From the NYT op-ed "Whom Does President Trump Remind You Of?/Uncouth he may be, but he’s not unfamiliar," by Philip Terzian (author of “Architects of Power: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and the American Century")
December 10, 2019
"Like more than a few Americans, I used to read President Donald Trump’s tweets with trepidation."
"No modern president had ever expressed himself publicly in this manner, and the universal reaction seemed to be a mixture of horror and consternation. Now I find that the tweets I see tend to make me laugh rather than wince. Unlike his stately predecessor’s feed, which read as if drafted by a lucky intern, Mr. Trump’s tweets could not possibly have been composed by anyone but Mr. Trump himself, or by someone with a good ear for Trumpspeak. Best of all, the fury and indignation they inspire are very nearly as entertaining as their memorable content. Like the old New Yorker cartoons of plutocrats listening in silent rage to F.D.R. on the radio, or inviting their friends to join them at 'the Trans-Lux to hiss Roosevelt,' Mr. Trump seems to have the chattering — or in this case, sputtering — classes where he wants them.... When Franklin Roosevelt exclaimed that his political enemies were 'unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred,' admirers swooned.... [Trump] has roots in the American civic tradition, which is considerably more complex, and more fractious in tone, than we care to remember....."
From the NYT op-ed "Whom Does President Trump Remind You Of?/Uncouth he may be, but he’s not unfamiliar," by Philip Terzian (author of “Architects of Power: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and the American Century")
From the NYT op-ed "Whom Does President Trump Remind You Of?/Uncouth he may be, but he’s not unfamiliar," by Philip Terzian (author of “Architects of Power: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and the American Century")
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i was thinking about FDR's fireside chats just yesterday.
BUT! there's a HUGE difference between FDR and Trump... Trump's economy is increasing
oh! and Trump isn't a socialist/fascist like FDR
Yes but that was obvious in 2015. What kind of analyst gets that wrong for so long.
Reagan was able to talk over the newspapers that were hostile to him by using TV. TV is so hostile to Trump that the only way he has of communicating is Twitter, which is also hostile but unable or unwilling to block him.
Also, the public is learning to read between the lines, much as Soviet Union citizens read Pravda.
follow the bouncing laser you media cats.
The tweets sidestep the biased media filter to communicate directly to 65 Million people. Not hard to understand.
Shorter version: “he talks like regular guy and get this, people like it”.
FDR created the CCC and WPA and put thousands of unemployed Americans back to work. All Trump did was put up Help Wanted signs in millions of windows.
Trump monopolizes the media news cycle. As long as he controls the news, he is willing to take the bad along with the good. The Democrat nominee will have trouble getting much airtime with Trump tweeting 50 times a day.
I wonder what the comments look like on this NYT piece.
"I wonder what the comments look like on this NYT piece.”
I don’t.
The day after the 2016 election, I was texting with my longest standing friend, with whom I argued over Nixon v McGovern in the 5th grade. She congratulated me on 'my' candidate winning. I responded that while Trump wasn't my first choice, I did vote for him (which I also considered a Flight 93 vote) and though I didn't know how good a president Trump would be, I expected the next 4 years to be entertaining. Maybe my best prediction.
Who uses language like uncouth? Fops do...
What kind of analyst gets that wrong for so long.
The criticism was designed to get him to stop so the left could maintain control of the narrative. Now they can't even get people to buy in to impeachment.
Of course, Mr. Forward, bring back the CCC. Put the turnstyle-jumpers to work for a dollar a day, with food and housing, and offer them basic and vocational education at night while they served.
Oh wait, they already had their shot at schooling at our expense. And oh wait, anyone of them could find a job today if they wanted to work. So, scratch that whole notion. Let's just give them a check for nothing. Which is what they are - nothing.
FDR had Radio communications and pro FDR Newsreels and he used them to win the hearts and minds of Americans creating an American political party never before seen. DJT has his Twitter communications and pro DJT YouTubes and has done the same thing.
Neither man was shy.
Wilbur said...
Of course, Mr. Forward, bring back the CCC.
