I was wondering when we were going to see this rationale. It comes from a right wing provocateur writing on Instapundit:
Wednesday’s mob assault on Capitol Hill was shocking and brazen: Hundreds of MAGA-hat-wearing rioters broke into the seat of American democracy. They stormed the halls, looting property and assaulting law enforcers, all in service of an absurd political demand: reversing the outcome of an election.
Now where had I witnessed such scenes before? The answer: in blue-governed cities in my native Pacific Northwest throughout last summer and into the fall and winter.
The upshot should be clear: The deadly storming of the Capitol building is the logical outcome of norms set by the left in 2020. By winking at and apologizing for Antifa, liberal elites telegraphed that political grievances ought to be resolved through violence.
Of course. “The liberals made us do it.”
There have been violent protests in this country since its founding. Recall the right wing Tea Party took its name from a violent protest. In fact, you could argue that the American revolution itself was one.
Here’s the difference: the protests in Portland and around the country, including Washington DC last summer, were actual protests —a form of petitioning the government for redress, if you will. That is an American tradition and a right guaranteed in the constitution.
Last Wednesday a violent mob assaulted the US Capitol while it was in joint session counting the electoral votes to certify the winner of the presidential election — with the clear intention of stopping that vote. They believed they could overturn the election by force and install their preferred candidate, the one who lost. That is not a “protest.” That is a putsch.
It was an explicitly violent political act with an anti-democratic goal.
I think most people understand the difference but I would guess you’ll see more of this fatuous “both-sides” bullshit.
Update: Here’s a nice little BBC rundown of how the Munich Beer hall Putsch went down. You tell me…
The Nazi Party was formed in the years following World War One.
By 1920, they were called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and by 1921, Adolf Hitler was their leader.
The Nazi Party had grown in size and support under Hitler, having gained 20,000 members by the end of 1922.
The Nazis aimed to overthrow the Bavarian Government, which was led by Gustav von Kahr and based in Munich.
Once they had established power for themselves in Bavaria, they could look to overthrow the Weimar Government.
Leading Bavarian politicians including Kahr were meeting in the Buergerbraeukeller Beer Hall in Munich on 8 November, 1923.
Hitler and the SA (stormtroopers) interrupted the meeting, threatening the crowd with violence.
Kahr, General von Lossow (leader of the army in Bavaria) and Colonel von Seisser (head of the Bavarian police) were locked in a back room. They were forced to publicly announce their support for the Nazis.
Hitler left the beer hall in order to oversee clashes between the SA and the German army elsewhere in Munich
Ludendorff allowed the politicians to leave the beer hall.
This was a mistake as they immediately renounced support for the Nazis.
The next morning the Nazis, led by Hitler and Ludendorff, marched into the centre of Munich.
The police and army confronted them and shots were fired. The Nazi supporters and SA were scattered.
Hitler was put on trial, charged with treason.
He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison, but was released after nine months.
During the trial, he was able to publicly explain that his aim was to save Germany from the Government, which was failing the people.
He wrote Mein Kampf while in prison. I’m pretty sure Trump’s manifesto would be called “The Art of the Steal.”
With 10 days remaining in his presidency, Trump has become the political equivalent of a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade flying high down New York’s Sixth Avenue, only to be punctured, twist in the wind and deflate as it rounds the corner to the parade’s endpoint at Herald Square.
That is really a perfect metaphor: Trump as the huge gaseous balloon, punctured and deflated. I
n fact, this metaphor is more than a metaphor. It actually happened. Just as the insurrectionist Trump supporters may have punctured Donald Trump’s post-presidency, a Trump supporter once literally slashed the Trump balloon:
A GoFundMe page organized by Hutchinson asks for money for restitution for the balloon, saying he was charged with “felony criminal mischief after deflation of the disrespectful baby trump balloon. Hoyt made sure our beloved president didn’t have to see this disrespectful balloon on the streets of Ttown today!!”
In 14 hours, it had raised more than $16,000, surpassing its goal of $6,000.
After he was released on bond, Hutchinson posted another Facebook video, with the game playing on a TV behind him as people cheered and laughed.
“Some liberals tried to come to my hometown and start some trouble. That ain’t happening,” Hutchinson said in that video. “I did get arrested. I got charged. That’s all right. I’d do it again given the opportunity.”
