A Majority Of Americans See Their Fellow Citizens As Morally Bad

The following is part of a post by Robert Reich:

A survey released last Thursday by the Pew Research Center finds that 53 percent of American adults describe the morality and ethics of our fellow citizens as “bad” (ranging from “somewhat bad” to “very bad”). 

This puts Americans way out front of other nations on the we-hate-our-compatriots scale. In the 24 other countries polled by Pew, most people called their fellow citizens somewhat good or very good.

At the opposite end of the spectrum from the United States is Canada, where 92 percent say their fellow Canadians are good, while just 7 percent say they’re bad.

Why are we so down on our fellow citizens? It may have something to do with our politics. . . .

Once Trump took office, dislike of our fellow citizens soared.

Before he entered the White House, 47 percent of Republican and 35 percent of Democrats said people in the opposing party were “immoral.” 

By 2022, after years of Trump’s venom: 72 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Democrats called people in the opposing party “immoral.”

Since he’s been back in the Oval, it’s got even worse.

After Charlie Kirk was assassinated last September, Trump blamed a “radical left bunch of lunatics” for the killing. Vice President JD Vance, parroting Trump, vowed to “punish these radical leftist lunatics.”

 

As Democratic Senator Chris Murphy noted at the time, “Kirk’s assassination could have united Americans against political violence, but the Trump camp seems to be preparing a campaign to destroy opponents.”

When a federal judge ruled in March that Trump didn’t have authority to send National Guard troops into Los Angeles, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly — in language typical of what we hear from the Trump regime — called him a “rogue judge” and claimed Trump “saved Los Angeles” from “deranged leftist lunatics sowing mass chaos.”

After ICE agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Kristi Noem, Trump’s former secretary of Homeland Security, called the two of them “domestic terrorists.”

Since then, the Department of Homeland Security has sent out a steady stream of tweets — catching some 380 million views on X — claiming that its agents have been under attack by U.S. citizens whom it describes as “terrorists,” “rioters,” and “agitators,” and asserting, among other things, that “Americans are fed up with rampant criminality ruling this country.”

 

Meanwhile, Trump has been threatening to cut off funding for various programs that help poor Americans, by vilifying them as “fraudsters” and withholding money from Democratic-led states. 

A few days ago, Vance charged that Medicaid and food assistance programs were rife with fraud perpetrated by “bad actors in our society … who take the goodwill and trust of the American taxpayers and use it against us, [who] decide to make themselves rich.”

For almost a decade, Trump has told us that certain other Americans should be feared: among them, Democrats, liberals, Mexican Americans, Muslim Americans, Black Americans, transgender people, and LGBTQ+ people. All are presumed to be the “enemy within.”

As Barack Obama said at Jesse Jackson’s memorial on March 6, “Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other, and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don’t even count at all.”

Is it any surprise that a majority of Americans now describe the morality of other Americans as “bad?”

But I can’t help wonder: How much of our distrust and resentment is the byproduct of something more fundamental that’s been unfolding in America for over four decades — something Trump took exploited but that would have invited a hateful demagogue like Trump eventually: the increasing concentration of wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands? 

Trump took advantage of anger and distrust that had been building for years — at a system increasingly seen as rigged against most of us.

Trump And Miller Are Lying About Immigrants To Spread Hate

 

This is part of a post by Robert Reich on the hate being spread by Donald Trump and Stephan Miller:

Trump’s chief bigot, Stephen Miller, said on Fox News this month that immigrants to the United States bring problems that extend through generations. 

“With a lot of these immigrant groups, not only is the first generation unsuccessful,” Miller claimed. “You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.”

In fact, the data show just the opposite. The children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of most immigrants are models of upward mobility in America.

 

In a new paper, Princeton’s Leah Boustan, Stanford’s Ran Abramitzky, Elisa Jácome of Princeton, and Santiago Pérez of UC Davis used millions of father-son pairs spanning more than a century of U.S. history to show that immigrants today are no slower to move into the middle class than immigrants were a century ago.

 

In fact, no matter when their parents came to the U.S. or what country they came from, children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than their U.S.-born peers. . . .

Trump is also threatening to strip U.S. citizenship from naturalized migrants “who undermine domestic tranquillity.” He plans to deport foreigners deemed to be “non-compatible with Western Civilization” and aims to detain even more migrants in jail or in warehouses — in the U.S. or in other countries — without due process.

In addition to the unconstitutionality of such actions, they stir up the worst nativist and racist impulses in America — blaming and scapegoating entire groups of people.

