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They Still Don’t Get Trump
Hat tip to @oldbathos for his post on a Bret Stephens article https://ricochet.com/1758380/done-with-never-trump/ in the New York Times. Stephens’ article confirmed for me that the Left still doesn’t understand Donald Trump. Whether or not they want to understand him is unclear.
From Trump’s first venture into politics leading up to his first term, the Left decided that rather than get to know him, they would create a caricature of him. They made foolish and naïve assumptions about his character, his personality, his goals and his motives.
First, they decided he was impossibly arrogant. Well, he probably is arrogant. But just before this latest election we saw him serving hamburgers at McDonald’s and he assured a drive-up customer that the customer wasn’t “ordinary.” In fact, the Left refuses to acknowledge how well Trump relates to people of all backgrounds and ages. His son Barron showed him how to connect with young adults; he promised no tax on tips for the entertainment industry groups, since he knows how limited their income can be. Although it might not be helpful to the economy, he realizes how much seniors appreciate their Social Security and Medicare; I think he’s acknowledged to his DOGE leaders that there are many more places where spending can be cut.
Have you heard him tell stories about playing golf with his granddaughter? (The Left would never believe his softer side toward his grandkids.) He talks about his granddaughter with a measure of pride and humility: she is apparently a very good player. Or have you noticed the number of people who have spoken with him and commented on how friendly, gracious and engaged he is? Or how people insist that Elon Musk is a threat to the presidency when Trump probably feels he’s hit the jackpot by backing Musk and Ramaswamy?
Or have you noticed the respect he shows women who are nominated to his cabinet, and even better, the admiration he shows for his wife?
The media has been ranting that Trump demands that people be loyal. Since when did loyalty become a negative attribute? Not only that, after all the betrayals he experienced with the people he selected for his first term (John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Rex Tillerson, and Jim Mattis, for starters), people who either decided to implement their own agendas or who criticized Trump in public or leaked to the press, he learned some lessons about vetting his selections and demanding future loyalty.
Yes, Trump loves to exaggerate (his hyperbole is legion), but none of it has affected his policies or performance with foreign leaders.
The key for the Left from the start is that they feared that Trump would not honor the Deep State, and will do that even less in his second term; they’re right. I understand their dislike of his brashness, but wouldn’t you rather know what he thinks than have him hide his actions and intentions in the shadows?
The Left (especially the everyday folks) will need to decide whether they want to continue to embrace the caricature or whether they will finally decide to get to know him.
The people have embraced him. Does the Left care?
Published in Politics
Some people equate loyalty with boot-licking. This is not the case with Trump. I’m guessing Trump’s definition of loyalty is for his appointees to faithfully carry out his policies to the best of their abilities, not try to sabotage his efforts . . .
Precisely. My guess is that the Left is so full of deception that they don’t even expect any kind of loyalty.
I think that if they did take the time, or even just sat back and considered how he triumphed after every sling and arrow they threw, they would agree with Van Jones: he is smarter than all of them and he is a phenomena.
To get Trump is to understand the widely held population perception that the leftist elite is smug but incompetent, moralistic but amoral, entitled, parasitic and bigoted. Therefore “getting it” is unlikely because it involves honest introspection.
They had to create an image of him that they could manipulate. What Trump is really like doesn’t matter. He must be destroyed, and the only way to do that is to create a totally imaginary Trump that you control.
Pick a simple message and hammer it constantly. Trump is Hitler. Republicans are evil. Democrats CARE.
Make the message the subtext and preconceived notion of everything you say or write. Anyone who accepts your subtext is instantly on the defensive against something you control. Most don’t start out by rejecting the premise, and they wonder what happened after the bus runs over them.
This technique is so powerful, it can cause some of us to actually apologize for being Republicans.
So true! Unless they understand themselves and their motivations, they may never get Trump.
I love this line, Doug. That’s just what happened in this last election…
Arrogance? In American politicians?
Perish the thought!
Great collection!!
Clearly a rogues gallery of narcissistic arrogance.
It’s funny, that in the beginning of Trump’s political career, I thought that he might be a stalking-horse for the left. During the primary debates, he seemed to be given more time than the others. I think that the left thought that if Trump could bring down the other Republican candidates, that they could make him look ridiculous and take him down easily. They ended up being caught in their own trap. Darkness cannot comprehend light.
Kevin Hassett’s book relates how Trump picked people who would disagree and debate each other. He watched each side make their points in their arguments then made a decision. We were told this was “chaos” in his administration when it really was someone who didn’t surround himself with yes men. The left surrounds itself with like-minded people.
I debate some of them on ricochet.
Seeing less of that apologizing for being Republican, or better still, just being conservative
That was the Lincoln approach. Team of Rivals. Goodwin did well with that one. I think it takes a pretty secure and self aware individual to be confident enough to manage that way. There’s no way to elude responsibility for final decisions.
Newsome looks like the movie villain, the Joker, without the make-up…. Obama’s nose is so high in the air, it’s a wonder he doesn’t fall backwards, AOC has the look of someone who just had how to run a garbage disposal explained to her, Clinton looks like she’s plotting the next Arkancide, Harris looks like she’s still looking for a clue, any clue, as to why she LOST….
EODmom, you’ve gotten me to think that the Republicans themselves need to learn how to have these kinds of debates, get past their personal and narrow agendas, and actually think about the country and its future. Unless they’re able and willing to do that, the Republicans will be hopeless mired in their own swamp.
The Left has no interest in understanding Trump, any more than they have wanted to understand any Republican president.
“Have you heard him tell stories about playing golf with his granddaughter? He talks about it with a measure of pride and humility: she is apparently a very good player. ” Susan, I am very happy that Trump won, but this sort of comment drives me a bit batty – so Trump, unlike so many grandparents, likes to talk about his grandkids and their accomplishments? I mean, c’mon….
C’mon, Jean. The Left wants to demonize him so badly that they probably think he throws darts at them. I’m just trying to humanize him. I saw the two of them talking together, and they obviously have a good relationship. I have little doubt that the Left would believe he’s a good grandpa–that would be too normal.
Also, they might not want to humanize him, but if they don’t figure out where he’s coming from and go full throttle attacking him, they’ll lose again. Then again, maybe that’s a good thing.
You’re absolutely right – I’m sure the Left wouldn’t grant him any normalcy, even that of a grandfather being proud of his grandkids. My apologies – I took your comment to indicate your admiration for his pride in his granddaughter, which I take to be a given in any grandparent!
Yes, it would be. No “maybe” about that!
Of course! Maybe I need to make that sentence clearer. Thanks for the heads up.
Or a good start on a dart board.
He was a stalking horse for the Left. He even tried outreach to the Democratic leaders in Congress in his first weeks in 2017. They just lit a fire under the stew pot and tried to shove him in. They thought they could ride the Russian Collusion Hoax to the final annihilation of any whiff of opposition parties. Now they have Putin laughing at our puny missile strike attempts while they try to escalate to nukes. From anyone. Even Pakistan.
Or a shooting range.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans’ benefits, and interest on the $36 trillion debt are over 60% of the budget. That leaves Defense and everything else to make cuts from. Leaves a couple trillion to cut many hundreds of billions from to have any impact.
It is the side of him the left refuse to see, perhaps because their alternative, Biden, had no such image.
No doubt it’s going to be very difficult. Some day they’ll need to tackle entitlements!
Or, boost the economy so that entitlements are less of a problem. Which Trump was doing before.
Unlike some presidents who refuse to even acknowledge their grandchildren.