Smart like a Fox, losing the battle to win a war.
There is a word for what we are seeing: Apophasis
The spell-check elf inside of blogger simply cannot believe I really want to use this word, apophasis, which describes the rhetorical device of bringing up a subject by saying that one is not bringing it up. Example: "I refuse to discuss my opponent's drinking problems and DUI arrests, including the one last week." It thinks I surely must mean "apophysis", which is a bony growth, but apophasis is the word we are seeing with Donald Trump's hints and threats and expression of his generous self control in not bringing up the case of Bill Clinton's sexual history.
“When she hit me at the end with the women, I was going to hit her with her husband’s women, and I decided I shouldn’t do it because [her] daughter was in the room."
And later:
“I was talking about the affairs — the many affairs that Bill Clinton had. And because his daughter was in the room, Chelsea … I just didn’t want to do it in front of her.”
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| 2:14 a.m. |
And then, incredibly, in the early morning hours he began tweeting, defending himself in the issue with Miss Universe Alicia Machado.
Isn't this a major "win" for Hillary? The pundit patter calls this a one-two punch of self destruction, showing Trump to be thin skinned, easily baited, distractible, self destructive, and foolish. If a twenty year old story about a Miss Universe can distract Trump then think how easily a Putin or Kim Jong-un could do it.
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| 2:19 a.m. |
Hillary's team in Brooklyn must be happy. And maybe they are right.
But not so fast. Maybe not.
But not so fast. Maybe not.
The upside for Trump
I start with the premise that Trump is undisciplined on the little things but very skilled on the big picture of how to win the support of the American people.
It might be thought out strategy or it might be the practiced gut instinct of a performer or maybe it is simply the "right man at the right time", but one way or another Donald Trump has caught a wave that happens to sync up with the electoral situation and time, and Trump is connecting. So what is in it for Trump?
The fight with Machado isn't all bad for Trump--notwithstanding the near universal condemnation of the political commentariat. My guess is that there are two kinds of people who have a back of the mind inclination to dislike the former Miss Universe. One is men. She represents a kind of universal threat that all people face: the ex returns. And it can be especially troubling for men when what may have seemed very consensual at the time looks creepy or abusive in an entirely different context.
It can be a former employee, a former sweetheart, some past situation where situation and mores of an earlier era are examined closely against a new situation. What was maybe just edgy--or even completely ok--twenty years before looks ugly twenty years later. What was flirtatious and arguably ok when he was a beauty pageant impresario looks creepy or abusive when he is a presidential candidate. Back then she was a young employee, putting up with a certain amount of work-unpleastness to keep an employer happy. Now she is the angry woman. A man says things to a wife or sweetheart that sound awkward at best when she is an ex. And angry. And litigious.
It can be a former employee, a former sweetheart, some past situation where situation and mores of an earlier era are examined closely against a new situation. What was maybe just edgy--or even completely ok--twenty years before looks ugly twenty years later. What was flirtatious and arguably ok when he was a beauty pageant impresario looks creepy or abusive when he is a presidential candidate. Back then she was a young employee, putting up with a certain amount of work-unpleastness to keep an employer happy. Now she is the angry woman. A man says things to a wife or sweetheart that sound awkward at best when she is an ex. And angry. And litigious.
(Bill and Hillary Clinton know this all too well. Whatever happened between Bill Clinton and Paula Jones back in the 1980s, in private, repeatedly, seemed very different when, in the late 1990s she emerged as the unhappy litigant.)
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| 20 years later |
The other group of people who may well bear some resentment against Miss Universe is women. Women face the challenge and indignity of being judged on their appearance. So do men, but it is worse and harder for women. Maria Machado was the big winner and every other woman in the universe, supposedly, was judged less beautiful than her. The whole setup of a beauty pageant is that women are judged against each other. Everyone else was a loser. My sense is that Trump is on pretty safe ground in saying that Machado was a difficult person, the worst, the most self indulgent.
Is it all that unexpected that women might take a little quiet satisfaction in knowing that Miss Winner Take All is not so all-perfect after all.
Is it all that unexpected that women might take a little quiet satisfaction in knowing that Miss Winner Take All is not so all-perfect after all.
The criticism of Machado fits the Trump model: an attack on self-centered elites who think they are better than other people. Hillary may think she allied herself with a victim, but she simultaneously aligned herself with a woman who was judged to have made every other woman in the world a loser.
