That whole "strategy" was either really risky or really stupid.
Let me explain why.
- It's a Trump party. Every rally that Trump holds is more of a cross between a party and a political event. That's why so many people show up. Because Trump is fun to be around. Most political rallies are not large. Sure, you can pack a stadium for a major political event in a major city, but you're not going to pack a stadium like that on the campaign trail. Trump really does have a great deal of enthusiasm.
- Everyone knows that parties and RSVPs are bullshit. So when I hear a million RSVPs, my brain automatically thinks "okay, a lot of people are excited, but there's no way everyone's going to that party". My brain never really registered it as a true fact to begin with. So I never really cared that the number was a troll attempt to begin with.
- What occurs to me afterward is that...why would anyone even want to fake higher numbers for their opponent? Sure, a troll prank I get. Especially if only about a hundred people showed up, but thousands of people at a political rally in Oklahoma is still really good. Especially when we're in the middle of an epidemic and there are riots going on in the streets.
- Then I hear about Antifa members trying to prevent people from getting in or setting up protests. If his rallies are so small and Trump so unimportant, then why are there people trying to use physical force to prevent you from going there?
- AOC has been out of the public eye for some time. She's campaigning now, impart for her own seat and impart for the DNC, but she's lost a great deal of relevance.
- This trick only really works once. Again, thousands of people showing up is really good for a rally. More importantly, Trump is entertaining at those rallies and drew in tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of live viewers online. And many more watched his rally after the fact (myself included). Numbers are great, but images are greater. And you see plenty of high energy people, in a large crowd, having fun at his rallies.
As for the general, it started even before Bernie had lost. I'm suspecting that part of the major shift for COVID was not just to damage Trump, but to essentially silence Sanders. When the COVID panic began, he had NOTHING. Suddenly no one gave a shit about his stupid fucking commie crap. His entire movement collapsed and left him only with the die hard Commie fags who can't bear the idea of someone owning private property.
The BLM riots was the second strike from the Left. The problem was that they used the Far Left and the Far Left are still pissed at them because Sanders sold them down the river. Essentially the Left released a monster they couldn't control. And instead of Trump reacting as the Left expects (ie, like Hitler), Trump let the fire burn long enough until people begged him to intervene. Then most of the riots/protests were quelled.
The Far Left, instead of withdrawing, used some of the remaining momentum to establish CHAZ. The hope was that Trump would move in almost immediately. The problem was that they didn't and now all of Seattle looks like shit, while Trump is completely unbothered. Another riot was directed in DC, but these riots have been going on for so long, they feel like the same fit. So people I expect, are tired of it. And more to the point, people actually expect DC to be harsher. Because DC is the nation's capital. So while a riot in Seattle has no bearing on Trump, a riot in DC is a direct challenge to his authority. So everyone expects that Trump will force them back.
The overall goal of the DNC was two-fold. The first is to undercut Trump's black support. Trump's black Support looks to have grown from 10-20% of black voters. Now, that isn't a great margin by any standard, but if Trump manages to take away even 10%, that's a huge blow to Democrats. If he approaches 20%, it destroys the racial unity narrative of Black people supporting the DNC. Black DNC puppets, who have spoken with authority on their race's voting position suddenly lose a disproportionate amount of their power. Those puppets won't survive the scrutiny of the black community if they lose 20% nationwide.
The second aim was to undercut Trump's appeal to soft and hard supporters. The goal was to use BLM as a shield to send Antifa out to provoke Trump. While Trump and any high information voter will realize that it's Antifa causing a majority of the riots and looting, all most voters would see was Trump sending the troops in to "put the black man in his place". And this was all done in Democrat controlled regions, where DNC allies could be persuaded or forced to order their police forces to stand down, allowing rioters to move with impunity.
Trump's counter to this was the best he could manage. The narrative against the rioters in large was easy enough. Do nothing. Now, Trump's whole branding was the tough-guy. So both his hard support and the DNC expected that Trump would need to stick true to his brand. What Trump did instead was lean against his brand. That pissed off his supporters. It actually even pissed off the soft support he had. Because even a soft voter who didn't support Trump last time will wonder why their "tough guy" wasn't stopping people from rioting in the streets.
Then Trump acted. And the riots were brought to a grinding halt. CNN and the rest of the soy-beta-cucks followed up with their "knock-out" of calling him a fascist, only to realize that no gave a shit. Soft voters weren't upset that Trump had called in the military to restore order--they were upset that he waited as long as he had. I expect that while most of this was to avoid falling into the trap, I think there is the potential that Trump can use this to round out his rough edges. He can play it as a "The police should handle this" situation and retain his Law & Order brand, while avoiding the threat of coming off as a dictator. CNN resorted to calling him a coward and screeching about his bunker.
The BLM part is more complicated. On the one hand, race relations are at an all-time low. The media is pushing the black man's burden to the forefront. Harder than they did in 2016. While this help to fuel the protests and riots, no doubt damaging some of Trump's narrative that his administration is good for black people, it has also damaged BLM's image and reputation. And honestly, it's damaged the black community's position in the United States. Because American black people have a strong "stick together" mentality when it comes to white people. Or any other race. It's the "snitches get stitches" mentality that is prevalent throughout their culture.
It has also backfired. The police officers involved with George Floyd were immediately fired. Black Americans protested anyways. Okay, that's fine. People are angry. Then they rioted. And that's not great, but sometime protests get out of hand. And then they went on for a week straight. And during that week, the black community made it abundantly clear that they did not give two shits that justice was being carried out. They did not give two shits that their voices were heard. They were still going to burn and loot cities. And if you disagreed with it, well you have white privilege, so fuck you.
I think we are reaching a point where the white community has stopped feeling sorry for the black community, throughout most of the country. In fact,
they've cooled considerably. We literally had Shaun King calling for the dismantling of white religious icons. I think the days of the black community getting special favors from the white community through guilt is coming to a close. I don't know what that will do to the future of race relations, but it is certainly an interesting development.
