So... Two Trump senior advisors - Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro - went on the Sunday talk shows this morning, and lit into Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Interesting, both Kudlow and Navarro used the same terminology to characterize Trudeau's (rather mild, frankly) comments about Trump's tariffs at the close of the G7 meeting.
In separate appearances, they both said that Trudeau had "stabbed the US in the back" with his comments.
Now, most of you are too young to recall that particular phrase being used in international diplomacy - or not sufficient students of history to be aware of its history. It's not a phrase that's used, normally, in diplomatic circles, or in discussions between nations.
Partially, that's because it is "undiplomatic." But the larger reason - and let us be brutally honest here... the reason that phrase got into the Trump administration's talking points this morning - is because that phrase was used repeatedly, to characterize both international actions and internal "threats," by one Adolf Hitler. Yes, Hitler, in reference to the "Jewish threat," in reference to the Versailles Treaty, etc. As far as I know, it hasn't been publicly uttered by one nation about another nation - certainly not among first-world nations - since 1945.
Somebody in the White House - presumably not Donald Trump, because I seriously doubt he's smart enough - but somebody (Stephen Miller?) - somebody decided to send Kudlow and Navarro out this morning to use Nazi code words to criticize Canada, for cryin' out loud.
This won't be nice, but it needs to be said: For those of you that voted for Donald Trump...This is what you voted for. Neo-Naziism. You get no free pass claiming you "didn't know." It's ludicrous to the point of idiocy to continue to claim that "Hillary would have been worse." It's a voter's responsibility to know - to do the homework. You don't just go into the voting booth to vent, to act out, to "send messages" without knowing what you're voting for. If you don't want to do the homework, then just stay the heck home.
Pennsylvania was a critical state, carried for Trump by a few thousand votes.... carried, I suspect, by voters who were too freaking ignorant to know what Donald Trump was - who thought they were voting for a smart, successful businessman - not a TV reality show con man whose businesses, one after another, went into bankruptcy, who stiffed employees and contractors, and who wound up being bankrolled by Russian gangsters. But ALL OF THIS WAS KNOWN BEFORE THE ELECTION. But many voters - not most voters, but enough to make a difference, voted more-or-less blindly for "change," lulled by the promises of a world-class huckster.
Those voters may well have written American democracy off. And yes, some of those voters will be reading this post.
I don't really begrudge people making mistakes - even world-class mistakes. I do believe that one has to own up to one's mistakes, though. Voters who continue to defend Trump, who refuse to face the reality of what they voted for... leave me cold. Either complete denial of reality... or else Trump really does represent what they believe in. Racism. Misogyny. Authoritarianism. Brutality. Cruelty. Dishonesty. Ignorance.