Just saw some videos of Trump promising to "drain the swamp"... and it just hit me...

[Goodheart]

I never noticed this before.... he doesn't actually know what "draining the swamp" is SUPPOSED to mean metaphorically.

Instead of getting rid of people who don't play by the rules he thinks that "draining the swamp" means getting rid of the rules so that they can't be broken.

So, there now appears to me to have been a massive disconnect between him and his millions of voters. They thought he was campaigning against the evils of corruption when he was actually campaigning to end the technicalities of corruption to allow more evils. And I'm not sure he was actually deliberately deceiving them.

[Angry Dragon]

1. A different way of looking at it

[cos dem]

2. More likely he was just saying shit because he loves the sound of his own voice.

I don't think he thinks about anything.

[marylandblue]

3. I don't know about that

I think he and his followers thought it meant getting rid of government employees. One of the first things he did was freeze hiring, and then he tried, and is still trying, to make big cuts in spending. Also he hasn't filled a lot of political positions and says he doesn't need to.

[Goodheart]

5. Under the premise that government employees are corrupt by definition, is my take.

[marylandblue]

6. That's been the Republican Party mantra for 40 years.

[BigmanPigman]

9. That is a long period...why haven't people realized this?

Oh yeah, I forgot Fux Ruse.

[IluvPitties]

4. Bannon tested the phrase and told him to say it.

Deplorables ate it up.

[EleanorR]

7. Yep, Bannon and Cambridge Analytica came up with it before trump was even a candidate

Trump was fed the line and kept saying it because it got him applause. He didn't a shit what it meant as long as it got him positive attention.

As far as dumping government employees, that's what fascists do, they get rid of all but the most loyal sycophants.

[3catwoman3]

8. He wanted to drain the so-called...

...swamp in order to get to the really nasty, malodorous, decaying ooze at the bottom - that's shere he found his cabinet members and advisors.

[tanyev]

10. It was more of a swamp remodeling project.