Posted on 04/02/2016 11:18:24 AM PDT by DrewsDad
A Unified Fields Theory
Until Trump changed the subject to punishing women for having abortions, the Trump obsession of the week was Michelle Fields.
I’m glad that story is largely gone. I don’t think it was good for Fields or for the forces opposed to Trump. And it distracted from more important stories, like Trump’s willingness to nuke Europe.
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Without rehashing the whole thing again with reference to frame-by-frame analysis best left for the Zapruder film, let me just say I think all of the important and relevant facts are on Fields’s side. There’s audio of her describing what happened immediately after the Corey Lewandowski incident. There are the bruises captured on film. There’s video and there are eye-witness accounts, all of which corroborate the basic story Fields has been telling.
To listen to Trump’s and Lewandowski’s defenders, this is all a big lie, the upshot being that Fields invented the whole story in a deviously clever gambit to trade her job at Breitbart and her regular gig on Eric Bolling’s show for something so much better. Indeed, I think her plan went something like this:
Step 1: Ask Donald Trump about affirmative action while he’s walking out of a press conference.
Step 2: Walk in just such a way as to dupe Corey Lewandowski into putting his hands on me.
Step 3: Pretend that he grabbed me too hard, convincing eyewitnesses on scene that something bad happened.
Step 4: Bruise my own arm and take a picture of it.
Step 5: Ask for an apology from the Trump campaign, which is like asking Trump to create a boulder too heavy for him to lift.
Step 6: Wait for my own news organization to throw me under the bus, then quit job.
Step 7: Wait for the checks to roll in!
Still, what happened to Fields was not Kristallnacht and Lewandowski should not, in my opinion, stand trial or be sent to even five minutes of jail. I think he’s a boorish lout and he behaved stupidly. If Lewandoswki had common sense or decency, he would have apologized for overreacting and thrown Fields an interview with Trump to make amends. The whole thing would have been over without any of us having heard a word about it.
Second Thoughts on Trump
But observing common courtesy and civility is not what Team Trump does. And that’s the real issue here. Donald Trump and his campaign take great pride in overturning the basic rules of politics and democratic discourse. For those who want to see “the establishment” — however defined — torn down, this bull-in-a-china-shop stuff is celebrated. Trump’s fans ascribe a brilliance to his actions that is wholly underserved. Breaking the rules in ways large and small is seen as self-justifying in every case.
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Or almost every case. This week there have been some cracks in the façade. Trump’s attacks on Heidi Cruz unsettled even Ann Coulter. And his abortion remarks are still sending tremors through the granite foundations of Trump can-do-no-wrong-ism. Joe Scarborough and Breitbart’s John Nolte are talking about what a bad week he’s having and gravely warning Trump to get his act together.
As Jim Geraghty has been writing, the problem with such second thoughts is the assumption that something is amiss with Trump or his campaign. This is Trump. This is his campaign. The Trump we see before us is the same Trump. It’s a bit like when Barack Obama said that the Jeremiah Wright he saw denouncing America wasn’t the man he knew. That was nonsense. Obama knew exactly who Wright was, having attended his church for 20 years. It was only when Wright’s act moved to a larger national stage that all of a sudden he became inconvenient to Obama.
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The analogy isn’t perfect, of course. But the basic point is the same. The Donald Trump of the last week is the exact same Donald Trump many of us saw a year ago or five years ago. He’s always been full of sh*t. He’s always been a total ignoramus when it comes to public policy, lacking the simple sense of patriotic duty to do his homework on the issues. He’s always been a nasty and boorish cad. He’s always pretended to be a conservative while working on liberal assumptions of what conservatives want to hear.
#related#His “punish the women” comments were of a piece with his refusal to condemn the Klan on CNN. It’s not that he wants to punish women who have abortions — I’d bet he’s paid more abortion bills than he will ever sign — it’s that he thinks that’s what pro-lifers want to hear. It’s not that he’s a Klansman or that the pillowcases at Mara Lago come with eyeholes cut out in advance. It’s that Trump thinks lots of his fans like the Klan and he wants to pander to them. I have heard first-hand stories from people who’ve worked with Trump about how he disparages women’s appearance routinely. That’s who he is. If you’re attacking him because he retweeted a bad picture of Heidi, that’s not you being principled, it’s you getting cold feet.
Indeed, I am sure that the same opportunism that has caused so many supposedly principled conservatives to hitch their wagons to Trump is now causing some of them to question their choices, not because Trump has changed but because the climate might be changing around them.
By all means, if Trump continues to unravel (a huge if), please abandon Trump. But don’t think for a moment that the rest of us will automatically take your word for it when you say this or that statement changed your mind about the man. He hasn’t changed, your calculations have.
#share#
The Gravitational Pull of Lies
But can I go back to Michelle Fields for a moment? I think that whole affair was really instructive.
Trump is a master of a kind of passive aggression — though it can often just seem like plain old aggression. When caught in a lie, Trump doesn’t merely stick to the lie, he enlarges it. Not only did Lewandowski do nothing wrong, he saved Trump from an assault! That pen could have been a bomb! A bomb!!! (Remember when he suggested a protester who charged the stage was with ISIS?)
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By embracing and enlarging the lie, Trump gives his most ardent fans no escape. They must either fall in line with yet another comfortable story about how their leader is both supremely right and a victim of deceit or open themselves up to the possibility that this one instance of deception and boorishness isn’t unique but utterly representative, which it is.
