The reelection prospects for Donald Trump have been mired in an abyss of doom for months. Joe Biden is crushing him in every national poll as well as in most of the crucial swing states. And the post-convention polling has only gotten worse for Trump. That, of course, is not a reason to become complacent or to work less vigorously. Victory is not assured until the votes are counted.
Trump, however, has a real problem. He can’t campaign on the economy, which is in recession. He can’t campaign on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has been a model of deadly negligence and incompetence with deaths nearing 190,000. He can’t campaign on character, because…well, because he’s Donald Trump. So that leaves only one path available for him to stagger down: Fear and division.
Consequently, Trump has wholly embraced a campaign theme centered on terrorizing the American people. The catch phrase most often associated with him is “law and order,” which he has tweeted 52 times so far this year alone. He is painting a hellish picture of the nation as being engulfed in flames with violent insurgents occupying vast territories of major cities and threatening to invade the serenity of white suburbia.
These dystopian delusions have been the core of Trump’s campaign strategy for weeks. He mostly has been maligning the demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism. According to Trump “These are not acts of peaceful protest but really domestic terror.” And now we have some evidence of just how badly his tactics are failing. A new poll by ABC News/Ipsos has found that…
“Over half of the country — 55% … said they think Trump is aggravating the situation, while just over one in 10 Americans, 13%, said they think he is making it better.”
Thirteen percent barely amounts to a third of his base support, so even most of his cult followers don’t think he’s making things better. The poll goes on to ask a series of questions related to public safety and which candidate for president is best suited to handle the crises that the nation faces. The results show that “Between the two candidates, more Americans trust Biden over Trump to…”
- Keep the country safe, 55%-42%
- Keep their families safe, 56%-42%
- Care more about them, 59%-38%
- Unite the country, 64%-33%
- Handle the protests across the country, 59%-39%
- Address racial discrimination, 64%-34%
- Manage the COVID-19 response, 60%-38%
- Reduce violence in the country, 59%-39%
Nevertheless, Trump is still relying on an imaginary horror story about rampant crime to juice his campaign. An analysis by HuffPost found that out of “73,000 ads they aired from July 1 to July 26 … 85% of them dealt in one way or another with public safety.”
The fact that none of this is working for Trump may have something to do with his having pulled all of his television advertising. That’s a peculiar thing to do in the week following his national nominating convention and in the last lap toward election day. He either realizes that his campaign strategy is a complete bust, or he’s run out of money. Either way it’s a very bad omen for the future of his campaign and his presidency. Which, ironically, is a very good omen for America and the world.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