Wilbur, i do believe you're missing it. I can't blame you, i missed it at first too
Mr Forward says:
FDR created the CCC and WPA and put thousands of unemployed Americans back to work.
All Trump did was put up Help Wanted signs in millions of windows.
FDR: thousands of make work jobs
Trump: millions of REAL jobs
kinda think that Mr Forward was being snarky, get it?
thanx!
This. is the kind of comment that rates a “Times Pick”
I’ll be the first to admit that Trump’s bombastic ways make me see red. But it’s more than that. When anger subsides, when the dust settles, Donald Trump has engaged in dangerous, corrupt conduct that has put the nation’s best interests in peril.
Ummm I don’t think the anger has subsided yet, nor has the dust settled.
I don't fault FDR- we were young and stupid about macroeconomics then. Since then we've figured some stuff out (thanks to people like Paul Volker and many others). What the fuck is excuse now? We're nostalgic for pain and suffering? That we loathe finance?
Help Wanted signs in millions of windows, means that millions of workers have other or better paying jobs.
It appears that Terzian is a reader of this blog.
- Krumhorn
Obama's Twitter account has 110 Million followers, many millions more than Trump.
However, since Obama is boring, uninteresting, vanilla, and only writes platitudes, it carries no impact.
I look forward to watching the Democratic Party's nominees team of Elite Twitter Warriors trying to beat Trump at this game.
"FDR created the CCC and WPA and put thousands of unemployed Americans back to work. All Trump did was put up Help Wanted signs in millions of windows."
Other differences: Trump isn't a cripple and didn't marry a dyke.
This is my new favorite Trump tweet:
Donald J. Trump
Verified account @realDonaldTrump
I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!
4:16 AM - 10 Dec 2019
Obama's Twitter account has 110 Million followers
perhaps. but they are all Russian bots he purchased for his vanity.
I am pretty sure I once saw a very similar cartoon with a just slightly different caption in a Helen Hokinson collection book?
Trans-Lux is still in business. They make stock ticker displays. I presume the cartoon refers to an outdoor one in NYC.
Blogger henry said...
Obama's Twitter account has 110 Million followers
perhaps. but they are all Russian bots he purchased for his vanity.
Not all, but a good percentage.
When AOC started hew twitter account, she had 1.1 million followers almost instantly. Almost all came from accounts that had never tweeted.
With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI
If he had a sense of honor, Wray would resign.
The idea of the "Resistance" was to throw enough tumult Trump's way to prevent people from ever becoming comfortable with him in office.
Despite this, maybe even because it tested him unfairly, people are now comfortable enough with Trump to reelect him.
FDR was playing on a vastly different field than Trump. He had the backing of the bulk of "the establishment" as it was at the time, though his opponents had a significant minority of the MSM of the day.
Besides this both political and economic power was much more decentralized back then. He went a long way to changing that, to making imperial Washington, and not coincidentally imperial New York. Much of this was the result of WWII of course, but he laid the ground work before that.
It’s been more than 3 years of all Trump all the time.
Even though I’m a Trump supporter, I am tired of this.
The subject was exhausted some time ago.
"Despite this, maybe even because it tested him unfairly, people are now comfortable enough with Trump to reelect him.”
I was riding back from the West Palm Beach airport with somebody who does not like Trump and we passed Air Force One on the tarmac and she said out of nowhere “I used to think that plane was huge and scary, now it just looks like an airplane."
I think it’s also true that Trump has gotten better with his tweets over time.
The Trump all the time phenomenon is from the news biz; the left's reporting the narrative its audience wants to live in, and the right's reporting what the left just did.
The two news biz audiences.
On both sides, the Trump obsession has devolved into little more than a PR money machine.
Hating Trump and standing up for Trump seem to be America’s major media industry.
This has become an absurdity. We need to find something else to do with our time.
The deeper we’ve dug into pro and anti Trump mania, the more I’ve turned to playing music for hours on end to occupy my mind with something else.
There just has to be something better to do than this shit we’re doing. Government isn’t that important, at least to me.
