"Because the president’s critics tend to be educated and educated people tend to think that the only kind of smarts worth having is the kind they possess — superior powers of articulation combined with deep stores of knowledge — those critics generally assume the latter. He’s a bigot. He’s a con artist. His followers are dumb. They got lucky last time. They won’t be so lucky again. Maybe this is even right. But as Trump’s presidency moves forward, it’s no longer smart to think it’s right. There’s more than one type of intelligence. Trump’s is feral. It strikes fast. It knows where to sink the fang into the vein.... The truth is that there is no easy fix to the challenge of the caravan, which is why Trump was so clever to make the issue his own and Democrats have been so remiss in letting him have it. The secret of Trump’s politics is to mix fear and confidence — the threat of disaster and the promise of protection — like salt and sugar, simultaneously stimulating and satisfying an insatiable appetite."
From "Why Aren’t Democrats Walking Away With the Midterms?/Democrats miss Trump’s political gifts and the real threat he represents" by Bret Stephens (NYT).
I tried to read the comments, but what I saw was, as I expected, a lot of no, no, no, Trump is evil and his followers are idiots.
By they way, are we allowed to speak of human beings as non-human animals or not? "Trump’s is feral. It strikes fast. It knows where to sink the fang into the vein" — portrays Trump as a snake.
ADDED: It's funny — isn't it? — that people who pride themselves on their own intelligence and sneer at others for lacking intelligence, cannot understand what the hell is going on. I think it's that emotion reigns in the human mind, and they cannot settle down and coolly analyze the situation, and they are afraid of having any ideas that would inspire the contempt of people whose love and respect they feel they need. What is there to do then but hate Trump and think half the country belongs in the basket of deplorables?
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২০৮টি মন্তব্য:
208 এর 1 – থেকে 200 আরও নতুন» সবচেয়ে নতুন»Snake isn't feral. Probably wolf escaped into the wild has that instinct. A feral dog isn't likely to have it.
I was thinking vampire.
Superior powers of articulation combined with deep stores of cherished assumptions.
"Snake isn't feral"
I guess you've never tried to ride one.
"Because the president’s critics tend to be educated and educated people tend to think that the only kind of smarts worth having is the kind they possess — superior powers of articulation combined with deep
stores of knowledge.."
"..deep stores of knowledge..."
The lefties and LLR's really believe in their own infallibility.
They fundamentally mistake "credentialed and indoctrinated" for "educated" and they also mistake "connected" for "competence".
They cannot begin to fathom how their serial failures and missteps, but always politically correct (one doesnt want to lose ones invitations to all the right parties), is out in the open and cannot be papered over.
Yeah, fang into the vein seems to be more of a vampire thing. Is there any fanged animal that goes for the vein?
Not many on that side have " deep stores of knowledge".
A lot of them think they do, but in the vast majority of cases it is a pathetic delusion.
There is an easy way to deal with the caravan. Change the law to allow children to be held with their parents more than -- what is it, 25 days? -- but the Dems obstruct this commonsense legislation.
There is an easy way to deal with the caravan. Change the law to allow children to be held with their parents more than -- what is it, 25 days? -- but the Dems obstruct this commonsense legislation.
Trump is catlike, and goes for the feline bite, to dislocate the cervical vertebrae and sever the spinal cord.
I don't agree with the limitation on the word "feral" in the first comment.
OED says: "1. Of an animal: Wild, untamed. Of a plant, also (rarely), of ground: Uncultivated. Now often applied to animals or plants that have lapsed into a wild from a domesticated condition. 2. Of, pertaining to, or resembling a wild beast; brutal, savage."
Trump's intelligence is feral = Trump's intelligence is like that of a wild beast — brutal, savage.
Trump’s is funny. His wit strikes fast. It knows where to sink the barb into the vain.
The secret of Trump’s politics is to . . .
This fundamentally fails to understand Trump and instead betrays the usual elitist way of thinking.
Trump does not have a "politics" per se, as if he is some grand Machiavellian schemer. Instead, Trump has his own gut beliefs and feelings. And he acts on them. Just like hundreds of millions of people in their own everyday lives in this country.
If something is BS -- or if Trump thinks its BS -- he is going to come out and openly say, "that's BS." It is the opposite of the last 26 years of Clintonian spin and disinformation and lust for power that has infested too much in this country.
it's a Wurlitzer echo chamber:
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/273097/american-press-middle-east
It's funny — isn't it? — that people who pride themselves on their own intelligence and sneer at others for lacking intelligence, cannot understand what the hell is going on.
In their hubristic pride, people learn to be stupid.
TRUMP is violating norms?
I give you Obamacare
Reid's nuclear option
The Kavanaugh hearings
Protesting a fair and legal election
Not My President
The Resistance
These 'intelligent' people aren't very self reflective, even if they do have a large vocabulary.
the Erdogan info ops, that nick short, is also classic in the genre,
as pointed out the times has been on prince ahmed, the dark turban, in this scenario,
Trump reminds me of a Garrison Keillor joke about a successful businessman. The man said that a man should be able to make a go of a business on a 3% margin, and anyone who couldn't, ought not to be in business. When asked how he did it he said "If a guy wants me to move a pile of dirt, I figure out what it would cost me to move it, and to figure the price, I multiply it by three."
Back to School covered all of this, BTW.
If Trump is a vampire then the left is well and truly outmatched.
They can't even hold up crosses to save themselves since the sight of a cross causes them to spontaneously combust.
Donald Trump has had the political intelligence to win elections by colluding with Vladimir Putin. Their expenditure of tens of thousands of dollars on Facebook ads has tipped the balance toward Trump's election victories.
They share a superspy, Carter Page, who flies back and forth between Trump Tower and the Kremlin. Flying to the Kremlin, Page carries instructions about which elections to target with the Facebook ads. Flying back to Trump Tower, Page carries photographs of Russian prostitutes urinating on hotel beds.
This collusion aurely will be exposed by Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller, but now two years have passed and the mid-term elections are next Tuesday. Meanwhile, superspy Page remains free and continues to fly back and forth between Trump Tower and the Kremlin.
It seems that Mueller might still be investigating when the 2020 Presidential election will be imminent.
In each of these election years, the two international colluders spend tens of thousands of dollars decisively on Facebook ads, and so Trump continues to win the elections.
All Mueller does is continue to spend money on his gang of Trump-hating lawyers and cannot manage to arrest Page and stop him from flying back and forth.
Pretending to not understand is a variation on the Stupid Defense. E.g. Obama saying he read about his administration's acts in the newpaper.
If leftists listened to Trump supporters, they would understand the reasons for his support.
That plus
Trump simply calls 'em as he sees 'em, and as he truly believes. That is refreshing for people. He says out loud what a lot of people are thinking but dare not say.
"Because the president's critics tend to be educated"... The implication being that the president's supporters are uneducated, i.e, people who have rejected Democrat party demagogues. Yeah, I'm sure this smug shithead has his finger on the pulse.
*That plus TDS.*
"I SHOULD BE AHEAD BY 50 POINTS!!"
Why does everyone think Trump runs on instinct? He announced over two years ago exactly what plans he intended to do as president and he has proceeded to execute many of them.
Trump seems to be a very deliberate, pro-active person. His speeches are off-the-cuff but his presidency seems quite calculated. Look at the trade war with China, the NAFTA reboot, getting NATO to pay their share, cutting regulations that have brought back manufacturing jobs. These successes weren't ferral actions, like a brute going for a vein.
Let’s see hiw many creative ways we can write ‘Why am I not fifty points ahead?’