It happened in England too. Trump supporters everywhere were running up and violently stabbing those Trump balloons, apparently having no idea how weird that was.
They certainly punctured his balloon last Wednesday with their putsch. We’ll have to see if they finally killed off Trumpism.
That was, you’ll notice days before the election. He had made it clear that if he didn’t win, he would not leave peacefully. He pretty much said it right out loud. I don’t know why anyone thought otherwise.
The real question is why the authorities didn’t believe him —and why they didn’t believe his followers were serious about violent insurrection? They too left plenty of clues that they wren’t planning on knitting a bunch of pink caps and marching peacefully on January 6th.
Did they think these people were Real Americans who were just “blowing off steam” like the Abu Ghraib guards?
Protesters flocked to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 because, in the fevered imagination of MAGA world, it represented the last chance to keep President Donald Trump in office. The protest was aimed squarely at pressuring members of Congress and the vice president to reject the reality of President-elect Joe Biden’s win and disrupt the counting of electoral votes. What brought rioters to Washington and fired them up was only taking place at one location—the Capitol.
Even if law enforcement officials couldn’t draw the inference that the Capitol would be a target of activists known to be violent, there were plenty of other clues—on social media, in the mouths of activists, and the tweets of the president himself—that indicated the protests wouldn’t be peaceful and would be focused squarely on the Capitol.
Here are just a few:
Nov. 3: As Biden’s impending election victory becomes increasingly clearer, mentions of terms like “storm the capitol” and “occupy the capitol” on Parler, 4Chan, and 8kun, according to the Social Media Analysis Toolkit.
Dec. 13: Proud Boys protesters who descend on Washington, D.C., for the “Million MAGA March,” a pro-Trump rally, embark on a night of mayhem in which four people are stabbed in a brawl and two police are injured. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio allegedly burns a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from the Asbury United Methodist Church.
Dec. 19: Women for America First, the pro-Trump group that helped organize the Dec. 13 Million MAGA March, changes the date on its application for a rally permit from the day after the inauguration to Jan. 6, the date that Congress is set to tally electoral votes.
Dec. 19: While tweeting out a link to White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s bogus election fraud dossier, Trump calls for protests on Jan. 6 and promises, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
The same day, Trump supporters on TheDonald.win, a far-right pro-Trump social media site, appeared to seize on Congress as a target for the “wild” event. “Get into Capitol building, stand outside congress. Be in the room next to them. They wont have time to run if they play dumb,” one user writes.
Dec. 21: Taking a cue from the president’s Twitter branding of the Jan. 6 event as “wild,” Stop the Steal, a coalition of Trump supporters falsely claiming the election was stolen, registers wildprotest.com as a promotional site for the Jan. 6 event.
Dec. 26: Participants in a forum run by the Oath Keepers, a far-right organization made up largely of current and ex-military and law enforcement personnel, suggest the very real possibility of physical violence inside the Capitol itself. “Mconnell and the rest of the RINOS need to be physically thrown out of the building. Time for action. We will be there Jan. 6,” says one. Another commenter replies, “I stand ready with my rifle in one hand ,the 2nd amendment in the other, to defend this constitution of the United States of America. I stand ready to die for my country once again!”
Dec. 22-Jan. 5: Commenters on TheDonald begin to call for rallygoers to storm the Capitol and disrupt Vice President Mike Pence’s counting of electoral votes.
“Capital Building/Halls of Congress is ground zero. Jump the lines. Cross the roadblocks. Push past the robo cops. Don’t let them usher/kettle us to any other ‘symbolic’ monument,” one commenter posted.
As the day of the protests draws nearer, the tone of some posts becomes more dire. In a post entitled, “Today I told my kids Goodbye,” self-described rallygoers speak of the event as a matter of life and death. “If it came down to it I wouldn’t think twice about dying just so my family and friends can live free.”
Dec. 28: The Hotel Harrington, which Proud Boys members turned into a favorite haunt during visits to the District, announces that it will close its doors to guests from Jan. 4 through 6 as a result of “our concern and desire for everyone’s health and safety.”
Dec. 29: After the Hotel Harrington closes its doors to guests, Proud Boys founder Enrique Tarrio lashes out at the media and threatens that the group will “turn out in record numbers” on Jan. 6 despite the closure: “We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams.”
