Trump's new stump speech proclaims a New American Future. Which is not a memorable title.
The first element is Law and Order, which includes total, unquestioning support for the police. "The chaos and violence on our streets, and the assaults on law enforcement are an attack against all peaceful citizens. If I am elected President, this chaos and violence will end - and it will end." Presto, order on the streets.
And now, as part of his rap, Donald apologizes for the pain he may have caused.
"But one thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth." Which is of course a colossal lie, but an absolutely essential lie because it sets up the line that is Trump's principal theme: Hillary Clinton never tells the truth, she always lies.
Trump portrays himself as The Outsider, representative of the "forgotten Americans," workers, veterans, the vulnerable families who live near the border, all those ignored by the insiders. Of course Trump and his junta are themselves insiders , though they would insist that they are not beholden to special interests, and they claim they are not in the game for personal gain. And you know who they say is a fraudulent fortune hunter. Right. HRC.
"This isn't just the fight of my life, it's the fight of our lives - together - to save our country. "
And he demands that Hillary apologize - apologize for the emails, the Clinton Foundation, Benghazi, the Iran nuclear deal. Apologize for NAFTA. Apologize for ISIS.
The pivotal issue, of course, is immigration.. The horror of sanctuary cities. THE WALL. He departs from the prompter: "And we will build the wall."
Trump's new, long postponed first TV ad warns in dark, foreboding terms of illegal immigrants, convicted of crimes, allowed to stay here, collecting Social Security. Terrorists and dangerous criminals kept out. The border secure. Our families safe.
Buzzfeed's report on Saturday's Top Level Hispanic meeting bore a surprising headline: In Reversal, Trump Indicates To Hispanic Leaders Openness To Legalization For Immigrants. But sure enough, the Trump campaign quickly wrote off the Buzzfeed post as "clickbait journalism" and denied there was any change in Trump's policy. In the several minutes the post was up, Trumpians on Twitter were already jumping ship. Any hint of "amnesty" is a bridge too far.
Bannon is all in on The Wall. Breitbart News is obsessed with strengthening America's borders.
Steve Bannon once said of Trump, "I don't know whether he gets it or not." This new group is just as wary of their candidate's unpredictability as their predecessors.
Bannon has also said, "I didn't get where I am by being a Boy Scout." His motto is said to be, "Honey Badger don't give a shit."
Breitbart is in sync with Trump's America First slogan. For instance, Breitbart News says Ryan Lochte is the victim of a "politically correct lynch monitoring." They mock the myth of the Ugly American.
My observation is that the Republican Primary gave the impression of a booming constituency for Trump, whereas the fact is that his support has been narrowing from the start. All he's really got is white men, and Jeremy Peters has reported in the Times that Trump is polling below Mitt Romney with them.
Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway surely know they have signed up for an impossible task. Since I'm sure they are being paid exorbitantly well, they may be content to keep on selling a more disciplined, carefully scripted mouthpiece for their vision of an anti-establishment, nativist, nationalist, anti-politician, anti-globalist movement.
Bannon and acolytesBloomberg
But I don't think so. A stinging piece about Bannon called him "the most dangerous political operative in America." Bannon coyly appropriated that characterization and included it in the announcement of his new job. He is not there to be the steady hand. He is there to be the Hatchet Man.
In this role he will be ably assisted by Conway, who has been skewering Hillary for decades.
So far, Kellyanne seems to be calling the shots. My guess is that Steve is drawing up a slime plan, that will reprise every canard directed at Hillary over her entire life. Plus some new ones. Team Clinton will be kept busy fact checking these volleys. Especially because the political press will often give credence to any attacks that are repeated often enough. Some of these may stick. The Hillary Clinton campaign must be incredibly vigilant.
But as Hillary often reminds us, she has been subjected to an unrelenting fusillade of enemy fire for a very long time and she is.. still standing. My strong feeling is Bannon and Conway will succeed in making Donald even more unattractive to everyone but a small number of intolerant yahoos and those relatively few Republicans who have despised Hillary for so long that they are prepared to hold their noses and vote for Trump.
My prediction is that what you will get from Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump, and any other stooges they may hire is some bizarre memories and a bunch of baseball caps. Or worse.
The one redeeming aspect of the never ending Republican onslaught against Hillary is that further talk of emails and foundations is well into the ho hum zone. If the slime squad needs new material, it will probably make it up. If they make stuff up, they will probably get caught and if they get caught, it will be over for Mr Trump. And I mean over.
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August 21, 2016
