thenation--2020-10-16--Donald Trump Is America’s First Conspiracist President

News is “ faked ” ; elections are “ rigged ” ; a “ deep state ” plots a “ coup ” ; Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died suspiciously in bed with a pillow over his face ; aides of ex-president Barack Obama conspire to undermine foreign policy from a “ war room ” ; Obama himself was a Muslim mole ; the National Park Service lied about the size of the crowd at the president ’ s inauguration ; conspiracies are afoot in nearly every department and agency of the executive branch , including the State Department , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Federal Drug Administration , the Department of Homeland Security , and the FBI ( “ What are they hiding ?
” ) .
Thus saith , and maybe even believeth , the president of the United States .
Donald Trump is not the first commander-in-chief to believe in conspiracies .
And some of those conspiracies were real enough , but he is our first conspiracist president .
“ Conspire ” in Latin means to “ breathe together.
” Conspiracy thinking is the oxygen that sustains the political respiration of Trumpism .
Oval @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and ignite passions—fear and anger especially—that leave armies of Trump partisans vigilant and at the ready .
Members of the administration ’ s inner circle keep the heat on .
Michael Flynn , whose career as national security adviser lasted but a nanosecond , tweets “ New York Police Department blows whistle on new Hillary emails : Money Laundering , Sex Crimes with Children , etc… MUST Read.
” Michael Caputo , now on leave from his post at the Department of Health and Human Services , uncovered a supposed “ resistance unit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Prevention committed to undermining the president , even if it meant raising the Covid-19 death toll .
On a planet far , far away—but not so far as to prevent the president from visiting when he ’ s in the mood or the moment seems propitious—is QAnon , where the conspiratorial imagination really exhales and goes galactic .
The earliest moments of QAnon , the conspiracy theory , centered around “ Pizzagate , ” which alleged that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex-trafficking ring out of a Washington , D.C. , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tunnels below the store .
( There were no tunnels—the restaurant didn ’ t even have a basement—but that didn ’ t stop it from nearly becoming a murder scene when a believer in Pizzagate walked into the shop armed with an assault rifle and began shooting wildly . )
But QAnon was playing for bigger stakes than just child sex-trafficking .
Q ( a purported ex-government agent ) supposedly relayed inside information on Trump ’ s heroic but hidden plans to stage a countercoup against the “ deep state ” —a conspiracy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president was being assisted by the Mueller investigation flying under a false flag .
QAnon supporters are only the best known among conspiracy-oriented grouplets issuing alerts about a covert CIA operation to spread lesbianism or alt-right warnings that FEMA storm shelters are really “ death domes ” and/or places where “ Sharia law will be enforced ” ; or dark revelations that the “ mark of the beast ” is affixed to the universal price code , smart cards , and ATMs ; or , even grislier , radio talk show performer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ false flag ” events like the slaughter of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown , Connecticut , where ( he claimed ) “ crisis actors ” were employed , paid by George Soros , to simulate a massacre that never happened .
The point of it all is to make clear how close we are to The End ; that is , to the overthrow or destruction of the Constitution and the Christian Republic for which it stands .
President Trump flirts with such a world of conspiracy thinking .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then draws back from complete consummation , still sensing that it ’ s good medicine for what otherwise threatens to shorten his political life expectancy .
QAnon “ members ” show up in the thousands at Trump rallies with signs and shirts reading “ We Are QAnon.
” ( And 26 QAnon-linked candidates are running for Congress this November . )
Conspiracy thinking has always been an American pastime , incubating what the novelist Phillip Roth once called “ the indigenous American berserk.
” Most of the time , it ’ s cropped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and stayed there .
Under certain circumstances , however , it ’ s gone mainstream .
We ’ re obviously now living in just such a moment .
What might ordinarily seem utterly bizarre and nutty gains traction and is ever more widely embraced .
It ’ s customary and perhaps provides cold comfort for some to think of this warped way of looking at the world as the peculiar mental aberration of the sadly deluded , the uneducated , the left-behind , those losing their tenuous hold on social position and esteem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s , to be exact ) , the “ deplorables.
” Actually , however , conspiracy mongering , as in the case of Trump , has often originated and been propagated by elites with fatal effect .
Sometimes , this has been the work of true believers , however well educated and invested with social authority .
At other times , those at the top have cynically retailed what they knew to be nonsense .
At yet other moments , elites have themselves authored conspiracies that were all too real .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a conspiratorial confection has been absorbed by multitudes , it ’ s arisen as a by-product of some deeper misalignment and fracturing of the social and spiritual order .
More often than not , those threatened by such upheavals have resorted to conspiracy mongering as a form of self-defense .
There at the Creation Witch-hunting , of which the president tediously reminds us he is the victim , began long , long ago , before the country was even a country .
Cotton Mather , a leading Puritan theologian in a society where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , detected a “ Diabolical Compact ” in Salem , Mass.
, in 1692 .
There , Satan ’ s servants were supposedly conspiring to destroy the righteous ( sicken and kill them ) and overthrow the moral order .
By the time the witch frenzy had run its course , it had infected 24 surrounding towns , incarcerated 150 people , coerced 44 into confessing diabolical designs , executed 20 of the irredeemable , left four to languish and die in prison , and killed the husband of an alleged witch by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of heavy rocks .
Salem is infamous today , mainly as a cautionary tale of mass hysteria , but from its outset the literal witch hunt was sanctioned and encouraged by New England ’ s best and brightest .
Cotton Mather was joined by local ministers and magistrates eager to allow “ spectral evidence ” to convict the accused .
Social fissures fueled anxiety .
Worries about uppity women ( widows in particular ) , especially with their own sources of income and so free of patriarchal supervision , added to the sense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of fear and foreboding it generated among the enslavers may also have raised temperatures .
Can it be a mere coincidence that the first to “ confess ” her knowledge of satanic gatherings was Tituba , a slave whose fortune-telling to a group of four young girls set the witch-hunt process in motion ?
Fear of slave conspiracies , real or imagined , was part of the psychic underbelly of the colonial enterprise and continued to be so for many years after independence was won .
Elites , whether theocratic or secular , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to resort to conspiracy mongering and even engage in their own conspiracies when the social order they preside over seems seriously out of joint .
Take the founding fathers .
Soon after independence was won , the founding fathers began conspiring against their fellow revolutionists among the hoi polloi .
The Constitution is a revered document .
Nonetheless , it was born in the shadows , midwifed by people who feared for their social position and economic well-being .
Most , if not all , of the revolution ’ s leaders were men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as planters , ship owners , merchants , bankers , slave brokers , lawyers , or large-scale landowners .
But the revolution had given voice to another world of largely self-sufficient small farmers in towns and villages , as well as frontier settlers , many of them at odds with the commercial and fiscal mechanisms—loans , debts , taxes , stocks and bonds—of their seaboard-bound countrymen .
Tax revolts erupted .
State legislatures commanded by what was derisively referred to as the “ democratical element ” declared moratoria on , or cancelled , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the assets of creditors .
Civil authority was at a discount .
Farmers took up arms .
Men of property responded .
They drafted a constitution designed to restore the authority of the prevailing elites .
The new federal government was to be endowed with powers to tax , to borrow , to make private property inviolate , and to put down local insurrections .
That was the plan .
Gaining consent for this , however , wasn ’ t easy in the face of so much turmoil .
For that reason , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the windows and doors of Independence Hall were deliberately closed despite stifling heat—so no word of their deliberations could leak out .
And for good reason .
The gathering was authorized only to offer possible amendments to the existing Articles of Confederation , not to do what it did , which was to concoct a wholly new government .
When the Philadelphia “ conspirators ” eventually presented their handiwork to the public , there was a ferocious reaction and the Constitution was nearly stillborn .
Its authors were frequently labeled counter-revolutionary traitors .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s godfathers would themselves dissolve in fraternal enmity .
Once again , charges of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary cabals would superheat the political climate .
John Adams and Alexander Hamilton would denounce Thomas Jefferson and James Madison as agents of godless Jacobinism , conniving in secret with revolutionary French comrades to level the social landscape and let loose a mobocracy of “ boys , blockheads , and ruffians.
” Jefferson and Madison returned the favor by accusing their erstwhile brothers of conspiring to restore the monarchy ( some had indeed tried to persuade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , of being “ tory aristocrats ” seeking to reestablish a hierarchical society of ranks and orders .
( Again , it was true that Hamilton had advocated a lifetime presidency and something along the lines of the House of Lords . )
Everything seemed to hang in the balance back then , so much so that the feverish conspiratorial imaginings of the high and mighty became the emotional basis for the first mass political parties in America : Jefferson ’ s Republican-Democrats and Adams ’ s Federalists .
