Helms and Trump
Rob Christensen recently noted “a number of parallels” between Donald Trump and Jesse Helms. (“Trump, like Helms, rode populist streak as outsider”).
But another parallel deserves attention. Read on.
Rob wrote:
“Both Helms and Trump were plain-spoken populists who gained much of their support from blue-collar workers and from people living in rural areas.
“Both campaigned as outsiders….
“Both were accused by critics of exploiting racial divisions for political benefit.
“Both campaigned against the news media….”
“Both tapped into deep frustration with politics as usual,” (quoting Helms biographer William Link.)
Rob also quoted Carter: “(B)oth are sort of demagogues. The main difference is that Helms did have a pretty rigid set of conservative values. I don’t think Trump does, but we just won’t know until we see.”
One thing I grant Helms: he had principles. Trump just has impulses.
Rob said both “were political innovators” – Helms “pioneering in the use of TV advertising and direct-mail fundraising” while “Trump found a way to get out his campaign message without using paid commercials…in a way that was ‘revolutionary,’ according to Wrenn.” Namely Twitter.
There is one more important parallel, familiar to those of us who tried to defeat Helms: Both mastered the art of the political and personal destruction of their opponents.
Helms & Co. pioneered not just TV ads, but negative ads. Helms was never personally popular. He could only win by making his opponents more unpopular than he was. And he was good at it.
Likewise Trump in 2016. He won the Republican nomination by destroying his opponents, insulting them, demeaning them, mocking them – “Low Energy Jeb,” “Little Marco,” “Lying Ted.” Then he did the same to “Crooked Hillary.”
Both men zeroed in on ripe targets: Helms routinely attacked Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy and the “homosexual lobby.” For Trump, it’s Mexicans, Muslims, China, disabled people, women – you name it.
Trump, like Helms, is a bully. Like Helms, he’s good at it. It makes for good political strategy.
Whether it was – and is – good for America is another question altogether.
Helms and Trump
Rob Christensen recently noted “a number of parallels” between Donald Trump and Jesse Helms. (“Trump, like Helms, rode populist streak as outsider”).
But another parallel deserves attention. Read on.
Rob wrote:
“Both Helms and Trump were plain-spoken populists who gained much of their support from blue-collar workers and from people living in rural areas.
“Both campaigned as outsiders….
“Both were accused by critics of exploiting racial divisions for political benefit.
“Both campaigned against the news media….”
“Both tapped into deep frustration with politics as usual,” (quoting Helms biographer William Link.)
Rob also quoted Carter: “(B)oth are sort of demagogues. The main difference is that Helms did have a pretty rigid set of conservative values. I don’t think Trump does, but we just won’t know until we see.”
One thing I grant Helms: he had principles. Trump just has impulses.
Rob said both “were political innovators” – Helms “pioneering in the use of TV advertising and direct-mail fundraising” while “Trump found a way to get out his campaign message without using paid commercials…in a way that was ‘revolutionary,’ according to Wrenn.” Namely Twitter.
There is one more important parallel, familiar to those of us who tried to defeat Helms: Both mastered the art of the political and personal destruction of their opponents.
Helms & Co. pioneered not just TV ads, but negative ads. Helms was never personally popular. He could only win by making his opponents more unpopular than he was. And he was good at it.
Likewise Trump in 2016. He won the Republican nomination by destroying his opponents, insulting them, demeaning them, mocking them – “Low Energy Jeb,” “Little Marco,” “Lying Ted.” Then he did the same to “Crooked Hillary.”
Both men zeroed in on ripe targets: Helms routinely attacked Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy and the “homosexual lobby.” For Trump, it’s Mexicans, Muslims, China, disabled people, women – you name it.
Trump, like Helms, is a bully. Like Helms, he’s good at it. It makes for good political strategy.
Whether it was – and is – good for America is another question altogether.