Donald Trump visited the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, was asked some tough questions and gave some tough answers. Kamala Harris was invited but reported having “a schedule conflict.” About that much mostly everyone agrees.
Whether the campaign stop was a triumph or a disaster depends on who you ask. In that sense the event was like a Rorschach test, a neutral stimulus to which the viewer brings his or her preconceived notions and reports these preconceptions as fact.
There is a lot of this in politics, I believe. Much political discourse is preaching to the choir, saying things you know your believers will like.
Only occasionally will a politician state a policy that breaks new ground and gets heard by everybody. Trump’s recent proposal to not impose income taxes on social security payments is an example of this.
I’ll bet people on both sides of the aisle heard that one loud and clear. I’ve always wondered why SS payments were taxed, why the government gives us money with one hand and takes some of it back from us with the other hand?
In fact there are reasons and they even make a kind of sense if you understand the entire system and the full range of recipients. Few think it through that far, why would they?
