Posted on 07/31/2015 7:59:26 PM PDT by nathanbedford
Trump as a candidate is almost entirely a creation of the media. That is not to deny that he is adept at manipulating the media, that is perfectly plain. But it is to say that a man adept at manipulating the media has met a media eager to expose Trump to further its own needs. The media gains readers and viewers and makes money off the Trump phenomenon. History tells us that the media habitually builds up that which they will later destroy when it simply begins to bore them or suits their politics.
There is a third element which is vitally important to understanding the Trump phenomenon: He has given voice to a burning frustration and actual fear in middle America that we are losing our country through feckless policies such as immigration and trade. He is right and he says it better than any other candidate. The media hates the message but loves to feature the messenger (whom they also hate) because it pays so well. The more the media attacks the messenger, the more frustrated and fearful Americans, quite rational in these feelings, instinctively side with Trump. The more Trump denigrates the media, the more middle America instinctively sides with Trump because middle America viscerally understands that the media and the two political parties are in cahoots. The disenfranchised middle has almost no choice but to turn to a maverick and the more Trump is positioned either by the media or by his own mouth to be out of the mainstream, the more he fits the role of white knight riding to the rescue with no motive other than to save the Holy Grail of our way of life.
How then will the media ultimately destroy Trump's candidacy? First it is necessary to understand that Trump's candidacy is a media event, not a grassroots movement, not a development within the party, not a political movement. It is a series of media events.Trump makes good copy and gives good video. Rather than a grassroots movement, rather than a bottom-up phenomenon, it is a sensory event, one that must occupy the screen and preoccupy the consciousness or fade out. A media phenomenon survives only so long as it is a phenomenon in the media. That implies that Trump must be ever more and more outlandish if he is to hold media momentum. He will be confronted with the choice: Either he burlesque's his own character ever more and more or he moderates. If he chooses the former he will eventually cross too many lines; if he chooses the latter he will lose the magic. His timing and stage presence must be exquisite if he is to keep the cameras rolling.
The choice Trump must make comes in the context of issues. We have already seen him start to dance on the issue of immigration: Who he will deport; how he will uncover them in America; how he will physically deport them; whom he will allow to return to America; upon what standard; whom he will make citizens; why?. His answer was virtually incoherent but even if regarded to be coherent, his answer was hardly confidence inspiring, in reality, it was not the kind of second act needed to keep the media bubble growing. Was he moderating his position? Has he continued to differentiate himself from other true conservatives like Ted Cruz? How is his immigration stand different from Scott Walker's? Sooner or later, Trump must say something other than, "I will make America great" he must choose. With choice inevitably comes opposition or disillusionment. Either he makes more enemies or he disappoints his supporters who need more and more.
The media creature can endure determined attacks in the media but he cannot survive disillusionment. Either the media bubble must grow and caricature itself until it bursts or it will spring a slow leak of disillusionment which only gathers speed and the whole balloon collapses. We have seen this time and again in American politics. Have we forgotten Herman Cain?
The upcoming debates might expose Trump to be a shallow opportunist who has diagnosed the problem but who has failed to rigorously think through his soundbite solutions. Most likely, the upcoming debates will not derail Trump's circus, it is still too early in the media cycle bubble, but it will begin the process.
I saw that video. The talking heads were stunned.
I’m tired of the baloney, the Republicans have been feeding us.
Cruz infuriated me when he voted for Obama’s trade bill (obama’s trade agenda) and Cruz wrote an op ed promoting it too. that’s unforgivable to me as TPP TPA is the WORST thing ever (it even allows for unlimited immigration). What he voted for the corker bill ? what is this corker bill?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylrpG-SLdEU
did you see the liberal media idiots repeatedly saying “WOW!” ?
the liberals were so stunned that real Americans supported Trump and why.
Those liberals are sick idiots and socialists and think we are the weird ones when socialism never worked.
Any candidate who wins and then ignores border security for amnesty won’t win a second term, and may not finish the first if he campaigns on securing the border as a prerequisite to dealing with the illegal aliens living here at our sufferance.
And he won’t win if he does not ... see, circular reasoning is easy.
BRAVO!
That's the kind of wit we need more of around here! Just like the old days.
God save us from the rednecks who mistake themselves for Conservatives, and whose entire online contribution is an unending effort to "save face."
Well I have to say I put zero weight in a video from MSNBC..... they’re speaking like that of Trump, in a favorable light, would give me ‘pause’ regarding Trump. Furthermore I wasn’t impressed with the focus group they used...most of it was the feely touchy type, which though that matters they really said nothing concrete about Trumps “positions”....which is what many are going to want to hear.....regardless of Msnbc saying otherwise.
