Trump re-election strategy, a one-two punch.
He is a culture warrior. He takes credit for a strong economy.
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| Approve/Disapprove irrelevant |
Readers hoping to understand Trump's support and potential re-election could do worse than to watch this short clip from his speech in Manchester, New Hampshire on Thursday. The stock market soared after my election, he said. Your 401k accounts depend on me. Even people who don't like me have no choice but to vote for me, he said. Take a minute to watch:
A reader and sometimes critic from a distant city sent me two emails this week which serve to explain why "good people," public spirited people who are not themselves racist, and who resent being called racist, might support Trump. My correspondent supports community causes. He is a philanthropist, helping the poorest of the poor. He is compassionate. He is a good citizen, a nice guy.
He also supports Trump. There is a lesson here.
He also supports Trump. There is a lesson here.
His first email scolded me for talking about recession and wondering what qualifications I had to suggest that extraordinarily low bond yields, falling manufacturing indexes, German slowdown, Brexit, declining corporate profit margins, high P/E ratios based on booked earnings, all suggested a significant chance of a recession.The Trump economy was strong, he said. And it is to Trump's credit, not at all Obama's, which he put into ALL CAPS.
He is mentally invested in the idea that Trump is responsible for the strong economy. Lesson one.
His other email suggest how it is that a "good guy," a community-spirited person, could support the blustery, accusatory, bullying, insulting, dog-whistling, ethno-nationalism of Trump. Trump is not a nice guy, but he gets support of nice guys. What's with that?
The answer, in part, is that people hear what they want to hear. The teleprompter-Trump assertions that he wants love and unity and that his attacks on Muslims, immigrants, and dark skinned people is really focused on illegality, not religion and ethnicity, and it gives people mental cover. Teleprompter-Trump doesn't change Trump's message, but it complicates it.
In addition, my corespondent actually likes Trump's tone and manner. He sees Donald Trump as a warrior. All's fair in love and war. Sportsmanship and collegiality and politeness are for losers. He sent me quoted material with which he said he agreed:
"The Left has been engaged in a war against America since the rise of the Children of the ‘60s. To them, it has been an all-out war where nothing is held sacred and nothing is seen as beyond the pale. It has been a war they’ve fought with violence, the threat of violence, demagoguery and lies from day one – the violent take-over of the universities – till today.
The problem is that, through these years, the Left has been the only side fighting this war. While the Left has been taking a knife to anyone who stands in their way, the Right has continued to act with dignity, collegiality and propriety.
With Donald Trump, this all has come to an end. Donald Trump is America ’s first wartime president in the Culture War."
Many of my readers will read this description of the state of political discourse with disagreement and shocked wonderment.
In what world has Obama been anything but overly polite and cultured and moderate? Wouldn't he better criticized as an Eisenhower Republican with a Democratic label, not a culture warrior?
The important message here isn't the objective truth of the situation; it is understanding the perspective of a group of people--people who are a high turnout voting group: white males and Boomers. Many of them resent the cultural and political changes of the past fifty years, the repositioning of whiteness, of maleness, of gender "normality." They mostly lost the culture war. Black people, Muslims, women, gay and transgender people are all claiming inclusion and equality in the American polity and are getting more and more of it.
The culture war loss happened without their consent, and they interpret this as political violence. They want a fighter to resist.
The culture war loss happened without their consent, and they interpret this as political violence. They want a fighter to resist.
Trump is, whatever else, a fighter. When he is nasty about it--with insulting tweets, boasts about the size of his penis, name calling, and spreading conspiracies about Obama's birthplace and suggestions that maybe Hillary somehow killed Epstein--a lot of people like it. He is getting the job done, fighting to win.
That is why he has teflon and could kill someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. He wouldn't be a murderer. The person he killed would have deserved it, just like the people under the bombs Americans dropped in Europe and Japan. All's fair.
Can Democrats defeat Trump in 2020?
Not by criticizing Trump's "unpresidential" behavior. It is a good thing for some people, proof of Trump's sincerity. It is irrelevant for others: Trump is to be judged by the rules of war, whether you win, and Trump is fighting two wars, the culture war and the economic one. He wins the culture war simply by fighting it. He loses the economic war if we go into recession.
Generals who lose wars do not get re-elected president.
7 comments:
Pull quote from a reader comment in the WSJ yesterday:
"Mr. Trump’s supporters take him seriously but not literally, while his detractors take him literally but not seriously."
Here is the full letter for context:
"Gerald F. Seib’s admittedly rough attempt to divide Americans into three broad categories when it comes to their views of President Trump misses at least one significant one. (“President Confronts a Bitter Divide,” U.S. News, Aug. 6.) My own unscientific survey suggests that there are a great many Americans who endorse many of the president’s policies, including tax reform, deregulation initiatives, standing up to China, and even occasionally ham-handed diplomacy with North Korea and Iran, but are personally embarrassed by his lack of decorum and polarizing language, even if much is discounted as being for effect. During the 2016 election, a political analyst made an insightful observation that has only been reinforced over time: Mr. Trump’s supporters take him seriously but not literally, while his detractors take him literally but not seriously. Unfortunately, the Democratic primary season seems determined to deny us a welcome alternative."
Jeff MacLauchlan
New Smyrna Beach, Fla.
In what world has Obama been anything but overly polite and cultured and moderate?
Behind the scenes. Take, for instance, the “dear colleague” letter that his administration sent to colleges and universities. Because of that letter, due process was denied for many male students accused of sexual misbehavior. That was an act of culture war.
I love and totally agree with the statement your correspondent made:
Donald Trump is America ’s first wartime president in the Culture War."
Ah, yes. The end of dignity, collegiality and propriety. That’s just the kind of political crusader we want. Apparently.
Normality is over rated anyway.
Trump will be defeated if leftists will not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the possible.
GIRLS have lost out in the culture war to the transgender movement.
Ordinary parents understand how unfair it is for male-bodied athletes to be winning medals in girls sports. But the Democrats absolutely refuse to listen to the pleas. Single-sex sports have now ended in the blue states where sports are divided by gender identity instead.
Google Selina Soule, a brave 16 year old girl standing up for Title IX and called a sore loser by an adult columnist at Slate. The only politician willing to help her is Donald Trump and his Ed Sec Betsy DeVos.
Bold move for Dems to poke the soccer parents in the eye. We'll see how it works out for them.
Our ‘Gas Lighter In Chief’ is a genius at spinning alternate realities, making the most audacious claims and taking credit for vapor ware, or other people’s good work. So claiming to turn the economy around after inheriting a so-called “disaster”; and having people believe it, shows the extent of our gullibility.
I respect the office of the President of the United States more than the present "occupant" of this office does. I do not respect Mr. Trump, because he is disrespecting America by disgracing the office of the Presidency. He is losing the economic war by driving our economy into a serious depression. He my be fighting the culture war, but how can one fight a war and win it with a bunch of lies? It seems impossible that Trump could win a war with lies, even among the minority of people who are his supporters, unless his supporters don't care at all about truth. The key is in this observation that people who love the current "occupant" of the White House do not regard his statements as factual, but only symbolic, where the symbolism is what they regard as true.
"Mr. Trump’s supporters take him seriously but not literally, while his detractors take him literally but not seriously. " It's true. To me, #45 is a bad joke; a loser. He's going down hard, and good riddance to rubbish.
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