Martin Longman is the web editor of the Washington Monthly.
He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. Before joining the Monthly, Martin was a county coordinator for ACORN/Project Vote and a political consultant. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Unfortunately, IMHO, many/most/all of people who finally realize that Trump is an actual idiot will just rationalize it as “Yeah, ok, he’s an idiot, but how much damage can an idiot REALLY do? After all, he’s an idiot, right? And look at all the great judges and commie-punching and cruelty to brown people we’re getting!”
I’ve already seen Trump being rigorously defended on blog comments. His gaffe being equated with some of Obama’s. Let’s face it Mel Brooks had it right – slightly updated: “You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of flyover land. You know… morons.” That being so then logically as George Carlin rightly points out: “If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re going to get selfish, ignorant leaders.” This won’t hurt Trump at all with his base. To them he is not a ridiculous ignoramus – he just misspoke. He… Read more »
The hardest thing to accept about his base is that there are twice as many of them as I thought there were. 20% of the country was always like this in plain sight, it’s the additional 20% that makes it frightening.
Does anyone even remember that Obama was constantly mocked for using a teleprompter? There were no crazy gaffes, be wasn’t reliant on it, he just used the technology like everyone else.
I’m surprised that President Bone Spurs didn’t tell us about the time he and my grandpa helped General George raid the NY airport. That was airborne, you know.
Where this might hurt is in the general election. Outside groups will probably run ads about this ad nauseam. And our candidate has a ready made zinger for the debates. Throw him off his stride, make him see red in a debate, and whine about how unfair it was. It might help persuade those Obama-Trump voters who have soured on the guy to stay sour.
And, this gaffe is a hard one to defend. Either his team is incompetent, and/or he is an idiot. Whining that the media should not have pointed it out isn’t a defense.
This post motivated me to review Dan Quayle’s political life. I had forgotten that he beat Birch Bayh in the Nov. 1980 Republican tsunami. This result was a precursor of what was to come from the Republican party. I miss the old political days when the Senate had people like Bayh who could author constitutional amendments.
Over at Yastreblyansky, he does an analysis ascribing this to a reading comprehension disability, something out of the DSM called SCRD. Quoting his post: ” … The reading disability isn’t something familiar like dyslexia, where the problem is in decoding the letters into speech sounds; he’s good enough at that to make it most of the way through reading a 45-minute text aloud. It’s in comprehension, recognizing the meaningfulness of what he’s reading, and its name in the business is Specific Reading Comprehension Deficit or S-RCD, defined in the DSM as Difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read (e.g.,… Read more »
That would account for why he sounds so flat when he reads a speech instead of winging it; he’s mechanically processing meaningless text, word by word.
I can’t share your optimism. I think the people who think he’s an idiot have thought that way for a while. The rest are locked into an abusive and bad relationship that feels like a cross between an abusive relationship and Stockholm syndrome.
One of the hardest things for humans to do is to admit a mistake in public. The only chance we have is for enough people to enter the confessional/voting booth and finally do the right thing.
As Der Trumper records his highest approval rating (44%) so far in his catastrophic prezidancy, it is beyond argument that over 95% of his spite-filled morons and plutocrat-lovers are going to stick with him no matter the gaffe and no matter the scandal or report of lawbreaking. This leaves only a badly handled war or economic reversal as the sole things that could touch him in the eyes of the failed white electorate that thought him “qualified” for the office. Trumper’s tax cut and sadistic Latino hatred are the National Trumpalist versions of Hitler’s Invasions of Poland and France. The… Read more »
It turns out, according to the wonderful post by Yastreblyansky linked by Charon above, that the answer is our Trumper almost certainly cannot understand how to read or how to process word-on-the-page data. Another mental disability which he has to take great pains to hide from his adoring National Trumpalists.
This also would explain the (admitted) propensity of Der Trumper to demand only verbal information, and his OBVIOUS addiction to lie-based right-wing television as his chief information source. He couldn’t have survived in any environment other than a family bizness and as a “star” of braindead teevee.
As illustrated by his problems on July 4. Once he misspeaks and then realizes something, but he knows not what, is wrong, he can then dig himself in deeper while futilely attempting to recover. Thus airports, Ft. McHenry, cotton wings on the Wright Brothers’ airplane etc. All because he was just reciting words, making sounds without grasping the meaning.
