Monday, April 30, 2018

What is the value of "shock value"?


Trump said that last night:  

 “Tester started throwing out things that he’s heard. Well I know things about Tester that I could say too, and if I said them, he’d never be elected again.”

And I don't think anybody on the Sunday talk shows even noticed.  It hasn't gotten any attention at Raw Story.  TPM picked it up because LiveWire reports almost everything that happens, and even they noted:

It recalled the President’s ultimately empty threat that fired FBI Director James Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

More than five weeks later, Trump admitted that no such tapes existed.
Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.  If it showed up on any panel on CNN or MSNBC, Raw Story again didn't see fit to publish the video.  This should be evidence that Trump is "normalizing" such talk; but it's not.  It's evidence that Trump is running out of ways to get our attention.  The stories are getting stale; his schtick is getting old.  We've heard these jokes, doesn't he have any new ones?  Trump is running out of reasons for us to care.  Would losing the House in 2019 be a personal disaster for Trump?  Maybe, but it's not apparent he sees that.  The personal disaster for Trump will be losing his pizzaz, his appeal, his moxie.

It happens:  ask Rodney Dangerfield or Madonna.  Sooner or later fame passes you by, your talents are no longer in demand, your show no longer sells the tickets it once did.  That is Trump's personal nightmare:  that no one will even notice when he says something completely outrageous and meant to be shocking.  If there's a reason he's mad at Michelle Wolf, it's because his show was upstaged, and she's the outrage everyone is talking about the morning after.
That's gotta hurt.
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