Slate "Trump's Rallies are a Study in Self Destruction"

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/trump-rallies-self-destruction.html

He has attacked his allies, antagonized voters, and dared the majority to vote him out.
By WILLIAM SALETAN
NOV 02, 2020

Joe Biden has spent much of 2020 in his basement. Constrained by COVID-19, and to some extent by age, he has traveled less than any major-party presidential nominee in memory. But Biden has a powerful surrogate: a man who has flown relentlessly across the country, reminding voters at every stop why they must get rid of President Donald Trump.

That man is Donald Trump.

I’ve been watching and listening to Trump’s rallies for months. They’re a study in self-destruction. One rule of politics, for instance, is not to raise topics that help your opponent. But Trump can’t let go of grievances, so he keeps bringing up his impeachment and the investigation of his ties to Russia. Often, he complains about an ad (based on an Atlantic article) that alleges he called military veterans “suckers” and “losers.” Every time he brings it up, that’s more exposure for the allegation. At one rally, Trump called attention to a New York Times story on how little he has paid in taxes. At another, he talked about his reputation for stiffing contractors.

Trump’s worst issue is the pandemic. Instead of avoiding it, which would be hard enough, he tries to lie his way through it. And the lies he chooses are the most foolish. Every day, as infections, test positivity, and hospitalizations rise, he insists that we’re “rounding the turn” and that the pandemic is “ending without the vaccine.” He looks impervious, because he is. And when Trump blames the media for hyping “COVID, COVID, COVID,” he underscores his disinterest in the suffering of Americans.


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last part

Ultimately, he retreats to his happy place: reliving, in his mind, election night 2016. He recalls how TV networks declared him the winner in one state after another. He recounts with delight the pain of news anchors who, in his retelling, wept on air. “We had so much fun, the tears that were flowing,” Trump crowed at rally in Wisconsin on Oct. 17. “Remember the tears?” And that’s what his presidency has been about, he explains: lording power over everyone who didn’t support him. “I’m here, and they’re not,” he declares triumphantly.

It’s an odd way to run for reelection. First you get elected while losing the popular vote. Then you attack your allies, antagonize many of your voters, disgust everyone else, and dare the majority to vote you out. “I’m running against the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics,” says Trump. And he’s right, because the man he’s running against is himself.

[SoonerPride]

1. And yet his cult laps it up.

It is truly bizarre.

And frightening.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

2. It truly is mind-boggling.

And scary as hell. To think anyone would tolerate someone who's as big of an asshole as Trump, much less worship and adore him and believe someone like him should be POTUS, is beyond my comprehension. Unless I allow myself to believe that nearly half of registered voters are belligerently ignorant fools. I mean, I always knew that far too many were, but even, misanthrope that I am, I just never suspected there were so many of them out there.

[smirkymonkey]

4. +1000

[Cha]

3. No kidding!

[Cha]

5. Oh & yeah Biden has traveled less than

any Presidential candidate because of the Pandemic that trump LIED about.. it did Not have to be this way. As has been said over and over again.

Biden followed COVID Health Protocols to Not be a SPREADER like trump.. but that basement rwing talking point thing is way past old.

At least Biden can laugh about it when he's held his Rallies at Drive Ins. brilliant choice.

[Cha]

6. That poor guy having to slog through

months on end of trump hatefests/COVID SPREADERS.

But he's given some of us more of a picture of what went on.. if you're like me and couldn't stand to listen to that toxic stream of consciousness dribble.

trump can't help bringing up all his failures and trying to blame it on the media like melania tried to do today. :

Last ditch effort.