Far-right Trump fans on social media talk about a “Slumber Party inside the Capitol Building” in the wake of the closure.
Jan. 1: On an hour-long phone call, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund assures Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) that “they have everything under control, that they were on top of everything.”
Jan. 3: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser warns residents to “stay out of the downtown area on Tuesday and Wednesday and not to engage with demonstrators who come to our city seeking confrontation.” In a tweet, Trump promises, “I will be there. Historic day!”
Jan. 4: Washington police chief Robert Contree references reports that protesters plan to come to the city with guns. “We have received some information that there are individuals intent on bringing firearms into our city, and that just will not be tolerated,” he says at a press conference.
Jan. 5: Rallygoers on board a flight to Washington, D.C., heckle Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), demanding he block the vote count. Three days earlier, protesters showed up at GOP Sen. Marco Rubio’s home in Florida to demand he interfere in the counting of electoral votes.
Jan 6: At the rally in Washington, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani demands “trial by combat” instead of vote counts to settle the election. Trump commands his supporters to march down to the Capitol and says, “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
I have always thought he’d allow his cult to assume he was running so he can collect all that sweet grift. According to Politico, Republicans think he won’t do it now:
In interviews, more than half a dozen Republicans who had supported or worked for Trump say the president isn’t likely to run again, though he may tease it. If Trump changes his mind again and chooses to run, some said they would urge him not to, while others hope he’d be talked out of it.
“I think nothing is going to happen,” said a Trump friend. “He won’t be around in 2024. He’s not going to run. He’s going to fuck around and say he’s going to run. … He’ll tease. I don’t think he’s ever going to say ‘I won’t run.’ He just won’t run.”
That sure sounds like the anonymous source who said, “what’s the harm in humoring him” about
They also say he is worried about the financial disclosure part of this since he’s under investigation. That’s surely true, but that doesn’t mean he won’t milk the possibility. He’s going to be seen as the MAGA Martyr now and there is much to be gained from that.
However, there is also Trump’s abiding desire for revenge. He’s going to be desperate for a comeback — that’s how he rolls —so I think he might just sit back and let things cool before making a real decision. If he slithers out from the accountability for his criminal financial activity, I think he might do it again if he maintains his base.
The Republicans won’t like it, though. They know he’s hurt the party’s reputation. Obviously. But they convinced themselves that they had to lick his boots or the party would lose power.
While much has been written about Trump’s ability to pull off electoral victories in spite of conventional wisdom, the actual record shows something considerably different.The Trump-led Republican Party suffered historic losses on the federal level in a short four-year span that has rarely, if ever, been duplicated in modern American history.
Let’s start with the basic fact that the Republican Party will no longer control the White House, Senate or House of Representatives when President-elect Joe Biden takes his oath of office. This is a sharp reversal from when Trump entered the White House in 2017. Back then, it was the Republicans who controlled all three.
Starting off with all three of these bodies or offices and losing control of oneor two of them is not unusual for a president after one term. Losing all three is something different all together.Indeed, there’s really only one other historic parallel since senators were popularly elected: Herbert Hoover nearly 90 years ago. Hoover’s presidency suffered through the beginnings of the Great Depression.
Beyond Hoover, no president in the modern era managed to oversee his party losing control of three elected parts of the federal government over his first term in office.
What’s more amazing is that Trump entered the White House with a Democratic predecessor. Hoover, on the other hand, was preceded by another Republican in office. Often, presidents who are preceded by a president of the same party find it more difficult to win reelection. Trump, unlike Hoover, doesn’t have that excuse.
You have to go all the way to when senators were not popularly elected (before the 17th Amendment) to find any examples of what Trump managed to do, and they are rare at that.The GOP’s down ballot problems can be linked directly to Trump. Republican Senate candidates lost every state Trump lost in 2020, except Maine. The same holds true when comparing the 2018 Senate and 2020 presidential results as well. And Republican Senate candidates lost every state Trump lost in 2016, as well.
For Republicans who thought they could escape Trump’s unpopularity, it just didn’t happen.
Indeed, while many may find it hard to believe that a president like Trump remained popular enough to get 74 million votes, his record facing the voters suggests otherwise.He managed to squeeze by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College, while losing the popular vote in 2016.
