Donald Trump expects to win the white house in 2020 using the playbook Richard the crook Nixon used in 1968. That playbook is centered on two pillars. (1) The continued belief in a strong base of support that has remained loyal, virtually cultlike since he assumed the presidency. (Nixon called his the silent majority in 68), and (2) Law & Order.
The year 1969 was a disaster, much like what is happening this year it was marked by the assassinations of Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. & Sen. Robert Kennedy, race riots, and college antiwar demonstrations.
this year is marked by the COVID-19 pandemic millions infected and well over one hundred and eighty thousand Americans confirmed dead from the disease. Additionally, there are protests across the country in major cities. There are violent police responses to the protests over police violence and entire city blocks are going up in flames.
Julia Azari, a Marquette University professor of political science, said in 2018, “Law-and-order rhetoric has a long history in U.S. politics”.“often a way to talk about race without talking about race. But its 1960s meaning also meant all people who were challenging the social order. As we’ve moved away from the era when politicians were making obvious racial appeals, the appeals have become more coded. The question becomes whose order, for whom does the law work. You saw a lot of that same rhetoric with ‘silent majority’ — though Nixon wanted to separate himself from Wallace’s populism, it was a backlash against the status quo, especially the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson.”
“Tactics of fear or appeals to restore the old social order — those are usually successful”.
Donald Trump may be playing from Nixon’s playbook, but the strategy may have even deeper connections and guidance, maybe even from outside handlers.
What better way to stoke racial tensions by inciting the police to be harsh on the people they arrest, then give unqualified support to the police when they commit murder, knowing full well that this will set alight the tinder kegs that large American cities have become, as a result of the systemic violence from the very same police?
Donald Trump Told police on New Yok’s Long Island, quote:“When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over, like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody. Don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?”
In the same breath, the New York Times reports that intelligence reports indicate that Russian intelligence is heavily invested in stirring up racial tensions in the United States as part of its efforts to get Donald Trump reelected.
NBC News reported that Russians who were linked to interference in the 2016 U.S. elections discussed ambitious plans to stoke unrest and even violence inside the U.S. as recently as 2018, according to documents reviewed by that news organization.
The United States Senate select intelligence committee concluded in its report that In 2016, Russian operatives associated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) used social media to conduct an information warfare campaign designed to spread disinformation and societal division in the United States.
That has not stopped.
In March 2018 the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence issued a report titled (Report on Russian Active Measures). It began with this paragraph: In 2015, Russia began engaging in a covert influence campaign aimed at the U.S. presidential election. The Russian government, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, sought to sow discord in American society and undermine our faith In the democratic process. Now, more than a year after the election, the American people rightfully want to know what the Russians did; how they did it; with whose suppo1t, if anyone’s; and what can be done to counter any election tampering by foreign adversaries in the future.
In 1968 Richard Nixon gave his campaign chief of staff H.R. Haldeman strict orders, “Find ways to sabotage Johnson’s plans to stage productive peace talks, so that a frustrated American electorate would turn to the Republicans as their only hope to end the war”. At the time President LyndonJohnson was feverishly trying to find ways to end the Vietnam war.
It was a gambit of pure treachery known as the Chennault Affair, named after Anna Chennault, the Republican fundraiser who became Nixon’s back channel to the South Vietnamese government.
South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu and his associates feared that LBJ was selling them out. If Thieu would drag his feet, and stall the proposed peace talks, Nixon could portray Johnson’s failed peace initiative as a desperate political trick. But to do so, Nixon had to get word to Thieu, and tell him to stand firm. (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/06/nixon-vietnam-candidate-conspired-with-foreign-power-win-election-215461
Richard Nixon won the 1968 Presidential election despite conspiring with a foreign power to thwart the efforts of the United States Government. It is extremely difficult to prove that a candidate elicited help from a foreign power in order to be elected president without being accused of spying on that candidate’s campaign.
Lyndon Johnson was extremely mindful of that in 68′.
Barack Obama was also so constrained in 2016 even though he knew that the Trump campaign was making multiple contacts with Russian operatives.
Trump is a Fascist who understands the power of media in spreading propaganda. He has demonized the media even before he was handed the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. At the same time, he has masterfully used the media to spread lies and disinformation about his predecessor spying on his campaign, a tact he adopted to deflect attention away from the fact that he collaborated with a foreign adversary in order to gain power. Even after losing the popular vote by over three million votes.
Richard Nixon won the 1968 election, and led America into a massive carnage in Vietnam, costing tens of thousands more lives and incalculable damage and harm to the Vietnamese people. In a convoluted twist, Richard Nixon was rewarded for his crimes, before he was eventually forced to leave office in disgrace for his involvement in even more crimes.
Donald Trump was rewarded with the presidency, despite the vast majority of voters repudiating him. He was rewarded with the presidency despite evidence that he conspired with a foreign adversary to gain power.
As Donald Trump decides to run on law & order, while ignoring the mayhem he has caused, one fact is [clear as day], this is all happening under Donald Trump’s ill-gotten failed presidency.
Mike Beckles is a former police Detective corporal, businessman, freelance writer,
he is a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog chatt-a-box.com.
He’s also a contributor to several websites.
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