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David Brooks: Why is there still no strategy to defeat Donald Trump? (pulling their hair out!)
Baltimoresun.com ^ | 9/16/22 | David Brooks

Posted on 09/16/2022 7:28:14 PM PDT by cotton1706

One of the stunning facts of the age is the continued prominence of Donald Trump. His candidates did well in the GOP primaries this year. He won more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. His favorability ratings within his party have been high and basically unchanged since late 2016. In a range of polls, some have actually shown Trump leading President Joe Biden in a race for reelection in 2024.

His prominence is astounding because over the past seven years the American establishment has spent enormous amounts of energy trying to discredit him. Those of us in this establishment correctly identified Trump as a grave threat to American democracy. The task before us was clear. We were never going to shake the hard-core MAGA folks. The job was to peel away independents and those Republicans offended by and exhausted by his antics.

Many strategies were deployed in order to discredit Trump. There was the immorality strategy: Thousands of articles were written detailing his lies and peccadilloes. There was the impeachment strategy: Investigations were launched into his various scandals and outrages. There was the exposure strategy: Scores of books were written exposing how shambolic and ineffective the Trump White House really was.

(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: brooks; davidbrooks; elections; electionz; electionzzz; elekchunz; newyorkslimes; tds; trump
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To: DeplorablePaul
I want to see them suffer like Trump has.

I'll wager that none of them will handle "suffering" as well as Trump has!

61 posted on 09/17/2022 7:12:55 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: Boomer
I don't believe Trump is the son of God but he is a good man trying to do the right thing for his country by putting its people first but in doing so he threatens the status quo of a corrupt system and its gaggle of goons.

You don't have to be a "good" man to be used by God. Look at David, King of Israel, who committed adultery and murder, yet was blessed by God as His servant.

62 posted on 09/17/2022 7:21:00 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: JimRed
You don't have to be a "good" man to be used by God. Look at David, King of Israel, who committed adultery and murder, yet was blessed by God as His servant.

Good point!

63 posted on 09/17/2022 7:56:14 AM PDT by Boomer ( What's the difference between Nazi Germany in 1932 and the USA in 2022? 5k miles and 90 years.)
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To: wiseprince
Why is almost every politician ignoring everything Trump has to say when most of the country agrees with most of what he says?

Politicians don't agree with the country. They are determined to make us "better", whether we like it or not.

64 posted on 09/17/2022 8:09:36 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...

65 posted on 09/17/2022 9:34:11 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: cotton1706
Buried the lede...

"Can Trump win again? Absolutely. I’m a DeSantis doubter. I doubt someone so emotionally flat and charmless can win a nomination in the age of intensive media. And then once Trump is nominated, he has some chance of winning, because nobody is executing an effective strategy against him."


66 posted on 09/17/2022 10:05:35 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (Tanned, rested, and ready.)
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To: cotton1706

Brooks has the IQ of a cucumber.


67 posted on 09/17/2022 10:18:25 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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This is what kind of calumny passes for thought inside David Brooks brain:

"On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that we are “probably overheating” the economy and causing inflation, but he has “high tolerance for inflation in this kind of economy. Because I think we need it as a society to heal.”

68 posted on 09/17/2022 10:23:49 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (Tanned, rested, and ready.)
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To: cotton1706
Wow - I've accused Brooks of being out of touch in the past but this one takes the cake. "Our strategy was to keep Trump's name in every headline and on every news broadcast for seven straight years and we just don't understand why he hasn't gone away." Damn, Dave. Don't you read your own stuff before posting it?

His prominence is astounding because over the past seven years the American establishment has spent enormous amounts of energy trying to discredit him.

Thereby ensuring that anyone with even a slight tilt toward populist politics - note I didn't even say conservative - keeps viewing Trump as the opposition to the arrogant, sanctimonious dweebs who are trashing him on a daily basis. That doesn't improve when most of the incessant drum-beating turns out to be based on lies.

Those of us in this establishment correctly identified Trump as a grave threat to American democracy.

By getting elected? By maintaining a lead in the polls despite everybody who is anybody in a thousand-dollar suit bleating that he is the enemy of all that is good and right? What threat, Dave? If you have to lie and cheat to beat him, who's the threat?

69 posted on 09/17/2022 10:35:58 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: StAnDeliver
Can't stop looking at this graf. I realize Brooks is actually sotto voce arguing for imprisonment, but the face value is, without that (highly unlikely) event, Brooks is outright saying the only strategy to get rid of Trump is to let Trump win again.

"Can Trump win again? Absolutely. I’m a DeSantis doubter. I doubt someone so emotionally flat and charmless can win a nomination in the age of intensive media. And then once Trump is nominated, he has some chance of winning, because nobody is executing an effective strategy against him."

70 posted on 09/17/2022 10:50:38 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (Tanned, rested, and ready.)
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To: cotton1706

Ignorant. President Trump isn’t even running in the midterms.


71 posted on 09/17/2022 12:22:08 PM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory. )
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To: cotton1706

“ Trumpists tell themselves that America is being threatened by a radical left putsch that is out to take over the government and undermine the culture. The core challenge now is to show by word and deed that this is a gross exaggeration.”

Unpack all that blather and what he’s saying is lie about what you really are.


72 posted on 09/20/2022 11:41:22 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: cotton1706
My core conclusion is that attacking Trump personally doesn’t work. You have to rearrange the underlying situation. We are in the middle of a cultural/economic/partisan/identity war between more progressive people in the metro areas and more conservative people everywhere else.

Brooks at least got this part correct.

I grew up in suburban Philadelphia. At age 18, I was a mealy mouthed, uppity, country club Republican. Then I went to college in a small rural town. I worked on a farm between my freshman and sophomore years. I got to know people from town. I got my act straightened out and discovered that I had little in common with people back in the Philadelphia area. I had no desire to move back there again. My distain for progressive city folks has only grown in each of the last 40 years since college.

73 posted on 09/24/2022 6:36:07 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA ( Scratch a leftist and you'll find a fascist )
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