Think "Comma" and then "La."
Trump mispronounces Kamala Harris' name.
It isn't a sign of Trump dementia. It is intentional. He is messing with her brand. It is diabolical, nasty, and effective.
Trump acts like he doesn't know, or has a hard time pronouncing, her name.
He's called her Camilla.
Or he slows down his speech, as if sounding out an unfamiliar word, saying "ka-MILL-ah" with the hint of a question mark in his tone. He has then added, as if explaining, "sometimes referred to as KAM-a-la."
At a rally he said, "They were explaining to me you can say KA-ma-la, you can say ka-MA-la, I said, 'Don't worry about it, doesn't matter what I say.' I couldn't care less if I mispronounce it or not. I couldn't care less."
It is a sign of disrespect and casual contempt.
Of course he cares. It is a tactic. He is emphasizing her "other-ness" by presenting her as having a a name so weird or unfamiliar that Americans cannot pronounce or remember it. This is an election about "we" and "they." Harris is associated with cat-eating weird scary other. Kamala Harris is "they."
Trump's mispronouncing her name is also a form of diminishment and insult. Her name -- her individuality and history -- isn't recognized, and in this case is openly disrespected. Black slaves lost their African names and were given simple American ones -- remember, it was "Uncle Tom's" cabin. Slaves and Blacks in the Jim Crow South were called "boy."
Trump is attempting to give Harris a new appellation: "Commie." Make "Commie" her name, not Kamala.
Republicans are nearly uniform in having picked up the pattern of using the word "Democrat" as the adjective describing the Democratic Party. It was a recommendation of Newt Gingrich 30 years ago as a way to put the subliminal "rat" into the name. It was a bold calculation. Gingrich used it, and party leaders picked it up. It stuck. It is a tribal marker now; one can identify a Democrat or Republican by which adjective they use.
Democrats have been slow -- perhaps negligent -- in redefining the Trump brand. Trump himself said that his chief asset is his brand and ability to license his name. It is why he says his net worth is far greater than his real estate or financial assets. He has equity in his brand. Harris successfully baited him in the debate by saying his rally performances are boring. Trump leapt to defend against that sneer.
Democrats never began a turn-about by referring to the "Repub Party" or the "Republick Party." They didn't have a Gingrich. They had nine years to tie words like "scam," "schlock," "bankrupt," "con man," "cult leader," or something similar to Trump. They didn't do it. In recent months some Democrats have taken to calling Trump a felon. Trump reversed the polarity of that, making it a sign of defiant strength. I see signs and tee shirts reading "I'm voting for the felon."
Stormy Daniels gave Democrats a way to humiliate Trump in an area of special sensitivity for Trump when she described his penis as small and weirdly mushroom-shaped. She would know, and there is not good way for Trump to prove the opposite.The power of that attack on the Trump brand was demonstrated in Barack Obama's Democratic Convention speech. Obama gave a knowing smile and made the briefest gesture of holding his hands a small distance apart, as if measuring. Americans immediately got the reference. Trump as a Playboy Magazine-era Lothario is a big part of the Trump brand. A sexually incompetent claim, indeed a sexually laughable one, undermines that brand. The Lothario/Hugh Hefner image gives Trump some rapport with men who resent #MeToo norms and the presumed feminization of American culture.
There is some Huck in every American. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn concludes:
“I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before.”
Trump is well defined. Love him or disgusted by him, Americans understand what they get with Trump. He has a brand. He defends it. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, he is who he is who he is.
He understands a brand's power, so he is busy at work trying to muddle Kamala Harris' brand, starting with trying to take away her name.
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5 comments:
In this same way, Trump is calling Harris a communist and Spanish radio is promoting it. Elon Musk is promoting a fake video in the same vein. The uninformed Latino in Florida are supposed to vote for Trump as they fear dictatorship. I would laugh if I didn’t think it will happen.
“It is diabolical, nasty, and effective.”
It’s only effective because Trump’s supporters are as messed up as he is. Those who claim they don't like his behavior but support him for his policies may think they’re insulting our intelligence, but it's more of a discredit to their own.
I thought it was a brilliant stroke for Harris to walk straight up to Trump at the debate and say, “Hi, I’m Kamala Harris.” She told him her name and frankly I think he looks foolish mispronouncing it. Of course his cult loves it, but there are still some grownups in this country who see it as a negative, not a power move.
My favorite is being accused having TDS: Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Speaking of Projection, and Derangement ? The only signs of true derangement are in his cultish followers, and the Dementia I see him displaying every time he gets in front of a microphone.
Jennifer, I laughed out loud when she did that. He didn't know whether to fill his diaper or go blind.
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