This time, he lost the popular vote again to Biden — and the Electoral College, too. Beyond being the rare president to lose reelection (and the even rarer president to lose the White House for his party after just one term), losing the popular vote twice is quite unusual for a president.Trump was the first elected president since Benjamin Harrison in the late 19th century to pull that feat off. John Quincy Adams in the 1820s was the other to be elected president and lose the popular vote twice on a major party ticket.
The bottom line is Trump is no electoral savant. He is a historic loser.
This moment in @igorbobic stunning footage. In front of the officer, coming up the stairs, is a mass of rioters. The USCP officer glances to his left. Between those two chairs is the entrance to the senate floor. He lured them to his right, away from their targets. pic.twitter.com/knjQQ4GZ0d
Here’s the scary moment when protesters initially got into the building from the first floor and made their way outside Senate chamber. pic.twitter.com/CfVIBsgywK
I think the weekend we’ve all realized that the assault on the capitol was much worse than we originally thought. The footage we saw in real time was scary but it was easy to believe that these people were yahoos and miscreants. It was shocking but we didn’t know just how seriously dangerous it was and how terrified the people inside the building were.
https://youtu.be/PfiS8MsfSF4?t=1140
We’re coming for that bitch. Tell fuckin’ Pelosi we’re coming for her, fuckin traitorous cunt … we’re comin’ for all of you!
BREAKING: Feds arrest Cleveland Meredith for his role in the US Capitol chaos. Investigators allege Meredith texted others that he would be "putting a bullet" in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's head pic.twitter.com/QcaNuIb9Ov
A top adviser to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stepped out of the ornate chamber for a short break.
Alone in the Capitol’s marble halls, just outside the chamber’s bronze doors, it was suddenly apparent that the citadel of U.S. democracy was falling to the mob incited by President Trump.
A cacophony of screaming, shouting and banging echoed from the floor below. McConnell’s security detail rushed past and into the chamber. The adviser began walking toward the Rotunda and came face to face with a U.S. Capitol Police officer sprinting in the opposite direction. The two made eye contact and the officer forced out a single word: “Run!”
The aide to McConnell (R-Ky.) darted down a side hallway lined with offices. He jiggled one locked doorknob, then another. A co-worker poked his head out of the office of McConnell’s speechwriter. The adviser lunged, pushing him and a colleague back inside.
The screaming and shouting soon seemed right outside. Only then, a text alert from Capitol police blared on every phone in the room: “Due to security threat inside: immediately, move inside your office, take emergency equipment, lock the doors, take shelter.”
Three senior GOP aides piled furniture against the door and tried to move stealthily, worried that the intruders would discover them inside. In waves, the door to the hall heaved as rioters punched and kicked it. The crowd yelled “Stop the steal!” Some chanted menacingly, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?”
That article goes on to describe a truly terrifying situation. The incoherent, deluded mob was very worked up and there were some who obviously had plans to do real harm to people in the building, particularly, it appears, Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence.
Meanwhile, as the insane mob was threatening the lawmakers, the president and his lawyer were pushing from the other side, trying to get the congress to delay the counting:
Lee’s spokesman said the calls from Trump and his attorney were intended for Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a newly elected Republican from Alabama.
The effort by the White House to get Tuberville to delay certification of the votes provides insight into the President’s thinking and priorities as a mob of his supporters lay siege to the iconic building. As the President worked to convince Tuberville to delay the process, he and other top White House officials did little to check in on Vice President Mike Pence while he and members of his family were inside the breached Capitol, a source close to the vice president told CNN.
Trump first called the personal cell phone of Lee, a Utah Republican, shortly after 2 p.m. ET. At that time the senators had been evacuated from the Senate floor and were in a temporary holding room, as a pro-Trump mob began breaching the Capitol.Lee picked up the phone and Trump identified himself, and it became clear he was looking for Tuberville and had been given the wrong number. Lee, keeping the President on hold, went to find his colleague and handed Tuberville his phone, telling him the President was on the line and had been trying to reach him.
Tuberville spoke with Trump for less than 10 minutes, with the President trying to convince him to make additional objections to the Electoral College vote in a futile effort to block Congress’ certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win, according to a source familiar with the call.
The call was cut off because senators were asked to move to a secure location.
