Populism in America is cyclical. President Andrew Jackson fought banks; politician William Jennings Bryan fought barons; Louisiana Gov. and then Sen. Huey Long fought inequality; Trump fights systems of every stripe. His crusade is part grievance and part gospel, speaking to a republic that distrusts its own elite institutions and their caretakers. Trump excels at stretching politics into follow-through performance. After all, who else would dare prepend his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the U.S. Institute of Peace in real time.
...
Trump's evangelical supporters remind us that the great men of old were seldom polished and never perfect. Moses killed, yet led his people to freedom. David sinned, yet ruled with vision. Paul persecuted, yet became the greatest apostle. Scripture teaches that imperfection often precedes purpose, and greatness is rarely graceful. The Christian faithful rely on these proverbial lessons when explaining their loyal and unapologetic allegiance to such a coarse Christian. Unlike Elijah, it will be impossible to take up his mantle.
46 Comments
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 91 pts · 247d
Notice me senpai type shit
a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 247d
"God, I want to suck him off."
Opinion By Adonis Hurfman.
0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 246d
More of a pandering to his illiterate "Christian" base shit.
T00l_shed@lemmy.world · 44 pts · 247d
Adonis... no amount of ass kissing will make him notice you, you're best to move on to find someone who will give you attention. Unless you give him lots of money, presenting yourself to him won't make him love you back.
Davel23@fedia.io · 13 pts · 247d
The only attention Adonis will get from Trump is the latter noticing the color of his skin and sending him to some third-world country's prison system.
Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 246d
Actually, large parts of Trump's cabinets in both presidencies were random bloggers and commentators. Not even rich or famous ones, just whoever kissed his ass well enough.
jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works · 28 pts · 247d
Yeah... Adonis... Buddy... You should actually read those Bible stories you're citing.
Moses: Banned from entering the "promised land" as punishment for demonstrating a lack of faith in God.
David: Has an affair with Bathsheba. She gets pregnant. He has her husband assassinated in an attempt to cover it up. God sends the prophet Nathan to tell David that life from then on will be a Game of Thrones level clusterfuck and boy was it ever.
Paul: Religious nut. God appears to him in a very "shit your pants" kind of scene to ask Paul, "Why are you persecuting me?" After getting a change of underwear, he gets told to go spread the news of Jesus to a [probably] very skeptical audience, considering his reputation for torturing and murdering Christians. Gets shipwrecked, imprisoned, and eventually [presumably] executed by the Roman Empire.
You know what those three guys have in common? They all fucked up. Some worse than others. And they all faced harsh consequences for their moral failings. So, if you're looking for corelaries between Trump and those guys, maybe the most glaring one is that we haven't even gotten to the good part yet. The part where he is held accountable for his misdeeds.
vivalapivo@lemmy.today · 23 pts · 246d
In ten years, they will be all saying they didn't know or that they were tricked
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 246d
That is not a real person.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 246d
I sincerely wish you were right. But after living in a deep red state for a decade, I can tell you her might very well be real.
People who call themselves Christians literally worship this dude. This monument to spite and hate! "They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats." And he still got a solid third of the country to vote for him.
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 245d
I meant the author. "Adonis Hoffman" sounds like something Homer Simpson would come up with.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 245d
It's so strange I'm only getting this notification a day later.
I'll leave that up to admins.
logicbomb@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 247d
... "leading through INSTINCT"??? I get that the article is complete bullshit, but nobody has an "instinct" to be a good president. I can guarantee that all of the best presidents in history (1) understood the importance and history of their office, (2) surrounded themselves and appointed the best talents they could find, (3) proactively tried to be the best president, and (4) stayed awake during important meetings.
The author is similarly insulting in saying "gifted athletes." Do you know the one thing all top athletes have in common? It's that they work their asses off. Even if they're naturally gifted, it won't amount to shit without putting in the work.
ThePantser@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 247d
He meant to compare him to grifted athletes.
p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 246d
In other words, substituting realities and replacing them with his own.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca · 14 pts · 246d
I mean he is a generational talent at scamming people. Even more than that, I'd say he's the most successful grifter of all time. Who else in all of history even compares to the level Trump has scammed the US?
John Blunt? Points for being a sword-maker named blunt that founded a joint stock company. But he just scammed the upper class in the UK. Trump has so much more thoroughly scammed the US, and even many non-Americans around the world.
