Why the Left still doesn't get Trump?

Donald Trump is the name that never leaves our lips. It’s so intimate in a way. Trump in our head. Trump in our words. Trump in our frustrations. 

The Left rejects Trump for so many good reasons. 

Trump is:

·     Narcissistic

·     Greedy

·     Lacks empathy

·     Ignores climate degradation

·     Enriches the wealthy

All these are valid, but do not explain Trumps incredible ability to control the conversation. The pundits predicted he would lose hugely to Hillary Clinton. The pundits then told Trump to stop using Twitter. Of course he uses Twitter brilliantly.

The Left keeps insisting, on MSNBC, that his base is limited in number. At this point Trump supporters far outweigh any presidential candidiate emerging from the Democratic party. That could change quickly but time will tell. 

The Democrats need to understand Trump better if they intend to win in 2020.

The key to Trump—he’s not a literary man. We know he doesn’t like to read or ponder documents presented by his security analysts, etc.. What does Trump do that is so effective?

Let’s turn to the master media guru Marshall McLuhan to understand Trump better. Trump is a master of TV—the power of its images and the all-at-once nature of digital communications. 

Marshall McLuhan wrote in the 60s and 70s but understood the Internet before it existed. He pointed out that the “literary man” would be baffled by the speed and intimacy of our communications and the non-linear characteristics of our present day media environment. 

Communication now has more in common with villagers sitting around the campfire than with a NY Times article. The conversation is full of emotion and immediacy, and seems to be quite a bit of lying and propagandizing involved as well. This is McLuhan’s global village and Marshall did not promise it would be peaceful or pleasant. 

McLuhan had grave misgivings about the future of our electronic technology. Seems like many now recognize the downside of all this connectivity. But we must live with it and study it to maintain any sense of personal control.

Here is what Marshall McLuhan wrote in the Saturday Evening Post (August 10, 1968):

“But in a deep sense, TV bypasses the ballot box as a means of creating political “representatives.” TV is not concerned with views or interests or issues. It is a maker and finder of images that ride over all points ov view and over all age-groups as well. The TV image ends all national and party politics.

“… An all-at-once world, fashioned by electric information, demands a candidate full of puns and unexpected nuances. Such a man is one who knows so much about the contemporary interface of all cultures that he cannot possibly be deluded by any earnest regard for any them. The new changes are not moral but technological.”

Hope that helps! Go Dems! Remember this is not moral war—but a communications battle. Better learn the new technology!

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Cure for Media Frenzy: the right-side of your brain

It's scary out there? People are talking, tweeting themselves into a nervous breakdown. Civility... or Civil War? Above the frenzy we have Donald Trump. Trump savors the sound of dropped jaws and shocked gasps only he seems capable of creating daily to feed the 24/7 news beast.  Donald Trump is operating from the right side of the brain. Let Marshall McLuhan, media guru and the Oracle of Toronto, explain:

Marshall McLuhan felt that the Edgar Allen Poe short “A Descent into the Maelstrom” (1841) about two Norwegian fishermen brothers pulled out of their boat by the swirling waters anticipates our media vortex. One brother drowns. The other survives. The second brother survives the maelstrom. He attains a revelation while in the midst of the whirlpool, a moment of beautiful clarity, an understanding of how objects are moving, being hurled through the water. That is the moment of clarity we need now.

The surviving fisherman’s revelation suggests we can achieve clarity regarding our media situation, or "nightmare" situation, as some would characterize the hurly-burly of social media.

People feel afraid. The natural order seems upended by Donald Trump. Sure he's a fast-talking, constantly shifting New York real estate developer with a penchant for bankruptcy and attacking enemies without conscience. But the fear that this is all Trump may be misplaced.

But Trump may simply be a signal, a blinking neon sign perhaps, that the medium has changed—from analog (newspapers) to digital (cellphone).

Trump may just be the first political candidate to grasp the speed and ferocity of social media. His strategy, obviously, has worked. He is on the lips of all, friends and enemies alike, 24/7, night and day, sun up to sundown.

We’re talking about a change in the medium—from print to electronic—that has turned the world upside down even more than Donald Trump.

