FW: trump/Ford
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Hi, everybody, Here is the second shoe. I asked Jonathan to comment on trump on the basis of his experience with the Mayor of Toronto, a man named Ford, who managed to get himself reelected despite the fact that it was pretty clear he was a coke head … and a fool. I asked him how was that possible and how do we fight it. See below. I particularly urge you to “stay for “ the newspaper article at the end. Both Jon’s letter and that article provide ground truth about the difficulties of extracting oneself from such a regime, once it has been stabled. Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University From: Jonathan Barker [mailto:[hidden email]] The appeal to the anger of those who feel sidelined and ignored is is similar. They both attacked "the gravy train." They both had great need for popular approval and held the aim of limiting government and taxes. Ford in office was undisciplined and not very effective. He did not systematically attack all city services, but did cut their funding. He had links with shady operators, attacked the media, cared nothing for facts, stuck to a simple message. And his supporters stuck with him despite all the criticism and investigative reporting. Ford had a genuine affection for regular people, answered their calls, and even went to their houses to look after complaints about city services. He also had serious addictions to alcohol and other drugs. Opposing him had some similarities to opposing Trump. He did not have firm control of city council and the city is highly dependent on the province. There was room to stymie some of his efforts. And after he admitted to substance abuse most power was stripped from his office. (There was no provision for removing him from office.) To get him out of power, like for Trump, required grass roots action: organize and get out the vote. But city politics has no organized parties in Toronto which means there were no party organizations to mobilize or to pry supporters from. The seeming futility of well-informed reporting and opposition arguments seems similar in the two cases. In his second election Ford might well have won because the non-Ford vote was split between two strong candidates, but cancer sidelined Ford before election day. Lessons: Use all available institutional weapons and reach into the places supporting Trump to organize and activate and inform the many people there who oppose him. The key problem is addressing the issues in the Trump voters minds in a convincing way. There are many strands here to think through. What can government and citizens do to reduce inequality and reverse the cultural and physical separation of class and identity groups? How to rehabilitate the reputation of government as a problem solver? And serous media as sources of true information? What groups and places to target first? Daniel Dale covered Ford and then Trump for the Toronto Star. Here are his thoughts about similarities and differences from an interview after the Republican convention. The nuclear codes are a worry... Jonathan ===================== Daniel Dale on Donald Trump and Rob Ford Towards the beginning of Trump’s campaign, a lot of people drew connections between his political rhetoric and rise in popularity and that of Rob Ford. What’s diverged since — or only gotten bizarrely more similar? A very big difference is that Ford managed to stay on his best behaviour during his first campaign, in which he managed to convince people he wasn’t quite the erratic, angry, scary man that people had said he was. Trump just doesn’t care. His behaviour has only gotten more concerning to a lot of people, but he’s unwilling to modify it. Another is that [Trump] has explicitly used racial or ethnic division in an attempt to fuel his popularity with a small segment of the population. Ford may have benefited from the homophobia of the part of the electorate who didn’t like George Smitherman [in 2010], or from blurting out in debates where he didn’t want immigrants coming to the city. But that type of fear-based appeal wasn’t something that he did. Early in the campaign there were eerie similarities. But the more it’s continued, the more they’ve diverged. Trump has gone beyond. I think it’s hard in general to compare a Canadian municipal campaign to a U.S. presidential one. But what we saw in Trump’s very dark, angry, fear-mongering speech at the Republican convention last week is nothing like what we saw from Ford. Trump is trying to make crime and law and order central to his campaign. That’s something that’s more often central to municipal campaigns, but it’s not something Ford talked about. Even in his fierce criticism of government, his message was practical: “I am a fixer. I will be more responsive to you than this current government.” If anything, that’s the parallel. When Trump said, “I am your voice, and you have been forgotten by elites who look after their own interests. I will be your champion.” That’s what Rob Ford did: Instead of Miller, this Harvard-educated lawyer who goes on about bike lanes, I will champion what you want me to champion. What are some examples of these parallels or divergences you’ve seen in the last week during the Republican National Convention? The most reminiscent to me during the convention was the way Trump and his campaign responded to the Melania plagiarism problem. It was so obvious that words had been copied. Political advisors spent days screaming the obvious thing: You acknowledge the issue, apologize and move on. But they denied, and said, “No, nothing’s wrong here, it’s just the media making things up.” I think at one point his spokesperson said something along the lines of Michelle Obama thinks she invented the English language. Finally, after dragging the news cycle on longer, they finally admitted an error. It was so Ford-like to me. It was this perpetual unwillingness to concede anything, and turning yourself into the victim of your own error. [from http://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/shared-values/rob-ford-donald-trump-and-the-future-of-politics]. =============== On 2/16/2017 11:48 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
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