What can Republicans learn from Trump’s victory? The biggest lesson is that the old way of politics is dead. McCain and Romney showed that twice. Now Trump has shown how Republicans can actually win.
1. Find Your Natural Base
The GOP is ashamed of its base. It doesn’t like being associated with the very voters who made 2016 happen. Its autopsy last time around searched for ways to leave the white working class behind.
There’s a party that did that. Their symbol is a jackass. They just lost big because they ran out of working class white voters.
The Democrats have tried to manufacture their base using immigration, victimhood politics and identity politics. The GOP has wasted far too much time trying to compete on the same playing field while neglecting its base. Trump won by doing what the GOP could have done all along if its leadership hadn’t been too ashamed to talk to people it considered low class because they shop at WalMart.
The GOP wanted a better image. It cringed at Trump’s red caps and his rallies. And they worked.
Trump won because he found the neglected base of working class white voters who had been left behind. He didn’t care about looking uncool by courting them. Instead he threw himself into it.
That’s why McCain and Romney lost. It’s why Bush and Trump won.
The GOP is not the cool party. It’s never going to be. It’s the party of the people who have been shut out, stepped on and kicked around by the cool people. Trump understood that. The GOP didn’t.
The GOP’s urban elites would like to create an imaginary cool party that would be just like the Democrats, but with fiscally conservative principles. That party can’t and won’t exist.
You can run with the base you have. Or you can lose.
2. Media and Celebrities Don’t Matter
The first rule of Republican politics is to look in the mirror and ask, “Are we trying to be Democrats?”
Twice Obama’s big glittering machine of celebrities, media and memes rolled over hapless Republicans. Republican operatives desperately wondered how they could run against Oprah, Beyonce and BuzzFeed. How were they supposed to survive being mocked by Saturday Night Live and attacked by the media?
The answer was to find voters who weren’t making their decisions based on any of those things.
The GOP’s approach in the last few elections was to try and duplicate the Obama machine. These efforts were clumsy, awkward, expensive and stupid. The Obama machine was great at influencing its target electorate of urban and suburban millennial college grads because that’s who ran it and directed it. But that’s not the Republican base. And chasing it was a waste of time, money and energy.
Instead of trying to duplicate the Obama machine, the Trump campaign targeted a class of voters who didn’t care about those things. The white working class that turned out for Trump was a world away from the cultural obsessions of the urban elites who had traditionally shaped both sets of campaigns.
Romney wanted everyone to like him. Being rejected hurt him so much because he wanted to be accepted. Trump ran as an outsider. Being rejected by the establishment was a badge of pride. He couldn’t be humiliated by being mocked by the cool kids because he wasn’t trying to be accepted.
Asking, “Are we trying to be Democrats?” isn’t just for policy. It’s also something for Republicans to remember when Election Day comes around. The Republican base isn’t the Democrat base. When Republicans commit to pursuing their base, they can stop worrying about what Saturday Night Live, Samantha Bee and random celebrities think of them. And they can just be themselves.
The mediasphere matters most when you care about it. When you don’t and when you focus on voters who don’t either, then it ends up as weak and impotent as it did in this election.
3. Go Right Young Man
Hillary Clinton’s campaign with its efforts to appeal to Republicans was a master class in triangulation. The Clintons were radicals who wanted to appear moderate. In the final weeks, Hillary’s people got out their brushes and makeup kits and tried to make her over into a candidate anyone could vote for.
But triangulation doesn’t work anymore.
Even before Trump, Bernie Sanders nearly derailed her by running as an unapologetic leftist. Hillary Clinton borrowed much of the structure of the Obama campaign, but missed its biggest feature.
Obama was much closer to Bernie Sanders than to Bill Clinton. He promised to destroy coal jobs, defended wealth redistribution and turned “You didn’t build that” into his mantra. It was a long way from Hillary’s ultra-cautious campaign. And it worked. Obama’s left-wing base turned out for him.
Trump won by unapologetically going to the right and infuriating the left. And it also worked.
Hillary hired plenty of Obama’s people, but it was Trump who had truly learned the lesson of Obama’s victories. American elections are no longer won by going to the center. Some of the most endangered senators had been centrists. The Republican moderate strategy cost them two presidential elections.
The radical left has polarized the country. Chasing the center is a dead end. Instead you champion your base. You promise them everything they want. You make them love you. And you win.