On September 6, 1976, Marshall McLuhan appeared on NBS’s Tomorrow Show with host Tom Snyder. Their exchange helps us understand the panicky nature of our digital lifestyle. McLuhan explains that “right-brain thinkers” do better in this All-at-once vortex of electrons we now inhabit.

Snyder: Before I go too far, what is the world of electronic simultaneity?

McLuhan: All-at-onceness. At the speed of light there is no sequenced; everything happens at the same instant. That’s acoustic, and everything happens at once. There’s no continuity, there’s no follow-through, it’s all just now. And that, by the way, is the way sport is. Sports tend to be like that. And in terms of the new lingo of the hemispheres, it’s all right hemsphere. Games are all right hemisphere because they involve the whole man, and they are all participatory and they are all uncertain. There is no continuity. That’s just all surprise, unexpectedness, and total involvement. 

Snyder:Is that okay, do you think?

McLuhan: The hemisphere thing?

Snyder:Yes, but I mean the whole thing, all surprise, all spontaneity, no connection, just all at one time. Is that okay for people?

McLuhan: Well “okay,” meaning is it good for people?

Snyder: Yes.

McLuhan: We live in a wworld where everything is supposed to be one-thing-at-a-time, lineal, connected, logical and goal-oriented. So, obviously for the left-hemisphere world, this new right hemisphere dominance is bad. We’re now living in a world which pushes the right hemisphere way up because it’s an all-at-once-world. The right hemisphere is an all-at-once simultaneous world. So the right hemisphere, by pushing up into dominance, is making the old left-hemisphere world, which is our educational establishment, our political establishment, make it look very foolish. It’s just a flip that is taking place.

Understanding Me, 2003

Lectures and Interviews (page 246-2247)

Marshall McLuhan

Right brain thinking moves the world. The simultaneous environment has taken over. The shift from print to electronic, as massive as the invention of the printed book by Johannes Gutenberg, has all of us by the throat and will not let go. The best plan... try to get some perspective like that surviving Norwegian fisherman from the Poe story. Otherwise, we may all sink into the maelstrom.

Trump’s drunken dance: may be working

 Zeibekiko is a popular Greek nightclub dance, done by only one person at a time, a male performer, and everyone else has to kneel down, forming a circle around the dancer, clapping following the rhythm and encouraging the dancer. Zeibekiko dance does have some particular steps, but the most impressive dance is the one where the dancer shows his creativity, performing special feats, adding a little humor and personal touch to the occasion.

(Wikipedia)

Donald Trump moves with the creativity and freedom of a drunk or a Greek guy stumbling around the dance floor. The Zeibekiko dancer sometimes mimics a drunk.Trump stomps across the world stage with the stumbling grace of a drunk. He bellows around the White House or Mar a Lago or Trump Tower, stomps out of G7 gatherings, hires Rudy Giuliani as alternative drunk uncle to fend off Robert Mueller and the Stormy Daniels lawyer. Trump huffs and puffs and tweets like a man possessed, but still pulls off a meeting with North Korea. Donald J. Trump, a teetotaler, never has touched alcohol, but moves with the stumbling grace of a drunk.

Trumps lack of planning may be his secret. Presidential campaign? He hadn’t a clue. Came up with a great slogan—Make America Great Again. Surprised people by filling up stadiums on the campaign trail. He talked different. Trump delivers speeches like a standup comic. We all watch him wondering about his next move. The behavior of an improvisational performer attracts our attention. 

Trump’s understanding of modern electronic media may explain his mastery of the improvisational. Our social media network is very interactive. As Marshall McLuhan correctly predicted—the new era of electronic communications, the one we’re living in now, is all about engagement. Cellphones, video games, Facebook, etc. engage us more personally than books, newspapers and even the television of old.

Trump has integrated his Twitter account with the hours of coverage he attracts on cable television to become a broadcasting system all his own. How does he keep his viewership, readership, follower numbers at a high level?... He does it with outrageous statements, insults, provocative lies, and manufactured culture wars with American football players, and the timing, intonations and attitude of a seasoned standup comic.

I look for traces of Donald Trump in old footage of his early television appearances. He seems slightly shy but eager to master the TV studio. He has a glint in his eye. I see a Rascal.

Trump reveals in those brief TV appearances, traces of the rascal, the scamp, scalawag, scoundrel, who would come to fruition during his run for Presidency. He quickly wanted to master the TV performer’s craft. He had some success but really flourished when he began to control everything. 

