Asks Fintan O'Toole, in "Laugh Riot/To understand Trump’s continuing hold over his fans, we have to ask: Why do they find him so funny?" (NYRB).
Maybe that's behind a paywall, and you can't read O'Toole's answer. Maybe you can answer his question on your own. I can't quote the whole thing.
This shuffling in a typical Trump speech of different levels of seriousness—personal grudges beside grave geopolitics, savage venom mixed with knockabout farce, possible truths rubbing up against outrageous lies—creates a force field of incongruities. Between the looming solidity of Trump’s body and the airy, distracted quality of his words, in which weightless notions fly off before they are fully expressed, he seems at once immovable and in manic flux....
Making my coffee and toast this morning, I was listening to that article on an app — this one — and I grabbed one word to use to search for the text of the article so I could write this blog post.
The word I chose was "badinage." What a word! I haven't used it once in the 20-year history of this blog, but — I found out — the New York Review of Books has used it quite a lot. It's from the French: badinage. It means "Humorous, witty, or trifling discourse; banter; frivolous or light-hearted raillery" (OED). It's actually pretty nice of O'Toole to credit Trump with badinage.
Looking for "badinage" in the NYRB archive, I found a satisfying helping. There was this, from the author Lorrie Moore (in 2013):
And there was this, from Brad Leithauser, writing about Lorrie Moore (in 2009):Then again, of course, the male gaze may be watching the female gaze as well, which adds an additional layer of power and perception, becoming a tertiary gaze, and then the female may gaze back, ad nauseam, in the nature of a hand-slapping game or the infinite regression of a Quaker Oats box or the badinage of Abbott and Costello.
Her characters drift through an Oscar Wildean world of competitive bon mots, perpetual badinage...
There's "Wildean" again.
Some of the bantering exchanges could be transposed from book to book with little disturbance in atmosphere:
“A veteran of the gender wars.”
“Yeah, well, me, too. But I’m afraid those were never declared.”
“Fucking do-nothing Congress!”
(A Gate at the Stairs)
“Why are we supposed to be with men, anyway? I feel like I used to know.”
“We need them for their Phillips-head screwdrivers,” I said.
Eleanor raised her eyebrows. “That’s right,'” she said. “I keep forgetting you only go out with circumcised men.”
(Anagrams)
That's badinage. Moore's is Wildean and Trump's isn't.
Posts
83 comments:
Trump does use humor, and this differs from most politicians over the last several decades. Reagan was the last funny president before Trump -- and Reagan had an actor's charm and grace.
The left stopped being cheerful or humous in favor of all-things politically correct, to include Climate Dread, Abortion Dread, Overpopulation Dread, Nuclear War Dread, Gun Dread, Automobile Dread, Farmland Erosion Dread, Pollution Dread, Discrimination Dread, Injustice Dread, and much more during the Clinton administration. Ask Jerry Seinfeld about why he ended all college performances. When you dread everything, others quickly tire of the dysfunctional tension about unsolvable issues.
Given that sarcasm and humor is easy to misinterpret and need clear warnings for many people, such as: ;-) ;-) ;-), some are hostile to Trump because the jokes go right over their heads.
Nothing gives us a view of the great unwashed masses like the NYRB.
My favorite line from this piece:
"Hooterville and the White House were as one."
Uncle Joe and Sam Drucker are choosing the President! Where's my Nervine?
It depends on Trump’s ability to be pitiless in his ridicule of the targets of his contempt while allowing his audience to feel deeply sorry for itself.
What most of Trump's critics fail to [it seems be even able to] consider is that his "fans" see Trump fighting back in ways they can not. Trump rarely throws the first punch but (to steal a phrase from another source) "if they bring a knife, bring a gun".
When Trump is hit, he goes for the jugular. When his foes are liberals, the deep-state, media, Democrats, he is seen as fighting the fight that others are unable to. The "scrapper" taking on all of the self-righteous bullies. How much pity have his "foes" shown him? They are using every tool available to destroy him, why should he not treat this as a fight to the death? They are.
After all this time. They still don't get it.
The people writing this shit are dishonest retards period, the end.
All I know is the current president would have goons kill me if he could. So there’s that.
The point is that he can take on the deep state with barbs that reframe its accounts of itself.
