The reliably annoying David Brooks has a column today about how classless Donald Trump is. Thank you, Cap’n Obvious.
Checking out the comments section, I was struck by how many readers think that’s a reflection on we the people: that we chose him over her.
I think we’ve forgotten that Hillary wasn’t any classier than Trump.
Like Trump, she was a gross money-grubber, shaking down Goldman Sachs for $225,000 for hour-long speeches a couple years before starting her campaign…after she and Bill had already pocketed $100 million-plus.
Like Trump, she was all fake courage, like when she repeatedly bragged — another Trump personality trait — about her role in the assassination of bin Laden. That role? Sitting on her ass in a conference room, watching it on TV. Not to mention, political assassinations are illegal and un-American. In 1945, we arrested top Nazis and put them on trial, and we looked great back then. Oh, and the 9/11 victims still don’t get justice.
I remember when she cackled “we came, we saw, he died” to mock Moammar Ghaddafi. The Libyan ruler had just been sodomized to death on video after his convoy had been blown up by a U.S. drone. Classy!
One can argue that Hillary Clinton would have been a more competent president than Trump. But you can’t call her a classier person.
17 Comments.
Her Reagan/Aids amnesia, I’ll never forget or forgive.
That was disgusting too. There’s a lot of policy stuff to hate about her.
I was confining myself simply to the matter of refinement, which Brooks wrote about.
In a nutshell:
“There’s nothing more to be learned about Trump’s mixture of ignorance, insecurity and narcissism. Every second spent on his bluster is more degrading than informative.”
Ms Clinton was also exquisitely refined when she gratuitously lied about her experience when landing at the aeroport at Tuzla on 25 March 1996. (Nota bene : I’m not suggesting that she lacks class because she lied – after all, all of us lie – but because she told an gratuitous irrelevant lie about a matter which was easily checked. The nature of that self-aggrandising lie resembles that of so many Mr Trump has told, and indicates an insecurity of ego which is the very antithesis of «class»….)
Henri
The fact that anything other than competence matters at all to anyone is a large chunk of the reason we’re in the mess we’re in.
“The fact that anything other than competence matters at all to anyone is a large chunk of the reason we’re in the mess we’re in.”
I couldn’t agree more. :: Innocent Grin ::
You have no idea how much irony that statement drips with when its made by someone who effectively thought it was fine to empower fascists in order not to hurt his feelings by voting for the only electable competent candidate in the race- just because he didn’t like her.
Well, «Whimsical», there can certainly be no question of Ms Clinton’s «competence» – after all, she managed to dodge those sniper bullets when landing at Tuzla back on 25 March 1996 without getting a scratch. On the other hand, given that the snipers and the bullets were entirely imaginary, perhaps the game was rigged in her favour ?…
Henri
That whiffing sound you just heard was the point going right over your head. The laughter you are hearing now is me – guaranteed loud enough to be heard where ever you are sittng
You don’t care one whit about competency – you care only about what the DNC tells you to care about.
> “voting for the only electable competent candidate”
Wait …WTF??? “electable”? – you did notice that your candidate wasn’t elected, right? Not being elected is the exact opposite of ‘electable.’
OTOH, poll after poll showed that Bernie would have won out over Trump. So, by torpedoing his chances you and your co-conspirators at the DNC are the ones responsible for empowering the fascists in the oval office.
Once I again I urge you to take a remedial arithmetic class. Less than one percent of the voters do not determine the race. It’s the 48% who voted for Trump who determined the race. Note that many of those were swing voters who chose Trump over Hillary. In your own vernacular Donald Fucking Trump was more “electable” HRC.
I have no idea where you got the idea that my vote is about “liking” or “hurt feelings” – my vote is determined by who I think will do the best job. But let’s just take a look at that, anyway.
Hillary is not likeable.
Hillary wanted a job as the top statesman in the land. Statesmen need to “win friends and influence people.” Any book on negotiation or leadership will tell you that step one is to make the other guy like you. So, if I’m hiring someone to influence people on my behalf, I want them to be likeable. That’s part of the competency test.
>OTOH, poll after poll showed that Bernie would have won out over Trump.
>Once I again I urge you to take a remedial arithmetic class. Less than one percent of the voters do not determine the race..
As I’ve explained to you elsewhere, these arguments are not just bullshit, but easily dismissible bullshit at that.
>It’s the 48% who voted for Trump who determined the race.
And now, you’re just making shit up, since you don’t have an actual argument. Trump got 46% of the vote to Hillary’s 48%. If we had a sane electoral system, she would have been awarded the Presidency she won. And that doesn’t even cover the proven interference aided and abetted by people like you.
>You don’t care one whit about competency – you care only about what the DNC tells you to care about
And of course, no response from you would be complete without your favorite strawman.
