Luke Ford

The MSM hates Trump, and trashes him at every opportunity, and it just makes him stronger.

Washington Post: Tuesday’s edition of the “NBC Nightly News” closed with a video editorial by the newscast’s former anchor, Tom Brokaw, who said that “Trump’s promise to ban all Muslims from coming to America is more — much more — than a shouted campaign provocation. Trump’s statement, even in this season of extremes, is a dangerous proposal that overrides history, the law and the foundation of America itself.”

Brokaw added that “ISIS is likely to use Donald Trump’s statements as a recruiting tool” and went so far as to reference Japanese American internment camps, McCarthyism and Nazi Germany.

On NPR’s “Morning Edition” on Wednesday, longtime public radio host Diane Rehm, who plans to retire next year as host of her eponymous syndicated current-events talk show, explained to Steve Inskeep why she feels compelled to stay on the air through the 2016 presidential election.

“What’s happening now strikes me as something bizarre,” she said, seeming to reference Trump without naming him. “People are appealed to in the most fundamental, irrational terms rather than through persuasion, through discourse, through understanding key points. I want to help continue that rational discussion through the next campaign.”

And on MSNBC on Wednesday night, Dan Rather, Brokaw’s former counterpart as lead CBS anchor, asserted that “what [Trump] said about immigration and limiting immigrants … is the best propaganda tool that ISIS has had in a very long time.”

Now, Brokaw, Rehm and Rather don’t have the clout today that Cronkite did in 1968. No one does. That’s just the reality of media fragmentation and declining faith in the press overall. And, in Rather’s case, some have never forgiven him for the flawed report on President George W. Bush’s National Guard service that preceded his resignation.

But they’re about as heavy as the media heavyweights come these days — in different ways — and Trump will almost surely absorb their body blows, as he has so many others, and just keep swinging. He seems to grow stronger with every media fusillade.

There might be some voters who take the words of Brokaw, Rehm and Rather to heart. And these decorated journalists are only doing what they believe their jobs and consciences demand. But it is increasingly clear that if Trump’s supporters ultimately do fall away, it won’t be because the media talked them out of voting for him.

I don’t know whether Trump heard what this trio said. But I’m reasonably confident that he did not turn to an aide and say anything like, “If I’ve lost Tom Brokaw, I’ve lost the election.”

Scott Adams writes:

If I had to put a label on Trump’s method of persuasion for this topic it would be a variant of the High Ground Maneuver. (I have called it the Big Picture Maneuver in the past. Same thing.)

The way this works with the question of Muslim immigration is that Trump was presented with impossible choices and he actually picked one. And in so doing, what he did to the media, his opponents, and the public at large was to make you defend the imaginary option in which none of the peace-loving Muslims are barred from legally entering the country and all terrorists are kept out. That uncomfortable realization will sink in with voters over time. In simple terms, Trump infantilized the entire country and installed himself as dad.

You know Dad; he’s the asshole who makes the hard choices. He makes you go to school when you don’t feel like it. He makes you come home before midnight when you know there is nothing magic about midnight. He prohibits you from watching X-rated movies when you are nine years old even though you are sure it would be fine.

Here I am not talking about logic and reason. I’m talking about the tendency of human brains to form automatic associations. Those automatic connections that are disconnected from reason are how hypnotists can hypnotize and influencers can influence. Reason aside, when you observe an older male authority figure making a hard choice on your behalf, it just feels dadlike. You can’t help make the connection.

The Dad idea won’t fully emerge until the general election…when Dad runs against mom. Speaking of Mom, you love what she stands for, but she can be such a bitch sometimes. Still, if you need a sandwich, or a hug, or some understanding, you probably pick mom.

But if you hear a loud noise downstairs, and you live in a dangerous neighborhood, you’re probably hoping Dad gets to the baseball bat before Mom, even if they are equally capable. You’re a sexist that way, in your irrational brain.

According to the Master Persuader filter, the selection of the next U.S. president is dependent on whether the public is feeling hungry or scared in the coming months. I’m betting on scared.