Trump the knuckleballer
Victor Davis Hanson knows his classics, and the title of his latest article, “The Origins of Progressive Agony,” contains a word—agony—that English speakers usually take to mean “intense pain or suffering.” That is its first definition, but its second comes more directly from its Greek root, agon, a word that means “struggle or contest.”
Hanson’s essay is well worth reading in its entirety; a summary hardly does it justice. I believe he intends “agony” in both its meanings, suffering and contest, and I believe it is the correct word for what the left is going through right now. It is by no means clear who will win this struggle, long term.
Here’s Hanson’s description of what happened right after Trump won in November of 2016:
Progressives soon woke up to the reality that without power they were unable to stop Trump, and so they embraced any desperate means necessary to trap the ogre. The effort proved as frenzied as it was impotent: boycotting the inauguration, suing over state voting machines, using the courts to stymie Trump appointments and executive orders, appealing to the emoluments clause and the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, and winking and nodding at the assassination chic of celebrities and politicos such as Johnny Depp, Peter Fonda, Kathy Griffith, Madonna, Robert de Niro, Snoop Dogg, and a host of others. The many methods to subvert Trump’s presidency or fantasize about his gory death were as varied as the number of faux-accusers who would come out of the woodwork to smear Brett Kavanaugh. And the result was eerily the same: the more the impotent frenzy, the more it discredited its source.
It was a sort of boomerang situation, in which the child’s traditional taunt “bounces off me and sticks to you” seemed to come true over and over. The left kept thinking it had driven a stake through the vampire’s heart, only to find that it had missed the mark.
Blacks Lives Matter, Antifa, and #MeToo were all in a sense weaponized to do what elections had not. Finally, in exasperation, Democrats have begun demonizing the Electoral College itself, which has gone from the legal basis of Obama’s treasured “blue wall” to a relic of old, white male Founders who supposedly favored rural hicks over the better people of the cities. Progressives now damn the idea of a nine-person Supreme Court and mysteriously praise the discredited, hare-brained scheme of FDR to pack the court with progressive toady judges.
This is not new. The left only likes any institution as long as they see it as benefiting them. FDR’s original court-packing scheme was in the furtherance of progressive politics, so it is no surprise that the current-day left would be in favor of it. But they’d be against it if the right were proposing it, of course. It’s purely situational.
It is also no coincidence that Democrats are called “Democrats” and Republicans “Republicans.” The Electoral College and the Senate are nods to the fact that the US is a republic rather than a pure democracy. The House is much closer to a democratic legislative body than the Senate, because although the House is representative, those representatives reflect population differences far more closly than the Senate (which totally ignores population and only reflects state entities) and the Electoral College (a sort of middle way between the two). One of the most profoundly frustrating elements of the 2016 presidential election for Democrats was the fact that Hillary actually did win the popular vote, so it makes perfect sense that Democrats would take out their ire on the Electoral College that had foiled them. So near and yet so far!
Another reason for Democrats’ agony is the nature of the contest against an opponent such as Trump. It’s a lesson the Republicans struggled with, too, during the 2016 primary season. Trump had a lot of rivals in the GOP during the primary vying for the nomination, and if you watched closely you saw that all of them, despite their brains and previous power and support, were caught flat-footed by his idiosyncratic approach. They simply didn’t know what to do with him. Conventional debate and conventional means didn’t seem to work; they’d never really seen anything like him in politics before, and they didn’t know how to meet his tactics and win.
During the primaries, Trump’s Republican opponents never quite figured out how to wrestle this particular alligator. In the time since he’s been president, some of the Republican NeverTrumpers are still going at it and failing, although most have given up the agon and praised him, albeit sometimes reluctantly. Now it’s the Democrats who are engaged in a struggle with this strange opponent, continually thinking “Gotcha!!” and continually being bested.
