Many Liberals and Progressives view President Trump’s talk about the Deep State as funny. Others disregard it as yet another nonsensical utterance by a delusional president. We do that at our peril. The Blue Wave is currently nothing but a hope, as many Trump supporters are buying into the Deep State false narrative that creates enough doubt to attenuate any wave.
Donald Trump has been attacking the FBI and the Justice Department for some time now. He has characterized them many times as being a part of the Deep State. Vanity Fair reported the following.
While Trump has not yet voiced the most explicit version of this conspiracy publicly, he has been slowly building the case that the Justice Department investigation is, in fact, a Deep State plot to delegitimize his presidency or even force him out of office. “If the FBI or DOJ was infiltrating a campaign for the benefit of another campaign, that is a really big deal,” he tweeted over the weekend, promoting a popular theory on the right (and, increasingly, on Fox News) that the use of an informant was politically motivated. …
Trump himself isn’t waiting for evidence to answer that question. “Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State,” he wrote Wednesday morning on Twitter. “They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!”
Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2018
Anyone who believes this is just an unhinged or delusional Donald Trump better think again. The entire Right Wing Industrial complex has built an entire narrative under the Deep State catchphrase.
I reported about a Republican Candidate Forum I attended a few weeks ago in an article titled “This Liberal went to a Right Wing candidate forum and saw an alternate reality.” The Trump adoring Republicans learned that there is a Deep State trying to bring down Trump and Conservatives.
After the event, I asked a former candidate who ran in the Republican Primary if he genuinely believes in a Deep State. He answered in the affirmative. These were not dumb people. This guy is a lawyer.
I am a regular at my local Starbucks. Many of the patrons know that I am a very Progressive political blogger. They also know I am easy to talk to and entertain discourse irrespective of ideology. These guys (yes they are generally white guys) seek me out often for a conversation. I start the interchange mostly listening.
Shockingly there are two themes. The first is a Deep State out to get Trump. The second is that while they are not enamored with Trump, they think he is doing an outstanding job.
The Right Wing machine is marketing the Trump message effectively to his base and to those who are looking for a justification to placate their unnecessary carnal fear of our changing society. They have even gamed the search engines. Google Deep State and one finds that the Right owns the messaging on the first page with smart advertising,
But it’s deeper. Google Trump Jobs. At the time I did it, the first article that showed up was one titled “President Trump’s historic jobs achievement | TheHill” written by an opinion writer who performed near perfect SEO on the article. And again, strategically placed ads enhance the reach of their message about Trump and jobs.
The same sort of activity is not apparent from the Left. One would think Democrats would optimize messages for Trump Tax Cut search tokens (nonpolitical folks are unlikely to search for Trump tax cut scam). Many continue to campaign as if it the digital age never came to fruition or as we are still using blackboards.
I see a lot of pundits on the Left doing a lot of talking about the upcoming Blue Wave. What I fail to see is a strategy to make it a reality.
In my Conservative town, Republicans continue to get touched by their Right Wing organizations. They have activities. They are engaged not only in asking for money but for promoting their brand of misinformation. They are micromanaged. I fail to see this on the Left either in person or virtually from the party. I must give kudos to Indivisible, OurRevolution, DSA, and other organizations on the Left, but they need help.
When one has the gall to complain about political action, it is imperative to ask oneself whether they are part of the problem like I would expect many to ask of this author. I apply SEO to all my content to maximize our message. I do the same with my radio show, podcasts, vlogcasts, and blogs making sure to interlink with other Progressive sites to ensure online fluidity and performance. Every Progressive blogger, writer, and publisher should be doing these things.
It is true that we do not have the financial prowess of the Right. But we have the numbers. The Internet is still relatively open. We must saturate it with blogs and articles with our positions, policies, actions, and attacks that are well SEOed. Likewise, we must always have in-person meetups. Most importantly we must be ready and able to articulate why Americans must vote Democratic in 2018.
We must not let the fictional Deep State be the undoing of the Blue Wave. We must realize that the Democratic Party won’t enable the Blue Wave. Ultimately we with our hard smart work will.