Friday, March 29, AD 2024 4:35am

Trump Beating Trump

My favorite living historian, Victor Davis Hanson, gives us the grim details of the recent political malpractice of Donald Trump:
All of the above was doable and could have ensured Trump the election, despite the unethical and historically unprecedented entrance into the campaign of a contrite Barack Obama, the institutional prejudices of the media, the usual big-city voter fraud, and even the withdrawal of the Republican elite who could not countenance Trump’s innate vulgarity, swashbuckling style, and demagogic appeal to the white working classes. We are, after all, in a war between the National Enquirer and NPR, Marlboro Man against Pajama Boy, Clint Eastwood versus Tom Hanks, amateurish fantasies opposed to established, polished lying.
Instead, here we are with less than 90 days before the election, and Trump may be lucky if he finishes within 5 percentage points on Election Day.
To negate Trump’s advantages, the Democrats had a simple strategy: bring out the demonic Trump. Hillary Clinton would simply lie about her e-mail records ad nauseam. In possum style, she would snore about the economy. She would avert her eyes from the world order’s breaking apart. She would ignore the populist furor with a corrupt Washington and media establishment.. Against this stultifying backdrop, the ego-driven Trump would be allowed to grab the headlines, and the headlines would be petty and embarrassing.
Democrats would seed the summer and autumn election battlefields with new and updated models of politically correct IEDs. They used this technique very effectively in 2012 to render a decent Mitt Romney as a tax-cheating, greedy Wall Street vulture, who ignored his regular garbageman, beat up kids in prep school, and strapped his terrified dog to his car top. Four years earlier the Democrats had blown John McCain to smithereens and left him little more than a closet racist and an adulterous and senile coot, who could not remember how many estates he owned nor the shenanigans of his pill-popping spouse. To avoid the rain of shrapnel, Romney had to battle both the moderator and his opponent in a presidential debate while contextualizing his own personal success and fortune. McCain, meanwhile, swore off referring to the racist personal pastor of Barack Obama and to Obama’s own litany of “typical white person” and “get in their face.” We forget that long before the wild man Trump, the most un-Trumpian, sober and judicious McCain and Romney were flattened by bogus charges against their spouses and false claims, respectively, of adultery and tax-cheating — and were completely unable to defend themselves from such smears and slanders.
Instead of staying on a winning message and avoiding the subterranean traps, Trump on cue tramped right through this progressive minefield. The explosive result was predictable. He wasted precious hours rudely taking on a Mexican-American judge — who, to be fair, had foolishly joined a “La Raza” lawyers’ organization (imagine a white counterpart as a member of a local legal organization with “The Race” in its name) — or jousting with a Gold Star family, indifferent to the fact that the father was an immigration lawyer who logically would oppose Trump’s immigration moratoria.
So when all these mines went off, Trump in theory always had some sort of legitimate counter-argument: Yes, Megyn Kelly was not commensurate in her sexism questions, in that she did not ask Hillary Clinton to account for her own sexist past, whether laughing over aspects of a case involving a rapist client, or demonizing Bill’s victims of coerced sex. And, yes, it was also a fact that bombastically inviting Putin to find Hillary’s missing 30,000 e-mails could not be a breach of security if they were truly about yoga and Chelsea’s wedding.
But such legitimate counter-arguments against explosive devices do not matter. Words are not as loud as Semtex and C-4. As Trump blew himself up on these mines, campaign time was irrevocably lost.
No one was asking Trump to go mute when Obama or Clinton attacked him in unprecedented fashion. The key instead was circumspection. Strike back quickly and only at major targets, to create deterrence against future smears, and then after 30 seconds get back on topic — and never step on a Democratic landmine out of curiosity whether it would really blow up. Translated, that means ignore assorted journalists eager for five minutes of cable-news attention, political flunkies, private citizens — both heroes and scoundrels — grieving widows, the disabled, the underage, and the elderly — in other words, all the cover plates that supposedly moral progressives use to mask their explosives. Is it too late for Trump?

