Trump branding

Credit where it is due, you have to admit that Democrats are very good at branding. They have a knack for labeling things, mislabeling things, so their determined labels form the discussion. They draw the lines in which the discussion is colored. They're language coloring book artists and the whole country, the world, colors within the lines or risks charges of racism, sexism, xenophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, whathaveyouphobia.  Trudeau's neologism peoplekind worked very well in his town hall although mocked elsewhere else, it still had everyone changing man to people in every word they could peopleage in all peoplener possible.

Just open a dictionary to the words beginning with man and change every instance of man to people. And the list is only the words that begin with man. Another list for words containing man offers more possibilities for ridicule. It's a very long list. Still, even through ridicule Trudeau compelled his ridiculers to accept the task of changing their language, and nothing pleases liberals more than controlling the language of everyone else, because it controls the way that they think.

Trump is also a master at branding. Liberals branded Trump misogynist, racist, xenophobe to completion. It's all that we ever hear from them about him and by extension about his supporters. But that's horribly elitist intellectual branding. They're terrible brands. So overused they've lost their energy. Were they actual brands you couldn't cast them in iron and burn them into the hides of cattle. You cannot fashion an easy logo from those. Liberals branded the offspring of illegal residents "Dreamers" and Trump stole the brand and applied it to every American. Everyone has American aspirations and everyone literally dreams. Simultaneously Trump is branding gang MS13 as "Nightmare."  He diminishes the brand Dreamer while building the brand Nightmare from the set of illegal immigrants. You can no longer discuss one without including the other.

He's working on branding Democrats "unAmerican." His new idea to drive this is for a military parade. They must discuss that. Their own impulses demand it. By the same impulses that demand they stay quiet during SOTU. But here he encounters resistance from his supporters. A military parade inspired by France's Bastille Day celebration bring with it the visuals of USSR May Day parades and Nazi shows of force. It abandons the walk softly part Theodor Roosevelt's construction and changes it to prance around proudly and mouth off loudly and obnoxiously about your big sticks. All of liberals and half of conservatives don't like that. I'm judging by reaction in comments at the Treehouse. Who Doesn't Love a Parade? Trump know all Democrats will automatically hate this and he can then brand them unAmerican. A lot of conservatives side with liberals on this.

Contrary to that is another observation. I grew up around very large military airplanes. As a kid I walked through hangars for B-52s. Our CAP meeting were inside such a hangar. We marched right past the bombers to get to our class (always about studying weather.) Military hangars form the backdrop of my early life. And I was quite surprised at age fourteen when Barksdale AFB in Shreveport Louisiana opened its doors to the pubic. For the first time in my life I saw the public's reaction to this military equipment. I forget the day, it was hot, so most likely 4th of July rather than Memorial Day or Veteran's Day. Civilians were crawling all over the equipment brought out for display and for inspection. It was a huge thrill for them to see all the equipment up close and to actually climb around and into some of the cockpits. The whole city was there, it seemed. Huge crowds excited with the opportunity. Long lines up to the ladders to just to peek into the cockpits of jets. Before that open house there were the usual marching bands and marching displays with flags, the ritualized choreographic thing that they do with rifles, everyones boots shined to high polish, and jets doing touch and goes in the near distance. The whole thing set up right there on the tarmac. Long rows of bleachers stretched out completely filled with civilians. I was shocked how interesting all that was to everyone who hadn't grown up with it, and usually excluded from the base. They were extremely curious to see things upfront. So Trump might be onto something here that his more delicately sensible supporters are not appreciating. A lot of people love this stuff. More people than you might think. He is a master at showmanship, after all, and at branding. I think I'll just sit back and enjoy observing what he does, watch him wreak havoc among his detractors, watch him brand their butts to a crisp.