Donald Trump did really well in 2016 in Oklahoma. He took 65 percent of the vote compared to 29 percent for Hillary Clinton and six percent for Gary Johnson. In total, almost 950,000 Okies cast their ballots for the overtly racist Trump, and he can probably expect to do nearly that well there in 2020.
That’s partly why he’s making Tulsa the first stop on his campaign. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Tulsa has a population of 400,669, and it has symbolic value to Klansmen and Nazis who revere the city for the courage it showed in destroying its affluent black section in 1921, in what is still the most violent racial massacre in the nation’s history. Trump’s appearance, originally scheduled for June 19, the anniversary of the final proclamation freeing the slaves, has been delayed one day in a concession to appalled non-racists.
Trump will hold one of his trademark hatefest MAGA rallies before a throng of spittle-tossing rage-o-holics. Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale, briefly claimed that there are already 800,000 people signed up to attend. If true, that would be the equivalent of every citizen of Tulsa asking for a ticket, plus one for an out-of-town friend.
https://twitter.com/parscale/status/1272191356845391875He has since “corrected” that number and now claims “300,000” ticket requests. Of course, Parscale revealed the true motivation for holding these rallies. They give the campaign a huge haul of data which they use to identify supporters. It’s unclear why it will be necessary to worry about turning out the vote in Oklahoma, however, or even most of the neighboring states.
In any case, the arena only holds 19,000 people. Perhaps they will fill it in the middle of a pandemic involving a highly infectious disease. Anything for data, I suppose.
I am so sick of these people.
It’s getting extremely difficult (and challenging my Metta (lovingkindness) practice) to NOT wish all those attendees to catch COVID-19. Very…very…challenging.
You’re a better man than I.
Oh, i doubt that. It’s a constant struggle. But I try to have compassion for myself when my thoughts turn that dark, reminding myself that I’m still far from enlightenment and liberation!
This whole episode is interesting because, among other things, it feeds into the growing sense that Trump is weak and getting weaker. Pretty much the entire military establishment (active duty and retired) has confronted him over Trump’s attempt to use the military to “dominate” the streets of Washington, DC. Trump’s been widely criticized and mocked for his handling of the uprising in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. A Senate committee voted in favor of renaming the bases named for Confederate traitors. And he’s falling further behind in the polls, as are a growing number of Republican senators.
Chances are something will happen in the near future that gives Trump a bounce in the polls, but it’s unlikely to last. When/if it comes, think of it like the WW II Battle of the Bulge—a short-term victory by a desperate force that knows it’s losing the larger war.
“ They give the campaign a huge haul of data which they use to identify supporters. It’s unclear why it will be necessary to worry about turning out the vote in Oklahoma, however, or even most of the neighboring states.”
It has nothing to do with voter turn out. It has to do with email lists, and how much money those lists can generate for the next ten year. Kushner and Parscale have taken over ALL the lists that the Republican Party collects. They now own them, and will reap the benefits for years. The GOP will be left with nothing.
Those lists are worth tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions.
You’re making the same mistake that the MSM is making, they are looking at it like an ordinary campaign, and they try to squeeze Parscale into the ‘campaign chair’ box.
It’s all a grift. Just like the 2016 campaign was a grift. If Parscale gets fired, he walks away with copies of everything.
He’s set for life.