The high price of 'resistance'
Susan Glasser pens an opinion in The New Yorker on May 11, 2018 titled "The Price of Getting Inside Trump's Head. It is interesting for a moment, but it loses altitude as she mistakes word count for value. The article veers into just another litany of Trump transgressions and at one point descends into pseudo-analysis of Trump's marriage.
At this moment Trump is doing pretty well, and the price of getting into the heads of those who call themselves "the resistance" seems unaccountably steep. If Trump donned the mantle of a Democrat, these resistors would be extolling his down-to-earth appeal to the common man.
It's history now, but Barack Obama was, to be kind, aloof. His overwhelming desire to come off as the smartest man in any room played well to the odd audience that longed for a savior incarnate but may have created a gap between POTUS and the leaders of other nations. These men and women, after all, are pretty darned accomplished themselves and might not appreciate being talked down to by a guy so obviously full of himself. The poor soul had to suffer a fake Beer Summit photo op in an eerie attempt to appear in touch with the common man.
An ability to welcome and truly draw people close marks the essential Trump personality. He possesses a big character, full of channels and meandering streams, yet all paths are marked with a Public Property sign. Trump's disposition is as big and diverse as the city he hails from. Trump knows you need people to get things done. The press thought him outlandish for removing lint from French president Emmanuel Macron's suit during a press conference at the White House, yet think about how that gesture bespoke a closeness quickly developed. Trump doesn't have to sit down at a conference table to begin creating relationships; the handshake, the brotherly touch of the shoulder, the puckish grin. These traits are all advanced upon first meeting. Trump is tall and uses that height to paternal advantage. Trump has attained years and collected the accompanying wisdom of people skills. Trump builds fellowship and always reaches out to others while saying, "Now let's sit and talk; let's come to some arrangement."
You will notice that even some longtime antagonists accept Trump's invitation to sit and talk.
So far Trump's first term has been a rollercoaster; up and down and side to side, exhilarating and positively adrenaline-charged. The left can't see it because leftists are still smarting from the unanticipated loss handed to them by 63 million American voters two years ago. Journalists can't see it because ground level is too remote from their lofty nest of elitism. They don't want to chum up with Americans who don't have advanced degrees in political science or journalism. They have forgotten how much a warm handshake and steady eye contact mean to the man next to you, down the street, in another corner of America, or a different part of the world.
You collect a due bill when you get out of your own head. That would seem another cost the left is unwilling to wage. Too bad for the left, because this presidency is getting to be more fun and successful every day, and the left got in for free.
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