Jerks jerking chains
by Tom Sullivan
David Graham of The Atlantic this week suggests the acting president is holding the N-word in reserve for use during the height of the 2020 campaign. He’ll trot it out in a tweet and minions will explain what the president really meant. There’s historical context, you see. Black comedians use it. Outrage over the word’s use is a character flaw of liberal snowflakes everywhere. Or something.
Subject changed. Alt-reich base electro-shocked. Mission accomplished.
Those among his base Hillary Clinton called a “basket of deplorables” enjoy seeing Trump jerk lefties’ chains, writes John Harris for Politico:
They cringe when Trump goes from merely provocative to outright prejudiced. At the same time, my guess is that it it is far higher than half of Trump voters who are motivated by something not quite the same as what Clinton described: Enjoyment that Trump says so many things that she, along with most Democrats, and many in the media find genuinely deplorable. They don’t endorse racism but admire Trump for seeming not to care that Nancy Pelosi calls him racist.
In my experience, that bond links nearly all Trump supporters in some way: They see him puncturing liberal pieties, and offending elite sensibilities broadly, and like it. His partisans don’t need to agree with Trump’s words or actions — may even find some of them off-putting — and still find the indignation of Democrats and the media more off-putting.
It is Nixon’s politics of resentment as perverse entertainment. No one could ignore what Trump said. He triggered the left, freshened up his base’s froth, and earned above-the-fold headlines — ensuring he is the center of national attention. If he unifies the bickering left in the process, so what? They’re not his target demographic.
In condemning The Squad for “loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States … how our government is to be run,” writes Lili Loufbourow at Slate, Trump is “taking the actual job of the representatives and presenting it as the vicious work of alien enemies.” He is portraying representative government as foreign interference, Loufbourow continues. “For nonwhite Americans, wanting to improve your country is evidence that you hate it. For nonwhite Americans, criticizing America is anti-American.”
Less instinctive Republican assets in Mississippi are extending Trump’s enemy branding beyond nonwhites to women. Republican candidate for governor Robert Foster denied a request from Mississippi Today reporter Larrison Campbell to shadow his campaign unless she brings a male colleague as chaperone:
“Before our decision to run, my wife and I made a commitment to follow the ‘Billy Graham Rule’, which is to avoid any situation that may evoke suspicion or compromise of our marriage,” he tweeted on Tuesday. “I am sorry Ms Campbell doesn’t share these views, but my decision was out of respect of my wife.”
A second candidate joined in. Former state Supreme Court chief justice Bill Waller Jr. told Mississippi Today, “I just think it’s common sense.” Foster blamed women, “Now, in the #MeToo movement era, people could come back at me five, 10, 15 years later and accuse me of assaulting them, and I have no witness there to protect me from that accusation.”
In a public blog post, social futurist Sara Robinson brands this a variant of Trumpy gotcha. Robinson explains:
This isn’t about his personal behavior at all. This is a very deliberate display of performative holiness, and it’s a common thing in Evangelical culture. Among the winning messages it’s sending to his voters:
1) I understand that women are wicked temptresses who can lead men into sin (or a MeToo harassment lawsuit), and must be kept in their place, far from men who are doing serious business.
2) I am willing to bravely stand up to feminists and liberals in order to protect my status as a pure and Godly man.
3) I share your belief that women belong at home, and will walk that talk.
4) I’m really really good at trolling the libs. Hear them whine? Yeah. I did that. You should vote for me.
In these shows, liberals are the Designated Howlers, Robinson adds, the screaming family the Trump base tunes in for each week. The pattern is familiar, Harris concludes: outrageous words, indignant reaction, indignant reaction to the reaction, rinse and repeat. Trump is jerking people’s chains. Don’t let him. Pay attention to what’s eating him. (See image below.)
Vox’s Ezra Klein told Lawrence O’Donnell on “The Last Word” Tuesday [timestamp 34:50] Trump’s behavior is an instinctive “hack” he uses when he loses control of the conversation. Saying something offensive allows him to reset the conversation “along the divisive lines” he wants to argue about and away from topics that don’t interest him.
Trump initiates fights he thinks he can win to get himself out of fights he thinks he’s losing.
Clearly, he’s feeling that now:
So are his surrogates:
.@ChrisCuomo: "What would you do if the President said, 'I am a racist'?"
Kris Kobach: "Then I would not defend him."
Cuomo: "Would you still support him as President?
Kobach: "Um. I don't know."
Cuomo: "You have to think about whether or not you would support a racist?" pic.twitter.com/cuNClycHtW— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) July 17, 2019