* The host of Morning Edition. Nobody plays the part of smug East-Coast Progressive media professional better than Steve Inskeep. His two trademarks are an insincere belly-laugh when a worthy interviewee says something mildly amusing, and a tone of incredulity that comes into play when reporting on the antics of low-class flyover country whites. He and NPR are a match made in heaven.
* The coming onslaught will be vicious. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
I remind my fellow Trumpers of the words of a Great American, “Hold! Hold! Hold!”
(Well, if he had been an American and if he had actually said that.)
* Steve, how does one develop the confidence of Donald Trump? He’s unflappable. I think if I had his confidence life and work would be a constant game.
* Trump has had exactly the same distinctive personality for all the decades he’s in the limelight. He’s the anti-David Bowie, never reinventing himself.
* Guide to code words: Mr. Trump promises to fix his supporters’ problems, no matter who else is hurt. + Appalachia + Jackson = Trail of tears
* Journalists have the easiest job in the world.
Take an arbitrary part of history that makes Salon readers suck in air disapprovingly.
Then have one or two paragraphs where you put it next to the name of a guy you dislike. Words like “symbolic, redolent, represent, reminiscent, echoes, reflects” are important. Don’t make the link too logical, we’re not autistic here.
Then close with a sarky indirect dig that’s not a conclusion to any argument but nevertheless sounds like it wraps something up. Hit post.
God I wish I had no backbone, money making would be so easy.
* I don’t think genetics has anything to do with Trump’s appeal; most of my roots are with Germans and Scots Irish but it’s way too facile to suggest that Germans and Scots Irish were even on the same page when it came to things like Indians and Slavery.
What I do think that Trump does is that he has a wide populist appeal, and that’s something most Americans, can relate to, as long as their American identity is not “trumped” by some special interest group agenda or grievance.
Jackson had notorious popular appeal, in fact he was the first real “man of the people” to become president. Trump has popular appeal. Full stop. That’s where the comparisons should end, in fact, I think the guy who made the comparison is making an invidious one: “Don’t want Jackson on the $20? You won’t want Trump either!”
Actually, the one former president that Trump reminds me of in some ways is Teddy Roosevelt.
Jackson was famous for the huge cheese wheel (about 1,400 lbs) he offered at a White House party, that was open to call citizens. I hope if Trump is elected he will have the good sense to make it a pizza, and at least half pepperoni.
* I suspect that the popularity of Trump is indicative that he is in sync with the majority of Americans.
* Try The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/trump-the-power-of-positive-thinking-and-american-evangelicalism-143903/
Also see the New Thought Movement:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought_Movement
The self-help genre, American business and salesmanship culture, Christian Science, “dianetics” in Scientology, hypnosis, the Prosperity Gospel and other forms of Evangelicalism, etc., were influenced by the New Thought Movement.
Trump uses classic sales and hypnosis techniques from this genre:
https://theweek.com/articles/600497/donald-trump-hypnotizing-gop-literally
* I would say there’s far more similarity to Teddy Roosevelt, from the pugilism to the trust-busting protectionism he espoused. Who do these quotes sound like, minus the Victorian-speak:
“Thank God I am not a free-trader. In this country pernicious indulgence in the doctrine of free trade seems inevitably to produce fatty degeneration of the moral fiber.”
“In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. […] We have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
“If the minority is as powerful as the majority there is no use of having political contests at all, for there is no use in having a majority.”
Jackson was a true populist in both the good (decentralizing banks) and bad (manifest destiny to an extreme and cruel degree) senses of the word. I’d say Trump is more play-acting the populist — he supports eminent domain for private interests after all — but at core he’s a nationalist, with support and sympathy for the working and middle class backbone of the country.
Trump could certainly use more of the “speak softly and carry a big stick” approach, however.
* Scott Adams summarized the responsibility of the POTUS a month or two ago:
“The job description says the president needs to protect citizens from all threats, foreign and domestic. It is silent on the questions of hurting people’s feelings and protecting non-citizens.”
It is illuminating how some people feel hurting non-citizen’s feelings trumps protecting citizens.
“The people Mr. Trump favors are to be protected from all harm. Nobody else matters. …”
* Pundits seriously underestimate Trump’s appeal to Blacks and Hispanics.
How many Mexican men are going to vote for Hillary? Close to zero, Mexicans hate harridans, women who don’t know their real place is in the kitchen. As for Sanders, they don’t know what to make of a old style effete Jewish Liberal. Sanders might appeal to Asians, though. Hispanics like colorful personalities and they have a soft spot for big men. Men with cojones. Actually, Trump’s their kind of man. A white boss they’d like to have a beer with. Except for some Hispanic professional activists, they don’t give a damn about illegals. And close to half of Hispanic ladies secrectly dream of bearing a son for Trump. He’s the big man in the hacienda, after all.
Most Blacks also respect an unapologetic white man . I really can’t see Black men rushing to vote for a Jewish dweeb like Sanders or an obnoxious feminist and/or carpet muncher like Hillary. Black men will stay home. Not sure about the sistahs.
* Trump favours Americans. Many Americans seem to appreciate this sentiment and would like to see it in their president.
* Reuters-Ipsos has an ongoing daily tracking poll that allows users to create their own cross tabs.
Trump’s strongest showing among self-identified Republicans is in New England, followed by the mid-Atlantic and then the Southeast. These census regions don’t quite allow for the Appalachian McCain Belt to be zeroed in on, but while he’s doing okay in states like West Virginia and Tennessee, he’s really crushing it in states like Massachusetts. It’s probably important to distinguish between total population support, and support among people who are likely to ultimately vote for the Republican nominee. In the case of the former, NPR would appear to have us write off Republican appeal in blue states.
There is also a huge East-West divide, as Agnostic from Face-to-Face first made me aware of. In the Mountain West and West Coast, Trump’s lead over Cruz is in the single digits in the R-I poll. In New England, by contrast, it’s nearly 40 points, with Trump in first at 48% and Cruz at a very distant second at under 10%.
* Take a look at the internals of some of the polls. One of the things that jumps out is just how broad based Trump’s support is compared to any one else. The beautiful people like to say Trump is riding a wave of angry white losers, but the data says otherwise. His support with college grads(winners), for example, is the same as with high school grads (losers). He polls better with NAM’s than any of the other Republicans.
The fun thing about the Trump Effect is what it exposes about his critics. The great bogeyman of the ruling class these days is the meth addicted white guy living in Boone County. We know that because they associate this character with the monster currently tormenting them, Donald Trump. The Professional Right and the Professional Left share this same nightmare.
