This is a fair consideration where the rallies are concerned. But it is not a fair consideration regarding the convention.
The convention brings together delegates from all across America. More importantly, once the convention is over, those same delegates return home to their various states. I doubt a Republican convention in Charlotte would have overloaded North Carolina medical facilities. The virus does not work that way. It takes a while to become serious, by which time the delegates, most of them anyway, would already have returned home.
The rallies are different. The attendees are at home. If they become sick the load will be on the medical facilities in the state where the rally is held. And with Trump, I doubt he would promote proper distancing or face masks, which could help somewhat. That’s not the look he wants.
Trump is in a bind. Only way for him to hold his rallies might be in a stadium of some sort, one with capacity far exceeding the number of attendees, with everyone well spread out. But that simply would not look like a traditional Trump rally. It also would cost a fortune to rent the stadium, and Trump’s preference is for campaigning on a shoestring.
As pattyb53 signalled, they had better think of something. It’s well beyond me to know what that will be.
I’m a Trump supporter because of his policies, what he actually does, and how he governs, not because I like his NYC persona. One of Trump’s most annoying characteristics, for me, is how he always is bragging about how he got the better of China.
Clearly China has cleaned Trump’s clock; overwhelmingly and personally. In the process they have really harmed my country.
I’m not one who believes, or claims, the virus was concocted in some Chinese lab to take us out. Maybe, but I seriously doubt that. I’m with Dr. Birx when she says the virus has wild animal origins. But as with so many other inconsequential things today, it simply does not matter.
Fact is, regardless origins, the Chinese knew very early on what they had and understood the power of the weapon. Some say now it might have been as early as October or November of 2019! Again, no matter. For certain they knew LONG before the USA, or the rest of the world, had any clue whatsoever. Yet the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) allowed their citizens to continue to travel widely, knowingly seeding the virus here and elsewhere with devastating consequence.
So while Trump crows loudly and constantly about extracting mere billions in tariffs from China, they have cost America trillions of dollars in expense, plus tens of thousands of deaths of our citizens upon which no price tag can be placed.
Yet Trump claims he is winning and China is losing! That is patently ridiculous and absurd. China, the CCP actually, has won decisively over the USA and they know it! All this not to mention the damage they have done to a large part of the free world. Communism UP. Freedom down.
Hypothetically, if the virus started in the US and Trump knew about it, would he have taken action summarily different from what it appears China did?
Or, would he have followed his same playbook of downplaying it, not encouraging wearing masks, not leading by example of physical distancing, recommending unproven treatments against recommendation of medical experts…
You think he would have threatened the doctors and CDC with arrest for talking about the outbreak, had the government seize the research labs for disclosing the virus sequence, and then use our political influence to have the press and WHO delay and downplay any possible risks? .Do you think he would have locked down all the US flights to the outbreak state, but allowed international flights out to continue?
Since our two countries are so different in their political norms your question as stated is perhaps not in tune with what I was asking / suggesting.
Would Trump do the things you ask? No. We have norms, policies and organisations that would make that almost impossible.
Trump has a history of firing people who disagree with him. He has a history of investigating people who are against him. He has a history of hiding evidence. These at least have some commonality with how China operates – COVID 19 or otherwise.
By not having federal resources fully behind testing and leaving a lot of it to the states, he has effectively stopped the creation of evidence. This then allows his message that COVID is not a big deal to have more credence among his base. Again, similar to what we think China did – they probably had a lot of data on COVID deaths, but kept the evidence under wraps. Trump did it slightly different due to our norms by trying to limit the creation of the evidence.
His actions tend to be more towards authoritarian than previous presidents. His actions tend to be tilted towards benefiting himself and his reelection rather than for the good of the country. That said, it is hard to find a politician that is working totally for the good of the country and not for their own reelection!!! I go back to a word I used above – “Norm”. Trump has gone WAY beyond the norm.
That’s just about SOP (of course maybe not to the same extents, because we’re not China… But you only said threatened with arrest, which HAS happened, no one has tested the threats without first resigning.). Even pre-corona look at quashing government research and reports relating to climate change.
