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Dems, Media Keep Handing the Narrative to Trump
OMG! Did you see what Trump tweeted?! Democrats, presidential candidates, and journalists losing their minds over the President’s Twitter feed is hardly new, but the past week has been illuminating. It also spells trouble for those trying to unseat him in 2020.
About a week ago, Trump attacked Ilhan Omar and the rest of her America-bashing squad with a rude “send her back” tweet. The next few days were dominated by screams of racist, misogynist, and Islamophobic. After the great Mueller fizzle, Trump blasted Baltimore as a rat- and crime-infested mess run by Democrats unwilling to improve it. Two more days screaming racist, un-American, and anti-urban. On Monday morning, Trump mocked Al Sharpton, leading to a day screaming racist, un-American, and anti-tracksuits-with-medallions.
There’s much to criticize about anyone, let alone a president, constantly flinging personal insults. It’s uncivil, tacky, and just not done. But, damn, if it isn’t politically effective.
What else has the political world talked about in the past week? Mueller and impeachment got 24 hours. Anyone discussing Kamala Harris? No. In fact, she’s lost her poll bump from the last debate. How about Biden? Haven’t seen him. Warren, Buttigieg, Beto? Nada.
If you’re a masochist and follow these candidates’ social media accounts, they’re trying to get attention. Oh, how they’re trying. Tulsi Gabbard just posted her Lion King workout video. But the only politician going viral lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
What’s odd is that the Democrats and the media are helping Trump to control the news cycle. If Trump’s a rageaholic, the Beltway left are his enablers.
In the middle of an ugly Pelosi vs. Squad grudge match, the Donald praised the former and insulted the latter. DC Republicans wondered why he would step into a red-on-red battle. But establishment Democrats immediately tied themselves to their socialist wing, with Pelosi going so far as to sanction a GOP get-out-the-vote photo for the ages. Their feud might be papered over today but it boils just beneath that rictus grin.
Then, Trump mocks Baltimore, which everyone knows has been a tragic mess for years. All of a sudden, Dems and journalists insist Charm City is an urban paradise rather than the setting for “The Wire.”
By Monday, the political-industrial complex was praising the nobility of antisemitic grifter Al Sharpton. After all, if Trump doesn’t like someone or something, they must be beyond reproach.
Quick question: Do they know an election is coming up?
Love or hate his methods, Trump has assured that all the media focus is on him. The ~143 Democratic candidates are utterly starved of oxygen, unable to promote their latest plan to spend your money or viralize their sweaty workout video.
At some level, the media must know what’s going on, but they just can’t help themselves. Trump types a few words and they launch into an emotional rage.
If a football team isn’t pushing their strategy, but spending four quarters reacting to the adjustments of their opponents, they’re likely to end up with an L. Likewise, a successful politician must seize the offensive instead of merely reacting to the other side.
The problem for Democrats is that the media won’t let them.
Yes, all the attention Trump gets is decidedly negative. Yes, he’s being called racist, misogynist, etc., etc., nonstop by most the media, several Republicans, and every Democrat.
How’d that work out in 2016?
Published in General
The most disappointing thing is the way that many on the NeverTrump and TrumpSkeptic Right side with the Left-wing loonies in their criticisms of the President.
If you look at what he actually tweeted, there was nothing racist whatsoever in either the Elijah Cummings tweet or the tweet against the Squad. The President could have tweeted exactly the same thing about white representatives or immigrants (or descendants of immigrants) from European countries, without changing a word. Ben Shapiro’s show yesterday actually demonstrated how the President had used similar language about New Hampshire recently.
The racism is all in the ear of the listeners or the eye of the readers. They are projecting.
This is troubling. It is the internalization of the Left-wing claim that you’re not allowed to criticize a minority. Well, to heck with them. You should be allowed to criticize anybody.
You know what? Even the 1988 Willie Horton ad was not in the least bit racist. I didn’t care, in the slightest, whether the dangerous criminal that Dukakis released on his furlough program was white, black, brown, or purple.
