Donald Trump owes his political rise to fear mongering. Fear of Mexicans, fear of Muslims, fear of China, fear that some epoch of American Greatness has been lost.

But, in the aftermath of the Orlando shooting, Trump's playbook seems to have stopped working. Donald did his part.
He blamed a religion, and people born of immigrants. He talked tough. He advocated violating the rights of millions.
He engaged in a conspiracy theory smear of the President,,,,,,,,,,,,,
But this time the country recoiled from the tangerine messiah rather than embracing him.

What gives?



"Just under 30 million people voted in the Republican primaries. About 130 million, or more, will vote in November. That’s a big difference. And those new 100 million or so voters — starting to tune in, perhaps, these last couple of weeks — may not respond to fear in the quite the same way as the 30 million.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Which brings us to Orlando, Fla. Let’s acknowledge two plain and straightforward truths. One, Mr. Trump handled the situation shockingly, embarrassingly. From that tweet in which he accepted “congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism” to his big post-attack speech, which was somehow at once offensive and plodding, he made it about him. When he did try to sound vaguely like a leader, spooning out kind words for the L.G.B.T. community (which he of course cherishes), he sounded ridiculous, about as genuine as some of those Southern congressmen did expressing their solidarity with New Jerseyans after Hurricane Sandy before they voted against the emergency funding.

Two — and this is important — the Orlando tragedy wasn’t just a straightforward terrorist attack. It was also a hate crime, since it was directed at one community (or two — Latino and L.G.B.T.). ,,,,,,,,,,,,. That the act didn’t “read” to people as a strictly terrorist act may mean it didn’t fire the same set of synapses in most people that an attack that just killed Americans randomly might have. 

But acknowledging those caveats, I want to advance a theory: Americans in 2016 may have a less reactive response to terrorism than they had 15 years ago. When 9/11 happened, it was so shocking and new; most people had simply thought that something like that could never happen in the United States. A decade and a half later, we have joined the world, the weary and beleaguered world, and learned that anything can happen anywhere, anytime.

We may also have figured out, or most of us may have, that the bluster and gasconade of the fear-mongers hasn’t really done us much good. George W. Bush said “bring ’em on”; and bring it on they did, pitching us into hell. Maybe after these last 15 years of war, a lot of Americans hear Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and plans and think, “That’s the last thing we need.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/opinion/campaign-stops/has-political-fear-mongering-lost-its-appeal.html?hpw&rref=sunday-review&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

Last edited by Goose (6/19/2016 7:35 am)