Trump's rallies

Robert Reich
12.17.2016

Trump has finished the last of his 9 “thank you tour” rallies. But instead of projecting inclusivity and striving to heal the wounds from the bitter election, as past presidents-elect have done, Trump has used the rallies to intensify the passions of his followers. Consider:

1. Trump has traveled only to states he won. The crowds have been overwhelmingly white and, by all accounts, mostly people who voted for him. They have come wearing Trump hats and T-shirts. When speakers have asked for a show of hands of who had been to a Trump rally before, almost every hand is in the air.
2. Rather than urge his followers to bury the hatchet, he has wound them up. “It’s a movement,” Trump declared in Mobile, playfully telling them that in the run-up to the election, “You people were vicious, violent, screaming, ‘Where’s the wall?’ ‘We want the wall!’ Screaming, ‘Prison!’ ‘Prison!’ ‘Lock her up!’ I mean, you were going crazy. You were nasty and mean and vicious.” He calls them “wild beasts.”
3. Rather than shift from campaigning to governing, Trump’s rallies have been extensions of those he held as a candidate — from the soundtrack (Elton John and Rolling Stones classics) to the vows from the lectern (“We will build a great wall!”). When Trump swooped into Orlando for a rally Friday night, the crowd was fixated on Hillary Clinton, chanting “Lock her up! Lock her up!” To them, Clinton was still the enemy.
4. Rather than heal religious divides, the rallies have sharpened them. Surrounded by Christmas trees — 16 of them at the Orlando stop — he has made no mention of Hanukkah or acknowledged other faiths. In Mobile, he was introduced by evangelist Franklin Graham, who said Trump was elected by a spiritual force: “I believe it was God.”
5. Rather than use his tour to forgive those who criticized him during the campaign, he’s used it to settle scores — criticizing and mocking Evan McMullin, the Republican who waged an independent campaign against him in Utah; Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who resisted Trump’s candidacy; CNN’s John King, who in nightly pre-election analyses on the “magic wall” predicted that Trump would not reach 270 electoral votes; and the media generally, which he has continued to fault for “dishonest” polls.
6. Rather than end these sorts of rallies after he becomes president, he vows to continue them. “They’re saying, ‘As president, he shouldn’t be doing rallies.’ But I think we should, right? We’ve done everything else the opposite. This is the way you get an honest word out,” he said in Mobile.
Why is Trump doing this? Why would he continue such rallies even after he's sworn in? His aides say he loves the adulation of crowds. Some Republican strategists say the purpose is to keep the heat on Republicans in Congress.

I don't believe it. Like his non-stop lying tweets (“massive voter fraud,” “landslide election,” “crime up 45 percent”) I think his real purpose in holding these rallies is to build his personal base of avid supporters across America who will believe whatever he says, rather than the truth.

Through history, this is has been the method of tyrants.

What do you think?

Source
https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1407862179226374