This blog is mostly about human rights and justice. But like most of what goes on today … e.g. business, religion, along with human rights and justice … it usually comes down to politics. I’ve not been writing on this blog for a couple of months mostly because I needed a break. But you don’t deal with politics at your personal peril. For sure there are any number of ways to pretend you’re above the fray. In my case I joined a singing group. (Google cgoa/Voci to get an idea of the fun holiday music track I’ve been on.) But you know avoiding the mess doesn’t make it go away. As a matter of fact, like a cancer it keeps on growing if you don’t aggressively attack it. In this case we’re talking about the 2020 election. If you are like most of my family and friends you’re telling yourself the ship will right itself in November.
Well probably not. The article below was a wake-up call for me. I commend it to you. Josh Dawsey caught my attention with, for example:
“On Election Day in 2016, 61 percent of the country rated Trump unfavorably. Now he’s running for a second term.”
or
he said to a room of Jewish supporters in December. “You have no choice … you’re not going to vote for the wealth tax!”
The White House
President Trump knows you don’t like him. He doesn’t care.
President Trump has begun admitting what polls have shown for three years: Many, many people hate him. And he’s okay with that.
“You don’t like me. You have no choice but to vote for me,” he told Wall Street bankers last month. “You’re … not nice people at all, but you have to vote for me,” he said to a room of Jewish supporters in December. “You have no choice … you’re not going to vote for the wealth tax!”
It is a rare admission from a politician. But it’s key to a campaign strategy built around an awareness that Trump’s favorability — even before he was impeached by the House — is near record lows and that he won’t stop tweeting, offering bombast and insults, saying things that aren’t true, or making polarizing decisions. So Trump’s advisers are leaning in.
“He’s no Mr. Nice Guy,” said the narrator in a $1 million-plus ad that ran during the World Series, highlighting some of the president’s accomplishments while admitting that voters might not like him. “But sometimes it takes a Donald Trump to change Washington.”
The idea is to talk more about his record and less about his personality — while slashing and burning Democratic opponents. At a briefing with reporters in mid-December, campaign manager Brad Parscale and senior adviser Jared Kushner showed data from 2016 indicating that people who said they disapproved of Trump still voted for him. They said many people don’t want to publicly admit that they back Trump, but they ultimately will. Their targets are primarily suburban women and independents.
Essentially, Trump’s bet is: If your paycheck is better, and we can make you hate the other candidate, you will vote for the president, even if you find him detestable.
The campaign expects to send surrogates who are less bombastic, such as Ivanka Trump, into areas where suburban women might be persuaded to vote for him.
Officials point to statistics that cut in the president’s favor. For example, a recent Quinnipiac poll showed that 57 percent of voters nationally say they are better off than before Trump’s presidency. He regularly scores high marks on the economy, which has continued to improve.
That same poll, though, found Trump losing to Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Mike Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. And his approval ratings are constantly mired below 50 percent.
But that’s no reason for panic, to Trump’s team: On Election Day in 2016, 61 percent of the country rated Trump unfavorably. Now he’s running for a second term.
I know our economic health is a factor for probably all of us. But as the Bible says (paraphrased) “What good does it do inherit the world, and lose our souls.” Trump is putting all his eggs in the economics basket, for a short term win,while at the same time breaking down relations with old, long standing allies and friends that we’ve worked with in partnership to our mutual benefit
I fear that his saddling up to Putan is again a short term gain for him, another hotel in his future, while it will be detrimental to our country, and in fact our democracy
My question is: Why is the Senate under Mitch MaConnell’s dictatorship falling in line with the Republican agenda of full sppport for Trump. Is it money