If you think Donald @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vitriol and character assassination into public life , think again .
Little was considered out of bounds for those founding fathers , including sexual innuendo linked to political deceit and scabrous insinuations about “ aliens ” infecting the homeland with depraved ideologies .
It was a cesspool only a conspiracy monger could have completely enjoyed .
Two centuries later those ventures into the dark side , even if largely forgotten , should have a familiar ring .
Conspiracy mongering may not have been the happiest legacy of the revolutionary era , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s social and religious elites , for instance , feared the atheism that seemed embedded in the revolution and its implicit challenge to all hierarchies , not merely clerical ones .
So , for example , Timothy Dwight , the president of Yale College and a pastor , had nightmares about “ our daughters ” becoming the “ concubines of the Illuminati , ” an alleged secret society , atheist to the core , whose members , it was claimed , used pseudonyms and arranged themselves in complex hierarchies for the purpose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Those “ Illuminati ” came and went , but the specter of atheism endured as a vital element of the pre-Civil War conspiratorial political imagination .
An anti-Masonic movement , for instance , emerged in the 1830s to deal with the Freemasons , a secret order alleged to harbor anti-republican and especially unchristian intentions and to engage in pagan rituals , including drinking wine out of human skulls .
Anti-Masonic sentiments became a real force and even developed into a political party ( the Anti-Masonic Party ) , which exercised considerable leverage in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and elsewhere—yet more evidence of how easily the specter of conspiracies against God could inflame public life .
We are reliving that today .
Along with American culture more generally , the conspiratorial imagination of the upper classes became increasingly secular as time passed .
What most came to alarm them was class rather than spiritual warfare .
From the years after the Civil War through the Great Depression of the 1930s , this country was the site of a more or less uninterrupted battle , in the phrase of the time , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” ; between , that is , the exploited and their exploiters or what we might now call the 99 % and the 1 % .
One way to justify dealing harshly , even murderously , with the chronically restless lower orders was to claim that scheming among them were the covert agents of social revolution .
If there were uprisings by anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania , blame and then hang the Molly Maguires , alleged Irish terrorists imported from the old country .
If there were hunger demonstrations demanding public relief @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economic depression in the 1870s , blame it on refugee subversives from the Paris Commune , workers who had only recently taken rebellious control of that city and now threatened the sanctity of private property in the United States .
If there were nationwide strikes for the eight-hour day in the 1880s , it must be the work of secret anarchist cells inciting “ mongrel firebugs ” — immigrants , also known to respectable opinion as “ Slavic wolves ” —to riot in the streets .
It was okay in 1913 for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s private army of guards to machine gun a tent colony of striking Colorado miners , including their wives and children , killing at least 21 of them , because they were , after all , the pawns of syndicalist plotters from the Industrial Workers of the World ( colloquially known as “ Wobblies ” ) who advocated One Big Union for all working people .
Upper-class hysteria , which consumed the captains of industry , leading financiers , the most respectable newspapers like The New York Times , elders of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Catholic Church , and politicians from both parties , including presidents , ran amuck through World War I .
It culminated in the infamous Red Scare that straddled the war and postwar years .
Mass arrests and deportations of radicals and immigrants ; the closing down of dissenting newspapers and magazines ; the raiding and pillaging of left-wing headquarters ; the banning of mass meetings ; the sending in of the Army , from the Seattle waterfront to the steel country of Pennsylvania and Ohio , to suppress strikes—all were perpetrated by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country was mortally threatened by a global Bolshevik conspiracy headquartered in St. Petersburg , Russia .
Attempts to overthrow the government by force and violence were , so they also claimed , just around the corner .
So it was that the conspiratorial mentality in those years became weaponized and the night terrors it conjured up contagious , leaping from the halls of Congress and the cabinet room in the White House into the heartland .
A Connecticut clothing salesman went to jail for six months for saying Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a jury took two minutes to acquit a man for killing an “ alien ” who had shouted , “ To hell with the United States.
” Evangelist Billy Sunday thought it might be a good idea to “ stand radicals up before a firing squad and save space on our ships.
” Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer best expressed the imagined reach of “ the Great Fear , ” an all-embracing dread of a fiendish conspiracy that supposedly sought to strike at the very foundations of civilized life .
Denouncing “ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he warned of a hellish conspiracy “ licking at the altars of churches , leaping into the belfry of the school bell , crawling into the sacred corners of American homes to replace marriage vows with libertine laws.
” You can hear something similar echoed in Donald Trump ’ s recent inveighing against “ socialism ” and the way Joe Biden and the Democrats threaten God , family , and country .
Arguably , America never truly recovered from that first Red Scare .
A generation later that same cosmological nightscape @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the early years of the Cold War by the claims of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy that communists lurked in the highest reaches of the government , would terrify legions of Americans .
His notorious “ conspiracy so immense ” reached everywhere , he claimed , from the State Department and the Army to movie studios , the Boy Scouts , advertising agencies , and the post office .
No place in America , it seemed , was free of red subversion .
Still , it ’ s instructive to remember that McCarthy ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in fact , set in motion soon after World War II not by him but by highly positioned figures in the administration of President Harry Truman , as loyalty oaths became commonplace and purges of the government bureaucracy began .
And note the irony here : It wasn ’ t communist conspirators but the national security state itself , in particular the Central Intelligence Agency , which first conducted an ever-expanding portfolio of mind control and behavioral modification experiments , while launching disinformation campaigns , assassination plots , coups , and every other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as it happened , was America ’ s true new reality and it was indeed as conspiratorial as any on offer from the lunatic zone .
All of this nationalized the conspiratorial mindset at the highest levels of our society and helped make it into a permanent part of how millions of people came to understand the way the world works .
Donald Trump might then be seen as but the latest in a long line of the empowered who either believed in or , for reasons of state , class interest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ belief in grand conspiracies .
Yet , as in so many other ways , Trump is , in fact , different .
Past conspirators offered a general worldview , which also came with meticulously detailed descriptions of how all the parts of the conspiracy supposedly worked together .
Sometimes these proved to be dauntingly intricate jigsaw puzzles that only the initiated could grasp .
Such cosmologies were buttressed by “ evidence , ” at least of a sort , that tried to trace links between otherwise randomly occurring events , to prove how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ designs .
And there was always some great purpose—a Satanic takeover or world domination—for which the whole elaborate conspiracy was put in motion , something , however loathsome , that nonetheless reached into the far beyond where the fate of humankind would be settled .
None of this characterizes the reign of the present conspirator-in-chief .
Trump and his crew simply load up the airwaves and Internet with a steady flow of disconnected accusations , a “ data set ” of random fragments .
No evidence of any kind is thought necessary .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to disprove one of his conspiracies , it ’ s often reinterpreted as proof of a cover-up to keep the plot humming .
Nor is there any grand theory that explains it all or points to a higher purpose… except one .
Abroad in the land is , in Senator McCarthy ’ s classic 1950s phrase , a “ conspiracy so immense ” to—what else ?
—do in the Donald .
The Donald is the one and only “ elect ” without whom America is doomed .
We live in conspiratorial times .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ an uncontestable super-power and its descent into plutocratic indifference to the wellbeing of the commonwealth is the seedbed of such conspiracy-mindedness .
Soldiers are sent off to fight interminable wars of vague purpose against elusive “ enemies ” with no realistic prospect of resolution , much less American-style “ victory ” whatever that might mean these days .
“ Dark money ” undermines what ’ s left of democratic protocols and ideals .
Gross and still growing inequalities in the distribution of wealth and income are accepted year after year as business as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ justified resentment and suspicion .
To the degree that political conspiracies take root among broader populations today , it is in part as a kind of folk sociology that tries to make some sense , however addled , of a world in which real conspiracies flourish .
It ’ s a world where the complexities of globalization threaten to overwhelm everybody and a sense of loss of control , especially in pandemic America , is now a chronic condition as mere existence grows ever more precarious .
Trump is the chief accomplice in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narcissism has produced a distinctive , if degraded and far less coherent version of the grander conspiracies of the past .
Still , as in the past , when we try to come to terms with what one historian of the CIA has called this conspiratorial “ wilderness of mirrors ” we are all compelled to inhabit , we might better turn our attention to America ’ s “ best and brightest ” than to the “ deplorables ” who are so easy to scapegoat .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.
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News is “faked”; elections are “rigged”; a “deep state” plots a “coup”; Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died suspiciously in bed with a pillow over his face; aides of ex-president Barack Obama conspire to undermine foreign policy from a “war room”; Obama himself was a Muslim mole; the National Park Service lied about the size of the crowd at the president’s inauguration; conspiracies are afoot in nearly every department and agency of the executive branch, including the State Department, the CIA, the Justice Department, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI (“What are they hiding?”). Thus saith, and maybe even believeth, the president of the United States.
