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Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on Twitter and/or BlueSky.
I don’t engage much with the daily outrage here because I priced all this in a year ago. None of this is a surprise. I am un-shocked. In fact, I imagined worse. I feared worse. And while the mood here has darkened, I’ve become cautiously optimistic.
I’m much less interested in what’s happening right now than I am in momentum and direction. Here’s what I am seeing and not seeing.
Is MAGA growing? No.
Is Trump increasing in popularity? No.
Has MAGA organized effectively? No.
Has opposition faded? No.
Has the opposition become more focused? Yes.
Has MAGA reached the Brown Shirt level? No.
Is Trump weakening physically, visibly aging? Yes.
Is he increasingly unfocused, less able to craft an effective message? Yes.
Did the gerrymandering maneuver work? No.
Has the international community, NATO and Canada, surrendered? No.
Has the military swung to Trump’s side? No.
Is the frantic re-naming a sign of strength? No.
Is there currently someone who can take over for Trump and keep MAGA united? No.
From Wikipedia on Fred Trump:
In October 1991, Trump was diagnosed with “mild senile dementia”, with his physician citing symptoms of “obvious memory decline in recent years” and “significant memory impairment”. A few months later, another physician reported that Trump “did not know his birth date [or] age”, amongst other difficulties. Mary L. Trump recounted that as her grandfather’s dementia progressed, he failed to recognize people he had known for decades, including her and Donald. According to Fred III, his grandfather needed to be reminded why he was at Donald’s 1993 wedding (to Marla Maples) despite being designated the best man.
This isn’t just a Wikipedia entry for Donald, this is seared in his memory. I believe Trump is terrified of becoming his father. When he talks about his cognitive tests, he’s reassuring himself, unaware that everyone is laughing at him. He knows he’s sick. He knows he’s old. Denial is in itself an acknowledgment of fear, and fear has a cause, and that cause is dementia and weakness. He is four years away from the age at which his father died.
Trump has done and will continue to do long-lasting damage, but I priced all that in a year ago. What I see now is a man who has given up, a man unable to give a speech, unable to inspire a rally, unable to anticipate or even react effectively. He can no longer craft a message. He has no plans for the future beyond slapping his name on buildings and boats. He came in full of wild promises and now he talks about his wife’s panties.
“They went into my wife’s closet. I’ll say this. Number one, it’s very bad, but it sounds a little strange. They looked at her drawers. You have drawers, and then you have drawers. They looked at both. She’s a very meticulous person… Everything is perfect. Her undergarments, sometimes referred to as panties, are folded perfect, wrapped, they’re like so perfect. I say, ‘That’s beautiful.” You know, that’s the part of the world she came from. Everything was perfect, no problem. Fold, fold, fold. I think she steams them just to make sure.”
Now, let’s do it in German, Downfall style:
Sie haben den Kleiderschrank meiner Frau durchsucht! Ich sag’s mal so: Erstens, es ist wirklich schlimm, aber es klingt vielleicht etwas seltsam! Sie haben sich ihre Schubladen angesehen. Es gibt Schubladen, und dann gibt es noch Schubladen! Sie haben sich beide angesehen! Sie ist ein sehr penibler Mensch… Alles ist perfekt! Ihre Unterwäsche, manchmal auch Höschen genannt, ist perfekt gefaltet, eingewickelt, einfach makellos. Ich sage dann immer: ‚Wunderschön.‘ Wissen Sie, das ist die Gegend, aus der sie kommt! Dort war alles perfekt, kein Problem! Falten, falten, falten! Ich glaube, sie dämpft sie sogar noch, nur um sicherzugehen!
I saw this yesterday with reports from both the Nat’l Review and Reason, the comments were scary with many more than you would expect, advocating the conservatives embrace the Nazis.
@Sleeping Dog: I see more pushback lately in the commentariat at both NR and Reason*. Old School Republicans and real Libertarians do not like 47 one bit. I wonder how many neonazi sock puppets are sprinkled on top. MTG said recently, many are paid to comment.
Heritage spawned Paula Jones back in the day. Their sleaziness is finally catching up with them.
