As I contemplated just what approach to take to this article I thought about some of the similarities of dance and offensive moves in basketball. I know just enough about dancing to know I should refrain from participation whenever possible. My achievements in basketball came much more while wearing a suit and tie on the bench than in short pants and sneakers on the hardwood. However while not very talented at executing the moves I do have a good understanding of them.

Donald Trump is alleged to currently be in the process of pivoting on certain positions. In basketball when you pivot you keep one foot on the floor and move the other to change the position of your body a bit. Politically speaking Trump should have pivoted back in the month or so when he had mathematically sewn up the Republican nod and Hillary Clinton was still closing out her contest with Bernie Sanders. That didn’t happen for a variety of reasons not the least of which is that Trump and his handlers were in way over their heads.

Now Trump is somewhat pivoting on immigration, which is the only topic he seemed to have anything remotely resembling a position on. He likes to describe it as a possible softening of his position. The Freudian interpretation of that description left Joy Reed unable to retain her composure on MSNBC Wednesday night. It reminded me of a joke a female friend of mine in Florida passed along the other day. She detailed how to make a Trump Sandwich. You take white bread, add a lot of baloney, apply Russian dressing and top it off with a small pickle. Can you see why Joy couldn’t contain her laughter now?

One of Trump’s problems is that his moves (that includes the rare apology) never come across as sincere. Therefore I would rather think of these latest gambits as fakes. In basketball you try to deceive your defender by feigning a move and not following through. (It has more variables and complications than just that but this is not a basketball clinic.) It’s like his sudden “appeal” to African-Americans which is really an attempt to give “cover” to white suburban voters who generally vote Republican but can’t bring themselves to seemingly embrace Trump’s racism.

Wednesday night as his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was of necessity deploying every artful dodge in the world while being interviewed by Rachel Maddow and the aforementioned Reed was trying to regain her composure Trump was holding a rally in Jackson, Mississippi. I’m on record as predicting an Electoral College landslide victory for Hillary Clinton and am not about to back away from that prediction at this point. However, even with that in mind I expect Donald Trump to win Mississippi and win by a wide margin. With the election less than 80 days away Trump needs to secure a lot of states; Mississippi isn’t one of them. So why was he in Mississippi?

To me the answer is obvious; he needs to reassure his primary base that he still holds the racist views they feel in love with during the primary. The clue was the prominent presence of Nigel Farage. Farage was one of the most prominent proponents of the Brexit and until the aftermath of the June 23rd vote was the leader of the UKIP Party. UKIP is the rough equivalent of America’s Tea Party except that in the UK’s parliamentary system it is a completely independent political party and does not taint the Conservative Party like the Tea Party taints the Republican Party. They are a racist, xenophobic, nationalist (in the worst sense of the word), isolationist Party.

Farage had to resign because after the surprise, narrow victory for the Brexit side he had absolutely no idea of what to do. He is a loud mouth that can criticize and brag, but has no viable policy. Sound like anyone else who was in Jackson Wednesday night?

I think when you are pivoting and faking without displaying an real talent at either it looks a lot like dancing – very poor dancing.

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