Guest Post by The Zman
In the last couple of weeks, it seems that everyone has celebrated and castigated Trump, sometimes on the same day. Examining the range of opinions on Trump’s presidency so far is like looking through a kaleidoscope. No matter how gently you hold it up to your eye, you see something different than last time you looked through it. In normal times, it is easy to know where everyone stands. The Liberals think the Republican president is Hitler and they think the Democrat is Jesus. The Right adjust accordingly.
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With Trump, all of the pundits are standing in the darkness, silhouetted by a wall of light and sound. We can sort of see them moving and we hear noises, but it is hard to know who is saying what about whom. Every once in a while a face from the crowd pops into view and says something good or ill about Trump. One minute Bill Kristol is sneering about Trump and then all of sudden Lindsey Graham is praising Trump. The Alt-Right is one minute hooting about Syria and then praising the new border push.
It really is exhausting, but it is part of how Trump plays the game. It is a good reminder that traditional metrics are not much use when judging Trump the politician. It’s also why he mowed down the GOP field with a cell phone and a twitter account. It was not that he broke their rules. It was that they wasted a lot of time complaining about Trump breaking their rules. Meanwhile, Trump was out giving voters a reason to support him. It is a classic form of political distraction that Trump has adopted to the modern communication age.
Similarly, Trump is wildly unpredictable, at least he seems unpredictable. That’s a big part of how he plays the game. He wants everyone to think the range of choices for him include some collection of unknown options that no one has yet to consider. That keeps foes on the defensive, making them tentative, even when they have the advantage. By appearing to have no clear strategy and routinely breaking old habits, Trump appears to be a wild man, who is capable of anything. Therefore, there’s no way to plan for him.
The big weapon Trump has in this regard is his willingness to attack unexpectedly. He always looks to attack when everyone is sure it is foolish to do so. He went to the very pro-military state of South Carolina and called John McCain a loser for getting shot down and captured by the Vietnamese. He questioned McCain’s conduct as a prisoner. The media howled about how he went too far, but his opponents suddenly got very nervous as they realized they could never relax around Trump. He could attack at any moment.
Another thing about Trump that makes him an extreme outlier in national politics is that he is not an ideologue. Most of our politicians are quite stupid. All of their intellectual energy is focused on the endless scheming and game playing that is politics. What passes for ideology in American politics is really just a laundry list of policies aimed at buying votes from interest groups. That’s why they sound like robots. They stick to the script, even in the face of a public revolt, because that’s the safe and easy way to do it.
That’s not Trump. He is not married to any policy. In the campaign, he would regularly say something one day and then take it back two days later when it proved to be unpopular. It is safe to assume, for example, that Trump has zero interest in health care. He’ll sign off on anything that is popular with the voters. He’s also willing to dump a bad policy without worrying a bit about being called a hypocrite or inconsistent. Trump is practical about these things. If it does not work, he tosses it aside and moves onto to the next thing.
This will be terribly frustrating for partisans, but Trump is a goal oriented guy. The never ending circus has a point. In the case of the Syrian attack and the blow up with the Russians, it is looking like the point of it all was to play a little domestic politics, but a whole lot of international politics. The way he handled the Chinese leader last week is looking like a game to get the Chinese to do something about North Korea, in order to save face. The “Crazy Trump” act hurling missiles at Syria is excellent cover.
It’s easy to read way too much into these accounts, but the Chinese are now saying extremely bellicose things to the North Koreans. Bush and Obama used every trick they knew to get the Chinese to address the North Koreans and failed. Suddenly, the Chinese are issuing ultimatums. It could simply a be a coincidence and China has been planning to rid themselves of the Kim family for a while, but it is hard to imagine anything like this happening under the last four presidents. They lacked the boldness to try it.
None of this is to suggest that Trump is going to be good for our team, however you interpret that. It’s just that using the old metrics to assess Trump is a category error. He’s not a regular politician and these are not regular times. No one should have imagined Trump as their white knight. At best, Trump flips over the tables and creates enough chaos to give those outside official Washington a chance to join the fight. Trump the Destroyer of Worlds is going to be exhausting for everyone. That’s just part of the deal.
I’m techno-illiterate. This would be a great moment to post the last 10 second scene video clip of
“There Will Be Blood”.
If he continues supporting the NeoCons instead of the Americans who supported him, he will make the Carter-Clinton-Bush-Obama string become a loser pentafecta (five losers in a row).
Zman, I get it that Trump is not your typical politician and that the standard metrics we use for the clowns in DC don’t necessarily work when assessing Trump. But here are my metrics in assessing a President:
1) Is he getting us out of foreign conflicts/entanglements?
2) Is he reducing the budget deficit?
3) Is he replacing Obamacare with a more logical, market-based medical system?
4) Is he reducing the surveillance and spying on ordinary Americans by the government?
5) Is he increasing personal freedom and getting government out of our lives?
So far with Trump the answers are:
No
No
No
No
No
Until I see a few of these ratings flipped to a Yes, Trump is no better then Bill Clinton, W, Obama or even Hillary.
I must admit, when I heard that the Chinese were jawboning and actively boycotting N Korea coal, I had to take a step back and think “Wow, what just happened here” and I needed to look at the Syria thing in a new light. My initial reaction was, “great, we are bombing another country” but once it was clear that the actual damage seemed more superficial than intentional, and the movements of China towards N. Korea, (the fat kid) started surfacing it made me reassess this one.
