Seriously, Not Literally, a Giant Bug Zapper

Understanding Donald Trump's gambits for Canada, Greenland, and Panama.

One of my favorite political campaign commercials came from the 1994 US Senate race in Oklahoma for the late Jim Mountain Inhofe, who passed away at age 83. I spent the final five weeks of that campaign with Jim and consulting his campaign, mostly on earned and paid media.

One of the people I worked most closely with in that campaign was Fred Davis, then an accomplished “real” advertising executive and producer in Los Angeles and Inhofe’s cousin. It was Fred’s first political campaign, and we became fast friends and collaborators on radio and television ads during Inhofe’s meteoric climb to a landslide win. Davis tells the story of how he got involved in his first political campaign and launched a 20+-year political advertising career, including the McCain presidential campaign in 2008.

Davis was drawn into the world of politics in 1994 when, after having moved his business to Los Angeles in the mid-80s and rechristening it as Strategic Perception Inc., he received a call from his uncle, then Oklahoma Congressman James M. Inhofe, to help guide his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Hired three months prior to the election, when polls showed Inhofe as a 15-point underdog to Congressman Dave McCurdy, Inhofe won the election by 15 points, a 30-point swing in 90 days.

You can find examples of Davis’s near-perfect blend of humor and biting attacks on the Democratic nominee, US Rep. David McCurdy (D-OK), in what turned into an anti-Bill Clinton political environment. Republicans won control of the Senate and the House, the latter for the first time in 40 years.

This commercial ran only once and late in the campaign. Oklahomans, not unlike other similarly “situated” states (think most southern and Appalachian states), are sensitive about perceptions of them (think “deplorables” and “bitter clingers”). So when the Inhofe campaign found a McCurdy speech from 1991 that poked fun at the Sooner State, Davis pounced.

I remember previewing that ad, commenting on its emotive power, and worrying that it might result in a backlash. Besides, Jim had climbed from a double-digit polling deficit to a gush of momentum and a nice lead as we entered the final couple of weeks. My fellow Oklahomans will get it.

We decided to run the ad only once. I recall that it earned Davis an award, along with other ads from that campaign, which you can see here, along with a few others he’s produced.

Ads that run only once don’t impact unless they make news. This one somehow didn’t. But I’ve been reminded of that ad over the past few weeks with Trump’s trolling and expansionist talk about making Canada the 51st state, buying Greenland (he’s threatened that before), and re-taking the Panama Canal.

Many of the usual TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) infected media and political types are resorting to their usual name-calling and hand-wringing. Those in the real world who have dealt with real estate developers understand what’s happening with Trump’s outlandish rhetoric on his hemispheric ambitions, including renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

Folks on social media are having fun with the Gulf of Mexico renaming.

Texans and others who traverse I-95 around Florence, South Carolina, will get this. Buc-ees is a remarkable set of gas stations and rest stops along several major highways in Florida, Kentucky, Alabama, and Colorado.

Trump reminds me of a giant political bug zapper, incessantly emitting and constantly attracting TDS-infected moths with room-temperature IQs to himself. They can’t help themselves. They’re even focused on him instead of focusing on the facts of the disaster and what led to it - including the fact that deadly wildfires and earthquakes are an ever-present risk in the Golden State. The beautiful seaside community of Pacific Palisades has been hit hard with wildfires twice in the past century, including in 1938 and 1961. Berkley and several other cities were destroyed by fire in 1923. It’s hard to blame “climate change” for that. Californians have acknowledged the risks of wildfires and earthquakes endemic to the Golden State since and before Mexico possessed it, including ferocious Santa Ana winds, as a price to pay for ideal weather and pristine vistas.

Let’s state the obvious. Canada will not become the 51st state. Greenland might become independent, but it won’t become a US territory. The US won’t send troops to retake the Panama Canal, but watch this space; the Panama Canal Treaty empowers the US military to ensure safe and neutral passage through the nearly 110-year-old canal. Built by the United States, the late Jimmy Carter gave the canal to Panama in a treaty ratified by the US Senate by a margin of one vote (requiring a two-thirds vote). The issue rankled conservatives for years, and the “Panama Canal giveaway” became a political issue for over a decade.

