Trump & The Media - Very, Very Scary

mfidelman
Sunday, September 11, 2016 - 7:40pm

Chris Lydon had a particularly good episode of Open Source, today (9/11/16) - focusing on why Trump is surging in the polls.

A summary, and the full audio are at http://radioopensource.org/trumps-reality-effect/  It's well worth listening to - it will scare the pants off you, and reinforce the importance of electing a Democratic majority in the House & Senate.

Some high points:

- This season is somewhat like the Kennedy-Nixon debate - Reality TV is the new medium, and Trump is a master showman.  He's connecting extremely well with his audience.

- He's taking a very different approach to messaging.  He's not delivering heavily scripted material, he's always live.  The analogy is to TV sports - he attracts attention because he's happening "right now."  And a lot of the ways he's connecting to people are unconscious - body language, expressions.

- We, on the Left, talk about "reality-based" politics - but the Republicans, and particularly Trump have a very different definition.  We talk about facts.  To the other side it's about 'creating reality' - much in the sense that "Reality TV" is not about reality the way we think of it.

- His audience is the middle of the country, and unlike the past few rounds of Republicans, he's not focusing on wedge issues - he's talking about "you're getting screwed."  (kind of like Bill Clinton and "I feel your pain.") He's connecting.

- His audience (and most of us) don't like the status quo, or the establishment, and feel it's time for a change, any change.  They don't read the NY Times, or WAPO - and whenever the "elite" attack Trump, he RISES in his audience's eyes.

- If the 40% of folks who don't normally vote (and don't poll as likely voters) show up, they're more likely to turn out for Trump - he's energizing them in ways that Hillary is not.

All in all, I'm left very scared that a Trump presidency is quite possible.  Which leads me to two conclusions:

- every vote for Hillary will count

- we could still end up with Trump - which means we'd better do our damnedest to take the House and Senate away from the Republicans - otherwise we could be very, very screwed

Miles Fidelman

Comments

tractorcq
I don't believe it matters much who gets into the Oval Office. The reality is that money has remained the root of all sorts of evil. The vote (vow) that means the most is the INTENT of how we spend our time, attention and effort. The collective mind of humanity is capable of way more than the status quo created and maintained by the 'powers that be' will allow. Who and what created these "powers"? We ALL need to participate in a conversation toward a "more perfect union" according to substantive reality! Money itself is a fiction that we have somehow been forced to accept as reality. The fact that everyone on Earth has succumbed to this universal fantasy is the causal source of the looming disaster our species faces. The way I see it, existing currency systems aren't connected to the natural ecosystem. Water, carbon, nitrogen and the other substantial flows are the real currency because they have intrinsic value in supporting physical planetary life. The Internet makes it at least POSSIBLE to talk about ancient and novel approaches to understanding worth, value and equity. Why should we let Wall Street and the banking industry guide the conversation? Here's some folks in the good dialog: http://re.silience.com/ | http://www.context.org/ | https://www.eff.org/ | http://www.appropedia.org/ | https://ozonefarm.org/ | http://politicalrevolution.net/ | ...and many others...