TRUMP, “ELECTION FRAUD”, VOTER SUPPRESSION AND DEMOCRACY

The President is behaving more and more as if he is under siege. Following a disastrous mid term electoral reversal and being regarded as lacking in decency and even worse irrelevant in Paris he is lashing out with as vengeance in a manner not as yet ever seen - and that is saying something! In addition he is tweeting up a storm on the Mueller investigation which is obviously perilously close to him and his family. His legal jeopardy is exacerbated now that his legislative firewall is no longer.

 The main burden of his unhinged barrage is that the election system is rigged - only the contests where the Republicans are in danger of losing seats, that is. The President has inter alia tweeted ten times that Senator Nelson of Florida, who is behind in the vote count, wants to steal the election. He is twelve thousand votes behind out of eight million cast which situation is subject to a mandatory recount. Nelson’s insistence that the electoral procedure follow its course is being used as an excuse to denigrate him and accuse him of cheating. 

Central to Trump’s current bile is the outstanding inconclusive election results in Florida and Georgia. Arizona has been removed from the hit list as the Republican candidate much to the ire of the protestors has conceded the Democrat takeover in that State. So now that red Arizona has turned blue the anti has been upped for the Florida Senate seat and the Georgia Governorship big time. In the unlikely event that Florida goes the wrong way then in addition to losing close on forty House seats the Republicans will have gained almost nothing in the Senate in return. 

It would be too much to ask the POTUS to accept that counting votes is not akin to stealing elections. What is ominous for the country’s democracy is what is playing out is the playbook Roger Stone, the Russian hackers and echoed by Trump that if he lost they would all cry that the elections were rigged and stolen by the Democrats. 

As the GOP has already sustained seven Governorship reversals the Georgian race assumes even more importance. Trump strongly supported the Republican Gubernatorial candidate for Georgia, Brian Kemp and repeatedly abused the Democratic African American female candidate in terms that he reserves for that racial demographic. So Trump is heavily invested in the outcome of the Florida and Georgia elections. 

The irony is that the probability is that the GOP will win both of these outstanding contests and the obscene grandstanding is part unbridled frustration, part tactic to obscure the substantial midterm losses and part the ongoing exhausting firing up of his diminishing base.

TRUMP AND GOP THIRD WORLD TACTICS AND ITS IMPACT ON DEMOCRACY

The irresponsible unproven attacks on the electoral process, lead by the President, claiming that there is voter fraud and that Georgia’s Democratic Abrams and Florida’s Democratic Nelson are trying to steal elections is outrageous. It is instructive to report that judges in both Florida and Georgia have maintained that there is no evidence of fraud and every vote needs to be counted. Florida’s Circuit Judge Truter called for a ramping down of the rhetoric as it eroded public confidence in the elections. Lest anyone forgets it was the bombastic Donald himself that claimed the midterms were a referendum on him. If the Senate can only reflect, at most a two seat gain, then by his own definition he is a “loser”. Especially as the Dems are on track for a nearly forty House gain, have won seven Governorships and three hundred and fifty State Legislative constituencies. 

What is even more dangerous to Democracy than the President behaving like the head of a banana republic, is the obsequious slavish support that he is getting from the administrative arm and the elected representatives of one of the two major political parties - the Republican Party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and more recently Ronald Reagan. In Florida the GOP Senatorial candidate, Governor Scott, the other Floridian Senator, Marc Rubio and Trump’s newest lap dog Lindsey Graham are all publicly joining in behavior more akin to Zimbabwe than America.

TRUMP’S CURRENT FRUSTRATIONS AS MUELLER LOOMS LARGE

What frustrates Trump is that he seized on the GOP massive electoral advantage in the Senate clash to concentrate his campaign efforts in that arena, The belief was that there just had to be big gains and he could claim credit. Speaker Ryan could then take the blame for the expected House of Representatives loss and he the great big poohbah could still wear the mantle of invincibility. 

Added to his disgruntlement is the fact that the Mueller investigation is closing in. His lawyers are reviewing, with him, their answers to questions that the Special Counsel wants answers too. It is widely believed that Mueller may well follow up with a subpoena. Then as elections have consequences he has to fear the Democratic controlled House which has all the power in the world to probe into all the dark corners of his life. Then he is facing at least three major lawsuits that involve Constitutional breeches including a near consensus that his appointment of a lackey Attorney General is not constitutional either. This is besides litigation which involves him and his close family in relation to his fraudulent defunct Foundation. 

