“He speaks without thinking.”
by Tom Sullivan
The notion that this country will hit rock bottom and turn itself around, that people’s basic goodness and decency will reassert itself and America will reinvent itself once again has always seemed a feeble hope. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen in small ways. As Digby pointed out yesterday, Trump’s supporters are defecting.
The line she cited from the Toronto Star that most caught my attention was the former Donald Trump supporter who said, “There was just something off about him.” It reminded me of a strategy for resisting a high-pressure car salesman. Whatever your reasons for not buying now, he’s got an answer. Don’t like the color? Don’t have the money? Whatever. He can fix it. He’s got a comeback to keep you from walking. But if the buyer cannot say why she/he won’t buy today (“I don’t know. I just don’t want to.”), the salesman has no comeback, nothing to latch on to. “Something just off” falls into that category. The voter has given himself leave to walk away.
It appears that’s happening to a lot of Trump’s former fans. At Raw Story, Sarah Burris reviewed a Frank Luntz focus group (emphasis mine):
“He was my first choice. But just along the way, he has — I guess you can say he’s lost me,” one focus grouper told Luntz in a video that aired on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday. “I’m not saying there’s no chance of turning but he’s become outrageous. I mean, we all have thoughts, but I think he speaks without thinking.”
No, there is no turning back. Her support for Trump is over. Because something about Trump is “just off.”
There was more:
“When he initially began to run, he gave voice to a lot of the frustrations that I was feeling about how government is working or more to the point not working,” focus group member Michael said. “But since then, he’s been running as a 12-year-old and changes his positions every news cycle, so you don’t even know where he stands on the issues.”
Mark jumps in, saying, “I think we’re looking for leadership that inspires all of us to be greater than ourselves.” They’ve enjoyed eating their dessert first, but are now looking for the meat and potatoes.
“I want his best foot forward,” says Janice. “It’s a job interview. This is not how you would behave when you’re going to a job interview, by throwing tantrums and calling the interviewer names. Or the other applicants.”
It doesn’t exactly make the heart swell or Sousa play in your head, but it seems Trump’s new car smell has worn off. Now people just want a model that doesn’t start erratically and won’t leave then stranded along the highway.