NEWS AND OPINION:
“Governing by disruption” is the handy new phrase for the Democratic narrative for the next 48 hours or so, unless something more compelling comes along. Critics of President Trump are suggesting he now is using “disruptive innovation” in his role as president.
For the uninitiated, “disruptive innovation” is a business strategy that involves purposefully challenging the established existing markets and alliances to create a clean field for new things. The term actually has been in use in the business field for about two decades. Now applied to politics, it has a new lease on life.
Mr. Trump, some say, is applying disruption theory to his office.
“Trump governs by disruption and overloads all the circuits,” writes Washington Post chief correspondent Dan Balz. “Nine months into his first term, President Trump is perfecting a style of leadership commensurate with his campaign promise to disrupt business as usual in Washington. Call it governing by cattle prod.”
The phrase had legs. Immediately. “Governing by disruption,” or a form of it, was bandied about on the Sunday talk shows. Mr. Balz himself suggested to NBC’s “Meet the Press” that both the president and former White House adviser Stephen Bannon were in “disrupt” mode.
“I think that the president thinks of himself as a disrupter. And that’s a fashionable word right now in business. The reality is, in business, a disruption is when you have a new idea — a new product that is better than the old,” Democratic strategist Van Jones told ABC’s “This Week” show. “The problem with this president is he is just breaking up everything, erasing the Obama legacy and throwing stuff at Congress, and hoping they fix it.”
Meanwhile, the old reliable terms that speed along an anti-Trump narrative have not been forgotten. “Chaos” has long been a favorite, with “sabotage” a close second. And in previous eras, “rogue” and “insurgent” also came into play when it came to describing GOP politicians.
During an appearance on “This Week,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tapped into them.
“The week of Friday the 13th is the week that President Trump went rogue. He went rogue on women’s health, the Affordable Care Act, the Iran decision that he made — and as he continues his war on the middle class with his unfair tax plans,” she noted.” We’re moving from one thing to the next because that’s the chaos that exists in the White House right now.”
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW
“How did the 2020 election sneak up on us so quickly?” asks veteran columnist Andrew Malcolm in a column for Hot Air, pointing out that pollsters are already going full blast on voter preferences for the next election.
It is a long time off. The election, Mr. Malcolm points out, is Nov. 3, 2020 — 1,114 days from now.
DONALD TRUMP, CELEBRITY ARTIST
A small sketch made by then-private citizen Donald Trump in 1994 of the Empire State Building goes up for auction on Monday.
Done in black magic marker, the drawing has already drawn two active bids for $4,500, with bids expected to reach $12,000, according to Julien’s Auctions, a Los Angeles auctioneer that has included Mr. Trump’s sketch — that would be “Lot 109” — among “Street, Contemporary, and Celebrity Art” from the collection of fashion icon Tommy Hilfiger.
See the auction at Julienslive.com.
JOHN KASICH REBRANDS HIMSELF
As a candidate in the 2016 presidential race, Ohio Gov. John Kasich did pretty well, coming across as a reasonable kind of guy with some inner mettle. Mr. Kasich, however, appears to be in the process of rebranding himself as an aggressive, can-do statesman — a hybrid politician eager to race across the aisle and do whatever it takes to get things done and better America. Or words to that effect.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd came right out and asked him if he planned to run for the White House in 2020.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow. But I will tell you this: The other day, my wife said to me one morning, ‘You know, John, I wish you were the president.’ That’s how I knew the country was in trouble,” replied an almost boisterous Mr. Kasich.
The most telling moment is on Tuesday, however.
Mr. Kasich is teaming up with former Vice President Joe Biden — who has been a very vocal critic of President Trump in recent days. The pair will appear at the University of Delaware, Mr. Biden’s alma mater, prepared to discuss “how to bridge the many political and partisan divides that exist in Washington, D.C., today.”
Are we looking at Kasich/Biden or Biden/Kasich 2020 here? Hmm. Well, maybe. Oddly enough, CNN analysts insisted that Mr. Kasich had formed a bipartisan “unity ticket” with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, and that was back in August. The two of them, in fact, co-authored a Time op-ed on how to stabilize the heath insurance system in September.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kasich has an active campaign site that clearly supports pro-life causes, the Second Amendment and DACA, among other things. His site also offers the “Kasich Action plan to reclaim our power, money and influence from Washington” and six points touting his own electability.
“Husband, father, friend, person of faith, leader, change agent. John Kasich is a lot of things. Through them all runs his honest, direct, authentic, tenacious approach to life that has allowed him, time and again, to do what they said couldn’t be done and, as his mom told him as a boy, make things a little better because you were there,” the governor notes in his biography.
POLL DU JOUR
• 66 percent of Americans say they are comfortable with discussions of politics, race and religion on TV news shows; 66 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of independents and 73 percent of Democrats agree.
• 65 percent overall say they are personally comfortable discussing those subjects at the dinner table; 70 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of independents and 64 percent of Democrats agree.
• 53 percent overall are comfortable talking about the subjects on social media; 51 percent of Republicans, 55 percent of independents and 60 percent of Democrats agree.
• 32 percent are comfortable with these discussions at a place of worship; 29 percent of Republicans, 32 percent of independents and 37 percent of Democrats agree.
• 26 percent overall are comfortable with discussion of the subjects on TV sports or awards shows; 16 percent of Republicans, 27 percent of independents and 38 percent of Democrats agree.
Source: A CBS “Nation Tracker” poll of 2,371 U.S. adults conducted Oct. 11-13.
• Chatter and salient insight to jharper@washingtontimes.com
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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