The Sound of 'Splainin'
I've been through a few presidential cycles in my cycles around the sun. Not as much as many, but more than a few. I know there are differences and similarities in each. But this time, this time feels ... different.
( Cut for my rocking chair on porch moment. )
( Cut for my rocking chair on porch moment. )
Ah, that's strategic. When people are focused on two candidates even before the field narrows, expect those candidates to go neg on each other. The same thing happened when Clinton and Sanders were the top two; Clinton went after Sanders even though there was another debater, standing right there, still "technically" in the race. His poll numbers were low enough for her to ignore him.
I should distinguish here that "going negative" refers not to negative comments in general, but specifically to negative attacks on the other candidate. Trump had gone negative about everything he didn't like, not just the other GOPpers in the race. Those people he all but ignored, except when he was polling high and they attacked him. Then, he responded.
As to finding ways to go negative, this has already been done on a Biblical scale, though mostly not by the candidates. Again, lots of stuff in Mayer's book on this, stuff I plan to share.
...no one's talking about overturning Buckley.
Or Bellotti. Both of those decisions provided the cited precedent in Citizens United, though Stevens' dissent pointed out that the majority was fairly selective in what portions of each were cited. He pointed out that they cited the dissenting opinions in Bellotti, for example, and ignored those portions of Buckley that did not support their conclusions.
(Sorry. Been geeking out on CU lately for planned episodes. Suffice to say that bonus episode on Powell plays a key part; Powell was the power behind both previous decisions. It turns out his nomination to the Court just three months after he wrote his memo was far from a coincidence.)
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I don't think it's accurate that Trump ignored chances to attack his primary opponents. Rather, he picked off his opponents one at a time with negative attacks he tested in front of his rally audiences: First Jeb Bush ("weak", "low energy"), then "little" Marco Rubio, then "Lyin'" Ted Cruz. Check out this video (which I got from our mutual friend, kmo). While I don't quite agree with the title and (despite the channel name) it's more about Trump's marketing savvy than his charisma (a better video about that is this one), it does a very good job of explaining Trump's very successful approach to negative campaigning in a crowded field.
Of course, you're right that he's not just negative about his opposition, and he's found an audience where denigrating the opposition isn't viewed negatively.
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I will note that the weaknesses he zeroed in on with the other GOPpers were known; for a tiny magazine I recently reviewed The Wilderness, McKay Coppins' take on the GOP candidate field. I wonder if Trump took those traits-the weakness, smallness, and lying-ness-from that book. (I doubt it, since he all but fired missiles at Coppins based on an early article about Trump.)
Still, it was all pretty low-hanging fruit, especially the stuff about slacker Bush and Markito. Heck, Coppins couldn't find anyone to attest to Cruz's religious background. They instead said he watched televangelists and copied their moves. No one could say he even attended church.
That's a bit off-topic, I know. I guess my point would be in some defense that he has stated other than negative policy goals (mostly about the debt and taxation). These get far less coverage, of course. And that fits with the theory that a multi-party election forces at least some positive statements about goals.
But who knows with Trump. Did you know he had to hire actors to fill the stadium when he made his candidacy official, and get passers-by inside with the bribe of free T-shirts?
Anything goes with this guy.
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