Yes! Because ultimately Trump’s strength - his ONLY political strength, I’d argue - is that at heart he’s a PERFORMER, and he is at all times keenly aware of the crowd and how they’re reacting. It’s the instrument he’s playing.
Reposted from
Chance the Lawyer
Just look at the way Trump tossed out tropes at his rally, waiting to see which ones were gobbled up and cheered on the fastest. He didn’t care about truth or optics or anything other than “what’s landing.”
Comments
"I will deport all the illegals."
"I will end crime."
"I will end the war in Ukraine."
Its all bullshit and doesn't make sense but its easy to understand.
"Will Democrats deport all the illegals?"
"Where is the Democratic plan for ending crime?"
"Do Democrats even want to end the War in Ukraine?"
No.
As you say, he states exactly what he wants people to think.
"Good news! We fired thousands of firefighters!" isn't much of an applause line.
Less politics though… more actually legislation. The “norms” that seem to fall everyday are actual areas of once agreed upon “bipartisan policy” - but should have been CFR laws.
It’s obvious that they think working class voters are dipshits, but believe in rising above their stupid ways.
It’s all built on this idea that they’re following the general public and that they as leaders have no obligation to lead.
—He thinks watching a Trump rally start to finish, or indeed engaging in any of the distasteful “emotive” aspects of politics, is plebeian and contrary to his brand.
Shor and Silver are similar—They think data is all they need.
Humans are human. Not data-processors, not android brains, not policy-parsing LLMs. Human.
As such, what they prescribe as “solutions” to Dem woes tend to be band-aids; what they diagnose as “problems”, symptoms.
Just because one can read data, analyze numbers, and understand policy does not make one a good giver of political, electoral, or campaign advice.
Silver in particular will learn that the hard way. Yglesias and Shor, probably sooner.