Trump’s Big Rally Fizzles, While the Movement Rises
https://socialistaction.org/2020/06/30/trumps-big-rally-fizzles-while-the-movement-rises/
June 30, 2020
By BARRY SHEPPARD
According to the preliminary information given out by his election team,
the Trump campaign rally set for June 20 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, would be
like the large raucous adulations of his 2016 campaign.
A million people had sought to get tickets, we were told. There would be
two rallies, one inside an arena that seats some 19,000, and a bigger
open air overflow rally just outside the arena, expected to be at least
40,000, and maybe even double that.
The big day came. There were people who had bought tickets who came to
Tulsa from other states and cities in Oklahoma who waited hours (in some
cases days) to get into the arena. They were joined by Tulsa people who
got tickets.
As the day wore on, only a few people trickled to the outside rally,
which never materialized. These few were urged to go inside. As the
seats in the arena were taken, TV cameras scanning the audience showed
the upper balcony nearly empty. In fact, only 6,200 were inside the
arena, according to the Tulsa fire department.
Trump chose Oklahoma, a state he overwhelmingly carried in 2016,
counting on a big turnout, for his first rally in months.
“President Trump’s attempt to revive his reelection campaign sputtered
badly …. [He] delivered a disjointed speech that did not address the
multiple crises facing the nation or scandals battering him in
Washington,” an article in the New York Times said.
He didn’t take up the suffering of the many millions of unemployed,
under employed, and small mom and pop businesses hit hard by the
economic fallout of the pandemic, referring only to the high stock
market to show how great he is.
“In rambling, grievance-filled remarks, Mr. Trump made no reference to
the Tulsa massacre of 1921 or to George Floyd, whose death at the hands
of a white police officer in Minneapolis sparked global demands for
racial justice” the article said. “He also did not mention Juneteenth,
which marks the end of slavery in the United States and fell just a day
before his rally.
“Instead, the president railed about ‘left-wing radicals’ who he falsely
claimed were rioting in cities across the country and praised police
officers…
“‘The unhinged left wing mob is trying to vandalize our history,
desecrate our [Confederate] monuments, our beautiful monuments, tear
down our statues and punish, cancel and persecute anyone who does not
conform to their demands for absolute, total control,’ Mr. Trump said.”
If anyone is punishing and persecuting “anyone who does not conform” to
his “demands for absolute, total control” it is Trump.
Trump held his rally, with people in close contact, most not wearing
masks, in in a city experiencing a big increase corona virus cases, in
spite of local health officials warning that the rally could result in a
new upsurge of cases.
“The president once again shrugged off the threat of the corona virus,”
the NYT wrote. This is in keeping with his demand that the economy be
fully reopened like it was before the pandemic hit, to bolster his
election prospects.
Six members of his team sent to Tulsa to organize the rally were
infected there, as were two members of the Secret Service preparing for
Trump’s visit. Trump was furious that these facts were given to the
press by his own campaign, according to sources close to him.
He put the blame on China for the now over 120,000 deaths in the U.S.
from the virus, taking no responsibility for his own actions which were
responsible for the way the pandemic mushroomed here. He referred to the
virus by the racist term “Kung Flu.”
He said that testing for the virus increases the number of known cases –
true and necessary knowledge to contain the pandemic — and drew the
astonishing conclusion that as a result he is ordering testing to be
slowed down! That is, finding new cases doesn’t look good for him.
Previously, he made the comment that people are wearing masks in order
to discredit him.
The day after the rally, his spokespeople went on TV to vociferously
make the claim that Trump was just joking about cutting back on testing.
The next day he refuted them, saying that he doesn’t joke.
In his speech, he accused Ilhan Omar, a Representive in Congress from
Minnesota, a Muslim and Black born in Somalia, of wanting to turn
America into a failed state “just like the country from where she came.”
Trump’s son Eric also spoke at the event, where he referred to Black
Lives Matter protesters as “animals.”
Trump spent 20 minutes refuting some media claims that he looked shaky
at a previous event. He doesn’t want to let his followers to think he
has any health problems.
Protesters demonstrated outside the event. In spite of Trump’s threat to
unleash violence against any protests there, none materialized.
“Democracy Now!” reported, “One demonstrator, a 62-year-old art teacher
and grandmother named Sheila Buck, was handcuffed and arrested at the
request of the Trump campaign, even though she had reserved a ticket.
Buck, who says she was inspired to protest after years of witnessing her
Black students suffer from racism, says she plans to sue the city, the
police department and the Trump campaign.”
Trump and his spokespeople blamed the empty seats on protesters and the
media. But no protesters were allowed anywhere near the arena entrance
where people calmly filed in without incident. He attacked the media for
frightening people away, presumably for saying that the Tulsa health
authorities warned that attending the rally could spread the virus.
Trump is again saying that the virus is defeated in the U.S. The facts
speak otherwise. Twenty nine states are reporting an increase in cases,
largely in states that reopened without adequate safety measures. This
is not a “new wave” of infections, but a continuation of the first wave.
While the number of new cases in the U.S. being reported daily fell down
from its high of about 30,000, it fell to a plateau revolving around
20,000 new cases every day.
This contrasts in most other advanced countries, where the number of new
cases kept falling, not reaching a plateau. The difference with the U.S.
is that in those countries there was a vigorous nationally organized
testing campaign. The Trump administration left testing up to the
states, without adequate funding.
With the new surge in cases, the seven-day average of new cases has
turned upward, and climbing. For one day, new cases reached 30,000 again
and then dropped to around 27,000. Hospitalizations, which lag new
cases, are also increasing. Deaths lag hospitalizations, but will rise.
In Florida, which reopened willy-nilly in most areas, the number of new
cases is growing exponentially, that is, doubling every few days, the
same curve that New York City saw in the first stage of it becoming the
epicenter of infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the world.
What happens with the virus will have an effect on the economy, and the
elections. Did the upsurge in cases in Tulsa affect the turnout for
Trump’s rally? In any case, it will become much harder to find venues
for the kind of rallies Trump wants – packed shoulder to shoulder mass
events.
Whatever the facts are about the upsurge in cases affecting the turnout
in Tulsa, there is another factor. That is, the mass uprising against
police violence and institutional racism gripping the country has
demoralized white racists, dampening their enthusiasm. Many whites are
shedding their passive racism as the movement exposes more and more
aspects of the systematic oppression of Blacks, and its long history.
From the start of his election campaign for 2016 up to the present,
Trump has presented himself as the strongman who can “Make America Great
Again.” He is increasingly saying that the 2020 elections will be rigged
against him. He hints that he might refuse to accept any result that
goes against him. Many in the media are wondering if he will even allow
the elections to take place, possibly using the pandemic as an excuse.
His authoritarian aspirations are becoming more evident. Top Republicans
openly affirm they are for a “strong executive”. That is one of the
reasons they back Trump. Members of the reactionary reactionary wing of
the Supreme Court have the same views. Obviously, a wing of the ruling
class is backing them.
The most important force blocking Trump is the mass Black Lives Matter
uprising. There is growing understanding within the movement that their
fight goes way beyond elections. Every indication is that the movement
will not be silenced this autumn out of concern for not upsetting the
boat for the Democrats, but continue beyond November, unlike many others.
At least there is real hope that will be the case.
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Carl Sagan
“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder
and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to
nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will
prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront
the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the
Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will
penetrate its deepest mysteries.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos