Let's dissuade ourselves from the notion that Trump is some kind of political genius

[edhopper]

I have seen this too many times that Trump brilliantly tapped into the rage that was festering throughout the country in 2016.
(I have seen this in the Media mostly, though occasionally here)
Now first a good part of that rage was at the audacity of a Black man being President, so let's say it was rage AND Racism.
Trump was running to increase his "brand" and maybe get his own cable network. Not be President.
He is a mean, hate filled bigot. He just happened to run when the GOP rank and file were also largely hate filled bigots.
He was their Chance the Gardener, saying the things they wanted to hear just by blathering out loud.
It was more right place, right time than any masterful political calculation. He got very, very lucky with the big help of corrupt Governors, Russia and James Comey.
As this years campaign has clearly shown, he really has no grasp at how politics work. His campaign is a mess and works more for his ego than getting more votes.
Let's be clear, his chances of re-election rely solely on the arcane Electoral College and the malfeasance of Right Wing Judges,
Not because he has any great political savy. He has kept his 40% in the polls because America has that many racist idiots.

[lame54]

1. He is McConnell's useful idiot...

Do and say what you please unchecked as long as I get my judges

[mucifer]

2. trump has an amazing skill of hypnotizing his deplorables. It is a skill. It's something he has

learned and it works. There are certain phrases he uses. The confidence he has, the "some people say".

I don't think he's brilliant or anything like that. I just think he has studied the speech patterns of dictators and he is using it and it is working for over 40 % of the voters.

[edhopper]

3. I don't think he has studied shit

he sounds like dictators because he has the same mindset.

[mucifer]

4. I don't see how you can deny it is working for him. I don't think he'd be President without

these skills.

[edhopper]

9. I am saying it is who he is

Yes he is a con man, one that has failed repeatedly in his ventures.He gets a few people to go for it and then it falls apart.
But it is native to him, and it fit into the psychology of his supporters.
What is working is that they want a raging bigot to believe in and he is the one they got.

[unblock]

6. Parroting back fox news is not a great skill

You or I could do it easily if we had the stomach for it.

[unblock]

5. The media could have smacked him down ridiculously easily if they wanted to

The real scandal is that they chose to prop up an portray as legitimate someone who was obviously mentally ill, a psychological liar, a conman, a crook, a failed businessman, a racist, a sexist, and utterly incompetent.

The blame on Donnie himself is actually annoying. In a way, he just us who he is, doing what he does. It's the media and Russians and billionaires and other republicans who made him president and kept this monster in power.

That's where the focus should be.

[brush]

8. Well said.

[edhopper]

10. True this

[brush]

7. I agree totally. Geniuses don't go bankrupt running casinos...

or hold numerous super spreader events and get covid from not wearing a mask when all the experts are saying "wear a mask". And I could go on and on and on.

[PSPS]

11. trump is no "jenius." The media is quite masterful at milking sideshows though.

[My Pet Orangutan]

12. 40% voted for Hoover in 1932.

America is tribal.