Steve Schmidt Exposes Trump's Strategy To Break Your Will To Fight

[babylonsister]

https://www.politicususa.com/2018/08/09/steve-schmidt-exposes-trumps-strategy-to-break-your-will-to-fight.html

Posted on Thu, Aug 9th, 2018 by Jason Easley
Steve Schmidt Exposes Trump’s Strategy To Break Your Will To Fight
Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt broke down the motive behind Trump’s constant lying as he is trying to exhaust Democrats and break their will to fight him.

Video @ link:

Schmidt said on MSNBC:

Let’s talk about the political strategy here. It’s a desperate political strategy. When you look at the special election in Ohio, if it was president Marco Rubio, this Republican would have won by 15 points. But because it’s President Trump, the Republican barely beat a Democratic candidate. And so all of the signs point to a blue tsunami coming, but in a fight, there are only two ways to win. You can bring your opponent to submission. Think Germany and Japan after World War II. Or you can break their will to fight. Think of the United States in the Vietnam war. The strategy is fundamentally one about exhausting and wearing out the will to fight and resist of Democratic voters by inciting the base. Trump needs that base incited. He needs it to turn out to hold back as best as possible this blue wave is coming, and the degree to which they constantly lie, it’s disorienting.

People can’t get their heads around the facts because people aren’t used to responsible political leaders constantly lying to them. So when you talk to Democratic voters, you talk to Democrats, you talk to people who oppose Trump, one of the main features that they will tell you is how they are exhausted by all of it. And so exhaustion of your opponent becomes a fundamental strategic aim of the constant lying, the constant gaslighting, the constant scapegoating. While on the other hand, your inciting this base to turn out, because any diminution of Republican turnout is going to be fatal, and will simply increase the size of the majority. Of course, impeachment will polarize the electorate, but it will drive turnout favorably for deputies. It’s a very dangerous strategy for this president.

The lying is pathological, but it also an intentional strategy. Trump knows he’s outnumbered, and he is trying to wear his opposition down while rallying his base. The key that one should never forget is that Trump needs low turnout from his opponents. Trump can’t win in high turnout elections because of his own unpopularity, so that strategy that Schmidt was discussing is designed to accomplish two goals. Trump wants to lower Democratic turnout and make sure that his base shows up at the polls.

The election results since Trump took office have revealed that what the president is doing is increasing turnout among his opponents while discouraging Republicans from coming out to vote.

The tweets, the lies, and the nonsense that Trump spews are all designed to break your will. Use it as a motivator. Each time Trump lies, vow to show up at the polls and vote. The best way to beat Trump to allow his strategy to fuel your resolve and never diminish your commitment to taking your country back.

[Mr.Bill]

1. I was exhausted with Trump's bullshit

before 1980.

[Left-over]

53. Amen! I could never stand the arrogant bastard.

Keep on trucking orange as$hole. I get more energized the more you do.

[Mc Mike]

2. Good analysis by Mr. Schmidt.

That exhaustion comes from a constant psywar effort by the swine tRump repuglinazis.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

12. When the messenger is places like fox and is mechanized, it's three times as hard

bc you are fighting a repetitive machine that you think or feel is human. And they're not. Especially message/money bots, and trolls who work shifts in russia'r.
We have a good shot to beat them in 2018 and turn the ship around. Certainly feels all or nothing. We can do this thing. We out-voted them 2 to 1. That's huge in a primary.

[Mc Mike]

44. They're good at faking like they have mandate level numbers.

They're good at murder mouthing, and making scary noises. Not so good at acting like they're humans.

We do have a good shot to beat them. They don't have their nazi 10%.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

46. yes.

[lark]

3. He's definitely motivated me.

I'm going Friday night to sign up at the local Dem office for training in phone banking and canvassing. I've never done either before, but this time I'm giving it 100%. I'll still write letters and sign petitions, but now will be more intimately involved in getting out our much needed blue wave.

[not fooled]

4. So there

moscow donnie is a very talented human. It's just that all his talents are execrable.

And he sure intuited or studied the nazi playbook.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. He doesn't have the brains to think of these tricks.

But Bannon, Miller and Putin do. they just wind him up every night, all those hours he spends on the phone that we have no way to know who he talks to, altho Hannity is reported to be a constant, as is/was Alex Jones.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

26. Apparently those phone calls

are on relatively unsecured phones as well. I heard a news report months ago that said his cellphone can be hacked by other countries without too much trouble at all. Hopefully our allies are listening and passing on more dossiers.

[House of Roberts]

5. He must think we're the same as Republicans.

They all base their actions on what they would do if the tables were turned.

