There is an archetype in literature and the movies and we like him: the genial con man. Donald Trump plays that role.
Note there are two blog posts today. This one on messaging and Trump. The earlier one on the message Democrats should adopt. Read them both for a healthy and balanced diet of insight and wisdom.
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| The lovable scamp: Paul Newman in The Sting |
Thad Guyer noted in a comment that all politicians need to deceive in order to communicate what is impossible in the real world, that they will satisfy all needs. Guyer says that Trump is at least honest in being a con man while other politicians attempt to hide it.
I have watched Trump in person and up close on five occasions and agree that he has a self-mocking genuineness in which he says things he knows--and the audience knows--is impossible. To paraphrase him at the end of the Boca Raton speech. "You are going to win and win and win and win and win. You will win so much you will get tired of winning. You will come to me and say, 'Donald, we are tired of winning, please stop!' But I won't stop because we will just keep winning!"
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| You knew he was going to cheat you. |
Everyone understood what was happening. We were not to take him literally. We were to take him seriously but symbolically.
American voters are familiar with this archetype and that person is generally a hero character. Examples that come immediately to mind:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The characters played by Newman and Redford in "The Sting".
Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, the scamp outlaws.
Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
All the hero in Picaresque genre stories of the rogue hero
The genre movies of James Bond, the TV series Maverick and James Rockford.
Professional Wrestling as it is now practiced in America, understood to be staged.
Trump's rallies have humor in them. Hillary Clinton's were serious and earnest. Mitt Romney warned that Trump was a con man. Trump did not deny it. He rolled with it.
Here is what Thad Guyer had to say about Trump's messages:
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| Guyer |
Excellent post, it succinctly gives an executive overview of political stagecraft used by every president since at least Nixon, probably for every one since Washington. Whether its Bush with "mission accomplished" in Iraq, Clinton did not have sex with "that woman", Obama promising the Affordable Care Act will confer the right to keep your own pre-ACA doctor,Senator Clinton promising to bring jobs to upstate New York or denying she ever sent classified emails,there's a real movement of "Hamilton Electors", or Trump is going to drain the swamp, the art of political illusion is the fundamental underpinning of politicians left and right. The primary difference in the myriad illusion and lies of Bush, Obama, Clinton and Trump is not the relative stagecraft-- they all use the same tried and proven methods, all rely on their preferred brand of media to transmit their disinformation.
As Clinton supporters, we sneered a bit at her lies, but Trump supporters cheered at the show. The primary difference is that Trump preemptively, before taking office, announces that he is going to use this bipartisan slight of hand. Trump says in advance "I have told you a bunch of lies", rather than, say with Bill Clinton or Obama, where we have to discover them as we go along. Trump is like a great Las Vegas magic act (I went to one) where you know it is all illusion but you are still amazed, one side of your brain entertained as the other side tries to figure out the truth of it. Bush, the Clintons and Obama were like the big name magicians who actually get on stage and tell you with a straight face that what you are about to see is real. Trump is different-- he starts the show telling us "a lot of this is just an act".
Trump also drives home to us what PEW Research confirms year after year that we all know already-- the media is dishonest (i.e., the other side's media is dishonest), but he doesn't focus on the message after the fact. Obama, for example, railed (and rails still) against the media (the brand he doesn't like) for its characterizations that he lied about this or that. Trump is different, he tells us before he is even in office that "the dishonest media is going to tell lies about me when I am president, but trust only me as when I am or am not lying". The bottom line is that, as UpClose hightlights, the brain compensates and Trump "appears" to be not more honest, but more trustworthy than the typical politician. A politician like Trump who says "sometimes I lie and exaggerate" is obviously more trustworthy than a politician like Hillary Clinton who claims never to lie or exaggerate. When Bill Clinton and Obama lied, there was a feeling of betrayal when their supporters found out. When Trump's lies are revealed as his first term progresses, his supporters will feel dismayed, but not betrayed. That is the real import of today's post.
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