The Wrong Lesson?

So why did Trump win the ’16 election?

Was it the Democrat party’s rocket-ride to the extreme left?

The “Elite” condescension toward the great American geographic, political and economic middle?

Donald Trump’s facility at seeing the above and appealing to people to whom it mattered?

Or was it simple crass vulgarity?

Wisconsin Democrats are picking “D”:

Democrats are convinced that Wisconsin is primed for a Trump-backlash-inspired “blue wave” come November, and potential Walker challengers have joined the race in droves. With so many bodies in the race, a fringe candidate could conceivably win the primary with 15 to 20 percent of the vote and move on to face the vulnerable Republican incumbent in November. And just as Candidate Trump used vulgarity, insults, and half-cooked media stunts to differentiate himself from his primary opponents two years ago, so, too, are Walker’s Democratic challengers in 2018.

And they are quite the cast of himbos:

Mike McCabe, a former “good government” activist who suggested he would rent the governor’s mansion out to travelers on Airbnb, began his campaign by promising to end Walker’s “golden-shower economics.” Businessman Andy Gronik, who received a settlement of more than $6 million in a lawsuit he filed claiming a house he had purchased had given him an inflammatory-bowel disorder, told a debate crowd that he couldn’t wait to “hit” Walker. And on the same rainy day Mahlon Mitchell dropped his scatological stylings on the transportation group, state school superintendent Tony Evers joined a group in Madison protesting cuts to the state’s university system and told the group Walker’s cuts were “bullsh**.”

And just watch – if they win, “being crude, crass and impolitic” will suddenly become a virtue among Dems.

If there is a favorite in the Democratic field, it is Evers, a buttoned-up 65-year-old former teacher who has won three statewide elections as school superintendent. Nearly a decade ago, Evers beat cancer after having his esophagus and part of his stomach removed; today, he can’t eat a full meal and has to sleep at a 45 degree angle. However, even though the avuncular Evers has appeared on three statewide ballots, he is still relatively unknown in areas outside heavily liberal Madison. One recent poll had Evers leading the primary field with a flaccid 20 percent, which may explain his sudden foray into campaigning’s dark arts. In one January interview, he referred to Walker as an “idiot,” and he recently told the state Democratic convention that he was “goddamn sick and tired” of Walker’s policies.

And just when you thought nothing could be…loonier than this past DFL convention..

31 thoughts on “The Wrong Lesson?

  1. I question the logic of the proposition. What will this crass behavior get Democrats? They’ll feed the insane left, but at the same time, any exposure of this behavior will be repugnant to independents. I don’t know anybody who really likes how Trump talks — they just like what he says. The “crass” and “hateful” language/policies of Trump that the media was “highlighting” helped Trump and showed the media/Democrats don’t really understand the values and feelings of blue collar Americans. Hoist upon their own petard, indeed.

    Maybe we should refer the the media as Bubble America. They really are unconnected to the reality of everyone except the media and bureaucrat complex.

  2. There is a limit to how far you can go on the right & still be considered a serious person. Even the mildest endorsement of policies the media considers bigoted is enough to make you untouchable. Yet, on the left, you can endorse communism, infanticide, eugenics, and physical violence against your political opponents and still be considered a viable candidate for office (or tenure).
    There is no bottom on the Left. Until they begin to police their own, they cannot be considered a governing party — though they may, of course, become a ruling party.

  3. Yet, on the left, you can endorse communism, infanticide, eugenics, and physical violence against your political opponents and still be considered a viable candidate for office (or tenure).
    There is no bottom on the Left. Until they begin to police their own, they cannot be considered a governing party — though they may, of course, become a ruling party.

    What you can’t do on the Left, apparently, is eat at Chick-Fil-A, give money to a pro-marriage group, or depart from your assigned minority “plantation”. The Left is very vigorous in policing the standards it holds dear; what the rest of America might cherish, not so much.

  4. The Left is very vigorous in policing the standards it holds dear

    But I don’t think the Left holds any standards dear. Driscoll (on Instapundit) documents two responses to the Elian Gonzalez incident in which none other than Th. Friedman (who’s one of us, don’cha know) stated:
    This picture illustrates what happens to those who defy the rule of law and how far our government and people will go to preserve it. Come all ye who understand that.’

    I think it was Schlichter whom claimed that the left can hold any position as long as it’s thought to help attain or preserve power.

  5. Night Writer on June 18, 2018 at 1:39 pm said:
    . . .
    What you can’t do on the Left, apparently, is eat at Chick-Fil-A, give money to a pro-marriage group, or depart from your assigned minority “plantation”.

    I don’t think it can accurately be called a plantation anymore. If you are white, and are not “woke,” you are by definition a white supremacist to the Left. They have internalized the Stalinist mind set: they are all slaves, color doesn’t matter.

