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What Should Be Donald Trump’s Pitch
On Saturday, President Trump will be holding a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma – where I was born and where off and on I spent something like thirty-two years of my life.
In effect, thanks to the Wuhan Coronavirus, this will be the true launch of his Presidential campaign, and this should give him an opportunity to address the nation. Some will say that he should “bring us together.” I think the opposite. I think that he should exploit this opportunity to divide the house by pinning the tale on the donkey.
This will require an introduction.
In the last twelve years, the radical Left has made an issue of the deaths of African-American at the hands of the police. They charge that ours is a regime of white supremacy, and mainstream Democrats now echo their cry. Some of them even demand a defunding of the police.
That this is bogus should be clear to anyone who can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. If race were the issue, then why do so few African-American women die at the hands of the police? Could it be that a wildly disproportionate number of crimes (especially, violent crimes) are perpetrated by men and that men are, therefore, much more likely than women to be arrested? By the same token, are not a disproportionate number of crimes perpetrated by black men? And would that not explain why they are more likely than white men to have unpleasant encounters with the police?
So, as I said, all the hoopla stirred up by the organization Black Lives Matter and its allies is bogus.
But this does not excuse all of the deaths that do take place at the hands of the police. No one pays attention to any of the whites who die in such circumstances – what happens to them the press and the activists pass over in silence (white lives do not matter to them) — but we do know of a handful of cases involving black men that arguably fall under the category: wrongful death. And the policemen responsible tend to be bad eggs – men who have frequently been the object of complaint. Derek Chauvin, who appears to have been responsible for the death of George Floyd, was one of these. He should have been rooted out. The authorities knew that something was amiss, but he was kept on the job. The police unions and the contracts they negotiate regarding the dismissal of their members from the force have a lot to do with this – and that is where I think Donald Trump should start.
He should defend the conduct of the decent, honest policemen who protect us – white and black – from harm. He should deplore the attacks made on them. He should acknowledge the existence of bad apples in our urban police forces. He should mention some of the wrongful deaths that have occurred, and he should ask why the bad apples responsible were not weeded out.
Then, he should point out the places where these noteworthy incidents have occurred – Baltimore, for example; New York; Chicago; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; and Minneapolis. The list could be longer. Then, he should ask what these venues have in common and point out that they are all now and have for decades been Democratic strongholds. When was the last time that the Republicans controlled the city council in any of these places?
Then, President Trump should turn to the recent riots. He should go through some of the cities where looting, fire-bombing, and murder took place. He should point out that in every case the mayor reined in the police and allowed the riots to go on and on, and he should point out the consequences for the residents – no grocery stores left in southside Chicago, for example. He should draw attention to public officials (Keith Ellison, anyone – and how about Bill de Blasio?) and media figures (the brother of the governor of New York?) who encouraged the violence. And he should ask to what party the pertinent mayors, the other public officials, and the media figures belong?
Finally, President Trump should emphasize that the most important function of government is the protection of persons and property and that, in these Democratic bastions, these responsibilities are not being carried out. And then he should conclude that, if the people of Baltimore, Denver, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and the like are happy with the way the bad apples have been retained in their jobs as policemen and satisfied with the protection afforded their persons and property by those in authority, they should continue to vote for the Democratic Party. Otherwise, they should vote Republican – for a change.
Why, you might reasonably ask, does Professor Rahe suggest that Donald Trump waste his time on issues that are not of immediate concern to those who might well vote for him? No matter what he does, he is not going to win Baltimore, Denver, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, or Minneapolis.
I have three reasons for suggesting this tack. First, it is the right thing to do. These are one-party cities and have been for half a century or more. That is one of the reasons why they are so poorly governed. One-party domination retards a change of course when a change of course is needed. There has been a lot of talk about police misconduct in recent years, but nothing has been done to weed out the bad apples. The local Democratic Party is always in collusion with the unions. It is the right thing to do for another reason. The conduct of Mr. Ellison, Mr. de Blasio, and Mr. Cuomo is reprehensible, and the same is true for the big-city mayors.
My second reason for suggesting that the President take this tack is that it is good politics. It puts him on the side of honest, decent black folk – those most in need of the police and those who have suffered the most from the riots. Some of them – perhaps a substantial proportion of them – might actually vote Republican for a change. They surely know that a change is in order. And their votes might determine the electoral college vote of a state or two. They might even be decisive in a senatorial race or two – and this matters: for, if the Democrats take the Senate, they will surely renew their quest to impeach the President.