So far, what he has thrown away in the polls Hillary so often seems to give back.

 

 

Go here to read the rest.  An example of what Hanson is talking about was this inane comment by Trump yesterday which has ignited a media firestorm:
Trump Says Maybe ‘2nd Amendment People’ Can Stop Clinton’s Supreme Court Picks – ABC News

0 0 votes
Article Rating
31 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Paul
Paul
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 5:48am

Reference the recent blog here on press bias. There is nothing Trump says that cannot be twisted or used by a biased press. Let’s hope the voters can see what is happening. I for one will be contributing to the NRA legislative action agenda.

Dante alighieri
Reply to  Paul
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 6:14am

There is no need for the media to twist Trump’s words, as he usually supplies his own rope.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 6:17am

. I believe Trump ( who I hoped would win just for his SCOTUS choices) will keep getting bogged down in these lesser battles because also he thinks it brings him free media coverage as in the primary but now it’s hurting him because he’s giving the impression that his presidency will get nothing done…that he is not really a worker but a kibitzer who loves constant media fights be it twitter or tv fights. Aquinas said, ” The great man is concerned with great things and not little things”. You can use that by the way when your wife asks if you put the garbage out. Trump has the reverse concern structure….he really loves the little things and not the great issues as though he is tired of making big things like golf courses and casinos and just wants to fight little fights with the media. This second amendment bomb was Trump replacing one fiasco…Khan…with the next fiasco…before it ends he’ll have another bomb by Friday which will help the previous shooting of Hillary bomb go away. But even followers are getting worn out because the feeling is that of being on a roller coaster every month and maybe four years of this. There are points of similarity between Pope Francis and Trump…endless talking and you don’t know what’s going to happen next but you suspect that it won’t be ideal.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 6:28am

Mac, 100% correct, but . . .
.
We were bass fishing in ME. Passed through NH both ways. “Live Free or Die.” is the NH state motto. Incitement to violence! Call a whambulance!
.
Unbelievable as it may appear, my maniac (as far to the left as I am to the right) ex-twin brother is voting for Trump. Our first agreement on politics in 50 years! He is big-time #NeverHillary b/c of the Clintons’ record of 40 years of doing millions of things worse for both right and left. For one, he faults them on the Bosnia campaigns and screwing up the break-up of Yugoslavia.
.
Paul, to say Trump promoted violence is prime example of what they do: distort, fabricate, exaggerate, ignore Hillary’s weaknesses and her campaign having the anti-gay terrorist mass-murderer’s father sitting front-row, repeat-repeat-repeat, spew out false equivalency, outright lie, etc. The spin machine put out their propagandistic (it’s all lies all the time) interpretation, and the destroyers of our way of life, and low-information and allergic-to-the-facts imbeciles go nuts.
.
What will you do when Hillary’s packed court outlaws the First Amendment?
.
I’m upset and disappointed that Obama-enabler Ratso Ryan won his WI primary election.

Brian
Brian
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 7:21am

We were given a large group of quality candidates, representing a large ideological spectrum.

Trump won handily. He is exactly what Republicans want. They like it when he makes comments about the “Second Ammendment People”, (“Heck yeah!”)

What he is doing now is not a bug. It is a feature of who Trump is and it is exactly what Republcans want. It may trouble many readers of this blog, but not the majority of those who selected him as their candidate.

Trump will not change. He is speaking to his base. This is how he will govern. And I contend it will get much, much worse once he faces real pressure and real conflict with real power at his disposal.

Whatever one may say about Hillary, no doubt she is as bad or worse, this is true about
Trump.

