Trump:"A lot of people/A lot of things" the power of Vague

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I have noticed that there is a clear and viable strategy used in elections of attempting to keep things vague as possible for as long as possible. If you can get away with avoiding providing clarity an specifics. It have been used successfully to win elections but both sides of the political spectrum.

The electorate don't get off the hook so easily. Part of the reason why this strategy works is the electorate are quite unrealistic in thinking that a candidate would across the board be totally representative of their views, and also overestimate how much they marry with other supporters. Therefore a politician only has to over clarify and they have committed political suicide.

This is the key to populism.

The counter to populism is the politics of persuasion. That is more difficult to do therefore soundbites (operand conditioning) and negative campaigning (common enemy) are easier.

Is this an idea that resonates?

Well, normal people look like real masters of the art of vagueness to me. It doesn't have to be a matter of dishonesty---as much as it probably is in the case of politicians---rather, they beat me effortlessly at the chess-like game of making the other person spend as much as possible of the energy demanded by the conversation. Why take the trouble to be precise when you can just let them make a much greater effort, wasting a lot of time in the process, to slowly extract the information they need from you, as if through a dropper? Besides, you can get the undeniable health benefits of laughing at them.

I watched Trump speak last night, It was the same speech he gave the day before.

It is the Stump Speech, given when the candidate is running for the nomination of a Party.

The art is to gain attention, often by saying things the others and the press will jump on, then clarify that they misunderstood what you said.

Get rid of all Muslims, later becomes no not Citizens, not business travelers, not members of our military, just a temporary block on undocumented people from a conflict zone.

He is running against the Party that just said they were going to bring in 100,000 or 200,000, while the NSA and FBI said there was no way to check who they were, and even if their Syrian passports were valid.

The other Republicans also said dumb things, and Trump mentions that.

He does not give away the platform he will use to get Nominated, others would copy it, those are Convention Speeches. Those will be directed at factions within the party. Tax Reduction, Christians, White People who have no place with the Democrats, outreach to Blacks and Hispanics, and collecting from the Mormons for his cash support of Romney. So far, he has not mentioned Women, except Rosie. Expect his top aids and his daughter to be front and center, Trump has a lot of women in top positions in his company. They will give the, Let me tell you about my boss talk.

After the Convention he can lay back, and Hillary has to run against him.

It is usual for the other group to have the same platform, but Trump has put out, Build Wall, Deport Illegals, the Press Lies, and those who donate expect something in return. He self funded, she got hundreds of millions in money for something.

He does not have a political record, she has to run against her own.

Trump has been doing one or two events a day, speaking for hours, then going outside and speaking to those people. He can draw large crowds.

Hillary is doing good to make one event a week. Recently she showed up two hours late, as the crowd waited.

She does have two speeds, somewhat brain dead, or full electric, like she is doing Meth and B-12 shots, then she crashes.

Debating Trump her head might explode, she reads from a teleprompter. Having to put forth a program while being attacked, her system could not take the load.

The General Election takes visiting all States several times, Trump can live on his plane, and give his why I am better than Hillary speech. The best Hillary can do is shoot some TV spots.

What is demanded is dealing with the Democratic Party, while Trump does not have to deal with the Republican Party. Hillary took the money, she has to show up, she has to support Democrats running for the House and Senate, where the Republicans hold a majority.

Hillary has two Presidents to stump for her, but Bill and Barry are not first class acts.

Trump could put together an Roundtable with Carl Ican, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, that would have the highest ratings ever.

Now we are getting down to an economic plan that shows what has to be done to Make America Great Again.

Trump can win with 64% of the White vote, he also polls well with Blacks, Hispanics, Women, and could well get a Mandate level of votes. 45 million war babies want to hear that their Social Security is not going to be reduced in ten years.

Trump will be driving the agenda in the home stretch, the Democrats will be playing catch up. Trump can play harder than Hillary. Unions that always voted Democrat are liking Trump.

A group of troop leading fighting Generals could discuss our war fighting ability, and how Congress does not support the military.

Trump is a Player who plays against himself, Putin has 90% support, Trump wants to top that.

As Trump said, I ran for President, I had ideas and tried, but the People came out and this is now a Movement of the People. I swear, I will do the right thing, and we will make America Great Again.

It's going to be Huge, you will love it, we will win so much you will get tired of it, then we will win some more.