My third reason is that this is not a white supremacist country. There are millions of white Americans who will be more likely to swallow the misgivings that they have regarding Donald Trump and vote for the man if he demonstrates that he is genuinely concerned about police misconduct and genuinely interested in the welfare of the people in our cities – black, Hispanic, Asian, and white – who have been hurt by the rioting that has taken place.
Donald Trump is perfectly situated for doing well and doing good at the same time. The trick is for him to pin the tale on the donkey.
Published in Policing
“Joe Biden says that if you don’t vote for him, you are a traitor to your race. Then he watched your cities burn and stayed silent. The towns run by the party he represents don’t have to vote Trump but anyone who attacks innocent Americans is, and should always be, an enemy to the President of this great nation.”
“We aren’t looking for a fight. We prefer to go about business as usual – or the once-usual. We are a great country. We should keep it that way.”
“If you like jobs and you don’t like looters, vote for me.”
“What the hell do you have to lose?”
One extra step… Need to recruit a slate of Republican candidates.
(Though this could be the incentive that brings them out.)
I agree on emphasizing the looting. A lot of the riots are organized by whites, male and female.
Second China, source of the virus and funding Joe Biden plus the Democrats.
Economics, jobs, jobs, jobs. We have an upscale outdoor mall here in Tucson. My wife went in there last week for the first time in several months. A lot of the stores are closed and gone. The virus hysteria has done a lot of damage. Now, he runs the risk of a spike in virus cases this fall but Democrats are already lying about numbers. They are, for example, including positive antibody numbers as “new” cases. However, if there really is a big spike in new cases, he has lost the election. It doesn’t matter. If that happens we will have a ten year depression.
I didn’t realize that you are in Tucson too. Which mall? La Encatada?
Yes, and President Trump should start with the Progressive Democrat white race riot and massacre in Tulsa, 1921. He should pin that hard on the first Progressive Democrat President Woodrow Wilson who revived the KKK with his White House screening and approval of Birth of a Nation. He should point out the massacre was against African American WWI combat veterans and a rising black middle class.
No mercy. Go full righteous wrath.
I don’t claim to know anything about Minneapolis city politics, but the Wikipedia page for the 2017 Minneapolis mayoral election lists 16 candidates that ran. 9 of which were Democrats (DFL), and the others an assortment of parties, including the “Rainbows Butterflies Unicorns” party.
No Republicans.
So the voters couldn’t have elected a Republican if they wanted to.
If a Republican were to run, and the votes were split 16 ways on the “set the city on fire” side of the issue, well…
“We built a great economy before the virus, we can build a great economy after the virus.”
“The Democrat politicians, their allies in the MSM, and Black Lives Matter all want to defund the police. A vote for Trump will be a vote for sensible law enforcement reform, not elimination of our men and women in blue.”
“Our enemies can’t wait for President Joe Biden. They’ll roll over him faster than a woman can say, ‘Get your hands off me, Joe!’ “
His pitch should be “What side of history do you want to be on?”and list the monumental achievements that the Trump administration has put forth, paralleling the dismal record of the achievements of the progressives – it speaks for itself – there are no lies in truth.
I like this. I saw a twitter ad that said something like “Donald Trump, he isn’t always polite, but he gets the job done.” And I like that. A lot of people see Trump as [being generous] “rough around the edges” when it comes to communicating with people. The real issue is that he has gotten results. Tax cuts, actually lowering regulation, taking some federal money away from planned parenthood, reducing federal power during a pandemic rather than expanding it (actually facilitating state governance as opposed to growing federal power). He has done some good things.
Okay. My pitch would be a riff on what I said earlier. (I’m not really a “pitch guy.”)
“I’m not the most polite guy but politics isn’t polite. I will fight for American citizens of all races, colors, creeds, and financial status even if it means making members of Congress or even my own appointees uncomfortable. Joe Biden is what happens when politicians don’t fight for you. He’s been in politics for 40 years. He is the problem. He is running against his own record on Obamacare, his own record on China, and his own record on police reform. Even Biden wouldn’t vote for Biden. I’m asking you to vote Trump 2020.”