American consumerism has been occurring for more than just the past 9 months. Why are you so diligent to bring it up now?
You past postings show you do represent a party, have you suddenly (just today) decided you don't?
There is such a thing as the culmination of a thing. Of course consumerism has been occurring. What's changed is the level and type, and how the consumerist behavior has now extended into infotainment consumption—the combo of 24-hour "news" channels, 24-hour "news" talk radio, always-available "news" websites, ever-present Twitter "news" feeds, Facebook.
I have never claimed to represent a party. You assigned one to me. That's fine.
I'm going to end with this…
Think of the other candidate who generated the enthusiasm to match, if not exceed, that of Trump. The one whose rallies generated record crowds, greatly outnumbering those for Trump. His large crowds, the enthusiasm, these shared a common thread to Trump's campaign: Sanders was tapping into the sense of, the
feeling of, victimhood. The difference being that Sanders actually has real ideas, workable ideas, based on a lifetime in politics and a keen understanding of what has worked, and why, in other parts of the world. Take a very close look, do some research, on Bernie's career. Start with his mayorship of Burlington, VT. Small city, sure, but a small city that face many issues most municipalities face in some degree or another. Check out what he did, whether it worked or not, and decide for yourself if it is scalable or not. Do this for his work as mayor, then repeat for the rest of his career. A lot of work, but then sustaining a
truly functioning, truly democratic society is just that: work. It's not being spoon-fed narratives, often abjectly or partly false, gulping it down with gluttonous zeal.
Surely you'll scoff at this, but maybe consider why? We know why the DNC marginalized Bernie. But why is/was he marginalized by pretty much all power structures?
There is a great quote that I am trying to find, by I believe MLK, about how people who present threats to power are treated. They are usually dismissed and/or vilified, or killed. MLK was fine and safe when his work was focused on civil rights, because we're a country that believes in civil rights. Don't kill someone on civil rights or you'll martyr him. Where he became a
real threat was when his message turned to the crimes of poverty and hunger in a capitalist society. It was then that he was
really putting his life on the line.
Do not touch capitalism. Never mind that the lords of capitalism siphon money the same way a socialist dictator has been guilty of doing.
You can apply this to Trump, even, with how he is being treated. The difference being, his "treatment" is not top-down driven, though surely you'll disagree. It is from ground-up. He stands as a threat to even further consolidate power away from
the people. And besides that, he's just repulsive. And this is not media-driven, this negative reaction to Trump. The media treated Trump with kid gloves throughout his ascendancy. Of course now the media is scrutinizing and analyzing his every move, his every tweet, but this is more in response to the grassroots response than it is to some top-down narrative directive.
The bottom line is, Trump is empty branding, all emotion, all about how he makes people
feel. If I'm a white man, deeply insecure to the point that the only thing that makes me feel good about myself is that I happen to be a white man? Trump is going to make me feel
good.
He's going to make me feel
good about objectifying women.
He's going to make me feel
good about being leery of the brown family that moved into the neighborhood.
He's going to make me feel
good about blaming every damn person and every damn thing for whatever it is that I feel so
righteously angry or frustrated.
He's going to make me feel
good for being a white man.
And he's going to make me feel nice and secure that he has
my interests at heart, because he just "gets it".
Trump is a mirror. Hope you like what you see.
