05-02-2017, 10:50 AM
(05-01-2017, 02:24 PM)David Horn Wrote:(04-27-2017, 10:31 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(04-27-2017, 02:19 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: The thing we all need to understand about Trump is his gut level skill of knowing how to rile up certain market segments. He has a peculiar skill of showmanship. He has identified a collection of disparate market segments, each of which, alone, would be merely a marginalized fragment. But he has mastered the art of juggling between all these segments (e.g. throwing each one of them bones) and thereby cements his coalition of odd outs. Any time he tweets something, or even pursues something real, be thinking - who is he really throwing a bone to? It's more about the immediacy of his presence and maintaining his position in the media stream than doing anything substantial involving the main stream establishment.
If anything, when you see him doing something more normal, that is him being cowed by the establishment, to the chagrin of his die hard believers.
Although it's tempting to interpret this or that outrage as Trump+the establishment clawing back progressive gains, in reality its more likely Trump doing things to maintain support of the various odd outs.
Well, except that those odd-outs he is throwing bones to, now that he's president, pretty-much all turn out to be extreme right-wing wackos of one sort or another. It's a coalition of wackos, including those in the Establishment. And his particular media skill is undeniable.
I have to disagree with this. Most Trump supporters are not wackos of any sort, and that's why Hillary's use of the word "deplorables" rankled. Most of the people backing Trump see him as the last opportunity they expect to see, because the mainstream pols all screw them consistently. It's either Trump or the dump, and they've seen plenty of the latter.
Eventually, Trump will disappoint too, but for now, he's got 50 miles of rope to run on.
I think what we were referring to by those Trump "throws bones to," are those who are benefitting from his policies, rather than those who voted for him, or even those he refers to in his rhetoric as his clientele.
Those are quite two different groups, although they may overlap at times. His policies, aka his bone-throwing, are pretty-much so far, policies that benefit the upper class, not those who are feeling economically deprived. Trump used rhetoric that appealed to white people feeling down and out. But he has been throwing bones only to the upper 1% of the country.
It's true that many of those still backing him see Drump as an opportunity to rebel against the "mainstream" or unseat the Establishment. But this is called deception, which is exactly what the American people have been the victim of for 40 years now. Deception is all it is. Trump IS a key member of the Establishment, and that's all he is, whereas Hillary was the rebel girl. But, many voters did not correctly see this fact; that's true.
Maybe Trump will start to change his tune. He is making noises about breaking up the banks and restoring Glass-Steagall. I don't think he has a clue about how to proceed yet, though. He's good at making noise. All he seems capable of so far, however, is issuing executive orders that benefit the wealthy few and hurt the people, as well as turn different groups against one another.