Donald Trump is not the first commander-in-chief to believe in conspiracies. And some of those conspiracies were real enough, but he is our first conspiracist president. “Conspire” in Latin means to “breathe together.” Conspiracy thinking is the oxygen that sustains the political respiration of Trumpism. Oval Office paranoid fantasies metastasize outside the Beltway and ignite passions—fear and anger especially—that leave armies of Trump partisans vigilant and at the ready.
Members of the administration’s inner circle keep the heat on. Michael Flynn, whose career as national security adviser lasted but a nanosecond, tweets “New York Police Department blows whistle on new Hillary emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes with Children, etc… MUST Read.” Michael Caputo, now on leave from his post at the Department of Health and Human Services, uncovered a supposed “resistance unit” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committed to undermining the president, even if it meant raising the Covid-19 death toll.
On a planet far, far away—but not so far as to prevent the president from visiting when he’s in the mood or the moment seems propitious—is QAnon, where the conspiratorial imagination really exhales and goes galactic.
The earliest moments of QAnon, the conspiracy theory, centered around “Pizzagate,” which alleged that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex-trafficking ring out of a Washington, D.C., pizzeria where children were supposedly stockpiled in tunnels below the store. (There were no tunnels—the restaurant didn’t even have a basement—but that didn’t stop it from nearly becoming a murder scene when a believer in Pizzagate walked into the shop armed with an assault rifle and began shooting wildly.) Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
But QAnon was playing for bigger stakes than just child sex-trafficking. Q (a purported ex-government agent) supposedly relayed inside information on Trump’s heroic but hidden plans to stage a countercoup against the “deep state”—a conspiracy to stop a conspiracy, in which the president was being assisted by the Mueller investigation flying under a false flag.
QAnon supporters are only the best known among conspiracy-oriented grouplets issuing alerts about a covert CIA operation to spread lesbianism or alt-right warnings that FEMA storm shelters are really “death domes” and/or places where “Sharia law will be enforced”; or dark revelations that the “mark of the beast” is affixed to the universal price code, smart cards, and ATMs; or, even grislier, radio talk show performer Alex Jones’s rants about “false flag” events like the slaughter of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where (he claimed) “crisis actors” were employed, paid by George Soros, to simulate a massacre that never happened. Current Issue View our current issue
The point of it all is to make clear how close we are to The End; that is, to the overthrow or destruction of the Constitution and the Christian Republic for which it stands.
President Trump flirts with such a world of conspiracy thinking. He coyly acknowledges an affinity with it, then draws back from complete consummation, still sensing that it’s good medicine for what otherwise threatens to shorten his political life expectancy. QAnon “members” show up in the thousands at Trump rallies with signs and shirts reading “We Are QAnon.” (And 26 QAnon-linked candidates are running for Congress this November.)
Conspiracy thinking has always been an American pastime, incubating what the novelist Phillip Roth once called “the indigenous American berserk.” Most of the time, it’s cropped up on the margins of American life and stayed there. Under certain circumstances, however, it’s gone mainstream. We’re obviously now living in just such a moment. What might ordinarily seem utterly bizarre and nutty gains traction and is ever more widely embraced.
It’s customary and perhaps provides cold comfort for some to think of this warped way of looking at the world as the peculiar mental aberration of the sadly deluded, the uneducated, the left-behind, those losing their tenuous hold on social position and esteem, in a word (Hillary Clinton’s, to be exact), the “deplorables.” Actually, however, conspiracy mongering, as in the case of Trump, has often originated and been propagated by elites with fatal effect.
Sometimes, this has been the work of true believers, however well educated and invested with social authority. At other times, those at the top have cynically retailed what they knew to be nonsense. At yet other moments, elites have themselves authored conspiracies that were all too real. But one thing is certain: Whenever such a conspiratorial confection has been absorbed by multitudes, it’s arisen as a by-product of some deeper misalignment and fracturing of the social and spiritual order. More often than not, those threatened by such upheavals have resorted to conspiracy mongering as a form of self-defense.
There at the Creation
Witch-hunting, of which the president tediously reminds us he is the victim, began long, long ago, before the country was even a country. Cotton Mather, a leading Puritan theologian in a society where the church exercised enormous power and influence, detected a “Diabolical Compact” in Salem, Mass., in 1692. There, Satan’s servants were supposedly conspiring to destroy the righteous (sicken and kill them) and overthrow the moral order. By the time the witch frenzy had run its course, it had infected 24 surrounding towns, incarcerated 150 people, coerced 44 into confessing diabolical designs, executed 20 of the irredeemable, left four to languish and die in prison, and killed the husband of an alleged witch by pressing him to death under a pile of heavy rocks.
Salem is infamous today, mainly as a cautionary tale of mass hysteria, but from its outset the literal witch hunt was sanctioned and encouraged by New England’s best and brightest. Cotton Mather was joined by local ministers and magistrates eager to allow “spectral evidence” to convict the accused. Social fissures fueled anxiety.
Worries about uppity women (widows in particular), especially with their own sources of income and so free of patriarchal supervision, added to the sense of disorientation. Slavery and the undercurrent of fear and foreboding it generated among the enslavers may also have raised temperatures. Can it be a mere coincidence that the first to “confess” her knowledge of satanic gatherings was Tituba, a slave whose fortune-telling to a group of four young girls set the witch-hunt process in motion? Fear of slave conspiracies, real or imagined, was part of the psychic underbelly of the colonial enterprise and continued to be so for many years after independence was won.
Elites, whether theocratic or secular, may be inclined, like Mather, to resort to conspiracy mongering and even engage in their own conspiracies when the social order they preside over seems seriously out of joint. Take the founding fathers.
Revolution and Counter-Revolution
Soon after independence was won, the founding fathers began conspiring against their fellow revolutionists among the hoi polloi. The Constitution is a revered document. Nonetheless, it was born in the shadows, midwifed by people who feared for their social position and economic well-being.
Most, if not all, of the revolution’s leaders were men of affairs, embedded in trans-Atlantic commerce as planters, ship owners, merchants, bankers, slave brokers, lawyers, or large-scale landowners. But the revolution had given voice to another world of largely self-sufficient small farmers in towns and villages, as well as frontier settlers, many of them at odds with the commercial and fiscal mechanisms—loans, debts, taxes, stocks and bonds—of their seaboard-bound countrymen.
Tax revolts erupted. State legislatures commanded by what was derisively referred to as the “democratical element” declared moratoria on, or cancelled, debts or issued paper currencies effectively devaluing the assets of creditors. Civil authority was at a discount. Farmers took up arms.
Men of property responded. They drafted a constitution designed to restore the authority of the prevailing elites. The new federal government was to be endowed with powers to tax, to borrow, to make private property inviolate, and to put down local insurrections. That was the plan.
Gaining consent for this, however, wasn’t easy in the face of so much turmoil. For that reason, the founding fathers met secretly in Philadelphia—all the windows and doors of Independence Hall were deliberately closed despite stifling heat—so no word of their deliberations could leak out. And for good reason. The gathering was authorized only to offer possible amendments to the existing Articles of Confederation, not to do what it did, which was to concoct a wholly new government. When the Philadelphia “conspirators” eventually presented their handiwork to the public, there was a ferocious reaction and the Constitution was nearly stillborn. Its authors were frequently labeled counter-revolutionary traitors.
Less than 10 years later the Constitution’s godfathers would themselves dissolve in fraternal enmity. Once again, charges of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary cabals would superheat the political climate.
John Adams and Alexander Hamilton would denounce Thomas Jefferson and James Madison as agents of godless Jacobinism, conniving in secret with revolutionary French comrades to level the social landscape and let loose a mobocracy of “boys, blockheads, and ruffians.” Jefferson and Madison returned the favor by accusing their erstwhile brothers of conspiring to restore the monarchy (some had indeed tried to persuade George Washington to accept a kingship), of being “tory aristocrats” seeking to reestablish a hierarchical society of ranks and orders. (Again, it was true that Hamilton had advocated a lifetime presidency and something along the lines of the House of Lords.) Everything seemed to hang in the balance back then, so much so that the feverish conspiratorial imaginings of the high and mighty became the emotional basis for the first mass political parties in America: Jefferson’s Republican-Democrats and Adams’s Federalists.
If you think Donald Trump has introduced an unprecedented level of vitriol and character assassination into public life, think again. Little was considered out of bounds for those founding fathers, including sexual innuendo linked to political deceit and scabrous insinuations about “aliens” infecting the homeland with depraved ideologies. It was a cesspool only a conspiracy monger could have completely enjoyed. Two centuries later those ventures into the dark side, even if largely forgotten, should have a familiar ring.