Mike S @ 10:22. Cracked it.
The most effective Trump-Poot Facebook ad was the one where they told me "Hillary is a satan."
That is fake news.
Damn! My wife and I both have MA's in History (when History was taught as History, not PolySci). She was a school teacher. We both support Trump. Where did we go wrong? We are soooo Deplorable.
Predators hunting and killing behavior is very poorly characterized as brutish.
This is not uncontrolled unthought violence.
Predatory techniques are sophisticated, highly evolved to maximize success and minimize danger.
"Trump’s is feral. It strikes fast. It knows where to sink the fang into the vein" — portrays Trump as a snake.
Trump as a saber-toothed tiger? That would make his opponents Australopithecenes, would it not?
I read and comment a lot at Jerry Coyne's blog. You can see the “we're so smart” stupidity on every post there, They are still in Trump is Hitler mode, not having noticed the absence of camps, and the Russia Puppet phase not having noticed the eastern half of Europe working so closely with Trump and NATO. And deplorables, deplorables, deplorables. I saw one regular go on about how he hates Alabama.
There is a lot to complain of about Trump, but they are stuck in the preconceived ideas they had two years ago, impervious to change.
Progressive political correctness will not allow any explanation that suggests your opponent may have a viable argument. Therefore, your opponent must be evil, stupid and deplorable.
There is no difference between politically correct positions and the two minute hate. Orwell's "Newspeak" is politically correct speech taken to it's maximum extent. As was its intention, Newspeak inhibits the ability to form cogent thoughts. Thus, progressives are reduced to "Trump is racist, evil and stupid".
Trump as a saber-toothed tiger makes his opponents colossal herbivores, giant sloths perhaps.
and following the game of thrones motif, he is half Norwegian, so the thor specially of ragnarok, might pertain, although would thor really last as long as odin, I'll leave it to your imagination, if Hillary is hela,
"Why Aren’t Democrats Walking Away With the Midterms"
Why am I not fifty points ahead?
Is there any fanged animal that goes for the vein?
Pheral phlebotomists.
It is to a great degree ritualistic.
The commentary on the article is indeed such, largely a repetition of formulas.
That is true of any highly partisan group. Articles like this in the NYT are a form of prayer, and the commenters give the correct responses.
It helps a lot to be Catholic, to understand ritual when you see it.
Why do elites consider book-learning intelligence as the only valid kind? I know a few Caractacus Potts-types who couldn't grammar to save their lives. When the zombie apocalypse hits, though, they're the ones I want in my camp.
Trump's biggest sin is exposing the elite as no such thing.
Trump is a disruptor front to back, in the business, political, and executive functions. This takes fresh thinking. His opponents don’t have the insight and creativity that he has, hence the fifty points comment as well as the still simmering shock of the loss. They are stymied.
Holding on to madness is a way of forestalling dealing with the grief that comes with the realization that one’s higher purpose has been a fraud. I am not sure of the final outcome, as this kind of process is long, difficult, and very, very painful. - Michael Aaron
"The mystery of Donald Trump is what impels him to overturn the usual rules. Is it a dark sort of cunning or simple defects of character?"
He's a linebacker, looking for holes in the defense, and finding them.
"Because the president’s critics tend to be educated and educated people tend to think that the only kind of smarts worth having is the kind they possess — superior powers of articulation combined with deep stores of knowledge — those critics generally assume the latter."
Educated people fool themselves easiest because they can come up with more rationalizations.
"He’s a bigot. He’s a con artist. His followers are dumb. They got lucky last time. They won’t be so lucky again."
It's just like with Bush: Even when the rationalizations conflict - Village idiot is outsmarting them - the cognitive dissonance comes out elsewhere. Never in an "Ah-Ha!" moment of recognition. Very disappointing.
"Maybe this is even right. But as Trump’s presidency moves forward, it’s no longer smart to think it’s right. There’s more than one type of intelligence. Trump’s is feral. It strikes fast. It knows where to sink the fang into the vein...."
Not to mention liberals exposing their necks.
"The truth is that there is no easy fix to the challenge of the caravan, which is why Trump was so clever to make the issue his own and Democrats have been so remiss in letting him have it."
The Left has lost the plot.
"The secret of Trump’s politics is to mix fear and confidence — the threat of disaster and the promise of protection — like salt and sugar, simultaneously stimulating and satisfying an insatiable appetite."
If you say so. I agree, he's playing the angles, but the ground shifts, too, and he's proving very deft at leaping from island to island as it does so.
"The truth is that there is no easy fix to the challenge of the caravan, which is why Trump was so clever to make the issue his own and Democrats have been so remiss in letting him have it."
This is exactly wrong. The wall is a very easy fix. The author knows this is an easy fix, which is why he refers to the caravan as a "challenge." The caravan is a challenge for the Democrats who need to hide from the situation they have created by not enforcing immigration law.
The caravan is a give-me opportunity for Trump, because it allows him to emphasize how easily the problem can be fixed and how unwilling the Democrats are to fix it.
It's really fairly simple.
Politicians play by political rules
Trump plays by real estate rules. Politicians have no play in their playbook that answers Trump. It's almost like politicians are playing checkers and Trump is playing chess. Instead of politicians learning to play chess, they insist Trump is cheating because he refuses to play their game.
Thoughy what never occurs: Gee, our policies suck.
Why would anybody of intelligence go along with political correctness.
mind you they had much the same reaction to Netanyahu, over the last decade, despite his pedigree, and similarly with uribe, who brought the guerillas to heel, as well as the cartels,
Santos his protégé, turned away from that course, giving away too much, like Ehud barak, although as mary o'grady points out, santos had his prospective rival indicted to keep him out of office,
there is a similar dynamic with martinelli, pro American pro Taiwan leader of panama, they did happen to move him out of the picture with varela,
ADDED: It's funny — isn't it? — that people who pride themselves on their own intelligence and sneer at others for lacking intelligence, cannot understand what the hell is going on.
That is because they are not truly intelligent. Rather than "vast stores of knowledge" they have vast stores of received wisdom. Received wisdom, which is not necessarily a bad thing, can expire quickly in extreme situations. Intelligent people know this. Mediocre thinkers do not.
"It's really fairly simple.
Politicians play by political rules
Trump plays by real estate rules. Politicians have no play in their playbook that answers Trump. It's almost like politicians are playing checkers and Trump is playing chess. Instead of politicians learning to play chess, they insist Trump is cheating because he refuses to play their game."
Which is funny, because, for the left, winning isn't the important thing - it is the only thing, because their goal is power, and whatever you need to do to get it is justified by the results.
When the zombie apocalypse hits, though, they're the ones I want in my camp.
"Feral" is a movie about part-time phlebotomists getting turned into the ADHD type of zombies.
It just hit me a couple of days ago that an element of all this is the similarity between national politics and professional wrestling (an entertainment product).
Trump went into the process with the intention to use the support of media in the primaries and his own unique approach to capture the GOP nomination and play the script that puts Clinton in the POTUS slot. "Who knows how this would build the Trump brand," I thought. I was livid, btw. I was for Walker, ferchrissake. Media comes through, turns on Trump as the new heel when he starts to make headway, and Trump then breaks kayfabe. He turns the media itself into the heel, which it then plays better than the Missouri Mauler ever did. Trump is the king of shooters.