It depends on Trump’s ability to be pitiless in his ridicule of the targets of his contempt while allowing his audience to feel deeply sorry for itself. (If tragedy, as Aristotle claimed, involves terror and pity, Trump’s tragicomedy deals in terror and self-pity.) Hard as it is to understand ... Trump’s ranting is organized laughter. To understand his continuing hold over his fans ...
This little piece drips with contempt for other people, who are portrayed as self-pitying 'fans' of a 'ranter'.
The writer, on the other hand, considers himself a member of a gifted and enlightened elite, so different from those hideous firemen, farmers, shopkeepers and other 'deplorables'.
Buy a mirror pal.
Trump’s disrespect for the norms demanded by people in power is what endears him to regular people.
His communications are peppered with the modern equivalent of “stick it to the man”.
No wonder they don’t want to broadcast his speeches.
When Trump was president and went for his annual physical, his doctor gave him a cigarette.
When he saw his psychiatrist and told him everyone hates him, his shrink said that was ridiculous—everyone hadn't met him yet.
Really, when he was a baby even his mother didn't like him. She fed him with a slingshot.
Trump don't get no respect, that's for sure.
To understand [Trump's] continuing hold over his fans, we have to ask...says O'Toole.
Yet he didn't bother.
His kind of hatred for Trump and Trump supporters is rooted in desperately cobbled together snobbery and well-earned self-loathing. Mr. O'Toole wasn't going open that can of worms.
Progs don't engage in badinage anymore. It's incompatible with careful self-censoring and the PCP (Progressive comedy pause.)
If you have to explain the joke...
This guy undoubtedly thinks Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are hilarious.
2 beefy sentences
Plant-based.
The title is enough to explain this as a typical piece that assumes Trump supporters are monolithic and support him because they are too stupid to do so otherwise. Sure, the funny aspect is a slight spin over all these articles:
"The Minds of Trump Supporters" - The Atlantic
"Opinion: Why are Donald Trump supporters so loyal to him?" - Yahoo
"Study Looks At What Motivates Trump Supporters" - NPR
"Why hard-core Trump supporters ignore his lies" - The Conversation
Nothing about intelligence agency spying on Trump's campaign during the Obama Administration. The 3 years of Russian Collusion Hoax. Same intelligence chiefs lying about Hunter's Laptop. The left's role in the Covid lockdown. Joe Biden's mental capacity or the issues with his children and drug addiction. And now the novel legal cases brought against Trump.
There has to be an element of truth of things to be funny. That's why the left can't meme. You can't make a false premise funny. We laugh with Trump because the people he makes fun of are so fucked up and evil, it's comforting.
They deserve to be mocked. The best part is they HATE being mocked. That's why the cry about it and say it's mean. They lack the ability to be self-deprecating. Trump doesn't.
Don Lemon is stupid. Hillary is crooked. Joe is slow. Rosie O'Donnel is a fat pig. Fani is phony. Those things are true.
Not necessarily Ron DeSantis etc...but damn did he run a bad campaign. Trump is attacked with lies. Trump wasn't making fun of a handicapped reporter. That's a lie. Another linguistic hoax like "blood bath" and "fine people".
Much of Wilde's badinage was Whistlerean.
"I wish I had said that."
"You will, Oscar, you will."
Trump is the jester who wound up leading a coup.
Once again, it's a backwards assumption to think that Trump created this populist movement by waving his hands in 2015. He just stepped in front of a parade that stretches back to the TEA party, and before that to the tax revolts and Moral Majority of the 1980s, and before that to the battles between the Bushies(George Herbert Walker variety)/"Rockefeller Republicans" and the Reganites/"Repbulican Grassroots".
People laugh at Trump skewering the elite because the proles have always laughed at pompous twits like Fintan O'Toole, who can never figure out why they are the butt of the joke.
It needs its creator’s fusion of rage, mockery, and poisoned imitation, whether of a reporter with a disability...
Never happened. They just can't help themselves--even in a thumb-sucker that purports to understand the appeal of Trump, they can't get beyond the superficial nonsense of, "they like him because they're terrible people and he's terrible too."
Using more or bigger words is not the same as thinking more deeply.
