"Either go away or go all the way in
Look at what you hold
Come back down on a spear of silence
When it flies
You go on through
You come on through"
Grace Slick, "Hey Fredrick," Jefferson Airplane, 1969
Grace slick was saying many things at once. Who knew what? Either she was talking about sex with an inexperienced lover. Or meth addiction. Or Nietzsche. Or losing a childlike faith. In a song, ambiguity works, if the music is good and the band catches the mood of an era.
Michael Pence is less fortunate. He is a shining example of the problem with failure either to go away or go all the way in. His semi-in/semi-out political messaging isn't working. He is mired at near zero percent and he gets boos. He is speaking out now, saying that "in 2016 Trump promised to govern as a conservative, and together we did." But now Trump has changed. He was with Trump, but now isn't, not exactly, not anymore.
No.
Pence misses an essential ingredient in Trump's appeal. Trump is all-in on being Trump, without reservation or apology. It makes Trump read as authentic, which many Americans read as honest. Trump isn't hedging.
Pence is half-in/half-out.
Pence, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswami, and Doug Burgum want support from Trump's supporters, so they send complicated messages of praise and disapproval. They like Trump and the MAGA vibe, but not outright criminality -- but it wasn't really criminal. Trump and his crowds were misunderstood. Or patriots. Maybe both. Their positions look calculating because they are indeed calculated. Not Trump's. Trump is conspicuous in his careless bluntness. Democratic and mainstream media pundits count 30,000-plus Trump lies, and they bemoan and marvel that Trump supporters believe the flagrant, ongoing con. How can he be so persuasive, they wonder?
Trump is persuasive because he sees and believes what he wants to see and believe. It gives him the salesman's gift of apparent sincerity. This may serve him well in his upcoming court cases. He knew what he wanted to hear, so he integrated the election information and legal advice he wanted, and only that. Democratic pundits can call it narcissistic and crazy; a great many Republicans see it differently, as being resolute. Trump's imperviousness to unwelcome counsel is real. It was maddening for his former close advisors and cabinet officers, who are near-unanimous in their condemnation of Trump. They now say publicly that he is dangerously unfit. But to the wider audience of the GOP electorate, Trump's willfulness comes across as inner strength, integrity, fortitude.
Rambo-Trump flags are sold and displayed un-ironically.
That is what Pence cannot duplicate. Pence is an other-directed man, a slave to to conscience, to faith, to a wife, to the GOP, to laws, to being consistent to his own prior statements. To outside reality. We see him calculating the political landscape and attempting to thread a political needle on tiptoes.
Meanwhile, square-jawed Rambo Trump carries a big gun. He does what the hell he wants. He makes liberals cry.
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21 comments:
He doesn't make liberals cry. He makes them feel ill.
Pence ( or has the Late Dighouse O'Reilly dubbed him "Mike Dense) was never anything for Trump except a handy coat rack and portable ego inflator, for those times needed to hear how great he was.
That he actually thinks he has a shot at the nomination is, imho, proof of just how right Doghouse O'Reilly was.
Trump is a traitor, by definition. Those who refuse to unequivocally condemn his treachery are complicit in it.
What makes me cry is republicans supporting the end of democracy. Trump is Trump, but Americans throwing away democracy and freedom is just very disappointing.
I think one of the challengers could make some headway if they would just go all in and support the prosecutions. It's pretty simple, actually; Rule of Law, etc...
None of them want to take the guy on head to head, which is weird because they literally have nothing to lose.
Republican presidential electoral calculus requires support from Trump voters. Any candidate for the presidency who is serious about winning has to figure out a way to get that support. We are seeing how that calculus plays out for each of the Republican candidates.
It takes a lot of self-regard to think you can successfully run for the presidency. And then the electoral process holds up a mirror for you and shows you whether your self-regard was accurate. Pence is not going to be happy with what he sees in that mirror.
Why is “traitor” so rarely heard, I wonder? After all, the constitutional definition is clear.
Peter, you're giving too much credit to supporters of TFG.
They support him because he hates the same people they do. They are all losers.
If hate did not exist there would be no TFG.
As has been noted, Republican presidential electoral calculus requires support from Trump voters. In other words, the candidates are fighting over a bunch of whack jobs who don’t even believe in facts, much less democracy. What we have here isn’t a political party, but a madhouse taken over by the inmates.
Long ago, in a more innocent time, we wondered how could Hitler, and obvious whack job and flaming narcissist have manifested such a wildly popular and loyal following among the civilized German people? We now know the answer, right here in the good ole USA. Fascism always seems to have an appeal to some, and it never really goes away. Not even after a convulsive world war.
Some people around here have gotten very good at flinging epithets at Trump supporters. Politically speaking, this is going to work out as well for them as the “basket of deplorables“ approach worked for Hillary.
There’s an old saying about a talking to a donkey, which is that first you have to whack it in the head with a 2 x 4 just to get its attention. 2016 was apparently only a 1 x 2. If the Democrats don’t catch a clue soon, 2024 may turn out to be the 2 x 4.
Were the german people really civilized? Are WE really civilized? Sometimes, it feels like there’s a wild seed buried within certain people, just waiting for another psychopathic “leader” to bring us down to Lord of the Flies animals.
Believe it or not, there are people who actually buy the illusion that if we just quit criticizing Trump’s chumps for being so divorced from reality, that might somehow magically reduce their support for him. Some even imagine that dropping his indictments and not holding him accountable might appease the whackos and reduce his support. I believe the same website peddling such fantasies is also selling the Golden Gate bridge cheap, if anyone is interested.
Malcolm,
Those possibilities exist in all of us; when we are fortunate, they don’t get energized.
A capacity for non-binary thinking is what is lacking on both sides of the aisle. It empowers dangerous myopia and kneejerk bellicosity all around. Case in point for this blogpost theme? Not that he gets credit for nuance—it’s shallow caginess—but Trump himself just bucked that “all in” mode with Megyn Kelly concerning abortion as well as trans issues. The best prospective leaders know when—and how—to take a stand. Goldwater’s and (ironically) Hillary’s timing was off, just as Reagan’s and Obama’s was spot on.
Populism is a growing political force in this country. The Democrats need to understand, not denounce it.
Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. We are seeing that play out right here on this blog.
It might take more than a 2 x 4 … 🤷♂️😱
Populism and fascism have a lot in common. For example, they both use democratic ideals to legitimize a non-democratic style of leadership. If we fail to denounce it, we could very well wind up becoming what my father risked his life fighting in WWII.
Populism doesn’t just happen; it happens when elites ignore the needs of the people.
You can call the phenomenon whatever derogatory names you want to, but name calling will not help with voters who feel that the system only doesn’t care about them, but holds them in contempt as well. Throwing rocks from the sidelines is not a winning political strategy.
The “rich men north of Richmond” have failed the people, and the people are rising up. If no one else gets out in front of this, it’s going to be Donald Trump. I hope some Democrat catches a clue before it’s too late.
People willing to trade in our democracy for an autocracy led by a psychopath like Trump are as crazy as he is. That isn’t name-calling, it’s pointing out the obvious.
How does “pointing out the obvious” help keep Donald Trump from being elected in 2024?
It helps as much or more than lame attempts to defend the indefensible.
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