The Campaign – Adventures of Craig and Charlie

The Trump re-election machine has been hard at work for the past few weeks.

The campaign strategy is a multi-faceted effort to bring together several special interest groups as was successfully accomplished in 2016.

Target audiences include:

Xenophobes/Racists
Science disbelievers
Trump cultists
Deep State conspiracy theorists
Patriotic Manly Men
Liberal haters
Evangelicals

Many of those in the President’s political base share several of the listed characterizations. It would not surprise me if most, if not all, of these potential voters were Fox News devotees, America’s pre-eminent source of fake news.

Although the Covid-19 pandemic is not yet contained, President Trump has essentially claimed victory against the viral scourge. Last week, he proclaimed, “We’ve prevailed”, and asserted that the coronavirus will be gone by Summer.

The relatives of 100,000 people beg to differ

These claims are not shared by his Coronavirus Task Force experts (i.e. medical professionals), who express concern that most states have relaxed stay-at-home restrictions and are now allowing some businesses to re-open. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who most Americans have come to trust on the subject, points to the fact that only a few of the states that are re-opening their economies have met the Federal recommendations for doing so.

Testing, which the President is now bragging about, has indeed ramped-up from several months ago, but is still at a level which is about one-tenth of that recommended by CDC experts. And is being accomplished by state, not Federal, agents.

The National death toll, now above 90,000 and expected to top 100,000 by June 1, was accomplished with restrictions in place. Now that they are being relaxed, epidemiologists are fearful that the pandemic could, once again, go full tilt.

President Trump does not seem to be worried about that, and has spent some effort in the past week scolding Dr. Fauci for his “doom and gloom” predictions, planting seeds of doubt about scientific projections re: the pandemic, and continuing to say, publicly, that Covid-19 will simply “go away”.

In any event, the Trump Administration has proclaimed “mission accomplished” with regard to the coronavirus. The President and his handlers have bragged that the initial mortality estimate for the United States was around 200,000 and “it will be considerably less than that”, so the Administration “has done a very good job” in its own opinion.

Lost in the hyperbole, however, are the facts that: (a) the 200,000 plus initial estimate assumed no mitigation (i.e. stay-at-home, social distancing, business closures), and (b) the various State governments instituted effective mitigation, not the Federal government, which cut the mortality in half.

Along with his dismissive attitude about the concerns of Task Force members, the President continues to blame the World Health Organization and the government of China for the whole pandemic mess, alleging that important facts were withheld from the United States back in December and January.

These allegations are patently false, as CDC and NIH staff (American scientists) were imbedded in the W.H.O. teams that investigated the coronavirus early on and informed their superiors (in Washington D.C.) what was happening way back in January. The Trump Administration elected to ignore warnings and “contain” the story. In January and February, President Trump acknowledged the early warnings but confidently proclaimed that it was “no big deal” and “we’ve got it under control”.

He was wrong, of course. His Administration essentially wasted two months vertical staring while the coronavirus built up steam. Now, with the catastrophe evident, Trump and his gang are attempting to shift the blame to the Chi Coms and their supposed lackeys at the World Health Organization.

The political problem is that American voters observed President Trump on TV in January and February acknowledging the coronavirus threat and minimizing it.

To now allege that he and his team were kept in the dark by the bad folks in China and at the W.H.O. defies public observation. In addition, many other nations, which found out what we did when we did, have done much better in containing the virus and minimizing fatalities. Taiwan, with a population of 25 million has experienced 7 deaths (i.e. 1 per 3.5 million) while the U.S. death toll is approaching 100,000 (1 per 3,500). Our mortality rate is one thousand times as high.

Vietnam, which has a population of 97 million people, has experienced 328 Covid-19 infections and zero deaths. Their government took the facts that everyone had in January and mobilized. The Vietnamese were “at war” with the coronavirus in late January, squelched it in February, and were lifting restrictions…by the time the United States decided that the pandemic was real. That’s real leadership.

Why couldn’t we do that? We’re the Greatest Nation on Earth, for God’s sake.

In March, he proclaimed his support for a miracle cure, the malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine, that was “doing great things” and would be a “game changer”.

That effort to cheer up Americans and the New York Stock Exchange worked, momentarily. But, in April and May, scientific studies of the drug revealed that it had no impact on curing or ameliorating Covid-19 and could be detrimental to those who might take it prophylactically for the coronavirus.

Yesterday, despite the scientific evidence, President Trump announced that he has been taking Hydroxychloroquine for the past week or so. As in, “I know more about medicine than my doctors!”

Speaking of medicine, researchers around the globe are frantically and furiously working to perfect a vaccine that will protect populations from Covid-19. Several candidates show promise, one American and one British, and will be going to expanded human trial next month. Most medical professionals who are familiar with vaccines are projecting the availability of a Covid-19 vaccine (perfected and produced in mass quantity) in 2021.

