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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWill Trump shatter his own mystique?
Most presidents face a midterm thumping. But rarely do they make it so much about themselves.
By JOHN F. HARRIS and ELIANA JOHNSON November 06, 2018
ne constant of Donald Trumps ascent to the presidency and his two years in power is how behavior that would be not just risky but downright stupid for any normal politician ends up working smartly for him.
This is the essence of the Trump Mystiquea three-year record in which he regularly demonstrated that many of the normal precedents, patterns and truisms of American politics simply do not apply to him. This mystiqueIs it real or illusion? Is his patented sorcery still working?is among the big questions being tested in Tuesdays elections. Trumps own decisions over the past month have put the issuewhether Trump has defied political gravity or merely delayed its impactin even sharper relief than it would have been anyway.
It would be smart, viewed through a conventional prism, for a president who has never commanded majority support to try to float above the midterms and allow politicians of his own party to keep their elections locally focused. It seems stupid to unite and energize the opposition in their loathing by insisting that congressional elections are a national referendum on himself.
It would be smart, if playing by normal rules, for a leader presiding over the best employment numbers in decades to make an economic argument his main push against the headwind that the incumbent presidents party historically faces in midterm elections. It seems stupid to reduce this to secondary status in favor of picking scabs over immigration and societal violence in the days before voting.
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https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/06/trump-2018-elections-mystique-222220
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Will Trump shatter his own mystique? (Original Post)
DonViejo
Nov 2018
OP
empedocles
(15,751 posts)1. Elvis was quoted as saying, in the mid 50's,
about his popularity with fans, [best as I remember], 'It's not really me that they like so much, its what they need, then they'll like somebody else', [they need].
Crappy George 'nigra' Wallace had no great 'mystique'. Wallace was just saying on national tv what his fans desperately wanted to hear, as they felt embattled and disrespected in 1968. Similar is the trump core following - imnsho.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,080 posts)2. Con men are always in a race against time.
All cons eventually fail spectacularly. Its only a matter of how much damage they incur before they fail thats important.
2naSalit
(86,047 posts)3. Also, the amount of damage they do as they fall
grabbing at everything they can catch on to and take down with them as the freefall accelerates.