Something to bear in mind

[EarlG]

In 2018 Trump and Co. tried to make the midterm elections all about immigrant caravans massing at the southern border, and MS-13 terrorizing American suburbs.

Here’s an example of the BS they were peddling at the time (it’s awful, feel free to not watch):

It was, of course, a spectacular failure. Democrats sharply focused their message on healthcare, and took the House back in a landslide.

So, while the mayhem going on in Portland, Kenosha and elsewhere makes a fine rallying point for the RW to try this all over again, I would suggest that it’s not a top issue for most voters. This poll from two weeks ago shows “violent crime” as a major issue for Republicans, but the fifth most important issue overall after the economy, healthcare, Supreme Court, and COVID:

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/08/13/important-issues-in-the-2020-election/

COVID is really the massive elephant in the room, and it is the reason why Trump and Co. are spending so much time and effort trying to make “mayhem in the streets” into a thing. They need a distraction from their spectacular COVID failure, and they need to turn out their base. They also want to try to terrorize suburban voters into voting for them, but again, that tactic already failed in 2018.

COVID, and flowing from that, healthcare, and jobs/the economy, will be the major issues of this election. And the electorate already doesn’t trust Trump to handle those issues (with the possible exception of the economy, and I believe his numbers are sliding there too.)

So maybe Biden/Harris shouldn’t actually run headlong onto Trump’s playing field and immediately start playing the game Trump wants them to play.

Just a thought.

[empedocles]

2. Agreed. fox all in on 'RIOTS'. Worked for nixon in '68

[Wounded Bear]

4. Nixon was not an incumbant in '68...

remember that. This is happening on Trump's watch.

[empedocles]

7. Which is why the rw is broadcasting non-stop 'city riots', demonstrators', etc.

Last edited Sun Aug 30, 2020, 12:53 PM - Edit history (1)

To some degree, the rw will be successful.

[Covid will be much harder to shift blame, 5% and 25%, fortunately]

‘No way to spin that,’ Romney says of U.S. coronavirus ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/15/coronavirus-covid-updates
Aug 15, 2020 · “And the proof of the pudding of that is simply that we have 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s deaths due to covid-19.” .

[5% and 25%, needs to be said over and over and over again].

[EarlG]

8. I guess the question, is to what degree?

One of the reasons the Republican National Convention was so shocking was that it showcased to the public at large the world in which the Fox News-viewing RW lives. That would be the world in which Donald Trump is a compassionate, thoughtful leader who has defeated coronavirus, saved thousands of lives and millions of jobs, and created the greatest economy in the history of the world. If you're a regular Fox News viewer, nothing that happened at the RNC last week was out of the ordinary in the slightest, because those are the message they're being constantly drip-fed already.

After primaries are over, candidates usually head towards the center in an attempt to grab as large a slice of the electorate as possible. But the entire RNC was aimed squarely at the RW base -- because Trump is the base and the base is Trump, and the Republican party doesn't have a platform any more beyond "TRUUUUUUUMP."

But most people don't watch Fox News (nor CNN and MSNBC for that matter). There's a reason why Biden is consistently polling above 50% and Trump's popularity rating is in the 30s, and it's because most people don't pay attention to the daily grind of politics, but they do have eyes in their head and can see that COVID is ravaging the country, the economy is teetering, and Trump seems both out-of-control and completely ineffective. As your Romney quote points out, "‘No way to spin that."

So while the "law and order" strategy is going to play GREAT on Fox News, and therefore in Trump's head, and in the heads of their entire Republican party because, as previously mentioned, they are all Trump now -- and therefore also in our heads, because we spend all day watching what Trump does -- is it going to break through to the public at large in a way that suddenly gets them to view Trump in a different light, beyond what they already know and expect from him?

Again, this is the strategy the GOP tried in 2018, and it totally failed, because the entire thing was based on the idea that most Americans live on the same planet as Fox News viewers.

I think the real worry is less about whether their current strategy can win the election (I don't think it can) and more about how Trump is clearly trying to "activate" as many nutjobs as possible so he can either turn the election into a contestable clusterfuck, or cause mayhem after he loses.

[empedocles]

9. Given the blatant trump law-breaking, violence fomenting, etc., - it may be that trump

hopes to gain some kind of 'advantage' before the Election; possibly a hostile takeover of the government before the Election.

We have a lot of work to knock down trump support before 'then'.

[crickets]

12. +1

Perspective is key.

[ancianita]

17. Thanks. It helps to remember how 2018 worked, and why 45's current fallback likely won't.

Because the players are being seen more clearly, even if their benefactors aren't.

If the youth vote can channel their rage into resolve (the black vote already has), Democrats can win everything.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I think you're quite right about this, my dear EarlG.