And that is the current condition of America.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 11:41am

Looking closely at what Trump said, I believe he made a bad joke. He was speaking in past tense, as in Clinton was already elected, and he added “I don’t know,” which is not the affirmative, victorious speak a candidate uses in explaining how supporting him will change the course from mentioned dire possibilities. An appended “I don’t know” is a Trumpism for “I believe this to be so, but don’t hold me liable for saying it.”
.
Trump needs to immediately call off his campaign against himself and begin his campaign against Clinton.
That will be insufficient. He needed to be arguing for his policies, the principles which drive them, if any exist in Trump’s world, and reinforce those principles by aligning them with the ideals of the republic. For a man that reveres the National Enquirer more than the U.S. Constitution, that’s not going to happen. And time is too short.
My guess is Trump is betting almost everything on the debates. He is a showman after all. Good luck.
.
I am not a tin foil hat person, but I’m starting to consider the theory Trump is a plant to make sure Hillary wins might be true. The headlines were ready to be dominated by the Orlando shooter’s father sitting so close to Hillary at a rally when Trump decides to deflect and make it about him, and not in a good way.

Brian
Brian
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 11:59am

TAC, I hear what your saying. It’s just that he won the Primary by a landslide. Outside Cruz, he had no competition. He is what Republcan voters wanted far more than anyone else. He speaks for thos who vote, regardless of what polls say.

I have also seen flexible people in my line of work; those of high intellect who are light on their toes and can adapt to circumstances. I don’t see that quality is in DJT, either the intellect or the flexibility.

I won’t beat a dead horse. He is who he is. Now we just wait and see.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 12:03pm

Yes, I read with eagerness VDH’S column yesterday, referenced at RealClearPolitics.com.

Would that Mr. Hanson (or Newt Gingrich. Or Michael Barone. Or…) could have been the campaign message manager for Trump..but I am always the dreamer.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 1:53pm

I’m still planning to vote for Trump. The Clintons are just too bad. Kaine too. Biden too. If trump wins it will be a miracle given his campaigning faults
But they are publicity and campaign faults. Clintons are slicker campaigners for sure, but their behavior says “rotten to the core”. Trump is no saint but he is not rotten .
Plus he is getting some input now from conservatives and I think he is “evolving”.

c matt
c matt
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 3:25pm

He doesn’t even need to focus exclusively on his policies – Clinton is so bad, he has plenty to shoot with just pointing out who she really is. It is possible he is a plant, or cut a deal with Hildebeast to throw the election if he wins the GOP primary (in exchange for what, who knows). He was brilliant turning “I’m with her” into “I’m with you!” He needs more of that, and less of going after sideshow hangers on like the Kahn. For crying out loud, she had the Orlando shooter’s dad sitting right behind her at her rally! Obviously, “She’s with him.”

Cindy
Cindy
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 3:27pm

Let’s backtrack to Pope Francis regarding Trump’s policy to build a wall between the US and Mexico. An excerpt from the New York Daily news, “A spokesman for Pope Francis says the pontiff’s characterization of The Donald’s call for a Mexican border wall as “not Christian” was not a slap at the GOP presidential candidate.” Pope Francis apparently thinks Trumps policy on this issue is “not Christian.” To joke about “2nd Amendment people” doing something to stop Clinton and the Supreme Justices she might select–is not funny. It’s like inciting people who are the fringe (not 2nd Amendment advocates) to assassinate Clinton and Supreme Court justice nominees. Is this Catholic? Is this Christian? I’m not here to defend Clinton; however, I cannot understand how people keep defending the idiotic things that come out of Donald Trump’s mouth. Some of his policies are far-fetched like the Great Wall between the US and Mexico, as though he were trying to make a spinoff of the Great Wall of China. If people are not happy with Clinton or Trump, there are third- party alternatives. I predict support for third-party candidates will soar. Perhaps that is the best way to make a statement to both the DNC and Republican parties. I think voters deserve more choices.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 6:26pm

My guess is Trump is betting almost everything on the debates. He is a showman after all.

Then there won’t be any debates.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 8:03pm

Ernst,
Kind of like the debates in the GOP primary, lots of low brow shots and empty rhetoric. I remember enjoying the one debate Trump skipped.

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 8:18pm

“He is what Republican voters wanted far more than anyone else.”