The two years we have seen since has turned Trump from the heel into the golden boy for so many that never participated in the system due to seeing the "this crap is as fake as wrestling" reality of our political world, that I really don't know what's next. Things can go back to script, or the folks can just cancel Championship Wrestling from the Potomac Basin. We'll know more Wednesday than we know today.
arias was the fellow, who was indicted to keep him from challenging santos give away to the guerillas,
trump has been pro Israel, something stephens once cared about when he edited the Jerusalem post, he has been allied with the emirates and the kingdom and Jordan against turkey Qatar and iran, Qatar in turn has supported the most militant factions in Egypt, Syria, et al,
What is it that impels Elon Musk to overturn the usual rules? Kanye West? Picasso? Tom Wolfe?
I don't think that's quite it, walker's message didn't resonate very well perhaps it was the years of lawfare, perhaps it was miss George will's (maseng) and the likes of liz mair, but he's faced a larger version of that soros-steyer progressive assault in office, they've had their scalps, notably the epa chief, the head of hhs, and veterans affairs, but that was partially self inflicted wounds,
You need a tag for irony, though I guess that's implicit in the TDS tag this time.
Why aren’t the Dems walking away with midterms?
- booming economy
- progress re NK
- prisoners released
- progress re NATO
- concessions in NAFTA
- Kavanaugh shit show
- winning against ISIS
- no new wars
How can Stephens seriously believe he's the smart one when virtually every single traditional predictor of political success — just look at that list — points to a Trump win? The *real* question is whether Trump has a head ceiling he can never break through.
Trump was a wrestler. A wrestler's way is to prepare, prepare, prepare, then go for the quick pin.
His opponents are used to playing tennis, an endless back and forth scoring points.
Wrestler vs. tennis player. Hard on the tennis player. Fun to watch.
Educated in their own particular, parochial way, perhaps.
They are not good with numbers.
Every night we see the immobile thinking of Trump's opposition on display when reporters tell us, once again, that the caravan is not a problem, because it is a thousand miles away.
Men B you are repeating Stephens. Read his piece more carefully than Althouse.
It’s hilarious to watch these egghead dorks lboth congratulate themselves on their smarts and at the same time flail around trying to understand the simple appeal of Trump: his honesty, leadership and fearless nature, combined with an America first policy prescription.
That’s it, in a nutshell. Not that hard for normal folks to figure out but HOO BOY the intellectual class just doesn’t get it and I laugh at them every day.
The whole 'We're smart and Trump is stupid" meme just puzzles me. I can understand - but not agree - why they thought that about Palin (Funny accent, from Alaska) or Reagan (Hollywood Actor) but Trump?
Trump is a practical man. And Trump may have common tastes. But he's NEVER been stupid. Quite the opposite.
Too many journalists and professors are good at writing/speaking and nothing else. They ain't rich, they aren't popular, and they ain't married to a super-model. But they know how to write/speak. And they're almost all elite liberal/leftists of some stripe. I wonder how many would think Trump was "Stupid" if he agreed with them politically?
"His followers are dumb. They got lucky last time. They won’t be so lucky again."
The Wyle E. Coyote "super genius" theory of politics.
Hubris ain't just a river in ......uh, the middle west somewhere, maybe. They got lots of rivers and creeks to name, don't they?
Wikipedia:
"Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, accomplishments or capabilities."
"Their arrogance and contempt for the working class produced a flawed political theory, which in turn produced a bad strategy, which in turn produced a tactically inept ground game."
That's not a Trumpy fan, that's from The Hubris of the Clintons ground game
appeared as a Huffington Post article, November 2016 (I always screw up links)
If you look out the window and see nothing but villains and fools around you - "you people" being a shorthand for suggesting that the idiots / criminals aren't worthy enough to clean your ass, and they deserve whatever shit befalls them, well, life has a way of trying to signal to you that it ain't ALWAYS them.
A woman I worked with, 2-3 years back, she and I had completely different perspectives on some local political matter, but I readily would say to her that she helped me learn/understand things given where we were both decent enough with each other to converse. It is the arrogance of the ideologue that thinks they are above being wrong
Burt Stephens is a Nevertrumper/FakeCon/Open Borders/Son of Immigrants/Former WSJ now NYT type.
He represents Elite America very well.
My fear is that Trump is a one-shot deal, like Reagan. And when he retires, we'll back to Jeb Bush/Rubio/Paul Ryan Republicanism.
We got Reagan and then we got basically 24 years of George Bush loser Republicanism. The two Bushes, Dole, McCain, and Romney.
"The mystery of Jesus Christ is what impels him to overturn the usual rules. Is it a dark sort of cunning or simple defects of character?"
Mezzerow
Early on I figured out that Trump’s involvement was key to his brand of politics. It taught him how to work the crowd. He learned the melodrama of WWF.
He’s in the WWF Hall of Fame. Check out the videos.
Blogger rcocean said...
My fear is that Trump is a one-shot deal, like Reagan.
That's not a fear, that's a lead-pipe cinch. Question is, how to avoid?
narciso: "I don't think that's quite it, walker's message didn't resonate very well perhaps it was the years of lawfare, perhaps it was miss George will's (maseng) and the likes of liz mair,..."
Walker staffed up with longtime Washington insiders (including Ed Goeas), the types LLR Chuck worship, and immediately proceeded to mimic every other establishment candidate, which is insane since his calling card should have been "disruptor with solid conservative values who can beat the dems at their own game in a blue-ish state!!eleventy!11!1!1!!".
But...nope. Total Jeb Bush/John Kasich loser-wiffle-waffle everywhere.
Bland, nonthreatening and boring...at the very moment a revolution was forming at the grassroots level, which every "deep knowledge" elitist "expert" missed.
Bernie, in a non-rigged race against Maoist-pantsuit, would have won the dem nomination.
Then we would have had a race reflective of the mood of the nation.
Of course, obamas minions would still have been led by the commie Brennan to defeat Trump and it might have been just enough to win it for Crazy Bernie.
At this point in my life, I distilled the two parties down this basic divide: neither group is particularly smart nor clever but the Dems want to control and interfere in every aspect of our lives while Repubs will pretty much leave us alone. Since I like my personal freedom I support Repubs and I fear seeing the Dems in power.
"Because the president’s critics tend to be educated and educated people tend to think that the only kind of smarts worth having is the kind they possess — superior powers of...[generating self-deluding sophistry...] combined with deep stores of [conventional wisdom and uncritically-examined caste pieties] — those critics generally assume the latter."
FTFY, Bret.
Trump’s politics is to mix fear and confidence
If you look the deplorables in the audiences of Trump rallies, you'll see that many if not most of them are confidently holding up talismans to ward off The Evil One.
Blogger LYNNDH said...
Damn! My wife and I both have MA's in History (when History was taught as History, not PolySci). She was a school teacher. We both support Trump. Where did we go wrong? We are soooo Deplorable.
11/3/18, 10:39 AM
---
The implication in the parenthetical is flat-out false. Contemporary history departments are not doing poly sci (even if we charitably understand this as meaning other than the quantitative and analytical stuff almost all American poly sci people do).
The Crack Emcee:
“The Left has lost the plot.”
In the words of Nick Hornsby, they’ve also lost the subplot, the script, the soundtrack, their popcorn, their drink, and the exit lights.
(Hornby. Freaking autocorrect.)
Althouse gets Stephens readering.
She doesn't zing him on all points, on all his hypocrisies and delusions.
The "moral GDP" among them.
Trump's opponents are like bees: follow a hive mind and, when they sting, usually end up tearing-off their own ass.
rcocean: "My fear is that Trump is a one-shot deal, like Reagan. And when he retires, we'll back to Jeb Bush/Rubio/Paul Ryan Republicanism."