Hey, OTB friends. Family flying in this morning so I just want to take this time to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, and just general happiness. I will be signing off and resisting reading all the happenings for the next week or so. So as the song goes at the end of Dr Strangelove:
We’ll meet again
Don’t know where, don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again
Some sunny day
Now, before work swallows me for the day, I made milanesa bites with my meatloaf glaze/sauce. I wanted something way too simple. I don’t have the exact amounts here, but the glaze contains tomato pure, ketchup (redundant), mustard, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, and I added some cinnamon to counteract the acidity a bit. Bread flat chicken pieces and bake them halfway in the oven, cover with the sauce and return to the oven to reduce. Serve on top of a bed of kasha (I was going to serve over rice, but I made rice with vegetables for the week’s suppers, and in any case kasha seemed like a better choice).
This stands out as one entree where I didn’t use any onions.
Some browned onions would mix in well with the dish, but I lacked the time and energy to cook them.
When he talks about his cognitive tests, he’s reassuring himself, unaware that everyone is laughing at him.
I don’t think he’s unaware he’s being laughed at. This is just the way he’s always handled matters.
I have long thought that he’s lacking in a certain type of social intelligence in the way he boasts about everything. I think of him getting pulled over by a cop for speeding, and his response is to tell the cop he’s the greatest driver in the world. This isn’t narcissism. There are countless narcissists who never talk this way because they’re perfectly aware of how dumb it sounds. Trump is utterly oblivious to it. He truly believes that the most effective way to gain admiration from other people and hide his faults is simply to declare his greatness in the most cartoonishly grandiose terms at every opportunity. He never learned the limitations to this method of persuasion because, from his perspective, it’s served him well throughout his life. In some ways I can hardly blame him. He’s reached the presidency twice by totally upending the conventional rules of how to run a successful campaign.
As I’ve said before, I don’t believe his narcissism is based on any true sense of self-worth. On the contrary, I think it’s largely overcompensation for deep self-loathing. Nobody hates Donald Trump more than Donald Trump.
I remember when my grandmother got really old and on top of standard dementia symptoms (forgetting things, confusion over time and place), her PTSD from her Holocaust experiences and her OCD behavior seemed to intensify. Old age and senility have a way of bringing preexisting psychological issues to the surface.
So with Trump’s bragging about cognitive tests, I don’t think it’s so much self-reassurance (though that could be part of it) as that he’s using the same tricks he’s always used to build himself up to the public as an invincible god-king and put all doubters in their place. It’s in the same category as his taking a Sharpie to the hurricane map or claiming Trump Steaks are still on the market by holding up a steak with the actual brand name in plain sight. The reason this sloppiness seems to work for him is related to why the old Nigerian Prince emails put in deliberate spelling and grammar errors to filter out better-educated users. Especially in the modern age, the typical hucksters aren’t the suave, clever conmen we’ve seen in the movies; instead, they’re playing to the absolute lowest common denominator. In Trump’s case, I’m not sure it’s a conscious strategy, but it serves its purpose. He’s just never figured out its limitations.
Long before he became president 45, he said that he avoided introspection because if he looked inside himself too deeply, he might not like what he saw.
He didn’t use the word “introspection,” but that’s what he meant.
@CSK: I remembered that moment as I was writing my post, but I wasn’t sure where it came from or when he said it. With a little digging, it seems it came from a lengthy interview with biographer Michael D’Antonio in 2014. Here is the statement in context:
“I never had a failure, because I always turned a failure into a success,” he tells D’Antonio. He also simultaneously holds others to impossible standards, saying, “For the most part, you can’t respect people because most people aren’t worthy of respect.”
Perhaps one of the most jarring moments of the interviews, however, is when D’Antonio asks Trump to reflect on the meaning of life. Trump responds by saying, “No, I don’t want to think about it. I don’t like to analyze myself because I might not like what I see.”
