Should Democrats change the way they criticize Donald Trump??

[kentuck]

I mean, he is so obvious and easy to criticize. Sometimes, stupidly so.

But he and his supporters feed off the criticism of liberals and it has little effect on he or them.

Perhaps instead of serious criticism, Democrats should use humor and ridicule to define Donald Trump? I have a hunch that he hates being laughed at more than anything else in the world.

Perhaps we should envision him as a little chubby 8-year old kid in a sandbox with a bunch of of toys, like F-35 fighter jets and cruise missiles to threaten his enemies with, as he licks his ice cream cone and sips on his Coca~Cola?

Seriously, if we began to mock him and make fun of him, instead of feeding his ego with serious criticism, it might be a more effective way to criticize him?

Many might argue that it would be unwise to laugh at such a dangerous demagogue? I'm sure there is more fodder than we can handle.

[elleng]

1. Humor and ridicule, OK,

but more important figure out how to win the House and Senate, and next POTUS candidates do NOT focus on trump, but rather on solving our problems. ENOUGH trump trump trump.

[Gravitycollapse]

2. I've been mocking him since he rode down that escalator.

I don't think most Democrats or even most Americans take him seriously. That fact obviously keeps him up at night.

[murielm99]

3. We do use humor against him.

The late night comics are in seventh heaven. The political cartoons are hysterical. The tweets are funny, and you know he sees them.

I agree that he hates to be laughed at. We need to keep it up.

[JI7]

4. That's what most HAVE been doing

[ginnyinWI]

5. I'm so thoroughly sick of him.

I really can't take any more. I'm going to mute the sound every time I hear his voice. I'm not going to click on links about him. Really, really sick of him. It's not even fun to laugh at him any more.

I only want to pay attention to other people in the news. Other events. I'm sure I'll still know the gist of what's going on in the White House--hard to completely avoid it.

I will never, ever vote for him, so why do I need to pay any attention to him?

[kimbutgar]

14. Ginny, I feel the same way you do

HE is such a vile disgusting person. I can barely watch him on tv. I am embarrassed and ashamed of my fellow countrymen that voted for him.

I don't know if I could ever respect anyone who voted for him. Only if they expressed their remorse of voting for him could I even begin to trust their judgement. Some of my hubby's relatives voted for him in Arizona. I refused to go to Arizona with him in a February because I couldn't guarantee I could be nice civil Kim.

[OnDoutside]

6. Just attacking Trump will not work, Democrats have to somehow reach those who voted for Trump,

not ALL of them as not all of them are reachable, but what they should be doing is showing what the consequences of Trump's policies will mean to them i.e. unaffordable healthcare insurance, economic downturn, Federal budget being robbed for the rich which will make them even suffer more.

We saw the anger when they realized that Obamacare was the ACA that THEY loved !

[kentuck]

8. Hillary proved that.

She exposed him as the vulgarian that he truly is and it didn't work. How could anyone have voted for such a person?

[OnDoutside]

11. Yes, precisely. The only way to reach people like this is to show how Trump's policies will hurt

them in the pocket.

[Vinca]

7. Democrats should start talking about his mental instability.

Let him defend his obvious loony tune behavior.

[kentuck]

9. Bugsy?

[NunnesBuznat]

10. That's a good idea. Late night shows are doing a hell of a job but Chuck Schumer's scowl not so much

I also think (at least when addressing national audiences, on national stages, some of which you'd hope will reach some of the chucklefucks that voted for him because they wanted to steal a supreme court seat) that people should drop or downplay their use of calling out misogyny, racism, and xenophobia coming from Trump. The people that actually care about those things ALL KNOW that he is all those things and will never change. But there was a sizable portion of the electorate that voted for Trump because somehow they believed racism doesn't exist and that reverse racism is a huge issue, and they associated the progenitor of this "reverse racism" as being the Democratic party because of how our politicians call stuff out (coupled with them associating the rampant use of the words as a form of harassment across social media with the left in general).
I'm not sure calling it out as a politician works much anymore, it's reaching a net negative. Because of social media and the like, condemnation is done on the ground, by us, but it doesn't seem to help anything for our politicians.

Trump himself is the greatest example of this. No matter how much you call him a bigot at this point all you will do is desensitize people to the word. Because everybody fucking knows he's a bigot, or they deny it (Trump supporters) in part because they've become accustomed to it being politicized by their opposition.

That's not to say that civil rights and discrimination shouldn't be addressed fervently at a policy level, but we have to get there first. It can be just as key a part of policy as it already is. However we need to face the fact that it's becoming politically toxic for our politicians to dial in on those issues. Us liberals already take enough time on our own to address discrimination issues that before the age of the internet, we would primarily learn about from our politicians. When we have enough time to write 3000 articles about a Hollywood movie's casting decisions, I'm pretty sure Nancy Pelosi calling the border wall racist is redundant.

If you want to reach Trump voters, white, scared, Trump voters, you need to draw their attention to something scarier to them than ISIS or whites losing the demographic majority. Let's start with nuclear war? How about instead of calling the wall xenophobic, we say the wall will accomplish nothing and waste the precious resources we need to last through nuclear winter and the resulting zombie virus?

[frazzled]

12. Any which way you can

In words and actions. (The actions are more important than words).

Look, rule number one, always: you're not trying to have an effect on Trump supporters or on him. That's not even a reasonable goal (when you do electoral training, you are always told not to waste any time or efforts on people who disagree with you; it's a losing battle and waste of resources). You are trying to energize your own base to come out and vote—vote him and his cohorts out of office.

Elected officials need to keep up the rational but strong criticism, on any front (and there are many), and by any means necessary. But they also must do the hard work of back-room strategizing to use their minority power to fend off the worst abuses.

Trump can not be shamed. He lives on the long-held principle that any publicity is good publicity. He doesn't care if it's negative. As long as his name is on TV or on the front page. He's always believed that, and has gotten very far by gaining negative attention. So do not focus on Trump or his minions in our criticisms or even humor of him: it's about raising the knowledge and enthusiasm base of our own side, and growing it.

[Doreen]

13. I think that we all tend to both be humorous and critical.

We all need to vent and that is the critical part. We need to release anxiety and humor is a good way to do it. I know it is a simple explanation but it just seems like it is the best one.

[msongs]

15. do everything you can do get city/county level democrats elected nt

[karynnj]

16. It is a terrible idea to mock him

Criticize the things he does and the things he fails to you. The last thing we should do is give credence to his view that the only problem is obstructionist Democrats or people who do not show proper respect.

As Michelle Obama said when they go low, we go high. We need to live up to our ideals. Why become like the worst of them.

I think the two things we most need to do is support any issues that matter to us, especially on the state and local level AND to regularly support the Democrats in power dealing with this dysfunctiona President. Imagine how sick they are of him and they can't hit the mute button as I do. I would imagine feedback supporting them could be good - especially when it gets really discuraging.