“Emoluments? What is that? I want to make money and be President at the same time.” 

He seems out of control but then controls almost everything. 

The improvisational mode suits Trump and his spontaneity suits the new electronic media environment. Trump’s media enemies hate the ease of his approach and fault him for being stupid, a sign they do not “get” Trump’s mastery of their own medium.

And the Zeibekiko dance continues.... 

Trump totters at the edge of the nightclub stage, verges on a drunken stumble but always finds his footing. 

He somehow avoids falling down-- and surprises us again and again with the outrageous behavior of a wild standup comic.

Back from Europe: Trump Puts Us On Like a Suit of Clothes

Did I learn anything from foreign travel? I gained something, more like a feeling than a set of ideas. Just being in France and Spain where the living is slightly different has a beneficial effect. Not sure why…. Maybe the electrons in your brain and body get realigned. At times I felt my stomach twisted in knots of anxiety. Sometimes I got the feeling my cellphone and Google Maps was the only thing between my health and safety and oblivion. Lose the phone and your whole existence goes down the drain immediately. Such is life. As Descartes famously said… I own a Samsung, therefore I am.

Been looking at my travels for some insight to explain modern life. The G20 summit happened soon after we returned. I recognized that late hour of sunset in Europe—the same in Hamburg, Germany as in France and Spain, around 10 PM. I felt slightly more familiar with the protesters because I had been on their continent just a few days before. They were rioting—maybe against capitalism, maybe against the system’s inability to deal with global climate change. The younger generations must fight for their air, water, the temperature of their air—a whole new set of issues from the Vietnam War demonstrations I remember. The issues have changed—maybe moved to a new level of complexity. The same technology and complexity that has made the West so rich threatens the health of the planet. Can people actually choose less wealth? Maybe but it’s quite a struggle.

Where does the Donald Trump phenomenon fit into the global angst. Trump knows something that almost nobody else has figured out. I found some clues in Marshall McLuhan’s writing—where I always look to understand the new, digital environment. 

People complain about Trump’s tweets, not realizing the tweets are Trump’s genius, his grasp of the present moment.

Trump tweeted this out on 1 July 2017, as an answer to his critics:

My use of social media is not Presidential—it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again.

5:41 PM

I agree with this tweet—the media world has changed and nobody wants to believe it. They want to kill the messenger. Trump alerts us to the new media environment—and we mistakenly focus on what we dislike about the man. Trump has no great loyalty to any policy or party. He is all about the medium.

Remember Marshall McLuhan’s great aphorism… “The medium is the message.”

The content of Trump’s tweets is not the important thing. The fact that Trump uses twitter as his governing mechanism and image builder and that we read his tweets is what matters. 

And here is what McLuhan said in his Playboy interview of 1969:

“The new political showman has to literally as well as figuratively puts on his audience as he would a suit of clothes and become a corporate tribal image—like Mussolini, Hitler and F.D.R. in the days of radio, and Jack Kennedy in the television era. All these men were tribal emperors on a scale theretofore unknown in the world, because they all mastered their media.”

El Papa Knows Best....Father Knows Best

A sitcom from the late 50s, "Father Knows Best", depicted life in America in idyllic terms. The grass was cut, the children behaved and most problems were small enough to be solved in 30 minutes, 22 minutes if you don't include the advertisements. The actor Robert Young depicted father as a gray-haired kindly man with the wisdom to keep the family on a healthy, happy course and that reflected the optimism of Post - WW II life in the United States.

What made me think of this show in the present era, a time of intense globalize, all-at-once communication was an article I read in a Spanish newspaper while on my travels in Northern Spain. My Spanish language is less than perfect, but... here's what it said. The Pope, El Papa, presiding over the mass of Corpus Christi, said (my interpretation follows) "pages move quickly and our exterior  life gets fragmented while our interior life stays inert." He added a cautionary word on the importance of memory saying with "living in the instant and we run the danger of living permanently in the superficial, in the style of the moment without understanding who we are and where we have been."

First, I apologize foe any mistake in translation. As a big fan of Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian media guru, a convert to Catholicism, I got a kick out of the Pope's observations on a topic that would interest Professor McLuhan.

