Trump is making an unforced error. Trying to suppress John Bolton makes him look credible.
Big mistake.
Trump is lucky that Democrats make errors, too.
First, let's put Trump's mistake into the context of the Democrats. George Floyd's death on video did more than shock Americans. It surprised them. A great many White Americans believed in the abstract that there was, probably, maybe, some racism in America, but it was easy to avert eyes or outright deny it. After all, Obama was elected. Affirmative action. Hiring quotas.
Then the video. Few White voters who watch it think they would have been treated the way George Floyd was treated. He was killed so publicly and casually.
The result is a window of political openness to change. Democrats and Republicans alike saw a problem with racism and policing.
Into this mix came a slogan: "Defund the Police. The slogan represents the position of only a few, but people carried signs with its words, so it is out there in the arena. Joe Biden promptly disavowed it, but it doesn't matter because the slogan is mentally sticky, and it has proponents who want to explain it and qualify it, not condemn it. "Oh, we don't really mean 'defund' quite the way it sounds, we mean it, but we mean it differently" is messaging disaster. All people hear is that Democrats want to shut down police departments, so the explanation starts with explaining that defund doesn't mean eliminate, not really.
Trump and Fox News know what to do with a slogan like "Defund the Police." Say it, again and again, and talk about the implications of anarchy, looting, and Mad Max warlords and mayhem. Suburban voters, do you really want no police, just like the Democrats say? See how extreme Democrats are?
Democrats might save Trump from himself.
Trump is attempting to block Bolton from telling his story. "You aren't supposed to learn that "is a formula for making people curious, and confirmation that the information is damaging. Otherwise, why bother? Bolton's story is pouring out. Bolton says Trump is "unfit" and cites incidents to prove his point.
Trump is usually more adept politically. Trump is doing four of the things he typically does with the help of media allies. These work for him.
1. Bash the motives of the critic: he is just in it for the money, to sell books, and would do or say anything to cash in.
2. Discredit him personally. Trump says that Bolton was a loser, unable to be confirmed, and Trump took pity on the pathetic guy. Ugly mustache.
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| Giuliani on Fox: Click HERE |
4. Make it about team loyalty. Sure, Bolton is a conservative. Sure Bolton was on Fox News as a reliable spokesperson for the team. But Bolton is now playing for the Democratic team. He is a backstabber! Who do you believe, us, or those lying, socialist Democrats?
Trump cannot suppress Bolton, and should not have tried. Bolton says Trump is unfit? Bring it on, no problem. His comments are no concern since, after all, he is a money-seeking loser, a liar making common cause with Democrats. And he has that weird mustache.
Trump had a tool, a reliable Justice Department willing to try to suppress Bolton. Using it was the messaging mistake. It backfires. It communicates that Bolton's message matters and it hurts.
2 comments:
Re: Democratic messaging. Once again, the D Party is trying to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. Letting that stupid "Defund the Police go viral ranks right up there with letting Republicans steal "Pro-Life" and label progressives as pro-abortion. They have handed the Fascist wannabes cudgel which he is going to use to beat them bloody. And it's probably too late to get ahead of it, or amend the message, so they need to find a better way to get the real message out, using a better word than "reform". The public has been hearing "reform" for a generation, and the cops keep getting more and bigger hardware, and people keep dying at their hands.
I can't imagine any other administration where John Bolton would have been chosen as NSA.
The dog that caught the car.
He's been unsuccessfully auditioning on FOX for years and started writing the book on the day he was hired. It might have originally been about his wise policy successes and his rescue of the country, but probably soon became a tell-all.
Unlike Barr and others, he was unwilling to be sufficiently sycophantic and it ultimately led to clashes. He quit to avoid the inevitable taint, and will now return to punditry-he's on The View next Weds.
I would add that I think the book will have more impact now than his testimony would have during impeachment. He correctly determined that the Senate was going to acquit regardless of any evidence, and now that sentiment is eroding and these revelations will both inform the public and chastise his Republican colleagues.
A while back I wrote about how Trump is outmatched by those around them, and Bolton is a good example. Masterful, utterly self serving; one has to grudgingly admire someone who plays the DC game so well, even as we are repulsed.
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