Donald Trump, the extreme narcissist, and mentally very unstable, and more dangerous every day for the nation, botched his last attempt to show concern and empathy for the American people, by his atrocious reaction to the CoronaVirus Pandemic!
Any chance he had to redeem himself to the American people and his historic reputation is lost, as he has refused to promote contact tracing or testing, and is very willing to accept mass loss of life without any guilt or conscience!
All that matters to Donald Trump is to be reelected, with the thought that if somehow, through foreign collusion, voter suppression, or gerrymandering combination, he is reelected, the nightmare we are living through will become much worse!
This is not just about massive loss of life, but also the abuse of power by a reenergized President who will go further in destroying the Constitution and Bill of Rights, setting up a Fascist dictatorship that his Republican Party will abide by. This will be instead of promoting the principles enunciated by Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and other historic Republicans of principle and common decency over the 166 years of the party’s history!
Once we lose our basic civil liberties and civil rights, how can we ever regain them? How can we protect the vulnerable among us, including the disabled, the elderly, the young, and racial and ethnic minorities, which will suffer more than the general population?
That is why, as stated in my History News Network article of April 29, the Election of 2020 is the most significant one since 1940, in that our whole way of life is in danger, as it was in the four previous elections discussed in the article—1860, 1864, 1932, and 1940!
Trump Was Never on a Glide Path to Re-Election Even Before the Virus
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/05/10/trump-was-never-on-a-glide-path-to-re-election-even-before-the-virus/
The Washington Post: reports that Donald is despondent these days. But not over the death, illness and economic calamity as a responsible, empathetic leader would be. Rather, he’s upset over his supposedly declining electoral fortunes:
[Some of Trump’s advisers described the president as glum and shell-shocked by his declining popularity. In private conversations, he has struggled to process how his fortunes suddenly changed from believing he was on a glide path to reelection to realizing that he is losing to the likely Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, in virtually every poll, including his own campaign’s internal surveys, advisers said. He also has been fretting about the possibility that a bad outbreak of the virus this fall could damage his standing in the November election, said the advisers, who along with other aides and allies requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The president is also eager to resume political travel in June, including holding his signature rallies by the end of the summer in areas where there are few cases, advisers said. Trump’s political team has begun discussions about organizing a high-dollar, in-person fundraiser next month, as well as preliminary planning about staging rallies and what sort of screenings might be necessary, according to Republican National Committee officials and outsider advisers. One option being considered is holding rallies outdoors, rather than in enclosed arenas, a senior administration official said.]
These two short paragraphs illustrate the cloud of delusion under which Trump operates.
First, there are no areas where there are “few cases.†Not only is COVID-19 running rampant in rural areas, and not only would it take only a few asymptomatic contagious individuals to infect dozens or even hundreds of other rallygoers, it would literally be nearly impossible given the dearth of testing to know whether an area had few cases or not. Second, given the fact that 72 people were infected likely after attending an anti-social-distancing gathering in Wisconsin, it seems highly unlikely that holding a rally outdoors will make much of a difference in terms of the safety of the attendees.
But even from the limited point of view of Trump’s personal electoral self-interest, his perspective is not grounded more in wishful narcissism than fact.
Trump was not, in fact, on a glide path to re-election prior to the arrival of the virus. Joe Biden has been leading Trump by the same wide margin since this time last year. Sanders also dominated Trump over the same year-long period by a slightly smaller margin, and Warren held a consistent, slim lead as well.
Of course, Hillary Clinton led by significant margins throughout her general election only to lose in the electoral college at the very end. But there were a number of unique factors in that election from Clinton’s negative favorability rating to the Russian hacking and release of her campaign emails via Wikileaks, to the final intervention by James Comey. Nor are Democrats likely to make the same mistake in overlooking electoral realignment trends and mistaking where the real swing states lay as they did in 2016, or to be complacent in the face of Trump.
Meanwhile, Democrats dominated Republicans in the 2018 midterms and in most special elections since then.
So there is little reason outside of unearned confidence for Trump to believe he had a clear path to victory. In fact, fear of Biden is why Trump attempted the Ukrainian coercion scheme that led to his impeachment.
If Trump does lose in November, he will certainly claim election fraud and a number of other conspiracies–but insofar as he strays away from conspiracies he will likely blame the virus. But there’s no reason to believe we would have won, regardless. Only the same narcissism and wishful thinking that permeate the rest of his worldview.
Oh no! Fauci, the CDC director, and the FDA commissioner are all going into quarantine after being exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anthony-fauci-modified-quarantine-coronavirus_n_5eb74dd5c5b6c3bd870057f6
Sounds like Pence needs to quarantine as well, but, he’s not going to do it.
Dump is losing it. He tweeted 100 times on Mother’s Day. Nonsense about Obama. He clearly has a problem with obsession. Behavior like this is why he is causing the GOP to lose the suburbs.
In response to the piece posted by Former Republican:
“Glide Path†or any path—the historic electoral advantage, for 2020, was pointing to a Republican hold, meaning re-election for Donald Trump, because the nation seldom switches the White House party over two consecutive election cycles.
