeted attack” on the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland.

And this sure looks like the kind of intimidation we'd expect in some kind of dictatorship.

In his first television interview, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson James Schwab has opened up about why he abruptly resigned in March. But his interview with CBS News' Jamie Yuccas on Wednesday was unexpectedly interrupted by agents identifying themselves as agents from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's Office.

Update (June 30):  It seems that being a hypocritical asshole tends to pay very well.

Also, Paul Rosenberg reports on several tweets from the Capital Gazette shooting suspect.

[The suspect] wasn’t acting on anyone’s orders, and despite his apparent linkages to white supremacy he never expressed any clear political ideology. But there's little doubt he was influenced and shaped by some of the darkest forces in our society.

Update (July 3):  Kaitlin Byrd thinks Democrats need to wake up.

They offer appeals to morality, norms and shared values as if saying it often enough will make it true.

But there is no salvaging the Republican Party. Its leaders are beyond shame, beyond rules, beyond reason. Democrats can speak in the dialogue of peace, but the only dialect Republicans understand is power.

[I]t would be wrong for the Democrats to seek reconciliation while the Republican Party organizes government to recognize only its ideology as legitimate, systematically assaults Democratic constituents and actively condones the abandonment of international law and the heinous human rights abuses still happening to thousands of asylum-seekers.

Update (July 4):  While the Master Troll is a failure who might yet escape any consequences, Jeremy Sherman offers suggestions for taking on the trolls.

On the left these days, we debate whether to be civil or uncivil, self-controlling or gut-reacting in response. That’s the wrong debate for our times. We’re in the political equivalent of anything goes mixed-martial arts and you’re bringing predictable tai chi or karate. The debate should be about how to surprise them not whether to be gentle or harsh.

Update (August 17):  On Free Press Day, this has become necessary.

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution Thursday confirming that "the press is not the enemy of the people."

Update (February 20, 2019):  What kind of insane lunatic tweets out shit like this before 6 am?

The New York Times reporting is false. They are a true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!

Update (February 21, 2019):  Bob Cesca suggests we need to take these raging tweets seriously.

[E]ver since Robert Mueller was appointed we’ve all wondered out loud whether [Fuckface] would get crazier and more dictatorial as investigators closed in. I think we have a clear answer to this question. The only remaining question is whether he’ll actually take the next step following the threats.