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Whether by deliberate strategy, instinct, or just accidentally turning hashtag-ready phrases, Trump was the only 2016 GOP candidate ready to compete in the clickbait digital arena. I'm not sure any of the others have learned the lesson since then.
Imagine if any of Trump's GOP competitors had won in 2016 and was currently running some snoozeroo social media account tended by interns and offering a diet of Melba toast Tweets written by a team of consultants, each carefully engineered not to offend or provoke anyone.
Meanwhile, the "Resistance" - yes, they'd still be LARPing as resistance fighters against GOP tyranny, even under President Jeb Kasich - would be running wild with social media flash mobs, trending hashtags, and tweet storms that shaped mainstream media coverage.
Again, whether by careful strategy or instinct, Trump realized early on that lazy reporters are constantly sifting through Twitter and Facebook looking for posts they can cobble together into quickie clickbait stories.
Trump goes way over the top on a regular basis, but maybe you *have* to go over the top to punch through the media smokescreen. He's good at pushing legacy media into talking about him, where most Repubs would just sit back and let the Left dominate viral social media.
GOP establishment types tend to dismiss social media, shaking their heads and chuckling as lefty wildfires rage across Twitter. They think it's just a little group of maniacs yelling at each other. They don't understand how powerfully social media shapes legacy media these days.
Also, GOPe types tend to fear the media and put a high value on remaining inoffensive, doing everything by the book, making every utterance an industrial product of political consulting teams - even though voters constantly say they value authenticity.
What they don't understand is that if you're not provocative, and maybe even willing to get silly now and then, you give your supporters nothing to get excited about, nothing to defend. GOPe thinks getting through a week without saying anything that needs defending is a VICTORY.
But it's always been true, even more so with social media, that people WANT to rally around leaders who take bold steps right into the guns of their political enemies. You don't rally troops at a Rotary meeting. You rally them on the battlefield with shells bursting around you.
Provocative behavior can be risky, but risk aversion is how you end up polling 6 points behind all through the race and then declare a moral victory when you only lose by 5 on Election Day. I still don't see enough Republicans who have learned how to be provocative. /end
