Eugene Robinson: Trump is running scared, and he has good reason
President Trumps decision to put away his racist dog whistle and bring out his racist bullhorn has just one plausible explanation: desperation.
Disregard, as usual, what Trump claims about his political standing and his prospects for winning a second term. He is acting as if he knows he is likely to lose the election, perhaps by a humiliating margin; and fears what will happen to him and his dodgy business empire once hes out of office.
Hence Trumps undisguised appeals to white racial resentment and anger: the vicious and absurd demand that four House members of color go back to other countries; the unprovoked and sustained Twitter screed against well-liked veteran Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, and, unbelievably, the entire city of Baltimore; the gratuitous and slanderous claim that the Rev. Al Sharpton Hates Whites & Cops! Nothing subtle in any of this.
It overly flatters Trump to fear hes playing three-dimensional chess or employing some kind of exotic political jiu jitsu. What were hearing in his harangues and reading in his tweets is naked fear. And he has reason to be very afraid.
Some traumatized Democrats may have lost all faith in polls following the 2016 election, but Trump hasnt. We know he pays close attention to the numbers. We also know he watches Fox News obsessively, not as a way to follow current events but as a barometer of his support among his base. So its no wonder he sounded so hurt Friday in a tweet about the latest Fox poll:
@FoxNews is at it again. So different from what they used to be during the 2016 Primaries, & before Proud Warriors! Now new Fox Polls, which have always been terrible to me (they had me losing BIG to Crooked Hillary), have me down to Sleepy Joe.
Indeed, the Fox national poll of registered voters showed Trump losing to former Vice President Joe Biden by 10 points, 49 percent to 39 percent. It also showed him losing to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont., by 6 points and edging the other top-tier Democratic candidates, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Kamala Harris, D-California, by a 1 point each.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/robinson-trump-is-running-scared-and-he-has-good-reason/
watoos
(7,142 posts)The narrative that Trump welcomes an impeachment hearing originated from Russia.
trev
(1,480 posts)This has been my contention for the last few weeks.
Since racism is backfiring on them, the Republicans are now going full bore about socialism. This won't work, either--if the Democrats will fight back in the same manner as they do on the racism issue.
Faux pas
(14,690 posts)craps himself while he's running scared. That's the least of what I hope happens to the raging asshole.
Nitram
(22,877 posts)Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)he's also becoming boring.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)...and the ratings of all the M$M who insist on putting that orange blob on my TV screen every day.