The recent talk of indictments against Trump, which the New York Times is now reporting as being filed under seal, highlight the simple truth that the Democrats can’t stop themselves from helping Trump, no matter how much they say they hate Trump and view him as a strong threat to the country.
If the Democrats really were afraid of Trump and wanted to stop him, they would ignore him. They would instruct the prosecutors around the country to stop trying to indict Trump. The Democrats would tell the media to ignore Trump, his social media posts, his rallies, everything. All they need to do is ignore Trump and Trump would lose his power. It would drive Trump crazy. He would engage in stupid things that would push more people away.
Attacking Trump Makes Him Stronger
Back in 2015, lots of old stories and articles came out about Trump. Now, a lot of these stories might have been in the public view for a while, but I suspect that most people had never heard of them previously.
I first heard of Trump in the ‘80s when Trump was involved with the USFL and the WWF, and “Art of the Deal” was published. He struck me as a loudmouth blowhard. Later when he had the TV show, I found it mildly interesting, but I didn’t watch more than a few episodes, at best.
So, in 2015, once Trump announced his candidacy, I was not thinking much of it. I did not think he was a serious candidate and could not win the nomination, let alone a general election.
To get a better idea of what Trump stood for as a candidate, I started reading the various articles I found on him online, detailing his career. There was one which discussed how Trump worked hard to get his name in the New York media back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including doing things such as calling up reporters, pretending to be his own press agent, and planting stories about himself in the media.
Trump wanted to be talked about and had an intense desire to be in the public eye. It was not enough to be successful, as it was to be seen as successful. Trump realized that self-promotion would open access to many important things and that it was ok to be the subject of attacks. Better to be attacked then to be ignored.
Some of the various leaks in 2015 and 2016 including an opposition report on Trump. I don’t even know to what extent all this is still available on the internet, but it was interesting reading.
Part of the Podesta leaks included a report on how Hillary could win the general election by pushing extreme candidates, called the Pied Piper strategy. Democrats have been using this strategy well to win close elections in various states for elections to the senate and state offices and continue to use it. They spend money promoting the most extreme possible Republican candidate, one that they have found some juicy negatives things about, and then make that person the Republican general election candidate. Then the Democrats win the general election because these extreme outsider candidates are designed to fail.
One of the reasons it works is that these candidates are often first-time candidates making missteps in various ways, as much as for their positions. Non-career politicians are much easier to derail than slick career politicians. We saw this strategy work in several states in 2022.
In the report in the Podesta papers, the Democrats had identified Trump and Cruz as good targets for the Pied Piper strategy. Cruz at the time, while more of a Neocon warmonger than Trump, was the nearest to Trump of any of the candidates on policy issues and had taken some extreme measures as a senator to really annoy Mitch and the rest of the GOPe senators. Cruz looked more extreme than the rest of the field, but with Trump, Trump was all that Cruz was and more, and much better at focusing attention.
Trump made his campaign announcement in front of a paid audience and started barnstorming audiences around the country. TV executives, at the behest of the Hillary campaign, devoted a lot of attention to Trump rallies. These executives later loved that they got great ratings when showing these rallies and talking about Trump, thereby getting better advertising revenue. They did not need any more encouragement from Hillary to keep the focus on Trump.
Trump appealed to the disenchanted populist right, who felt left behind by the last 50 years. The Democrats had ditched the white working class to become the party of the meritocracy and oligarchy, the educated and the powerful, and those former supporters found in Trump someone who could speak to them like old-time Democratic politicians could. Trump also appealed to Americans that saw the country in decline and wanted a renewal and restoration. People who had followed Ross Perot in 1992 and Ron Paul in 2012 saw in Trump the outside who can fix the country.
Trump has long been a masterful salesman. I read one story back in 2015, about a woman who went with her friend on a Florida trip. The friend was going to a Trump Vitamins convention and told her to just come along to Florida for the trip. Against her original idea, she went with the friend to the Trump speech, and suddenly was on fire with the idea of Trump Vitamins, spending tens of thousands of dollars over the next few years on multilevel marketing, in thrall to Trump.
Trump does best when under attack, punching back. This is why back in the 70s and 80s, he planted those stories about himself. He knew that making a name for himself in the New York media was important for him to gain financial success. No media market in America is tougher than the New York media market, and Trump learned his trade there. He loves making himself the object of attacks, and loves being the center of attention.
Democrats Focus on Trump To Help Themselves
So, when the Democrats keep attacking Trump, even after he has been out of office for over two years, they feed into his power. They build him up. They make their worst nightmare, a Trump victory next year, more likely.
They focus on Trump because that helps Democrats control people. With Trump the focus, his very persona makes many people cringe in dislike. As much as Trump inspires allegiance among the MAGA folks, Trump also makes many others easily to manipulate as they are trapped into irrational fear of Trump. I have personally known strong and calm old-school Republicans to suddenly becoming extremely agitated even at the mention of Trump’s name. I also know some low-information folks that are easily tricked into thinking Trump is the devil incarnate.
If the Democrats had treated Trump like the old school New York Democrat he really is, they could have gotten a lot of things done with Trump. Trump would have willingly played “Let’s Make A Deal” on numerous Democratic goals and proposals. Trump would have loved been accepted and heralded by the media as a Great President. Trump, allowed his minor quirks outside of the Uniparty consensus, would have gone along with almost everything the Democrats wanted on domestic policy.
One needs only look at what Trump did with sentencing reform. Trump went along with giving a lot of “Get of Jail” cards to drug lords, because a bunch of people sucked up to him and told him that he could win voters by doing this. They did not fight with Trump to get it but praised Trump to get it and used celebrities and his daughter as ways to the end.
Democrats would rather scaremonger people about Trump and not get anything done, much like Karl Rove and Mitch have done for decades with scary Democrats. These indictments, if real, are designed to push people towards Trump, not stop his election. The Democrats believe that this will ensure Trump wins the nomination and thereby delivers the 2024 general election to the Democrats. And given everything that happened in 2020, maybe they have reason to be confident against Trump in 2024.
I believe the Democrats have no good reason not to cheat in all major national elections moving forward. They will do it and they will steal whatever election they want. I don’t see any reason so far that they can be prevented from this, short of significant and widespread violence. They focus on Trump mostly because it keeps their brainwashed slaves distracted. He’s their shiny object. Emmanuel Goldstein. For now at least. He will be convicted. And it will be overturned. And their minions will claim the justice system is rigged in his favor. Every possible outcome has been gamed out. It will take a miracle from God himself to dislodge the Democrat mob from our government.
I don't really think this about hanging a felony conviction on Trump to try to "disqualify" him from becoming President, as many on the Right are howling. The presidential qualifications clause in Article II of the Constitution is clear, unconditional and supersedes all else. Sure, a felon running for the Presidency would be hobbled as a practical matter, but those viewing such conviction as political theater would be all the more inclined to pull the lever for their 'martyr.' Like the media circus since he first came down the escalator, this is all designed to elevate a 'beatable' Trump and, in this case, divert momentum from DeSantis, the guy the Left really fears, as they would need to deal with him substantively, rather than emotionally.
In any case, I don't see a conviction happening, even with a NY jury, once Trump's lawyers force a jury instruction requiring a showing of specific intent to induce the actual election-law felony to which Cohen pled (under a sh!t-ton of other legal jeopardy he then faced).