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Photo: AP
Recently I returned from the most liberal place on earth. For security reasons, I cannot divulge its name or location. Just imagine a place where SJWs and aging hippies go to get in touch (no, really in touch) with their feelings, get rolfed, get high, get in a hot tub, and hope to get lucky. What was I doing there? Well, some of the above, passing as one of them (just think of me as a secret agent — which is not far from the truth).
I’ve been to this place before, but actually this was the first time that the conversations turned over and over again to politics. I listened, for the most part. And, gentle reader, what was said was fascinating. Never before have I heard Leftists sound so utterly dejected. The hot topic, of course, was the election. Plenty of venom was spewed at Trump, which was neither surprising nor interesting. It was the venom spewed at Clinton that really surprised me.
Practically everyone there had something good to say about Bernie Sanders — and nothing bad to say at all, aside from the fact that they didn’t think he could win the election, even if by some miracle the Democrats were to nominate him. A sizeable number, in fact, were enthusiastic Sanders supporters. All were resigned to the fact that Clinton would win the nomination, and none of them — none of them — was pleased about this. Everyone I listened to regarded her as a corrupt political hack. They strongly disliked her on a personal level. Indeed, their antipathy to Hillary was practically indistinguishable from that of most conservatives.
A couple of SJWs said that they would not vote for Hillary. They might write in Sanders, or not vote at all. But they were quickly chastised by the others: “Well you don’t want Trump to win, do you? Clinton is better than Trump, isn’t she? You have to vote!” Meekly, one of them began backtracking: “Well, yes. Yes, I suppose I will have to vote for Hillary . . . .” he said, looking down, his voice trailing off. I doubt he will make it to the voting booth.
What was truly astonishing, however, is the degree to which some of them were willing to defend Trump. “He’s less corrupt than Hillary,” one vegan declared between sips of beet juice. “At least Trump is anti-globalist, like Sanders,” said a blond SJW whose dreadlocks had resulted in her being accused earlier in the day of cultural appropriation. “And Trump says he will take a more evenhanded approach to Israel,” said one old gentile Marxist. Israel was mentioned several times, always with great contempt.
My friends, never before have things looked so good for us. The liberals are set to nominate an odious, cynical, corrupt, power hungry, shriveled, desiccated, castrating, money grubbing, charisma-free, harpy globalist whom they themselves despise. Joe Rogan (normally rather politically naïve) perhaps put it best in his podcast when he called Hillary “business as usual.” This woman represents the globalist status quo. More immigration, more barbarian “refugees,” more jobs lost, more regulation, more surveillance, more drone strikes, more black hooligans mollified, more spineless PC pabulum, more men undressing in women’s locker rooms.
As Donald Trump has pointed out, Hillary is entirely in it for herself. Even her campaign slogan is perfectly self-centered: “I’m With Her.” It’s all about her. This woman collects positions of power like other women collect beauty pageant tiaras (though Hillary has never been in danger of winning any of those). Truly, she is just a better educated version of Sarah Palin.
Trump just launched a website subtly named lyingcrookedhillary.com. (I guess crookedhillary.com and lyinghillary.com were already taken.) It is one stop shopping for those interested in the details of, well, just how crooked and lying this bitch really is. And that was the point repeated endlessly by the Leftists I kept getting into hot tubs with: Hillary is incredibly vulnerable, because there is so much dirt on her she might as well already be six feet under. How stupid can the Democrats be? By contrast, as all the SJWs and hippies had to admit, Trump seems pretty clean.
“Why not Bernie? Why not?” was the agonized, repeated refrain all weekend. Well, there’s an answer to that: because an elderly Jewish communist from Brooklyn doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in Gehenna of winning over Mr. and Mrs. Middle America. That these were the two choices — Hillary and Bernie — shows just how out of touch the Democrats are. It’s like a choice between a post-menopausal Boss Tweed and an avuncular Leon Trotsky.
