No; I don't. At this point it is wayy too late for any scandal to move the numbers enough. (And it's definitely irrelevant to me, since I voted last week by mail.)
This "new batch of emails" thing is the last ballyhooed gasp of a dog that stopped hunting most of a year ago, when Bernie shouted "We're sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails." The GOP has shouted it from the rooftops top-volume, and the media has gathered one more highly profitable round of ad impressions from the reporting, but the needle is absolutely unmoved.
At this point, there are people to whom it matters, and people to whom it doesn't, and those groups have stopped changing, rendering the issue useless politically. But that fact does not bother Trump, and I think I know why.
Trump badgered the moderator of the town-hall debate only a few weeks ago, claiming that he wasn't bringing it up enough, after it had already been brought up again. (Compare and contrast with Bernie.) He knows it excites the base, and perhaps he has peripherally heard that it doesn't excite anyone else, but that doesn't matter to him. His whole campaign is practically a false flag operation: Fuck the presidency, fuck the country, do what really matters: Expand the Trump brand.
When that's your end game, you don't give a shit about honesty, or nuance, or compromise, or even political fluency (which is why he has shown none of these things), let alone what works as campaign strategy and what doesn't. He's not in it to Make America Great Again. He's in it to Make Trump Great Again. So: We get endless rehashing of the emails, and chants of "Lock Her Up!", and now, poisonous insinuations of rigged debates, because Trump does not stand for a political platform, he stands for Trump, and how important it is to pay attention to Trump, and talk about Trump, and read about Trump, and believe what Trump says.
This has been my thought too, that he's just about Making Trump Great, but if this is right, it is interesting to note that there is some argument that he has hurt his brand, such that he has even stopped attaching his name to his projects. I am wondering if somewhere along the line, he kind of fell into this contest, so that winning it meant everything - even at the risk of hurting the Trump brand.
Oh I don't think so. I think after a lifetime of being himself, the pursuit of attention and self-promotion is practically stamped into his genome by now. Whenever he hurts his brand it's just because he's doing it poorly.
If you try and look at it from the inside, the progression is obvious:
1. I'm rich, I like self-promotion, I've always had a low opinion of politicians and government, I have a reality show background.
2. The GOP base is angry at politicians and government, and they're familiar with my show. They're also a house divided, and cannot settle on a clear frontrunner candidate. I can get into this with a splash to promote my brand and have fun making drama, by embodying the rage of the GOP base.
3. Wow, I've caught on. The level of media exposure I'm getting is totally unreal. I'm a household name. I should keep this up for as long as possible. So much free press!
4. Okay, I've identified a base of supporters that is totally in thrall to me. I need to feed them red meat, all the time. I want them hooked. I want them to need me like a drug. Fuck the government ("how stupid is our government?"), fuck hollywood ("a bunch of losers"), fuck the other news media ("they're in the tank for Hillary") - fuck all the other sources of information and empowerment you could choose, they are all evil. Only I can be trusted.
5. Oops, the election actually has an end date. Time to pivot. News network? Another TV show? Think, Trumpy, think. What's the best way to profit off this?
This "new batch of emails" thing is the last ballyhooed gasp of a dog that stopped hunting most of a year ago, when Bernie shouted "We're sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails." The GOP has shouted it from the rooftops top-volume, and the media has gathered one more highly profitable round of ad impressions from the reporting, but the needle is absolutely unmoved.
At this point, there are people to whom it matters, and people to whom it doesn't, and those groups have stopped changing, rendering the issue useless politically. But that fact does not bother Trump, and I think I know why.
Trump badgered the moderator of the town-hall debate only a few weeks ago, claiming that he wasn't bringing it up enough, after it had already been brought up again. (Compare and contrast with Bernie.) He knows it excites the base, and perhaps he has peripherally heard that it doesn't excite anyone else, but that doesn't matter to him. His whole campaign is practically a false flag operation: Fuck the presidency, fuck the country, do what really matters: Expand the Trump brand.
When that's your end game, you don't give a shit about honesty, or nuance, or compromise, or even political fluency (which is why he has shown none of these things), let alone what works as campaign strategy and what doesn't. He's not in it to Make America Great Again. He's in it to Make Trump Great Again. So: We get endless rehashing of the emails, and chants of "Lock Her Up!", and now, poisonous insinuations of rigged debates, because Trump does not stand for a political platform, he stands for Trump, and how important it is to pay attention to Trump, and talk about Trump, and read about Trump, and believe what Trump says.
It's not like he's hiding it.
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If you try and look at it from the inside, the progression is obvious:
1. I'm rich, I like self-promotion, I've always had a low opinion of politicians and government, I have a reality show background.
2. The GOP base is angry at politicians and government, and they're familiar with my show. They're also a house divided, and cannot settle on a clear frontrunner candidate. I can get into this with a splash to promote my brand and have fun making drama, by embodying the rage of the GOP base.
3. Wow, I've caught on. The level of media exposure I'm getting is totally unreal. I'm a household name. I should keep this up for as long as possible. So much free press!
4. Okay, I've identified a base of supporters that is totally in thrall to me. I need to feed them red meat, all the time. I want them hooked. I want them to need me like a drug. Fuck the government ("how stupid is our government?"), fuck hollywood ("a bunch of losers"), fuck the other news media ("they're in the tank for Hillary") - fuck all the other sources of information and empowerment you could choose, they are all evil. Only I can be trusted.
5. Oops, the election actually has an end date. Time to pivot. News network? Another TV show? Think, Trumpy, think. What's the best way to profit off this?
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