It doesn't matter even that much about whether Barr or Wray have the will and energy to reform. The problem with the system as a whole is such that they lack the power to do it, partly because of its sheer scale, and because they do not have the means that will scale to suit the problem.
I mentioned below somewhere that they are dealing with a vast thorn-tree forest, and their only tools at the moment are nail-clippers. They can clip one pointy bit at a time using the painstaking means of prosecution of individuals, at best. That's even if they get around to starting.
They need flame-throwers, fleets of tractors and bulldozers, aircraft spraying herbicides. But they cannot hope for that.
I dunno. I'm still not tired of all the winning. Not the only promise Trump hasn't kept yet, but pretty close.
Old age pensions, workmen's compensation, unemployment insurance: these reforms were first introduced by Bismarck in Germany. They were not part of the Socialist agenda. Churchill initiated them in England, albeit in a curtailed form, a generation or two later. These reforms weren't especially radical and weren't what conservatives most objected to about the New Deal. They are, however, what the New Deal claims credit for. The loonier New Deal ideas are tactfully avoided in discussions of that period.
If government is this important, and if holding the reins of government power are this important, government is too big and powerful.
So, the only lesson I can draw is that the size and power of government need to be dramatically reduced.
Trans-Lux is still in business. They make stock ticker displays. I presume the cartoon refers to an outdoor one in NYC.
Back in FDR days, Trans-Lux owned a chain of theaters which specialized in newsreels and shorts.
Thomas,
At Peace Pavilion West, there is no government, only a Council Of bi-weekly meetings of the people, and goats and bugs when we’re not eating the bugs.
Namaste.
It's easier to govern with the consent of the cartoonists. There are easily recognizable caricatures of plutocrats, militarists, imperialists, brutish cops etc. Where are the immediately recognizable cartoon figures of collective farm administrators, self important bureaucrats, sexually delinquent media stars or any of the repellent left wing figures that occur with such frequent occurrence.
Terzian called that one right. Trump seems to be rather subtle in his outrageousness. Every time Peggy Noonan, Bret Stephens, or George Will (all of whom I have admired over time) gets wound up, a tingle goes up my leg (to quote a well-known hack and admirer of Tip O'Neill).
Trump knows what he is doing in communication and promotion. As a friend of mine (a very sophisticated, old-school professor of literature) has said, Trump says exactly what a lot of people are thinking.
I get him (this author).
The 1000+ commenters in the NYT seem depressed; not once was Biden or Warren or Sanders mentioned as a foil or improvement to President Trump in 2020.
I've been reading The New Yorker for years. I can't recall ever seeing a cartoon that made fun of a person on the left. Not Weiner, not Warren, not even Bill Clinton and his Oval Office adventures. The left presents any number ridiculous figures but when such figures reach critical mass they are ignored rather than ridiculed......FDR used his daughter to arrange assignations with his mistress. When Eleanor found out about it, she felt doubly betrayed both by her daughter and her husband. I'd like to see some playwright or feminist write an Ibsenesque play about this betrayal and all the countervailing values in the Roosevelt household. Instead we get Greer Garson in Sunrise at Compabello.
You guys are just tired of it because it looks like the game has been decided, but still the telecast drags on and nobody will let you change the channel.
I've now had the privilege - not pleasure - of working with many companies (private) with institutional rot and corruption. In the private sector this manifests as very bad behavior, passive-aggressive dissent by simply not doing what people say they will do, or actively driving personal agendas against a broader business interest.
When an organization is truly corrupted you CANNOT change it slowly with any degree of confidence. You have two big choices:
1. Put some "heads on pikes" in the way of examples - find the most egregious and swiftly and publicly deal with them as a huge signal to others whose behavior is along the same lines. Then give those others a path out - either exit or a new role. Never corner your enemy; always give them a way out.
2. Completely re-organize the company to break the comfortable structures apart and create better leadership & oversight.
...
