Posted on 11/20/2016 3:46:43 AM PST by rickmichaels
I’ll admit I was a bit taken aback by some of president-elect Donald Trump’s social media posts since the election. They’re just so... so uncharacteristic of what we’ve come to expect from a president.
Is this a problem? In some respects, sure. But they also mark the beginning of the end of how the left has controlled the debate in North America for several decades. And for that we should celebrate.
When protests and riots erupted in big cities across America, Trump, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all spoke about the importance of unity. But a sizable rabble didn’t agree. They smashed vehicles and storefronts, set fire to the American flag and assaulted people.
Trump’s response? A twitter post: “Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!”
The following week, Trump responded to media reports suggesting his transition process was fraught with trouble, first stating: “I am not trying to get ‘top level security clearance’ for my children. This was a typically false news story.” And then writing: “The failing New York Times story is so totally wrong on transition. It is going so smoothly. Also, I have spoken to many foreign leaders.”
Wow. Calling out protesters like this. Denouncing the press so firmly. Teasing the Times for their struggles. It’s not something you typically hear from a president. And if President Trump is even half as outspoken as candidate Trump was, expect this to continue.
The left and the elites are going to give you a whole laundry list of reasons why this behaviour is a bad thing. On a couple of accounts they’ll be right. Like how it suggests Trump is too hasty to engage in petty antics to address major issues that require greater restraint. Like, say, foreign affairs. Hopefully not. We shall see.
But I’m now going to give you the main reason why this is such a good thing and indicates a brighter future for the bulk of North Americans.
For contrast, let’s go back to the 2012 presidential campaign. Then-GOP candidate Mitt Romney was caught in a gotcha moment when footage of a fundraiser was unearthed. It was the famous 47% comment. Romney said of voters that “there are 47% who are with (Obama), who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them ... that that’s an entitlement. (My) job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Now Romney could have said it better, and likely would have if he’d known his private remarks were going to be made public. But he ultimately spoke the truth. Entitlement culture is suffocating North American finance and self-reliance, turning more and more people into wards of the state.
But Romney was relentlessly hammered for his truth-telling. There was little serious analysis of what he said. It was just criticism, outrage and mockery. He tried to stand his ground but was too weak. He could have flipped the terms of conversation back in his favour, double down and talk heroically about getting America out of its slump. Instead, he eventually made a pseudo-apology to try to turn the page.
It was the left and their media allies at their best. They framed the debate. They set the agenda. They cornered Romney until he backed down. And, of course, he still lost.
Trump, as we all know, doesn’t back down. This is why the far-left machine has become so insane in recent weeks. Earlier in the campaign, they thought they’d cornered a rat. Then they realized they just locked themselves in a room with a lion. And now he’s not only lashing out at them, but has jumped over them and is blocking their escape. For the first time in years, they’re the ones who are cornered.
This is why they’re trying so desperately to discredit him before inauguration day and make you believe he and everyone around him is a bad person. They’re trying to keep control of the message.
But Trump, for better or worse, doesn’t care what other people think. He’s shameless. Just like the left. They’ve finally met their match. Oh, boy, is it nice to watch.
Let’s just hope Trump doesn’t waste this opportunity. He now needs to use it to re-frame the debate around issues that really matter.
I hope the rest of the Republicans wake up and start following Trump lead. You can’t play “nice” with these people.
I love that Trump fights back. Bush was so disappointing in that respect, the media kept piling on and his admin was silent. I heard more from Dick Cheney after the Bush Admin than during!
The author sounds as weak and hesitant as the romney of 47% fame that he criticizes in his article.
He wants to boldy say that Trump’s unaplogetic and counterpunching nature is exactly what the world needs, but he tempers it by saying Trump is a loose cannon.
Thus, instead of being a Trump-like lion, he is nothing more than a squeamish romney-style loser.
Why do so many Trump supporters feel it’s necessary to condemn him before admiring him? It’s the same old, same old: “Sure, he’s vulgar, disgusting, awful, hateful and I stay awake nights embarrassed by the things he has said, but by-jingo! I then get up and realize he may actually be right.” To use a Jim Robinson expression: Knock it off!
