The Last Possible Resort

With three days to go and early voting underway in most states – completed in some -, it appears that the Trump campaign has doubled down their efforts to make their candidate the center of attention. That being the case, it has become even more noticeable that Trump has seemingly called back his surrogates, leaving the remaining groundwork to be laid by his speeches, alone. Even so, those of the GOP’s surrogates still left campaigning have resorted to the last possible resort: relying on conspiracy claims and questions of Hillary’s basic humanity/morality as the foundation of their rhetoric.

Hillary Clinton as the Antichrist?

Recently, Trump surrogate Roger Stone went on The Alex Jones Show, agreeing with and further fanning the flames of the conspiracist theory extraordinaire that Clinton might be “a Manchurian candidate programmed by somebody.”  The two men then went on to debate Clinton’s “multiple personalities,” fueling a discussion steeped deeply within the heaps of angry theories that have fed the hatred for Clinton that Trump supporters often relish in. As it stands, his surrogates seem to be continuing to to utilize the Challenger strategy of going on the offensive and attacking Clinton in any possible way.

False Equivalency

Another tactic frequently utilized by Trump surrogates is that of false equivalency – that is, equating Clinton’s emails, essentially, with the vast and growing lists of Trump’s misdemeanors. Though some might qualify this as an important and unwavering tactic of fiery Challenger rhetoric, it has begun to act as an example of yelling loud enough so that one’s point seems legitimate. It seems to have gone beyond typical communication strategies at this point, and simply verges on desperation – as in, let’s see how far we can deceive a population trained to be skeptical of every fact presented to them to the point where they will actually negate any and all clear and documented evidence if it stands to act against their “morals.”

Regardless of the Challenger strategies Trump’s remaining surrogates continue to use in these last couple of days, it remains to be seen just how much these strategies will effect the actual outcome of the election.