So cynical. So dishonest. So clever.
By now Americans have heard about the tweets: Liberate Michigan. Liberate Minnesota. Liberate Virginia.
It's not a way to govern responsibly. It's a way to win elections.
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| Cuomo: "That is not an accurate statement." |
Trump is carrying out a ploy that is understood within circles of divorced couples with children, where the mother has primary custody. The mother provides food, shelter, school clothes, trips to the dentist. She is the do your homework, "eat your vegetables" parent. The father, too, spends money on the children, by taking them to Disneyland and buying them ice cream.
It took Trump exactly one day to realize the mistake he made when he asserted he had total authority. He posited that he led a political party and movement concerned with governing. He doesn't. He leads a party held together by grievance. It thrives in opposition, doing so well they won power. Having power, it discovered the ACA they attempted to repeal was popular, that the tax bill they passed was unpopular, that tariffs were expensive and unpopular, and now, facing the coronavirus, that governing is difficult. Complaining is better than governing.
Trump was enjoying his daily coronavirus briefings. He was where he was supposed to be, with big ratings, in the center of things, the alpha of alphas. That requires constant maintenance. Anthony Fauci was getting too much praise, so Trump made certain to say that Fauci was a mere advisor, one of many, putting him back into his place.
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| Click: "biggest decision of my life." |
A different threat came from NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo looked good. People were saying Cuomo's looked presidential and better than Trump. That required action. Cuomo was a mere governor and he was president. Trump announced that he and he alone would make the hard decisions on ending the economic shutdown--the hardest decision of his presidency, Trump called it.
Trump lowered his voice and looked serious for the cameras. This wasn't "happy talk." "I'm talking about death," he said. "This is the real deal. And I've got to make the biggest decision of my life. And I've only started thinking about that. I mean, you know, I've made a lot of big decisions over my life. You understand that. This is by far the biggest decision of my life because I have to say okay, let's go. This is what we're going to do."
Trump lowered his voice and looked serious for the cameras. This wasn't "happy talk." "I'm talking about death," he said. "This is the real deal. And I've got to make the biggest decision of my life. And I've only started thinking about that. I mean, you know, I've made a lot of big decisions over my life. You understand that. This is by far the biggest decision of my life because I have to say okay, let's go. This is what we're going to do."
He was posturing as the great leader, Churchill maybe, or Lincoln, the lonely hero in a sleepless night, making a decision that history would recount for centuries.
That didn't last. With authority came responsibility. It was the equivalent of demanding and getting full custody and learning the first job was paying for braces and health insurance. He would be governing.
Oops. He said he would be working with the governors after all. He saw on Fox News a story of protests against the shutdown in states with Democratic governors. It was an angry populist, demonstration, people with signs and guns, demanding an end to the very policy his own administration was saying was necessary, good, and effective.
Trump tweeted support for the protest.
Trump tweeted support for the protest.
Now he had it both ways, both the hero of the war against the virus, and a critic of it. Win-win.
"I'm so proud you get straight A's, son You're smart, like your dad. Keep it up. Your mean tyrant of a mother makes you do all that homework? That is really unfair."
Disneyland dad.
Democrats will complain at the cynicism and duplicity. That is a feature for Trump. Republicans love watching Democrats complain.
Polls show a majority of Republican voters support the social distancing rules, so they are aware of Trump's duplicity. That, too, is a feature. They see Trump being smart, cynical, and winning in playing the dirty game of politics. You will win, win, win with me as president, Trump told the crowds at rallies, and I heard the crowds cheer.
Republicans get the big things they want from Trump: anti-abortion judges, tax cuts, relaxed environmental rules, and opposition to government giveaways to people they consider undeserving. Opposition to Democrats is a value in itself. Sanders and AOC figure large in ads of GOP candidates, who position themselves as defenders against the horror Democrats might bring to America. Trump is a scoundrel but he is their scoundrel, and if it takes hypocrisy to win, it is a price well worth it.
And besides, mom is no fun. Homework is a chore and Disneyland is fun. It is hard to be mad at dad.
