Donald Trump's term as president was chaotic, with an ever-changing cast of characters installed in top positions. But, amidst the mayhem, senior advisor Stephen Miller was a constant. Miller, an anti-immigrant hardliner, started out advising Trump on the 2016 campaign and remained in the White House for Trump's entire tenure. He was the architect of many of Trump's most controversial policies, including the initiative to separate migrant children from their parents.
I wonder if Stephen Miller’s “immigration policy” to separate children from their parents somehow echoes his own estrangement from his family where he has been MIA for the years since he aligned himself with breaking apart immigrant families. Is the personal, political?
Have a good look at Mr. Miller’s absence of facial or bodily affect. There is little there that I see in his viscera, but anger and contempt. Contempt, as one psychologist has described it, is an admixture of anger and disgust!
High office is not a good place to work out your problems with immigration, or anything else. It is a responsibility where responsible citizens who vote, vote for the best from amongst us, not the worst. Anger, disgust, frustration, narcissism, in a few words, “malignant sociopathy,” belongs in remedial couseling, not in public office!
Miller is demonstrably a sadistic monster, but examining somebody's body language in public skirts real close to the same sort of body fascism these dopes engage in all the time. He has plenty of speeches and writings that show that contempt without projecting emotions on a lack of affect (which is used to dehumanize neurodivergent folks often). Fully agree that his thinking belongs nowhere near politics though.
My earlier comment seems to have elicited both support for the idea, which in my experience was first voiced in the 1960s, i.e., “the personal is (or can be) the political,” if we lack adequate self-awareness or sufficient consciousness; that high office should be peopled by those with good mental health boundaries, and that body language and facial visceral can potentially be an unintended portal to our emotional maturity!
I might only add that what voters need with less than adult candidacies for high office is the same degree of rigor sometimes shown to mental health stability some believe should be given applicants for gun permits, driving licenses and marriage certificates!
Existing FBI inquiries into the backgrounds of political and judicial candidates leaves much to be desired. Congressional hearings the same. Perhaps this would catch some of the toxicity now finding its way into the public’s business.
Although I agree all those characteristics fit in the ‘should be’ column, I have no desire to see the Pandora’s box of consequences that would follow from the federal government or any other entity conducting mental health wellness & maturity investigations or relying on body language & facial expression as evidence of fitness. There is a reason those conditions are not more broadly applied. In the wrong hands it is a terrible and powerful weapon.
There is a provision for a president to be removed but the Achilles heel is people he appointed make the decision, and if the president disagrees a 2/3 vote in the House & Senate. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxv
Stephen Miller was chosen because of the views he espoused. Same story for Steve Bannon; Mike Flynn … the list goes on. I believe the words of Maya Angelou should be our guide: Believe them when they tell you who they are.
That is the truest test. They tell us and keep showing us who they are.
I appreciate your reasoning, but putting mental health structures around anything in public life is only going to empower the dishonest and harm the marginalized. I don't care whether or not a public official is crazy or not if I already know they're evil.
It is a convenient way to label & remove dissenters and others who are inconvenient with the additional benefit of discrediting them for life. Bad enough that it is used on a smaller scale in the US without making it a national soviet-style political weapon.
Actually, it's likely that Stephen Miller is unconsciously trying his damndest to make sure that every ELSE in the nation is as miserable as he is in the depths of his own being (misery which results from his own choices which his ego is too weak to allow him to change lest that be seen as an admission of fault).
Unfortunately, there is a long history of people who are horribly oppressed having 'traitors in their midst', who are even worse than their white masters as they have to prove their enthusiasm. Miller is one of these. He's a vile opportunist.
If Trump is reelected, he will issue an Executive Order on Inauguration Day decreeing that the constitution is suspended. What else does “I will be a dictator on day 1” mean?
The constitution will be useless if he is elected. Due process means NO process when it comes to enforcement against someone who scoffs at the rule of law.
Exactly. He said what he meant and he meant what he said. He ain't lying about this!
