Monday, December 4, 2017

Trump plays the long game

Trump is misunderstood.  We read that he is impulsive and erratic.  He tweets without thinking of the consequences.   There is method to his madness.


Democrats and liberals think he is in trouble with Russia-gate.  Think again.



What happened to Nixon won't happen to Trump.  Republican senators won't come calling telling him it is over.  

Democrats and liberals misunderstand the news of Flynn, his plea agreement, the Mueller investigation, Comey, Russia, and the media circling over Trump's head. They have it backwards. Trump has protected himself. 

Trump has arranged an army that is at least as formidable as the long established institutions of expertise, governance, national security, and media.  He has talk radio, Fox News, Breitbart, Republican think tanks, and an army of social media activists. (Try writing something critical of Trump on Facebook.  One is immediately swamped with nasty comments: "cuck", "idiot", and "What about Hillary.")   Invisibly, to those who are not watching, Trump is protecting himself from prosecution and impeachment.

Trump is de-legitimizing Meuller's investigation.  Biased!

Trump is de-legitimizing Comey.  Leaker!  Biased!

Trump is de-legitimizing the FBI, CIA, the intelligence services.  Mistakes! Biased!

Trump says the real issue is Hillary Clinton. What about?  What about?

Trump says the Russians did not steal an election for him.  Indeed, the whole "Russia" matter is a Democratic effort to steal election from him.

Trump is continuing to de-legitimize the news, tweeting that people should sue ABC, that the NY Times is failing, the Washington Post is biased, and CNN is all fake.  Anything you see or read read from any media source except Fox is fake.

Below is a quick snapshot of the Fox News splash page.  Trump and Flynn are victims.  Hillary is the mastermind.     

This is the world Trump's base lives within:




Who believes this?   Who believes that all this "Russia" talk is just sore-loserhood, and that the talk of Russian meddling in the election is just smokescreen?   A majority of voters in the Republican party, the party that controls the government.   

If the going gets tough, Trump can pardon who he needs to pardon, fire who he needs to fire, and survive any Saturday Night Massacre.   Trump has his story.  He is totally completely innocent and his critics are the guilty ones.  He has already shown his base cannot be shocked.  No Nixon tape on obstruction of justice was as bad as what Trump said openly and proudly.  No profanity by Nixon was as shocking as Trump's Access Hollywood tape.

Republican officeholders can do nothing.  The resignations of Corker and Flake show it.  Get on board or get out.  Trump has prepared and nurtured his base.  

Republican officeholders in Congress live in two worlds.  They live in a world of lawyers, witnesses, the FBI, CIA, CBO, Pentagon, and media that reports on them.  Establishment sources.  This makes them deeply uncomfortable with Trump.  But simultaneously, the people whose votes they are dependent upon--reliable Republican voters--have concluded that that world of establishment reality is all fake.  The Trump-Fox-talk radio world is a consistent and happier reality.  The problem isn't Trump.  It is Hillary.  Still and always Hillary.

Trump has done his homework.  

2 comments:

Thad Guyer said...

The left top stories media keeps undiscerning Democrats in a comfort bubble. Trump is laughable, stupid, feckless and crazy, an idiot savant who will walk off the curb and be squashed by a bus. It is Trump who has done the squashing and until the steel teeth come for them, they will laugh away, distracted by the well choreographed sideshows. The hubris of liberalism will be our undoing unless pragmatic statesmen or stateswomen emerge who can govern.

Rick Millward said...

I recently watched an AfAm scholar criticize Obama for being cowardly in regard to Progressive social issues. I agree, as it became clear that he had nothing to lose, even though I admit that shepherding the economic recovery required patience and circumspection.

He was statesmanlike. He was lauded around the World for bringing America into the Democratic Socialist utopian future. It drove Regressives crazy. He still Progressive's best weapon against the backlash. He must involve himself in the mid-terms, and revive the apathetic and disillusioned coalition that elected him.

Folks, let's retire the term "liberal". It has become a derogatory. It is too broad and undefined, confusing enlightened Progressive values with a mushy 60's activist mindset that has run its course.