Big question, so I'm making a new thread.
I do not, and I don't think it's possible, short-term.
And part of that effect is Trump and part of it is his base and part of it is the way the media and electorate have been tuned by the GOP for decades.
I do not, and I don't think it's possible, short-term.
And part of that effect is Trump and part of it is his base and part of it is the way the media and electorate have been tuned by the GOP for decades.
Part of it is that Trump just does not care and will not stop until someone stops him. In many cases, PHYSICALLY. Stuff "sticks" to politicians because they acknowledge it, if not in the sense of "Yes, that's true. I resign." but they... pull back. Grow cautious.
"The Access Hollywood Tapes would have ended most politicians' campaigns." is an almost invisible use of passive construction. The truth is: most politicians would have ended their campaigns, figuring it's better to do it on their terms and cut their losses than fight and lose.
Trump, though, has spent his whole life doubling down and fighting ugly fights knowing that most people will stop before they get really ugly. At his INAUGURAL BALL, the very beginning of his presidency, he danced to a song about facing the final curtain.
Every day, every single day of his adult life, he looks at the fact that he's in a hole twenty miles over his head and he says "Throw me a shovel." That's who he is.
Just read about him crashing a charity FOR KIDS WITH AIDS, stealing the top donor's seat, doing the photo op, being wined and dined. How was he allowed to do this? Because the people doing it had no plan for a rich VIP who wouldn't listen to no.
complex.com/life/2016/10/t…
complex.com/life/2016/10/t…
They couldn't have stopped him without having security or police physically block him, making a scene they didn't want to make and alienating what they no doubt saw as a future source of donations, because surely he wouldn't do all this and then not contribute?
"You're not actually invited" didn't stick to him because they didn't make it stick and all the social and psychological mechanisms that would have dissuaded a "lesser man" (in his view) mean nothing to him.
Nothing's going to stick to Trump because politics and social graces are like stage fighting, exhibition wrestling, or judo as exercise: it doesn't work, it does not work at all, if your opponent is not going along with it.
Now, it is possible for a public figure to refuse to sell a hit or tap out when they've exceeded some boundary and lose public affection and trust because of both the original transgression and their shameless response. That happens! But it's not a concern for Trump.
It's not a concern for Trump because if you don't think he's an absolute baller, a stone cold mountain of a man with ice in his veins and a genius chessmaster intellect, for realizing that if the candy dish says "FREE" he can take the whole dish, you're not his audience.
His audience is the people who think that if the limp-wristed pansy liberal who put "FREE" on the candy dish didn't stop and think that someone might take the whole dish, they'll probably not stop you from taking the desk it's on, and that's called winning.
Right. And each time he takes another candy dish, he thinks that if it was that easy, what else could he get? If no one fights him, it's allowed. If no one stops him, it's allowed. Rules not enforced are obstacles for other people.
Very true. I like to call Trump the funhouse mirror image of the GOP: grotesquely distorted and enlarged, but recognizable. What I'm saying about him and his base is true of the Republican Party at its core, too.
He just takes it further, more blatant.
He just takes it further, more blatant.
Right, this. And while they do this, they "work the refs" (meaning the media, government watchdogs, and the crowd, in this case), constantly hammering the Ds on any perceived breach of rules, laws, decorum... even rules they just made up.
Both the traditional media and social media platforms are more restrained and circumspect about going after Republicans/conservatives for scandals, breaches of rules, etc., because they have learned it's a headache to do so.
And while they do that, the Rs hang labels like "liberally biased" and "SJW" and so on them, creating the impression that any action or stance they take on conservatives is biased and any action they take on progressives is "Wow, if even [the NYT/Twitter] is willing to say it..."
Simply put, we're not going to get a "Teflon Dem" to combat "Teflon Don" because that requires you to be someone like Donald Trump, appealing to the sort of people Donald Trump appeals to, and with an environment that has been decades in the making.
The closest analog we've ever had on the other side of the aisle would be Bill "Slick Willy" Clinton.
But notice how being "Slick Willy" doesn't help him. Doesn't make Democrats or voters generally like him more. It's not a positive that he was seen as untouchable.
But notice how being "Slick Willy" doesn't help him. Doesn't make Democrats or voters generally like him more. It's not a positive that he was seen as untouchable.
The people who admire Bill Clinton (and there are still people who do) don't speak fondly about what he got away with. They don't crow over and exult in his non-stick reputation, to the extent it even exists anymore.
And "Slick Willy" was slicker the more local his operation was. The more nationally prominent he became, the less he got away with.
Trump is the opposite. More spotlight = more power, more ability to transgress.
Trump is the opposite. More spotlight = more power, more ability to transgress.
We're not going to get that on the left side of the aisle because it's a different dynamic. Within the party, within the electorate, within the media.
More than that, we shouldn't want it.
We should try to fight the dynamic where they can conjure up swift boats full of emails to Burisma in order to sandbag whoever the candidate is, absolutely.
But a consequence-free candidacy is a bad thing.
We should try to fight the dynamic where they can conjure up swift boats full of emails to Burisma in order to sandbag whoever the candidate is, absolutely.
But a consequence-free candidacy is a bad thing.
Absolutely.
It means more to him, knowing that people know he did something and struggled but did nothing to stop him, failed to stop him.
@sarahkendzior and I have both spoken on this. It's the biggest thrill of his life, getting away with something.
It means more to him, knowing that people know he did something and struggled but did nothing to stop him, failed to stop him.
@sarahkendzior and I have both spoken on this. It's the biggest thrill of his life, getting away with something.
@sarahkendzior This is why, in the other thread, I kept saying it's not about specific candidates or specific lines of attack. If you are the Democratic frontrunner/candidate/presumptive heir, you will be assigned vulnerabilities if you don't have enough.
@sarahkendzior We can't stop them from operating this way. We have to change how we think about it, how we talk about it. Don't let them set the terms of the conversation, don't let them set the terms of engagement. To the extent that we can control it.
@sarahkendzior I can point it out but I can't dictate a cultural shift from Twitter. Yet, I can't do much else but try to. I can entreat you, reading this, to not fall for it and to try not to let people around you fall for it, either.
@sarahkendzior "The candidate with the most vulnerabilities" is always the candidate running against the GOP at the top. During the primary they try to guess/steer who that will be, but if someone else wins, watch how fast they shift.
@sarahkendzior Merrick Garland was their hand-picked choice for President Obama's nomination and as soon as he was picked he was a liberal activist judge.
If they'd succeeded in unseating Nancy Pelosi for a more conservative blue dog-ish speaker... he'd have been New Nancy overnight.
If they'd succeeded in unseating Nancy Pelosi for a more conservative blue dog-ish speaker... he'd have been New Nancy overnight.
@sarahkendzior I've got to go get ready for my day. If you get anything out of this, please give something back. Your weird Twitter pundit lives on tips.
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