In a recent post, Booman asked: “How Far Will Trump Go to Save Himself?” (http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2019/1/8/151959/5942)
I don’t have the answer to that question, but I do believe that that he will continue to use the “Attack!!! Attack!!! Attack!!!” approach taught to him by Roy Cohn.
Will it work?
Stay tuned.
If last night’s televised address is any indication? It will. Why do I say that? Because the DemRats’ “Pelosi & Schumer” dumbshow that followed was among the lamest productions that I have ever seen.
This battle is one of image, not ideas. Trump knows this as deeply as he knows anything. The only thing that came to mind when I tuned in to the Pelosi/Schumer production was that the two of them were channeling a besuited version of Grant Woods’s famous painting “American Gothic.” I find today that I was by no means alone.
Trump speech: Twitter pokes fun of Schumer, Pelosi ‘hostage tape,’ ‘American Gothic’ vibe
After President Donald Trump delivered an address from the Oval Office on border security, Democratic Congressional leaders provided their response from Capitol Hill – and Twitter users were quick to notice the change in scenery.
Trump delivered his speech alone from behind his desk, while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stood next to each other with American flags in the background.
But it was the two Democrats’ stoic stares and stiff stances that had many Twitter users poking fun and noting some art history references.
The famous “American Gothic” depicts a woman and man with a pitchfork standing tall in front of a house, and some thought to two lawmakers were shoo-ins for a recreation of it.
Others quickly noticed how Schumer stared right at the camera as Pelosi delivered her remarks – and thought it looked a tad like a “hostage tape.”
—snip—
Sigh…
Trump won that round!!!
And…sigh twice…I will say it again. Unless the Democratic Party wises up to post-Trump politics…not the content, just the public approach…barring some sort of final conviction of the obviously criminal but well-fortified-in-the-White House Donald Trump, 2020 is going to be another disaster.
I couldn’t help but think about what it would have looked and sounded like if say Beto O’Roark and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had been tasked with presenting the response instead of these two veteran backroom hustlers. They were so out of their element!!!
But…so far, the DNC perseveres in its media hustle for Joe Biden and against the new blood.
Will they wise up by 2020 primary time?
Sigh once again…
I doubt it.
Their time machine is stuck in the past.
Sigh…
AG
Beto O’ROARK?
Bwahahaha!
Arthur, you’re giving away your Ayn Randian roots here. Howard Roark was the protagonist in Rand’s The Fountainhead. One of Roark’s more Randian features was that he was a rapist. (Oh right, his “conquest”–name of Dominique as I recall–actually wanted Roark to break into her house and rape her. At least that was Ayn Rand’s explanation.)
A repeated mistake. Sorry…
However, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Ayn Rand or “The Fountainhead”, which I found so unreadable about 30 years ago that I put it down after only a few pages. I have O’Roarks in my family. Some of them spelled it “O’Roarke.” Simply early morning brain fog.
Try another tack…that one’s not working.
AG
Oh, by the way Arthur, Nancy Pelosi is the frigging SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE. Schumer is minority leader in the Senate. They have the minor job of leading negotiations with the White House. Nobody “tasked” them with responding to Trump.
I wonder how long it’ll take you to start slamming O’Rourke and Ocasio Cortez as “backroom hustlers”.
Nobody tasked them with responding to Trump?
Somebody shoulda tasked them not to.
They were terrible!!!
Of course, that will never happen…not until time takes its toll, at any rate… which is why the two-party system was so severely gob-smacked by Trump in the first place.
Later…
AG
P.S.
By that line of reasoning, Mitch McConnell is Senate Majority Leader and Donald Trump is President.
Do you support and applaud their efforts?
I don’t.
Duh!!!
“By that line of reasoning, Mitch McConnell is Senate Majority Leader and Donald Trump is President.”
That’s true, what’s your point?
It’ll be a lot easier to take your arguments seriously when you quit reserving your ire and contempt for the people who are trying to stop the GOP from destroying what remains of the American republic.
It was a 5 minute segment and I thought their relatively strong anti-Trumper rhetoric was fine. Anyone tuning in for the “image” alone is already a failed citizen, beyond redemption. Countering the fascist Herr Trumper was a job for the actual national leaders, and while certainly stiff and no great shakes as orators, I thought them both quite acceptable. As for the twitter circus, it’s all about witticisms, anyway. (twittercisms?)
Der Trumper’s Oval Office farrago of lies certainly demonstrated that he is no speaker of Hitlerian ability, and surely his clownish “image” was just as bad as whatever one wants to say of the Dem leaders. As a twitter wit observed, most prezes use prime-time addresses to calm a frightened public, not attempt to frighten a calm public, haha. Trumper will go down in history as an absolute monster and failed human being, not to mention the worst prez (by far) in the history of our failed republic.
If Trumper “won” the round, he won it not by his terrible and meretricious performance, but when the complicit corporate media CEOs granted the National Trumpalist’s insane request for a prime-time media platform to catapult their abject propaganda and (certain!) lies as a serious matter of national importance. This demonstrates (once again) that the game is rigged against the Dems, whether in power or in opposition. That’s what I would hope you would be most distressed about.