Instead of retreating, you double down. It doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks of you. If your base loves you and will stand for hours waiting to hear from you, they will do that on Election Day.
It worked for Obama. It worked for Trump.
4. Money Doesn’t Matter
What do Krispy Kreme, Costco and Donald Trump have in common? They don’t advertise.
When you have a compelling enough product, then you don’t need to advertise. You will be talked about and the customers will want to know more about you.
You still need money to win presidential elections, but you need a lot less money than the consultants and experts would like you to think that you do. Trump spent a lot less than Hillary Clinton did.
Ad budgets have ballooned, but the impact of advertising in the age of the smartphone is shakier than ever. Ads for national candidates have far less impact than their public presence in the reality show of life. Far more Americans followed Hillary’s health crisis than watched all of her ads combined.
Trump was unafraid to benefit from gobs of media coverage. Even when it was mostly negative. Meanwhile Hillary avoided engaging with the media while spending a fortune on advertising. It was an expensive and outdated approach that didn’t work for her during the primaries or the general election.
The Trump campaign didn’t repeat Romney’s mistake of spending a fortune on consultants. Hillary Clinton did. It’s usually the unnatural candidate, the politician least comfortable in his own skin, who makes that mistake. Instead Trump spent money on the practicals, like the ground game, he paid more attention to local ads than to national ads. And he didn’t make the common mistake of believing he could buy the election. It’s not how he had won the nomination. It’s not how he won the election.
5. Controversy Works
Trump’s campaign was declared dead more often than disco. None of the scandals worked. None of the outrage stopped him. Instead it helped him win. Every downturn in the polls preceded another upturn.
If you’re running as a consensus candidate, a scandal can destroy you. But if you’re running against the system, then scandals only make you stronger. Each attack on Trump gave him credibility. It defined him as a politician who wasn’t part of the system. And none of Trump’s critics understood that by attacking him they were only helping him win. They couldn’t stop this compulsive behavior even when it didn’t work. Surely the next scandal was the one that would finally and permanently do Trump in.
Even now they’re still thinking that way.
Traditional campaigns are run by professionals who see their job as avoiding controversy. Candidates are schooled not to offend anyone. But if you don’t offend anyone, you also don’t inspire anyone.
Inspiration without controversy is a fridge magnet. In politics to inspire, you must be controversial.
Controversy made Trump a national and then an international figure. The more an establishment attacked him, the more he was seen as a savior by its enemies. Controversy, more than anything else, made him a change candidate. Trump wasn’t Teflon. He didn’t survive attacks the way Bill Clinton did. Instead he thrived on them until he became the voice of millions of angry Americans.
Controversy isn’t something to be feared. It’s something to be embraced.
In the years ahead, consultants and experts will insist that Trump’s campaign was a fluke that nothing can be learned from. They will argue that the old failed way of politics is best. But the old way of politics is dead. The future belongs to Republicans who listen to their base instead of their consultants.
The future belongs to Republicans who care more about what their supporters think of them than what the media does.
(This article first appeared as "5 Ways Trump Shows How to Win Elections" at Front Page Magazine.)
1. Find Your Natural Base
The GOP is ashamed of its base. It doesn’t like being associated with the very voters who made 2016 happen. Its autopsy last time around searched for ways to leave the white working class behind.
There’s a party that did that. Their symbol is a jackass. They just lost big because they ran out of working class white voters.
The Democrats have tried to manufacture their base using immigration, victimhood politics and identity politics. The GOP has wasted far too much time trying to compete on the same playing field while neglecting its base. Trump won by doing what the GOP could have done all along if its leadership hadn’t been too ashamed to talk to people it considered low class because they shop at WalMart.
The GOP wanted a better image. It cringed at Trump’s red caps and his rallies. And they worked.
Trump won because he found the neglected base of working class white voters who had been left behind. He didn’t care about looking uncool by courting them. Instead he threw himself into it.
That’s why McCain and Romney lost. It’s why Bush and Trump won.
The GOP is not the cool party. It’s never going to be. It’s the party of the people who have been shut out, stepped on and kicked around by the cool people. Trump understood that. The GOP didn’t.
The GOP’s urban elites would like to create an imaginary cool party that would be just like the Democrats, but with fiscally conservative principles. That party can’t and won’t exist.
You can run with the base you have. Or you can lose.
