All’s Fair in Love and Politics

  

There was an interesting part of Trump’s speech in Asheboro, North Carolina, on Wednesday, the first outdoor rally he’s taken part in since the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, that I feel needs more fleshing out.

He was talking with the crowd about Tuesday night’s speakers at the Democratic National Convention, and about the fact that both Barack and Michelle Obama launched personal attacks on him from the stage, while musing that his advisors and other supporters always chide him to stick with policy and not make personal attacks. He said:

Did you see Barack Hussein Obama last night taking little shots? He was taking shots at your president and so was Michelle. You know, they always say, ‘Sir, please stick to policy, don’t get personal,’ but they’re getting personal all night, these people.

He brought it up later in the speech, asking rallygoers in an informal poll: “Should I get personal, or should I not get personal?” I don’t have to tell you which option was the favorite.

What did the Obamas say? Michelle pulled out the most choice attacks in the leftist playbook–sexism and racism–to weave a strawman argument that Trump isn’t presenting “real ideas and solutions” to Americans’ problems:

Going small is petty, it’s unhealthy, and, quite frankly, it’s unpresidential. It’s his same old con: doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better.

Mrs. Obama also “accused Trump of trying to make Americans fear her and her husband. And she slammed him as someone who has benefited from generational wealth and doesn’t understand hard work.” Her rant continued :

His limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black. I want to know — I want to know — who’s going to tell him, who’s going to tell him, that the job he is currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?

As for her husband, the former president did the antithesis of what Michelle once urged Democrats to do: “They go low, we go high”: (emphasis added)

Former President Obama likened Trump to an annoying neighbor with a leaf blower and argued the GOP nominee was only interested in serving himself.

“Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago,” Obama said. 

“It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he is afraid of losing to Kamala. There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes,” he added, making a hand gesture that implied he was mocking Trump’s manhood.

You couldn’t be less classy and juvenile than that. Plus, the projection in that sentence about fearing losing to Kamala Harris is breathtaking, but it points to the reason people like Michelle and Barack Obama (and anyone on the Left) get away with these attacks.

Read more: Republicans ‘Play on People’s Fears,’ Obama Told a Party That Says Democracy Will Die If Trump Wins

Michelle Obama Calls on the Ancestors and Brings the Sister Vibe to the DNC

My colleague Jeff Charles hinted at it while outlining several nasty characters in the Democratic pantheon in his latest VIP piece, notably the late Nevada senator and Majority Leader Harry Reid, DNC chairman Howard Dean (he of the infamous Dean scream), and President Joe Biden, who never flinched about tearing down Republicans with often blatantly false statements about their character.

Donald Trump’s not wrong that it’s unfair and hypocritical for the Left to blame him for the coarsening politics, while they continue to attack him viciously. They’re on the side the legacy media roots for. Politics in this atmosphere will stay a double-edged sword for Republicans and conservatives, until we fully control the levers of the media. 

Related:

WILD: Trump Pauses NC Rally Speech, Leaves Stage to Check on Supporter Who Had Medical Emergency

Trump Speaks in North Carolina, and He’s Back on His Game