The FBI is patently corrupt in that they cannot admit fault and take significant corrective action. An investigation of a leading presidential candidate should be flawless and textbook, with no possibility for opposing counsel to take apart the case. Here we have a deeply flawed investigation with all flaws allowing the FBI to conduct a deeper investigation or justify further surveillance. Biased flaws.
They need some very public firings - more than just Comey - and a complete re-organization.
That's *OK* Arno. This is classic Arno.
The lamestream loonie left should have realized that Trump tweets are sarcastic one liners 2-years ago. It's probably too little too late now. Maybe the DNC should repackage the curdled smegma of the party to completely destroy her legacy as a cautionary tail.
‘Hey Russia! If you are listening!”
The reason that the left could not see that as a joke is because it would require them to consider the question of Hillary’s motives in deleting all of those emails that were under a preservation order from Congress. From that joke, they whipped up a special counsel investigation and turned the Trump presidency into an episode of American Gladiators, which Trump has won as handily as the time he beat that casino chicken at tic tac toe.
Amadeus 48, Trump is anti-subtle. That's what makes the people who fall for his stick so motherfuking pathetic
@Howard
Trump’s straight talk and no BS statements are virtues.
You’re kinda stupid. You’ve even got the current political meaning of the word “cuck” reversed.
The word, in its current incarnation, means a chump like you who kisses feminist ass and advocates men sacrificing themselves stupidly for whatever women currently want.
The revival of the use of this term is thanks to men’s rights groups.
You’re the cuck, Howard. A very serious, stupid one. You’re utterly pussy whipped. That tough guy thing is funny in a dumb pussy whipped bastard like you.
Stunned that the NYT actually ran this op-ed piece, and seriously, I'm concerned for the author's health and safety. It's gotten 1200 comments online and most are over the top in their anger. TDS in all its glory.
All four of my grandparents routinely hissed Roosevelt.
TreeJoe suggests: Put some "heads on pikes" in the way of examples
Why the quotes? Real heads on pikes would be more dramatic and the images would go viral in seconds.
This is really just an example of the proof that the Left gets it, but can't bring themselves to admit it, or worse, change their toxic stripes. It will only be over when they admit that the Joke was On Them, and then take it with good humor and move on. Pigs will be flying.
ST said...
You’re the cuck, Howard. A very serious, stupid one. You’re utterly pussy whipped. That tough guy thing is funny in a dumb pussy whipped bastard like you.
Shouty, don't play his game. Like the faggots reclaiming "queer," Garbage Howie types are trying to reclaim/wrest away the power of words that hit home. Like "cuck" and "NPC" and many others.
Howard said...
The lamestream loonie left should have realized that Trump tweets are sarcastic one liners 2-years ago. It's probably too little too late now. Maybe the DNC should repackage the curdled smegma of the party to completely destroy her legacy as a cautionary tail.
You seem to have clown nose on so you're not serious. Too bad. All the Ds would have to do is renounce and condemn the Clinton legacy of ashes, stop being those guys, and we could be a country again.
If he had a sense of honor, Wray would resign.
No, it would take hari kari to satisfy those of us who see yet another deep stater trying to influence justice. Or make that just-us.
Mockturtle said..."Why the quotes? Real heads on pikes would be more dramatic and the images would go viral in seconds."
Although I have lots of sympathy for your idea, doing this would make Trump the Hitler they keep saying he is. It is better if Trump keeps doing it his way where the average person thinks how isn't even close to being Hitler.
Hardin
I bet he saw it years ago. Its only now he feels safe enough to say so.
One of my guilty pleasures is that whenever the NYT runs a piece even mildly favorable to Trump is to go to the comments section to watch the argula eating hoi-toi lose their collective she!t.
If Wray says he does not see the problem then 1 he is lying 2 he must go.
Danno replies: Although I have lots of sympathy for your idea, doing this would make Trump the Hitler they keep saying he is. It is better if Trump keeps doing it his way where the average person thinks how isn't even close to being Hitler.
