Presidential re-election campaigns are theoretically a referendum. Approve-Disapprove.
Trump will make this one a choice: Trump, or the angry, America-hating, Muslim communist.
Preview of 2020.
Trump stepped back into the limelight with his tweets about the 4 Congresswomen. The story about Jeffrey Epstein and his links to Trump had put Trump back into the tabloid swamp, and people were talking on TV about the census loss.
Better to distract and change the subject.
Better to distract and change the subject.
The tweets created a predictable uproar. Trump implemented his tried and true formula.
1. Create a distraction.
2. Get shocked criticism from the usual suspects on the left and in the media.
3. Double down and say something unapologetic and even more shocking.
4. Accuse the critics of doing the same thing, only worse.
Readers on online political media are getting pop-up ads that reinforce what Trump is saying in the White House rose garden. This makes the controversy no longer about him, or what he said. The controversy is about the terrible, horrible racist criticism voiced by the radical leftist anti-American Muslim foreigners like Ilhan Omar, and how Trump stood up to her and the others.
The ad purports to ask a question: "Do you approve of Rep. Omar, or do you oppose her radical liberal agenda and criticism of America?"
The ad purports to ask a question: "Do you approve of Rep. Omar, or do you oppose her radical liberal agenda and criticism of America?"
A reader clicks on the yes or no button, then submits the vote by registering ones email address and consenting to future emails from a Trump-allied news site.
The Trump formula works best when allies validate and enlarge it. Fox News expresses shock at vulgarities and criticism of "the president" brought by members of the Squad. The Green New Deal will ban meat and cars!
Lindsay Graham calls the four congresswomen "Communists."
Trump and his allies are defining the critique and calls for reform by the Squad into this being a criticism of America and the American way of life, not of Trump.
Trump approval: 44% Democratic activists and political pundits are clutching a political life preserver of no value. Trump need never have a high approval number, and I expect he never will. After all, he fights dirty and is proud of it. Good, well brought up, educated people in suburban neighborhoods have higher standards of presidential behavior than Trump demonstrates, so of course he has low approval numbers. They wanted some checks on him, so the House flipped Democratic.
For the 2020 election the approval-disapproval number does not matter. What is important is on whose side is he fighting dirty?
Trump defines himself as fighting for America. He only needs to be more popular than the enemy he chooses, the one he defines as an angry, anti-American, Muslim communist who hates America. It will be a choice between them.
Will this work? We saw it work.
By election day, 2016 Americans on the left stayed home or voted for Stein, and Republicans voted for Trump, both because they believed Hillary was too crooked to be president. Trump didn't run against Hillary; he ran against Crooked Hillary. He chose and shaped his opponent.
By election day, 2016 Americans on the left stayed home or voted for Stein, and Republicans voted for Trump, both because they believed Hillary was too crooked to be president. Trump didn't run against Hillary; he ran against Crooked Hillary. He chose and shaped his opponent.
Omar won't be the Democratic nominee, but she and her fellow Squad members will be the people Trump puts front and center as his opponent, the person who supposedly whispers in the ear of the candidate and whose anti-American agenda will triumph unless Trump is re-elected.
Watch.
[Note, after posting the above I encountered the article here in Politico Magazine. It warns about what I cited here:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/07/16/memo-to-dems-youre-playing-into-trumps-hands-227362]
[Note, after posting the above I encountered the article here in Politico Magazine. It warns about what I cited here:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/07/16/memo-to-dems-youre-playing-into-trumps-hands-227362]
6 comments:
Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris aren't too much different that Ilhan Omar is (it's not Abdullah Omar). Their policies aren't much different.
Trump is going to mop the floor with whichever communist the democrats nominate.
Kamala Harris just pushed-through legislation to greatly increase the number of green cards given to East Indians, so that they can steal young American tech workers' jobs. Harris just sold-out Americans. Who would want her?
I don't think this particular incident will have much traction going forward, however it occurs to me that there may be "isms" actually more at play than racism. Classism. Sexism.
What the four congresswomen represent in the minds of Trumplicans is skin color, yes, but also those they consider beneath them socially and economically, something necessary for their fragile self-esteem. It's threatening to have lawmakers who unmistakably are champions of the poor and disadvantaged and this upheaval of the social order demands confrontation. Add to this they are women and it's even more disturbing in the context of the Epstein revelations which I predict will surpass Cosby as it plays out over the next year.
Trumpists lose this one. They sound shrill and hysterical, Graham in particular. Trump is forcing his enablers to choose sides when most of them, like Walden, have been dancing like crazy to maintain some distance and deniability. The House vote ended that.
These four women are activist, brave, principled, novice and utterly unmainstream. I am their admirer and feel more pride in them as a collective than any other currently elected politician. They are greater than the sum of their individual merits. They are a lightening rod, a progressive hit squad, and will be heralded as heroes if Trump loses or reviled as the cause of his reelection. Because I subscribe to the predictive econometric and electoral data models that uniformly forecast Trump's reelection, I see a grim future for these gladiators when a shocked and angry Democratic party gives a thumbs down to their survival in the arena. AOC will thrive as the lead singer who goes solo, the other three will likely be remembered in infamy. But I will wear their group tee shirt until it wears out.
I often wonder why Curt keeps referring to the Liberals as Communists, when Trump's best buddies are Putin and Kim, the world's most formattable Communists. Trump seems to like all Communists, even the president of China who was just elected head of their government for life. Envy perhaps?
The right Democrat will take him down using his own Tweets and speeches against him. Trump said...and then he said... and also he said ...etc. Considering he cannot tell the truth about almost anything, that should be enough.
On the other hand, if people like a president who constantly lies and cozies up to foreign Communist dictators, then they will get what they deserve. And I don't feel sorry for them.
Double Down Donald: lying, misogynist, dog whistle racist, narcissistic nationalist crazy pants lunatic. What’s not to like? What could be more American?
Rinse, repeat.
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