The coming political revolt of 2016

 

US federal elections have taken some strange turns in the past.  The general election 0f 1860 is probably the greatest example of this.  As the map above shows the disintegration of the Whig Party and the sectional and emotional split in the Democratic Party created a situation in which there were four major contenders for the presidency.  As a result Abraham Lincoln was elected with zero support in the South.  Division and a catastrophic war followed.

We have a potential this year for something similar.  As I have written before, there is a profound dissatisfaction abroad in the land.  The media and elite complex that I call The Borg has succeeded in establishing a "new normal" in American mores and now in law.  All that "hopey, changey" business that has prevailed since Bill Clinton was elected president on a platform of "don't stop thinking about tomorrow," has succeeded in changing the terms of reference in the United States.

The stated agenda of The Borg is altogether about individual liberty and rights and very little about social responsibility as understood by Americans in "flyover" America.  The result is a massive discontent with government by the intelligentsia and their minority clients.

As a result, those who liked America as it was before Berkeley in 1964 are raising the flags of political revolt against the establishment and their pundit agents in New York, etc.  Joe Scarborough today said that "people ALL OVER THE CITY, PEOPLE WE RESPECT" have called him and Mika to chide for giving credence to the Trump phenomenon.   ALL OVER THE CITY.

The Borgist media seem oblivious to red majorities in the US Congress and in many states.  Perhaps that is because these majorities are NOT IN THE CITY.

I foolishly thought Trump was a clown.  Well, if he is a clown the Fundament of Borgists will have little to laugh about in this electoral cycle.  pl 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-donald-trump-leads-gop-field-in-2016-presidential-race/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders

Comments

[Will Reks]

Trump is a contradiction but a lot of people like what he says and how he says it. Reminds me a little of Tyler mocking Obama as the "cocoa messiah". I'm not sure that Trump isn't anything more than a "vanilla messiah" as the hope and change guy for those in "flyover" land. He's riding the wave right now but I'm taking him seriously.

[Booby]

For PL

The Borg are just keeping their powder dry on Trump hoping that the Republicans will kill him. The Borg's best case is that Trump remains strong, the Republicans refuse to give him the nomination & Trump runs as a 3d party candidate.

If Trump were to emerge from the Republican knife fight as the candidate, the Borg will go to the Alinsky model & vilify. The Borg & the MSM will attempt to make him an object of ridicule. I'm sure that the Borg "black ops" think tanks/non-profits are digging & stockpiling the ammo now.

I've always said that if a candidate ran saying that he drank, cussed, chased women & gambled, that I'd vote for him because he might be an honest man

[HDL]

Interesting article in the CSM by Robert Reisssssh on the revolt. If you substitute "Borg" for the "ruling class", it reads the same. Here's the link.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Robert-Reich/2015/0803/Opinion-A-revolt-is-taking-place-against-the-ruling-class. As Labor Secretary under Clinton I, he advocated training over academics as an employment multiplier. Even us liberal arts majors can agree with that. Off topic but how often you get a chance to Reich?

[David Habakkuk]

All,

I have a deeply ingrained suspicion of where populism can lead. There is nothing new about this. If you go back to the origins of 'republican' thought in the English tradition out of which American culture came, you will find figures of rather humble social origin – like Ben Jonson or Shakespeare – either hostile to, or at least ambivalent towards, 'democratic' ideas.

However, when elites simply retreat into a cocoon, and refuse to listen, then anything can happen.

It is the sheer unmitigated stupidity of the contemporary 'clerisy', in the United States and Britain alike, which is central feature of our current situation.

It was really beyond the capacity of figures like Blair and Miliband to understand, that if the Labour Party was so enthusiastic about 'multiculturalism' that it championed unrestricted immigration, a substantial proportion of their traditional constituency would either vote UKIP or stay at home. They really were that stupid.

That stupidity, together with a lot of simple luck, played into the hands of the kind of gilded dolts who lead the Tory Party. But if they think that people like them – and do not grasp that they are the beneficiaries of a combination of a ludicrously unfair electoral system and people's acute distrust of their opponents – they living in cloud-cuckoo-land.