  6. It was when Hillary gave her Deplorables speech. Before that she might have been able to squeek by with 280 or 290 electoral votes. But once she gave that speech the blue wall came down. And in a rare moment of honesty she let it slip how Democrats really feel about blue collar people, who ironically were their base until about 20 years agoo.

  7. MP, JDM – the only thing the Left values is orthodoxy to its doctrines. You can be the liberal head of Twitter, but make the mistake of eating at Chick-Fil-A and you will feel the wrath. You can be the head of Mozilla, but give a small, private donation to an unacceptable group, and be forced out. You can be prog-darling Kanye West, but speak truth to the wrong power and be ostracized.

    The commissars are ever-vigilant, and will eat their own, with relish.

  8. NW, I completely agree with you on whatever standards are presently active, but standards change. Sometimes subtly, sometimes 180 degrees. Which was my point about Elian Gonzalez. Other standards, like “Chik-Fil-A is Bad” probably won’t change much, if ever; but then there’s no reason to change that one. Until, of course, there is.

    The Democrats have already stated they will vote against Paul Ryan’s “amnesty” proposal, even tho’ it addresses, if perhaps only in part, the so-called scandal of children in cages. They are using the increase in gas prices as an electoral gimmick, even tho’ they were for that no so long ago.

  9. I’m trying to think of similar language used by Trump. Yes, I know about the p-word but that was in 2005, long before his candidacy, and in a private conversation he thought was boys-will-be-boys locker room talk. He didn’t intend that comment to be public.

    There’s the comment about immigration from s-hole countries that the White House says Trump didn’t say, but we all wish he had because it’s entirely correct.

    The “g-shower” line was a flat-out lie paid for by Hillary.

    What has Trump said – as President or as candidate – that equates to the vulgarity of what Democrats are saying in public?

  10. Trump’s supporters aren’t going to be won over by liberals trying to sound like Trump They’ve got their one-of-a-kind idol; so be it.

    No, the strategy is to aim for those on the fence — the independents and the Republicans who are uncomfortable with Trump. They have to be offered a clearly contrasting alternative to Trump and his party today. If the other options are foul-mouthed and seem ill-tempered, that’s no choice at all.

    The 2018 and 2020 campaigns have to be about substance and not fighting to be the toughest personality in the room.

  11. The 2018 and 2020 campaigns have to be about substance and not fighting to be the toughest personality in the room.

    Heh – Emery finally said something that made me laugh. (Don’t forget to tip your servers, everyone.)

  12. The Democrats are going to tie the Republicans to Trump as tight as they can. The Republican party outside the Old Confederacy is probably going to get cut in half over the next two election cycles.

  13. Pingback: In The Mailbox: 06.18.18 : The Other McCain

  14. Mike McCabe, he of loose bowels, and Tony Evers the partially gutless (at a minimum) are to be the slander…..err…standard bearers for the WI DFL to run against Walker? I can see why they think the election should be focused on their disdain of Trump. Walker is likely not loosing a lot of sleep over his chances against these malevolent schmucks.

  15. Upon re-reading I guess it was Gronik with the poo issues, McCabe it seems is more troubled by urine dousing. Q: Has McCabe been in a Russian hotel with hookers recently?

  16. The Republican party outside the Old Confederacy is probably going to get cut in half over the next two election cycles.
    Uh . . . whatever. It’s amusing to hear the people that were wrong about everything make predictions about the future.

  17. Trump’s policies are either stupid or cruel. But what worries me most is how he deflects the blame. Yesterday morning, he tried to interfere in German politics (which he doesn’t understand). What will he do if the Mueller probe accuses him of serious misconduct, never mind actual crimes?

    Trump is unfit for the presidency. You may agree with him on limiting migration, you may agree with him on punishing China for IP theft, you may agree with him on isolationism. But even if you do, any rational person would want a competent and disciplined person to execute such massive policy shifts, and not leave them to a mean-spirited and vindictive man-child, who lies so compulsively that he no longer knows the difference between fact and fiction.

  18. The interesting thing about Trump’s “stupid and cruel” policies is they’re mostly not Trump’s policies.

    Moving the embassy to Jerusalem was a decision made by Congress, years ago. This President is obeying the law that prior Presidents ignored.

    Stopping illegal immigration at the border is a decision made by Congress, years ago. This President is obeying the laws that the prior President enthusiastically flouted.

    “Fair Trade” with Canada was a decision made by Congress, years ago. This President calling out Canada’s violations is part of his duty to faithfully enforce the laws that prior Presidents have not.

    The Trump administration has been conspicuously different from the prior administration by his adherence to the laws enacted by Congress, not to his own whims enacted by his pen and his phone. It’s a refreshing change.

  19. There will be a huge US trade deficit with the rest of the world for as long as there is a huge US budget deficits. The budget deficit gives the US and corporations more (borrowed) money to spend than it takes from them in taxes. Inevitably this money will be spent on competitively priced imports, to a large extent.