My remark was actually 'tongue in cheek' [in quotes because my tongue was not actually in my cheek when I wrote it]. ;-)
Nichevo: Long term, the democrat party will end up on top because of demographics and actuarial science. Many have already conceded 2020. After 2030, you people would lucky to end up as a bloody toilet attendant.
wray has been a cabal planner since the Enron task force when he supervised Weissman, since he went along with comey's sham, re the march 04 hospital meeting,
Shouting Thomas said, "If government is this important, and if holding the reins of government power are this important, government is too big and powerful.
So, the only lesson I can draw is that the size and power of government need to be dramatically reduced."
Well, yeah. as Washington said, "Government, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
When the fire is contained in the fireplace, you can safely ignore it most of the time. If it reaches the carpet and the drapes, you'd damn well better pay attention or it will kill you.
Long term, the democrat party will end up on top because of demographics and actuarial science.
Ceteris paribus.
Veni vidi vici fell in the Senate.
Howard: "Nichevo: Long term, the democrat party will end up on top because of demographics and actuarial science. Many have already conceded 2020. After 2030, you people would lucky to end up as a bloody toilet attendant."
Behold, the failure of the static analysis mentality.
When Nixon resigned and Carter later won against Ford we were told it would take generations for republicans to regain the confidence of the American people.
When Clinton won in '92 we were told at that time the republicans would be forever in the political wilderness. Literally.
When obama won we were told we had reached the post-republican party era and that we were all socialist now (remember that one?) and the republican party would have to reconstitute itself as something as more a democrat-lite party.
Idiots like you just read things you think must be correct because your betters tell you they are and you buy into their nonsense.
Newsflash: They are all wrong. They've been wrong about everything for 70 years.
What happens if Trump can pull 15%, 20%, 25% of black voters? What happens if Trump can pull 35%, 40% of hispanic votes? What happens if Trump (once again!) wins or comes close to winning white women?
You need to start thinking for yourself, looking around and internalizing what is actually happening on the ground instead of reading and believing whatever is being spewed on LLR-lefty Chuck's beloved MSNBC and CNN.
Otherwise you'll always be running behind the curve.
Howard can make that prediction confident that he will not live to see whether he is right or wrong. I don’t see the marriage of the white left and Hispanics or even blacks as long-lived.
Skylark: "Howard can make that prediction confident that he will not live to see whether he is right or wrong."
Dire global warming predictions.
My prediction is one of hope and joy at the prospect of a more enlightened country. Superstition will slowly die. Our robots will then fix global warming before Armageddon.
"Your boos mean nothing. I've seen what makes you cheer."
I still predict that Twitter will, at some point next year, try to ban Trump. The pressure to cut of Trump's access to social media will be withering, and nothing in Twitter's management leads me to believe they will be able to resist it.
Howard: "My prediction is one of hope and joy at the prospect of a more enlightened country.
Wow. So people of color who might migrate to voting for republicans represent de-enlightenment? Can enlightenment only come from those outside the US?
Did you realize that is what you are pushing out there?
Gee, I can't imagine why the middle of the country, traditional democrat voters, decided to toss you guys aside.
And now we see more and more minorities deciding to take Trump up on his observation: What do you have to lose?
Keep dreaming you will rope in the dreamers, Drago. That's a hellava Bayseian prior your smoking.
Blogger Howard said...
Nichevo: Long term, the democrat party will end up on top because of demographics and actuarial science. Many have already conceded 2020. After 2030, you people would lucky to end up as a bloody toilet attendant.
Howard, you need to read Jay Cost's book, "Spoiled Rotten." It describes the incompatible Democrat interest groups that will eventually fly apart. Feminists are getting annoyed at transgender athletes winning all women's sports, for example. Blacks are finally figuring out that the plantation is not that great and immigration (illegal type) is killing their jobs.
If you can't import a new voting class like Tony Blair did in UK, you will lose out to the middle classes as they get more wealth.
You are destroying education, and I will give you that, but it will eventually alienate enough people that colleges collapse.
He went a long way to changing that, to making imperial Washington, and not coincidentally imperial New York. Much of this was the result of WWII of course, but he laid the ground work before that.
