Trump's disapproval rating surges above 50 percent, setting new record

[smilesammich 10,727]

12 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

I thought Bannon was a fan of Hitler and the far right?  Now it is Lenin and the far left?

you might want to get to know a bit about the dude pulling trump's strings..

[Dakine10 5,452]

1 hour ago, Bill & Katya said:

I thought Bannon was a fan of Hitler and the far right?  Now it is Lenin and the far left?

  Quick google search would have led to the answer:

 

 “I’m a Leninist,” Bannon proudly proclaimed. Shocked, I asked him what he meant.

“Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/22/steve-bannon-trump-s-top-guy-told-me-he-was-a-leninist.html

[Transborderwife 4,666]

10 minutes ago, Dakine10 said:

  Quick google search would have led to the answer:

 

 “I’m a Leninist,” Bannon proudly proclaimed. Shocked, I asked him what he meant.

“Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/22/steve-bannon-trump-s-top-guy-told-me-he-was-a-leninist.html

I like Lennon too....imagine all the people...

[smilesammich 10,727]

2 minutes ago, Transborderwife said:

I like Lennon too....imagine all the people...

dont forget marx!

 

[Transborderwife 4,666]

8 minutes ago, smilesammich said:

dont forget marx!

 

Lol!  

 

Too bad I was thinking this Marx

[Dashinka 25,212]

2 hours ago, smilesammich said:

you might want to get to know a bit about the dude pulling trump's strings..

I was referring to all the comments labeling him a Nazi.  I am aware of the Lenin reference, but those here on the Left seem to think he would be labeled as a right wing extremist.  I don't think anyone would label Lenin as a right wing extremist, so now I am so confused.

[smilesammich 10,727]

1 minute ago, Bill & Katya said:

I was referring to all the comments labeling him a Nazi.  I am aware of the Lenin reference, but those here on the Left seem to think he would be labeled as a right wing extremist.  I don't think anyone would label Lenin as a right wing extremist, so now I am so confused.

bannon idolizes far right nationalist european leaders. it is what it is..bannon doesn't get those comparisons for nothing.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/14/white-nationalists-love-trump-s-steve-bannon-hiring-trump-every-day-christmas/214426

[bcking 3,157]

18 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

I was referring to all the comments labeling him a Nazi.  I am aware of the Lenin reference, but those here on the Left seem to think he would be labeled as a right wing extremist.  I don't think anyone would label Lenin as a right wing extremist, so now I am so confused.

I think the person who is confused is Bannon. He says he favors Lenin, but the living people he actually supports/likes are far right, not far left like Lenin was.

 

He also clearly doesn't want to "destroy the government" considering he is "Chief Strategist" or whatever title he has. His actions are far right, though he at one point claimed he admired Lenin. He was probably just confused.

[smilesammich 10,727]

3 minutes ago, bcking said:

I think the person who is confused is Bannon. He says he favors Lenin, but the living people he actually supports/likes are far right, not far left like Lenin was.

 

He also clearly doesn't want to "destroy the government" considering he is "Chief Strategist" or whatever title he has. His actions are far right, though he at one point claimed he admired Lenin. He was probably just confused.

no confusion, he does want to destroy the current system of government. bannon considers himself an outsider to the machine. trump is his and the altrights trojan horse. bannon is no idiot.

[bcking 3,157]

Just now, smilesammich said:

no confusion, he does want to destroy the current system of government. bannon considers himself an outsider to the machine. trump is his and the altrights trojan horse. bannon is no idiot.

To my knowledge, and I must admit I dont' spend much time reading about Steve Bannon, I don't believe he wants to set up a Communist form of government in the style of what Lenin dreamed. Correct me if I'm wrong?

[smilesammich 10,727]

2 minutes ago, bcking said:

To my knowledge, and I must admit I dont' spend much time reading about Steve Bannon, I don't believe he wants to set up a Communist form of government in the style of what Lenin dreamed. Correct me if I'm wrong?

Quote

If we view Trump’s “movement” as a radical faction within the Republican Party that has swept him to power despite opposition from within the party, the comparison is not as far-fetched as it may seem.

The disturbing parallels between Lenin and Trump include the role that foreign interference appears to have played in their rise to power. Although never definitively proven, Lenin’s rapid assent to power has long been credited to the complicity of Germany, which had a vital interest in destabilizing Russia, their key adversary in World War I. An exile in Switzerland up until April 1917, Lenin and his comrades had been allowed to pass through German lands in a special “sealed train” and eventually reach Petrograd. There, he joined other Bolsheviks to plot the second—proletarian—revolution. According to many prominent historians, Germans also provided significant funding for Pravda, the newspaper that spread the Bolsheviks’ propaganda.

