{"id":385306,"date":"2018-11-16T16:32:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T15:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/whither-the-melting-pot\/"},"modified":"2018-11-16T16:32:52","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T15:32:52","slug":"whither-the-melting-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/whither-the-melting-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Whither the Melting Pot?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It is practically axiomatic: Donald Trump makes everything worse.<\/p>\n

Is it all part of a plan?\u00a0There is no easy answer to that question because, more likely than not, Trump has only attitudes and instincts, not strategies. But let\u2019s give him more credit than he deserves and stipulate, as lawyers might say, that his machinations are calculated \u2014 even if to no purpose beyond his own glorification and enrichment.<\/p>\n

Then the method behind them would be the same both for his passion, campaigning, and for governing, an activity about which it seems that he could care less. It is to count on the acquiescence of the majority, while enthusing the cult-like followers in his base and flimflamming as many others as he can.<\/p>\n

His is a politics of division that consists essentially in appealing to what Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president, called \u201cthe darker angels of our nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is why, if there will be life as we know it after Trump, de-Trumpification will be Job Number One.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the views of leading Democrats and liberal pundits, this does not mean restoring the political order that made Trump possible. It means forging a politics \u2014 preferably outside the duopoly party system, but within it too, if need be \u2014 that acknowledges the fact that the (lesser evil) Democratic Party, or at least its leadership and old guard, though considerably less abhorrent than its rival, is good for not much more than mitigating some of…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair It is practically axiomatic: Donald Trump makes everything worse. Is it all part of a plan?\u00a0There is no easy answer to that question because, more likely than not, Trump has only attitudes and instincts, not strategies. But let\u2019s give him more credit than he deserves and stipulate, as lawyers might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-385306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}