Thursday, August 24, 2017
Political Mayhem Thursday: Beneath the Surface
Donald Trump wants you to think about him all the time. He wants you to obsess over his comments, listen to his speeches, and check your phone every half-hour to see if he has done something else memorable in the past thirty minutes. And we do it (at least I know that I do). He's played me like a sucker.
If you think of anything really noteworthy-- good or bad-- the truth is that it usually was beneath the surface for a long time. That Olympic skier who lit up the world actually was training and winning races for years, unnoticed by nearly everyone. The 9/11 bombers were in the country, learning to fly, plotting, until their deed was done and we all noticed.
I suspect that what will undo Donald Trump is not the flash and offense and yelling at the surface, all for the benefit of the cameras and a billion eager cell phones. It is what is beneath the surface, where people work unnoticed preparing for a moment they will choose. And what is happening down there right now?
-- Most importantly, Robert Mueller and his team are digging and reading and connecting dots. I hear conservative pundits complaining that it is all a sham, that no evidence proves Trump is connected to Russia. Well, yeah. That's how investigation is supposed to work. You don't have a press conference with every break in a case. You gather your turtles and stack them up and indict people when it is time.
-- Also, people are being alienated. Not his base, but other people in power in DC, who have tolerated him. They know enough to understand that it is better to wait until the right moment rather than tweet out every angry thought.
-- Finally, the rest of the world, and its leaders, watch quietly. Some are our allies. They will do what they need to do without us. Others are our enemies, and they are more dangerous. They will not announce that they are forging bonds against us, taking our business, and compromising our intelligence. They, unlike Trump, know the value of quiet.
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Has to be beneath the surface! The oxygen is sucked out of every space where Trump is present. In name or in person.
Hope I can hold my breath for 3 years 4 months 27 days 11 hours and 58 minutes.
Hope I can hold my breath for 3 years 4 months 27 days 11 hours and 58 minutes.
Trump's ascendancy itself is noteworthy, and it illustrates your point about subsurface goings on rather poignantly. Recall that Trump was never supposed to win. At first he was dismissed--viewed by the Left as a clown and by the Right as a nuisance. As Trump gained steam, Clinton supporters watched gleefully as he ran roughshod through the primary, confident that Hillary would handily best him. Throughout, the media treated him like a sideshow--giving him a platform--while the pundit class smugly predicted his electoral demise.
Well, it turns out there was a lot happening beneath the surface. Beyond the view of the political establishment and the media, a growing segment of the American people had become disaffected. Some were the "Deplorables." Others were mainstream Republicans, horrified at the prospect of a Clinton presidency. Still others were blue collar Obama voters weary of the Left's brand of identity politics. Trump's bombast--while rankling insiders--made these people feel like participants in the political process, a welcome relief after years on the sidelines.
All of this was, more or less, beneath the surface. And for all the soul searching Democrats and establishment Republicans did for two weeks in November 2016, it still is. Sure, the Neo-Confederates, Nazis, and race-supremacists are suddenly at the center of everything (for the record, I condemn them all!), but in a world where voters still decide the outcome of elections, that group is close to a non-factor. The remainder of the Trump coalition however, remains out of sight, out of mind, and, but for Trump, out of power. Until that changes, we can expect a lot more political and social anxiety. And we can expect more of the same from Trump, with all the evil that entails.
Well, it turns out there was a lot happening beneath the surface. Beyond the view of the political establishment and the media, a growing segment of the American people had become disaffected. Some were the "Deplorables." Others were mainstream Republicans, horrified at the prospect of a Clinton presidency. Still others were blue collar Obama voters weary of the Left's brand of identity politics. Trump's bombast--while rankling insiders--made these people feel like participants in the political process, a welcome relief after years on the sidelines.
All of this was, more or less, beneath the surface. And for all the soul searching Democrats and establishment Republicans did for two weeks in November 2016, it still is. Sure, the Neo-Confederates, Nazis, and race-supremacists are suddenly at the center of everything (for the record, I condemn them all!), but in a world where voters still decide the outcome of elections, that group is close to a non-factor. The remainder of the Trump coalition however, remains out of sight, out of mind, and, but for Trump, out of power. Until that changes, we can expect a lot more political and social anxiety. And we can expect more of the same from Trump, with all the evil that entails.
Good points CTL. Still I will never, ever understand how he managed to con so many blue collar Obama voters and poor Americans into thinking he and his posse of billionaires will represent "the little guy" EVER.
Good points CTL. Marta, there was a good article in the NYT that looked at the Obama/Trump voter. They distinguished between Trump's appeal to racist and those who were able to vote for President Obama because they liked him and then voted for Trump because of their racial resentment. These voters did not choose Trump because he was a good person but shared his professed shared resentment of those who they judged were favored by the system by both parties. Donald Trump fanned this resentment and promised that he would give these voters a voice. I think there is a lot of resentment towards others. It took the Donald to understand the depth of these feeling and base enough to capitalize on all this often misplaced resentment.
I'm hoping the accumulation of conflicts of interest will do him in. And the amount of money he spends on Secret Service protection for his 18 family members.
# posted by 
: 6:33 PM
: 6:33 PM
John - I read that article as well. The question is how these voters mark their ballot once they realize they have been used; especially if Trump is their choice again. That said, this type of voter existed on both sides. I was never on the Hillary bandwagon but there was no way my conscience would ever vote for the clown we ended up with.
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