In what was once one of the most shocking scenes in American cinema, in Brian De Palma’s 1987 gangster flick The Untouchables, über mobster Al Capone beats three treacherous lieutenants to death with a baseball bat. Ever since, baseball bats have had a way of turning up in the hands of über mobsters like Tony Soprano, though I’m not sure whether any more on-screen beatings have occurred.
Well, flash forward some 22 years, and the über dude with the Louisville slugger is in the White House. And that’s a good thing! Or at least it’s likely to be an effective campaign gambit, alleges allegedly “thoughtful” conservative Ramesh Ponnuru in a recent post on the National Review’s “Corner”, “A Smart Trump Campaign Strategy”.
Ponnuru’s post is largely an approving quote from a recent column by Henry Olsen in the Washington Post, “Trump unveiled his reelection strategy at the World Series. Democrats should be nervous.”. Ponnuru says “This column by Henry Olsen seems right to me,” and quotes him as follows:
The closing line is the key to the ad’s effectiveness. It turns Trump’s biggest negative — himself — into a positive. Yes, he’s a (insert derogatory term here), but he’s our (derogatory term). His blunt toughness, the campaign will argue, is exactly what the country needs as he forces Washington to change against its will. Conservative writer Victor Davis Hanson has been making this argument for years, analogizing Trump to the gunfighter in a movie Western who the town knows is unsavory but who has the tools to clean it up. The fact that the campaign is now making it shows that staffers know they need to make lemonade out of the lemons Trump has given them.
The “derogatory term” both Olsen and Ponnuru omit, of course, is “murderous thug who beats innocent people over the head with a baseball bat and destroys our nation’s soul,” but, hey, that’s a detail! After all, neither Henry nor Ramesh are advocating beating people over the head with a baseball bat! And they certainly wouldn’t want to do it themselves! The question is, is this a “smart” campaign strategy?
Ramesh Ponnuru is giving an excellent impression of a Mozart lover pretending to love chewing tobacco. Hey, Ramesh! Just put a pinch between your cheek and gum! Sure, it’s gross, and it stains your teeth, and there is the increased risk of gum cancer, but it’s a hell of a lot better than being beaten over the head with a baseball bat! And, as long as you insist on calling yourself a “Republican”, that’s as good as it’s going to get!