Which brings me to another metaphor, appropriate for this time of year: Trump as knuckleballer. The knuckleball pitcher confounds batters with the zaniness of the ball’s behavior once it leaves his hand. It doesn’t require extreme force but it’s not an easy pitch to throw and it’s a very difficult one to control. But it can make ordinarily good hitters look bad; they often just can’t figure out what’s going on, and they end up looking silly when they swing at a knuckler.
Here’s Wiki on the subject:
A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to transition from laminar to turbulent flow. This transition adds a deflecting force on the side of the baseball. This makes the pitch difficult for batters to hit, but also difficult for pitchers to control and catchers to catch; umpires are challenged as well, as the ball’s irregular motion through the air makes it harder to call balls and strikes.
Long ago I read the memoir of prominent knuckleball pitcher Jim Bouton, and later as a Red Sox fan I watched many a game pitched by knuckleballer Tim Wakefield:
And here’s a knuckleball in slow motion:
Problem is that Agony can also be pleasurable…
not to all of us, but if your wired that way
on another note – Land of the Losers book is out
and interview with Solaris – MGTOW Pioneer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=144&v=I-VITaZzDVo
He talks about us founders of the movement
i had left for a long while, but it turned out they saved all my writings as a founder and they reference them…
Best of artfldgr – Posted April 12, 2005
https://www.the-niceguy.com/forum/index.php?/topic/8521-best-of-artfldgr/&tab=comments#comment-111002
(weird)… so i am back over there now..
now that the movement is in many countries, psych today mischaracterized it
he is talking about
Mechanize
Artfldgr
Zen Priest
Solaris
and a few more..
sorry… so excited that they are finding our origins..
even jordan peterson mentioned it
but neo? nah… she knows me. and knowing means you dont listen is what i discovered
but a stranger… they have magic. you listen to strangers… funny
hope someone listens
great interview…
we have all the original docs and things
MGTOW
Men Going Their Own Way
neo looks for changers…
but not under her nose..
A knuckleball is really only effective if there is some wind as that becomes the source of the ball’s erratic movement. Maybe Trump’s political knuckleballs are also only effective when the political winds are likewise not calm.
Besides struggle or contest, agony also means in Greek the process of dying. In Russian this is the main meaning of the word. Of course, a professional classicist like VDH knows all its meanings. And in the present political context this third meaning is the main one.
Trump is President Al Czervik … exposing the Judge Smails wannabes who oppose him as the empty shells that they are.
The Tweetings shall continue until media improves.
Not a big fan of guys like Trump. Huge fan of Trump as I watch him play his opponents like YoYo Ma.
For some reason the videos I put up aren’t working right now. Maybe the Instanche overwhelmed them? I’ve never seen that happen before, though, and I’ve had plenty of Instalances.
The videos are both about the knuckleball. I’m going to try putting them up in this comment, and see if it’ll work.
I now see that the problem is at YouTube, not at my blog. YouTube seems to be completely down in a lot of areas of the world, including mine.
Due to Census counts up to 12% below registered voters in four-of-ten urban districts –by no coincidence, machine-run Democrat fiefdoms for decades if not generations– we know that MzBill’s much-hyped “popular vote” exceeding Trump’s 63 million in 2016 overstates her legitimate total by a minimum five million ballots. In fact, due to multiple counts and various ballot-stuffing measures, he/she/it most probably tallied closer to 55 than 58 million benighted sluggards.
This ongoing refrain that Rats’ legitimate tally exceeded Trump’s is pure agitprop dezinformatsiya. Keep at it– despite Soros’ suborned Secretaries of State in rodent-infested gubernatorial venues, reforms in force by 2020 will radically mitigate urban machines’ long-standing, subversive ballot fraud.
The videos worked for me, Neo. My brother was a pitcher, and I was a catcher, and he would throw knucklers at me. I had this old mitt with a tiny pocket. It was nothing like a mitt designed to catch knuckleballs–these have a huge pocket. It was a challenging situation for me, but at least I could recognize when one was coming.
