Trump's Spaghetti Strategy
When it comes to his reelection strategy, the Trump campaign seems satisfied with throwing out baseless accusations and name-calling instead of offering a coherent view of what they will do if given a second chance to ruin the country. It’s an approach many people take when making pasta. They throw it at the wall and see if it sticks.
It’'s Trump's spaghetti strategy.
He has called Kamala an “ultra-liberal”, whatever that is. He has tried recycling old derogatory labels such as Lyin’ Kamala and Crooked Kamala. He has repeatedly mispronounced her name (or perhaps he is just too old to remember how to pronounce it properly?). He even tried out an odd spelling of her name (Kamabla) hoping that would catch on.
None of it has stuck with his MAGA faithful. The idea that one of these childish taunts would have the crowd chanting the way they shouted “Lock her up!” during the 2016 campaign has yet to catch on leaving Trump prone to even more rants such as mocking her laugh and how she often smiles. Can anyone remember ever hearing Trump laugh?
This would be fine if he was just your average senior citizen shouting at the neighborhood teens to stay off his lawn. But this is a person who is vying for the job of the most powerful person in the free world. His unhinged rants and immature outbursts have world leaders on edge as Trump praises autocrats while he threatens democracies.
He Said What?
Donald Trump’s speeches will never go down in history. There is no “Ask not what your country will do for you…” or “The only thing you have to fear is…”. There isn’t even a “Read my lips”. Brilliant oratory is not his strength, yet his base clings to every word as if they were hearing from the Almighty himself.
Trump’s speeches are the Tale of Two Trumps. There is teleprompter Trump where he spouts the same false claims of a rigged system and a stolen election. Add to this his new boast of overturning Roe v Wade. Toss in a few conspiracy theories and you pretty much have the same well-rehearsed script that you hear at any one of his rallies.
But when Trump goes off script, oh boy! There are wild claims about windmills, ramblings about sharks and electric motors and odd sound effects allegedly mimicking gunfire or missile launchings.
And let’s not forget how this “stable genius” has repeatedly thanked the late, great Hannibal Lecter for having a friend for dinner while he brags about “Acing” a cognitive test that is actually meant to detect dementia.
It is then Trump is likely to try out one of his latest taunts, but unlike many of his earlier rallies, these childish jibes haven’t yielded to raucous chants that were the centerpieces of his previous campaigns.
Perhaps Donald is losing his edge? Or perhaps the truly faithful are losing interest. Like a once-popular song, Trump’s routine seems to be fading, making room for a new, younger, more energetic face.
Next?
When most candidates for president choose someone to be their second-in-command, the typical goal is to select someone who will balance the ticket, bringing in voters who would otherwise want someone else. JFK, from New England, famously opted for Lyndon Johnson, from Texas, to offset what many viewed as Kennedy’s greatest weakness, his youth, with the seasoned Johnson. Political pundits have credited this choice as the reason Kennedy was able to eke out a narrow victory over then-Vice President Richard Nixon.
Trump’s advisors urged him to make a similar decision by choosing someone from a swing state to stabilize the ticket should Trump go off on one of his rants. But Trump being Trump ignored their advice and opted for loyalty over political common sense. With his seemingly insurmountable lead over Joe Biden, Trump decided that his choice for a running mate would have no impact on the outcome of the election.
Despite JD Vance calling Trump an American Hitler, Vance was selected among several, more suitable options. It seems he had undergone a conversion and was now full-on MAGA. And Republicans were quick to hail Vance as the future of the MAGA movement, until…
It didn’t take long until Vance’s past statements came back to haunt him. It was revealed that he called women who didn’t have children “childless cat ladies” who were miserable and wanted to spread their misery to others. He later claimed that post-menopausal women were obligated to assist in the raising of their grandchildren. Not very good advice when you are trying to court the women’s vote.
Republicans were outraged when Hillary Clinton referred to them as a basket of deplorables, but apparently childless cat ladies is okay in their book.
Once Joe Biden stepped aside, Trump turned his sights on Kamala Harris. During a conference of Black journalists, Trump accused her of using her race to garner votes and that she had only recently “turned Black”. He completely ignored the fact that Harris attended Howard University, a Historically Black College, that she was a member of several Black organizations.
Being his running mate, Vance felt obligated to defend Trump’s comment. First, he declared that Harris was being disingenuous because she claimed to be the first Indian American elected to Congress. To Vance and Trump, this proved she wasn't really identifying as Black. Never mind that most of us have multiple lineages due to our parents’ backgrounds. Trump himself has a German father and a Scottish mother, but he only wants to recognize his Whiteness.
Vance went on to claim that Harris was a chameleon who changed her identity to suit whatever crowd she was facing. Yet Vance has gone under multiple names during his lifetime, so who is really the chameleon here?
But it seems only Trump can be Trump. When Vance went after Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, over discrepancies in his military record, the public, in particular veterans, were not having it. They blasted Vance over his comments and demanded he apologize for denigrating someone with 24 years of military service. Yet, when Trump used the sacred grounds of Arlington Cemetery for a campaign photo op, there was some outrage, but little protest from the MAGA faithful.
Comrade, Communist, Marxist, and an oldie but a goodie, the radical Left, have all been attempts by Trump to label Kamala Harris. None of them has stuck and the race is currently neck and neck as Election Day fast approaches.
But when Tim Walz referred to JD Vance as “weird”, that stuck.
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