Vincent J. Curtis
23 Sept 2016
The response to the riots in Charlotte, NC, by Hillary Clinton
and Donald Trump was a study in contrasts. Trump played to his strengths, and
Hillary straddling, trying to protect a weakness.
Donald Trump was in Pittsburgh, PA, yesterday and directed
his remarks first at President Barack Obama, who has been conspicuous by his
absence during the rioting. Trump said
that Obama has a responsibility “to address this crisis and save
African-American lives.” Trump went on
to put a finger on drugs as a contributing factor to the tension and rioting, “If
you’re not aware, drugs are a very, very big factor in what you’re watching on
television,”
Trump then turned to his campaign themes of law
and order and of American greatness, “There is no compassion in tolerating
lawless conduct. Crime and violence is
an attack on the poor, and will never be accepted in a Trump
Administration,” “Our country looks bad
to the world, especially when we are supposed to be the world’s leader,” “How
can we lead when we can’t even control our own cities? We honor and recognize the right of all
Americans to peacefully assemble, protest and demonstrate, but there is no
right to engage in violent disruption or to threaten the public safety and
peace of others.”
Trump is on record as appealing to black communities by
speaking about the deplorable living conditions in the black slums of America’s
great cities. In a North Carolina rally Trump
said that black communities “are absolutely in the worst shape that
they’ve ever been in before—ever, ever, ever.”
He has promised to do something about it. “What have you got to lose?” he asks.
Clinton’s response showed the weakness she feels in her
support in the black communities. She
did not condemn the rioters or the rioting, as Trump did. Instead, she patronized the Black Lives
Matter movement, balancing her remarks with a favorable mention of law
enforcement.
Clinton lamented, “Two more names to add to a list of
African-Americans killed by police officers,”
“It’s unbearable, and it needs to become intolerable,” “We also saw
the targeting of police officers in Philadelphia last week. And last night in
Charlotte, 12 officers were injured in demonstrations following Keith Scott’s
death. Every day police officers are serving with courage, honor and skill.”
If Donald Trump peals away 15 to 20 percent of the black
vote from Hillary Clinton, her campaign is finished. Trump doesn’t need to win every black vote;
he would like to win one vote in five.
Hence, Trump can be more targeted in his appeal. He can appeal to common sense, he can observe
that rioting is most harmful to the black community itself, he can touch on the
evil impact of drugs, and he can link respectable black protest to his larger theme of
American greatness. He can make a
gesture of understanding towards the black community without looking like he is
pandering. All he needs to do is make a good impression with one in five to one in seven black voters through a
statesman-like appeal to their intelligence.
Hillary on the other hand has to get every black vote, and
she has to motivate blacks to turn out in larger than average numbers as they
did for Barack Obama. Consequently,
Hillary can’t reprimand, chide, hector, castigate, talk down to, or otherwise
been seen lecturing to the black community, as she does to her basket of white deplorables. Blacks are the victims, and she has to pander
to that victimhood. She can’t afford
otherwise. She can’t condemn the rioters
lest she face a backlash from the extreme left; and in her remarks, she did
not. She tried to appear sympathetic to
everyone.
Her noises of praise for law enforcement were intended to
keep peace with the center of the Democrat party, however incongruous they seem
in her sentiments. She is weak on the
law and order issue, and some favorable balancing mention of law enforcement
was essential for her to maintain any credibility at all on the issue, and so
that her pandering to the black community was not so obvious.
The Charlotte riots are a threat to Hillary’s campaign
because they drive a wedge between her bases of support – a disparate collection
of groups. When it finally becomes known
that the organization for the riots came from outside Charlotte, from successor
organizations to ACORN and those sympathetic to the Saul D. Alinsky school of
radical organization, Hillary could be hurt by those of her base in the
political center of the party withdrawing their support and staying home.
The Charlotte rioters are not members of Hillary’s basket of
deplorables. She is has to be
sympathetic to the rioters lest she lose any portion of the black vote. Noises from her sympathetic to law
enforcement is an effort to straddle the divide between her supporters.
Trump on the other hand can stay true to his message and try
to peel away a small portion of Hillary’s base in the political center. Trump will never get the extreme left; they
are Hillary’s to lose. Social upheaval
after eight years of Barack Obama plays into Donald Trump’s message.
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