The projection strategy
I mean, it’s a least interesting color to a story in which Trump tried to savage an opponent for his son cashing in on his dad’s name that Trump is tweeting from a business that collects millions from anonymous influence seekers, a business that Trump claims is run by his… sons— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) December 26, 2019
Karl Rove was always exalted for his alleged genius in figuring out that you should attack your opponents on their perceived strengths. For instance they attacked John Kerry for his war record in an election in which that was considered to be his ace in the hole. But in reality they were always projecting their own weaknesses on to their opponents. Bush had taken the US into a useless war and was a draft-dodger. So they had to make Kerry into a coward and a liar.
Trump is doing that as well. Only in his case, his own weaknesses are criminal on a level only previously seen in banana republic dictatorship so you’d think the American people would be laughing at the absurdity. Unfortunately, I’m not sure they even see it.
If you are spending a nice holiday weekend with some free time to listen to podcasts, I can’t recommend Trump Inc, the WNYC and Pro Publica look at the Trump businesses highly enough. They are, and always have been, a totally corrupt operation.
That he became president at all is a terrible indictment of our system. That he might win re-election even as he has continued to line his pockets with taxpayer money and profit by selling access shows that all of our supposed barriers to official corruption are a joke. We have an Attorney General dedicated to insuring that all official criticism and concern about the president is muzzled and the law is rendered impotent to restrain his behavior in any way.
It is actually much worse than we realize. When he says he wants to reign for longer than his term, believe him. It’s not that hard for a powerful leader protected by the law and a “mandate” to engineer conditions that allow it. That’s what they always do.
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