Donald Trump does not have the temperament of a person I would wish to see in the presidency. I wish he responded with more decorum and forebearance. But there he is.
Let’s engage in a little thought experiment. Let’s assume that the media engaged in a persistent, concerted campaign of attack against the president and his or her administration, with little regard for facts, fairness, or the good of the country. Let’s further assume that the president responded or, more accurately, didn’t respond by counter-attacking as Trump routinely does, also without regard for facts, fairness, or the good of the country.
What would happen?
Is the moral do not tease the animals?
He’s not supposed to be there. He’s toast if He doesn’t fight back.
If he were not this way,he wouldn’t have won the election.
He’s not the establishments pick, they screwed up by backing Mrs. Clinton. And by letting her run in the primaries as the predestined candidate, the Next, First. She had way too much baggage. Obvious, now.
Maybe it’s time for the press to grow up and do serious reporting on proposed policy. Gotcha reporting hasn’t and won’t work for them against the American people and their President.
Or, ‘go along to get along’. President Trump is an existential to ‘business as usual’, Washington style. This is how it must be. There is no ‘middle ground’. Trump is either good or evil. One is either for or against. There can be no reconciliation.
Donald J. Trump is a product of the corrupt system. He is one of the elites. Like all his fellow elites, he used the system to ‘get ahead’, and for decades, the politicians were quite happy to take his money, notwithstanding it being racist, misogynistic, homophobic, Islamophobic, transphobic, and every other *.phobic that ever was or ever will be.
He ‘betrayed his kind’, and they cannot let that go unpunished.
Trump’s been a bombastic, self-applauding liar and that “style” offends some people. I suspect if he gave up on tweeting, showed more tolerance for his critivs, stuck around the White House more often than golf courses, spoke modestly about his accomplishments and goals, and discussed the options he was considering in an honest fashion that most of those berating him would shut up, even if his actual policies were unchanged. And, to your point, if the press criticized him mercilessly while he behaved this way, I suspect he’d win over most of the public quite quickly.
Of course, he’d be Jimmy Stewart then, rather tham Donald Trump.
I think we all wish he would respond with more decorum and forbearance. But let’s do an alternative thought experiment.
If he did, would the media not engage in a persistent campaign etc etc? That would be a big fat no. Would Democratic leadership act with decorum and forbearance and not, in the face of policy differences, resort to claims he wants to kill people, hates gays and Mexicans etc etc. Would they withhold unfounded and ill-defined claims that he schemed with the Russians to throw the election, even if that’s largely just a fundraising gimmick? That would be a big fat no. Is the base happy that he fights back instead of Casper Milquetoasting around to have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife questions? (Remember LBJ and his campaign?). Yes. It serves a political purpose, especially in the context of the Pelosi’s or Hillary’s of the world or the bizarre congresswoman here in FL.
Gentleman Mitt Romney he’s not. But perhaps the better metaphor than your animal tease is wrestling with a pig in mud and shit. And lest we forget – Democrat and media predictions aside – he hasn’t blown
up the world or thrown us into depression. He has nominated a fine SC Justice, begun dismantling the regulatory morass, thrown issues dictated by the previous executive back to their rightful place in the legislative (including a blatantly unconstitutional funding scheme by Obama) and picked up the NK issue where three previous administrations irresponsibly punted.
Uhh, we already tried this experiment. They took away his Twitter at the end of the campaign. The number of negative articles fell. Take away his Twitter again and get him off social media and the negatives will decrease once again.
If he did this would the Democrats then have to go generate negative stories for the press to write about? Probably. Heck, the GOP made sure that we had 8 separate Benghazi investigations, all finding the same stuff the earlier ones found. They kept trying to link stuff to Obama that went on for years, like the IRS scandal or Fast and Furious. They couldn’t do it, but they still got the stories in the press.
However, that said, they would have to actually work at it. His tweets are just too easy. All of the casual, easy to disprove lies. Over and over. Lack of empathy. Bragging and self-agganizement like we have never seen in a politician.
The “fighting back” meme is weak. Most of the time it is him starting the fight. A lot of time it is just people passing our legitimate criticism, and he responds by going as low and despicable as he can.
Query- Has there ever been a POTUS or high level politician who is more media savvy? I mean, he has lived with and manipulated the media for years. He was part of it with his celebrity TV show. How much of this is him deliberately making sure he is in the news?
Steve
I think almost every person commenting here has a valid point.
The news media is biased in it’s reporting on Trump. More than 90% of the stories about him are cited as negative. That’s a big obstacle for any president to overcome, whether he sits backs, does nothing, is “nice,” or battles the message in a twitter account. In confronting the press, he does blast messages in bombastic tones which are easily conveyed by an unsympathetic MSM as unpresidential and offensive. And, the more Trump participates in strident social media conversations the greater swathes of his words become controversial, like the recent call to a widow regarding the death of her husband.
