Trump knew exactly what he was doing. Show contempt.
Rachel Maddow: "Be decent. Just be decent. That's all he had to do."
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| White House photo, Monday. |
Rachel Maddow was on TV saying that Donald Trump "screwed up" the response to McCain's death. She said he bungled it, looking reluctant to recognize McCain's service and sacrifice.
She misunderstands the politics of being Trump.
Trump's behavior was intentional, first the snub then the persistence in the snub. Trump wants to treat McCain like a rival and opponent, a disloyal turncoat to the team. Trump is not magnanimous in contemplation of the death of a turncoat and opponent.
Trump made a short tweet of condolences to the family of McCain, then promptly moved the flag on the White House back to full staff. His behavior drew widespread attention. Twice on Monday reporters shouted questions at Trump, wondering if he was going to say something nice about McCain. It would have been easy.
Trump looked at them and the camera and refused to say anything. So there.
What is going on?
Trump's behavior was intentional, first the snub then the persistence in the snub. Trump wants to treat McCain like a rival and opponent, a disloyal turncoat to the team. Trump is not magnanimous in contemplation of the death of a turncoat and opponent.
Trump made a short tweet of condolences to the family of McCain, then promptly moved the flag on the White House back to full staff. His behavior drew widespread attention. Twice on Monday reporters shouted questions at Trump, wondering if he was going to say something nice about McCain. It would have been easy.
Trump looked at them and the camera and refused to say anything. So there.
What is going on?
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| Trump: give no quarter. |
Trump is demonstrating he doesn't care about the supposed niceties and courtesies of supposed respect for opponents. Trump squashes opponents. That is what you do with your enemies.
Trump knew he was being criticized. The criticism helped Trump, because it highlighted his behavior and showed Trump was no fair-weather friend. In relenting and re-lowering the flag Trump showed he was accommodating third parties, not himself.
Why does this help Trump?
Trump is demonstrating with the body language of action and manner that he can do what he wants and that he will run up the score on behalf of his base. He has power and exercises it and that he punishes the dis-loyal. This pleases the authoritarian-oriented people in his base.
The populist, nativist, Christian GOP got the president they wanted, and Trump has a deal with them. He doesn't have to be good, so long as he is strong on appointing judges and carrying out their agenda, in the face of criticism and urges to "be decent." Trump is demonstrating that he is all-in. McCain wasn't one of them. He was bi-partisan. He gave a thumbs down to repeal of the ACA.
Democrats and the liberal media might think that Trump has a losing strategy and that people want "decency" in a president. Apparently not. A great many Americans want a strong leader more than they want one who is respectful of laws and traditions. This makes Trump dangerous and powerful, both.
McCain talked about process and democracy. Trump talks about winning.
His very strong poll numbers within the Republican base are where they need to be to give him the power to fire people in the Justice Department, to pardon friends and allies, and to be invincible against impeachment.
He may not quite have a majority in the country but he has a majority of the GOP, and he is demonstrating that they can trust him.
So GOP officeholders fear him.
It is strategy and it is working for him, for now.
The populist, nativist, Christian GOP got the president they wanted, and Trump has a deal with them. He doesn't have to be good, so long as he is strong on appointing judges and carrying out their agenda, in the face of criticism and urges to "be decent." Trump is demonstrating that he is all-in. McCain wasn't one of them. He was bi-partisan. He gave a thumbs down to repeal of the ACA.
Democrats and the liberal media might think that Trump has a losing strategy and that people want "decency" in a president. Apparently not. A great many Americans want a strong leader more than they want one who is respectful of laws and traditions. This makes Trump dangerous and powerful, both.
McCain talked about process and democracy. Trump talks about winning.
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| 46%, in spite of everything. |
He may not quite have a majority in the country but he has a majority of the GOP, and he is demonstrating that they can trust him.
So GOP officeholders fear him.
It is strategy and it is working for him, for now.
2 comments:
My initial thoughts were that you've given him WAY too much credit.
The Dear Leader is immature and unintelligent, there is no Grand Strategy. It's all just gut reaction.
All may be true.
This is all fairly apparent in his first tweets this morning. He’s playing by the authoritarian play book in denouncing the media again as being FAKE and “bad” and only allowing people to see negative stories about him. He says he’s he’s going to “do something” about it. He’s going to take control of the “left wing media” on behalf of the country. And it does seem to please his people - as the polls keep showing, even after his closest advisors are going to jail or given immunity his popularity among republicans is still strong.
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