Your metaphor is very apt.
YouTube is now working. But it just got fixed about a half hour ago.
Apparently it was a huge worldwide problem.
A short argument for the Electoral College.
It needs to be widely known and understood.
There are 3,141 counties in the United States.
Trump won 3,084 of them.
Clinton won 57.
There are 62 counties in New York State.
Trump won 46 of them.
Clinton won 16
Clinton won the popular vote by approx. 2 million votes.
In the 5 counties that encompass NYC, (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Richmond & Queens) Clinton received well over 2 million more votes than Trump. (Clinton only won 4 of these counties; Trump won Richmond) Therefore these 5 counties alone, more than accounted for Clinton winning the popular vote of the entire country. These 5 counties comprise 319 square miles. The United States is comprised of 3,797,000 square miles. When you have a country that encompasses almost 4 million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to even suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election.
Large, densely populated Democrat cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, etc.) DO NOT and SHOULD NOT speak for the rest of our country!
We are a Republic, not a democracy. That’s why the Founders provided for the electoral college. Don’t let the progs tell you different.
According to this Trump won the counties 2,649 to 503. Not as impressive but still a strong showing and the basic point is still valid.
http://time.com/4780991/donald-trump-election-map-white-house/
“It is also no coincidence that Democrats are called “Democrats” and Republicans “Republicans.” The Electoral College and the Senate are nods to the fact that the US is a republic rather than a pure democracy. ”
So basic, and yet so often overlooked by the pundits.
The hoi polloi don’t even know the difference exists.
The radio series Columbia Workshop presented “The Day That Baseball Died,” on the 28th of September 1946.
They told the story of a pitcher who created what he called “knuckle-duster the second,” which posed an impossible problem for the rules of baseball, bringing the entire season to a halt, amidst acrimonious debate.
His thrown ball came to a halt before it could cross the plate, hanging in the air and spinning slowly….!
Quite a hoot to listen to: [https://archive.org/download/Columbia.Workshop_174/Columbia_Workshop_46-09-28_The_Day_That_Baseball_Died.mp3]
… we now return you to Politics 2018 ….
AesopFan, if you ask me, one reason for this is that everyone learns in school what “democracy” means (rule by the demos, or people). It’s an easy concept to understand and translate the literal meaning of the word to the concept of government. I never learned in school (only much later) what “republic” means, and it’s not obvious the way “democracy” is. (The fact that “Democratic Republic” or “People’s Republic” in a country’s name signals that it is Communist only confuses matters.) So educating the masses that the USA is a Republic, not a Democracy must be preceded by exactly what is meant by a Republic. And why it’s a good thing.
The only real justification for the electoral college: nation wide recounts.
I used to play a little baseball as a teen. one time we were tossing the ball around the infield and the guy playing second base threw a knuckleball to me. I had no idea where it was going and I was lucky it didn’t hit me in the face. it’s an amazing pitch.
RE: electoral college: Kristian is correct. imagine a close election with recounts initiated in every state. Democrats finding ballots left under chairs or in car trunks in every district in the Nation. with the EC, we only have to deal with Democrat antics in one or two states. The EC is only one of the genius inventions of the Founders. we still reap the benefits of their collective wisdom.
Great note on knuckleballs — excellent analogy with Trump.
Every country is two different things: the people of the country, and the land of the country.
Gov’t makes laws — those laws apply to the land of the country, and the people who live on that land. The US system is an excellent mix of big-land country and big-population cities, with different interests.
When younger and a Libertarian, I used to think proportionate representation was better, like in Europe, even tho I saw it more easily slide into socialism. Now that I’ve been in Europe for many years, and a Republican, I’m sure the US system is better for long term civilization. (My wife was a candidate for the Christian Democrats — “coalition gov’t” can be quite a pain.)
Had the USA used more democracy, there would NOT be a Roe v Wade abortion fake-amendment, nor a right to same-sex marriage–Defense of Marriage Act was more democratic than a SCOTUS decision.
