They’ll have Trumpism without so much Trump in it
The persistent Mr. Frank Luntz delights us with yet another look into the minds and desires of Trump voters. He finds them, curiously, outside rural diners. He doesn’t specify how he selects his focus groups — more than two dozen! — and gets them to sit still for him.
Some things haven’t changed. Like their sense of victimization (New York Times):
Many felt ignored and forgotten by the professional political class before Mr. Trump, and victimized and ridiculed for liking him now. Like Republican primary voters nationwide, the focus group participants still respect him, most still believe in him, a majority think the 2020 election was stolen, and half still want him to run again in 2024.
Others want Trump without so much Trumpiness in a 2024 presidential candidate. They want “a candidate who champions Mr. Trump’s agenda but with decency, civility and a commitment to personal responsibility and accountability.”
Um, no, they don’t. That’s the difference between Luntz reporting what Trump voters say they want and considering what their choices actually reflect. Trump’s agenda? What was Trump’s agenda besides Trump? Can any of them say? Luntz doesn’t mention asking.
Decency, civility, personal responsibility? Did any of these Trump fans ever attend one of his “Lock Her Up” superspreader rallies? Did Luntz ask how many “FUCK YOUR FEELINGS” tee shirts his interviewees owned between them?
I hear Veruca Salt singing:
I want the world
I want the whole world
I want to lock it all up in my pocket
It’s my bar of chocolate
Okay, Trump’s shtick has grown tired. “For more than seven years, he has used the same lines, the same rallies, the same jokes and the same chants,” and they want new material. But other Republican candidates would be mistaken in criticizing Trump:
So applaud the administration before you criticize the man. “Donald Trump was a great president, but he wasn’t always a great role model. Today, more than ever, we need character — not just courage. We don’t need to insult people to make a point, or make a difference.”
But the insults are what drew cheers and wild applause at those rallies. Would this crowd travel the country and camp out overnight for decency? Would they shower a decency Republican with donations the way they do for Trump when he rings the bell?
Make 2024 about our grandchildren, Luntz suggests, observing that Trump’s base is not just old but “really old.” Old people love their grandkids, right? So pitching the threat to their futures posed by the debt ceiling vote is “the perfect hook”!
The national debt ran up tremendously under Trump, amounting to “the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration,” according to Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Luntz recommends: Hype the “debt crisis.” Think of our grandchildren!
Mr. Trump will say he was fiscally responsible, but the actual numbers don’t lie. “We can’t afford these deficits. We can’t afford this debt. We can’t afford Donald Trump.”
No mention that Trump’s 2017 supply-side tax cut and “the lack of any serious spending restraint” were the largest contributor to the debt increase during his administration. So do Luntz’s focus groups want to preserve that part of Trump’s “agenda” or not? Would they increase taxes to reduce the national debt for our grandchildren? Or would they just further slash the social safety net their grandchildren may need and that MAGA Republicans in Congress will demand?
I want today
I want tomorrow
I want to wear ’em like braids in my hair
And I don’t want to share ’em
Says Luntz, “Republicans want just about everything Mr. Trump did, without everything Mr. Trump is or says.
Luntz is a creature of Republican Washington. That he still gets a paycheck is because of that. His focus groups always seem to tell establishment Republicans what Luntz thinks they want to hear. Tapping the id of his focus groups is tougher than simply spitting back what randos will say for the record, so he never bothers to dig. His funders get what they pay for.