Jonah Goldberg at his best.
http://www.aei.org/publication/jeff-sessions-and-trumps-strange-definition-of-loyalty/
http://www.aei.org/publication/jeff-sessions-and-trumps-strange-definition-of-loyalty/
Trumpism: A Cult Of Personality
- Thread starter Ponca Dan
- Start date
“Trump saw it differently. He believed that the first loyalty of the attorney general should be to Trump personally, not to the law or the Department of Justice.”
So exactly what “law” would Sessions have been breaking if he had been loyal to Trump first and foremost?
Lots of people in power surround themselves with loyalists all the way down to sycophants. Politicians probably more so than anyone else in the universe. Ironically some of the ex-rodent in chiefs appointees/cult followers did break the law.
I liked Sessions just don’t think he should have recused himself. In hindsight it probably wouldn’t have matter because he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. The libdems were complaining about him when he was nominated and now act like he was a babe in the woods and their his Shepard.
Now you have Donnie D of MSNBC saying If Trump gets beat in 2020 he’ll call out the military so he can stay in office. I would argue that the “Trump cult” members are far fewer in numbers than the “Trump haters united” members and because they are so unhinged at all things DJT & his supporters they are worse.
The ex-rodent in chief had a far greater devoted following than Trump ever had or will have. In fact with the almost unanimous media support it allowed for a virtual monopoly on shaping his adherents and cult. A far more dangerous circumstance than anything Trump has.
So exactly what “law” would Sessions have been breaking if he had been loyal to Trump first and foremost?
Lots of people in power surround themselves with loyalists all the way down to sycophants. Politicians probably more so than anyone else in the universe. Ironically some of the ex-rodent in chiefs appointees/cult followers did break the law.
I liked Sessions just don’t think he should have recused himself. In hindsight it probably wouldn’t have matter because he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. The libdems were complaining about him when he was nominated and now act like he was a babe in the woods and their his Shepard.
Now you have Donnie D of MSNBC saying If Trump gets beat in 2020 he’ll call out the military so he can stay in office. I would argue that the “Trump cult” members are far fewer in numbers than the “Trump haters united” members and because they are so unhinged at all things DJT & his supporters they are worse.
The ex-rodent in chief had a far greater devoted following than Trump ever had or will have. In fact with the almost unanimous media support it allowed for a virtual monopoly on shaping his adherents and cult. A far more dangerous circumstance than anything Trump has.
The only thing keeping you from being that guy is no one has crammed a mic in your face and asked you a question. Any question.
You missed the point. Sessions believed it would have been unethical and illegal for him to oversee Mueller. Trump didn’t care about ethics or legality, he wanted unrequited loyalty to him. As a result Trump trashed Sessions and his competence as AG, which shows Trump’s demand for loyalty goes only one way. Then, when firing Sessions might prove legally tricky he insisted Sessions resign, which Sessions promptly did - an act of loyalty to the end.
Your claim that lots of politicians demand loyalty, while accurate, fails on logic. Particularly your insistence that “Obama” did it too. If you didn’t like it when Eric Holder carried Obama’s water, you should dislike it just as much when DJT demands his “loyalists” carry his.
One of the problems with participants in Trump’s cult of personality is their inability to see what they are participating in. So many people see the man as a savior of sorts, a demigod that protects them from another cult of personality led by Hillary Clinton. How many times have we heard that “at least he’s not Hillary,” or “Hillary would have been worse.” The fact that he’s not Hillary should not be enough. He’s a politician. Politicians are power hungry, lying, corrupt - dare I call them evil? It should not matter who is President, we should all exhibit extreme skepticism, we should not trust a single one of them. The politicians are the same for both teams. For anyone to believe a politician is “looking out for me” is dangerous to our liberty. Liberty is what made America great. We should guard our liberty with everything we’ve got, against all comers, from the inside as well as the outside.