4 comments:
And the only authoritative male presence available to back up mom seems to be doddering old grandpa Joe…
This tactic you describe is as desperate as the Dad in your metaphor attempting to purchase love. When the bellyache from too much candy hits the kids run home to Mom. And usually when the kids get a little older Dad is seen for the scumbag he is.
IF as many are coming to believe, listening to scientists, that this epidemic has insidious characteristics; asymptomatic transmission, long incubation, resurgence, Republicans may be leading their followers over a cliff.
Trump's polling is slipping which is likely to continue as, tragically, needlessly, more succumb, so his audience is shrinking.
State boundaries are arbitrary and invisible to the virus; the interstates are its superhighway across the nation, allowing it to quickly leave the cities and move into the heartland, where it is now taking hold. Unless I'm wrong, (hope so!) without mitigation the Midwest is heading towards high infection rates and fatalities.
32,000 new cases yesterday...about the same today, with estimates of an undercount as high as 10 to 1...
You have it all backwards Peter. Is it the Disneyland dad who tells his kids that life can be risk free, that you don't have to take chances for progress, that the world has two kinds of people, those who hunker down in fear and those who push back against danger while equipping themselves to minimize it? Is it the Disneyland dad who says you can't just sit at home and collect free money from the government? Is it the Disneyland dad who says you have to summon the courage and guts to protect your liberty from overreaching politicians who will grab it away from you, order you off the streets?
I don't think so. Our party, our Democratic governors, we are the Disneyland moms and dads now. But not for long.
I am social distancing with masks, gloves, and sanitizers. I did federal court depositions in Los Angeles and Phoenix wearing a mask and wiping down the tables. It is not logic that ended that, there is zero evidence of any lawyer contracting the virus in court or in depositions, it was fear that closed the courts-- closed America's civil court system, and much of its criminal court system as well.
I am in deep blue Southeast Florida. The sidewalks are crowded with people walking, biking, jogging and skating. The Home Depot lines are long, the supermarkets are crowded. Most people over 30 are wearing masks. Young people of voting age here in the blue zip codes resent this, rebel against being told their lives will suspended so that old, sick people will die. Does that sound cruel or selfish? Yes. That is the nature of American politics, it is cruel, vicious and selfish. And it is going to stay that way. The majority of the population who can perceive no appreciable risk of hospitalization or death are not going to heavily-- as in depression-- sacrifice their self interests for the urban poor and nursing home residents
If we go into September (or even June) with Biden and blue state politician campaigning for mandatory stay at home orders punishable by fine or imprisonment, these young voters absolutely will not turn out to vote for Democrats. That's why Biden and Pelosi and Schumer will cave very soon, even if the death rate of the sick and elderly spikes up, even if some hospitals get overwhelmed with the sick and elderly.
"We order you to stay at home, we order you to not go earn a living, we order you to stay off the beaches and national parks" are orders that will met with non-urban poor voters under age 55 saying to Democrats we order you out of office-- whether the death toll of the sick and elderly spike or not.
You got it right, but with the shoe on the wrong foot-- America will not want a Disneyland party.
Daddy is drunk,
Dad’s spoil, Trump is a drunk high on his own press (Fox News). Trump has no feelings for his followers except to manipulate them for his own a pleasure...grab them by the pussy. His big mistake by releasing each to his own way will be the spike in the dead bodies, someone’s family members. If something happens to my wife because of this careless “we don’t give a damn” I won’t forget. I will seek revenge as a passive aggressive...don’t vote for that , don’t give to that , be indifferent to cries of help, walk away, be self absorbed . The old can exact a revenge on the young. The old vote. The old pay taxes. The old have wealth. They can change their wills.
I look back at the Jarvis Amendment in California that froze taxes on property owned by old people and killed support of education and opportunities of the young to go to a great public school. Look what the old voters have done to the financing of higher education so the young students now carry huge debt. The old can zone so that apartments with squalling brats cannot be built near their retirement dream homes.
Trump maybe clever, too clever.. we are #1 in dead bodies and poor testing. Build Amerika Great Again on a mound of new corpses.
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