2. Media and Celebrities Don’t Matter
The first rule of Republican politics is to look in the mirror and ask, “Are we trying to be Democrats?”
Twice Obama’s big glittering machine of celebrities, media and memes rolled over hapless Republicans. Republican operatives desperately wondered how they could run against Oprah, Beyonce and BuzzFeed. How were they supposed to survive being mocked by Saturday Night Live and attacked by the media?
The answer was to find voters who weren’t making their decisions based on any of those things.
The GOP’s approach in the last few elections was to try and duplicate the Obama machine. These efforts were clumsy, awkward, expensive and stupid. The Obama machine was great at influencing its target electorate of urban and suburban millennial college grads because that’s who ran it and directed it. But that’s not the Republican base. And chasing it was a waste of time, money and energy.
Instead of trying to duplicate the Obama machine, the Trump campaign targeted a class of voters who didn’t care about those things. The white working class that turned out for Trump was a world away from the cultural obsessions of the urban elites who had traditionally shaped both sets of campaigns.
Romney wanted everyone to like him. Being rejected hurt him so much because he wanted to be accepted. Trump ran as an outsider. Being rejected by the establishment was a badge of pride. He couldn’t be humiliated by being mocked by the cool kids because he wasn’t trying to be accepted.
Asking, “Are we trying to be Democrats?” isn’t just for policy. It’s also something for Republicans to remember when Election Day comes around. The Republican base isn’t the Democrat base. When Republicans commit to pursuing their base, they can stop worrying about what Saturday Night Live, Samantha Bee and random celebrities think of them. And they can just be themselves.
The mediasphere matters most when you care about it. When you don’t and when you focus on voters who don’t either, then it ends up as weak and impotent as it did in this election.
3. Go Right Young Man
Hillary Clinton’s campaign with its efforts to appeal to Republicans was a master class in triangulation. The Clintons were radicals who wanted to appear moderate. In the final weeks, Hillary’s people got out their brushes and makeup kits and tried to make her over into a candidate anyone could vote for.
But triangulation doesn’t work anymore.
Even before Trump, Bernie Sanders nearly derailed her by running as an unapologetic leftist. Hillary Clinton borrowed much of the structure of the Obama campaign, but missed its biggest feature.
Obama was much closer to Bernie Sanders than to Bill Clinton. He promised to destroy coal jobs, defended wealth redistribution and turned “You didn’t build that” into his mantra. It was a long way from Hillary’s ultra-cautious campaign. And it worked. Obama’s left-wing base turned out for him.
Trump won by unapologetically going to the right and infuriating the left. And it also worked.
Hillary hired plenty of Obama’s people, but it was Trump who had truly learned the lesson of Obama’s victories. American elections are no longer won by going to the center. Some of the most endangered senators had been centrists. The Republican moderate strategy cost them two presidential elections.
The radical left has polarized the country. Chasing the center is a dead end. Instead you champion your base. You promise them everything they want. You make them love you. And you win.
Instead of retreating, you double down. It doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks of you. If your base loves you and will stand for hours waiting to hear from you, they will do that on Election Day.
It worked for Obama. It worked for Trump.
4. Money Doesn’t Matter
What do Krispy Kreme, Costco and Donald Trump have in common? They don’t advertise.
When you have a compelling enough product, then you don’t need to advertise. You will be talked about and the customers will want to know more about you.
You still need money to win presidential elections, but you need a lot less money than the consultants and experts would like you to think that you do. Trump spent a lot less than Hillary Clinton did.
Ad budgets have ballooned, but the impact of advertising in the age of the smartphone is shakier than ever. Ads for national candidates have far less impact than their public presence in the reality show of life. Far more Americans followed Hillary’s health crisis than watched all of her ads combined.
Trump was unafraid to benefit from gobs of media coverage. Even when it was mostly negative. Meanwhile Hillary avoided engaging with the media while spending a fortune on advertising. It was an expensive and outdated approach that didn’t work for her during the primaries or the general election.
The Trump campaign didn’t repeat Romney’s mistake of spending a fortune on consultants. Hillary Clinton did. It’s usually the unnatural candidate, the politician least comfortable in his own skin, who makes that mistake. Instead Trump spent money on the practicals, like the ground game, he paid more attention to local ads than to national ads. And he didn’t make the common mistake of believing he could buy the election. It’s not how he had won the nomination. It’s not how he won the election.
