Raser’s Edge:   The Observation Deck:  Moron Don strikes again!

Just when you think Moron Don’s political reality show can’t get any goofier, he pulls off another stunt…  Like sending his VP to the Indianapolis Colts game with instructions to walk out “if “any player takes a knee during the National Anthem.  (These specific instructions to Pence were clearly stated in one of Moron Don’s pre-game tweets.) 

Everybody knew some players would take a knee so it was clearly a set up job, once again, to divert attention from his incompetence.  As Rex Tillerson correctly pointed out, Trump is a moron but, make no mistake, he is not actually dumb.  He has the innate smarts of all professional con men—the art of manipulation, diverting attention and pushing the emotional buttons of the easily impressionable.

The whole kneeling thing started out as a protest against police gunning down black people—which I believe is a very legitimate complaint but one which Republicans ignore.  So Trump, knowing he can whip up his “base” cleverly changes the discourse into “respect for the flag,” “support for our troops and veterans” and “patriotism.”

What no Trump supporter will ever admit is the underlying racism in this kind of subterfuge.  The issue really started with a constitutionally permitted valid protest by African Americans against police shootings.  When a high profile black football player called attention to it by kneeling during the National Anthem, Trump immediately twisted it into an attack on the flag, our military and a lack of patriotism which he knew very well would flare up his “base.”  Trump, with his innate con-man cunning, knew his “base” would conclude black football players are disrespectful to the flag and are not patriotic and would then extend that opinion to include all black people.

Moron Don knows very well he will never get much of the African American vote so it is to his advantage to keep driving a wedge between black America and his white “base.”  Of course he cannot express this openly so he says it is an issue of “respect for the flag” and “patriotism.”   That’s makes it much easier for his white America to justify its bigotry.