Trump does generously pat himself on the shoulder too much, which comes across as self indulgent and immodest. However, Obama had similar behavior in using the word “I” in over-abundance, during public addresses, when touting his administration’s achievements, goals etc. Where was the MSM’s criticism on those occasions? Also, Obama, like Trump, had an affinity for golf, but then took extra time off for annual pricey vacations to Martha’s Vineyard and Hawaii. Trump so far has utilized “working vacations” at and around his own golf clubs, with no additional time to chill and refrain from dealing with normal presidential tasks until returning to the WH. In fact when Trump is away from the WH he seems to keep a packed schedule of meetings and obligations, which the exhausted press has to continue to cover.
Unlike what has been continuously echoed by the MSM, I do think Trump’s disruption of political protocol has opened up uncomfortable dialogues usually muted by our growing PC culture — immigration, middle class exclusions, free speech issues, racism claims, over-regulation, warmists vs skeptic validity, the fairness of our trade agreements, school choice, healthcare bias for those buying their own plans. The list of dicey topics, usually left on the back-burner of most politician’s lips, is endless but may be a factor as to why when Trump’s opinion poll numbers are so lean, stadiums are full at his public rallies.
Drew, though, stated some of the up-side of Trump very well:
“He has nominated a fine SC Justice, begun dismantling the regulatory morass, thrown issues dictated by the previous executive back to their rightful place in the legislative (including a blatantly unconstitutional funding scheme by Obama) and picked up the NK issue where three previous administrations irresponsibly punted.”
IOW, while Trump’s words may hurt ears, his actions (so far) appear to be at least confronting and attempting to right some of the errors of past administrations.
If I understand correctly, President Bush was the most stupid evil-genius that ever lived until Sen. McCain was the Republican nominee, but then it turned out that Mitt Romney was the worst human being to have ever been born.
Now, the smartest people in the whole wide world are admitting that they might have been a little wrong, and amazingly, President Bush is only second to President Obama.
President Trump only needs to wait for the next Republican nominee, and then, he will be declared to be the third, or possibly the second, greatest President throughout all history.
Tasty,
What an ironic perspective you have!
@jan
I remember all the grief you got over Mitt Romney, and now, those same griefers have determined that you were right and that he was not the monster they claimed.
Perhaps I missed it, but I have not seen them apologize. They should don hair shirts and beg for your forgiveness.
Now, the griefers are being griefed by President Trump, and they are crying like little girls.
” However, Obama had similar behavior in using the word “I†in over-abundance,”
You know, someone finally went back and counted how many times he said “I” vs other presidents. He was about average. You again demonstrate a big problem we have. You believe things that just aren’t true. Things that are really, very , very easy to disprove. Just basic reading the words and counting.
Steve
“but then took extra time off for annual pricey vacations to Martha’s Vineyard and Hawaii. Trump so far has utilized “working vacations†at and around his own golf clubs, with no additional time to chill and refrain from dealing with normal presidential tasks until returning to the WH. ”
This has been fisked multiple times. Trump is playing way more golf, and his time off is costing way, way more than the Obama vacations. not even close.
Steve
Steve,
I haven’t seen any stats on how many times presidents have used the word “I” in their speeches. Please post a link, as I would be interested in seeing the ratios. However, I do remember Obama’s public addresses and they were more about him than including others in his accolades. As for Trump he seems to refer to the people, in his intentions and aspirations, and to himself as to the what has been crossed off and accomplished in the agenda he promised the people. For my tastes, I prefer the humble man. But it seems in politics there are very few of them that seem to make it to the position of POTUS – that includes Obama as well as Trump.
Regarding who has played more golf: I think Trump plays golf during both work (playing overtly with foreign heads of state and many congressmen) and pleasure. I think Obama, though, seemed to take to the links more to get away from the rigors of the presidency – IOW for his own pleasure.
However, when did Trump and his wife ever go off on a taxpayer paid vacation like Obama and his family were known to do?
Tasty,
I agree that Romney was taken over the coals, publicly humiliated, with lots of character assassination in the mix during his run for the presidency. Now, he is considered a decent human being in the wake of the crass Trumpian presidency. Dems simply throw mud on everyone who doesn’t agree with their ideology — decent or not!
jan- The Language log, run by a real linguist, has done many analyses on this. Her is just one of many. In this case he compares Obama with Romney.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4279
Regarding the golf, I guess if you are a good Trump supporter you just claim golf is the same thing as work. I ought to see if I can get paid for that. Trump’s trips to Mar a Lago have cost multiples more than Obama’s vacations.
Steve