God Killers
Conspiracy mongering may not have been the happiest legacy of the revolutionary era, but it was a lasting one. New England’s social and religious elites, for instance, feared the atheism that seemed embedded in the revolution and its implicit challenge to all hierarchies, not merely clerical ones. So, for example, Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale College and a pastor, had nightmares about “our daughters” becoming the “concubines of the Illuminati,” an alleged secret society, atheist to the core, whose members, it was claimed, used pseudonyms and arranged themselves in complex hierarchies for the purpose of engineering the godless French Revolution.
Those “Illuminati” came and went, but the specter of atheism endured as a vital element of the pre-Civil War conspiratorial political imagination. An anti-Masonic movement, for instance, emerged in the 1830s to deal with the Freemasons, a secret order alleged to harbor anti-republican and especially unchristian intentions and to engage in pagan rituals, including drinking wine out of human skulls.
Anti-Masonic sentiments became a real force and even developed into a political party (the Anti-Masonic Party), which exercised considerable leverage in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and elsewhere—yet more evidence of how easily the specter of conspiracies against God could inflame public life. We are reliving that today.
Mongrel Firebugs
Along with American culture more generally, the conspiratorial imagination of the upper classes became increasingly secular as time passed. What most came to alarm them was class rather than spiritual warfare. From the years after the Civil War through the Great Depression of the 1930s, this country was the site of a more or less uninterrupted battle, in the phrase of the time, between “the masses and the classes”; between, that is, the exploited and their exploiters or what we might now call the 99% and the 1%.
One way to justify dealing harshly, even murderously, with the chronically restless lower orders was to claim that scheming among them were the covert agents of social revolution. If there were uprisings by anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania, blame and then hang the Molly Maguires, alleged Irish terrorists imported from the old country. If there were hunger demonstrations demanding public relief and work during five miserable years of economic depression in the 1870s, blame it on refugee subversives from the Paris Commune, workers who had only recently taken rebellious control of that city and now threatened the sanctity of private property in the United States.
If there were nationwide strikes for the eight-hour day in the 1880s, it must be the work of secret anarchist cells inciting “mongrel firebugs” — immigrants, also known to respectable opinion as “Slavic wolves”—to riot in the streets. It was okay in 1913 for the Colorado National Guard and the Rockefeller company’s private army of guards to machine gun a tent colony of striking Colorado miners, including their wives and children, killing at least 21 of them, because they were, after all, the pawns of syndicalist plotters from the Industrial Workers of the World (colloquially known as “Wobblies”) who advocated One Big Union for all working people.
Upper-class hysteria, which consumed the captains of industry, leading financiers, the most respectable newspapers like The New York Times, elders of all the mainstream Protestant denominations, hierarchs of the Catholic Church, and politicians from both parties, including presidents, ran amuck through World War I. It culminated in the infamous Red Scare that straddled the war and postwar years.
Mass arrests and deportations of radicals and immigrants; the closing down of dissenting newspapers and magazines; the raiding and pillaging of left-wing headquarters; the banning of mass meetings; the sending in of the Army, from the Seattle waterfront to the steel country of Pennsylvania and Ohio, to suppress strikes—all were perpetrated by national and local political elites who claimed the country was mortally threatened by a global Bolshevik conspiracy headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia. Attempts to overthrow the government by force and violence were, so they also claimed, just around the corner.
So it was that the conspiratorial mentality in those years became weaponized and the night terrors it conjured up contagious, leaping from the halls of Congress and the cabinet room in the White House into the heartland. A Connecticut clothing salesman went to jail for six months for saying Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin was smart. In Indiana, a jury took two minutes to acquit a man for killing an “alien” who had shouted, “To hell with the United States.” Evangelist Billy Sunday thought it might be a good idea to “stand radicals up before a firing squad and save space on our ships.”
The Great Fear
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer best expressed the imagined reach of “the Great Fear,” an all-embracing dread of a fiendish conspiracy that supposedly sought to strike at the very foundations of civilized life. Denouncing “the hysterical neurasthenic women who abound in communism,” he warned of a hellish conspiracy “licking at the altars of churches, leaping into the belfry of the school bell, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes to replace marriage vows with libertine laws.”
You can hear something similar echoed in Donald Trump’s recent inveighing against “socialism” and the way Joe Biden and the Democrats threaten God, family, and country.
Arguably, America never truly recovered from that first Red Scare.
A generation later that same cosmological nightscape, brought to a fever pitch during the early years of the Cold War by the claims of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy that communists lurked in the highest reaches of the government, would terrify legions of Americans. His notorious “conspiracy so immense” reached everywhere, he claimed, from the State Department and the Army to movie studios, the Boy Scouts, advertising agencies, and the post office. No place in America, it seemed, was free of red subversion.
Still, it’s instructive to remember that McCarthy’s Cold War conspiracy culture was, in fact, set in motion soon after World War II not by him but by highly positioned figures in the administration of President Harry Truman, as loyalty oaths became commonplace and purges of the government bureaucracy began. And note the irony here: It wasn’t communist conspirators but the national security state itself, in particular the Central Intelligence Agency, which first conducted an ever-expanding portfolio of mind control and behavioral modification experiments, while launching disinformation campaigns, assassination plots, coups, and every other variety of covert action globally. That, as it happened, was America’s true new reality and it was indeed as conspiratorial as any on offer from the lunatic zone.
All of this nationalized the conspiratorial mindset at the highest levels of our society and helped make it into a permanent part of how millions of people came to understand the way the world works.
The Conspirator-in-Chief Lost in Space
Donald Trump might then be seen as but the latest in a long line of the empowered who either believed in or, for reasons of state, class interest, or political calculation, feigned a belief in grand conspiracies. Yet, as in so many other ways, Trump is, in fact, different.
Past conspirators offered a general worldview, which also came with meticulously detailed descriptions of how all the parts of the conspiracy supposedly worked together. Sometimes these proved to be dauntingly intricate jigsaw puzzles that only the initiated could grasp. Such cosmologies were buttressed by “evidence,” at least of a sort, that tried to trace links between otherwise randomly occurring events, to prove how wily the conspiracy was in its diabolical designs. And there was always some great purpose—a Satanic takeover or world domination—for which the whole elaborate conspiracy was put in motion, something, however loathsome, that nonetheless reached into the far beyond where the fate of humankind would be settled.
None of this characterizes the reign of the present conspirator-in-chief. Trump and his crew simply load up the airwaves and Internet with a steady flow of disconnected accusations, a “data set” of random fragments. No evidence of any kind is thought necessary. Indeed, when evidence is actually presented to disprove one of his conspiracies, it’s often reinterpreted as proof of a cover-up to keep the plot humming. Nor is there any grand theory that explains it all or points to a higher purpose… except one. Abroad in the land is, in Senator McCarthy’s classic 1950s phrase, a “conspiracy so immense” to—what else?—do in the Donald. The Donald is the one and only “elect” without whom America is doomed.
We live in conspiratorial times. The decline of the United States as an uncontestable super-power and its descent into plutocratic indifference to the wellbeing of the commonwealth is the seedbed of such conspiracy-mindedness. Soldiers are sent off to fight interminable wars of vague purpose against elusive “enemies” with no realistic prospect of resolution, much less American-style “victory” whatever that might mean these days. “Dark money” undermines what’s left of democratic protocols and ideals. Gross and still growing inequalities in the distribution of wealth and income are accepted year after year as business as usual.
All of this breeds entirely justified resentment and suspicion.
To the degree that political conspiracies take root among broader populations today, it is in part as a kind of folk sociology that tries to make some sense, however addled, of a world in which real conspiracies flourish. It’s a world where the complexities of globalization threaten to overwhelm everybody and a sense of loss of control, especially in pandemic America, is now a chronic condition as mere existence grows ever more precarious.
Trump is the chief accomplice in this to be sure. And his narcissism has produced a distinctive, if degraded and far less coherent version of the grander conspiracies of the past. Still, as in the past, when we try to come to terms with what one historian of the CIA has called this conspiratorial “wilderness of mirrors” we are all compelled to inhabit, we might better turn our attention to America’s “best and brightest” than to the “deplorables” who are so easy to scapegoat.


NBA Bubble Postmortem

The smoke has cleared .
The confetti has been swept away .
The Los Angeles Lakers are the 2020 NBA Champions and the Seattle Storm are the WNBA Champions .
LeBron James and Breanna Stewart are right where they are supposed to be : at the apex of their respective sports .
