When Trump came on the scene it was as if the proverbial bull had gotten into the china shop and was breaking everything in sight. In the Republican primary debates there was Trump and there was everyone else. Trump went through a crowded field seemingly effortlessly. Candidates feared him and were humiliated by him.
He was like nothing we have seen before in politics. He showed visible contempt for the norms of behavior. People couldn’t get enough of him and the press were tripping over one another trying to get close to him.
And throughout it all people were racking their brains trying to cope with a seeming runaway train. How do you handle this guy? He sounds stupid. Do you challenge his mastery of the facts? Many tried this and failed. Many are still trying this tact. We are up to 8,000 lies and nothing has changed, so clearly that is not the answer.
Others are taking the tact of talking past him, dismissing his schoolyard taunts for what they are, assuming that the average voter won’t be swayed by 5th grade antics, choosing instead to play to their own strengths on policy issues that voters agree with. But the press refuse to play along. They want to cover Trump and his craziness that bring them guaranteed ratings. In addition, there is this nagging feeling that he is taunting you and throwing sand in your face as you try to be the adult in the room.
The problem is that you can’t simply ignore the schoolyard bully in an election for President. The President is the leader of the entire nation. This person has to possess a dominating personality. There have been exceptions such as the election of the highly intelligent, self effacing Jimmy Carter. But that was post Watergate when an exhausted nation was looking for the polar opposite of Nixon. And Carter didn’t get a second term. Reagan was a dominating personality who lied cheated and did whatever it took to win. And people loved him for it.
Trump is an ignorant, nearly illiterate man whose sole strength is the con. Trump determines what expectations his marks have and becomes that persona. For his base he is playing schoolyard bully — the alpha male. That is the one thing that underlies everything he does. Whether it is casting racist slurs, acting like an imbecile on national TV, inciting violence at an assembly, demeaning women, telling the FBI to go fuck themselves — it’s all part of this alpha male persona that he is projecting. The more outlandish his behavior, the more norms he breaks, the stronger he looks.
Anyone running against Trump is running against this persona. Ignore it at your peril. Women are particularly vulnerable to this matchup — it’s going to be damned if you confront him and damned if you don’t.
We saw a classic first confrontation between Elizabeth Warren and Trump where Trump branded her as Pocahontas to demean her. It has nothing to do with the validity of the charge, and Warren stepped into his trap when she got the DNA test. It made her look weak, like he got to her. He doesn’t care about her ancestry and neither do his followers or the general public. Looking for reactions from Native Americans, while at first glance appearing to be the civilized thing to do, simply compounds the error, driving the narrative of vulnerability further.
This is a replay of the Republican debates when Trump got them talking about their penis size. Everyone understood that that never would have happened if Trump weren’t on the stage. He was making a mockery of the entire process and all of his competitors looked like deer in the headlights as a result. Trump went where none of them would go and it made him look strong. He was the alpha male on that stage.
Trump can never allow the topic of conversation to veer into the realm of real world policy or he has already lost. So he is going to lie, cheat, steal, demean and attack. All he has is his alpha male persona. But that is what people love about him, whether his base or the press.
So what is the answer? Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs says you have to address base competence issues before you can go on to higher cognitive issues because people prioritize fear over reason. Trump is forcing the debate to be about who is the more dominant personality. It is the schoolyard in 5th grade and he is looming over you daring you to fight (remember the Hillary debates? Clearly that was intentional, it’s all about dominance with him). Meanwhile all of the other kids are gathering around to see a fight. You can refuse to fight and get the crap beat out of you. Or you can fight back.
I think when Trump calls Warren Pocahontas or whatever she needs to pull herself up and go at him — forcefully but without losing her composure. Good lord, certainly there is no dearth of vulnerabilities to hit him with. But go at him to knock him down to size. And every time he uses a slur or talks down to her she must work in a retort. Once this parity is achieved then she can begin talking about policy, not in vague generalities but with direct references to how Trump and Republicans have screwed everything up. How Trump is like placing a misbehaving child in charge of this nation.
This election is going to be entirely negative from Trump’s side. That is a given since he literally has nothing else. He will try to talk about the economy but tax returns tanked and wages remain flat so that opens him to the same attack he used against us to get elected — the wealthy are doing great at our expense.
This election is going to be about organization and discipline. Republicans have honed this tactic for years. They have a military hierarchical structure that can respond nationally on short notice with a consistent coherent message. They dominate the press by continually harping about poor coverage, even going after particular networks or anchors. They are always on the attack.
We don’t do any of that. We don’t have to stoop to their level to push back against their attacks. But we have to become engaged and learn to fight back as a team. One of the big problems with what we see happening with Warren is that she is left hanging out there without support. Our team should be apoplectic about the President using racial slurs against our candidates and we should be on the attack in the press at every opportunity.