The brute fact is you can’t beat passion with pragmatism. The human heart is not built that way. You can’t beat angry passion with bloodless calculation. If you’re going to have any chance against these hotheads, you have to set a rival and stronger emotional tone. I’d ask you to think of the ancient ideal of comradeship.
.. Sanders and Trump try to put the blame for this disaster on discrete groups of people — Wall Street or immigrants. But in reality it’s a natural disaster caused by structural forces — globalization, technological change, the dissolution of the family, racism.
.. You may think of neighborliness as a sentimental, soft virtue. And I suppose in times of peace, prosperity and ease it is a sweet and tender thing.
But look at what happens to neighbors when one friend is threatened or when times are hard. Then neighborliness takes on a different hue. Friends become comrades in arms.
.. Let them assert that all our problems can be solved if other people sacrifice — the immigrants or the top 1 percent. You call for shared sacrifice. The rich can give more in taxes, but the rich, the middle class and the poor can all give more in civic engagement.
.. Sanders and Trump have adopted emotional tones that are going to offend and exhaust people over time. Watching the G.O.P. South Carolina debate I got the impression that Trump’s exhaustion moment is at hand.
Donald Trump Escalates Rhetoric Before South Carolina Primary
“Overwhelmingly, most Republicans disagree with his criticisms of George W. Bush, but most Republicans also don’t want to debate” Mr. Bush’s legacy, said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who was a top adviser to Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign.
Most people share Mr. Trump’s view that the war was a mistake, Mr. Schmidt added, and in a state heavy with military members, many families have grown weary of repeated deployments.
.. But when he had a dust-up with Mr. Bush during the final debate in New Hampshire and the audience booed Mr. Trump, he made the most of it, saying they were against him because they were major donors and he could not be controlled.
He has since used that line repeatedly on the campaign trail, even singling out Mr. Bush’s finance chairman, the billionaire Woody Johnson, as an example of the type of donor who is working against Mr. Trump — never mind that Mr. Trump and Mr. Johnson are actually friends.
.. That coarsening of the language in the campaign, Mr. Schmidt argued, reflects the toxic culture of social media, and such behavior is no longer considered as much of a risk.
.. “Accusing President Bush of lying about the war adds to the hard cap of Trump’s ceiling,” said Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican strategist and a supporter of Jeb Bush. “But I don’t think it matters until this is a two-man or three-man race.”
Five Big Questions After the Harshest G.O.P. Debate Yet
Voters haven’t flocked to him because they’re deeply familiar with, or woefully ignorant about, his political history. They’re responding to him in a larger and more visceral way: as the megaphone for their disgust with the status quo and frustration with America’s trajectory. They thrill to his braggadocio, and he gave them more of it on Saturday night. They look to him precisely for bad behavior. On this front, too, he didn’t disappoint.
.. Rubio lined up with him: “I thank God all the time it was George W. Bush in the White House on 9/11 and not Al Gore.”
Attacks on Trump just make these voters like him more
To Luntz’s amazement, hearing negative information about the candidate made the voters, only a few of whom gave their full names to the press, hug the candidate tighter.
.. Participants derided the mainstream media, accusing reporters of covering snippets of Trump quotes when the full context would have validated him. They cited news sources they trusted — Breitbart News was one example — to refute what they were being told.
.. “You know what Trump does?” said Teresa Collier, a 65-year-old retiree. “He says something completely crazy, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!’ Then he dials back and starts explaining it and saying how he’d do it, and it makes sense.”
.. When Luntz asked participants to sum him up in a word or phrase, “socialist” and “Jimmy Carter” tumbled forth until one man raised the ante.
“I wouldn’t urinate on him if he was on fire,” he said.
“That’s the meanest thing I’ve ever heard,” Luntz said
.. “When you bend down to the Saudis, take your shoes off, put your hand on a Koran and then the Bible when you’re sworn in?” Lanzillo said. “He took his flag pin off. I’m a Marine and former deputy sheriff. He took that off, he was in the toilet to me. I would not only not piss on him if he was on fire — I’d throw gas on him.”