Not necessarily. Many of Trump’s primary victories were in states with open or partially open primaries that were not limited to registered Republicans only. There may have been, and probably was, a considerable amount of crossover voting by Democrats or unaffiliated/independent voters. Cruz tended to do better in “closed” primary states, in which only voters on record as registered Republicans could vote in the GOP primaries.

CAM
CAM
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 10:47pm

The state in which I’m registered to vote has open presidential primaries. Although I always vote Republican, I refuse to register as a Republican. I do not “self identify” as an independent. The VA June Rep primary had 13 candidates on the ballot. After the ballot was printed 4 of the 13 withdrew from the race but they were still listed on the ballot and received votes. Trump won. Rubio was behind him by 29,000 votes. Cruz behind Trump by almost 186,000. With Rubio a close second I’m not sure that there were many crossovers.
George H. W. Bush and Dole were bland and had Perot siphon off votes. McCain and Romney had poorly run campaigns. The Dems started framing Romney’s public image about 6 months plus out from his nomination. McCain, Romney were about taking the high road, as was “W” after he was elected. Trump does not; he’s no gentleman and that’s why he has a chance of winning in Nov if…..he has a 1 hour delay button on his twitter feed; sticks to his script for speeches, etc, etc. as mentioned above.

The Christian Teacher
The Christian Teacher
Wednesday, August 10, AD 2016 11:49pm

Trump cannot call of the campaign of the media against him. If the media can’t find any faults in Trump–they will make it up. Typical politics.

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Thursday, August 11, AD 2016 4:17am

Analysis and reality aside I still go with Trump. Like DRM says, as a businessman he will figure out how to manage the various situations he will confront. Hillary, no way. By the way, Trump and his buddies need to buy the New York Times before Jeff Bezos gets to it.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, August 11, AD 2016 5:59am

Hillary needs to take people’s attention away from Her and Obama’s policy disasters. She (and the media) cannot allow anybody to review the facts. You’d never vote for her if you weighed the distasteful truth.
.
Today, compare Hillary’s more and more (Einstein’s definition of insanity) economics of Obama (you didn’t build that/businesses don’t create jobs) class envy and mass poverty to Trump’s economic pathway to prosperity.
.
Generally, Democrat candidates avoid revealing their true superstitions on gun control because NRA voters (“Second Amendment people” if you will) destroyed more Democrat political careers than any other civil rights group.
.
Rhetorical question(?): If “the Second Amendment people will know what to do” is incitement to violence, what is the proper “label” for Hillary’s strenuous promotion of “black lives matter” which is producing a growing list of dead and wounded police officers in addition to Obama’s desultory guerrilla war on America?
.
Don’t believe a word you hear/see in the media it’s either 100% dishonest or completely erroneous.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Thursday, August 11, AD 2016 8:10am

“rhetorical question” ?
Apparently Hillary doesn’t want the endorsement of police union. In some ways Hillary defeats Hillary too.

CAM
CAM
Thursday, August 11, AD 2016 3:19pm

Joe Scarborough called for Trump to step down on his show after Scarborough revealed that Trump had asked a foreign security expert, “Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?” Of course Morning Joe and his sidekick Mika went to GQ and other members of the drive by media foresee nuclear Armageddon if Trump is elected. http://www.darientimes.com/72843/rickards-why-donald-trump-is-smarter-than-joe-scarborough/ is a thoughtful essay on why Trump was intelligent in asking questions about the use of nuclear arms.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Thursday, August 11, AD 2016 5:06pm

I appreciate that link CAM

The Christian Teacher
The Christian Teacher
Saturday, August 13, AD 2016 8:33am

“I am not a tin foil hat person, but I’m starting to consider the theory Trump is a plant to make sure Hillary wins might be true. The headlines were ready to be dominated by the Orlando shooter’s father sitting so close to Hillary at a rally when Trump decides to deflect and make it about him, and not in a good way.”

With the things that are currently taking place in our country, I am keeping my tin foil hat on my head! Especially when it involves the Clintons. With that said let me point out that there is absolutely nothing about Trump’s character or history that would indicate he would be willing to lose to anyone of any reason. Period. I do not believe that Trump started this to lose on purpose.

