The Difference Between a Solution and a Stunt.
Nov 2, 2020 19:31:42 #
I recently watched an old video from 2016 of Michael Moore explaining why Trump was going to win the election that year. Why Trump Will Win - Michael Moore Explains
Moore's explanation was a basically a highlight on the frustrations of the middle class who have become disillusioned by the American establishment and the entry of a certain candidate, Donald J. Trump, who is willing to stand up to that establishment as exemplified by his confrontation with a Ford executive at the Detroit Economic Club in 2016. Trump stood in front of the executive and said… "If you close these factories and build them in Mexico, I'm going to slap a 35% tariff on those cars, and no one will buy them."
Moore rightly points out that no other politician, Democrat or Republican has ever said anything like that to such a powerful corporation and whether Trump meant what he said or not is irrelevant because the threat alone resonates with the people who these powerful corporations have disenfranchised.
As Moore then states in the video… electing Trump to office amounts to the biggest "F.U." in election history.
Moore gets it.
So do I.
But…
Once our feelings have been announced there is still… ALL those problems that caused the frustrations in the first place. That's because you can't fix these problems with a middle finger.
Or can you?
What if that vote does more than to signify our frustrations? What if that vote also puts someone in office who CAN fix these problems? Well, that would be great. Maybe it's worth a try… for at least for a term, right? It's only four years, can't we give it a shot?
Well, we did and now, four years later it's time to assess…
Have the problems actually gone away? No, they haven't. But then again, can we really expect anyone to fix everything in four years? Obama was in office for eight years and he didn't fix everything, why would we expect that from Trump in only four years?
So let's look at what Trump HAS done…
There are plenty of lists being passed around the Internet that itemize Trump's accomplishments and I've looked at a number of them. But what I am finding in such abundance are not so much the solutions that would effectively replace or fix the established rules as much as a series of stunts to give his supporters the impression that something real is being done.
Getting back to Trump's threat to the Ford Motor Company… Did his highly publicized challenge actually fix anything?
Well the fact is, Ford DID cancel a $1.6 billion plan to build a factory in Mexico almost immediately after Trump's threat. But Ford executives also made it a point to say that the decision had nothing to do with Trump's threat. Indeed, that factory was intended to produce small cars for export outside the U.S… So, how exactly would a 35% tariff on U.S. imports be any kind of threat if none of the products are destined for U.S. import anyway?
Ford made it clear that the decision was based on market demand... Their analysis had shown a drop in global demand for small American cars and this was already fueling an internal debate at Ford when Trump made his statement which means there's a good chance Trump already knew. And what better way to take credit than to make a threat against something that you already know is being defeated?
Another Ford initiative that Trump found rhetorically useful was the plan to move the production of the Lincoln MKC to a preexisting factory in Mexico where wages are estimated to be 80 percent lower than in the United States. That would allow the company to keep all 4,700 workers in its Louisville plant employed by expanding production of its low-cost high-volume Focus automobile.
To his credit, Trump's tariffs on imports did indeed make a difference because of how the added tax raises the price of imports, which meant that Ford could jack up the price of the Lincoln MKC to cover the cost of building them in Kentucky and still remain competitive. But did that actually save any jobs? Not really... The number of jobs remained the same - the only thing that changed was the type of car they were building.
But would the Americans that don't have the time to get into such details know this? Here's how Trump portrayed the situation…
… and here's how Ford Motor Company responded…
But look at the difference between the "likes" and retweets… Many more people are paying attention to @realDonaldTrump than @Ford. So, people don't always see the corrections. In this case, Trump didn't actually fix anything (other than to make cars more expensive for American consumers). But he did create the false illusion that he saved an entire factory and it's 4,700 jobs.
This is just one example… I am finding a pattern where most of Trump's "accomplishments" turn out being top notch publicity stunts. Many of them don't even pretend to fix anything because sometimes all a populist needs is a giant middle finger to rile up his base. For instance, pulling out of the Iran deal without the slightest concern for the problems that deal was there to mitigate… middle finger. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital - great PR stunt… solves absolutely nothing… just another middle finger. Attacking the ACA while we are still waiting to see the replacement plan he's been promising since 2016… yet another middle finger.
So yes, I get it. Trump supporters are angry for being screwed by the established system but at some point they need to realize that as good as it feels to flip the bird, it's going to take a lot more than that to actually solve their problems.
Moore's explanation was a basically a highlight on the frustrations of the middle class who have become disillusioned by the American establishment and the entry of a certain candidate, Donald J. Trump, who is willing to stand up to that establishment as exemplified by his confrontation with a Ford executive at the Detroit Economic Club in 2016. Trump stood in front of the executive and said… "If you close these factories and build them in Mexico, I'm going to slap a 35% tariff on those cars, and no one will buy them."
