NOW THAT TRUMP IS GONE, LEARN HOW HE MADE SCUM AMERICA THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE FORCE ON THE PLANET!Following in the footsteps of Aaron James's A Theory, Scott McMurrey has applied the theory to Trump and his minions.The result is thorough lambasting of the people who put Trump in place and the even more reprehensible people who have come out of the shadows since Trump's election.McMurrey takes on the whole cadre of cretinous creatures who flocked to Trump, from the right-wing nutjobs left over from the Tea Party years to the slime who admired him from playing a mogul on TV to the bottom-dwelling Republicans who just saw him as a thug and a bully who would get them what they wanted.TABLE OF CONTENTSTrump, King of AssholesAsshole Trump's Natural ConstituencyWhy Trumpist Assholes are RepublicansWhy Assholes are Comfortable in the Republican PartyWhy Asshole Nation Adores TrumpDon't Feel Bad for TrumpistsBeating Back Trump's Asshole NationEven "Never-Trump" Republicans are Responsible for the Rise of Asshole NationTrump, Roy Moore, and the Rise of Scum AmericaCrush Scum America and Stop the Careening Eighteen-Wheeler of DemocracyIf you are disgusted by Trump and by knuckle-dragging conservatism, this book will be a pick-me-up for your decent spirit. McMurrey speaks the language of anti-Trumpers. He recognizes that Trump mania is just the latest (and let's hope the last!) manifestation of conservatism—a worthless, unnecessary, and fear-filled ideology that promotes selfishness and has even incited insurrection against America.Pick up Asshole Nation for yourself and give copies to all your Trump-averse friends!
"In other words, an asshole is a jerk with a belligerent, aggressive, offensive attitude about his or her jerkiness.
Under this definition, Trump is - absolutely and objectively- a total asshole".
Asshole Nation: Trump and the Rise of Scum America by Scott McMurrey
OK. Well.
You are not going to want to read this book unless you:
Are a political Junkie
Do not like Trump
Do like Trump but are intellectually curious about what the other side has to say.
Interested in any kind of book that has asshole in the title.
I love Political reads as I am a complete Political animal but when reading them, I do have to be careful as it is easy to like a particular writer and agree with SOME..but not ALL..of what they say.
In the case of Asshole Nation, there is much to agree with. But also some things I am not sold on and do not agree with.
First off, Scott McMurray hates Trump. That is pretty obvious. In this book, he attempts to explain to the reader, how the birth of Trumpism became possible. He traces its roots back far, so you get a History lesson as well. And for me, that was good because there was much I did not know.
What I like here is the wit and the intensity with which this book is written. I like the "take no prisoner" approach and I like Scott McMurrey. I like him alot. I wish he was advising the Biden campaign because something tells me they are going to need alot of advising, as "Hunter Biden" becomes the new "Hillary's emails".
He articulates so much that is true including the fact that the Democrats..for whatever reason..do not know how to fight,. I liked how he goes all the way back to the times of the Civil War in explaining the roles of each party..as they were then and as they are now.
And I agree with what he says about the working class. In Asshole Nation, McMurray argues that Dems are to apologetic. He destroys the whole notion of "Trump won because the Democrats forgot about the "common working class man and woman". He presents much evidence for that, including the fact that many Trump voters are actually not Working Class but Upper Class. He backs that up with real numbers too.
I like this author. I am going to read more of his books. I had a field day reading this one .
BUT:
I do not agree with all of it. In particular, I do not agree with the notion that all Republicans are jerks. (He does not label all Repubs as Assholes..that is saved for the "Roy Moore's and Lindsay Grahms's of politics.
I don't hate or even dislike all Republican s. I like many of them. I like John Kascich. I liked John Mccain..very much so.
And I will freely admit I have many Republican friends (although a few of them are now saying they are going to vote for Biden). I have no friends that are obsessed with Trump rallies None of my friends are racist or cruel. But those types ARE out there. One of those assholes was a person I attempted to engage with politely who then proceeded to wish cancer on me. So yes, they exist.
