Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. One of Trump’s best ways of stoking up his base is by holding rallies, especially in the states he needs to win in the next election. The media covers them with great enthusiasm. Footage of Trump at these rallies gets played for days afterwards, his bon mots become right wing memes.
Imagine Barack Obama doing the same thing. Imagine the turn out. Imagine the enthusiasm. Imagine the coverage.
Obama doesn’t even need to throw bombs the way Trump does. All he needs to do is talk about real American values, how Democrats have saved the economy multiple times, how Democrats got health care for 40 million Americans, and how Democrats put systems in place to protect your average Joe consumer by clawing back millions of fines and restitution from the banksters and others. He can remind folks that Russia is not our friend, that North Korea remains a threat, especially after Trump has given both almost all that they want. He can be his well reasoned, implacable self, and remind folks what a real President looks and acts like.
There could be an under-card of bomb throwers. Ted Lieu comes to mind. Adam Schiff, Warren, Saunders, ex generals, ex intelligence agency chiefs, potential progressive Presidential candidates, I’m guessing that by now there would be a line of folks willing to fill the role. Obama could get them the audience and the echos through the media sphere they deserve. Even Hillary could do it—and lord knows she’s got reason to get back on the road and slash back at Trump and Republicans who continue to vilify her.
It’s getting late in the day. Things just keep looking worse and worse for democracy. We need all hands on deck, we need them now, and we need them fired up and ready to go. Our lions are waiting in the wings, doing—something. But time is growing short. Sure, we need a long game, but if we don’t win the short game, none of that will matter. We need to roll out the big guns. Sadly, they’ve gone silent. And that’s no help at all.