John's Alleged Trump Derangement Syndrome
with John McWhorter
It’s no secret that John McWhorter is not a big fan of Donald Trump. In this clip from the most recent subscriber-only Q&A session, a reader attempts to goad John into an anti-Trump rant. Instead, Glenn and John discuss why it may be more important to try to understand Trump’s popularity than to inveigh against it.
This clip is taken from a subscriber-only Q&A session. For access to Q&As, comments, early episodes, and a host of other benefits, click below and subscribe.
We miss the forest for the trees.
Certainly there is a 'cult of personality' built around the 'larger-than-life' Trump....but no more so than the Cult of Personality which surrounds Obama.... (Say Hallelujah to the chorus of Hosannahs which greet his every manifestation! Can I get an Amen?!). Equally we could speak of the Cult of Personality which elevates Taylor & Patrick & Kevin & Pink & JLo & Elon & Jimmy.... which make People Magazine, Oprah, Entertainment Tonight, and the View massive cross-generational multi-media hits.
We love our Celebrities and their 'glamorous lives'. This is not new. (Indeed, it's probably why the good-looking, non-sweating Kennedy (whose hair was perfect) was elected 84 years ago.). It's probably why Snoop Dogg is on every commercial.
But that's not the substance of Trumpism. Nor is it why millions upon millions of Americans will vote for him (even as millions of those millions hold their nose and wince as they pull that electoral lever). Yes, he is buffoonish; yes, he's 'orange'; yes, he rough, crude, and more than occasionally inappropriate. He's not even particularly likeable.
But he's also, in a very real sense, 'a new broom which sweeps clean'. And that fundamental truth resonates. It has weight and carries meaning, especially with those who have lost all tolerance for the Unending Perversion, Waste & Corruption which overflows the Beltway.
When what we see in Washington is a massive, sucking, sinkhole of an Anti-American Money & Policy Pit....and what we hear from Trump is that that Deep Dark Progressive Swamp needs draining....who could possibly disagree?
It's not baffling or troubling that people would vote for the man who promises to put an end to the State Hog Trough. What's baffling is why anyone would vote for a demented Biden and More of the Same Garbage and Self-Serving Venality which gives us Sanctuary Cities, Open Borders, Transgendered Days of Visibility, Men Pretending to be Women getting naked in our daughters' locker rooms.... which gives us a feckless, shuffling foreign policy which tips ever closer to world war.... which celebrates crowds of anti-semites shutting down our universities....which abandons our allies....which prides itself on its enthusiastic embrace of racism & sexism and selects Supreme Court Justices because their skin is Black and their genitals are female (of course we still don't know what a woman actually is...so we're just guessing she's female).
No, student loans should not be forgiven. If you borrow from me you need to pay me back. No, we should not subsidize degrees in Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Black Studies, Hispanic Studies, Study Studies. No, we should not mandate electric cars or fund their outrageous price tags with taxpayer dollars. No, the world is not ending. No, we should not shut down our fossil fuel plants. No, we don't need more windmills or solar farms when they are better cheaper forms of energy. No, the Dept of Education should not be funded...nor the waste which is the CDC.
It's not a shame that Caitlan Clark has a contract which is absolutely in line with her league's revenue streams. Abortion is not a 'right'. This is not a Climate Emergency. And inflation is NOT declining (things cost 20% more now than they did 8 years ago, for God's sake!)
The list of no good, very bad, terrible stuff is endless.
Diversity, Inclusivity, and Equity kills Quality, destroys Merit, crushes Initiative, and shackles Freedom....and yet DIE is what Biden's Left is all about.
John speaks of Trump and tells us he's dangerous.
What is dangerous ...what is truly, truly, horrifically dangerous ... is the United States being led, for four more years, by a man who doesn't know who he is, where he is, or what he's saying...but who also serves as the white-haired figurehead of a handpuppet for those who are actively working to destroy the Constitution, this nation and our freedom (including the freedom to fail...to eat steak, drive non-electric cars, and kiss someone without a sworn affidavit).
You may not like him. You may despise him. You may hate his haircut, his pout, and his thin skin....but what he works for is undeniably a better & safer & wealthier world than the one in which we currently wallow.
"He's a gorilla."
"He doesn't belong in public office."
"He's dangerous.
"He's stupefyingly incompetent."
Like most people who dislike Trump, John does not give any real reasons or evidence WHY Trump is dangerous, why the country is better off in its current state, or what Trump has done that earns him a comparison to Adolf Hitler.