[FRIAM] FW: trump/Ford

Wed Feb 22 19:15:00 EST 2017

Hi, everybody, 

Here is the second shoe.  I asked Jonathan to comment on trump on the basis
of his experience with the Mayor of Toronto, a man named Ford, who managed
to get himself reelected despite the fact that it was pretty clear he was a
coke head . and a fool.  I asked him how was that possible and how do we
fight it. 

See below.  I particularly urge you to "stay for " the newspaper article at
the end.  Both Jon's letter and that article provide ground truth about the
difficulties of extracting oneself from such a regime, once it has been
stabled. 

Nick 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

 <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/>
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Jonathan Barker [mailto:jsheddbarker at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2017 8:30 PM
To: Nick Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: trump/Ford

The appeal to the anger of those who feel sidelined and ignored is is
similar. They both attacked "the gravy train." They both had great need for
popular approval and held the aim of limiting government and taxes. Ford in
office was undisciplined and not very effective. He did not systematically
attack all city services, but did cut their funding. He had links with shady
operators, attacked the media, cared nothing for facts, stuck to a simple
message. And his supporters stuck with him despite all the criticism and
investigative reporting. Ford had a genuine affection for regular people,
answered their calls, and even went to their houses to look after complaints
about city services. He also had serious addictions to alcohol and other
drugs.  

Opposing him had some similarities to opposing Trump. He did not have firm
control of city council and the city is highly dependent on the province.
There was room to stymie some of his efforts.  And after he admitted to
substance abuse most power was stripped from his office. (There was no
provision for removing him from office.) To get him out of power, like for
Trump, required grass roots action: organize and get out the vote. But city
politics has no organized parties in Toronto which means there were no party
organizations to mobilize or to pry supporters from. The seeming futility of
well-informed reporting and opposition arguments seems similar in the two
cases. In his second election Ford might well have won because the non-Ford
vote was split between two strong candidates, but cancer sidelined Ford
before election day.

Lessons: Use all available institutional weapons and reach into the places
supporting Trump to organize and activate and inform the many people there
who oppose him. The key problem is addressing the issues in the Trump voters
minds in a convincing way. There are many strands here to think through.
What can government and citizens do to reduce inequality and reverse the
cultural and physical separation of class and identity groups? How to
rehabilitate the reputation of government as a problem solver? And serous
media as sources of true information? What groups and places to target
first? 

Daniel Dale covered Ford and then Trump for the Toronto Star. Here are his
thoughts about similarities and differences from an interview after the
Republican convention.

The nuclear codes are a worry...

Jonathan

=====================

Daniel Dale
<https://twitter.com/ddale8?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5E
author>  on Donald Trump and Rob Ford

Towards the beginning of Trump's campaign, a lot of people drew connections
between his political rhetoric and rise in popularity and that of Rob Ford.
What's diverged since - or only gotten bizarrely more similar?

A very big difference is that Ford managed to stay on his best behaviour
during his first campaign, in which he managed to convince people he wasn't
quite the erratic, angry, scary man that people had said he was. Trump just
doesn't care. His behaviour has only gotten more concerning to a lot of
people, but he's unwilling to modify it.

Another is that [Trump] has explicitly used racial or ethnic division in an
attempt to fuel his popularity with a small segment of the population. Ford
may have benefited from the homophobia of the part of the electorate who
didn't like George Smitherman [in 2010], or from blurting out in debates
where he didn't want immigrants coming to the city. But that type of
fear-based appeal wasn't something that he did.

Early in the campaign there were eerie similarities. But the more it's
continued, the more they've diverged. Trump has gone beyond.

I think it's hard in general to compare a Canadian municipal campaign to a
U.S. presidential one. But what we saw in Trump's very dark, angry,
fear-mongering speech at the Republican convention last week is nothing like
what we saw from Ford. Trump is trying to make crime and law and order
central to his campaign. That's something that's more often central to
municipal campaigns, but it's not something Ford talked about. Even in his
fierce criticism of government, his message was practical: "I am a fixer. I
will be more responsive to you than this current government."

If anything, that's the parallel. When Trump said, "I am your voice, and you
have been forgotten by elites who look after their own interests. I will be
your champion." That's what Rob Ford did: Instead of Miller, this
Harvard-educated lawyer who goes on about bike lanes, I will champion what
you want me to champion.

What are some examples of these parallels or divergences you've seen in the
last week during the Republican National Convention?

The most reminiscent to me during the convention was the way Trump and his
campaign responded to the Melania plagiarism problem. It was so obvious that
words had been copied. Political advisors spent days screaming the obvious
thing: You acknowledge the issue, apologize and move on. But they denied,
and said, "No, nothing's wrong here, it's just the media making things up."
I think at one point his spokesperson said something along the lines of
Michelle Obama thinks she invented the English language
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/288316-trump-aide-co
ncept-that-michelle-obama-invented-the> .

Finally, after dragging the news cycle on longer, they finally admitted an
error. It was so Ford-like to me. It was this perpetual unwillingness to
concede anything, and turning yourself into the victim of your own error.
[from
http://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/shared-values/rob-ford-donald-trump-a
nd-the-future-of-politics].

===============

On 2/16/2017 11:48 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:

Wondering, to what extent your experience with Mayor Ford is a model for our
experience with President Trump.

Absent, nuclear codes, of course. 

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
<http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/> 

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