Hate And Lies About Healthcare: The Entire 2018 Republican Message

Trump to send real troops to counter imaginary threat, because racism is the only thing Republicans have left to sell most of their voters:

More than 5,000 active-duty military troops will deploy to the southern border by the end of this week, Defense Department officials said on Monday, an escalation of a midterm election show of force against a caravan of Central American migrants that President Trump has characterized as an “invasion of our country.”

The massing of American troops comes as Mr. Trump has seized on the caravan as a closing political message in the final week before the midterms, warning darkly — and without evidence — that “Middle Eastern” people are part of a dangerous mob of migrants threatening to surge into communities here.

But the caravan, which has shrunk from 7,000 people to less than 3,500, is still weeks away from reaching the United States. The rare use of the active-duty military to bolster Mr. Trump’s campaign message has intensified criticism that the president is using the military for political gain.

And he had good reasons for trying it:

“The network news divisions have not worked out how to cover politics without following the agenda set by President Trump,” he told me by email. “That’s not to say their coverage is pro-Trump, since they will use his agenda to present him in both a positive and negative light. But it does mean that they find it difficult to present politics as being about anything except him.”

Since Labor Day, Tyndall told me last week, the three broadcast networks (CBS, NBC and ABC) together had done only a handful of stories — fewer than 10, all told — on threats to voting rights.

[…]

Constant attention to Trump works for the broadcast networks, Tyndall said.

“They do not conceive that following his agenda is a problem: his larger-than-life persona, his incendiary sound bites, and the strength of viewers’ reactions to him (both pro and con) make him a perfect fit for television journalism as it is currently practiced,” he said.

It’s nice to think that a Democratic candidate who isn’t Hillary Clinton will make is smooth sailing, but Trump’s ability to dominate media coverage is going to be an issue in 2020 no matter who’s running. And the incentive this coverage creates for Trump to ratchet up his fomenting of race hatred is obvious.