Moore rightly points out that no other politician, Democrat or Republican has ever said anything like that to such a powerful corporation and whether Trump meant what he said or not is irrelevant because the threat alone resonates with the people who these powerful corporations have disenfranchised.
As Moore then states in the video… electing Trump to office amounts to the biggest "F.U." in election history.
Moore gets it.
So do I.
But…
Once our feelings have been announced there is still… ALL those problems that caused the frustrations in the first place. That's because you can't fix these problems with a middle finger.
Or can you?
What if that vote does more than to signify our frustrations? What if that vote also puts someone in office who CAN fix these problems? Well, that would be great. Maybe it's worth a try… for at least for a term, right? It's only four years, can't we give it a shot?
Well, we did and now, four years later it's time to assess…
Have the problems actually gone away? No, they haven't. But then again, can we really expect anyone to fix everything in four years? Obama was in office for eight years and he didn't fix everything, why would we expect that from Trump in only four years?
So let's look at what Trump HAS done…
There are plenty of lists being passed around the Internet that itemize Trump's accomplishments and I've looked at a number of them. But what I am finding in such abundance are not so much the solutions that would effectively replace or fix the established rules as much as a series of stunts to give his supporters the impression that something real is being done.
Getting back to Trump's threat to the Ford Motor Company… Did his highly publicized challenge actually fix anything?
Well the fact is, Ford DID cancel a $1.6 billion plan to build a factory in Mexico almost immediately after Trump's threat. But Ford executives also made it a point to say that the decision had nothing to do with Trump's threat. Indeed, that factory was intended to produce small cars for export outside the U.S… So, how exactly would a 35% tariff on U.S. imports be any kind of threat if none of the products are destined for U.S. import anyway?
Ford made it clear that the decision was based on market demand... Their analysis had shown a drop in global demand for small American cars and this was already fueling an internal debate at Ford when Trump made his statement which means there's a good chance Trump already knew. And what better way to take credit than to make a threat against something that you already know is being defeated?
Another Ford initiative that Trump found rhetorically useful was the plan to move the production of the Lincoln MKC to a preexisting factory in Mexico where wages are estimated to be 80 percent lower than in the United States. That would allow the company to keep all 4,700 workers in its Louisville plant employed by expanding production of its low-cost high-volume Focus automobile.
To his credit, Trump's tariffs on imports did indeed make a difference because of how the added tax raises the price of imports, which meant that Ford could jack up the price of the Lincoln MKC to cover the cost of building them in Kentucky and still remain competitive. But did that actually save any jobs? Not really... The number of jobs remained the same - the only thing that changed was the type of car they were building.
But would the Americans that don't have the time to get into such details know this? Here's how Trump portrayed the situation…
… and here's how Ford Motor Company responded…
But look at the difference between the "likes" and retweets… Many more people are paying attention to @realDonaldTrump than @Ford. So, people don't always see the corrections. In this case, Trump didn't actually fix anything (other than to make cars more expensive for American consumers). But he did create the false illusion that he saved an entire factory and it's 4,700 jobs.
This is just one example… I am finding a pattern where most of Trump's "accomplishments" turn out being top notch publicity stunts. Many of them don't even pretend to fix anything because sometimes all a populist needs is a giant middle finger to rile up his base. For instance, pulling out of the Iran deal without the slightest concern for the problems that deal was there to mitigate… middle finger. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital - great PR stunt… solves absolutely nothing… just another middle finger. Attacking the ACA while we are still waiting to see the replacement plan he's been promising since 2016… yet another middle finger.
So yes, I get it. Trump supporters are angry for being screwed by the established system but at some point they need to realize that as good as it feels to flip the bird, it's going to take a lot more than that to actually solve their problems.
Nov 2, 2020 22:01:53 #
Nov 2, 2020 22:02:20 #
Nov 3, 2020 09:12:15 #
Lonewolf wrote:
Very good post 
Yeah, thanks... I think it's a good point to bring up - not that any Trump supporter is going to argue today, they're probably too busy outside blocking traffic and intimidating voters - lol.
Nov 3, 2020 20:19:39 #
straightUp wrote:
Yeah, thanks... I think it's a good point to bring up - not that any Trump supporter is going to argue today, they're probably too busy outside blocking traffic and intimidating voters - lol.
I have not blocked any traffic and have not intimidated any voters and I'm a Trump supporter. I think you have us confused with Black Lives Matter (but not all black lives?) and ANTIFA (no one knows what these assholes want) thugs who seem to revel in rioting, looting, burning public and private property, and killing innocent shop owners. Yeah, seems about right for ultra left wingnut "social warriors".
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