Yes, this is very pertinent. Oddly enough there's an excellent article by Rowan Williams (the former Archbishop of Canterbury and now master of a Cambridge college) in today's Guardian about the use of language in political and bureaucratic discourses, and how it can be used to justify the decision to use military force. There are clear examples from all the political parties in the recent debate about bombing Syria, as well as in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Here's the link. The article is taken from Rowan William's recent Orwell lecture.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/d ... ll-lecture

Your theory makes no sense. This is the guy that thinks he knows better then doctors on how to administer vaccines. The guy makes simplistic and brash statements becuase he is simplistic and brash. There is no substance or he would have reveled it by now.

Not going to happen. 90% support is totally unheard of. American politics is polarised. Where have you been all your life? The political camps are well established. You are part of that team supporting mentality. I'd bet my life on him not getting over 90% support.

A dumb as I think Trump is, I don't think he is seriously trying to achieve that. He is trying to skim undecided an disillusioned, that is pretty much what all the candidates are aiming to do.


Essentially what every new candidate has said since time immemorial.



LOL it is not my country, so it is your problem ultimately. You put blind faith in a guy that hasn't made a nuanced policy yet. How do you know he is going to represent you? The reality is you have no idea, it is wing and a prayer s**t.

This is nothing new. It is fairly typical for relatively unknown quantities to get support especially after 2-3 terms of the same guy. This pattern is not exclusive to the US.

We have that going, after two terms the incumbent party loses.

We have had Clinton Bush and now Clinton dark for decades.

We are sick of, the Parties, the Political families, so our vision of incumbent is larger.

We are also sick of the Media. Newspapers and magazines have died, what is left is but a shadow.

Years ago Internet use, exceeded the time spent watching TV. We get our news and shop on the Internet.

Media companies are imploding, viewership is in decline.

As Trump pointed out, no one watched Republican debates until he ran.

There were four times as many viewers, but like me, many of them were on the Internet. TV is dead.

We have become independent of the Media and the Political Parties. Trump is self funding, but if he needed money to carry his message, we could fund a Kickstarter.

As Bob Dylan said, "The times they are a changing."

So what should we do, Provide for a common Defense? See to having sound money, just laws, and provide for the health education and welfare of the population.

Some things never change.

Vagueness is certainly one of the tools of the demagogue.

Trumps whole platform is, I'm great and I'm going to make American great again too! And, in the last couple of weeks, he's added I'll bomb the [expletive] out of ISIS and keep Muslims out of the country.

And his followers are perfectly satisfied with this. I've seen several of his supporters interviewed recently and all they say is this: Trump is strong, he tells it like it is, and he wants to make America great again.

The other day, I saw an interview with someone identified as "director of The Tea Party News Network." She stated that all Trump needed to do to win the up comming debate is state his opinions with "strength and conviction" and that he did not need to be specific or even right about what he said.

She seemed oblivious to any problems with that approach. Really.

The sociologist and historian in me is fascinated by the rise of Donald Trump. The US is going through a time of cultural and economic turmoil.

Demoghaphic and cultural changes mean that white males are starting to lose their grip on full social dominance. Economic changes mean that it's no longer possible for the average American to maintain a middle class standard of living without something more than a high school diploma.

This has made a lot of people who would normally not be involved in politics angry and active. Not surprisingly, most of these folks (on the right, anyway) are white, male, working class, and/or older. Most of these folks have NO INTEREST in policy details. They just want someone they can trust to make things right again.

Trump has convinced these people that he's worthy of their trust and that he can fix things. He's mainly done this with vauge yet "muscular" bluster. This lets people fill in the blanks anyway they want, IF they even care to. Also, if he's elected and fails, he's singled out enough enemies (Liberals/PC folks, Mexicans, Muslims) that he'll have plenty of scapegoats to blame. That's when things could get really ugly.

There's a similar dynamic working on the left with Sanders--only his folks tend to be younger, ethnically diverse, with more females. And, of course, his side is scapegoating the 1%.

The main loss of power is not White Male, it is the print press and TV.

All of the uneducated people now see they have the numbers to elect someone.

25%-30% go for higher education, and between that and power of media, elections were won.

Congress has been taken over by Republicans, because they ran on local issues, and represent local morality.

Hillary is the zombie wife of a past President. She screwed up at State.

If we learned anything from advertising, hot young women sell, and Hillary is not. It was her only card.

Trump has a Reality TV family, smart, rich, good looking. Trump has better Marketing.

As someone who thought NAFTA was a giant sucking sound, which became reality, I think we can and should reverse it.

We are 28th in the world in education, between Bulgaria and Romania. In an education based world, that is a major failure of government.

Uneducated Americans seem to have a clearer view of our nations needs, than those who would limit the local completion.

This next election pits Common Sense against the failed program of the past.

It will be about turnout, Register and vote like your life depends on it, because it does.