How the Democrats feel is pretty easy to put into perspective with a simple analogy. Imagine how Republican voters would currently feel if Jeb Bush had wound up edging out Donald Trump and were now the presumptive nominee. Note that I said Republican voters: I mean the people who turned out in record numbers to enthusiastically support Trump, not the Republican Establishment. But suppose that the number of Republican voters looking to play it safe, with a safer, more Establishment candidate, had prevailed. I will vote for Trump. Indeed, I am an enthusiastic Trump supporter. But I don’t give two shits about Jeb Bush, who is a spineless, mainstream nobody with a famous name, whose own mother didn’t think he should run. If Bush had the nomination, I would be staying home.
Granted, I am not the typical Republican voter. In fact, I am not really a Republican voter at all. I can’t remember the last time I even entered a voting booth (though I do remember the last time I got called for jury duty). I am just in the grip of Trumpmania: convinced that he is a man of character who might be the country’s last hope, if it has any hope at all. But the typical Republican voters who have catapulted Trump to the nomination — against what all the pundits said were the odds — are not that “typical” either. And if they were denied their choice, and offered a poor substitute, I’m betting scores of them would stay home on Election Day. I’m betting the same thing about Democrats. Yes, Hillary scored bigger than Sanders in the primaries. But that does not mean that she has enthusiastic support. It simply means that given a choice between the familiar, though unloved wife of the Big Bopper and uncleTrotsky, average democratic voters held their noses and chose the former.
In fact, I’m betting that a sizeable number of democratic voters may defect to Trump. Even unlikely (and, well, unliked) celebrities like Susan Sarandon and Roseanne Barr have said they prefer Trump to Hillary. A recent poll showed that 20% of Sanders supporters would back Trump over Hillary. Trump is a phenomenon we have never seen before in American politics. He is decidedly not a typical Republican, and is a genuinely anti-Establishment candidate. This is true of Sanders as well. The hippies being massaged on the tables next to mine agreed that Trump and Sanders had this in common — and that the “Trump-Sanders phenomenon” was a rejection of the Establishment, as represented by Hillary, Jeb, et al.
It is likely that Trump will have precisely the broad appeal that the mainstream media claims he does not, and cannot have. Trump, they say, is “tanking” now that he is no longer playing exclusively to his “base.” But just who is that base? It’s not gun-toting evangelicals out to ban abortion (because we just don’t have enough black babies) and restore prayer to state-run schools. Those people don’t seem to like Trump that much, because socially he is actually a liberal. The Donald is fine with gays, abortion, and marijuana. No, Trump’s base is disaffected Americans of all sorts who feel they have been sold out by an Establishment jointly operated by Democrats and Republicans. They want out of the global economy. They want to live in genuine communities again. They don’t want to feel like strangers in their own country. They don’t want to live in fear of bomb-throwing kebabs.
The Trump base is largely white (still the majority of the population). But we have found in recent months that Trump has his Hispanic supporters as well, who don’t want to compete for jobs with a never-ending flood of their own kind — and who know all too well that Trump is right about Mexico sending killers and rapists across the border. And Trump has his black supporters too, who are sick of sharing the victimhood spotlight with Hispanics, and being underbid by them on the job market. Trump polls better with blacks than any previous Republican candidate. And Trump has his Jewish supporters, like Bernie Marcus of Home Depot, who has promised to sponsor the building of The Wall. At least some Jews also have the good sense to see that Muslim immigration might not just be a problem for gays.
It’s actually hard to find a reason why anyone would be enthusiastically in favor of Hillary Clinton. I can think of only one: he’s not Trump. The only thing that can guarantee a strong turnout for Hillary is antipathy to Trump. With a nearly complete absence of positive reasons to vote for Hillary, that antipathy would have to be tremendous for Trump to lose the election. But how can it be tremendous when even stoned vegan hippies have good things to say about Trump, and not a kind word for LyingCrookedHillary?
I paid a dear price for this information: I lost my Thor’s hammer at the bottom of a hot tub.
34 comments
Antipathy is never a good enough motivator. I was first able to vote in 2008, and though I knew what Ramadan MuBarack was I simply could not muster up the motivation to vote for McCain.
We’re going to win, if you all remember to vote.
Yes! That’s the spirit.