Somehow all that was done in a hermetically sealed , Covid-free Disney Bubble ( or “ Wubble ” in WNBA parlance ) in Orlando , Fla .
There were highlight-worthy moments , fantastic finishes , stirring comebacks , and a number of players who made “ the leap @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of stardom by the way they played .
In other words , the Bubble was the site of a legitimate NBA season , no asterisk required .
The teams also did it without a single positive Covid test , something the NFL is currently learning is easier said than done .
This is a tribute to the professionalism of the players and behind-the-scenes NBA employees , who were separated from families , friends , and loved ones for months as a precondition to eking out the 2020 season .
They had to summon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ circumstances alien to their professional existence .
I ’ m sure I wasn ’ t the only one who heard that there would be games in Orlando in front of no live fans , and assumed it would wouldn ’ t look like serious NBA ball .
I was very wrong .
But there is another question when assessing the Bubble : that is whether it was the correct decision politically for the players to enter this space and play ball in the first place .
From the moment NBA Commissioner Adam Silver @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with reasons why they shouldn ’ t do it .
First , it was people like former NBA coach George Karl who thought that the entire schedule should be canceled—with no champion crowned—rather than play a distorted version of it in Orlando .
He tweeted last May , “ I think it ’ s time to call the NBA season .
Honors the game better .
We stay on a more regular schedule and we can come back healthy and strong next season !
” Several players with preexisting health issues also bowed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be greater than any reward .
But the greatest obstacle to the Bubble was when All-Star Kyrie Irving made an argument that playing would be a distraction and a disservice to the mass movements in the streets following the police murder of George Floyd .
Irving , who is not just a top player but also a player ’ s union vice president , almost derailed the entire operation with an argument that connected with a wide swath of players .
After Irving made his case , a “ widely respected player ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ start playing basketball again , the news will turn from systemic racism to who did what in the game last night .
It ’ s a crucial time for us to be able to play and blend that and impact what ’ s happening in our communities .
We are asking ourselves , ‘ Where and how can we make the biggest impact ?
’ Mental health is part of the discussion too , and how we handle all of that in a bubble.
” Irving ’ s argument , however persuasive , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like LeBron James and union President Chris Paul argued that they could do more to raise awareness about racial inequity if they played : That way , they could maintain their platform and keep the spotlight in the event that actions in the street needed to be amplified .
To help aid the “ LeBron position , ” Adam Silver and the NBA added Black Lives Matter to the court , allowed players to choose from a prearranged selection of slogans to put on their uniforms , and incorporated “ get out the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protest and commerce cracked after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha , Wis. George Hill of the Milwaukee Bucks said in frustration , “ We shouldn ’ t have even came to this damn place , to be honest.
” That frustration led to the Bucks going on strike for racial justice .
This led , of course , to a cascade of strikes across the sports landscape against police violence .
It also added to the imagination , the idea that labor could play a role in the fight for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remember that the players through their strikes re-centered the national discussion on the shooting of Jacob Blake at a moment when the RNC was trying to recast the summer protests as the actions of a small group of traveling Antifa anarchists and not the mass actions of multi-racial masses in all 50 states fed up with racist police violence .
The question that will now hang over the entire episode is whether it was worth doing .
The answer to this really starts with understanding that athletes historically are less leaders in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amplifiers of the struggles already taking place in the streets .
It is exceptionally rare for an athlete to speak out in a vacuum .
Instead , it is the streets , the campuses , and the workplaces that launch social revolt .
Athletes can then play a critical role of projecting these messages from the grass roots across the cultural landscape as well as getting these ideas in front of the masses of depoliticized white sports fans .
This is why the athlete ’ s political platform is so heavily policed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ franchise owners .
It recalls the time Muhammad Ali had his title stripped away following his resistance to the Vietnam War draft and former champion Floyd Patterson wrote in Esquire , “ The prizefighter in America is not supposed to shoot off his mouth about politics , particularly when his views oppose the Government ’ s and might influence many among the working classes who follow boxing .
The prizefighter is considered by most people to be merely a tough , insensitive man , a dumb half-naked entertainer wearing a muzzled mouthpiece.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it will be very difficult for the powers that be in sports to put this particular genie back in the bottle .
They are feeling their power , and the NBA has led this movement away from silence during a time of profound crisis .
Politically , the bubble popped , and our politics are better for it .

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The smoke has cleared. The confetti has been swept away. The Los Angeles Lakers are the 2020 NBA Champions and the Seattle Storm are the WNBA Champions. LeBron James and Breanna Stewart are right where they are supposed to be: at the apex of their respective sports.
Somehow all that was done in a hermetically sealed, Covid-free Disney Bubble (or “Wubble” in WNBA parlance) in Orlando, Fla. There were highlight-worthy moments, fantastic finishes, stirring comebacks, and a number of players who made “the leap” in public consciousness to another level of stardom by the way they played. In other words, the Bubble was the site of a legitimate NBA season, no asterisk required. Want more from Dave? Check out the first-ever Nation Festival featuring Dave Zirin alongside football legend Michael Bennett and an extraordinary group of speakers. Nov. 18-21.
The teams also did it without a single positive Covid test, something the NFL is currently learning is easier said than done. This is a tribute to the professionalism of the players and behind-the-scenes NBA employees, who were separated from families, friends, and loved ones for months as a precondition to eking out the 2020 season. They had to summon the will to play their best in circumstances alien to their professional existence. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who heard that there would be games in Orlando in front of no live fans, and assumed it would wouldn’t look like serious NBA ball. I was very wrong.
But there is another question when assessing the Bubble: that is whether it was the correct decision politically for the players to enter this space and play ball in the first place. From the moment NBA Commissioner Adam Silver posed this idea, he was met with reasons why they shouldn’t do it. First, it was people like former NBA coach George Karl who thought that the entire schedule should be canceled—with no champion crowned—rather than play a distorted version of it in Orlando. He tweeted last May, “I think it’s time to call the NBA season. Honors the game better. We stay on a more regular schedule and we can come back healthy and strong next season!”
Several players with preexisting health issues also bowed out, believing the risk factor to be greater than any reward. But the greatest obstacle to the Bubble was when All-Star Kyrie Irving made an argument that playing would be a distraction and a disservice to the mass movements in the streets following the police murder of George Floyd. Irving, who is not just a top player but also a player’s union vice president, almost derailed the entire operation with an argument that connected with a wide swath of players. After Irving made his case, a “widely respected player” said to ESPN, “Once we start playing basketball again, the news will turn from systemic racism to who did what in the game last night. It’s a crucial time for us to be able to play and blend that and impact what’s happening in our communities. We are asking ourselves, ‘Where and how can we make the biggest impact?’ Mental health is part of the discussion too, and how we handle all of that in a bubble.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Irving’s argument, however persuasive, did not carry the day because players like LeBron James and union President Chris Paul argued that they could do more to raise awareness about racial inequity if they played: That way, they could maintain their platform and keep the spotlight in the event that actions in the street needed to be amplified. To help aid the “LeBron position,” Adam Silver and the NBA added Black Lives Matter to the court, allowed players to choose from a prearranged selection of slogans to put on their uniforms, and incorporated “get out the vote” messaging.. This uneasy combination of protest and commerce cracked after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. George Hill of the Milwaukee Bucks said in frustration, “We shouldn’t have even came to this damn place, to be honest.” That frustration led to the Bucks going on strike for racial justice. This led, of course, to a cascade of strikes across the sports landscape against police violence. It also added to the imagination, the idea that labor could play a role in the fight for Black lives. We also need to remember that the players through their strikes re-centered the national discussion on the shooting of Jacob Blake at a moment when the RNC was trying to recast the summer protests as the actions of a small group of traveling Antifa anarchists and not the mass actions of multi-racial masses in all 50 states fed up with racist police violence.
The question that will now hang over the entire episode is whether it was worth doing. The answer to this really starts with understanding that athletes historically are less leaders in the fight for social justice than they are amplifiers of the struggles already taking place in the streets. It is exceptionally rare for an athlete to speak out in a vacuum. Instead, it is the streets, the campuses, and the workplaces that launch social revolt. Athletes can then play a critical role of projecting these messages from the grass roots across the cultural landscape as well as getting these ideas in front of the masses of depoliticized white sports fans. This is why the athlete’s political platform is so heavily policed by Trump, Fox News, and sports franchise owners.
It recalls the time Muhammad Ali had his title stripped away following his resistance to the Vietnam War draft and former champion Floyd Patterson wrote in Esquire, “The prizefighter in America is not supposed to shoot off his mouth about politics, particularly when his views oppose the Government’s and might influence many among the working classes who follow boxing. The prizefighter is considered by most people to be merely a tough, insensitive man, a dumb half-naked entertainer wearing a muzzled mouthpiece.”
