We all read story after story in the spring that Donald Trump missed his rallies far more than worrying about what the disease might be doing to his own election chances or the economy. He wanted his rallies. His staff would even talk about the rallies “energizing him” (he loves basking in the glow of the love). He wanted them back as fast as possible and couldn’t figure out how it was that if it was safe for him to travel, why he couldn’t hold them? Tulsa was supposed to be huge! It was a huge sign and I can’t help it but I feel bad for Herman Cain.

We had the summer surge. And then the disease relented for a couple of months. But within the last couple weeks, it has come roaring back and there are a lot of people who believe that are not entirely unrelated, especially in northern states where there have been a lot of rallies. Now, some of those folks in those mid-West, northern states, that are not going to rallies but might have considered Trump, might be blaming some of that COVID comeback on Trump himself:

A new survey, compiled of voters in six battleground states—Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—found that a great number of voters view Trump “much less” or “somewhat less favorably” due to his continued behavior amid the coronavirus pandemic, reports US News. Despite alarming upticks in cases across the Midwest, Trump has continued to visit vulnerable states and hold massive rallies all while disregarding COVID-19 mitigation practices.

“Alarming upticks,” and now “disregarding COVID-19 mitigation practices.” That sounds like some blame, or at least the type of recklessness that people associated with the rise of COVID in the United States. My god, we’ve been inundated with news footage of people standing shoulder to shoulder, maskless, in the thousands, at Trump rallies, if anything might convince people that Trump isn’t the one to bring the country out of COVID that would appear to be strong evidence.

These are happening in places Trump cannot lose.

The state-of-the-race report comes just days ahead of Election Day. Based on the findings, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appears to be in a positive position to win the election. States that appear to be solidly or favorably Democratic have reached a tentative total of 334 Electoral College votes.

For so long, those damned rallies kept up his energy and made people feel they were part of a movement. This time, those damned rallies might be responsible for him losing.

****

Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak