An America-First Rebellion That Is Just Beginning

Joe Klein: “It will probably take a miracle for Trump to rebound sufficiently to win the presidency. But a loss in November is not the end of this story. In the midst of the Trump crumple, the New York Times put up a video of the idiot fringe of his supporters, filmed over the past year by Times reporters. These true believers seemed half crazed, disgraceful, barbaric. It was shocking to watch, and terrifying. Trump the candidate is a farce, but these people aren’t. They have always been with us, the racists and hatemongers; they have always, thankfully, been a minority. But they seem more threatening now. They are part of an international movement. They have their own self-reinforcing media, feeding them a diet of paranoid distortions. They are being prepared by the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh–and, of course, by Trump himself–for a ‘rigged’ election that they will lose. And then what?”

“Trump may go away as a serious political force; he will find new business franchises to foist on the unwitting. But his followers will remain–and they will remain our fellow citizens, a slowly dwindling demographic force, more desperate in their diminution. We badly need to find a way to talk to them when this cataclysm of a campaign is over.”