Whenever Donald John Trump gets into trouble, which happens most of the time, he turns to his “base,” a dwindling faction of America’s uninformed and uneducated racists, bigots and sexists unable to discern fact from fiction or hate from reality.
Using Twitter, he “retweets” past examples of his own hate and insecurities — including a deep-based racism — to fire up his rabid following and urge them to magnify his own disregard for reality.
“The fact that he routinely retweets people with a checkered history and viewpoints reflects the slim pickings” of his base, says Macon Phillips, former White House director of new media.
Trump’s “retweets” include a cartoon of a “Trump train” running over a CNN reporter and a doctored image file showing him hitting a golf ball to knock over former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton. He routinely uses images from racists and bigots to promote his tweets.
“Last week, he met with Democrats and a lot of the base were kind of pissed off,” Nikki Usher, assistant professor at George Mason Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, tells The Washington Post. “Now, he’s signaling to them (his base): ‘I found this stuff (online). Isn’t it cool? I’m listening to you.’ It’s a reaffirmation to the base that they really matter.”
What Trump is also doing is promote violence against the media and sexism against female politicians. And that’s just fine with his base, which is dominated by media haters, racists and sexists.
How apparent is Trump’s racism and bigotry? On TV’s Emmy Awards show Sunday night, actress and comedian told the audience: “We still be refused to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.”
The audience responded with cheering and applause.
Trump’s “base,” however, cheers his racism, bigotry and calls for violence.
“The mainstream media and progressives say this stuff is threatening and dangerous and calls for violence, but then Trump supporters say these folks can’t even take a joke,” Usher says. “He wins in that regard. And the other appeal is that members of his base have a horrible, deep-seated hatred of Hillary Clinton.”
Writes David Nakamura of the Post:
Trump has not only coarsened and debased the nation’s dialogue, but also that he has promoted xenophobia and anti-Semitism. During the campaign, Trump promoted a meme of Clinton with the words “most corrupt candidate ever” emblazoned on a six-pointed star of David. As president, Trump has retweeted users who, journalists later discovered, have made other racist or anti-Semitic statements.
Asked about the president’s retweets Sunday, Republican strategist David Urban replied: “I’m not going to judge what’s appropriate and inappropriate with the president. Retweets do not equal endorsement. I think it says in the bottom of this tweet.”
There is, in fact, no such disclaimer.
With Trump, facts never matter. They don’t matter to his so-called “base .”
They are just as ignorant as the real “enemy of the people” — Donald John Trump.
_______________________________________________________
Copyright © 2017 Capitol Hill Blue
2 thoughts on “Trump’s ignorant ‘base’”
Trumpf’s so called base are the joke, a sick joke.
“but then Trump supporters say these folks can’t even take a joke,”
Ha ha, very funny, yes. Then one guy deliberately drives his car into a group of people, killing one. Ha ha, very funny.
Jon
Comments are closed.