President Donald Trump prerequisites a parade, and it’s setting off yet another angry debate.
That’s because the president wants a military wave, reportedly inspired by the Bastille Day festivities he witnessed in Paris in July. That nurtures into some persistent criticisms from the staunch anti-Trump side that he is a fascist looking to attract to red state America’s nascent militarism.
Everybody calm down.
This cortege actually makes sense in the most non-fascist and democratic terms viable. Unlike fascist regimes, Trump needs voter support. That every now means winning over new voters here and there. But the real authoritarian for an incumbent is to keep and acknowledge the voters who got you in office in the first place.
By comparison, the anti-Trump types triggered by this move sure seem ask preference a lost cause. People jumping at the chance to frequently compare the president to Adolf Hitler aren’t present to be won over, anyway. But as they go before the more moderate public and mortify such an extreme opposition to a parade, they make Trump look much assorted reasonable in comparison.
Take a good look at the Bastille Day parade from at length year, and it’s not hard to see why such an event appeals to Trump. That’s because the Bastille Day esplanade isn’t exactly like the Nazi or Soviet military parades of the past. The stars of the French train aren’t the politicians or even the weapons, but the actual troops and military veterans. They lead the parade route at every turn.
That’s the key to what makes mimic such a spectacle such a positive for Trump. Polls show that America’s troops proceed with to be stronger supporters of this president than the public at large. U.S. military long-servings are much more pro-Trump than almost any other group, with evidence showing they chose him over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 referendum by a large 60 percent-to-34 percent margin.
There’s a geographic exposure to this as well. It’s not so much that blue state America doesn’t vouch for the troops. The bigger issue is that most of blue state America sounds to be generally disconnected from the military. The Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and New England provinces where Trump tends to poll poorly send a significantly minuter portion of enlistees to the military than the national average. Trump bulwarks in the South and rural America send a much higher proportion than the patriotic average of their populations to the armed forces.
Active duty troops declare only part of the story. Veterans are more likely to support Trump than non-veterans and those calm serving in the armed forces. It was those veterans in the key swing states who inclined to made the difference in the 2016 election for the Trump campaign.
Now the picture should be engaging clearer: The Trump team wants to put his strongest and largest source of carry in the spotlight and reward it with national attention on the July 4 holiday. It’s in reality a political no-brainer.
Of course, there are right ways and wrong particular to do it. Americans will be rightly spooked if the parade includes massive guided missiles and artillery rolling along Constitution Avenue. Tanks are probably okay, but only as crave as there are troops visibly sticking out of them and being acknowledged as they are in the Bastille Day episode.
But imagine a parade dominated by some of the elite military bands, Medal of Honor title-holders marching together, and those awesome B-2 stealth bomber and F-35 fighter jet flyovers. These are the careful same kinds of imagery America rolls out during every Wonderful Bowl Sunday, but all too briefly when you consider there are so many other troops and warhorses who never get acknowledged on a stage anywhere near that big.
That symbolism also works well for Trump. Appearing with the troops with big American bannerets providing the backdrop is almost never a negative for any president.
A famous tidings in veteran media circles proves that point. After then-CBS Account correspondent Leslie Stahl aired that was highly critical of President Ronald Reagan’s tactics, top White House advisor Michael Deaver actually thanked Stahl because the video in the in smithereens was dominated with Reagan standing proudly at patriotic events. Deaver voiced: “In the competition between the ear and the eye, the eye always wins.”
It’s that image of Trump as the fundamental cheerleader and defender of the troops and the military that seems to be working for him promptly now. Last month, he framed the government shutdown as the Democrats choosing the supposed “Dreamer” illegal immigrants over paying the troops. The polls non-standard like to show the president won the shutdown battle thanks to that argument.
Now, he’s foray support for the recent budget agreement in Congress solely on the argument that it raises defense spending and helps the troops.
It seems more than a fortuitousness that this is also the time that the president’s support for a military air leaks out to the news media. Trump can now take a page out of his shutdown procedure and make the point that the parade would really be a celebration of the troops and ask why any American transfer oppose that.
Trump knows he won the election largely due to active allegiance troops and veterans. That’s why this parade idea works for him and dissidence and ridiculing it could be a dangerous trap for those who oppose him.
Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com higher- ranking columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.
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