I have no problem with Meryl Streep having her say about what she thinks of our incoming president. I think it’s fine that screenwriters for the show Blackish decided to use their platform to make an anti-Trump statement, and I see no problem with promoting the show during NFL playoff games. However, when I go look at today’s Memeorandum, I notice that you have to scroll quite a way down the page before you see any articles dedicated to Trump’s nominees to serve in his cabinet. All anyone seems to be talking about are these stories about Streep, and rednecks who are pissed at blacks for badmouthing the president-elect during their Houston Texans game, and Kellyanne Conway spinning all of this nonsense the best she can.The problem is, we weren't talking about Jeff Sessions and Rex Tillerson and Betsy DeVos even before Streep's speech. Obviously, politically engaged progressives were. But the rest of the country wasn't. Streep's speech didn't divert America's attention from Trump's horrible Cabinet because a huge percentage of America wasn't paying attention in the first place.
I think this is how Trump managed to pull off his miracle election. People can’t focus on the important things.
... every second wasted on Meryl Streep is a benefit to Trump and the prospects for his nominees to sail through the confirmation process with little fuss.
Of course Trump wants to talk about the Golden Globes. He wants you to talk about him talking about the Golden Globes.
It’s a simple game he plays, and it’s hard to combat it.
And the hearings don't start until tomorrow. In 2017, a day is an eternity in news-cycle time. We had a brutal mass shooting at an airport in Florida on Friday. Five people died. Three days later, it's all but forgotten. That's how fast stories rise and fall. By tomorrow or Wednesday, we'll have forgotten about Streep
Whether we'll focus our attention on Cabinet picks or not, I can't say. In a way, it doesn't matter -- Sessions, for instance, will get the vote of every Republican senator no matter what we find in his past, unless we turn up a photo of him literally wearing a Klan robe. And that'll be that. He'll be attorney general. We had no plan to stop him pre-Streep, so we shouldn't blame Streep for the fact that we can't stop him now.
Does Trump get into these Twitter beefs to distract us from important matters? I have my doubts. I think he gets into them because his appeal to his loyalists is as a strongman and a showman; he can't be seen as ceding the stage to critics, because that would reveal him as weak. That's why his candidacy wasn't fatally harmed by seemingly suicidal fights he picked during the campaign -- with John McCain, with the Khan family, with Alicia Machado, with women who accused him of sexual assault: The very act of fighting made him seem tough to his fan base, and not just tough but entertaining. He always grabbed the mic back when somebody else seemed to have it.
But how do you fight him on anything without having to deal with that tactic? If someone had found a way to undermine his Cabinet picks, that person would become his target. You can't attack him and not expect him to beat his chest and bray, because that works for him. You just have to push through that.
We weren't going to beat Trump on Sessions et al. in any case. Therefore, we're where we would have been if Streep hadn't made that speech. And if we every find a way to do real damage to Trump's presidency, we'll be the targets of his Twitter wrath. So we may as well just hurl everything we have at him until something sticks -- and then keep hurling.
10 comments:
I agree that Sessions will sail thru like a greased pig and would have done so regardless of what Meryl Streep said or didn't say. I disagree that any of Trump's actions when he takes off on a twitidiot storm are calculated. He is a narcissistic personality disorder in full on active mode. He reacts, period, in defense of what he sees as a slight. The fact that his brainless followers respond favorably is a secondary benefit. It reinforces his feelings of grandiosity, but even if it didn't, he would continue because he is compelled to do so by the personality disorder. Remember. He won in a landslide and didn't really lose the popular vote, it was rigged.
I'd be interested to know if you think the Russia stuff has stuck, because it's my impression he has had to move around that one - that it has had a real impact - and it's been relentless in the media in a way no other issue has.
Been a long time since I agreed with Booman, and I too do not agree now. EYaw, Sessions is a shoe-in, but it's got nothing to do with Ms Streep. The blame game is a regular past-time over there.
The son of a bitch has been telling us for a year the election was going to be rigged. Why the hell is everyone so surprised?
Ten Bears
Paul, it's getting sustained coverage, and I think it's sticking, but I'm not sure if less politically engaged Americans are paying much attention. Engaged Trump opponents are horrified, obviously, while Trump fans see and hear no evil.
All of us should aspire to be attacked by Trump at least once.
It is gonna take a clan outfit PLUS holding a noose, or eating a baby to stop him getting confirmed. He's the "outsider" ya know.
I think Trump does the twitter wars because that's who he is and Twitter is a medium made for his revenge-fueled stream of consciousness logorrhea. I do not think he spends much time intentionally goosing his twitter stream to please his supporters -- I think it comes naturally. I wonder what he'd do without Twitter. If Twitter went out of business, he'd probably have an aneurysm.
To me, one of the biggest mistakes on the left is looking for that one perfect way of accomplishing our goals and the incessant bickering and fighting that follows. The focus is on the method and not the goal This is amazing considering that we're a diverse coalition with various strengths and weaknesses.
The right, however, has a lock-step focus on their goals, and will attempt every method, including the proverbial kitchen sink, ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
The purity tests and vilification needs to stop.
CNN's reporting now that Corey Booker's going to break precedent and testify against Sessions. Normally one sitting Senator does not do so against another.
This is getting interesting.
Trump in a white hood, holding a noose would get him re-elected easily.
The thing that would hurt Trump is if he starts saying he thinks their should be reparations for slavery.
Post a Comment