Trump Is Inartful In the Art of Persuasion

Byron York has an interesting piece Thursday about the Trump team's bizarre eagerness to get into a fight with John Kasich. You should read the whole thing, but the short version is this: Kasich, either out of pique or self-interest or principle, didn't want to participate in the convention in his home state. And instead of wooing him or ignoring him, Trump's campaign decided to antagonize him.

We've seen this same dynamic play out over and over again. You saw it from the candidate himself, when, even after Ted Cruz dropped out of the primaries, he kept suggesting that the guy's father was part of the JFK assassination. You saw it in Trump's campaign apparatus Wednesday night, when they decided to whip up anti-Cruz sentiment on the floor of the convention instead of just applauding politely and moving quickly past Cruz's speech. You even see it from Trump's rank-and-file supporters—go read Phil Klein's excellent piece where he recounts a chest-to-chest screaming match on the floor between a Trump guy and a Cruz guy.

What's strange is that in every case, the Trump team seems incapable of understanding either the power dynamic or their self-interest. Trump is the nominee, which means that he holds a great deal of power. But he is not omnipotent. And in each case, the person or organization resistant to him has something he, or his supporters, want: Votes or, in the case of Kasich, access to campaign machinery.

The Trump contingent seems to believe that they have (or should have) the power to compel people to give them what they want. But as the great Jon Voight says in Heat, "It's a free country, brother."

Politics requires persuasion. When someone has something that you want, you must persuade them to give it to you. Sometimes this is done in a high-minded way, through reason or discussion or charm. Sometimes it's accomplished in a low-minded way, through graft or favor trading. Sometimes it's achieved in a Machiavellian way, by arranging affairs so that both sets of self-interest align.
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