It took a while, but President
Donald Trump finally found the shiny object he was seeking. With polls showing
him losing to Democratic rival Joe Biden, Trump desperately sought to change
the subject from his catastrophic response to COVID-19 to something else. He
found it with the protests that had erupted stemming from yet another unarmed
black man shot by police. #hocopolitics
To be sure, Trump’s supposed
management of the pandemic, which has killed nearly 190,000 Americans and
counting, has been a complete failure. From scuttling the Obama-Biden plan for
dealing with a potential pandemic, to denying coronavirus’ existence, to
calling it a hoax, to claiming it would magically disappear, to politicizing
masks, to a lack of a national testing strategy, to rejecting scientific and
medical expertise, to bizarrely silencing Dr. Anthony Fauci, Jr., to the U.S. leading the world in fatalities, to blaming
everyone else but him, registered voters overwhelmingly disapproved of his response.
Trump initially assumed the
coronavirus was a blue state problem until he was stunned by learning it has
spread to rural America—Trump country. For good measure, his son-in-law Jared
Kushner fought the development of a nationwide testing strategy believing the
coronavirus impacted blue states more and that team Trump could blame
Democratic governors..
Moreover, Trump falsely claimed
he saved hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives with the “great job” he
was doing. That’s akin to saying he saved over 300 million American lives by
not nuking our country. In an open and fair election, Trump was clearly on the
path to lose and he knew it.
Then came the brutal murder of
George Floyd at the hands of members of the Minneapolis Police Department and
the worldwide protests that ensued. Instead
of calling for social justice to end the stench of racism that exists in many
police departments and to embark on a journey towards healing, Trump focused on
the arson and looting that accompanied what were overwhelmingly peaceful
demonstrations until police and other provocateurs raised the temperature.
Clashes with protesters have
continued on and off for months in Portland, OR, and a new hot spot in Kenosha,
WI. emerged with the shooting of Jacob Blake by another police officer leaving
Mr. Blake paralyzed.
These events and others gave
Trump the opportunity to turn the page on COVID-19 (indeed, speakers at the
Republican National Convention acted as if the pandemic was history) and blame
Democratic-led cities for being incapable of squashing the “violence.” In
Portland Trump dispatched unidentified cammo-wearing agents to clash with and
arrest the protesters.
Inspired by Trump’s complete
disregard for police reform and instead his zeroing in on the protesters who he
describes as “rioters”, right wing militia groups saw themselves as the only
force standing between chaos in the streets of America and law and order.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, it did. A 17 year-old
Trump and avid police supporter, Kyle Rittenhouse, traveled from Illinois to
Kenosha, just 20 miles away carrying a military-style assault weapon under the
guise of protecting local businesses from destruction. He had been joined by
other far-right extremists including “boogaloo bois.” During a melee, young
Rittenhouse shot and killed two protesters and injured a third.
Though he was charged for
murder, rather than condemning the killings, Trump sided with Rittenhouse
because, obviously, he was a Trump supporter. He suggested he acted in
self-defense as the youth’s lawyer contends. In doing so, Trump put his fingers
on the scale of justice.
All this is adding up to a clear
reelection strategy. Trump cannot run on the hard-hit economy in which his
failed pandemic response created. He certainly can’t run on his character, or foreign
policy as we are now the laughing stock of the world. On top of that, he is
solidly in the history books as an impeached president.
So he works up his base into a lather
by stoking racism and fear. He inspires and encourages “his people” to act
where Democratic leaders are incapable of doing. And he defends them as “peaceful
protesters” never mind that they are often heavily armed. Trump repeatedly said
Biden’s America would devolve into ruins ignoring the fact the unrest is taking
place on his watch.
Crazily Trump blames protest
violence on people in “dark shadows” and conjures up an old conspiracy theory
stating there are planes filled with “thugs” in black uniforms that descended
on Washington. He compared the shooting in Kenosha by police officer to a
golfer missing an easy putt. Wow!
For his part, Joe Biden
presented an eloquent alternative view of the situation. In a speech delivered
on August 21 in Pittsburgh, Biden condemned Trump’s actions.
“Fires are burning and we have a
president who fans the flames, rather than fighting the flames,” Biden said in
his speech. “But we must not burn. We have to build. This president long ago
forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can't stop the violence
because for years he’s fomented it.”
And that, sadly, will be the
norm over the next 60-plus days. Calling for law and order after he incites
rioting is Trump’s only strategy left.
Courtesy of The Lincoln Project
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