But I am not into the us versus them mentality. Everyone has different reasons for voting the way they do and not all Trump voters v ted for him because they're jerks. I know people who do not follow politics and don't even know about half this stuff. They just always vote Republican because they are fiscally conservative or whatever.
Now the rise of Scum America..the Roy Moore's like I said..that is explained in great detail and I agree with all of it.
In summary, this is a book that I am glad I read and that anyone who fits into any of the above mentioned categories would maybe like too. There is much to agree with and some that I do not agree with at all. That is good though as that's what being part of a free society is all about. Happy reading.
I absolutely agree with this book. I came to this country for a better life along with my family. We are not rapists, criminals, or freeloaders. I gave up my citizenship from Mexico to be a part of this great country. I served in the US Marines to show how much I came to love this country and appreciated the opportunity. I never thought this country would be as corrupt as the one I left. It is bittersweet I guess, but I refuse to believe that there’s nothing that can be done. For the first time ever, I voted in November for all Democrats because I believe in progress and I believe there are good people out there.
Ok, my review is not so much about subject but how it was presented. Politically I identify with the author as an unapologetic progressive.He makes his case bluntly and with vigor. No words are minced, language is crude. My issue is this. Is it really necessary to drop down in the gutter with your political views? As a country, we have been down there too long. While I applaud calling things as they are, I don't think this level of viciousness is warranted. Just my opinion. Also my kindle version was full of editing issues, misspelled words, missing words.
And with their selective memories about W.--whose asshat cockiness, ignorant disdain for competence, inability to connect Republican policy preferences to the suffering they create, and cavalier attitude to government were the stepping stones that led to the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, the abominable asshole Donald Trump, and the Asshole Nation that adores him--they continue to paper over the fact that Republicans paved the road, brick by brick, for the arrival of Trump and his Asshole Nation. That is a disgrace they can never live down..not any Republican deserves to get a pass for that.
Exposes the nonsense spouted by believers in the Republican Party. Suggests some remedies that could deliver better results. This is a short book worthwhile in the context of today’s politics.
This is a fact! The scum of America rules the GOP. It is presented in a form easy to read and easy to recognize. It proves for sure, money is the root of all evil!
Scott, what a dumb sicko you are. Your rate is 0 stars, however I was not given that choice in the star rating. I agree with you about Trump, but you got goofy in deciding to degrade all Republican presidents. Most of them were great presidents. You have proven to be unhinged..
I hate Trump as much as any American, but this book is just foul and largely free of facts. At $0, it’s overpriced, and though it’s short, it drags on and on.
The writer doesn't mince words in his descriptions of the Republican lawmaker, the Republican president and the Republican voter. His topic can only honestly be written about with that utterly appropriate harshness.
He makes a number of arguments and presents them in a faux scholarly manner. His facts are easily verified because they are facts (not Faux News reports). His opinion of the social trajectory has pretty much finally been acknowledged by U.S. media, after ignoring eight years of Bush Jr's policies, ignoring eight years of continuous racist attacks on Obama (his mother, grandparents, wife and children) and the racist platform that the current president promised his voters.
He suggests that unchecked the U.S. will at best devolve into an apartheid state, with increased poverty across the entire working class, loss of what legal protections they still enjoy and draped loosely with Evangelical trappings. I agree, though I'd probably describe it as a fascist system with third world poverty levels, without any pretense of worker rights (no government protections and unions made illegal), without even the transparent veneer of any civil rights for non-whites, loss of voting rights for any but white males and the end of any legal equality or protections (such as they are) for women, all of which will be justified by Christian doctrine. I imagine it would look like Handmaid's Tale with crushing poverty on an Indian slum level, in a country shunned by the rest of the planet.
It's been written by others that that ship has pulled into port and is in the process of unloading.
He suggests decent people have to organize to vote against the Republican agenda which he rightly described as a decades long march (to Munich, my words) toward a capitalist paradise with so little shame that it would make Putin blush. There are several problems with that. For whom do they vote and why and how.