Athletes are no longer muzzled, and it will be very difficult for the powers that be in sports to put this particular genie back in the bottle. They are feeling their power, and the NBA has led this movement away from silence during a time of profound crisis. Politically, the bubble popped, and our politics are better for it.


thenation--2020-10-16--These Are the States to Focus on to Flip the Senate

In the final few weeks of the election , with Joe Biden looking strong ( fingers crossed ! )
, winning the Senate is a critical imperative in terms of rebuilding this country and reversing the damage caused by Trump .
For the average activist , the best way to help in these final few weeks is to focus on Georgia and Texas , in particular the voter mobilization work happening in those states , as they are among the winnable races that could use the most help .
From both a qualitative and quantitative standpoint , the conditions are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Senate .
Qualitatively , all indications are that 2020 is shaping up to be a negative referendum on Trump ’ s presidency , with a gathering wave of resistance and revulsion that looks like it is poised to sweep him out of office .
In such an environment , which can render harsh judgment , Trump ’ s enablers and apologists in the Senate run the real risk of being tossed out along with him .
Quantitatively , Democrats need a net gain of three seats ( plus winning the White @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tie-breaking vote in the Senate if that body is split evenly between parties ) to take control of the chamber .
With Alabama incumbent Democrat Doug Jones facing long odds to hold on to his seat in that heavily Republican state , that means at least four of the 23 Republican incumbents up for reelection must go down to defeat .
Fortunately , 11 of those 23 races are highly competitive , and analysts such as Nate Silver and his team at 538.com give Democrats a 69 percent chance of taking control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Voter Suppression In January , I worked with the data scientist Dr. Julie Martínez Ortega to create an index to rate the winnability of each competitive Senate race .
This index incorporated multiple predictive data points , including several typically ignored by many political analysts .
The folks at FiveThirtyEight , for example , do an excellent job of aggregating polling and other data to generate a probabilistic model of an election outcome .
Others , such as The Cook Political Report , use the Partisan Voter Index to compare a state or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of the main analysts help fill in the picture of what is happening electorally , I have yet to see much reliance on Democratic vote potential , as measured by the relative size of the infrequent voting population , and analysis of demographic and election trends in terms of how a diversifying population steadily erodes Republican margins .
The analysis Martínez Ortega and I conducted incorporates those additional factors , and we also look to see if there is an effective in-state voter mobilization infrastructure that can manifest the Democratic vote potential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the political transformation of Virginia from a red state to its current situation , in which Democrats hold all of the statewide offices and a majority of the legislature ; and they helped forecast the competitiveness of the statewide races in Georgia , Florida , and Texas in 2018 .
In terms of specific states this fall , Arizona and Colorado are the most likely Senate seats to flip , and the Democratic nominees in those states—former astronaut Mark Kelly and former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper—hold sizable leads in all of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two seats is where the challenge lies for Democrats .
Nine additional seats are in play , and all of them are worthy of support and attention .
For particular focus in the final weeks , investments in Georgia and Texas make the most sense at this point in the race .
There are two paths to electoral victory in any race : persuasion and mobilization .
Persuasion involves wooing a sufficient number of swing voters to your side , usually through television and digital ads making the case for your candidate and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get-out-the-vote efforts to turn out more of your supporters than your opponent does of hers .
The lion ’ s share of political spending is focused on just one of these paths to victory—persuasion , i.e.
, targeting and trying to influence swing voters .
Such an approach makes the most sense in the handful of states that have a sizable population of people who do in fact transfer their political allegiances back and forth .
Iowa , for example , is perhaps the swingiest of swing states , having voted for Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10 points .
Other states , particularly in the South and Southwest , offer two roads to victory because , in addition to swing voters , they also have large numbers of infrequent , usually uninspired , voters who are heavily inclined toward backing Democrats .
Texas is the starkest example , as was illustrated in Beto O ’ Rourke ’ s 2018 Senate race , when he came within 215,000 votes of defeating Republican Ted Cruz .
In that same closely contested O ’ Rourke-Cruz contest , more than 5 million people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pool of infrequent voters is a huge hidden advantage for Democrats , and groups such as the Texas Organizing Project are working to turn that potential into power .
Of the states that have Senate seats in play , those that are similar to Texas in having sizable populations of infrequent and Democrat-friendly voters are Georgia , Arizona , and North Carolina .
Georgia rises to the top as a promising place to focus because it has two Republican-held seats that are being contested this year , and there is a formidable preexisting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the New Georgia Project Action Fund , from Stacey Abrams ’ s historic 2018 gubernatorial bid .
Polling data suggest that nine states beyond Arizona and Colorado are winnable , and a case can be made that some of them are somewhat more winnable than the Georgia and Texas races .
That ’ s why it ’ s important to also analyze which contests need the most help .
In South Carolina , for example , no Democrat has won a US Senate seat in decades , but Democrat Jaime Harrison is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incumbent Lindsey Graham , and The Cook Political Report has moved that race to “ Toss Up.
” In terms of need , however , Harrison is now fortunately awash in cash , with $ 90 million raised , including a historic $ 57 million coming in just in the last quarter .
In Maine , Republican pseudo-moderate Susan Collins is in the fight of her political life against Sara Gideon , who actually leads Collins in the RealClearPolitics polling average by more than four points .
Gideon , like Harrison , has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the progressive movement , and she ’ s received close to $ 30 million in a state with just 1 million voters .
The candidates in Georgia and Texas , on the other hand , have far fewer resources to work with as they seek to communicate with much larger voter universes .
In Georgia , Jon Ossoff has raised $ 28 million , and Raphael Warnock received less than Ossoff in the first half of the year .
And as M.J. Hegar seeks to unseat GOP Senator John Cornyn in Texas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , she has raised $ 20 million .
In addition to the financial disparity , Texas and Georgia offer more promising targets because they have both paths to victory—persuasion of swing voters , and mobilization of large numbers of infrequently voting but progressive-leaning , people of color .
In a state such as Iowa , which also has a competitive Senate race , the only real path lies in persuasion , since the state is 90 percent white and its voters have demonstrated a history of swinging back and forth from supporting Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nearly 10-point margin .
The contest in North Carolina offers another promising pickup opportunity for Democrats , with Republican incumbent Thom Tillis trailing by 4 points in the latest New York Times/Siena College poll .
And North Carolina is similar to Texas and Georgia in that it has a large pool of 700,000 people of color who didn ’ t cast ballots in 2016 .
The need in North Carolina is not as great , however , as Cal Cunningham , the Democratic nominee , has raised $ 41 million , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ PAC , has moved more than $ 15 million into that contest .
In these final frantic days of the election , the highest leverage and most strategic allocation of money at this point is to the Senate races in Georgia and Texas , with a special emphasis on backing the voter mobilization groups there , such as the New Georgia Project and the Texas Organizing Project .
Direct contributions to candidates are also beneficial , as the official campaigns can purchase television time at a reduced rate .
Backing the candidates and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ potential for victory .
All indications are that Democrats are poised to take control of the legislative body that will be critical to reversing the damage of the past four years .
One last push in the right places can get them over the finish line .

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In the final few weeks of the election, with Joe Biden looking strong (fingers crossed!), winning the Senate is a critical imperative in terms of rebuilding this country and reversing the damage caused by Trump. For the average activist, the best way to help in these final few weeks is to focus on Georgia and Texas, in particular the voter mobilization work happening in those states, as they are among the winnable races that could use the most help.
From both a qualitative and quantitative standpoint, the conditions are favorable for Democrats to win back control of the Senate.
Qualitatively, all indications are that 2020 is shaping up to be a negative referendum on Trump’s presidency, with a gathering wave of resistance and revulsion that looks like it is poised to sweep him out of office. In such an environment, which can render harsh judgment, Trump’s enablers and apologists in the Senate run the real risk of being tossed out along with him.
Quantitatively, Democrats need a net gain of three seats (plus winning the White House, since the vice president is the tie-breaking vote in the Senate if that body is split evenly between parties) to take control of the chamber. With Alabama incumbent Democrat Doug Jones facing long odds to hold on to his seat in that heavily Republican state, that means at least four of the 23 Republican incumbents up for reelection must go down to defeat. Fortunately, 11 of those 23 races are highly competitive, and analysts such as Nate Silver and his team at 538.com give Democrats a 69 percent chance of taking control. Related Article Texas and the Long Tail of Voter Suppression Michael Barajas and The Texas Observer
In January, I worked with the data scientist Dr. Julie Martínez Ortega to create an index to rate the winnability of each competitive Senate race. This index incorporated multiple predictive data points, including several typically ignored by many political analysts. The folks at FiveThirtyEight, for example, do an excellent job of aggregating polling and other data to generate a probabilistic model of an election outcome. Others, such as The Cook Political Report, use the Partisan Voter Index to compare a state or district with national election outcomes.