Sorry, but this asshat loses me at To understand his continuing hold over his fans which is just more projection from the Party of Idolatry, Inc. Nothing else he has to say could possibly interest me after that. I was drawn in by the headline (probably Althouse's choice because she has a genuine interest in Trump's strange communication abilities) but that phrase stopped me cold. There's not a chance in hell this guy is going to honestly examine Trump's comedic patois.
I don't believe the article could or would answer, Why is he funny? But I can supply Mr. O'Toole (what a perfect leftist name) a clue if he would deign to ponder these questions: Did Bob Newhart hate his audience? Did Richard Pryor? Does Louis CK? Does Seinfeld? Does Chappelle? Then why do you hate Trump's audience so much?
It's actually pretty nice of O'Toole to credit Trump with badinage.
=============
we need to include soup·çon of inside-jokeism to fully enjoy that
Our host called them "meaty" sentences.
The seem extremely fluffy to me. Lots of words, hardly any conte.nt. Like Cotton Candy.
A quick look, seems to identify him as an artist, that sells his style, not so much his insight into the topics he chooses
So he's fun to read, but I'm not going to be influenced by his analysis.
Biden's handlers are constantly attempting to splice some middle-school-caliber jocularity into the Resident's comments. Unfortunately, their charge comes off less like Jack Worthing and more like Mrs. Malaprop with a speech impediment.
"possible truths rubbing up against outrageous lies...[creating] a force field of incongruities"
Lying is the role of the US Government, and it hates the competition. Consider all of the lying that has occurred since 2016:
-The entire story on Covid: its origin; its mortality rate; the efficacy of masks; the efficacy of the vaccine in preventing Covid; the efficacy of the vaccine in preventing the spread of Covid; that the vaccine is perfectly safe; etc.
-Anything involving Russia: Trump is a Russian asset; Russia blew up Nordstream; Russia is a huge threat to NATO yet all the Ukranians need to force them out is another $80 billion.
-Internet censorship/anti-disinformation-"we don't coerce platforms" while the employees and minions make sure contrary voices are deamplified or kicked off.
-Border crisis? what border crisis? Oh, you mean Trump's border crisis.
Trump's lies are sandcastle at the beach level; the government's lies are like a monument built to honor Goebbels.
Schumer went to the White House to convince Trump to agree to a budget full of far-left spending.
The discussion got so heated Schumer pulled a gun on Trump.
Trump said nothing.
Puzzled, Schumer said, "Well, are you going to give me the money or not?"
Finally, after a long pause, Trump replied, "I'm thinking. I'm thinking."
“Between the looming solidity of Trump’s body and the airy, distracted quality of his words, in which weightless notions fly off before they are fully expressed, he seems at once immovable and in manic flux....“
Though I object to the negativity in this sentence, I do think the juxtaposition of these two traits of Trump is pretty interesting. He’s a solidly built person with a more rambling or stream of consciousness way of speaking. I never noticed this before.
To get past the NYT paywall, go here: https://archive.is/
Then paste the original article website in the open box.
Usually works for NYT, The Atlantic, etc.
PS Meant to say NYRB the first time. But I tried it just now and it worked for this article.
Trump is so crazy he thinks he's a chicken.
Reporter asked his wife, "Why don't you have him committed?"
She replied, "I need the eggs."
"It's actually pretty nice of O'Toole to credit Trump with badinage..."
More likely, it was accidental; O'Toole probably thinks he knows what it means.
But he lost me at ", the tired threadbare lie so often repeated, like the 'good people' one. If you have to resort to pandering to your audience with tropes, maybe your thinking is already too flawed to pass muster.
and: "Hard as it is to understand, especially for those of us who are too terrified to be amused..." Yes. Fear the Unwashed Deplorable Menace.
I came for the rhetoric, but stayed for the badinage. Yee haw!
Punching holes in the paywall to spread this bile does not seem like the public service it appears to be…
There certainly are a lot of people on both coasts flailing, trying to understand why Trump is popular. I suggest accepting it. You don't have to understand everything.
Washington, Trump, and Biden get held hostage by terrorists.
They line them up to be executed and pick Washington to be shot first.
At the last second Washington shouts, "Earthquake! Earthquake!"
In the confusion he escapes.
Then they put a gun to Trump's head. At the last second, he shouts, "Typhoon! Typhoon!"