You know I recently read where a Palestinian political group is suggesting that we "boycott Biden" because even though trump might be bad, this sends a strong message to the Biden administration about Gaza.
Why do people think they can play around with this? Strategize around the actions (potential or otherwise) of this constantly grifting criminal?
Like there will be enough time after a 2nd trump term to "fix shit."
Miller as noted is Jewish; further as a relative has stated: if Miller’s policies were in place when his own family came to US, he would not exist. We must be aware and wary of Miller/Trump’s plans. As has been said: ‘when someone tells you who they are, believe them.’ We don’t want to be Weimar America and ‘sleepwalk into dictatorship.’
Miller doesn’t appear to understand that in the world of white supremacy, which he touts, he is considered to be non-white because he is a Jew. Does he think he somehow erases his ethnicity because he espouses hatred towards the “other”?
It took only one crucial election for Hitler to begin his reign and dismantle the German government. We got a short reprieve in 2020, but 2024 is the real deal. If Trump wins just watch how the wheels of our government are turned against the people.
Trump has a history of not knowing people, places and things even when he is pictured or videoed standing right beside them. The fine art of gaslighting is much better with him than his golf game or choices in places to hide top secret documents.
As for Miller, he is smart and he is single minded in his pursuit of anti- immigration and advancing white causes. He is a huge part of the brains in Trump's second term. Scary talk from Trump camp. I can't say it enough, 74 million voters bought into Trump in 2020 and he is the GOP front runner today despite indictments, lawsuits and pending legal issues on his ability to run. That tells us his words like "Vermin" and "deportation camps" are reaching their target. audience. Bigly.
My overall view is how obvious it is that Trump has no empathy for human beings. We are facing a planet filled with refugees who cannot find safety and sustenance in the countries where they were born. Since our nation was formed by refugees, mostly white Europeans, who usurped the land of the "Red Race" and then created success with enforced help from the "Black Race," we live in a thriving land that has been multi-racial from it's inception (that with a Constitution) but has been avowedly racist throughout its history. [see the racial belief systems of most of our Presidents]
It's as if we have been a family divided against itself.
By the way Trump never has to read a book--he is fed snippets that excite him by people like Miller who do read. Remember how he would only listen to summarized versions of daily briefings while in the WH?
I remember learning that Trump kept Miller and Mnuchin and a few others on at full salaries after he left office. So, they are the architects of Trump's future plans. How interesting that both Miller and Mnuchin were raised as Jewish. (I'm not "prejudiced" but apparently they are!)
His family history goes further than being raised as Jewish. His mother’s family is Jewish and fled to the US. His uncle also makes the point that his nephew serving as a useful vessel doesn’t offer permanent protection:
‘Had Wolf-Leib waited, his family likely would have been murdered by the Nazis along with all but seven of the 2,000 Jews who remained in Antopol. I would encourage Stephen to ask himself if the chanting, torch-bearing Nazis of Charlottesville, whose support his boss seems to court so cavalierly, do not envision a similar fate for him.”
I’m don’t see why Jarod & Ivanka being family members who practice the Jewish faith would mean Miller is not vulnerable. Not necessarily from DJT but the hate groups who respond to him and what Miller puts in motion. That was more the point of his uncle.
Stephen Miller is worse than Hitler's Judenrates. Some Jews worked for Hitler to stay alive. Miller works for trump because they share ideologies of hatred toward others. I won't live long enough to spit on Miller's grave, but I sure as Hell hope, I outlive trump, so I can travel to wherever they inter his disgusting bones to spit on his.
Thanks to Judd Legum for this story--we need more widespread awareness and attention to Miller. I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t know who he is, don’t remember or were not aware of SPLC’s long fight to get his emails and the incredible exposé that resulted from that (such as the book recommendations discussed here).
In 1923, the Nazi Party was a small, right-wing extremist group. In November of that year, they conspired to overthrow the democratic government of Germany by launching an ill-fated insurrection.
The Beer Hall Putsch was put down by the Munich police. Its ringleaders, including Adolf Hitler, were arrested.