Evidently, Mitch McConnell, Pelosi and Pence were determined to finish the vote count, thank goodness. They simply could not let this mob and its leader have their way. But they came very close to not having the chance. Those people were so out of control I hesitate to even think what would have happened if they had gotten to the lawmakers. They were out for blood.
Uncorrected personality traits that seem whimsical in a child may prove to Be ugly in a fully grown adult.
Lack of involvement with the father, or over-involvement with the mother, Can result in lack of ability to relate to sexual fears, and in homosexual Leanings, narcissism, transexuality (Girls from the waist up, men from the waist down), Attempts to be your own love object.
Reconcile your parents to you by becoming both at once! Even Marilyn Monroe was a man, but this tends to get overlooked by our Mother-fixated, overweight, sexist media.
So, Uncorrected personality traits that seem whimsical in a child may prove to Be ugly in a fully grown adult.
If you give in to them Every time they cry They will become little tyrants But they won’t remember why Then when they are thwarted By people in later life They will become psychotic And they won’t make an ideal husband or wife The spoiled baby grows into The escapist teenager who’s The adult alcoholic who’s The middle-aged suicide (Oy)
So, Uncorrected personality traits that seem whimsical in a child may prove to Be ugly in a fully grown adult.
Thomas Baranyi, 28, of New Jersey gives his account of the Ashli Babbitt shooting to CBS affiliate WKRG (screen shot).
The Republican Southern Strategy was rooted in grievance. Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Fox News, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, Breitbart News, and more made hundreds of millions from grievance. They made grievance a bankable commodity, a ratings bonanza. Grievance has torn apart families. Grievance-made-politics led inexorably to the election in 2016 of President Donald J. Trump. Grievance-turned-insurrection led to the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol last week and to five deaths. It is not over yet.
James Kimmel, Jr. studies “the role of grievances and retaliation in violent crime.” Last month, the lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine reported in Politico that a brain on grievance (over an injury perceived or imagined) looks a lot like a brain on drugs. Brain imaging shows both illuminate the same brain circuitry as narcotics. Both have the potential for sliding into addiction:
This isn’t a metaphor; it’s brain biology. Scientists have found that in substance addiction, environmental cues such as being in a place where drugs are taken or meeting another person who takes drugs cause sharp surges of dopamine in crucial reward and habit regions of the brain, specifically, the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum. This triggers cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through intoxication. Recent studies show that similarly, cues such as experiencing or being reminded of a perceived wrong or injustice — a grievance — activate these same reward and habit regions of the brain, triggering cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through retaliation. To be clear, the retaliation doesn’t need to be physically violent—an unkind word, or tweet, can also be very gratifying.
Although these are new findings and the research in this area is not yet settled, what this suggests is that similar to the way people become addicted to drugs or gambling, people may also become addicted to seeking retribution against their enemies—revenge addiction. This may help explain why some people just can’t let go of their grievances long after others feel they should have moved on—and why some people resort to violence.
The connection to last week’s insurrection in Washington, D.C. is obvious. Ahead of last year’s impeachment proceedings against Donald J. Trump, former Trump Organization executive vice president Barbara Res predicted, “Once he gets through this, and he probably will,” Res said, shaking her head, “He will exact revenge on a lot of people. A lot of people.”
A lot of people got revenge for him as well as for themselves on Wednesday. (Emphasis mine.)
Like substance addiction, revenge addiction appears to spread from person to person. For instance, inner-city gun violence spreads in neighborhoods like a social contagion, with one person’s grievances infecting others with a desire to seek vengeance. Because of his unique position and use of the media and social networks, Trump is able to spread his grievances to thousands or millions of others through Twitter, TV and rallies. His demand for retribution becomes their demand, causing his supporters to crave retaliation—and, in a vicious cycle, this in turn causes Trump’s targets and their supporters to feel aggrieved and want to retaliate, too.
Historians and social scientists will be studying last week’s events for decades. Clearly, the social contagion is more complex than Trump, his grievances, and bundle of personality defects. But he took the decades of grievance stoked by everything from the Southern Strategy to right-wing media to another level. Globalization, immigration, the Great Recession, and other social shifts contributed, especially the browning of America and the election of the first Black president. Trump inspired a national cult of personality because the television celebrity came along at the right time with the right marketing skills and the right social media tools. He knew just where to poke. Or he didn’t have to. His grievances, his feelings of inadequacy, mirrored his followers’. “They’re laughing at us,” Trump has complained for decades. The cult identified immediately. The smoldering became a fire. Since their avatar lost reelection, it has become a conflagration.
