Trump needs sharp social discord, and he needs to risk our lives

[Tom Rinaldo]

Trump is pinning his vanishing chance for reelection on three strategies, each one of which will cause great damage and much suffering for the people he claims he wants to lead. That latter phrase is a misstatement, however. Trump couldn't care less about actually leading anyone, he only wants a subservient public who will unquestionably follow him, with everyone else relegated to collateral damage. None of this is new nor surprising, but taken as a whole it is breathtaking in a terrifying way to realize just how far Trump is willing to go to hold onto power.

Strategy number one: Create a temporary illusion that our economy is rapidly returning to normal so that spending goes up and unemployment goes down. Trump expected to win reelection by claiming to have created "the best economy anyone has seen". He was powerless to prevent the massive economic hit America sustained when the pandemic exploded on our soil, so Trump has to pretend that all of that lost economic activity is about to come roaring back, and he needs some "encouraging data" to spin for that fantasy before presidential votes are cast. So America had to reopen for business, and children must be forced to attend classes outside of their homes, to free up their parents to staff the humming workplaces that existed before Covid-19. Trump's gambit is to create an illusion of economic and social normality now so as to capture the maximum number of votes possible, and to hope that the pandemic doesn't completely blow up in his face before November. Masks unfortunately undercut his intended imagery. The deaths that await us all after his reelection don't matter to Trump, simply that he remains in office. He will say and do anything to "prop up" the economy before Election Day, the human cost of deadly lies is irrelevant to Trump, if it's not faced before November. School kids and teachers are just fodder for Trump.

Strategy number two: Incite Fear. Stoke fear (among whites) of all members of every minority group. Stoke fear of all those not native born to America (except for Native Americans who should obviously be permanently feared). Stoke fear that atheists will forbid worship, that liberals will confiscate all guns, and that angry mobs of radicals will hunt down and murder God fearing law abiding patriotic Americans while turning our cities into war zones. Trump needs video footage to use in his apocalyptic propaganda commercials, so he has zero incentive to promote healing, and zero incentive to promote peace. He wants American nerves jagged, he wants our paranoia rampant. He wants to claim that it is either him or the abyss. If enough so called scenes of riots and "American carnage" aren't available for his political needs, Trump will try to create them, and that is the real mission of his secret police; to provoke violence, not to counter it. And Trump is being increasingly open with his racism because he wants a violent reaction to it.

Strategy number three: De-legitimize the election. Trump will do everything possible to convince Americans that this election is rigged against him. It's not enough to use the standard Republican playbook that the liberal mainstream media is biased against him, Trump means rigged, as in literally RIGGED. Anyone he can use to help weaponize his conspiracy, he will. Remember the imaginary three plus million illegal undocumented voters Trump claimed kept him from winning the popular vote last time? Trump has already accused President Obama of Treason, literally. He has already claimed China will print up millions of forged mail in ballots to fraudulently tilt the election to their secret puppet Biden. Trump is knowingly trying to destroy the confidence Americans have in our electoral system. The long term damage that he is doing to our democracy by doing so can hardly be even fathomed. But that doesn't matter to Trump. If he manages, by whatever means, to be declared the winner of November's vote, he will get to stay in power. At that point it won't matter to Trump if people believe that the election was rigged for him, he would consolidate his rule. And if Trump is not quickly declared the winner of the vote, it leads to one of two options. If we are really really lucky Trump, calculating that he can not win a show down, will ultimately exit the White House, claiming all the while that the election was rigged against him. The other option either ends our Constitutional Republic, or triggers our second Civil War.

[world wide wally]

1. Regardless of the tack that emerges, he will still be held accountable for what will be close to

200,000 dead Americans as a result of his reluctance to lead in a crisis. Fuck Trump.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. I believe this too

Trump an ugly human being, in the deepest sense of the word. The more he is exposed the more difficult it is hide to that reality. He has the opposite of charm, he is repulsive, and that does not wear well. very few will cut him any slack when his house of cards falls down. He lost his gamble on the virus, and he has lost his control of the narrative. His fall will not be pretty.

[appalachiablue]

3. Fasten your seat belts folks. Wonderful post, thanks much.