The Democratic party has no history of legislating civil rights that weren't forced on it. Its DA's just like their Republican counterparts threaten innocent people of color with life sentences if they demand a trial (there is at least one documentary film that addresses this national practise), they recover Medicaid and welfare payments by threatening non-white males to take paternity tests which only exclude half of all males in the entire population -look into the legal standard), Obama's Attorney General wouldn't step in to prosecute George Zimmerman but whitewashed every police killing of a black man, which made it into the national news but had no problem with a black woman receiving a sixty year sentence for firing a warning shot to stop an abusive ex-partner violating a restraining order from attacking her -prosecuted by the same Florida DA who failed to convict Zimmerman. The Democratic party backed Joe Biden's crime bill which has thrown hundreds of thousands of non-white males in jail with decades long sentences, many times for misdemeanors. The Democratic party has never opposed the closing of women's clinics and other restrictions on abortion access. The party made no effort to strengthen voting rights and shrugged off the sometimes day long waits at predominantly non-white precincts across the country, even in Democratic party controlled states.
Encouraging citizens to vote is a good start but again for whom and why. He probably meant to include the need to take over the candidate selection process in order to change the party's moribund culture. That might make a difference over time.
The writer keeps referring to decent people versus the scum. I like his description of the scum and it's hard to disagree with it. His decent people label is problematic. How many of these decent people or their children were or are outraged by the abuses both legal and extralegal mentioned above. Where and when were there big decent people rallies to keep health clinics for poor women open, demand equal justice for non-whites, revamping of the entire legal system, revamping the election process (from gerrymandering to ridiculously restricted voting access for working class and especially non-white voters. These descent people consider it brave to publicly confront the thousand and one abuses that pass for social norms in most of the US. I think that their silence can be explained as "it doesn't affect me, so why should I care". Rethinking the concept of the decent people and who they are, what they believe and when or if they will act to promote major structural changes in the society, might be revisited in another book.
We are all complicit in letting our choices be limited by party organizations, accepting with shameful complacency the heartache, the horror, the terror and abuse that are so routinized that they've become iconic across the globe. We are complicit when we only think that the current president is the problem and not the widespread support for a new Nazi like social structure that is being cemented.
With the turmoil in our media, the protests, the continuous hate from both (maybe I should say all) sided I am trying to determine my position for the 2020 presidential election. Mr. McMurrey's book cover was rude, vulgar, and objectionable on several levels. The book lives up to the impression presented by its cover. When one looks beyond the vulgar, hateful message one finds misrepresentations , interpretations that are hate filled, and statistics that justify the 'rants and slants. I reject Mr McMurrey's perception of the people in this country and it's people.
I think you could have made a better point and book if you took out all the swearing. Got to be a bit much. Had to try and read over that but you made it hard because it was always there.
Listening to AI butcher the word 'a$$hole' over and over again was beyond annoying. I didn't rate this book poorly because of my politics (very liberal), but because AI is crap at reading with the inflections that ultimately make audiobooks interesting.
This is less a book, given its 74 pages, than it is an old fashioned propaganda pamphlet. As such, it doesn't address details as to the lure of Trump. This is the question I've been asking for some years and McMurrey does provide claims, but doesn't have enough evidence - the 'line' from Reagan to Dubya doesn't work as an argument. Yes, things have clearly got worse in US politics, but you can't base your entire argument on a glib definition of an Asshole.
What isn't mentioned is what gives Trump his continuing influence, it has to be more than giving millions license to be similar assholes. We know the GOP is shit scared of losing the 20 odd million votes MAGA-man holds in his hands. Even republicans repulsed by him, back him for their own benefit. So yes Scott, the GOP are assholes in this regard. We also know both parties are hostage to the huge number of votes held by minorities like the NRA, religious right and billionaires with clout - but twas always thus, so these doesn't account for Trumpmania either.