After Capitol security shot U.S. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt climbing through the door into the Speaker’s Lobby, 28-year-old Thomas Baranyi, a New Jersey resident, gave his account of the shooting to CBS affiliate WKRG. The video of that interview has disappeared, but a partial transcript is still online.
Baranyi had blood on his hand. Babbitt’s blood. She had fallen backwards onto him. But what stood out in the interview was his generalized sense of marginalization and anger at the world:
“Just make sure people know, because this cannot stand anymore. This is wrong. They don’t represent anyone. Not Republican, Democrat, Independent, nobody. And now they’ll just, they’ll kill people,” Baranyi answered.
When asked who is he referring to, Baranyi answered: “Police, congressmen and women, they don’t care. I mean, they think we’re a joke. $2,000 checks was a joke to them. You know, there’s people filming us, laughing at us as we marched down the street at the Department of Justice. There’s a man in the window laughing at us, filming us. And here it was a joke to them until we got inside and then all of a sudden guns came out. But I mean, we’re at a point now, it can’t be allowed to stand. We have to do something, people have to do something, because this could be you or your kids.”
Beneath superficial complaints, Trumpism is about the loss of white control in a diversifying country. Democracy is the greatest threat to white supremacy. That makes commitment to popular sovereignty as a principal disposable. The Republican Party has engaged in a decades-long propaganda campaign — the myth of widespread voter fraud — to undermine faith in elections to prepare for just this moment. A way had to be found for the coming white minority to continue to keep wield power while maintaining a democratic facade. Having lost a democratic election, and having run out of stratagems for undoing it, Trump & Cult simply took the next logical step: overthrow the government.
Storming the Capitol was an expression of vintage white rage, said Carol Anderson of Emory University, author of “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide.”
“It’s entirely about the perceived loss of the power of whiteness,” said Bree Newsome Bass, the human rights activists known for taking down a Confederate flag at the South Carolina Statehouse in 2015. “People feel like they are losing something if whiteness no longer carries privilege and power. If there’s racial equality, they feel like they have been denied what the country was supposed to be.”
“Part of why Trump inspires this cult-like loyalty is because he embodies that grievance,” Newsome Bass added. “When he says ‘I have been robbed,’ he is speaking for the white supremacist cause. When there’s a perception that the power of whiteness is being lost, the act of violence is what reinforces and reassures it.”
[…]
“The lie of voter fraud says that ‘we are being victimized by those people in the city who are trying to steal our democracy,’” Anderson said. “When they’re storming Congress, they’re seeing themselves as the victim because that’s the narrative that’s been crafted for them.”
Many of the people who stormed the Capitol likely do not perceive defending whiteness as their underlying motivation. That would tarnish their “patriot” bona fides. But it is the water in which the metaphorical fish swims.
“Over time we will see these people humanized and described in a way that takes away from the fact that this is such a historic, violent moment in the U.S. Capitol that hasn’t happened in any of our lifetimes,” said Dana White, a D.C.-area speaker and facilitator on race and LGBTQ issues. “I think a lot of the emphasis will be placed on Trump inciting this overzealous behavior in people.”
Trump was not the cause of the conflagration, but the accelerant.
I’m not running for office, so I’m not going to lie to you. It’s been a tough week. Not just for me, personally…but for Democracy and junk. Most of today, I was trying (really trying, gentle reader) to finish up a review for you of a couple of new films, but it wasn’t working. I haven’t been able to concentrate very well since the events of this past Wednesday. I just…can’t.
So I was texting with my pal Digby, to give her a heads up that I might just take a breather this week. Or perhaps I could just find something from my archives to recycle that would be apropos to the current news cycle. My first thought was “conspiracy a go-go”…but then I remembered I just recycled that one back in November on the anniversary of the JFK assassination. Besides, I don’t think we need to get that dark just now. “What about something on fascism?” (Digby helpfully texted). Yes! I thought. A capital idea (Capitol?).
And I’ll be damned if I didn’t find a post I published the day after the current occupant of the White House was inaugurated that makes a perfect bookend for the imminent denouement of said occupant’s rent-free overstayed welcome in our collective unconscious . Er, enjoy?
