who identify as GOP plus a smaller percentage of independents. He preaches ONLY to that base, and because he pays attention only to the base and holds rallies that attract only those people, he is apparently unaware that the majority of Americans do not like him and are not buying his bullshit. Only those dead-enders think he's a powerful storyteller; the rest of us think he's a charlatan. Don't be demoralized by any of this crap: His base isn't growing; he's not even trying to attract new voters.

Pathological LIAR.

Easy peasy. Just send 1 Fux News camera and 1 reporter, that's it that's all. Other MSM can quote the salient points.

Trump says something false and/or outrageous at a rally or event
Media replays it in every time slot, they may state that it isn't accurate and commentators say it is outrageous, but they are still giving Trump exactly what he wants. His narrative is replayed consistently. Repeat a lie often enough and people believe it.

An example - Trump says "Tariffs are working, they are helping pay down the debt" Commentator #1 "This isn't accurate, they are not working for the American people, they are a tax and making the price of goods go up" Commentator #2 "These tariffs are actually hurting our farmers" Host "Let's view that clip again and hear from Commentator #3".......

Alternative - Skip all clips of Trump and discuss how the tariffs are increasing prices, hurting exporters and show the increase to the debt due to Trump's policies. They can offer a rebuttal without giving him airtime to push his narrative.

As you note, this is a crappy headline from CNN.
Our for-profit media (CNN, MSNBC) got Trump elected and they are still helping him by repeating his lies.
And our centrist truthseeking media (NYT) is often so cowed by conservative criticism that they lean right.

But make no mistake: progressives are winning. This is a liberal majority country and we are going to vote in vast numbers in Nov and take the country back.

Don’t listen to the “savvy” journalism from the political media. They are slow. They are just, to their horror, realizing their complicity. They’ll come around.

Keep reading TPM and MoJo.

Mind you, many of those surveyed don't actually vote. But polls consistently show that 40% of the adult population (not simply likely voters but the overall adult population) approve of Trump's job performance. One of the polls that 538 cites is taken of likely voters only, and in that poll Trump's approval rating is closer to 50%.

Not all of those folks are necessarily part of Cult 45, but I think he has more than 20% of the country.

There are a lot of low information people out there.
Pollsters refer to “political junkies” like those on DU at one extreme and low information voters on the other side.

Based on my experience on the ground, I estimate that half of the trump support is people that have no idea about the bad stuff he is doing to the country. Remember that more than half the US in a poll reports not knowing about any Mueller indictments.

So 20% is a number that will be hard to crack. And those are the people Trump has completely convinced who eat up his messages. The rest are persuadable.

Many who are low information voters are LIV by choice. They aren't open to the truth. Millions are isolated in rural communities that want nothing to do with outsiders. Like those featured in an article that was recently posted here, they think slavery was beneficial for the slaves, Democrats are evil and Jesus will be coming back soon. There's no reaching those folks. They will die just as they are.

My take:
I think a lot of LIVs and people isolated in rural communities are in a bubble influenced by conservative propaganda. Prick that bubble, and they can be influenced. Many have never heard that Fox is owned by a rightwing billionaire who thinks they are suckers and wants to screw them.
The hard part is reaching into the bubble. Phone calls and texts and canvassing and bumper stickers can do that.




edit: and yes of course these are just estimates.

As Barett Bonden would say to Lucky Jack: "It won't answer, sir." We got the numbers. We won the popular vote and this shitshow only distills to the true believers..it doesn't gain or persuade anyone new...we got the numbers, go vote and go forward with confidence.

. . . winning anything.

Only Fox showed the whole thing.

All other networks focused an the batshit crazy stuff. And most covered his racist tirade against King James pretty well.

We are not winning over his base. If the majority votes he will lose as will his racist followers.

His "stories" can be found in the "Fiction" section.

It is pure deceit.

What are they so afraid of? He couldn't be any more damning of them and their profession than he has been for 18 months. I don't get it.

Controversy equals ratings. If everyone is left on the same page that our President is a criminal shithead bastard traitor, the rubes of America will tune out entirely, and there will be that fewer amount of reverse mortgages and pharmaceuticals sold.

It's the same reason James Bond doesn't kill the villain halfway into the movie.

He's been one of his harshest critics. But the fact-checking isn't working when it comes to about 40 percent of the country. Analyzing drumpf's ability as a con man to tell a story is one way ot fight back against him. Unless you understand what he's doing, you can't fight it effectively.

Here's a snippet from the end of the article:
"There's Trump ... and his favorite talk shows ... and his favorite authors ... and the fans who come up with the conspiracy theories ... all of the Twitter bots and trolls that promote it ... and the politicians who play along ... all amounting to a well-constructed reality that bears almost no resemblance to news reportage.

In the same way that Disney fans fly to Florida, in the same way that comic book fans argue on internet forums, Trump loyalists flock to his rallies. They are not representative of the public at large, but they do represent something powerful. They are motivated to defend him.

And they're motivated to keep telling his story."

