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Michael Tracey Profile picture
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2 Nov, 5 tweets, 2 min read
I came to tonight’s Trump rally in Rome, GA over four hours early and only barely made it in because the lines were so long. The contrast with Biden events is just comical
Although to quote one attendee I overheard waiting on line: “I tell ya, we are superspreaders right now [laughs]”

More people than I thought were wearing masks but it was still probably less than half overall, even though the Trump campaign officially encourages mask-wearing
Also there were people melting down left and right due to the logistical shitshow of leaving the event. Screaming matches between people over who gets to board returning busses, etc. I heard variations of “this is the biggest nightmare...” shouted in frustration several times
Another thing: the Trump campaign claimed that hand sanitizer and masks would be distributed, but I didn't see any of that. Made it all the way close to Trump without being offered either item. I have little doubt these are, in fact, significant superspreader events
One of the reasons is because they have both indoor and outdoor components. Bus shuttles from a mall parking lot to the airport rally space being the indoor component. On my bus, most people were not wearing masks. And they were singing, cheering, etc. (Yes, I'm getting tested)

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More from @mtracey

Michael Tracey Profile picture
1 Nov
Just visited a Dem field office in suburban Atlanta. People working there had no idea how to get into the Kamala event nearby. “It’s the same people going over and over” to these semi-private Biden/Harris events, one said, such as State Reps. Meanwhile, volunteers are excluded
“I wish they wouldn’t keep it so close to the vest,” another said regarding Biden/Harris campaign secrecy about event details. Clear frustration and recognition that this goes well beyond what would be necessary for COVID protocols
I found the event. Staff says Secret Service will throw you out if you’re not authorized to attend by the Georgia Democratic Party. Speculation that it’s based on donor lists. If you were so lucky as to be invited you’d of course have to submit to a full vehicular search
Read 6 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
30 Oct
My observations from Pennsylvania. In sum, no one really bothers to make an affirmative case for Biden because everybody is so monomaniacally obsessed with Trump unherd.com/2020/10/can-be…
If Biden can win despite such meager displays of in-person enthusiasm at his own rallies -- at which Trump supporters show up in far greater numbers to jeer him -- then “enthusiasm” has pretty much been negated as a meaningful factor in determining election outcomes
Of course it was widely assumed that this election would be a "referendum on Trump" (to use a pundit cliche) but the extent to which Biden is just a non-entity in the conversations I've had with normie voters so far is pretty amazing, especially if he does manage to win
Read 5 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
19 Oct
Remember when the US punditocracy was briefly enraptured by wild prophesies of “Civil War”? Is that a subject you’d just casually move on from after a few news-cycles? The profession is filled with babbling loons who don’t even believe their own rhetoric

unherd.com/2020/10/how-hy…
Just keep in mind over the next few weeks that whatever other hysterical prophesies you hear will almost invariably be projections of the pundits’ own emotional insecurity and angst, rather than anything that bears resemblance to actually-existing political or social conditions!
US cultural and media elites so deeply crave a dramatic, psychologically gratifying conclusion to the Trump saga that they’ll continue projecting insane post-election scenarios (Civil War, violent militia insurgency, etc) that are just figments of their very troubled imaginations
Read 5 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
7 Oct
The 2018 election in North Carolina's 9th congressional district, initially won by a Republican, was subsequently voided as a result of widespread illegal ballot harvesting: so it's totally false that there's "no evidence" of fraud related to the practice

In 2018, the LA Times editorialized that a ballot collection law enacted in CA two years before "does open the door to coercion and fraud and should be fixed or repealed," but feel free to have an angry meltdown over this issue for whatever bizarre reason

latimes.com/opinion/editor…
The issue with "ballot harvesting" is not so much fraud (although that's documented to have happened across party lines) but that it introduces the potential for coercion -- by anyone from unions to church groups -- and erodes the protections/privacy afforded by the secret ballot
Read 5 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
3 Oct
Have Republicans ever considered that dopily going around spreading a dangerous contagion might be a political liability? As in, perhaps voters would prefer to live in a society with less virus rather than more. Just a theory. Could help explain any upcoming electoral wipeout
This isn't a question of lockdown versus no lockdown. (There's aren't any "lockdowns" currently underway in the US regardless.) It's top Republican officials flouting basic precautionary protocols six months into a pandemic and causing apparent super-spreader events. Very dopey
Also, lol at pro-GOP partisan trolls trying to berate me over the protests/riots causing spread of the virus. I was screaming about that for months, you morons. While the rest of the media ignored it or denied it
Read 5 tweets
Michael Tracey Profile picture
30 Sep
Next month I will be traveling to swing states to talk to voters about the election, just as I did in October 2016 -- and reminiscent of what I did this summer post-riots. So if you appreciate my style of coverage, please consider a contribution. Thanks!

Maybe I shouldn't try to characterize my own "style" but one thing I can tell you is that it won't be partisan or driven by whatever the media is obsessed with on a given day -- this has served me pretty well in the past
My first stop will be Pennsylvania, probably for about a week -- send suggestions as to where in the state would be the most illuminating to visit
Read 5 tweets

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