It would be interesting to see McMurrey's take on the 2020 election fallout; a shitstorm of obvious lies, manipulation, and Trump's ability has to get away with anything, using threats, backed with lawyers. Make no mistake, he is dangerous. He is a narcissist of pathological proportions, he incited a riot where people died. Despots and dictators do this.
We've seen this kind of idol worship in politics before - Mussolini, Hitler and every other despot on the planet. But they did it with fear and a big fucking army. How this happens in a supposed democracy is more complicated. Albeit a compromised democracy- one where you can lose the popular vote by millions and make POTUS because the college system allow the fucktards of Florida put you in - on 500 votes. The Trump irony is, the only election ever stolen was by the Republicans, putting Dubya in.
If Trump gets a second term, he will spend it exacting political and personal retribution on those who dared challenge him. He does not give one fuck about America or its people. For him, his image must be protected and constantly embellished at all costs. He is massively insecure and has to prove to the world he is something he isn't, every day of his existence. He thinks money and bullying will achieve this. So far, he's not wrong.
The author has taken the bull by the horns and spelled out exactly who and what being an asshole is about. No longer content for assholes to simply have hijacked a small percentage of people in the US, he has spelled out exactly how they have acted solely for their own benefit against the entire population whom they presently govern. This book was written just prior to the midterm elections of November 2018. Those elections marked the first time our nation put so-called conservatives in their places and exposed them for the base and degenerative creatures they are. I'm black and white, the assholes have been identified and put on notice that Americans are better than their collective egos, desires, and demands. I think this is an important read, because if Rumpty and his disgusting, deplorable system are not defeated in the 2020 elections, the U.S. will have been effectively lost. This is a quick read, but don't let it's simplicity fool you. The message is vital. The threat is real. We, those who do not qualify as assholes, must act and get out country back. It can be done, but it won't be easy. Don't delay. Time for decent Americans to act. VOTE THEM OUT! OR SUFFER THE DIRE CONSEQUENCES. WE HAVE THE POWER TO CLEAN OUT THE DEPRAVED AND SELFISH REPUBLICANS. JUST DO IT.
The continued support for lies and selfishness has taken over what, in most folks eyes, had been a principled political party into a group that unflinchingly treats the now-former president as a 'Dear Leader' who is unerring and right. From titles of author's bibliography, consistent with other work.
He writes there is no conservative political thought, just reactionary selfish movemens that has established cult of personality here after it had been destroyed in Western Civilization by the likes of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. Enter Donald Trump.
McMurray has written off conservatism from the U.S. political world citIng numerous instances of fault. His terminology is off-putting. Take coherent statements out of that framework to find value.
Title identified audience, others need not apply. Quick read. Not for most Republicans.
Value -- understanding of, to me, unthinkable POV that helps explain Trump's standing with much of our 'body politic.'
Other value - light read after months of highly regarded non-fiction.
A valid catharsis for a frustrated, pandemically/politically-enslaved democracy!
God!...If only he'd used more "grownup" expletives! As a mental health professional, licensed to diagnose & treat mental disorders and certified as a clinical supervisor, it was good for my soul to read Mr McMurrey's open, clear, and (unedited?) assault on the individual who had been grossly mis(everythinged) in our 2016 presidential election by a nation of longsuffering, searching, struggling citizen-voters. My only criticism is that, as Mr McMurrey was accurately describing the pathology of the individual in the office of chief executive-commander in chief-president-(albeit) LEADER of the free world, and of US, the people who had placed him in that position...that Mr McMurrey was displaying some of the very same pathological name-calling used to describe the gross shortcomings of those who seem to support our national nightmare. That being said, thank you, Mr McMurrey, for your candid, forthright description of the very real pathology that is destroying our democracy...
