It was infuriating, insulting, ludicrous, laughable, and clownish, and horrifically scary but it's maddeningly effective. The "it" was Trump's line in a talk to a bunch of striking UAW workers in Ohio, "The damn things don't go far enough and they're too expensive." He was talking about EVs.
Now here's Trump's "genius" and "secret" if one can call it that. He has ground into his delivery what every dictator, demagogue, and autocrat throughout history has known. To borrow former President Harry Truman's famed characterization of speaking to the masses --"plain speaking."
Talk to them as if you're talking to a third grader. No facts, no logic, no reason, and God forbid no thought. Give them a simple pablum. Take his statement about EVs. It's textbook. EVs do work. They are mechanically sound and efficient. The batteries and charging have vastly improved their performance. As more models come on the market, prices have invariably slid down. Many are cost effective.
But facts be damned with autocrat Trump. Keep it simple, simplistic, and downright dumb, but this taps a nerve, fear, dislike, popular belief, or more likely bias and the yokels will eat it up.
The man who Trump more than once has been not unfavorably compared too in style and approach to whipping up a wide swath of the masses had this to say about how to rev up a multitude, "For the great majority of a nation thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than sober reasoning." Trump did not read this admonition by Hitler in his Mein Kampf. Here Hitler recognized a fatal truism about what moves millions. But then again, Trump didn't have too. He instinctively practices it with every sentence to a swooning crowd. The proof again was his astoundingly pithy line to the autoworkers about EVs. They cheered wildly. This is why again despite all odds he may win.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He also is the host of the weekly Earl Ofari Hutchinson Show at 9 a.m. Saturday on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network. He is the publisher of thehutchinsonreport.net
