Trump, having supported the national shutdown based on the ‘scientific’ advice that millions would die, fairly early expressed the desire to reopen the economy, suggesting Easter as an aspirational goal. For that, he was excoriated by the ‘panic porn’ media joined by Democrats who saw political opportunity. While backing off Easter, Trump has become the champion for reopening the economy.
As this unfolded, I’ve frequently thought that the November election may be an election over freedom, and intended or not, Trump was positioning himself as the “Freedom President,” the person who advocated for personal and economic freedom against the dictates of Democrat Governors and officials.
This had the potential for some widening of support among the working class, but more likely and important, a motivation for people who supported or were at least willing to support Trump. Enthusiasm is going to be key in November.
This was crystalized in my mind when I saw a meme go as viral as I’ve ever seen something go viral. One of the not-so-secret secrets is that there is a volunteer army of meme-makers who produce content supporting Trump for free. It’s organic and sometimes very effective.
The meme was a video by the Twitter account @mad_liberals, based on a scene from the movie Independence Day (original scene here). The video was tweeted by Trump, and has almost 18 million views for that tweeted video alone, plus many millions more for other tweets of the video. That doesn’t mean 18 million people saw it, since one person could have many views, but clearly millions saw it. It captured that “Freedom President” spirit, and it didn’t cost the Trump campaign a dime.
1 comment:
Here's the latest from your favorite peravoor of yellow journalism.
Masks to be required inside public places starting Friday, Northam says
https://www.pilotonline.com/news/health/vp-nw-coronavirus-northam-updates-0526-20200526-owhj5pgzrrhr7d7ibn7cnty4fu-story.html
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