No analogy is perfect, including this one.
Trump isn't really Rambo. Not exactly.
Yesterday's guest post described Trump as a populist disrupter, a left-oriented revolutionary figure restoring democracy by returning power and a fair share of the nation's wealth to working Americans.
I thought the guest post description was factually wrong. Absurd, even. Utterly backward. But the guest post author said he believed what he wrote, and elections are about what people think, not about some illusive objective truth. If otherwise reasonable people believe Trump is fighting for democracy, equal justice, and enriching working people, and that this goal justifies lawless means, then readers need to know that this idea is out there in the political ether. So I happily published his post.
I am not inventing the Rambo Trump link. Trump sells Rambo Trump merchandise. His supporters buy and display it. It fits an image Trump likes: Strong. Buff. Fearless. Violent. Armed. Anti-establishment. Disruptive. Persecuted. And lawless.
The movie tag line is: "No man, no law, no war can stop him."
The first iteration of the movie franchise appeared in 1982 with the movie Rambo, First Blood. It was a major box office hit. Let me refresh readers' memories.
Vietnam veteran John Rambo walks into a Washington town named Hope, where he is treated with suspicion and hostility. He is escorted out of town by the sheriff. Feeling slighted, Rambo tries to return to town, where he is re-arrested. Rambo fights his way out of town. The authorities of the Washington town drew "first blood" in their effort to capture Rambo; the town started it, so whatever violence happens afterwards is their fault. For most of an hour the movie depicts Rambo's fighting skill, honed in the Vietnam jungle, as he resists being subdued by authorities. The movie ends with Rambo surrendering to federal authorities as he explains his suffering and imprisonment in Vietnam and his poor treatment by Americans when he returned home from the war. He was unfairly picked on and fought back with every means available.
We see the parallels. Trump presents himself as the unappreciated outsider, intending to drain the swamp of powerful oppressors. Trump calls himself the underdog, the counter-puncher, the victim of the establishment run by Democrats, the federal bureaucracy, the Deep State, the fake media, the universities, the woke goodie-goodies, the climate activists who like wind and solar power, and the cultural snobs who would use the word "deplorable." All those bad guys are ignoring the real problems: immigrants, crime, and the cheating of foreign countries. Trump uses unconventional guerilla tactics to fight these domestic and foreign oppressors, breaking laws and norms, making pretense claims of powers and special emergenciies and daring the Congress and courts to stop him.
The Rambo Trump brand represents the populist working person who is unappreciated and oppressed by the economic status quo of selfish business owners who close factories. They are also oppressed by cultural elites with their pronoun declarations, toleration of trans women in sports, diversity hiring preferences, identity essentialism, and green energy rules. The #MeToo movement and talk of "toxic masculinity" accentuated the sense of working class males that they are devalued and that masculine instincts are shamed and criminalized.
Yesterday's guest post author, Alan DeBoer, is not a distressed paycheck-to-paycheck working person. He is influential, respected, and wealthy. But within Oregon's politics, even he is an outsider, excluded from the Democratic majority. He shares the condition of wealthy people in blue states, making them frustrated outsiders open to disruptive change. Even wealthy White men in comfortable circumstances have reason to feel abused, especially ones in blue cities and states: They pay the most in taxes, the government gives safety net benefits to others, and they rarely win elections. Everybody can identify with Charlie Brown of the Coasters song: "How come everybody's always picking on me."
It is just that Rambo doesn't take getting picked on. He fights back.
The Rambo movie showed law enforcers to be the villains, not the heroes. So of course, Trump -- Rambo Trump -- gutted and remade the FBI and Department of Justice.
The CDC urged vaccinations and mask-wearing, and many Americans didn't like wearing masks. Trump ripped his off after returning from Walter Reed hospital. So, of course, Rambo Trump gutted the Department of Health and Human Services and CDC.
In the Rambo Trump mindset, people who take up arms against law enforcement should be honored, not prosecuted. After all, the defenders of the Capitol were protecting people ready to confirm the election of Joe Biden. How illegitimate! How could he possibly have lost to that loser, Joe Biden? The rioters were misunderstood heroes, the good guys fighting against tyranny. Of course, Rambo Trump pardoned the January 6 rioters.
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10 comments:
Uh..."Rambo" is fictional, an over the top Hollywood movie hero, right? Not real, right? Created to entertain the raging hormonal fantasies of 12 year old boys, right? Seriously, NOT REAL, right? Just making sure...because no rational adult would believe that an overweight, unhealthy, cognitively impaired 80 year old man is a "Rambo", right?MEANWHILE THE EPSTEIN VICTIM'S PRESS CONFERENCE IS TOMORROW AND ANOTHER DISTRACTION IS COMING TODAY FROM THE WHITE HOUSE AS CONGRESS TAKES UP THE VOTE TO RELEASE THE COMPLETE EPSTEIN FILES. HOW MUCH LONGER CAN REPUBLICANS SUPPRESS THEM? BTW MILLIONS DEMONSTRATED ACROSS THE NATION ON LABOR DAY TO PROTEST FOR WORKER'S RIGHTS WHILE REPUBLICANS WHINE ABOUT CRACKER BARREL.
Yes, laws they don’t like don’t really apply to them. It’s okay to cheat by gerrymandering as long as it helps our side. Mail in voting helps. Democrats, void that process. Oh wait, it may hurt republicans, so maybe not do away with it. Democrats need to stop playing fair. You know what stops criminals from doing criminal behavior? The answer is no, in the form of prisons. Many criminals stop doing crimes not because they change their thinking. They stop because the CONSEQUENCES of their thinking.
Trump‘s talent as a politician is that he taps into deep emotional undercurrents. You can make fun of this from an intellectual standpoint all you like, but you will not even begin to touch the strength of the emotional connection he has made with his supporters. Opposing politicians need to be able to connect on that same sort of emotional level.
A refusal to understand this is just a way to continue toinsist on being politically ineffective.
The Che blog looked ridiculous, so I did not read it. He definitely is not Rambo. Agent Orange is a serial draft dodger who has insulted and disrespected real soldiers, veterans and their families.
He is a rich, spoiled, degenerate version of Archie Bunker. Both from Queens, New York.
As our next president has observed: "If it's a day ending in y, it's a day Trump is found violating the law!"
Agreed. Trump is an idiot genius, a con man savant.
I've been thinking about the song YMCA. The Village People were diverse before diversity was the ideal, the YMCA is a beloved American institution that is not the military ( not many of those left -- I miss Sears), it's a subtle kiss to Christians with the letter C, It's a feel good song about Americans helping out Americans and singing and dancing while doing so, it's a gay anthem but macho Trump is not afraid to dance to it and reclaim Americana for real men. Making YMCA his theme song both inspires his followers and undermines the opposition; I have to call it political genius. It's one piece of that strong emotional connection between Trump and his followers that confounds the Democrats.
When did JD Vance say this? 😱
That’s right. Opposing politicians need to act like ignoranuses or they’ll never be able to make that deep connection Trump has with voters’ fear, anger and hatred.
Vance would never come out with anything that honest, but it’s a good point that at the rate Trump is degenerating, Vance will likely be finishing his term. I wonder who’ll get the flying palace once the billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded makeover is completed.
Those who keep missing the point, will never be successful and always have something to complain about.
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