[Hekate]

6. I first heard him say that on Bill Mahr last week & it struck me as true...

... I am exhausted by the relentless attacks on reality. I wonder how many others feel the same?

[yuiyoshida]

7. Lets hope it will be H U G E

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Yup, it is the Gish Gallop, writ large, yuge even.

Pick battles. Supreme Court is one. Taking the House and retaining seats in the Senate is another.

Anything of Obama's that tRump walked back can be walked forward and then some, later. It starts with winning as much as possible nationally and statewide in Nov 2018.

[Silver Gaia]

42. Yep. I agree!

[Honeycombe8]

9. I posted here recently about the strategy with the lies. It's Putin's strategy.

It was from a Podcast of Preet's (on Roku app TuneIn). He had a bigwig Russian on as a guest.

Lest anyone think Trump is politically savvy, the lying constantly is a Putin strategy, according to the guest. It's not what the lies are about, it's the fact that the govt lies all the time about everything. What this supposedly does is get people doubting what is truth. What is a fact? Is it this, or is it that? It creates confusion and chaos among the people. And that benefits the dictator.

That's what Trump is doing. I have no doubt that he rec'd that strategy from Putin.

I'm exhausted by it, like everyone else. But don't confuse disregarding his constant tweets and dramas with a lack of caring or being not fired up to vote. I feel just the opposite. I am always passionate about voting, but THIS year in November, I'm FIRED UP AND READY TO VOTE "D" ACROSS THE BOARD!

We have no Democratic Party presence here, or I'd volunteer for them. I live in TrumpLand. But occasionally I run across another liberal. We are careful not to announce it too loudly because, well, we've seen how they react to that. These are not normal times. When they'd rather be Russian than liberal, no this isn't normal politics. (Although I do voice my opinions to my representatives on FB, and believe me, I get a lot of hostile responses that I don't look at any more. They aren't discussing the issue, though. It's ALWAYS a personal attack or filled with misinformation...you know the standard stuff...Benghazi, the emails!, whatever.

[VOX]

11. Precisely. It's a vintage KGB (Putin's training) gambit: destroy objective reality.

Flood the public with so many lies that objective reality becomes completely subjective. "Reality" is then whatever the strongest (loudest, most persistent) voices make of it. As we've seen, some 33% of Americans have bought into the lies, and are now the equivalent of a cult.

Sorry you're surrounded by Trumpists, I can only imagine how tough that would be, day-to-day.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

13. Nice.

[Uncle Joe]

14. I believe you nailed it VOX

[greymattermom]

17. The personal attack thing is everywhere.

Why is it when you ask what someone thinks about an issue, say Chinese tariffs on soybeans, you get a personal attack. Soybeans aren't personal to me.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

27. Better dead, than red. I'd never sell my country out to win an election though.

[Honeycombe8]

40. Same here. If Obama had done just a fraction of what Trump has done...

I would never have voted for him. But of course, I wouldn't have been a supporter of the kind of person who WOULD do such things, in the first place.

[dalton99a]

38. +1

[GusBob]

10. Reality TV is fake y'all

So was Gilligans Island

It has led to this altered sense of reality which distorts time and the truth.

A week isn't lived in a 30 minute sit com or a one hour drama.

Our short attention time frame is now broken down to the next breaking news and we forget so soon that kids were put in cages last week.

1426 people died in the hurricane? Posh, that is so last year!

Our will is broken because it is willing to be broken

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

16. Very good point. We have to eat our Wheaties and get some exercise.

We have a job to do. We will go down in history as the greatest peaceful re-coupment of power, and the world will breathe a sigh of relief. We have to be just as insistent on KEEPING power as well. It's just too important anymore to be spending years on people that resembles stuff I scrape off my shoe. Climate Change is real. We need to stop with the reality bullshit and get some ideas in the hopper for saving this world.
Spaceforce my ASS. We have SO much to do here, and we aren't militarizing some corporate fetish program so a small group can hop aboard govt/military subsidized ships and head to Mars when the shit gets thick. If we have money for yet ANOTHER branch of Govt (created by the party who screams about budgets and big govt), then we can use that money to create livable options here on earth for the 7 Billion of us here. Or pay for healthcare for everyone. Militarizing Space is outlawed globally.
In the meantime, all of us should minimize our carbon footprint bc we are so so close to never going back. The Polar Caps melting is such a bad sign. No air currents of cold vs warm air to keep the atmosphere stirred and the ocean currents running around the world.
Just musings.