5. Controversy Works
Trump’s campaign was declared dead more often than disco. None of the scandals worked. None of the outrage stopped him. Instead it helped him win. Every downturn in the polls preceded another upturn.
If you’re running as a consensus candidate, a scandal can destroy you. But if you’re running against the system, then scandals only make you stronger. Each attack on Trump gave him credibility. It defined him as a politician who wasn’t part of the system. And none of Trump’s critics understood that by attacking him they were only helping him win. They couldn’t stop this compulsive behavior even when it didn’t work. Surely the next scandal was the one that would finally and permanently do Trump in.
Even now they’re still thinking that way.
Traditional campaigns are run by professionals who see their job as avoiding controversy. Candidates are schooled not to offend anyone. But if you don’t offend anyone, you also don’t inspire anyone.
Inspiration without controversy is a fridge magnet. In politics to inspire, you must be controversial.
Controversy made Trump a national and then an international figure. The more an establishment attacked him, the more he was seen as a savior by its enemies. Controversy, more than anything else, made him a change candidate. Trump wasn’t Teflon. He didn’t survive attacks the way Bill Clinton did. Instead he thrived on them until he became the voice of millions of angry Americans.
Controversy isn’t something to be feared. It’s something to be embraced.
In the years ahead, consultants and experts will insist that Trump’s campaign was a fluke that nothing can be learned from. They will argue that the old failed way of politics is best. But the old way of politics is dead. The future belongs to Republicans who listen to their base instead of their consultants.
The future belongs to Republicans who care more about what their supporters think of them than what the media does.
(This article first appeared as "5 Ways Trump Shows How to Win Elections" at Front Page Magazine.)
Comments
Well done, but if the Republicans as a whole follow your advice, some of the rest of them are going to have to leave and formally join the Democrat party.
ReplyDeleteThat is ok. There is going to be a major sorting out here and an equal or greater number of Democrats will have to leave their party as well. The Democrats are now the party of spoiled boomers and their children who care more about lgbtqetc self indulgence than they do about jobs.
DeleteEverything you say above is true. However if your candidate doesn't have an idea in his head of where he wants to take the party once elected or how the government runs then he is simply another Chance Gardiner from the movie "Being There". You can swear you are "Draining the swamp" but all you are doing is feeding different alligators.
ReplyDeleteAs William Buckley said in 1966 about John Lindsey. "If the Republican party is transformed in his image I shall give you the Republican party and go elsewhere." I have been in the Political wilderness before and there is no disgrace in being there again.
You nailed it with this article Dan! This is the best and most accurate article I've read anywhere explaining the GOP and President-elect Trump's strategy and I spend a awful lot of time on social media and news media outlets in general since becoming disabled from multiple myeloma after a 30 year career in the furniture and cable manufacturing industries. I only hope the GOP has learned from it! I'm looking forward to a American government that once again looks out for Americans and puts us ahead of illegal immigrants and the rest of the World. I think the World government like the Democratic party had sought out was a bad idea to begin with! Hopefully we'll have a government again as our founding fathers intended, one that's for the people and by the people and that they'll never again forget just who it is they're working for in Washington, D.C.! If not, white working class males like myself will have to give them yet another reminder at the voting polls!
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr Greenfield, for another insightful article. We await your next with great anticipation!
ReplyDeleteVery insightful.
ReplyDeleteThe ad thing is interesting. In one of my niche areas, some companies don't advertise at all, but instead spend their ad budgets giving the customers something they want.
Another crystal analysis, Dan. Beautifully stated.
ReplyDeleteFor me, as a background perspective, I see as well, there is the matter of changing demographics, and that currently, thanks to the past 8 years, and even the preceding 50 or so build up, (including American educational complete disarray, into socialistic brainwashing ‘unreality teach’), societal order, American discipline and mental wellbeing has been shattered, among the majority of yet conservative counties.
Donald perhaps politically approached this horrific status, with a shake 'em out of their malaise, let them be awakened demolishment demonstration. Then he let them know it can be great again, and he is the only one that can get that job done. And it will be just as tough a job as demolishing his 15 or so previous opponents, given the demonstrated evil ability and intents of th array of devils, from soros and associates, silicon valley accidental boy billionaire wonders of no wisdom, the MSM, and the rank and file zombie democrat loser followers of socialism, and all the beads and trinkets they can get thrown to them from the lofty balconies of the anointed progressive socialist Podesta-clinton ones, or their designated progeny!