It is complicated, but Trump may come out very well on this. Hillary may have been the one to walk into a trap.
But what about the Clinton adultery mess? Can Donald Trump, of all people, slut shame the Clintons and accuse them of sexual scandal. He stands there with his young trophy third wife. Isn't this crazy for him?
Not necessarily, for two reasons.
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| The prize for Trump adultery |
One is Clinton Fatigue. Trump is reminding people of scandal, accusations, and the endless misery of Republican opposition to everything Clinton, assuring another 4 years of Clinton criticism and rumors and investigations. "The Clintons are the sordid past,” he said. “We will be the very bright and clean future."
Is it madness to call Trump a bright clean future? Not necessarily. Trump represents the voters pressing "reset." He isn't bright and clean, but he is new.
Is it madness to call Trump a bright clean future? Not necessarily. Trump represents the voters pressing "reset." He isn't bright and clean, but he is new.
The other is that Trump is a winner. Hillary was the victim of sexual betrayal. That does not make her "good". It makes her the victim: weak.
Trump was the adulterer, the one who "moved up" to Marla, then moved up again to Melania, third wife even younger and more beautiful. Trump does not hide Melania. He took the 5th Amendment multiple times to avoid admitting to adultery in court in his first divorce, but the fact of his adultery with Marla was paraded in the tabloids and she was quoted as saying sex with Donald Trump was the best ever.
Trump is accusing Bill of being sleazy and Hillary of being weak. Trump is a flagrant hypocrite but he isn't arguing that he is good. He is showing that he is strong, virile, a winner. Trump is showing his alpha. He is showing he has big hands. In a war of sexual conquest and domination he won. Hillary, by comparison, was the pathetic loser. She was the wronged and humiliated woman.
Trump was the adulterer, the one who "moved up" to Marla, then moved up again to Melania, third wife even younger and more beautiful. Trump does not hide Melania. He took the 5th Amendment multiple times to avoid admitting to adultery in court in his first divorce, but the fact of his adultery with Marla was paraded in the tabloids and she was quoted as saying sex with Donald Trump was the best ever.
Trump is accusing Bill of being sleazy and Hillary of being weak. Trump is a flagrant hypocrite but he isn't arguing that he is good. He is showing that he is strong, virile, a winner. Trump is showing his alpha. He is showing he has big hands. In a war of sexual conquest and domination he won. Hillary, by comparison, was the pathetic loser. She was the wronged and humiliated woman.
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| Hillary accepts humiliation. Loser. |
Trump's purpose is humiliation and to remind voters that she endured humiliation. Is this political? Yes, indeed.
If she would accept humiliation for some "greater good" of her marriage then as president she might allow America to accept some form of humiliation for the greater good of world peace. Or a "fair" trade deal. Trump introduces this issue not to discuss sex and adultery, but to discuss American winning and losing, pride versus humiliation. Trump represents America first, nationalist pride, and winning in love and war. As he concludes his rallies: You are going to win and win and win and win until you are so tired of it you cannot stand winning any more.
If she would accept humiliation for some "greater good" of her marriage then as president she might allow America to accept some form of humiliation for the greater good of world peace. Or a "fair" trade deal. Trump introduces this issue not to discuss sex and adultery, but to discuss American winning and losing, pride versus humiliation. Trump represents America first, nationalist pride, and winning in love and war. As he concludes his rallies: You are going to win and win and win and win until you are so tired of it you cannot stand winning any more.
People who want a president who is a winner have their man. Trump is saying Hillary took the short end of a deal. Shame on her.
If you haven't yet listened to the podcast experiment I have going, check it out:
The podcast is a spirited conversation between me and Thad Guyer, an attorney who represents whistleblowing employees, with an international practice. He watches the election from home base in Saigon. This week we discuss Trump's rise in the polls, and Hillary's having messed up her message on crime. We conclude by talking about the debate and what would be the best strategy for Hillary and for Trump. What would Trump do to blow it, and the election? My own view is for him to look like a bull in a china shop.
If you haven't yet listened to the podcast experiment I have going, check it out:
The podcast is a spirited conversation between me and Thad Guyer, an attorney who represents whistleblowing employees, with an international practice. He watches the election from home base in Saigon. This week we discuss Trump's rise in the polls, and Hillary's having messed up her message on crime. We conclude by talking about the debate and what would be the best strategy for Hillary and for Trump. What would Trump do to blow it, and the election? My own view is for him to look like a bull in a china shop.
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