Biden and Harris were comfortably ahead in the polls coming out of the DNC. But the latest CNN poll shows their lead slipping away there is now distinct possibility they could screw it up and hand another four years to Trump. Two things have changed.
First, another Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot; seven times; in the back. While it's not year completely clear what were the circumstances leading up to the shooting, it doesn't look good. Shooting someone in the back makes it difficult to argue imminent threat, particularly when the officer doing the shooting was allegedly holding Blake by the shirt when he shot him. What followed, unsurprisingly, were demonstrations; and also, given the number of times Black men have been shot with seemingly little or no justification (Rayshard Books for example), anger turned to violence.
But then things took an even uglier turn; ginned up by Trump's divisive race-baiting rhetoric (and that of his sycophantic entourage in the GOP), a 17-year-old traveled fifteen miles and across state lines with a long gun and shot one of the protesters; he flees the scene, is pursued by some of the protesters, falls to the ground, turns and shoots two more people. Then he walks calmly past the police with his hands raised, still carrying his rifle, hardly the stance of someone who does not believe they have done anything wrong, and the police simply ignore him. Imagine how they would have treated a Black man carrying a gun...
And to top it all, the police are captured on camera offering refreshments to a paramilitary group of armed white men.
So why does this matter? First, to many it provides stark evidence of bias in policing; it adds another body to the pile of Black men shot when, with a less confrontational approach, he might not have been. And it is evidence of the toxic effect of Trump's bile-filled race-baiting in inciting and escalating racial tensions.
But as importantly, the escalation to the point of armed confrontation between paramilitary types and the BLM protesters is bringing the country to the brink of what I have called a cold civil war. And that increases the need to get the situation under control as many begin to worry that if left unchecked the country will come apart at the seams. The question is what action? Trump's answer is 'unleash the dogs of war'; use the most oppressive and militaristic response to quash the violence, no matter the cost in lives or the fabric of society; and the toll will be great. It will set back race relations at least two generations. And it will cost lives, shot or incarcerated.
If that's not the answer, what is? Well that's where Biden and Harris need to be stepping up. But as yet they haven't and that may cost them dearly at the ballot box in November. What is desperately needed now is a strong but empathetic intervention. Biden and Harris need to make it clear, and not just with slightly lame public statements, is that while they understand the protesters' anger and are sympathetic to their issues they cannot use violence; because that's exactly what Trump wants then to do. They need to assure the protesters that when elected, they are committed helping change the status quo. And they have to do it in a way that makes every news program for a day to more. Failing to do that will leave the impression that they have no answers, and consequently that they aren't to be trusted with the keys to the White House.
The second thing that puts the Biden Harris campaign at risk is that Trump has upped his game. He's either realized that without changing his behavior he will lose or someone has finally managed to knock that idea into his head. So today he will pretend to play President and visit the victims of the latest climate-crisis-induced weather disaster in Texas (a battle-ground sate of course).
The last time he visited a disaster area was Paradise, California where he talked about raking the leaves and forgot the name of the town he was in. And before that it was Puerto Rico where he merrily tossed out rolls of paper towels as if he was at a ball game. So with six weeks to go he's trying again to give the impression that he has empathy. But it might work. Most people don't pay much attention until they are confronted with the choice as they will be in a few weeks, and together, the escalating racial violence and Trump's change in tactics could swing the election his way.
So Joe, Kamala; the time for letting Trump dig himself into a deeper hole is over. Now it's time to act decisively, loudly and clearly.
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