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Trump Is Not a Bogeyman
On Tuesday, Mona Charen wrote here:
This week, while we were still burying our dead from San Bernardino, every Republican – rather than explaining why President Obama’s refusal to fight the war on terror has led to this moment – was instead having to condemn Donald Trump’s mindless proposal to keep every single Muslim out of the United States until further notice. Again, he’s the perfect bogeyman.
But this is only true because the other Republicans can’t roll a reporter from talking about Trump to talking about, say, President Obama. Imagine if, instead of being led by the nose, some of these candidates had said “Well, Trump says a lot of things, but have you heard what the president said about [insert latest outrage here]? Talk about unacceptable! In fact, I think that … “
Trump is not a bogeyman. He’s a great big, fluffy pile of excuses for the GOP to fall on when they fail. It’s a symptom of the same disease that has the GOP demanding that they be elected to supermajorities everywhere for twenty years before they can be expected to produce results. Many of us aren’t buying their plans that will never be achieved, nor their inevitable excuses.
Republican candidates don’t want to talk about Trump? Fine. Don’t talk about Trump. The only reason these guys “have to” talk about Trump is they are either unwilling or unable to re-direct the conversation. If reporters have no respect for our other candidates, it’s because they don’t deserve it. Trump is a symptom, not a cause. It would be nice to see folks like Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham echoing Josh Earnest less, and act more of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzq57mux-_o
Published in Politics
Yes, well, I don’t put a lot of faith in a poll of only 605 people with a margin of error at +/-7%. (It says +/- 4% at the bottom of the poll, but the Bloomberg article itself reveals that in any specific category, it is as high as +/- 7.)
But it sure got the attention of the Democrats I know who took it as a sign that rank-and-file Republicans are all Islamophobes.
Republicans must never forget that while Obama is certainly an enemy, the media is perhaps the greater enemy, and can’t be voted out of office.
“Well, I don’t care much for Trump’s solution, but from a security standpoint, it beats more of the same, which is what we’ll get from Hillary. The American people deserve a government that puts their interests first.”
That’s hardly artful, but there are a zillion ways to work this event into something other than the GOP lickspittle competition to curry favor that will never come from the media and the so-called independents, who may be “independent”, but who are not neutral.
Last night I was lectured by my MIL about how Petraeus had to go because he let his girlfriend see his secure emails.
My MIL was paying for dinner, and I am on good behavior. I said nothing. But my wife kicked me, anyway, just to be sure.
I know this is OT. I just had to vent.
Seems to me that GOPe have been the ones who haven’t lost their nerve and succumbed to Trumps fear mongering tactics… Charen, Krauthammer, Will, Kristol, Ryan, Bush, Medved (my favorite pundit)…. and Cheney (oops, when did he become GOPe?)
And this was Franco’s point on another thread about expanding the [something] window. If you can get your own tent-peg moved far enough out, you limit the amount of opposition that the tent can cover. And vice-versa.
“Overton Window”
I wonder if they discussed it when Hillary was at his wedding? Or when she received the large contributions he made? Or when she called to thank him for throwing the Republican race into disarray and taking attention away from her various lies and misdeeds, and making her look reasonable and competent by comparison?
Nah. That would be a conspiracy theory.
I Love this post, just wanted to say that. I agree the GOP is completely clueless about the Trump phenomena. Obviously, the media has not managed to destroy the man, after saying many, many, many more politcally incorrect things. MAYBE, instead of hoping he just goes away, they should looking into WHY people seem to like him? and WHY he maintained his popularity for the past 6 months? I don’t know, wouldn’t that just be smart politics.
The idea that Trump is secretly working for Hillary is absurd. It is more likely that Jeb Bush is secretly working for Hillary, or Lindsay Graham, or that John McCain threw the election deliberately in 2008.
Mona Charen and other Republican pundits have shown how little they understand the actual dynamics of this and previous political cycles. They continually swallow the Democrat narratives whole and are happy to employ them when a Republican they don’t like becomes the frontrunner.
If Donald Trump wasn’t taking the flak from the beltway insiders, it’d be Ted Cruz. Remember Newt Gingrich? Why the exact same type of criticism and mockery was leveled at him for much less.
It’s obvious that the insiders are threatened and they are hiding behind the idea that Candidate X, be he Trump, Cruz, Gingrich is unfit to lead.
Obama is unfit to lead. HRC is unfit to lead. Not because they aren’t “smart” or “experienced” but because they are socialists intent on transforming America in every way – economically,politically and culturally.
ANY of those three candidates they abhor would make America a much better place. So I don’t believe them when they protest that Candidate X is “inexperienced” or “volatile” . If they aren’t afraid of Obama/Hillary/Sanders , whose side are they really on?
The fact that, as a businessman based in New York he donated to Democrats is meaningless. BTW the article says he stopped donating to Dems in 2012.
The media loves the Trump phenomenon. They know that Trump-as-nominee means Hillary-as-President. So they’re going to give him as much airtime as possible. They don’t care why it’s happening. It advances their cause.
Redirect a question onto an opponent. I thought to myself and I couldn’t forget the moment Rubio, before roughly 24 million people, was asked about his experience and he used it against…. Hillary Clinton. Ya know, the likely enemy we will have in the general election.
These defenses of trump are rather baseless don’t ya think? I mean there are individuals defending him on the premise that criticizing him is falling into the Left’s trap and falling for their standards. The issue is that HE got us into the trap, none of us accept their straw men but trump continues to affirm those. Constitutionally speaking we have a right to due process and trump said banning ALL muslims from traveling to the nation (he literally labeled only muslims, there were no side restrictions) which denies American citizens due process.