As for Alexandria O-C, let’s not seek to put her in situations that are beyond her experience and stature, whatever her wonderful natural talents may be. One has to build one’s skills on the bench/farm teams for awhile. Finally, don’t worry about Beto O’R, I’m pretty sure you’re going to see much, much more of him in the coming 2 years–and I’ll watch to see some support for him coming from you!
You write:
Yes.
Of course.
But…
The ongoing reality, from the first truly post-visual mass media presidential election (TV-driven)…JFK/Nixon…right on through to Trump’s win has been overwhelmingly image-driven. The only times the healthier, more dynamic, charisma-driven/image-driven candidate did not win were Nixon/Humphrey (both shlubs, physically), and Carter/Bush I. You might add the two Bush II wins, but his marketers sold him brilliantly as some kind of cowboy.
I say “charisma.” There is positive charisma and…in the case of Trump, for instance…negative charisma. It’s a fact,. Look at Hitler and Mussolini for all you need to know regarding that idea.
So…given that fact…what do you propose to do with all of those poor, beyond redemption, failed citizens who voted for presidents by image since 1962?
You can’t get around it.
Overall, people just ain’t that smart.
You can’t eliminate them.
You can’t…or shouldn’t, anyway…disenfranchise them.
Whadda ya gonna do!!!???
Jesus, from Matthew 5:1-16:
You needn’t be a believing Christian to recognize what this man among men was saying.
So…what do you do about this in a political sense if you want to both win and do some good in the world?
You try to put up a candidate who has the sort of charisma that resulted in JFK’s and RFK’s pictures being hung on poverty-stricken walls the world over, that’s what. Do that and then pray he’s not just another good faker who has “charismaed” you.
This next election will be won on popular appeal.
Emotional appeal. Some got it, some don’t. The current leaders of the Dems don’t. End of story. Maybe some sort of righteous anger might sufficiently fill Joe Biden’s soul and enable him to beat Donald Trump, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Too old for that fight, I think. Sanders? Also too old. Warren? Maybe…she’s in great shape!!! Did you see her running and dancing in that Hallowe’en vid? Real, physical energy and joy. But she has so far shown precious little mass appeal no matter how close to right she is on the most important issues.
Just sayin’…
Charisma counts.
More than “issues” in a U.S. presidential election.
Much more.
Watch.
Later…
AG
The fact is that neither you nor I nor anyone else will ever be able to say anything about Jesus’ charisma. The authors of the Gospels, whoever they were, had a picture of Jesus that they wanted to present, and so they did. On the other hand, the message of the Sermon on the Mount is certainly inspirational, even to a Jew like yours truly.
“Even to a Jew like yours truly!!!???”
Sigh…
Jesus was a Jew. What’s not to like?
AG
Antisemitism in this country is getting scary. It was always there, but the daily screeds in the financial media about “Jew bankers” and Leftist sites about “America’s Zionist masters”, is getting to pre-KrystalNacht levels.
NextI’ve already heard that 9-11 was justified by America’s support for the Zionist state.No shit, Jesus was a Jew? Well I never.
And give it a rest with the “what’s not to like?” stuff. FYI that’s English rendered with Yiddish syntax. It’s the way my grandparents spoke.
Your grandparents…among many others…were my teachers!!!
AG
P.S.
Watch on, O ye of little faith.
As long as he doesn’t prove to be willing tool of the Permanent Government…as did Barack Obama…he’ll have my support and more.
Bet on it.
AG
. . . Socialist (that’s written with approval, not intending disparagement) “response” in interview with Maddow. Clip available on youtube. I thought she did great in what I saw, with this exception: while I agree in principle with the “abolish ICE” soundbite, I don’t think it’s great political messaging. Too amenable to mis-representation by dishonest Banana Republican propagandists and their WtUCM* enablers as “Dems want open borders”. Which will never get more than small minority support.
I’m told the clip I saw was only the second part of the interview, and the first part was better, but I haven’t found it (nor looked very hard — Maddow’s site might be the place to look, though, if interested). I do agree with the observer who thought Rachel done good by asking a question, then just shutting up, getting out of the way, and letting AOC answer at length — which she’s very, very good at doing.
*Worse-than-Useless Corporate Media
link
For all his (many many) faults, one cannot imagine Bill Clinton giving that stiff response. Bill knew how how to talk to the American people. I get the impression that Chuck and Nancy don’t want to soil themselves speaking to the rabble.
Bernie Sanders would have ripped Trump a new one also.
Bernie Sanders disaffiliated himself from the Democratic Party after he failed to secure the presidential nomination.
Did that remove his vocal chords?
And are you sure about that? Why was he encouraging people to vote (D) last Fall if he no longer belongs to the party?
. . . one very obvious reason. He couldn’t. Vermont doesn’t have party registration. You could look it up.
Amazingly TV news is acting like the Constitution has a thing called “State of Emergency” that can be invoked by sole decree of the President and allows him to do whatever he likes and ignore the other branches, i.e. he becomes a dictator. The Third Reich is upon us, complete with brown untermenschen.
Looks like…
“TV News” is about profit. This is the story; they make money with it.
Outrage sells.
AG