ALL THE ORANGE MAKEUP IN THE WORLD CANNOT HIDE HIS YELLOW STREAK
"President Trump threw a fit over the arrangements in Charlotte for the Republican National Convention. He wanted a full house, complete with throngs of unmasked attendees. When he predictably did not get permission to create another coronavirus hot spot, he took his ball and went home. He will take the convention elsewhere!
"President Trump threw a fit over the arrangements in Charlotte for the Republican National Convention. He wanted a full house, complete with throngs of unmasked attendees. When he predictably did not get permission to create another coronavirus hot spot, he took his ball and went home. He will take the convention elsewhere!
As I pointed out at the time, this is preposterous. Conventions take years of planning. The security, hotel and other logistical details take months upon months of sorting out. Moreover, what other state wants to accommodate a coronoavirus pandemic hot spot, not to mention the throngs of protesters that are sure to accompany Trump’s self-coronation?
It turns out Trump is not taking the convention anywhere. He is hiding far from the pandemic hot spot he plans to create. We now learn what this is really about. The Associated Press reports:
President Donald Trump won't accept his party's nomination in North Carolina, but the Republican National Committee confirmed Thursday that it would still hold meetings in Charlotte.
“The RNC’s Executive Committee has voted unanimously to allow the official business of the national convention to continue in Charlotte,” said a statement from Michael Ahrens, the RNC’s communications director. “Many other cities are eager to host the president’s acceptance of the nomination, and we are currently in talks with several of them to host that celebration.”
So Trump will be safely ensconced elsewhere while conventioneers are left to infect one another? Perhaps Trump plans on bringing in a MAGA crowd for his event, people so enthralled with the great leader that they would willingly risk infecting themselves and others.
Well, you say, haven’t thousands been protesting in the streets, increasing the chance of new outbreaks? Yes, and the danger is real and should not be ignored. The only solace one can take with regard to the protesters is that they are outside, many wear masks and many are young people. They (and we) might pay a steep price nevertheless, another tragedy flowing from repression of black Americans.
That said, a group of unmasked older people in a closed convention seems to be asking for trouble — and Trump will gladly subject his followers to such danger for the sake of a photo op.
However Trump stage-manages this (all alone, hiding in another state, or in another state but with a crowd), the image of personal cowardice is becoming fixed in the public’s mind.
A president who scurries to the bunker — and comes up with a cock-and-bull excuse (inspection!) to explain his retreat is not what the MAGA crowd signed up for.
A president barricaded behind lines of chain-link fencing extending the White House perimeter provides another symbol of his isolation and fear of Americans.
A convention stage-managed to put others in danger and keep Trump in a deep-red state, safe from infection and less accessible to protesters would be quintessentially Trump.
Pundits have whined that former vice president Joe Biden is trapped in his basement. He needs to get out! He looks out of touch! Actually, he has gotten out quite a bit — to meet with church leaders, to give a stunningly effective speech in Philadelphia — just this week. Expect more. Trump, however, must be cocooned in the White House or behind a phalanx of security. His visits outside the White House will no doubt provoke angry protests. So who is the weak and isolated candidate?
As the protests have increased throughout the country and generals have made clear they will not allow troops to be used as Trump’s private jackboots, Trump has been rendered a lonely, weak and somewhat pitiful character.
That is a dangerous look for someone who thrives on bravado and power. He is not dominating, to use his phrase, much of anything these days."
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