In the confusion he escapes.
That leaves Biden.
Terrorist puts a gun to his head, and at the last second Biden shouts, "Fire! Fire!"
Leftism is good in youth, but bad in age.
Jeesh, hard to imagine a bigger load of twaddle. The self-congratulatory "educated" liberal, ladies and gentlemen, presented for your delectation.
Christopher B: "Once again, it's a backwards assumption to think that Trump created this populist movement by waving his hands in 2015. He just stepped in front of a parade that stretches back to the TEA party, and before that to the tax revolts and Moral Majority of the 1980s, and before that to the battles between the Bushies(George Herbert Walker variety)/"Rockefeller Republicans" and the Reganites/"Repbulican Grassroots"."
Absolutely true and bearsc
Its also true that if one listens to interviews with Trump from the 80's and 90's there was already a clear populist and America First intent
"Hard as it is to understand, especially for those of us who are too terrified to be amused,...."
It's easy to understand for those of us who are more terrified by the Democrats' reign of terror, corruption and incompetence. Particularly since it is clear that rank and file Democrats are mostly terrified at the prospect of Trump bring the reign to an end.
Trump knows how to push their buttons, but the deep state knows how to pull the levers....Governing is a lot easier when you have the deep state and the propagandistas on your side. Trump's WWF mockery is nothing compared to the precise, calculated lies and legal actions that are directed at him. He has said some nasty things about his opponents, but they never had to hire teams of lawyers to defend themselves from Trump. When Trump engages in badinage, the witty response of the Dems is to try to bankrupt him or, ideally, put him in jail. That's some clever repartee. It reminds one of Stalin's clever response to Trotsky's badinage.
Cry more lib, you pathetic piece of shit. "Too terrified to be amused" -fucking liar or an embarrassing example of the mental weakness of contemporary democrat party members, this ink-stained skank should be ashamed of itself.
MartyH: "Lying is the role of the US Government and it hates the competition.... Trump's lies are sandcastles at the beach level; the government's lies are like a monument built to honor Goebbels ...." (7:43)
Part of the fun here is that the obvious is occasionally stated in a profound way for an, "Oh yeah. There's THAT," moment.
Clay Bertrand: David, David, always some harebrained scheme or another... Oh? What do I see here? Oooooh, let's have some more champagne, shall we!
Willie O'Keefe: (interested in Ferrie's proposal) What about the Secret Service, the cops?
David Ferrie: (pacing, hyper) No problem if it's planned right. Look how close they got with de Gaulle. Eisenhower was always riding around in an open top. I know somebody who actually went up and touched Eisenhower once.
We need to have three mechanics at three different locations. An office building with a high-powered rifle. Triangulation of crossfire is the key. You get the diversionary shot gets the Secret Service looking one way - Boom! You get the kill shot.
The crucial thing is one man has to be sacrificed, then in the commotion of the crowd the job gets done and the others fly out of the country to someplace with no extradition. I could do that myself. I could fly to Mexico, and then Brazil.
(Oswald listens, playing with his rifle. Bertrand suddenly turns cold, flashing a look at Ferrie.)
Bertrand: Why don't we drop this subject...it's one thing to engage in badinage with these youngsters, but this sort of thing could be so easily misunderstood.
(Bertrand squeezes Ferrie’s groin)
- JFK, 1991
Schaudinfraud, baby! When the conservatives win the liberals lose their minds and it’s hilarious.
Badinage to the bone.
Trump has been in the public eye for more than 40 years. He’s always been a wiseass. He’s been tugging on our sleeves the whole time, saying “get a load of those putzes.” The overweening comportment of obvious blowhards like Kerry, Whitehouse, Swalwell, Schiff and Biden makes them easy targets, piñatas filled with methane. Trump is a blowhard too but he understands the difference between a bullshit artist and a bunch of liars. We have a 3.5 year sample size of Bidenworld and people are able to figure it out. They may not say it out loud, but they know.
Trump's "Ron DeSanctimonious" moniker was really stupid. And it wasn't stupid simply because it sounded stupid, which, as a failed attempt at homophonic punning, it did. It was stupid because Ron wasn't sanctimonious.
