WAR, SPORT, AND ENTERTAINMENT
“ . . . Is [Donald] Trump not the logical culmination of where Republican politics have been
headed for many years now, going back to the Clinton and Bush presidencies, but
especially during the tenure of Barack Obama? Two qualities more than any
others have driven conservatism in our time. The first is cultural and racial
resentment, felt by the mostly older and very white population the GOP increasingly represents — resentment against a fast-changing,
more openly sexual America, as well as against dark-skinned immigrants, and
White House occupants, and gay people and political correctness and the
‘moocher class’ and all the rest. The second is what we might call spectacle—the unrelenting push
toward a rhetorical style ever more gladiatorial and ever more outraged (and
outrageous), driven initially by talk-radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and now reproduced on
websites, podcasts, and Twitter feeds too numerous to mention. There is a
strong tendency, perfected over the years by Fox News, to cover and discuss domestic politics as a combination
of war, sport, and entertainment all at once.”
Michael Tomasky, “Trump,” in the New York Review,
September 24, 2015, pp: 12-16.
