Trump Turns The Lies Up To “11”
And the crowd goes wild…
For a while, the “fake media”, which enabled Trump in a real way in 2016, wasn’t really covering Trump’s rallies. Except maybe to note he had one. And thus wasn’t giving him oodles of free advertising. And a widespread forum for his spew.
Now all of a sudden it’s a free-for-all again.
Not completely sure what’s changed, other than we’re closer to Election Day so perhaps the act of campaigning automatically becomes more newsy.
Perhaps it’s that Trump’s behavior has become even more outrageous. Which it has. Whether it’s calculatedly so or a feral response to being cornered at least temporarily, we don’t know. But his rallies are getting attention they weren’t just a couple of days ago. And his lunatic messages are once again freely being amplified.
We don’t want to also start repeating the escalating lies the President’s been telling, or the lurid crazy images he’s been painting. But they have again begun to creep into our feeds like a drumbeat, mostly in the context of “can you believe he just said that?”
But we’ll give you an example of something that isn’t new, just amplified: that COVID-19 is overblown as always, and even in areas where it’s currently “heated up”, it’ll be back down in 2 weeks. Evidence? He survived. Never mind that nearly anybody walking into a hospital right now wouldn’t be able to access the treatment he attributes to his recovery. There wouldn’t even be enough of it to treat just the new COVID-19 cases coming up every day.
Or that he left many rally-goers, many of them elderly out in the freezing cold, far, far from their vehicles in Omaha last night, long after he had taken off and moved on.
Because in either case, it’s getting him coverage again. And he doesn’t really seem to care at this point if the coverage is about outrage, or nonsense, or nothing positive at all. He’s being seen now: in more clear focus than in weeks.
While Joe Biden (and also Barack Obama, now that he’s out campaigning for Biden too), get some coverage, but way less than equal time. Plus their events are more safety-focused. And more sedate: which they probably would be anyway.
That doesn’t mean the overall impact of Trump’s many appearances, now suddenly again being seen, will result in a positive outcome for him politically.
Most of his conspiracy theory messaging about his opponent, centering on his son, hasn’t stuck so far. And so far, still isn’t sticking now. So that’s a big difference from 2016, when constant, droning repetition of stuff that was sticking to Hillary Clinton kind of drummed it all in.
And the progressive group prioritiesUSA did a poll which purports to show that Trump’s recklessness in staging unmasked rally after unmasked rally is actually losing him fans. With close to 60% of voters saying they feel less favorable about Trump because of it. But the question they asked is so loaded: “Does knowing Trump continue to hold large, in-person campaign rallies where wearing a mask is not required of attendees, and Trump himself does not wear a mask, making you feel more or less favorable to him?” With that question, what might be more unbelievable is that about 25% said they’re feeling more favorable about voting for him because of it.
And we’re kind of thinking it’d be easy and much simpler to look at the increasing number of images of Trump these days, and simply say: “Hey, the President looks pretty good, especially for someone who just had the Coronavirus, and lots of people still seem to like him.” And not worry much about content or even “crazy” at all.
But it would be cruel to leave you on a sour note like that. We know how difficult these days are; we’re living them too. So how about a whole article by a guy from Cook Political Report who warned Trump might win last time, all about reasons this time isn’t last time…
And don’t forget to vote. Still at least 3 more days in most states that have early voting to early vote. Or if you’ve been hanging on to a mail-in ballot, figure a time to drop it yourself in a drop box and then use the online ballot trackers most states are furnishing to see that it’s been accepted. A few states require mail-in ballots actually be mailed, in which case try to mail it from the post office in the same zip code where you’re sending it. You can also bring your entire mail-in ballot with you—all the envelopes, everything—to a polling place, turn it over, and then in-person vote.
Or if you haven’t done any of that, of course it’s just fine to present yourself proudly at the polls on November 3rd.