Trump wasn’t build by the media, if anything, Trump built the media that has been covering him.
I say in the second sentence of the vanity:
That is not to deny that he is adept at manipulating the media, that is perfectly plain.
You say:
It’s reasonable to not bother wasting time with an argument built on a false premise.
I say,
It is a false technique of argument to create a false premise and then knock that strawman down because it is a "false premise."
Mr. Nathan Bedford I have NEVER even liked Trump, however I find myself REALLY WANTING him to win so I can watch ALL of the corrupt career politicians heads EXPLODE!!!! I just don’t see how much worse the country could possibly get in 4 years with Trump at the helm!!!! I WANT PAYBACK, we all fight like hell to put these SOB’s in office only to be betrayed EVERY time they are elected!!!!! No difference in the DEMS or PUBBIES any longer!!!! This whole immigration thing is to try to make SS solvent, these BASTARDS have spent all SS money and now the ONLY way to save it is with OPEN borders!!!! JUST SHAMEFUL!!!!
The media isn’t covering Trump for ratings. They know they can’t ignore him like they do Sen. Cruz. So. For Sen. Cruz they have one strategy (ignore), and for The Donald they have another.
Since they can’t starve Trump of oxygen, they are pumping oxygen his way as they throw matches at him. They are trying to bring him down and have been from the start.
The problem is that Trumps most endearing quality right now is he’s in the face of the Washington Party and its media sycophants.
I’ve heard my fellow freepers telling me I’m stupid to think Trump’s found conservatism. You don’t think we know that? The biggest threat to Conservatism lay on both sides of the uniparty aisle.
Sen. Cruz is my candidate.
But Trump is the enemy of my enemy and I support him fully for that reason. I think you’re going to be surprised how far this bubble will float. Because he’s Trump, his irrational exuberance can outlast your political solvency.
If you lead with a false statement, don’t be surprised if readers don’t bother reading further.
I didn’t.
There are way too many reasonable arguments to be made both against and for trump to bother with those which appear built on erroneous assumptions.
SO you cutely deny you made a false premise.
Either Trump is a creation of the media or he is not. You cannot pussyfoot around with juicy sounding claims not all of which can be simultaneously true.
That leaves only the MSM to again broadcast his words in order to setup the smackdown. So he wins again.
‘Securing’ the border is ‘a term’ every one of them use...including Trump. None have mentioned closing our borders even on a temporary basis. And they all will have one form of amnesty or another...they will simply change the “term” they use in defining it.
Dealing with the “illegals” means to politicians how to make them legal with the least amount of blowback from the public. They won’t be sending them home...at best they’ll send back the bad ones but it won’t go much further than that.
I say this because if any candidate or politician pushes too hard they’ll be in the streets.....history has shown this. And it always works in their favor when they do.
Ted Cruz is my candidate is well.
I believe that so far Trump has done conservatism a service by exposing the Republican establishment and by highlighting the issues of immigration and trade. I have even posted, "so far so good."
But I have also repeatedly said that Trump is the wrong messenger with the right message. There will come a time when his influence will be negative. That time is not yet.
2 of the top issues for me are illegals and China
If Trump just keeps saying he’ll build a wall on the southern border and tame China then I’ll vote for Trump and most people will too and he’ll win!
Trump said he’ll build a wall.
What other candidate has said that he’ll build a wall on the border? Only Trump
What other candidate understands how
china is destroying the USA? Only Trump.
Trump supporters have got to deny that the Trump phenomenon is something other than a media phenomenon (however created) so they can deny the conclusion of the vanity. They do this by nitpicking whether Trump controls the media or the media created Trump.
They do not want to consider the distinction between a grassroots candidacy and the media phenomenon. They do not want to consider the implications of a media defined and driven candidacy.
Do as of course you wish but I warn you it’s very significant to pay attention to the “terms” being used. Trumps already discovering this.....first it was building a fence across the entire border....now it’s a fence where needed specific.
It’s those specifics he’s not been addressing but speaks in very broad terms. As for China...he’s going to have to find a way to get their hands off squeezing our gonads...which he has yet to see how strong and where that grip is.
I wasn't just whistling Dixie when I referred to Trump as a reverse Ted Turner.
As I recall, Turner was quite conservative until he married Jane Fonda, and started showing up among the "beautiful people." Trump, in contrast, started as celebrity, and as he's moved away from that circus has shown a much different face.
I tend to believe, due to his business life, he was always actually much more conservative "in temperament" than he's heretofore been given credit. Therefore, it seems a natural progression to me that when he seeks to right the wrongs of this great nation, his true proclivities come "out of the closet" and to the fore.
If it had you must concede that you have created a false argument about a false premise.
Please see my reply #57
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