Earlier today I was sent an e-mail link to an article by Victor Davis Hanson in which he describes Donald Trump as a “Post Modern” candidate.
Below is my e-mailed response with just a few of the infelicities of e-mail removed.
In it I offer an “alternative narrative” to that which is presently employed.
The idea of “Reframing” or of “Reframing Narratives” is an idea which has political significance since George Lakoff advised the Obama campaign that the important thing was not “the message” but how the message was “framed”.
Trump’s message is almost never the topic of the discussion. What the media discussion does is focus on the rudeness and inappropriateness of the way he expresses the facts. It’s not about the message but the messenger. It’s not about the “values” but the way they are “framed”.
In the overarching spirit of this blog I offer a way to “reframe” the current Trump commentaries. The deeper reason for this is, as always, to reveal the techniques of rhetoric and manipulation so that when we reach a decision or a conclusion it will be the one we ourselves wanted to reach and not the one we were “sold” or “spun into believing”.
Now on to the comments of Victor Davis Hanson.
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I think he’s basically correct in the appeal but he’s missing the real historical parallel.
Donald Trump is a recapitulation of the Hebrew Prophets.
For those who don’t remember them, the Hebrew Prophets were generally well known for telling everyone else exactly what was wrong and for being detested for doing so. All of them were hated. Some of them had to run for their lives. Others did not run fast enough.
Trump is Prophet Donald. I only came to this conclusion yesterday. It came to me when President Obama called him “unfit for the presidency” and thereby did something that no US president has ever done – get involved in the re-election campaign to replace him. This has never been done in any civilised country. It is the hallmark of a dysfunctional political system.
I was also aided in seeing the problems when I asked myself why it was that the Democrats appear to be on the one had highly confident of victory and yet they are acting as if they had a great deal to hide and their chances were less than good.
We are also told that Julian Assange is planning to release some more files which will fill in the missing blanks on the Clinton Cash and Libyan military intervention against Gaddafi which resulted in the present disaster in Libya. Both of these could provide information highly damaging to Hillary Clinton’s election chances.
This would account for the timing of the furious attacks against Trump: Get rid of him now so he’s already gone if Hillary has to be dumped as well.
The overriding desire seems to be to make sure that no matter what happens Trump does not get elected. If Hillary is fatally compromised in September or October then it will be necessary to have Trump gone by then.
Why does Trump inspire so much unvarnished fear in some people while others (including his children) see him as someone who is reasonable and conciliatory?
Is it because he is brash, outspoken, and “post modern” as Victor Davis Hansen says, or is it because he fearlessly speaks what he believes to be the truth and is sufficiently insulated from the indirect methods of censorship (he’s rich, after all) that he can actually exercise his rights to free speech fully?
As I suggested in an earlier post, Trump and at that time Sanders both had one thing in common: they attacked the “puppetmaster” of the “political establishment” and they could do it because they were both outsiders and not beholden to the existing power brokers for their political survival.
The recent revelations of the DNC’s furious plotting to derail Sanders produced the destruction of Debbie Wasserman Schulz as collateral damage but Sanders was stopped.
The Puppetmaster’s left flank was therefore protected.
Trump, however, still threatens the right flank.
Donald Trump calls ugly people ugly, stupid people stupid, dissembling people liars, dishonest people crooks, racist people racist, incompetent people incompetent and so on.
Even when these people are rich, famous, and widely admired. Even when it is “politically incorrect” to find fault with them as is Prof. Hanson’s major argument.
Hanson reminds us that the foremost advocates of all of the socially corrosive actions Trump so dislikes have veiled themselves in the shroud of Politically Unassailability by virtue of Victimhood.
Attacking them as Trump does is manifestly “politically incorrect” but that appellation only appeals to the faction of the population which agrees with him.
Those who advocate all of this destructive lunacy attack Trump for being rude and unkind and all manner of other “personal” rebukes.
Then I started asking myself “why do the people who say they hate him get so angry?” After all, as we have seen in the leaked emails, all manner of Politically Correct Luminaries have revealed themselves to be every bit as bigoted and thick-witted as those they denounce.
Once I asked this question, Trump started to remind me of the Hebrew Prophet Amos.
I’m not that up on my prophets so maybe another one will serve better.
But to suggest to the Politically Correct Party Establishment that they hate Trump for the same reasons the Ancient Israelites hated Amos then it might be possible to switch the debate away from Trump’s message and to the refusal of his attackers from asking if they themselves are in any way at fault.
Pope Francis in his comments on the martyrdom of Fr Jacques Hamel has revealed himself yet again as a “sentimental” Christian and an “ontological” Marxist. He doesn’t want anyone to get hurt and the root of all the world’s ills is to be found in economics. All religions are inherently peaceful. All religions have violent people in their numbers. The root causes of such violence is always social and economic.
What would Amos say to him? What would Trump say to him?
For the more “spiritually inclined” people we can tell them “Trump is Channeling Amos”.
If Amos isn’t exactly right for this comparison my apologies.
But Trump is still reminding me of the Old Prophets.
Prophet Donald is reading the Riot Act to America.
Trump is only chronologically “post modern”. In terms of his own motivations — at least as far as I can discern them — he is a classical American Patriot who just can’t stand seeing his country destroyed. “He’s mad as hell and he just can’t take it any more.”
He’s not a capitalist. He’s not a communist. He’s not a protectionist. He’s not a globalist.
He’s an American.
It’s been so long I almost forgot what they looked like.
He’s also an American Prophet. Prophet Donald.
That’s why he gets all the free air time, all the attention, and all the acrimony. Because he’s saying things that even those in the news media who detest him know will pull in huge ratings and make them massive profits.
Donald Trump. American Prophet.