Hitler was convicted of high treason and sentenced to five years in prison. He served only eight months of his sentence.
Years later, Hitler, by then a former convicted felon, became Chancellor of Germany.
Hitler was not immediately appointed chancellor after the success of the July 1932 elections, despite being leader of the largest party in the Reichstag. It took the economic and political instability (with two more chancellors failing to stabilise the situation) to worsen the situation and support of the conservative elite to convince Hindenburg to appoint Hitler.
Hitler was sworn in as the chancellor of Germany on the 30 January 1933. The Nazis were now in power.
History always repeats itself. Time after time.
By November 2024, Fraud Trump will have been convicted for multiple felonies. Yet, there is a chance that Liar, Fraud, Con, Criminal Trump will be re-elected President.
Yes, the parallels are there. Voting is our voice. We can’t leave the future to chance or be misled by “they are all alike”, “witch-hunt” and claims of silencing him. Even his “victim” claim isn’t new. Hitler and his supporters played the victim card. This 1920 cartoon caption has been translated as “He alone of two billion people on earth may not speak in Germany.”
To be fair to Trump.... he said Biden would lead the country into "World War Two" if he was re-elected, so maybe he was off school when that era of history was being taught.
I’ve been daydreaming of a rundown like this on Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung- I see that guys name all over the place and have no idea who he is or how he got into this role. The only thing I know for certain is that no intellectually honest or remotely empathetic person could possibly spew the bullsh*t he does every day.
Yes, please do a dive into Cheung, Judd. He presents as a Bond villain and should also be featured in DEM ads. Show the voters the rogues gallery of who would be in charge.
The magats frame this as a fight betwen good & evil and they're right!
They've been taken by malignant forces, dehumanized themselves and now wish to move on to others to dehumanize and punish them too, not realizing that in their zeal to consign all others to some sort of hell, the fascists they enable will put THEM there with US and we'll ALL scream together!
Who would have thought it could happen here?
And even if (which I believe we can) we vote our way past the current monster, the enablers (republicans) and their consorts (dark money MF's) have their infrastructure built, ready to choose and promote the next American Fascist Monster.
There will be much to be done in the aftermath of this coming election, provided we prevail.
So I guess that makes Stephen Miller the new Joseph Goebbels, "chief propagandist for the Nazi Party" according to a quote from Wikipedia. I'm not surprised a Jewish guy would know all the right buttons to push, if they have the right personality disorders and knowhow based on knowing the Holocaust from an inside perspective. His family should have noticed this long time ago and nipped it in the bud when he was young with counseling.
It is unreasonable (the kindest adjective I can think of) to blame his family for the path he chose. He doesn’t deserve to have his responsibility diluted by blaming his childhood or family.
Counseling requires a willing participant not parental fiat. Miller has been described as something of a teen ‘troll’ who found power in fear and cruelty.
That kind of thing doesn't happen by accident. It appears Miller was getting the wrong kind of attention and decided more of it was better or easier to get than no attention at all. Lots of kids have done that, including me, before wiser heads than mine turned me around. Also, the family needs to be part of the therapy for it to work well. Cognitive behavioral counseling has progressed greatly in helping people with bad thinking habits to improve their ability to live a happier life without the need to hassle others. He may also have a learning disability that made him an outcast.
I don’t dispute the benefits of therapy or that it is more advanced now. On the other hand, I don’t presume what parents did, didn’t do or should have recognized 20+ years ago. There is no way to know whether counseling occurred or would prevent / redirect a teen from certain political beliefs; becoming radicalized. There is no indication he was rejected by peers for any reason except his love of political controversy.
Miller grew up surrounded by the fallout from the CA battle over Prop 187. At 16-17 he absorbed and spouted ideas from Limbaugh, David Horowitz, Wayne LaPierre and similar ideas encapsulated in the text and arguments over Prop 187. There was a recession in CA which whipped up support for passing the ballot initiative. Although his views were outside the norm in his family & community, they were not outside the mainstream in the state at the time. His initial attraction may have been related to resentment prompted by financial issues at home that necessitated him going to a public high school. Unlike many people, as circumstances improved his views did not moderate - again ‘probably - because of the support they generated.
