A twice-weekly compendium of political opinion worth pondering
October 10th ~ October 13th, 2020
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OPENING NOTE – Beginning with the next edition, Current Comment transitions from its present twice-weekly format to a once-a-week schedule, and this new weekly edition will be posted on The Liberal Buddhist blog every Saturday.
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ITEM #1 – If the vast majority of Trump’s supporters had any inkling of the personal disdain their “hero” feels towards them, I wonder what they’d say … and even more so, I wonder how they’d have voted in the last election. It’s one of the most painful ironies in our recent history that this most plutocratic of individuals was able to convincingly masquerade as a populist, and to win the White House by his deceitful impersonation. Is it too much to hope that, like the Wizard of Oz’s famous comeuppance in that classic film’s denouement, the curtains are at last (and just in time for the upcoming election) being pulled back to reveal the hollow man standing behind them frantically tugging at the fake levers? …
“It’s hard not to wonder how he really feels about his supporters, especially when the coronavirus-positive president began walking mask-less around the White House. He has been, to say the least, careless about placing his most devoted people at risk. These include his own top White House and campaign aides, residence staff members, Secret Service agents, Republican senators and campaign advisers, and possibly donors at a fund-raising luncheon in New Jersey and rallygoers in Minnesota (depending on when he first thought he might be contagious).”
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ITEM #2 – New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait points out the inherent flaws in the idea that Trump is too incompetent to become a full-fledged autocrat …
“The main underlying flaw is one common to many conservative elites who disdain Trump’s personality but dismiss him as a serious threat. They are incapable of seeing his authoritarianism as anything but an idiosyncratic personal project. They define his undemocratic maneuvers as actions he is taking on his own, without the cooperation of Republicans. And since it’s essentially impossible for a single person (even a president) to undermine democracy without the assistance of a party, nothing Trump does without the party can be a serious threat by definition. It’s a circular argument: Trump is not an authoritarian menace, these conservatives believe, because they only define his authoritarianism as actions other Republicans refuse to support. This is a logical assumption for people who might worry about Trump’s behavior but implicitly trust the Republican Party to safeguard democratic norms. But if you aren’t encumbered by naïve faith in the good intentions of Mitch McConnell and the Republican judiciary, and you expand the analysis to include anti-democratic actions that have their blessing, then the picture is much more disturbing.”
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CLOSING NOTES – If you’d like to get a head start reading the articles being selected for the next edition of Current Comment, you can follow @LiberalBuddhist on Twitter.
And, as a follower of The Liberal Buddhist blog, you’ll receive not only all regular weekly posts of Current Comment, but also periodic posts featuring original political, literary, and cultural commentary – all viewed through the lens of Buddhist ethics and liberal philosophy.
The next edition of Current Comment is scheduled for Saturday, 10/17/20. Until then, please take care of yourself, and stay well …
The Liberal Buddhist 