Five Elements of Trump’s 2020 Reelection Game Plan
Anybody who thinks Donald J. Trump can’t win in 2020 should seek professional help.
If we define insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then I urge folks to look back to this point in 2015 when our current President was considered unelectable--a joke even.
While the Democratic Party sorts --a good thing; let’s vet the hell out them-- through its many options in choosing a 2020 nominee, the party of Trump (there is no GOP anymore) is going full throttle with its campaign.
The Trumpian campaign strategy has five elements, and today I’ll outline them for readers in the hope that increased awareness can serve as a bulwark against the effectiveness of these tactics. Truth can be used as barrier against bullshit, but only if we repeat it as often as they do.
A reminder: when refuting propaganda, the most effective technique is what cognitive scientist and linguist George Lakoff calls a ‘truth sandwich.’
https://twitter.com/GeorgeLakoff/status/1068891959882846208
All five of Trump’s campaign tactics rely on repeating some version of the same untruth.
Campaign tactic #1: Foreign aid
No, this isn’t necessarily about Vladimir Putin. There are multiple foreign entities with a vested interest in continuing to help El Hefe and his minions continue to loot the resources of this country. Armies of bots repeating messages on social media can be bought these days, and nations like Saudi Arabia, Israel, and North Korea have developed their own capabilities.
And then there’s this, via NBC News:
In 2016, the Trump campaign gladly accepted Russia’s help to defeat Hillary Clinton.
And heading into the 2020 race, Rudy Giuliani is headed to Ukraine to push the country’s president to pursue an investigation into Joe Biden’s son, the New York Times writes.
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,” Giuliani told the Times about his upcoming visit to Ukraine.
Campaign Tactic # 2: Trade access for coverage in high profile media.
The New York Times is Exhibit A here. Having published front page stories in 2016 about Hillary Clinton based on defective right wing research and used information from a foreign government (Wikileaks emails stolen by Russia), along with the ‘Uranium One’ mythology, they’re already at it again in 2019.
The Times based their initial coverage on the “Biden/Ukraine” scandal on phone calls from Trump fixer Rudy Giuliani. It took less than 24 hours for reporters from other organizations (Bloomberg, CNN) to prove this story was a nothingburger, but now that the lie is out there, it’s getting round-the-clock coverage.
The Times and other mass media are playing Trump’s game. Normal lines of communication between the administration and the press have been replaced by trading favors for access.
FYI-The Trump administration this week revoked every White House press pass, and is now allowing access on a temporary, case-by-case basis. Which effective means banishment for impertinent reporters. The Pentagon has not had a press briefing in over 300 days; there used to be daily updates.
Campaign Tactic #3 - Outrageous statements at Rallies in Red States.
Feeding the hardcore faithful fear and loathing on a regular basis is an essential part of the plan. In addition to fostering cable news coverage, the all important messaging about fear of the “other” combined with veiled calls to violence keeps his supporters energized, and not always in a good way.
Counties hosting a Trump rally in 2016 saw a 226% increase in hate crimes.
Campaign Tactic #4 - Less than truthful ads.
In the first two and a half months of 2019, the Trump campaign spent $4.5 million on Facebook and Google ads. These messages are not about what the administration is doing with policy and programs. They are about making (mostly older people) afraid.
Judd Legum’s newsletter Popular Information has been watching these Facebook ads, and has filed complaints over their deceptive content. It’s like playing whack-a-mole; one ad gets deactivated and another takes its place.
There are, of course, no elected Democrats at the national level calling for "a repeal of the Second Amendment." Therefore, this ad violates Facebook's prohibition on "false or misleading content." (Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens did call for repealing the Second Amendment, but he is a Republican appointed by former Republican president Gerald Ford.)
I brought the ad to the attention of Facebook, and a spokesperson promised to get back to me. The company never provided a substantive response but, by the next day, the language in all of Trump's ads had changed, and all the ads were set to "inactive."
The new ads changed “Democrats have admitted what they truly want: a repeal of the Second Amendment.” to “Democrats have been telling us that they only want ‘gun control.’ But the truth is finally out. Now some are now [sic] proudly calling for a REPEAL OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT.”
This is slightly more accurate since there are some Democrats somewhere who want the Second Amendment repealed, even if the party as a whole is not embracing that position. (A recent poll also found 8% of Republicans want to repeal the Second Amendment.)
Campaign Tactic #5 - Sympathetic organizations amplify and attack
There are plenty of examples to be had here (Planned Parenthood comes to mind), but for the sake of brevity I’ll focus on the nastiest of them all.
The National Rifle Association spent more than $30 million to support Donald Trump in 2016. Another $20 million went to support key GOP Senate seats. One in six TV ads aired nationwide supporting the campaign were paid for by the NRA. McClatchy News reports another $15 million spent by the NRA somehow slipped through the cracks.
This year, the NRA is deep financial trouble. Memberships are declining, its money making insurance scheme has collapsed, and recent mailings have warned of the organization’s imminent collapse. It’s recent national meeting was marked by infighting and accusations of financial improprieties. (While Oliver North quits because he thinks a group is too corrupt, you know things must be really bad.)
However, the NRA still has its vile social media machine, which has been accused of inciting the faithful to send along death threats targeting key activists working to oppose the Trump agenda.
From Daily Kos:
Most recently they’ve unveiled their same old racist sensibilities and their open attack on mothers. Mothers who have organized in various ways to try and bring sensible gun safety laws into our country’s public health crisis of firearm homicide. One of those women and mothers fighting for sensible gun laws is Shannon Watts, who began organizing after the tragic events at Sandy hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012.
https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1126476564323917830
***
Department of humble bragging: Yours truly has a say in the Union-Tribune’s discussion about what to do about haters on social media. I left out the the part about the firing squads.
Hey folks! Be sure to like/follow Words & Deeds on Facebook. If you’d like to have each post mailed to you, check out the simple subscription form on the right side of the front page.
Email me at DougPorter@WordsAndDeedsBlog.com