There has never been a virus like drumpf and in order to fight it we have to come up with new ways in journalism. I would bet that is Stelter's next take on the situation.

"Make America White Again"

It has nothing to do with Trump being a great storyteller or any of that horseshit - even the crowds at his rallies noticeably zone out during his inane ramblings. He's literally the worst orator in the history of American politics, a human punchline. They put up with lies, the embarrassing tweets, and even the Putin ass-kissing for one reason and one reason only: Make America White Again.

Many of his supporters have even flat-out said they don't care if he conspired with Russia. They don't care if he's a traitor, they don't care if he's a criminal, they don't even care that they look like massive unpatriotic hypocrites by supporting this man. Trump is going to ban the Muslims, deport the Mexicans, bring law and order to the inner cities, and force black athletes to bow down to the MAGAts. Whites first. That's ALL that matters to the fucking deplorables. Let no one tell you different.

You haven't been paying attention if you can't recognize this is a cult. And if you think they are all bored, then you haven't been watching the rallies.

It's simplistic to just say it's only about race. The example of them being ok with conspiring with Russia proves that it is a cult of personality, not that it's only about race. Yes, most of them are racists and that drives a lot of their thinking. But he uses race to con them, not the other way around. His a vile POS who has been conning people for his whole life. It's a horrible skill to have, like being a good murderder. But he has it whether people want to admit it or not.

The crowd almost always zones out during his incoherent rants. Trump is a HORRENDOUS public speaker. Only when he blows the dog whistles do the MAGAts roar with approval.

Cult of personality, you say? Meh. Trump has a horrible personality, he comes off as the dumbest person in the room ALWAYS, and as I said, he's a putrid orator. He's an obvious phony. Take away the racist bullshit and replace it with Chris Christie's platform and Trump is literally the first candidate eliminated. The racism is the glue that holds this shitshow together.

If you think that simple appeals to racial/religious/ethnic purity aren't enough to win over large segments of the population, it is YOU who haven't been paying attention... to history.

Hitler looks like a joke, as does Mussolini when we watch their rallies, as do evangelical preachers. But they know how to con people. Both Hitler and Mussolini took over countries with cultural histories dating back thousands of years. Why? Because they took advantage of upheavel and blamed others. Anti-semitism had a long history in Europe but Hitler used that to win over a country. Racism has a long history here an drumpf is using it and he knows how to do it. That's all the article is saying and why you get so upset with that fact is weird.

Because you think he is a horrible speaker is beside the point. His storytelling - which is the point of the article - is a key reason why people follow him. These are ignorant people, just like the followers of an TV evangelist. You want to make it all about racism, which I know is a simplistic and easy answer, but history isn't one convenient answer. You have it backwards on who is using who and any historian would tell you that.

I would add that your example of when they get the most exicted at his rallies is the dog whistles, which you seem to think are only the racist ones, then why do they cheer so loud when he rips Hillary and other white people? Sorry your own examples here don't prove your point.

Happy?

But people often misrepresent when their arguments fail.

You won't get it but the article states, and I think it is quite obvious, that drumpf is a really good con man, just as Hitler was. That is his one talent and it doesn't take a 4-D chess player to get it. There are mass psychology tecnniques that they learn and use for their benefit and to the detriment to their own people and certainly to democracies.

As I wrote in another post, I recommend Hannah Arendt to anyone who wants to understand the rise of dictators. Racism,anti-Semitism, whatever is a tool and in the end, they don't matter to the autocrat. Here is a quote from her book:

"Totalitarian politics—far from being simply antisemitic or racist or imperialist or communist—use and abuse their own ideological and political elements until the basis of factual reality, from which the ideologies originally derived their strength and their propaganda value—the reality of class struggle, for instance, or the interest conflicts between Jews and their neighbors—have all but disappeared.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

that read "I'd rather be Russian than a Democrat"? These men probably consider themselves true blue American patriots. Yet there they were, flat-out admitting that they're totally OK with Trump conspiring with Russia to interfere with our elections. They're also admitting they don't believe Trump's denials.

They're not brainwashed, they just don't give a shit. Trump is there guy. Why?

"Make America White Again"

What he does or says because that is what cult members do. Read up on what happened in Italy or Germany. Racism and fear of the other didn't create Hitler and Mussolini. They took advantage of it during times of upheavel. You've got the paradigm backwards, as any historian would tell you.

Unflinchingly.

Stating an opinion as fact does not make it so.

Hannah Arendt is considered the greatest historian when it comes to the rise of fascism and totalitarianism. I highly recommend her book The Origins of TYotalitarianism to you.

Here's a quote concenring your belief in the one explanation theory of history:
"Totalitarian politics—far from being simply antisemitic or racist or imperialist or communist—use and abuse their own ideological and political elements until the basis of factual reality, from which the ideologies originally derived their strength and their propaganda value—the reality of class struggle, for instance, or the interest conflicts between Jews and their neighbors—have all but disappeared.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

... who switches to crashing red vans when bad news about Red Don comes on

When more indictments of Trumpy’s inner circle are issued, in conjunction with guilty convictions of Manafort. Fantasy can carry the base only so far. Trumpy can sell an illusion; he can’t and won’t sell psychosis. Reality bites. Manafort’s trial can be framed as an anomaly. When Kushner and Junior are indicted and the evidence comes to light, the illusion ends.

