User blog:TheShadowAssassin/Donald Trump's brilliant plan to take the White House

So, first off, I'd like to preface this by saying that what follows is purely subjective and is entirely my own opinion and thoughts regarding the election, more specifically, Donald Trump. What you will read below may or may not be true, hell if I know. I'd also like to mention that I'm not posting this to defend or support Trump; I was and still am actually a stout Bernie supporter and neither wished to see Trump nor Clinton win the election.

Please prepare yourself for a major wall of text. I apologize in advance. But, without further ado, I present to you:

Donald Trump's Brilliant Plan To Take The White House And Why It Worked

The quotes that you will read are quotes from a 5th century BC treatise known as, yes, The Art of War. The treatise is composed of 13 chapters, each one specializing in an aspect of warfare. We're going to take just the first 6 chapters, however.

Chapter I - "Detail Assessment and Planning"

"All warfare is based on deception. Pretend inferiority and encourage your enemy's arrogance. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush them."

As I'm sure you remember, Trump's first speech deliberately labeled Mexicans as being criminals, drug dealers, and rapists. As a result, the GOP pretty much considered Trump to be a "joke candidate", that is, he was to be considered inferior, enacting the first part of the aforementioned quote. Trump then baited his opponents by doubling down and making his grand wall between the US and Mexico the number one issue of the primary election. Trump's absurd stance on illegal immigration practically required all of the other GOP candidates to start one step back, allowing Trump to set the pace of the election moving forward.

Trump continued to hold out numerous baits throughout his campaign. Things such as, "Mexico will pay for the wall", will he or will he not run independent, banning Muslims, Hillary getting "schlonged" (is this allowed idk feel free to remove it if need be), and "Islam hates us" were used to feign disorder.

He then proceeds to double down every time, saying things like "No border, no country", "The wall will be 10 feet higher", or "bringing in Muslims brings in terrorists".

Chapter II - "Waging War"

"What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations. Where the army is, prices are high; when prices rise the wealth of the people is exhausted."

Notice how quickly each of Trump's ludicrous statements are succeeded by another. That is because, each time Trump is attacked, his "core voters" feel attacked as a result. The more his opponents attack him, the more surprised they become in seeing nothing stick.

Trump actually wants to be attacked, because he already set his opponents up in a position of weakness right at the start. His opponents are only trying to catch up, which continually puts them further behind and are seen as "low energy".

Chapter III - "Strategic Attack"

"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles.

What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease."

Trump knew exactly who he is, yet none of his opponents actually knew Trump. You can tell by what they said about Trump. They associate him with being mentally unstable, a bigot, a racist, a misogynist, and even Hitler. In reality, Trump is none of these. To say that he is demonstrates how they've already lost.

Trump's opponents not once took him seriously. Ted Cruz made remarks that Trump's voters are "uninformed". Mitt Romney said that Trump's supporters were "played for suckers". No one figured Trump out, not because he's crazy, but because he's clever. You can't simply laugh him off.

Chapter IV - "Disposition of the Army"

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

Trump had been planning this ever since the late 1980s, at least. All he had to do was relax and wait for the right political climate. Not even the political party that he ran for mattered, which is why he ran as a Republican, since it was technically the easiest path to victory. He really had no allegiance to either party, which only served to benefit him.

Chapter V - "Forces"

"The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim."

Trump's greatest strength was in dismantling and defeating his opponents. Jeb Bush's defeat was a brilliant effort by Trump through a continuous onslaught of perfect attacks.

Chapter VI - "Weaknesses and Strengths"

"Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness.

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.

''The ultimate in disposing one's troops is to be without ascertainable shape. Then the most penetrating spies cannot pry in nor can the wise lay plans against you.''"

Trump is not a fool. Everyone said, "Trump has no plans, no platform, no policies", but everything that he had said had been said purely by design.

