Donald Trump has a rule at his rallies: for the fifty minutes before he takes the stage, the only music that can be played is from a set list that he put together. The list shows a sensitive side, mixing in Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” and music from “Cats” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” But it’s heavy on the Rolling Stones—“Sympathy for the Devil,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and the famously impolitic “Brown Sugar.” The young volunteer in charge of music for one rally sent me the full Trump-curated playlist and asked for requests. “Remember,” he said, “the more inappropriate for a political event, the better.”
In mid-December, Trump brought his show to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, in Arizona, where several thousand people crammed into an airplane hangar. The classic rock stopped as his Boeing 757, which has his name emblazoned on the fuselage in white letters, taxied toward us. “Ladies and gentlemen, the plane has arrived,” an announcer said, and the hangar filled with the patriotic chords of the theme from “Air Force One,” the Harrison Ford thriller in which Ford plays an American President who battles Kazakh hijackers. “Dude, that is so cool,” a young man behind me said to his friend as they watched. “Who needs Air Force One when you have your own airplane?”
[ ... ]
Definitely interesting. Amusing how Lizza unselfconsciously couches the completely dishonest gigantic congressional amnesty package as a being the epitome of reasonable "immigration reform compromise." Also talks about the ideological Neocons, like those at National Review, who love open borders and endless Middle East wars, as being commendable "moderate conservatives." [Helpful note to 'conservatives': If The New Yorker is defending you, you are NOT conservative.]
One of my favorite observations of the writer was that out on the stump Cruz delivers each of his lines, no matter how generic, as if he were delivering the Gettysburg Address, with exactly the same choreographing of alternating hand gestures, body English, hands in and out of pockets, etc.
But my absolute favorite observation was on Trump. Lizza says, rather than trying to pick up votes from each of the--it is claimed--four main subdivisions of Republican voters, Donald Trump moves along like a giant "snow plow," picking up supporters from everywhere.
So Ryan Lizza and The New Yorker do get some things right--therefore thank you for the good read.
Posts