While all of the main analysts help fill in the picture of what is happening electorally, I have yet to see much reliance on Democratic vote potential, as measured by the relative size of the infrequent voting population, and analysis of demographic and election trends in terms of how a diversifying population steadily erodes Republican margins. The analysis Martínez Ortega and I conducted incorporates those additional factors, and we also look to see if there is an effective in-state voter mobilization infrastructure that can manifest the Democratic vote potential. These additional factors were critical components in the political transformation of Virginia from a red state to its current situation, in which Democrats hold all of the statewide offices and a majority of the legislature; and they helped forecast the competitiveness of the statewide races in Georgia, Florida, and Texas in 2018. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
In terms of specific states this fall, Arizona and Colorado are the most likely Senate seats to flip, and the Democratic nominees in those states—former astronaut Mark Kelly and former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper—hold sizable leads in all of the polling averages. Picking up the next two seats is where the challenge lies for Democrats. Nine additional seats are in play, and all of them are worthy of support and attention. For particular focus in the final weeks, investments in Georgia and Texas make the most sense at this point in the race. Current Issue View our current issue
There are two paths to electoral victory in any race: persuasion and mobilization. Persuasion involves wooing a sufficient number of swing voters to your side, usually through television and digital ads making the case for your candidate and against the opponent. Mobilization consists of get-out-the-vote efforts to turn out more of your supporters than your opponent does of hers.
The lion’s share of political spending is focused on just one of these paths to victory—persuasion, i.e., targeting and trying to influence swing voters. Such an approach makes the most sense in the handful of states that have a sizable population of people who do in fact transfer their political allegiances back and forth. Iowa, for example, is perhaps the swingiest of swing states, having voted for Obama twice but then electing Trump by nearly 10 points.
Other states, particularly in the South and Southwest, offer two roads to victory because, in addition to swing voters, they also have large numbers of infrequent, usually uninspired, voters who are heavily inclined toward backing Democrats. Texas is the starkest example, as was illustrated in Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 Senate race, when he came within 215,000 votes of defeating Republican Ted Cruz. In that same closely contested O’Rourke-Cruz contest, more than 5 million people of color did not vote. That pool of infrequent voters is a huge hidden advantage for Democrats, and groups such as the Texas Organizing Project are working to turn that potential into power.
Of the states that have Senate seats in play, those that are similar to Texas in having sizable populations of infrequent and Democrat-friendly voters are Georgia, Arizona, and North Carolina. Georgia rises to the top as a promising place to focus because it has two Republican-held seats that are being contested this year, and there is a formidable preexisting statewide electoral infrastructure, including groups such as the New Georgia Project Action Fund, from Stacey Abrams’s historic 2018 gubernatorial bid.
Polling data suggest that nine states beyond Arizona and Colorado are winnable, and a case can be made that some of them are somewhat more winnable than the Georgia and Texas races. That’s why it’s important to also analyze which contests need the most help.
In South Carolina, for example, no Democrat has won a US Senate seat in decades, but Democrat Jaime Harrison is waging a surprisingly competitive fight against Republican incumbent Lindsey Graham, and The Cook Political Report has moved that race to “Toss Up.” In terms of need, however, Harrison is now fortunately awash in cash, with $90 million raised, including a historic $57 million coming in just in the last quarter. In Maine, Republican pseudo-moderate Susan Collins is in the fight of her political life against Sara Gideon, who actually leads Collins in the RealClearPolitics polling average by more than four points. Gideon, like Harrison, has benefited enormously by battling a high-profile target of the progressive movement, and she’s received close to $30 million in a state with just 1 million voters.
The candidates in Georgia and Texas, on the other hand, have far fewer resources to work with as they seek to communicate with much larger voter universes. In Georgia, Jon Ossoff has raised $28 million, and Raphael Warnock received less than Ossoff in the first half of the year. And as M.J. Hegar seeks to unseat GOP Senator John Cornyn in Texas, the third-largest state in the country, she has raised $20 million.
In addition to the financial disparity, Texas and Georgia offer more promising targets because they have both paths to victory—persuasion of swing voters, and mobilization of large numbers of infrequently voting but progressive-leaning, people of color. In a state such as Iowa, which also has a competitive Senate race, the only real path lies in persuasion, since the state is 90 percent white and its voters have demonstrated a history of swinging back and forth from supporting Obama twice and then backing Trump by a nearly 10-point margin.
The contest in North Carolina offers another promising pickup opportunity for Democrats, with Republican incumbent Thom Tillis trailing by 4 points in the latest New York Times/Siena College poll. And North Carolina is similar to Texas and Georgia in that it has a large pool of 700,000 people of color who didn’t cast ballots in 2016. The need in North Carolina is not as great, however, as Cal Cunningham, the Democratic nominee, has raised $41 million, and the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC, has moved more than $15 million into that contest.
In these final frantic days of the election, the highest leverage and most strategic allocation of money at this point is to the Senate races in Georgia and Texas, with a special emphasis on backing the voter mobilization groups there, such as the New Georgia Project and the Texas Organizing Project. Direct contributions to candidates are also beneficial, as the official campaigns can purchase television time at a reduced rate. Backing the candidates and the groups in those states maximizes the potential for victory. All indications are that Democrats are poised to take control of the legislative body that will be critical to reversing the damage of the past four years. One last push in the right places can get them over the finish line.


thenation--2020-10-16--Democrats Should Welcome More Trump Town Halls

Many liberals were understandably annoyed that NBC decided to give Donald Trump an hour for a town hall on Thursday night , which overlapped with the 90-minute town hall ABC hosted for Joe Biden .
The two presidential contenders had in fact originally been scheduled to debate , but Trump bowed out because he did not accept the ruling of the debate commission after his recent bout with Covid-19 that it should be a virtual event .
This led ABC to offer a town hall to Biden .
Trump , wishing to one-up his rival , requested and received the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spectacle seemed to be an example of Trump once again bullying his way to the center of attention .
As Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan complained , “ NBC News is doing what so much of mainstream media has done time and again : allowed Trump to steal the spotlight and command attention on his terms.
” Cheryl Gould , a former NBC News executive , spoke for many when she wrote , “ I am dismayed—more like disgusted—by NBC ’ s decision to air Trump ’ s ‘ I won ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make my own rules ’ town hall opposite Biden ’ s. ” Lurking behind these criticisms is legitimate anger about how the media helped Trump in 2016 by uncritically airing his rallies .
Trump was good for ratings , so CNN and Fox gave him an inordinate amount of airtime , which both spread Trump ’ s message and , equally importantly , drowned out Hillary Clinton ’ s ability to make her case .
But 2020 has a very different dynamic than the last presidential election .
Trump in 2016 was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say wildly contradictory things in order to win voters .
He was selling a dream—and the free media he received helped him close the sale .
Barrett ’ s Evasions Show Why Expanding the Court Is Necessary President Quack Is Ready to Hawk His Magic Elixir This year , Trump isn ’ t selling a dream so much as he is defending a nightmare .
He ’ s been president for nearly four years , and the country is in a shambles .
His recent hospitalization with Covid-19 , which has also infected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , only underscores his record of failure .
As a beleaguered president , Trump isn ’ t helped by more TV time .
In the first presidential debate , his belligerent behavior , with constant hectoring of both Biden and the moderator Chris Wallace , made Trump look bad .
That debate seems to have contributed to Biden ’ s surge in the polls , where he now has a lead of more than 10 percent in the 538 aggregation of the polls .
Trump was mildly less rude in the NBC town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ testy and frazzled .
The town hall was a disaster for Trump .
This was in large part due to the questions from host Savannah Guthrie , who was firm , informed , and quick to rebut Trump ’ s lies .
In striking contrast to Chris Wallace , Guthrie was unwilling to let Trump walk all over her .
As Molly Olmstead of Slate accurately observed , Guthrie was “ a cheerful but firm interrogator , returning again and again to the facts and details of Trump ’ s answers.
” In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who asked questions were also sharp and focused .
As Alex Shephard of The New Republic notes , “ It is now abundantly clear that NBC News did Biden a favor by booking the president and forcing a comparison .
A rattled Trump spent his town hall sweating like Patrick Ewing and screaming at voters who dared question him about his record .
He indicated he might have tested positive for Covid-19 before his debate with the former vice president and that X-rays may have shown coronavirus-related lung damage.
