I started writing this post two years after Donald Trump announced his candidacy for Presidency. It seems like Trump has been running for President forever. Once inaugurated, he established his reelection committee. He is still campaigning. It's the new normal.
Recently, I was trying to explain Trump (to myself and others) when I read a passage in the Andy Warhol book "I'll Be Your Mirror." Warhol was discussing his approach to film making and plots... or lack of plots. Warhol believed that plots were boring. If a movie has a plot, the viewer will not watch it over and over again, because the viewer knows the ending. " It's much more exciting not to know what's going to happen. I don't think that plot is important." (You can find much of the conversation in the Wikipedia post for Warhol's adult film "Blue Movie.")
After I read the passage, I wondered if Trump had been influenced by Warhol. Both people lived in New York City and both are geniuses at understanding popular commercial culture. Trump knew everyone, especially the popular party people. When I searched Google for Andy Warhol and Donald Trump, I found that Grace Marston at The Warhol Museum wrote about the connection on the Warhol Blog one year before the woman's march. It seems that Trump is a Warhol fan.
Until I studied Andy Warhol, I thought that Warhol was just a guy who became popular for painting Campbell Soup cans, but he was a complex and complicated man. For a few decades, Warhol influenced popular culture. Many contemporary journalists are unfamiliar with Warhol or his references. When Trump mentioned in 93 that "avoiding STD's was his Personal Vietnam," news sites from the left to Red State objected. I have not found one news agency that has asked about a possible reference to Warhol's famous film (Blue Movie) with a similar reference.
This article is a post in progress, but I wanted to get something up, especially once I realized that I had not written here since the day of the Iowa Caucus. In that post, I mentioned that I had become a Trump "fan," but that did not mean that I was going to vote for him. I thought that Trump disqualified himself with the birther statements. Trump further disqualified himself throughout the campaign about other past Presidents. It was as if an atheist wanted to lead the congregation, BECAUSE he did not believe in God.
I liked Trump, because he forced our country to look at ourselves more closely. In the post I wrote in January 2016, I said that "Trump's campaign is a mirror that keeps reflecting." He keeps campaigning and he keeps reflecting.
In January 2016, I thought he would do well. I didn't realize that Hillary would perform so badly. I could write a book about HRC, but she isn't as interesting as Trump. (Who knew that she would be such a bad candidate?) I also don't think that people have accepted how good Trump was as a candidate. There are some basic rules about campaigning, and Trump did them well. For example, turn your weaknesses into strengths and your opponents strengths into weaknesses. Trump did not have experience as an elected official. MAKE THAT A STRENGTH. It's so basic, but the other experienced candidates did not do it.
There is another basic campaign strategy that has been underestimated. Define your opponent. Usually, this is considered as something that requires opposition research and detailed strategy talking points and blah, blah, blah.... Trump just calls someone Low Energy Fred, or Crooked Hillary. Trump's lack of a detailed plan goes with his "no plot," "no elected office" strategy. It works.
On election day, I took my son with me to vote so he could see that I did not vote for Trump.
6/26 1:25 am
More notes to follow, about
Tweets working to Trump's advantage
Warhol in W and Warhol's fascination with real/fake and fake news
Campaign Gaffs and why they don't matter
If Obama is smart (and he is), don't you think he had a contingency plan for Trump winning the election? And if Trump's strategy is to act like he doesn't know much, is it possible that Obama and Trump are actually working together more than we realize?
6/26 1:25 am
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