Normal people do not respond the way the easily-led sorts do to this sort of thing.

We know that we care about issues that actually impact our lives, not about "issues" that the republicans drum up to keep us hyperventilating over.

We are not that easily distracted.

[DFW]

5. Republicans are going back 32 years

They are going all "Willie Horton 2.0"

But it's not 1988 any more, and "big bad Jacob Blake" isn't going to work.

[LakeArenal]

6. For me, the only issue is to remove Trump.

Other issues won’t happen without the first.

But Joe is going to win. I have believed it since 2018.

[ananda]

19. Biden/Harris have got this election locked!

Good

[Kali]

16. so you get your news and information from where?

[FakeNoose]

23. Welcome to DU

Looks like you've just joined us today.

[stonecutter357]

24. When will it end? it will end if the good cops/pigs ever show up .

[Traildogbob]

11. The deadly caravans

Are roaming today in multiple cities. Some, 600 strong, trucks with trump flags, ISIS level guns, looking for someone to instigate So they can shoot and kill. Self defense. They will get go fund me cash and get Gooliani lawyers and Fox to defend them.

[Yavin4]

13. "COVID is really the massive elephant in the room" THANK YOU!!!!!!

To some degree, ALL Americans are experiencing chaotic disruptions to their lives. Parents are struggling with sending their kids back to school and will have to make arrangements on a dime when outbreaks happen. Colleges are moving to online classes but are still charging their normal tuition. The tourism and hospitality industry is on its knees. And on and on and on.

People are not going to give a shit about protests in two random cities no matter how much the media is hyping it up to be a national issue. Just because cable news cycles the stories every hour that does not mean that people care about it.

[malaise]

14. K & R

ByeDon!
Down you go!

[Pepsidog]

15. You are absolutely correct. Dems stay on message.

[dalton99a]

18. Kick

[llashram]

20. I hope, nay pray you are right

[Lonestarblue]

21. The Biden-Harris team needs to hammer those top five voter concerns.

ECONOMY
The perception that the economy does better under Republicans is just wrong. I’ve been posting this CNN data and job growth data under recent presidents everywhere I can. Here’s the economic data, which was last updated August 12, so it is recent. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/business/stock-market-by-president/index.html

Gains under each president:
Clinton, +210%
Obama, +182%
Reagan, +118%
GHW Bush, +51%
Trump, +47%
G Bush, - 40%

Job growth under each president (https://www.thebalance.com/job-creation-by-president-by-number-and-percent-3863218):
Clinton, 18.6 million
Reagan, 16.5 million
Carter, 9.8 million
Obama, 8.9 million
G. W. Bush, 5.8 million
Trump, 4.7 million (first three years only so does not include current losses of more than 20 million jobs due to the pandemic)

Even before the pandemic, Trump was not on track to best Carter, a one-term president, or Clinton, Reagan, and Obama.

Biden especially needs to remind people that he and Obama took office in the middle of the Great Recession. An ad showing the stock market numbers and unemployment numbers in 2009 versus 2016 would show how they moved from recession to a healthy economy to pass along to Trump.

HEALTHCARE
Every American should have healthcare as a right, not as an accident of employment. The pandemic has shown how damaging it is when people lose their healthcare because their jobs are gone.

SUPREME COURT
We need an unbiased Supreme Court that will uphold the rights of citizens based on the US Constitution rather than the biases of special interests. We don’t even need to get into Roe v. Wade, but we need to emphasize a Court that lives up to the ideals of equal justice for all instead of special privilege for the few.

COVID
Without a doubt, the Democrats have a strong case against Trump here. But I think it would be helpful to reiterate all the steps Trump took to help the virus spread, such as firing the US scientists in Wuhan (July 2019)—had they been on site, might they have helped stop the virus altogether or at least given much earlier warning? And in November, Trump ignored US Intelligence warnings about the virus. In January and February Trump played golf and attended reelection rallies.

My two cents worth!

[moondust]

22. The opposite of "law and order."

Baiting the binary bimbos.

[Ligyron]

25. Few Americans have been affected by any "violence in the streets".

The ones who have are almost to a man (or woman) Democrat and Progressives who will now crawl through burning coals to vote him and his enablers out of power.

But practically All Americans now know someone affected by Covid, some profoundly so and Trump's complete failure on that front is something many have felt personally as well.

It really shouldn't even be close if the cheating by the enemies of Democracy doesn't prove amazingly effective.

[ItsjustMe]

26. Most serial killers

Here In the United States are white men.

List of serial killers in the United States

[Cha]

27. That's right.. Nancy advised the 2018 House candidates to

run on Health Care.. saving ACA & they did.

Blue Wave Victory ensued.. Here's to another in 2020!