The WhiteHouse is in a bigger shambles than even reported in BobWoodward’s book, “Fear” with Sessions already been fired and Kristen Nielsen, Homeland Secretary’s Head publicly on the chopping block. The recurrent rumor that John Kelly his Chief of Staff is on his way out and the fact that Melania Trump has joined in and demanded that her husband fire his Deputy National Security Advisor Mira Ricandel has added to the chaos. Finally, he by his sulking petulant behavior was made to look like a fool and even worse irrelevant in his recent European trip. 

In the light of Trump’s full court press on claiming Democratic malfeasance it is instructive to look at the background of Republican voter suppression operating in Georgia and Florida which incidentally is illustrative of their modus operandi.

GEORGIA

At the outset the Republican candidate for Governor in Georgia, Brian Kemp, in his capacity as Secretary of State oversaw the electoral process that he participated in. Anticipating the changing demographic tides in his State, Kemp, between 2012 and 2016 purged the voters roll of well over a million voters for flimsy reasons. He denied that this was a calculated move to eliminate minority and lower economic voters even though those demographics were in the bulk of the removals. He shut down over 200 polling stations making it more difficult for poorer and blacker voters to get to the polls. That transparent discriminatory move was coupled with providing fewer voting machines in the lower economic areas which resulted in long waits to exercise the franchise. These efforts and stricter ID laws forced many voters to have to execute provisional ballots which subsequently needed a court order to force him to count them. Georgia is one of the few states that does not keep a paper record of the vote so there is no recourse for any fraud that Kemp, the overseer of the election, might perpetrate. He then had the audacity to allege with no proof that the Democrats had attempted to hack the electoral system. 

A Federal Judge finally ruled that all the provisional ballots had to be reviewed and wanted answers as to why so many had to be issued. Stacy Adams, the Democratic candidate, needs 20,000 more votes to force a rerun of the election - a tall order in this circumstance but she claims there are a lot more than that that have not been counted and or unfairly been sidelined.

Whichever way this is viewed Georgia, which in all probability, by hook or by crook, will remain red this cycle, will not remain in the Republican column for perpetuity. 

FLORIDA

Like his compatriot in Georgia, Governor Rick Scott who is the GOP’s Senate candidate is ultimately in charge of the Florida’s election that he is participating in. He has been calling all the shots in this post election saga. The Secretary of State in Florida who is nominally overseeing this nail biter is also a Republican. Scott like Kemp has been actively been involved in purging the voter’s rolls, disproportionately removing Latinos and African Americans. Other initiatives that he has employed that impact on the ability of minorities to vote are making registration onerous and decreasing voting days. 

Scott, taking a page out of the President’s playbook has claimed fraud and general malfeasance by the Democrats. He like the POTUS believes that the law enforcement agency in his State is his personal army. He instructed them to investigate the Democrats for their fraud and objective to “steal” the election. The latter responded that there are no credible allegations to pursue and declined. He has multiple court cases in progress and won a few minor victories but lost all those that matter such as alleging fraud, to impound the voting machines and generally to hamper the recount. 

The big Florida voting controversy centers around Broward County which has over two million population. This county is overwhelmingly Democratic. The electoral officer who is under siege is Brenda Snipes a Bush appointee whom Scott and or his Secretary of State could have thrown out if she is as crooked as they allege. If half their allegations were true they were negligent in not replacing her. The Republicans led by the POTUS and Scott have done nothing to dampen down the rumors spreading in the right wing blogosphere such as there are ballot boxes being smuggled in. To quote Trump’s most oft spurted out summation, “It’s a disgrace”.

Florida like Georgia is also living on borrowed time as a Republican State. On the Florida ballot was a referendum on reinstating the vote to one and a half million felons who have served their sentences and who were not initially convicted for major crimes. Both Scott and the newly elected Florida Governor whose victory is also subject to a recount opposed the reinstatement. The referendum was instituted by a non political group and was supported by the Democrats. Those deprived of votes were disproportionately from lower socio economic and minority groups. This sizable group of citizenry is separate from those removed from the rolls for other reasons.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Close election results always create tension, disappointment, recriminations and even accusations. In the normal course of events there are mechanisms to resolve and confirm or overturn the initial result. After the election in Florida in 2000, when George W. Bush won Florida by five hundred and seventy one votes, and as a result the Presidency, the Republicans created near riot conditions to prevent a recount, legislation was enacted defining when a recount would be mandatory. (The 2000 election was subsequently decided by the Supreme Court. The latter’s decision will live on in infamy when on a partisan decision by five votes to four they declared Bush President and stopped the vote counting.) 

