Donald Trump will give his big nominating speech.
All eyes on Trump tonight. Historically the big "Yes, I accept your nomination" speech is a big deal. It gets a huge audience and the political press analyzes the speech and expands its impact. Tonight may be different. Trump does not need to introduce himself to voters. Even the uninterested and non-political know him.
But this would be a chance to shock Americans by re-introducing himself if he wants to. He could push reset. What would the new Donald Trump look and sound like? He would sound like Donald Trump, the new Donald Trump: Donald Trump, Junior.
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| Donald Junior |
Yesterday I described Donald Trump, Jr.'s speech briefly, and gave a link: Click Here
The speech is the one the new re-set Donald Trump can do. If The Donald can manage to sound like Donald Junior then The Donald will have solved one of the lingering problems that he has--that he does not yet seem entirely plausible for the job because he isn't presidential. The Donald should do it.
1. It preserves the Donald Trump brand. When given by Donald Junior it preserves the brand name and when given by The Donald it would preserve it even better. It would fulfill the promise that The Donald could be presidential when he needed to be.
2. It uses grown up languages and sentences and sounds like he takes the job seriously.
3. It gives a coherent and cohesive picture of what is wrong with America and what the solution is, linking the important strands of a business friendly and nationalistic populism.
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| Too much immigration hurts the working poor |
4. It would have significant appeal to progressive Sanders voters because it re-frames the anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric of The Donald into a matter of care for the interests of the hard working legal immigrants and native born workers. There is a progressive argument for immigration control, and it could tamp down the charges of blatant racism and xenophobia. Being anti-immigrant can be an expression of concern for the American working class. The free movement of labor means low wages for entry level jobs. Black liberal Congresswoman Barbara Jordan made that very case. The Donald could publicly acknowledge his debt to her, which would confound his critics. Here is an ad from NumbersUSA, an anti-immigration group, showing Barbara Jordan speaking on behalf of "the most vulnerable": Click Here: 30 Second Ad
5. The coherent populist appeal is a direct contrast to Hillary Clinton, essentially from the left. It echoes the Sanders critique. Trump owns the anti-Hillary vote and most of the Republican vote. This approach will not offend his conservative base even as it reverses direction on Hillary, sounding more like Bernie Sanders and liberal senators like Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley. Trump attacked the Republican establishment and Sanders attacked the Democratic establishment. Being anti-establishment is a majority position. Hillary is a successful practitioners of establishment politics.
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| With Senator Merkley, a liberal populist |
6. The coherent populist understanding of the world is simple enough to express and simple enough to be understood, and it seems "right" and consistent with the observation of lots of people: Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Libertarians. The elites have screwed the average American by destroying the economy and the political system. The weak recovery and political gridlock seem strong evidence that something is very wrong.
The Populist View: In the past couple of decades business, academic, and media elites--plus the political elites they have bought and corrupted--have sold an idea of global trade and monopoly protections for the powerful so we have the worst of crony capitalism. Wall Street, big business, the Chamber of Commerce all sold the idea that borders didn't matter, that labor should be free to cross the borders and that "free trade" helped Americans. The result is that we have lost jobs to low wage high polluting countries and that we have floods of unassimilated people with very different cultures coming here. Some newcomers are criminals, some are terrorists, and all of them are hurting native born Americans by driving down wages. We need a strong leader to stand up for the interests of America's enemies, some of which are the privileged interest groups--which include the corrupted political class in America who are puppets for their rich donors--who protect themselves at the expense of regular Americans. America "works" for those privileged and self-serving people and they sneer at regular Americans, but the average Americans have the power to "take back America" and "make America great again" if they rally behind a strong leader who fights for "America first". Donald Trump is that man.
Will Donald Trump push reset and give a speech in the style of Donald Junior? We will see. He may not have it in him. If he cannot give it I believe it will reduce his likelihood of winning, but he may pass along the baton to Donald Junior, who might be giving that speech 4 years from now.
Donald Trump has more popular positions on the issues than does Hillary Clinton, but he appears an uncertain and risky vessel for presenting those positions. Donald Senior can repair that problem and his son showed him how to do it.
Donald Trump has more popular positions on the issues than does Hillary Clinton, but he appears an uncertain and risky vessel for presenting those positions. Donald Senior can repair that problem and his son showed him how to do it.
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Anti-Trump Media Suffocates the Democratic Party
Americans left and right now sneer at our mainstream media (MSM). The New York Times, the Washington Post, LA Times, CNN, MSNBC, Huffington Post have all squandered their credibility in their unabashed and ever more trite efforts to shame and embarrass anyone straying from liberal progressive ideology. The MSM now actually and actively delegitimizes political centrism. We are either pro-Hillary and anti-Trump at an ideological level, or we are a suspected “hater”. Centrism has been the backbone of our political and cultural stability for a century, with Americans free to pick and choose policies from left or right of center. No more. The MSM has messaged as clearly as print and broadcast will allow that Democrats may not have any positions other than internationalism, global trade promotion, heavy immigration flows, burgeoning social welfare programs, budget deficits and not cutting taxes or regulations.
Codes of political correctness are promoted to make it unacceptable to publicly voice support for any part of the conservative agenda. We dare not say “I think welfare programs might not be the best way to foster economic inclusion”, or “maybe we need to control our borders to cut down on the amount of illegal immigration”, or even “I think America is great”. Centrism is dissent, and no dissent is legitimate.
The MSM is grossly out of touch with the innate centrism that is part of the American personality. I am based in Vietnam now, a communist country that controls the media. I have worked in and spent time in countries with state controlled media, like China, Cambodia, Bolivia, Morocco, and Turkey. In those countries, the media is the voice of the government. Citizens ridicule the government media behind its back, dismiss it as a joke, but fear to publicly disagree with it. Centrism is not acceptable in these countries. Political loyalty is demanded to the state media.
We now have parallels in America with some of these countries.. Our MSM is not government controlled, but it is the voice of political power. It is the voice of the Democratic Party. Like my Vietnamese, Chinese and Bolivian friends and colleagues, Americans are hesitant to speak centrist positions. Centrism is dissent. A Democrat cannot voice support for anything Republican. A carelessly stated centrist position on globalism, borders, public benefits, or taxation can have social consequences, and even impair employment opportunity.
Democrats are now a party of closeted centrists, oppressed by media enforced liberalism, codes of political correctness, and seldom honestly engage with each other in political conversation. Democrats lie about not liking anything Trump advocates. This suppression of centrism is stifling and stagnating. The MSM is suffocating the Democratic Party, fueling extreme partisanship, and creating a greenhouse of anti-establishment nationalism, racial division, and a body politic ready to explode.
The mainstream liberal media has given us Donald Trump, far more than Fox News ever could.
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