Protesting against Trump is exactly what the Republican Neo-Con Establishment wants. It plays right into their hands. It also pushes Trump’s supporters further and more steadfastly into his camp. These two points are related, and I will start with the second one first.
Today, we have men in this country who angry and frustrated at the lack of control they feel that they have over their own lives. Some of them are “"Incel"” or “"Involuntarily Celibate." You can read more about this world here, here and here. These men feel emasculated, frustrated, disempowered, insignificant, and they want gain some control and power over their powerless lives. Some fantasize about rape and murder. Some actually decide that the only way to take the power is to rape and/or kill as many people as possible before being killed or killing themselves. Others are smarter, saner and more rational. They find another channel for for their disenfranchisement.
Who can give them hope that they can take back the country and “Make America Great Again” better than a misogynist thug of a candidate for President?
We also have working people in this country who were taught that if they work hard they can make something of themselves. They didn’t go to college, but they believed that with their muscle and skill they could get a factory job, raise their children, and make something of themselves, and something even better for their kids. They see workplaces shut down and moved overseas. They see foreigners and fear that they are being replaced. They fear that white people are being made irrelevant in the country, and long for a time when being White had much more “privilege” than they feel that they have. They hate all things “politically correct,” because they are taught that their own power, their own success, is somehow politically incorrect. Some are skinheads, some are Neo-Nazis, to be sure, but some are simply working class white people, searching for answers. They bristle at those they perceive as moneyed and educated, who tell them that they don’t belong.
They are drawn to a candidate who himself dismisses “political correctness” with a contemptible sneer, who wants to send foreigners back where they came from, and wants to build a wall to keep us in and them out.
The Republican Establishment hates Trump. He is not them. He is not a Neo-Con. He had the audacity to state that George W. Bush did NOT keep us safe, because 9/11 happened on his watch.. He has the audacity to state that the Iraq War was a mistake, and that the Bush Administration knew that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before we ever invaded the country.
So the "Neocons declared war on Trump" They penned an "open letter" against Trump. Even Dick Cheney came out of his secure bunker to blast Trump.
They hate Trump so much, that some of them even want Ted Cruz, that anathema, instead. Or, if not Cruz, then an open convention. Regardless of what they want instead, they are united in wanting to stop Trump.
Who better to do their bidding for them than Democrats?
A long time ago, I learned a very valuable lesson in politics:
The enemy of our enemy is not always our friend.
Cheney and the Neocons are the enemy of Trump, who is also our enemy. We and the Neocons are not friends. And, by holding rallies and protests against Trump, ironically, we are pushing Trump supporters further into his camp.
Here are some givens:
No one wants to feel inferior.
No one wants to feel belittled.
No one likes being laughed at.
Here is another one:
When we judge people, it is impossible influence them in any way
— OR to recognize whatever good qualities they may have.
Trump famously talks at a 5th grade level, or like a 4th grader, or maybe even a 3rd grader. He famously stated the he "loves the poorly educated."
When we make fun of Trump’s supporters as racist, or sexist, or uneducated, or stupid, we are helping them feel inferior, belittled, and laughed at. We are ignoring the reasons why they have moved towards Trump, and we are perpetuating a problem. When we look down on people, the people we condescend towards see us as “the elite.” The “liberal elite.” We have heard that phrase many times. And we play into the hands of those who use that phrase to drive people away from us, and to vote against their own self-interest, thinking that they are voting against that “liberal elite” instead.
All over the country there is dissatisfaction with “big government,” with liberalism, and there is a move to take back control over our own lives. It is neither a left nor a right movement, but simply an opposition to the status quo and a longing for freedom.
I wrote that in my college thesis 35 years ago, in the first year of the Reagan Administration. At the time, I was writing about “Reagan Democrats,” yet the “Trump Republican” is more or less the same.
The way to dissolve Trump’s support is to tap into the same dissatisfaction and frustration that they feel. The way to erode Trump’s support is with empathy, to agree with the dissatisfaction, and to provide an alternative — a different opposition to the status quo, a different longing for freedom. The way to erode Trump’s support is not to tell his supporters that they are stupid or racist or sexist, but to show them that there is another way: rail against a different “elite.”
The way to stop Trump is to support a different Populist. A Democratic Populist. One who fights against billionaires and against Wall Street.
I’m an accountant. I have had more than one client, here in New York City, tell me that she supports Bernie Sanders, but if Bernie does not get the nomination, she will support Trump. The New York Times wrote about this phenomenon back in January.
The anti-Establishment vote, the Populist vote, will win the election.
Heed the warning. It is not too late….
Sunday, Mar 20, 2016 · 2:28:28 PM +00:00 · David B
Further thought, based on comments:
Protesting Trump is only a tactic. What’s the strategy?
Yeah. It makes us feel good. It makes us feel all self-righteous-y to know that we are on the side of everything good -- and that Trump, and by extension his followers --they are the other, the evil, the bad-doers, who must be stopped.
Do you fail to see that this is exactly how Trump and his followers perceive Muslims and Mexicans and everyone else that is not them?
You protest Trump as a tactic towards what end? To push people on the fence towards Trump because we make fun of them as being stupid, and label them as racist or sexist? To help the GOP Establishment figure out a way to get Cruz, or Paul Ryan, to be their Standard Bearer?
If we protest just so that we can feel good, without a clear outcome in mind — a tactic without a clear strategy — it is nothing more than narcissism.