So with mechanisms in place to resolve any doubts the repugnant and vulgar bohaai following the midterm elections was nothing but bullying and intimidation. All that should have happened is that the statutory process should have been put into effect. Georgia also has its own mandatory provisions in the event of the winner not attaining fifty percent of the vote and under what conditions a recount may be instituted. The leader of the country by his behavior has degraded the most sacred of all the institutions of democracy - the electoral system. The electorate who gave him a resounding vote of no confidence in this election for this type of behavior are obviously taking note and will, at the next opportunity, reinforce their disgust. 

It is insructive to view the latest poll on the percentage of voters that believe that Trump should have a second term. Only thirty seven percent are prepared to give him the nod. Maybe this represents the beginning of the erosion of his base. 

TRUMP'S DELUSIONAL TAKE ON THE MIDTERMS AND MUELLER

Regardless of the outcome of the midterm elections Donald J. Trump was going to declare victory. He was going to, and did, take exaggerated credit for any positive result and  place disproportionate blame on others for the failures. He outdid himself by braggardly asserting that those Republicans that didn’t "embrace" him were (deservedly), beaten and those who “embraced” him were, (understandably) triumphant. He summed up his performance as being “very close to complete victory.” 

Of course this assessment was amplified by his Fox echo chamber, his red capped warriors and sadly the remains of the GOP Congress who have drunk the Trump Kool Aid. Mystifyingly the Democrats were half mirroring the POTUS’S assessment and other than gung ho Nancy Pelosi retreated to their corners. In fact the Democrats had a remarkable conclusion to their herculean effort in terms of victories in the House, in Governorships, State legislature races, electorate share, the expanding demographic supporting them, acceptance of their narrative and results of ballot referenda. Not to mention that they received well over ten million more votes than the Trumpites. 

Trump’s triumphs, such as they were, were attributable to his disgraceful racist tactics and only succeeded in making red states redder at the expense of losing all the other demographics. The Democratic supposed weak win was associated with the disappointing narrow losses of their marquee and exiting new young candidates in Red Texas and Georgia and Trump won state Florida. Trump’s achievement was a pyrrhic victory while the Dems disappointment was magnified out of proportion and in effect the result of those three races had many positive features. In fact two are so close that a winner has yet to be declared.

Trump acted swiftly in relation to his impending legal jeopardy and fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions replacing him with an nonentity whose only qualification was that he was openly antagonist to the Mueller probe.

TRUMP NOT IN TOTAL DENIAL AND MOVES AGAINST THE MUELLER PROBE

Just in case anyone believed that Trump was in total denial as to the jeopardy he is now in with the most powerful legislative body in the country, which has card blanche to investigate him, he responded by firing his Attorney General. The latter's crime was that he had refused to intervene on his behalf in the Mueller investigation. He warned the Democratic Party congress members lest that they should delve into his affairs that he would hit back at them through a body, that is apparently under his control, namely the Senate no less. He then tried to bully the Press core. What the POTUS doesn’t realize that the only crowd he can frighten is his own party. 

Sessions's successor is a lawyer, Matthew Whitaker, who has stated that Mueller should have all resources removed from him. Just in case the new Acting Attorney General’s credentials were not unambiguous enough, he has pontificated that he personally would have charged “crooked” Hillary. But the cherry on the top of his resume was that he has concluded that there was nothing wrong with Donald Junior’s meeting with the Russians “To get dirt on Hillary”. It was perfectly legitimate. He has tweeted that the President’s lawyers should not cooperate with Mueller’s justice team who were a lynch mob. Many are interpreting this move as the beginning of the axing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Senator Manchin has declared it a constitutional crisis.