Miller went on to Duke University where he received encouragement, notoriety, a BA and was a leader in the ‘conservative’ movement on campus with an opinion column in the Duke paper. Miller was helped, promoted and encouraged every step of the way by the likes of Horowitz, Fox ‘News’, Michele Bachman, Jeff Sessions etc.
How to prevent radicalization (and cults) is something we’ve been unable to solve. Regardless, I believe as adults we have to take responsibility for our own actions. The same applies to DJT or any of us who actually had abysmal parenting.
I wonder if Stephen Miller’s “immigration policy” to separate children from their parents somehow echoes his own estrangement from his family where he has been MIA for the years since he aligned himself with breaking apart immigrant families. Is the personal, political?
Have a good look at Mr. Miller’s absence of facial or bodily affect. There is little there that I see in his viscera, but anger and contempt. Contempt, as one psychologist has described it, is an admixture of anger and disgust!
High office is not a good place to work out your problems with immigration, or anything else. It is a responsibility where responsible citizens who vote, vote for the best from amongst us, not the worst. Anger, disgust, frustration, narcissism, in a few words, “malignant sociopathy,” belongs in remedial couseling, not in public office!
Miller is demonstrably a sadistic monster, but examining somebody's body language in public skirts real close to the same sort of body fascism these dopes engage in all the time. He has plenty of speeches and writings that show that contempt without projecting emotions on a lack of affect (which is used to dehumanize neurodivergent folks often). Fully agree that his thinking belongs nowhere near politics though.
Yes, he appears to be a vessel of overflowing self-loathing. A dangerous man empowered by another malignant one.
I believe his uncle, who wrote this article volunteers his mental health services at facilities that serve immigrants and refugees:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/13/stephen-miller-is-an-immigration-hypocrite-i-know-because-im-his-uncle-219351/
My earlier comment seems to have elicited both support for the idea, which in my experience was first voiced in the 1960s, i.e., “the personal is (or can be) the political,” if we lack adequate self-awareness or sufficient consciousness; that high office should be peopled by those with good mental health boundaries, and that body language and facial visceral can potentially be an unintended portal to our emotional maturity!
I might only add that what voters need with less than adult candidacies for high office is the same degree of rigor sometimes shown to mental health stability some believe should be given applicants for gun permits, driving licenses and marriage certificates!
Existing FBI inquiries into the backgrounds of political and judicial candidates leaves much to be desired. Congressional hearings the same. Perhaps this would catch some of the toxicity now finding its way into the public’s business.
Although I agree all those characteristics fit in the ‘should be’ column, I have no desire to see the Pandora’s box of consequences that would follow from the federal government or any other entity conducting mental health wellness & maturity investigations or relying on body language & facial expression as evidence of fitness. There is a reason those conditions are not more broadly applied. In the wrong hands it is a terrible and powerful weapon.
There is a provision for a president to be removed but the Achilles heel is people he appointed make the decision, and if the president disagrees a 2/3 vote in the House & Senate. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxv
Stephen Miller was chosen because of the views he espoused. Same story for Steve Bannon; Mike Flynn … the list goes on. I believe the words of Maya Angelou should be our guide: Believe them when they tell you who they are.
That is the truest test. They tell us and keep showing us who they are.
I appreciate your reasoning, but putting mental health structures around anything in public life is only going to empower the dishonest and harm the marginalized. I don't care whether or not a public official is crazy or not if I already know they're evil.
"Remedial couseling"
Is that kind of like a "locked ward?"
For Stephen, this idea I like.
Politicizing mental illness and confinement is an authoritarian tool. Mental health fitness became a hot topic regarding candidates in the 1960s-70s when it was used to smear Goldwater. https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2022.05.5.30
It is a convenient way to label & remove dissenters and others who are inconvenient with the additional benefit of discrediting them for life. Bad enough that it is used on a smaller scale in the US without making it a national soviet-style political weapon.
