When the President of the United States of America directs his base to “Liberate” their city, he is telling us all that he is about to go into the 2020 campaign on a “Scorched Earth” campaign. With poll numbers starting to plummet, the US economy sinking further into debt and historic unemployment, and his incompetence in one of our nations’ biggest disasters, Donald Trump is looking for a “Hail Mary” play, one that will have consequences for this country for years to come.
The greatest divider in the history of the USA
Trump has already radicalized a large subset of his base, and has been for years. Trump’s new Republican Party is based on the same conspiracy theory “truther” propaganda that he built a political name on. It’s also the same attempts at manufacturing scandal that already has had him impeached. Trump positioned himself as an anti-Democrat “champion” just a decade after threatening to run against Bush as a Democrat because he has learned how ready the right-wing were to be weaponized. Nobody likes Trump as a person. Nobody but the easiest manipulated think he’s a respectable person. They admire him for one reason – he indulges them in their hatred of the left. That we are more divided now than we ever have been is apparent. Each side blames the other, but there is no question that Trump has built his name on exploiting those political differences.
Trump has been mentored in the art of Political “ratfucking” by some of the most notorious names in our nations history
And now he is taking that fight literally. While partisan identity politics have always been a problem in this country, we are now facing it on a scale amplified to historic degree by social media prevalence on the Internet and our access to express our opinions. Making matters worse, we are being led by a demagogue who daily radicalizes his base, and is himself radicalized by his own propaganda. Having been mentored by one of our nations most notorious propagandists (an architect of McCarthyism and dirty politics of the 60’s) Roy Cohn, Trump has surrounded himself with people versed in political blackmail, division as strategy, and “ratfucking”, as his longtime political strategist Roger Stone (currently in prison), dubbed it. Roger Stone’s longtime partner, Paul Manafort (also currently in prison) also made an art and career from dirty politics. So 40 years after Donald Trump became the first client of Black, Manafort, Stone, and Kelley, it should come as no surprise that these are the tactics he will employ. It’s all Trump knows.
The 2020 “Scorched Earth” Campaign
It’s called “Scorched Earth” because of the damage it will do in the long term whether or not Trump wins. By amplifying the division among us, he solidifies his own base, further radicalizing them against holding him accountable. By telling people to go out and “liberate” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia. Again, that is the President of the United States, Donald Trump, telling supporters to “Liberate” three states that coincidentally happen to be blue states.
LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020
LIBERATE MICHIGAN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020
LIBERATE MINNESOTA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020
This marks a dangerous escalation in Trump’s “War” with the American Left. Calling the Democrats his “enemy” is declaring half of the country he is supposed to be representing his enemy. Calling the media the “enemy of the people”, accusing federal agents of “treason” for investigating him, and declaring a “deep state” enemy in the United States itself means that Trump has been building up to this declaration of war for some time now.
A Tinderbox Ready to Explode
With calls to “liberate” states, Trump could be hammering in the final nail in our democracy. The idea that our democracy is established on checks and balances to keep each other honest may soon be sundered by those who think that politics is a team-sport. That the only way their “team” wins is if the other team loses. It pits countryman against ourselves – citizen against citizen, and Trump is doing it all to protect himself from plummeting support, visibility of his incompetence in this time of disaster, failure to protect our elections, and failure to do anything but further divide the United States of America against itself.
With people making the COVID-19 restrictions political in support of their identity politics, there are only two likely outcomes. That sooner or later, a violent act will occur – mass shooting, using a vehicle as a weapon, or etc., or that COVID-19 washes through them, making an example of them and spiking issues in their cities. Recovery is going to be a slow process, so if Trump is going to push protest and militia thinking to divide us, it won’t take long for someone to take it to the next level.
I give it a few days.