    Punitive tariffs on China will merely shift imports to other low cost Asian producers; they will not reduce the deficit.

    Maybe Trump can declare the problem solved by counting as exports the sale of chunks of Manhattan to foreign oligarchs?

    China will match the new tariffs. China will match each new tariff. And China has some unconventional weapons at its disposal. China will relax the restrictions on North Korea, giving Kim everything he wanted.

    Trade wars aren’t always so easily won.

  20. JD wrote: /“Fair Trade” with Canada was a decision made by Congress, years ago.”/

    The US runs a trade surplus with Canada. The trade deficit is the result of the rest of the world’s desire to invest in US assets, coupled with consumer’s preference to spend rather than save. It has little to do with tariffs on milk powder or anything else.

    If Canada’s average tariff of 3.1% is cause for a trade war, it is hard to imagine a victory for either side being anything other than pyrrhic.

  21. The economic argument for free trade is powerful.
    But people are not economic units. Within a nation, the benefits of free trade are uneven. In the US, the benefits of free trade have mostly been reaped by individuals with capital. it is not unreasonable to see a problem with most GDP growth over tha last 30 years going to people who were already wealthy or who are not American citizens.
    This is a democracy. If the government is in the business of parceling out privilege, the people have a right to decide who shall and who shall not be privileged.

  22. It really doesn’t matter whether Trump is rational or not, because he doesn’t understand economics and international politics, is unwilling to learn, and dramatically overestimates American strength. What Trump understands is low-brow celebrity culture, and he is a master of manipulating it. This is why he was utterly underestimated by competent people, who rarely read the National Enquirer, have not followed the WWE since their teens, and don’t really watch reality TV.

    At age 72, Trump sticks to what he knows, and that’s keeping up appearances for those who fall for him. After his last string of bankruptcies, he got his creditors to pay him monthly apanage. “If I look poor” his argument went “my brand will be ruined, and you’ll never get your money back”. This episode is key to understanding what is now happening on the international stage. But there is one important difference: Trump is hell-bent on using his presidential power to actually damage people, brands, and companies he hates — no matter the economic consequences. For once, he’s got real power over powerful people who despise him. And he will use his power to the extent an intellectually lazy and incompetent man can.

  23. When I see the videos of “unbiased” journalists mocking Trump when he announced his candidacy, “competent” is not the word I would use to describe them.
    Anyhow, “Our elites’ excellence worked against them!” is not a good argument.
    Hillary could have won by moving ever-so-slightly to the right on guns. She chose not to. Hillary’s campaign post mortems reveal a candidate who chose her campaign staff based on personal loyalty, not proven competence. The people that she was counting on to hand her a win, her strategists and vote counters, were in a state of shock on the morning of November 10.
    Excessive competence was their problem? Nah.

  24. Washington seems irreparably divided, but that cast of characters can be regularly cleaned out, not unlike flushing a toilet. Once you get beyond the social media outrage and self-righteousness so regularly on display, most Americans live very similar lives, and have similar views on any number of economic and social issues, and are largely tolerant of their neighbors, and of how other Americans live. The possible solutions to those long-standing and difficult issues reveal a nation unsure of how to proceed, and thus flailing for political coherence, essentially since the end of the cold war. But Americans are fundamentally a bourgeois people, with bourgeois values. They will come together when a political movement shows that it has a positive way forward. We just haven’t seen that movement come together yet, and as a people normally skeptical of political movements, we will take our time finding a solution. But even as we keep flailing politically, there is an underlying stability of bourgeois values and a stolid belief that our lives are largely self-determined.

  25. It is a mistake to think of Americans a “people” politically. The political interests of a government union worker & the interests of a non-government worker taxpayer are fundamentally at odds.
    Culturally Americans could once have been said to be one people (with a few notable exceptions), but after forty years of identity politics and unchecked immigration, that is not true any longer.

  26. Emery, your 1:30 is the essence of Liberal Denial. It’s why you cannot understand why the country isn’t going the way you want it to go.

    No, most people are NOT like you, they don’t live your life, don’t hold your opinions, don’t vote as you. Liberals are NOT tolerant of their fellow citizens, only the white, credentialed, middle-class people in their own neighborhoods.

    Fully half the people in this country are the ones you consider deplorable, bitterly clinging to their guns and Bibles AND THEY’RE GLAD OF IT.

  27. I’m at a loss as to say how, if Trump indeed has no understanding of economics or international relations, he would differ from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both of whom also excelled at keeping up appearances. For that matter, I remember cringing a LOT with W as well–voted for him twice (well, against his opponent twice, more accurately), but some of the things he did would make me turn off the radio, they were so bad.

    And really, it strikes me that Trump is having a lot more success at certain areas of international relations than did his predecessors, too. Could be the broken clock syndrome, but even if it is, I’ll take it over the guy who never even achieved that very often.

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