THE MID TERM ELECTORATE 

The turn out was at a historic high. A hundred and thirteen million citizens pulled the lever of which was thirty million more than in the 2014 midterms. Ten million of those had never voted in a midterm before. In that demographic there were twice as many Democrats as Republicans. For the first time only fifty percent of the white women voted for the GOP. This compares to fifty seven percent in 2016. It is reliably reported that a majority of white women in the suburbs were the factor in the Democratic wide spread success in urban and suburban constituencies across America. College educated women in particular as well as all those in the higher educated demographic voted in greater numbers against the party of Trump. In fact the only sectors where the GOP received higher numbers were white men and the elderly. They had their support mainly centered in rural areas while the Democrats prospered from the growing urban and suburban centers across the whole country. 

To sum up the Trump effect created the generic GOP Trump voter who was more likely to be rural, white, male and elderly. Each sector of that profile is diminishing. The POTUS’S election coalition has already diminished by the loss of independents, Republican intellectuals and of course suburban and more educated women. There is very little room for growth as particularly the rural areas are being denuded of population and the old are passing on. 

This resulted in a seven to eight percent advantage in the electorate by the Democrats. To show the impact of the Republican gerrymandering of the districts with that differential the Republicans picked up sixty - five seats in a previous midterm contest. 

THE RESULTS -  A BLUE WAVE

At the time of writing this blog the Democrats were on the path to win up to thirty five seats, but it could well be more as there were 5 outstanding House results in California. The Republicans will be rewarded with two to four seats gained in the Senate. But the real gains for the Democratic Party was in the State elections. They were seven gains in the Governorships - Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and New Mexico. Added to Pennsylvania, these results mean that the Mid Western states that put Trump over the top in the electoral college are in the hands of the Democrats. Looking at the Governor and Senator  races in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio and Illinois won eleven of the 12 Midwest Statewide contests.  That firewall puts Trump’s 2020 bid on life support. 

 But even more significant, for the moment, was the Democratic gains in the State legislatures.The Democrats flipped about three hundred and fifty State House seats which lead to alterations in the power structure in several states including becoming the majority in an additional six State legislatures. They won either Governorships or one or both Chambers in Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, Maine and Minnesota. They removed the possibility of the North Carolina Legislature to override the Democratic Governor’s veto by cutting meaningfully into the Republican majority.

The key demographic that the Democrats are placing their future hopes on, women, were elected to both national and State House in a record numbers. Of the approximately hundred females in the House of Representatives, eighty - two are from the Democratic Party. 

STUNNING RESULTS NOT IN A VACUUM

Most significantly it has to be realized that all this did not all happen in a vacuum. From Day One of the Trump Presidency action groups sprouted up like weeds. They were heralded in by the Women’s March when millions marched in co ordinated efforts throughout the country. The organization behind that militancy has continued. The non profit body that merged as the center and co ordinator of the protests was the organization, Indivisible. They assisted groups throughout the country to form in opposition to Trump's agenda. They issued a booklet which showed, step by step, how to make an impact. Each unit functioned in their constituency, inter alia protesting, attending town hall meetings, visiting their congress representatives, educating and going door to door. In less than two years there are six thousand entities that have been established across the country. 

 Michael Moore set up a Resistance Calendar where all local activities of the activist groups were reported. A ten page folder set out a road map, “The Michael Moore Easy To Follow Ten Point Plan to Stop Donald Trump.” It was around that time that a determined effort was made to encourage and recruit potential candidates for every conceivable office. Women particularly were singled out. None of this infrastructure folds now. Rather they have been spurred, by success, to redouble their efforts to finish the job and Stop Donald Trump. 

The civil rights activists have already mobilized with regard to the Sessions firing. Within 12 hours of hearing of the Sessions firing they had organized almost a thousand protest meetings.

THE CENTRAL ISSUES IN THE ELECTION

The number one issue on the ballot was the fearless leader both by design and necessity. Seven out of ten voters claimed he was a major influence in their decision. Of those twenty - five percent more voted against the Republicans than voted for them. Then the Democrats primary election message, health care, was favored by virtually every voter as one of the decisive factors in their decision making. The Republican obsession with reversing Obama’s Affordable Care Act proved to be a major handicap to the Trump candidates and the voters voiced their opposition. This resulted in Republicans, including the President reversing their positions almost mid sentence. Stricter gun control was another topic that the Republicans were on the wrong side of - sixty percent of the electorate being in favor and thirty seven percent being against. 

Immigration, Trump’s trump card was supported by only fifty percent of the voters and forty three percent had it as their number one issue. Kavanaugh the other Trump triumph was a motivating factor in forty three percent of the electorate and demotivating in fifty percent. 

