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.
It drives me crazy that we are going to spend the last few years that the planet is inhabitable discussing the mental follies and emotional immaturities of this one deranged, fucked-up man. In two years he’ll be gone, and we’re going to realize that we have one hell of a mess to clean up. Not just from 4 years of Trump, but from 40 years of neoliberalism. We are also going to realize that we spent two crucial decades focused on navel-gazing narcissistic sh*t that our descendants aren’t going to care one whit about.
Brings to mind Rule #5 from Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” Here’s hoping that the DNC, as well as every serious Democratic presidential campaign, has a handful of staffers who are taking note of what kinds of ridicule throw Trump off his game. So, what seems to have gotten under his skin with Greenland is that the prime minister (a woman)—speaking in a calm, professional tone—called his idea “absurd”. By contrast, men challenging Trump to feats of strength (Cruz, Biden, etc.) may or may get under his skin, but it doesn’t knock him off balance.… Read more »
Yeah, I suppose you could conclude that Warren—or Harris, or Gillibrand, or Klobuchar—would be able to take advantage of that weakness.
But I think the more general point is the important one. If, say, Biden—or Sanders, or Buttigieg,etc.—ends up as the nominee, he’d be making a tactical mistake to attack Trump at one of his strong points. So, no challenging to feats of strength and manliness (unless you’re in a position to win convincingly and repeatedly). And don’t try to attack Trump the way PM Frederiksen.
Instead, find another one of his (many) weak spots and attack there.
As the hopeless war ground on to its inevitable conclusion, the insomniac dictator Hitler would gather his bunker idolators (mostly hapless young female secretaries) around a table in the Fuhrer Bunker below the Berlin Chancery to gas on about his infallible plans for victory, racial theories, cultural elevation and the evolution of nations. In typical Germanic fashion, much of this gaseous claptrap was set down contemporaneously by sycophants and (wittingly or unwittingly) saved for posterity. Known to historians as Hitler’s “Table Talk”, it has been argued to provide critical insight into Hitler’s deranged and idiotic thinking, as well as explaining… Read more »
It drives me crazy that we are going to spend the last few years that the planet is inhabitable discussing the mental follies and emotional immaturities of this one deranged, fucked-up man. In two years he’ll be gone, and we’re going to realize that we have one hell of a mess to clean up. Not just from 4 years of Trump, but from 40 years of neoliberalism. We are also going to realize that we spent two crucial decades focused on navel-gazing narcissistic sh*t that our descendants aren’t going to care one whit about.
Brings to mind Rule #5 from Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” Here’s hoping that the DNC, as well as every serious Democratic presidential campaign, has a handful of staffers who are taking note of what kinds of ridicule throw Trump off his game. So, what seems to have gotten under his skin with Greenland is that the prime minister (a woman)—speaking in a calm, professional tone—called his idea “absurd”. By contrast, men challenging Trump to feats of strength (Cruz, Biden, etc.) may or may get under his skin, but it doesn’t knock him off balance.… Read more »
Actually, it seems as though there is one conclusion which can be strongly inferred from your analysis….
Yeah, I suppose you could conclude that Warren—or Harris, or Gillibrand, or Klobuchar—would be able to take advantage of that weakness.
But I think the more general point is the important one. If, say, Biden—or Sanders, or Buttigieg,etc.—ends up as the nominee, he’d be making a tactical mistake to attack Trump at one of his strong points. So, no challenging to feats of strength and manliness (unless you’re in a position to win convincingly and repeatedly). And don’t try to attack Trump the way PM Frederiksen.
Instead, find another one of his (many) weak spots and attack there.
He should offer every citizen of Greenland 1,000,000 apiece. Every man, woman, and child. 1,000,000 each if they become a state.
It would be a great deal for everyone.
.
As the hopeless war ground on to its inevitable conclusion, the insomniac dictator Hitler would gather his bunker idolators (mostly hapless young female secretaries) around a table in the Fuhrer Bunker below the Berlin Chancery to gas on about his infallible plans for victory, racial theories, cultural elevation and the evolution of nations. In typical Germanic fashion, much of this gaseous claptrap was set down contemporaneously by sycophants and (wittingly or unwittingly) saved for posterity. Known to historians as Hitler’s “Table Talk”, it has been argued to provide critical insight into Hitler’s deranged and idiotic thinking, as well as explaining… Read more »