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From that article:
In Trump’s best-selling book, “The Art of the Deal,” there’s a fascinating passage about his mentor, infamous lawyer/fixer Roy Cohn. “He was a truly loyal guy,” Trump wrote. “It was a matter of honor with him.”
He went on: “Just compare that with all the hundreds of ‘respectable’ guys who make careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty. . . . Roy was the sort of guy who’d be there at your hospital bed long after everyone else had bailed out, literally standing by you to the death.”
But it was a one-way street. When Cohn contracted AIDS, “Donald found out about it and just dropped him like a hot potato,” Susan Bell, Cohn’s longtime secretary, told Politico. “It was like night and day.”
I can't udnerstand, Dan, why you're' just now coming alive on all this. This stuff is the tip of the iceberg. He's a freakin' snake charmer with these people, I've never seen anything like it. It takes 2 things: 1) his character and ability to do it and 2. An audience that will allow him to piss down their leg and lie to their face and they are still loyal. That we have #2 is what breaks my heart. When he said they'd' stick with him if he shot someone on 5th Ave... THEY WOULD. He was laughing at them, and they're proud of it.
There's a tweet on here floating around that isolates and identifies his specific brand of paleonationalisticalidocius facism something or other, I can't remember the specific name. A guy basically extracted out this exact brand of demagoguery.... in the early 90's. The very "MAGA" catchphrase is right down the archetypal "rebirth" fairway of this cult stuff.
Nope, not true. That's YOUR side of the aisle. Messaging for the feeble minded, right there. That moron didn't come up with that on his own, someone pitched it to him. And that someone wasn't an Obama fan, if you know what I'm saying. Insult the messenger all you want, you oughta hang a picture of that guy on your rear view mirror.
In Trump’s best-selling book, “The Art of the Deal,” there’s a fascinating passage about his mentor, infamous lawyer/fixer Roy Cohn. “He was a truly loyal guy,” Trump wrote. “It was a matter of honor with him.”
He went on: “Just compare that with all the hundreds of ‘respectable’ guys who make careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty. . . . Roy was the sort of guy who’d be there at your hospital bed long after everyone else had bailed out, literally standing by you to the death.”
But it was a one-way street. When Cohn contracted AIDS, “Donald found out about it and just dropped him like a hot potato,” Susan Bell, Cohn’s longtime secretary, told Politico. “It was like night and day.”
I can't udnerstand, Dan, why you're' just now coming alive on all this. This stuff is the tip of the iceberg. He's a freakin' snake charmer with these people, I've never seen anything like it. It takes 2 things: 1) his character and ability to do it and 2. An audience that will allow him to piss down their leg and lie to their face and they are still loyal. That we have #2 is what breaks my heart. When he said they'd' stick with him if he shot someone on 5th Ave... THEY WOULD. He was laughing at them, and they're proud of it.
There's a tweet on here floating around that isolates and identifies his specific brand of paleonationalisticalidocius facism something or other, I can't remember the specific name. A guy basically extracted out this exact brand of demagoguery.... in the early 90's. The very "MAGA" catchphrase is right down the archetypal "rebirth" fairway of this cult stuff.
Nope, not true. That's YOUR side of the aisle. Messaging for the feeble minded, right there. That moron didn't come up with that on his own, someone pitched it to him. And that someone wasn't an Obama fan, if you know what I'm saying. Insult the messenger all you want, you oughta hang a picture of that guy on your rear view mirror.
Exactly! It describes Holder and Lynch perfectly. And it also describes what DJT insists of his underlings. None of us liked it when Holder and Lynch did it, and none of us should like it when Trump does it during his administration.
I didn't see Sessions do anything one way or the other while AG. He was more like a potted plant.
I'm a little puzzled why you think I'm only just now coming alive on this. I have had arguments with virtually every Trump supporter on this board for as long as I can remember. I detest Donald Trump, the man that compared his "bravery" against potential STD's with the horrors his fellow generation lived through in VietNam. How anyone fails to see his administration as anything other than a cult of personality eludes all comprehension. How can they see it so clearly with Obama and HIS cult of personality, and yet deny it is true in Trump's case is seriously deranged. And dangerous to our future as a free society. Trump is proving to be one more chink in the armor of our liberty. While I don't think he will be responsible for our downfall I do think he is one more step on the path.