The voting percentages for and against on these central issues more or less reflected the share the two parties received on November 6. This analysis confirms that all that Trump and Kavanaugh did was just bring out the base who would have come out anyway and this was reflected in the few Senate gains in red states. The Democrats picked up suburban and urban Republican women, independents and the majority of new voters as reflected by their large gains in the House, governorships and State legislatures. 

“THE MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT” - FAILURE TO WIN IN THE THREE MARQUEE RACES 

What contributed to the perception and the Democratic buy in that this was a lukewarm victory was the unrealistic expectation that the three Democratic wunderkinder in Florida, Georgia and Texas didn’t emerge triumphant. That was not the way fairy tales are expected to end. However the reality was that Georgia and Texas were red hot States that Trump won by about ten percentage points. Texas was won by Trump in the Presidential election and heading the ticket was a highly popular retiring Governor who distanced himself from Trump and had compromised on a number of issues including gun control. 

The polls consistently showed that these races would be close. In fact Beto O’Rourke, in Texas outperformed the predictions cutting his percentage loss by half to three percent. Mayor Gillum in Texas was up one or two percent in forecasts and then lost by half a percent, well within the margin of error. Both the Texas Senate race and Gillum’s Governor race are headed for a recount as more and more votes are being counted. 

The remarkable Stacey Adams was always a few percent behind in the polls and as matters stand is less than a percent behind with votes still to be counted as there are in the Texas Senate race. Neither Senator Nelson in Texas nor Stacey Adams and now Mayor Gillum have conceded defeat. Both in Texas and Georgia the Democratic wave heralded House seat flips in the wake of the marked inroads the exiting candidates made into the Republican party’s previous performances.  

All in all pretty impressive performances by the three future leaders of the Democratic Party who will be heard from again and again in the future. In fact the pressure on the charismatic O’ Rourke to run for President will be massive. So by virtually all parameters the results were excellent. 

TRUMP THE ILLUSIONIST

The forever underrated, to his opposition’s disadvantage, POTUS has perfected another skill to his armamentarium - illusionism. The latter is defined as performing tricks that deceive the eye, (and ear). All illusionists achieve their goals by diverting attention from what they are doing or what is happening so as to deceive you. This has been illustrated in recent days. Trump focusses on the few Senate gains and marquee races helping to create the illusion that his caravan tactics was responsible for the GOP's non existent “triumph”. Before that can be analyzed he diverts attention by firing Sessions who becomes the story. He then deflects attention from that disaster to abusing and censoring the media generally and a CNN representative specifically….. and so it goes, hopefully not forever.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

With all that in place and Trump’s stultifying effect on the Republican Party the Democrats can only expand their representation across the country in years to come. Special elections prior to 2020 will see them expand their gains, In fact one wonders how long it will take the Republican Party to recover, if ever, and remove the Trump sign from over their headquarters. 

Trump is steadying himself for the fight of his life as he attempts to shield himself and his family from Mueller. What hope the Republicans have left to salvage any honor is at stake. One positive sign is that Trump’s old nemesis Mitt Romney who was elected the Senate has already tweeted that the Mueller investigation must be protected. Also Jeff Flake of the GOP and Chis Coons of the Dems have called for the Senate to shield Mueller.

The Democrats have to play their cards carefully combining a legislative agenda and their investigation of the President with just the right balance.

By the way has anyone heard or seen of Rudi Giuliani?

Where is he now that Trump really needs him? 

Now that you mention it what happened to the impending invasion from the South. The President is not talking about it any more......

TRUMP’S LAST DESPERATE NATIVISTIC DASH

Trump has executed a gigantic desperate frantic gamble to turn the midterm elections into a referendum on his good self. His methodology is his usual brash uncouth bizarre immoral business model. His “Deal” changed as the “customers” rejected each “offer”. He upped the stakes to a hysterical racist pitch in an attempt to strike fear into the electorate as he became more and more divisive. His process degenerated from “The Art of The Deal” to the “Bullying of the Bully Pulpit”. Even Trump could not envision that he would win any converts by going native but if only he could bring out those who had given him his minority win in 2016 then perhaps the Republicans could hang onto Congress, the Governorships and the State Legislatures. Realistically however if he just brought out the forty percent base he might have some protection from any move to impeach him. At the end of the day all Trump is achieving is shoring up the red states that will keep control of the Senate in this cycle. 

