Deconstructing Trump Made Easy

[McCamy Taylor]

Almost called this one Deconstructing Trump for Dummies, but we know who calls us dummies. Even though we have actually been known to crack a book from time to time. I just read Bandits, Eric Hobsbawn’s book about social outlaws, and it was a gold mine for any political strategist trying to separate Trump from his Loyal Base---make that Would- Make- a -Screaming Fan-Girl-Throwing-Panties-Look-Mature-and-Rational-in-Comparison-Loyal Base. The self-styled mostly rural and working class “outlaws” who adore Trump because they are convinced that he is one of them. Sad, I know. Delusional. But they have been shat upon so many times in recent years that they are desperate for a savior.

But first, to set the mood. Some (Noble Prize Winning Author) Bob Dylan lyrics from his greatest album, John Wesley Harding.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/johnwesleyharding.html

John Wesley Harding

Was a friend to the poor

He trav'led with a gun in ev'ry hand

All along this countryside

He opened a many a door

But he was never known

To hurt a honest man….

Yes, I know. Utter bullshit. Hardin was a mean sonofabitch who shot a man for snoring. But Dylan was making a point. We don’t write folk ballads about real outlaws. We craft myths about heroic figures who battle injustice and aid the weak.

Hobsbawn’s book is a great read and I recommend it highly for anyone who wants to understand why so many Americans think the sun shines out of Donald Trump’s pasty white ass. But, in case you are pressed for time, here is the Cliff Notes Version: rural and agrarian people around the world adapt to times of economic hardship by spawning “outlaws” whose economic function is to keep the family/farm/village from starving and give them hope that brighter days are ahead so they don’t all drink the grape Kool-Aid together. Think Robin Hood.
Yes, I know Trump is no Robin Hood. Robin Hood was no Robin Hood. Robin Hood is a myth. Myths do not make sense, but that doesn’t make them any less real. They serve a purpose. Unfortunately for the self-styled outlaw Americans who voted for Trump, Trump’s purpose is not that of the social outlaw he pretends to be.

Ok, ok. Enough verbiage. Here is the promised How To Deconstruct Trump Guide (Made REAL Simple):

Part 1. When writing something aimed at the Trump “Outlaw” Base Do NOT attack Trump for:

Nepotism ----the outlaws call that taking care of family

Hacking the Election----Social Outlaws maintain their power by using magic, according to Hobsbawn. That’s how they perform their near miraculous feats in the face of almost overwhelming odds, like hiding out for years even though all the kings horses and men are after them. To you and me, a hack is a crime. To members of the outlaw base, it is a kind of magic that they will never understand, but they wish they could do it, too.

Recklessness/Impulsivity---to an outlaw, that is just fearlessness

Being Spiteful----outlaws live for revenge. They will tolerate almost any kind of evilness if they think it was done to “get even”.

Lavish Spending ----that equals trickle down “generosity” if you are a self-styled just barely getting by working class “outlaw” in the U.S.

Crimes—make that most crimes (see below for Rape). These are “outlaws” forchrissake! They don’t give a rat’s fart if their social outlaw savior breaks the law. Listing Trumps crimes for them is a waste of ink and/or electrons.

Lies---The Germans have a phrase for it. They call it (in German, of course) bandit romanticism. The outlaw base does not expect Trump to tell the truth. They want him to stick to the script. See Recklessness/Impulsivity above. That’s the kind of honesty the outlaw base wants.

Promiscuity---social outlaws are famous for their virility and insatiable appetite for women. They like to brag about it. Maybe because they spend so much time up in the mountains with a bunch of other young men and they don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. Bragging about loving the “pussy” is what real men do. The self-styled outlaws would be more worried by some guy who did not brag in front of other guys. But that’s all it must be. Talk. (See Rape below)

Putin as Russian President--- The tricky part about outlaw wannabes----they dream about the good old days when everything was easy and a white man was treated with respect and God watched over us all, Amen. They are perfectly capable of loving some far away king or president if they think he represents good old fashioned values---and if he is too far away to have actually gotten up their ass, the way that the local bank has gotten up their ass. Indeed, Robin Hood was always loyal to king and God, even as he fought the Sheriff of Nottingham. One of the social bandit’s jobs is to clear out the “bad” local law so that the light of the distant “good” law can shine once again on the peasants (mostly but not exclusively white and male) upturned faces. Cue the rousing music. Roll credits.

Vulgarity---can you say “man of the people”? I knew you could.

Poaching public lands----poaching is not even a crime to a peasant. God put all that wild game---and all those beautiful black mountains there for people to exploit. It’s a sin to just leave it lying there. If no one is using it to make money, then the outlaw base will applaud when Trump appropriates it for strip mining or for a new casino or for a pipeline.

Bigotry—another thing to understand about the outlaw base. They long for the good old days when whites lorded over blacks and men lorded over women and kids kept their mouths shut. They think the parts in the Constitutional about “All men are created equal” apply only to straight, heterosexual Christian men. To keep the Baptists from lording it over the Anglicans or vice versa. And that is about as much tolerance as they expect from their president. All Christians (except maybe Quakers) are more or less equal in the eyes of the law, even if God is going send most of them to hell for choosing wrong.

Part 2. When writing something aimed at the Trump “Outlaw” Base DO attack Trump for:

So, what is left to write about Trump if we want to show his outlaw base that he is not on their side and he is not an outlaw, he is just as bad as every other corporate shill that has ever been President of this country? Lots. Social bandits have to follow rules---and Trump has not been following the rules, not by a long shot.