Brian
Brian
Saturday, August 13, AD 2016 9:51am

CAM, I read your link at Darien Times on Trump’s philosophical speculations on the use of nuclear first strike options. The money quote: “Asking how and why nuclear weapons might be used shows a subtle appreciation of U.S. military doctrine.” Yes, the author paired Trump to the word “subtle” in his ponderings on, “Why Not?”, use First Strike Nukes.

Subtle is not what I see with Trump in the White House Captain’s Chair with his red button, top left corner of the desk. I picture George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove, the classic movie subtitled, “Or How I Learned To Love The Bomb”. The moral of that story? It takes one key person, just one, to burn the world to hell.

Subtle? A subtle candidate would never speculate on such terrible, apocalyptic, world ending things in public and would feel the weight of such a worrisome burden in his bones. He would convey this with force. We must never use nukes. No one can. Life depends on it.

I lik the description P.J. O’Rourke of Trump: “The Lord Of The Flies in a 757”.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Saturday, August 13, AD 2016 12:00pm

Brian I didn’t take it that the author thought Trump was being subtle, but that his question showed an insight or understanding that is sub or under the surface.

Brian
Brian
Saturday, August 13, AD 2016 12:36pm

.Anzlyne, however you wish to interpret the author, Trump’s audition for the most powerful position on the planet has demonstrated one thing clearly to everyone; Trump is not subtle. Nor does he live in the land of keen insights and subterranean intellectual streams. Placing his judgement and microscopically small anger and retribution fuse in charge of our Nuclear arsenal and First Strike Deterrant policy is THE most terrifying thing about this man. It still boggles my mind that he sits atop the ticket.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Sunday, August 14, AD 2016 4:11pm

Brian: “A subtle candidate would never speculate on such terrible, apocalyptic, world ending things in public and would feel the weight of such a worrisome burden in his bones. He would convey this with force. We must never use nukes. No one can. Life depends on it.”

That sequence of thoughts, that seem not coherently connected, makes no sense to me, esp. ending up with “We must never use nukes. No one can. [etc]” First of all, the later statement is untrue: Others can, and at a future time, if they see fit and it is to their overwhelming advantage, will do so. China’s defense philosophy is predicated on a first-strike destruction of the US. (Cf. the research that Kenneth Sewell accumulates in “Red Star Rogue: The Untold Story of a Soviet Submarine’s Nuclear Strike Attempt on the U.S’. The account is not fiction: a true story of a rogue commander who nearly launched WW3 in 1968.

Add to that Russian Army General and Defense Minister’s assertion in 2014 that Russian Defense planning is to allow for a 1st-strike action against the US and NATO:

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Russian-pre-emptive-nuclear-strike/2014/09/04/id/592739/


To eliminate officially, as Obama has virtually done, even the possibility that the US may use maximum force—remember, most nuclear weapons are now tactical and strategic as well—to preserve the nation—is an important deterrent.
..
As for Trump being reckless and a mad man, well, that is buying into the fraud that one of the most detestable, dishonest, and anti-American organizations in US history, the oxymoronically-named Democratic Party of the USA, wants you to believe. Same deal they did with Barry Goldwater. Same with Nixon, Reagan, even poor old John McVain.

Funny, no one alleged that Trump was mentally unstable until about 4 or so months prior to possibly winning the US presidency.

Brian
Brian
Sunday, August 14, AD 2016 6:30pm

Steve Phoenix, I only really started caring about Trump’s mental stability when it appeared he had a serious path to power. I DO care now. This is personal, since I have a precious young boy (and girl) who is of draft age with a bright future. And others are on the way, behind them.

It is highly irksome to constantly hear Trump supporters contend the only reason Trump is misunderstood is DNC propaganda; Mainstream Media propaganda. Only Trump supporters and followers of Fox and Drudge and Rush see the Truth. Those who disagree must be just dumb cows.