(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on January 21, 2017)
Yesterday, after putting my head down on the desk for a spell (which I haven’t done since kindergarten), in order to process the inaugural address, I felt compelled to do a Google search using the key words “Fascism” and “ideal conditions” – and I found this:
Fascism begins by promising to make the country strong again, to restore pride. It wants to help, it wants to build a better country, it wants to improve your life. It wants to challenge a corrupt establishment and change a broken system. It wants to get people working again and get tough on crime. It doesn’t present an image of violent thugs to you, instead it shows the face of ordinary respectable people, people just like you, who have had enough. […]
So it starts with things a lot of people find attractive: national pride, restoration of glory, fighting the establishment. Then it pushes this further and further to the extreme. The nationalism become more extreme. Not only are we the best people, but all others are inferior. They only appear better because they cheat, they lie, they steal. The establishment is corrupt, the system is rigged, it is undeserving of support, it is illegitimate. The opponents are crooks, they should be put in jail. The media is suppressing the facts, censoring the truth, spreading lies, their dishonest must be silenced. Democracy only leads to indecisive and ineffective politicians, it only elects liars too corrupt to serve the people. If only we had a strong and decisive ruler, then we could solve the country’s problems. Drastic problems require drastic solutions.
-from a post by Robert Nielsen (Whistling in the Wind blog)
The author is explaining how Fascism was able to flourish in Europe between the wars, but there are obvious parallels with the current political climate (in Europe and the U.S.).
So, with that cheery thought in mind, and in the interest of applying what I call cinematic aversion therapy, here’s my Top 10 Great Depression Movies. Study them well, because you know what “they” say: Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it.
Berlin Alexanderplatz- When you think of the Depression in terms of film and literature, it tends to vibe America-centric. In reality, the economic downturn between wars was a global phenomenon; things were literally “tough all over”. You could say Germany had a jumpstart (economically speaking, everything below the waist was kaput by the mid 1920s). In October of 1929 (interesting historical timing), Alfred Doblin’s epic novel BerlinAlexanderplatz was published, then adapted into a film in 1931 directed by Phil Jutzi.
It wasn’t until nearly 50 years later that the ultimate film version emerged as Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 15 hour opus (made for German TV but also distributed as a feature film). It’s nearly impossible to encapsulate this emotionally draining epic in a few lines; it is by turns one of the most shocking, transcendent, maddening and soul-scorching films you’ll ever see. If that time investment is too daunting, you can always opt for Cabaret!
Bonnie and Clyde– The gangster movie meets the art house in this 1967 offering from director Arthur Penn. There is much more to this influential masterpiece than the oft-referenced operatic crescendo of violent death in the closing frames; particularly of note was the ingenious way its attractive antiheroes were posited to appeal to the counterculture zeitgeist of the 1960s, even though the film was ostensibly a period piece. The real Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were nowhere near as charismatic as Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty…but we don’t care, do we? The outstanding cast includes Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Michael J. Pollard, and Gene Wilder in his movie debut.
Bound for Glory– “This machine kills Fascists”. There’s only one man to whom Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen must kowtow-and that’s Woody Guthrie. You can almost taste the dust in director Hal Ashby’s leisurely, episodic 1976 biopic about the life of America’s premier protest songwriter/social activist. David Carradine gives one of his finest performances, and does a credible job with his own singing and playing. Haskell Wexler’s outstanding cinematography earned him a well-deserved Oscar. The film may feel a bit overlong and slow in spots if you aren’t particularly fascinated by Guthrie’s story; but I think it is just as much about the Depression itself, and perhaps more than any other film on this list, it succeeds as a “total immersion” back to that era.
The Grapes of Wrath– I’m stymied for any hitherto unspoken superlatives to ladle onto John Ford’s masterful film or John Steinbeck’s classic source novel, so I won’t pretend to have any. Suffice it to say, this probably comes closest to nabbing the title as the quintessential film about the heartbreak and struggle of America’s “salt of the earth” during the Great Depression. Perhaps we can take (real or imagined) comfort in the possibility that no matter how bad things get over the next few months (years?), Henry Fonda’s unforgettable embodiment of Tom Joad will “be there…all around, in the dark.”
