Centerleftfl
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Frankly, that analogy is MIND BOGGLING in itself, but then I didn't USE IT! We're sticking with 'OUR guy', we know he did it, we know he is denying it, we know the evidence is irrefutable and right in our faces. We don't care!
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By JOHN F. HARRIS
01/09/2020 05:08 AM EST
Altitude is a column by POLITICO founding editor John Harris, offering weekly perspective on politics in a moment of radical disruption.
Explain yourself, I asked readers who are indignant about President Donald Trump’s impeachment shortly before the holiday break. I wasn’t asking merely for a defense of Trump, but for an honest illumination of what defenders would think if the essential facts in the Ukraine matter were the same except for one — Hillary Clinton were president.
Several hundred people sent emails, the majority of them thoughtfully composed and accepting the invitation in good faith. This was a vivid window into the Age of Trump.
With sincerity, candor and even a measure of wistful idealism, people shared their views of a political and media culture they believe is cynical at its core. If almost nothing is on the level, almost anything goes.
For Keith Swartz, who is 66 years old and runs a recruiting firm based in Tacoma, Washington, almost anything includes a president he regards as “manic, uneducated, illogical,” and also “essentially a horrible person … vulgar, amoral, narcissistic.”
Wait, this a defense of Trump? Yes, hang on. He’s done a fine job on the economy, in particular, in the face of a Democratic opposition that has bent rules and abused process for three years in an implacable bid to thwart him. “To those of us who support what he has accomplished,” Swartz concluded, “it feels like he is our O.J.”
That’s right: O.J. Simpson, not previously a conservative hero. In his 2016 promises to “Make America Great Again,” Trump did not invoke the racially riven Los Angeles of the 1990s as his model. But Swartz’s admirably forthright comparison—with biased media and unscrupulous Democrats serving as proxies for racist cops—captured the spirit of many replies.
The metaphor also echoed for me, as I began covering national politics (after a stretch as local reporter) just as the sordid O.J. melodrama was underway—with no premonition on my part that the deeply embedded malice and competing perceptions of reality on display in that case would come to define our public culture broadly.
That gets to the challenge I posed readers. There is no reason anyone must justify his or her opinions to me. I was curious about how people justify their opinions to themselves. (You can still play. By all means, send an email to explain@politico.com.) This was a sincere appeal, as impeachment offers a useful peg to ponder how two large themes in my journalistic career have collided in a seemingly irreconcilable way....
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/01/09/trump-support-impeachment-096606
He Is Our O.J.’
POLITICO readers explain why they’re standing with Trump during impeachment.
POLITICO readers explain why they’re standing with Trump during impeachment.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By JOHN F. HARRIS
01/09/2020 05:08 AM EST
Altitude is a column by POLITICO founding editor John Harris, offering weekly perspective on politics in a moment of radical disruption.
Explain yourself, I asked readers who are indignant about President Donald Trump’s impeachment shortly before the holiday break. I wasn’t asking merely for a defense of Trump, but for an honest illumination of what defenders would think if the essential facts in the Ukraine matter were the same except for one — Hillary Clinton were president.
Several hundred people sent emails, the majority of them thoughtfully composed and accepting the invitation in good faith. This was a vivid window into the Age of Trump.
For Keith Swartz, who is 66 years old and runs a recruiting firm based in Tacoma, Washington, almost anything includes a president he regards as “manic, uneducated, illogical,” and also “essentially a horrible person … vulgar, amoral, narcissistic.”
Wait, this a defense of Trump? Yes, hang on. He’s done a fine job on the economy, in particular, in the face of a Democratic opposition that has bent rules and abused process for three years in an implacable bid to thwart him. “To those of us who support what he has accomplished,” Swartz concluded, “it feels like he is our O.J.”
That’s right: O.J. Simpson, not previously a conservative hero. In his 2016 promises to “Make America Great Again,” Trump did not invoke the racially riven Los Angeles of the 1990s as his model. But Swartz’s admirably forthright comparison—with biased media and unscrupulous Democrats serving as proxies for racist cops—captured the spirit of many replies.
The metaphor also echoed for me, as I began covering national politics (after a stretch as local reporter) just as the sordid O.J. melodrama was underway—with no premonition on my part that the deeply embedded malice and competing perceptions of reality on display in that case would come to define our public culture broadly.
That gets to the challenge I posed readers. There is no reason anyone must justify his or her opinions to me. I was curious about how people justify their opinions to themselves. (You can still play. By all means, send an email to explain@politico.com.) This was a sincere appeal, as impeachment offers a useful peg to ponder how two large themes in my journalistic career have collided in a seemingly irreconcilable way....
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/01/09/trump-support-impeachment-096606
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