How Fox News may be destroying Trump's reelection hopes

[Zorro]

It would be a peculiarly apt form of poetic justice if the entity that has done so much to help President Trump run this country into the ground — Fox News — ends up playing an outsize role in helping destroy his chances at reelection.

Yet that may be exactly what’s happening.

This possibility is thrust upon us by two remarkable new reports: one in The Post illuminating Trump’s unsettled mental universe as he grapples with the new coronavirus surge, and one in the New York Times reporting that his law enforcement crackdowns are only accelerating more protests in response.

For Trump, Fox News has two functions: With some exceptions, it largely functions as his “shameless propaganda outlet,” as Margaret Sullivan put it, aggressively inflating his successes and faithfully pushing his messages. When Fox occasionally departs from this role, Trump rages at it as a form of deep betrayal.

Yet for precisely this reason, Fox also functions as a kind of security blanket: It persuades Trump that he’s succeeding, which provides an effective reality distortion field against outside criticism.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/27/how-fox-news-may-be-destroying-trumps-reelection-hopes/

[Harker]

1. Mirror, mirror, on the wall... n/t

[LiberalLovinLug]

2. "his law enforcement crackdowns are only accelerating more protests in response"

I don't see this as hurting him. Not with his base, and not with the mindset of most "law and order" Republican voters.

In fact, I think that is his and the DHS plan. To create havoc with the police and the white supremacists that infiltrate and start the violence. Hoping that escalations happen everywhere, whether one side or the other causes some bad damage or even loss of life. Which only inflames the other side more, and it snowballs. Authoritarians thrive in chaos. Many voters scramble back and vote out of fear during times of upheaval, for the candidate that sounds the most like he will get things back in order.

[lagomorph777]

3. Our loud response to Trump's War On America may annoy his 35%.

But it also invigorates our 60%. The numbers are strongly in our favor.

But I'm very happy if Trump's video Rasputin (Putin?) mesmerizes him into believing he could win. Lull him to sleep.

As for voting out of fear, what most voters fear is Trump himself. You bet we are voting in fear. That's what ultimately will crush him like a bug.

[Beartracks]

4. Infiltrate and start the violence. Isn't that how the crowd chose Barabbas over Jesus?

I think it's been postulated that the Romans or the Sanhedrin may have infiltrated and incited the crowd to shout for the thief Barabbas rather than for Jesus when Pontius Pilot gave them the opportunity to save one of the two prisoners as part of a Passover tradition.

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