Not sure how anyone would argue that risks have NOT been downplayed by the administration related to covid-19.
That misses the point. “Containment” requires staying within your normal circle. The convention completely violates that premise. You have no idea what each person is bringing into the convention, and what each person is taking home from the convention.
The rallies are different - any infection at the rally is going to stay within that area. Someone in Arizona isnt going to be exposed by a rally in Michigan. But they could be exposed by those delegates returning from a convention.
Not at all. My point was the overwhelmingly political nature of the NC Governor’s decision to deep six the Republican convention. This because potential damage to his home state is (was) minimal. In Jacksonville, different politics, different decision . . . but not at all a surprise.
That could be, but it’s obvious they’ll just have it somewhere else instead. I think it’s more that he’s afraid of his state being the nexus of a new nation-wide outbreak, where the blame would fall squarely on him.
Did not consider that. But there is no chance whatsoever of that happening. Why?
Because blame for any nationwide outbreak, were it to occur, would be placed squarely by the national media on Trump’s shoulders . . .
and nowhere else!!
The mainstream media blaming a Democrat for anything whatsoever? You have GOT to be kidding.
All right. You want proof:
Cuomo in NY, by and through his policies, has literally been responsible for the deaths of thousands of senior citizens. Do you hear about this? No, of course not. Many Americans are completely unaware it ever happened.
Or, like reasonable people (clearly not this administration, the president himself has said on record many times that all he cares about is the blame game), the blame is not what’s relevant. Actual health and safety is the concern.
I see your point. While a rally will keep the spread more localized, a convention could spread the virus across the whole nation. As far as I’m concerned it’s an ethical question now. If masks are proven to prevent the spread of the disease, then not wearing masks in public is akin to being an unethical asshole. Allowing your state to host an event that could cause another outbreak (either locally or around the country) because nobody is going to maintain distance or wear masks is similarly unethical.
I’ve wondered about their effectiveness actually. Aren’t those rallies basically preaching to the choir? How many undecided voters will go see Trump or Biden? If you’re undecided, why bother go see them in person, when you can read much more in depth about their platform online in less time and with other tools at your disposal to further research their points of view too. Seems like a waste of time to me to attend a rally of a candidate unless you’re already a groupie.
Plus, with COVID-19, there’s more reason than ever not to attend in person.
But the happiness & Joyful crowd is a very effective tool. Yes of course the crowd is all Trump folks, but he picks up others watching TV. Millions watching!!
But then arguably the crowd size or venue doesn’t really matter if the sole purpose is remote viewership (TV, online, news). Usually you see a shot of the candidate with in the background maybe 20-30 supporters selected among the most devoted and cheerful.
In most cases, I bet you that you could produce a shot of a fake rally with a small crowd of say 50 volunteers, add crowd noises timed with major points of the candidate, and online or on TV, nobody would know the difference.
The only thing I can think of is the rallies motivate your troops to get out and promote the candidate more actively. Attendees confirm their dedication and some may switch from voter to canvasser/campaigner. So probably a step above the yard signs in effectiveness (at higher cost arguably) but I have not seen much accurate data on actual effectiveness.
Btw, since rally tickets are free to register for and events are usually sold out, I wonder if there is an opportunity to resale rally tickets.
That’s the basic premise. If each of 50,000 attendees can reach out to 2 people, that’s 100,000 votes the candidate didn’t need to recruit. Plus, a “whipped up” base is a base that actually casts votes. Every election we hear about supporters who don’t bother to actually support their candidate the one day it matters.
Smart. So you’re saying someone should go get all the “tickets” and throw them into the junk email folder?
Then only 20 “core supporters” show up (carrying their mandatory Confederate flags and MAGA caps on their shaved heads) and the campaign can still say it’s a record 100k people like all the other fake crowd size estimates they have put out. And the target audience will still believe.
But we avoid creating further virus spread, economic drag, and needless deaths. It’s a potential win-win solution!