” Trump denigrated mask @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a study shows that “ 85 percent of the people that wear masks catch it.
” ) He also had trouble fielding questions about his foreign debt ( suggesting that $ 400 million is not a large debt and that he wasn ’ t overleveraged ) , his alleged tax avoidance , and his nonexistent health care plan .
The most memorable moment of the first debate was Trump ’ s unwillingness to denounce white supremacy .
Guthrie returned to that question and got him to make a clear , if obviously forced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ followed that up with a question about the conspiracy cult QAnon , which she accurately described as “ this theory that Democrats are part of a Satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that.
” In a long exchange , Trump refused to denounce QAnon and in fact affirmed its core beliefs .
The entire back-and-forth is revealing : Trump : I know nothing about QAnon .
Trump : Well you told me , but what you tell me doesn ’ t necessarily make it fact .
I hate to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
I do know they are very much against pedophilia , they fight it very hard .
But I know nothing about it .
Guthrie : They believe it is a satanic cult run by the deep state .
Trump : I ’ ll tell you what I do know about .
I know about antifa and I know about the radical left and how violent and vicious they are , and I know how they are burning down cities run by Democrats , not run by Republicans .
Guthrie : Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ QAnon is nuts and real leaders call conspiracy theories conspiracy theories.
” Guthrie : Why not just say it ’ s crazy and not true ?
Trump : I just don ’ t know about QAnon .
Trump : I don ’ t know .
I don ’ t know .
No , I don ’ t know.… Let me just tell you what I do hear about it is they are very strongly against pedophilia , and I agree with that , I do agree with that .
Guthrie : OK @ @ @ @ @ @ @ satanic pedophile cult being run by— Trump : I have no idea .
I know nothing about that .
Guthrie : You don ’ t know that ?
OK. Trump : No I don ’ t know that .
And neither do you know that .
Guthrie : OK , just this week you retweeted— Trump : Why aren ’ t you asking me about antifa ?
Why aren ’ t you asking me about the radical left ?
Why aren ’ t you asking Joe Biden questions about—why doesn ’ t he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it doesn ’ t exist ?
Guthrie : Because you ’ re here before me .
Those last derogatory words , “ so cute , ” were spat out with anger .
Throughout the exchange , Trump engaged in his usual mixture of whataboutery and feigned ignorance .
By affirming the falsehood that QAnon works to stop pedophilia rather than to smear innocent people , Trump clearly aligned himself with a deranged fringe group .
Just as the first debate will be remembered for Trump ’ s embrace of white supremacy , this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of QAnon .
A Trump campaign adviser summed up the town hall by telling The Daily Beast that Trump “ didn ’ t spend the whole time yelling , he didn ’ t piss himself… so this was as best as we could have hoped for.
” But the best they could hope for won ’ t persuade many voters .

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Many liberals were understandably annoyed that NBC decided to give Donald Trump an hour for a town hall on Thursday night, which overlapped with the 90-minute town hall ABC hosted for Joe Biden. The two presidential contenders had in fact originally been scheduled to debate, but Trump bowed out because he did not accept the ruling of the debate commission after his recent bout with Covid-19 that it should be a virtual event. This led ABC to offer a town hall to Biden. Trump, wishing to one-up his rival, requested and received the NBC town hall.
The whole sorry spectacle seemed to be an example of Trump once again bullying his way to the center of attention. As Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan complained, “NBC News is doing what so much of mainstream media has done time and again: allowed Trump to steal the spotlight and command attention on his terms.” Cheryl Gould, a former NBC News executive, spoke for many when she wrote, “I am dismayed—more like disgusted—by NBC’s decision to air Trump’s ‘I won’t play by the rules so let me make my own rules’ town hall opposite Biden’s.”
Lurking behind these criticisms is legitimate anger about how the media helped Trump in 2016 by uncritically airing his rallies. Trump was good for ratings, so CNN and Fox gave him an inordinate amount of airtime, which both spread Trump’s message and, equally importantly, drowned out Hillary Clinton’s ability to make her case.
But 2020 has a very different dynamic than the last presidential election. Trump in 2016 was a challenger selling himself, often willing to say wildly contradictory things in order to win voters. He was selling a dream—and the free media he received helped him close the sale. More From Jeet Heer The Indigenous Roots of Robbie Robertson’s Rock and Roll Revolution August 14, 2023 Why Does This Racist Keep Getting Silicon Valley Money? August 11, 2023 When Phallocrats Go Limp August 4, 2023
This year, Trump isn’t selling a dream so much as he is defending a nightmare. He’s been president for nearly four years, and the country is in a shambles. His recent hospitalization with Covid-19, which has also infected many White House staffers and senior Republicans, only underscores his record of failure.
As a beleaguered president, Trump isn’t helped by more TV time. In the first presidential debate, his belligerent behavior, with constant hectoring of both Biden and the moderator Chris Wallace, made Trump look bad. That debate seems to have contributed to Biden’s surge in the polls, where he now has a lead of more than 10 percent in the 538 aggregation of the polls.
Trump was mildly less rude in the NBC town hall, but he continued to be testy and frazzled. The town hall was a disaster for Trump. This was in large part due to the questions from host Savannah Guthrie, who was firm, informed, and quick to rebut Trump’s lies. In striking contrast to Chris Wallace, Guthrie was unwilling to let Trump walk all over her. As Molly Olmstead of Slate accurately observed, Guthrie was “a cheerful but firm interrogator, returning again and again to the facts and details of Trump’s answers.” In addition to Guthrie, the ordinary citizens who asked questions were also sharp and focused. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Current Issue View our current issue
As Alex Shephard of The New Republic notes, “It is now abundantly clear that NBC News did Biden a favor by booking the president and forcing a comparison. A rattled Trump spent his town hall sweating like Patrick Ewing and screaming at voters who dared question him about his record. He indicated he might have tested positive for Covid-19 before his debate with the former vice president and that X-rays may have shown coronavirus-related lung damage.”
Trump denigrated mask wearing (spreading the untrue claim that a study shows that “85 percent of the people that wear masks catch it.”) He also had trouble fielding questions about his foreign debt (suggesting that $400 million is not a large debt and that he wasn’t overleveraged), his alleged tax avoidance, and his nonexistent health care plan.
The most memorable moment of the first debate was Trump’s unwillingness to denounce white supremacy. Guthrie returned to that question and got him to make a clear, if obviously forced and insincere, condemnation. But she followed that up with a question about the conspiracy cult QAnon, which she accurately described as “this theory that Democrats are part of a Satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that.”
In a long exchange, Trump refused to denounce QAnon and in fact affirmed its core beliefs. The entire back-and-forth is revealing:
Trump: I know nothing about QAnon. Guthrie: I just told you. Trump: Well you told me, but what you tell me doesn’t necessarily make it fact. I hate to say that. I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia, they fight it very hard. But I know nothing about it. Guthrie: They believe it is a satanic cult run by the deep state. Trump: I’ll tell you what I do know about. I know about antifa and I know about the radical left and how violent and vicious they are, and I know how they are burning down cities run by Democrats, not run by Republicans. Guthrie: Republican Sen. Ben Sasse said, quote, “QAnon is nuts and real leaders call conspiracy theories conspiracy theories.” Trump: He may be right. Guthrie: Why not just say it’s crazy and not true? Trump: I just don’t know about QAnon. Guthrie: You do know. Trump: I don’t know. I don’t know. No, I don’t know.… Let me just tell you what I do hear about it is they are very strongly against pedophilia, and I agree with that, I do agree with that. Guthrie: OK, but there’s not a satanic pedophile cult being run by— Trump: I have no idea. I know nothing about that. Guthrie: You don’t know that? OK. Trump: No I don’t know that. And neither do you know that. Guthrie: OK, just this week you retweeted— Trump: Why aren’t you asking me about antifa? Why aren’t you asking me about the radical left? Why aren’t you asking Joe Biden questions about—why doesn’t he condemn antifa? Why does he say it doesn’t exist? Guthrie: Because you’re here before me. Trump: So cute.
Those last derogatory words, “so cute,” were spat out with anger. Throughout the exchange, Trump engaged in his usual mixture of whataboutery and feigned ignorance. By affirming the falsehood that QAnon works to stop pedophilia rather than to smear innocent people, Trump clearly aligned himself with a deranged fringe group. Just as the first debate will be remembered for Trump’s embrace of white supremacy, this town hall was defined by his affirmation of QAnon.
A Trump campaign adviser summed up the town hall by telling The Daily Beast that Trump “didn’t spend the whole time yelling, he didn’t piss himself… so this was as best as we could have hoped for.” But the best they could hope for won’t persuade many voters.