To understand this we have to look at the world the way that Donald Trump and Putin see the world; in the negative. Their power comes from two places. First there is what they say has happened. Appending reasons and explanations to things that have happened that either are not true or could not be proven is the source of their influence. In this respect, time is their friend. President Obama is a secret Muslim? He was not born in this country? No, he is not and yes he was. Still enough time has passed that he can say that he never said that or that Hillary Clinton started the rumors or whatever without ever taking responsibility for what part he has had in it. As a function of time if he waits long enough or talks long enough, whatever he says is true or at least cannot be proven wrong especially to anyone who does not want to believe he is wrong.Second, there is the more powerful aspect of what he says will happen. Here, their power is in the ability to say things could have happened or would have happened if they were in charge. This is the more powerful aspect of their influence yet it is the finest line they can walk. During the campaign, Trump painted a picture of chaos and the apocalypse if Hillary Clinton won and people were willing to believe it. He walked a fine line of having people scared enough to believe these things would happen yet not so much that they would actually elect him to solve those problems if he was actually elected.
Vladimir Putin did have a hand in hacking the election and was going to try harder. I have a theory and this is just a theory, that this was to be a dry run. The 2016 election was supposed to just be a pass at hacking to find weaknesses in the system and harrow Hillary Clinton on her way to a narrow victory. I think the real "attack" would have come in 2020 when Hillary Clinton, fresh off of three years of a hard first term would run for re-election against a more qualified Republican candidate than Trump. Then would be the hardest hack plans aided by an internal ally, Donald Trump.
Somewhere, in an alternate universe, Donald Trump lost that election. In that alternate universe he is happy as can be because he lives in the negative. Imagine an existence where Donald Trump is doing what he has always wanted to do; be in the public eye and catering to a demographic that is his base now; the "deplorables" without the responsibility of having to actually do anything.
If Trump had lost right about now he would likely still be on a whirlwind tour throughout the U.S. speaking to packed stadiums full of hardcore right wingers who swear he DID win and that Hillary Clinton stole the election somehow. "Rigged" would be on t-shirts all over the country. Every thing that Hillary Clinton did as president would be parsed and debated through his twitter account and his emerging television station and that old standby, Fox News. He could rant daily and talk about how she should be arrested and how she is an embarrassment to the U.S. all day, every day, from the safety and comfort of one of his ever packed properties.
Trump has even been tweeting on a regular basis lately that Jeff Sessions should be investigating Hillary Clinton and that she has gotten away with something.
If anyone said anything about his shady business dealings, he could chalk it up to political retaliation and somehow it would be Hillary Clinton abusing her power. He and Putin could hang out as much as they wanted and plan for 2020 with Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, or whomever by the poolside.
In the alternate time line, Donald Trump is suing Hillary Clinton and the Clinton campaign, railing on President Obama and more, all because he can and it would build his ratings and his empire.
Instead, he won. He is in an awkward position because now he has to make good on all the promises and we are seeing that he simply cannot do it. He promised a better health plan that is not happening. He promised a huge wall and while a wall is forthcoming, it is nowhere near what he promised. He promised that ISIS would be ended in 30 days... nope. He has been nothing but an embarrassment since day one and now he cannot work in the negative. He can say that it is the media. He can say it is the obstructionist Democrats, but it is not. At a certain point, he is no longer going to be allowed to work in the negative and is going to have to own what says.
The irony is that now Hillary Clinton can now work in the negative. That is not to say that she should "go low" but she, based on this relatively new way of looking at things, can make a good case for how things would be totally different if she had won. There are debates about whether or not she made the right decisions while running and how those decisions led to her loss, but soon, those too will go away. She is free to make speeches or not. She is free to attack the Trump administration (goodness knows he is presenting a large enough target) and go hiking in the woods on the weekends. She owes no one, anything. The same is true for President Obama. It must all be so liberating for them. For Trump though? Not so much.
In this time line Trump and Putin are under tremendous scrutiny. They are the ones being watched and investigated, as well as their family and their businesses. Rachel Maddow and MSNBC now have higher ratings than FOX.
I am going to keep writing about this phenomenon in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of it and what is happening to our country. We are seeing that people are leaving things at the water's edge when maybe we should be taking a deeper dive.
Follow on Twitter at @writlargepdcst
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