There will always be an army of "Bowe Bergdahl republicans" like Flake and Corker and Kristol and Stephens and Max Boot and Jonah Goldberg and LLR Chuck who stand at the ready to give aid and comfort to the left and help ensure lefty policies and power are enshrined forever while also guaranteeing LLR full access to the shrimp cocktail at the lefty/dem party trough.
Because of their "proper" "MuhPrinciples" "TruCon" "beliefs"...which are available for purchase by any Soros type in the vicinity.
"Why Aren’t Democrats Walking Away With the Midterms?"
Which is silly. Why should they be?
Here is what they have going for them:
- Historical trends
- Huge piles of money, maybe twice what the Republicans have to spend
- an awful lot of hate in a small group of people
- They still control most of the media, show biz, and Internet tech giants. They figure with Trump hate 24/7 across all their media, they can convince much of America that he really is evil.
Here is what they have against them:
- That hate, while intense, hasn't infected huge numbers of people. Seems that way, because they control the airwaves, media, etc.
- The economy is booming, and we are finally out of the 8 year Obama Great Recession. The Democrats want to reverse the policies that gave us that booming economy. Record low unemployment for a lot of their major constituencies, including Blacks. After a decade of stagnant wages, they are finally starting to rise. And, even without that, most everyone has more money in their paycheck S, thanks to the tax cuts that the Dems want to reverse (so that their elites can get their SALT tax breaks back on their mansions - which really doesn't poll that well).
- Trump has done, to the extent possible, what he promised.
- Trump really does respond faster than his opposition. I don't know which leftist geniuses thought that the Caravan, right before the election, would be a good idea. It wasn't. It might have worked, if they had been able to keep control over the narrative. They weren't. Thanks to Trump, much of America knows that it was orchestrated, and contains a number of vicious criminals. People we really, really don't want in the country. Sure, they included some women and children, for window dressing, but it is mostly, it appears military aged males.
- they picked some seriously flawed candidates. Senema here in AZ, O'Roark in TX, Gillum in FL, are all left wing whack jobs. Like the Republicans did maybe eight years ago with Todd Aiken, etc. Those huge piles of money are being used to try to drag far left ideologues across the finish line in Reddish states. They have sucked the O2 out of the campaigns of more moderate Dem candidates further down the ballot.
A long way of saying that this election was never that slam dunk for the Dems.
As the Libs prove constantly, you can be educated without being intelligent.
"emotion reigns in the human mind,"
Correction - emotion reigns in the "liberal" mind
Nothing mysterious about Trump. He possesses common sense and perceives that most Americans do, as well.
Craig,
History traditionally was the basis of political philosophy, if not "poli sci".
One derived a theory from observations in history, an inductive process. See Aristotle. And for that matter the arguments of your American Founding Fathers.
It is more common in modern education to use history as a feeder of just-so stories for the sake of propagandizing the young into the prevailing ideology. This is not new of course, but what is new is that this mode has replaced the old one in the US Academy. History now is ideology.
Not surprisingly a lack in history is the usual fault of the "educated".
this is the method to the madness,
http://invisibleserfscollar.com/guaranteeing-surreptitious-mind-shifting-requires-binding-unknown-research-and-coordination/
PerhapsTrump’s greatest intellectual defender, Victor Davis Hanson, refers to Trump’s particular brand of intelligence as “animal cunning.” He means it as the deepest compliment. With that in mind I recommend you re-read the Times piece and see if it offers insights beyond Trump-hatred.
“Which is funny, because, for the left, winning isn't the important thing - it is the only thing, because their goal is power, and whatever you need to do to get it is justified by the results.”
True for the bigwigs, but I think for the rank-and-file showing they really, really care has become more important than the winning itself. Hence the dissonant absurdity of this argument.
At some point in his childhood, Trump read The Emperor’s New Clothes and understood it immediately and viscerally.
Pheral phlebotomists. Too Scary to even think about!
You meet a hot chick at the bar. (After obtaining verbal consent,) You go with her to a motel...
In the morning, you wake up;
With a piece of blue gauze wrapped around your elbow, and lipstick on the mirror that says;
Thanx for the Pint of Plasma
You seem to be acknowledging that there are 2 Trumps in one man: the screaming eagle that scatters the prey and the sudden attacking eagle that makes the kill. Eagles always hunt in pairs. This screaming eagle seems to have space force eyes.
Nice to know he is a America first carnivore and not a Globalist sell out for money. As Bobby Knight said, we haven’t had one of those since Truman.
Trump is bucking the norm.
The norm was rich people buying tools to get their way in DC.
Trump is listening to the voters.
He is the most human person in DC.
Where did we go wrong? We are soooo Deplorable.
11/3/18, 10:39 AM
---
The implication in the parenthetical is flat-out false.
Good nits you're picking there, Craig? Fresh? Tasty?
In the earliest instance, Trump is an orange ape, presumably from Planet of the Apes. In a far left instance, Trump is the reincarnation of the great socialist leader, Hitler. In a populist instance, Trump is a mongoose that traps and kills lying snakes. In the most common instance, Trump is a badger that survived and prospered int the socially divergent city of New York City, and the politically congruent city of DC.
Why aren't Dems walking away from the midterms?
A better question.
Trump reminds me of a Garrison Keillor joke about a successful businessman. The man said that a man should be able to make a go of a business on a 3% margin, and anyone who couldn't, ought not to be in business. When asked how he did it he said "If a guy wants me to move a pile of dirt, I figure out what it would cost me to move it, and to figure the price, I multiply it by three."
Half of the people on any given college campus would fail to get this joke.
Michael Fitzgerald said...
"Because the president's critics tend to be educated"... Yep you are corrected, that's why Trump is winning the Democratic Blue Collar voter. Being educated is dependent on what you do with your degree. The SJW are wasting their degrees on things which add very little to society and the values people hold dear. Hell even the morons at the "University of Wisconsin - Madison think they are smart by doing this.......
http://www.maciverinstitute.com/2018/11/uw-issues-voting-id-card-to-non-citizen/
The "usual rules" weren't so great after all. That is politicians paying lip service to caring about less fortunate people while making sure the "elites" maintained their power and advantages. Trump is more interested in making sure people can support themselves than offering platitudes and sermons about helping the less fortunate. For him that is common sense based on a fundamental respect and love for ordinary people. How that is a dark cunning or a defect in character is beyond me.
According to the Democrats, every Republican president going back to maybe Eisenhower has been stupid, and every Democrat brilliant. So Trump is by definition, stupid. Yet he has an MBA from Wharton, which, if he was a Democrat, would be proof of how brilliant he is.
"Before I married, I had three theories about raising children and no children. Now, I have three children and no theories." -- John Wilmot
Nassim Taleb refers to them as IYI, Intellectual Yet Idiot:
"the inner circle of no-skin-in-the-game policy making “clerks” and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us 1) what to do, 2) what to eat, 3) how to speak, 4) how to think… and 5) who to vote for."
"...the only kind of smarts worth having is the kind they possess — superior powers of articulation combined with deep stores of knowledge..."
So we're not talking about physics, high level math, etc..
The Democrats need another fake poll showing Trump's approval rating at 22%
That's the ticket.
Brett Stephens still doesn't quite get Trump. There's not one solitary writer at the NYT who does.
Oh well. They will just have to get used to losing, and feeling bad about it.
Years ago there was a supposedly overheard conversation retold to me (or read it somewhere).
Two hippies on a train.
One says, "I'm getting two cats".
Other Hippy asks, "Really, what kind"?
