Two months after the election, I feel I'm still reading the same articles every day, written by "journalists" and commentators who can't get over the fact that "But he's rich, I tell you, rich!" isn't working as an attack. Nor is "But he's crass!"
The tone of the article was, "We in the press have continued to attack Trump after the election as we did before the election, but they still aren't listening to us."
One day that message may sink into the thick heads of the press, a.k.a. Democrat operatives.
I've decided to just wait and see how he does for a while. There's potential there for both a huge success, and a cratering failure. For now, we don't know which way it will go.
...doing things differently, even if they sometimes feel crass or off-kilter....
Feel crass to whom? Off-kilter by whose standards? Such self-important blinders.
Heaven forfend they should look in a mirror to get an understanding of why they've become so irrelevant.
There's potential there for both a huge success, and a cratering failure.
I'm becoming cautiously optimistic (which may be a jinx); Trump's Cabinet and other picks are promising. It may be that he'll be substantially successful (i.e., get much of the things I want done done), but it's likely that whatever success he has will be unnecessarily watered down by his foolish twitter storms.
Honestly, a publication that put the metaphor in that subhed in such a prominent place has no business at all complaining about "crass".
And I could answer the question in nine words: Because he sounds as though he's on their side. Trump is no constitutional conservative, and I wish he were. But it's pleasant to have a president who seems to kind of like America and Americans, instead of scorning it and them. That is something that has the potential to turn out very well.
As for Trump's tweets, I find that I kind of like them.
Twitter is admittedly not the place to prosecute a subtle argument. But I see it as a direct window into his thinking and priorities. Having that sort of access to what a president is thinking seems to me to be valuable. Not being dependent on the media class to get access to ordinary people also seems like a good thing. And having Trump Unedited, rather than processed through the customary layers of consultants, speechwriters, and spin doctors, is downright refreshing even if he is kind of crass. (Not nearly as much so since about three weeks before the election, I noticed.)
Oh, I'm not worried about his tweeting generally. It's just that going on about a TV show that he used to host and that he presently is an Executive Producer in order to knock the present host just seems foolish, both in its own right and for its distraction of what's really useful. His need for distraction and to control the news cycle go too far: his ordinary tweeting does that just fine.
No doubt Twitter is not a good place to pursue a subtle argument, but a politician, and especially a chief executive, is a terrible choice for the exponent of a subtle argument. A president should be able to get his point across briefly, assuming he has one. Republicans in general are horrible at this, and need to learn.
I am also in the "wait and see" camp, but I have just as much fear that Republicans in Congress will back out of everything they've promised for the last 8 years. Oh, they'll appear to do the things they promised, but there will be loopholes and delays and excuses and so forth and it won't amount to any kind of significant change.
They just can't get themselves past that, can they. I like that "stuck in the past" thinking; makes them ineffective.
ReplyDeleteThe tone of the article was, "We in the press have continued to attack Trump after the election as we did before the election, but they still aren't listening to us."
ReplyDeleteOne day that message may sink into the thick heads of the press, a.k.a. Democrat operatives.
I've decided to just wait and see how he does for a while. There's potential there for both a huge success, and a cratering failure. For now, we don't know which way it will go.
ReplyDeleteIt would take a piece of doing to do worse than Obama.
ReplyDelete...doing things differently, even if they sometimes feel crass or off-kilter....
ReplyDeleteFeel crass to whom? Off-kilter by whose standards? Such self-important blinders.
Heaven forfend they should look in a mirror to get an understanding of why they've become so irrelevant.
There's potential there for both a huge success, and a cratering failure.
I'm becoming cautiously optimistic (which may be a jinx); Trump's Cabinet and other picks are promising. It may be that he'll be substantially successful (i.e., get much of the things I want done done), but it's likely that whatever success he has will be unnecessarily watered down by his foolish twitter storms.
Eric Hines
Honestly, a publication that put the metaphor in that subhed in such a prominent place has no business at all complaining about "crass".
ReplyDeleteAnd I could answer the question in nine words: Because he sounds as though he's on their side. Trump is no constitutional conservative, and I wish he were. But it's pleasant to have a president who seems to kind of like America and Americans, instead of scorning it and them. That is something that has the potential to turn out very well.
As for Trump's tweets, I find that I kind of like them.
Twitter is admittedly not the place to prosecute a subtle argument. But I see it as a direct window into his thinking and priorities. Having that sort of access to what a president is thinking seems to me to be valuable. Not being dependent on the media class to get access to ordinary people also seems like a good thing. And having Trump Unedited, rather than processed through the customary layers of consultants, speechwriters, and spin doctors, is downright refreshing even if he is kind of crass. (Not nearly as much so since about three weeks before the election, I noticed.)
Oh, I'm not worried about his tweeting generally. It's just that going on about a TV show that he used to host and that he presently is an Executive Producer in order to knock the present host just seems foolish, both in its own right and for its distraction of what's really useful. His need for distraction and to control the news cycle go too far: his ordinary tweeting does that just fine.
ReplyDeleteEric Hines
No doubt Twitter is not a good place to pursue a subtle argument, but a politician, and especially a chief executive, is a terrible choice for the exponent of a subtle argument. A president should be able to get his point across briefly, assuming he has one. Republicans in general are horrible at this, and need to learn.
ReplyDeleteI am also in the "wait and see" camp, but I have just as much fear that Republicans in Congress will back out of everything they've promised for the last 8 years. Oh, they'll appear to do the things they promised, but there will be loopholes and delays and excuses and so forth and it won't amount to any kind of significant change.
ReplyDelete