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How an obscure adviser to Pat Buchanan predicted the wild Trump campaign in 1996

What if you dropped all this leftover 19th-century piety about the free market and promised to fight the elites who were selling out American jobs? What if you just stopped talking about reforming Medicare and Social Security and instead said that the elites were failing to deliver better health care at a reasonable price? What if, instead of vainly talking about restoring the place of religion in society — something that appeals only to a narrow slice of Middle America — you simply promised to restore the Middle American core — the economic and cultural losers of globalization — to their rightful place in America? What if you said you would restore them as the chief clients of the American state under your watch, being mindful of their interests when regulating the economy or negotiating trade deals?.............................

What is so crucial to Trump's success, even within the Republican Party, is his almost total ditching of conservatism as a governing philosophy. He is doing the very thing Pat Buchanan could not, and would not do. And in this, he is following the advice of Sam Francis to a degree almost unthinkable. Here's the concluding flourish of Francis' 1996 essay:

I told [Buchanan] privately that he would be better off without all the hangers-on, direct-mail artists, fund-raising whiz kids, marketing and PR czars, and the rest of the crew that today constitutes the backbone of all that remains of the famous "Conservative Movement" and who never fail to show up on the campaign doorstep to guzzle someone else's liquor and pocket other people's money. "These people are defunct," I told him. "You don't need them, and you're better off without them. Go to New Hampshire and call yourself a patriot, a nationalist, an America Firster, but don't even use the word 'conservative.' It doesn't mean anything any more."

Pat listened, but I can't say he took my advice. By making his bed with the Republicans, then and today, he opens himself to charges that he's not a "true" party man or a "true" conservative, constrains his chances for victory by the need to massage trunk-waving Republicans whose highest goal is to win elections, and only dilutes and deflects the radicalism of the message he and his Middle American Revolution have to offer. The sooner we hear that message loudly and clearly, without distractions from Conservatism, Inc., the Stupid Party, and their managerial elite, the sooner Middle America will be able to speak with an authentic and united voice, and the sooner we can get on with conserving the nation from the powers that are destroying it. [Chronicles]

Trump embodies this in nearly every letter. He doesn't have people from the traditional Republican power structure advising him. He doesn't say he'll direct the existing members of the managerial class to make a little tweak here or there; he says he'll send his friend Carl Icahn and threaten China with a tariff wall that could repel a tsunami of cheap goods.

What so frightens the conservative movement about Trump's success is that he reveals just how thin the support for their ideas really is. His campaign is a rebuke to their institutions. It says the Republican Party doesn't need all these think tanks, all this supposed policy expertise. It says look at these people calling themselves libertarians and conservatives, the ones in tassel-loafers and bow ties. Have they made you more free? Have their endless policy papers and studies and books conserved anything for you? These people are worthless. They are defunct. You don't need them, and you're better off without them.

kalm wrote:Wow! Interesting read and I think there's a whole bunch of truth in it. Trump's tactics were suggested to Pat Buchanon 20 years ago and nothing has really changed much for the "Applebee's-eating, megachurch rubes who think they are losing their "jerbs."

In essence, this is an intriguing explanation of Trump's popularity and why it sells...

How an obscure adviser to Pat Buchanan predicted the wild Trump campaign in 1996

What if you dropped all this leftover 19th-century piety about the free market and promised to fight the elites who were selling out American jobs? What if you just stopped talking about reforming Medicare and Social Security and instead said that the elites were failing to deliver better health care at a reasonable price? What if, instead of vainly talking about restoring the place of religion in society — something that appeals only to a narrow slice of Middle America — you simply promised to restore the Middle American core — the economic and cultural losers of globalization — to their rightful place in America? What if you said you would restore them as the chief clients of the American state under your watch, being mindful of their interests when regulating the economy or negotiating trade deals?.............................

AZGrizFan wrote:

kalm wrote:Wow! Interesting read and I think there's a whole bunch of truth in it. Trump's tactics were suggested to Pat Buchanon 20 years ago and nothing has really changed much for the "Applebee's-eating, megachurch rubes who think they are losing their "jerbs."

In essence, this is an intriguing explanation of Trump's popularity and why it sells...

It's not the topics he talks about that disturb me, it's HOW he talks that disturbs me. There's no fucking way he's getting my vote. He'd be more of an embarrassment than Obama, and THAT is saying something because Obama has raised that bar to all time heights.

Ivytalk wrote:My wife and I were talking about who Trump might pick for a veep if he gets the nod.

Palin is out, although she'd eagerly gobble his knob for another shot.

He's tanned...he's rested...he's ready! TRUMP/BUCHANAN '16!

Ivytalk wrote:My wife and I were talking about who Trump might pick for a veep if he gets the nod.

Palin is out, although she'd eagerly gobble his knob for another shot.

