As Trump said Friday while speaking at the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting in Arlington, Va:
“I’m the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos. And that’s what it is. I’m representing you. I’m just here. And I’m not sure it’s an enviable position, but that’s what it is. That’s what it is.”
He continued: “You know, when I made that statement, I was a little embarrassed by it because it sounds so egotistical. It’s like an egotistical statement. And I was a little embarrassed: ‘I’m the only one.’ But there was no other way to say it. We have to win the election.”
He is selling the fear of a dystopian Joe Biden/Kamala Harris future. It is a fear of loss: loss of racial privilege and protection, loss of economic stability, loss of religious liberty, loss of gun culture and loss of political power and control.
Trump has taught conservatism to cowards. He has taught conservatives to see monsters in shadows. He has taught them to view fear as power.
Trump will no doubt bring his fear message to this week’s Republican National Convention, hoping to alter the polling that has remained stubbornly steady.
But, if that doesn’t work, expect Trump to take an even more dramatic step. Time is winding down. The election is in a few months. He needs a narrative-altering event, and don’t put nothing past him. He would be willing to create one, even if it damages the country and its institutions.
Trump doesn’t believe in the preservation of this democracy; he believes in the preservation of Donald. He doesn’t care what he might destroy, as long as he saves himself.
As Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump Barry is heard saying on secretly recorded tapes obtained by the Washington Post, “Donald is out for Donald, period.”
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