First Hippy answers, "I think they are called feral"
"The mystery of Donald Trump is what impels him to overturn the usual rules. Is it a dark sort of cunning or simple defects of character?"
Dark cunning vs. Defects of character.
These are the only two choices possible in certain circles.
If Trump used the term "dark sort of cunning", they call it out as a racist dog whistle.
There are carnivores that go for the arteries....
@JerseyFled
That is how old this "Republicans are stupid and evil" garbage is. Adlai Stevenson was convinced of his intellectual and moral superiority -- amazing considering Ike's experience but Stevenson believed it in his bones. He went to Princeton and Ike was just a West Point grad, donchano. Stevenson was not shy of explaining his intellectual and academic superiority. At this point, it is in their DNA to believe it.
In addition, every Republican candidate is "LITERALLY HITLER" until the next one comes along and then it becomes "if he were only like his/her predecessor, who was reasonable but this time we mean it, he/she is LITERALLY HITLER."
Political Advisor: “There’s nothing you can do about the media. You’ll just have to live with them.”
Trump: “Hold my beer, Bubba, and watch this!”
It's funny — isn't it? — that people who pride themselves on their own intelligence and sneer at others for lacking intelligence, cannot understand what the hell is going on.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ― Upton Sinclair
dark sort of cunning or simple defects of character?
Donald Trump - Threat or Menace?
I think that Trump may be unique among presidents in my lifetime in that he's clearly not a sociopath, which always seemed to be a job requirement.
The cunning of Snake Trump would be confirmed by studying the analytic skills of Q. But is Trump Q? The world awaits the answer, and now is hedging it’s bets.
The Democrats need another fake poll showing Trump's approval rating at 22%
Instead, Rasmussen is putting Trump’s approval rating at 51%.
Responding to the added. I was led to understand that truly intelligent people are the ones who can understand and articulate at least two sides to an argument, convincingly. To me it is very easy to spot the NPCs amongst the so called Public Intellectuals. I respect all Commenters on this Blog. This post is not meant to disparage anybody posting here, no way, no how. I have to stop now digging the hole I did not intend to start digging.
Althouse quotes: . . . superior powers of articulation combined with deep stores of knowledge . . .
I will grant the first but not the second. "Deep stores of knowledge," as used, merely means acting and speaking in accordance with what is bien pensant. It is not obvious that, say, Lena Dunham, possesses deep stores of knowledge.
What you want is superior powers of articulation combined with superior powers of reasoning. If you have the first quality but not the second, you are a popinjay.
"the kind they possess — superior powers of articulation combined with deep stores of knowledge"
He he.
combined with deep stores of knowledge
Yeah...what's the % of smart Lefties today embracing and championing socialism?
DEEP stores of knowledge. Yeah.
I have been voting for Presidents since Richard Milhous Nixon. What makes Donald J. Trump so different, and thus so confusing to pretty much all 'Professional Politicians' is his insistance that he is going to enact his campaign promises. I do not remember any other President who has done this. He actually, for gawds sake, thinks that what he campaigned on is actually what he should be doing. Damn him!
The professional politician class and MSM knows you lie your ass off during the campagn, and then once elected you ignore all of that crap and go about the business of graft, corruption and elitism back slapping. He does not do this. He refuses to follow the script - wherein all Republicans stand around like a deer caught in the headlights while the Democrats and MSM savage them.
Watching DJT savage the morons back is pure gold - especially becasue they don't realize how badly they are getting played.
How all of this ends up I have no idea. I do hope that The GOP keeps the house and senate or we are all in for 2 years of pure shit.
I have been voting for Presidents since Richard Milhous Nixon. What makes Donald J. Trump so different, and thus so confusing to pretty much all 'Professional Politicians' is his insistance that he is going to enact his campaign promises. I do not remember any other President who has done this. He actually, for gawds sake, thinks that what he campaigned on is actually what he should be doing. Damn him!
I think the key is that this is Trump's retirement. This isn't the pinnacle of his career: the final stop on a lifetime political journey through lower-level elected positions. Trump was already wealthy, successful, and had a beautiful family. As a result, he doesn't owe anyone anything, except the voters who supported him, and often did so despite being harassed, assaulted, insulted, and disowned.
MR Wibble
I beleive you are correct. Trouble is, we need more like him.
Victor Davis Hanson, “The Animal Cunning and Instinct of Donald Trump”
I like to compare Trump to a master swordsman, who knows how to read the terrain, his opponent, and who uses feints and probing attacks to find a weakness to exploit. That's why Twitter works so well for Trump; he can throw out a comment and if the response is what he wants he pushes harder, and if not then he moves on and it's forgotten.
It just hit me a couple of days ago that an element of all this is the similarity between national politics and professional wrestling (an entertainment product).
Even more so if you believe that Trump decided to run for president the night he was savaged at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Trump is the face fighting the heels of the Washington Establishment.
Because the president’s critics tend to be educated and educated people tend to think that the only kind of smarts worth having is the kind they possess — superior powers of articulation combined with deep stores of knowledge — those critics generally assume the latter.
We get lectures from Bore and O’Bambi.
We also get if only you would understand my position, we’d agree. So they’re going to use their powers of articulation to make sur3 I understand. And agree.
Ummmm.....I do understand your position and don’t agree.
Another steady attack on Trump in the media (Raddatz/Amanpour) is that while the wall is a terrible idea and deserves both opposition and derision, the fact that not one brick of the wall has been built shows that Trump has failed on his signature issue and his formerly Democratic working class supporters would be right in showing their disappointment by voting against Republicans.
This is supposed to be savvy analysis drawing on deep stores of knowledge.
History is the study of politics. If we forget that, it becomes simply trivia, a bunch of shit that happened. That and a big win on "Jeopardy!" will garner a lot of money, and perhaps, the Good Life.
Overturn the usual rules?
Overturn their rules. That doesn’t mean the rules are usual for all.
Deep stores of knowledge of what? Orthodoxy?
One mistake that both liberals and conservatives make is to confuse correlation with causation. Liberals, though, are much more likely to want to form policy on correlation, and call these policies "evidence-based."
So minorities paying higher interest rates on loans is called racism, and that demands a regulatory response from the state. You actually blame a thing called "racism" for the higher interest rates, with no identifiable person having committed a racist act.
“He doesn’t go by the rules,” the well-traveled bassist pointed out. “He has more of a jazz mentality. He loves the first take.”
Speaking of Bob Dylan in the Strib.
Our intellectual superiors with deep stores of knowledge at the NYT just ran a political cartoon a soldier saying he did not "enroll" in the military to protect our borders.
Hahahhhhh!
"middling powers of articulation and credentials attesting to a narrow band of knowledge and deep stores of 'knowledge'" <--- Didn't sound as good.
Hm - I do not remember any words about 'enrolling' when I joined the Navy.
What most folks don't grasp, is that the military's job is to break things and kill people., There are other things that get done, like training to break things and kill people, while waiting for the opportunity to do the job you enlisted for, but they aren't the ultimate expression of the job.
The NYT does not know any of this, as most likely none of them ever served in the military. But hey, they are the NYT, so follow the narrative, ya ignorant peasant.
Statecraft is a skill involving shrewdness and power maneuvers, whether one is a 16th century daimyo, a Machiavellian prince or a Mafia don. There are no other, to my knowledge, types of political organizations. The difference with Trump is that he never pretends to moralism or altruism, as do most politicians. He looks at the practical implications of every move with American prosperity and sovereignty as his goals.