During the 20th century, consecutive cycles of switching the White House party happened only once: a 1976 Democratic pickup (unseating of a Republican incumbent U.S. president) and a 1980 Republican pickup (unseating of a Democratic incumbent U.S. president).
If Election 2020 becomes a Democratic pickup of the presidency, with the unseating of Republican incumbent Donald Trump, it is not Trump’s temperament or Russiagate—it will because of COVID–19 having struck on his watch.
COVID–19 is dealing with a pandemic disease that is also negative impacting at least the U.S. economy, which also deals with people’s employment, would be the catalyst.
If we were already at that point, say, six months from now; that Election Day had passed; and we got into analyzing results—well, let’s say Democrats flip the presidency (and, with it, the U.S. Senate) with the unseating of Trump! I would figure the same would have happened if Trump was affiliated not with the Republican but the Democratic Party.
A lot of people follow politics. A lot of people do not. The people who do not—if they have an incumbent U.S. president, trying to get re-elected, and a bad economy strikes on his watch, those people, who are voters, will figure, “I have to switch the party [in the White House]. I can’t go four more years with this.â€
We have had 10 United States presidents unseated in their attempt to win re-election to a second term. It is very common that what does it is, more than anything else, the economy.
Before COVID–19, Trump was looking pretty good with the economy. Now, with the unemployment rate, so far from this pandemic crisis, things have changed.
Thanks for that article, Former Republican. It’s as I have pointed out previously. Trump has not expanded beyond his base.
The virus worsened matters for Trump and the Republicans, certainly, but, swing voters were already starting to have regrets prior to the virus, as elections since 2016 have shown. People are realizing that Trump is a bad stain on the Republican Party.
Biden’s lead is the steadiest on record. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/10/politics/biden-polling/index.html
Because of states reopening, the new model is 137,000 coronavirus deaths by early August.
https://www.ajc.com/news/more-than-137-000-coronavirus-deaths-early-august-new-health-model-predicts/NOJ7UnUkAJpyZz44NCIdCO/
This nails the type of Republicans that Trump is losing in the suburbs.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/05/12/why-joe-biden-should-reach-out-to-mccain-republicans/
Jennifer Rubin, Steve Schmidt, Ric Wilson, etc. are perfectly expressing how both Democrats and Republicans who hate Trump are feeling.
The office I work at has notified employees that we will be returning to our regular work schedule on Monday, May 18.
Be safe, Rational Lefty!
Same with my office.
Hair salons are amongst the businesses being allowed to reopen in our neck of the woods for Phase 1 on Friday. My hair is badly in need of a perm, but I’m wary about going to that type of setting.
Princess Leia, I am also in need of a haircut after 9 weeks, but also agree with you about being wary of taking care of that right now!
Better safe than sorry in these tumultuous times!
Biden is going to be on Lawrence’s show tomorrow night, along with Stacey Abrams. I wonder if that means he may be choosing her.
Fux Snooze is attacking Fauci.
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, Senator Mark Warner, and the mayor of Richmond are all some of the leaders opposed to Virginia reopening too early. The concern is that Virginia has not done enough testing to reopen.
It sounds like Trump is getting ready to get rid of Fauci.
Southern Liberal – I feel that Northam is caving to pressure.
Agreed, Leia. There was an increase in 1000 cases between Wednesday and today.
https://bluevirginia.us/2020/05/thursday-5-14-virginia-data-on-covid-19-finds-1067-confirmed-probable-cases-to-27813-72-hospitalizations-to-3592-28-deaths-to-955-from-yesterday
According to the Atlantic, Virginia is combining results from viral and antibody tests in the same statistic. This threatens to confound America’s understanding of the pandemic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/05/covid-19-tests-combine-virginia/611620/
Virginia Dept. of Health Responds to “The Atlantic†Story on State’s Testing Statistics; Says Removing Antibody Tests Makes “No Difference in Overall Trendsâ€
https://bluevirginia.us/2020/05/breaking-virginia-dept-of-health-responds-to-the-atlantic-story-on-states-testing-statistics-says-removing-antibody-tests-makes-no-difference-in-overall-trends
Virginia Dept. of Health to start reporting antibody, diagnostic testing data separately.
https://www.wsls.com/news/virginia/2020/05/14/virginia-dept-of-health-to-start-reporting-antibody-diagnostic-testing-data-separately/
For both me and Southern Liberal, our offices are doing contract tracing. This means you answer a questionnaire and have your temperature taken upon arrival. Everyone is to social distance at 6 feet, and, when that is not possible, a facial covering should be worn.
For hair salons in our town, stylists and customers are required to wear face masks, since social distancing is rather impossible to do in that type of setting. Hair is being done by appointments only, no walk ins. You wait in your car until the stylist is ready for you. They’ll either call or text your cell phone when it’s time for you to come in to the building. They’re advising not to bring anyone with you. One of the salons is doing no cash or check payments at this time. They are saying to be patient about scheduling appointments, as they are catching up on rescheduling people.
I have a dental appointment scheduled for the summer. I’ve found out that they’re doing contract tracing as well. Masks are required. You wait in your car until they’re ready for you.