generalspeaking

Rallying Re-Election Support in Oklahoma

U.S. President Donald Trump lashes out at what he calls the 'left-wing mob' during a rally in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday

"I stand before you today to declare that the silent majority is stronger than ever before. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, and we are the party of law and order."
"Does anybody honestly think he [presidential contender Joe Biden] controls these radical maniacs [of the Democratic Party's leftmost flank]?"
"Do you know what he [Biden] says to his wife when he's not confusing her with his sister?"
U.S.President Donald Trump on the campaign trail, Tulsa, Oklahoma

"We've tested over 25 million Americans. We've tested more than any other country in this world."
"Instead, the press and others, all they want to focus on is an increasing case count. And we know that that's going to occur when you test individuals more and more and more."
Chad Wolf, acting Homeland Security Secretary

Jennifer Helterbrand says she was sick with COVID for 16 days but is not going to 'live in fear'

A million people had requested tickets online to attend the Tulsa rally for the re-election presidential campaign where President Trump was intent on repeating his previous successful campaign's reliance on building the momentum of his support for a second term in office through the excitement and expectation built by his mega rallies where Republican supporters of the Trump style of governance raucously claimed their support for their champion of the forgotten and the overlooked and the scorned.

Both Mr. Trump and Brad Parscale, his campaign manager, confidently boasted there would be no empty seats at his rally, and crowds of his supporters would be thrilled to be part of history, hearing Donald Trump once again promise to represent their interests, to make America great again, to clean out the 'swamp' of of Washington entitlement and corruption, to bring back jobs to the United States, to haul the American military from its long-term displacement roles overseas, to renegotiate great trade deals with trade partners who have traditionally gained at America's expense....

As it happened, the Saturday night crowd of support totalled a grand 6,200 out of the promised million that would attend, representing a third of the capacity of the stadium. "12,000 people made it past protesters", clarified Tim Murtaugh, director of communications for the Trump re-election campaign. A turnout that gave rise to speculation that Mr. Trump's campaign may have begun to wobble on its rails with months left to go.

Former Vice-President Joe Biden has leaped ahead for the Democratic vote in national polls and key battleground state surveys. Last month the campaign for Biden raised more funding for the campaign than the Trump campaign managed to, even as the Trump campaign outspent the Biden campaign twice over. In spite of recent polls, however, Trump assured his enthusiastic crowd that he was poised to win, leaving the 'befuddled puppet' behind in the dust of the campaign.

The death-by-arrest last month of the now-internationally-famous-and-mourned George Floyd in Minneapolis, along with the devastation wrought on the American economy and the disappearance of U.S. jobs, has been designed by a Trump-negative superpower to sink his re-election campaign. Flying high in public opinion up to several months ago, based on the economy and the high employment rate and return of jobs, all that collapsed like a giant soap bubble stung by a bee.


The Oklahoma rally was meant to be a forum where victory would be declared over the disastrous SARS-CoV-2 virus with Oklahoma front and centre as a reopening victory. Until some quirk of fate intervened to create an impressive spike of new cases taunting the plans made by mice and men just before the rally deflating celebratory brags. In the face of campaign advance staff in Oklahoma testing positive for the virus what more could go wrong?

At the arena, masks were distributed to all entrants. To be brought back home as pristine souvenirs perhaps, since few in attendance bothered wearing them. The potential in that simple act of reducing their numbers rather symbolic. "Testing is a double-edged sword. When you do testing to that extent you're going to find more people. So I said to my people, slow the testing down", boasted the Man Who Knows Everything, prepared to sacrifice time and energy, brilliant statesmanship and bargaining expertise for the good of the union in another four dedicated years as CEO of USA.

So, low turnout in Oklahoma, presages what? Oh, never mind, it's all a matter of perspective and interpretation. Post-rally it was ascertained that over four million people had watched the event online cheering wildly. "These numbers represent unmatched enthusiasm behind the president's re-election and a massive audience that Joe Biden can only dream of", happily advised campaign communications director Tim Murtah.

"THE SILENT MAJORITY IS STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!", tweeted the man who would be re-elected as Emperor of Tweets.

A Trump supporter sits in the upper seats of the BOK Center. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)