Is the Trump regime going down or not?

The internal stability of a regime can be measured by the ratio between the strength of the social forces that it controls and the strength of the social forces that it has against it.

Sharp, Gene. How Nonviolent Struggle Works (Kindle Locations 228-230). The Albert Einstein Institution. Kindle Edition. 

What have you observed this week about social forces the Trump regime tries to control and the strength of the social forces working against it?

The Arizona Eagletarian began well before 2019 to declare that the Trump administration is going down. The typical response to the declaration? "I hope so."

Hope, of course, won't get the job done on its own. But the voters, despite increasing cacophony from the regime at the White House, can indeed get the job done, as a whole.

DC pundits are starting to come around. Exhibit A, recent piece by Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, Democrats, stop worrying about losing. Focus on how you're likely to win.

If you’re a president running for reelection, and 8 out of 10 voters believe “things in the country are out of control,” you are losing. Bigly.

The question now is how much uglier and more divisive President Trump’s campaign will become as his desperation mounts — and how many of Trump’s Republican enablers choose to go down with what is beginning to look like the Titanic. The band that gets hired for the GOP convention, wherever it eventually takes place, might want to start practicing “Nearer My God to Thee.”

Here I must insert the standard warning against taking anything for granted — not that anyone possibly could, after 2016. There will be constant worrying, fretting, handwringing and second-guessing until Election Day, because that’s what Democrats do. But the objective reality, near as anyone can tell, is that Trump looks very likely to lose to Joe Biden and that Republicans may well lose the Senate as well.

Exhibit B -- Chris Wallace Breaks Down ‘Very Bad Week’ For Trump’s Reelection Prospects

During an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” Wallace was asked by co-host Sunny Hostin to comment on the president’s tone as protests against racism and police brutality have erupted across the country.

“Well, I’m not going to talk about it in terms of right or wrong. The president has his base and he has his beliefs, and he’s entitled to them,” Wallace said. “Let me talk about it in terms of politics. I would say that the last week was a very bad week for the president in terms of politics, in terms of his potential reelection prospects.”

Wallace noted criticisms Trump has faced over the past week from religious and military leaders over his divisive and inflammatory responses to the unrest, including his decision to deploy riot police on protesters in the capital, threats to militarize the government’s nationwide response and move to aggressively clear peaceful demonstrators near the White House so he could get photos taken with a Bible outside a nearby church. [Reflect back to the quote at the top of this blog post and consider that in every one of those actions, Trump -- when confronted with blowback criticism -- he backed down]

“When you’re getting called out by the Episcopal bishop of Washington and the archbishop of the Catholic Church of Washington, when you’re getting called out by everybody from [former Secretary of Defense] Jim Mattis to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen, and even your own current Secretary of Defense [Mark] Esper breaks with you, that’s not a good week,” Wallace said.

Exhibit C -- Trump lashes out at reporters asking him questions (as if that's an isolated incident?)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander asked President Donald Trump Friday what he had to say to Americans who are scared by the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, instead, used the opportunity to attack the reporter.

“I say you’re a terrible reporter, that’s what I say,” Trump said, after Alexander accurately pointed out COVID-19 has caused 200 deaths and made 14,000 people sick in the U.S. [This was back in March. NOW, the number of Americans killed by Covid19 exceeds 111,000 humans]

“I think it’s a very nasty question and a very bad signal you’re putting out there to the American people. The American people are looking for answers and they’re looking for hope and you’re doing sensationalism,” the president said.

Because of the Firehose of Falsehoods effect, I don't see news outlets making that particular comparison these days. Think Whack-a-Mole.

Exhibit D -- Behavioral Science, Alpha Males, TED talk by Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal



Prof de Waal deftly describes that successful Alpha Males are not bullies. They elicit cooperation because they are talented in the use and demonstration of competency and compassion. Not qualities found in either the Occupant or in his regime at all.

Look at the way the chimpanzees display unity as a demonstration of power/authority. The only person in Trump's regime right now who is unified with him is his rogue Attorney General, Bill Barr. How well is he regarded among the American tribe?

Friends, there will be plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth between now and November 3.  Yet, there is no way, given what we have witnessed of Trump's behavior since he began his campaign for office in 2015 and after he took the oath on January 20, 2017, that Trump will turn his presidency around and win the hearts of the American people.

Period. End of discussion.