>So, by torpedoing his chances you and your co-conspirators at the DNC are the ones responsible for empowering the fascists in the oval office.
So THAT’s why you rely on discredited arguments, straw men, and now just flat out making shit up. Your tinfoil hat is on too tight and it’s making you Craz-ier H!
In the real world, those of us who actually understand how politics works instead of being blinded by HDS understand that the hardest word you can use to describe what the DNC did to Bernie’s chances is “dinged”.
I’ll give you the DNC could’ve and should’ve been fairer and it probably cost Bernie some votes. But even by the most ludicrously generous estimates that number tops out at around 250,000 votes. (Realistically, its about 1/10th that).
He lost by almost 4 million votes. The idea that the DNC cost Bernie 4 million votes is ludicrously, laughably insane.
No, the person responsible for Bernie losing the primary was Bernie.
And as he has done nothing to fix his problems with POC and the base of the party (actual progressives like myself) will no longer vote for him in the primaries without certain guarantees-if he gives a crap about making progress instead of just talking about progress he won’t run again- because barring those guarantees he will get crushed in the primary again.
(Though if I’m wrong (exceedingly rare, but not utterly impossible)-I will of course vote for him in the general as I am neither irresponsible nor insane )
>Hillary wanted a job as the top statesman in the land. Statesmen need to “win friends and influence people.” Any book on negotiation or leadership will tell you that step one is to make the other guy like you. So, if I’m hiring someone to influence people on my behalf, I want them to be likeable. That’s part of the competency test
More happy horseshit. The fact that you believe that likeability matters and ability to win (something third parties and protest votes will NEVER have on a national level) doesn’t confirms everything I’ve ever said about you:
– You are not a progressive
– You are the cause of the problems you whine about
– You’d rather whine about the problems you’re causing then make progress and be part of the solution
“You are not a progressive – You are the cause of the problems you whine about – You’d rather whine about the problems you’re causing then make progress and be part of the solution”
Priceless. Absolutely priceless.
Competence is overrated.
I’d rather contend with an incompetent evil doer than a competent Eichmann type, proficient but still blind to the consequences of his proficiency.
The Democrats daily demonstrate their incompetence by being the yellow dogs that bark up the wrong tree, complaining about Russian interference in US elections while Israel keeps 99% of them shaking in their boots.
I dunno – Trump’s idea of interior decorating is the exact opposite of classy:
http://www.idesignarch.com/wp-content/uploads/Donald-Melania-Trump-Manhattan-Penthouse_1.jpg
Marie Antoinette would have considered it ridiculously overdone.
The Gaddafi comment was extraordinarily egregious. It feels strange to have a major US politician gleefully reminisce about her role in the knife-sodomy and murder of a leader of a sovereign, foreign nation. A guy who gave up his arsenal of dangerous weapons in order to avoid this very fate and get on the right side of the West. I remember as a grade school kid, not knowing much about the world, Gaddafi was this villainous comic book bad guy in my mind. As I got older, my views on him became slightly more nuanced. When the video of his killing circulated, it was grotesque. The guy was eccentric, but didn’t deserve that fate.
I really get tired of this assumption that Hillary Clinton is “competent”. This has been a big rationale of her continued candidacy. But this woman was caught in lies back when she was First Lady. She was wrong about Iraq and learned nothing from it, instead applying the same stupid logic to Libya. And, learning nothing from that, she wanted to apply the same logic to Syria! She only became Senator because her husband deregulated the big banks and, surprise, surprise, surprise… Hillary establishes residency in New York to become Senator — home of the big banks. She loses the 2008 nomination showing her desperation through and through and only gets to be Sec of State as the price of Party unity — NOT BECAUSE SHE WAS QUALIFIED!!! This woman is about nothing but advancing through backroom deals. She gets caught lying about coming under fire in the balkans. And then gets caught jeopardizing national security in an attempt to avoid FOIA requests by using a private server to protect her emails from exposing the graft she was conducting with her foundation! Caught, caught caught time and time again, and allowed to walk away time and time again. That is not competence – that is simply privilege. Let’s stop with giving this corrupt oligarch cover. As far as her “classiness”; Today Libya has reverted back to human slavery. This is a country that relies on the harvesting of human organs! But, Hillary? She has no regrets. That is not class that is the mentality of a ghoul.
i read the gocomics comments, and about half the comments condemn mr rall for not fully supporting the very best candidate for president the us of a has ever had
the republicans attack secretary clinton for the ambassador’s death in benghazi
just like marcia clark attacked oj at the trial
for the real crime, read seymour hersh
banned in the us of a
but my biggest attraction to st hillary was her promise of regime change in russia, starting on day 1
if only we’d elected her, the world would be completely at peace now
and no cockroach would have to worry about being stepped on
archie
«… no cockroach would have to worry about being stepped on» Love it – at last, freedom from fear for Blattodea families !…
Henri