PSUsarge wrote:JFLNYC wrote:PSUsarge wrote:Many of his moves have made some level of strategic sense, especially in how he got elected. I just can't figure out how what he's doing about COVID-19 helps him get reelected.
He has spent his entire career, both before and during his Presidency, trying to convince people that the Emperor has clothes by repeating again and again how great whatever it is he's selling, whether it's a building, a condo, his TV show or himself as a candidate. He does so by using his typical superlatives ("beautiful," "huge," "best," etc.) again and again and again until the "customer" (or at least some of them) believes what he's saying.
He's a huckster and, yes, he does believe that pretending that the virus is going away/getting better will actually convince enough voters. That's been his strategy since the infamous "ingesting disinfectant/shining a light inside your body" press conference. Just look at everything he's done since then. It's consistent with the delusional fantasy he's trying to peddle.
For example, look no further than his insistence that schools reopen. He just wants to be able to say that one more important aspect of our lives has returned to normal. He doesn't have to believe it. He doesn't care about the lives which may be lost. He just wants to be able to claim everything is OK so he will be reelected.
If you want to understand his actions just view everything he says and does through the prism of his goal of being reelected (and, more generally, what he perceives to be good for him and him alone). For example, the "lesson" he learned from 2016 (whether accurate or not) is that by appealing to his base he can win. That's why he says things like more whites than blacks are murdered by cops. That statement appeals to his base and he couldn't care less that it offends people who aren't going to vote for him anyway.
IMO what he's missing is that, in addition to his hardcore base, he was elected in 2016 because of a swath of more moderate voters who knew him only by his hype, i.e., successful real estate executive, rich, beholden to no special interests and someone who who shake things up in Washington, which needed shaking up. Unfortunately for him, those voters (who are not blind followers) have now had 3 1/2 years to see what he's really like, how incompetent he is, how much he lies and how devoted to himself and himself alone he is. His core base will not be enough to get him reelected in 2020.
Appreciate the thoughtful reply. Agree with you here, especially this last paragraph, which is what I'm so dumbfounded about.
Trump and his cronies are dumb like foxes - they know damn well what they're doing. You don't accidentally become president. So you'd think they'd HAVE to realize this, but I guess they're just tripling down and hoping for the best - or they DGAF if he gets reelected and are just planning to distract as much as possible from his legal troubles until he has time to GTFO after he cedes power.
I think we're leaving off an important part of this plan. He talks about the silent majority constantly. He plans to use Russian/Chinese help and voter suppression to pull off another win by cheating. Then he would say that he has a mandate and the real america is the america that doesn't answer polls and votes for him behind the curtain. The left would be utterly deflated and he would get to continue destroying our institutions.
