Dem
47
GOP
53
As we wrote yesterday, we believe that Donald Trump's speech was a reaction to his sagging approval ratings, and to the myriad problems—the economy, health care, EpsteinScam, etc.—that are swirling around him and his political party. In fact, since the speech was hastily announced, and was clearly not written special for the occasion, we might even call it a panicked reaction—he desperately wanted to get something out there before people are distracted by the holidays, and before the insurance premiums spike. Assuming we are right about that, well, Wednesday night was basically his only option. The weekend starts today/tonight, next week is Christmas week, and last night he would have been up against a football game (which turned out to be a very good football game, as the Seahawks beat the Rams by 1 point in OT, thanks to a daring 2-point conversion). All of this would certainly explain how an address to the nation would be announced on a Tuesday afternoon, and would be on the air just over 24 hours later.
Through this, and the next two items, we are operating on the assumption that Trump, and other Republicans, sense that a very powerful clock is ticking, and they are trying to get something—anything—done before a very loud alarm goes off circa Jan. 1. One of the oldest items in Trump's bag of "burnish my popularity" tricks is fetishizing the military. Actually, it's one of the oldest items in ANY politician's bag of tricks, because doing things for soldiers pleases some voters—active duty troops, veterans, military spouses, and others—while it's awfully hard for opponents to say "boo."
But just because it's hard to mess something like this up does not mean it's impossible. The little stunt with the soldiers' dividends (see above) might end up putting that to the test. The same holds with the announcement that Trump made yesterday. America's semiquincentennial (250th birthday) is next year, of course, and the administration plans to milk that for all it's worth (after all, hugging the bicentennial close in 1976 worked so very well for Gerald Ford). As of yesterday, one of the headline events of "Freedom 250," as the White House is calling it, will be the "Patriot Games."
"What is the Patriot Games," you might ask? Let's let Trump tell you in his own words: "an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes—one young man and one young woman from each state and territory." He did not give much more information than that (for example, exactly what kind of athletics will be on display), but he did make sure to reassure everyone that "I promise there will be no men playing in women's sports."
There were three thoughts that came to mind when we first heard this, and we most certainly weren't the only people thinking along these lines. The first is: If this is going to be a high-school competition, then why is it called the "Patriot Games"? Are the participants going to be folks headed to service academies and/or ROTC? Is qualifying going to involve how fast a person can run AND how fast they can recite the Pledge of Allegiance? It's a weird militarization of something that isn't really military.
The second thought we had was "Isn't there ANYONE in this administration who knows how large-scale sporting events are organized?" It is actually not easy, over the span of just four days, to stage enough events to accommodate 50+ people of each gender, and to leave enough time for rest and for quarterfinals/semifinals/finals. The Olympics is a worldwide competition, and even they put pretty strict limits on the number of competitors. On top of that, choosing participants based on their home states makes absolutely no sense. You think maybe that will give California and Texas a wee edge over Alaska and Wyoming? This is why every "national" competition is divided up into regions of roughly equal population.
The third thought that we (and approximately 99% of other people) had is: Did nobody in this administration read the books, or see the movies, in The Hunger Games trilogy? For those unfamiliar, the Hunger Games are an athletic competition staged by a corrupt president leading a fascist government in which one boy and one girl are chosen from each state (well, each "district") and pitted against each other in a competition meant to distract the teeming masses from how bad their lives are and how evil the government is. Needless to say, it does not turn out well for the president or the government.
As soon as Trump made his announcement, social media was absolutely awash with Hunger Games memes. That includes social media posts from Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) and from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), containing, respectively, a screen shot and a scene from the Hunger Games films. We suppose it's possible that Trump, or Stephen Miller, or Russell Vought, or all of the above are well aware of the series and liked the fascist overtones. Still, the announcement either makes them look clueless and out-of-touch (they DON'T know the series) or it makes them look stupid (they DO know the series, but didn't understand the ending, or didn't bother to watch/read to the end).
Since there's never been anything like this before, we'll have to wait and see if it is well received. Given the issues we outline above, Americans' general lack of patience for new and gimmicky sporting events, and the fact that the military parade fell flat on its face, we tend to doubt it will go well. (Z)