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.
1. Who gives a damn what Salon says?
2. The reason Trump is even a candidate, let alone the current odds-on favorite to be the next POTUS, is because the GOP establishment has REPEATEDLY lied to the base - the same base that got a Republican House elected in 2010 to “stop Obama by cutting off the money,” and the same base that got a Republican Senate elected in 2014 to “stop Obama by being able to pass laws.” We are sick and tired of being lied to, and then being force-fed RINO candidates who repeatedly dis the base, lie to us some more, and then lose to uber-Leftist Dems.
So, I guess Salon is somewhat correct - the base is pissed: but the base wants someone who will actually work for Americans, someone not beholden to the Cheap Labor Express, someone not afraid to call ‘em as he sees ‘em - and screw political correctness.
Deal with it, Salon!
https://twitter.com/sean_illing
Political scientist!
Well, actually, the writer is correct. Trump has no ideas, the few he has are either completely leftist or self-contradictory, but he’s a celebrity showman and has tapped into the anger that has been built up by years of Obama’s anger-based leftist quasi-dictatorship.
Trump came out and offered himself as the WASP equivalent of Obama, and that’s what most GOP voters are looking for. Somebody who is as bad as Obama but looks like them.
The fact that he’s a hypocrite, has been married three times and says that all a man really needs to look successful is to come into a room with a young, good-looking piece of a** on his arm but says that the Bible is his favorite book, appears to think that going to a prep school with a military program was the same as being in the US military (and is trying to bribe angered vets with his donation of debate profits), is proposing tax increases as his solution to all problems, and is in favor of single-payer health care (that is, state-paid British-style medicine) doesn’t seem to bother his fans.
He foams at the mouth against some vague enemy (he’s never specifically called out Hillary or Obama, but attacks his GOP rivals) but the reason he has gotten traction is that he’s a showman and knows how to exploit legitimate anger.
Sean should stick to what he knows inside and out, pushing the gay agenda.
Don’t tell anyone, but Trump s base is quite broad. Just like Reagan’s.”
That was my thought, as well. His supporters are conservatives, millenials, African Americans, LEGAL immigrants, and people of all walks of life that are sick unto death of being told that the decline and destruction of our country is inevitable.
I’m really flabbergasted that nobody is really discussing this at length. They want him to be the Conservative candidate. That’s not how I see him. I see him as the Populists candidate. Sadly, just like Obama. But an Obama for today’s geopolitical environment.
Yes, Populist is an apt description for Trump. It’s because of this that I am a bit concerned. Trump is riding the wave of popularity with based on anger at the political class. While I enjoy Trump’s antics and “fingers in the eyes of the GOPe” as much as anybody, I understand that he really doesn’t have a track record of speaking or acting conservatively. If he is elected, we may not get the President we thought we were getting. It does encourage me, however, that Cruz seems to have no problem cooperating with Trump.
Chuckles. I don’t want rage I want vengeance. The Salon Boy should know we are going to get it too. Cruze to victory!
I am certainly not infantilized, I leave that to the lefties, but I certainly hope they feel our rage over the next eighteen months.
Vet, you have some splaining to do.
Libtards projecting again. It is the libtards who are like helpless children who can't survive unless they are taken care of by the big government parent.Libtard parasites are dependent because, like young children, they lack competence, self-sufficiency,self-reliance, and character.
So many lies packed into one outburst. Amazing work.
You’re damn right we’re enraged, Salon.
We’re sick of you stinkin’ moonbats and insane lefties, and we’re not going to put up with your crap anymore!
You sound like me. I started a thread expressing my concern a few days ago and got a lot of grief.I’m using my phone to post so it’s too difficult to link to it. My concern is that he could become the strong man in The Road to Serfdom (google it).
You sound like me. I started a thread expressing my concern a few days ago and got a lot of grief.I’m using my phone to post so it’s too difficult to link to it. My concern is that he could become the strong man in The Road to Serfdom (google it).
Of course, we know Dems want as many as possible to increase their voter rolls the public good be damned.
Uncanny!
My response was about the writer being a conservative. I was not commenting on Trump. I think the writer may be a gay activist.
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