As I was sitting in a classical choral concert this afternoon, trying to get my mind off of the election, I realized something.
Trump consistently uses the language of dividing people into “winners” and “losers”, which extends to his supporters.
Among his base, they naturally believe they are the “winners” in this election, like Trump. Like Trump, they expect the “others” to fall into line, because they, to them, are “losers”.
Losers are expected to either admit failure and fall into line behind the “Winners”, which explains the pathological need for Trump fans to say people to “accept the result of the election”. It also makes a built-in excuse for any criticism of the election, no matter which branch of the intelligence community delivers a scary brief on the possibility of election tampering — that they are just “Losers” that cannot accept the results.
It should look familiar — it’s plain and simple bullying. But it also shows a very critical game for Democrats going forward — using that tendency of Trump’s and that of his supporters to win back everything.
It couldn’t have been an easier assignment for Donald Trump this weekend at the Army-Navy game — don’t pick a side, stay neutral, and say something nice about the players who are making the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Trump tried, and failed.
The president-elect took a shot at the quality of service-academy football during a visit to the CBS broadcast booth early in the second half of Saturday's Army-Navy game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
"I just love the armed forces, love the folks. The spirit is so incredible," Trump said after Lundquist asked him why he decided to attend the annual clash between the two military academies. "I mean, I don't know if it's necessarily the best football, but it's very good. But boy do they have spirit, more than anybody. It's beautiful."
It’s in this seemingly innocuous, oafish comment that Trump philosophy comes out — the philosophy of dividing people and Americans into winners and losers.
When asked to talk about football, he can’t help it — he has to think of it in terms of “winner” football and “loser” football. “Winner” football is like Tom Brady and the Patriots — they win. But the football he saw on the field on Saturday was “loser”, “not the best” football, with turnovers and no passing.
Remember — attending an Army-Navy game is the ultimate bipartisan activity. Everyone on the field has made massive sacrifices to be there, and have pledged the ultimate sacrifice of service to the country. There are no “winners” and “losers”. Everyone who wears those football uniforms, the guys and gals in their full dress uniforms — they deserve our respect.
And that’s exactly why Trump was in the soup. It’s as if his brain couldn’t process the fact that both sides were “winners.” Even when obviously implored to stay neutral, say some nice things about the troops (spirit? Like they’re a bunch of cheerleaders? But I digress...), he couldn’t help himself — he had to find some way to divide the game in terms of “winners” and “losers”. “Winner” football is Tom Brady. “Loser” football is Army-Navy.
It’s just one example, but when you look at his broad actions when it comes to picking cabinet members, or the Carrier deal, or his pitiful Tweets, this concept of “winners” and “losers” seems to creep into everything.
“I saved Carrier! I picked them as a winner, so they are winners! But the union boss is criticizing me. That must be because they lost. They are losers!”
”I won the election! Therefore, I am a winner! Mitt Romney now grovels at my feet to be my secretary of state, but he criticized me on the campaign trail. He is a loser!”
Where’s the opening for Democrats? Easy. If Democrats decide to make their party into one that doesn’t separate people into “winners” and “losers”, it could be a powerful message to bring into the mid-terms and 2020.
Hammer home the idea that “Donald Trump is calling you a loser.” Stay on message that “Donald Trump, this Saturday, called Army and Navy losers.” Keep saying that “Donald Trump, by putting Stephen Bannon in his White House, is calling African-Americans losers.” “Donald Trump, by insulting Chuck Jones, is calling American Workers losers. Well, Democrats don’t call you losers. We call you partners.”
It seems inevitable that Donald Trump will make gaffe after gaffe in this vein, as his vanity and temperament will cause him to make errors like going after Chuck Jones on correctly giving the terms of the Carrier deal to the world. As his list of bullied mount, every single one is a chance for Democrats to reach out and say that we don't see the world in that way. “We don’t see you as a loser, like Trump does.”
This is one area where Trump’s lack of any sort of moral underpinnings will almost certainly turn against him. When winning is the only philosophy, than anyone who is against you is a “loser”. But inevitably, many, if not most of these victims will be good people who simply got in the way of Trump’s “winning”, people who are not bad people, or immoral people. It is these people, these potential partners, that will bring everything back the way of the Democrats.
Note I said “partners”. Writing thinkpieces like “you got conned by Trump” is the exact wrong way to go about this. That is like saying “we think you are a loser.” That’s a great recipe for swirling the bowl. Not conned. Partners.
I know at times it feels like this battle is one that people are losing. But it shouldn’t be abandoned. It’s a long game, and again, it feel inevitable that Trump’s list of people that he separates into “winners” and “losers” will have so many people on the so-called “loser” side that they will form a supermajority.