Embrace harsh criticism. Raise money off it.

Another lesson on the strategy for dealing with harsh criticism. 

The wrong way: Hide out, apologize, minimize.

The right way: Double down and embrace it. 

Donald Trump taught a master-class in deflecting criticism. Ted Cruz learned the lesson. (Al Franken did not.)

Do political judo. Take the power of an attack and turn it around. Don't fight it; go with it. Criticism only hurts you if the critic has more credibility than you do. In a partisan and tribal world, you may have as much credibility as the critic--and certainly so with one's own tribe--so embrace criticism. Spotlight it. Use it.

Americans are familiar with the approach in sports. In judo, the opponent's strong punch or kick isn't stopped; it is allowed to proceed unimpaired, which throws the attacker off balance, and that momentum turns into a weakness. In football's screen pass, the offensive line allows defenders to break through easily--a deception--so they rush ahead, allowing the quarterback to throw a short pass to a receiver just over the heads of the onrushing defenders. The defensive line is now on the wrong side of the ball, and what looked like a rout becomes a weakness.

FDR famously said "Never before in all our history have these forces [of big money] been united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred."

Click: 1936, in Madison Square Garden

We see Ted Cruz using the strategy today, in a fundraising letter I just received from him. Former House Speaker John Boehner is on all the news shows this week promoting his book about how his beloved GOP has been taken over by the crazies. He, the GOP, and Americans generally are beset by Freedom Caucus showboats out to destroy America, more eager to get attention on Fox than they are to pass reasonable legislation. He called Jim Jordan "a political terrorist." He called Michelle Bachman a "lunatic."

He had especially memorable words for Ted Cruz. Boehner called him "dangerous,"  "a reckless asshole," and "Lucifer in the flesh." He said he had "never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life." He said Cruz "was stirring up some of the crazies in my own caucus." In an interview yesterday, Boehner kept at it: "As I say in the book, there's nothing worse than a reckless jackass who thinks he's smarter than everybody else." 

Ted Cruz is advertising what Boehner said and raising money off it:   

There is a natural human instinct to recoil from criticism. Well-brought-up children have been corrected, disciplined, and instructed by parents, teachers, and adults in authority. It is how we are socialized. Trusted authorities are pointing out error. Someone is unhappy, so one must have done something wrong. 

Not necessarily.  A critic may wish to assume the god-like or parental role of moral judge, and if the target of criticism tacitly agrees with that positioning by expressing guilt or shame, the critic is validated in that role. The question in front of the public becomes, just how wrong was the target? The target can take the other strategy: Embrace the criticism and demean the critic. "I welcome their hatred." The strategy doesn't work all the time and not on everyone, but nothing does. It does work to strengthen your relationship with your teammates and it helps define the brand of the target, both in policy and in character. The defiant and proud target appears fearless and resolute, the stuff of heroes.

Equally important, it defines the brand of the critic. Defiance reduces the critic to a combatant, not a moral authority. It invites the public to see it as a contest of who they better trust, critic or target. This is a far better question for the target than what the critic intended: How guilty is he?