Isn’t it time to ask the question: is Jeb Bush political naive about the political threat posed to him by Donald Trump — who is the perfect incarnation of the in-your-face-name-call-your-opponents, stereotyping political figure whose persona is the incarnation of America’s talk show political culture? You can’t just call Trump a demagogue: he is the culmination of a political culture that values demonizing foes and generating ratings, readership and political support by whipping up fear, and turns professional attack and insult dogs into celebrities.
And his quick rise is further evidence of how American politics now operates largely on triggering the fight or flight mechanism.
Martin Longman perfectly summarizes the public pronouncements of Bush, who seems to brush Trump off as a trifle. Bush also seems to have faith his party could embrace the Reaganism that Tea Partier’s would in fact soundly reject these days. (FYI spare me the emails on that assertion: I covered Ronald Reagan’s immigration reform as my job when I was a reporter on The San Diego Union in the 1980s. Reagan would lose primaries espousing immigration reform today).
Here’s a chunk of Longman, with some thoughts.
Maybe Trump really is best understood as a hand grenade, in which case the damage he does will be somewhat equally dispersed but will also (by random chance) injure some more than others. On the other hand, maybe Trump is better understood as a heat-seeking missile who is locked in on Jeb, and really only on Jeb. If that’s the case, he should be a little more predictable and easier to parry.
Jeb should take a look around and even listen to himself as one Republican after another tells the public that we’re all going to die because the president has reached an agreement with Iran on their nuclear program. We’re all going to die if even one prisoner at Gitmo is brought here to stand trial or serve time. We’re all going to die if we don’t invade Iraq and take away their WMD. We’re all going to die if we don’t reinvade Iraq and now Syria to deal with ISIS. We’re all going to die if we give one inch to the commies in Korea or Vietnam or Angola or Cuba or Nicaragua.
And if we’re not going to die, then our culture and our religion are going to die. Our freedom is going to die. Our guns will be confiscated. Our children will be indoctrinated.
Striking fear into the hearts of Americans is pretty much all Fox News does, all day long, every day. There are almost two dozen Republican candidates for the presidency, and every single one of them is out there saying that our whole way of life is going to be destroyed.
But here is something that needs to be said:
If you are constantly trying to trigger a “fight or flight” mechanism in voters, there WILL I repeat WILL eventually be a nutcase out there who will think the country is at risk and may seek to obliterate a public figure or figures. This is the danger no one wants to simply state. If you push the envelope too far there’s always a chance the envelope will fall off the table.
You can’t control the degree of “fight” if people who see things differently are seen as threats to their way of life or the very survival of the United States as they know or have perceived it.
Once upon a time there was e aggressive, assertive, even nasty political debate in this country. Today’s polemics aren’t just looking for sound bytes, it’s trying to raise political hysteria among people whose votes you need.
And sometimes s who is hysterical may feel they need to do something to save their country that goes beyond voting. This is a danger.
But, hey, all these big bucks for the political entertainment media is out there.
Who would have thought years ago that Americans who once seriously looked at issues would tune into programs on TV and radio that simmply consist of someone name calling, attacking and demonizing another political party or ideology? Now THAT’S entertainment…
RAGE PLAYS.
More Longman:
Go ahead and try to find me the positive, Reaganesque messaging from these folks. I know Jeb aspires to be that guy, but he’s just not. And he’s going to get his ass kicked in the primaries if he doesn’t begin to understand why the crap Trump is pulling has launched him into a lead in the polls among Republicans.
Dubya once cracked this nut with a “compassionate conservative” gambit that was about as fraudulent as daddy’s thousand points of light. But the current mood of the Republican base is the farthest thing there is away from “compassionate.”
Here I disagree with Longman.In my nonwriting incarnation I had made many trips to Texas. Even recently I heard from someone connected to a top Democratic political figure about how they liked George W. Bush when he was governor and how well he worked for Democrats. So I don’t think that was a sham. And Bush’s actions on some issues cannot compare with the kind of Republicanism now being pushed by far-right 21st century conservatives, who would have been related to the wee-hours-of-the-morning UHF shows in the 60s in shows that featured extremists.
Does he know himself and his political clan well enough to understand what needs to be done to capture the hearts of the Republican right?
Because, if he doesn’t, he will always endanger himself when he goes into these debates. And it isn’t only Trump that he needs to worry about.
He’s going to be on a stage with nine other Republicans, none of whom are under the misimpression that the base seeks “a mature, substantive leader who rises above toxic discourse” or whom believe that “the rhetoric of divisiveness is wrong.”
If Sun Tzu was right, Jeb could be headed for Little Bighorn.
Forget about Republicans seeking a candidate who offers thoughtful, specific ideas that can win over other voters. This is all about triggering a fight or flight mechanism.
We’ll see if in coming weeks Jeb Bush’s new middle name is “Polyanna.”
But for now, parts of this song from South Pacific truly seem to fit Jeb Bush’s response to Trump.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.