For anyone who questions how much talent and charisma this requires, there is a simple answer: Ron DeSantis. Why did DeSantis’s attempt to appeal to Republican voters as a straitlaced version of Trump fall so flat? Because Trumpism without the cruel laughter is nothing.
This is bullsh##.
Trump succeeded because he fights and he doesn't sell out the people that support him. He actually represented the working class and put Americans first.
The Uniparty cannot allow that Trump's policies demonstrably helped the working class.
Desantis failed because he is a Uniparty tool. He took their money. He hired Jeff Roe. He tried to take the Republican Party back to the neocon open border crowd. He called people who support Trump Listless Vessels.
The most important thing that all of the people who hate Trump cannot allow is that Trump supporters are more rational than they are. We are better at looking at the candidates and predicting who will make our lives better.
The people that followed Desantis cannot actually support why they would support "Trump without the Trump" who also condescended to Trump supporters and hired the uniparty to run his campaign.
Trump's popularity seems like a very weird topic to think is somehow new. His show The Apprentice was wildly popular for all the reasons he continues to be popular. People liked his personality, his biting and cutting barbs, etc. I never liked him (going back to the 80s) and actively avoided ever watching the Apprentice for that reason. A lot of the people who actively hate him now were huge fans of him then, and Trump hasn't changed. They loved his style, and only hate him now because he dared to apply it against their favored corrupt, oppressing political class. So in choosing their allegiance they had to deny liking him before.
It's weird and shows a rather extreme lack of self-awareness by the wider entertainment and news media and social network aficionados. They made him, and loved him, so maybe its for that reason they feel they have to destroy him for becoming what they see as an apostate to their class and oppressing intent.
Why are people with names like “Fintan O’Toole” always ending up as writers for publications like New York Review and not brake service mechanics or washer/dryer repair technicians?
Mr. O. Possum said... 3/27/24, 7:49 AM
Oh brother, did you botch that one, Mr. O. That's the legendary line from Jack Benny when he's being held up at gunpoint. But you have to deliver the right lines for the gag to work. The gunman says: You're money or your life! and Benny replies after a long pause: I'm thinking it over...
Whether his content makes you laugh or scream, he has the essential gift - comedic timing.
Trump invites Pelosi to the White House for a heart-to-heart.
She berates him for three straight hours.
Trump listens and replies, “Welll, excuuuuuse me!”
Ice Nine said...
Trump's "Ron DeSanctimonious" moniker was really stupid. And it wasn't stupid simply because it sounded stupid, which, as a failed attempt at homophonic punning, it did. It was stupid because Ron wasn't sanctimonious.
You can't see the sanctimonious crap because it applies to Desantis supporters broadly, not just Desantis.
Desantis supporters just can't see themselves. The people that supported Desantis say the same things about Trump supporters they say about Trump.
They all think you are better than the deplorables. Desantis was supported by laptop/edumacated republicans. All of the chattering class republicans are still flummoxed at how the average deplorable can still support Trump.
But Desantis and his supporters are so smart they cannot figure out why the people they condescend to think they are sanctimonious assholes.
Mr. D said...
Badinage to the bone.
Trump has been in the public eye for more than 40 years. He’s always been a wiseass. He’s been tugging on our sleeves the whole time, saying “get a load of those putzes.” The overweening comportment of obvious blowhards like Kerry, Whitehouse, Swalwell, Schiff and Biden makes them easy targets, piñatas filled with methane. Trump is a blowhard too but he understands the difference between a bullshit artist and a bunch of liars. We have a 3.5 year sample size of Bidenworld and people are able to figure it out. They may not say it out loud, but they know.
All truth.
But where I would disagree is that if he was just making fun of Democrats they would accept it.
What Trump really did was expose the uniparty republicans. He exposed the shell game and went after the empty suits that were supposedly on our side.
"For them, he makes anger, fear, and resentment entertaining. For anyone who questions how much talent and charisma this requires, there is a simple answer: Ron DeSantis. Why did DeSantis’s attempt to appeal to Republican voters as a straitlaced version of Trump fall so flat? Because Trumpism without the cruel laughter is nothing."
LOL!!!! Shorter Fintan No-Tool:
"Those goddamned deplorable rubes are fighting back and laughing at us again!"
William at 8:51 AM.
