A P.T. Barnum quote comes immediately to mind. And another from H.L. Mencken. And perhaps Mark Twain and a pal playing American rube-tourists in Rome complaining about the poor quality of Christopher Columbus’ penmanship. Gazing upon an Egyptian mummy at the Vatican museum, the pair ask their tour guide, “Is he dead?” before demanding he trot out any corpses the museum has on hand fresher than this desiccated specimen.
It is hard to know how much the acting president takes his followers for easy marks and how much he appeals to them because he is one of them, only more shamelessly dishonest. Most likely, they are so devoted because they see themselves in him.
Sacha Baron Cohen knows easy marks when he sees them. He infiltrated an alt-right rally over the weekend and took the stage to lead an offensive sing-along:
It looks like actor and notorious prankster Sacha Baron Cohen infiltrated an alt-right rally in Olympia, Washington on Saturday and had people sing along to a highly offensive song. The comedian disguised himself as a bluegrass singer and took to the stage at the rally organized by the far-right militia group the Washington Three Percenters dressed in overalls and a fake beard. And he began singing a song that included lines about injecting former President Barack Obama, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Hillary Clinton, the World Health Organization, CNN, and anyone wearing a mask, among others, with “the Wuhan Flu” or chopping them up “like the Saudis do.” Some members of the audience seemed to be happy to sing along and cheer the offensive lyrics.
There’s a bunch born every minute.
Unstreamlined, the full Mencken quote goes:
No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is a folly.
But they love a good sing-along.
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For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.