America’s Intellectual ‘Bloodbath’
I planned to leave the “bloodbath” topic alone, thinking it was over. Donald Trump gives speech, mentions “bloodbath”; Democratic PAC-funded oppo outfit circulates video out of context; lots of media dopes from Joe Scarborough to the Washington Post fall for it; critics catch up to the scam. Embarrassment ensues. Fin du Media Cycle. Haven’t these people watched The Three Stooges? If you somehow throw a pie in your own face, don’t do it again.
But, they do. Post-debunk, Substack’s own Robert Reich denounced the “bloodbath” speech as straight out “Hitler’s playbook.” Former Hillary Clinton lawyer Marc Elias roared about Trump’s plan to foment “another insurrection, maybe a bloodbath, to use a phrase that he recently used.” This episode is already on its third or fourth life, and will have more.
To recap: Trump gave a speech last Sunday in Dayton, Ohio. The “bloodbath” portion concerned a promise to slap a 100% tariff on foreign cars, and the quote was, “If I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath.” Acyn, a media chop shop funded by blue-party PAC Meidas Touch, put out a 17-second tweet, which the Biden-Harris campaign shortened to nine seconds:
Trump: Now, If I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. pic.twitter.com/qDEPTtl4Bu
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 16, 2024
This triggered the usual outrage battery. Biden spokesperson James Singer said it was clear Trump “wants another January 6th.” David Corn said Trump “endorsed political violence.” Even Hillary Clinton slid her crypt open to contribute:
“Bloodbath” was clearly economic metaphor, and the worst thing you could say about it is that it underscored a general Trump tendency to preach doom and disaster in a way some consider irresponsible. I don’t. This rhetoric works for Trump for a reason, the same one that makes the media miss on “bloodbath” a double-insult.
This apocalyptic speech resonates in places like Dayton, a region that produced six million vehicles between 1981 and an infamous GM plant closure in 2008. There’s now a Chinese auto-glass factory on the site. Many people in that part of the world watched $30-an-hour factory jobs turned into $1-an-hour gigs for Mexican counterparts after NAFTA, which explains why crowds tend to respond to heated rhetoric about the border. You don’t have to agree with Trump’s stances on these issues, but not understanding why they work is rhetorical malpractice.
The “bloodbath” episode is exposing how even a nationwide digital blackout of Trump can’t and
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