+1000
Trump's humor pricks a lot of elite balloons--and those elite balloons are full of pricks. So there is that. Is Trump a blowhard? Yes he his--but then he's simply keeping up with his political opponents. But I want to vote for a guy who never rode a train across the Francis Scott Key bridge on his way home.
Achilles @ 10:52: Bullshit! You know how so many lefties hate anyone who is not a lefty? Many Trumpers are turning into that.
DeSantis is a good, courageous governor who is closer to a conservative than Trump. Support for him was both understandable and legitimate and carried with it the possibility of limiting the nastiness emanating from, and directed at, Trump.
Apparently, some feel the need to perpetuate the vitriol even after DeSantis is out of the picture. It's not a great campaign strategy.
"Why do they find him so funny?"
Because they find his targets so insufferable.
>Achilles said...
Desantis supporters just can't see themselves. The people that supported Desantis say the same things about Trump supporters they say about Trump.
They all think you are better than the deplorables.<
You're suggesting that I'm a DeSantis supporter and I'm against Trump? All because I pointed out a stupid thing that Trump said? Got news for ya, bud - Trump has said a lot of stupid things. Only his most mindless fans would have managed to not discover that and would rebuke someone for pointing out an example. Here's more news for you: I am proud Deplorable and a dyed-in-the-wool Trump supporter, since 2015.
Achilles said...
You can't see the sanctimonious crap because it applies to Desantis supporters broadly, not just Desantis.
I'm with Achilles on this one. The twitter/X paid DeSantis army cost him more support than they gained him. Insufferable. Arrogant. They thought that by jumping ship in 2024 everything would be okey-dokey.
The biggest capitulation was the delusion that voter fraud would be put on hold for DeSantis.
People are annoyed that Trump does directly what Dems use third parties for.
Obama was happy to let third parties mock his opponents. So was Clinton (both).
Trump is more honest in this regard than they are.
Mr. D.--Nailed it!
"To be bald is to suffer from gelotophobia, to fear being laughed at; to fear being laughed at is to fear disorder; to fear disorder is to embrace absolutism"
Anyone notice the audience's reaction when Trump made that "bloodbath" comment?
Did they bay for blood? No.
Did they raise righteous Fists of Fury into the Air? No.
Here's their response:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8KyXxJj2s
A real bloodthirsty bunch, right?
SNORT
DeSantis supporters are simply confident that he wouldn't double down on stupid policies the way Trump did during covid. He kept letting Fauci and Birx take the policy lead long after it became painfully obvious the dempanic was nowhere near the existential threat they claimed. He kick-started the inflation machine. He touted the vaccines long after it was apparent that they were not indicated for anyone in good health under 70, let alone that they were doing harm.
DeSantis was stampeded with most everyone else in the beginning, but he was able to learn and change course. Trump gave Fauci a medal.
On the Trump/DeSantis topic since it pops up frequently:
Grouping DeSantis supporters with loathsome LLRs is inaccurate in the extreme. I don't even think of them as Never-Trump either- most were, in fact, Trump supporters who, for various reasons (some of which I agree with and some I don't), soured on the man. If you pay attention, you will find that the Never-Trumpers/LLRs detest DeSantis just as much in these threads as they do Trump, and would have turned on Haley, too, had she somehow found a way to win the nomination. They are, in fact, not conservative voters at all, at least not the commenters we get in these threads- they are all concern trolls.
So:
Chuck- concern troll;
Rich- concern troll;
lonejustice- concern troll;
April Apple- authentic conservative;
VA Mark- authentic conservative;
Sebastian- authentic conservative;
There are others in both groups that I can't quite bring up into active memory right now, but if you are a long-term commenter here, you will understand the distinction I make here because all those commenters above have a long history here of which commenters like Achilles and Drago should be aware of, but don't credit the way they really should. Just because someone supports DeSantis and not Trump, or vice versa, isn't a reason to denigrate their core political beliefs, most of which are shared, I assure you.
I think DeSantis would make an excellent President, but he chose poorly in picking his campaign team and strategy- it happens in politics all the time. To some extent I think his own team sabotaged him in much the same way I think members of Trump's cabinet sabotaged him.
WK said...
Why are people with names like “Fintan O’Toole” always ending up as writers for publications like New York Review and not brake service mechanics or washer/dryer repair technicians?