The link for the NYT cartoon. Bow down before your moral and intellectual betters:
https://mobile.twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1058146136807096320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-36898965932965918764.ampproject.net%2F1811012008580%2Fframe.html
Hahahahah now the NYT has stealth edited the cartoon. What a bunch of clowns.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/opinion/trump-sends-troops-to-the-border.html#click=https://t.co/oztmlc53oX
They still don't get it. You enlist to carry out the orders of your superior officers. And since DJT is the Commander in Chief - he orders you to the border, you go to the border.
trump-sends-troops-to-the-border
To provide security, ensure safety, and mitigate the risk of a progressive crisis.
The sheer arrogance of the left is a sight to behold.
And it always leads to their downfall. Every time.
The border operation, at least part of it, is a 'Show the Flag' operation, similar to what the US Navy does when they send warships to the South China Sea to show the Chinese that we consider these areas to be international waters and we will traverse them at will.
At the border, we are showing that we are a sovereign nation, and that we will protect our borders - period.
Of course I understand that the open borders folks think this is criminal, horrible, etc. etc. behavior - but they can all go pound sand, preferably somewhere in the Rub' al Khali.
"the NYT just ran a political cartoon a soldier saying he did not "enroll" in the military to protect our borders."
Aside from the vocabulary issue, the idea that it's more important for the U.S. military to engage in dubious foreign wars than to protect the county's borders is just obscene.
Yes, "liberals" are so smart they still think Big Brother is their best friend.
Just got back from a lecture by an academic on Thanksgiving Day as a day of mourning for the Wamponoag. The guy had all the facts on why the English settlers of Connecticut and Plymouth were brutal, death-dealing, slave-trading thugs. The promotion of Thanksgiving Day in the late 19th and early 20th century was an effort to assert white supremacy over the swarms of Eastern European and Italian immigrants coming ashore--the Native Americans in the Plymouth Thanksgiving Day myth were just props to dress the set for the superior Brits. Etc., etc., etc. The guy kept dropping his views on today's politics into his comments, and I don't believe he voted for Trump.
Now, I am as ready as the next man (or woman, or whatever) for a good, thorough debunking of some topic, and I have read enough about the settlement of New England to know what a disaster it was for the tribes there. But I don't need some Bernie Bro telling me how to vote on Tuesday as part of a book talk about the 17th century. Shame on him. I have no confidence that he doesn't do this in class. I was not impressed.
Why doesn't Bret Stephens ask Lindsay Graham?
He seems to have figured things out of late.
Now I think I get the NYT border cartoon.
The soldier saying he'd rather fight in the Middle East has a John Bolton walrus mustache.
But how does that cut Trump against the usual NYT suspects who despise Bolton?
Plus, Trump's earlier Tweet calls for sanctions against Iran, not war.
What else to conclude except Trump is running circles around these people?
I thought democrats were going to catch on faster.
Stephens is just trying to let the rubes he has been lying to down more easily.
There will be 60 republicans +/- in the senate for a generation.
There are over 30 red states.
Maybe we can trick democrats int repealing the 17th amendment.
When someone disagrees with democrats democrats fire them and try to ruin their life.
This is only effective when you are in power.
When your regime falls the blow back is nasty.
Democrats are going to come out of this better than they deserve. They are nasty awful people and that is why liberals are leaving the party.
"The mystery of Donald Trump is what impels him to overturn the usual rules. Is it a dark sort of cunning or simple defects of character?"
...or is it that the usual rules merit overturning?
What an asshole. Thanks, Althouse. You pulled the quote that tells me all I need to know about that article. Saved me a click.
they had the same agita, over the contras, and the Guatemalan and Salvadoran militaries which involved neglible us direct support, back then the latter took the hint, no not be foolish like somoza, rios montt, was very popular for having quelled the insurgency, this was right around the time, that rigoberta menchu's fraud started to boil, despite some actual injuries may have incurred against say her family,
Feral? FERAL? I'll tell ya what's feral, the goddam Feral Gummit.
one can compare with the diabetes inducing copy they write about macron and merkel, the former in the mariannas trench, 21/69 re the YouGov poll,
Fer Gawd's sake, Lefties, this isn't about Trump's successes! Or, Trump's evil followers! It's about you and your failures!
I mean, think about it: can you or any Lefty you know even clearly articulate the ideological foundations of modern American leftism? It's this fetid mish-mash of Marxist moral goals but without the economic theories of Marxism to support them, plus classical Liberalism stretched far beyond what Liberalism can cover, plus a dollop of Post-Modern Leftism that simultaneously denies there's anything such as Truth, Reason, or Justice while pushing morality so stringent it makes Calvinism seem libertine by comparison.
What could go wrong:
The Bard never spoke to our times more truly:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates;
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Words used to describe snakes from different Bible translations of Matthew 10:16
Prudent, sagacious, wise, shrewd, cunning, crafty, cautious
from the publication, who as buckley once remarked 'fidel got his job, through the new York times, this has to be a bitter pill:
https://babalublog.com/2018/11/03/brazils-president-elect-jair-bolsonaro-says-there-is-no-reason-to-maintain-relations-with-cubas-communist-castro-dictatorship/
Trump has turned the political world upside down. The strategists would design complex and expensive schemes to influence their supporters.
Trump masterfully influences his opponents. His opponents are his greatest asset; every time they blather on about how smart they are and how stupid those people are Trump fills another stadium.
He has made the Media a laughingstock. Think about this; politics since probably the beginning of the 20th century has been about getting the media to portray you in the way you want. Because they held the distribution channels for information. Trump revels in the bad opinion that the media expresses non stop, because he knows he can put money into people's pockets by improving the economy and fixing a few things that make people upset. The messages spouted by the media aren't heard, and if they are they are discounted. So he makes them relevant only in their ridiculousness. Every time the media tries a 72 hour blitz to destroy him, he fills another stadium.
The Kavanaugh hearings were another example. There was not much to gain for the Democrats; they could oppose and get in the way, but ultimately the nomination would proceed. They turned it into a disgusting circus, which isn't finished yet as the accusers are getting into trouble, and turned something that could motivate their base into motivating the Republican base and making many decent and stable people fuming mad.
It is a remarkable performance. Oddly it seems that the only people who haven't run into a Trump like character are those in the rarified air of the elite.
"WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is in the final stretch of a 44-city blitz for the midterm elections, but the America he´s glimpsed from the airport arrivals and his armored limousine is hardly a reflection of the nation as a whole. The president has mostly traveled to counties that are whiter, less educated and have lower incomes than the rest of the United States, according to Census Bureau data." - AP
A good headline might be "Trump courts former Democrats that the party kicked to the curb"
Another Alternate Headline: Trump courts those whom Hillary despises.
It would really be a good thing to take everyone of the elitist pricks from all the MSM and drop them off out in the middle of nowhere USA, without a cell phone, laptop or any other electronic device, just one small bottle of water and a general indication that either coast is east or west - take a pick.
That so many educated people are so willingly, blindingly ignorant and stupid. It makes one wonder how in hell they manage to get up, get dressed, and get out of the house each day - and then manage to find their way home at the end of the day.
The interesting phrase to me is "the usual rules". What exactly are "the usual rules". It sounds like "the usual suspects", a cynical joke:
Major Strasser's been shot. Round up the usual suspects.
Trump isn't overturning the usual rules of presidential intrigue. He's overturning the usual rules of presidential deportment.
And his opponents cry out "I'm shocked! Shocked!" and they actually believe themselves.
There is something incredibly narcissistic in believing only people who think like you are truly thinking, or only people who feel as you do are good people.
