Thursday, November 19, 2015

Donald's Plain Talk

The Donald is pissed.
I just watched Donald Trump on C-Span giving a speech to a packed arena somewhere in New Hampshire yesterday. The crowd absolutely loved him, and while he said many things that got applause, the one statement that had everyone clapping wildly and up on their feet was his plan for handling the terror organization known as ISIS: "We have to bomb the shit out of them!"

It was shocking -- even to me and I admit to having a gutter mouth -- to hear someone running for president talk that way. What way? The way everyone in real life talks all the time. But somehow our politicians have gotten it into their heads that they need a gang of highly paid speechwriters to dream up fancy language full of esoteric rhetoric and soaring euphemisms to get our votes. Well guess what: that's how Obama got elected, and it hasn't worked out too well. The sad truth is that fancy talk won't stop terror attacks.

Donald Trump may not be the right mouthpiece, but diplomacy isn't always the right solution. That rousing roar of approval Trump got for his proposed solution suggests that many of our fellow Americans feel it's time to get some muscle back into the Oval Office.
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7 comments:

  1. the droidNovember 19, 2015 at 12:11 PM

    First let me say that I was quoting Donald Trump, not saying that myself. Second, let me reiterate that I am a pacifist and consider war abominable. As for putting some muscle in the Oval Office, I wish our president could show strength instead of passivity. You seem to know much more than I do about how many bombing raids we have done and where; I try to look away.

    Please don't worry about me, MTPLSNT. I am simply stating the situation as I see it, not as I want or hope it to be.

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  2. MTPLSNT/WRKMNNovember 19, 2015 at 12:58 PM

    I hear you. I'm just wondering, in practical terms, what you mean when you say you wish the President would show more strength than passivity. 6,000+ bombing raids sounds like an awful lot of muscle to me; and I'm not a pacifist.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the droidNovember 19, 2015 at 1:53 PM

      I have no idea what I mean. I just thought that Obama's press conference the other day, wherein he mentioned the Paris attacks as a "sickening setback," and his dogged refusal to call them radical Islamists, made him seem more on their side than ours. Anyway, I am not a Trumpian, that's for sure, I just thought it interesting that his use of profanity got such a positive response from the audience.

      Delete
  3. MitchNovember 20, 2015 at 12:35 AM

    I love this post, as well as the back and forth in the comments above . . . what i like is your objective observation of how what he said makes you and others feel, teased apart from what might be right or sensible. MTPLSNT is right, that we might have to bomb Yemen and Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, and Belgium too, because indeed that is where these guys were from. I don't know what to make of that. On the one hand i think we kinda should. On the other hand, of course it wont work, and of course it isnt possible, and of course the problem wont be solved that way. The only solution to the problem seems like it will never happen: that Islam will reform itself from within. As long as the religion teaches that non-believers deserve death, then a) ISIS will be the result and b) muslims won't stand up and object. I guess they are afraid if they do they will get their heads cut off too. Makes me want to bomb the shit out of the whole lot of them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MTPLSNT/WRKMNNovember 22, 2015 at 5:26 PM

    I don't know enough about Islam to say that it teaches its adherents to kill non-believers. It may. All I know about Muslims comes from my experience living among them, dating them, having them as neighbors and friends, and working with them. Never once have I assumed, or felt, that any one of them was out to kill me. Their religion may teach that; but you know, it's kind of like Roman Catholicism teaching that divorce and contraceptives are an abomination. In fact, Catholics divorce and use contraceptives with as much abandon as every one else.

    My experience tells me that Muslims want the same things you and I want. . . safety for their children, the chance to live their lives in peace, and the opportunity to work and enjoy a rich and fulfilling life. That's not to say there aren't zealots and madmen among them. But to say that they speak for all Arabs, or all of Islam, is just. . . you know. . . a little silly. So forgive me if I don't jump on the "bomb the shit out of 'em" wagon.

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  5. the droidMarch 22, 2017 at 3:20 PM

    I read this post again more than a year later and it seems clear to me why I ended my association with MTPLSNT/WRKMN. Some people are so convinced of their rightness, by their belief that they are GOOD and PURE and ALL-LOVING and ALL-EMBRACING, that they can't ever allow for anyone having a different opinion. They are RIGHT and that's that. I hate that in a person.

    ReplyDelete
  6. the droidJanuary 17, 2018 at 8:05 AM

    Reading this again, I am so glad I don;t have to listen to her shit anymore. Sometimes ending a friendship is the only salvation.

    ReplyDelete

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