**********
You'll have to ask his sister, Plenty.
The one, and only time, I encountered the word, badinage, was in Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe. (1882)
"Oh! Chancellor unwary
It’s highly necessary
Your tongue to teach
Respectful speech –
Your attitude to vary!
Your badinage so airy,
Your manner arbitrary,
Are out of place
When face to face
With an influential Fairy."
Blogger Yancey Ward said: "I think DeSantis would make an excellent President, but he chose poorly in picking his campaign team and strategy- it happens in politics all the time."
FWIW, I originally was attracted to DeSantis, based on his tenure as governor of Florida, and thought he would be a shoo-in for the nomination in 2028. I can only attribute his decision to try for it in 2024 to an over-weaning level of hubris, and the whisperings of big money donors who hate Trump.
DeSantis knew, when he took the silver from the Republican big money donors, including the Chamber of Commerce and their ilk, that he would be beholden to them from then on. While those donors may not technically be categorized as "Never Trumpers", they clearly are RINOs and members of the Republican wing of the Uniparty who never have had the best interests of the Republican base at heart. That DeSantis was willing to toe the donor line in order to get those donor dollars emphasized to me that he was ok with business as usual, with the Republican base bending over for the soap while the country club 'Pubbies continued to prosper in their alliance with the Demmies.
"A forcefield of incongruity."
That would make a great t-shirt. Damn those clever Irish.
Now broke and destitute, Trump takes a job slinging hash in a blue-collar diner.
Regular customer comes in and sits at the counter.
Wiping the sweat off his face, Trump asks, "Cheese-boegie?"
"Much of Wilde's badinage was Whistlerean."
Just started reading a biography of Whistler. A bit of a character and comes off as an asshole, albeit a talented one...
Yancey Ward: "Trumpers/LLRs detest DeSantis just as much in these threads as they do Trump"
I dont detest DeSantis in the least. But I refuse to look away from critically important facts from DeSantis' congressional record (Paul Ryan follower) and his now suspended/awaiting-lawfare-victory presidential campaign (funders and backers and their policy preferences).
These cats got to DeSantis and convinced him early on (2021) Trump was finished and headed for legal/financial/political ruin. They poured honeywine into Ron and Casey's ears that Ron had an obligation to run after Trump was sidelined to save the Republic from what the New Soviet Democraticals had planned.
Murdoch gave Ron a $10M book deal and Ron was guaranteed $200M in campaign donations to lock up the nomination (and he did get both) along with promises of party support and media backup.
In all honesty, that's a pretty sweet offer and it would take a pretty special guy, who otherwise couldnt afford to run, to turn that deal down.
Ron's and his backers key "mistake" (and maybe it wasn't a mistake given the daunting and massive global forces in play against Trump) was believing that Trump wouldn't make it to the primary and would be abandoned by the base. Remember Murdoch promised to turn Trump into a nobody.
In which case, no harm no foul. Ron steps in, the loyal dude to Trump prior to the primary and the early globalist DeSantis backers would be in the catbird seat since they backed the right "horse" early.
But Trump didnt collapse. The base didnt walk away. The lawfare has not yet devastated Trump.
And then panic set in as DeSantis was left hanging and committed...forcing him into an actual primary battle with the dude he never wanted to bump heads against and alienating large swaths of the base with his GOPe insider advisors pushing attacks directly against republican base voters (see AMDG's and other DeSantis backer comments here. Self-defeating)
And now here we are. DeSantis used to be relatively politically secure but personally financially in a tough spot.
Now Ron is personally financially secure but politically in a tough spot...and hoping for the one scenario that might save him: Trump is removed by the dem/GOPe/deep state alliance and Ron wins by acclamation at the convention.
Which is why the AMDG's keep trying to "shape" the political battlefield.
"To some extent I think his own team sabotaged him in much the same way I think members of Trump's cabinet sabotaged him."
Demonstrably true.
To be bald is to suffer from gelotophobia, to fear being laughed at[...]
For the last time, I'm NOT afraid of ice cream, jeez.
Now homeless, Trump wanders the streets. He eats boiled shoe leather.
Spying a blind flower girl, he is smitten. They hold hands. Thinking he is a millionaire, she, too, is smitten.
Sadly, Trump is imprisoned.