Listen to this quote from Janine Marchessault on page 182 of her book "Marshall McLuhan" (Sage Publications, 2005). She, explicating McLuhan, confronts the inert feeling inside of the digital generation:

"McLuhan sees the electric environment as a homeostatic system. According to Selye's theory, any physical extension is an attempt to maintain equilibrium. They regard any technological extension as an 'auto-amputation'. In the midst of the electronic environment we numb our central nervous system when it is extended 'or we will die'. The new media support an awareness of others and of social responsibility. They compel commitment and participation through their creation of Anxiety, for in 'the electric age we wear mankind as our skin'."

There's a lot there, including Selye's theory which I do not know. McLuhan stated all technology is an extension of the human body, from clothes, to hammers, to automobiles. The cellphone extends our central nervous system outward. We must numb ouselves to deflect the power of this extension. That may be what the Pope has observed?

Because Pope Francis has dared to go where no other leader seems comfortable on so many issues, including ecology and climate change, he must be applauded. Now he discusses the reality most of us choose to ignore, the way digital technology rules our every moment.

"History has become a thing of the past," as Marshall McLuhan and his colleague Edmund Carpenter, the anthropologist, so sagely warned, long before we had cellphones. They anticipated the terrible challenge of such formidable change ahead where we "wear mankind as our skin."

Pope Francis, El Papa, has stepped forward like Robert Young in the final 2-3 minutes of "Father Knows Best" with some fatherly advice. The question remains-- is any anybody paying attention? Or just going to their next text message or Facebook or Twitter post...

Trump: rain-maker or hatchet man?

Hatchet Man--  definition

• a person employed to carry out controversial or disagreeable tasks, such as the   dismissal of a number of people from employment.
• person who writes fierce attacks on others or their work.

Donald Trump has roared into power like an unknown racehorse storming to the front of the pack and crossing the finish line before the competition. Rather than sit on his laurels and savor his victory with a cigar and glass of champagne, he seems more fired up than ever. What does this intensity mean?

Trump's critics perceive a scary future in the whirlwind of tweets and attacks he has leveled in almost every direction. What should we expect from The Donald? Take a look at a few things we have learned.

Donald Trump loves the states and the voters that voted for him-- especially the states not expected to go his way, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He loves Ivanka, his attractive daughter. Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband and Donald's son-in-law, has a talent for strategy. Jared played a key role in engineering Donald Trump's campaign and unexpected rise to the front of the pack. Jared Kushner has risen to the top of Donald's inner circle. He may have helped with Donald Trump's understanding of the effective use of electronic media.

Donald is fond of Twitter. He tweets the electronic environment as a means of bypassing committees, bureaucrats, enemies, fellow Republicans, and the mainstream media. Donald's inflammatory tweets propel him to the front of the mainstream media-- cable TV news shows, etc., and he becomes mainstream media.

Donald portrays himself as a master dealmaker, presumably a peerless negotiator. Donald Trump is in an enviable position for expanding his own wealth. The accumulation of personal riches has been a life-long goal. He is having trouble separating himself from this commitment to his own wealth. He claims to have switched his hierarchy of goals. Now he wants to do great things for America. Does he know how to do this? What does this look like for America? He plans to win many jobs for Americans. 

Donald likes to play hardball. His deal-making style is to keep the other guy off balance. Does this aggressive style work on the world stage? The stock market does not like off-balance. Parents like their children to feel the world is a peaceful place. Trump enjoys keeping everybody on edge and himself firmly planted on center stage, the only man who can pull us from the fire, the skilled super-hero able to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.

We will learn if Donald Trump truly has any talent for making other people richer-- the great expanse of humanity, the American citizenry feeling the most pain. Most rich people devote themselves to their own riches. Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, and a billionaire like Trump, showed an interest in the day-to-day operations and details of running of the city. Bloomberg never employed braggadoccio or threats. He had a talent for steering New York City down a path to success.

Donald Trump reminds me of a hatchet man (see above). A hatchet man arrived at my place of employment, an office where I worked about fifteen years ago. He had a confrontational style which ran totally contrary to the bureaucratic environment. People shook in their boots-- wondering if their job was in jeopardy. The guy's name was Sean. He brimmed with confidence and was not afraid to seem a bit eccentric. Sean broke the mold. I left that office for reasons not related to Sean's arrival. I later heard he left under a cloud of controversy. Turns out Sean had skeletons in his closet, had committed acts of bad judgment, far worse than anything he had accused of others. Sean shook things up-- changes were made that only he had the courage to act upon, but his demise came quickly. 

