Trump, Conquering by Dividing

PRESIDENT TRUMP, to use the term "president" loosely, was elected with three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton, with the assistance of foreign operatives who poured millions of dollars into a propaganda campaign on his behalf, by conducting a campaign based on divisive hatred. Now he is probably convinced that the same crude tactics will work again, and that he will be reelected no matter how few his supporters are in number. he seems to think that he only needs to retain the loyalty of hsi white blue collar evangelical angry red neck base. But that base has not grown, if anything, it has shrunk during the past four years, and is shrinking rapidly because of the virus, the economic decline, and the racial unrest. Trump never mentions the name "George Floyd", but instead refers to protesters of systemic racism as anarchists and looters. meanwhile, most of the country supports "Black Lives matter", and much prefer to heal the divided country around true racial and human equality. The banning of the confederate flag by NASCAR also has the support of most of the country, although a minority of right wing reactionaries oppose it, for reasons they have not made clear. they mumble platitudes about freedom, which mean nothing. Trump, meanwhile, twitter tweets verbal attacks on all progressive actin, including that taken by NASCAR, even going so far as to demand an apology from African-American driver Bubba Wallace, for some crime he cannot name. Trump is running his reelection campaign as if he were challenging an incumbent who has done a terrible job, which in a sense he is.