https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/03/28/this-one-anecdote-perfectly-explains-how-donald-trump-is-hijacking-the-gop/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_2_na
Trump appears to have exploited this disconnect. He does not reflexively defend free trade and vows not to touch entitlements. Now, Trump is peddling GOP voters a bill of goods: While he conveys the impression that he’d go after the favorable tax treatment of top earners, his tax plan would actually shower them with large windfalls. He oversimplifies the effect of trade deals on American workers and does not meaningfully detail policies that might actually help them. And Trump’s con job relies heavily on persuading struggling GOP voters that the way to remove a major economic threat to them is to carry out mass deportations.
But as James Pethokoukis points out, Trump at least seems to speak to these voters’ desire for a proactive agenda to address challenges arising from globalization and technological change. Yet when Paul Ryan was directly asked about this disconnect, he responded with more of the same 1980s-vintage rising-tide-lifts-all-boats dogma. There is a lot of talk about how Ryan and Trump now represent warring opposites inside the GOP, and that’s true. But if anything, what this polarity really illustrates is the paralysis of GOP elites in the face of Trumpism’s appeal. Not even clever Luntzian messaging may be able to bail them out this time. Trump is peddling a scam, but at least it’s a new scam.
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Trump may be the greatest Scam Artist of all time, but he will NEVER be ready for the Presidency.
Trump appears to have exploited this disconnect. He does not reflexively defend free trade and vows not to touch entitlements. Now, Trump is peddling GOP voters a bill of goods: While he conveys the impression that he’d go after the favorable tax treatment of top earners, his tax plan would actually shower them with large windfalls. He oversimplifies the effect of trade deals on American workers and does not meaningfully detail policies that might actually help them. And Trump’s con job relies heavily on persuading struggling GOP voters that the way to remove a major economic threat to them is to carry out mass deportations.
But as James Pethokoukis points out, Trump at least seems to speak to these voters’ desire for a proactive agenda to address challenges arising from globalization and technological change. Yet when Paul Ryan was directly asked about this disconnect, he responded with more of the same 1980s-vintage rising-tide-lifts-all-boats dogma. There is a lot of talk about how Ryan and Trump now represent warring opposites inside the GOP, and that’s true. But if anything, what this polarity really illustrates is the paralysis of GOP elites in the face of Trumpism’s appeal. Not even clever Luntzian messaging may be able to bail them out this time. Trump is peddling a scam, but at least it’s a new scam.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Trump may be the greatest Scam Artist of all time, but he will NEVER be ready for the Presidency.
