Interesting NYT oped by an Italian professor on how to beat Trumpler by studying Berlusconi

[Sugarcoated]

The Right Way to Resist Trump- Must read piece from NYT analyzing Silvio Berlusconi

By njhoo
Saturday Nov 19, 2016 · 12:05 PM EST

Luigi Zingales (a professor of entrepreneurship and finance at University of Chicago) has a must read piece up on the New York Times on lessons of how to beat Trump by studying Silvio Berlusconi. It is fascinating and in retrospect leads one to question Secretary Clinton’s attacks against him.

Berlusconi has a similar story with Trump- Billionaire business man turned politician , with sex scandals . Ultimately, he had a 9 year run as the leader of Italy and it was good for the people of ITALY. See another article of his from 2011 which discusses that in more detail

​Mr. Berlusconi was able to govern Italy for as long as he did mostly thanks to the incompetence of his opposition. It was so rabidly obsessed with his personality that any substantive political debate disappeared; it focused only on personal attacks, the effect of which was to increase Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity.
As bad as Trump is, Zingales points out the flaw of Clinton’s attacks.
.....

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/19/1601799/-The-Right-Way-to-Resist-Trump-Must-read-piece-from-NYT-analyzing-Silvio-Berlusconi

[elleng]

1. The Right Way to Resist Trump

'Five years ago, I warned about the risk of a Donald J. Trump presidency. Most people laughed. They thought it inconceivable.

I was not particularly prescient; I come from Italy, and I had already seen this movie, starring Silvio Berlusconi, who led the Italian government as prime minister for a total of nine years between 1994 and 2011. I knew how it could unfold.

Now that Mr. Trump has been elected president, the Berlusconi parallel could offer an important lesson in how to avoid transforming a razor-thin victory into a two-decade affair. If you think presidential term limits and Mr. Trump’s age could save the country from that fate, think again. His tenure could easily turn into a Trump dynasty.

Mr. Berlusconi was able to govern Italy for as long as he did mostly thanks to the incompetence of his opposition. It was so rabidly obsessed with his personality that any substantive political debate disappeared; it focused only on personal attacks, the effect of which was to increase Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity. His secret was an ability to set off a Pavlovian reaction among his leftist opponents, which engendered instantaneous sympathy in most moderate voters. Mr. Trump is no different.

We saw this dynamic during the presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton was so focused on explaining how bad Mr. Trump was that she too often didn’t promote her own ideas, to make the positive case for voting for her. The news media was so intent on ridiculing Mr. Trump’s behavior that it ended up providing him with free advertising.

Unfortunately, the dynamic has not ended with the election. Shortly after Mr. Trump gave his acceptance speech, protests sprang up all over America. What are these people protesting against? Whether we like it or not, Mr. Trump won legitimately. Denying that only feeds the perception that there are “legitimate” candidates and “illegitimate” ones, and a small elite decides which is which. If that’s true, elections are just a beauty contest among candidates blessed by the Guardian Council of clerics, just like in Iran.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/opinion/the-right-way-to-resist-trump.html?_r=0

[Sugarcoated]

2. Tried to copy this from NYT but the site wouldn't allow

Thanks for posting it

[elleng]

3. You're welcome.

[smirkymonkey]

4. 1000