On Sunday we spent all day
packing. Monday was an 11-hour drive to northern Wisconsin. Today we cleaned
nearly a year’s worth of mouse shit out of every drawer, pantry closet and
shelf. Grendl the cat helped by catching two mice last night.
That’s an explanation of how
life interferes with writing. It’s late Tuesday afternoon, so I’ll just say a
few things about the strangeness of Donald Trump. He is 4 months away from the
presidential election and nobody knows what he is doing.
It’s obvious by now that it
doesn’t matter what he does, he will get the votes from his white base of
somewhere between 30% and 40% of Americans. So his recent eruptions of racism
are inexplicable, further turning off the 10% to 15% of voters in the middle
who will make the difference in November.
Re-tweeting a supporter
shouting “white power”, then claiming he didn’t hear that comment? Never saying
that he doesn’t support people who shout “white power”? Of course, that would
be his millionth lie, but not even to try? He retweeted a video of a white
couple with guns threatening peaceful black protesters in St.Louis.
Chris
Christie, former New Jersey Governor who failed to get any important
position in Trump’s White House, said on Sunday, “He is losing, and if he doesn’t
change course, both in terms of the substance of what he is discussing and the
way that he approaches the American people, then he will lose.”
His closest aides say they
can’t understand why he doesn’t seem to be able to control his impulses. He
shows no interest in actually governing and has no plans for a second term.
When Sean Hannity offered him a softball question about his plans for a second
term, Trump
could not name one policy he planned to pursue. Hannity asked a second time
and got nothing again. Jonathan
Bernstein, a Bloomberg opinion columnist, says, “My basic sense is that
Trump isn’t nearly concerned enough with winning re-election.”
He desperately wants to hold
rallies, but they don’t make his reelection any more likely, especially if the
rally is a public relations disaster, as his Tulsa rally was from planning to
low attendance.
Meanwhile his poll numbers
have been plummeting
for three months, and that plunge shows no signs of stopping.
That makes me very happy, but
also confused. Has Trump had enough of being President? Has he figured out a
way to lose the election, declare that he never loses, and then ride off into
the sunset?
Does he know what he is
doing? Has he ever?
Steve Hochstadt
Springbrook WI
June 30, 2020
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