Unfortunately, IMHO, many/most/all of people who finally realize that Trump is an actual idiot will just rationalize it as “Yeah, ok, he’s an idiot, but how much damage can an idiot REALLY do? After all, he’s an idiot, right? And look at all the great judges and commie-punching and cruelty to brown people we’re getting!”
I’ve already seen Trump being rigorously defended on blog comments. His gaffe being equated with some of Obama’s. Let’s face it Mel Brooks had it right – slightly updated: “You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of flyover land. You know… morons.” That being so then logically as George Carlin rightly points out: “If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re going to get selfish, ignorant leaders.” This won’t hurt Trump at all with his base. To them he is not a ridiculous ignoramus – he just misspoke. He… Read more »
The hardest thing to accept about his base is that there are twice as many of them as I thought there were. 20% of the country was always like this in plain sight, it’s the additional 20% that makes it frightening.
Ayup, turns out the Crazification Factor is double what we all thought and laughed over. Ain’t laughing much any more.
27% was bad enough, but 40% is another thing entirely. I live in WV, and here it’s 70%. Haunts me.
Does anyone even remember that Obama was constantly mocked for using a teleprompter? There were no crazy gaffes, be wasn’t reliant on it, he just used the technology like everyone else.
If you were a republican, with republican friends, how many of these memes would you be seeing on your facebook feed? My guess is not many.
I’m surprised that President Bone Spurs didn’t tell us about the time he and my grandpa helped General George raid the NY airport. That was airborne, you know.
Where this might hurt is in the general election. Outside groups will probably run ads about this ad nauseam. And our candidate has a ready made zinger for the debates. Throw him off his stride, make him see red in a debate, and whine about how unfair it was. It might help persuade those Obama-Trump voters who have soured on the guy to stay sour.
And, this gaffe is a hard one to defend. Either his team is incompetent, and/or he is an idiot. Whining that the media should not have pointed it out isn’t a defense.
This post motivated me to review Dan Quayle’s political life. I had forgotten that he beat Birch Bayh in the Nov. 1980 Republican tsunami. This result was a precursor of what was to come from the Republican party. I miss the old political days when the Senate had people like Bayh who could author constitutional amendments.
Over at Yastreblyansky, he does an analysis ascribing this to a reading comprehension disability, something out of the DSM called SCRD. Quoting his post: ” … The reading disability isn’t something familiar like dyslexia, where the problem is in decoding the letters into speech sounds; he’s good enough at that to make it most of the way through reading a 45-minute text aloud. It’s in comprehension, recognizing the meaningfulness of what he’s reading, and its name in the business is Specific Reading Comprehension Deficit or S-RCD, defined in the DSM as Difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read (e.g.,… Read more »
That would account for why he sounds so flat when he reads a speech instead of winging it; he’s mechanically processing meaningless text, word by word.
I can’t share your optimism. I think the people who think he’s an idiot have thought that way for a while. The rest are locked into an abusive and bad relationship that feels like a cross between an abusive relationship and Stockholm syndrome.
One of the hardest things for humans to do is to admit a mistake in public. The only chance we have is for enough people to enter the confessional/voting booth and finally do the right thing.
As Der Trumper records his highest approval rating (44%) so far in his catastrophic prezidancy, it is beyond argument that over 95% of his spite-filled morons and plutocrat-lovers are going to stick with him no matter the gaffe and no matter the scandal or report of lawbreaking. This leaves only a badly handled war or economic reversal as the sole things that could touch him in the eyes of the failed white electorate that thought him “qualified” for the office. Trumper’s tax cut and sadistic Latino hatred are the National Trumpalist versions of Hitler’s Invasions of Poland and France. The… Read more »
It turns out, according to the wonderful post by Yastreblyansky linked by Charon above, that the answer is our Trumper almost certainly cannot understand how to read or how to process word-on-the-page data. Another mental disability which he has to take great pains to hide from his adoring National Trumpalists.
This also would explain the (admitted) propensity of Der Trumper to demand only verbal information, and his OBVIOUS addiction to lie-based right-wing television as his chief information source. He couldn’t have survived in any environment other than a family bizness and as a “star” of braindead teevee.
People are still adding more comments to Yastreblyansky’s post, some of them are worth reading also.
As illustrated by his problems on July 4. Once he misspeaks and then realizes something, but he knows not what, is wrong, he can then dig himself in deeper while futilely attempting to recover. Thus airports, Ft. McHenry, cotton wings on the Wright Brothers’ airplane etc. All because he was just reciting words, making sounds without grasping the meaning.