Its mind numbing to think that people assume its either let them all in or ban them. We have laws on the books for refugees, if they cannot be vetted (which means finding government documents that specify age, religion, sex, education etc.) then they cannot be let in. The issue that Barack posed was whether to accept those asking for asylum from the war. They have to pass the vetting first.
The real question should be about how restrictive our vetting process is. I bet that its far better than Europe’s. If our system was failing horrifically then we would have attacks weekly not bi-yearly.
There is no direct evidence of it, but why absurd? It clearly works in Hillary’s favor; she knows it and he knows it. Heck, I know it. And so do you.
Exactly. trump supporters seem to not be able to distinguish between actual malignant intent and joy or ambivalence in a journalist’s face and the inflection in their voice. When Charlie Rose was attacking Rubio over calling Clinton a liar you could see Rose become angry (he was intentionally trying to harm Rubio).
https://youtu.be/E4shcPbpoGU
Now watch an interview with Don Lemon and trump.
Not much fighting. As a matter of fact they had the interview go on for half an hour. Lemon was trying to get as much trump as possible and he never really fought him on anything. trump is the Left’s Straw Man writ large. His impulsive, inconsistent (changes politicians and positions like he does wives they will probably say), bull headed persona, and ambiguous/vague vernacular. He is also nigh blindly aggressive and acts like a clown in speeches on the stump (he makes faces and does all kinds of bodily motions).
He is everything the left believes we are (which we are not) and so he gives them credence to their lies. If we say nothing, we agree to the left, and if we disavow then we are traitors apparently to his supporters. Both seem unreasonable to me.
The Clintons may have encouraged him and / or put the idea in his head but I doubt that Trump works for anybody but Trump.
BDB,
Seems to me this was very well-handled, don’t you think?
Wait! Stop the Presses! Yes, I am using caps to get evryone’s attention so sue me.*
Please, please stop everything and spend 17 minutes with the next president of the United States (I mean, the one after Hillary). We fifty-somethings might get lucky enough to pull a lever for Ben Sasse.
Please, please watch this and tell me where this man has not struck the perfect pitch. Or where he has not told the exact truth and precisely diagnosed the Obama/Trump divide.
I’m downloading it and storing it in my iPhone right next to The Sound of Music:
You Don’t Want To Miss What This Senator Said About The San Bernardino Attack
* [Editors’ Note: All caps are specifically prohibited under the CoC.]
I was going to mention that I think Rubio’s point that we are talking about something that will never happen is a good one. Why must we debate something that is not reality based?
His answer on Hillary’s comments were a good example of going on offense about her actual record vs arguing about nonsense.
This must be on the mainfeed!! Amazing
[Editors’ Note: All caps, people. All caps.]
Nah Claire, he is obviously a softy. He’ll probably open the borders to anyone. I mean I just watched a clip of him and Jorge.
He obviously wants America to become the Third World Hell Hole as Coulter continues to preach. Rubio is apart of the vast establishment conspiracy to defeat great donald trump, even though trump represents the base and is supposed to win according to his supporters (which are apparently only 30% of the Republican Party). /end of sarcasm
This is a non problem if Trump falters in any of the early primaries. In fact, it will demonstrate that the electorate likes a fighter but rejects him because of his nuttier ideas and willful ignorance.
Republican candidates would do well to take a lesson from Bill Clinton who would use Trump’s momentum to slingshot himself. Here is how:
Or even better, asking what part of what Trump has been saying resonates with the majority of the Republican base, and how can they tap in to that. Do they not understand that by alienating and berating Trump, they are doing the same to his supporters? We all know the Republican leadership would rather a large portion of their base shut up and vote as they are told, but without them they will not win any elections. Apparently the Republican establishment would much rather lose than win with Trump and his embarrassing supporters. And what I fear is that even if they manage to beat him in the primary, his supporters will be so alienated they won’t vote for the eventual Republican nominee.
(I’m not a Trump supporter, but I do recoil at the way that Trump is being received by the party who’s primary he has led since he got in the race!)
I think that the rest of the statistics from that poll are less depressing.
After being told about the idea, 37 percent of likely Republican primary voters say it makes them more likely to support the billionaire real estate mogul, while 16 percent say less and 46 percent say it has no impact.
I think (hope) that most of the 46% who say it has no impact do so because they would never vote for him in the first place. This is supported by previous polls that show Trump as not the second choice for most people. The 16% who say his proposal makes them less likely to vote for him can be a bit promising too.
I agreed with you up to this point. Now he has given the media and the Democrats weapons to use against us all. Time to knock him out.
Yes I’m repeating myself. Can’t help it, can’t shut up. Yes it is that important. Been thinking on it now for an hour getting more and more jazzed. Ben Sasse just soared right over the top of 7 long years of insanity. Poof! It’s all gone.
Here is the way.
You Don’t Want To Miss What This Senator Said About The San Bernardino Attack
http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/09/you-dont-want-to-miss-what-this-senator-said-about-the-san-bernardino-attack/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=5f43da55a4-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-5f43da55a4-53106781
I agree, excellent speech.
I wish someone with more talent and who doesn’t have a hair appointment in 20 minutes would shoot this to Peter Robinson or put up a front page post.
Thank you for this link.
yeah, I think he jumped the shark with this one.
The only thing I didn’t like about that Federalist piece on Sasse was the clickbait headline. Dump the clickbait headlines, Federalist!
Otherwise, it was good.
I can’t thank you enough for pointing this out. It will be on Main in a few minutes. It moved me more than I can say.
This is leadership. This speech will be remembered.