Donald Trump Sneaked a Decent General-Election Argument Into His Bizarre Victory Speech

[phantom power]

Triangulation is not a risk-free strategy. And right here is an example of the risks.

But then Trump’s remarks turned to the economy, and the mogul’s tone started to seem less lethargic than it was measured; even-keeled; almost presidential.

“The middle-class has really been forgotten in this country,” Trump said. “We’ve lost our manufacturing jobs. Millions and millions of jobs. Thousands and thousands of plants. We are losing so much. We can’t let it happen.”

By itself, this is just boilerplate Trump. But in his unprecedented post-victory-speech press conference, the Donald refined his economic fatalism into a general-election argument that should make Democrats a little nervous.

“People in the middle-income groups are making less money than they were 12 years ago,” Trump correctly observed. “And in her speech, [Hillary Clinton] said ‘they’re making less money.’ Well, she’s been there with Obama for a long period of time. Why hasn’t she done anything about it?”

It’s difficult to imagine a Trump nomination being anything but a boon for the Democratic Party. But in that moment, Trump made it a little less difficult. Here was a man so media-savvy, he was the first candidate to ever realize you could get an extra half-hour of coverage by taking questions after your victory lap. A man so dominant, he had reduced the biggest bully in New Jersey to a miserable lackey. And, most critically, a man with a question that Hillary Clinton has no satisfying way to answer.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/trumps-scarily-good-general-election-argument.html#

[Kip Humphrey]

1. Notice how tRump has been parroting Bernie's stump speech and is leading his tRumpeteers by their

noses to the left of Hillary, leaving her with the chaos that is the right as her political turf. He is preparing the ground to pick up progressive votes in the GE. tRump's main Achilles heal remains his own racism. Stay tuned.

[1939]

2. Trump could be on to something

Run against free trade, tax imports, quotas on imports, reject NAFTA, reject TPP.

He has no dog in the hunt as to manufacturing or free trade and is not beholden to any of the people that depend on exporting jobs. His xenophobia might just catch fire if he couches it in terms of bread and butter issues for the middle and lower middle class.,

[phantom power]

3. Economic populism combined with xenophobic demagoguery is historically quite common

What Trump is doing is as old as recorded human history. Anybody who underestimates it is making a big fucking mistake.

[Cosmocat]

4. Yep

I said he had the R nomination in a sleep hold last summer ...

Not sure how the general would play out.

Have to see how it all plays out after the conventions.

[1939]

5. The message

1. We don't want them stealing our jobs by taking them overseas.

2. We don't want them stealing our jobs by sneaking into our country.

JOBS!! JOBS!! JOBS!!

Would it resonate?

[phantom power]

7. You better believe it resonates.

It comes at a substantial cost, once he gets into the general election and starts going up against people who aren't white conservatives. He's managed to offend pretty much anybody who isn't a white male conservative at one point or another.

But still... factor in voter suppression against non-whites, conservative gerrymandering, etc. And just the general bloody-minded ignorance of most voters, that liberals never seem to stop underestimating... I give Trump about russian roulette odds of actually winning. It isn't comforting.

[1939]

11. Gerrymandering has no effect in the presidential election NT

[phantom power]

12. good point, it doesn't impact the electoral college

It has been implicated in de-motivating voter turnout in general, but that's more indirect.

[1939]

13. There is some gerrymandering effect by the electoral college

but it is made up by the composition of the states. If you live in a state which leans strongly one way or the other, your vote is less critical than it would be if you lived in a swing state.

[RussBLib]

6. gee, since Obama had a Democratic house and Senate his entire 8 years

you can legitimately ask, "why haven't they done anything about it"?

Do I really need this

[Democat]

8. Obama has had so much support from the Senate and Congress

And Trump is a genius.

[phantom power]

10. How many voters do you think are going to think that through?

Especially if no Democrats bother to make the point? This is what I mean by triangulation having risks. Democrats have been trying to brand themselves as "the party that wants to work across the aisle." Well, Trump is going to ask "how come, with all your working across the aisle, did you fail to make the economy work for most people?"

We better have a strategy for that.

[hollowdweller]

9. I think Trump has a great shot at beating Clinton.

I don't think he is near as smart and qualified as Clinton.

However Clinton has done so much to undermine her credibility as a champion of the middle class I think it's going to be really difficult for her to fight off Trumps attacks.

Also the fact that so many country club corporate republicans are starting to say that they would support Clinton over Trump only bolsters the fact that she is the candidate of the ruling elite.

I think Clinton will keep the democratic party as the champion of protecting the minorities. Also of the environment.

However we may be seeing a pivotal moment here. When the dems embraced civil rights all the dixiecrats became republicans and all the prejudiced southern people became republicans.

I think we may see a re alignment of the parties where the GOP is the party of worker protection, all the pro business pro Wall Street republicans move to Hillary and the dems.

[Darb]

14. This coming from the guy that uses illegal labor to save money.

Fucking fraud.

[Codeine]

15. And the DU Political Rehabilitation of Trump continues apace.

So, so very predictable.

[friendly_iconoclast]

16. It's not rehabilitation, it's an examination of his tactics

As loathesome as he is, underestimating him is foolish in the extreme