Contrasting Styles

Vincent J. Curtis

29 Aug 2016

“Hillary Clinton is a bigot, who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future,”

"What does she do when she can't defend her record?"  "She lies, she smears, she paints decent Americans as racists. She bullies voters, who only want a better future, and tries to intimidate them out of change."

"To Hillary Clinton, and to her donors and advisors, pushing her to spread her smears and her lies about decent people, I have three words: Shame on you."

“Obama founded ISIS.”

Hillary Clinton said this of Trump:

"From the start, Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia."  "He is taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party. His disregard for the values that make our country great is profoundly dangerous."  (Pardon me for observing that after accusing Trump of building his campaign on paranoia, Hillary launches immediately into a conspiracy theory concerning the hitherto unknown “alt-right.”  It’s a vast alt-right conspiracy…..It’s going to take over the Republican party!)

Republican candidates are not supposed to be blunt.  They are supposed to be gentlemen who lose gracefully.  Trump is blunt, and he is not going to lose gracefully, like a Jeb Bush would.  Jeb Bush would rather lose the election than lose his dignity.  And did lose, to Trump.

One of Saul D. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals was to make the other side live up to their rules.  If Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz were to look a little nasty, the Democrats and the media would be all over them for not being perfect gentlemen all the time, as they are supposed to be, and are hypocrites for not being all the time.  The public would notice.

Trump did not fall into that trap; and the media and the Democrats (and to be fair, the rats deserting the Republican ship) are highly annoyed with Trump for not playing the perfect gentleman with Hillary.  That seems to me to underlie many of their criticisms of Trump: they are put off by his crudeness.

The president is supposed to be gentleman, and Hillary can play the lady, at least in public.  She can appear to be measured and pleasant even as she lies to you through her teeth, as Chris Wallace found out recently when he interviewed her immediately after the nominating convention.  My wife observed that Hillary can play the offended harridan well, as if to say, “When are you going to stop beating me, Mr. Trump?”

When Hillary isn’t castigating, she is hectoring.  She gets all mealy-mouthed, vicious, and insinuating.  Trump is enabling the haters like the KKK, but says nothing when the KKK come out and endorse her and donate, they say, some $20,000 to her campaign.

The poor, beaten woman is Hillary’s contrast to Trump’s bull-in-a-china-shop.  The witch versus the alpha male.

Hillary, exhausted after a speech on Saturday, repaired to her home to recuperate and isn’t schedule to grace the public with an appearance until Wednesday.

Trump’s bluntness, his toughness, his air and demeanor as an alpha male are off-putting to the metrosexuals in the media and the chattering classes.  When making the decision to support Hillary or Trump, these sorts of things matter.  A decision is a practical matter, and knowledge of facts is only part of the equation.  One’s appetites also enter into practical decision making, and if rough, tough, blunt-talking maleness is off-putting on a personal level then Trump is unlikely to be the choice.

Then there is the rancid corruption and utter deceitfulness of Hillary.  She ain’t pretty, and her voice is like fingernails on a blackboard.  These too are off-putting, but less viscerally than a stomping alpha male.

These contrasts in style account for a lot of the discontent with the nominees, for neither one is without their flaws.  The decision of who to support turns, not on policy, but on visceral feelings.  That’s one reason that Hillary stays out of the public eye, for the less the public sees and hears of Hillary, the more they like her.

Trump’s style wears better.  He is running for a leadership position.  In strutting his stuff often and everywhere, he is demonstrating leadership.  People may come to realize that Trump’s leadership personality is not as threatening as they perceive, because he wants to work for them, not against them.  Nobody believes that Hillary, in office, will work for them, only that she will not abuse the powers of her office and upset an applecart that needs upsetting.

The debates will show which leadership style America prefers: the alpha male, or the harridan, the poor, beaten woman.  If Trump holds his own on the technical details of the issues, his dominance may lead to the general conclusion that America will be safer in his hands than in Hillary’s.

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