It’s remarkable how clumsy and obvious he is, even when he’s backtracking and flip-flopping and might want to phrase things more evasively. Anybody who’s run for public office, from prothonotary on up, understands you want to make it sound good, rather than just blurt everything out with no filter. But Trump just says people don’t want him to say certain things so he won’t. He tells you he’s just telling you want you want to hear. He’s got that Palin quality of being cunning about other people’s weaknesses without being very bright generally.
So when France, Belgium, Germany, and/or UK’s citizens commit terrorist attacks, do we ban travel from those countries? They can come here without a visa, after all.
Please. Please, someone please tell Caitlin that that word “pivot” induces projectile vomiting among many of TPM’s readers.
Even used ironically, and it’s not clear to me that that’s the case, it is part of the vocabulary of the Mark Halperin “cult of savvy journalist journalism” that holds that politicians lie to the base and tell the truth about what they’ll do to the general electorate and that’s okay because it’s the Way to Win.
And, worse, it’s false. Republicans tell the truth about what they’ll do to the base and lie to the general electorate while the Chuckie Todds and the Morning Joes and Tweeties and Fourniers of the world nod sagely and with approval. Democrats say the same things to the base that they do to the general electorate. They just change the order–the stuff the base cares most about goes from the top and end of the speech to the middle, the stuff the general electorate cares most about gets the primacy and recency.
But our smart, savvy, smart, connected serious Beltway asshats never seem to notice this remarkably consistent trend. No, Both Sides Are the Same, Both Sides Do It and Both are Just Alike. It’s the Way to Win.
Which is, of course, why I had to wipe down my monitor to write this post.
And none of his low/no information ‘base’ gives a rat’s backside what he says as long as it comforts and mirrors their own fears and hates. They hear what they want to hear, and depending on what time of day it is, they will find some bit of hate, some slight, some juvenile insult he blurts out with which to agree because it reinforces their own bigotry, racism, misogyny, homophobia…etc.___ and they will say, “He’s right. He speaks his mind. Ima’ votin’ fer him!”
Trump yells, “SOOOOO-EEEEEEE!” …and they come a runnin’!
BAN the TERRITORIES!!! Waterboard them too. Build a wall around all of it that would make gerrymanders weep.
Trump’s ‘bigger’ plan is also dumber. It’s a catch all that would randomly block out whomsoever the right decided that they were hating the most that day.
Muslims would of course be the ‘unspoken’ biggest group on the list but because he says that he just won’t mention them directly anymore, somehow they’ll be less blocked.
This new version is open ended and ambiguous. To be perfectly clear, Trump wants to ban everyone that isn’t white and radically Christian and deport everyone that isn’t that too.
He’s going for a purer white hate. Not America at all IOW but something like Whiteistan or Honky Heaven.
Jeepers…I feel like I return to this quote too often, but it’s just so good and my god did Derpy-D just set it up…
"You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.” -Lee Atwater
Funny that he talks about 1954 then 1968. We’re talking about a similar timeline here in terms of 2001 to 2016.
It’s like the other side of the coin to it I think. Learning not to say “that’s retarded” because it’s offensive to people is an honest attempt to better yourself and respect others. Deliberately choosing new language that you intend to mean the same thing but is designed to provide you the plausible deniability to mask that intent…that’s dogwhistling. But you’re so right, because it’s still a response to the social mores at the time, just a disingenuous one.
Ok, I am not defending knife wielding people throughout the globe, but if we are going to talk about incidents of these type here are some others that Drumpf is not talking about and have nothing to do with the nationality or religion of the attacker:
He means Muslim and that’s what matters, not that he avoids saying what he really means.
Would it matter to Mexicans if Trump quit saying build a wall but was still talking about building a wall only saying barrier instead? No it wouldn’t, all of the people that Trump disparages and practices his bigotry against know what he means as does anyone with half a brain.
Lying by omission is still lying and according to my mother, deceitfully lying is worse than just a quick lie, I think because you have to work at it and its more intentional.
I know, it’s hilarious. His staff and family have obviously been telling him “Don’t keep saying Muslim, it makes you seem bigoted.”
So the next reporter he sees, he immediately babbles, “I’m not supposed to say Muslim anymore.” The implication is that he still MEANS Muslim, but he just won’t SAY it. He’s like a kindergartner who says to his teacher, “I’m not supposed to tell you Mommy drinks at lunch.”