Furbag@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 246d
"Pam, you've got... you've got some shit on your nose."
phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 246d
More like on the back of her tongue
Formfiller@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 246d
Trump’s like if fat bastard was born rich, raped kids and became president
theneverfox@pawb.social · 2 pts · 246d
You forgot about his many failures along the way. Do you know how many kids slipped through his tiny fingers?
Formfiller@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 246d
Into Lake Michigan?
Dadifer@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 247d
If being a conman was a sport.. Donald Trump would win.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 247d
Honesty I really doubt it
Dadifer@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 246d
How many other conmen became president and convinced rural America he was their Savior?
ThePantser@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 247d
Krauerking@lemy.lol · 8 pts · 246d
Its like they are preemptively thanking him for saving capitalism because they believe he will.
Its wild how much the wealthy are willing to believe fantasy as much as the peasants.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 247d
He’s not wrong that people mistrust institutions and their caretakers. Shame the coin landed on fascist populism this time.
Bot@sub.community · 7 pts · 246d
Jesus Christ, I thought it’s a Communist article praising Xi.
VoteNixon2016@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 245d
Fuck's sake, he picks Andrew fucking Jackson as the first example? President "I've wanted to commit genocide since the War of 1812”? President "fighting the banks set up van Buren for a massive economic crisis"?
My username might give it away, I love studying the worst presidents in US history because they're way more interesting than someone who was just kind of there and never got any scandals named for them. But damn, I really didn't want to live through one of them
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 245d
We've had a lot of them. I'm not sure how you could make it to 40 without enduring a particularly foul one.
I do think a lot of the 19th century presidents get a pass simply because they were nearly universally awful. Like, how do you rank Cleveland against Johnson or Tyler or Buchanan when it's just a race to the bottom?
Nixon was an absolute monster as a human being, but he was at least reasonably competent and politically savvy. Trump's much more in line with that earlier era of presidents - the most popular klansman or charismatic stooge of industry, but with no redeeming virtues as an actual bureaucrat.
VoteNixon2016@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 245d
He wasn't a good president, but I think Nixon was good at being president, and if he had the modern propaganda shield that Trump does, I'd be terrified of what he could have accomplished. All of Trump's sycophants combined don't hold a candle to what Kissinger was able to do under Nixon.
I've only been alive for five US presidents, and too young/too propagandized to really understand what was going on until the end of the Obama administration. But it really is the same shit over and over again, especially when it comes to foreign policy.
foodandart@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 247d
Trump is nothing like the Democrat William Jennings Bryan. Trump is celebrating and enriching the barons.
So far most of the performing acts at the Kennedy Center have bailed, leaving the space to be used by political and business groups that stay - price discounted - at nearby Trump hotels.
Can anyone say "kickbacks"?
Trump's "evangelical" supporters offer lip-service in their opposition to carnal sinners and pederasty, all the while turning a blind eye to the victims.
Christ would rebuke them mightily.
This "opinion" piece is what it looks like when someone is sniffing another person's ass while giving them a reach around.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 246d
Great things. Terrible, yes. But great.
cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 247d
adonis hoffman is definitely a real person that exists and not ai slop
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 247d
I will say that this reads like a real Bush Era classico sychophant. You really get the sense his tongue is up in there. It's cringe, but it's not phoned in.
MrFinnbean@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 246d
Well he IS at olympic level in mental gymnastics.
Bakkoda@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 246d
Pedophile. Rapist. Felon.
That's unpolished?
whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 246d
The greatest at raping kids & failed insurrections and hopefully soon rotting in a box.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 246d
Peter was the greatest apostle you dipshit, Jesus said so in the Bible.
Rhoeri@piefed.world · 3 pts · 246d
Why give this garbage the traction it doesn’t deserve?
Dorkyd68@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 245d
"In summary, i need money from trump and hopefully by publicly sucking his asshole, I can achieve that" "furthermore, we've sold our souls to the devil"
Formfiller@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 245d
He’s talented at being the most worthless shitstain to ever walk the earth
ReverendIrreverence@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 245d
Essentially everything said on Fux News is an opinion carefully designed to cause outrage in those with atrophied critical thinking skills
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org · 2 pts · 247d
"Unique" and "leading through instinct" are just words for "he has no idea what he's doing" or "uninhibited asshole".
the_q@lemmy.zip · -1 pts · 247d
LeopoldBloom@lemmy.world · -6 pts · 247d
You don't have to like Trump to recognize that he's a unique leader who won't be replaced any time soon, if ever.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 247d
Wish that were true. But wealthy sex pests with outsized political influence are hitting record levels