So we have continued protests and growing unrest in different parts of the country.
And I'm really going to focus in today on the political implications, particularly when
we have just, you know, about eight weeks left until a presidential election.
That hinges significantly on the idea of do we need another four years like the last four
or do we need something different?
That's the context that we should be applying to the upcoming election.
And so in Portland, Oregon, we saw a pro Trump mob drive through the city.
One person was shot dead.
We've seen clashes involving mace spray and paintball guns.
We saw trucks firing projectiles into crowds and driving into people.
Here's a video of pickup trucks with Trump flags and American frapp flags, pepper spraying
people and driving into individuals.
A union building was set on fire.
Here's the video of Trump people shooting paintballs and pepper spray at other individuals
who are protesting and just absolute complete and total chaos ensuing.
And there's a couple different layers of this that we should really discuss.
The first is what are the realities and the facts about the protests themselves and then
the political impact, which I think is far more relevant.
And actually, it's something we can discuss in much more tangible terms, even though the
the political impact is more speculative than the facts on the ground.
I would argue it's actually a much simpler and more straightforward conversation to have.
So the first thing is in terms of the the realities like what is happening in different
cities, cities are being filled up with Trump people and protesters who are protesting police
brutality.
Black Lives Matter protesters, etc..
Donald Trump is insisting he needs to be reelected to stop the chaos in cities.
That doesn't pass the sniff test and we're going to talk about that.
But before we do that, I think it makes sense for us to maybe get on the same page about
what are the conversations that we should be having online on social media and which
conversation should we probably skip?
And a lot of the debates are over what portion of the unrest is coming from the left and
what portion of the unrest is coming from the right.
And I'll tell you, it's completely fraught.
To go down that road.
And what I mean by that is the following.
If the violence that we're seeing, not protesting, protesting is for, you know, protected by
the First Amendment and the protesting is not the problem, although some people will
tell you it is.
If the violence was 95 percent trump people and five percent black lives matter or if
the violence was 95 percent black lives matter and five percent Trump people, it really doesn't
make a difference in terms of the political impact.
And it's a debate that you will never be able to get agreement on.
And people are going to be focusing only on that.
The unfortunate reality is that more chaos and more violence helps Donald Trump.
And I know that there are some people on the left who disagree with me on this.
There are some people on the left who are insisting, wait a second.
People will see violence under Donald Trump and they will blame Trump, at least partially
for the violence.
It's counterintuitive.
Trump is president now and there's chaos now.
How does violence and unrest help Donald Trump?
The narrative has been lost.
And remember, half the country doesn't vote.
And so a lot of this is who do you get to go and vote?
OK.
Now, in that context, chaos in the streets favors the person supported by the military
gun types, regardless of whether it makes any sense.
I hate that this is the reality.
I really do.
Trump seems to realize it.
And later in the program, I'll talk to you about how Kellyanne Conway is admitting it
and the more chaos there is.
Either way, it's beneficial to Donald Trump unless we really turn the vote out.
Now, again, I'm getting when I've been tweeting about this, including over the weekend, people
write to me and they say, David, you're wrong.
People see violence under Trump's watch and it hurts him.
I do not believe that that is correct.
The chaos activates.
Trump's base, this idea of dangerous Democrat cities has been effective for activating Donald
Trump's base.
And again, the election will be influenced by people who change their minds.
But it's mostly.
Check out my interview with Rachel Bittar Coffer.
It's mostly going to be a reflection of who is activated and who chooses to go out and
vote.
The framing from Trump, of course, is that it's mostly violence by black lives matter
against white people, Trump supporters, whatever.
The unfortunate reality is that that's the wrong area to be focusing the debate, because
imagine that we get out there successfully.
The narrative that it's not mostly violence from Black Lives Matter, it's mostly violence
from Trump lists.
Well, then they'll just say, well, yeah, the trump is how they have to be out there because
there's chaos in the streets.
You saw it with Kyle Rittenhouse.
Now there's the debate.
Oh, well, Kyle Rittenhouse.
He was actually didn't bring the gun across state lines.
Somebody gave him the gun in Wisconsin.
Oh, well, Kyle Rittenhouse was filmed two weeks ago, sucker punching a girl.
So with it, when you start making the debate about that, you get lost in the weeds.
And the unfortunate reality is that Trump benefits on this no matter what.
I hate to say it because it activates certain people.
It pushes certain buttons for lack of a better term.
If it's chaotic, people might be less likely to want to change horses midstream if Trump
stops the violence.
He will take credit and get it from some of the people who would be predisposed to be
open to that type of idea.
If Trump sends in the troops, it activates his base.
It's a real sort of roar shock test or an ink blot of possibilities.
And the next thing I want to talk about is Kellyanne Conway straight up admitting this
and also talking more about the dynamics of why this is beneficial to Donald Trump.