This is great news. Basically, all Trump has to do now is start praising Bernie along the lines “I strongly disagree with him on issues XYZ, but at least he’s honest and he understand that globalism is cancer.” At least 25% of the democrat voters will reward that loyalty to their true candidate. And just like that…he’s in.
You nailed it.
I guess I’ve gotten too cynical in my old age. I still see the general election as a win for the Hildabeast. Demographics is destiny, after all.
Demographics is destiny, except when it isn’t. Remember that a few thousand British troops held down the Indian Subcontinent, and Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire with an absurdly small number of men. By comparison, beating Hillary Clinton is easy–so easy, in fact, that even a non-entity like Obama was able to do it.
This is certainly good news. Sorry about the hammer though Jef. Cheers.
Ike.
I love being Rolfed.
You like that degree of pain?
I felt no pain at all when I was Rolfed. Sure, there were intense feelings like I had never had before, but they were undefined and I realized that I could define them as either pain or pleasure. Since the Rolfing was helping me a lot, I defined them as pleasure. Honestly. Maybe this is how James Bond gets through his various tortures. Of course, there are some people who think massages hurt. Me, Rolfing provided me no pain at all.
Yeah man. Seattle sounds nice this time of year…
Ha! It wasn’t Seattle.
Harbin hot springs isn’t exactly main street America. I’ve noticed the Bay Area hippies really hate Hillary and are kind of neutral (for now) on Trump. Heck, all you need do is go look at “The Nation” for examples of this.
Still, it’s not going to even deliver California.
I’m curious whether Mr. Costello heard these sentiments before or after Sanders announced that he was endorsing Clinton.
Regardless, I am personally disposed to be wary of such optimism. Young voters and older committed Leftists were certainly enamored of Sanders, but I have little doubt that media characterization of this election as another chance to “make history” – this time by electing the first woman to the Presidency – will sway all but the most anti-corporate of Democrats and liberals to pull the lever for her. In fact, with Elizabeth Warren now hobnobbing wit Clinton, the transition from the Sanders-driven primary to the Clinton-driven general has rather effectively been rolled through.
Too funny, Jef. Almost sounds like Sedona, AZ. Tons of hippies, granolas, and New Age freaks there.
I like the semi narrative style of this piece. Sounds like all things considered you had a great time. I also found with normie friends recently that conversation turned to politics and would be good liberals wanted to hear real arguments in defense of Trump.
I just ordered your last book and am looking forward to reading Heidigger in Chicago this summer. Can’t help but wonder, did you ever dare to point out that there were few if any nonwhites at this retreat? I think that a lot of corporate Republican types are trying to weasel out by suddenly realizing the Libertarian party exists. I think more exposure for Johnson/Weld will reveal them to be without depth. I imagine there will be a small core of Self described libertarians ( %1 of electorate just like 2012) and Obama Republicans who will go for the LP. We need more memes against these libercucks.
You are correct. There was only one black man that I recall, and he seemed to spend his time almost entirely at the hot tubs, scoping out young white girls.
It does make you wonder who actually is an enthusiastic supporter of Hillary Clinton. The author states Clinton sells herself on ‘her’. This means America gets the luxury of another novelty candidate, like Obama before her – writing the wrongs of historical prejudice, and progressing the narrative towards modernity, in this case for women.
This kind of diversity/gender politics is extremely dangerous. Who cares what their policies are? How sullied and corrupt Clinton is? The only thing important under that proposition is to teach those white privileged men a lesson. I just hope this article is correct and even that’s not really working anymore.
*righting the wrongs –
Clinton’s triggering effect on spelling.
I wonder whether Hillary has already asked Elizabeth Warren to be her running mate, and Pocahontas just said “No.” At this point I think the Indian has a tomahawk to grind with the Trumpenator more than any lesbo love affair with the dictatrix. I keep hoping Trump will ask Ann Coulter to be his running mate. Wouldn’t that be amusing to have a race realist presiding over the Senate? Coulter also gets to check the female box and meets all of Trump’s essential criteria for a running mate (well educated, uncucked, outside Washington establishment, connected, and hated by the Republican establishment). She also has supported the Donald and his “odious rhetoric” from the beginning, and fierce loyalty is something Trump values. If something were to happen to Trump, we could do worse than Ann; who knows, having Ann in the reserve wing might actually serve as a deterrent for any would be Lee Harvey Oswalds.
