vyshka
4505
That only works if you are conservative and it is a liberal army and secret police.
Clay
4506
Nobody really just called him out and repeatedly hammered him with it during the primaries or the election. Everybody tried too hard to remain presidential. We needed repeated hammerings of “You’re just a phony – a fraud – a con man – and your latest victim are the people of the US who haven’t seen past your charade.” It’s sort of clear now how sensitive he is on the ego front. I think the GOP primary opponents could have brought him down by insulting The Apprentice, his pageants, paid cheering sections at his rallies, etc. They would have had to “go low” to do it, but I think it would have worked.
Rubio went down to his level for a while and hurt Rubio more than hurt Trump. At various times most of his opponents (with notable exception of cowardly Ted Cruz until it was too late) did all of those thing.
Hillary was extraordinarily tough on him, mocking him, calling him a bully, trolling him etc. Hillary was a flawed candidate, but I think she went toe to toe with him, the debates were vicious and painful to watch… The problem was her negatives were almost as bad as Trumps.
It comes down to this, for me. If Marco Rubio had simply had the wit to come back with a clever response to “Little Marco” it would have been over. “Big Donald” isn’t an insult. It’s a compliment, you twit. “What’s the matter, big baby? Somebody forget to give you your afternoon feeding? Donald needs his diaper changed. Can somebody bring the big baby a fresh diaper?”
He’s an infant. They should have infantilized him. Instead they were always playing catch-up with a bully.
I had a kid in my class when I was teaching 9th grade Health. He was super sharp, but a real jerk. Really angry, and when I met his father at back-to-school night, I got why. His father just seethed. You could see anger coming off him like actual heat off of asphalt. He said to me, “If Jeff ever gives you trouble, you let me know.” And Jeff stood there behind him, looking cowed like I’d never seen. At that moment I knew I’d never be calling this man for help with Jeff.
Instead I just engaged in a battle of wits with Jeff. I just came with my A-game to third period, and whenever Jeff made a disparaging remark I came back with something funny. I didn’t disparage him, as I suggest Rubio should have been prepared to do (they all should have, the wimps), I just met him on his playing field. Eventually he cut it out and the toughest part of my day got easier.
Another teacher asked how I could possibly handle Jeff’s jokes and comments in class. I told her I was just staying one joke ahead. “That’s a dangerous game,” she said, wide-eyed. “Yep.”
If Marco Rubio had stepped on his neck and called him a baby who needed his diaper changed at that moment, instead of “Big Donald”…Trump would be an afterthought now.
-xtien
Hillary called him on his shit. It backfired and deplorable became a badge of honor.
Simplest explanation: people suck
ShivaX
4510
Mostly because she was Hillary and a Democrat. If a Republican had done it, it would have been much more effective.
The problem was that “basket of deplorables” is not really a phrase used by anyone, and certainly not by Trump’s voters. Just the word “deplorable” isn’t a commonly used word. It played right into the stereotype of Hillary and liberals being uppity elites. When Hillary trotted it out, it became a badge of honor because it held no insult to the intended targets. It only carried the implication that it was an out of touch smartypants thing to say. The fact that it matched up so well with The Expendables movie franchise only helped put it on t-shirts and make it an instant meme - another strength of Trump’s.
Problem is she called his followers on their shit instead of sticking to Trump and his cronies.
The narrative needs to be, “The people of America are noble and good, and they’ve been led astray by this piece of human garbage and his corrupt inner circle.” Turns out insulting voters doesn’t work, even if you think you’re confining your insult to people who will never vote for you. The wavering voters apparently just assume you mean them as well.
A false narrative IMO, but yes, probably more pragmatic.
Obama weathered “cling[ing] to their guns and religion.”
Hillary, sadly, is no Obama.
I agree. People talk about Hillary’s negatives but I think any candidate the Democrats could have put up would have had significant negatives. Once Fox News and the alt-right get done with a candidate he or she is going to have a lot of negatives.
That’s possible, certainly if Christie had turned his talent for insulting on Trump and not Rubio that would have helped. What I do find inexcusable is the failure of the candidate and/or their opposition research to get the dirt on Trump out in the public.
Evidently, Jeb’s team found the stuff on Russia ties and the golden shower stuff. The golden shower would have been a negative among the evangelist. Plus just a year ago Putin was like the official bad guy for Republicans an attacking Obama/Clinton for their handling of him was an applause line.
One of the biggest concerns about nominating Trump, was pretty much everybody knew that there was a mountain of dirt on Trump that would come out right after the nomination. This wouldn’t have affected his core supporters, but Trump did get a lot of primary votes from Republican who liked his outsider status but had reservations about his character.
Menzo
4517
The big fear was that Trump would run as a third party, and that’s why the RNC treated him with kid gloves. Then when he started winning there was no choice.
But I’m sure it was a real dilemma at the time, and when Russia is ready we’ll probably see some pretty terrible internal emails from the RNC about Trump and trying to stop him, but not so forcefully to cause him to mount a third-party run.
LMN8R
4518
What we need is a web site that cleanly and clearly organizes, day-by-day, every single awful thing that the Trump administration and an emboldened GOP does.
Simple format: Clear description of terrible thing, link to credible source of the terrible thing. If it’s a credible news article, a link is fine. If it’s a tweet, a link to the tweet - but a screenshot of the tweet too in case it gets deleted.
Day-by-day, easy to update, easy to filter, etc.
Does something like that already exist? If not, I’d be happy to try my hand to Squarespace myself.
KevinC
4519
It did, until Trump ordered his first drone strike.
rowe33
4520
I don’t know of a site like that but I found a quick summary of the border plan.
She should have just called them stupid, prejudiced man-babies.
It may have still backfired with moderates, but at least Trump’s base would’ve known what it meant.
Yeah, I don’t think you can insult a whole group of people without it backfiring, but it’s better to just say it loud and proud and clear. Don’t hide behind words. At the time I bet she thought she was being pretty careful too.
Are we allowed to admit that Hillary was a bad candidate yet? I mean, she would have clearly been a better president, but still.
Track Trump. It’s more about tracking his first 100 days pledges, but it has a daily roundup with links, mainly to government sources.
