Texas Hold‘em
Texas Hold’em Poker has become the game of choice for American casinos. Players are dealt two “hole” cards only they can see. Then a total of five “community” cards are placed up on the table. Bets are placed after the hole cards, the first two community cards (called the “flop”), and then each of the last two community cards (the “turn” and the “river”). That makes the stakes much higher.
At some point in the game, players determine when it’s time to bet their stake, their entire amount of cash. They shove all of their chips into the pot. It’s called going “all in”, and it’s the ultimate bet in poker. “All in” means its win or go home. “All in” might mean you think you have an unbeatable hand, but it might also mean you are bluffing to get enough money to get back in the game. Win with the cards or win with the bluff, it’s about risking everything on one play.
Going to Kenosha
President Donald Trump announced that he is going to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday. Kenosha is the town where Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a police officer from point-blank range. The policeman held the back of Blake’s shirt as he did it. There have been protests in Kenosha every night since. Last week, a seventeen-year old boy-vigilante came from out-of-state to “protect property”. He was carrying a semi-automatic weapon, and killed two and wounded two more.
Saturday night a man wearing the hat of a far-right protest group, “Patriot Pride”, was killed in Portland, Oregon. This was after a night of clashes between Trump supporters and protestors against police violence, including assaults with trucks, protestors using pepper spray, and attacks with paint ball guns.
But President Trump will draw the focus to Kenosha. He’s going there to “talk to law enforcement”.
His presence in Kenosha will draw protestors from – everywhere. The essence of the Trump position is that while there may be a few aberrant police officers, nothing is wrong with “the system”. The alternative view: there is acceptance in law enforcement of the arbitrary shooting of black men and women and somehow their lives are worth less than others. And for proof of that theory – they offer a list of names of those killed by police that ranges back decades, and ends today at the shooting of Jacob Blake. Tomorrow – it’s hard to say.
Gasoline on a Fire
So Donald Trump going into a city in crisis is likely to create trouble. The Mayor of Kenosha and the Governor of Wisconsin, both Democrats, asked the President not to come. The protestors against the police are already there, and Trump’s presence will bring more. The Trump supporters are also there, and Trump’s arrival will bring many, many more. It’s a law enforcement nightmare – whatever side of the crisis you support.
It will be gasoline on a fire – and it will create a whole new crisis in a place already in turmoil.
As a twenty-year old Field Coordinator for the Carter/Mondale campaign in 1976, I was impressed with the number of federal agents that were mobilized for a visit by candidate Carter. Not just the Secret Service detail travelling with Jimmy Carter, but dozens of local agents, and dozens more agents from other Federal agencies were part of the overall protective detail. And when the sitting President, Gerald Ford came into town, those numbers doubled again.
Now forty-four years later, I’m sure those numbers have only increased.
So a Presidential visit to Kenosha won’t cause a threat to Donald Trump. The Secret Service won’t allow that to happen. What they will do is put a cover of Federal protection on the fire for the time he is there. But the Presidential presence is fuel is on the fire, and a Trump visit will draw gasoline from all sides to the streets of Kenosha. While he’s there, the city will be locked down. But when he leaves and the cover comes off: it’s a recipe for disaster.
Place Your Bet
And maybe that’s exactly what the Trump Campaign needs. No matter what they say, Americans recognize that their COVID-19 response has failed. The Administration even tried to mask the failure with a new CDC study showing that most of those who died of COVID had pre-existing conditions, as if to say the lives of 120,000,000 Americans are forfeit already, so get over it.
The campaign that Trump wanted to run, based on a booming economy, has collapsed, regardless of the inflated Wall Street numbers. The reality of COVID unemployment rates and losses in entertainment, travel, and other industries are still growing. The sole strategy left for them is to try to convince Americans that only Donald Trump can control the violence in the streets, an echo of Richard Nixon’s “law and order” campaign of 1968.
As ugly as it may seem, violence in the streets, in Portland, Kenosha and other American cities, is Donald Trump’s friend. As his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said in Meet the Press, there isn’t violence in, “Donald Trump’s America,” just in “Democrat” America. The Trump Campaign is “all-in” for violence in America’s cities. They are betting it mobilizes the suburbs to come out for Trump.
Of course, he is running for President of the United States, not just “Donald Trump’s America”. And he has been President of the United States for the past three and a half years. But Trump fails to take any responsibility for “Democrat” cities. They, and their large minority populations, aren’t a part of his America.
And that’s the problem.
Labels Matter
Labels matter: don’t accept the “Democrat” insult. I am a member of the Democratic Party, and that makes me a Democrat. But the right wing insult – “Democrat” Congress, “Democrat” cities, is just a way to denigrate the party. It is a Democratic House of Representatives, and Democratic controlled cities. The right doesn’t get to label us they way they want to. We know our name.
