When, defying all common sense, Trump became President I wrote a prediction in my National Business Review column that by the time his reign was over, there’d have been more books written about him than any of his predecessors. “How and why” would be the common theme.
In a quality Aspen bookshop when on my annual ski trip, there were about 8 recently published ones. The proprietor told me there’s a new one virtually weekly and they all sell to an insatiable “how and why” bewildered populace.
But I wonder if any of these scribes will pick up one legacy of his awfulness which is this.
During the pre-election Republican primaries and having an interest in speech idioms, I noted an oddity in Trump’s utterances. He seemed totally unable to speak for more than 30 seconds without saying “and by the way”.
In the subsequent four years that superfluous phrase has proven more contagious than coronavirus.
For ever since every American commentator seems incapable of speaking without including it.
Most ironic of all I even heard one in full flight, rightly condemning the idiotic young female obsession with “like”, then use it.
I’m picking it will be Trump’s sole legacy (and certainly less damaging than most of his actions) stupid though it is.
17 Comments
So which is worse – Trump or Hillary Clinton’s awfulness? I think American voters got it right in 2016 and they will again this year.
That should be obvious -extremely obvious. If not immediately after the idiot was elected -then now a few years into his bumbling, self-obsessed, ham-fisted, red-necked, unfeeling and plain dumb rein, even for the most blinkered observer.
…That should be obvious -extremely obvious. If not immediately after the idiot was elected -then now a few years into his bumbling, self-obsessed, ham-fisted, red-necked, unfeeling and plain dumb rein, even for the most blinkered observer.
This is one of things I like about Trump. He doesn’t pretend to feel what he does not. Unlike our current Prime Minister.
By the way, many like, like him.
On my travels I’ve noticed how easy it is to pick up the idioms and, by extension, the speaking patterns and thinking of the leaders that govern any situation from time to time. And this includes how to mimic the writings of those we (I) read. It would appear that women are more acceptable at filling the atmosphere with nonsense idioms and utterances than men, like man, over the top.
In my opinion: Most people in politics and academia work their whole lives for social standing (it’s not money in the developed world – it’s ego. Money is just the proof). Trump, just by being the crass person he is, makes a mockery of the ultimately position of demonstrated superiority. This is why the American elite despise him. He defecates on the very thing (by association) that makes them feel superior, which is like violating their god.
Add ‘MSM’ to your first sentence and you’ve totally nailed it. Also, Victor Davis Hansen summed Trump’s electoral success up beautifully when he stated that many Americans see Trump, warts and all, as the last lone gunman/sheriff left in town that might just ‘clean this town up.’
The reality is many fall into the cliche trap, and will continue to do so going forward, to be fair.
To be sure, a lot of people need fillers to allow their brains to catch up with their mouths, like.
Yes. Donald Trump works very hard to find the most dumbed-down way of making his point (ftr, I do the same. I relate). This is because 1. He cares less what ‘elites’ think of him. 2. He knows that keeping communications as simple as possible is politically vital.
Point 2. See Jacinda.
A teleprompter would fix that problem, but then he’d just be reciting a pre-written speech by a professional speechwriter like Obama did (& Biden tries & fails to do). The political cliche that used to get up my nose was ’make no mistake’ used by Bush Jnr. and Obama. The other thing about political cliches is they spread to politicians in other countries like a bat virus, which is even more vomit inducing as it also takes on the mantle of hero worship imitation.
“In the subsequent four years that superfluous phrase has proven more contagious than coronavirus.”
But Covid-19 is not very contagious at all.
The Washington Post reported that 5 million people left Wuhan between January 10 (the start of the Chinese New Year travel rush) and the Wuhan lockdown on January 23.
Get that… five million leave Wuhan for elsewhere in China, when the epidemic was already 3 or 4 weeks old but do not appreciably spread the disease.
How’s that?
It might be deadly but it is not contagious.
http://www.preearth.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1184
Are you kidding? There are now 3.7 MILLION cases around the world. How is that not contagious? Pull your head out of the sand.
“I don’t know how Trump sleeps at night’.
“Naked with a super model’ was his response.
Is it really any mystery that Trump was elected? His opponent was probably the worst Presidential candidate in history. Her election strategy was totally negative, labelling traditional Democrat supporters ‘deplorables’ and then wondering why they (the working class) deserted her in droves. Her only policies appeared to be “I’m a woman, vote for me”, open borders, and full term abortion. And now Trump’s best chance of re-election: Joe Biden. A career swampist. A man, who by the end of his sentence, has forgotten what the topic was. His only policy, the Green New Deal, will sink the American economy ten times faster than the C-virus has. Such terrible candidates make me wonder if the Democrats are even really serious about politics.