Trump Campaign’s Big Tent Killer Kool Aid Party Set for Tulsa
VIA KTUL News, Tulsa, OK: "The Oklahoma State Department of Health says there are now 1,653 confirmed coronavirus cases in Tulsa County since the pandemic began. There were 89 new cases reported in the county since Sunday. This is the largest single-day increase since the state's first positive case was reported on March 6. "
The President is itching to take his campaign on the road. This is likely because somebody, somewhere had the nerve to maybe mention just how badly he’s tanking in the polls. Tucker Carlson, Fox News most reliable racist, said something on Monday night about Black Lives Matter being more popular than Donald J. Trump.
Three recent polls in Michigan show incumbent Trump losing to Joe Biden by double-digits, and the trend line is definitely downward. Likely voters and registered voters in Florida are telling pollsters the same story.
While it shouldn’t be necessary to say this, there are more than four months left until election day, and polls can and do change. In 2016 polling in Michigan had Trump down by almost 4 points. Plus, a Biden victory needs to include flipping the Senate; my last look at those polls showed the possibility of flipping six seats, even with Doug Jones losing in Alabama.
https://twitter.com/NicoleSganga/status/1272943511055327232?s=20
The first Trump rally since March was originally scheduled for June 19. Faced with of a wave of criticism over the event being held on the same day as many commemorate the end of slavery, it was moved to Saturday.
The date may have been moved but the subtext is the same, it’s push back against all the Black Lives Matter protests.
Tulsa was the site of one of the most vicious acts of racial violence in U.S. history. In 1921, an angry white mob attacked homes and businesses in a thriving community known as “Black Wall Street,” killing some 300 people and leaving thousands homeless. In another time, and perhaps with a different president, a trip to Tulsa could be an occasion for absolution or remembrance, a chance to talk courageously about healing America’s gaping racial wound.
But for this administration, the decision to hold a rally in that city constitutes an act of diabolical irony. A man who rode to the White House on a hot gust of racial grievance will be visiting a place where white resentment exploded into two days of epic terror, wiping one of history’s most prosperous black communities off the map.
According to the president’s re-election campaign, over a million people have asked for tickets to attend the rally. The venue it’s being held in has seating for 19,000 people.
Although some Oklahoma politicians have politely suggested moving to a larger space, the campaign is adamant about staying put for what will be a “masks optional’ event. Vice President Pence told Fox and Friends, that some additional outside spaces may become available.
The Tulsa World newspaper and the city’s top public health official have asked the president not to come, based on concerns over the transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
.“We don’t know why he chose Tulsa,” the newspaper’s editorial board wrote, “but we can’t see any way that his visit will be good for the city.”
From the Guardian:
Rally attendees will have to sign a waiver, saying they will not hold the Trump campaign responsible if they contract Covid-19.
Nonetheless, Trump allies including the White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and Oklahoma senator James Lankford have insisted it is safe to hold the rally.
Lankford called the reported increase in cases in his state “a little bit of a bump”.
Kent Sepkowitz is a CNN medical analyst and a physician and infection control expert. He points to the area’s long history of big tent revivals is a reason for all the reported enthusiasm:
Watching, my brothers and I felt confusion and awe, wondering if they were kidding or if they were actors or if they were insane or if they maybe were being cured -- I mean it seemed so convincing in its own way. Rows of people looking up, believing and eager and happy despite (or because of) the scene's basic lack of credibility. They shrieked and clapped as Oral Roberts' touch and prayer healed person after person.
Which brings us to now and the Trump rallies. For me, the most unsettling feature as he gloats and preens his hour upon the stage is the hypnotic connection between him and his crowd. Because these are the very faces I saw on my Sunday morning TV -- those of people who are witnessing an incredible miracle.
Tulsa therefore is the perfect place for the President to resume his campaign. Not only does he get a groveling crowd and a chance to cruelly wink at the city's racist past but because he is guaranteed something he can't find any place else: an arena full of people raised on the exhilarating lunacy of a giant tent revival.
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Meanwhile, in other health related misinformation…
https://twitter.com/xeni/status/1272941475974615040?s=20
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Lead image via FunnyJunk on Twitter