Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Saturday, July 20, 2019

It's Going To Get Much, Much Worse

Read this WaPo expose of Republican efforts to ride the whirlwind of Trump's racism.  It must be exhausting not knowing what that degraded brain will puke forth next, but they consistently refuse to call bullshit on Trump.  He demands loyalty in ways that, for instance, Pelosi does not, because he can't stand anyone damaging his fragile little ego.

There are legitimate concerns that making the election about Trump's racism could backfire on Dems.  Calling people racist never, ever works to make them less racist.  The argument of "If you support Trump, you must be racist" is not a winning argument.  Focus on "Trump is a racist, what are you going to do about it?"  Yes, he's been this racist for decades and we knew this in 2016, but refocus the argument on 2020.  "He's racist, what are you going to do about it?"

Ultimately, Trump only has his base.  Republicans will hang with him, because that's who Republicans are.  But he will continue to double and triple down on the things that excite his volkstrum rallies. 

The racism makes its own point.  Democrats will have to find a way to cut through that and find a way to talk about the minimum wage, health insurance and tax equity.  But that's for another day.

He's a racist, what are you going to do about it?

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