For some reason, people who hate Trump need to constantly -constantly- have their egos stroked. You really are the good people, they need to keep hearing. You are the right-thinkers. It's ok to hate the wrong thinkers. Trump leads all the wrong thinkers and you are too smart for all of that.
I just wish I was a car salesman in Cambridge (Mass.) or Georgetown or Manhattan or San Francisco--I would sell these self-appointed geniuses every option there is, and get them to pay $2000 over list.
They commit maybe the deadliest sin of all--pride. They think they are so much smarter than everyone else, they do not even have to listen and observe.
Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of them and they are in positions to influence many others. If/when they reacquire power we are in deep trouble because they have only a vague connection to reality and there really are problems and threats about which they have not a clue.
The president has mostly traveled to counties that are whiter, less educated and have lower incomes than the rest of the United States, according to Census Bureau data." - AP
A good headline might be "Trump courts former Democrats that the party kicked to the curb"
Right?
The president has mostly traveled to counties that are whiter, less educated and have lower incomes than the rest of the United States, according to Census Bureau data.
- AP
Something is broken when the USA women are dominated by white girls next door
- Hope Solo, The Guardian
Rabid diversity.
young-african-american-beauty-accused-of-racism-and-fired-from-modeling-agency-for-attending-tpusa-black-leadership-conference
Diversity, perhaps. In southern Africa neck of the woods, it was tradition to hang necklaces on these people. Other parts practiced redistributive and retributive change. There persists a clear and progressive risk of color judgments against the people and their posterity, including unsafe and insecure environments forced by anthropogenic "shit shows" and social justice marauders.
The "Educated"... Consider the use of "fang in the vein". Serpent's "fangs" are used to deliver a venom to the prey which shuts down the Central nervous system. Rarely do they need to strike a vein, they flood the strike zone. Mammalian "fangs" serve as holding devices so the predator may adjust the bite to where they suffocate, (crush the throat), or sever the spine rendering the prey immobile. Neither "fang" requires striking a vein of the victim.
Educated? Guess again.
Being a fan of Big Time Wrestling from adolescence, Trumps techniques were clear to me from the start. Welcome aboard folks.
Serpent's "fangs" are used to deliver a venom to the prey which shuts down the Central nervous system.
A technique used in capital punishment and Planned pregnancies.
Henry: "What exactly are "the usual rules"?"
Republicans stand very very still while the dems carve them up with the most extreme rhetoric and accusations and then apologize for squirming around so much.
Then later, these same republicans offer up the most gracious and warm congratulations to the dem winners at the same time as lecturing the republican base to stop being so hateful and stupid and racist and horrible.
In this way the establishment losers "grow" in the eyes of the marxists and are once again allowed to reenter the happy and warm embrace of the lefties.
All so the next one can be labeled the newest "literally Hitler".
See McCain, Bill Kristol, LLR Chuck, etc.
Whats most enjoyable is watching LLR Chucks beloved turncoat cucks, like Max Boot, completely grovel at the feet of the dems while abandoning all pretense of conservative principles all to have those same leftists still kick them in the teeth for past fake cinservatism!
LOL
Isnt it the absolute best?
blah blah blah
snakes, dark, venom, scary
The job ain't for sissies.
BTW, speaking of fangs, remember how that idiot McCain and his moron fake "TruCon" advisors Schmidt/Wallace allowed the lefties (Jill Greenberg) to portray McCain as a bloodthirsty vampire?
LOL
Nothing ever changes and these buffoon LLR's fakers always get suckered.
Thats another reason they hate Trump.
Trump is winning at a media war game the establishment republicans swore could not even be waged.
So the establishment republicans are exposed again.
As always.
The secret of Trump’s politics is to mix fear and confidence — the threat of disaster and the promise of protection — like salt and sugar, simultaneously stimulating and satisfying an insatiable appetite."
This is a clumsy metaphor, but it does point to something Trump does well politically. He seizes upon issues that promotes actions he wants to take. When he pushes an issue, he simultaneously pushes an action. If you are inclined to his actions, this is incredibly persuasive.
If you are not inclined to his actions, his justifications look almost arbitrary.
I can't remember where I read this story, but it kind of gets to my point:
In the Napoleonic wars, a captain was retreating with a band of demoralized troops when they came upon a small village. As they passed through, the captain saw a boy firing a musket at a stone wall. As they came closer the captain saw upon the wall dozens of bullseyes drawn in chalk. In the exact center of each circle was the mark of bullet. "What astounding marksmanship!" The captain exclaimed. He called the boy over. "I would train my men to shoot like this if I could. Tell me, how do you do it?" The boy said, "First I shoot. Then I draw a circle around the spot the bullet hits."
Democrats are not running away with the election because higher taxes, a weak economy, open borders, effete foreign policies, including nuclear Iran, unemployment, corruption in the DOJ/FBI and intelligence agencies, etc., only appeal to the minds of the ideologically stifled.
Race-baiting, gender fetishism and Trump’s boorishness are all that is left for Democrats. In today’s leftmedia-driven America that may be enough.
I thought democrats were going to catch on faster.
Stephens is just trying to let the rubes he has been lying to down more easily.
There will be 60 republicans +/- in the senate for a generation.
There are over 30 red states.
And.... wait for it... THE DEMS WALK AROUND TALKING ABOUT ELIMINATING THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE!
It's as if all they ever learned about how our government works can be summed up with: "The people! United! Can never be defeated!"
It's no mystery what makes DJT a mystery to so many of the "elite". The "elite" consists largely of hyper-educated, high-income people who have, in general, an "academic" mindset. They know only how things are supposed to work and very little about how things actually get done.
It doesn't reflect Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative, or other superficial differences. Rather the primary breakdown emerges from brain wiring, preference for theory vs. affinity for practice. To academics/elites abstractions are the only form of worthy knowledge, whereas non-elites grasp that human thinking capacity evolved for solving actual problems.
Higher education is geared toward teaching theory—the educated tend to overvalue theoretical knowledge vs. pragmatics of application. Perhaps because much theory doesn't bear on practice, real world aspects of applying knowledge are dismissed as inferior forms of knowledge.
Elitists are theorists, but President Trump is a pragmatist. To "elites" President Trump's high-grade pragmatic capabilities aren't praiseworthy or "Presidential" enough. OTOH, the President has little interest in the elite's theoretical abstractions, ideologies barely influence his thinking processes. Trump-hatred is a product of this embedded orthogonality.
So saying Trump is "feral" is hardly unexpected coming from the theory-addicted also-rans on the sidelines. Whether Demo-leftists, LLRs, pseudo-conservatives is unimportant, none would deign to admire the President's winning performance, only adherence to imaginary ideological "standards" would please them. Of course people like Trump actually out think them by light-years.
IOW "elites" are predisposed to reject recognizing real genius even when it bites 'em in the ass.
Trump’s critics have “superior powers of articulation combined with deep stores of knowledge.."
Reagan might have said that they are bullshitters who know so much that just isn’t so.
The president has mostly traveled to counties that are whiter, less educated and have lower incomes than the rest of the United States, according to Census Bureau data.
What an awful, biased story, passing for mainstream "news."
The backbone of the Democrat Party are Blacks and Hispanics, the two poorest and least educated demographics in America. The Democrats message is aimed squarely at Blacks and Hispanics.
And shouldn't the democrats be aiming at the demographic they are not popular with? Shouldn't they strive to represent people that are less educated, poorer, and whiter than the populations in the their coastal strongholds?
If, in 2020, the media approved Democrat presidential candidate campaigns in these same counties, do you think that you will get this snarky bullshit from our "unbiased" media?