In special ways, my own experiences, of decades, have some limited parallels, which particularly make it easy for me to relate to his remarks (except for some of the rudeness), and his now more Presidential style behavior. And yes, Presidents do call on company heads, in business, and as CEO of the USA, as well, to anyone, for appropriate effect! A capable CEO, knows how to wield power, with a velvet hammer, or a sledge hammer, as appropriate to the situations. I have personally practiced my own ‘art of the deal’ on my own style, hard core, for decades, on occasion just to show a friend or other how it is done. Set the ordinary heads to spin.
I, and very many others, could have made better deals myself, than anyone in the jester regime of the past 8 years has, easily. It is much the same brinksmanship procedure, but a touch more sophisticated, that the NK used at the negotiating tables at Pyongyang. As I recall, we still have no signed treaty, yet, last I heard.
I expect ‘The Don’ will see to it, by hiring those who know this critical art of the deal of the world, or he will coach or teach how, to those with other critical skills. Not always easy to teach at the highest form, however.
So, over the next 8 years, I doubt our disarray will much improve, as a large amount of remedial education of the American public about America, and it’s and the world’s history, and America’s actual place in it, will improve that much, for what ultimately took increasing amounts of negative disruptive brainwashing over a 60 year period. As the Zen master said, ‘We’ll see’!!!
Personally, I'd like to hear/read what Mr. Greenfield thinks of Mattis as Secretary of Defense.
ReplyDeleteAll five lessons stem from Trump's profound situational awareness of the American human condition. He knew that serious adults treasure the wisdom and nobility of the Declaration and Constitution; that they hunger for unrestrained pursuit of betterment for self and family. America is a shared love of freedom and justice, not a condescending nanny. These virtues are the wellspring of righteous pride for every loyal American. Anything less is not welcome here.
ReplyDeleteTrump spoke spontaneously and bluntly because it all came from this, and, of course, that he clearly had the energy and ability to deliver. He sprinted the entire race, and accelerated on election night.
Compared to wiley, conniving, self-serving snake oil peddlers from both parties, it was no contest.
ABSJ1136
DP111 writes..
ReplyDeleteIf the America that was great is to be made great again, then the policies, and understandings on which they are based, have to be reversed.
That means multiculturalism, has to go. Second, a way has to be found, that the social atmosphere of the West is hostile to totalitarian ideologies like Islam.
I've been posting for at least 10 years that the GOP feared nothing more than the media label, "stupid." They still do, and they are becoming what they fear.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant Daniel.
ReplyDeleteIf Trump can send Islam to the same place as Nazism and Shintoism, extinguishing it criminally from Earth with an Alliance of Kaffir nuke states, he will be remembered throughout the ages as belonging in the same stratospheric company as Washington and Lincoln.
We need to get honest about the existential threat the Islamic criminal enterprise poses to Western Civilization. Islam is a crime deserving of no Constitutional protections. We're not required to tolerate it or consider it a religion just because a 7th Century psychopath said so.
No one could start Islam today. With Abrogation, Islam's source texts alone reveal it to be the real crime syndicate it is. It's a long list of serious felonies, with Conspiracy for Genocide and Sedition being right at the top.
Muhammad would be in a Federal Supermax on Death Row were he to be alive today.
Trump has the stones and the wisdom to literally save the World, though it must be done during his first term, lest there be no second.
Finally Daniel, I don't know how to do it, but if you could ever articulate a way to flip the college Millennials to the GOP, it would be near fatal for the Democrats. I understand the root of it is their professors to whom they're beholden to tow the line or risk bad grades. Either we must flip the professors or convince the students to disregard the grade-givers' flawed ideologies. I understand either way is a heavy lift, but maybe a genius like you could figure how.
Stay strong Brother.
Having the media hate him gave him street cred with those of us who have so much reason to distrust them.
ReplyDelete"Controversy isn’t something to be feared. It’s something to be embraced."
ReplyDeleteOr as someone once said, 'There's no such thing as bad publicity."
Thank you for the article. I'd say a large number of Americans are sick of Left wing premises such as political correctness. Trump stood up for speaking one's mind and that not only generated controversy. It also got him a lot of votes.
