There's an element of clowning and entertainment to Trump, that makes it surreal and hard to understand to what extent he is pretending to be a fascist or an authoritarian. Jonathan Chait More Quotes by Jonathan Chait More Quotes From Jonathan Chait President Obama is so much smarter and a better communicator than members of Congress in either party. The contrast, side by side, is almost ridiculous. Jonathan Chait party president sides Activists measure progress against the standard of perfection, or at least the most perfect possible choice. Historians gauge progress against what came before it. Jonathan Chait progress choices perfect Netanyahu and his coalition have no strategy of their own except endless counterinsurgency against the backdrop of a steadily deteriorating diplomatic position within the world and an inexorable demographic decline. The operation in Gaza Jonathan Chait political wings two Illiberal left ideology has its greatest strength on campuses because campuses are one of the few places in American life where a certain kind of far-left politics can actually impose hegemony on other ideas and really control the discourse in a way it can't in most places in American life where even moderate liberals are more of a minority. Jonathan Chait hegemony minorities ideas The story of the Republican Party is of a far-right that has moved from the fringes of the party to a complete domination of the party. The moderate, mainstream and pragmatic leaders of the party have been pushed out or died off. Jonathan Chait party leader stories That's an important Obama accomplishment: he raised taxes back to Bill Clinton levels, and made a major dent in inequality doing so. That's certain to be reversed, that's going to disappear. The Republicans are going to slash the rich's taxes. Jonathan Chait bills accomplishment important Donald Trump will be a tragedy, a sad joke in American history. Jonathan Chait american-history trump tragedy Trump's not the future; his ideas and his coalition are a dead end. Jonathan Chait trump dead-ends ideas We're not going to be living in a world of abundant coal power in a hundred years. Jonathan Chait coal world years We're not going to be living in a world where white identity politics is the basis for a major political party. Jonathan Chait identity-politics party white Obamaism is the future of America. Jonathan Chait future-of-america america In the long run, however much damage we come through, Obama's vision is the one that's going to be left standing. It's a question of how much pain and suffering America has to endure in the meantime. Jonathan Chait pain running america Trump has a lot of authoritarian tendencies that need to be a serious concern. Jonathan Chait trump serious needs I worry about the entire structure of American democracy under Trump. Jonathan Chait structure democracy worry One of the things we've learned during the Obama era is how important norms are, because we've seen how the Republican Party behaved against Obama. So much of what they did was to smash pre-existing norms, which were nothing more than assumptions of how people would behave, which didn't have any real basis in rules or limits. Jonathan Chait party real people Liberals will only support you after you're gone. Jonathan Chait support-you support gone Liberals tend to romanticize the past, past leaders' failures. Jonathan Chait leader past It's possible that the clowning and the buffoonery and the entertainment are a bigger part of what's happening than we've allowed. And that Trump is primarily an entertainer who wants ratings, and an undisciplined speaker, and it will all be less than we think. It's something that we have to consider as a possibility; we don't know. Jonathan Chait entertainment want thinking I'm convinced in 100 years Obama will have an important place in the civic pantheon of American life. Jonathan Chait pantheon important years It's possible that Trump will have success by staging jobs theatre, rather than creating jobs. It's the inverse of what Obama did: saving an enormous amount of jobs without having the televised theatre to go along with it. Jonathan Chait creating theatre jobs
