"With today’s illegal, unconstitutional and partisan impeachment, the do nothing Democrats… are declaring their deep hatred and disdain for the American voter. This lawless, partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democrat Party.”
Trump, at rally in Michigan
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| Rumpled |
Democrats have a head's up. It is now about "elitism."
Trump has long positioned the impeachment as a partisan witch hunt, a hoax, an unjustified prosecution. The implication of this had been him versus them, and the character of the Democrats had been of the over-zealous prosecutor versus the innocent victim falsely accused.
There is a problem with that message. Trump has flipped the more natural polarity on who is good and bad, calling the FBI and law enforcement generally the crooked ones in the Deep State. Trump is selling that, but the natural direction would be for Trump's base to identify with police and prosecutors. Meanwhile, the people Trump belittles and his base perceives as threats--blacks, Latinx, and immigrant communities--are the ones primed to be skeptical of prosecutors. Every suburban voter who watches Law and Order knows that defendants falsely claim innocence, and that eventually law enforcement gets it right.
Trump is adjusting his message. It is now about Democratic insult.
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| "Disdain for the American voter" |
They hate you, he said. They have disdain for you, he said. It isn't just that they are wrong about Trump; they are wrong because they think you, the voter, are stupid. Those disrespectful Democrats think you got it wrong in the 2016 election, and your vote shouldn't count because you swing state voters are too ignorant to agree with rich California and New York voters.
Deplorable.
I personally am attracted to Warren and Buttigieg's brainy urbanity, but realize they come across as elitist to some. The fact that their policies address poverty and fairness will seem condescending. Warren has a log cabin story of poverty, which helps take the edge off that. Buttigieg does not.
Biden, whatever his other flaws as a candidate, communicates empathetic solidarity with the working American struggling to do right for his or her family. He has a natural defense against that attack.
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| Click. |
Rumpled Bernie does not come across as elitist, except insofar as he seems ideologically motivated. Talk of class warfare and Socialism is the privilege of people of intelligence and leisure, words of young ideologues at fancy schools. Bernie's message is anti-elitist, but the very fact that he has an anti-elitist ideological message of social classes in conflict is itself elitist.
But Sanders has a defense: he simply doesn't look, or sound elitist. The parody caricature of him is to depict him in rumpled suits. In the humorous dialog between the real Bernie and a Bernie look-alike, the real Bernie jokes that "there is a real art to the rumpled suit." You take it off, put it on the car seat, and sit on it.
Rumbled suits are not elitist.
4 comments:
We need to stop talking about Trump and turn our attention to the Republican party.
The Republicans might possibly be excused for throwing the election, but they can't be given a pass for the subsequent enabling. Witness the recent letter from our representative...in part:
"President Donald Trump is unique in the history of the American presidency. No one has led as he has. His success and his style have frustrated his opponents.
"The Mueller investigation spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars and came up empty. That report produced nothing impeachable, or the articles of impeachment would include the findings of that report.
"President Trump is doing exactly what he promised, and that includes violating the political norms of the Washington, D.C. swamp. And for that, the left wants to send him packing.
"If facts matter, we should not impeach this president, but instead get back to work solving the problems facing American families."
All that was omitted was the Ukraine conspiracy theory being put out from his GOP colleagues, perhaps because even though he will gladly bow before the King, he can't quite bring himself to propagate that nonsense. Each of these assertions can be easily rebutted, but it's clear that the writer feels safe in following the party line and that it he will be rewarded for it.
As far as the elitist moniker goes, it's fundamentally an argument against literacy and merit:
e·lite
noun
a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society.
"the elite of Britain's armed forces"
When someone uses that term as a pejorative against others, they are basically insulting their audience as being stupid. Apt...
“Talk of class warfare and Socialism is the privilege of people of intelligence and leisure .... Bernie's message is anti-elitist, but the very fact that he has an anti-elitist ideological message of social classes in conflict is itself elitist.”
Whaaa?
Can you explain how a message of empowering the working class and offering the oppressed material benefits is elitist?
Intelligence is elitist? Benevolence is elitist? So would Jesus also be elitist?
Imagine Trump being self-deprecating. Instead, Trump’s message is ‘my enemies hate you and I am the only one who can save you.”
"Rumbled suits are not elitist." Ahh...you've got Bernie's number...but that's only part of the reason he is rising in the polls. As far as populism goes: v. Trump, he's the real deal and has 40+ years of consistent behavior to prove it.
When I ask his young supporters what they like about him they say, "He's honest and consistent."
Unfortunately, he has to wean the party from its corporate teat what with the DCCC and DSCC blacklisting of vendors and consultants who dare to work for progressive newbies that have the audacity to challenge dialing for dollars incumbents. And I won't even mention Wasserman-Shultz and the DNC rigging of 2016 because, of course, that was Russian interference...not a DNC whistleblower.
For a guy taking on a corrupt Republican Party, a corrupt Democratic Party (but, hey their not as corrupt as the Republicans) the military-industrial complex, medicare for all, campaign finance, climate change, wealth inequality, college tuition, racial justice, women's rights, immigration, etc. and returning us to a sense of "the common good," he's doing more than well.
Andy Seles
Happy to explain, although I may make another blog post on the issue if Bernie moves forward.
Bernie Sanders talks about class war. He uses the phrase "working class" who he says are in conflict with the "wealthy and powerful." In using terms of class struggle he is falling into the philosophical/academic language of Marxism. I hear it around colleges. I hear nobody who is actually a working person speaking of class struggle. They consider themselves to be "middle class" which is to say without any set delineated class. They are Americans.
Possibly at the U of Chicago or sitting in coffee shops at leisure, smart people speak of class struggle, but it is not the way to build empathy with working people; it is what intellectuals in ivory towers say. Ivory tower talk is read as elitist.. Other terms which define someone as elitist would be talk of "intersectionality" or "post-modern" or "deconstruct" or references to Karl Marx, Diderot, or Foucoult.
Sander is free to do it all he wants, but in doing so he communicates elitism, even though I am sure he does not intend to do so.
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