The GOP still has 'completely political', that is, cowardly, semi-socialist RINOs such as Ryan and McConnell in positions of real authority. Even with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, neither R. or M. ever had the guts to stand up to Obama and the Democrats. (I have read that McConnell has recently engineered another surrender to the Democrats on freedom of speech in order to get one of his favorite staffers appointed to a position of importance.)
But perhaps Trump will get both R. and M. off their duffs on behalf of a real honest GOP agenda.
There are millions right now ready to go to armed war in this country against the left. Their arrogance defeated them because they didn't think they could be beaten. It is truly amazing. I've lost many friends over this election but they weren't really friends if they really believed Obama was for America and they would vote for party line no matter what. I'm too old to care about lost friends anymore. I know we have a chance to bring the country back for everyone or have another Civil War. The Republican Party is also a big part of the problem. Crooks on both sides don't want to surrender their easy money. Each time I see Pelosi or Reid or Romney I want to gag. If Trump can't fix things then we all go down together, but Liberals will have the hardest fall because they will lose their crying rooms.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding in all respects but recently I have been wondering if the real inspiration for Trump was Ross Perrot's campaign.
ReplyDeleteI would also mention that Cruz ran as an outsider and clearly is one, but he was perceived as a member of the inner circle. Having said that Trump's attacks on Cruz were perplexing and alienated many conservatives.
So far I am impressed by Trump. But actions not words will determine my assessment of the man. Will he do anything to the Hildabeast?
Will he do anything to end the assault on our borders?
Will he shake up our broken judiciary and education systems?
Will he carry out his promises or merely be a parody of "read my lips?"
This election was about sovereignty, on all levels. It is a trend. The cosmopolitan globalist cognitive elite have debased the value of citizenship. Their moral magnificence and self-congratulation is repulsive to people who understand the meaning of value. If everything is important, nothing is important... especially when you're told you're a racist when protesting the lawlessness of Democrat demographic-building.
ReplyDeleteMedia figures feast on and build on crisis. People are tired of phony outrage. It's gotten boring. Not every social, political, or economic issue is worthy of a Normandy invasion -- some taxpayer-funded, deficit-spending "war" -- to stop it. Very but if human suffering is not a moral and ethical outrage. Yet the media constantly hectors us that it should be. We're becoming numb. We want to take care of our own families and communities, not the latest trendy "movement." Charity begins at home.
The shootings in Dallas were disgusting and repulsive to regular Americans who have jobs and pay taxes know coordinated mayhem when they see it. BLM was all the rage until the rage tweaked an unfortunate soul who went to town on police officers in downtown Dallas while all the "peaceful and patriotic" protesters ran for cover. The police moved toward the danger. This was a turning point. Our police deserve our respect, yet get none from these rent-a-mob scumbags. That was a turning point.
Indeed Hillary's health issues piqued everyone's curiosity, especially when she was poisoned and debilitated by some Trump-suppporting white Republican doctor. He's probably a Russian, too.
It doesn't hurt that the Democrats nominated the most loathsome, unlikable candidate because it was "her turn." I thought the Republicans had cornered the market in that kind of nomination stupidity (Dole, McCain, Romney, Jeb! Bush, et al). If the Dems had nominated Lizzy Warren, she would've won.
There is nothing like pizzaz and showmanship. Nothing. It attracts attention and creates buzz. Trump is a master showman, and played big media like marionettes.
Continued below...
Continued from above...
ReplyDeleteCool is crap. If I have to hear John McCain speak again, it'll be too soon. His political career embodies everything I despise... 36 years and counting. Sure, he's a crippled war hero, and sacrificed greatly for the United States in Vietnam. That doesn't mean he should speak his mind in front of every microphone he sees... which is what he does. He tries to be the king of cool. He's not. He reminds me of a George Carlin at the end of his career: witty, creative, angry and grotesquely jaded.
The celebrities who came out full throttle for Hillary helped Trump. A lot. Countless family dinners the Sunday before the election were swayed by idiots proclaiming what Rosie, Whoopie, Joy, Madonna, Rachel, Beyoncé, Moochelle, Oprah and all the rest thought of Trump. Not strong character references. The smart family members listened quietly, with swelling, cold anger. These people couldn't cast their ballot fast enough.