Inserts-If I told you that Richard Dreyfuss, Veronica Cartwright, Bob Hoskins and Jessica Harper once co-starred in an “X” rated movie, would you believe me? This largely forgotten 1976 film from director John Byrum was dismissed as pretentious dreck by many critics at the time, but 42 years on, it begs reappraisal as a fascinating curio in the careers of those involved.
Dreyfuss plays “Wonder Boy”, a Hollywood whiz kid director who peaked early; now he’s a “has-been”, living in his bathrobe, drinking heavily and casting junkies and wannabe-starlets for pornos he produces on the cheap in his crumbling mansion. Hoskins steals all his scenes as Wonder Boy’s sleazy producer, Big Mac (who is aptly named; as he has plans to open a chain of hamburger joints!). Set in 30s Hollywood, this decadent wallow in the squalid side of show biz is a perfect companion for The Day of the Locust.
King of the Hill– Steven Soderbergh’s exquisitely photographed film (somewhat reminiscent of Bogdanovich’s Paper Moon) is a bittersweet rendering of A.E. Hotchner’s Depression-era tale about young Aaron (Jesse Bradford) who lives with his parents and kid brother in a decrepit hotel. After his sickly mother (Lisa Eichhorn) is sent away for convalescence, his kid brother is packed off to stay with relatives, and his father (Jeroen Krabbe) hits the road as a traveling salesman, leaving Aaron to fend for himself. The Grand Hotel-style network narrative provides a microcosm of those who live through such times. The film is full of wonderful moments of insight into the human condition. The cast includes Karen Allen, Adrian Brody, Elizabeth McGovern and Spaulding Gray.
Pennies From Heaven (Original BBC version)-I’ve always preferred the original 1978 British television production of this to the Americanized theatrical version released several years afterwards. Written by Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective), it is rife with the usual Potter obsessions: sexual frustration, marital infidelity, religious guilt, shattered dreams and quiet desperation…broken up by the occasional, incongruous song and dance number. Bob Hoskins is outstanding as a married traveling sheet music salesman in Depression-era England whose life takes interesting Potter-esque turns once he becomes smitten by a young rural schoolteacher (Cheryl Campbell) who lives with her widowed father and two extremely creepy brothers. Probably best described as a film noir musical.
Sullivan’s Travels-A unique and amazingly deft mash-up of romantic screwball comedy, Hollywood satire, road movie and hard-hitting social drama that probably would not have worked so beautifully had not the great Preston Sturges been at the helm. Joel McCrea is pitch-perfect as a director of goofy populist comedies who yearns to make a “meaningful” film.
Racked with guilt about the comfortable bubble that his Hollywood success has afforded him and determined to learn firsthand how the other half lives, he decides to hit the road with no money in his pocket and “embed” himself as a railroad tramp (much to the chagrin of his handlers). He is joined along the way by an aspiring actress (Veronica Lake, in one of her best comic performances). His voluntary crash-course in “social realism” turns into more than he had bargained for. Lake and McCrea have wonderful chemistry. The Coen Brothers borrowed the title of the fictional film within the film for their own unique take on the Depression, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? – “Yowsa, yowsa, yowsa!” This richly decadent allegory about the human condition (adapted from Horace McCoy’s novel) is one of the grimmest and most cynical films ever made. Director Sydney Pollack assembled a crack ensemble for this depiction of a Depression-era dance marathon from Hell: Jane Fonda, Gig Young (who snagged a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), Susannah York, Bruce Dern and Red Buttons are all outstanding; Pollack even coaxes the wooden Michael Sarrazin into his finest performance. The powerful ending is devastating and difficult to shake off.
Thieves Like Us-This loose remake of Nicholas Ray’s 1949 film noir classic They Liveby Nightis the late Robert Altman’s most underrated film. It is often compared to Bonnie and Clyde, but stylistically speaking, the two films could not be farther apart. Altman’s tale of bank-robbing lovers on the lam (Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall) is far less flashy and stylized, but ultimately more affecting thanks to a consistently naturalistic, elegiac tone throughout.
Carradine and Duvall really breathe life into their doomed couple; every moment of intimacy between them (not just sexual) feels warm, touching, and genuine-which gives the film real heart. Altman adapted the screenplay (with co-writers Joan Tewkesbury and Calder Willingham) from the same source novel (by Edward Anderson) that inspired Ray’s earlier film.