Months later when freed, he spies the flower girl. Thanks to miracle surgery, she can see.
She does not recognize him. He buys a flower. Their fingers touch. Now she knows who he is.
She smiles at him. She loves him even though he is now a beggar.
Emotion cracks Trump's face. Putting his fingers to his lips, he cries.
In his heart, he thanks God for His bountiful mercies.
I imagine part of Trump's continuing hold over his fans is that they remember a time not long ago when they could afford to buy groceries. I doubt that Fintan, as he engages in badinage with his fellow Brahmins, worries much about the price of groceries.
This article overthinks Trump's triumph over DeSantis. People aren't ready to move on from Trump and there was nothing DeSantis could do about that. The bogus, kangaroo court actions had the intended effect of making a martyr of Trump. Hell, I'll wind up voting for him this go around just on principle.
It would be really, really great if Fintan O'Toole, like most 21st century liberals, was not quite so historically ignorant. Franklin Roosevelt was a master of using humor to slam his opponents. Don't believe me? Go look up his "Martin, Barton, and Fish" speech. And in 1948 Harry Truman mocked Dewey and the Republicans with great regularity.
Of course that was so last century.
"DeSantis knew, when he took the silver from the Republican big money donors, including the Chamber of Commerce and their ilk, that he would be beholden to them from then on. While those donors may not technically be categorized as "Never Trumpers", they clearly are RINOs and members of the Republican wing of the Uniparty who never have had the best interests of the Republican base at heart. That DeSantis was willing to toe the donor line in order to get those donor dollars emphasized to me that he was ok with business as usual, with the Republican base bending over for the soap while the country club 'Pubbies continued to prosper in their alliance with the Demmies."
That's how it looked to me, too. It's not "Democrats vs. Republicans", it's "DC Insiders (and the hangers-on hoping for scraps from their plates) vs. The American People. Lots of the American People have had enough of the bending over and DC Insiders (and the hangers-on) are worried that the gravy train might not keep running on time.
Am I the only one who read in high achool French class "On ne badine pas avec l'amour"? (Play by Alfred de Musset, "One doesn't trifle with/fool around with love")
O'Toole still doesn't understand that the vileness of leftist progressivism drives the appeal of opposition to it. With Trump, we aren't laughing with him, we are laughing at THEM.
Yancey Ward said...
On the Trump/DeSantis topic since it pops up frequently:
Grouping DeSantis supporters with loathsome LLRs is inaccurate in the extreme.
There are distinctions here to be made so lets do this.
1. Desantis is just a mediocre candidate at the national level. He just can't handle the pressure. He requires support from a machine and it not a leader that can lead a working class movement. He made bad choices and selected bad people when under no pressure whatsoever. It should have been obvious to anyone with an IQ over 100 that 2028 was his year. But the choices he made and the people he surrounded himself with and the money he took and the things he said ended his political career.
He called Trump supporters Listless Vessels. This is what I would expect from a Harvard Law Graduate and he topped that off by being a fucking JAG. He can die in a fire.
He needs to go get a real job after finishing his gubernatorial career and stop pretending he is some sort of sanctimonious hero.
2. If you started supporting Desantis but switched to Trump after seeing his pathetic campaign that is fine. Welcome back.
3. If you still think Desantis would be better than Trump but will vote for Trump thanks for voting for Trump. But you are an idiot.
4. Fuck all the NeverTrumps. You are just a more dishonest version of democrat voters. Trump is smarter than you and has accomplished more than you ever will by orders of magnitude. He is also a braver and better person than you. I know that tears you people up inside because of the way you act. Your tears and rage make me happy.
Drago said...
Now Ron is personally financially secure but politically in a tough spot...and hoping for the one scenario that might save him: Trump is removed by the dem/GOPe/deep state alliance and Ron wins by acclamation at the convention.
No.
Absolutely not Ron Desantis. He proved he was a Uniparty tool.
Vivek Ramaswamy would be the choice at that point. There is absolutely no chance of winning with an empty suit like Desantis. Not only would we lose to the Biden Regime in the general election but Jeff Roe would retake control of the Republican Party and doom the country to Uniparty rule.
We are finally cleaning house at the RNC and replacing the traitors that ran that corporation with people who want to win campaigns rather than be controlled opposition.
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