“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
- “Cancel culture.” Bring it. Cancel the Trump-cult culture on Nov. 3.
- What do you do when you’ve grossly mismanaged a pandemic that has cost lives and livelihoods? Another Chris Wallace interview certainly won’t help. So, you panic and pivot. In so doing, you recklessly resort to the reviled “law and order” mantra associated with George Wallace and Richard Nixon. And you scapegoat and demonize the usual suspects. The partisan political message: Only Trump, the instigator-in-chief, truly stands up to anarchy. Only he, as he has told us, can “fix it.”
How far we’ve regressed.
But the ultimate charlatan showman gets his optics—however much induced and provoked by de facto federal stormtroopers in cities such as Portland—that can appeal to his base and maybe frighten others already blindsided by the pandemic. Call it Lafayette Square on ‘roids—as well as an outtake from the autocrat’s playbook.
We’re already seeing it play out on political ads that don’t show unrest turned into chaos via militaristic provocations—only protestors’ responses. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown underscored the scorched earth reality. “It throws gasoline on the fire.” It’s what you get when the narcissist-in-chief, facing the prospect of a humiliating defeat less than 100 days from now, doubles down on doing the Reich thing.
- In case you missed it: According to President Trump, it is now “patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance.” Disingenuous upshot: hypocrisy unmasked.
- “He’s shot. (Biden’s) mentally shot.” That was the cognitive-tester-in chief, who recently bragged of having “aced” his (“Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.”) Montreal Cognitive Assessment test. Too bad it wasn’t a high school civics exam.
- “We are too big a people to be able to be careless in what we say.” That was President Teddy Roosevelt, who could be frank, impulsive and knew his way around a bully pulpit, but also knew that words mattered mightily—domestically and internationally. Those were the days.
- And speaking of TR, he famously said: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” The infamous, Trump version: “Speak cluelessly and carry a narcissistic schtick.”
- The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute has told the Trump campaign and the RNC to stop using the former president’s image to fundraise. What’s next? “Mr. Trump, tear down this wall of nativism, xenophobia and divisiveness”?
- The hawkish Republican Rep. Liz Cheney has not been endearing herself to the Trump Administration on its handling of the pandemic. She’s a high-profile defender of Dr. Anthony Fauci and has even tweeted a photo of her dad, THAT Dick Cheney, in a mask with the hashtag “realmenwearmasks.” It all helps.
“I’m president, I’m not king.”—Barack Obama, back in the day.