[VOX]

19. True, but there's a new gambit here: "Gilligan is real. The lagoon is real. The Minnow is real."

Imagine an entire political party pushing that idea, hot and heavy: "There is a Deep State that's holding Gilligan, the Skipper, the Professor, the Howells, Ginger and Mary Ann as prisoners. And I alone know how to free them."

The reality of unreality is a real thing now.

[Auggie]

15. Tactics of a sociopath

[KewlKat]

18. Kick

[Ohioboy]

20. More proof that Trump should not be president

This is what it's come to, a so-called president that is constantly lying, dividing the nation, and fighting. The president is supposed to be president of all Americans, not just his base. This Orange Idiot has to go!

[Downtown Hound]

21. Whatever, Trump

This former boxer can outfight you any day of the week and twice on Sundays. And that includes physically, spiritually,and mentally. Your cholesterol soaked orange body that's used to a life of luxury and privilege wouldn't last one minute. We'll be here when you go down, and we'll be laughing and celebrating the whole time.

[warmfeet]

23. It won't work.

Repubs will be crushed.

I don't feel the least bad about it either.

[FiveGoodMen]

58. "Repubs will be crushed."

I'd pay to see that!

(When's the last time it happened?)

[Amaryllis]

24. I've heard Dan Rather and others talk about not succumbing to outrage fatigue.

[Pepsidog]

25. I will drag my cold dead body to vote these bastards out of office in 2018 & 2020!

[Blue_true]

34. Same here. nt

[paleotn]

28. My counter strategy is....

I tune them out. I could care less what the latest Dumbfuck tweet is or what Rudy the drunk has to say. Ignore the lies and bullshit. Keep eyes on the prize.

[SergeStorms]

29. I detested Trump on day one...

of his 'pResidency', and I detest him more now. I can't wait to vote against Trump, his policies, his sycophants, and his bullshit "strategy" to "break my will".

YOU CAN'T BREAK MY WILL, TRUMP. YOU CAN ONLY MAKE ME MORE PISSED OFF, MORE INTENT UPON STOPPING YOUR, AND THE REPUBLICAN AGENDA. BRING IT, YOU FLATULENT, ORANGE, HORSES ASS!

[BlueWI]

30. Great observations.

It's helpful to learn more about Trump and his serial dishonesty in business even before his presidency. Resistance is required, grounded in well-thought strategy to win at every level. His MO is to line his pockets for as long as he can, by whatever means. The daily public statements are a distraction, a grifter's way of fleecing the gullible.

[Kaleva]

31. Democrats are over performing most everywhere. Rather then being exhausted, we are motivated.

[Kaleva]

32. And how long can his base be always incited before suffering battle fatigue themselves?

[Blue_true]

33. If he motivate his base, our motivation should move to another level.

We should put socalled educated republicans on the spot. You have seen video of deplorables outside a Trump rally being interviewed. We should ask the socalled educated republicans "if the only Americans left with you were the people you see at those rallies, would you feel comfortable living among them?" At some point, highly paid or wealthy "educated" republicans must recognize that life is much bigger than a tax cut or elimination of the inheritance tax.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

35. Amen

Preach Mr Schmidt

[Corgigal]

36. So take care of yourself.

Tune in for a few days, then tune out a few. Check DU daily for big events on down days. Listen to music, laugh with friends and family. Read a good book. Do what your brain needs to recharge. Naps are good for us.

Right now, Pink Floyd, as loud a possible in my headphones are working. Make those brain pathways light another way. We're Americans, we've been marketed to us our whole lives. We can do this, and they are hitting the hive.

Don't watch Trump rallies, or follow his tweets. Get info 2nd hand but verifiable.

[TryLogic]

52. Rachel Maddow is a good source.

[3catwoman3]

37. A timely reminder. I definitely have...

...despair and disbelief fatigue.

[catbyte]

39. It's backfiring. Democrats are energized like I haven't been in years. The MI

primary was an example. We outvoted Republicans handily. If Traitor Tot is demoralizing and breaking anybody's will, it appears to be Republicans who aren't members of his sick goddamned cult.

This is going to blow up in his fat fucking face.

[Cha]

41. That's what I've been hoping People

are doing with his relentless LIES.. Vowing to Vote Dem GOTV

[SkyDancer]

43. Steve Schmidt is why we are here today

He is the one who gave birth to the rise of Sarah Palin.

She was the original enabler of everything which is happening today. The hatred, the racism, the bigotry, the very toxicity which has taken over the GOP.

As far as I'm concerned, Steve Schmidt has about as much credibility has Mayo has on a PBJ sammich.