I cannot look at Sessions without seeing Granny Clampet. That being said as AG the man backed Trump on building the wall, family separation at the wall, strict law enforcement RE immigration and sanctuary cities, continued mj enforcement. I disagreed with him on every one of those items, but Goldberg is right when he says Sessions proved to be a stauch and effective AG for the President. But Trump couldn’t let the “disloyalty” in the Mueller recusal go. It is an example that Trump is far more concerned with personal loyalty to himself than to any of his policies or items on his agenda. In that regard CSCOTT is correct that DJT is a potentially dangerous narcissist. Before you say it: I AGREE that Obama was just as bad. The fact that Obama was just as bad does not make it OK for Trump to follow suit.
I do get it Ponca.....don't want anyone carrying Trumps water, especially when it results in a questionable/criminal activity. Sessions wasn't even carrying the bucket to put the water in. He simply was a nonfactor, who knows maybe by design. What the press/liberals have gotten away with is the actual idea of something happening, constitutes grounds for acting like it already has happened. Loyalty from cabinet members is a bit different than the loyalty from the local yokels. If fact Sessions got caught in a lie during his confirmation hearing which all but guaranteed he had to recuse himself (he said he hadn't met with the Russian ambassador when in fact he had twice while working for the Trump campaign). After this omission, Sessions said he would recuse himself from anything related to the Russia collusion investigation. Sessions should have not recused himself and proved that as acting head of attorney general.....he was impartial. It again comes down to the brush that is used to paint conservatives/republican vs the brush that is used to paint liberals/dems. Which is why I tend to mention the ex-rodent in chief in these discussions, he was coddled, praised, covered up for and generally given so much latitude it was reprehensible.
Conversely, I do believe that people owe a sense of loyalty to he person that employees them, again not to the extent that they sign on to break the law though. If you view in a wider context, the number of leaks that occurred in the beginning I can understand where someone not holding their own feet to the fire would piss Trump off. Any of these guys that broke the law though, they need to be sent to prison....Trump included.
Absolutely agree at nearly all politicians are lying, cheating, scumbag opportunists. Trump won for a number of reasons......many voted for him because they can/could relate to his message, which was one of as an American politicians should have your American back. Not they should have the unions back, globalists back, EU's back etc. That message resonates with a lot of people that feel absolutely ignored in todays political world. Secondly, for nomination of supreme court justices. Trump holds the constitutional future in his hands and has ensured that long after he is gone another dip shit like the ex-rodent in chief can't come along and turn the constitution into a living/malleable document with little present day value.
There isn't a politician on the planet that would still be standing with what Trump has endured and ironically the fact he still is standing makes him and his supporters stronger. When people write about a "cult like following" or a "cultish figure" I think of a David Koresh or Jim Jones, which Trump is no where near.
No doubt there are some people who view him as a "savior" but I'll submit it is like that with every national politician and beyond. My idiot next door neighbor still tells me that Bernie got ripped off and he would have solved all the problems in the US. Have learned to not argue with morons, so just let her talk, say probably so and LEAVE!
In your last paragraph, you say politicians are all the same and even though they say "I'm looking out for you," most free thinking individuals know that is BS. Trump has changed the paradigm....when he says he wants to put coal miners back to work, he put coal miners back to work. Same with steel workers and American companies in general. Trumps adherents don't threaten our liberty nor does Trump IMHO. He has after all done many of the things he campaigned on, which is virtually unheard of by presidents and congresswhores......it does resonate with the flyover country bumpkins.
Have idolized very few people in my life and most of the people I do idolize are long gone (George Washington, Robert E Lee, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, John C Breckinridge, Chief Joseph, Patton etc). Trump won't ever make that list though.
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