He's tanned...he's rested...he's ready! TRUMP/BUCHANAN '16!

kalm wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
It's not the topics he talks about that disturb me, it's HOW he talks that disturbs me. There's no fucking way he's getting my vote. He'd be more of an embarrassment than Obama, and THAT is saying something because Obama has raised that bar to all time heights.

So you don't like the way he talks.

You might be missing something here....

AZGrizFan wrote:

kalm wrote:
So you don't like the way he talks.

You might be missing something here....

Negative ghost rider. I think, if packaged and presented correctly, Trumps message would resonate with far greater than the 31% that currently say they support him. It's HIM, not his message, that is turning more people off.

Edit: and now you're stealing 89Hen's pics?

For decades, people have been warning that a set of policies that really has enriched Americans on the top, and likely has improved the overall quality of life (through cheap consumables) on the bottom, has hollowed out the middle.

kalm wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
Negative ghost rider. I think, if packaged and presented correctly, Trumps message would resonate with far greater than the 31% that currently say they support him. It's HIM, not his message, that is turning more people off.

Edit: and now you're stealing 89Hen's pics?

Packaged and presented like the candidates he's beating?

Oh...and 89 stole it from me, ya idget!

Chizzang wrote:This article does a nice job of showing how trump actually says nothing - which has always worked in politics
Now if we could get politicians to sincerely promise to do nothing it would actually be an improvement

Wedgebuster wrote:"It's twue, it's twue!"

kalm wrote:

Chizzang wrote:This article does a nice job of showing how trump actually says nothing - which has always worked in politics
Now if we could get politicians to sincerely promise to do nothing it would actually be an improvement

He dumbs things down. Rather than a drawn out, wonkish, lecture, he says nothing in a few sentences. "They're dumb. I'll surround myself with brilliant advisors. We'll build a wall. It'll be fanstastic."

Simple obviosly sells.

Chizzang wrote:

kalm wrote:
He dumbs things down. Rather than a drawn out, wonkish, lecture, he says nothing in a few sentences. "They're dumb. I'll surround myself with brilliant advisors. We'll build a wall. It'll be fanstastic."

Simple obviosly sells.

He knows his audience...
for the first three years of the Obama administration the entire Republican base
Referenced him as "The Wealthy Elitist Liberal" President
only after reports that: He was the poorest president since the mid-1800's
and that He wasn't born rich - every dollar he had he earned - there was no $100 million dollar inheritance

So the meme shifted over to "Elitist Socialist President"

Trump knows the angry mob
He knows where the bottom of the American psyche' lives
and I gotta admit I love it

Chizzang wrote:

kalm wrote:
He dumbs things down. Rather than a drawn out, wonkish, lecture, he says nothing in a few sentences. "They're dumb. I'll surround myself with brilliant advisors. We'll build a wall. It'll be fanstastic."

Simple obviosly sells.

He knows his audience...
for the first three years of the Obama administration the entire Republican base
Referenced him as "The Wealthy Elitist Liberal" President
only after reports that: He was the poorest president since the mid-1800's
and that He wasn't born rich - every dollar he had he earned - there was no $100 million dollar inheritance

So the meme shifted over to "Elitist Socialist President"

Trump knows the angry mob
He knows where the bottom of the American psyche' lives
and I gotta admit I love it

AZGrizFan wrote:

kalm wrote:
So you don't like the way he talks.

You might be missing something here....

Negative ghost rider. I think, if packaged and presented correctly, Trumps message would resonate with far greater than the 31% that currently say they support him. It's HIM, not his message, that is turning more people off.

Edit: and now you're stealing 89Hen's pics?

GannonFan wrote:

Chizzang wrote:
He knows his audience...
for the first three years of the Obama administration the entire Republican base
Referenced him as "The Wealthy Elitist Liberal" President
only after reports that: He was the poorest president since the mid-1800's
and that He wasn't born rich - every dollar he had he earned - there was no $100 million dollar inheritance

So the meme shifted over to "Elitist Socialist President"

Trump knows the angry mob
He knows where the bottom of the American psyche' lives
and I gotta admit I love it

Did the GOP do that? I don't really recall people hating on Obama because he had money, or even call him wealthy. I think most people knew his money primarily came from the books he wrote.

Chizzang wrote:

GannonFan wrote:
Did the GOP do that? I don't really recall people hating on Obama because he had money, or even call him wealthy. I think most people knew his money primarily came from the books he wrote.

Oh yeah...
The Rich Harvard Elitist thing was all the rage for a while
Then when it became public knowledge that he had 1.7 billion less than the Bush Family trust Fund
and in fact was relatively meager in funds - the spin mode team came in with a shift in attack

Subtle shifts in attack vector are critical to a sustained battle
Trump has shown he's very skilled at these subtle shifts



Yet never losing sight of "The bottom"

JohnStOnge wrote:And BTW that thing about the Chinese tariff IS stupid. The Chinese would chew that pussy up and spit her out. Seriously, you think that cunt is going to intimidate the Chinese? She looks and sounds ridiculous. They'll humiliate her.