"The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship. He's the most flawed person Ihave ever met in my life."
Gen. John Kelly, former Trump Chief of Staff
It doesn't matter to Trump voters.
Would anyone hire Trump to manage a 7-11 store that one owned? Wouldn't he make lousy hires, ask them to break laws, have constant turmoil among the staff, hire relatives, tell you fibs about the business that was being done, and finagle the till so he came out great but you did not?
The point about the 7-11 manager is a recurring theme in commentary by Charlie Sykes in his The Bulwark podcasts. Trump would cheat you, as well as mismanage your store. Sykes is a long time conservative commentator, a big fan of Reagan and conservative politics generally, and back in the Bill Clinton impeachment era he, like lots of Republicans, said that character mattered. Sykes said that presidents set a moral and ethical tone for the nation, and he still says it. He opposes Trump.
So does General Kelly, who worked closely with President Trump, as his first Chief of Staff.
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| General Kelly, former top aide to Trump |
Trump has enormous talents, under- appreciated by people disgusted by him personally or who disagree with him politically. He sold himself, aggressively and persuasively, as a man of the people whose vast personal wealth made him incorruptible and who would restore pride and prosperity to Americans. He is an extraordinary self-promoter, and he advanced policies that got traction with Republicans and many frustrated Americans who had voted for Obama but who now wanted things shaken up. He showed himself to be someone who would act without apology in the interests of people who wanted lower taxes and less regulation; wanted anti-abortion judges; people concerned about mass immigration displacing "normal, regular," native-born White Christians from the default position at the center of American culture and political power; and against "elitist Democrats." Trump's character as defined by polite virtues is irrelevant. The Access Hollywood tape, his exaggerations, his tweets, his hypocrisy, don't particularly hurt Trump because they are not part of the transaction between Trump and his supporters.
General Kelly described Trump as "transactional." It was meant as a criticism. Transactional relationships are built around one-off deals, not principles or past and future relationships of trust and respect. There is nothing inherently wrong with transactional relationships, and in a market-based capitalist economy, they happen all the time. One puts four quarters put into a vending machine for a can of Diet Coke. You pay and a can of Diet Coke gets dispensed. Win-win. A transaction.
Trump telephoned the Ukraine president, a "perfect call." Trump told him he was releasing the funds, as Congress had directed. Trump wanted a personal "favor, though," as the call summary put it. Trump asked Ukraine to announce an investigation of Joe Biden. It seemed reasonable to Trump. We do for them; they do for him.
Democrats are failing to understand something central to Trump's success. The criticism of Trump's character is irrelevant. It just adds to the GOP voters' feelings that Democrats are consumed by hatred for Trump, Trump Derangement Syndrome. Democrats are thrilled by angry Republican critics, most recently Ben Sasse, before that Mitt Romney, and in the past month by an increasing number of Trump's former senior aides, his top political and career agency heads, his relatives, his former attorneys, his COVID team members, Justice Department employees, and more. All of them are critical of Trump. Democrats re-assure themselves that this surely moves the needle in Biden's favor. Biden is making the same mistake, saying his own campaign is an appeal to restore the "soul of the nation."
Trump and the circumstances of the partisan divide have made Americans as transactional as Trump. Trump voters get what they want: their judges, the ethno-nationalism, the open contempt for Democrats.
Customers at a vending machine don't wonder about the "character" of the machine. Hardly anyone cares about the mechanism inside the machine and what gears motivate the can to pop out. It either delivers the goods or it doesn't.
Trump delivers for his team.
2 comments:
The talents you ascribe to El Presidente would get a five year old a timeout.
I'm not sure what to call 'em, but it ain't a team...a pack?
I'd also take issue with the term "elitist Democrats". It's the kind of generalization that suggests at least a pejorative, or at best an oxymoron. Elites are just as important to a society as any other group. It's a Regressive low self-esteem epithet.
Trump is the only politician who seriously spoke to the problems that globalization created for the white working class. That meant a lot more to them than any aspect of his personality.
All the other politicians told them to either go and die or “learn to code.” And that was on top of calling them racist and “deplorable.“
It shouldn’t be any surprise where their loyalties ended up.
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