Down is up. No is yes.
Trump is a master at switching the polarity of political messages. It works, and it is happening right before our eyes.
I know the media wants to distract from the Biden administration's failed agenda by focusing on one day in January. They want to use that one day to try and demean the -- the character and intentions of 74 million Americans who believe we could be strong again and prosperous again and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020."
Pence took the energy of an opponent's condemnation of Trump's plan of insurrection and replaced Trump with the media and Biden as the new target. This was done in dead seriousness, but its boldness and audacity have a comedic predecessor in the 1970s movie Animal House. It was the "Otter" gambit, named after the character who used it in the college dean's disciplinary hearing.
Otter: Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests. We did. But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few twisted individuals. For if you do, then should we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg--isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we are not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!
And with that, the fraternity members parade out of the hearing humming the Star Spangled Banner.
In the movie the ploy did not work. Who would fall for that? In real life in America, it works pretty well. Polls show a majority of Republican voters fall for it when Trump does it. The Fox News network employs the technique nearly every hour. Fox says that when Democrats talk about racial justice or income inequality they are badmouthing the United States of America and the opinion host is outraged about it.
Trump is in the news again, doing the judo substitution trick himself. Trump said that Mike Pence' statement "during his interview with the great Sean Hannity very much destroys and discredits the "Unselect Committee[']s Witch Hunt on the events of January 6th." In a statement from Trump's Save America website, he wrote:
The Unselect Committee of partisan Democrats, and two very weak and pathetic RNOs, should come to the conclusion after spending many millions of dollars, that the real insurrection happened on November 3rd, the Presidential Election, not on January 6th--which was a day of protesting the Fake Election results.
The power of message judo is that it does not deny the opponent's argument that something big happened and that Americans should be angry about it. It accepts that thrust, and redirects it. The video of battles at the Capitol creates a high hurdle for convincing people nothing happened. People can see something big did happen. Trump said it was a big protest in response to a big event, "the crime of the century."
Trump's substitution will not satisfy everybody and likely not even a majority of Americans. But it will satisfy a majority of Republicans and Republicans are at the knife-edge of having a governing majority in the Congress, and in 2024 the Presidency. The judo gives Republican partisans a mental fig leaf, a basis for feeling comfortable in their understanding of Trump's effort to overthrow the election. Yes January 6 was violent and ugly, but Trump and good old-fashioned Americans are the good guys righting a wrong. The real insurrection was the election.
Trump runs a risk of looking mono-maniacal, the Captain Ahab of politics. He keeps saying it; the Arizona audit did not discourage him. A lot of Republicans wish he would keep quiet and go away, but he has a crazy insistence. If a few more Republican officeholders spoke out and told Trump to "cut it out, you lost, so quit claiming you won." Then the Trump spell on the Republican electorate might be broken. So far, though, nearly all Republican officeholders are keeping mum. Trump demands it; otherwise, one is a RINO. Republican voters believe Trump, or at least they think he is maybe right or partly right, and that, certainly, there are questions raised. Besides, Democrats are terrible. Who cares about process when the alternative is a Democrat? Republican voters don't need to pretend they didn't see January 6. Now they get to interpret what they saw as rough justice being done. The people scaling the walls are the good guys.
10 comments:
So I understand that I need to see Trump supporters as reasonable people and respect their beliefs and opinions. I just don’t know how.
The court of public opinion is on the move, but Justice is slow in this case. The only thing Trump will understand in he is convicted for is crimes. That can not happen fast enough though.
CNN and Comedy Central entertain us regularly with interviews of Republican voters who are easily, cruelly, tripped up with simple logic when asked to explain their views. The stupidity and willful ignorance on display is funny, but also scary.
The tactics you describe of course are intellectually dishonest but that doesn't matter. They are not intended to persuade or inform, simply to obfuscate facts for a willing audience.
Was the Jan. 6 riot a coup attempt? The only way to know for sure would be if it had succeeded. The connection between the Big Lie and the mob is Trump and his gang. One has to ask; did they (inciters/rioters) really plan to takeover the Congress, imprison members and restore Trump to the White House? Such intent is surely delusional, but the question remains and there's ample evidence.
Just watch Comedy Central.
I have deleted two off-topic troll comments, written anonymously by someone in the style of a Republican and perennial failed-office-seeker Curt Ankerberg. Voters beware. Ankerberg was judged guilty of fraud by a U.S. Tax Court. Local newspaper stories chronicle his persistent use of obscenity in social media comments. His defense against legal liability was that he has a mental disability due to damage to his brain.
Ankerberg, or someone mimicking him, consistently posts vile comments here and I consistently remove them and remind local voters of Ankerberg's tax fraud and admitted mental defect/disability. Some readers will feel sorry for him, considering that he posts comments as he does because his brain injury affects his judgement. Others will find him an embarrassment to Trump and Republicans. I remind readers that Ankerberg's comments are a reflection on Republicans and on people attempting to function with an admitted brain impairment. I am hopeful that fellow-Republicans or representatives of brain-injury groups take Ankerberg aside for counseling.
What Trump and his crowd refuse to acknowledge is that elections are why we don't need violent revolution to change the US government. We can get rid of terrible administrations peacefully, by voting, and that's what we did in 2020 - in spite of all the lies, gerrymandering, and voter suppression. We'll have to work even harder in 2022 to keep Republicans from trashing everything that furthers the public good.
Of course Republicans swallow Trump’s Kool-Aid. He’s the undisputed leader of their party and under his leadership, it has adopted his position on the issues: Russian interference in our election is fake news, Climate change is a hoax, the pandemic is no big deal, the election was stolen, his coup attempt wasn't a coup attempt, et cetera, ad nauseum. Whether they’re knuckle-dragging devotees of his cult or those who claim to just like his policies, they’re as crazy as he is.
The "message judo" conception is a clever one. Maybe too complimentary for Trump, along with "switching polarity" and even Captain Ahab, who was a complex and intellectual monomaniac.
I seem Trump more as The Simpsons' Nelson Mundt on the playground, except rich as well as big. Perhaps "I'm rubber, you're glue" and "I know you are, but what am I?" IS childiah judo.
The mistake Democrats continue to make is their compulsive preoccupation with the man. Maybe it's PTSD from the shock of 2016. But looking backwards will not help them in 2022.
I expect one big revelatory piece of tape or bit of live mic, as when the Andy Griffith movie demagogue Lonesome Roads is exposed. Not crude sex talk, but contempt for his diehards.
Mr. Dungeon:
Wanting to hold someone that corrupt and seditious accountable is not "compulsive preoccupation" or "looking backwards." It's called Justice for All - quaint, I know, but nonetheless one of our core beliefs.
I thought I was the only person in America who remembered that Andy Griffith character and his public disintegration when he was caught by an open mic expressing his genuine feelings, thus revealing his hypocrisy and contempt for the rubes who believe his con.
I think this would be a good topic for a comment tomorrow and--lucky for me--I have a blog!
Mike, i agree with Low Dudgeon. Indeed, one of the best strategies I can think of to keep Trump from winning the 2024 election is-to the extent possible-simply marginalize him. Stop even mentioning all the bullshit he continuously sprays. Stop even mentioning his name.
All we do by reporting on what an insane jerk he is turns into free advertising for him, simply by keeping his name out there, in front of voters. And we all know that name recognition is half the fight.
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