The backbone of the Democrat Party are Blacks and Hispanics, the two poorest and least educated demographics in America.
And Democrat Presidents don't tend to go where they live.
Not enough wealthy donors with checks to pick up.
My prediction: Dems barely take the house. Republicans add to their majorities in the Senate.
And the MSM is filled with stories and editorials for the next month about the need to abolish the "anti-democratic" Senate.
Why are we surprised?
As long as I've followed politics, the Left has believed itself more intelligent and morally superior to anyone who opposes it. It's that sort of arrogance which gets you Krugman saying there can be no "good Republicans," and so on.
Unfortunately, all too often, it works for them; they win an election, and have power, and "away we go."
"The secret of Trump’s politics is to mix fear and confidence — the threat of disaster and the promise of protection"
That's what all politicians do, all the time. Who was telling blacks a certain party was going to put them back in chains, again?
These are the guys that are feral...
My little friends
For what it's worth, I think this whole experience is improving Trump's character as well. To be so roundly hated and rejected has to be running his ego through the humility wringer.
Thinking of the medical workers at the hospital in Pittsburgh, how he and Melania came back to shake a their hands because they were nice to him. Kinda poignant.
Hillary entourage would have blown right by..
"It's funny — isn't it? — that people who pride themselves on their own intelligence and sneer at others for lacking intelligence, cannot understand what the hell is going on. I think it's that emotion reigns in the human mind, and they cannot settle down and coolly analyze the situation ..."
We saw this recently with Christine Blasey Ford.
Those who pride themselves on their own intelligence indeed let emotion reign, wanting to believe the story for reasons hidden in the blind spot of their stores of self-awareness.
Others looked at a story deeply suspect in timing, presentation, details, and lacking any corroboration, and wondered what there was there to believe, other than 'women don't lie about sexual assault' and 'alcoholic-blackout frat boys DO get rapey.'
Meanwhile, those who abided the brutal slandering of a man now seem to have no interest in why the crime isn't being vigorously investigated -- you would think that if it was dire enough to keep a man off the Supreme Court then the truth would still be worth pursuing; yet it's almost like everybody knows it was a politically-motivated farce that has no worth now that it failed in its goal.
But then those who realize that they let emotion reign usually do not want to settle down and coolly analyze the situation afterward.
The others have contributed $840,000 to Ford's GoFundMe campaigns.
I am Laslo.
Remember Brexit? I am and have always been a member of the "smartypants" class. I recognized in 2016 that Trump was running against my class. And I recognized that he won. I am still a member of the smartypants class and I still believe that the recommendations of the (bi-partisan) policymaking elite are correct: US should be willing to make sacrifices to promote worldwide free trade and democratization; higher taxes on the rich will not have a substantial negative impact on economic growth; expanded immigration will promote economic growth in the US.
But (as I said) I recognize that Trump won, and so far I can't make a strong empirical case that Trump is wrong and I am (was) right.
If 50-60 years from now, it appears that Trump policies have succeeded, I'm going to look like an idiot (not that any one will know) and Trump will rank high on the list of "great presidents". If his policies fail then, we smartypants will be perceived as smart as we know we are, and Trump will rank high on the list of "idiots who became president."
Expanding legal immigration while gaining control over our borders could be broadly popular. Open borders is the Democratic strategy.
Molly - what exactly is this 'smartypants' class you seem so proud to be part of?
Molly's pants may be smart. She, not so much.
The words 'mystery' and 'dark' in the title caught my attention.
That DT is a mystery to so many is amusing. He's not a mystery at all.
The use of the word 'dark' to denote something negative is racially insensitive. You'd think the woke editors at the NYT would have caught that.
(eaglebeak)
OR--the Other Molly.
Somehow, I don't think it's going to take 50 or 60 years to figure out whether Trump's policies are working.
I think they are working; I think that's where the job numbers, wage rate, labor participation rate, China backdowns, Iran freakouts, etc. etc. etc., are coming from.
Trump is a problem-solver, and he is systematically working through this country's list of problems.
Bret Stephens can wring his hands and beat his breast over Trump's"feral" intelligence and its deleterious effects, but the fact is: Trump is extremely intelligent and the impact of that intelligence has been terrific for our country.
PLUS, it's entertaining. I am so grateful to Trump for being fun. It's a great pleasure to watch him rattle the cage(s) of the Bret Stephenses of this world.
As to smarty-pantsing, dear Bret Stephens and Max Boot and Ross Douthat and Bill Kristol and -- on and on and on -- Joe Scarborough and Dana Milbank and Don Lemon and .... --any adult who feels the need to tell us he or she is part of the "smartypants class" is probably not part of the "smartypants class."
Molly said : "If 50-60 years from now, it appears that Trump policies have succeeded, I'm going to look like an idiot (not that any one will know) and Trump will rank high on the list of "great presidents". If his policies fail then, we smartypants will be perceived as smart as we know we are, and Trump will rank high on the list of "idiots who became president.""
*****************
But we know ALREADY that Obama ranks FIRST on the list of "idiots who became president."
It's funny — isn't it? — that people who pride themselves on their own intelligence and sneer at others for lacking intelligence, cannot understand what the hell is going on. I think it's that emotion reigns in the human mind, and they cannot settle down and coolly analyze the situation, and they are afraid of having any ideas that would inspire the contempt of people whose love and respect they feel they need. What is there to do then but hate Trump and think half the country belongs in the basket of deplorables?
A strange collection of unrelated facts and sayings lumped together meaning little, Althouse.
The question here is why criticisms of Trump are wrong and seemingly unacceptable to the enlightened Trump populists. It is obvious to those of us who really understand the forces that drive Trump and we await the crash and burn of the man who believes himself to be superhuman. Only two things drive the man - a sick, monstrous ego and a goal to acquire more and more wealth without regard to ethics and the law. He is insane and his self-loving mind is his only reality and he is nor even close to his own imagined omniscience.
Those who believe otherwise are naturally overcome by authoritarians because countering aggression is just not nice and everyone has to choose a hero. I worked for an authoritarian as unreasonable as Trump and finally concluded that I could not accept changing my life and upbringing to satisfy his ego, so I calmly resigned and walked away from the highest paying job that I ever held without another job on the horizon. I did the same thing when I found myself working for an unethical consulting firm.
Perhaps a set of standards is in order when electing political representatives - your own and those of the candidate as well. Emotion is not the name of the game - and Trump really did do monetary and emotional damage to hundreds of thousands of people as he saved himself from ruin at the expense of his customers, employees, vendors, investors and stockholders.
Boomers had no problem overturning the rules.
This is America. This is our strength.
Otherwise sclerosis.
Very few of the AntiTrump are reachable with facts. As an example, the latest is that Trump's unemployment figures aren't that great, because Obama brought down unemployment to 4.7% whereas Trump brought it down only a percent to 3.7%. Never mind that Obama lost 2.8% labor participation rate (using 2009 to 2017 as the numbers). That's 9 million people: the unemployment rate at the end would be 10%, if that drop were included. It's also complicated.
So, how do you reach these people when facts do not work?
The truth is that there is no easy fix to the challenge of the caravan
Sure there is. You inform Mexico that it will be punished for letting the caravan reach the US, and make the list of sanctions you will impose severe enough to be certain Mexico will stop it.
That Trump hasn't done this already indicates that he is either using the continued existence of the caravan for political reasons, or that he lacks the balls to stand up to Mexico.
Trumps lost an estimated billion while in office. Snicker.
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