# What's Trump's October Surprise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 17, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-trumps-october-surprise/915544 "2020-07-17T03:13:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 188
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-trumps-october-surprise/915544/188 "2020-09-24T01:02:06Z")
> [@How Trump can lose and stay on. Opinions?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-trump-can-lose-and-stay-on-opinions/834091/311): > > [The Election That Could Break America](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%2BTheAtlantic%2B%28The%2BAtlantic%2B-%2BMaster%2BFeed%29) > … Begin by rejecting the temptation to think that this election will carry on as elections usually do. Something far out of the norm is likely to happen. Probably more than one thing. **Expecting other­wise will dull our reflexes. It will lull us into spurious hope that Trump is tractable to forces that constrain normal incumbents.** … A major concern is that all the training most television and radio (and many print) journalists have undergone teaches them that their job is to Reassure the Public that This New Thing Isn’t All That Different From the Normal Thing. Don’t worry, be happpy! You hear this all the time, particularly from TV anchors. After a guest details some very alarming fact about the upcoming election, the anchor will provide a Comforting Wrap-Up\* that assures viewers that it’s really not all that big a deal; we’re on top of this! And of course we probably are NOT On Top of This. It’s certainly too late to retrain them. They believe quite sincerely that even if Trump remains after January 21, things will go on As Normal. They won’t. Many in the media therefore are working for Trump, whether they are aware of it or not. The view that ‘it will all work out’ is deeply dangerous to our democratic republic. All we can do is call out this unwarranted Pollyanna Sleepy-Time attitude where we see it. It will help, too, to keep available clear looks at reality such as that excellent new article in _The Atlantic_. (my bolding in quote) . . . . . \*I HATE the Comforting Wrap-up. If only there were a button to push on remote controls, so that a banana-cream pie would immediately be thrown in the face of every anchor who offers a Comforting Wrap-up… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-trumps-october-surprise/915544)._