Perhaps the lama in 'Kim' had it right: 'Education is greatest blessing if of best sorts. Otherwise no earthly use.'

The point is not to contrast Harvard and Oxford, or indeed either with VMI or places like it. In my experience, in Oxford or Cambridge you could acquire an education that would wreck your mind, or sit at the feet of fine scholars and wise men, or some combination of both.

But something has gone radically wrong with the contemporary 'clerisy'. The answer does not lie in an anti-intellectual populism. But until the contemporary 'clerisy' – and in particular, the large part of which is Jewish – can look themselves in the mirror, we are going to head further and further into chaos and destruction.

[Babak Makkinejad]

"You can learn enough philosophy in college to ruin the rest if your life." as I heard in the United States.

To your last paragraph: the first step is to call names by their correct names; religious war when there is one - for example.

Only then order can be restored.

[Tyler]

WR,

Obama wasn't even a single term senator who served as an adjunct professor at Harvard. He had no real accomplishments to his name. He was a cipher for guilty whites like yourself to project their "hopey dreamey" aspirations on.

Trump has actual accomplishments to his name, unlike your cocoa messiah.

Like after Nixon, you're going to sit around with your (white) liberal friends and insist that you can't believe he won because you don't know anyone who voted for the guy.

[Tyler]

Booby,

The Borg/Cathedral has been firing shots at him, especially with the wall to wall coverage of Juan McAmnesty having a fat cry at being insulted by Trump.

[Tyler]

Mr. Habakkuk,

My understanding of the situation is that Labor indeed knew what it was doing, and sees the diminishing of Britain's white population as a feature and not a bug.

[Matthew]

Col: I'm not a Trump fan, but I read his twitter feed. I've also read a number of his books and basically followed Trump since he burst on the scene when I was in high school.

His 35 years of working the press are paying off. His genius is to focus on (1) his story--because Horatio Alger tales are as American as apple pie; (2) his wealth--because he knows that Americans love winners and detest people want others to fail; (3) his choice of targets--because issues like illegal immigration resonate with voters, but not with a bipartisan political/business elite who benefits from illegal immigration; and (4) his self-proclaimed toughness. Toughness, sadly, is its own reward. More Americans remember George Patton than George Marshall, even though Marshall was the better (and wiser) man.

[HankP]

Col. Lang -

The maps you're using are quite deceptive, most of that sea of red is where very few people live. Try looking at some cartograms that adjust for population, they give a much more accurate picture.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2012/

[turcopolier]

HankP

The 1860 map shows which candidate carried which state in the popular vote. The 2014 map shows which party holds which seats in the House of Representatives. I don't know off hand how each state distributed its Electoral College votes in 1860 except that Lincoln received none in the states carried by Breckinridge. This is and will remain a federal republic. How are the maps deceptive? The density of population in cities does not seem to affect the House of Representatives very much. pl

[Swami Bhut Jolokia]

Trump is dealing with the Borg. Like Picard, he will be assimilated.

[Jack]

Sir

I'm not sure if the Borg really cares about individual liberty although that along with American Exceptionalism is a central element of its rhetoric.

IMO, the Borg is statist and elitist. It believes the American people in general but in flyover country in particular are rubes to be manipulated. The Borg due to its elitism is inherently hubristic.

The bailout of Wall St and the concomitant concentration of wealth, the cartelization of large segments of the economy all through the use of increasing state power and the immense role of big money lobbying in our politics and domination of both parties by elites I believe leads to faux democracy. People believe they are sovereign and elections matter and thry have choices but the reality is that the Borg rules no matter what.

The militarization of police forces and the deep entrenchment of the surveillance state I believe are to protect Borgistan from the pitchforks if they come.

I wonder if Trump is the real deal or just the circus to keep the people entertained with the horse race. Then real issues don't have to be debated and campaign rhetoric can be platitudes.