Once, Hillary said. "If I'm running against Trump, there's plenty of time to come up with a plan before the general election". You could not plan against Trump. There was no political strategy to beat him. The only way Trump would have lost is by the people creating a movement of voters, a movement large enough to have beaten Trump's ridiculously large (and continually growing) fan base.

Hillary, just like Trump's rivals in the primaries, had no plan against Trump. She repeatedly used the same attacks against Trump that his previous rivals did, "he's a bigot", "a racist", "a sexist", etc. That didn't work in the primaries, and it sure as hell didn't work in the general election, obviously.

As I stated, there really was no political strategy to beat Trump. He wasn't playing by political rules, which was entirely the point. Realistically, there were maybe two paths to beating Trump, but neither one was about Hillary...

The first path was Bernie winning the Democratic Primaries. Bernie had everything. The charisma, the lovable Grandpa character, the sensible nature. His appeal was similar to that of Joe Biden: Real, passionate, and easy-going. Unfortunately, Bernie was running against the Clinton Machine and the DNC and, well.. He got screwed.

The second path was Bernie, again. Bernie should have been the VP pick, despite the apparent fact that Hillary leans more center than she does progressive. Hillary's inability to negotiate was her downfall, ultimately. It wasn't only the Bernie supporters who had refused to vote Hillary, it was also about their enthusiasm. Bernie's supporters were a group unlike anything anyone has seen before. The millions of phone calls, the incredible amount of donations, the tons of doors knocked. Their passion was what was most desperately needed in order to win against Trump.

Yes, it is true that Bernie campaigned for Hillary during the general election, but after that, it was never the same (five seconds on Bernie's Facebook page would prove that). Bernie used to be the man who could fight against the 1%, for free healthcare and tuition, and for a $15 minimum wage. He couldn't do any of that while he campaigned for Hillary because everyone knew she didn't truly care about any of that.

Hillary was essentially left with no enthusiasm, no passion, no Bernie, and.. no Presidency. She was too proud, and Trump used that to his advantage.

Trump is a genius. He knew Hillary. He knew that her primary weakness was her placidness. During her campaign, you would occasionally hear Hillary mention that the Republicans had been repeatedly attacking her for 30 years straight and not once found any dirt to hurt her with. She thought that that made her stronger. However, Trump took the quality that Hillary craved most and he turned it on its head, exactly as he did with his Republican rivals.

Trump's statements about "Crooked Hillary", "lock her up", "Rotten Clinton", etc. often made little sense to most people. Yes, she was truly a major political power-house. Yes, she was staunch in her convictions. However, that also made her incredibly stiff in her beliefs. The world is constantly changing, how could someone possibly maintain their convictions for 30+ years.. unless they're crooked and cheat. Lock her up.

Trump took her placidness and beat it submission. His first main attack on Hillary during the general election was, "If she wasn't playing the woman card, she wouldn't even get 5% of the vote." How did Hillary respond? "If fighting for women's rights and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal. Me. IN!"

This played out almost perfectly for Trump. He knew that she would be defiant, being a woman, and take that attack personally. He used this to put a gap between men and women voters. The male vote wasn't 2:1 for Trump because they were misogynists or sexists, it was actually because Hillary never mentioned them. Refer to The Art of War. It's really all about divide and conquer. Did Hillary ever mention men's issues? Hardly at all. While Hillary figured that she was being placid in protecting the woman card, Trump was playing the man card as a result.

In the end, you have to give it to Trump. He did an exceptional job in defying the rules of politics by displaying an act of brilliance, which has to be true, regardless of how you feel about the election.

Honestly, and in all seriousness, Trump won the Presidency 30 years ago.

If you made it this far.. Congratulations. I hope that I at least made some sense in all of this and that maybe we all learned something new. Now go out there and enjoy your life.

(Any inflammatory or otherwise potentially demeaning comments will be removed. Please be respectful. Partial credit goes to http://blog.dilbert.com/for bringing a lot of these points to light. Plus, the Dilbert comics are fun to read, so please check them out as well)