Mini Me
08-09-2018, 12:09 PM
Though Wilson describes himself in ETTD as having been "a gleeful hatchet man for the GOP" in the past, this book artfully eviscerates the Republicans, donors, lobbyists, and consultant class that allowed Trump to rise. Wilson steeps the book in a trenchant analysis of how Trumpism functions as a Cheeto-smeared mirror inverse of traditional conservative values, specifically fiscal responsibility and limited government. He serves that analysis with some scalding-hot tea about the "Vichy Republicans" who keep offering Trump and his associates (arguably quite literal) "Get Out of Jail Free" cards: "A [Paul] Ryan aide told me that he had allowed [Devin] Nunes to run buck wild to keep the small but vocal Trumphadi caucus in line," he writes. The book is a clarion call to conservatives about how "Kim Jong Don's" reverse-Midas touch is "an Orwellian erasure of what conservatism represents" that will define the party for generations to come.
http://theweek.com/articles/782713/trump-haters-love-rick-wilsons-scathing-new-book-everything-trump-touches-dies
But Wilson saves his most cathartic, hurts-so-good takedown for the Trump base, which he calls "three million zombies." This chapter is a vital antidote to the umpteen million think pieces that break their own arms patting themselves on the back for portraying the Trumpie as some plain-talkin', diner-lovin', be-callused sage of the Real America. The Trump supporters I know include an unemployed neighbor with multiple chronic conditions who hates "ObummerCare" but would be dead without the Affordable Care Act; a woman I once worked with who despises "how everyone has to be all political these days" but can't stop bashing "the liberals" for protesting against putting children in cages; and even my own father, who will believe that Hillary Clinton ran a sex ring out of a D.C. pizzeria, but not that Russia attacked our election. Wilson accurately captures this odd amalgamation of voters in ETTD.
ibid.
"Trump's notorious base is impervious to reason and immune to irony," he writes. "They are willful, petulant, and full of pointless defiance … They don't get to bitch about triggered, liberal snowflake social justice warriors while nursing a set of grievances that lead them to spittle-flecked outrage at the slightest challenge to their worldview."
Wilson also takes the media to task for conducting "softly-lit interviews with 'Ma and Pa Soybean' farmer" and expresses skepticism at what this "coal-country Kristof"-style of reporting accomplishes: "It's a disgusting sort of contemptuous paternalism, and it's a shtick, it's not analysis," he tells me. "It's not a real penetration into what is actually going on in the lives and minds of these people. When you scratch that surface more than a couple of millimeters, you find that is there is a lot of racial animosity."
ibid.
http://theweek.com/articles/782713/trump-haters-love-rick-wilsons-scathing-new-book-everything-trump-touches-dies
But Wilson saves his most cathartic, hurts-so-good takedown for the Trump base, which he calls "three million zombies." This chapter is a vital antidote to the umpteen million think pieces that break their own arms patting themselves on the back for portraying the Trumpie as some plain-talkin', diner-lovin', be-callused sage of the Real America. The Trump supporters I know include an unemployed neighbor with multiple chronic conditions who hates "ObummerCare" but would be dead without the Affordable Care Act; a woman I once worked with who despises "how everyone has to be all political these days" but can't stop bashing "the liberals" for protesting against putting children in cages; and even my own father, who will believe that Hillary Clinton ran a sex ring out of a D.C. pizzeria, but not that Russia attacked our election. Wilson accurately captures this odd amalgamation of voters in ETTD.
ibid.
"Trump's notorious base is impervious to reason and immune to irony," he writes. "They are willful, petulant, and full of pointless defiance … They don't get to bitch about triggered, liberal snowflake social justice warriors while nursing a set of grievances that lead them to spittle-flecked outrage at the slightest challenge to their worldview."
Wilson also takes the media to task for conducting "softly-lit interviews with 'Ma and Pa Soybean' farmer" and expresses skepticism at what this "coal-country Kristof"-style of reporting accomplishes: "It's a disgusting sort of contemptuous paternalism, and it's a shtick, it's not analysis," he tells me. "It's not a real penetration into what is actually going on in the lives and minds of these people. When you scratch that surface more than a couple of millimeters, you find that is there is a lot of racial animosity."
ibid.