Had the war not come along, he might have had to scale back after 1938. Hitler gave him far more power. The interesting speculation is what might have happened without the Chamberlain Polish Guarantee. It is another speculation to wonder if FDR had left the Japanese alone. Maybe their hubris would have led them down the fatal path anyway.
My favourite jokes so far: best on top.
1. No one does self-deprecation better than I do. Or: I'm all-time number 1 in the world in self-deprecation. This is close to an old Ben Franklin joke: the problem with humility is: once you think you've got it, you've lost it. Epitaph for many intellectuals.
2. To the Prime Minister of Canada: Didn't you guys burn down the White House? As always, the reaction of the angry nerds made it funnier. Some Canadians said: there were no Canadians present at that event. (Don't look at us). It was British regulars and the navy. Trump wrong! Trump lies! I'm so old I can remember Canadian intellectuals saying: we're not the wimps you think we are: we burned down the White House.
3. Maybe Putin can share Hillary's e-mails with us; that would be helpful. (Honest to God, you Trump haters; this was a joke).
4. I could commit a murder on 5th Avenue and my supporters would stay with me. Again, a joke. He wasn't promising or threatening to commit an impeachable offence; it's pretty certain now he doesn't have any impeachable offences on his mind.
5. The famous depiction of a person with a disability, apparently once "directed" at a reporter with a disability, but not one that matches Trump's strange fake symptoms. There's lots of video showing him doing this to able-bodied people, including Jeb Bush. He has done it to himself: I can't stand going on vacation, I don't know what to do with myself (waves arms awkwardly).
(Are the family jokes funny, or just cruel? I could have had Tom Brady as a son-in-law, instead I've got Jared. Tiffany should stay out of the family photos--she's getting fat. Don Jr. is plain dumb, and that big-game hunting hobby is stupid. Then, in the campaign, there is a need to appeal to gun owners. "Finally you can do me some good." I don't know, I think this is fairly funny).
For balance, hah hah hah, some Sarah Jeong jokes. My favourite: intersectionality means white women get to speak for everyone. A related joke: when Sarah goes to Portland, Oregon, she needs a male escort. All those white women claiming to be open to what really counts; who knows who they'll turn on?
And finally: white people don't know how to cook rice. They should try a rice cooker. With education and luck, you might have some understanding of "different" people, and certainly an ability to communicate with them. But if you are racing to be authentically something else, you will fail.
Howard: "Keep dreaming you will rope in the dreamers, Drago. That's a hellava Bayseian prior your smoking."
I'm just going off what Team Dem has said over the last 40 years.
I'm not surprised you refuse to revisit those comments. Ignorance for some, like yourself, is a lifestyle.
that wouldn't have happened, fdr had a strong anti Japanese animus, going back to the 20s, but much like the jugurthan war, led to the roman imperial temptation,
Ken B@10:05AM/
OR, he is too stupid to live.. EITHER way #2.
and the universal reaction seemed to be a mixture of horror and consternation.
Universal reaction? Like, everybody in the world?
Maybe you need to get out more, sport.
that wouldn't have happened, fdr had a strong anti Japanese animus, going back to the 20s
Oh, I know and there is a school of thought that he wanted war with Japan.
There is also a school that believes that Teddy crewed the Japanese out of their 1905 victory with his negotiations and they resented it. Maybe FDR knew of their anger at cousin Teddy.
yes the czar's forces were down for the count, specially after tsushima, I imagine there was a complementary land battle,
battle of Mukden, I believe, yalu river was inconclusive,
Yeah, I am sure that blacks will never suspect that they are being replaced as the Democrat base by the twin forces of abortion and mass immigration.
The anti-Rooseveltians in that Arno cartoon must have been left out of the loop and were jealous they didn't get their cut of the swag. See Antony Sutton's eye-opening "Wall Street and FDR."
That cartoon is priceless. So simply drawn, yet the facial expressions are perfect.
The writer makes a very good point in the cited section of the article.
Although I always found Trump's tweets hilarious, if sometimes also slightly cringe-inducing.
Stories that Melania keeps hiding his phone seem easy enough to believe.
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