What if the way to beat Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican primary is not to go low but to go high?
Political consultants and pundits have been advising that the other GOP candidates must fight back and “go through” Trump in order to win. It is hard to see how anyone beats the master of shamelessness at his own game. Trump’s attacks on his opponents are brutal. Just ask Ron “Pudding Fingers” DeSantis or anyone of his 2016 primary opponents.
The answer to our current political situation may just come from the 1500s.
Ambroise Paré was a French barber/surgeon who served four kings. Paré is considered a father of modern surgery and a pioneer in battlefield medicine and surgical techniques. Paré introduced the concept of gentle treatment of human tissue. He is also credited with the invention of surgical instruments and the introduction of the ligature to stop bleeding instead of the application of a hot iron.
During the 16th century there was a belief that gunpowder poisoned the wounds they created. Gunshot wounds were treated by being cleansed and detoxified with boiling oil. In 1533, while serving on the battlefields, Paré ran out of oil to boil. He created a bland soothing lotion of egg yolk and oil of turpentine. He applied his salve to the remaining soldiers’ wounds. The story goes that the next morning he was stunned by the contrast between the soldiers who were treated with boiling oil and those who he treated with his gentle emollient. “Those treated with hot oil, who we may view as the experimental controls, had spent the usual sleepless pain-racked night, while those treated with the gentle emollient were comfortable and without evidence of worsened tissue damage.”