I lived through the time with Goldwater Ann. My sense of humor is akin to whisteling one's way past the graveyard.
Actually, it's likely that Stephen Miller is unconsciously trying his damndest to make sure that every ELSE in the nation is as miserable as he is in the depths of his own being (misery which results from his own choices which his ego is too weak to allow him to change lest that be seen as an admission of fault).
Thank you for highlighting this clear and present danger and especially the ever-nefarious Stephen Miller. He is a nasty piece of work.
Miller is still Jewish and won't escape the antisemitism he is unleashing
Unfortunately, there is a long history of people who are horribly oppressed having 'traitors in their midst', who are even worse than their white masters as they have to prove their enthusiasm. Miller is one of these. He's a vile opportunist.
Strong words and all of them true!
Unfortunately anyone who supports Big Orange is immune from everything except the man himself.
The real tragedy is that Trump is a criminal and an Insurrectionist and should not even be on the ballot.
One would hope that the "Constitution" they all (RW nutters) wail about, bleat about and quote from, will prevail.
After all, it does provide a means to address this very problem. An insurrectionsit attempting to run for public office.
If Trump is reelected, he will issue an Executive Order on Inauguration Day decreeing that the constitution is suspended. What else does “I will be a dictator on day 1” mean?
The constitution will be useless if he is elected. Due process means NO process when it comes to enforcement against someone who scoffs at the rule of law.
Exactly. He said what he meant and he meant what he said. He ain't lying about this!
You know I recently read where a Palestinian political group is suggesting that we "boycott Biden" because even though trump might be bad, this sends a strong message to the Biden administration about Gaza.
Why do people think they can play around with this? Strategize around the actions (potential or otherwise) of this constantly grifting criminal?
Like there will be enough time after a 2nd trump term to "fix shit."
Yes. Unfortunately, I have little faith in our Supreme Court.
Yes, there is that unfortunate nuance.
May the fleas of one hundred thousand camels infest the loins of Roberts, Thomas, Coney-Barrett and Kavanaugh especially.
Excellent and necessary piece.
Miller as noted is Jewish; further as a relative has stated: if Miller’s policies were in place when his own family came to US, he would not exist. We must be aware and wary of Miller/Trump’s plans. As has been said: ‘when someone tells you who they are, believe them.’ We don’t want to be Weimar America and ‘sleepwalk into dictatorship.’
Miller doesn’t appear to understand that in the world of white supremacy, which he touts, he is considered to be non-white because he is a Jew. Does he think he somehow erases his ethnicity because he espouses hatred towards the “other”?
It took only one crucial election for Hitler to begin his reign and dismantle the German government. We got a short reprieve in 2020, but 2024 is the real deal. If Trump wins just watch how the wheels of our government are turned against the people.
Stephen Miller, the absolutely most vile, evil, vicious gargoyle walking on two legs.
Trump has a history of not knowing people, places and things even when he is pictured or videoed standing right beside them. The fine art of gaslighting is much better with him than his golf game or choices in places to hide top secret documents.
As for Miller, he is smart and he is single minded in his pursuit of anti- immigration and advancing white causes. He is a huge part of the brains in Trump's second term. Scary talk from Trump camp. I can't say it enough, 74 million voters bought into Trump in 2020 and he is the GOP front runner today despite indictments, lawsuits and pending legal issues on his ability to run. That tells us his words like "Vermin" and "deportation camps" are reaching their target. audience. Bigly.
Welcome back, Judd!
My overall view is how obvious it is that Trump has no empathy for human beings. We are facing a planet filled with refugees who cannot find safety and sustenance in the countries where they were born. Since our nation was formed by refugees, mostly white Europeans, who usurped the land of the "Red Race" and then created success with enforced help from the "Black Race," we live in a thriving land that has been multi-racial from it's inception (that with a Constitution) but has been avowedly racist throughout its history. [see the racial belief systems of most of our Presidents]
It's as if we have been a family divided against itself.
