Trump's Big Rally in Tulsa Was the Worst Thing He Knows: Boring

This was Blues Brothers 2000, when the band gets back together one time too many and the greatest hits don’t hit any more.

Matt Lewis
Senior Columnist
Updated Jun. 21, 2020



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But even the crowd who did show up seemed to be more subdued than normal. Sure, they applauded. Sure, they cheered. But it seemed like they were going through the motions. There’s a difference between a crowd that is enthralled and one that is polite. This was a polite crowd (which is something you don’t often say about the MAGA crowd).

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Trump raised the bar in terms of the entertainment value viewers expect from a presidential candidate, even as he lowered the bar on the ethical and moral standards Americans expect from a president. Simply put, we’re used to his shtick. It’s baked into the cake. We can only be shocked so many times. He has reached a point of diminishing returns. While Trump tried to play some of his greatest hits (“Chinese virus, “silent majority,” judicial appointments, etc.) you can only hear “Free Bird” so many times. It felt like he had lost a step.

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He also faces some serious substantive problems. The first being that demonizing Joe Biden has proven impossible.

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The problem for Trump is that he isn’t running against a man who burns churches or wants to defund the police or tear down statues. He’s not even running against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Ilhan Omar or Nancy Pelosi. And while it’s possible that ideologically motivated conservatives might concur with Trump’s guilt-by-extension logic, it lacks oomph when you can’t actually demonize your opponent.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-big-rally-in-tulsa-was-the-worst-thing-he-knows-boring