The Truth about Trump is obvious to everyone. What one does with that is an individual choice, but everyone sees the man clearly for what he is. You’re fine with him. I’m not.

BTW, in regards to nuclear policy, strategic and tactical, I’m certainly no expert, but I do pay attention and read widely. I also have military aviation operational experience in my past and am well acquainted with your nuclear strategy summary. I participated in a leg of the Nuclear “Triad”. This also is not a new thing. Most people get this stuff.

I say again, Mutual Assured Destruction Must.Not.Happen. Unsheath that sword and you have truly unleashed hell. I want my President to approach that topic with all due seriousness, as if countless lives, and human civilization itself, depended upon him. Perhaps we must launch. But GOD FORBID!

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Tuesday, August 16, AD 2016 8:50am

Part of what Brian said made sense, but then he lost me at the tirade part (“Only Trump supporters and followers of Fox and Drudge and Rush see the Truth. Those who disagree must be just dumb cows…”).
Hard to dialogue when categorized as Nietzsche’s “herd”.

However, two relevant stories regarding nuclear first-strike broke in the last 48 or so hours: Russia is preparing for the next war, and they are convinced it will be nuclear, according to security expert Dr. Mark B. Schneider:

“Russia is getting ready for a big war which they assume will go nuclear, with them launching the first attacks,” said [former Pentagon defense analyst Mark B.] Schneider, now with the National Institute for Public Policy, a Virginia-based think tank.
“We are not serious about preparing for a big war, much less a nuclear war,” he added.
Additionally, Russian officials have been issuing nuclear threats.”

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-building-new-underground-nuclear-command-posts/

Schneider has been sounding the alarm for some years about Russia’s accelerating violations of the START and other treaties, making them empty shell documents which, just like the 1920 Washington Naval Treaty, only bind the US while its enemies arm up.

For more detail, cf. “Russian Violations of the INF and New START treaties”, Aug. 15, 2016:
http://www.nipp.org/2016/08/15/schneider-mark-russian-violations-of-the-inf-and-new-start-treaties/

These aggressive armament developments by Russia long-preceded Trump’s rise, and if anything, were likely precipitated by the Clinton-Obama diplomatic maneuvers

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Tuesday, August 16, AD 2016 9:11am

Now from the sublime to the very ridiculous:

Trump is not safe with the nuclear-strike decision, but we are perfectly secure with “Don’t-Let-‘Er-Blow”Joe Biden and Golf-Pro Hussein in charge (The Golf Pro was somewhere—somewhere—around the vicinity of Martha’s Vineyard, for his over-300th golf round Monday—nearly a year of his 8-year presidency—where he has spent time strategizing how to keep the world safe, out on the back 9. Somewhere).
..
During a Hillary rally Aug 14th, Joe Blow declaimed—shockingly, a very helpful security lapse for China and Russia nuclear-strike strategists—that:

“There’s a guy that follows me right back here, has the nuclear codes,” Biden said, turning and pointing. “So God forbid anything happened to the president and I had to make a decision, the codes are with me.”

(He apparently pointed in back of him to someone in back of the podium. Joe: Why not do a selfie with him? Post it on Facebook for Putin and the Chinese High Command?)

” Biden bragged about how the nuclear codes were with him, he said that Trump was “not qualified” to know the nuclear launch codes.” (From Breitbart News)

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/15/joe-biden-exposes-military-aide-nuclear-codes-campaign-rally-hillary/

..
Of course, US security experts and allies were shocked at the security lapse, once again, by Joe Let-Er-Blow: remember back in March 2009, Joe Blow revealed the hidden doomsday bunker underneath the Naval Observatory, to be used in the event of a nuclear-first-strike—virtually assuring that now that location is useless and the primary target of a thousand bunker-buster Chinese and Russian weapons when the first-strike occurs.

But Trump is a mad man of course. Couldn’t change things at the top. Would be too unstable. And the Chinese and the Russians are our friends. Look at all the deals they’ve cut with Hillary’s Clinton Foundation. Of course, we are safe.

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top