This is a big problem. The rule, apparently, is that you can’t point to any crime or misconduct on the part of a minority. So if you want to report bad behavior, you have to make sure that the perpetrator is white. Which, obviously, is a racist rule.
I’m reaching the point at which I won’t care if anyone is accused of being a racist. Pretty soon, I won’t even care if it’s David Duke. That little girl has cried wolf too many times.
It is painful when guys I like, such as Shapiro or Goldberg (or worse still, the Commentary guys) are the ones acting like little girls in this regard.
What should the Democrats do? This is not an easy problem to solve.
I agree that they made it worse. They made it worse with minimum wage policies, and being soft on crime, and perhaps allowing substandard teaching.
But I sympathize with the teachers. These communities are disasters, and I think that the principal driver is family breakdown and illegitimacy. It is almost impossible for schools to repair the consequences of such dysfunction.
Indeed, part of the problem is the very idea that it is up to the government, either local or federal, to solve the problems of these poor folks in Baltimore. These appear to be communities and lives devastated by a false and disempowering narrative of pervasive racism, and by welfare policies that subsidize misbehavior. New policies, however, would not immediately fix things, because the culture has already been devastated.
I think that the black church has been very destructive in this regard, as well, at least in part. I don’t know the demographics of this, but from my unpleasant introduction to Jeremiah Wright back in 2008, I get the impression that about half of the black church isn’t really Christian at all, but is preaching “liberation theology,” a twisted mix of Marxism and Black Power. While I say “half,” I really have no idea of the extent of such error among black churches. I do recall a comment by a largely black news panel back in 2008 — folks like Van Jones, though I don’t recall if Jones himself was one of them — who basically said that Wright’s theme was perfectly normal in the “black church.”
Sort of, kind of. It does not matter who Trump criticizes. The criticism is racist regardless. (or some kind of ist.) If he criticizes Buttigieg, he is racist (Buttigieg is a Maltese name and Malta is just off the coast of Africa.) Failing that, Trump is a homophobe. If Trump criticizes Warren he is racist because she is Native American. (Okay, maybe not – but that makes Trump a misogynist instead.) Or if Trump criticizes Rachel Dolezal he is racist because she identified as black. Or if Trump criticizes Biden Trump is racist because Biden once said Republicans wanted to put blacks in chains. Or Robert Byrd because only a racist would criticize any Democrat.
That’s because Progressives (including the news media) have redefined racist as disapproving of any part of the Progressive agenda.
Someone makes a reference to monkeys (Roseanne Barr, Howard Cosell ), or rats and these people think the reference is to African Americans. Who’s racist?
My god, this is so ridiculous! I hate these people for being so dumb – and so racist.
There is an argument that if your enemy is self destructing let them have at it — that was the split on the right when Trump send out his “Go back” Tweet on The Squad after their fight with Pelosi. But you can rationalize that (especially after the past 10 days) by saying you don’t want Nancy to have the ability to shut The Squad down, you want to keep them talking as much as possible.
For the next two nights, Trump interjecting if the presidential candidates get up on the stage and are all in on The Squad, Elijah Cummings, Baltimore rats and the Rev. Al Sharpton might not be the best thing, since they’re already supporting things and people that swing voters don’t want. If 1-2 of the candidates decides to have a Sister Soljuah moment one one of them, though, that’s when a supportive Trump tweet might bring out the Pavlovian progressive response to then bash those Dems for there heresy.
The results will speak for themselves wrt Trump’s strategy. But you probably have to be Trump to get away with using it in any case. So I would suggest that a little of Trump strategy will work going forward, while none of the Romney strategy will.
Fetal isn’t a good look for anyone who isn’t a soccer player.
The real measure of the faux racist charge is how would the (D)/MSM/NT combine treat the identical tweet/statement when tweeted/uttered by a politician on the (D)/MSM/NT list of approved Lefty/Swamp Dwelling politicians.
Nothing to see hear folks, move along …. he’s a solid pro abortion vote … leave him alone.