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| Nigel Farage and Donald Trump: men who act smart by talking stupid | Nigel Farage and Donald Trump: men who act smart by talking stupid |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The most shocking thing about the Republican debate last week – apart from the discovery that Ted Cruz is only 44 – was the way in which we were made to take Donald Trump seriously. When analysts talk about a candidate being the kind you’d want to have a drink with we understand them, at some level, to be talking metaphorically. In Trump’s case he literally sounds like the guy mouthing off at the bar, slightly squiffy and up for a fight. | The most shocking thing about the Republican debate last week – apart from the discovery that Ted Cruz is only 44 – was the way in which we were made to take Donald Trump seriously. When analysts talk about a candidate being the kind you’d want to have a drink with we understand them, at some level, to be talking metaphorically. In Trump’s case he literally sounds like the guy mouthing off at the bar, slightly squiffy and up for a fight. |
| Far from undermining Trump, this intemperance plays in his favour. The degree to which a candidate is identified as that most coveted thing in a presidential race – a political outsider – comes down in large part to language. Hillary Clinton, the wonk’s wonk, is capable of making a speech about energy that includes references to “geologic sequestration” and “cellulosic ethanol”. Obama, too, is sometimes thought to be too academic and both have had problems with the charge of elitism. | Far from undermining Trump, this intemperance plays in his favour. The degree to which a candidate is identified as that most coveted thing in a presidential race – a political outsider – comes down in large part to language. Hillary Clinton, the wonk’s wonk, is capable of making a speech about energy that includes references to “geologic sequestration” and “cellulosic ethanol”. Obama, too, is sometimes thought to be too academic and both have had problems with the charge of elitism. |
| Related: Donald Trump jab at Megyn Kelly may be beginning of end for GOP frontrunner | Related: Donald Trump jab at Megyn Kelly may be beginning of end for GOP frontrunner |
| And here is Trump, talking in the kind of amazing non sequiturs that plagued Sarah Palin, but without the panic that ultimately killed her. When a host on NBC’s Meet the Press asked Trump if he had meant, in his now infamous remarks, to refer to Megyn Kelly’s menstrual cycle, he replied: “Hey, I went to the Wharton School of Finance, the toughest place to get into. I was a great student. I don’t talk that way.” | And here is Trump, talking in the kind of amazing non sequiturs that plagued Sarah Palin, but without the panic that ultimately killed her. When a host on NBC’s Meet the Press asked Trump if he had meant, in his now infamous remarks, to refer to Megyn Kelly’s menstrual cycle, he replied: “Hey, I went to the Wharton School of Finance, the toughest place to get into. I was a great student. I don’t talk that way.” |
| Over on CNN’s State of the Union, he answered a similar question with, “I went to the Wharton School of Finance. I was an excellent student. I’m a smart person. I built a tremendous company. I had a show called The Apprentice that NBC desperately wanted me to do another season. I do all this stuff. Do you think I make a stupid statement like that?” | Over on CNN’s State of the Union, he answered a similar question with, “I went to the Wharton School of Finance. I was an excellent student. I’m a smart person. I built a tremendous company. I had a show called The Apprentice that NBC desperately wanted me to do another season. I do all this stuff. Do you think I make a stupid statement like that?” |
| This rehearsed inarticulacy, with its weird boasts and odd syntax, is Trump’s signal to voters that, like a rightwing version of Warren Beatty in Bulworth, you should vote for him because he just doesn’t care. It’s an odd paradox, a kind of nihilism masquerading as the human touch, one that has served Nigel Farage well in Britain. Both men give the impression they’ll say any old thing, since caution is the refuge of the weak. Both use the word “stuff” a lot. (“There’s important stuff to contemplate, about Labour in the south-east of England,” said Farage earlier this year), a verbal shrug that says: I’m so sure of myself I don’t mind sounding stupid. | This rehearsed inarticulacy, with its weird boasts and odd syntax, is Trump’s signal to voters that, like a rightwing version of Warren Beatty in Bulworth, you should vote for him because he just doesn’t care. It’s an odd paradox, a kind of nihilism masquerading as the human touch, one that has served Nigel Farage well in Britain. Both men give the impression they’ll say any old thing, since caution is the refuge of the weak. Both use the word “stuff” a lot. (“There’s important stuff to contemplate, about Labour in the south-east of England,” said Farage earlier this year), a verbal shrug that says: I’m so sure of myself I don’t mind sounding stupid. |
| This rehearsed inarticulacy is Trump’s signal to voters that you should vote for him because he just doesn’t care | This rehearsed inarticulacy is Trump’s signal to voters that you should vote for him because he just doesn’t care |
| And both have more than a pinch of self-mockery, something scarce on the ground in politics, which in Trump manifests itself as wild self-aggrandising: “When I was attacked viciously by those women, of course, it’s very hard for them to attack me on looks, because I’m so good-looking.” | |
| Farage, on the other hand, knows that in England the way to ingratiate yourself is through self-deprecation, and so talks about how “useless” he is, confesses he’d be a bad prime minister and describes his own party’s manifesto as “a complete Horlicks”. | Farage, on the other hand, knows that in England the way to ingratiate yourself is through self-deprecation, and so talks about how “useless” he is, confesses he’d be a bad prime minister and describes his own party’s manifesto as “a complete Horlicks”. |
| The Brits already know this, but as Trump watchers discovered in the US this week, it’s hard to land a blow on the guy who treats the whole thing as a joke. | The Brits already know this, but as Trump watchers discovered in the US this week, it’s hard to land a blow on the guy who treats the whole thing as a joke. |
| A waffle too far in New York | A waffle too far in New York |
| To get away from it all, I walked to the new beer garden in New York’s Central Park. On the way, I passed my local supermarket, which sells a product called Stroopwafel. I passed the Wafels and Dinges snack cart on the corner of Broadway. At the park, I ordered bratwurst and a friend ordered schnitzel. You used to have to go all the way to Astoria, in Queens, for Belgian beer and confectionery. Now it’s everywhere. I like Belgian things. I also feel like Elaine Stritch at the end of that song from Follies; the bit where she sings, “I’ve been through Reno, I’ve been through Beverly Hills … Reefers and vino, rest cures, religion and pills.” I lived through cup cakes and cronuts. I’m just too exhausted to get behind waffles. |