Think of the juxtaposition: honoring one of the most selfless Presidents in history while waiting to inaugurate ( or better, coronate) a grifter who sells fake watches and sneakers. I would offer the theory that all of his pronouncements, including his cabinet choices are all misdirection. He’s a master of managing his message and has perfected the art of the ‘shiny new thing’ to attract attention and distract notice, all at the same time. Everything is transactional to this guy…gaining leverage is tantamount, whether he’s dealing with allies or adversaries. There is no win-win in his world. Not only does he have to win, you have to lose.
The ‘tell’ is the use of economic advantage. Money and power are the only things that count in his world view. We’ll survive his term and pick up the pieces. We can only hope that he’ll be recognized for what he is sooner rather than later. The GOP will start to recognize that they’ve sold their souls to the devil and they won’t have him around in 4 years. There is no heir apparent.
In terms of his bluster toward other countries I believe that as long as they resist he can do little. But it is up to them. They need to not give in. Currently our Congress will do nothing - either party. He has cowed the Republicans and the Democrats seem flummoxed. If, indeed, he does move militarily in our hemisphere it will up to the American people to stop him. Do they have the will? I dont know.
My greatest concern is Russia in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and China and Taiwan. You are very correct that Trump has given them carte blanche. Hopefully the Western European nations will continue to stand by Ukraine. But who will support Taiwan? Will it go the way of Hong Kong?
And let us not forget his threats in the Middle East that if Hamas hasn't released the hostages by 20 Jan there will be hell to pay. Does that mean US forces in the ground? Strikes against Iran? This I believe is the area most likely to see near term US involvement.
It might be wise to wait and see what, if anything, Trump actually does.
As you know, Trump is the brilliant master of media manipulation melodrama. To the degree we get swept up in trolling operations whose real intent is just to keep Trump in the headlines, we are falling right in to the trap that's been set for us.
Strategies for we Dems could be:
1) What exactly will our response be to Trump's actions be? Everybody on the Net loves to ring the alarm bell and endlessly discuss how horrible Trump is etc etc etc, but there is actually very little discussion of how exactly we would respond to fascist actions. As example, if Trump were to invade Greenland, what are we going to do about that? What? What exactly? The fact that that conversation never seems to happen tends to undermine our claim that Trump is a crisis.
2) We should keep in mind that if Democratic Party values are ever to dominate American politics we are going to have to peel away enough Republicans to obtain a reliable majority in national elections. Every time we insult Trump we are in effect insulting those who voted for him, and we buy in to the polarizing division strategies that are Trump's trademark. So how about a little less of that, and a little more of this...
3) The passing of Jimmy Carter offers us a great opportunity to sell a positive vision of what Democrats offer the country. As one example, I'm trying to persuade the Carter Center to come to Substack. If you have connections at the Carter Center, you could certainly do a better job of such persuading than I can. We're unlikely to ever find a more impressive Democratic Party hero than Carter, so we should trumpet his life and accomplishments as much as possible. Less talking about what we hate, and more talking about what we love.
He thinks he's McKinley. Not an example I'd want to tie myself to.
Think of the juxtaposition: honoring one of the most selfless Presidents in history while waiting to inaugurate ( or better, coronate) a grifter who sells fake watches and sneakers. I would offer the theory that all of his pronouncements, including his cabinet choices are all misdirection. He’s a master of managing his message and has perfected the art of the ‘shiny new thing’ to attract attention and distract notice, all at the same time. Everything is transactional to this guy…gaining leverage is tantamount, whether he’s dealing with allies or adversaries. There is no win-win in his world. Not only does he have to win, you have to lose.
The ‘tell’ is the use of economic advantage. Money and power are the only things that count in his world view. We’ll survive his term and pick up the pieces. We can only hope that he’ll be recognized for what he is sooner rather than later. The GOP will start to recognize that they’ve sold their souls to the devil and they won’t have him around in 4 years. There is no heir apparent.
Tom
Excellent piece.
In terms of his bluster toward other countries I believe that as long as they resist he can do little. But it is up to them. They need to not give in. Currently our Congress will do nothing - either party. He has cowed the Republicans and the Democrats seem flummoxed. If, indeed, he does move militarily in our hemisphere it will up to the American people to stop him. Do they have the will? I dont know.
My greatest concern is Russia in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and China and Taiwan. You are very correct that Trump has given them carte blanche. Hopefully the Western European nations will continue to stand by Ukraine. But who will support Taiwan? Will it go the way of Hong Kong?
And let us not forget his threats in the Middle East that if Hamas hasn't released the hostages by 20 Jan there will be hell to pay. Does that mean US forces in the ground? Strikes against Iran? This I believe is the area most likely to see near term US involvement.
It might be wise to wait and see what, if anything, Trump actually does.
As you know, Trump is the brilliant master of media manipulation melodrama. To the degree we get swept up in trolling operations whose real intent is just to keep Trump in the headlines, we are falling right in to the trap that's been set for us.
Strategies for we Dems could be:
1) What exactly will our response be to Trump's actions be? Everybody on the Net loves to ring the alarm bell and endlessly discuss how horrible Trump is etc etc etc, but there is actually very little discussion of how exactly we would respond to fascist actions. As example, if Trump were to invade Greenland, what are we going to do about that? What? What exactly? The fact that that conversation never seems to happen tends to undermine our claim that Trump is a crisis.
2) We should keep in mind that if Democratic Party values are ever to dominate American politics we are going to have to peel away enough Republicans to obtain a reliable majority in national elections. Every time we insult Trump we are in effect insulting those who voted for him, and we buy in to the polarizing division strategies that are Trump's trademark. So how about a little less of that, and a little more of this...
3) The passing of Jimmy Carter offers us a great opportunity to sell a positive vision of what Democrats offer the country. As one example, I'm trying to persuade the Carter Center to come to Substack. If you have connections at the Carter Center, you could certainly do a better job of such persuading than I can. We're unlikely to ever find a more impressive Democratic Party hero than Carter, so we should trumpet his life and accomplishments as much as possible. Less talking about what we hate, and more talking about what we love.