[turcopolier]

HankP

The districts of the House of Representatives are the same size in population. This has resulted in a GOP majority of 58 in the 114th congress. Assuming you are a Democrat you are unlikely to regain control for a long time. I suppose the next thing will be a complaint about gerrymandering. pl

[no one]

Jack, I too pondered the alleged commitment of the Borg to individual liberties when I read it. Then I thought it is "individual liberty" more in a connotation of hedonistic pursuits than true liberty, as true liberty would demand responsibility.

The more the Borg attacks Trump, the more support Trump gains. Trump seems to have a way of causing Borg attacks to backfire. He's anti-Borg without being Duck Dynasty, thus the wider appeal. I'm liking him more and more myself. But then I despise the Borg.

[Matthew]

Jack: Last week I watched an interview with former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr where he discussed the TTP and China.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Carr He noted that Australia already had free trade agreements with most of its neighbors.

The TTP excludes China, and basically covers free trade agreements with many countries with which the USA already has free trade agreements. But not China.

To me, this is not about free trade, but about creating an American-led trading block of China’s neighbors whose purpose is to prevent China from setting the terms of trade.

Ironically, Carr said negotiating a new trade agreement with China was much more important to Australia than the TTP.

That speaks volumes.

Trump, for better or worse, cannot change this reality.

[turcopolier]

no one

"...a connotation of hedonistic pursuits than true liberty, as true liberty would demand responsibility." Yes. pl

[jr786]

I don't agree with everything he says but I like Trump's willingness to speak his mind. We're perhaps getting near the time where only the very rich or those with little to lose will have the nerve or access to professional survival to do so.

The most unnerving thing about the Borg is their apparent inability to even comprehend that someone might think differently from them, their astonishment at finding out that there are still some people who don't think children should have to wear helmets when sitting at their multicolored desks in multicultural wonderland, or that hurting someone's feeling might be grounds for criminal prosecution.

I could go on but can sum up my feelings towards this 'dreary tribe' with a hearty f*** them. As I consider myself hopelessly normal, I reckon there are quite a few people who feel the way I do. Roll on, Trump.

[rjj]

Trump brings WWE/WWF wrestling expertise to the charade.

Limbaugh is promoting him as Not-One-of-the-Above which is this season's version of nonspecific Hope-and-Change.

http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/prediction-trump-looks-to-blow-up-gop-debate/

Am sticking with Lindsey Graham because he seems such a nice lad -- well-mannered and gentlemanly.

[rjj]

Why do you assume he is speaking his mind?

[John]

Anyone who thinks Trump is not part of the Borg is deluded. He was born into the oligarchic hive collective. The wisdom of the Borg is to constantly shape shift to fool the rubes.
Bernie may be the only one who is not completely assimilated. Not even really sure about that. Let him get into high office and see how fast the nanobots are injected.
A great war or catastrophic natural disaster is the only thing that takes the hive down. They seem to be working quite avidly on those two possibilities.

[Tyler]

Trump feels like flyover America's last offer to work within the system before it goes all civil strife on us. Work with us in Congress or fight against us in the streets.

If Trump calls Jeb a cuckservative I'll laugh so hard I'd puke. Then I'll go campaign for the man.

[Tyler]

No one,

Damn man. You nailed it with that first paragraph. Bravo.

[rjj]

Wiki list of awards and honors is pretty ^awesome^. Wonder what the deal with Liberty University was or is.

** Gaming Hall of Fame (class of 1995)[191]
** NY Ride of Fame (class of 2010)[192]
** Honorary Doctor of Business Administration (Hon. D.B.A.), 2010, Robert Gordon University[193]
** Honorary Doctor of Business (Hon. D.B.), 2012, Liberty University[194]
** WWE Hall of Fame (class of 2013)
** Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

[Fred]

Col.,

"The density of population in cities does not seem to affect the House of Representatives very much."

This is true. It should also be noted that the number of state legislatures that have become more Republican over the past decade. This is one of the reasons for complaints about gerrymandering. The people who lost at the local (state) level don't want to admit that their policies have become unpopular. Scott Walker's defeat of the recall election being a prime example.