Trump.

Editor,

Trump uses the same rhetorical weapons as right-wing media: scapegoating, incitement, fear mongering, war mongering, insults, lies. The problem of right-wing populism in the USA is far deeper and broader than just Trump, who is simply building on the groundwork laid over the last three decades by Limbaugh, Beck, and a panoply of vicious personalities who represent the interests of white supremacy, corporate plunder, war profiteering, and the subjugation of working people.

The USA has been becoming increasingly polarized for decades, during which time it has eliminated secular opposition in many countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, facilitating the rise of Islamic extremists off- and now onshore, and ripped the American social fabric to shreds. Divide and conquer is the tried and true method a ruthless minority with financial power relies on to seize or hold political power because they are vastly outnumbered and must therefore manipulate low-information individuals into supporting them by manipulating them emotionally. The forms this emotional manipulation take are ugly because hatred, anger, and violence are the emotions that elicit this support.

Re: "95,000 Words, Many of Them Ominous, From Donald Trump’s Tongue" (12/6/2015)