Chaff

Now that we've passed Labor Day, the trained hamsters in the main stream media return to the presidential race with a vengeance. Sure they drift off to more important topics now and then (see my post, Connections), but it remains the Hillary and Donald show.

I have noted in a number of earlier posts that Donald Trump is empty. He flits from one high level abstraction to another, mentioning themes that are important to most voters, but never, ever providing enough detail to: (1) determine whether he actually knows anything about the subject, (2) has any intelligible plan for addressing the subject, or (3) is any deeper than the high level abstraction he presents.

An expert in any subject is four or five questions deep. That means that a point is raised, a question is asked probing the point, the expert provides an intelligent answer, another question probes the answer looking for additional explication, the expert provides follow-on detailed and intelligent comments, still another question occurs probing that response, and so on for 4 or 5 levels of detail (abstraction). A knowledgeable observer is two to three questions deep. Trump is one question deep, and in some cases, not even that.

Hugh Hewett, a conservative talk show host, asked Trump:

“I’m looking for the next commander-in-chief, to know who Hassan Nasrallah is, and Zawahiri, and al-Julani, and al-Baghdadi. Do you know the players without a scorecard, yet, Donald Trump?”

Here's a Trump's response:

"You know, I’ll tell you honestly, I think by the time we get to office, they’ll all be changed. They’ll be all gone,” he said. “I knew you were going to ask me things like this, and there’s no reason, because, No. 1, I’ll find, I will hopefully find Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the pack.”

Trump said asking him who the key players are was a type of “gotcha question.”

“I will be so good at the military, your head will spin. But obviously, I’m not meeting these people. I’m not seeing these people,” Trump said.

"Now, as far as what you’re talking about now, I will know every detail, and I will have the right plan, not a plan like this where we’re probably going backwards based on everything that I’m hearing, but we’re probably going backwards, zero respect. We have, we are not a respected country, and certainly as it relates to ISIS and what’s going on, and Iran."

Like I said, Trump is less than one question deep. His answer is a blend of ignorance, idiocy, and hubris into one rambling statement. Typical for Trump.

Leon Wolf provides the best metaphor yet to describe Donald Trump:

Watching Donald Trump speak and answer questions, though, is like watching a billion targets appear in the sky all at once, for a political opponent. Each thing he says is so bizarre, or ill informed, or demonstrably false, or unpresidential in tone or character, that it becomes impossible to know which target to lock on to or focus on. And to the extent that he makes a policy statement, it is so hopelessly vague and ludicrous that it’s impossible to know where to begin, at least within the context of the 30-second soundbite that the modern political consumer requires (and chances are, he will say something diametrically opposed to it before the press conference is over anyway).

Donald Trump is the political equivalent of chaff, a billion shiny objects all floating through the sky at once, ephemeral, practically without substance, serving almost exclusively to distract from more important things – yet nonetheless completely impossible to ignore.

I guess Trump's legion of supporters represents the rage of some low information voters across the right, the center, and even among blue collar Dems. But the man is all mouth and no substance. He is chaff.