“Good Old Days”
I listen to folks talk about “the good old days”. That was when you could look at both political parties candidates for President and think that either one would take care of the nation. Those days weren’t so long ago. I didn’t agree with Mitt Romney, and would have been crushed if he won in 2012. But it wouldn’t have created an existential political crisis. And I felt the same way about John McCain, and even Bob Dole and George HW Bush. (If you see a space where George W Bush is, you’re right).
But even then, and far before, we have had politics of intentional divisiveness. “Divide and conquer” has been an American political tactic for at least two hundred years. What the modern era of high tech has done, is made “dividing” so much more effective, and dramatic.
Wille Horton
In 1988, the Bush campaign used the infamous “Willie Horton” ad to drive a wedge in voters. Bush’s opponent, Governor Mike Dukakis of Massachusetts, was in office during a weekend furlough program for eligible convicts. The program had great goals: prepare felons for release and give them a reason to behave in jail. And while generally the program achieved those goals, one prisoner on release committed an especially heinous armed robbery and rape.
The Bush campaign pounded the “dog whistle” racist message of a black man raping and torturing, making it somehow Dukakis’ fault. “By the time we’re finished, they’re going to wonder of Willie Horton is Dukakis’ running mate,” said Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater. It worked.
Gay Marriage
In 2004, George W Bush was running for re-election against Democrat John Kerry. Bush was running behind in the early polling, and needed to secure electoral votes in states like Ohio. The problem for Bush was that after the contested election of 2000, it was likely that Democratic turnout in Ohio would be high. Bush had to find a way to energize the Republican vote in the state to offset that turnout.
The Republican Secretary of State of Ohio, Ken Blackwell, placed a state issue against gay marriage on the ballot. It wasn’t really an issue for Ohio, but Blackwell determined to make it one. It forced Ohio Republicans to face the possibility of allowing gay marriage. Their reaction pushed them to come out and vote against it. And they did, voting for the marriage issue and George Bush. It secured both Ohio and the Presidency for Bush’s second term.
It was the “wedge” that polarized and energized voters to participate in the election.
Dog Whistle
You wouldn’t think that “wedges” would be necessary in the election of 2020. Our nation is so polarized, that every issue seems to drive us apart. Even the common sense reactions to world pandemic; wearing masks and social distancing, somehow have managed to force folks to “take a side”.
But the ability to “wedge” and divide voters has come so far since the early days of television commercials and “dog whistle” speeches. Now splitting American voters can be done with precision, as social media targets picked issues to reach the interests of a particular voter.
It’s a carefully orchestrated attack, using social media to lay the groundwork, and then the campaign to “close the deal”. Racism being used again. The Trump campaign is literally threatening suburban white women with “Black Lives Matter and Antifa” coming to burn their homes. But that kind of “dog whistle” (or air horn) racist attack seems to be falling flat in that key demographic for the Republicans in 2020.
Child Trafficking
So there is another angle of attack: disappearing children.
There is no “acceptable” number of children disappearing in America. In social media today, you see numbers like “2000 children go missing in the United States every day”. That’s actually a valid statistic. But there’s a missing factor. The vast majority of those missing children are found. In fact in 2018 in Ohio, 19879 children were reported as missing. But what is not reported as loudly, is that 19510 were ultimately found safe, 98% (Sandusky Register).
Of those 19879 missing children, over 12000 were classified as runaways. This is not to devalue the 369 children whose cases were not closed. But in Ohio 2018, only six of the closed cases were “stranger abduction” cases.
But social media has conflated the highly visible Epstein case, with the huge missing child number (even though 98% are returned). Then add that to the Trump “whisper” campaign that accuses Biden of an “improper” interest in children, and we have another “wedge”.
It’s odd that the attack is made on this issue, considering of the two major Presidential candidates, Donald Trump is the only one with a direct connection to Epstein. I’m not accusing the President of sexual impropriety with minors, but there’s so much more evidence for that possibility rather than of Biden doing anything wrong.
Voters Not Voting
But that’s the nature of wedge issues. And the demographic groups of white suburban women and younger “social media” voters are the ones in the crosshairs of this wedge. The Trump tacticians hope that even if this doesn’t convince them to vote for Trump, perhaps it will prevent them from voting for Biden.
It fits in with the overall Internet “conspiracy” theme of many Millennials. If everyone is guilty of everything, than why bother to vote at all. And that idea benefits Trump. Think about that the next time you’re checking out your chosen social media platform.