Cult leaders are charming and persuasive. They can be excellent storytellers captivating people in the show that they put on. They use language effortlessly to convince and confuse as well as to combat any criticism.

Sociopaths lie as easily as they breathe! When confronted with their lies they may simply change the story to try and fit in. There is never any guilt or embarrassment. Truth for them is whatever works in the moment. If a lie helps to convince or manipulate somebody, that's what they do. This is almost incomprehensible to somebody with a conscience, so what happens is that the victims rationalize and justify away the inconsistencies in the cult leader, "What my leader did hurt me, but there must be a good reason for it…" Not having a conscience, never feeling guilt or remorse, means that cult leaders can typically do whatever they like.

from:
https://www.decision-making-confidence.com/characteristics-of-a-sociopath.html

Think of any great moment in history. The Lincoln-Douglas debates for example. I can't quote one line from that debate. Can you? And by modern standards, it was too long and boring. But we all know the story. Lincoln made a great performance and went on to become President and save the Union.

The Civil Rights Movement. Alright, most of us can name some lines from the speeches. But mostly it's a story that starts with a woman who won't give up her seat on a bus, crescendos with a giant march and an epic political battle in the Senate, and ends sadly with the hero being assassinated.

So the answer is to tell a better story. And we are telling it. This story starts on January 21, 2017, with the largest march in American history. It's heros are ordinary people who decided to run for office and donate time and money to build a new movement. People who are organizing the country to fight evil like a besieged town organizing to fight an attacking army. We know the story is getting good because even more people marched on January 20, 2018. And it's full of great surprises, like underdog candidates winning elections.

No, I will not tell you how it ends, even if I knew. Because that would just spoil the plot.

and now he's got thousands of airports, schools, roads and buildings named after him.

The Democrats generally have had a hard time realizing that they have to tell stories to the masses of voters, not depend on voters to be educated, thoughtful, or pragmatic. An inordinate number of people are dragged around by their emotions each and every day -- Dems have to figure out which stories will do the dragging for them.

David Leonhardt (NYT) ‘Trump wants a monopoly on information, and he attacks anyone who threatens that monopoly.’

In Red Don's world, CNN is fake news so he must actually be losing the story telling game...

He's looking for outrage and clicks. I retweeted him, but in a derogatory way. He's looking for clicks at our expense.

Edit to add: the thumbs down is for Stelter, not the OP!

I can hardly wait when His Orange Majesty is run out of office, and the entire Republican party tries to paint him as a low-level coffee boy that everyone barely knew.

there are one hell of a lot of dumber than dumb 'merkans!

operating assumption. It should become the Democrats' operating assumption.

I keep thinking that if some of the giants were in their prime they would have no trouble defining Trump daily in devastating fashion. Someone like Oprah or Jon Stewart.

But viewership is down anyway so all the variables play in favor of Trump. He can tell lies in the spotlight every day and have it spread via social media among his devotees, and anyone denouncing him has a fragmented audience here and fragmented audience there.

More organizations need to stand up as a block, like the Parkland kids have done, and many in the NBA.

CNN is an amazing truth-defining resource right now, although acceptance of that on this site has been ridiculously slow.

Trump is better at telling a story, and he's better by far at branding. We have to figure out how to fight him, and it's not by taking up an unpopular label and trying to change the minds of hundreds of millions of people about what it means.

We need to face up to pragmatic realities. Learn the history lessons of BS/AOC type problems.

in the German media before it got ugly.

Only the hillbilly morons that are his "base".

ones buying that shite are in his Cult45.

Did the genius even think about that?

I read one sentence that was enough.. is that Brian Stelter we're talking about? How gd dumb do you have to be to write this BULLSHIT?

even if his base are the only ones buying his BS, the fact whatever he says or tweets that day drives the media coverage for the next day or two and Democratic responses barely get any notice. How often on here do we see people whining that the Democrats never respond, but you will see responses from leading Democrats (Pelosi, Schumer, etc) that are pretty forceful. However, beyond Twitter and other social media, it almost never gets further than that because the media are too busy covering Trump. The main anti Trump messages that get media coverage are from Republicans and former Republicans that don't like Trump - Rick Wilson, Ana Navarro, Jennifer Rubin, Steve Schmidt, etc.

Fuck CNN

People who don't get demoralized after reading an opinion piece on a news site.

DU is a big place and there are many groups discussing a wide variety of subjects.

Here are just a few that may be of interest to you:

Birders

Cooking


TV Chat

Pets

Everybody needs a break now and then and all of us are either expendable or replaceable as, truth be told, we, as an individual, aren't that important.

LIEING! trump is such a disgusting human being. Absolute, complete embarassent to our nation.

that the MSM is helping Trump spread his BS far and wide.

and the truth really isn't reported on until later when only a few are paying attention.

It just can't.