We always need to keep in mind that everything Trump says is an attempt to present himself in the way he prefers to be seen. The overall impression of the above passage is that he’s trying to come off as a no-nonsense tough-guy who gets things done. He’s not being reflective, he’s presenting the fictitious image of himself we’ve all heard a zillion times, the invincible god-king who never loses, and while hinting to some level of unlikability, he doesn’t see that as a flaw. The final statement, not wanting to analyze himself because he might not like what he sees, could be the truth slipping out more than intended, but on the surface it comes off more as an attempt at false modesty–basically, “It ain’t easy being the greatest, most awesome human ever to walk the planet while making everyone else feel lesser.” It fits with that bizarre moment a few years ago after his brother Robert passed away, and he told Fox News that the thing he admired most about Robert was Robert’s lack of jealousy at Donald’s greatness.
All that said, it’s hard not to think Trump was, however inadvertently, confessing his internal emptiness that’s the source of his narcissism.
Former US Senator Ben Sasse has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It’s terminal.
He’d stepped down from his post as president of University of Florida because of his wife’s very serious health issues (strokes, seizures, and an aneurysm).
********************@
I don’t engage much with the daily outrage here because I priced all this in a year ago. None of this is a surprise. I am un-shocked. In fact, I imagined worse. I feared worse. And while the mood here has darkened, I’ve become cautiously optimistic.
I’m much less interested in what’s happening right now than I am in momentum and direction. Here’s what I am seeing and not seeing.
Is MAGA growing? No.
Is Trump increasing in popularity? No.
Has MAGA organized effectively? No.
Has opposition faded? No.
Has the opposition become more focused? Yes.
Has MAGA reached the Brown Shirt level? No.
Is Trump weakening physically, visibly aging? Yes.
Is he increasingly unfocused, less able to craft an effective message? Yes.
Did the gerrymandering maneuver work? No.
Has the international community, NATO and Canada, surrendered? No.
Has the military swung to Trump’s side? No.
Is the frantic re-naming a sign of strength? No.
Is there currently someone who can take over for Trump and keep MAGA united? No.
From Wikipedia on Fred Trump:
This isn’t just a Wikipedia entry for Donald, this is seared in his memory. I believe Trump is terrified of becoming his father. When he talks about his cognitive tests, he’s reassuring himself, unaware that everyone is laughing at him. He knows he’s sick. He knows he’s old. Denial is in itself an acknowledgment of fear, and fear has a cause, and that cause is dementia and weakness. He is four years away from the age at which his father died.
Trump has done and will continue to do long-lasting damage, but I priced all that in a year ago. What I see now is a man who has given up, a man unable to give a speech, unable to inspire a rally, unable to anticipate or even react effectively. He can no longer craft a message. He has no plans for the future beyond slapping his name on buildings and boats. He came in full of wild promises and now he talks about his wife’s panties.
Now, let’s do it in German, Downfall style:
File under, it couldn’t happen to a better group.
Will someone turn the lights out when the last rat leaves.
@Sleeping Dog:
I saw this yesterday with reports from both the Nat’l Review and Reason, the comments were scary with many more than you would expect, advocating the conservatives embrace the Nazis.
@Sleeping Dog: I see more pushback lately in the commentariat at both NR and Reason*. Old School Republicans and real Libertarians do not like 47 one bit. I wonder how many neonazi sock puppets are sprinkled on top. MTG said recently, many are paid to comment.
Heritage spawned Paula Jones back in the day. Their sleaziness is finally catching up with them.
In my line of work, it’s Festivus from the start of Hell Week until around mid-April.
We do a lot of things, but most of all we accumulate grievances.
Hey, OTB friends. Family flying in this morning so I just want to take this time to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, and just general happiness. I will be signing off and resisting reading all the happenings for the next week or so. So as the song goes at the end of Dr Strangelove:
The censored 60 Minutes segment is leaking
Now, before work swallows me for the day, I made milanesa bites with my meatloaf glaze/sauce. I wanted something way too simple. I don’t have the exact amounts here, but the glaze contains tomato pure, ketchup (redundant), mustard, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, and I added some cinnamon to counteract the acidity a bit. Bread flat chicken pieces and bake them halfway in the oven, cover with the sauce and return to the oven to reduce. Serve on top of a bed of kasha (I was going to serve over rice, but I made rice with vegetables for the week’s suppers, and in any case kasha seemed like a better choice).