One hundred years later in the US, American intelligence agencies and bipartisan members of Congress have come to a consensus that the revanchist and anti-democratic government of Russia meddled in the 2016 US election, using cyber warfare to tip the scales toward the pro-Putin candidate. What seemed unimaginable just a few months ago—lifting Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its annexation of Crimea—is now possible. In the post-industrial world, totalitarianism, too, can become global.

Now, despite losing the popular vote by nearly three million people, the new US president is forcing a radical agenda upon his country that is contrary to the beliefs of at least half of the 2016 electorate. If his victory is viewed as a kind of government takeover, aided by a hostile foreign power, the shock and unprecedented grief experienced by the 62 million Americans who voted for Clinton is not the loser’s inability to move on, and no “bubble.” It is something akin to what the Russians experienced 100 years ago when they woke up to the news that the legitimate provisional government had been disbanded by the Bolsheviks, whose stated agenda was the destruction of the Russian state and building a completely different—Soviet—entity in its stead. Indeed, the president’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has himself cited Lenin as an influence. Writer and historian Ronald Radosh wrote in the Daily Beast that Bannon approvingly told him in 2013, “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

But if Bannon can model his strategy after Lenin’s, so too can Trump’s opponents heed the lessons of the Russian Revolution. The Bolsheviks succeeded by activating fringe groups, including radicalized proletariats and soldiers deserting the war, and by demagoguery summed up in the slogans “Peace to the Peoples,” “Land to the Peasants,” and “All Power to the Soviets.” In the months leading up to the October coup, they spread false rumors about the provisional government colluding with the Germans, the personal life of the government’s leader, Alexander Kerensky, and generally equated the government with “exploiters,” “war profiteers,” and “traitors to the people.”

In 2016, Trump’s campaign adopted a similar strategy by mobilizing the economically disadvantaged—as well as racist, nativist, and other right-wing groups—against the so-called “coastal elites.” The difference is that while pre-revolutionary Russia had been truly devastated by World War I, Trump and company perpetuated the myth of American decline in an expanding economy (which also happens to be the largest and one of the richest in the world). This is not to deny the real economic struggles faced by many Americans—only to note that, in the reality shaped by mainstream and social media, Trump’s virtual “American Carnage” proved as persuasive as a real war.

Trump’s decision to appoint billionaires, bankers, and oil tycoons to his cabinet signifies that his administration does not plan to even pay lip service to a democratic government. The fact that many of the new cabinet members lack relevant expertise doesn’t matter; Lenin famously maintained that “any cook can run the state.”

Trump is no revolutionary, at least not in the Lenin’s sense of the word. He doesn’t seem to care about ideology, and he’s no ascetic. But fundamentally, their goals are not that different.

Lenin viewed the world as a space in which he could build the dictatorship of the proletariat with himself at the helm. To Trump, the world is a collection of structures upon which he can stamp his own name. Both gave little credence to the expertise or knowledge of others; both had no problem pandering to the basest instincts of the human race.

 

 

https://qz.com/898053/want-to-understand-what-trump-and-bannon-are-up-to-look-to-the-russian-revolution-of-1917/

[bcking 3,157]

Even the article mentions they are really comparing the methodology, not the ideology of the figures. If we ignore methodology the fact remains that Steve Bannon and Donald Trump are in no way Leninist, or Marxist-Leninists or anything even close.

[smilesammich 10,727]

1 minute ago, bcking said:

Even the article mentions they are really comparing the methodology, not the ideology of the figures. If we ignore methodology the fact remains that Steve Bannon and Donald Trump are in no way Leninist, or Marxist-Leninists or anything even close.

way i read it, article mentions both.

[bcking 3,157]

1 minute ago, smilesammich said:

way i read it, article mentions both.

I only read the part you quoted. Most of it is talking about similar methodologies. Towards the end it admits Trump doesn't have an "ideology" really.

 

Lenin, as far as we can know now 100 years later, truly believed in a system of government he was trying to create (or I guess in a way, a lack of system of government). He was never intending for himself, or anyone, to remain "at the helm". A soviet government was intended to be temporary. He died and Stalin after him had no plans for a "temporary" transition.

 

I would actually argue if you want to find a communist that Trump/Bannon may fit better with it would be Stalin. Marx and Lenin both clung to ideologies far too much to be compared to Trump, and their ideologies were far to different from Bannon's for there to be a good comparison. Bannon may want instability and revolution, but his goal isn't a socialist utopia. 

[smilesammich 10,727]

2 minutes ago, bcking said:

Bannon may want instability and revolution, but his goal isn't a socialist utopia. 

of course not.