I didn’t see the Presidential Address last night due to having other obligations – exercise, which is important at this point in life.
However, seeing as I’m located in Minnesota, the local news station on the CBS network carried a clip of the Address that directly mentioned Minnesota. They’ve also provided a summary:
During a section on immigration, Mr. Trump pointed to Minnesota, where he claimed Somali people have “taken over the economics of the state.”
Minnesota has the country’s largest Somali-American community, most of whom are U.S. citizens. In recent weeks, the president has highlighted a large-scale fraud investigation in Minnesota in which most, but not all, of the defendants were of Somali descent.
“In the end, government either serves the productive, patriotic, hardworking American citizen, or it serves those who break the laws, cheat the system and seek power and profit at the expense of our nation,” he said.
The summary lacks the punch of the actual address, which is also available on the page. The small clip that we saw, for instance I’m sure, featured a paragraph proclaiming our Somali community is basically a big gang of fraudsters who’ve absolutely ruined Minnesota.
My Arts Editor commented that he’d managed to not utter a single truth in that entire paragraph. He’s a Mendacity Machine, to be sure.
This attempt at demonization of the Somalis is, of course, a classic element of the illegitimate strategy of the power grab. Select a scapegoat, amplify problems to which they may or may not be associated, pronounce that they are the doom of the ages, and then claim the Chosen One is the only person able to solve the problem.
It’s just a variant on classic grifter-speak.
But I’m not really here to dismiss Trump’s claims, as nonsensical and shameful as they may be, because the people reading me should already know this is a power-grab strategy, his claims are, in the end, vast exaggerations or just utter garbage, etc.
No. Here’s the real problem.
The online community is minuscule compared to the electorate. Who is going into the real life community, where kids play baseball and parents work and coach and applaud, or go to fencing practice and tournaments, and mentioning that the President is engaging in demonization rather than truth? Who’s going into the small towns where maybe this propaganda seems plausible because the citizens living there don’t get into the cities very often?
Are you?
The big newspapers have mostly folded, although there’s still a wounded WaPo, a New York Times, and even the Minnesota StarTribune (and the St. Paul Pioneer Press continues to hang on!), which is very unfortunate as they would have the reach to effectively label the President’s babble as the lies that they are. After that? The kids are online, but not really relevant. Their parents, if they’re online, are caught up in the war for their clicks and their votes, with little regard for truth.
Some understand that, some do not.
But, and finally, I have to say this: The President’s claims just sounded so tired, so trite. Americans are not dumb. Their political leaders of all stripes may go marching about, but they feel free to step out of tune if that seems more sensible, leaving the procession when it feels foolish to follow. And that’s the feeling of the President, a tired old man whose strategy, much like Mace’s, is worn out and becoming useless.
