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Like George Packer, journalist and author known for his long emotional wands in Trumpland.
In The Atlantic magazine, George Packer writes under the headline “This is how Biden loses.”
Donald Trump’s reaction to the violence is predictable. “LAW AND ORDER”, warns the president on Twitter. The shootings in Wisconsin last week and in Portland, Oregon this weekend only confirm his opinion on the situation in the country.
“We are all that protects the American people from a leftist mob,” Trump said in a speech in New Hampshire on Friday.
That he was a 17-year-old reactionary Police in riot gear stormed a demonstration on Friday, dislodging hundreds of protesters by truck. Police in riot gear stormed a demonstration on Friday, dislodging hundreds of protesters by truck.
Trump supporters on their way to Portland last Saturday.
Photo: Mason Trinca / TT
Democratic mayors cannot control their own urban centers, Trump said. If you vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on November 3, anarchy will spread like a virus across the United States. Such warnings formed the common thread of speeches at the Republican Party convention last week.
Therefore, Fox News host Tucker Carlson expressed his sympathy for the 17-year-old alleged killer. “How surprised can we be that 17-year-olds with rifles decide to maintain order when no one else is?”
What should the democratic opposition respond? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris express their distaste for police violence: Anti-racism demonstrations in Wisconsin gained momentum after police nearly executed a black man, Jacob Blake, with seven shots in the back in front of her sons.
But Biden and Harris condemn also the looting and material destruction that followed in the footsteps of the peaceful protesters. On Saturday night, a Trump supporter was killed in Portland, Oregon, where protests lasted for three months. (The circumstances of the man’s death Saturday night are still unclear.)
Photo: Nathan Howard / AFP
To say that there is anarchy in America’s urban centers, as Trump has done and has done for four years, is not only highly exaggerated. It also alludes to racist notions of black housing as lawless jungles.
Joe Biden depends on the support of African American Americans. The current situation is politically very delicate for him. It must take a stand against the systematic racism, against which the protesters protest, but at the same time it must mark when discontent degenerates into chaos.
In The Atlantic, George Packer writes that double messages can cost Biden and Harris the White House. “Nothing will hurt a campaign like wishful thinking, fearful hesitation, or sheer complacency that doesn’t address what voters can easily see,” Packer writes of Biden’s wavering response.
Trying to balance the support For peaceful protesters, distancing themselves from perpetrators can be difficult. The risk is that you, as a politician, take a step back. Packer points to a tweet from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy. He wrote that the Jacob Blake shooting was wrong, as was the material destruction that followed the police violence. Murphy later deleted his tweet, as it could be perceived as equating structural police violence with looting.
Deleting your messages about the multifaceted things that are happening on American streets can make room for Trump propaganda. Three-quarters of all Trump voters list “violent crime” as the second most important issue in politics, Packer writes. If the riots continue to rage like a background in the election campaign, with burning cars and smashed storefronts, it could mobilize Trump voters, those who during the pandemic lost faith in the president because of his passivity.
Photo: Samuel Corum / AFP
This can include older white voters. Part of Biden’s lead over that group of voters has diminished, according to some opinion polls. (Other measurements indicate that Biden’s advantage remains significant.)
George Packer is probably right in the sense that Joe Biden needs to step forward as a clearer voice and “immediate trip to Wisconsin, the crucial state that Hillary Clinton infamously ignored.” She needs, Packer says, to go out into the streets and speak without a script from the heart, “for justice and security, for reform and against unrest, for the urgent need to unite the country.”
Read more: Martin Gelin: Trump’s security promises resonate in America during crisis
Biden: Trump wreaks havoc, escalates violence