This short term gain is potentially at the cost of his Republican Party. He would be antagonizing the thirty percent of Latinos that have been voting Republican and the suburban Republican women forever. He has already lost the Republican intellectuals so the pool of Americans that support him diminishes by the day. But Trump does not believe in the long term only the short term. He will worry about the Senate in 2020 not to mention his own re election if he is still around.

BUSINESS MODEL

The business model used was a mixture of the recklessness of his casino bankruptcies and his reality show, The Apprentice. In the end it was more akin to his franchising operation. The Republican Party have become one of many franchises that Trump has put his stamp on. While many in the past have failed Trump has never lost any of his money in the process. He rarely becomes personally involved in the endeavor but he has with the Republican Party as he is its leader and he attempts to run it like his businesses. That is why even though his name is not on the ballot he is rushing around the country in support of Republican candidates in the midterm elections like his life depended on it. In some ways his life maybe on the line as the Democrats are odds on favorites to win the House of Representatives and no longer will his finances, his alleged criminal activity and possible impeachment be held hostage by a Republican Congress. Also Donald Trump’s franchise is in deep trouble in the State elections and the Governorships so his voters are not saying, as he prophesied , “Mr. President we are so tired of you winning so much” or at least a good number aren’t.

Trump in this frenetic battle not to be “a loser” has resorted to the roles he knows best - being an entertainer and a salesman. In this challenge he is prepared to say and do anything to his adoring mob. So using his undoubted histrionic and peddling skills he is running from venue to venue giving free shows packed to the rafters with his red capped fans. He has scheduled eleven such extravaganzas in the last six days before the midterms. He has frenetically and continuingly changed what he is selling because his sales pitch is not going down so well outside of the roadshows. 

INITIAL GOODS FOR SALE FLOPPED

He first offer was that because of his tax bill “You never had it so good”. However this bill of goods did not fly as the consensus was that the only citizens that benefitted were the rich. In fact when the middle class can no longer deduct their biggest tax saving benefits, property taxes and mortgages their taxes will go up in time for the 2020 elections. When someone pointed this all out to him he tweeted a ten percent tax cut before the midterms but even the red caps didn’t buy it because Congress isn’t in session and Republican Senate Leader McConnell said it would never happen. So he moved onto health care.

The line on health care has changed as the body politic suddenly realized that Obamacare was what they really wanted. So almost mid sentence the smears on the late John McCain for preventing the GOP from completely destroying it changed to that Trump and the Republicans were the best politicians to save it. However even for Trump this was a difficult sell with a history of seventy congressional attempts to axe it and the fact that Trump’s Justice Department is backing a legal move to eliminate the health care benefits such as insurance companies having to accept enrollees with pre existing complaints. Trump lamely tweeted on but he knew this just would not cut it, So something else was needed. 

Of course there was the new Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh, whom, amidst great excitement, a Republic majority succeeded in electing. (Jay H. Ell thought that was what Republican majorities were supposed to do). This item only really appeals to the Evangelical base and the real Conservatives, not the Red Caps and the blue collared workers who put him over the top.   

Trump claims that his record shows great achievement and that is a good reason to vote for the Trump. That really isn’t enough to keep the franchise going so there has to be a new line of merchandize to sell. The obvious line was immigration and the threat on our Southern border in the form of The Caravan 

TRUMP IGNORES RACIST ATTACKS AND GOES NATIVE INSTEAD.

So it was back to racism and division that had played so well and been a best seller in the past. He was hampered by the fact that he was being made to feel complicit in three racialist tragedies that happened on his watch and annoyingly punctuated his last ditch effort. He complained bitterly that they detracted from the real job at hand and chastised the media for focussing on them instead of his daily rants. His failure to fulfill the traditional Presidential role as Comforter in Chief coupled with his continuing divisiveness repulsed and disgusted a growing group of commentators. Notable among the latest to throw up their hands in revulsion is Judge Napolitano of Fox News. A deeply religious man, Napolitano claims the big hearted individual he has known has become in this election season, “Angry, reckless and lacking in understanding. His words having given comfort to the worst of us”. In a lengthy piece Napolitano laments the fact that Trump has misused the bully pulpit and not acted in the traditional presidential manner. He rhetorically asks, “Should the President’s bully pulpit be used to divide and polarize or unite and uplift?”.