And finally, the Electoral College proved to be genius again. Firstly, because California has become such a disproportionate, lopsided popular vote hellhole that we might as well allow them to secede. Secondly, because it proves to us once again that Leftists and Left-leaning people cannot be trusted with power. They are nakedly, vociferously, viciously political... about everything. It's beyond absurd. We're to the point where people who can't figure out which gender they are is a political issue. We have homosexual "marriage" as a key, divisive and fraudulent social issue. They will use these issues --along with perennial threats of racism lurking under every bed (except their own, of course) -- to justify the simple truth that they just don't ant to play to any rules, laws or standards. They don't love the Constitution... they use it as a crossword puzzle.
Oh, and to top it all off, as a reminder, a black person or Latino voting in their own self-interest is a sensible black person or Latino. A white person voting in what they perceive to be their self-interest... is a racist. Please explain that logic for me. Kind of like hate crime laws, when we're told that blacks and Latinos cannot be racists. Uh-huh. That doesn't pass the smell test anymore.
Oh, and nothing is ever Hillary Rodham Clinton's fault. Ever. She has dark and powerful forces conspiring against her. Detect a pattern in Left/Democrat thinking? Wow... I'm with her. Someone who wants all the authority, yet none of the responsibility. What an inspiration.
In the final analysis, and the global trends that seem to now be underway, we now know that the polite, sensible, silent, mainstream majority sees that they don't have to live with all this nonsense anymore.
One word captures this phenomenon more than any other: ENOUGH!
Yes, no one swimming in the mainstream of politics and media could understand what the heck was going on with Trump Mania. All the while, we the little people slugging it out in the real world, just dug in our heels and gave $25 here and $35 there and every time the media said Trump was losing - well, we'd get mad, think, "boy are you stupid!" and go give another $25 or $35 to see Trump win :) and he did! Thanks for putting it all so eloquently Daniel.
ReplyDeleteHonoring the memory of tomorrow, December 7, 2016, Pearl Harbor Day surprise attack of 75 years ago, the decisive clarity of the loss, and the brilliant realization of the large quantity of Americans, who immediately enlisted, a nation of individuals who responded to reality, in so many ways, to help to KILL all the totalitarians, until they yielded, unconditionally, and were eliminated from continuation!
ReplyDeleteOur veterans, for whom my admiration for what they have endured, and did, and did honorably, I add in spades, that admiration is at the pinnacle of emotion. This is the sheer opposite of my nadir of disrespect for the liberal leftist progressive socialists, and cowards, who are taught and teach dishonor, and illusions, and acceptance and encouragement of criminal and crooked behavior and lawless acts, unlimited essentially in all of their self-centered lives. Think of wikileaks, and the many larger amount of revelations, of miserable examples of dishonor and deceit, practiced by countless many officials in the government, and sometimes lapsing into the private sector, as well.
You know, in that instance of war, and throughout the theatre of HELL that is real war, we did the necessary killing in an honorable way, largely. We had, as a nation and culture both, no official policy, nor general tolerance of, nor deficient national culture of the practice of burnt earth of mass rape, beheadings, cannibalism, and other perversities. We still do not, thanks be to God, and our Founders examples and wisdoms, as well. We still have many who do believe, and know God, who do know the Bible, Christ, and the supreme examples and guidance of wonderful behavior, of the straight path, with Passion, for the ultimate door.
Many other nations cannot as well, or at all, claim that, and as the history of the WW1, 2 shows, we acquitted, and with great pain, ourselves heroically. I add emphatically, all of these remarks, apply as well to our INCREDIBLE ANZAC allies, each and all of them!
We were tragically and disastrously somewhat late in coming to our senses, needing the clubbing of Pearl Harbor to come to reality, to awaken the asleep in nationalism, and nazi fascist and communist propaganda, the massive MSM ‘fake news media’ of the day! Yes, the ENEMY BOUGHT AND PAID FOR MANY SO-CALLED JOURNALISTS of the MSM FAKE NEWS MEDIA of the time, to avoid disrupting the sleeping giant, the USA, self-absorbed at the time. That delay was costly for many more lives and torture, all over the globe, than even the outrageously maligned and murdered Jews, cost terribly, but we managed. Had we come to our national senses, a little later, hitler might have had the bomb before us, and fleets of jets, before us, with potential massively worse consequences, the records show. At the end, hitler’s jets had just begun to be used against our boys, and men.
The courage and brilliance of the George C. Marshall recovery plans. They were crucial, as EMPLOYMENT, WITH ORDER, TO NEARLY EVERYONE IS OF STAGGERING EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL IMPORTANCE. That importance cannot be overstated, EVER!