That is, except for this little amendment inserted by then-Senator Howard Baker (R-TN): “For the duration of this Treaty, the United States of America shall have the primary responsibility to protect and defend the Canal.” Ownership was officially transferred in 1999, with Jimmy Carter in attendance.

Having said all that, Canada’s likely next Prime Minister, Pierre Poilievre, the current Leader of the Opposition, has constructed the perfect response to Trump’s trolling via an interview with the Canadian psychologist and now Daily Wire contributor Dr. Jordan Peterson via an interesting Canadian YouTuber, who contrasts the usual name calling by Liberals with Poilievre’s more sophisticated and nuanced view of dealing with our 47th President. It’s worth your time.

Trump may have met his match. Since Ronald Reagan, the conservative Poilievre (“Polly-ev”) has been North America's most skilled, strategic, and thoughtful political communicator. He is way more sophisticated and precise than Trump. Poilievre has poll numbers in left-leaning Canada that Trump can only dream of in the USA.

This was conducted after PM Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as Liberal Party leader.

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of Prime Minister he will be, possibly as soon as this summer. A 90-day election will likely be called by the end of March once the failed Liberal Party picks a new leader, akin to being the cruise director of the Titanic. It will be a new dawn for a beleaguered Canada, whose dollar value recently declined to nearly half the US dollar before rebounding to 69 cents, still a historic low. Fifty years ago, Canada’s dollar was more valuable than ours.

Mexico’s Claudia Schienbaum and Denmark’s Mette Fredrickson should take notes. Panama’s President, José Raúl Mulino, should as well.

About five percent of global maritime shipping traverses the Panama Canal. Trump is angry that CK Hutchinson, a Hong Kong-based company under nominal Chinese control, manages ports at both ends of the canal. While there’s no evidence of direct Chinese government control and indeed no current Chinese military presence, there’s no question of China’s growing global “investments” as part of its “Belt and Road Initiative,” especially in Latin America.

The same is true for Greenland. A few years ago, the country’s Prime Minister met with Chinese counterparts in Beijing to discuss a “loan” to build airports through Chinese construction companies. The first Trump Administration freaked out, prompting Denmark, the owner of the “autonomous” Greenland, to cancel the deals. They did, and now Denmark is funding most of the airport projects. 

China’s M.O. usually includes favorable loan shark terms, but when facilities fail, they become Chinese government-controlled entities, often including a military presence. Just ask many African nations, including Djibouti, which features a massive new port and a Chinese military base around the bend, so to speak, from one of ours at the base of the Red Sea. That’s cozy.

Maybe you're starting to see the method behind Trump’s alleged “madness.”

Whether it’s a return to the Monroe Doctrine remains to be seen, but Trump is reasserting American influence over our hemisphere. Like any successful real estate developer - and Trump made his millions in the most brutal market of them all, New York City - he is laying down a marker, making an opening bid - pick your metaphor - for negotiations that will no doubt ensue.

His objectives?

• Lower prices and protecting US interests at the Panama Canal, including countering Chinese influence.

• A more substantial presence in the Arctic and access to rare earth minerals on Greenland, the world’s largest island and perhaps its final frontier. More importantly, we need to keep Russia’s and China’s ambitions in the Arctic at bay.

• A stronger economic union with Canada, including a partnership that includes dominating the world’s fossil fuel markets and access to other raw materials and minerals that reduce costs and empower manufacturers on both sides of the border.

I know many TDS-infected Republicans would rather have Mitt Romney or George W. Bush in charge. Trump’s methods may often be cringe-worthy and violate international “Marquis of Queensbury” rules and protocols. However, they haven’t succeeded in advancing or cementing US interests over the past 30 years, maybe longer, as Communist China has asserted itself worldwide. A new Sheriff is in town, and he’s earned the opportunity to see what he can accomplish.

Have fun with Trump’s machinations. But don’t overreact.