It did not bother Trump one jot that the atrocities were allegedly perpetrated by those who support his philosophies and not by “The Mexicans”. All the accused had racist backgrounds and at least two could argue that they were acting out his agenda. While he could blame all of them on the media there was only one of these savage events that Trump could not disengage himself from - the brutal barbaric synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh. Besides having to interrupt his schedule to physically make an appearance at the scene the revulsion at worshippers being slaughtered in cold blood was far too much for especially his Evangelical block to just pass by and point to the “fake news”. So he apologized to the red cappers at each meeting that “he had to tone it down”. Tone it down he did at least while he read his prepared statement berating anti semitism. 

The faithful were treated to the condemning of anti semitism on the one hand and the promotion of racism on the other. The incongruity of this argument is that the perpetrator of the Pittsburgh tragedy believes like Trump that the immigrants marching onto the Southern border represent an existential threat. The accused believes that jews are aiding and abetting this threat. He believed, like Trump, the threat was urgent that is why he couldn’t wait before “going in.” There was a general conspiracy theory from the right that the Caravan was funded by the archetypical evil jew, George Soros. Trump thinks it is possible that Soros was indeed the financier. Without laboring the point further it requires great subtlety to starkly differentiate the policy of Trump, who like the assassin, believes one had to act urgently against the immigration threat, and the assassin himself.

But let us continue like this embarrassing connection is not there and return to the Trumpian mind on the immigration threat.

ITS THE IMMIGRANTS STUPID

Throwing the failing mantra that “You never had it so good” into the garbage Trump changed it to “The Republic is under attack”. The focus was turned to “The Caravan” - a collection of four thousand individuals mainly from Honduras half of who are women and children, several of whom are barefoot. By every account they are seeking asylum and or fleeing from violence. Trump maintains, without proof, that there are criminals among them and terrorists from the Middle East. “These are tough people’, Trump confides again and again and they will be stopped. He is amping up the rhetoric at every one of his jamborees. The narrative per se failed to excite the electorate so he moved on.

The refugees are anything from eight hundred to fourteen hundred miles from the border - literally months away from the USA.  A leaked memorandum from the Pentagon states that from historical data at most fourteen hundred will reach the border. The POTUS’S electoral response was to order, in addition to the tens of thousands of border and immigration agents, five thousand regular troops to the border immediately. That also didn’t move the political compass. 

The President then claimed, amidst disbelief, that the Constitution which states that any child born on American territory was a citizen could be negated by him with an executive order. As this was just too much for the spineless Speaker of the House Paul Ryan the latter all but said that it was absurd. Trump responded as he always does by abuse and attack and blamed Ryan in advance for the loss of the House.  This too didn’t seem to evince the response Trump expected so the bile continued,

The POTUS then personally released the most racist advert recorded since the infamous Willie Horton effort in the sixties. It depicted a Mexican illegal immigrant who was responsible for murder. The message was that all immigrants are murderers. The Democrats want open borders….. All this when the statistics show that that demographic has a lower crime rate and the mentally handicapped individual came into the country under Bush. Without even waiting for the impact of that contribution he returned to the regular refrain that The Caravan was an invasion and had to be halted.

So Trump upped the regular troop deployment up to fifteen thousand, more than are currently in Afghanistan. Questions were asked about the cost and what the troops would do in the months prior to arrival of the barefooted warriors. The response was swift the troops would fire at any illegal who threw stones. The POTUS was unaware that the Military have no right, on American soil, to resort to arms but he upped the anti even further.

The President then announced that he would declare that you cannot ask for amnesty. He would declare that illegal…..

It is obvious that Trump will not stop and he will ratchet it to fever pitch till election day.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

It remains to be seen where this all ends in the short term and the long term. Whichever way this is viewed Trump faces two virtual certainties. The House is almost certainly lost and at the very least Trump will be investigated up the ying yang by the Democrats. Even more certain is that Mueller is closing in on the Trump campaign. On the upside he would have ensured the Senate stays in McConnell’s grubby hands.

The question is that in his seventieth year is teflon Trump finally out of his depth. Jay H. Ell cannot envision how he can move on unscathed to a second term. But then he was convinced Hillary would win…….

Just as an aside the Democrats are sticking to script and almost ignoring Trump. To quote the Democratic contender for Florida Governorship when Trump called him a thief, “You don’t wrestle with a pig!”.