Winning Big Part 4, Define Our Opponent: Trump is Boring!
September 11 2024
Last night's performance proved that there are many paths to victory. To win an election, you could slog through these posts for ideas. A more effective route that I didn't see coming: just get Taylor Swift's endorsement.
Oh, yeah, I also watched the debate.
This is the fourth post looking at the three tasks needed to win a landslide trifecta. As previously mentioned, to win the presidency and both houses of Congress, those are:
- Defining the election (see posts 2 & 3)
- Defining our opponent (this post)
- Galvanize people on both sides of the divide (next post)
Defining Trump
On one level, Donald Trump defies definition. On another, he is so many things that it's hard to identify the most damning one(s). He's a felon, a rapist (according to a judge), a liar, a narcissist, a confidence man, a misogynist, a traitor, and threat to democracy. Our problem is he has a real shot at winning this November and we have to box him in.
I believe the key to boxing him in lies in understanding why he is so popular. For those who voted for him, who consider voting for him now, he is their champion. (I know, he's terrible at it. Hold that thought.) In 2016, he promised the voters he would deliver what they needed: to end the opioid crisis, to provide jobs, to end abortions, to revitalize coal, to close the border, etc. He promised to renegotiate NAFTA and put tariffs on China. He promised to make America great again—a promise any voter could like. He boasted, "I alone can fix it," a bid for the title of champion, if there ever was one. Finally, with his promise on the campaign trail and then in his inaugural speech, "The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer," he telegraphed: I am your champion.
When someone is accepted as their champion, they can do no wrong. That's why Trump keeps getting away with so much. People cut slack for those fighting on their side. Remember when the Hollywood Access tape came out, catching him advocating for the assault of women? It's over, so many of us said. But it wasn't. Remember when he got impeached? We knew it was curtains for him. But it wasn't. Remember his incitement of insurrection? His second impeachment? Remember when Bill Barr (Trump's own attorney general!) later said on TV, look, if half the things about Trump stealing documents are true, he's toast? Barr was wrong.
(This dynamic has important implications for how everyone reacts to facts. They get slotted into our pre-existing worldview, and rarely succeed in challenging deeply held beliefs. Exploring this is crucial for our survival over the next 500 years. But that will have to wait for a future post.)
Let's not be quick to judge those who accept champions. I remember, in 2016, illustrating to a friend how such unfailing loyalty worked. Trump had proclaimed he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and get away with it. My friend found it repulsive: how could he say such a thing, she wondered.
I asked her, don't you think we need Hillary Clinton to win at all costs?
"Of course," she replied. "I think Clinton is great."
"If that is the case," I said, "suppose that Clinton actually shot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight. Would you still vote for her to prevent Trump from winning?"
"Well, I guess I would," she admitted.
Someone is anointed champion when their mission to defend what you hold dear is their top priority. When there is no alternative, then no fact, no crime (remember, Trump is a felon 34 times over!), no behavior will dent one's allegiance. Donald Trump is their champion. And when the champ is attacked, in response to the facts, people often double down.
We can make more progress building bridges if we understand the dynamic of needing a champion rather than judging people for having one.
Trump's antics that began with his campaign in 2015 through the end of his presidency were dangerous, shocking. When we put aside their gravity, they were novel and entertaining. But for his voters, his rule-breaking fed into the idea that he was a champion who cared more about them than about norms and even about laws. The behavior that convinced us he was unfit to be president had the opposite effect on his followers. He was willing to "fight, fight, fight" for his cause, doing whatever it took to keep his promises. He broke the rules and the laws—not just for himself, as every Democrat understands—but for his voters.
And when a champion acts in their own self interest, calling them out (as we Democrats have been doing tirelessly), fails to sway his followers. People are still getting a fighter on their side. So they do the rational thing: when critics raise alarm, they shrug it off.
Trump's website phrases his pitch to be the champion of Americans brilliantly.
"They're not after me. They're after you. I'm just standing in the way."
If someone is after you, you need a champion. Trump is the guy.
Trump is No One's Champion
That's the belief we have to counter, to show he is no one's champion. First, we can point out the distance between his claims and reality. How about:
Donald Trump claimed he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and get away with it. But the reality is, he can't even write a check to his porn star girlfriend without becoming a felon 34 times over!
And:
Trump claimed about the opioid crisis that "Only I can Fix it." But the reality is he blocked a bipartisan border bill that contained funding to distribute 100 inspection machines aimed at detecting fentanyl. Allowing fentanyl to continue streaming in makes him responsible for every overdose death since then. His blocking the bill lets more fentanyl into the US—every day. He's no champion—he and every Congressperson who blocked the legislation have blood on their hands. Trump said he would stop the opioid crisis. But he is the crisis.
Donald Trump is the champion of no one.
Boxing in the Bore
But if a champion is what he isn't, what is he? Harris hinted at the answer when she responded to his attack that she had simply "decided" to become Black. She accused him of using the "same old tired playbook." She wisely declined further comment on his insult. Harris has since wisely amplified that idea. As of the debate, Harris is on it.
Let's keep experimenting with ways to box him in. Trump is so predictable that we can offer a preview of the rest of his campaign. And we can say how it is we know: because he is boring. He will:
- Attack, attack, attack.
- Lie, lie, lie.
- Blah, blah, blah.
That certainly sums up his debate performance. What was once provocative is now boring. America wants to move on.
Reminding people he is boring puts him right where we want him.
But here's something the Democrats haven't yet realized: In an age where wages have stagnated for decades, even if Trump fails at the role, we still need a champion.
Donald Trump has proven one thing beyond a doubt: if we don't deliver a champion to replace him, then for many he will still do no wrong, and he still gets their vote. He has taken the definition of egregious to new heights, replacing Ronald Reagan's teflon presidency with a bullet-proof candidacy. Disparaging Trump without offering an alternative champ is useless!
How do we, how does the campaign, define Harris and Walz as the champions of working people?
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