Jef, thank you for this great article and for the good laugh at the end. Cheers!
I really did lose my Thor’s hammer.
Jeff Costello reparations when?
Someone probably became an Odinist merely by being in the same water with you. They needed it more. Am I kidding? I reject breaking reality into that binary of kidding/not-kidding. Great sadness laughs. Great joy weeps. Great anger jokes. The World is as we dream it – and they fear our lulzy dreams.
Did you ever read that sci-fi story about the Norse Gods being invoked back by the Nazis? The protagonist broke the imposed consensus and was able to catch Odin’s spear when thrown at him and break it over his knee. Odin trembled. But the man knew he wouldn’t be able to stay at this level. The only answer was a counter pantheon: the Marvel Universe.
I’d gladly give you mine as a gift in honor of your wonderfulness. Or buy you a new one.
That is very kind. And though I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers, I will fork over the cash for a new hammer myself.
Marin County
Brilliant.
Marin is like a time capsule. Apparently, some parties haven’t changed in 35 years. I assume by now that the crabs issue has finally been definitively addressed? I can’t imagine how one would get crabs out of dreadlocks.
Please tell me that the token Black guy was not Johnnie Keyes.
In Australia, we have our own Federal election tomorrow. The choices offered by the mainstream parties are appalling. Both sides offer nothing but more-of-the-same. Neo-liberal economics combined with PC social posturing. The ‘difference’ between Labor and the Coalition is just degree; Labor emphasises the PC, the Coalition emphasises economic internationalism. But the plan is the same either way.
There are some interesting minor parties, who may end up controlling the Senate. One can only hope. Time will tell.
If I were American, I’d be inclined to favour Bernie on economic matters and Trump on social / identity issues. Having read some of Joe Bageant’s work, I suspect that this might be a fairly common position in the US.
With Bernie out of the running, I imagine Trump will, indeed, pick up at least some former Democrat votes.
Again, one can only hope.
.
Lovely piece.Must get my copy of Heidegger in Chicago but puzzled by the Sarah Palin bit. See the point about better educated but Sarah’s always been nice to look at. Something Hilary’s never been. But the news has never been better.
Good one, Mr Costello.
The Clintons are a crime family that represent Jewmerican continuity. That’s why Wall Streeters love them. When Clinton announced his Foundation several, several years ago, bankers were falling on top of each other to pledge loans to renewable energy projects that would have his Foundation’s support. Bankers love paying ”speaking fees” to the Clintons. Frankly, when did you last hear the cringe-causing couple say anything interesting or insightful? Plus, the Clintons love neo-con type humanitarian military interventions. The banking fraternity and the M-I complex is reassured by the Clintonian presence.
That is the real nature of the Clintons. She should not be allowed to win. May the ancient gods help Trump crush her.
In any encounter with a Bern victim, especially if it is in a battleground state like Ohio or Florida, the best thing is to appeal to their sense of righteous indignation and encourage them to vote for Bernie Sanders NO MATTER WHAT.
Impress upon them that there is no difference between Clinton and Trump, or that Trump will be a clown and will only last one term, or that Clinton has actually done bad things while Tump has only said bad things.
Say Trump will never be able to get any of his stuff through Congress. Point out that Trump is “really” pro-choice, his daughter’s Jewish connections anything. Run down the numbers on Bill Clinton’s imprisonment of black men, etc.
Point out that the economy is about to tank and the next President will get the blame. Or that Hillary could get indicted any day.
If they are older, point out that a strong (if failed) showing by Saners will encourage the kids to fight even harder against Trump. Appeal to the Boomers’ sense of narcissistic utopianism. Tell them that their grandchildren will thank them for it.
Say anything, so long as they go away a little more likely to vote for Sanders.
you went to a furry convention?
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