I have already purchased copies of this book for my family and I have told friends to buy it. I have recommended it on Facebook. Everyone needs to read this book: Progressives and reasonable Democrats because it explains what we already know, focusing our thoughts so that we can clearly explain issues to others. Anyone who does not approve of trump because it shows the magnitude of the damage he is doing to the US and why, at all costs, we must vote him out. Trumpists because it will thoroughly piss them off to look into the mirror it holds up for them to see how truly reprehensible they are. And also, the very rare person who supports trump who may not be totally lacking in morals and ethics so that they can see what they are actually supporting.
Propoganda in favour of decency that pulls no punches.
Don’t expect this to be unbiased commentary.In 2022 this reads as a little outdated with no pandemic around when this was first written. A fierce condemnation of the Republican Party and its lack of political principles over the last 30 years that have led to Trumps presidency. It stops at end of 2018 with a democratic call to arms for congressional elections.I agree with many of its comments,but it is highly repetitive and the author uses the word asshole a few hundred times too many. Great that Trump has gone,but however, not forgetter.Good has still to triumph over evil
The author is entirely in sync with my own political strategy, which I coined in 2010 as an Electoral Revolution. Bernie's Political Revolution is a subset of the Electoral Revolution.
McMurrey and I are in consensus: we have to oust the Republicans (and I would add the plutoDems) ASAP to have a future habitable planet and social coherence for the long run. We need to link the call for a Climate national Emergency Declaration to the Green New Deal (not mentioned in this book since it was written before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made it famous).
Doesn't have to happen even with the Orange Moron posturing and bullying from he While House. All it will take is for regular, saner, non-asshole people to get off their butts and vote him out in November 2020. Unless he's removed first, following Impeachment. As a non-citizen immigrant, I'm shocked by what the Asshole-in-Chief cretin has already done to the once fair and tolerant nation. I hope I'll be inspired to stay after the election. Remains to be seen.
Trump's arrival to the presidency of the United States was a disgrace, because it brought a swindler to power. Someone only interested in himself and in protecting other dark characters in the country to achieve his goals.
This is the thesis of this book. And it says that those who support Trump are probably just as perverted and treacherous as he is.
It's like the fight between the chairos and the fifis. However, I think that at least in what Trump is and the incompetent people he surrounded himself with, he is completely right.
There is no holding back as the author assails the MAGA nation and by extension not merely Trumpists, but the GOP in general. He raises an alarm that emphatic and decisive defeat at the ballot box is the only remedy. He points out hypocriti8cal association with evangelicals and how MAGA leadership and a majority of Trump voters are not the working class victims purportedly being the core of the movement. (Related? Trump Is The Opposite of Who His Supporters Claim He Isstarting around 3:35 but definitely 10:35.)
I feel as though my brain has done a 360 degree turn. I didn't like Trump, thought He was brain free but I couldn't vocalize it. I can now. Have read the book twice. Will read it again. I have a friend with an MA in Political Science from American University in DC. Gave him a copy so we can discuss. Of course, he has always been a Democrat. I can only thank McMurry for writing a smack in the face book that may wake up a lot of reasonable people. The Scum will continue to wallow in the swamp Trump has turned into a septic tank.
Super entertaining, quick and blistering read. Just the brutal, honest, logical truth. Too many people try to address the Trump phenomenon with emotional and sympathetic thinking. That is wrong. Trump supporters do not have such thoughts, they cannot be communicated with in a sympathetic manner and do not recognize their own guilt. This cuts through the BS and just tells it like it is.
Mr McMurrey has a blunt, but quick and compelling interpretation of Trump's role as supreme leader of the bankrupt Republican party and Scum America. There's limited nuance in the telling, starting with title, but I believed most of it. I've observed the racism, hypocrisy, meaness, and mendacity that Trump and his Republican compatriots have made into lethal weapons since Regan. And McMurrey tells it straight about all of it in my opinion.
What this guy says is sad but true. He accurately describes the political state of affairs as it was a couple of years ago when he wrote this stuff. I really like his writing style, except he has a bit too much referencing of earlier chapters. Also, I wish he hadn’t used the confederate flag in the cover design. I understand why he did it, but it will turn off too many potential readers.