Posted on 09/09/2015 2:34:13 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Jeb thinks he can beat Trump by attacking his liberal past. He clearly doesn't understand the nature of this beast.
I wrote two months ago that Donald Trump is a mirror image of the conservative psyche, a perfect distillation of the Tea Party id: No ideas, no substance – just bluster and fiery platitudes. Everything that’s happened since has confirmed my initial suspicion. Trump has continued to repackage shopworn stupidities and beam them back at his audiences, and conservatives can’t get enough of it.
If you’ve followed Trump’s ongoing spat with Jeb Bush, you’ve probably noticed that Trump is winning. And the reason is simple: They’re fighting on Trump’s terrain. Trump’s appeal is mostly psychological. He rarely makes sense and he never bothers to explain himself; he just demonizes brown people and tells anxious white people that he’ll make their country great again. Because he’s tapping into something deep and dark, the specifics never quite matter – it’s the tone that counts.
Trump’s tough guy shtick has made Jeb a soft target. Trump’s latest jab comes in the form of a brief Instagram video. Like everything else Trump does, the ad is completely devoid of ideas. It is, however, oddly brilliant, and exactly what you’d expect from a reality TV star like Trump. Spanning a few seconds, the ad shows Jeb discussing the intricacies of health care policy while a supporter sleeps behind him. Against this backdrop, the narrator says, “Too much energy? Need some low energy? Jeb, for all your sleeping needs.”
The message is clear: Jeb is a limp dotard who lacks the vigor to make America great again. This plays nicely into Trump’s campaign narrative, which feels like a massive exercise in megalomania and overcompensation. Trump basically stands behind a podium and tells people two things: He’s incredibly awesome and everyone else can stick their political correctness up their ass. Is it any surprise that his ad essentially casts Jeb Bush as the protagonist of one of those “Low T” commercials?
Jeb’s response to Trump so far has been mildly amusing. He appears not to understand what’s happening to him, or why Trump, despite having nothing concrete to offer, is winning this exchange. One of Jeb’s longtime advisers, Mike Murphy, now the chief strategist for Bush’s super PAC, said that “He [Jeb] has faith over time in the people and the power of his ideas.” John McKager Stipanovich, a Florida lobbyist and close Bush friend, struck a slightly different note, arguing that “Donald Trump epitomizes everything Jeb has spent his political career trying to prevent the Republican Party from becoming.”
As best I can tell, Jeb’s strategy is to engage Trump (so as not to appear meek) without adopting Trump’s tactics. At a recent campaign stop, Jeb countered Trump by emphasizing his political stamina: “The ‘low energy’ candidate this week has only been six days, sixteen hours a day campaigning with joy in my heart.” He also released a video last week that highlighted all of the liberal positions that Trump has taken in the past.
Here’s a bit of unsolicited advice for Jeb: You’re missing the point. Trump supporters (read: the conservative base) don’t care if you’re campaigning with “joy in your heart.” Nor do they care if Trump once identified as a liberal. And they certainly don’t care about the “power of your ideas.” What Trump understands (and what Bush clearly doesn’t) is that the people flocking to Trump are doing so because they don’t give a damn about policy or substance or facts. They want to hear someone tell the establishment that it’s full of shit, and Bush is the establishment. Trump may not have ideas or political acumen or a basic sense of decency, but he knows what alienated conservatives want to hear – and that’s enough.
Trump’s success (and Jeb’s decline) shows how easy it is to openly infantilize the conservative base. You don’t need ideas to win over Republicans anymore; you simply have to reflect their paranoia and frustration, with as much bombast and superficiality as possible.
Donald Trump gets it, Jeb Bush doesn’t – and that’s why Trump is winning.
The conservatives are fighting fire with fire and they cannot stand it. I love it. HA HA HA
Me too. All their lives they have thought they were the smartest people in the room. All of a sudden, they are seen as idiots.
Salon endorses hillary who loves the government so much that she eschewed a secure goverment provided e-mail account and instead reached across the aisle to privatize her e-mail server to some sketchy company out of pot smoking denver.
Would hillary endorse other government agencies or services? Only if they directly benefit her more as a privatized commodity.
Mind your manners, the dude’s a PhD, even though he’s a Berniebot, thus a nut.
Lot of Salon posts lately.
The specifics don’t matter?
You mean like “Hope and Change”?
Copying is a form of flattery. You leftists should feel proud. Too bad Trump is a fast learner
I don’t have anything against Bush. I’m sure he’s a decent guy just like his brother and father. But supporting someone who is supposedly “electable”, like Romney and McCain has gotten us nowhere.
Maybe we’ll lose with Trump. But I’d rather lose with someone with conviction than with some boring paper pusher who checks polling data before he wipes his a**.
Of course they are; Jeb's pushing for a 'pathway to citizenship' and 'equal recognition' of those who have 'been displaced from their home country.'
So, amnesty, driver's licenses, and essentially open borders. Everything the cheap labor express loves and is giving Bush hundreds of millions to bring.
So yes, Bush has the ideas that liberals want and love, so therefore, Bush has ideas. Trump already pretty clearly outlined his plan on the issue, this isn't in line with liberal ideals, so he is just spouting empty rage rhetoric.
Because at the end of the day, Salon ONLY cares to ensure that no more Democrats get on the Trump bandwagon. Having him not only beat any hypothetical if the election were held today, but also with margins in minorities that is rarely seen - THAT is their concern.
So it is all back to the same name calling that Salon thrives on - rage, hate, anger, racist tea partiers. It is a recipe that has worked time and time again.
As long as these morons continue to think in this manner we’ll beat them eventually.
I will wet myself with glee the day these people are placed in cages for the protection of the human race.
And I say that as a former media guy.
>>No ideas, no substance – just bluster and fiery platitudes. Everything that’s happened since has confirmed my initial suspicion.
It worked for Obama—twice. It works for global warming. It works for race card. It is working for Hillary.
Meanwhile, electing calm, intelligent, well-bred Republicans has done absolutely NOTHING for us. Worse than nothing. They aid the enemy!
Yes, the enemy. If anyone still thinks that the Democrats and GOProgressives are just well-intentioned Patriots with a slightly different plan for our nation’s prosperity, then they are idiots and probably GOProgressives themselves.
Who is this ‘Sean’ person, who speaks to us as though we needed his advice?
The reason Salon is terrified
LOL
Right here is a prime example of liberal projection, or in Alinskyspeak, accusing your opponent of what you are doing.
I went to Salon to read the comments. Double up on your BP meds, and go take a lokk! So many insane, stoopud people. It’s truly disheartening!
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