Rape—the social bandit loves women but he never ever rapes them. Why do you think that Ken Starr and company were so eager to prove that Bill Clinton was guilty of rape as well as infidelity? The outlaws love a virile man, but they despise a man who victimizes women. James Comey threw himself on his sword with all that bullshit about the warrant in the last weeks of the campaign, because Trump’s “pussy grabbing” and “underage booty ogling” was about to alienate the outlaws. They had to cook up a distraction real quick. Now, Team Putin/Trump hope that the press will drop the subject, as they tend to do after an election (“The voters selected him anyway, even knowing about his sexual assaults, so they must not care”). Don’t drop it. This needs to be topics number one, two and three. And women---like the million women who will descend upon DC soon---are the ones to spread the message. Trump is a groper, an ogler, maybe even a rapist. And no self-respecting social bandit ever rapes a woman.

Cowardice---how many draft exemptions did Trump get?

Cheapskate---every time he does not pay his bills, he violates the social bandit code which is to let money flow like water through his fingers to help out his friends and neighbors. Because to a social bandit friendship trumps wealth (sorry about the pun). And this is where the real money is (sorry about the second pun). All rich people are cheapskates, Scrooges. If they weren’t, they would not amass such obscene piles of money. Look around Trump’s closet and you will find an endless parade of hard working Joes and Juanitas whom he stiffed. They all deserve their day in the sun. Let’s hear what they have to say. At the very least, getting paid for their stories will offset their economic loss at the hands of a man who never met a child whose candy he wouldn’t steal.

Banking----Who is the “man” to outlaws? Not the DEA. Not the Sheriff. It’s the local bank. Trump is loading his cabinet with banking industry insiders. The outlaw base is in denial. They think Trump is just playing ball with the establishment and that he will keep the greedy sons-of-bitches in check. Boy, are they gonna be disillusioned when a second round of foreclosures begins. Because the predators who are backing Trump will not set their sights on the well to do city folks of California and New York who voted for Clinton. Those people have lawyers. They will target the same underinsured, underemployed desperate Americans who looked to Trump to be their hope, their savior.

Putin as Former KGB----Manchurian Candidate. Do I need to spell it out to you? There are still some folks in this country who think “red” is an insult. And they voted for Trump.

Injustice----social bandits are fair. If Trump uses the power of the federal government to smite every little cartoonist or journalist who cracks a joke at his expense, he will soon look like a great big bully rather than a rebel. And we all know that no matter how hard he tries, he will not be able to resist the urge to abuse his authority.

Snitch---I smell a rat. Trump has done business with way too many mobsters and snitches not to have snitched himself. The person who can prove that Trump sold out an ally in order to protect his own skin will drive a great big wedge between Trump and his outlaw base.

Blackmail---another rat we have all sniffed. Is Trump being blackmailed by Russia? It would explain so much. And it would absolutely horrify and alienate the outlaw base more than anything short of video of him raping an underage girl. Because a social bandit does not give in to blackmail!

The last two call for some investigative journalism. Have fun, investigative journalists! Remember Woodward and Bernstein!

Oh, and remember, context--and audience---counts. The "don'ts" above are all "does" when you are writing for Democratic audiences. But if you only ever write for a Democratic/liberal base do not be surprised if none of the outlaw base listens.

[BBG]

1. Good job, saved.

Thanks

[rgbecker]

2. BINGO!

[DonCoquixote]

3. of course, the sad truth is

America in many ways has been and always will be an outlaw nation. Now let me go ahead and explain this a little more detail before people shoot off their shootin irons. America was mostly made from people in the UK and in other parts of Europe that were the oppressed. Part of the reason why religion is so strong care is because England used colonization as a release for the pressure that was building up thanks to the Protestant Reformation. It's no accident that the Calvinist creeds are so strong in Dixie; they were the face that were embraced in Scotland and Northern Ireland that the Anglicans had problems with, so rather than try to fight these people in England they offered them land in America, in particular the southern states. That is why the self has mythology around moonshine, it's why the flag that is called the "stars and bars" blended the flags of Saint Andrew, Saint Patrick noticeably removed the cross of St. George, of England. What this means is that in the South and in the other "red states" there is the feeling that the government is the enemy, and that these outsiders have no respect for your way of life. We cannot forget that when we hear many of the southern voters talking as if they were oppressed, it reflects the fact that unless you had some sort of connection, you were very often and then to a life were even if your crops were not unstable, those with connections would find a way to keep you poor.

So, would your OP is doing is that is telling people how to speak to those who do not have a trust in government. I could see a lot of good in this, but there is one thing that cannot be avoided, an ugly truth. Now the ugly truth I'm about to discuss is easy to abuse and misuse especially by people who want to say "screw the white working class!" However, just because we want to go ahead and speak to those who have a romance of the outlaw in them does not mean we will be able to duck the fact that a world full of outlaws is going to be a lot dirtier, nastier at a whole lot less romantic then the image in their heads. It sure does not help that this image is painted with racist hues. No I am not saying that every Trump voter is a racist, but that they can have a sympathy with the racist that in many ways can be more destructive than wearing a white sheet, because it dissolves the responsibility they have to keep the folks for white sheets out of power. One ugly American trend is the idea that as long as I am not the one getting screwed, I can turn my back and be okay. Pink Floyd immortalized this sentiment in the tune "money" where they quoted an English working class saying "I'm alright Jack, keep your hands off of my stack."

In my humble opinion, one of the things that we need to do is remind the sons and daughters of outlaws that the people Trump is surrounded himself with not only are crooks, but that they never put themselves at risk to earn their money. In the case of Pennsylvania, Wilbur Moss is the little man that sold Bethlehem Steel twin Indian conglomerate. In short, let's point to the people from surrounds himself with and show that they are the same Yankee bankers that they associated with Hillary. Even Steve Bannon, that self-styled working-class rabble-rouser worked for Goldman Sachs.