Please make a contribution to Wide World of News today.
You get this newsletter 7 days a week for free, but the voluntary financial support of readers like you is the only funding I receive for the reporting, writing, and publication of Wide World of News.
If you wish to give an amount less than those listed, please reply to this email and ask for instructions.
****
1. The two most important factors in determining who wins an American presidential election are the mood/condition of the nation and the performance/ability of the candidates.
The third most important factor is probably how each side manages the mechanics of the contest.
The formal campaigns of the candidates are a big part of that, of course, but the larger networks supporting the two sides play a major role.
In that part of the fight, Team Biden is beating the living crap out of Team Trump.
There is an Iron Triangle of social media/tabloid websites, anti-Trump officeholders and strategists, and liberal, traditional media, that is controlling the daily flow of information in a manner that is working to the decided advantage of the Democrats.
The success of this ecosystem is begetting more success. The left wins every news cycle, leading to more enthusiasm (“We are crushing it!”), leading to more money flowing to the organizations that make up Team Biden, leading to a built-up infrastructure, leading to more social media and web posts, leading to more confidence among Democratic office holders and strategists, leading to more news cycle wins. And so on, and so on, and so on.
The left has always had an advantage in this realm. The right could compete on two of the three legs of the triangle, with its own social media and websites, talk radio, and Fox News, all fed by Republican officeholders and strategists. But the left’s dominance of the traditional media has typically put conservatives at a disadvantage.
In modern presidential campaigns, the operations of Team Bush 41 and Team Bush 43 won a combined three national elections by understanding – better than any Republican operation in the last 40 years – how to create content so irresistible that it passed along the information conveyor belt from social media and websites to right-wing organs to what used to be called, without irony, the “mainstream media.”
Those organizations have a liberal bias, but they also are biased in favor of competence, in favor of emotional narratives, in favor of humor, and in favor of conflict. Teams Bush knew all this and knew how to exploit this reality.
By figuring out how to inject Willie Horton, the Pledge of Allegiance, Boston Harbor, “no controlling legal authority,” a Buddhist temple, flip flopping, “for it before I was against it,” and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth into the system in ways that won both news cycles and the larger fight to define the enemy, the Bushies turned underdog status into a trio of Ws (including one HW). Teams Bush made those stories irresistible.
Their cause was helped by the fact that the media liked the Bushes more than it liked Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, and John Kerry.
What was required in those three elections for Republicans to win was for the Democratic candidate to not be well liked and for the GOP to have a superior Iron Triangle.
Those two factors explain a lot about why Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016. Team Trump had a more efficient and passionate Iron Triangle than the opposition did four years ago. And the press’ fanatical disdain for Clinton was out of control.
****
2. In 2020, the media generally likes Biden way more than it likes Trump, and the anti-Trump Iron Triangle is well-funded, persistent, consistent, and cunning, with both the eye of the tiger and the ruthlessness of Hannibal Lecter.
Surprisingly and unsurprisingly, the pace and nature of the anti-Trump Iron Triangle is being set by the Lincoln Project as much as any other of its constituent element. Comprised of veteran Republican strategists who are determined to help Biden win and cleanse the party of Mr. Trump, the group continues to use a steady stream of tweets and catnip videos to contribute mightily to the zeitgeist and, therefore, to the news cycle winning streak.
How influential is the Project as part of Team Biden’s Iron Triangle?
First, they have passed a perfectly good Matthew McConaughey flick on Google.
And steamed by the Lincoln Memorial on Bing!
Second, read the email (printed with permission) I recently got from the no-nonsense Democratic master tactician Jerry Austin, with high praise:
In the day, the goal was to answer any charge quickly and to attack when warranted.
The LP guys understand, in campaigns it’s allowed, no it’s recommended, to keep your knee on your opponent’s throat until EDay is over.
Maybe the Ds can learn something from them.
I taught for 18 years and never advised, “when they go low, we go high.”
I often advised, “when they spit in your face, you don’t make believe it’s raining.”
It’s a South Bronx mantra.
Literally every day for the last five years, Donald Trump has given the anti-Trump Iron Triangle fodder that energizes its target audience, infusing both content makers and content takers with the kind of pumped up enthusiasm Joe Biden could not inspire on his own.