Socialism, communism, fascism, and totalitarianism, together ultimately cost hundreds of millions of lives, through murder, genocide, and unimaginable illusion, deceit, and incompetence, in a mere century or so. There are many miseducated Americans who still have missed massively, mostly the younger ones, the facts of life of order and economy, among many, many, lessons lost and missed!
I must make comment on the most amazing events I’ve ever seen in such a dramatic way, the arrival of a mature experienced strong but sensitive, actually, real President, first one actually in many decades, instead of increasingly self-centered, zero experienced, poser, immature, miseducated extreme examples of boy potuses, and a nearly identical serpentine female one, which we have seen in the regimes of the past 16, perhaps more, years. This speaks to an extreme failure of the American voters, and their failure of education!
Reading these comments I get the distinct impression I was right when I stated above we elected Chance Gardiner of the movie "Being There." I've seem to have heard this same rhetoric 8 years ago with "This is the moment when the rise of the ocean begin to slow and our planet began to heal......"yadda,yadda,yadda.
ReplyDeleteThe above article advocates 5 lessons in which the Republicans should address future elections many of which seem to be to appeal to the lowest common denominator. He already knows who his base is. They obviously are the ones who are transfixed by his "Stray Voltage Theory" of purposely overstating his case and throwing out empty ideas knowing it will create controversy. Trump supporters see themselves as revolutionaries and when revolutionaries win their first course is to purge the ideological allies who refused to be partisan hacks. Hence while Trump is pleading for unity his minions Conway, Huckabee, Christie and Guiliani along with Breitbarts flying Monkeys attack Romney and Paul Ryan. Hannity meanwhile wants to ban the MSM from White House press conferences until they acknowledge their bias. This isn't a dialogue but a monologue and isn't conducive to a successful administration. May I remind you that Trumps "POPULIST MOVEMENT" DID NOT win the popular vote? Populism thrives in an open milieu of exchanging ideas not this Facebook version of counting how many friends I have.
Could DD Mao be a different spelling of Di Di Mau? Vietnamese for move out in a hurry or slang for get away from me or here? It doesn't matter that California swayed the popular vote. How many illegal LA gang members voted? The Liberals cry there was no fraud in California like we are some mere brainless meatbags expected to believe them. The electoral college decides and Liberals are on their way out. I would seriously consider letting southern California split off from the North and leave the union. Let Mexico have it. They think they have it now thanks to rich clueless Liberals.
ReplyDeleteDennis:
ReplyDeleteI was there from October 68 to October 69 in the Central Highlands. If you caught on you must have been there also....Welcome home !
Daniel Greenfield on Tucker!! Wooohooo!
ReplyDeleteWow, congrats Dan G. just saw you, our well respected hero, on Tucker on Fox. Absolutely incredible. You have the eye of Tucker's new conservative show. Nice, nice work, Dan., as always. Even more so, with that kind of kudos.
ReplyDeletethanks Jack and Anon. It was a fun little jaunt and it's nice to occasionally be noticed
ReplyDeleteINDEED, Dan, INDEED!
ReplyDeleteBravo! Cogent, well thought out and a lesson to be learned. As a Jew I've never been able to figure out why the masses of Jews, usually reformed but Democratic. To me it is counter intuitive to the way we think. Have you written on this topic? Recently read the open letter to PEOTUS by the Rabbi at Temple Emmanuellle in NYC....a Shona! See it at Huffington Post and my reply.
ReplyDeleteMasterful insight...bravo! This will be read into the GOP annals.
ReplyDeleteAwesome write up Daniel! Let's hope the GOP establishment is listening. Oh great appearance on Tucker Calson Tonight on fox news. Good job.
ReplyDeleteAwesome write up Daniel! Let's hope the GOP establishment is listening. Oh great appearance on Tucker Calson Tonight on fox news. Good job.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the Carlson video where Daniel briefly discusses this piece made me realize what a powerful piece this is, and gave me the feeling that I need to confess I made some of the exact mistakes Daniel points out.
ReplyDeleteCertainly proves Daniel is some kind of genius to have such insights. Mind boggling.
DD Mao: I figured only a Nam vet would use that name tag. I was in the I Corps 67-68 with 1st Battalion 3rd Marines. Welcome home to you. Semper Fi.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of bloviating blowhards!
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