Two crosscurrents: 1. Donald Trump is getting sneered at by mainstream sources. 2. It might help him.
Sometimes it is hard to notice obvious things, since they hide in plain sight. Donald Trump is treated like a joke. He was treated like a joke candidate when he began his campaign a year ago. He has been treated as a joke over the past year as his campaign steamrolled over 16 candidates and the entire Republican establishment. And especially in the past two weeks--the post Judge Curiel comment period--the joking has gotten greater.
Serious commentators who laughed at Trump in the past look foolish now. US Rep Keith Ellison on ABC told George Stephanopolis back in July 2015 that Trump could actually win the GOP nomination. Stephanopolis scoffed with good natured laughter, "I know you don't believe that." Watch: Click here for a 15 second clip
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| Colbert mocks Trump |
Now the laughter isn't that he couldn't possibly win. It is harder edged: Trump is dangerous fraud, not an inconsequential one. Late night TV shows which historically attempt to be non-partisan or at least equal-opportunity teasers, now openly mock Trump. Seth Meyers' Late Night show devoted some 7 minutes to open insults of Trump: Click here for Seth Meyers
Two nights ago Steve Colbert piled on: Click here for Steve Colbert
PBS documentarian Ken Burns was the Commencement Speaker at Stanford, a normally non-political venue:
This may not hurt Trump. It might even help him. Trump's support comes in part from people who resent being dissed by the elites of polite society. This includes political elites, media elites, business elites, university elites. Polite State Department voices say it is self-destructive for Americans to broad-brush Islam as the enemy because after all, Turkey is in NATO and we use air bases there and the Muslim-faith Kurds are the strongest most reliable fighters against ISIS. Isn't that persuasive?
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| TSA gives her a careful screen |
No. It does not persuade people who think the whole system is in a crazy loop of self-delusion. A recent conversation with a couple of white male Rotarian Chamber of Commerce oriented business people help illustrate the point. They generally vote Republican and the derision pointed at Trump only strengthens their support of him. What is persuasive to them was the observation that eleven year old girls in shorts and flip flop sandals are screened and searched for weapons by the TSA at the Medford, Oregon airport before being allowed on a commuter airline while a 29 year old Muslim in Orlando, Florida with an FBI file and angry Facebook posts and several face to face interviews have their files closed and are allowed to buy weapons.
It looks like "political correctness gone crazy". They are afraid to be accused of "profiling". "The should profile. Christian extremists aren't doing the killing. Muslim extremists are." As they see it, security is sacrificed for the pretense that angry Muslim men are by law--ridiculous politically correct law-- to be considered no more dangerous than little white kids. Obama and Hillary Clinton spout politically correct hogwash while Trump tells the simple truth on the back of everyone's mind.
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| Fighting back against political correctness |
These men are not hillbilly low achieving stoners; these are educated white men with significant jobs, who hear Trump and think he raises significant points. (They also think that Trump's ongoing questions about whether Obama was born in America and whether he could be maybe secretly a Muslim or Muslim-sympathizer are open questions. Where there is smoke, there is fire, they have told me, and why else would Obama voice opinions that are so contrary to common sense, that angry Muslims are legally only as risky as white kids with an i-pad.)
It is possible that the mainstream mocking of Trump will injure his campaign. Being mocked hurt Low Energy Bush, Little Marco, and Lyin' Ted. But it may not hurt Trump because being mocked is the Trump brand.
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