How the Donkey Hit the Same Stone Twice; and How We All Got Trumped

Right now, nothing seems to make sense in “real life.”

It feels as if we are living in a computer simulation gone awry — with many of us eagerly waiting for the reboot that will make everything “normal” again.

Guess what?

The reboot is not coming!

This is our new reality. We have a President elect who is a racist, sexual predator; a plutocrat who embraces nepotism; a shady business man who is surrounding himself with kleptocrats; and a compulsive ego-centric liar.

He also claims to be smart.

Reality is: Despite all his likely psychological disorders, he probably is right. Especially when it comes to playing the media game.

There is a Dutch proverb that says: “een ezel stoot zich geen tweemaal aan dezelfde steen.” The meaning being: “a donkey doesn’t hit the same stone twice.”

Well us Donkeys (aka Democrats) have.

Big. Time.

Remember the 2008 Financial Crisis? It almost led to the biggest economic crisis in World history — bigger than the Big Depression. It wiped out savings, pensions, and in many cases, jobs and people’s livelihood.

Yet, at the time, there was no visible public outrage.

That is, until the media published a list of financial executives and the bonuses they made that year. The resulting outrage was something few of us had ever seen before. It got close to the creation of lasting social movements.

What happened? People lost almost all of their savings, the market indices were in freefall, and our biggest industries were going belly up. Yet what got the masses outraged were a set of names with their bonuses.

What happened is that people relate to other people. They do not relate to market indices, or with broad economic indicators. They relate to other people — real people with real names.

That is why the show “the biggest loser,” may have a bigger impact on people losing weight than fancy studies on the optimal BMI to avoid all kind of bodily harm in your old age.

And that is why Trump’s bullying tactics to get companies to invest and keep their plants in the US is working wonders. While keeping tally of the number of jobs “he” can retain in this country is making every economist cringe, it is something people can relate to.

At the average BBQ party the talk would be: “Wow, did you hear: 700 jobs at Carrier, a new plant from Ford, etc.” Who else but policy wonks would talk about job percentage gains at a party?

Sure, reality is that to achieve the Obama administration’s job growth, the Trump administration would have to make a gazillion such deals.

In real life, perception is reality. A tally of how many people are keeping their jobs within specific companies, even if most of the claims would never muster the fact-checking test, is something that people can relate to, embrace, retell, and celebrate.

Which brings me to the Donkey analogy.

We never sold the ACA (aka Obamacare) the proper way. Who cares about single payer system, or the expansion of Medicaid and Medicare in States with the help from the Federal Government? People can’t relate to that. That’s why most Americans, and I suspect many Trump voters, think that ACA is better than Obamacare. It just sounds right. Obama was an evil Muslim President, and “Affordable Care” seems like the right solution.

Its a framing issue, taking advantage of one of the best documented human cognitive biases.

In our quest to save the ACA, in the face of a Republican Congress eager to cut 30 million people from health insurance, we are making the same mistake — our arguments are once again arguments that people cannot relate to.

Meanwhile Trump is promising that he will have insurance for everyone, cheaper to the consumer, and for less money to the government — without any proof.

Guess what?

That is something that makes sense.

And they buy it.

Hook. Line. And Sinker.

We should play Trump’s game by the same rules. Let’s keep a tally of communities and individuals who will lose their health insurance, and document their stories in ways people can relate to. Or better yet, let’s keep documenting the stories of Trump supporters who are feeling duped by the loss of their insurance.

Note that we are making that same mistake in almost any public debate.

Take for example, the argument about the new Secretary of Health Tom Price’s conflict of interest. As an orthopedic surgeon, he bought up to $15,000 worth of shares in Zimmer Biomet prior to introducing the HIP act, legislation to delay Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulation, which would have hurt Zimmer Biomet.

How many people do you think can relate to this?

In a country where 7 out of 10 people have less than $1,000 in savings — that number is probably very low. Why not document stories of named individuals who were personally hurt by his illegal actions?

It might upend his confirmation. Because people would relate to people just like them, not some distant politicians who are disconnected from real life.

Let’s Trump them at their own game, and stop being the proverbial Donkey!