The Progressive Populist Today Blog: 2020-09-13

Sunday, September 13, 2020

It is what it is

Art by Kevin Kreneck

Editorial: Make Trump the 'Loser'

Can anything budge the 40% to 43% of Americans who think Donald Trump is doing a good job, despite all the evidence to the contrary?

Trump hasn’t resorted to trying to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City to see if he could shake his supporters’ loyalty — at least not yet — but the latest test was a report by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic magazine Sept. 3 that accused the president of calling fallen American soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” and ducking out of a trip to a cemetery to honor US marines who died in World War I, during a 2018 trip to Paris, because it was raining and he didn’t want to muss his hair. Trump also reportedly questioned the sacrifice of retired Gen. John Kelly’s son, Marine 2nd Lt. Robert Kelly, and others who died in Afghanistan, when Trump accompanied Gen. Kelly to the son’s gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2017. Trump reportedly said of the fallen service members, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

Trump also asked his staff not to include wounded veterans in military parades, on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. “Nobody wants to see that,” he said.

Trump denied making the statements, despite the Associated Press, the New York Times, the Washington Post and even Fox News confirming the story. The Post also found a “former senior administration official” who said Trump had “told senior advisers that he didn’t understand why the US government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action because they had performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got.”

Significantly, Kelly declined to speak on the record. When Pentagon officials in a position to know declined to back up Trump, he called military brass “war profiteers.” He claimed enlisted personnel support him, but a survey by Military Times of active-duty military in late July and early August found 49.9% have an unfavorable view of Trump and only 38% have a favorable view. Soldiers support Joe Biden over Trump by four points, which would be an extraordinary turnaround from 2016, when a poll using the same methodology showed Trump led Hillary Clinton by nearly 2 to 1. Sixty percent of veterans voted for Trump in 2016.

As Amanda Marcotte noted at Salon, we know Trump was lying in his denial of The Atlantic’s story because it follows his pathological pattern of telling lies. In his tweeted denials, Trump even claimed he never called the late Sen. John McCain a “loser” for being captured during the Vietnam War, even though there’s a recording of him doing so in July 2015, in the same rant during which he declared, “I like people who weren’t captured.” Trump was so proud of this smear of McCain that he tweeted it out at the time.

Trump’s other “tell,” Marcotte noted, is that he falsely accuses others of doing what he himself has done. In this case, Trump has spent years bashing athletes who kneel during the national anthem, falsely accusing them of dishonoring veterans and war dead. In truth, the tradition — started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick — was formed with input from a former Green Beret as a way to speak out against racism and police brutality while still honoring the troops.

Trump’s contempt for the sacrifices of soldiers and their families was shown in 2016 when he smeared the family of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2004, when Khan’s parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention, and in October 2017, when he told a grieving widow of US Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was killed in in action in Niger, that “he knew what he signed up for.” Trump then accused Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., who was with widow Myesia Johnson when she spoke with Trump, of lying when she spoke out about it.

We can add these lies to the 20,055 falsehoods Trump already had claimed as president, by the Washington Post’s tally as of July 9, when Trump was telling an average of 23 false claims a day. They are reflected in polls that show Trump with 43.2% approval, in an average compiled by FiveThirtyEight.com, while 52.6% said they disapproved of Trump, as of Sept. 8. Some 43.1% said they would vote to re-elect Trump, but 50.6% said they would elect Joe Biden. Trump has never had more than 47.8% approval in the poll averages since he’s been president. Disapproval only dipped below 50% briefly in April before Trump’s inability to control the corona virus became apparent. Biden has never trailed Trump since March, and Biden also leads by amounts greater than the margin of error in key swing states Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, along with a narrow lead of 2-3 points in Florida.

Democrats are justifiably nervous after the disastrous results in 2016, but this time Trump will not be sneaking up on his opponent. Voters have had a good look at Trump, and a majority of them don’t like what they’ve seen. In the 2018 election, Democrats made inroads into the suburbs, which Republicans have counted on to offset Democratic majorities in cities, and Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives.

As polls this year have shown Biden leading among suburban voters, and Republican control of the Senate is at risk, an increasingly desperate Trump has tried to scare suburbanites with warnings that if Biden is elected, Blacks will start moving into their neighborhoods. But racism doesn’t appear to be moving the needle for Trump.

If anything, the share of Americans who say racism is a “big problem” in society has increased eight percentage points in the past two years, and has roughly doubled since 2011, Samantha Neal reported for Pew Research Center Aug. 29.

Overall, 58% of Americans say racism is a “big problem in our society,” while 29% say it is “somewhat of a problem.” Just 12% say racism in the US is a small problem or not a problem, according to a Pew survey, conducted Aug. 15-21. And despite Trump administration attempts to link the Black Lives Matter movement to riots, arson and looting, some of which has been traced to right-wing provocateurs and other opportunists, the Pew poll found 55% of Americans say they support BLM, while 34% oppose the movement. Biden traveled to Pittsburgh, Pa., Aug. 31 to underline that he supports peaceful protests that call for police reform and equal rights, but said those who engage in violent activities or looting should be prosecuted. He also accused Trump of stoking violence in American cities. Biden noted America was unsafe under Trump, with COVID-19 killing thousands of people a week and an economy in tatters.

Biden also traveled to Kenosha, Wis., Sept. 3 to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was gravely wounded after a white policeman shot him seven times in the back. Biden spoke with Blake by phone before meeting with community leaders and again opposed violence and looting, but pledged to “go down fighting for racial equality, equity across the board.”

With Trump’s approval stuck in the low-to-mid 40s, and Dems targeting Senate Republicans in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas, along with an open seat in Kansas, Republicans are trying to prevent opponents from voting, reducing the number of pollling places and casting doubts on voting by mail. Many states allow early voting for several weeks in October. Check your early or absentee voting options at Vote.org or call your local election official (usually the county clerk) for details. Don’t wait for Nov. 3. — JMC