Too little too late
“President” Donald Trump is not exactly the brightest bulb in the box. He fans the flames of racism that are permeating the country, and now, he comes up with what is arguably his stupidest idea to date: he wants to address the nation on the race issue. Washington Post discusses what is wrong with this idea, and it is frankly surprising that Trump’s advisers cannot see the folly of this endeavor. Of course, they probably do, and Trump is just tuning them out as he normally does.
First, this is too little, too late — far too late. Trump has made things worse with his hateful rhetoric and attacks on U.S. citizens. He sits squarely at the root of our problems. Up to this point, Trump has tried to pretend the pandemic is not happening, lied about an economic recovery that is not happening, and made the protests worse by sending the federal police out to gas protestors for a photo op. WaPo deems Trump’s missteps with the pandemic, economic depression, and now, the racial divide, as failures. Indeed, WaPo believes this entire situation may well be fatal for Trump. Good. Let him continue to crash and burn.
Given all of Trump’s missteps, it is little wonder that the tide in turning. American Bridge, a Democratic Super PAC, is targeting seniors in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania with a spot featuring a Vietnam veteran who voted for Trump in 2016 and will now be voting for Joe Biden because Biden “has the good of the country in his heart.” Given how much coronavirus has impacted the lives of seniors, this is a good starting point. Another ad features an elderly woman who said that if Biden had been president, he “would have come forward at the very beginning and told people the truth.”
These ads are apparently helping Biden, as he has opened up a 12-point lead in Michigan in one new poll. WaPo further reveals that Joe Biden is leading Trump by 7 points in the NBC News-Wall Street Journal and NPR-PBS-Marist polls. He is leading by 10 in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, 11 points in the Monmouth poll, and 14 points in a CNN poll released Monday.
While polls can certainly be unreliable and Trump claims that the CNN poll “is as fake as its news” because they showed Clinton winning (and she did win the popular vote), Clinton never reached 50% according to RealClearPolitics. These recent polls, however, show Biden clearly ahead with numbers at or above 50%. Trump might want to stop tweeting and start worrying. His own internal polling shows Biden ahead 55% to 39% in Pennsylvania and 51% to 41% in Wisconsin. Trump is probably about to lose what’s left of his mind.
A world free of Trump. Do we dare even dream? To borrow from President Obama, “yes, we can.” We can make it happen, and we will. We should encourage Trump to make his speech on race and unity very soon. That speech will likely finish him off.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years