As they make their case to crack down on illegal and legal immigration, Miller and Trump have targeted Minnesota’s Somali community — seizing on an investigationinto fraud that took place in pockets of the Somali diaspora in the state to denounce the entire community, which Trump has called “garbage.”

Let’s be clear. Apart from Native Americans, we are all immigrants — all descended from “foreigners.” Some of our ancestors came here eagerly; some came because they were no longer safe in their homelands; some came enslaved.

Almost all of us are mongrels — of mixed nationalities, mixed ethnicities, mixed races, mixed creeds. While we maintain our own traditions, we also embrace the ideals of this nation. . . .

Miller and Trump want to fuel bigotry. Like dictators before him, Trump’s road to tyranny is paved with stones hurled at “them.” His entire project depends on hate.

America is better than Trump and his chief bigot. 

We won’t buy their hate. To the contrary, we’ll call out bigots. We won’t tolerate intolerance. We’ll protect hardworking members of our community. We’ll alert them when ICE is lurking.

We will not succumb to the ravings of a venomous president who wants us to hate each other — or his bigoted sidekick.

A Bigot Occupies Our White House

 From Robert Reich:

This week’s shooting of two National Guard members by a gunman identified by the authorities as an Afghan national was horrific. 

But Trump’s response has been disproportionate and bigoted. He vows to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.” He intends to deport legal immigrants born in countries the White House deems “high risk.” 

He threatens to strip U.S. citizenship from naturalized migrants “who undermine domestic tranquillity.” He plans to deport foreigners deemed to be “non-compatible with Western Civilization.” He wants to detain even more migrants in jail — in the U.S. or in other countries — without due process. 

In addition to the unconstitutionality of such actions, these threats stir up the worst nativist impulses in America — blaming and scapegoating entire groups of people for the act of one gunman. 

Apart from Native Americans, we are all immigrants — all descended from “foreigners.” Some of our ancestors came here eagerly; some came because they were no longer safe in their homelands; some came enslaved. 

Almost all of us are mongrels — of mixed nationalities, mixed ethnicities, mixed races, mixed creeds. While we maintain our own traditions, we also embrace the ideals of this nation.

 

Here’s how Ronald Reagan put it in a 1988 speech, in which he explained: 

“I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, ‘You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won’t become a German or a Turk.’ But then he added, ‘Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.’”

A person becomes an American by adopting America’s principles, especially those principles summarized in the “self-evident truths” of the Declaration of Independence, such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Carl Friedrich wrote that “To be an American is an ideal, while to be a Frenchman is a fact.”

As an immigrant friend once put it to me: “I was always an American; I was just born in the wrong country.”

I don’t think I’ve ever quoted Reagan before. He was wrong about so many things. Yet Reagan understood something fundamental to this nation that Trump doesn’t have a clue about: America is an idea — a set of aspirations and ideals — more than a nationality. 

The only thing Trump knows is that he needs to fuel bigotry. His Straight White Male Christian Nationalism requires prejudice against anyone who’s not. 

Like dictators before him, Trump’s road to tyranny is paved with stones hurled at “them.” His entire project depends on hate.

 

America is better than this. 

We won’t buy Trump’s hate. To the contrary, we’ll call out bigots. We won’t tolerate intolerance. We’ll protect hardworking members of our community. We’ll alert them when ICE is lurking. 

We will not succumb to the ravings of a venomous president who wants us to hate each other.

Trump Is Scamming His Own Supporters - And They Love It

Donald Trump has been a conman all of his adults life. He has run a myriad number of scams - from a fake charity and fake university to a collection of funds for veterans (which they never got). 

But since he embarked on his political career, he has mostly been scamming one particular group - his own supporters! He is continually asking them for money, and selling them a huge number of products (bibles, sneakers, perfume, trading cards, etc.).

One is left to wonder why they keep sending him money and buying his dubious products - especially after the disastrous 2022 election.

Are they just not very bright? That may be true of some of them, but I think for most there is another reason. His existence as a political leader justifies their own views.

Donald Trump is a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, and believes is sustaining white privilege. Until Trump came on the stage, these beliefs were going out of style and not accepted by most decent people. Those who held those views were criticized and most of them didn't openly discuss their views.

But Trump's hateful views have given other haters the courage to once again become publicly vocal about their hate. He has given them permission to hate their fellow Americans, and they love it!

The core of his supporters are not nice people. Neither is Donald Trump. And the supporters are willing to keep paying him to keep him on the national stage promoting their own hate. Without Trump, they could not be so open and vocal about their hate.