I think many of us have known people like this. Inveterate liars and other kinds of sociopaths test the limits of polite society. They break the implicit bargain that says you can get away with lying only so long as everyone agrees not to notice. Obvious lies are insults, because they rest on the assumption that the person being lied to is either too stupid to recognize the lie or too weak to say anything about it. In this sense, Trump has been insulting his biggest supporters from day one.
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We’ve all had dinner parties or family gatherings ruined by that oaf who refuses to bend to simple politeness. They force polite people to either swallow small — or large — insults for the sake of civility. “I didn’t want to make a huge deal about it because it would have just made things worse,” is a rationalization we’ve given voice to on the drive home.
Trump is doing this on a massive scale. Like all demagogues, he’s using his lies as a loyalty test for his followers. He’s exploiting his popularity and abusing the devotion of his fans to force them into going along with his fictions, until they are in so deep psychologically, they have no choice but to carry on. It’s an ancient psychological tactic of authoritarians, Mafia dons, and the like: Force your followers into sharing the blame for your misdeeds so that they can’t break ranks. For instance, when Trump was caught saying something typically ignorant about abortion, he told Eric Bolling that MSNBC cut out the nuance of what he really said.
“You really ought to hear the whole thing,” Trump told guest host Eric Bolling. “This is a long convoluted question. This was a long discussion, and they just cut it out. And, frankly, it was extremely — it was really convoluted.”
Of course, Trump knows that MSNBC ran the clip in its entirety, and Bolling probably does, too. But I am sure that if I went on Twitter and said, “Trump lied about his comments being edited,” within minutes I’d hear from people saying “No, MSNBC edited him!” or “Of course you RINOs would believe MSNBC!” I’ll also be interested to see if Bolling says anything about the fact that Donald Trump blatantly lied to him.
But I won’t hold my breath.
Do you think Trump has never paid for an abortion by any one of his numerous wives, girlfriends or mistresses?
The slant is so obvious and repeated that I don't believe it isn't apparent to you. So I'm not wasting my time deconstructing it - it's not hidden.
Agreement is good and appreciated. Thank you.
Ah, the Goldberg file. He is indeed the Father of Lies.
No one should listen to, or repost, a single word this liar says.
No, it’s easier to dismiss nonsense.
And that’s what you folks have finally reduced yourselves to.
Ted Cruz is an establishment creature.
He has been a part of the Washington Scene since 1999, off and on.
He is not a political partner with the worst of the worst in the GOPe.
You don’t wish to see it, so you don’t.
As I said, that’s okay with me. I won’t be a part of it, and Ted is going nowhere but back to the Senate to serve out his term there.
>>>But wait, Jonah now needs to burn in hell. Right, trumpets?<<<
Huh? I thought a Cruzer wanted the Trumpsters to “burn in Hell” when they Posted their Opus that turned out to be a non Opus as they are still Posting here today.
Can’t remember which Cruzer it was though. Was it you?
I can’t keep up with all the CDS and TDS Epidemic Cases popping up around here.
Time for someone to Post the picture of a Bunny with a Pancake on its head.
> Until Trump changed the subject to punishing women for having abortions,
Trump didn’t change the subject, Chris Mathews did. Bye.
A liar.
He is NOW a political partner with the worst of the worst in the GOPe.
Don’t they always tell Trump?
Of course not.
Because you cannot.
He so busy analyzing Trump supporters he ignores the obvious.
The Republican Party has ZERO cred, and is hated by their base...a sentiment that they started 20 years ago, and they expected no blowback??
I agree.
It is easier to just dismiss nonsense.
And yet you trumpers are enraged because Ted Cruz has done just that about ridiculous and slimy allegations about his personal life.
Again according to you, many still do not see it they way you do. Perhaps that is because you are negatively disposed to Trump in the first place?
I believe he probably didn't know who Fields was, and he probably forgot the incident as soon as it happened because it was nothing to be remembered. Which is what most people would do when something is exaggerated way beyond what really transpired. Especially when much mort important things were happening all through the night.
Apparently you see this as the crime of the century though, because you sure are wasting both of our time on this issue that should never have become an issue in the first place.
Thanks for providing a textbook example of a false dichotomy. It is entirely possible to speak out forcefully against terrorism, illegal immigration, and political correctness without being a 24 hour/day jerk to other candidates and the general population.
“Do you think Trump has never paid for an abortion by any one of his numerous wives, girlfriends or mistresses?”
Do you think Cruz has?
I know. These morons are either so incredibly stupid that they believe their own idiotic writing, or they are complete, desperate sellouts who are terrified of losing what few perks and goodies they have. I don’t know which it is.
“Thanks for providing a textbook example of a false dichotomy. It is entirely possible to speak out forcefully against terrorism, illegal immigration, and political correctness without being a 24 hour/day jerk to other candidates and the general population”.
Such as Cruz? Laughable, he has followed Trump every step of the way. I guess calling for ‘Patrols’ of Muslim neighborhood, is just ‘Speaking out Forcefully’. Yeah...
On the other hand, those supporters often preemptively whine about the "GOP-E" not supporting him, and thereby throwing the election to Hillary.
Just wish they'd pick an argument. Either you need/want the support of the GOP-E, or you don't.
Are you a past subscriber? Have you read the last couple of editions (and not just the snippets on FR)? Or is this just something someone told you?
I don't agree with everything they print (it's called listening to alterative view points), and was peeved about the Mark Steyn thing.
But they have some great young writers, excellent book reviews. And James Lileks.
And I disagree with them at times - they even disagree with each other at times - I think that's healthy.
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