Why does the Left hate Trump?

Me...

As a Leftist with photos of Che' and Hugo Chavez in my wallet, which I kiss regularly,   I feel qualified to comment on Fellow Travelers, who sadly are  on the same bus but don't want to look at each other and get off at different places. Leftists are the kind of people who take buses because they have to and really want the money to buy a BMW.  if they get that money, they become Liberals.

Extreme Leftist Radicals

"Leftists", of course, think of themselves as “progressives” – open-minded, practical, pragmatic, in tune with reality, smart -- which creates a kind of status substituting for fast cars and trophy wives or boy toys.   

Yes, they see the danger of global climate change, imperialism and foreign wars, inequality and animal testing.  They are in favor of freedom and democracy.  But: "Oh, say can you see...".  "Thank you for your service".  "Of course, I support Israel".

Most Leftists are pains to be "moderate", which  looks "intelligent: and fits media fashions better.  Like Justin Trudeau -- and, before him, in his heyday, Tony Blair.  Appearance is very important, if only because many are white and upper middle class or want to be. Buy your clothes at the Gap. Spend extra money for jeans with holes in the knees.

Along comes Donald Trump, who does not wear jeans.

Trump is not fashionable -- and he  really needs Justin's stylist.  (Trudeau not Bieber). He has trophy wives and trophy children and trophy cars -- which,  by night,   every Leftist or Liberal  lusts for in sweaty autoerotic dreams.  By day, those dreams are expressed in reverence of closely trimmed beards, turtle necks, leather and the M5 series.

The Liberal Dream

Trump says a lot of outrageous things.  The kind of things that a lot of people think -- but cannot say because, y'know... you just don't. 

The Media hate him. 
 

Bill Maher, the Designated Media Liberal, doesn't like him.

Maher doesn't like Islam either

The Yahoos do like him. By "yahoos" we mean Undesignated Ordinary People.  And Ann Coulter likes him because she likes whatever the Media hates, as Designated Media Contrarian.

Now, Noam Chomsky who is the Designated Leftist Prophet has weighed in saying that if we judge Trump by what he says, he is dangerous to the nation, the world, in fact to all life on the planet.  Noam should know -- he invented Generative Grammar, which nobody but him understands but generations of English Lit students have been forced to study anyway.

The Inside of Noam's Mind

Noam says that we have to assume that Trump means what he says.  Of course, no politician ever means what he or she says when electioneering. 

"I did not have sex with that woman".  He meant Hillary.

This is Rule One -- but, hey, this is Chomsky, to whom we on the Left are required to pray to six times a day (to outdo Muslims)  -- so he is allowed to revise reality, if not Holy Writ.

That said,   Trump (as I have predicted) is already changing his positions, coming out to the Left of the Hillary.  His comments are characteristically....

1.  always open-ended
2. only relevant to the context in which they are made
3. always contain an element of truth

Political koans.  The sound of one hand crapping.

Yes you can clap with one hand.  And crap too.

No. 2 above -- context -- is all-important in politics.

'Nuff said

To put "context" in context, think of sex (after all, the basis of all human behavior).

"You were wonderful", your partner says after sex.  There's an element of truth to that probably.  But "wonderful" is open-ended and it doesn't mean she had an orgasm. It's the context that matters.

Human relationships are poliltics

Similarly, when Trump makes a speech to an auditorium of right wingers who believe the world was created 6 thousand years ago by a hairy man in the sky...he also says, "the right thing" -- that is the right thing for them --at that time.  Content is relative to the audience. and the situation. 

So there is always a context to what Trump says.

Take his  comments about Mexicans and the wall.  Yes, American has a problem with illegal immigration.   And Mexico has a problem with ...um...illegal emigration.    So far, American response has to been to throw a lot of kids in jail while letting others die in the desert.

But the real issue is NAFTA, which destroyed the Mexican economy forcing poor farmers off the land and into sweat shops (if they were lucky).  At the same time, as it also hollowed out American industry.    Trump wants to dump NAFTA -- which would go a long way to solving the immigration/ emigration problem.  He is also clearly against the kind of international interventionism that resulted in the Honduras coup. And he also opposes TPP.

And repeal NAFTA

Or:

Trump's famous comments on Islam hating the the US.  Now, Trump said he was not talking about the religion, so he really meant the Islamic World.  And this is a fact.  The Islamic World hates America -- with good reason.  Failed states and a few million dead people are a pretty good reason. 

Why they hate you

Trump has a solution for that too.  Withdraw from the Middle East.  Dump NATO.   No, he says, Putin is NOT the enemy.  Nor are the Chinese.  Do deals.   Such things go a long way to changing perceptions of the US.

After all, what is a "deal".

The Art of the Deal (Hillary Style)

It is the opposite of a military fix.,.  It is a peaceful solution.

Of course, as I have indicated many times in various blog posts, politicians say all sorts of things when campaigning.  The only way to judge them is to look at their record.

In Trump's case,  he opposed the Iraq War, spoke in favor or single payer, and said, hey, he didn’t like abortion but it was a free country, right, so women get to choose. Compare his record to the Hillary's.  Who is the Liberal?  Not Hillary.  And Trump, at least, he is not a war criminal.

He used to be a Liberal Democrat – but Wall Street has the lock on the democratic party these days, so he decided to do the unthinkable – appeal to the People.

The People have no name

Remember them?  The People?    Not just the Middle Class.  But the Homeless, the Poor, temp workers, students too. Everybody.
That great and anonymous mass. 

Of course, the Founders of the Republic always distrusted the “People” -- basically anyone whose names they didn't know.
 .

Which is why the US has a two party system, both parties representing our modern version of Slave Owners.  We all know who they are -- they are few and famous.

Now, Donald Trump has a record as a Liberal Democrat but he hadn’t married Bill so he was locked out of the race for the Democratic nomination.   He was left with no way of getting to the Presidency but taking over and redefining the GOP, which , which over the years has degenerated into a fractured coalition of crazies but now controls congress.

Remember to get something for the kids and school

You make do with what you got.

The Media, which is owned by corporate cabals are 99% against Trump.  . They characterize him as a bully and a thug. Another Putin.  Ignoring the fact that Putin – another populist – has been remarkable successful.

That the One Percent should be 99 percent against Donald Trump seems commonsense. And should be a recommendation to the Leftwing to support Trump. Yet, the Left is even more anti-Trump than, say, Cruz or the Koches.  Why does Noam hate Trump?  Is it simply because a Trump presidency could realize Left-wing goals? 
And then what would he do for a job?  Or a lifestyle.

Or is it that the Left sold its soul to Neoliberalism years ago? Blairism was not just a British thing.