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.
RELATED: If Donald Trump Were Eight, His Behavior Might Be Endearing
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.
RELATED: Trump Has No Clue What American Government Is All About
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.
RELATED: No, Trump Isn’t Actually Better than Hillary
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?)
RELATED: When Liars Lie, the Honest Face Ridicule
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.
RELATED: On Donald Trump and the Two-Bit Thugs Who Do His Bidding
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.
Numbers do change. I have never seen a Republican front runner be attacked by his own party so deliberately. You’d think that Trump’s negatives would lessen once the party actually supports him?
Well said..keep up the good work...
Thank you for your response to my post.
I’ve had a lot of responses to my posts, and yours is certainly one of them.
I will even go so far as to say that your response to my post is easily a response to my post.
I congratulate you and wish you well as you move on into this next phase of your life.
LOL
You Trumpkins prove our point by hurling Trumpisms at us. Can you for once respond to the substance of what has been said? Perhaps we expect too much since often it appears you are incapable of doing so for the reasons Trump himself said that “he loves the least educated.”
It’s the usual stuff:
1. If the polls don’t support your “Dear Leader” they must be dismissed.
2. If it’s an article from National Review, Weekly Standard, NY Times, Washington Post or even the Washington Times, unless they speak glowingly of your “Dear Leader,” these sources are attacked.
3. Before you lost Mark Levin, and even Rush L who supported your “Dear Leader” at the beginning they were great conservative support references. However after you lose Rush L, who called Cruz, the only real conservative in the race and is the legitimate heir to Reagan, they are cast aside as trolls.
At some point, we need to seriously ask Trumpkins can you engage in an original thought, or in the words addressed to former Sen. McCarthy, “don’t you have any decency left in you,” to keep supporting a vulgarian, one who spins his major policy positions faster than whirling dervishes, and all within 24-hours? Someone who unleashes a tsunami of tweets and cannot resist a free TV interview, and then complains he has been made to look like a buffoon? Why allow the press to define and not spend your “billions” of dollars on defining yourself.
This guy is a conman and cheapskate and is now seen as an empty suit being thrashed in a general election by double digits not only by Hillary (the worst possible criminal Rat to run in a century) but even by socialist Bernie. Trump got crushed in the reddest of red states (Utah) and Utah may likely go for Hillary if this vulgarian is the Republican nominee.
He allows his wife to be photographed for a seductive front page spread of GQ, raking in a seven figure check, inviting men to leer at her and masturbate their fantasies and then complains when the ad is used by an independent PAC in a public political campaign to tell voters this H2B visa wife of Trump may be your future First Lady
Yes, Trumpkins get a hold of yourself, think for yourself, and abandon this conman and snake oil salesman before you imperil our entire conservative movement.
It is YOUR credibility that is now in the gutter.
hey! I’m not one of them there Trumpkins, Trumpeters ... I’m with you in agreement.
Yeah, Lucianne needs her "Safe Space" or she will have the vapors. Much easier to ban unpolished plebians who disagree with her than it is to debate them.
But at least you are of tougher stock, to endure the vulgarians here to try to teach them manners and promote the True Savior: Ted Cruz.
So Kudos to you for your strength, courage and endurance.
You did a superb job with that one.
Thanks! The Holy Spirit says I should write a book, but right now I am negotiating to see if posting on FreeRepublic.com is enough. Yeah, I know, never works out other than the way He wants it too. ;-)
:-)
May He smile upon you either way.
Bump for future reference.
“You Trumpkins prove our point by hurling Trumpisms at us.”
Okay, so we see that you’re being paid to pimp for Cruz, and intend to continue even after being shown that he is a pervert. Got it.
“Can you for once respond to the substance of what has been said?”
That one is just too easy. I don’t have the heart to pull the trigger.
“Perhaps we expect too much since often it appears you are incapable of doing so for the reasons Trump himself said that “he loves the least educated.”
Yes, I only have some graduate school. That’s the same as dropping out of the eighth grade, don’cha know. Haven’t read more than four or five thousand books in my entire life. Just think of me as Forrest Gump.
“However after you lose Rush L, who called Cruz, the only real conservative in the race and is the legitimate heir to Reagan, they are cast aside as trolls.”
