A Failed Rally, An Angry President, & a San Diego Must-Win Race
I had a bad feeling about Saturday’s Covidfest in Tulsa, but my underlying assumption was wrong. What scared me was the prospect of the President’s visit being a bloodbath with sanctioned and/or unsanctioned groups fighting protesters in the streets outside the Bank of Oklahoma arena.
That nightmare scenario didn’t come to pass. Protesters generally stayed away from the rally site. And a presidential campaign largely built on manufactured mass displays of white rage saw its signature move fall way short of expectations.
It doesn’t matter why the venue was about two-thirds empty. In days of old the faithful would have crawled over broken glass to exist in Donald Trump’s presence. I suspect it was a combination of all the factors being discussed.
The TikTok and Kpop crews flexed their newly politicized virtual muscles, using burner accounts to make reservations that denied the campaign access to the data they hoped to harvest and the crowd size Trump needed to cheer him up..
Trump’s demographic trends older, and older folks have more to worry about when it comes to COVID-19. The prospect of a miserable death by suffocation may have kept some from attending. As a certified old person™ I can attest that the fear is real.
The Trumpian exaltation of Antifa, along with large numbers of “them people,” as a mob determined to destroy private property, likely influenced some would-be attendees to stay home. Demonstrations in Tulsa were peaceful. One woman who dared to wear a I Can’t Breathe tee shirt was removed from the rally and arrested for trespassing, despite having a ticket.
Finally, as polling is showing, increasing numbers of people no longer find America’s crazy uncle to be so amusing anymore. He’s definitely lost a few marbles along the way as the seventeen minutes he spent explaining his experiences at West Point proved.
As we know from just about every former administration official who’s had a book to sell, the only thing beyond the here and now that Donald Trump is capable of contemplating is his re-election.
One other thing evident about the man, based on history, is an inability to admit error no matter how small. So, while some politicians might be thinking about re-tuning their campaign, with Trump there is only more of the same punctuated with more bravado.
After a day of silence on Sunday, the President’s twitter account roared back to life on Sunday night with the usual grievances and self-prase.
On Monday, Trump took it to another level, seeking to stoke fears about voter fraud. I’m not sure how these tweets don’t violate Twitter’s terms of service, so I made copies just in case they’re deleted.
It’s my observation that Trump’s disappointment over the Tulsa rally will make him even more dangerous to our Democracy.
Fortunately, the antidote for the Trump Deathsate campaign is already in place. In recent weeks over 25 million Americans have participated in protests that speak to a critical element of his essential vileness
Trump may rant and rave about THE SILENT MAJORITY, but what I see is a whole lot of people finding their voices to say Black Lives Matter and no more of this divide and conquer crap.
What we have here is a confluence of rising social and economic consciousness. People are cornered, morally, politically, and financially. And despite the “re-opening” of businesses nationally, lots of people are for the moment finding themselves with time to do something other than work.
Our President and his loony tune advisors (would you take investing advice from Mssrs Ludlow, Mnuchin or Navarro?) may think a rising stock market is the same as the economy, but tens of millions of Americans, corona recession or not, would beg to disagree.
I am not so foolish as to think electing a Democratic dominated government will solve these problems, being complicit with corruption and moral failure is a non-partisan issue. But for now, getting rid of Trump and his cohorts is a realistic first step.
A combination of street activism PLUS electoral participation is what’s needed in 2020.
It’s NOT just Donald Trump that needs to go. It’s the whole stinkin ecosystem of grifters and wannabe fascists that needs to be uprooted.
In electoral parlance, we’re talking about down the ballot. And while San Diego has its share of quislings in office, the most obvious place to focus on is the election for County Supervisor.
Three of five seats are on the ballot. Two, based on who is on the ballot, are already going to be split between Democrats and Republicans. With the election of Nathan Fletcher in 2018, only one more Democrat on the supes will make a difference for San Diegans.
The county level of government in California is responsible for administering much of the social safety net, and is influential in other areas like the environment when it comes to funding programs.
So the supervisor contest to care about the most pits incumbent Republican Kristin Gaspar against progressive Democrat Terra Lawson-Remer. District voter registration now favors Democrats, and Gaspar has been unabashed about her loyalty to Dear Leader.
Lawson-Remer’s campaign needs a huge blue wave in November. Support her in any way you can.
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Today in Trumplandia…
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1275128418003226625?s=20
https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1274851580530089987?s=20
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