The question will be answered in the coming weeks, months and years. We will learn. Donald Trump may be a rain-maker, the greatest job producer every place by God on this green earth... or maybe he is just a hatchet man, acting on society's impulses, and forcing change upon us all.

Roiling Electorate: is @realDonaldTrump all that real?

The Presidential election sends people into spasms of pain, or delight, depending on whether they fear Trump or embrace him. The powerful reaction of people has more mystery than the political issues. Nobody knows what to expect, Trump included, from a man who rode gambling casinos into bankruptcy. Gambling is an addiction! If you cannot succeed playing to people's addictions, wow, you've got a problem. That's like failing with a liquor store. Hardly ever happens.

I understand Trump turned his failed casinos into a profit-maker, for him, but that's another story. I have none of the information on how you turn failure into profit. You've got to be big-time player to pull off that kind of ruse. And now Trump is the biggest of all players!

Why does hucksterism work so well in the new media environment-- the electronic universe we all occupy in the present day. Trump mastered Twitter. Everybody constantly studies the phone in their hand. Marshall McLuhan warned us that the digital environment would be grafted directly to our brain and nervous system. Trump, give him credit, figured this out and circumvented Jeb Bush and his hundred millions of dollars. Trump did the same to Hillary. He went directly to the spinal chord of the people via their telephones.

Will Donald Trump use electronic communications to run the country? He spoke grandly of manufacturing and other dreams of restoring the past. That mechanical, industrial stuff is not the thing 21st century dreams are made of. Obama kept saying that the less fortunate needed to learn the digital skills that enable a worker to flourish as a present-day worker. That gets down to learning to program computers, or at least function in the digital environment, beyond the ability to study your phone. Trump promises factory jobs. That seems like sentimentality. But he sold it brilliantly.

The people hired a businessman, a guy with an aversion to paying taxes. He wants to punish the high tech moguls for keeping their billions offshore. Well, takes on to know one, as they say...

Celebrity Apprentice prepared Trump for his present mission. Only now he is the celebrity apprentice, trying to learn the job of President of the United States. Could be something of a challenge-- and not sure Twitter works as well when you're behind the wheel of the country. Not as easy to lob Twitter grenades when suddenly you find yourself as the establishment. And Trump is now the main guy, no longer the gadfly.

Super Bowl Sunday: Is it just a fantasy?

Fan interest for football is at a phenomenally high level. Like most pro football fans, I never played the game. I never liked putting a helmet on my head. Never wanted to bang into people. Football attracts fans in ways they may not even understand.

Marshall McLuhan, my media guru, successfully predicted football would overtake baseball as the most popular sport. Modern media is all about engagement. Football, where players do different things simultaneously, works like magic for the television audience. Simultaneous events mean engagement of the viewer. The cameras cut from one event to another: quarterback dropping back, cut to wide receiver being defended by the cornerback, cut to linebacker closing in to tackle the quarterback, all within the space of a few seconds. All within the space of a single play.

McLuhan correctly recognized the importance of the "instant replay." Taped replay allows us to watch the play again and again, studying in great depth. Instant replay has been added to actual playing of the game itself. Coaches have been granted the power to request a play be reviewed by the referees. The referees can reverse the on-field decision based on replay. The fans study the replay and participate with the referees's decision.

Baseball, formerly the national pastime, moves forward in a logical, straight-line sequence. Batter hits ball and only then can he run. The ball gets fielded. The batter runs to first base. Football moves forward simultaneously-- occurs on many different levels in the same moment. Fans achieve more in-depth involvement in the football game.

Engagement! Engagement! Engagement! So said McLuhan when explaining the electronic media environment. Our new media life, life itself you might say, is all about electronic engagement. We stay engaged in our cellphone, on Facebook, on Twitter and on Instagram and things like Snapchat. I don't even know what Snapchat is! Guess that reveals my age...

Football wins. With fantasy football we get an deeper involvement. We actually own the team and the players, even if it's just a fantasy. Football wins the electronic competition by keeping us deeply engaged.