Trump goes for the jugular then backs off

Here’s where the Trump adherents will string me up, though it’s a tactic constantly used by liberals and fence-sitting moderates, which is why people who call themselves conservatives participating in this approach is so disconcerting. It was an American advertising executive who first employed the concept that the German propaganda minister usurped in the 1930s, for it works. That is, paraphrased from Joseph Göebbels, “repeat a lie often enough, it becomes truth.” What we are actually talking about here is rumor mongering. It was the astute use of the media to institutionalize rumors that there was some kind of racial component that elevated most Germans above others, particularly Jews. It was labeled ‘Aryan,’ which was misapplied from the beginning. Anyone who has studied who the true Aryans were would know that they wrote and spoke Sanskrit, the oldest known script, which is still used by Aryan descendants – the Indian people on the Asian subcontinent. This illustration is the basis of exactly how distorted facts can evolve into a false “truth” all its own. Trump has mastered this device, and what he has added to it is the further tactic of presenting rumor as fact to thousands attending his rallies, citizens who are hungry for solutions to this administration’s wrongheadedness. The unflattering term for it is rabble-rousing. The difference being that many who support Trump aren’t rabble, though a number in his camp have raised cries that have taken on the color of mob rage. It is a mirror of what progressives have been instituting for a century.

Trump followers hoist the banner and go after the other candidate, often with a viciousness that is a liberal hallmark

Here’s the system… Trump appears at a rally before 20,000 or more people and vociferously accuses one or other of his opponents with loose allegations or personal attacks on character, faith or appearance. Check the youtube archives and you’ll find examples of every one of these – Dr. Ben Carson for his salvation testimony, Carly Fiorina for her facial features, Jeb Bush for his energy level, Ted Cruz for having been born in Canada… take your pick. There’s something for everyone and each time, Trump followers hoist the banner and go after the other candidate, often with a viciousness that is a liberal hallmark. After making defamatory remarks from the podium, the next day or so Trump will come out with conciliatory comments. Such as today’s turnaround stating that he’s moving on from rancorous accusations that the Cruz campaign intentionally attempted to defraud Dr. Carson of voters in Iowa. What purpose does that serve after letting the bull out of its pen? The damage is done. Trump knows full well that his more rapacious supporters will not let anything go, but will continue the attack against Cruz, rightly or wrongly, when the whole incident is traced back to imprudent and ill-couched information released from the Carson campaign. No apology will be forthcoming from any quarter in the Trump operation, nor will the Carson media staff own up to misleading language that, frankly, instigated the misinterpreted CNN report in the first place. There’s plenty of blame to go around. Trump laid the groundwork for his supporters to keep up the harangue even after he says he’s magnanimously ‘letting it go.’ Fueling a rumor mill is the worst kind of manipulation of dedicated followers. Trump's playbook is to start the ball rolling then stand back, throwing up his hands and acting like he had nothing to do with what he’s loosed against anyone standing in his way.