For the longest time I have been telling anyone who will listen that we needed a candidate who could talk past or completely bypass the media, and with the leftists’ little Twitter and FBook Donald has done that. Has to drive them nuts!
Ever since the McGovernites took over the party 44 years ago, they have been fighting a war with us, and we have been holding political debates with them, so we won the ideological debate and they got everything they wanted.
In a war, you win by executing superior force as defined by the enemy’s terms, and in the present war of domestic politics the terms of engagement are personal, hand-to-hand conflict. Trump won, and continues to win, because he fights the MSM, Dems, and the Two Families (Chicago and Chappequa) the way they have been fighting us, with the main difference being that most of his salvos have been truthful attacks, while most of the left’s are lies, and that’s why his is superior force. Reagan did the same thing but with a smile and an “aw gee shucks” feel, but Trump is Grant/Halsey/Patton/LeMay-esque in his open determination to overcome the foe. Cruz would have debated the left to death (and I was a Cruzer all the way to Indiana), but Trump just goes for the carotid and lets fly.
It is only partly Trump.
The main reason the media no longer controls the debate is the new media, like Twitter, is an alternate way to get information out.
Trump was able to take advantage of the new media to break the stranglehold on information flow that the establishment media had for decades. It has been building for years.
It has not happened sooner, because conventional politicians could not figure out how to use the new media to full advantage. The closest was Ted Cruz. He used new media to get elected to the Senate.
I think this analysis is spot on. Trump reframed the debate when he announced his intention to run. The Republican primary and the general were debated on Trump’s terms.
The Left and the MSM still don’t get it. Hopefully the GOPe has finally been hit on the head with the Trump sledge hammer often and hard enough.
Attempting to work with the left is like Israel trying to work with Palestinians.
Trump, as we all know, doesn’t back down. This is why the far-left machine has become so insane in recent weeks.
It's been beautiful watching this, and it is happening everywhere! Trump and his people are punching back and the left doesn't know what to do. They're simply not used to being stood up to.
The BSM is only really effective when the libtards are in power and it can function as the propaganda arm of the libtard state. The State can then “make things happen” that support the BSM.
When libtards are not in power they have to go back to their day job at the BSM. Actually committing journalism. Doing research, tracking down interviews, piecing together stories. Things are so much easier when Podesta and crew just send you talking points to report.
I suspect this is why Trump has their knickers in a bunch. Party’s over. Back to work.
My response was always, "You mean presidential, like all the past failed presidents were presidential?"
I didn't want the same cookie-cutter, bland politician who promised the same old crap that they never followed through on and basically joined with the opposition to screw the American people some more.
Apparently, a bunch more people out here in TrumpLand figured it the same way, because he is now our President-Elect.
Give 'em hell Donald. Be yourself and do what needs to be done.
Me too, and I thinks it's the #1 reason he won because everything else flows from that.
You don’t mean Trump supporters
Fell for it, did you, Anthony? He is messing with you at the trivial level, because that is where your mind is. He is trying to get something done and you, you little puppy nipping at his heals, are being fed spiked dog treats to make you feel sick so you go away and learn not to nip at his heals. You know how small minded Trump is. He has a long history of getting wrapped up in petty insults, he completely forgets that his intent was to build, oh, say Trump Tower.
No, we had that debate and the left lost. Now go away. Your kind don't want to debate the real issues, not like with facts and logic. You just want to slander, smear and put out a false narrative. So Trump responds to your fake puffer by throwing out insults. You take the bait and you debate about his right on the mark insults and leave off the big issues.
The left has not been about debating big issues since the recovery from the Great Depression.
Agree - the left has us using their rhetorical framing - well maybe there is something positive here, but there is an awful lot negative to get through first - accepting the meme that he has all these traits and THEY ARE BAD! BAD I TELL YOU!
re: (My) job is not to worry about those people....Romney.
Trump worries about these people and how they are enslaved to dependency on government. Trump in substance is different from Romney.
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