By the way Trump never has to read a book--he is fed snippets that excite him by people like Miller who do read. Remember how he would only listen to summarized versions of daily briefings while in the WH?
I remember learning that Trump kept Miller and Mnuchin and a few others on at full salaries after he left office. So, they are the architects of Trump's future plans. How interesting that both Miller and Mnuchin were raised as Jewish. (I'm not "prejudiced" but apparently they are!)
Every stereotype contains a sliver of truth, and Miller is a consummate “self-hating Jew.” Spooky, sad, and terrifying.
His family history goes further than being raised as Jewish. His mother’s family is Jewish and fled to the US. His uncle also makes the point that his nephew serving as a useful vessel doesn’t offer permanent protection:
‘Had Wolf-Leib waited, his family likely would have been murdered by the Nazis along with all but seven of the 2,000 Jews who remained in Antopol. I would encourage Stephen to ask himself if the chanting, torch-bearing Nazis of Charlottesville, whose support his boss seems to court so cavalierly, do not envision a similar fate for him.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/13/stephen-miller-is-an-immigration-hypocrite-i-know-because-im-his-uncle-219351/
I'm thinking that Jared's serious Jewish heritage is making Jews (ones I know) think Trump would protect anyone whose identity could endanger Ivanka.
I’m don’t see why Jarod & Ivanka being family members who practice the Jewish faith would mean Miller is not vulnerable. Not necessarily from DJT but the hate groups who respond to him and what Miller puts in motion. That was more the point of his uncle.
Stephen Miller is worse than Hitler's Judenrates. Some Jews worked for Hitler to stay alive. Miller works for trump because they share ideologies of hatred toward others. I won't live long enough to spit on Miller's grave, but I sure as Hell hope, I outlive trump, so I can travel to wherever they inter his disgusting bones to spit on his.
Thanks to Judd Legum for this story--we need more widespread awareness and attention to Miller. I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t know who he is, don’t remember or were not aware of SPLC’s long fight to get his emails and the incredible exposé that resulted from that (such as the book recommendations discussed here).
Where does this kind of monster come from? After reading this article from Legum, a great overview of Miller’s early trajectory can be found in this Terry Gross interview with Jean Guerrero, author of Hatemonger, a 2017 book about Miller and his white supremacist, anti-immigrant and even anti-refugee network. https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905403716/hatemonger-paints-trump-advisor-stephen-miller-as-a-case-study-in-radicalization
As Legum’s story shows, Miller has only been developing these false narratives and strategies for a white ethnostate since then.
Peace ... but also vigilance!
In 1923, the Nazi Party was a small, right-wing extremist group. In November of that year, they conspired to overthrow the democratic government of Germany by launching an ill-fated insurrection.
The Beer Hall Putsch was put down by the Munich police. Its ringleaders, including Adolf Hitler, were arrested.
Hitler was convicted of high treason and sentenced to five years in prison. He served only eight months of his sentence.
Years later, Hitler, by then a former convicted felon, became Chancellor of Germany.
Hitler was not immediately appointed chancellor after the success of the July 1932 elections, despite being leader of the largest party in the Reichstag. It took the economic and political instability (with two more chancellors failing to stabilise the situation) to worsen the situation and support of the conservative elite to convince Hindenburg to appoint Hitler.
Hitler was sworn in as the chancellor of Germany on the 30 January 1933. The Nazis were now in power.
History always repeats itself. Time after time.
By November 2024, Fraud Trump will have been convicted for multiple felonies. Yet, there is a chance that Liar, Fraud, Con, Criminal Trump will be re-elected President.
DO NOT LET THAT HAPPEN.
Get out to VOTE! And, vote all BLUE!
Yes, the parallels are there. Voting is our voice. We can’t leave the future to chance or be misled by “they are all alike”, “witch-hunt” and claims of silencing him. Even his “victim” claim isn’t new. Hitler and his supporters played the victim card. This 1920 cartoon caption has been translated as “He alone of two billion people on earth may not speak in Germany.”
https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/posters/hitlerfips.jpg
Mr. Trump's campaign is a Russian-based smear campaign by manufactured cult.
