Campaign 2016: Tone, Tenor and Trump

Commentary

Donald Trump photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

Which presidential candidate set the tone for the 2016 campaign? That’s easy — the one with the most money.
When Donald John Trump announced his bid for the presidency on June 16, 2016, he did so with the sort of grandiosity Americans had come to expect from the multibillionaire — even going so far as to brag about his net worth being more than $8 billion.

Americans saw from the outset that Trump, the erstwhile host of the popular television program “The Apprentice,” was a different kind of candidate. He’s refreshing to some and revolting to others, but what we could not have anticipated was just how much Trump’s iconoclastic bombast would shape the terrain of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Attacking the media and drawing blood

Politicians don’t always care much for the media; recall how Richard Nixon’s vice president Spiro T. Agnew characterized the press as “nattering nabobs of negativism” in 1970. But when Trump blasted Megyn Kelly of Fox News following a Republican presidential debate in August 2015, he didn’t bother with clever alliteration, saying that she was a “lightweight” who had “blood coming out of her wherever” when she was asking questions about his treatment of women during the debate. He also said that he had no respect for her and that she was highly overrated.

Many veteran political pundits thought this would spell the end of Trump’s unorthodox campaign, but that’s not what happened. He continued saying things that would have doomed politicians in past election cycles, and rather than dismissing him en masse, a large percentage of Americans took his in-your-face bravado as a powerful dismissal of what they see as the political correctness undermining American values.

Little Marco, Lyin’ Ted and Low-Energy Jeb

Political nicknames are nothing new. From Old Hickory (Andrew Jackson) to Tricky Dick (Richard Nixon) and Slick Willie (Bill Clinton) and more, voters have heard plenty of variations on candidates’ names. But rarely has a candidate been so eager to tag his opponents with nicknames that hang around their necks like heavy placards dragging them down every step of the way.

During the primary season, Trump routinely dismissed what his opponents had to say by giving them unflattering monikers. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio became “Little Marco.” Say the words “Lyin’ Ted” and political-minded Americans will immediately think of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. And whenever someone talks about being “low energy,” don’t be surprised if the name of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush finds its way into the conversation.
Trump’s penchant for nicknaming his political opponents helped him clear the GOP field and win the party’s nomination in Cleveland. It remains to be seen, however, if his moniker for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — “Crooked Hillary” — will prove as effective as the names he gave his primary opponents.

“When they go low, we go high”

Prior to announcing his presidential bid, Trump kept a high political profile by repeatedly questioning the legitimacy of President Barack Obama and demanding to see the 44th president’s birth certificate, insinuating that he was not born in Hawaii. If Obama was, in fact, born in Kenya or another foreign country, he would not be eligible to serve as president.

Obama eventually produced his birth certificate in— he was born Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu — and now Trump refuses to talk about the issue (non-issue?) of where Obama was born. But that doesn’t mean the president or his supporters, including the first lady, have forgotten Trump’s birther shenanigans. Without mentioning Trump by name, first lady Michelle Obama offered what may well be the most effective strategy against Trump’s mudslinging: “When they go low, we go high.”

In one sense, the Democrats have already won

Hillary Clinton will, of course, mix it up with Trump when the situation calls for it, and she has plenty of surrogates ready to go to bat for her in the verbal back-and-forth in the months ahead. But when Michelle Obama gave her powerful speech at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, she politely but firmly served notice to Trump that while he was welcome to continue with his Don Rickles-style approach to campaigning, his insult-a-minute rhetoric wasn’t going to fly with a large percentage of the electorate. In one sense, the Democrats have already won by refusing to engage in the playground insult game with Trump.

Now it’s up to the voters to decide if the qualities Trump has thus far embodied as a candidate are what America wants in its president. Admittedly, the alternative is not exactly perfect, but with the first lady’s adroit help, Hillary Clinton has already managed to make this election a referendum on Trump and his suitability for the presidency. By doing that, the Democrats have already successfully managed to accomplish what 16 other Republican presidential candidates could not.