The Evangelical Thirst For Power Replaces Jesus With Trump

I grew up in an evangelical church in the 1950's and early 1960's. It was a strict religion that looked down on and condemned adultery, lying, cheating, grifting, mistreating others, and any kind of "loose morality".

So, like many others, I was surprised when evangelicals went all in to support a man guilty of all those things - and continue to support him knowing all of his faults. Why do the evangelicals overwhelmingly support Donald Trump?

You must understand that the evangelical movement liked the world of the 1950's. Their religion was king in the country, and they controlled the laws that were passed. There was forced praying in public schools. Women were second-class citizens, who could not get a legal abortion or even a credit card (without a man's signature). Most minority citizens either could not vote or lived in areas where whites could easily outvote them. Poor people were stuck in poverty, and the little help they could get usually came from a church. And the culture was rather mundane, with both images and thoughts rigidly controlled.

It was the world as they liked it - and they wanted it to stay that way. But change happens - especially in a country with a Constitution and a vibrant democracy. And the United States changed - a lot!

Women were established as to have rights - even the right to have an abortion if they chose to do so. Male dominance began to recede. And with the sexual revolution, sex was recognized as being Ok outside of the institution of marriage.

Rights were also established for racial minorities, including the right to vote. Congress (and eventually even the presidency) were no longer the sole right of whites. And the demographics of the population was changing. Soon, the United States would become a nonwhite majority nation.

Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transsexuals were recognized to have rights - and they came out of the closet (even gaining the right to marry the person of their choice).

And with the advent of the internet, atheists and agnostics also came out of the closet and finally were able to proclaim their lack of religion. This started a decline in church membership.

All of these changes upset evangelicals - and it scared them. They saw their power begin to decline. Other Americans no longer had to live by evangelical rules. They tried to re-establish the old order through movements like the Moral Majority, but it didn't work. The genie was out of the bottle.

And then Donald Trump comes along. He was the antithesis of their beliefs, but he promised to restore their power. He was their hope to recreate the old white, christian, patriarchy. They eagerly jumped on board (ignoring the fact that it labeled them as racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and hypocritical).

It's sad, but given the choice of the teachings of Jesus and the hate agenda of Trump, they chose hate. 

Will The GOP Heal Itself Or Die After Trump Is Gone?

The United States used to have a viable two-party system. The Republicans were conservative and business-oriented. The Democrats were moderately liberal and worker-oriented. The two parties debated and eventually compromised for the good of the country.

That system began to go wrong in the mid-1960s. As a Democratic president signed several civil rights bills into law, southern racists abandoned the party and became Republicans. The Republicans were happy to have them. They thought they could use them while controlling them, and that worked - for a while.

Then the evangelicals began to flex their muscle through the "Moral Majority" movement, and their leaders cast their lot with the Republican Party. The GOP wooed them by siding with them on the abortion issue, homophobia, and the curtailing of women's rights. Once again, the GOP thought they could use them to retain power while keeping them in check, and that worked - for a while.

As jobs fled rural America, another disgruntled group showed itself. And this grew into the "Tea Party". Since the nation had a Democratic president (Barack Obama), this new group of discounted voters allied themselves with the Republican Party. Once again, Republican leaders thought they could use them and control them, and that also worked - for a while.

Then Donald Trump decided to enter the political arena. And he was shrewd enough to see what was happening in the Republican Party. He ascended to power by cobbling together the groups that were unhappy - the racists, the fundamentalists, and the discontented tea-partiers. He used this loose coalition (under the MAGA banner) to overpower the party leadership (and actually drive out of the party any moderates who opposed him).

After Trump came to be the party's leader, he placed the malcontents in power in the party - on both the national and state level. Now the malcontents that Republicans once thought they could control are controlling the party. Now the party has replaced mainstream conservative values with new values - racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and misogyny. And Trump is in control.

But Trump is getting old. He won't be around much longer. What is going to happen with the Republican Party once he is gone?

Does it return to the conservative business-oriented party of the past? Unlikely. The extremists are now in control, and it's not likely they will want to give up the power Trump helped them get.

Will a new leader take over the coalition known a MAGA? Also unlikely. No one has been able to appeal to these extremists like Trump did.

MAGA is a coalition of extremists and haters, and I don't see a way for more moderate politicians to kick them out of power. I think the hate and extremism is here to stay in the GOP. And that's bad news for them, since the majority of Americans don't like that.

It is very possible that after Trump, MAGA extremism will be the death of the party.

When the Whig Party lost the faith of the American people, they ceased to exist, and were replaced by the Republican Party. Today's GOP might suffer that same fate. If the GOP can't heal itself, then it needs to be replaced - and soon. We need a two-party system.