I doubt that Rush has seen the clip I just showed you. I’d be interested to hear what he would have to say about it. That said, it’s obvious that Trump is not philosophically a movement conservative—yet—so I am at a loss to see why you imagine that you have a point here. And, finally, no one has cast Rush or F. Lee Levin aside as a troll or anything else, perhaps excepting some of your fellow seminar posters.
“the words addressed to former Sen. McCarthy, “don’t you have any decency left in you”
Wow, you just keep convicting yourself with your own words. Who but a leftist would offer that as supportive of anything?
A conservative knows that (a) that whole thing was scripted character assassination with no basis in fact, and (b) McCarthy was right. If you don’t know that, then you’re not a conservative, and you haven’t been hanging out with conservatives.
“to keep supporting a vulgarian”
Better a vulgarian than the pervert you support.
“one who spins his major policy positions faster than whirling dervishes”
A fair person gives a man room to grow.
“and then complains he has been made to look like a buffoon?”
The misconduct of the evilstream misleadia is a proper subject for discussion.
“Why allow the press to define and not spend your “billions” of dollars on defining yourself.”
Trump is still growing. He does not yet understand that his opponents are completely and utterly without the smallest scintilla of decency.
“This guy is...and is now seen as…but even by...”
I guess you wish those things were true, but unless you’re Jiminy Cricket, wishing won’t make it so.
“Trump got crushed in the reddest of red states (Utah)”
Is it that you don’t recognize election fraud when you see it, or just that you approve of it?
“He allows his wife to be photographed for a seductive front page spread of GQ”
He allowed her? What should he have done, in your eyes? Beat her? Handcuff her to the radiator?
“raking in a seven figure check”
Jealous?
“inviting men to leer at her and masturbate their fantasies”
How does one masturbate a fantasy, I wonder? Do you need gloves? In reality, that photo was very tame for this day and age.
“and then complains when the ad is used by an independent PAC in a public political campaign to tell voters this H2B visa wife of Trump may be your future First Lady”
You really have a lot of nerve calling *anyone* a vulgarian, when you approve of putting what you call a “seductive” photograph in front of the electorate, including millions of people who don’t read GQ.
“imperil our entire conservative movement.”
When you say “our” conservative movement, I presume you are referring to the conservative movement that you and the mouse in your pocket have started, because you are no part of the actual conservative movement.
“It is YOUR credibility that is now in the gutter.”
Right.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3413956/posts?page=181#155
Olofosh.
LOL! conservativejoy and Politico - THERE'S a guaranteed "objective" article.
Come on, DrewsDad - conservativejoy stepped up just recently to spell Cincinatus' Wife in the posting of Trump hitpieces & Trumpkin "morale dinging".
Propaganda-R-Us, those two.
I like to talk about that new Lichtensteinian-like country - Cruzutahidaho.
Ted will retreat there after the primaries to bask in the adulation of his followers in that small nation-state.
What happened to Johna’s brain? Will the Uniparty give it back to him after this election or is he just a gonner now?
Establishment conservatives remind me of a Stepford Wives horror show.
It saves a lot of reading time. :)
It's amazing how many phony "conservative" pundits there are out there who have outed themselves as Uniparty.
The worst propaganda sites are the"conservative"treehouse, prntly, and themarshallreport.
Terris: “You OK?”
Fields: “Holy sh*t.”
Terris: “Yea he just threw you down.”
Fields: “I can’t believe he just did that that was so hard. Was that Corey [Lewandowski]?”
Terris: “Yeah, like, what threat were you?”
Fields: “That was insane. You should have felt how hard he grabbed me. That’s insane. I’ve never had anyone do that to me from a campaign.”
Terris: “Can I put that in my story?”
Fields: “Yeah, go for it — that was really awful. That’s so unprofessional.”
Terris: “He really just almost threw you down on the ground.”
Fields: “He literally went like this and was grabbing me down. “I don’t even want to do what he just did to me. Oh my God, that really spooked me that someone would do that.”
Don't ever darken our door with your lying yellow spew again, Goldberg.
I don't include you in that group - you're just a fervent Cruz supporter - a different animal altogether.
It’s posts like that, that cost you.
If you think I’m crazy, a Left wing radical, or anything else, that’s okay.
Thanks.
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