As his favorability among Americans continues to plummet to historic lows, President Donald Trump has recently pivoted to a new messaging strategy – a strategy he’s become “obsessed” with, argued columnist Jamelle Bouie on Wednesday, though one that’s “certain to fail.”
Following the recent electoral victories of several progressive candidates in Democratic primary elections, Trump has increasingly spoken out against “communism,” and to such an extent that analysts suspect it to be a “desperate” attempt to shift the odds in Republicans’ favor ahead of the midterms.
The problem, Bouie argued, is that Trump’s attempt to "resurrect the fear” of communism that reached its height in the United States during the Cold War was a “total abstraction” to today’s voters.
“Americans are neither as hostile to socialism as they once were nor as positive toward capitalism as they have been in the past. More important than polling, however, is the fact that for many Americans the ‘communist threat’ is a total abstraction,” Bouie wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday.
“There are tens of millions of voters (this columnist included) who were young children when the Soviet Union fell. There are millions more who weren’t yet born. For these Americans, ‘communism’ is as much a concern as ‘the missile gap’ or the Contras. It is completely unresponsive to the circumstances of their lives — to their struggles with housing, health care and the overall cost of living.”
Moreover, threats of “communism” taking hold in the United States were “out of touch with reality,” Bouie argued, and were actually “more likely to drive voters away from Trump and the Republican Party.”
“The president’s attempt to drum up a third Red Scare is certain to fail,” Bouie wrote. “If it matters – if it is interesting – it is only because it gives us a glimpse into the stunted imagination of a man who seems to value only the worst this country has to offer.”