This stands out as one entree where I didn’t use any onions.
Some browned onions would mix in well with the dish, but I lacked the time and energy to cook them.
@Michael Reynolds: Good post. One point I’d like to address:
I don’t think he’s unaware he’s being laughed at. This is just the way he’s always handled matters.
I have long thought that he’s lacking in a certain type of social intelligence in the way he boasts about everything. I think of him getting pulled over by a cop for speeding, and his response is to tell the cop he’s the greatest driver in the world. This isn’t narcissism. There are countless narcissists who never talk this way because they’re perfectly aware of how dumb it sounds. Trump is utterly oblivious to it. He truly believes that the most effective way to gain admiration from other people and hide his faults is simply to declare his greatness in the most cartoonishly grandiose terms at every opportunity. He never learned the limitations to this method of persuasion because, from his perspective, it’s served him well throughout his life. In some ways I can hardly blame him. He’s reached the presidency twice by totally upending the conventional rules of how to run a successful campaign.
As I’ve said before, I don’t believe his narcissism is based on any true sense of self-worth. On the contrary, I think it’s largely overcompensation for deep self-loathing. Nobody hates Donald Trump more than Donald Trump.
I remember when my grandmother got really old and on top of standard dementia symptoms (forgetting things, confusion over time and place), her PTSD from her Holocaust experiences and her OCD behavior seemed to intensify. Old age and senility have a way of bringing preexisting psychological issues to the surface.
So with Trump’s bragging about cognitive tests, I don’t think it’s so much self-reassurance (though that could be part of it) as that he’s using the same tricks he’s always used to build himself up to the public as an invincible god-king and put all doubters in their place. It’s in the same category as his taking a Sharpie to the hurricane map or claiming Trump Steaks are still on the market by holding up a steak with the actual brand name in plain sight. The reason this sloppiness seems to work for him is related to why the old Nigerian Prince emails put in deliberate spelling and grammar errors to filter out better-educated users. Especially in the modern age, the typical hucksters aren’t the suave, clever conmen we’ve seen in the movies; instead, they’re playing to the absolute lowest common denominator. In Trump’s case, I’m not sure it’s a conscious strategy, but it serves its purpose. He’s just never figured out its limitations.
@Michael Reynolds: @Kylopod:
Trump didn’t always lack self-awareness.
Long before he became president 45, he said that he avoided introspection because if he looked inside himself too deeply, he might not like what he saw.
He didn’t use the word “introspection,” but that’s what he meant.
@CSK: I remembered that moment as I was writing my post, but I wasn’t sure where it came from or when he said it. With a little digging, it seems it came from a lengthy interview with biographer Michael D’Antonio in 2014. Here is the statement in context:
We always need to keep in mind that everything Trump says is an attempt to present himself in the way he prefers to be seen. The overall impression of the above passage is that he’s trying to come off as a no-nonsense tough-guy who gets things done. He’s not being reflective, he’s presenting the fictitious image of himself we’ve all heard a zillion times, the invincible god-king who never loses, and while hinting to some level of unlikability, he doesn’t see that as a flaw. The final statement, not wanting to analyze himself because he might not like what he sees, could be the truth slipping out more than intended, but on the surface it comes off more as an attempt at false modesty–basically, “It ain’t easy being the greatest, most awesome human ever to walk the planet while making everyone else feel lesser.” It fits with that bizarre moment a few years ago after his brother Robert passed away, and he told Fox News that the thing he admired most about Robert was Robert’s lack of jealousy at Donald’s greatness.
All that said, it’s hard not to think Trump was, however inadvertently, confessing his internal emptiness that’s the source of his narcissism.
Former US Senator Ben Sasse has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It’s terminal.
He’d stepped down from his post as president of University of Florida because of his wife’s very serious health issues (strokes, seizures, and an aneurysm).
Very sad all around.
@Jen:
Yes, too bad. This will kill him quickly. probably in a matter of weeks. May he be at peace with himself.