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The Animal Cunning and Instinct of Donald Trump
The National Review ^ | December 20, 2016 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 12/20/2016 1:58:46 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Edited on 12/20/2016 9:06:39 AM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]

He grasped that what voters cared about were the very issues politicos were disdainfully ignoring.

The American middle classes, the Chinese, and Vladimir Putin have never been convinced that Ivy League degrees, vast Washington experience, and cultural sophistication necessarily translate into national wisdom. Trump instead relies more on instinct and operates from cunning — and we will soon see whether we should redefine “wisdom.” But for now, for example, we have never heard a presidential candidate say such a thing as “We love our miners” — not “we like” miners, but “we love” them. And not just any miners, but “our” miners, as if, like “our vets,” the working people of our moribund economic regions were unique and exceptional people, neither clingers nor irredeemables. In Trump’s gut formulation, miners certainly did not deserve “to be put out of business” by Hillary Clinton, as if they were little more than the necessary casualties of the war against global warming. For Trump, miners were not the human equivalent of the 4,200 bald eagles that the Obama administration recently assured the wind turbine industry can be shredded for the greater good of alternate energy and green profiteering.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016issues; china; fakenews; hillary; obama; trump; trumptransition; vdh
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To: miss marmelstein

Does that also explain “my African American?”


21 posted on 12/20/2016 4:26:24 AM PST by Lisbon1940 (No full-term Governors (at the time of election!)
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To: gogeo

My sense of the article is that, if VDH is no longer clutching at his pearls, he’s still fanning himself on the fainting couch in the Ladies Room.


22 posted on 12/20/2016 4:27:27 AM PST by Arm_Bears (Rope. Tree. Politician/Journalist. Some assembly required.)
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To: gogeo

Glad to see that VDH has come around. This is a good summary.


23 posted on 12/20/2016 4:28:27 AM PST by Freee-dame (Drain the swamp!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The former #NeverTrupm-er V.D.Hanson is now showing great deal of admiration for Trump's skills and intelligence, although he still would rather call them "animal instinct".

Translated from the #NeverTrump speak, VHD recognizes now that Trump was a lot smarter throughout than his opponents and media.

24 posted on 12/20/2016 4:53:56 AM PST by nightlight7
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To: SamAdams76

True, but God looks at it differently. When we face our Lord, He will be asking me about the children, and His Book tells me I am responsible.

Although I think if the kids were bad, the media would be hammering Mr. Trump just as much as Mrs. Palin got it.


25 posted on 12/20/2016 4:54:23 AM PST by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

ping


26 posted on 12/20/2016 5:01:58 AM PST by smartymarty (How a mountain girl can love.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The brilliant and usually reliable Victor Davis Hanson simply cannot believe what perceives about Donald Trump: that he really is as brilliant and heroic as he appears to be.


27 posted on 12/20/2016 5:07:31 AM PST by Savage Beast ( "You can--in fact must--shout 'Fire!' in a crowded theater. It just has to be the truth. J Goldberg)
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To: wbarmy
"...a somewhat self-controlled batch of children."

What an arrogant and plain wrong comment! Did you major in snark at your local college and storm door facility?

28 posted on 12/20/2016 5:13:31 AM PST by Redleg Duke (Merry Christmas to All! Thank God and Trump that we can say this again!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Article not found” at the link.


29 posted on 12/20/2016 5:14:14 AM PST by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
We can expect that Trump’s impulsiveness and electronically fed braggadocio will often get him into trouble.

Over all a good article until this line.

I am convinced that Trump is NOT impulsive. Every statement he makes is carefully thought out to provoke a reaction from his opponents in the negotiations. He can get them off balance by making an extreme demand or taking an extreme position and then moderate back to a point that they fall all over themselves to meet. A point, by the way, that is far more in his favor then they would have ever even considered coming to at first.

The guy is scary smart and has been playing them for fools for months (and doing it like a master!!)

I will never get tired of watching him work because I will never get tried of winning.

30 posted on 12/20/2016 5:24:18 AM PST by John O (God Save America (Please))
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To: gogeo
Amazing article. VDH started as a #neverTrumper.
_____________________________________
Yes, Hanson was right in there with the rest of the Never Trumpers. Hanson calls Trump's common sense wisdom “cunning,” which, to me, casts a negative, deliberate slyness to Trump's words and actions. This is Hanson's view, but he misses the mark. You can boil Trump down to “Mr Commonsense” as to what he says and does. All the sophisticated, high brow intellect in the world can't hold a candle to good old, plain and simple, commonsense. Trump's years of hands on experience in the real world has taught him a thing or two about how the world works that is completely beyond the reach of the sheltered sophisticated masses, that is until days go by and it finally sinks in.
31 posted on 12/20/2016 5:38:55 AM PST by iontheball
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To: SamAdams76

Agreed, Sam.

Socioeconomically, Palin also came from the lower-middle class (a family of teachers) but married into the working class (Todd the laborer). Most pols come from the lower-middle class in part because of their ability to adopt middle-middle to middle-upper ways.

Palin’s kids have adopted the working-class ways of dad and their local friends, apparently, which includes the growing pathologies that Charles Murray has documented. Had they been brighter, they more likely would have climbed upward, socially, on their mom’s shoulders instead.

All a roundabout way to get to your apt conclusion—the issues with the kids are what pulled her back into that world.


32 posted on 12/20/2016 5:40:58 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

He writes about “pajama boy”.
Isn’t that something that originated here on FR?


33 posted on 12/20/2016 5:54:33 AM PST by zeebee (There are no coincidences.)
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To: Redleg Duke

Excuse me!!!

I only know what the media reports about them, and some of them do some things publicly I would not approve of.

I do not know their household actions or their private actions. SO, as far as I know, they are a somewhat self-controlled batch of children.


34 posted on 12/20/2016 6:02:10 AM PST by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Later


35 posted on 12/20/2016 6:06:16 AM PST by gaijin
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To: gogeo
Amazing article. VDH started as a #neverTrumper.

He still sounds like a never Trumper. Snarky article.

36 posted on 12/20/2016 6:13:17 AM PST by ladyjane
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Excellent article. VDH recognizes that those who underestimate Trump do so at their own peril.


37 posted on 12/20/2016 6:35:33 AM PST by ohioman
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

I also believe that there are many patriots in the Obama administration who have been feeding the Trump team info via back channels.


38 posted on 12/20/2016 6:40:06 AM PST by randita (PLEASE STOP ALL THE WORTHLESS VANITIES!)
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To: zeebee

I believe it was the Freeper “Buckhead” who was credited with proving that the George Bush AWOL report was fabricated. It was speculated that he sat around in his PJ’s at home and figured this out while the “greatest minds” in journalism blithely ran with the fake story without see any false flags. Not sure if the PJ stuff was for real, but it was a great image.

I believe the pajama boy Hanson is referring to is the androgynous figure in the Obamacare commercial wearing red plaid PJ’s, sipping a hot drink and telling young people to “talk about healthcare”.


39 posted on 12/20/2016 6:44:12 AM PST by randita (PLEASE STOP ALL THE WORTHLESS VANITIES!)
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To: wbarmy

“He has several billion dollars, a phalanx of lawyers and a somewhat self-controlled batch of children.

She did not.”

I believe it’s even more than that; most people saw Trump as presidential early in his campaign, I do not believe Palin was able to meet that threshold as much as I like her willingness to stand up for what’s right and her ability to challenge the establishment. Trump is also far more comfortable on his feet and in interviews, moreso than 98% of politicians in general.


40 posted on 12/20/2016 6:50:03 AM PST by RightInTheMain
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