On October 30th, I posted a parody of the Orson Welles 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. It appears the similarities between H.G. Wells’ story of a Martian invasion and the refugee caravan bringing crime and disease to the United States does not end there. Below is the front page from the October 31, 1938 New York Times.
Besides the coverage of the radio play, one cannot help but appreciate the irony that the story appeared next to an article about rising anti-semitism in Europe.
As reported, the fantasy about visitors from the Red Planet was a false alarm. And now we know the same is true about the fabrication of an imminent threat at our southern border. Not based on coverage of the story. From the lack of coverage. For two weeks, Fox News dedicated its nightly unholy trinity of talk shows with tales of rapists, drug-dealers, murderous gangs and middle-eastern terrorists on the verge of destroying the American way of life.
Yet, within days of the mid-term elections, the threat had miraculously disappeared. How do I know. Consider this morning’s FoxNews.com website, below.
Not a single word about the caravan or deployment of armed forces poised to retaliate against rock-throwing thugs. Equally telling, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col Jamie Davis told CNN, “We are not calling it ‘Operation Faithful Patriot,’ we are calling it ‘border support.'” I wonder why. Maybe it was neither an ‘operation’ nor ‘faithful’ nor ‘patriotic.” Rumor has it, the new moniker is “Operation Costly Political Stunt.”
So, one of two things must have happened. Either the refugees seeking asylum discovered the secret to the Klingon cloaking device. They are still there and we just cannot see them any more. Or, like Orson Welles’ broadcast 80 years ago, there just simply was no there there to begin with. Too bad the New York Times did not take a lead from its 1938 staff and publish the following edition on Thursday morning.
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP
I heard one analysis that the strategy was to position himself as a War President because War Presidents do well in galvanizing public opinion. At the time I thought it ridiculous. In retrospect I think it was pretty good: he kept his base ginned up, sowed wonderful fear, completed transforming the republican party into the image of himself, and held back the blue wave.
I think you’re misreading the results. In the past 48 hours the wave is turning into a tsunami. The Democrats are now estimated to have gained 39 seats in the House. The most since Watergate. The Senate was always stacked against the Democrats with so many races in deep red states. But we now see a possible flip in AZ and recount in FL. The deck is stacked against Republicans in 2020 with several GOP senators running in increasingly BLUE states.
More importantly, the GOP lost over 320 seats in State legislatures, the single biggest flip in modern history.
The Democrats success was overshadowed by the emotional losses of future stars such as O’Rourke, Gillum and Abrams. But don’t let that fool you. The trend is clearly in the Dems’ favor. The country is not buying Trump’s message except in states where there are majorities of his base.
I’m with those who are unconvinced the midterms are a repudiation of Trump. Yes, a good victory for the dems, was expected, and presents some hope. But the drumbeat from the right of hate, fear, racism is loud. It is growing in appeal and is deeply fraught. The republicans have coalesced behind all this, there is no John Dean. The coming gridlock will likely add to the poison. There’s still no message of unity from the dems . Don’t see any great charismatic front runners against Trump. The House has a huge challenge to pass significant, decent legislation to justify all manner of promises made or 2020 belongs to Trump and his trained seals.