Robert Reich
9.9.2016
NBC’s Matt Lauer has taken a lot of grief for allowing Donald Trump, in NBC’s candidate’s forum earlier this week, to bulldoze him with bizarre statements that Lauer barely questioned.
But there’s a deeper problem that’s likely to come up September 26 in the first real candidate’s debate – and it goes beyond Matt Lauer. Trump isn’t basing his candidacy on policies or facts, which the media are trained to probe. Trump is selling alpha-male strength and power. It’s a hoax, of course. Trump is just a garden-variety bully. But the media aren’t trained to expose this kind of hoax. In fact, the more Trump can bulldoze and belittle his interviewers, as well as Hillary Clinton, the more he appears to show strength and power.
Because I’m very short, I was always bullied as a kid. I discovered that the best defense against bullies was to taunt them into revealing the weaknesses and insecurities that had made them into bullies.
After watching him for the past year, I’d guess Trump’s weakness and insecurities have to do with his not feeling very intelligent, not feeling respected in the circles in which he craves respect, and not feeling he’s the man his father wanted him to be. So questions from the media (and comments from Hillary) that provoke him in these areas will, I believe, cause him to expose the sham of his alpha-male strength and power.
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This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
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