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Well, quite

Trump is pushing nationalist myths. But Democrats indulge lavish patriotism, too
Cas Mudde
Democratic politicians are constantly trying to ‘prove’ they love the US. Yet actual Americans seem more realistic about their country’s failings

Try running on a platform of hating the place.

22 thoughts on “Well, quite”

  1. There’s a lot you can’t say if you actually want to win.

    You can’t talk about your opponent’s failings, because that’s negative campaigning and implies you have no ideas yourself.

    You can’t say things are bad, because that’s unpatriotic and/or disrespectful to millions of hard-working families.

    You can’t paint a picture of how you want to make things better, because those promises sound unrealistic.

    In short, you can’t win on policy. At best you can do what Blair, Cameron, and Obama all did: promise that you’ll run the show broadly the same way, but with more competence. Save the big changes for the second term. That’s the strategy the Democrats should be taking: “Our candidate is more competent than Trump.” Unfortunately for them they chose Biden, so they can’t even claim competence.

  2. I really don’t think the Dems are seeking just to run the USA more competently. If that were true, it would make sense to dump all the radicals and far leftists who are using the party to push the kind of policies that make the citizens nervous.

  3. One has to admit, as a nonentity, Biden’s pretty impressive. If he does win, we’ll have to get used to photos with captions saying “The President of the USA – second from the right, next to the man in the military uniform”

  4. In his speech at the White House conference on American history, he attacked “the liberal indoctrination of America’s youth”

    […]

    Yet the US was founded on racism and racial exclusion. Even if the US was the most democratic country in the late 18th and early 19th century, it was “the most democratic” in the way that apartheid South Africa was the “most democratic” country in Africa in the early 20th century.

    Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor in the school of public and international affairs at the University of Georgia

  5. Bloke in North Dorset

    “I really don’t think the Dems are seeking just to run the USA more competently.”

    Its hard for them to argue Dems are competent administrators when all the GoP needs to do is point at California, Portland and New York for starters.

  6. Steve, Cas Mudde is muddled. Early 20th century, apartheid did not exist in SA and only became official policy after WW2. Most of the rest of Africa was under colonial rule at the time. Democracy in Africa became one man, one vote, once.

  7. apartheid South Africa was the “most democratic” country in Africa in the early 20th century.

    As, indeed, it was. Also the best respecter of human rights in Africa for the second half of the 20th century.

    So much so that they had a problem with illegal immigrants from as far away as Nigeria. Because the best thing for Black people is lots of White people.

  8. “Where most west European progressives abhor flag-waving and patriotism, let alone chauvinism, many American progressives proudly wrap themselves in the stars and stripes and attack Trump for not being patriotic enough. In a particularly bizarre twist, the 2016 election involved a uniquely US-critical far-right candidate defeating a proudly patriotic center-left candidate”.

    Just when you think maximum bullshit has been reached someone comes along and writes this,

  9. ‘Democratic politicians are constantly trying to ‘prove’ they love the US.’

    [citation needed]

    ‘Trump is a far-right politician and chauvinistic nationalism is part and parcel of far-right ideology.’

    Ad hominem. The Left’s only tool.

  10. Trump is a far-right politician and chauvinistic nationalism is part and parcel of far-right ideology

    The pantheon of far-right, nationalist anthropophages that includes Abraham Lincoln, FDR and JFK.

  11. Was wondering from those more in the know if the death of RBG would bring Bernies supporters back into play for Biden as they seem the type to get wound up over this and hold their noses and vote for Biden instead of staying away

  12. ‘we’ll transform it’

    That’s what his kid boss said.

    In the end, the American system will probably survive a Harris-Biden presidency. We survived Balack Obama.

  13. Gamecock September 21, 2020 at 9:20 pm – “In the end, the American system will probably survive a Harris-Biden presidency. We survived Balack Obama.”

    How many Republicans get elected in California these days? Illegal immigration transformed that pretty well.

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