During his wild weekend of insulting the entire population of Puerto Rico for wanting everything done for them and undermining his own Secretary of State’s diplomatic efforts with North Korea, Trump also dropped this rather needy and insecure tweet:
In analyzing the Alabama Primary race,FAKE NEWS always fails to mention that the candidate I endorsed went up MANY points after endorsement!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017
The news media fails to mention it, Donald, because they would be FAKE NEWS if they did. Because it’s not true. A new Firehouse Strategies memo concludes that President Trump’s endorsement and active campaigning for Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL) in the Republican special election primary had absolutely no impact on the final results.
“Over the time we were monitoring during the last two weeks of the campaign, as knowledge of Trump’s endorsement grew, Strange support did not. In fact, Moore was solidifying support through Trump’s visit, and Trump was unable to reverse this momentum. This suggests that while Trump may be good at translating his supporters’ sentiments, he is unable to persuade them.”
Which, aside from damaging Donald’s rather fragile ego and making him a lesser man in the eyes of the whole world (which is what he most fears, yes, Donald we are all laughing at you), reveals that both Trump and the Republican Party have lost control of their base. McKay Coppins spoke to GOP strategist Alex Conant:
Trump seems uniquely able to give voice to voters’ anger, but incapable of channeling it towards a larger purpose. We need to be honest about the fact that there are some powerful people inside the Republican Party who have no interest in governing. They’re focused like a laser on decapitating the party’s leadership, and have no interest in growing the party’s base into a lasting majority.
The Wall Street GOP leadership, like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, all assumed that the base wants tax cuts for the rich and no healthcare for themselves, because that’s what they (Ryan and McConnell) want because that’s what their rich donors want. And since the base voted for them and Trump, that means the base wants that as well.
But what the base voted for was the racism and the resentment. They want to deport and kill (either or) illegal immigrants. They want to ban and kill (either or) Muslims. They want the police to beat and kill African Americans when they get out of line. They want any program benefiting anyone but themselves to be ended, even if that means they themselves lose the benefits. That is what the GOP base wants. Failure to deliver on that means they turn about Ryan and McConnell (which they already have) and, eventually Trump. They assume Trump is either being played or being co-opted. Either way, they are no longer listening to Trump.
Well said Delaware Dem, spot on and much too true. Perhaps we should be glad that Trump is unable to channel the endless anger of the Republican base, perhaps we should fear what it has brought to light. Not really since we should have known the racism and hatred were bubbling along just below the surface. But I suspect the “business wing” of the party still has it’s hands tight on the reins and will not easily be dislodged, incompetent “leader” or not.
Yep, like I said last week, Trump didn’t create the wave, he merely rode it. He fed what was already there in the Republican base.
Trump can lose. He knows this. That’s why he keeps catering to his base.
“Trump seems uniquely able to give voice to voters’ anger, but incapable of channeling it towards a larger purpose.”
This begs the question — can anger ever be channeled into something constructive? I would propose not, unless we’re talking about righteous anger, the Jesus-evicts-the-moneychangers kind of anger. Channeling the inchoate rage of America’s millions of hayseeds, on the other hand, makes herding cats seem easy. These people don’t want their anger channeled into anything construction. “Hulk smash!” is the level of intellectual activity we’re talking about here.
Keep thinking that. This attitude and level of condescension is what has led to Dems losing 900+ seats in state legislatures during the Obama years, Republican governors in 33 states, Republican control of 32 state legislatures, the House and the Senate, and yes, Trump in the White House. Enjoy.
I do. You all are getting exactly what you deserve. And lest you forget, the condescension is well-earned. Y’all are a bunch of shit stains, and electing a dangerous clown is your reward. Enjoy.
Y’all are a bunch of shit stains. Nice, Alby. Expanding your vocab, I see. You should run for office, I bet that would be a great rebuttal to a debate.
I find it more productive to run from conservatives. Southerners especially.
Was the Trump Base ever on a leash? The only anger that Trump ever brought to the fore is the long standing offences against white supremacy. What exactly can you channel that into? On the flip side, years of dog whistles have produced plenty of working class people perfectly willing to join up in the fight for tax cuts and subsidies for wealthy people. They never get any of the benefits of this, but the 1% have sold them on this idea that if rich people get more, not-rich people will get something out of it too. That’s what channeling anger looks like. Shame that the angry people keep buying a pig in a poke.
It’s all a response to their feelings of inferiority. The irony is that their feelings of inferiority are based on actual inferiority. The feelings are legitimate. Their reactions to them are not.
Agreed. They were never on a leash. All the hand-ringing over how the Republican party changed? They changed to fit their supporters. But really, it wasn’t like the GOP didn’t embrace that change already. It was as simple as switching out the dog whistle for a bullhorn. The message was the same.