News organizations have never displayed open disdain for a president seeking reelection the way they do towards Trump.
The Bushes organized and manipulated their own Iron Triangles to win.
On any given day, it is clear that Team Trump doesn’t have a prayer to do that.
If Biden wins, you will read about a lot of behind-the-scenes coordination within and between each leg of the anti-Trump Iron Triangle. To be sure, some of this stuff happens organically. But the level of secret, turtle-on-a-fence-post synchronization is as massive as it is clandestine.
As for the in-plain-sight category, you can see it on offer every day on cable TV and in the major press organs which reach millions.
“Every day” includes today.
****
3. The lead story in the Washington Post:
President Trump’s unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but now fear losing power and forever associating their party with his racial animus.
Number of Republican elected officials quoted: 0
Number of academics quoted: 2
Number of Obama advisers quoted: 2
Number of people named “John Kasich” quoted: 1
****
4.
Trump devoted a portion of his address to rail at the media, which he claimed without evidence “falsely and consistently label their opponents as racists.” (Politico)
****
5. Lead paragraph of a New York Times story:
President Trump used the spotlight of the Fourth of July weekend to sow division during a national crisis, denying his failings in containing the worsening coronavirus pandemic while delivering a harsh diatribe against what he branded the “new far-left fascism.”
And two more paragraphs from that story, centered around “a Republican pollster,” with no further characterization of said pollster:
“Trump needs — or thinks he needs — fear of ‘the other’ to motivate his base and create enthusiasm,” said Christine Matthews, a Republican pollster. “Right now, people are fearful of Covid-19, but that is inconvenient for Trump, so he is trying to kick up fear about something he thinks will benefit his re-election: angry mobs of leftists tearing down American history.”
Ms. Matthews noted that his rhetoric does little more than solidify the voters who were already likely to return to his corner. “He has no interest at all in expanding his base or even pulling back in those who have departed,” she said.
****
6. Chatter about Ghislaine Maxwell and President Trump is rampant.
****
7. Chatter about the social media behavior of the minor daughter of a senior White House official is rampant, with no pushback about the propriety of such coverage, even when the parents plead for it to stop.
****
8. Washington Post headline:
Paragraph from a different Washington Post story:
****
9.
****
10. I’m not saying that (many of) these points aren’t valid criticisms of the incumbent.
What I’m saying is that Team Trump is currently losing to Team Biden every bit as badly as Trump himself is losing to the former vice president.
What I’m saying is the former is a significant cause of the latter.
What I’m saying is no matter how competent Team Trump is, no matter how emotional, funny, or conflict-driving its content is, the dominant media is just not going to give it much credence or much play; its content will not be seen as irresistible.
What I’m saying is that even if Trump elevates his performance and Biden gaffes galore, the efficient operation of the left’s Iron Triangle is going to be super charged through November because of its members shared belief that their mission is no less than the imperative to stop the worst president in American history from winning another four years.
****
11.
And he quickly got his first major endorsement:
And his second:
No idea what this could mean.
****
12.
Nationwide demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd in police custody drove tens of thousands of young people to the streets. Now liberal activists have reason to believe they can channel that energy into votes for Joe Biden.
During the first two weeks of June, as protesters gathered across the country, more than 293,000 Americans registered to vote via Vote.org, a nonpartisan group that promotes voting. That number represented nearly a third of all registrants so far this year and 48% were younger than 34. (Bloomberg)
****
13.
A crowd of shouting protesters yanked down the Christopher Columbus statue near Little Italy, dragged it to the edge of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and rolled it with a splash into the water as fireworks went off around the city on the night of the Fourth of July. (Baltimore Sun)
****
14. The coast-to-coast restraint and rule following of the American people on Independence Day:
Jersey.
****
15. The Big 4 - by Brian P. Nadeau
* Deadly officer-involved shooting being investigated in PHX. (KNXV ABC15)
----
* Muskegon Black Lives Matter chapter hosts rally for equality. (MLIVE)
----
* Penn State Black studies professors, students lead call for change. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
----
* 10.8% of new Badger State coronavirus tests positive, 738 new cases sets one-day record. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
****
Please consider making a contribution to support Wide World of News today.
If you wish to give an amount less than those listed, please reply to this email and ask for instructions.
Thank you for your support.