Trump's Winning Strategy on Voicing Race.
We are watching a remake of 'The Magnificent Seven'.
Yesterday's post wondered if Trump erred in saying--and repeating--that a "Mexican" judge could not be a judge in his Trump University case. This is a classic iteration of the Trump strategy of delegitimizing, not disagreeing, with an opponent. The judge was born in Indiana. He is of Mexican ethnicity.
Was this going too far? Would Trump lose credibility? The jury is still out but it appears that once again Trump has created a winning formula in trusting that he was saying what is really on the voters' minds. Indeed, the dust-up is creating exactly the frame that works well for Trump.
1. Trump says something newsworthy and shockingly racially insensitive: Judges of Hispanic ethnicity are too prejudiced to serve, at least on issues involving Trump or the border.
2. Media people jump on this and question Trump, giving him an opportunity to recant or modify his comments, now described as "walking back" comments.
3. Trump instead re-affirms them, repeating his goals and intentions--in this case to build a wall to separate Mexicans.
4. Establishment GOP figures go "tsk-tsk."
Newt Gingrich said, “I don’t know what Trump’s reasoning was, and I don’t care. His description of the judge in terms of his parentage is completely unacceptable.”
Mitch McConnell, in an interview on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd:
McConnell: I couldn't disagree more with a statement like that.
Chuck Todd: Is it a racist statement?
McConnell: I couldn't disagree more with what he had to say.
Paul Ryan, in a TV interview, "It's reasoning I don't relate to. I completely disagree with the thinking behind that." Click here for Paul Ryan on NBC
This is what a big win looks like for Trump. It is a win, not a loss. In the big picture this response validates the major Trump frame of what is happening in America. It may not be pretty, but it is successful political strategy.
1. Trump is presenting himself as the truth teller, saying what people feel, maybe strongly, maybe weakly, maybe just a tiny bit. Mexicans, as contrasted with Europeans, are "different." They aren't "regular" Americans. He has found an audience that believes it, or at least goes along with it.
2. Trump is scolded by the politically correct establishment crowd, the crew too polite and scared to call a spade a spade. The establishment people criticize his words (but not him personally.) Trump is shown not to be part of their crowd (good for Trump) and they are shown to be prissy nit-pickers (even better for Trump.) This affirms Trump as not the loser establishment mealy-mouth establishment. The polite crowd were pussy-footing around, failing to protect Americans from immigrant interlopers: weak.
3. The establishment people still support Trump, proving they lack the courage of their convictions which is why they had failed to protect America from bad trade deals, a weak foreign policy, and immigrants. Besides, deep down they know that Trump is simply saying loud and clear what they had been dog-whistling for decades, and furthermore Trump's votes show he is just saying what people know is true, or at least not all that bad to think, thereby reaffirming Trump (really, really good for Trump.)
"The Magnificent Seven" is being played out here. Remember the plot: A peaceful town has a problem with outsider bandits. In comes Yul Brunner and his team, the Magnificent Seven. They use violence to solve the problem. ("We deal in lead, friend.") They then leave, telling the children that they aren't really heroes, that the peaceful parents are heroes, because the values of the townspeople remain the honorable ones. Therefore, violence is understood to be necessary, while simultaneously polite values are re-affirmed. The Seven flouted the social order in order that the social order could survive.
Trump is Yul Brynner, the great leader of the Magnificent. Sometimes a civilized society needs a warrior. Trump voters were ripe to believe that America is under siege and that it needs to be "taken back." Talk radio and cable news and the GOP establishment has been saying it for 7 years. They got the message and believe that Trump is doing what needs to be done to maintain the values of the party of the values of Lincoln, even as it appears on the surface that he is flouting them.
There is no substitute for watching The Magnificent Seven, but here is the trailer:
2 comments:
Interesting (?), Perhaps sickening is a better description of two of the most repugnant people in politics refusing to call out on his bigotry, but disagreeing with it, knowing in the hollow cavity where their souls must have been at one time what spineless tapeworm's they really are.
I meant to say "refusing to call Trump out on his bigotry. But after all, T-rump is only saying out loud what has been at the heart of the Republican Party since Strom Thurmond and his Klan brethren walked out of the Democratic Convention in 1948.
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