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Ezra Klein writes that there are two Trump presidencies. "One of them is the official presidency of Donald Trump, leader of the Republican Party, driver of the legislative agenda, head of the executive branch. A year in, that presidency looks surprisingly normal." After some elaboration on that, including the lack of much accomplishment, Klein writes:
"But there is another Trump presidency -- that of Donald J. Trump, reality television star and international brand. This is the presidency that I suspect matters more to Trump himself . . . for which the measures of achievement aren't bills passed or jobs created but headlines grabbed and mindshare held.
"This is the presidency that, for all its collateral damage, is succeeding beyond Trump's wildest dreams. This is the presidency that few have figured out how to resist."
Klein then explains "the law by which Trump lives his life. Attention creates value, at least for him. Before Trump, every politician hewed to the same basic rule: You want as much positive coverage, and as little negative coverage, as possible. Trump upended that.
"His rule, his realization, is that you want as much coverage as possible, full stop. If it's positive coverage, great. If it's negative coverage, so be it. That point is that it's coverage -- that you're the story, that you're squeezing out your competitors, that you're on people's minds."
Klein shows how the media plays into this. "It's easier to get bad press than good press." Remember the old line that they don't cover the planes that land safely.
"Trump dominates news cycle after news cycle by crashing planes into Twitter. He is everywhere, seemingly all the time. He says things no national politician in history would have dared say, things that the press covers because they are outrageous . . . Trump is demanding and receiving our attention, crowding out everything else, accepting that it's better to be hated than to be ignored."
In response to the occasional proposal that the media should just ignore him, Klein counters: "But Trump controls the nuclear arsenal. His tweets are considered official statements by the president of the United States. . . . These are words that start wars, that drive deportations, that set policy, . . . that represent our country. . . . As much as Trump might treat his presidency like a reality show, it remains a presidency, and lives are in the balance.
"Yet in owning our attention . . . and in doing so by generating constant negative attention, cultural conflict, and emotional alarm, Trump makes us a little more like him, and politics a little more like the tribal clash he says it is. . . .
"Trump drives his opponents to respond in kind, to adopt just a little more of his tone and language and pitch. . . . America ends up having fights Trump wants us to have. . . .
"As this analysis from Echelon Insights shows, Trump dominated the national conversation on almost every day of 2017, and that was true no matter whether you looked at liberals or conservatives or political elites or everyone. The mindshare he occupies, the energy he consumes, is vast. . ."
Klein continues: "I say none of this from atop a soapbox. I am as guilty of it as anyone . . . . I find it hard to tear myself away from his daily outrages, even when I know they're less important than other things I could cover. I find it hard not to respond to him in kind, not to let his language, his energy, his approach, infect mine.
"But there is a cost to this. . . . [and here Klein discusses at length the political costs in zero-sum tribal warfare; the social and psychological costs in keeping our public discourse at such a fever pitch for four years; and the opportunity costs -- all the other conversations we could be having about building a better future for our country.]
Then Klein concludes: "This is, I think, Trump's true purpose in public life: to have everyone talking about him, looking at him, reacting to him. He cares more about his coverage than his impact; he is much more committed to what's said about him on Fox and Friends than what's written about him in history books. Trump's Reality Show White House has been an unstoppable force, dominating our attention, coarsening our politics, making us angrier and more afraid and more distant from each other. In this, he's succeeding -- winning, even."
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Klein's comments about finding it difficult to resist being drawn to respond to Trump is exactly my dilemma is writing ShrinkRap. From time to time, I make an effort to NOT write about Trump for a few days. But it's hard to sustain.
With him, I'm constantly feeling outrage fatigue -- I'm just tired of having a president to be embarrassed by, appalled at, and in such opposition to. One small consolation: Ezra Klein and Vox.com are pretty good company to be in misery with. And the Trump presidency will end, sooner or later, one way or another. Just think: it could be sooner and more judicial than electoral.
Ralph
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