Then will come the logistics and politics of how the vaccine is distributed. If there is a “second wave” of infection this coming Fall and Winter, it is possible, if not likely, that the miracle vaccine will arrive too late for mass immunization to be effective.

If a vaccine is rushed into production, is hastily approved by the FDA, and then has serious side effects, the legal and political consequences could be massive.

Thus, if the pandemic regains momentum later in the year, containment options will be limited to (a) re-instituting the unpopular restrictions, or (b) recommending that our citizens defend themselves as best they can while the economy stays “open”. Whomever is President at that time will dread that decision.

Commander-in-Chief Trump, while ostensibly heading up the Federal coronavirus “war” against the “invisible enemy” (as he calls it), has publicly minimized the recommendations of his Task Force and the CDC, and has, instead, publicly sided with the “Re-Open The Economy” rebellion throughout the country.

This is not surprising, as those involved in the protests appear to be (on TV) card-carrying Patriotic Manly Men, Science disbelievers, Deep State conspiracy theorists, Trump cultists, anti-Democrats, and Fox News fans.

The President, who refuses to wear a face mask as recommended by his task force, and continues to act as a shill for Hydroxychloroquine, against the advice of medical experts, seems to be attempting to solidify his credentials with the Science disbelievers and Patriotic Manly Men cohorts.

He reminds me of a reckless teenager, who is behind the wheel for the first time, saying “Look how fast I can go in this car!” But, from a political standpoint, that kind of in-your-face behavior appeals to a certain demographic (i.e. beer swilling Rednecks and contrarians). He had them at “Hello”.

This past week, President Trump burnished his flimsy religious credentials with the Evangelical community. Against the advice of his Task Force and many of the Nation’s governors who are actually attempting to curtail the spread of Covid-19, the President threatened the governors that if they did not rescind their orders to limit in-church attendance, he would force them to do it.

Mr. Trump, who has attended church three times in his adult life to exchange wedding vows in God’s presence, and each time subsequently violated those vows, announced “America needs more prayer, not less!” on Saturday. He spent Sunday not in church but, instead, playing golf at a Trump resort.

This does not seem to bother Evangelicals, whose leaders have given the President a very public Mulligan on character issues.

“Blessed is Donald Trump, a Messenger from God!”

Another thrust of the campaign appears to be the tried-and-true Trumpian blame-throwing barrage.

Lately, the President, his Congressional enablers, and the Trump for President campaign staff over at Fox News have begun harping about “crimes” that were committed by former President Obama and the “total injustice” that was done to Michael Flynn, the President’s one-time National Security Advisor. The concocted flap is being called “Obamagate” by the G.O.P.

No crime has been identified by any of the parties, and the only wrongdoer involved in “Obamagate” is Michael Flynn, who was caught up in the Russiagate investigation and plead guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his involvement.

It is apparent that the Republican Party is not satisfied with its whitewash of the Mueller Investigation into the 2016 election (which did find evidence of Russian interference of the Presidential election and did not render an opinion, yea or nay, on Trump’s possible collusion), and is now attempting to further obscure what actually happened by diverting attention to alleged crimes by a former President.

It is a profoundly lame political stunt, but it will probably find favor with the G.O.P. political base that got charged up in 2016 with “lock her up!” chants at Trump rallies.

The aim of the various campaign strategies is to divert attention from the reality that voters will be facing in November 2020:

A deep economic Recession (if not a Depression);
An unemployment rate of 20 to 25 percent;
A pandemic that has not been contained;
Out-of-control Federal deficit spending;
A worsened split between the Haves and Have Nots in American society;
Alienation of traditional “allies” and global relationships;
Zero transparency in Federal government;
An expanded, corrupted “swamp” in Washington D.C.
An Administration which does not believe in democracy or our Constitutional form of government; and
A narcissistic, immature President who embarrasses himself on a daily basis.

It has been said that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”. Have you ever noticed the American flag lapel pins which adorn many of our elected officials in Washington D.C.? These folks haven’t done an honest day’s work in years but would have you believe that they love America. They are scoundrels, and the lapel pins are their badges of dishonor. Deeds, not pins, demonstrate love of country.

President Trump, who prominently displays an American flag lapel pin, has another “tell” which reveals his true character: name calling.

Name calling is a technique to promote propaganda. Donald Trump cannot seem to go one day without using this propaganda technique on a political opponent, a journalist, a foreign leader, an ex-government official, one of his own employees, a well-known celebrity, or an entire country.

The President, a salesman by trade, is “always closing” to steal a phrase from Glengarry Glen Ross. Now a politician, Trump is always working to establish (in those who are listening to him) a negative opinion about, or fear of, the target of his attack. Name calling is a juvenile, but effective, way of establishing cognitive bias. Bullies are fond of belittling individuals and organizations they perceive to be antagonistic to their intentions.