I do think there would be an excellent way to increase the democracy portion: every year people should vote on whether taxes should go up, or down, by 10%, or stay the same. That vote should happen on April 15 — or whenever one files their income tax, and the vote should be part of the income tax (with those filing but not voting as default “same”). Then all the votes are added to see what the “democracy” thinks about taxes; usually decrease by 8 or 9%, I’d guess.
The Swiss, perhaps the only democracy better than America, often have referendums on raising taxes or not — and usually not. (Who’s the President of Switzerland? — who cares, the Pres. has so little power … << that's a good gov't and the main reason the Swiss are such a rich group.)
The videos work. Also VDH's on Trump having fun at WWE wrestlemania:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKFIHRpe7I
Trump is a knuckleballer who also throws inside heat. That’s a very scary combination.
Ball Four is one my favorite books of all time. Not best, maybe. But I never don’t smile remembering it. Some seamhead friends and I quote it to each other like it were Animal House or Caddyshack.
J.J.— It’s disheartening that I have to report that the balance of Hillary’s
popular vote came from my home county, Los Angeles, with a 1,700,000 margin for the evil one.
“Which brings me to another metaphor, appropriate for this time of year: Trump as knuckleballer.”
That reminded me that Trump was scouted by the Phillies when he was at New York Military Academy, although he played first base and catcher rather than pitching. How I wish Gabe Kapler would take some lessons from Trump, though.
Baseball…baseball… Ah, rounders. Got it.
“won the popular vote”. That’s jabberwocky talk. There IS NO POPULAR VOTE for president. The voting that takes place for the office of president serves the sole purpose of electing the electors FROM YOUR STATE who will then vote in the Electoral College. This is REMEDIAL level civics.
Plus, WAKEFIELD RULES!!!
Hillary did NOT win the “popular vote.” Even in those cases in which a “popular vote” is the mechanism for winning an election, she would still not have won. Winning a popular vote requires having a majority of all the votes, and HILLARY DID NOT HAVE A MAJORITY of all the votes cast.
Hillary had only the most votes of any candidate. This result is a plurality, not a majority. Had the popular vote mattered, there would have been a run-off vote to determine who won. Since the popular vote does not matter in US presidential elections, there was no run-off. So, Hillary cannot properly claim that “she won the popular vote.”
Clinton’s margin of victory in raw numbers (some 2 million) is easily accounted for in voter fraud. Remember, the whole Motor Voter scam was a Clinton concoction back in the 1990’s. That God we live in a Republic, and not a Democracy.
‘they didn’t know how to meet his tactics’ of telling the truth in language ordinary people speak. Hey, it’s a low bar and yet somehow they can’t do it.
Another sports analogy would be the rope-a-dope. Encouraging your opponent to underestimate you so they make a wrongly-timed attack so you can counter is good strategy. And you are kidding yourself if you think Trump doesn’t know what he is doing. He wrote The Art of the Deal after all.
Im wonder if trump is sitting on his own DNA report that shows that he is twice as minority (only 99.9 percent white!) as Warren.
He is living in the Dems heads, rent free.
Zach:
Knuckleballers know exactly what they’re doing. It’s just that they can’t always control it, although the best knuckleballers can.
Trump is good at what he does.
As a long time Indians fan I know Tim Wakefield well. He stymied the Tribe fro more than 5 years. I really enjoy PDT “knuckleballs” especially when he is one on one.
“A knuckleball is really only effective if there is some wind as that becomes the source of the ball’s erratic movement.”
Not really. Wind doubtless affects the movement. But knuckleballers have thrown effectively under domes.
“Knuckleballers know exactly what they’re doing. It’s just that they can’t always control it, although the best knuckleballers can.”
It depends on what you mean by “control.” The best can get the ball in the strike zone. But how exactly the ball will move cannot be predicted by anybody, including the pitcher.