I am holding judgement on Trump until I start to see inertia towards a goal. If that goal is just more endless wars and neo-con BS, then so be it, Trump is a liar, and he will probably be a 1 term POTUS. If, however in a few weeks / months the Chinese have calmed or removed The Fat Kid, the Chinese are not manipulating the currency and Glass Stegall is reinstated, then I will be on board. Also, on healthcare, I honestly wonder at this point if all Trump needs to do (and may secretly believe this) is let Obamacare collapse. Then the free market can take over on its own. Sometimes, the best way to kill something is simply to let it kill itself.
The problem with the so called “alt-right” is that they are too busy fighting among themselves and criticizing each other instead of deciding who is at least on the same side and getting behind him/them to oppose the left.
That is why they are losing and the left is winning.
you just described libertarians–
Libertarians eschew Force. Since all politics is force and violence, the libertarian party will always appear weak. Since everyone who runs for political office seeks power and exhibits great willingness to use Force, the libertarian party will never be a dominant political party.
It seems that in order to be left alone, which is what Libertarians truly want, one must be willing to ruthlessly kill.
Ok then. I see all over the Internet Trump supporters trying to find reason to be hopeful in Trump’s recent actions. There is no hope. All political power flows from the muzzle of a rifle.
It ain’t over till the fat kid sings?? I am feeling my pessimism today. This feels to me like we are a bunch of beans being grouped and scooted back and forth to separate us even more. Make our tolerance for each other even lower. Crisis then reprieve, over and over again. War, no war. Healthcare no healthcare. Warmer weather, riots, no riots. If the feces hits the fanblade. Food, no food martial law, maybe not. Sending ships to SC Sea, now China is buds, and reigning in Kim? “o” started this same crap 8 years agowhile droning the snot out of the ME.
Good read Z
You guys may be giving Trump too much credit. His modus operandi of improvisation and spit and tape is not genius, it’s desperation. His shenanigans over his long career as a “businessman” is a sham; he has no credit with any banking institutions and probably needed to rely on shady connections to keep up his facade as a gold-plated fabulosity.
His many bankruptcies, screwing his contractors and workers, and 3500 lawsuits say a lot about the fact that he squandered his father’s loan and never made the amount he could have to justify his cock-of-the-walk attitude and self-image. He’s a sociopath so don’t bank on his caring about you. The China thing with North Korea – which has not happened yet – may be strictly a pragmatic move on China to keep Trump pliant to its needs.
His accepting the presidency is based on the fact that he had nowhere else to go for money so he is now sucking on the public teat to keep his image alive and concentrate on his brand, which suckers are falling for.
I know you’re down on the “establishment” and its corruption – so am I – but don’t fetishize this loser because he threw a sabot into the works. You are giving him much too much credit; he’s a hustler, grifter and snake-oil salesman and a yuge liar – and ultimately, not too bright. That may be genius to some, but I think this will all explode in our faces and heaven-knows-what may result.
We are too primitive as a species yet for true anarchy and you may think Trump sabotaging the status quo is a good thing. It’s not because it will create a vacuum of stupidity.
You should fume about is the ultimate stupidity of many Americans, who were given a gift of our Constitution, devised by the creme-de-la-creme of the enlightenment (Don’t pounce on me, they were imperfect men!), and who are gradually flushing it down the toilet. And let’s not forget the ultimately rotten and corrupt GOP, which is keeping this country hostage in the name of the Kochtapuses they are in the thrall of.
Yeah, he’s a goal-oriented guy; his goal is enriching himself and keep pumping up his ego. Look into his past to see the future.
But What Do I Know? – Judging from some of your post, more than the typical Trumpeteer.
BW, the main theme that has always been ignored by the Trumpeteers is that the electoral process is a sham. Nobody becomes the candidate of either party who isn’t allowed to get the nod by the bosses. Nobody wins an election who isn’t the predetermined winner.
Trump played his role as a maverick outsider and got a lot of people back into the voting booth who had sworn off voting. He made all the right noises, though he did tip his hand from time to time, and his fans ignored any faux pas he made (or never even realized what he’d said that was revelatory of his true nature) so the the con was nearly perfect
The worshippers are getting what they deserve now. The trouble is that everyone else is getting the same raw deal, even those of us who saw what was happening.
BL, we’ll have to keep an eye on him, BWDIK sounds like TBP’s Freedom Caucus material.
BWDIK, the government has nothing to fear when the populace (when did it come to be spelled populous?) keeps barking like trained seals at every Trump move? Trump just said he is willing to let the dollar drop to peso levels. That sounds inflationary.
Maybe Trump was used to playing women and bargaining to get out of an inconvenient marriage. Putin may not take kindly to being left in the lurch while Trump romances the Xi. We shall see if Xi is the one or if he’s just a summer romance.
EC- Take the time to read some of Admin’s posts today, he is in the running for chairman of the TBP Freedom Caucus for sure. Ed should get combat pay and I’m sure that I am still most hated of the opposition.
You always remain one of the gang due to your writing talent or maybe I really am just an asshole and deserve the scorn. I too am keeping an eye on BWDIK, the boy has potential.