Steve Sailer writes: Why did the media turn against Dean so violently in early 2004?
This article talks a lot about Dean’s personal volatility. Maybe …
But I’d say: most of the Establishment had more or less acquiesced in the decision to invade Iraq. The Vermont upstart’s message that President Bush should be fired for being wrong seemed to strike a lot of people with good jobs as setting an uncomfortable precedent. They’d worked a long time to get where they are and didn’t appreciate the central idea of the Dean insurgency: that important people should be held accountable.
Comments to Steve Sailer:
* A leftist must never challenge a schvartze! That’s the law. And Bernie obeyed the law. But what, you say, if the schvartze is bat s**t crazy? Makes no difference. A schvartze can do no wrong. Bernie knows. Bernie obeyed. Good doggie.
* I voted for Bush in 2000 because he lied by saying he believed in “a more humble foreign policy” and being opposed to nation building and by not revealing until several years later (thanks MSM for not asking probing questions) that he disagreed with two decisions of his father: (1) withdrawing from Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out and (2) not going to Baghdad in 1991. (That later revelation confirmed to me that he was a very stupid man.) I opposed the Iraq War before it began and did not vote for Bush in 2004. The signs were there before the 2004 election that all was not going according to plan. Donald Trump stated at the debate the other night that he came out publicly against the Iraq War in July 2004. I guess the American public was just not paying attention because their dissatisfaction with the war did not manifest itself until one or two years later. I’m certainly glad that I confine my betting to the stock market (oops, I meant to say “investing”–disregard the prior word) because I would have bet against Bush winning reelection in 2004.
* Our rulers are dead afraid of any groundswell of popular political sentiment getting focused into a particular candidate and given voice. This is one reason Trump and Ron Paul have been so viciously attacked. Displays of populist passion don’t present a paradox with political assassination; they explain it.
It’s always 1933-1945.
* So sick and tired of Michael Brown as “unarmed black teenager.” He was armed with 300 pounds. By any measure that’s disparate force, equaling “being armed”, and should be dealt with via lead in 115-grain increments until effective. Same is true of “unarmed black teenager” Travon Martin, armed with 75 pounds of cement which he slammed against GZ’s head via mashing it against the sidewalk. And Sam Dubose, armed with a junker auto by which he meant to kill the cop and, had he sped away, would have killed anyone who got in his way. And where’s MADD on this one? The U of C cop should be their poster boy for keeping a drunk driver off the road, albeit permanently.
* Hillary doesn’t seem to have anyone inside her campaign who is capable of saying NO to her.
I believe this became apparent in 2008. Her campaign was poorly run. Also, she had the liability of Bill contributing some gaffes, which I think were intentional on his part. I don’t believe he likes the idea of Hillary eclipsing him and will do plenty of passive-aggressive stuff to trip her up. Bob Dole did much the same to his wife, Libby, when she ran for the Republican nomination in 2000.
Should be entertaining. Just when Trump runs out of gas, Bill will fill the news with a few new bimbo eruptions. “The Energizer” hasn’t even given a TV interview yet!
* I think a lot of people voted for Bush in ’04 because they knew the war was going poorly, and that he would try to salvage it, while the Dems would have been happy to turn Baghdad into 1975 Saigon, to bring the U.S. (and the GOP) down a peg.
In the end, of course, W.’s surge led to a pyrrhic non-victory, and the GOP was still knocked down a peg. No humiliating run to the helicopters while an abandoned ally/proxy fell, but a strategic defeat for the U.S. anyway, as it strengthened Iran, and a political defeat for the GOP, which got drubbed in the ’06 midterms, and lost its foreign policy/defense edge it had held since Reagan.
* One word I’ve heard over the decades that the elites dislike more than anything else and that word is: Populism. It’s considered a evil thing in their view.
They are absolutely scared of another Huey Long coming on the scene who can negate their power(along with the loud but numerically tiny SJW types) by sheer force of popularity among the voters. Say the way Trump is doing right now and to a lesser degree Bernie is doing.
Nullify money and fear of the SJW in the political equation and you have a politician that isn’t beholden to the usual suspects of ruination. Short of a assassins bullet the elites can’t do squat. They fear that.
The other aspect is the elites are terrified of a energized and pissed off population of whites that they’ve been systematically screwing over for decades. It’s a bomb waiting for the right trigger.
* As Lawrence Auster pointed out (to Bruce Bawer), a man who thinks a Mohammedan (or African) can become a European is suffering from the same mental disease as one who believes a man can become another man’s husband.
* I’m always struck, when I see the 1950s pictures, at how slender the blacks were. So was everyone, but the since the obesity epidemic, US blacks have become massive.
@SteveSailer: “The Vermont upstart’s message that President Bush should be fired for being wrong seemed to strike a lot of people with good jobs as setting an uncomfortable precedent.”
And that is what is so refreshing about Trump. Let the Republican Party hacks experience a “you’re fired!” moment, like the rest of America has. I’m really enjoying his act immensely even if I don’t think he will ever be President. The question is how is he going to live down, or with, everything he has said, after this is all over?
* BLM probably has orders to lay off her [Hillary]. Also, even if anyone tried, any Clinton event is going to be very organized and structured, with vetted participants and concentric rings of cooperative, enthusiastic supporters surrounding her. Finally, as a last line of defense, I believe she still has Secret Service protection. People lunging for the podium the way they did for Sanders would have been body blocked off the stage and swarmed.
I have never been near Presidential level VIPs, but a friend of mine told me about a photo-op visit by Bill Clinton to an aerospace company he worked at at the time. He said that everyone who was in the crowd that was going to be near the President was pre-selected, had their ID checked, and went through a metal detector. The Praetorians then gave everyone a briefing just before the visit telling them not to move towards the President, and to look enthusiastic and keep their hands in open sight. For example, anyone putting their hand in their pocket would be subject to being abruptly plucked out of the crowd.
