Donald Trump decries the
“carnage” caused by Russian and Iranian forces in northern Syria, a problem he
thinks that his dictator friend Recep Erdogan is going to “fix” for him; Trump
neglected to mention that the reason for this “carnage” was this dim bulb’s
waking-up-on-wrong-side-of-the-bed decision to pull U.S. troops out of the
area. Meanwhile, Trump wants to declare Mexican
drug cartels “terrorist” groups; assuming this isn’t just a rhetorical pitch to
his fan base, such a move would rock the entire Mexican economy and
institutional structure, and send more people heading to the border. After the
“success” against Colombian cartels merely moved the epicenter of the drug
trade to Mexico, “success” in Mexico means what? A return to the 1920s, when
organized crime syndicates in the U.S. had local politicians and police in
their hip pockets? Except instead of illegal booze, its illegal drug production
and sales. I mean, someone has to supply the insatiable domestic demand.
George Conway opines that world
leaders see Trump as a “deranged idiot”; well, why not? This is a guy for whom things
like dishwashers and windmills really annoy him. If Trump was just some guy at
work, he would be someone you thought was just some jerk you had to tolerate
and be glad you didn’t actually have to go home with him. Someone with his
personality, knowledge and judgment would be the last person you’d think would
be “qualified” to be anything higher than the lead on the night shift at Burger
King, and he’d probably get fired from that job after being caught on a viral
cell phone video conducting a racially insensitive rant toward a customer or an
employee. For people like Trump, everything boils down to the petty and
personal; he never looks at the “big picture” or considers what other people
think, because such things are beyond his ability to cogitate. In “business” as
in life, Trump’s only concerns are the things that affect him personally, his
likes and dislikes, and it’s the same with his “base.” He is almost childlike
in that sense.
The new Trump campaign “slogan”
is “Keep America Great”; anyone with any sense knows that Trump has brought
this country to its nadir in “esteem” internationally, and domestically its
moral and ethical decline has been even more steep. The country’s “better
angels” have yet to emerge. Since it seems unlikely that this country can
survive another four years of Trump, it becomes imperative that he is defeated
in 2020. But no matter how ridiculous it may be, so far it is only Trump's "message" that is getting out; for those who don't like to think too much, one is better than none. To "counter" it, we only have a mishmash of competing theories of what the electorate "really" wants.
However, if you are hoping that a
suitable Democrat emerges any time soon to deliver whatever message that turns out to be, that might be a challenging proposition. With polls
now show Trump ahead of all Democratic challengers in key swing states in the
Midwest, it is imperative that someone very soon becomes the frontrunner,
meaning the quicker Democrats can start speaking in one voice against Trump. We
don’t need a crowded field to gum-up the works. There are those who are saying
the recent debate stages were too “white,” but whose fault is that? Barack
Obama stood out because he had charisma and the look and feel of someone who
was presidential; Kamala Harris and Cory Booker just didn’t have “it”—although
to be honest, I can’t really say than anyone else has “it” going forward.
Who is it going to be? Pete
Buttigieg? His name aside, there has got to be something wrong with a guy that
Cher is supporting. Joe Biden continues to be the “safe” choice, but who knows
what “revelations” are going to emerge, even if they are not precisely true;
Trump says he isn’t going debate the Democratic nominee, and that might
actually help Biden given his propensity these days to lose his train of
thought. Elizabeth Warren to me just comes off as someone a bit on the flakey
side; I suspect voters will fear she is capable of anything and nothing. Michael
Bloomberg? I dunno, maybe he just seems too much the Wall Street elitist type
to really “catch on” with those working class voters in the Midwest the
Democrats lost to Trump in 2016. That leaves as a “serious” contender Bernie
Sanders. I thought he was the Democrats best chance against Trump in 2016, and
compared to what else is out there, I think he is their best hope in 2020,
since he should still have credibility with those white working class voters,
plus he has certain qualities that Trump lacks, like morality, ethics and truth,
if any of those things still mean anything to those voters.
In any case, the Democrats can’t
afford to have a drawn-out, confused primary season. Someone has to catch the
imagination of voters, and quick. As it stands, Trump is dominating the
“message,” and Democrats need to start putting out a single message to counter
it. In the 1932 pre-Code film No Man of
Her Own, a desperate Dorothy Mackaill tells Clark Gable that she’s going to
jump out the window if he leaves her; Gable deadpans “I can’t count on you.” In
2020, we can’t count on anything in this country gone crazy.
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