The bat hisses through the air, missing again, when we acknowledge a simple premise: the Trump threat is unique, and yet the Pelosi response is conventional. One thing voters didn't like about Clinton was that her talking points seemed evasive and mealy-mouthed, the rhetorical embodiment of statistical calculations. Clinton wasn't a leader, she was a follower. A follower of the numbers. Trump did the opposite. He led the numbers. He worked to change people's minds and it paid off in ways we are still not willing to face, and therefore cannot effectively counteract.
Pelosi is making the same mistake as Clinton. She's following the numbers, instead of being a truly great leader. Trump's base frames him as a virtual god. The reason is that his power to topple what we are as a country is real. Polls show that the majority of Americans see him differently, as a villain. To challenge him we need a champion. Even after all we've seen in the last three years, the seismic upheaval and threat, the Democrats still waffle, sounding old- school status quo.
But constituents on both the right and left are fed up with congressional complacency. Americans do agree on quite a bit when it comes to the obvious and entrenched corruption. Here's some advice for any politician who wants to get a leg up this election season. Make the graph of the income distribution curve your campaign logo. It would look like a thin mutant boomerang, skewed on one side where the meek asymptote suddenly shoots upward, almost vertical, when you reach the rich. The mathematics of the wealth in itself is telling. It indicates a neofeudal system, not capitalism. It exposes gross unfairness in hideously dysfunctional markets.
Our entire medical health system is a glaring example (special props to Big Pharma for making insulin unaffordable for diabetics). The ridiculous cost of a college education is another. The American people, one and all, know that we are being fleeced. The fleecing started long before Trump. And when we see politicians that do the same old thing-- hedging, hemming and hawing--there's a nationwide visceral reaction. A big swing and a miss, then, for Democrats who shy away from heroism and instead hew to the mannerisms of kleptocracy.
The answer is simple. Lead the numbers. Call a crime a crime and act accordingly. The absence of such a simple candor from the left has greased the anger rails for a xenophobic demagogue, one who now has gone far toward imposing his MAGA-version of monarchy.
"He's just not worth it" effectively sends a message like, "Well, Trump has committed impeachable offenses, but it isn't practical to do anything about it, so let's just insult him a little instead." This message puts politics above ethics. Trump has attained great power because he has convinced people he is doing the opposite.
What we need from our politicians is a rallying cry. There's another reason to take a bold, courageous stand, maybe the most important of all. None of us wants to think about the unthinkable, but if another major terrorist attack occurs, Trump will become impregnable. His message of fear and hate will gain invincible traction. It might very well be too late to do anything then except suffer and mumble out a furtive, "We should've been the voice of freedom when we had the chance."
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