Losers can't win--but they can destroy our faith in Democracy.
That's the whole point of the Trump presidency. To make Americans feel Democracy isn't worth fighting for--
To be fair to Trump.... he said Biden would lead the country into "World War Two" if he was re-elected, so maybe he was off school when that era of history was being taught.
I’ve been daydreaming of a rundown like this on Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung- I see that guys name all over the place and have no idea who he is or how he got into this role. The only thing I know for certain is that no intellectually honest or remotely empathetic person could possibly spew the bullsh*t he does every day.
Yes, please do a dive into Cheung, Judd. He presents as a Bond villain and should also be featured in DEM ads. Show the voters the rogues gallery of who would be in charge.
The magats frame this as a fight betwen good & evil and they're right!
They've been taken by malignant forces, dehumanized themselves and now wish to move on to others to dehumanize and punish them too, not realizing that in their zeal to consign all others to some sort of hell, the fascists they enable will put THEM there with US and we'll ALL scream together!
Who would have thought it could happen here?
And even if (which I believe we can) we vote our way past the current monster, the enablers (republicans) and their consorts (dark money MF's) have their infrastructure built, ready to choose and promote the next American Fascist Monster.
There will be much to be done in the aftermath of this coming election, provided we prevail.
So I guess that makes Stephen Miller the new Joseph Goebbels, "chief propagandist for the Nazi Party" according to a quote from Wikipedia. I'm not surprised a Jewish guy would know all the right buttons to push, if they have the right personality disorders and knowhow based on knowing the Holocaust from an inside perspective. His family should have noticed this long time ago and nipped it in the bud when he was young with counseling.
Miller’s family has disowned him.
They’ve said he is a disgrace.
I understand the sentiment, but it doesn't seem to be helping.
It is unreasonable (the kindest adjective I can think of) to blame his family for the path he chose. He doesn’t deserve to have his responsibility diluted by blaming his childhood or family.
Counseling requires a willing participant not parental fiat. Miller has been described as something of a teen ‘troll’ who found power in fear and cruelty.
That kind of thing doesn't happen by accident. It appears Miller was getting the wrong kind of attention and decided more of it was better or easier to get than no attention at all. Lots of kids have done that, including me, before wiser heads than mine turned me around. Also, the family needs to be part of the therapy for it to work well. Cognitive behavioral counseling has progressed greatly in helping people with bad thinking habits to improve their ability to live a happier life without the need to hassle others. He may also have a learning disability that made him an outcast.
I don’t dispute the benefits of therapy or that it is more advanced now. On the other hand, I don’t presume what parents did, didn’t do or should have recognized 20+ years ago. There is no way to know whether counseling occurred or would prevent / redirect a teen from certain political beliefs; becoming radicalized. There is no indication he was rejected by peers for any reason except his love of political controversy.
Miller grew up surrounded by the fallout from the CA battle over Prop 187. At 16-17 he absorbed and spouted ideas from Limbaugh, David Horowitz, Wayne LaPierre and similar ideas encapsulated in the text and arguments over Prop 187. There was a recession in CA which whipped up support for passing the ballot initiative. Although his views were outside the norm in his family & community, they were not outside the mainstream in the state at the time. His initial attraction may have been related to resentment prompted by financial issues at home that necessitated him going to a public high school. Unlike many people, as circumstances improved his views did not moderate - again ‘probably - because of the support they generated.
Miller went on to Duke University where he received encouragement, notoriety, a BA and was a leader in the ‘conservative’ movement on campus with an opinion column in the Duke paper. Miller was helped, promoted and encouraged every step of the way by the likes of Horowitz, Fox ‘News’, Michele Bachman, Jeff Sessions etc.
How to prevent radicalization (and cults) is something we’ve been unable to solve. Regardless, I believe as adults we have to take responsibility for our own actions. The same applies to DJT or any of us who actually had abysmal parenting.