A decorum observation, thread: you don’t have to like the President’s crassness and tone to understand why Nancy’s speech ripping is perceived as different than his twitter baiting. It’s also an absolute pillar of communication. Let me explain.
President Trump, like it or not, has communicated one thing clearly and unequivocally. It started in the last election. Hillary was going around asking people to use the slogan “I’m with her.” Candidate Trump saw that, instinctively knew it was against the American grain and took
The opposite position. His message was “I’m with YOU!” He will attack other politicians, the press, entertainers. Bureaucrats. But he seems to be careful to never attack Americans themselves. Voters of any stripe are not called dumb or deplorable. Or racist or sexist.
He does call out bad behavior like he did regarding gangs. If you go back and actually listen to his words in most cases IN CONTEXT you will see it’s very careful to not to insult average PEOPLE, although in most situations he will call out bad behavior.
What he’s done is be inclusive, just as Van Jones alluded to last night. His basic premise is this: “You want me to stand up for you against the machine? ok, I’ll do that to. I’ll take the pain. Don’t care who you are. Come on.” This positions him as the stand in for CITIZENS.
Because of this, when Nancy rips up a speech & says there is no truth in it; or AOC doesn’t attend or listen; Or the Democrats sit on their hands and don’t applaud good things...they don’t realize how many more Americans are starting to see that as an attack on them.
The Democrats see it as an attack on the President. They are “resisting.” But the frame of reference for that resistance is not the man, but those he had agreed to stand up for. The regular folks. Any color, any sexuality, any religion, urban or rural. Trump doesn’t care.
Because it’s not about Him. It’s about those he represents. He knows how to bring people into the tent, not push them out. You may not be a fan of his style, but he’s incredibly effective. And it’s possible that this style is the only grenade that could have made it happen.
He’s not afraid to take on his own party when they want to be in control just like the left. Trump also knows you can be the greatest peace maker in the world but if you don’t get attention, it won’t matter.
Now. His policy effectiveness is, like ALL politicians a mixed bag. But if you can’t admit that things are going very well for many, and many who have been forgotten, you are blind.
Can Trump loose? Yes. An election can never be taken for granted. But from where I sit right now, this bullying people into being able to control them isn’t working well for the Democrats. And they continue to double down.
Trump is a trash-talking, crass, character-challenged man. But he does one thing extremely well and that is to communicate directly to the truly disenfranchised in our country.
We’d be well served to appreciate him for that.
Addendum: An example of his consistency: He doesn’t care about events like the Press Dinners and so forth. Those aren’t the people he wants to be associate with. He’s making a show of not saying one thing and doing another. He keeps fancy White House dinners to a minimum.
Thanks, Molly. 🙌
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Waiting for the world to change is an fools errand. It will change, but your Interaction with it is exceptionally short and it has a momentum you can’t control.
So here are a couple of things that you can do it make it better:
1. Provide people with the same choices you want to have: who to vote for, how to believe, alternative perceptions , counter experiences, who they love and who they are.
2. Don’t insist that everyone agree, support or endorse your choices. Be confident in them and create a world that reflects them.
But don’t believe they are right for everyone else.
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” —Camus
For the last sixty years, we have been lulled into such a false sense of security. We are victims of only our own self denial. The world does. It change. Human nature does not change. It is brutal and wild.
“Never again” we march forward thinking we are somehow wiser, stronger
And worst of all smarter than our forefathers.
We are not. We know more, but our wisdom is still lacking and our ability to wrangle things far outside our control minimal.
We do not command land or sea, the heavens or the earth.
I want to gently observe a few things about the drama that has overwhelmed the twitter community I run in for the last week. Five little bodies lay barely cold next to the trash bin and people have been brawling all over the driveway. So many have been hurt in the fallout.
So I want to address a few things. This kind of environment is a particularly addicting place. We are freed from ourselves in a way that no other place can. Gone are the obvious challenges and worries, looks and health, and economics responsibilities of our daily lives.
Here we are a reflection of what we want to be. Beautiful, witty, exciting, smart, the list goes on. We get to portray ourselves exactly the way we want others to see us. Surprisingly also unmasks our greatest frailties. I am not an exception to this and neither are you.
For four years, we have used the word elite to mean establishment. In function they are the same. But for the establishment the words are not. Therefore, we need to alter the message in a way they can hear it. This election is between two anti establishment candidates.
Nothing says establishment more clearly than totally giving up your principles, no matter how “deeply held”,’ and jumping the aisle to support a nice person with completely different policies.
This is a clear betrayal of the citizenry by the establishment. It’s pitched as bipartisanship. But let’s break that down for a minute. Citizens do not want bipartisanship at OUR expense. We want it in the search for solutions. But over my lifetime that has become corruption.
I’ll be honest. I didn’t truly understand how bad off our society is until I experienced that airline seat discussion.
The idea that acting out like a two year old—because something that is within the rules but uncomfortable—is acceptable, excusable behavior is shocking to me.
The truth is that is we can’t agree on basic rules of decency, even if that means we sometimes get the less comfortable end of the situation, society completely falls apart.
Rules can’t make everything perfect for everyone. But we respect them because the grease the wheels of
a civil society.
What surprises me even more is the lack of willingness to justify our own behavior based on the assumption that every other person in the world is a jerk.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the food scolds and their banning of the dollar store.
If you hate the dollar store, you’ve never struggled. Let me explain.
In 2007, my husband and I were laid off on the same day. The next few months were a brutal struggle.
We are better...
...people for it. What we learned will be with is always.
One of the FIRST things you learn when you have no income is that one of the few things that provides pleasure in your life is food.
When everything is a struggle, you look forward to Kraft Mac and Cheese...
Entertainment, clothing, home goods, utilities, all of those things become luxuries and every day is emotionally exhausting. You use enormous amounts of energy just for survival.