"Listless Vessels:" It's "Nasty Woman" All Over Again
With its full-throated embrace of victimhood, Trump 2024 is turning into Hillary 2016
Do you remember during the 2016 presidential debate when Donald Trump interrupted one of Hillary's answers by calling her a "nasty woman?"
The two candidates were outlining their plans for what to do to prevent social security from going bankrupt, and rather than simply answer the question, Hillary tossed in one of her scripted digs about Trump not paying his taxes, prompting Trump to lean into the microphone and say, "Such a nasty woman."
Trump’s quip had me howling with laughter. It was as if he read my mind.
But Team Hillary latched onto the term like a limpet, selling “Nasty Woman” buttons and T-shirts while encouraging her supporters to embrace the term as if Trump called all female Hillary supporters “nasty.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out why. Team Hillary was trying to mimic the buzz Hillary’s "Deplorable” comment caused among Trump supporters.
You may recall that Trump supporters reacted to Hillary’s “basket of deplorables” comment not by screeching with indignant fury but by happily embracing the label and making it their own.
It energized Trump's base in ways Hillary probably regretted.
So when Trump referred to Hillary as "such a nasty woman," Team Hillary decided that while it technically wasn't directed at her voters, they'd pretend it was in hopes of firing up her base.
Sadly for Hillary, the scheme failed.
Now Team Trump is mimicking Hillary's attempt to mimic the "Deplorables" buzz by claiming that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called Trump supporters "listless vessels."
He didn’t.
In an interview last week, DeSantis was responding to the Trump campaign labeling him a RINO.
He suggested that there are Trump's supporters in Congress with "incredibly liberal left-wing records" who are calling conservative lawmakers like Chip Roy and Thomas Massie RINOs solely because they endorsed him for president.
DeSantis explained if the movement wants to survive, it has to be based on more than just "the personality of one individual." It has to be based on principle and what the movement can "achieve on behalf of the American people."
He closed his answer with this:
"Because if you're not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that's not going to be a durable movement."
As you can see from the quote, DeSantis did not say, "Trump supporters are listless vessels," any more than Donald Trump said Hillary supporters are nasty women.
But Team Trump is using that framing hoping to rekindle the same fire that Hillary's "Deplorables" comment ignited in 2016.
And like Team Hillary did with "Nasty Woman," Team Trump is doing it by lying.
The Trump campaign released a statement Saturday comparing what DeSantis said with Hillary's "Deplorables" comment and demanding the governor apologize for calling Trump supporters "listless vessels."
But anybody with the reading comprehension skills of a second-grader can see that Ron DeSantis did not call Trump supporters “listless vessels.”
And as soon as Team Trump's statement came down the pike, Trump fans immediately followed along by claiming that DeSantis called them "listless vessels," without realizing that doing so made DeSantis' point.
As AG Hamilton put it on Twitter (sorry, X) last night:
A good way to prove you're totally not a listless vessel with no principles who just repeats what the Trump campaign says is by repeating an obvious lie about what DeSantis said because the Trump campaign told you to do so.
Don't we get enough of this kind of garbage from Democrats?
But playing the victim is central to the Trump campaign. So these guys will embrace "Listless Vessels" the same way Hillary fans embraced "Nasty Woman" and Liz Warren fans embraced "Nevertheless, She Persisted."
Can you believe Trump supporters used to mock Democrats for playing the victim card?
Meanwhile, the same media outlets that echoed the false claim that Trump called Nazis "very fine people" are now repeating the Trump campaign's false claim that DeSantis called Trump supporters "listless vessels."
But what do you expect? The media, like the Democrats, wants Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee more than Donald Trump wants to be the Republican nominee.
Read the quote from Ron DeSantis one more time.
"Because if you're not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that's not going to be a durable movement."
Is there anything about that statement with which you disagree?
To disagree with what DeSantis said, you would have to hold to the belief that a political movement is only durable if it revolves around a single person rather than on a set of principles.
Trump's base is shrinking primarily because most voters do not want to embrace a political movement of, by, and for Donald Trump.
Many of those who helped elect Trump in 2016 and voted for his reelection in 2020 did so because they embraced "America First." And as soon they realized that the MAGA movement devolved into "Trump First, Last, and Always,” they started heading for the exits.
The proud embrace of "listless vessels" may give the Trump fans the dopamine hit they crave. But embracing faux victimhood will do nothing to stop the Trump campaign from hemorrhaging support.