I will say this, President Trump knows how to play to the voters who put him in office. Take the average American voter. What do you think is a bigger concern to them? Relief efforts in a place they have never been, and may or may not realize is a US territory? Or seeing pro athletes stand for the national anthem on the NFL Package they pay $X per month for? I have said it before, and it bears repeating again here; the majority populous of this board "gets it". They are focused on what's really important, consider 2nd/3rd order effects, care about the big picture, etc. Your average voter? I don't think there's near as much of a focus on things that don't directly affect them. "Goddammit, Jim's son died in IRQ/AFG, and these millionaire athletes can't even stand for the anthem? That's bullshit. At least Trump says something about it. Obama never would have done that."
I think that's what came into focus for me most clearly this last two weeks. The President, at least on some level, understands what he's doing when he picks these public fights. There was reporting from leaks in his administration that the President was very concerned about his 'base' numbers (Brietbart-centric voters) after his budget deal with the Democrats. So, what does he do - start a fight on twitter where cultural concerns will take primacy. The twitter spats are easier to cover, easier to elicit opinions from everyone (who knows enough about healthcare to comment - but everyone will speculate about personal behavior and their sports teams), and will hit all the underlying cultural fault lines in our country - race, class, income disparity, celebrity, tribal politics - and can be adjudicated endlessly on social media.
I think the President has a favored playbook he's been using from the beginning - and it's only going to continue. Any criticism or mistakes he makes are in fact attacks from 'fake', 'biased', and 'enemies of the American people' that shouldn't just be dismissed - you must hate and revile the messenger themselves. If you adhere - even on an emotional level - to anything the President does or says then you are in his tribe - and any criticism of the President is in fact an attack on you. When facts, policy, or real events start to take precedence in the news cycle it's time for divisive cultural debates that will solidify the tribal nature of discourse - there's no use trying to convince people, just re-inforce their existing heuristics.
I'd like to say that kind of Bolshevism cannot be sustained in this country but, it's gotten him this far and every indication (IMO) is mainstream Republicanism is moving in line to support the President - not the other way around. Control of all 3 branches of the federal government, 34 of 50 state governorships, something like 24 states with total Republican control of the government (legislature and executive), and an election map that heavily favors Republicans in 2018 (significant gerrymandering and voter suppression in the house and 25 of 33 senate seats are Democrats up for re-election, more than a third in states the President carried in 2016). I think the question becomes less about if this will continue and more about what the country looks like at the national and international level after 3 more years of it.
EDIT. I also thought this article:
How Fake News Turned a Small Town Upside Down is a great example of the disconnect on 'fake news.' This is what I think fake news is - fabricated stories, in whole or in significant part, to advance an existing narrative. It's why I think the idea 'all news' is somehow biased or fake is total bullshit. Fake news is being generated and propagated by a single group at the fringes (or maybe not so fringe anymore) of the conservative movement.