[Timmygoat]

45. If anyone is interested

There is a good and lengthy article in the UK Independent online about how and why Trump is afraid and owned by Putin, I would say that it all makes sense to me.

[SharonAnn]

57. Well, Mayo and bananas are good on a PBJ sandwich. So, there's that.

[Botany]

47. I have been saying this for over a year now

pure lies i.e. coal is coming back & new steel mills in PA

things to piss you off kill wolf puppies in their dens

crazy talk Trump, my poll #s are better than Lincoln

working for Putin Trade wars & weakening NATO

shit for his crazy base Lock her up Lock her up

[heaven05]

48. His lies energized

voters during primaries on Tuesday. Unprecedented voter turnout numbers show we can't wait for November. Blue wave? Nah. Blue Tsunami will be the outcome. I respect Schmidt. A man that can openly on a national stage put the POP/GOP on notice that their BS is over, is who I want in my Party. He's the patriot.

[NewJeffCT]

49. Don't just vow to vote this Fall

See if you can find somebody that did NOT vote in 2016 and bring them to the polls with you. (Make sure they're registered first, of course)

[BumRushDaShow]

50. I think his analysis is a bit flawed in that

although people may tire of the 24/7 bullshit, history shows that Democrats have and will continue to turn out when they have had enough - see 2006, which was a walk in the park era compared to right now. In 2006, Democrats took back the House after 12 years of being shut out in that chamber, and retook the Senate after a 6 year shut out.

Who MIGHT be demoralized to turn out are the independents. Many of them are the "both sides do it" group and they have little loyalty for a particular party. And because of the gerrymandering that remains since 2010, it is incumbent that Democrats recapture the 2006 spirit despite that.

[azureblue]

51. lies and confusion

the issue is that Don controls the frame now. We are like a fighter whose opponent is aggressive and keeps attacking, hoping to wear us down into making a mistake. Don and his fellow cons keep up a relentless attack, to keep us off balance, and always reacting, not acting.

The trick is to rope a dope and use their strategy against them. What Don is doing now is stepping up the attack because he knows he is within a hair of failing - he is very vulnerable right now, which is why he has gone off the rails. What we are doing wrong is buying into the frame and ignoring our strengths and building on them. Our strength is not the mainstream media but the 'net and our sense of community. Also truth. We have the numbers - Don does not. We can overwhelm him by mounting our own campaign of a thousand relentless attacks. Turn his tactics against him. Echo our "talking points". Mount simultaneous attacks. He cannot handle personal attacks and he cannot handle more than one attack at the same time. He will crack. He loves snide comments - so make them right back. "Hey Don, who said you were better in bed, Stormy your wife?" "Hey Don, you still cheating at golf?" Then intersperse these personal attacks with "real" attacks, like "Who's going to pay for that give away to the farmers, to fix that mess you yourself caused? You gonna pay for it?" "You gonna throw you kids under the bus to save your flabby ass? That's what you always do" The key here is to make all attacks against him personal - call him on the mess he makes and demand that he himself pay for them. He cannot let a personal attack go un responded to, That is his nature. So make him spend his whole day responding to a hundred attacks.

Maybe even ask him if he is sure his crew won't turn on him. Sow doubt in his mind. I think that is a good one - he demand loyalty, and like any tyrant as soon as he starts to question the fealty of his underlings he will get rid of the ones he doubts, so make him doubt them all.

But we must do this now, while the time is right. We need a rapid response crew that will create the next day's attacks, and a crew to make them the next morning. Hammer the media. Spread them across the net and all sites and blogs.

But the bottom line is know that Don's attacks are desperate and pathetic, but, like a cornered animal, he can still do damage. Ignore his rants. Attack back, hard and fast. With all of the legal problems and investigations around him, if we pile on more stuff he will crack.

[calimary]

54. I'm exhausted and fed up too. But I'm NOT giving up!!!!!

I WON’T play his game, OR give in to his objectives. No Freakin’ Way! Ain’t playin’! He won’t wear ME down. I REFUSE.

Sure, I’m tired of this and tired of him. But I WON’T stop fighting OR resisting. Not EVER.

[ellie]

55. Well, with all due respect

to Mr. Schmidt, I will never give up.

[niyad]

56. donnie dear, FUCK YOU! my will is stronger than your bs. been fighting you thugs for decades,

will keep on til my last breath (and, quite possibly, beyond) you despicable, deplorable, disgraceful scum.

[TommyCelt]

59. So on the money...

I have been saying this since the campaign. This trump is banking on all of us going nose-deaf to the unrelenting stench from ocean of his bullshit.