The Great Bible Trumpuh Scam!
— Fundraising, busing & rally attendance deals with megachurch pastor opportunists
Background music for reading:
First off, Donald Trump is a rightwing American oligarch who cares more about his millionaire-billionaire golfing buddies (especially sports celebs) than he does working people. To Trump, working folk are merely demographic tools who become subjugated by a moblike infestation of manipulative means to achieve a greedy end, thus preserving Trump’s power base.
Secondly, credit GOPwinger political operatives Lee Atwater (Nixon-Reagan) and Karl Rove (the Bushes) for articulating and developing a pro-corporate, military warmongering, pro-god, pro-gun, anti-gay, pro-drug war, no-tax political agendas that exists to support Big Banking, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Agri, etc. All of this is accomplished with an infusion of subliminally-dosed racism that appeals mostly to the instincts of rural America. Atwater and Rove are forbearers to Trump’s Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica.
Keep in mind rural America consists of about 20 small populated states located in the MidWest and Bible Belt South. These states pack the political power of two US senators each. During each US Senate election GOPwingers always carry 40 senators towards the majority goal of 51. Some would call this an unfair tilt.
It is!
But of all the above-named issues it is the pro-god position that’s the glue holding together America’s far right GOPwingers.
Specifically, Trumpism equivocates into multipronged religious evangelist zealots, deer-shy Q-Anons, swamp variety lizard-throated theorists, stubbornly cruel-cudgeled gun freaks, 5-G paranoidstas, viral antivax extremists, Breitbart-Gateway table punditeers, shadowy Falun Gong Epoch Times alarmists, Libertarians who view themselves as Musketeers and, finally, genuine NASCAR enthusiasts together with an oddball mix of bikers, wrestlers and UFC fighters. If you’ve been a Navy Seal it’s a bonus — Eric Prince mercenary soldiers are always held in high esteem as are rightwing cops.
The Manufacturing of Trump v. Clinton
Most ordinary Americans agree that Trump’s political rallies are impressive. Admittedly, they have been. But let’s go back to the beginning.
When it came to drawing large audiences for the 2016 primaries, Trump was actually second fiddle compared to the progressive Independent-Democrat Bernie Sanders who did way better filling major league sports stadiums. What’s telling is Sanders accomplished this against a full-scale media blackout. Meanwhile, Trump was getting incredible and very mysterious free publicity from corporate media.
In one instance, CNN totally ignored providing segments of an audience record-breaking Sanders rally in order to present repeated camera shots of an empty Trump podium while waiting for him to speak. How could this be?
One might also ask: How could the presidential timber of Jeb Bush — a son and brother of two US presidents — be matched equally in coverage with political newcomer brain surgeon Ben Carson? Astoundingly, the above chart shows Bush and Carson getting the same amount of media coverage for the whole of 2015!
When the 2016 race began it was Trump and Hillary Clinton who got the bulk of media publicity, especially Trump. This was odd because, like Carson, Trump also was a political newcomer. America’s corporate media — essentially an Oligarch Protection Unit (OPU) — indeed had set the table for a Clinton v. Trump 2016 match-up. A true Oligarch Derby!
The 2016 race was an OPU fix from the beginning. It was fixed for Clinton and Trump to face each other with America’s oligarchy believing Hillary would easily win. A close review of the public record, opinions from other candidates as well as an extensive examination of the controversial Wikileaks-released documents prove this.
Truth be known, the reason Sanders and Trump drew large crowds for their speeches and rallies is because the electorate — with middle class American Dream standing increasingly collapsing — had become weary of insider politicians. Trump had the additional advantage of having the evangelical voters behind him.
Overall, in 2016, the electorate wanted a political outsider. It didn’t want two Bushes and two Clintons to serve in four of the past five presidencies, with Barak Obama effectively serving as a caretaker president. The corporate media has always left this fact out of any and all analysis!
In 2016, America’s OPUs kept forcing Clinton but always keeping Trump as an acceptable back-up for oligarchy. Meanwhile, Sanders was kept out of the picture of possibilities. The OPUs did everything possible — including creation of the whole Bernie Bro narrative — to destroy the chances of Sanders.
The fickle finger of fate saw Trump unexpectedly defeat Clinton, largely with the help of a computerized voter suppression program called Crosscheck which effectively knocked minority voters off the voting rolls. This system was in play in nearly all GOP legislatively-controlled states.
What Makes a Trump Rally?
The first thing required are political operatives like Atwater, Rove and Bannon. Especially important are their underlings. Using last night’s Florence, Arizona speech as an example, these are the operatives who set up the podium platform scene.
For instance, last night they scripted red MAGA hats for the white folk to wear; while white Blacks for Trump shirts were worn by the black folk. Together — many paid top dollar and selected from focus groups — they’d all stand behind Trump waving and cheering him on for the tv cameras.
Meanwhile, the rally actually looks more like the lower photo. Again, racism rears its ugly head!
So who are those people in the lower photo? Where do they come from? Are they the bikers, fighters or the soldiers? Nope! They’re mostly evangelist religious zealots frenzied on a single religious issue (usually abortion). They get sardine-packed by the tens of thousands into Trump audiences on marching orders from nearby Mega Church pastors.
Ever notice Trump doesn’t speak much in the major inner cities where he’d theoretically gain a greater cross section of people? There’s a reason for this. He almost always locates his rallies in some strange unfamiliar community setting. Why? Because his rallies are organized location target specific to maximize the number of evangelist attendees.
Throughout America these folks comprise the bulk of his crowds. Its why Trump always seems to speak before a large audience. Just imagine a cabal of rightwing religious opportunistic pastors— always raking in money large from congregational donations — informing his or her flock that attendance to a Trump rally is equivalent to tithing for the church, that a free bus is waiting to take you to heaven. Off they go, on a mission for God!
America has about 330 million citizens, 100 million of whom are evangelists. How lopsided is the White evangelical vote? Of White voters who regularly attend church services, 85% voted for Trump over Joe Biden.
The below link shows how many evangelical mega churches were located an hour’s drive away from where Trump gave his Florence, Arizona speech on January 15, 2022:
Were I a professional journalist, I would have been out in the parking lots where Trump gave speeches. I’d be interviewing the bus drivers who bused thousands of evangelicals to the Trump rallies. I’d certainly be curious about the thinking of the drivers.
